Happy New Year!

Image by Junji

Alright, so first off, I'd like to wish y'all a happy a new year. Going into the next decade, and a whole new chapter of my life in the new year. A few things I want to do with this post. Reflect on the passing year, resolutions for next year, and things I did today, which will probably come first.

So, Jason messaged me earlier today asking if I wanted to come over. I declined his offer, sticking around until my mom came home. I forgot all about his offer by then. He called again at nine, and I took up the offer this time around. Sam stopped by, with Chris as his navigator, and Darren as excess baggage, and gave me a lift up to Jason's place. I guess it was supposed to be a new years bash, though it was pretty dreary to be one. Poker was played, iTouch games went on, laughs were had.

Keith went off to play Demon's Soul, invading other people, and being met with little success. He lost three soul levels while he was at it. He then switched to online play with Street Fighter IV, where unlike Demon's Soul, he won all the matches he was in. Calvin took a shot at it, but wasn't used to the PS3 controller and lost.

Sam left fairly early, with Chris and I hitching a ride with him.

Last year, we were at Jason's til around one, with sparkling fruit juices and stuff. A stark difference from whatever happened this year.

Anywho, onto my reflections of this year.

Hm. Much of the first half of the year was Grade 12. Aside from the work and stress, I'd say that that the second half was so much more fun than the first half. For one, I chopped physics and math from my schedule, which relieved so much pressure off my back. Spent one of my free blocks with Ed and Kevin, spent afterschool tuesdays with Chris in the Market. Fridays afterschool at Jason's place.

Grade wise, I wish I could've done better. There's no point in crying over spilt milk, but it's just one of those things where you just kick yourself after you think about it.

Went to Texas again, and spent a month or two frying my brains out in the Texan sun. It was fun though. Minus the lack of internet of course. I'm quite dependent on the internet. Some of my cousins are coming over in the summer.

Anywho, my top ten resolutions.

1. Keep my grades at school up
2. Finish my 1/100 Blue Frame
3. Redesign my blog
4. Get a job
5. Exercise
6. Procrastinate less
7. Procrastinate less
8. Exercise
9. Procrastinate less
10. Exercise
    

Revoltech Reycal Photo Shoot

How can you say no to a face like that?

Alrighty, I spent most of yesterday at the PS3 figuring out the movement range and other aspects of my first revoltech. I'll have a comparison between the size of Reycal and my three other figma.

 She comes from the manga, オリハルコンレイカル (Orichalcum Reycal), by Tsunashima Shiro. It's probably one of the very few figures that are 1/1 scale. Yes, Reycal is about as small as this Revoltech is in the manga. 

 

Well first off, Reycal has a few more joints than most figma do. Her body is pretty much the same; ankles, knees, hips, torso, shoulders, elbows, wrists. However, she uses revoltech joints, sturdy and robust, though a bit lacking in movement. They're fine in her knees and elbows, heck even her ankles use them. But in her hips and shoulders, they're basically hinge joints, meaning they only go forward and back. To get a side to side motion, you'd need to change the positioning of the joint. Thankfully, Revoltech's are quite famous for having easily removable joints.

Reycal's quite balanced, as she can stand by herself without a stand. She also works with the Figma stand. Her clothing isn't quite as flexible as I hoped it would be. If you leave her in a pose that bends her clothing for a bit too long, you might have a crease in it. ^^; Learnt that the hard way.

You can't compare the looks of a Revoltech to a Figma. Figma look a whole lot nicer, though that's not to say that Revoltech can't look nice, as picture above. She's quite a catch, no? Sorry about the photo quality. Used the same set up as Miku's photoshoot, though it doesn't seem that it turned out that great this time around.

 Reycal comes with her Knight Eagle. In the manga, she uses this much like Athena's saints do with their cloths. She combines with the Knight Eagle to equip her armour. She also gains her weapon by combining with the Knight Eagle.

