Could be worse

I don't have much to say about 2009. Not really my best year, but far from my worst. Sure, I turned 21. Sure, I moved out. Sure, I made bunches of new friends. Of course, my academic status was nothing to write home about. Of course, I'm in the same job that I was in last year and it's starting to get to be not fun. Of course, not much happened as far as the love life goes. Of course, I'm here on the Internet writing when I could be doing something exciting for New Year's Eve.

I'm not going to publish my resolutions or anything, but the basic goal is to start off the decade with a hell of a year.

I'm going to make a post about books later and a post about films later. Expect to disagree.

It's like going to a birthday party for someone you don't even know or acknowledge the existence of.

Christmas has been lovely so far. Forced my family to watch Up on DVD for Christmas Eve, which of course was an excellent time investment. Tomorrow I return again to the homeland for a rare gathering of mother's side of the family, given that they are mostly not incarcerated or haggling over divorce papers this year.

Oh, what's that? You want to know what Santa brought me?



Not pictured:
-The Collected Achewood Volume 1: Worst Song, Played on Ugliest Guitar
-hardcover copy of The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
-Some paints and paintbrushes
-A book on ancient Japanese gaming
-some cash
-a package filled with snacks and candy and various junk food

The three model kits are substantial time investments. I've gotten a small start on the Gundam F91 (Harrison Martin custom) in the center, but the Unicorn and Sinanju are probably not getting done until the new year. The cavernous box of the Sinanju and its contents reflect this:



That's 22 part trees there - the gray ones are for the inner mechanical frame, the red and black ones form the exterior armor, and the remaining pieces form equipment like the shield, fuel tanks, and Beam Tomahawks - easily 400+ pieces that each have to be delicately cut out with cutters and trimmed with the hobby knife or sandpaper.

In other news, grades have slowly but surely made their way online. British Literature is an A-, which means she approved of my making fun of the 1930s-era English elite and general cynicism. You and me, Dr. Nygaard.

I have to work both New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. Grumble grumble. Not that I think I'd be doing much any way.

As I rained blows upon him, I realized there had to be another way.

I'd like to take this moment to wish you and yours a Happy Festivus. The one day out of the year where the family can come together around the aluminum pole (very high strength-to-weight ratio), lash out to each other, do physical harm, and celebrate the most minor of coincidences.

The spirit of the season was exemplified recently as Cody and I went to do the grocery shopping. The fellow outside from the Salvation Army was doing his thing with the bowl and the bell as we were walking into the store (we had nothing for him, because we are Scrooges). Another gentlemen on his way out stops and mentions to the guy that he remembers him once asking for a cigarette a long while ago. The gentlemen brandishes a newly-bought box of cigs and hands one over to the Salvation Army guy's delight. Cody and I agreed that it was pretty cool as far as random acts of kindness go.

It's a shame one or both of them will probably die of lung cancer.

I have a second story which is not quite so tingly-feel-good, but I feel it's worthy of note. A customer and his family were in search of this fancy Audio Bible that brings together a bunch of big performers and so I lead them to it. I offer him the Standard Edition and then bring down the Ritsy Special Edition which they seem curious enough about. But I indicate the $130 price tag, causing the man to exclaim "Jesus" under his breath. In my head I chuckled.

This next one goes out to all the pretty girls

Five semesters down, three to go. I think the three exams went reasonably well and my papers even more so. I know Intercultural Communications is a lock, because the instructor gave us like 15 extra credit points so a triple-digit score is within the realm of possibility.

There's no reason to keep the store open until midnight during the holidays. Definite money-loser if last night was any indication. Retail workers, don't let your bosses con you into doing midnight shifts. The only thing worse than working on a busy day with hordes of customers is working a dead night with naught but your footsteps echoing off the shelves for company.

Saw The Road. Viggo Mortenson plays an exceptional Man and the kid who plays the Boy is surprisingly not annoying. It's about time for a big "2009 in film" post so I'll probably save my full thoughts on the movie for then. Very good film though.

Christmas is coming and I need wrapping paper for gifts. I'm not about to pay for it like a sucker, though. Taking it into work and doing it at the store's wrapping station is also probably frowned upon. All I have are old copies of the Onion, so they might have to do.

