Original Character 4-Koma

Hey there, just a quick update as to what I've been up to for school! This last weekend, despite it being my birthday, I was busier than ever on a project documentation, various assignments, and working on my narrative project. I chose to do a comic (yeah, I could have done a poem or something...but I chose to spend 10+ hours on this thing):


Yonkoma 1 :: 2 :: 3 :: 4

I may do a few more outside of school. I enjoy working on these things. Also, my portfolio is in dire need of an update about now. I'll do it this Wednesday perhaps. See ya.

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Lucky Star OVA - Subbed!

Hurrah! The Lucky Star OVA DVD was released last week and I've been very patiently waiting for it to be subbed. Today was the day! For those of you who are just getting this as news, head on over to Mininova and get the torrent. The only downside is the live action segment in the credits isn't subbed (and the audio was off-synch too when I watched it). There are certainly some scenes and references in this OVA that do the series justice:

- We get a "Wa-wa-wasuremono" from Minoru this round!
- The girls visit Minami's residence and the plot revolves around the dog. Patricia the otaku squeezes the pink flesh of the paw and comments on how it is hard and rough instead of soft like in the manga. She then proceeds to quote: "Zetsubou-shita!" (I'm in despair!) from Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei.
- I very much enjoyed the volleyball scene. It revolved around the Hiragi sisters on opposite teams. It was quite touching the way Tsukasa looks up to her sister.
- The MMO scene where Kagamin finally gives in and joins Konata and Sensei's "world" was very creative. The dialogue was all typed but the characters appeared in boxes to show expressively what was being portrayed. I love how they poke at all the quirks that are common with MMOs (such as when you leave for a week you come back and your party members are ridiculously higher in level than you). Tsukasa the noob not spending her talent points was very typical as well. In the end we see Gamer's store clerk approach Konata with goods only to find out...that she is AFK!
- Finally, the weirdest (well the SGT Frog one might be the weirdest), well, the one I thought to be the weirdest: Kagami as Hatsune Miku! I'll elaborate:


Kagami is set to guard the fort while her parents and sisters go to a dance. She's watching TV when suddenly Konata slips in dressed as witch Nagato from Haruhi Suzumiya. Her wand creates a magical carriage out of a shrine and some car seats which she tries to use to get Kagami to go to do the dance. When Kagami refuses Konata moves the whole house down the street. Kagami needs a costume so Haruhi changes her with her wand. First it's a maid, then a shrine Maiden, then Tohsaka Rin from Fate/Stay Night, and finally...Hatsune Miku! Kagamiku was adorable and I wish she did more. She just angrily grasps the leek then stands/sits around complaining the whole time. Kagami has to get home by midnight and when they fail to arrive on time they find her house is still stranded in the street. To reset everything Konata whispers the magic words into Kagami's ear; Kagami then wakes up (yes of course it was a dream!) and shouts: "I want us to join our bodies~!" right in Tsukasa's face. It was a very awkward/hilarious moment. I've never laughed so hard at Lucky Star.

Man, I really hope they make more.

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Sayonara Teenage Years

And here I am, in half an hour I kiss goodbye my teenage years forever. Sept 25th at 15 seconds after midnight I'm 20 years old. I suppose I had a good run at it. Where was I when I turned thirteen?

At Heritage grades 8 and 9 were a good start to my teenage years. Running around the quadrangular building doing the Indy Chair 500 (office chair races) and hiding money around the school like some kind of conspiracy. Sneaking onto computers. The None-Such, the Wellies...the antics of Ben. Foamy. Gnomey. There's a lot of memories.

Grades 10-12 at Regent were a good experience too. I was happy to be involved in the stagecraft and drama events. Playing my bass in chapel. I met my first girlfriend. Mr. Fletcher and Ms. Seigenthaler were the greatest teachers I ever had. Who can forget Manfred and Shara as well, "Oh why doesn't he just lie down under my car...".

SFU year 1: I made some friends but I wasn't much involved in anything outside of classes. I enjoyed James Phillips' classes the most because I got to use my hobbies as assignments. I even made it through math that year.
SFU year 2: Made even more friends, learned how to use Maya, started getting a good portfolio together. And then there was...Russell. Sad part is at the end of it I lost my girlfriend of 3 and a half years...but talking about that again is like flogging a dead horse. Pointless. It's her loss and her fault when she gets hurt.
SFU year 3: Well, it's been 4 weeks! I'm quite busy, but I've had a lot of support from friends. I need to update my portfolio now too.