Crappy photo, yes. But it demonstrates the joints in her hair. She has quite a few of them too. A bit odd, though it allows for a whole new world of posing. Can show direction she's flying, the direction of the wind, etc.

 Full photo of the one at the top.

The Eagle's talons become her gauntlets. The "claws" fold back to allow the attachment of her hands, though if you forget to fold them back, she'll look something like that. Hitagi? Get that reference?

 

The beam came from one of my gunpla. It fits nicely into the hole that usually houses the peg in her hand. Makes her more mecha than her Knight Eagle.

 

She looks pretty darn cool with her armour on, though there are more than a few parts that need to be swapped and exchanged to get her into her armour. I'll have a few more photos up after my camera batteries finish recharging. I'll remember to include the mass of spare parts, and extra that came with her.

けいおん: もう一度！

Image from Pixiv

Officially announced today. Prepare for more Mio*, Yui, Ritsu, Azunyan*, and Tsumugi. Oh and don't forget the moe.

Tell me if my Japanese was right in the title too.

*Bolded names are characters I'm looking forward to seeing more of.

Well, I honestly would've preferred a second season of something else, like Ghost Hunt or SeiZon. K-On! is nice and all, but in the end it really is just a twenty-two minutes of moé. I would've liked if they hadn't mixed up all the events in Sora no Otoshimono and made a second season for that one.

K-On! is pretty much character driven, as it doesn't really have much else to offer. I'm not saying that's a bad thing now. There are a lot of series like that. Just, I'd prefer a second season of something a little more...complex. Now, I can think of a few people who might disagree off the top of my head, but whatev's.

Looking forward to see what kind of songs Houkago Tea Time cranks out this time around. If I'm right, the story should take place during Yui, Mio, Tsumugi and Ritsu's last year in highschool. Which means that the end of the series will be akin to the end of Lucky Star. Which then makes K-On! a Lucky Star clone? There's more a few similarities between the two mind you.

Failed Otaku Haul

Had a bit of an adventure today. Well, okay, it wasn't an adventure. Went out to get stuff. An otaku haul to be exact. Or at least I was hoping it'd be. Reycal photo shoot is iminent, and I've got a killer headache atm.

Was planning to pick up a Revoltech, as pictured, Assassin's Creed II, as pictured, and three volumes of manga. As you can see, I got everything but the manga.

Wondering how much that costed? My mom bought Assassin's Creed for me...a week ago. However it was for the 360, while I have a PS3. So I went and exchanged it today, the PS3 was cheaper by $20, so that twenty went to the revoltech, which then meant that the revoltech was half the price. The candy and ramune were $5 together, so that brings the grand total to about $25. Pretty good, I'd say.

Sakura Media was sold out of Keroro Gunsou. Sad face. I'll have to look for it another time. "orz

Went to my family's restaurant to pick up some food for my dad, who come home early after getting sick. It was super busy, and I ended up becoming an employee for an hour. Cleaning tables isn't all that hard, but when you're helping out an understaffed popular restaurant, it's serious business. Anywho, the food never got made, so I had to run around Richmond looking for some.

The power was out at President Plaza, and the intersection in front of it. Crossing the road was putting your life on the line and in the hands of Chinese drivers. Now, I'm not being stereotypical, heck I'm Chinese too, but being in the parking lot of Aberdeen Centre isn't fun. All the businesses at Pres Plaza were closed, though a cafe was still letting people in if they wanted to. Picked up the food at Aberdeen's food court, and hightailed it home.

Turns out my dad's already made the food I bought for him. "orz

My brother and sister don't do any chores at home either. Which then leads to me being blamed for not doing anything at home. Accursed useless siblings.

Recognize this face? If you've watched Bakemonogatari, then you should.

6 Series, 12 characters

 

One of these series, is not like the other. Answer after the jump.

That series is Lotte no Omocha. I'll explain later on in the post.