Now that schoolwork's done, I can get to what really matters - movies and model kits. My NT-1 Gundam "Alex" finally showed up, so I can get to work on that. It's a shame the scale is too small for the pop-out machine guns to actually work, but I'll deal with the parts-swapping. In the time since we last spoke, I acquired a HG GOUF Ignited and a HG GINN, but I don't think I care enough to talk about them. The GOUF is cool because I can now re-enact Athrun Zala's escape from ZAFT headquarters and his climactic duel with their star pilot Shinn Asuka and his shiny new Destiny Gundam. I don't know about the GINN, though. I have enough spare parts around that I could create a custom GINN Heavy Weapons or GINN Experimental Firearms type, but I don't know if I feel like investing that sort of time into a kit I got for free and will probably just throw in the box.

Um.

I've touched a girl before, I swear. True story.

You should probably go

As I started writing this entry, I went and checked PAWS to remind me what my class titles were. And one of the closed classes totally opened up! Real lucky timing here. Shakespeare teacher basically said that he was so awesome and had too many students looking to get into his totally kick-ass class, so too bad, you snooze you loose. Which is fine I guess, but you guys should really offer more sections of a class that is required for EVERY ENGLISH MAJOR. Schedule for Spring 2010, semester the sixth, looks like this.

MONDAY:
12:00 - 1:50 ENGLISH 316: World Cinema - "Hong Kong Cinema"
2:00 - 3:15 ENGLISH 366: Non-Fiction Prose - "The (Not So) New Journalism"

TUESDAY:
9:30 - 10:45 ENGLISH 378: Survey of Current Literary and Cultural Theory
11:00 - 12:15 JMC 214: Advertising in American Society
2:00 - 3:15 COMPSCI 150: Survey of Computer Science

WEDNESDAY:
12:00 - 1:50 ENGLISH 316: World Cinema - "Hong Kong Cinema"
2:00 - 3:15 ENGLISH 366: Non-Fiction Prose - "The (Not So) New Journalism"

THURSDAY:
9:30 - 10:45 ENGLISH 378: Survey of Current Literary and Cultural Theory
11:00 - 12:15 JMC 214: Advertising in American Society
2:00 - 3:15 COMPSCI 150: Survey of Computer Science

And I'm totally in the same class as my roommate! I have a guaranteed friend in Computer Science! This sort of thing never happens, as all my friends are in lame majors like History or Art. I am way excited.

All my papers are done. One was on dead babies, another was on House and how everyone lies, the third was on the inevitability of death and the final one was on LGBT people. One of these things is not quite like the others. All that remains are two traditional exams on Monday and then we're done.

I beat Assassin's Creed 2 (the rest of the sentence is spoiler country), and I've gotta say that it is possibly the best game I've ever played that let's you both hang out with Niccolo Macchiavelli and assassinate Pope Alexander VI.


So I ring up three copies of the latest issue of Shonen Jump for this guy, and I know full well that the only reason you buy the magazine in bulk is to sell the free Yugioh card at ridiculous prices. So I casually call him on it. He confirms this and proceeds to tell me that they're "finally making the God cards".

HOLY DAMMIT CHRISTMAS WHAT THE FRICK.

It's been a while since I was on the Yugioh "scene" (this would be about High School), but I remember the God cards. They were introduced in the show as the most powerful cards in all existence and while they were printed for the actual game, they didn't have the actual effects and abilities written on the card and were thus not tournament legal. But the cards they are giving away now are totally legal and the effects are totally listed in tiny 5-point font. What the hell, Konami? You used to be cool.

The blog is free, nobody's forcing you to read this.

If you say you never wanted to go to school at Hogwarts, you're a liar.

I think it would be really cool to live in jolly ol' Britain. A proud nation, they invented the cat and have had running water for nearly ten years now. You can get "crisps" and smoke "fags" and hang out with Ian McKellan and have tea time. They'll let you say "fuck" on TV and won't even think it's weird that you like football (you Yanks know it as soccer).

My British Lit professor, who is from some region of Europe, threw us all a very British Christmas celebration for our last class. (I can't place her nationality, but I know she says "right" the same way that Simon Pegg does, kinda like "roight") We had Christmas Cake, Christmas crackers, Stilton cheese, and even Eddie Izzard on DVD. She hung up a Union Jack and everything. It was actually way fun as far as English courses go.


