June 4th Memorial Demonstration - Toronto

Twenty-one years after the fateful day when students all over China rallied for freedom and democracy, Chinese people all over the world still continue to remember and grieve over what has been lost that day and what will surely come in the future. There can never be a definitive answer to who is right and who is wrong, but what is sure is that popular representation is what China need more than ever. Let us not forget the dreams of those brave students.

Anime North - Photo Report Part 1 Cosplays

To be completely frank, I honestly didn't expect this level of variety at an anime festival, but there he is, standing right in front of me, Arthur Dent from the most succesful book to ever be published by the Ursa Minor Publishing company, the Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy! Here's the rest of the photographs I took at the Anime North convention, being posted after a terribly long delay. Enjoy!

Anime North Day One - Fans and costumes everywhere, but not a bit COURAGE to be found...

28-May-2010

Set out from school for the Toronto Congress Centre at around 4:00 and as soon as I got onto the bus, I knew this wasn't going to be some small convention where only the hardcore will be attending. Interestingly enough, though many of the geeks are dressed in plain clothes, it's very obviously who they are and what they're after when they gather in hordes like this.

Changing news stories isn't nearly as awesome as change Getter

Ian Bush, 22 year old and dead from a shot to the back of his head, but that's not the point here.

For the first time, I saw a news story being changed within a day of the initial report.

This morning, CBC Radio 1 reported an incident where a police killed a son of a woman in BC in an act of self defence. The women went ahead and filed a lawsuit against the police, not with the intention of prosecuting the officer, but rather to draw attention to cases like this where the killing could have been prevented and to encourage change in the police's internal structure. Upon hearing from the police that there are plans to refine this internal investigation system of the police, she promptly dropped the lawsuit, acknowledging that the financial burden is also a bit too much at the moment for her. At least this is what is said in the initial version of the story.

Reborns Wings 2.0 Preview

Well, as I promised last time, here's the new and updated Reborns Wings! It's still a bit ghetto, but I think it looks pretty sweet nonetheless! The formal photoshoot of this beauty will be coming soon!

Thoughts on the recent Kyrgyzstan coup/revolution

Facts:
-Bakiev has low approval ratings and was not elected
-Financial inflation and privatization of electricity contribute to above
-US and RUSSIA both have strategic bases in Kyrgyzstan
-US need the base to transport troops to Afghanistan

Speculations:
-Since old regime allowed for US to continue operation their base and new regime gave no conclusive answer, it could be the case that US hopes for the coup to fail
-Russia has openly supported the coup leader, so it might be the case that they are giving Russia benefits. A new base perhaps?
-The majority of the people support the coup leader, complicating the situation for US, who always try to support the democratically elected government
-Since coup is currently claiming to be government, we might see US trying to negotiate with their leader
-It is unlikely that US will give any direct help to the old regime because of point mentioned two bullets above.

King Gainer Reshoots

From time to time, I like to get some of my figures and gunpla out to take a few pictures, especially if I felt the first batch of photos could have been much better. In this case, I've decided to get King Gainer out again and test out the ghetto studio and since the actual figure itself has already been covered here, I'll save the words and commence the photo-dump.

HG00 Reborns Gundam WIP Final: It's finally finished!!!

Through darkest days and brightest nights,

Through thundering wind and billowing waves,

The great gunpla soul refuses to die,

The lone plamodeller persevered!

Behold the light that shines from the heavens itself, 

Behold, the light of rebirth!

Reborn!

HG00 Reborns Gundam WIP Part 3

Reborns Wings Alternate FORM!!

During another build session, I've managed to install the backpack, aka the body of Reborns Cannon, I'm pleasantly surprised the bulk increased quite a bit.

HG00 Reborns Gundam WIP Part 2

So it's been a while since my last (real) update, hasn't it? I suppose it has, but fear not dear readers, for this time, I bring you some legitimate content! 

I've been working on this kit on and off and have finally got the upper body finished! It's not that big of a step forward, but it's a step forward nonetheless. So without further ado, let's spam some pictures first!

Reborns Gundam's Secret Mode......

Reborns Wings!!!

Don't tell me I'm the only one who thought of this when I saw the shield and the gun. As for the actual WIP, it's coming, so please bear with me. More pictures after the break.

Storm after the calm.... HG00 Reborns Gundam WIP Part 1

After a long stagnation, it's back to business as usual! I can make all sorts of fancy and convincing excuses, but I won't, so without further ado, let's just jump right into it!

2010 Canadian International Autoshow

Recently went to the Canadian Autoshow in Toronto and snapped a few pictures that I'll probably use as a reference for future modeling projects. Here's a few of the picture in the gallery.

Robot Damashii: ARE YOU GOING FOR MONOPOLY, BANDAI?!!

These are simply mechas that fans want to see adapted into a figure by Bandai as a part of the Robot Damashii line, but looking at Damashii team's history, it's really not that much of a stretch to say that they will consider or may even be designing these already. After all, this is the one line of products that has released many figures of mechas that have been for the large part, ignored in the past. I mean, who could have thought they'd have the guts to revive the age old classic adventure anime line and release the Ryujinmaru? Who else has in the past had enough guts to bet on MSs that are fairly popular among hardcore fans, but due to it's obscurity have never been released in any other format, things like the Den'an Zon and Kapools? Which other line would dare stray so much from their prefered size and release something like König Monster and Sutherland Sieg right alongside other much smaller mechas like the F91s? Oh yeah, they also released things that even many fans of Gundam may never heard of or have altogether forgotten about, things like the Zondo Gei. 


Well with all that said, without further ado, here are the winning mechas and some awesome pictures of the respective winners!

