This is why we put lids on things.. January 31, 2009

[22:01:14] < Lardman> ARGH
[22:01:17] < Lardman> it’s everywhere
[22:01:20] < Lardman> and its gone sticky
[22:02:22] < Lardman> oh well.

Oh well, at least we got through the hell that has been Janurary. 45 minutes ’till I can wake my brother up with a pinch and a punch for the first day of the month. And I’ll probably pour ice cold water over him. It’s so hot he’ll probably appreciate it.

I’ll be doing some reviews eventually, so stay tuned, I suppose.

EDIT: The above was referring to methylated spirits, by the way.

The wishlist January 29, 2009

So, surfing around the place I now have a large wish list of things I want to buy. I suppose we’ll start.

Nendroid Hiiragi Tsukasa

I don’t have any Lucky Star figures at the moment, but Nendroid Tsukasa might be a start. Very cute though, would go nicely sitting next to the xBox.. heh.

Nakajima Subaru

So, the Alter version is awesome. Do want! Very detailed, and properly sculpted. I do like the special effects added on as well. The only downside being that the pose is a little strange.

Golden Darkness

Golden Darkness – To Love-ru. The hair looks awesome pretty, need I say more? It’s going to be extremely expensive though, but hell – totally worth it.

Kagamine Ren and Rin

This pair – I’ve got Hatsune Miku, so doesn’t it make sense to add the others from the series?  I don’t like Rin’s pose that much though, but Ren is prettty Rawkin’. (The one with the keytar)

Saber Lily

Saber Lily close up

Saber Lily – Avalon –  looks freaking awesome. And at 11,800 yen… not cheap either. A worthy investment though, the amount of detail put into the hair is nothing short of stunning. I ❤ GSC. Can’t wait for this one to arrive in July. I’ve preordered mine at HobbyLink Japan.

Kyouka!

The series was hilarious – So why not? From Kyouran Kazoku Nikki

Haruhi Suzumiya Extravaganza Version

Haruhi Suzumiya Extravaganza Version

Double shot! I’ve currently got the Brigade leader version, but this one looks too good to miss. 🙂 The hand, body and mouth is a little disproportioned though… But it may improve. Or perhaps it’s just the angle I’m looking at.

Saber Zero

Somehow still in stock at a few stores, so I’ll be grabbing one in the next month or so if they’re still around. Girls in suits are awesome. And she’d go nicely with Ryougi Shiki…

Anyhow, that’s pretty much it so far… Hope it doesn’t get much bigger than that (The list, that is.) It’s getting very expensive, very fast… 😡 They’re fantastic figures though, and it’ll give me some new material to take photos of. On top of these and more computer parts, I’m going to need alot more cash…

Anyhow, I’d best get back to my other endeavours.

Photography January 25, 2009

Not too sure why I like photography so much, so we might just call this entry a personal rant.

I enjoy photography – For those who know me, they’d probably know I had a closet love for it since the age of 12. (a little younger than my love for computers, but eh. Differences.) It’s a fun subject. The ability to capture a piece of life in suspended animation, to freeze an aspect of time, so to speak. I was originally interested in them because of the way they work – Light enters the photo frame, a shutter opens and those particles of light hit a film and bang, a picture – fast forward to nowadays, and we see alot more complex equipment, and more to learn, and be interested in. Digital cameras and SLR’s, Lens, the use of different flash and sensitivity levels to change colour tones..

Have I bored you yet? 🙂

One of my first shots with a Nikon D60

To me, photography is amazing because  in the 50fps that our eyes see, you miss detail. When you freeze a shot, and take a good half minute to analyze it, you see a different perspective entirely. A whole new world, so to so speak. (Or, if you’ve watched Aladdin recently.) It’s a different way to look at things. I suppose you could also say I like it because it’s a hobby that takes stupidly large amounts of currency… eh, apples and oranges.

A bargain at $700 AUD - Nikkor AF-S 18-200mm 3.5-5.6 G

The amazing things you can do with a camera, once you have the knowledge is quite cool as well. Lowering the focal range by opening the aperture, capturing a empty street when it’s actually quite busy, getting a shot of the moon when all you see is a large white dot.. and plenty more. Light drawing is one of the more fun things I’ve done with my camera.

