Happy Halloween 2009!

Well, rather late of me to say that but I wish you all a great weekend fun!

If you read this post after today; how was your Halloween today? Did you do anything fun? Well, for me, all I did was visit Gaia Online to join in this year's rather interesting event. Interesting but can become really boring after a while. ^^;

Also, techPowerUp! recently put up a really nice review on the AMD Sempron 140, a budget single core CPU that costs USD39! It costs about RM140 in Lowyat IIRC, which is really cheap for a 2.7GHz single core that has the potential of being "unlocked" to a dual core! ^^

For the guy who asked me what brand of purple permanent marker I used, its "Jing Fei". Basically a real cheap practically unknown China product that cost me RM1. ^^;

EDIT:
The marker for anyone who wants to know HOW it looks like. Its really nothing fancy. Those living in Kuching can find this at 3rd Mile's Life Book Store(if they still have it). =)

HG 1/144 0 Gundam ("00" Gundam) Review - Part 1

Price: 1200 Yen Each

~Life Rant~

Ah, how much relief I feel after 2 group assignments have been done and done with(though not as great as I would like...). Nevermind that, it tells me that I've yet to master leadership well enough yet and I have much more need to learn to be able to manage a team well or else you'll be running deadlines that can risk a heart attack. ^^;

~End Life Rant~

Well, I had some time in-between(due to me waiting for the rest of my teammates to finish up their needed sections at designated points of time), I actually spent 2 days building 2 0 Gundams simultaneously. Well, I actually wanted to finish it within one day but other family duties calls. ^^

Quick MS Bio

Prototype of all the Gundams in 00. It comes with very basic weaponry. Appears in the first episode, the last episode of season 1(very brief) and the few last episodes of season 2. When it appeared in the first episode before the young Setsuna(Exia/00 pilot), it created a bond between Ribbons and Setsuna... Setsuna with his "fetish" for Gundams and Ribbon's "God complex".

GN-000 - 0 Gundam
Pilot(s): Ribbons Almark, Lasse Aeon
Height: 18m (same as RX78-2)
Weight: 53.4t
Armaments: GN Beam Rifle, GN Beam Saber, GN Shield

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HG 1/144 Reborns Gundam Review - Part 2

This review is a continuation of the first part here.

Sorry as this came off a bit late but I was pelted with two papers and Law was just hard. I guess that's what happens when you come across a margin(memory dependent) subject which happens to be a weakness of mine. With that said, I've never gotten an A for History...^^;

At any rate, lets finish up this review before I have to force myself to go on a hiatus as I want to do my two rather heavy assignments nicely and quickly without distractions. Yes, that means there won't be any big updates until next month except for smaller of note topics if any. D=

Okay, lets go on with this review! =D

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HG 1/144 Reborns Gundam Review - Part 1

Price: 1800 Yen

I bought this last week right after the Hari Raya break as when I went to the shop, many new kits already came in. Since I wanted the Reborns Gundam for quite a while already, I decided to get it first even though there are many others I wanted such as the Gundam FA 7th Unit and 0 Gundam. I was short on usable cash, so Reborns gets my buy plus a SD. >.>

Quick MS Bio

Reborns Gundam is piloted by Ribbons Almark who is also the pilot for 0 Gundam. Reborns Cannon, alternate form of the MS, appeared at the end of episode 24 and Reborns Gundam throughout most of episode 25 fighting against 00 Raiser. This mobile suit is very powerful as it sports a Twin Drive system of its own and handled the 00 Raiser rather well until they ended in a double KO.

*Note: FYI, "quick MS bios" are normally my quick take on the model kit in relation to the story. It is in no way a translation of the snippets in the manual. ^^;*

Pilot: Ribbons Almark
Height: 23.3m(Gundam Mode), 21.8m(Cannon Mode)
Armaments: GN Buster Rifle, Large GN Beam Saber(2), GN Shield, Large GN Fin Fang(4), Small GN Fin Fang(4?), Egner Whip(2)

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A Different Way to Cut Your Birthday Cake

Last Thursday, a classmate of mine celebrated her birthday. Two good friends of hers bought her a really nice and seemingly delicious American Chocolate cake!

The cake. Yum?

They brought it into class right before our short afternoon break that day. Even with the tension filled air due to nearing mid-term exams(next week liao), a friend's birthday mustn't be forgotten!

