Past News Archive: September 2006
September 27, 2006
Let's make this quick & simple since I spent most of my day off helping my dad with his work. Also, I'm currently spending most of my time reworking our anime business, tamago toys, to clear some stock out. Currently, I'm in the process of signing up with a new supplier from Japan & it seems they have some neat things. They got COSPLA stuff which is one of the things that I was looking for in suppliers since stuff like that isn't too easy to get. Also, they have plushes; another good thing. But need to clean a lot of the old stuff out first due to limited space. After the anniversary sale, I'm going to put up a clearance section. So a lot of my free time will be spent there now.
Updates? Why not? Mainly collectable stuff & little of it.
Next month is a lot of new anime shows will be airing. Lots I want to see. Plus, I should wrap up some anime reviews here if I got the time. Too much work for me as it is.
September 25, 2006
Recently, Sony has announced a price drop for the PS3 system by roughly 20%. This is a move to increase sales before the year end. However, the price drop is only for Japan & doesn't affect North America & Europe. Also, Europe will get the system late in March 2007 due to lack of available in parts. To make things more attractive, the HDMI ports will be available for the 20GB HD version now. This is the basic version by the way. If the price dropped for North America as well, it would have increased my decision of getting the system. Right now, I'm thinking of saving up since my father is going to retirement next year & I'm the only one support the family with him at this time.
Speaking of my job, I'm having odd days off this week since my manager is going to Kelowna this week for an one day meeting. Also, he's been angry lately. Reason why is because the Union sent out a package to all the hotel employees in voting for the first collective agreement that was made between them & the owners of my workplace. It's not very attractive & doesn't really serve much purpose since the items on the agreement can be made easily from the company & they aren't really needed. But it would benefit more for the housekeeping department in terms of paying us & the company paying 50/50 of medical care. The only benefit I saw was job protection, but I don't see how it can be useful since management can still fire people as long as they have a valid reason. You don't really need an Union for that. Either way, I sent my vote in since it's required by law.
As for my anime business, tamago toys, my sister & I have decided to close the business down permanently by unregistering it. So, we are doing business as an unregistered company & won't be collecting any taxes. The reason behind it is basically not having enough time to build on it due to our busy schedules. After our current sale, which is an anniversary sale, we will be doing another sale next month. We are deciding whether to make it ongoing or just for that month. It will mainly involve gashapons & trading figures. Since we will be unregistered, we won't have to worry about being taxed & do business differently with lesser restrictions internally. If you haven't done so, check our our current sale here. It ends at the end of this month.
In anime news, there were some licensing done at the Anime Weekend Atlanta 2006 this past weekend. ADV Films has licensed Moeyo Ken TV, Coyote Ragtime Show, & the 3rd & 4th seasons of UFO Princess Valkyrie. FUNimation licensed Peach Girl. Not much here, but there are some decent anime shows on that list. I updated Kidou Shinsengumi Moeyo Ken TV, School Rumble, School Rumble OVA, & Peach Girl to reflect on the licensing status.
I'll see if I can put up another update before the end of this month. Hopefully a new review here as well.
September 20, 2006
If you have been following the gaming world (which I haven't), Nintendo has announced their release date & price for Wii. I'm pretty surprised on the price of the system as it is around US$250; very cheap. Another thing that surprises me is how North America will get the system 1st before Japan. I assume the system may be made in the US or Canada instead of Japan. If memory serves me right, it will include a sports game called Wii Sports which contains a couple of games in it to demonstrate the controller's abilities. It's estimated that around 25 games will be available by the end of this year. Also, the price of the games are around US$40. But games from 3rd parties may be higher as Nintendo will give these companies the freedom to set any price their want. Plus, around 60 downloadable old school games will be available at a price. Also, 1 million units will be shipped out worldwide during launch year. Looks like Wii will have the best piece of the market against XBox 360 & PS3. But, Wii's disadvantage is the system is region-coded. In other words, you can't play imports.
In PSP news, Sony released another PSP package called the PSP Entertainment Pack on September 19. I read that it would be slimmer, but the design is still the same. You get pretty much the same thing as the Giga Pack had by having the 1GB Memory Stick Pro Duo. Plus, you get the ATX Off Road game & a Lord of Dogtown movie. For CDN$279.99, that isn't a bad price really. It seems that Sony wants to target the people don't play games a lot. It's more for photos & movies based on what the packaging is saying. Also, the PSP market must be suffering.
Recently, I've updated the EXhaust Welcome to Pia Carrot!! 3 Capsule Figure Collection Gashapon Set in the Collectables section in the Welcome to Pia Carrot!! 3 section. I mainly updated the release date since I found out what it is now, fixed up some minor grammar mistakes, & updated on how to obtain the item now. I also fixed up the EXhaust Suika Gashapon Set review in the Suika section a bit. Mainly correcting some information.
At my hotel job, I think I've been promoted to Assistant Manager. So for a buck more on my hourly wage rate, I will be doing more tasks that's mainly office work. Plus, I still do front desk work as usual. Oh, what fun! Although my manager mentioned about making changes in the company, I don't think that's really happening. I'll be holding a management title & be evaluated again in 3 months; probably the end of this year. Personally, I don't know if this position is right in terms of the duties & tasks that I'll be getting. It's more like getting a raise & adding more work that I already have.
