Happy New Year !!!

As you can see, there's no December 2007 entry. Anyways, Happy New Year to all !!! Just watch out soon for this site. Once again, "Xin Nian Kuai Le" !!!

Revisit 81

Not Feeling Well

For today, it is a simple one. I had too much usage of the computer, so I give myself a headache, literally. Regardless of the case, I am also slacking off this weekend, which I am not supposed too. Hopefully, I should recover sooner.

The reason for this entry is to release the negative effects of using the computer that has been residing within me. It was weird enough to be considered a problem for me. But it really bothered me very much, so I just wanted to voice out. That's all for now. :D

October Hiatus

It seems that for this month of October, my blog sites wil go into hiatus, even if it was not written in the blog sites that I managed. Anyways, if I ever repeat what I have said in my previous posts, or either this is my first notice, just stay tuned, and I shall return. Thank you for visitng my blog sites.:D

Gundam 00 Ep1 Summary

** From Gunota Headlines (http://aeug.blogspot.com)

Gundam 00 Ep1 summary
As the Gundam 00 Ep1 Private Showings draw near their conclusion, Gunota was lucky enough to attend one this weekend. SPOILER ALERT

Ep1: Celestial Being

It starts out with young Setsuna, a kid soldier, fighting against a MS. It appears to be a religious conflict as he keeps saying to himself that he does not believe in God's existence. As Setsuna desperately runs away from the enemy MS, a flash of beam fire from the sky shoots down on all of the MS. Setsuna looks up and sees a glowing Gundam (as seen in the latest trailer).

OP credits

The time is now A.D. 2307. In front of the public, the AEU reveals the brand new MS Enact in time for the 10th anniversary of the Human Reform League's orbital elevator opening. Celestial Being, still not known officially, initiates Phase One. The Gundam Exia appears from the skies. Setsuna disables the Enact and leaves the scene. Under hot pursuit, Setsuna is now engaged with several MS. Lockon Stratos, piloting the Gundam Dynames, helps from the ground and along with Setsuna takes out the MS. Now Phase Two is complete. Up in the Human Reform League's orbital elevator, another anniversary party is taking place. An attack is carried out by an unknown terrorist group. However, Gundam Kyrios and Gundam Virtue eliminates them. This concludes Phase Three. The news media are now reporting the failed terror attack on the elevator. Next, a news broadcast shows a video they received from an unknown group. On it is what appears to be the leader of Celestial Being. He declares they will use force to end all wars on Earth. Other world leaders see this as a major contradiction.

Water Facts

Water: How much should you drink every day?
http://health.yahoo.com/topic/nutrition/other/article/mayoclinic/1488D60D-E694-4EE6-A0DFA79E4CEF5FD3

Long Hiatus

As you all viewers see, the blog has been filled with fillers lately. This blog will remain hiatus for some indeterminate amount of time. But, it will not be dormant, just keep visitng this blog site. :D

Old School Commercials

Masked Rider bicyle and belt commericals from the 1970s and 80s
http://japansugoi.com/wordpress/kamen-rider-bicyle-and-belt-commericals-from-the-1970s-and-80s/

Henshin, Bian Shen, Transform...

1. Kamen Rider (Masked Rider) Cooking Show Challenge [No subtitles. :(]

Part I

Part II

Part III.

Part IV.

Part V.


2. SMAP parody of Kamen Rider Ryuki (Masked Rider Ryuki)
http://japansugoi.com/wordpress/smap-parody-of-kamen-rider-ryuki-%e4%bb%ae%e9%9d%a2%e3%83%a9%e3%82%a4%e3%83%80%e3%83%bc%e9%be%8d%e9%a8%8e/

5, 20, 34

NBA - Celtics Acquire 10-Time All-Star Kevin Garnett
http://www.nba.com/celtics/news/press073107-garnett.html

NBA - Kevin Garnett Photos : Early Years
http://www.nba.com/gallery/garnettearly/070730_1.html

NBA - Kevin Garnett Photos : Recent Years
http://www.nba.com/gallery/garnettrecent/073007_1.html