That's the shortest summary of my academic teenage life. What else was there? I went to Italy and Greece, New Zealand twice, Japan twice. My first console, the Playstation 2 and now upgraded to the PS3. Trips down to the Oregon sand dunes for ATVing. Waking up and staying up for TV (which I don't watch anymore). I didn't have to worry about a job until I turned 18. Going to anime conventions...

I suppose...now...I'm an adult but still a kid at heart in some areas. I no longer have an excuse to be lazy. I'll need to take care of myself better.

Goodbye, teenage years and hello, twenties.

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Figure Shoot Miku!

Figures:
That sunny afternoon came the same day as my previous post, I was quite amazed as it was dark, rainy, and cloudy up until 1:00. As promised, I opened up my Hatsune Miku figma and took out the SLR and photographed her. I didn't have the light in quite the right places so please excuse some of the overexposure or shadows. I didn't take out my Nendoroid to accompany her for this shoot either, maybe sometime in the future I will. As usual, you'll need to browse through all the shots below to find the pantsu. ^^;;

1 // 2 // 3 // 4 // 5 // 6 // 7
8 // 9 // 10 // 11 // 12 // 13 // 14

I hope everyone is satisfied! Stay tuned later this week for Kagami Hiragi figma photos!

Anime:
A quick update here, I'm finally caught up with Code Geass and eagerly awaiting the next 7 days until the final episode airs. The show is getting insane, I've put off watching it since episode 18 so I could sort of marathon it until the end. I haven't finished Shakugan no Shana yet, either. I've got about 6 episodes left to watch but nothing interesting to me seems to be going on. I know I'll eventually finish it, but I'm debating whether or not to start Gurren Lagann finally since I was intending to watch it when I finished Shana. Let's see...what else is on my list of stuff I've downloaded but haven't started? Pani Poni Dash...Welcome to the NHK!...to name a few. I've gotta get watching before a new series comes out/finishes that I'll want to see.

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September Update

Personal:
There's nothing much new with me, just the fact that I've become very busy with school. I turn 20 this week (on the 25th!) so I have that to look forward to. In regards to my last post, I'm more or less doing better. I still sometimes find myself drifting off to the past and missing what was once there, but those days are gone forever. The last week I couldn't help but consider my "prospects" and wonder who would be a suitable companion for me. It can be a real problem when there are certain needs I'd need met, such as her needing to be a Christian and live within half an hour driving. It's not just that though, I really need to consider carefully it seems because I'm not sure how compatible my personality is with other people. I'm the kind of person who likes to go out and have fun, but I can too often change between being reserved and then being outgoing to the point of just being loud. My friend gave me the insight that I'm the "hero type" who wants to protect a princess. And he's right. I really am looking for someone who's reasonably reserved/timid, but likes to laugh and go out and have a good time. There's so many worries for me right now but I know I can trust in God to send the right person at the right time, even if it takes me a decade (Yet I'm really hoping for someone within the next year!).



School:
I've been kept very busy at school. Multiple projects keep popping up in all of my classes and it's very hard to coordinate team members between all of them (especially when I'm only in 3 times a week). My online communications course has its first essay due this Wednesday so on top of the group projects I'm working on I have to fit that into my schedule as well. Shown above (2MB PDF) is a project I worked on with a partner called the "Product Disection" for my Materials in Design course. We took apart a first-generation dual-shock controller and created a parts list and listed a few other valuable facts. For the same class I have to build a flashlight with a unique way of turning on (due next Tues). Despite being so busy I'm very happy where I am now, I've got friends to keep me company and I'm happy to develop my design skills.



Figures:
A very sincere sorry to those who have been unhappy with this drought of figure photography on my blog. I finally got my Hatsune Miku figma from Hobby Link Japan last week (it came Wednesday but I got a stupid notice of pickup from the post office so I didn't get it until Thursday). I'm currently waiting on 2 things: Figma Kagami (who is being shipped with a second Miku from Hobby Search), and a sunny day. I don't have the proper setup to do indoor photography (unless I just use the flash on my camera) so I need to wait for a relatively bright day before I open up Miku and take pictures of her. I promise that as soon as Kagami comes and we get a nice bright morning/afternoon, I'll have another amazing array of pictures. Until then, hang tight, and also look forward to October which is my BIG BIG shipment.

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Bearing the load...