(1) ShinkenOh from "Samurai Sentai Shinkenger"

(2) L-Gaim Mk-II from "Heavy Metal L-Gaim"

(3) Gundam X from "After War Gundam X "

Cosmo Fleet Collection's rendition of Gwadan class

Goddamn this ship is sexy! This is a mini-sculpture of the Gwadan Class from Z Gundam released as a part of of the 2nd Volume of the Cosmo Fleet Collection line.  Considering the fact that the ship's miniature sculpture is just around 5cm long, the amount of detail they managed to fit onto is incredible!

On Nozick and the Essential Contradiction of the Idea of "Individual Rights"

Pic isn't really that related, but seems to be on the surface level.

What makes an individual if his rights are given by the state? Is this really radical individualism? Even it more individualist if there were no government at all and everyone would either have to live and fight, or cower and die? In this sense, isn't the idea of indivualism be completely contradictory to the notion of rights? How can people be individuals if their rights are given and ensured by an external force? Conversely, how can people have rights, if everyone are truly individual and uphold their own livelihood and future with nothing but their own power, which in the process may stop other people from being able to do the same?

SEFR-001 - Egg and Mushroom Fried Rice!

For some strange reason, I have developed a strange enthusiasm for making fried rice, often with a very mix of  ingredients. To make sense of all the data gathered from various experimental formulas, I have decided to create a database of all of the various SEFRs - SpeedStriker Experimental Fried Rice - that I'll make, starting with the prototype SEFR-001 EgaM, Egg and Mushroom. Hopefully, the information gathered from these experimental prototypes will eventually lead to some finalized models that will be ready for mass production.

Re-release of Revoltech Xan from Overman King Gainer

2800 yen...

The figure will be re-released during this year's 2010 winter Wonder Festival for the price of a whopping 2800 yen. As much as I like this figure, the difficulty of me obtaining one is three fold. First of all, there is no way for me to actually attend the festival to buy it in person, two, it would be cost a ridiculous amount of money which wouldn't have been that big of a deal if it wasn't for the third reason, which is the fact that I'm desperately poor at the moment....so poor.....

Sorry for my mindless ranting and as compensation, have a couple of awesome pictures of Xan itself.

Where do old applications go to die and why is it so hard to press "yes" in the delete dialog box?

Are you still sticking with Firefox? I've been using Chrome almost exclusively, and although I hate to do this, but I think I might just delete Firefox altogether, since I've yet to use it once in about three weeks.

The only thing that's keeping me from switching over completely is a strange sort of emotional attachments. I mean, it just doesn't feel quite right for me to decide to throw away something that's served me so loyally and faithfully so easily!

Homemade Photo Studio- This is no store bought DIY product, boy, no DIY product!!

Yes, this is a can of Coke, and no, this is not what this entry is about...I think. Nevertheless, read on for more exciting pictures!

After years of using whatever I can find as background, I finally decided to make a photo studio from scratch. Funnily enough, it worked much better than expected, especially considering that it was made from a piece of a spare cardboard box and a few pieces of printing paper, and is held together by a few pieces of tape.

Revoltech No 007 King Gainer Review

Alright! After a long delay and numerous excuses I've made up for myself, here comes, at last my review of this amazingly designed figure. To start, I just want to say this: I was completely blown away when I first took it out of its box and started playing around with it. To my surprise, its sculpting is more than decent and its articulation is as impressive as I've heard and saw from many Revoltech collectors.

"Gee whiz SpeedStriker, I'm all excited about this figure, but just what's so great about this King Gainer figure and Revoltechs in general?" you ask? Well, dear readers, let's just say that it wasn't until I bought this figure that I realize one of the biggest difference b/w gunpla and Revoltech.

Democracy and popular participation

Pic unrelated.

I was doing a bit of research on the media's portrayal of the 2010 Olympics and its surrounding issues from 2001 to 2010, I noticed that very strangely, people who live in a democratic society seems to have no bloody clue about how the system work, or even things that are happening that may drastically affect their lives or the kind of things and issues that are directly against their beliefs and ideal, but due to the general ignorance, no one is doing anything about.

Broken hinge... is Fixed!

Against all odds, with nothing but a few humble tools, and nothing but my willpower and ingenuity to guide me, I have overcome all obstacles, conquered all technical difficulties, brushed shoulders with failure itself to finally fix the joint that no man has fixed before. As I lifted up my numb fingers to carve away the final portion of hardened epoxy putty, I have come face to face with God himself. This is a story....

Broken hinge

A friend I met in my school's anime club brought in a SD Wing Custom Zero one day and it turns out that one of the "U" shaped hinge joint that connects the smaller stabilizer wings is broken. Being such a good person who also cannot bear to see gunpla remain broken like this, I immediately offered to repair it.

After examining it a bit more in detail, I found that the problem is much worse than I thought. The biggest problem is that the hinge is so small that any attempt to fix it by inserting something like a metal rod will not work and is so thin that if it was just held together by plastic cement, would break again very soon.

Stargazer

Waxing Crescent phase of the moon as seen during Spring.

I finally decided to visit the astronomical observatory at my university today and was thankfully reminded me what the night sky, which I have neglected for the longest time, meant to me.

Ever since I was a kid, there's always something about the night skies and its stars that attracted me. The wonderful ways the stars twinkle and form numerous patterns that I used to group into my own constellations is just tremendously amusing to me... although I didn't exactly see too many real stars.

King, king, king....Gainer!

Recently picked up this Revoltech King Gainer at a local hobby store and initial impressions are very positive. This is my first Revoltech and after playing around with it a bit, I can definitely see what the attractions of Revoltech figures are. I will post a more detailed review of this figure soon, but for now, let's just say that this is definitely a good introduction to Revoltech figures and what they are capable of.