Well, the three series on the first row I've talked about previously in an earlier post here. The bottom row changes things up a little bit. Nicoichi is pretty much the same circumstances as My Girl, though there's quite a twist in the parenthood. Yotsuba&! is the most light hearted series of the six, and is about Yotsuba's everyday life, rather than the development of a parent-child relationship. In Lotte no Omocha, Asuha isn't quite as major of a character s the other kids are.

Let's talk about the characters now.

I'd say that the best dad's of the six are Kazama, Kawachi and Kowai. Coincidentally, their family names all begin with a K.

Kazama is probably the most normal dad. Like the story, he's portrayed as a human, rather than just another manga character.

Daikichi has the oldest child, though it's not shown in the picture, Rin is in high school in later chapters. He is also the only one who is not directly related to his child. Along with Kouta, he has the least experience as a parent, but he works hard to keep Rin happy.

Kouta is probably one of the least ideal fathers out there, unless you really want an otaku for a father. However, that doesn't mean I'm saying that he's a bad dad. He's not quite the ideal, as Kanau realizes, but he's not incompetent. He screws up from time to time, but he'll fix things eventually.

I would've put Makoto Suda up there instead of Kowai, but he's raised Takashi as a "mother", so he's instantly disqualified. He's not a transexual, but more like a cross dresser with a reason. He's good at it too, both the parenting and cross dressing.

Kowai's a good dad. He's a bit odd, but he's not a bad dad. He's learnt a lot of things since he started to raise Yotsuba, like cooking and other things.

Finally, we have Touhara Maoya. He's the youngest of the six, and also he's in the oddest circumstances. Asuha isn't too much of an important character until a few chapters in, so I can't say much about his parenting. I do want to talk about the author. Haga Yui is quite a prominent H-artist. He's got a lot of loli work too, making Lotte no Omocha pretty much a less ecchi form of his work.

Winter Anime Previews 13 - ひだまりスケッチ- ☆☆☆

Image by Maro

Last one. Waited for the preview to float around, and now it's here. HIDAMARI SKETCH!!!

Title: ひだまりスケッチ- ☆☆☆, Hidamari Sketch - Hoshi Mittsu, Sunshine Sketch - Three Stars

Genre: Comedy, Slice of Life

Airs: 01/07 25:29
Animation Studio: SHAFT

Summary from Wikipedia:
Hidamari Sketch centers around a young girl named Yuno who finally is able to get accepted into Yamabuki Art High School, which she has longed for. To attend the school, Yuno moves and starts to live in a small apartment building named the Hidamari Apartments (ひだまり荘, Hidamari-sō^?) located near the school. Once there, she starts making new friends like her classmate Miyako and the second year students, Hiro and Sae. The events of the characters' everyday lives are shown as they attend the school together and get to know each other better.

Kenn's Comment:
YEAH! SEASON 3! One of my favourite series. Two new character join the crew this season. The more, the merrier! It's a great series to just kick back to after a long day or something like that.

Trailer:

BEST OF KENN 2009

I said I was going to make a new one. I honestly was working on it. And then my program crashed. "orz

Anywho, today's is Weej's fave post. Totally rad!

Today's is Weekly Vocaloid Feature - 紅一葉 

 

I agree with Weej. Those are some good songs. Some of the best in my opinion, right up there with Melt and Meltdown. ;D Luka too.

Anywho, hopefully I can recreate my work and have a new one up for tomorrow. Busy with Demon's Soul, so maybe I'll sneak a few in every now and then.

 

 

 

 

Manga of ze Week - モモ

I feel like I've put this one up before...but it doesn't seem that I have.


Title: モモ, Momo
Author: Sakai Mayu
Genre: Shoujo, Comedy, Fantasy, Romance, Supernatural
Serialized in: Shueisha Ribbon
Total Volume Count: 3 (ongoing)

Summary from StarryHeaven:

On her sixteenth birthday, the unlucky, unmotivated and good-for-nothing Odagiri Yume saves the high-classed and lovely Momo, who claims to be the Devil. Yume confesses her wish to become special and Momo grants it: she makes Yume the representative of the earth! From now on her sixteenth birthday until her eighteenth, Yume has to give Momo seven good reasons as to why the earth shouldn’t be destroyed. The countdown for the destruction of the world has begun and only Yume can stop it.