I got hired at Borders about 2 1/3 years ago now and since then, I have been the only person added to the Inventory Processing Team - nobody has been hired since me. Clearly this is because they knew I couldn't ever be topped, but they had to resort to drastic measures and hire a new guy to help deal with holiday shipments this season.

You cannot imagine how long I have awaited this moment. The chance to take somebody under my wing, to show someone the ropes, to work with someone who doesn't go to bed at seven in the evening. The new hire turns out to be about as old as my dad. I do not feel comfortable educating anyone who is more than twice my age, so my dreams were somewhat dashed.

Which is not to say I don't like the new hire. He's attentive, eager to pick up the job, and has a last name for a first name, which is considerably badass. Do you ever see anyone named, for example, Remington or Dobson? No, because they're all outside getting into car chases, stealing jewels, and making out with gorgeous women.


I really want to see The Princess and the Frog, because I am a little girl consider myself an amateur animation aficionado. But I need someone to come with me because there are too many uncomfortable connotations to a grown man with long dark hair sitting by himself in a theater filled with little children.

Of course, this is why we have DVDs.

For watching movies in the comfort of your own home, I mean.

Not the other thing.

Gun = Jumped

Woo half snow day!

Even though here on the East Side, it was very unnecessary! I can look out my window right now and it's perfectly fine out.

I would have used the time to write my TV Studies final paper, but the professor extended the deadline. By a week. So yeah, won't be working on that for a while. I was supposed to do a presentation on my Film Paper today regarding Christian Metz, semiotics, and the Seventh Seal, but that's not happening either! So I could have actually gone to my morning class instead of cutting it to work on said presentation. Frustration.

So I spent my snow day lounging on the computer, taking roommate to his school that didn't close down, and buying groceries. Will probably play Assassin's Creed 2 tonight and maybe read what is sure to be the worst Star Wars novel ever.

I did work on my schedule today! As predicted, most of my classes are filled, but hopefully I can whine enough and they'll let me in. It's starting to look like Spring 2010 will be going a little something like this.

Monday
12:00 - 1:50 ENGLISH 316 World Cinema - "Hong Kong Cinema"
2:00 - 3:15 ENGLISH 366 Non-Fiction Prose - "The (Not-So) New Journalism"
3:30 - 4:45 COMPSCI 150 Survey of Computer Science

Tuesday
9:30 - 10:45 ENGLISH 378 Survey of Current Literary Theory
12:30 - 1:45 ENGLSIH 452 Shakespeare

Wednesday
12:00 - 1:50 ENGLISH 316 World Cinema - "Hong Kong Cinema"
2:00 - 3:15 ENGLISH 366 Non-Fiction Prose - "The (Not-So) New Journalism"
3:30 - 4:45 COMPSCI 150 Survey of Computer Science

Thursday
9:30 - 10:45 ENGLISH 378 Survey of Current Literary Theory
12:30 - 1:45 ENGLSIH 452 Shakespeare

Five hours straight of class on Monday and Wednesday, but easy Tuesday and Thursday.

Does anybody know if it affects or part-time/full-time status if you enroll with only 6 credits of open classes and 9 of closed ones?

Japan has too much of my money

The majority of my model kit building comes during the school vacations. There's not as much time during the school year to actually put effort into stuff, other than for the odd 1/144 kits like the Gundam 00 stuff.

Kits that'll be coming once exams and papers are done:



I won a HGUC NT-1 Gundam "Alex" in an eBay auction. Someone with "neither the time nor interest" was getting rid of some stuff he never built. Despite being in this business for awhile, I never quite got to the one Mobile Suit that actually bears my name. I don't know what the lore is behind nicknaming the Gundam "Alex", but it'll help set the stage for the HGUC Kaempfer I plan on getting next year.



I primarily consider myself a 1/100 Master Grade collector, but those kits usually only come after holidays or major windfalls given the amount of effort you have to put into it in order to come up with something that looks decent. The Unicorn Gundam is one I'm way excited about, due to being able to transform it between Under and Destroy modes. It's a Katoki-style kit which means it comes with sheets and sheets of tiny little "Warning: If you can read this, a giant robot is about to step on you" decals, but I'll be eschewing them to go with a more true-to-the-animation look.