Just when I'm about to get the Assistant Manager title, the Union sends a package to me about voting on a contract settlement after about 2 years of negotiating. Now, I don't know if I should vote or not since I think I've got promoted now. Also, I don't know if I have the right to join the Union. But, I don't want to since they take a lot from paychecks due to fees. However, it's really the matter of the work conditions being favourable for the employee side. The package is quite thick & I only glanced at it so far since I've been too tired to read due to heavy workloads. So far, the contract doesn't really have much benefits. Also, one of our front desk agents came back from her injury treatment. Since I was retraining her on her first day back, it seems she was a lot worse than I trained her before. One thing for sure was the fact that she wasn't trained for the task of the morning shifts such as checking people out. But, the tasks she has done before seems to be very bad. She wasn't like that when I trained her the first time back then. Hopefully, she will pick it up soon & save me from my troubles.
I'm currently working on some collectable reviews, even for stuff that still in packaging. That also includes stuff still in bubble wrap as well! I'm hoping to get some review up for next week, plus some anime ones. Right now, I'm still suffering the effects of high season from work. I guess it's because cruise ship season is still going until the end of this month.
September 13, 2006
Whew! Didn't think I had to update a lot of things in the Collectables section! I had more anime stuff than I thought. Currently, I'm thinking of slimming down my collection; basically to make room for new stuff & a bit on getting extra cash. I still got some items in the Selling section & I may be selling stuff that I may not have listed there. If you see something that interest you that's not there, email me. I may or may not sell whatever it is you may ask. Anyways, here's the sections that I updated:
Fate/stay night with a review of EXhaust Fate/stay night Sakura Matou Plush
Mahou Sensei Negima with a review of Konami Figumate Mahou Sensei Negima Trading Figurine Vol. 4 Set (incomplete set by the way)
Welcome to Pia Carrot!! 3 with a review of Enter Brain Welcome to Pia Carrot!! 3 1/8 PVC Figurine Takako Kinoshita Tropical Version
Pinky's with a review of Pinky Cos: Sakura Wars Sakura Shinguji which can also be found in the new Sakura Wars section
A new Rumble Roses section with a review of Konami Figumate Rumble Roses Trading Figurine Vol. 1
A new Love Hina section
A new Neverland section
Lots of updating there, even though it's quite minor really. Plus, I found some reviews sitting on my computer that wasn't uploaded at the time. Last week, I got my Shafty Fate/stay night Saber change cloth figurine in the mail along with my Japanese PSP version of Guilty Gear Judgment & a couple of music Japanese singles. The box of the figurine is pretty big & the 13cm Saber is bigger than I thought. My 1st impression of it when I took it out of the box was that Saber looked weird. Very big head because she in her white 1 piece swimsuit. I think it would look better when I put her clothing on. As for Guilty Gear Judgment, it's pretty good. I forgot the commands & how to play it properly, but the controls are great.
Just when I thought things will go well at my hotel job, I was wrong. Our front desk agent trainee quitted on us as she found another job doing hotel banquets. I only knew about this when I came in for work at the start of my work week. As I waited for the trainee, thinking she was late, the night auditor told me the story & assumed that I knew about it, which I didn't. Of course, it upsets our manager since we spent a week training her. Then, my manager decides to put our part-time front desk agent into full-time status next week (which was this week). However, lightening strikes twice. Since our part-timer was originally out of work due to a car accident she was in, her doctor said that she can't go to work as she still needs more treatment. She suggests that our manager should find someone else since it's unknown when she would be back & knows about my overtime situation. Of course, this upsets my manager again. Because of this, I need to continue to work more overtime & I already came out of a month's worth of it from high season. Right now, I'm still mentally weary & this hinders my performance as I get physically tired & make mistakes here & there. Also, I think my stress level is going to cause to me to perform a public outburst since I've been getting guests complaining about this & that. Personally, I don't want that since it can cost me my job & possibly future employment. Since I need to perform a lot of front desk tasks, do reservations, & do some assistant work, this is really too much as it is. But luckily, I finally get 2 days off this week! However, I don't know how long it would last since I will most likely need to do overtime again to train a new person when he/she comes in.
In Anime news, new North American company Illumitoon has licensed AM Driver (aka Get Ride! AM Driver) & Beat BtX (aka B'tX), Both shows will be released in early 2007. Personally, I think Illumitoon is licensing anime shows that are lengthy & don't seem to interest bigger North American anime companies like ADV Films & FUNimation.
That's it for this week. I don't know if I can get anything up for next week. I'm still too tired!
September 6, 2006
August is gone & I've achieved the August 2006 stuff in the Past News Achieve section. Plus, I've put away my anime PVC figurines that have swimsuit screaming on them. It also means that high season is about to end soon for my hotel job. Luckily, the new front desk agent picks things up so fast. Some mistakes here & there, but they are quite minor. She doesn't have front desk or hotel experience, so it's understandable. I can probably get back my 2 days off in mid-September & finally relax a bit.
I noticed that the menu frame on the left has a problem. When you click on 1 of the links there, the frame doesn't stay for the next page. It disappears. Since I'm still a newbie in making web pages, I'm trying to figure out how to make it load. Also, I'm also figuring out how to have frames appear on other pages without loading this home page. I don't know if I have the time to do that under my current situation. Even my reviews are a bit rushed.
Speaking of reviews, I've only put up the following:
In the Anime section:
In the PSP section under the PSP Games Reviews subsection:
That's pretty much it for the time being. I want to put up some anime collectable reviews, but I have too many items that are still in their boxes or packaging. There are even some stuff that I don't recall having. A lot of my stuff are from 2 years ago or more. I'm thinking of just taking pictures of them in their packaging, regardless if they are in window boxes, blind boxes, or in tight sealed plastic bags (e.g.. gashapon set bags). For the time being, I'm just going to update my list & worry about pics later.