NBA - Kevin Garnett Press Conference Transcript (July 31,2007 - U.S.A. Date)
http://www.nba.com/garnett_presser_transcript_070731.html

NBA - Reaction to the Celtics Acquiring Kevin Garnett
http://www.nba.com/news/kgarnett_traded_celtics.html

NBA - Behind the Scenes for the Trio
http://www.nba.com/celtics/news/notes/notes073107-behind-scenes-trio.html

FFIX Princess Garnet's Pendant Making

FFIX Princess Garnet's Pendant Making

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/epic-threads/2007-07-29/garnets_pendant

FFIX Princess Garnet's Pendant Making

** From http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/epic-threads/2007-07-29/garnets_pendant

Princess Garnet's pendant (Final Fantasy IX)

Materials

* A bloody great crystal. I strongly recommend a Swarovski 60mm octagon in either clear or AB (Aurora Borealis, a green iridescent coating that's very accurate to the one in the game). It's a suncatcher, so it comes with a convincing steel loop to hang it from - very convenient. If you need a hint for sourcing, I get mine from Ebay.
* Polymer clay
* A heavy-ish chain to hang it from - ideally from a jewelry supplies seller, or from a hardware store in a pinch.
* A small length of strong wire; I recommend beading wire if you're doing it my way.
* A couple of crimp beads (if you're using beading wire)
* A decent-size jump-ring or split-ring, say 8mm

Tools

* Superglue
* A thin metal rod, or round kebab skewer, ballpen refill, whatever. A long thin round thing.
* A scalpel or sharp knife
* A can of metallic silver acrylic spray paint. This is important! Non-acrylic paint won't dry on polymer clay because of the plasticizers in it, so don't be tempted to use anything else.
* A pair of pliers, the smaller the better.

Step 1
Find tons of pics of the item you're making. This one is actually really difficult because you have to find stills of the FFIX ending video, so I'll waive my do-the-legwork-yourself! rule. Click here for a handy zip file of my picture collection.

Before I start the actual instructions, there's a basic engineering principle you need to understand about this piece. Polymer clay is NOT STRONG ENOUGH to support the weight of a piece of crystal this big. Therefore, we're not really going to make a crown cap, which has a crystal attached to the bottom and a chain attached to the top, like the pendant in the game, because it will break. What we're going to do is attach the chain directly to the crystal through a hole in the crown cap, and make it look like the pendant in the game.

Step 2
If you look closely at the crown, you'll see it's made up of several components. There's a little dome in the middle with ridges and stars on it, a ring around the dome at the bottom with studs and a cross on it, a tall bit that rises up from the top of the dome, and two arched pieces that start from the ring and end at the tall bit. So that's how I'm going to refer to the components; the dome, the ring, the top bit and the arches.

We're going to start by making the dome. Take a piece of clay big enough and form it into a dome shape with a flat bottom. Press the clay dome into the top of the crystal so that the dome sits in the right way on the crystal and the steel loop is inside the dome. (I hope this is clear - you're trying to make a top-of-crystal shaped indentation in the bottom of the dome, so that when it's baked it will fit over the crystal perfectly) Use your thin rod to poke a hole right through the centre of the dome from top to bottom.

Doing all this is actually quite difficult - pushing the dome onto the crystal tends to mess up its dome-shape, poking a hole through the dome tends to make it go splat a little, and so on, so you have to keep repeating steps. Persevere and get it right in shape and size, it's important.

When you're ready, bake the dome. DO NOT COOK THE CRYSTAL. Let me say that again. DO NOT COOK THE CRYSTAL. If you need me to tell you why, your basic physics ain't what it oughta be. ^_^

Step 3
Hopefully you've now got a baked dome that fits fairly neatly over the top of your crystal and has a hole through its middle. (If you haven't, do it again!) The next bit is the fun bit where you add the silly little decorations. You can really do this any way you like, but here's how I did it:

Firstly, the ring around the bottom of the crown. Roll out a thin strip of clay and wrap it around the bottom, then another slightly wider and thicker strip and wrap it around that. This gives you a strip around the bottom of the dome which has a sort of groove in it (it's higher on the outside than the inside). Add the stars to the dome, the little blobs to the ring, and the Maltese Cross to the front.