Personal:

It's been about a month and a half since my breakup and I thought things were getting better...but due to circumstances which involve her with another guy after everything she told me about taking a break and sorting out her life, I've found myself at extreme unrest and anxiety. Maybe it's because she's 18 and he's 27, maybe it's because I feel like I've been lied to, betrayed, taken advantage of, unappreciated, maybe it's because I feel she's turned her back on Christ, or that it's possible she planned to be with him all along, or maybe it's just me...but I'm bothered. I don't mean to rant, but I don't think I deserved any of that. So that's the end, I want nothing to do with it, and from this point on I'll be staying out of it. I'm not asking questions, I'm not talking to her, and most of all: I take comfort knowing there aren't any situations in which I'll be obligated to see her again. The girl I once loved disappeared, became someone else.

So scratch that...I did mean to rant, and I feel glad I did. I know there must be someone out there who's willing to stick with a guy not afraid of commitment, who can promise that he will always love her.

School:

I've only been working once a week now that school's started up again but I still found myself with plenty of free time this week. I suppose it's because the workload isn't that much to bear...yet. Third year has officially started in the way that...I'm getting assignments to actually work on. I imagine that sometime after the first midterms the workload will increase even more. I'm taking 5 courses plus a 6th online (which I have yet to start anything on) and it looks like I'll be able to bear this. This is my first time keeping a planner because I know I'd probably forget something as I have twice as much to keep track of and lots of team things I need to find time to meet for. I'll be updating my portfolio very soon. I don't have much done that's worthy to be put up just yet, but I can say I am working on an analysis diagram of the materials of a dismantled PSX controller. That'll be cool to show.

Figures:

For those of you who have counted on my blog for figure photography, I apologize because September I only have two figmas coming (Miku and Kagami). I am, however, happy to report, that they are in shipping. Expect everything back on track next week. In between figure shipments I'll be talking about my design-related projects for school.

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Arrivals: figma Tsukasa & Rin

Yesterday night I was pleased to come home from school and find a nice box sitting on my table from Hobby Search. I wasn't expecting my figma Tsukasa and Rin to arrive so speedily. Hobby Search outdid themselves this time.

Personal:

School just started for me this week and everything is going great at the moment. I've got a new laptop backpack which means I don't need to stuff things into my tiny laptop messenger bag anymore. I can't say much about the classes since I've only experienced 2 of my 6 this week but everything is looking hopeful. I met up with my Pastor today to give him an update on my life (he seemed a bit concerned for me after my breakup). So all-in-all, everything is looking fabulous. We'll just have to see, Monday I'll get a taste of my remaining classes and start most of my group projects.

Figures:

Tsukasa Hiiragi and Tohsaka Rin have arrived to add to my already extensive figma collection. This month I look forward to Kagami and Miku's arrival ^_^. Today was as good a day as any to take my photos outside so, with the company of my cat, I did just that. And yes, I'm going to make you browse through all of them again to find the pantsu shot.

Tsukasa: 1 // 2 // 3 // 4 // 5 // 6 // 7 // 8

Rin: 1 // 2 // 3 // 4 // 5 // 6 // 7 // 8 // 9 // 10

So, next update I expect to be next week sometime, and then after that I'll have photos from SFU's club day (with me in cosplay promoting anime club). I'll be bringing figures to display on the table as well. Look forward to it!

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Figma VOCALOID

Figures:

I suppose I'm a little late blogging about this, but I've been active on DannyChoo regarding the figma VOCALOID pre-orders. Miku orders have closed on Hobby Search and Hobby Link Japan already. HLJ only had her up for a matter of hours before the reserves were full. Luckily, I was able to get a Miku from both locations (one for play, one for collecting).

News just a few hours old, however, is the announcement of the Kagamine twins reservations opening up on Hobby Search. I'm planning to get 2 of each from Hobby Search (limit 3 per customer). Better snag them before they go!

My October shipment from Hobby Search keeps getting bigger.
Here's the breakdown before shipping:

• Rin Nendoroid, Len Nendoroid ($27 each)
• Rin Figma x2, Len Figma x2 ($22 each)
• Tsuyura Figma ($22)
• Goth Punk Mikuru 1/7 ($80)

Personal:

I'm now very very part time at work since school starts tomorrow. I'm taking 6 classes, but I have Wed and Fri off. I'd better stop buying so many figures since my income is now cut by 2/3 due to school. Haha.

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