Kenn's Comment: x3 Momo is so flipping cute. I want to hug her! No, I don't. I'd be mistaken for a pedophile and taken away. I guess there's no omochikaeri for me. ;o;

Anywho, it's a nice cute story, and Momo is so flipping cute. Wait, I said that already, didn't I? I suppose it's a take on 2012. xD

BEST OF KENN 2009

Haha. I fail at that. I'll try and make a new one later.

Anywho, BEST OF KENN 2009 will be a series of posts celebrating the best and favourite posts of my friends, and I. So far Izzy, T.K. and Weej have given me their favourites, and I have my list of favourites, so until January 1st, I'll be putting them up. Izzy, T.K. and Weej's favourite posts will be put up day by day, though my favourites won't be limited to one a day. As the author of them, I feel a tad bit connected to them. xD

Today's BEST OF KENN is after the jump.


To start things off, I'll give Izzy's favourite post.


Free block Frenzy 1 (22/01/09)

I remember this day like it was yesterday. I'm pretty sure that the face is still on the inside of that locker too. ^^" It's our everlasting legacy. For a simple piece of paper and a gluestick, it really held well, considering none of us could peel it off. I sometimes miss those days, where we could just hang around. If there's every a reunion for our class, I'm definitely going to check if that's still there.

Anywho, the awesome face brings back fond memories every time I see it. Thanks for making this one of your favourite posts of mine, Izzy!

Boxing Day is War

Alrighty, so I went with my cousins and their friends to Future Shop on Bridgeport to play our roles as consumers. Photo-heavy post, includes Christmas dinner.

My cousins thought that the guy there looks a bit like me. I can sorta see the resemblance...

 

 

My cousin cooked the dinner this year. Ham and turkey was bought, but everything else was made. Tasty dinner. Very filling.

My plate. Ham, salad, risotto, and mashed potatoes. Had a baked potato after too.

We lined up @ Future Shop @ 8 pm. It wasn't that bad then. Heavy fog, but there were only four people before us. The store opens at 6 am by the way.

It's pretty much empty here in the lot. The fog is slightly clearer here. Killed time by listening to music (on my iPod Shuffle to save batteries on my iTouch for the games), and jamming to DJ Max Fever on my PSP. My fingers eventually and inevitably got too cold to play DJ Max

 

Big red sign.  The line up didn't start growing until around 12 am. My cousins and their friends were after a killer deal on a nice TV. $600 for Sharp Aquos 40" 1080p LCD HDTV. Limited quantity. xD But we were at the front of the line, so as long as you could get there first you could pull over a bunch for everybody.

Bad photo, but the dog wouldn't keep still. He's my cousin's friend's dog. Friendly little guy.

 

A guy at the front of the line brought this out later in the night when the temperature outside dropped to it's lowest.  It hovered around -2 or 0 from around 11 until the store opened at 5:45. We roasted mini-marshmallows and kept kinda warm by the fire while people behind us looked on with envious eyes.

Spoils of war. A new laptop and a red bull. Quite scary once everyone's let in. The laptops were locked up in a cage, so getting your hands on one required the assistance of an employee, which were in high demand, though not enough in supply. A majority of the check out stalls didn't accept cash, so I had to follow the guy helping me through the store. Got it in the end. Still gotta go to Best Buy and exchange my 360 copy of Assassin's Creed II for a PS3 copy. My mom got it for the wrong system. ^^; Probably have to pick up a copy of Microsoft office too.

Weekly Vocaloid Feature - タワー

Luka this week. Lovely song. Lovely PV.

Stay tuned for some big posts. I've got a load of stuff to unload. xD


Song's title is "Tower". Song by 絵師じゃないKEI. Not sure who the PV is by. xD But it's good. Not a new song, Christmas-winter related.