(I actually found it downright impossible to do the stars and the cross in one go. I cut the stars out of clay with a craft knife and baked them, then glued them on. I couldn't even do that with the Maltese Cross so I baked a flat piece of clay and *then* cut the shape out and glued it on. If you're doing this, remember you'll have to wait to glue them on till you've finished baking the crown - you can't bake glue, it de-stickies.)

Next, the top bit and the arches. Make the top bit, except for the topmost piece (remember the top bit needs to have a hole through it that continues from the one through the dome). Make the arches and attach them too. DO NOT attach the very top piece of the top bit yet! (The bit that sticks out) Make it, bake it, keep it separate. You're going to need it in a minute.

Step 4
Right. You're done with clay, now we just need to paint the crown and make the attachment for the chain. Make a space, cover it with newspaper, spray-paint the crown silver. You may need a couple of coats to get it all. Try to paint all the bits that are going to be visible, but try not to paint the bits that will actually be touching the crystal if you can help it (doesn't matter too much though). You don't need to use too much paint, but make sure you spray from all angles, especially on the front, so that all the cracks and crevices get paint in them. Leave it to dry overnight.

Step 5
Now for the rather fiddly bit. I use professional jewelers' techniques to make the jewelery bits of my cosplay pieces. You're going to use crimp beads to secure the beading wire, so unless you already know how to do this check out this handy tutorial by Rock Garden. (If you can do it another way go ahead, just remember that it MUST be secure, or else the crystal could drop off and smash.)

Take a piece of the beading wire and loop it through the steel ring at the top of the crystal. Crimp the loop closed, leaving the two loose ends sticking up at least a few inches.

Now poke the loose ends up through the hole in the crown and use superglue to carefully fix the crown to the crystal, so that the whole pendant hangs from the pieces of wire which are sticking up through the crown cap.

The next bit is a little tricky. Use crimp beads to attach the loose ends to the jump-ring, as close to the top of the crown cap as you can. Then take the top piece of the top bit (the ring-shaped piece you made separately, remember?), cut it in half with a craft knife and glue it back together around the bottom of the jump-ring. The idea is that it hides the crimp beads and makes it look like the jump-ring is attached to the crown.

Step 6
And that's pretty much it! Use the pliers to make your chain into a loop the length you want. I put a clasp on mine so that I could remove the chain from the pendant but it's so long you don't need to, you can just pull it over your head.

Random Video Again

Gundam 00 Drector Interview 2

(From http://aeug.blogspot.com)

Newtype had an interview with Mizushima which covered different topics from the Animage one.

Source: Newtype
Q: A 15-second long promo video appeared after Toward the Terra on June 2. Any response from the public?
A: They were a lot of responses and they were fast, too. A day after the promo, my friend who was eating at a restaurant overheard young people talking about the next Gundam by watching it on their mobile phones.

Q: This Gundam doesn't take place in ___ Era, instead it takes place in Seireki (anno domini aka AD) 2307.
A: I wanted to do it in AD. Since my knowledge regarding UC and CE is very low, doing it in AD would be a lot easier and allow me to bring in real world agendas.

Q: Was bringing a real world agenda the start of your concept?
A: Since this is Mobile Suit Gundam, I believe you are placed in a situation where you have to write something about war. If that is the case, it could be on something like a conflict or terror we see today. In a Gundam series, the Gundam serves as a weapon which allows me to do these things. It is possible to make this story a fantasy, but I didn't want to do that with this Gundam. I wanted an era based on today's world.

Q: Setsuna F. Seiei, the main character, is a former soldier from the Middle East. This smells like the ethnic and religious clash we have today.
A: 300 years from now, I don't think this problem will be solved. However, I don't want to present a solution to this social problem. If young people ended up searching on the net, it would be worth making the series. Instead of just watching the events, I'm personally hoping we can approach it more closely. For us, it is hard to understand the thoughts of people who are living under war conditions, but we can know a little bit by studying. I want to absorb them and express them on film. I do believe this is a hard thing to do.