By lunch time, I managed to meet up with them, with me grabbing a quick lunch of a single currypuff, to see a a rather amusing birthday "party". Around 7 of us gathered around a table to witness the birthday girl blow the candles and "cut" the cake...

The cake is opened and the whole open-air cafeteria can see it! Then again, I noticed most people around us didn't really care.

The fans in the open-air cafeteria are really strong! They needed to block the wind with the box... though it wasn't such a smart idea in the end. =P

After blowing... we asked her to go on to cut the cake. She then asked, "Can I STAB the cake?". Oh my, that was new and I was all for it! Randomness FTW!

The standard plastic cake knife.

Targeting the cake from above...

Lunging into the center!

*STAB!*

...and then cut through normally. XD

So, that's all I saw as I didn't stay to leech some delicious cake since I felt like I shouldn't. Nonetheless, it was something interesting to observe and record. For the record, the flower is also icing! I did taste the icing, just a little bit, and the cake was pretty nice.

Okay, that's all for now. There might be something else tomorrow, hopefully, but back to the books I go! Have to make sure to remember some stuff before the first exam on Wednesday. ^^;

Streamyx is Fail During Hari Raya

*SIGH*
Well, that was a great holiday, with my Streamyx not working since 3pm on a FINE Saturday afternoon until today. Wait, of course not, it was rather infuriating. Such a bad thing to happen suddenly when I had so many plans this holiday which needed the Internet went down the drain. Ah, whatever, can't complain much about it, this is the best service I can get thus far in M'sia... though terribly disappointing...

At any rate, I luckily had a few animes to watch on my hard drive to pass the days(Toaru Majutsu no Index was awesome though I felt the ending was lacking). I also managed to build the BB 0 Gundam (Type A.C.D.) since I felt like building a BB instead. It wasn't all that awesome in the end but the paint job was more passable than my BB Gundam Exia. Will do an individual post for them later on, but for now, some preview pictures. Be warned though, all of them were taken using a camera phone as my camera was being used by the family.

Didn't buy the BB Gundam Exia R2 in the end because the difference in the build was too small compared to the original. I felt like Bandai was darn lazy with the R2. The BB 0 Gundam however was great as it even came with the GN Feathers wing effect parts and stand. It was also easier to paint. XP

FYI, those are the NG 1/100 00 Gundam's beam saber parts being used. =P

I'm quite satisfied with how this one came out. My gray was running low so I had to use my abundance of silver paint instead which is not a Gundam Marker. The shield is not done yet however.

I also played with my MG Strike Gundam a little bit to pass the time.

Come forth! Strike Repair! =P

Actaully, the Strike came to a bit of misfortune and the one side of the rear skirt armor broke off. -_-; I guess I either overplayed it or some kind of added pressure was put on the rear section due to the way the stand works. Either way, it broke off. I can't really open the rear section since I had to superglue it so that the Strike doesn't fall of the stand again due to the part coming off. =/

Ah, that is all for my Hari Raya break which lacked the Internet. I'm thinking of doing a little review for the BB Gundam Exia and BB 0 Gundam for the coming posts. For the XN Raiser, I need to get some more gray and maybe, if possible, some kind of top coat to make it come out nice.

This Month Thus Far - Sept' 2009

Phew! Been quite busy for the past week and will still be busy, especially after Hari Raya next week! Mid-terms are coming soon and I'll have to spend some quality time with my books. XP

For the time being, I am a bit more free and planning to have some nice fun over the weekend, the 4 day weekend. I'll most probably not go out as my parents are planning to go balik kampung this weekend and I'm not coming.

At any rate, this month has been a money saving savvy month. Then again, the HG Reborns Gundam and HGUC Gundam 7th Unit hasn't arrive here yet. I "only" got 2 Gundam related items this whole entire month, which is a good thing, money and space-wise. XD

I bought the BB 0 Gundam earlier this month. GN Feathers FTW! I also managed to get the Hobby Japan October issue as well from Momotoys. If any of you that live in Kuching who want to get it as well, quickly get your butts to Momotoys and get them before I decide to spend extra cash on a 2nd one! >D

I haven't put mine together yet as I didn't have the free time but I'm pondering whether to get a 2nd one so that I can try to paint the parts with just Gundam Markers... decisions, decisions once again... =P

Furthermore, I managed to go to the CPA Undergraduates Conference 2009 last Saturday(12/09/09). I'm not going to say much about this as I could not remember it well enough to make an individual post. It was a really great event.