Figma Hatsune Miku Photo Gallery

Image by hazuki

She's so smexy, isn't she? Anyways, as promised, I've finished Miku's photo shoot. Lighting problems hampered some of my photos, but I managed to iron them out. I got it out before the end of the year too.

Merry Christmas!

 

Click to view full size pictures. Looks much better like that. All of them.

Anywho, rolling right along. My new photo set up. It's pretty frugal and crude, but it gets the job done. I don't plan to redo my previous ones on this. Maybe one or two photos.

 

This shot's before ironing down all of the lighting things. Very bright. 

 

Got all the lighting down in from here on. Probably need to lower the camera a bit...

 

Close up of the photo before. She's so cute.

A bit of panchira there, but hardly noticeable. Miku and her iconic sprigs of negi. My photo editing software chopped off the top part of the photo when I went to rotate it. Sad face. Used photobucket, and it worked fine. = ="

Lovely pose. Not much to say about it. A photo is worth a million words anyways.

 

The box Miku came in was quite nice. Very futuristic, and also, very shiny. The inside has a mirror-finish, so I had to adjust the lighting to keep the reflections out. They're still there though. The mirror finish coats the inside of the back, and two sides, so it's almost like a kaleidoscope. 

Merry Christmas!

Image by Piromizu

Ho ho ho. That's right. I've got a whole sleigh-load of stuff to put out here, so keep reading.

Party

So, I was at a Christmas party yesterday @ my family's new restaurant. Quite a bit of food. Two noodle dishes, a shrimp thing at the front left, deep fried chicken wings, deep fried sea food (squid, shrimp, octopus), a Vietnamese salad, sushi, and I feel like I'm forgetting something. Anywho, loaded up on greasy food, washed it down with cream soda. Yum.

Figma Photo shoot

My lighting is still off, but here's a sample of what I've been doing. Quite nice, with the poor man's photo box thing. ^^" Probably need to make the background bigger, so the photos aren't as close up. You'll see what I mean when I finish the photo shoot.

Randoms

So I forgot my camera at Jason's place. Edmond decided to leave me a Christmas present and load it up with photos. Note that I'm not in those photos, nor am I even in that house.

I believe my cousin once asked, "what's with guys and crotch shots?"

I took this myself going back from Jason's place. I guess you can't really tell, but right after where that white car is, there's a rather steep hill. Gave me hell climbing that everyday to get to school for a year or two, especially in the snow.

Again, I took this shot. Yeah, I don't know. It's just the phone and electricity lines. Also a gray sky. It's blue now though.

Weekly Vocaloid Feature - HOLIDAY SPECIAL

CHRISTMAS EVE! HEEYYY!

So yeah. I started on the Miku photoshoot with my newly created photo area. I actually finished all the photos. I looked over them again, and my lighting got screwed up, so I have to redo them all so you can actually see Miku.


Song by Noboru↑-P. Illustrations by H/Y & Saki Ukai.

Christmas song. A nice one. Maybe. Another song of the week tomorrow. Christmas related for that one. The Vocaloid on Saturday won't.

Party today and tomorrow I think. I'll blog about those. @_@

Song of the Week Holiday Special

ONLY TWO MORE DAYS! Vocaloid holiday special next, so stay tuned.


Title: Jingle Bells
Artist: James Lord Pierpont (original composer), Kenny G
Genre: Contemporary Jazz
Single: N/A
Album: The Greatest Holiday Classics
Vintage: 2005, (16/11/1857 original date of composition)

Manga of ze Week - ヤンデレ彼女

Yes, yes, I know. It's Monday. Been playing more of Demon's Soul as of late, and I've been on the PS3 all day. =w= Almost finished, and there's an event this week.

Anywho, I still need to get my camera back from Jason (I've forgotten to get it three days in a row now), and I'm gonna try getting a piece of poster board for Miku's photo gallery. Gonna try and make myself a photo box thingy. It'll work out fine. Once I get my camera.