There is another challenge. I'm aiming for a new innovation as far as MS action goes. Each group will have their own MS, unique in shape and movement as well. To put it simply, a normal MS will have realistic behavior. Since Gundams are super weapons, they will have super mechanic movements. These differences will be purposely put in place and I'm looking forward to how much variety of actions we can express. I want everyone to look forward to this because I am, too.

Q: Setsuna is described as a cool person who hardly reveals any emotion. Does this mean he is keeping his feelings inside himself regarding why he fights?
A: That is still a secret. *laughs* His past is difficult to understand which probably makes him look cool. Once people see the facts, they will understand.

Q: Why did you decide on him as the main character?
A: At first, I wanted a character that doesn't fit a typical Japanese person. Then I went through the process of what this young person and I would do if I were placed in these circumstances. I believe this is an important step when you develop a story.

Q: This is far away from the viewer's standpoint.
A: Yes, it is. Which is why I asked Yun Kouga for character designs. If this wasn't Kouga-san's designs, people might have been afraid, grossed out, or not even empathize. It may sound like this is all we're doing based on my conversation, but it is only part of it. This is an entertainment show so we'll have those other elements, too.

Q: Will there be any romance?
A: There will be plenty of romance even under these harsh circumstances. *laughs* Yousuke Kuroda is going to include lots of romance in the story.

Q: Which means a heroine character is going to appear?
A: We haven't made that public yet? There is one, a 24-year-old heroine. She's been through a lot of difficulties.

Q: Will she be Setsuna's primary interest?
A: Umm, we haven't decided that yet. Again, she's been through a lot...

Gundam 00 Drector Interview 1

(From http://aeug.blogspot.com)

This month's anime magazines had interviews with Seiji Mizushima, the director of the Gundam 00 series. Below is a translation of an interview from Animage magazine. A Newtype magazine interview will be up tomorrow.

Q: Tell us how the title "Mobile Suit Gundam 00" came about?
A: It started as a temporary title, but it ended up being the official title. Originally I wanted to have a cool name, but we all forgot about it. Besides the obvious reason of starting from zero, there are other reasons. Right now it is a secret, but it will become a keyword as the story progresses.

Q: Reason behind why this series is set in the future of our world?
A: I personally have no deep knowledge about UC or CE so jumping into their worlds would be inappropriate and offensive to the staff who worked on those series. To me, it made perfect sense to make this series connected to our world. By doing this, it is easier to reflect our history and blend it with the series. At this moment, I am not focusing too much about making this ultra real or serious. This is entertainment after all so I'll mirror some of the real world issues in this series like I have with the anime I worked on in the past.

Q: What kind of Gundam story are you aiming for?
A: Don't know if this is a good or bad thing. I haven't watched a lot of the previous Gundam series. When I was first offered this job, I thought to myself, "Aren't there more Gundam-minded people than me?" Sunrise told me "We want to create a new Gundam so the director doesn't have to know a lot about Gundam." I have staff like Yousuke Kuroda and mecha designers, who are Gundam fans, so they will make sure it is Gundam while I will try to create without thinking too much that this is a Gundam series. Perhaps, this might be the theme, but I will bring my own Gundam-ness to the series.

Q: What is your Gundam-ness?
A: One is writing about war. Gundam is a weapon after all. This doesn't mean I'm going to be devoted to battles scenes. Instead I believe it is important to approach the war theme straightforward. (Gunota note: from here he tries to be funny) Other than that, a mobile weapon walking on 2 legs using beam sabers and a beam rifle. Then the basic stuff like Gundam is red, blue, yellow, and white. *laughs* This time, we are being more adventurous with the designs. If you have these 4 colors, they look like Gundam. *laughs*

Q: The pilots of the Gundams belong to a group who are trying to end war. What are you trying to say with this?
A: Let's take this one phrase, "Using force to end wars" and see what happens when someone carries out this contradicting act. "What do you start to see?" is one of things I want to write. Since this is a drama involving these characters, you will see "What happens to the world when they pilot the Gundam? What will these pilots do and how will they change?" This will be the gut of the series for sure.