For those interested, my photo equipment:

• Nikon D60
• AF-S Nikkor 18-55mm 3.5-5.6G
• AF Nikkor 50mm 1:1.4D
• AF-S Nikkor 55-200mm 4-5.6G
• AF-S Nikkor 18-200mm 3.5-5.6G
• Hoya HMC Uv filter
• Hoya circular polarity filter

All up, an investment of around $2000, plus camera bags etc. It would have cost more brand new for the 50mm and 18-200mm lens, too. I use them all fairly often, and it is fun to see what you can do with different lens’ – The 18-55 is great for low-light. 🙂

Figurine photography is something I enjoy 🙂

Portrait photography is something I like. I also enjoy night and street photos. Portriat for figurines, mainly though. Another fun aspect of it would be what you can do with a camera. Don’t like a certain shot? Lie down and do it from ground level! There’s so many genres that you can take with a camera, so many different variations of it’s use – so you’ve really got a hobby within a hobby, when you look at things deeper.

Slightly blurry, but it still made a good shot. Doesn't have to be perfect.

Once you get deeper into the field, you can also make a huge amount of money with photography too. So for those getting into it, or trying to turn it into a profession – keep going! You’re in for one fun ass job (unlike me and my IT work), and definitely a hell of a career. Shoot what you feel like shooting, express yourself. If you look at a photo like an artstyle, keep it that way.

A spur of the moment shot - I think he was trying to avoid the cake..

What I find even cooler is that everyone ‘reads’ a photo differently. It’s kinda cool to see how people differ to your perspective, from just a still image. Lets you look back and remember how fun a certain event was.

Focus!

If you’re getting into photography, like me – keep at it. It’s amazing fun, and you learn an incredible amount. If you get good at it, I hear you can make money! Anyhow, that’s all from me today – I’d better get out of here and take more pictures… and clean the room ;_;

Reijin Out.

Another Busy day January 22, 2009

But, a Kagamine Rin 🙂

She’s very pretty. Anyhow, I’ll take more pics of figs some other time. I should use my D60 abit more. For those interested, taken with a 50mm Prime F1.4 @ F5.

Anyhow, It’s been a killer at work, so I’m gonna give it a rest.
Reijin out 🙂

To Aru Majutsu no Index January 18, 2009

Hurrah, something weeaboo! Anyhow, I finally got up to date with some series’. I say one of my resolutions for this year should be to watch more anime – And in doing so, I’ve just finished Ep 14 of To Aru Majutsu no Index (とある魔術の禁書目録,)

Set in a city of scientifically advanced superhuman students, but in a world where magic is also real. Tōma Kamijo’s right hand, the Imagine Breaker, will negate all magic, psychic, or divine powers, as well as his own luck. One day he finds a young girl hanging on his balcony railing. She turns out to be a nun from the Church of England, and her mind has been implanted with the Index Librorum Prohibitorum—all the magical texts the Church has removed from circulation.

Or something like that. Anyhow, episode 14 writeup! If you don’t like spoilers, stop reading. :p

Anyhow, for those who have followed the series 14 was the wrap-up of the third.. arc? I dunno what to call them anymore. Maybe we’ll just stick with the word chapter. Anyhow, fairly interesting battle scene when someone has the ability to control physics is your enemy. We saw more character progression from Misaka (Which is always good. Now we know she’s a Tsundere that refuses to cook), and we saw Kamijyou Touma learn to use his fighty skills… A MISAKA army reversing wind generators…

The better bit was the last third of the episode, watching Touma struggle with women.

All in all, good episode. One that makes me want MORE. Damn weekly things.

Unfortunately, "nice body" was not the line used here 😦

For those who want to read about the damn series, essentially Touma is this fellow who gets haplessly thrown into the world of magic/sciencey stuff with little to no power of his own, and we get to watch him beat the crap out of people with that power. It’s fairly generic in terms of character design… A loli, another loli, a tsundere… the list goes on. The story, however is fairly interesting if anyone’s read the short novels.  Cutting the fat, the entire series is… just about this guy and a hand that nullifies magic, and the adventure with his friends? Odd way to put it, probably.

Espers, Scientists, Normals… sounds like Haruhi gone wrong…

It tends to pull alot of people, from what I’ve seen. Magical battles, and the like. Seems like it’s Shakugan no Shana all over again, minus the bento wars. And yes, watching it bothered me. Anyhow. Eclipse are the group subbing this if anyone is interested. The animation quality is great, overall video quality is good, and sound is as good as you can get it. Overall, I’m enjoying it so far. It kinda has that air of “Short novel = good story” that I tend to enjoy, the way they flow, the character roles that seem so generic at times and at others aren’t, how they tend to go in chapters of 4 episodes…

No caption required.