Title: ヤンデレ彼女, Yandere Kanojo
Author: Shinobi
Genre: Shounen, Comedy, Romance
Serialized in: Square Enix Gan Gan Joker, Square Enix Gan Gan Online
Total Volume Count: 1 (ongoing)

Summary from MangaUpdates:

Tanaka Manabu is a geeky student, on the way to school he meets a girl carrying a bloody bat. That girl is Ryuuzaki Reina, leader of the school's female delinquents. It's love at first sight. A gag manga (with a combination of 4koma and normal page) about having a yankee dere-dere girlfriend.

Kenn's Comment: 
Uh. I can't remember whether I've done this series yet. I feel like I have, but it'll keep going. Anywho, the "yandere" in this title, is a play on the words "yankee" (delinquent), and "dere". Put them together, and you've got "yandere". It doesn't refer to the "dark love" yandere.

With that aside, it's a fun series. Manabu's great, and Reina's reactions are gold. She looks best in that miniskirt...and that yukata.

Winter Anime Previews 5 v2 - おおかみかくし

What more can you ask? Anime adaptation of a game by Ryukishi07 (of Higurashi and Umineko fame), with character designs by Peach Pit (Rozen Maiden, Shugo Chara). Sounds like epic win to me. There really isn't any information on this one...

Title: おおかみかくし, Ookami Kakushi, Spirited Away by the Wolves

Genre: Mystery, Action, Horror

Airs: 01/07 25:59

Animation Studio: AIC

Summary from Wikipedia:

A 16 year old boy, Hiroshi Kuzumi, started to live in a new town that is located in the mountains. The town is separated into new and old streets by the river, and many mysterious local cultures still remain. Although confused and enjoying his new life, one person kept her distance from him: class committee member Kushinada Nemura. In their few encounters she gave him a word of advice: "Stay away from the old streets".

Kenn's Comment: 
Fweee! Fweee! A Ryukishi07 anime that's not by Deen? Blasphemy! Well, it's not a bad thing. AIC has some good series they've done, like Ah! Megami-sama, and Nyankoi!. Anywho, if they don't keep Peach Pit's character designs, I'll eat an apple. I won't do anything extreme, but for sure I won't be happy. No details for the anime have been released...and there's not that much info on the game either. It's kinda like the Haruhi movie that's coming out in the near future. No details. Sad face.

Trailer:

Song of the Week - 사랑 하나죠

Well, I was on my way back to the PS3, when Miku reminded me that I hadn't done a Song of the Week. I told her that I was too lazy too, and she pulled San's katana on me. So, here it is, the song of the week.

Title: 사랑 하나죠, Only Love
Artist: SM Town
Genre: Pop
Single: N/A
Album: 2007 Winter SMTown - Only Love
Vintage: 07/12/07

Quite possibly the largest collaboration of artists I've seen. ^^"

Bringin' back the true spirit of Christmas.

涼宮ハルヒの消失

キタ━━━━━━(ﾟ∀ﾟ)━━━━━━ !!!

Better not troll us again Kadokawa.

The Disappearance of Suzumiya Haruhi (movie)

Weekly Vocaloid Feature - 発光体のルーディ

This week is Miki, with 発光体のルーディ by Bucchigiri-P. Illustrations done by Yooko.

Christmas-y, no? Next week will be Miku, unless a better Christmas one comes up.


Sorry, no Song of the Week this week. Forgot to yesterday actually. Was out and I'll get blogging about that once I remember to pick up the camera that I forgot at
Jason's place.

Brunch with Kenn

More Vietnamese food. ^^"

This time around, it's Bành Béo. Those little round things are rice flour "pancakes", so to speak. The orange things on top of it are shrimp. It's minced up and mixed with a whack of different things...or at least that's what my dad told me. The coloured liquid is nước mắm, Vietnamese for "fish sauce". 

It's pretty tasty, but I had a plate that size last night. I'm fine with having it periodically, but the second time around didn't taste all the great. My dad said we weren't supposed to keep it overnight too, so I get the feeling that might be part of it. =w=