Q: How will the MS designs and battle action turn out?
A: We hope to bring 2 styles: one is the super action style from SEED, second are actions that take advantage of the MS. When the plot of Gundams entering the conflict was being setup, we had a conversation saying "It might be all right for the Gundams to be super mecha." Therefore, the antagonist's MS was designed reflecting today's weapons and the Gundams were designed to confront them. It will feel like super mecha vs real mecha. The concept of the Gundam being far superior is one concept I had from the beginning. I don't know how much of that you will see, but the staff will follow along and hopefully you might see some odd looking scenes.

Q: Lastly, a message for the fans of the upcoming series.
A: While this will be a drama connecting people with people or people with the world, I will not be forcing answers on them. I'm hoping this series will motivate viewers into thinking. A Gundam novice like me is working real hard creating a new Gundam so I hope the previous fans and new fans will support us.

Yoshikazu Yasuhiko Exhibit (JP)

http://www.add-system.co.jp/yasuhiko/top.html

Random Video

Bounces Back

Another entry for another month, and the schedule's been tight for the month of March. So, to jump straight to the point, the title is entitled that way because there is really no real reason, it is just to simply state that this is a filler entry, & it is also the first funny entry here too, which is supposedly to be posted on my Xanga site (http://www.xanga.com/marvinjs). Anwyays, it will be good if there's at least a rare comic relief here.

======= START OF FILLER =======

I've been already proud that for the span of 9 years in using our 9-year old PC, it has been really an adventure. It already went through a lot of challenges, such as several bad sectors, as well as overhauling of data from one storage device to another device during crunch time (a.k.a. last minute remedy). Despite these circumstances, it never let me down because it also helped me to survive several crammed tasks.

But, right now, the PC has been really odd since it gets stucked in the middle of something every once in a while (once, twice, or more than once during a month). It has been hard in maintaining the PC's health, & hopefully it will last for a couple of years enduring the weird "freezing" symptom.

====== END OF FILLER =======

That ends the filler entry, & for some serious matters, I'm testing our PC right now to verify its health. the internet is quite slow right now for some unknown reasons, but I'm still able to post here, & that's good news. Until then, the weather's really hot right now.

Anything Goes

After a month of not visiting here, things had passed so quickly. Imagine, staying up the whole day (which is a near 20 hour work time) doing important stuff & producing astounding results, as well as receiving numerous failures. Despite those circumstances, it's quite fun since I had been able to do something that I rarely do.

Of course, I get sleepy very often during the day since staying up late had been my daily routine. But, that sleepy feeling will surely disappear due to the numerous encounters in doing techical work. A time for relaxation should be alloted for the next few days in order to cope up with the upcoming challenges.

Until then, let's just wait for things to happen. :D

Night Shift

It's now 2007 and I now had my first entry for 2007 in this site at a late period. ^_^

Well, to begin with, I am frequently out of condition these days and also on the past weeks because I had to do some difficult tasks which will force to have an "overtime". In the "overtime", I always worked very late in order to finish something, or sometimes just to reduce the load I am carrying in my everyday life. This kind of lifestyle will be my very normal life for now, and hopefully, it will not be forever. :D
(More to come...)

New Nostalgic Things

1) "Cyber Team in Akihabara DVD 1: Cyber Genesis" Review (ANN)
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/review/cyber-team-in-akihabara/dvd-1

2) "Mari Iijima will be performing at this year's Tekkoshocon on Saturday" (ANN)
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/press-release/2007-02-17/mari-iijima-will-be-performing-at-this-year's-tekkoshocon-on-saturday

3) New Evangelion Movie
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2007-02-20/hideaki-anno-releases-statement-about-new-evangelion-movies

Mari Iijima Fan Interview (Robotech.com)

1. Macross and Minmay
http://www.robotech.com/news/viewarticle.php?id=257

2. Career and Personal Life
http://www.robotech.com/news/viewarticle.php?id=259