Ok so maybe not that. The series’ overall has a nice balance of action, storyline, and gag humor though, so it does have that nice almost slice-of-life-y overtone to it, which it really does feel like in the first 4 episodes. It’s a little too imbalanced at times though, and does jump from humor to SRS FACE abit too quickly for my liking. As usual, you have the *generic combat scene* cliches’ as well. Oh well, you can’t have everything. (I’m way too much of a wuss to critisize things anyway)

"You didn't cook these!"

The OP song is PSI-missing by Kawada Mami, ending theme is “Rimless: Fuchinashi no Sekai” (Rimless 〜フチナシノセカイ〜, “Rimless: Fuchinashi no Sekai”) by Iku. They both seem to have a nice flow to them, albeit they both are pretty contrasting in theme. OP being very energetic and electric (no pun related to the next screencap), and the ED much gentler, more acoustic.

Dunno how you’d react to me trying to review it. My writing style seems to be like a rambling politician. Makes no sense and goes on and on…  Here, have an uppercut. Reijin out.

FALCON...

I swear if I see that update one more time… January 17, 2009

WHICH I NEVER DO, BECAUSE I’M LAZY. 😦
Update on the way tomorrow folks, I’m not risking doing it now because I’m really damn tired. (As a testament to this, I just nearly spelled doing as dowing… God damn.)

Reijin sleep…

It’s too damn hot… January 13, 2009

It really is. I had to walk home today in sweltering 34 degree heat. Freaking. Unbeliveable. Maybe i’m just not cut out for summer. (Which I’m not, bring on winter already.)

Anyway, I suppose with the new year perhaps I should be looking for direction in life. Not too sure what I’m going to find, but that’s what it’s all about isn’t it? (Life, not the hokey pokey.) Nonetheless, I need an air-conditioner in my room because I’m meeellltinng.

Computer hardware has it’s cons 😦

Chaos;Head January 9, 2009

Chaos;Head (カオスヘッド, Kaosu Heddo^?), stylized as Chäos;HEAd, is a Japanese visual novel developed by 5pb. and Nitroplus with gore, psychology, and science fiction elements.

Well, that’s what Wikipedia says anyway. Anyhow, as you may have guessed, this post might just be on the above. As I’ve been catching up on my inexcusably unwatched series’ I decided to pick this one up and have a squiz. Admittedly, before watching it I did think: “Heh, looks like one of those H-game things that never ends well..”

So after watching a few episodes I found it pretty good. Anyhow, the underlying plot: “If you can send the brain electrical signals that tell your senses something is reality, is it? Can your delusion become reality?” It takes a few episodes to get to this, but untill then you can watch the slow path of the main character going slowly delusional.

Watching it made my head explode on multiple accounts thinking of how this could all effect our lives. It probably doesn’t, but it’s some scarily deep stuff here. Anyway, the anime does have a distinct Gal-game feel to it, with only one male lead, and the multiple heroines of varying personality types. The underlying themes in it though are quite thought-provoking – if we ever had the technology to do this, would you want your delusion to become reality? It’s quite… freaky in short. I’d be rather worried if the events in this took place somewhere..

I’d highly recommend this to people who like deep, dark series’. Then again, the number of schoolgirls in it may put some off. I myself enjoyed it immensely, with quite a number of scenes in the series bringing me to think about the world around us – really gave me a more interesting view to life, as well as the possible future (*shudder).

On the company: Nitroplus have made quite a few dark/thought provoking Visual Novels (VN, for short). I for one will be looking at playing more of their works to try it out. I’ve got the free time anyhow, hehe.

Anyhow, that’s all from me tonight. Off to play more games and find my laser pointer… Reijin out.

Ace Combat 6 January 5, 2009

So, apart from the fact this is on the XBox , this is pretty fun. Saving Gracemeria and all that.

That said, the XBox is incredibly noisy. *_* Comparitively to the PS3 next to it… 3 times the noise levels? It’s an ache to the ear and makes me glad as hell you can install games to the thing.

The game itself is fun, like all the other Ace combat games. Immersive, you can fly really cool planes… all that. The wingman is still incredibly stupid and has mind numbing levels of idiocy to his tactics, but otherwise… The enemies and Voiceovers are fantastic, as usual at least.

This and gears of war constitutes my new year, and my week off. 🙂

Reijin Out

PS: I’ll post some new stuff that’s mildly weeaboo soon, I promise!