And of course, getting the Unicorn, I have to get its nemesis, the Sinanju. I'm really looking forward to this one. It's huge, has oversized weapons, and its a fantastic design. Not sure what I'm going to do with all the gold trim though. I feel silly using all of the little stickers for them, but I don't know if I trust my painting skills enough to bust out the Leaf Gold Paint.

And finally, there's a mystery project, the identity of which is unknown even to me! Fun stuff.

It's that time again, folks!

Happy Friday everybody! It's that time again! That time when any old expression of anger just won't do! You need something with muscle!

That's right! It's a Fuck You Friday!

So fuck you, UWM website! When you decided to enter the digital age, did you set out to create the most ridiculously user-unfriendly website you could design? Or did it just sort of happen? Because I know I use Google when I want to get somewhere on your site rather than have to navigate your silly page organization! You're like the goddamn Winchester House given digital form with your hyperlinks that go to nowhere, your inability to "remember me" and your constantly shifting page content.

Fuck you, Borders bigwigs! Nice going with the slashing holiday payroll at the last minute! I appreciate that you're trying everything and anything to get us out of the red, but cutting hours during the fourth quarter of the retail year is not how to do it!

Fuck you, Straight No Chaser! I don't like the way you sound, I don't like your stupid remixes of holiday classics like "Jingle Bells", and I don't like hearing the entirety of your album over and over again at work because our "random track" button is busted.

Fuck you, guy who cut me off on the way home tonight! Apparently, you were in too much of a hurry to check your rear-view and were just willing to risk hitting another car so you could get out from behind the kinda-slow minivan in front of you. I guess I should be thankful that I have the reflexes to slam on the breaks, even if I lack the ones to slam on my horn to alert other drivers that I am not amused.

Blow off the dust and take ol' Fuck You! for a spin. You'll be surprised by how much emotion you can load into those two words!

So take care everyone, and remember - fuck you.

High Grade Universal Century: FA-93HWS Nu Gundam HWS

Char's Counterattack features the final climactic battle between Amuro Ray and his nemesis Char Aznable. For the movie, they both get souped-up mobile suits featuring the new Psychoframes which assist in piloting the machines, using the pilot's brainwaves alone. Char gets the Sazabi, while Amuro pilots the v Gundam. The heavy armor only made it to the blueprint stage and was never actually built, though it is represented here in the High Grade Universal Century 1/144 scale line.



These pictures are from before I moved out, when I had access to a decent camera, so the model pictured here is all me. The box is a sizable one, given that it has to house 12 runners, putting it on par with many Master Grade scale kits. Build time was somewhere in the neighborhood of four hours and a little bit more time for painting. Only stickers I used were the eyes and the insignias, painted all the other details myself.



The instructions don't tell you so, but all the pieces are included, allowing you to switch between the normal Gundam and the Heavy Weapons System version fairly easily. The kit has pretty good balance in spite of the Fin Funnels hanging off of its back.



Articulation is par for the course when it comes to HGUC. Any additional articulation would compromise stability and its ability to hold up the larger weapons.



And speaking of weapons, it comes with a lot of them. It's just loaded with accessories (a definite plus), including the armor parts, six Fin Funnels, one Beam Rifle, one Heavy Beam Rifle, one shield, one heavy shield, two different Beam Sabers, and the Bazooka.





Comparison shots with its Master Grade incarnation and with its rival, Sazabi, in the same scale, respectively. The smaller one is the High Grade Universal Century kit, which has, on the whole, much more pleasing proportions than the taller Master Grade, especially in the chest and legs. The High Grade version is much more dynamic-looking. The Sazabi was constructed to be much taller than competing mobile suits, and this is reflected with the two figures here.



Snap on a few pieces, swap a few others and you have the v Gundam HWS, a much bulkier suit. The armor hinders articulation a little bit, but not horribly so. Despite Bandai's best efforts, the Heavy Shield/Rocket Launcher is way heavy and the arm holding it will start sagging pretty quickly with the weight. The Heavy Beam Rifle is still heavy, but not to the same degree.



Looks like a bit more of an formidable opponent for Sazabi with the armor on. Shame Amuro never actually used this configuration in the animation.



Overall, definitely the best kit of the v Gundam that's out there right now. It can be had for a fairly reasonable price, though I paid probably more than is justified only because I wanted to get it right after it was released in Japan and was willing to put up with extra import fees.

The more pictures I have available, the more I can write about. :D