Even though we had to pay RM10 to join in, it was well worth it! We got a bag of goodies which includes a black CPA T-Shirt(you can pick your size during registration), magazines and booklets, pen and a water bottle when are an early bird! I had to wake up pretty early to just be able to get the water bottle. XP

Waking up early to get a free bottle. Worth it or not worth it?

The speakers were awesome and very admirable. We had a nice lunch in the afternoon also, with me gulping down three standard sized cups full of orange juice. XD

Also, I also came across a grasshopper near one of our doors the other day...

I wonder what happened to it after I left it?

Nothing much else to say. I'll probably play around this weekend instead of doing some needed revisions on my subjects but we'll see. =|

Maybe I should build the HG 0 Gundam(Type ACD) this weekend... >_>

MG 1/100 Gundam Exia "Ignition Mode" Review - Part 3 - Finale (Repair Mode)

First of all, I like to thank the comments for part 2 as it made me quite happy to read them. I truly appreciate your compliments and it really is nice to know that I can take good photos of my favorite Gundam. ^^

Part 1: Box, Box Open, Runners, Building Process & Some Gimmicks
Part 2: Articulation, Action, Gimmicks & Comparisons
Part 3: Gundam Exia Repair & Conclusion

At any rate, this last part of the review is fairly short as I found out there aren't that many poses for the Exia Repair to snap.

Read on for Exia Repair and my final conclusion which hopefully will give you a more in-depth opinion on the MG Exia than my early conclusion in part 2.

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Giant Pikachu & Relics

Today was a very hot day. Even in an air-conditioned room I was sweating. =/
Since my Japanese class of today was unfortunately canceled, I managed to tag along with the rest of my family to Satok, a place I haven't been to for a very long time.

While we were at Satok, we came across one of the toy shops and we managed to spot a...

..huge *** Pikachu! After a few hasty decisions and lame nicknames, we finally bought the Fatchu for a decent price, I guess. My younger siblings are rather happy with it. XD

After I got some free time to myself, I took some time to look at the shops I didn't had a chance to look closely enough during my younger days. A two lot shop took my attention selling many hobby items and gaming goods. The prices were the standard pricing unfortunately so I didn't dare buy any Gunpla from them, even if some of them are pretty scarce such as the 1/60 V2 Gundam and the 20th Anniversary MG RX78-2.

Some of them are fortunately still being sold at the old prices before the Yen hike, so for those who don't mind a 0.038-0.04 rate can try to get some older Gunpla here, though those at those rates are pretty limited as far as I can see. I do remember that the NG Astray Blue Frame 2nd L costs RM99 which is a pretty decent price during current times.

I don't really recommend buying any Gunpla from Satok unless you want to sacrifice some extra cash for some of the rarer ones.

Oh yes, I decided to have a little scene with the new addition to the house...

Astray: Is this the enemy's new mobile armor?!

Fatchu: Pika!

Astray: My sword it-it-it does no damage to it! D>
Fatchu: Pi pi pi ka pi... >D
Astray: No, what, what?! ARRRGGGHHHH!!!

Fatchu: *NOM**NOM**NOM*
Astray: EEEAAAA-

~Fin~

That's all for this random post. Sorry I won't be able to post the Exia Repair review part this week as it looks like my family time this weekend was more than usual. ^^;

Luckily, I think I'll be mostly do my assignment during my in-between breaks while at the campus as I can't seem to concentrate at home I feel I can have the review done by tomorrow by the earliest or even tonight if I can find the time to do some assembling first...

Bad Luck - End of LCD Monitor

I came back home today after being caught in the rain for an hour or so and was happy that I was finally back home ready to watch some anime I just "got". But unluckily for me, my trusty 17" BenQ LCD monitor fried on me. There wasn't any sparks but a smell of something burning was noticeable and a bright flash on the screen before that told me it was the end for it. There goes the monitor for this old computer that I'm still using for general Internet surfing... D=

I don't know if I should try to turn it on again as the smell of burning electronics fuming from it tells me not to. Luckily, my first ever CRT 14" monitor is still kicking so I managed to used that as a quick replacement for now. I got 2 options now... get a new LCD monitor or store away my old computer. LCD monitors are fairly cheap now and my old reliable is still great as an Internet surfing computer. Decisions, decisions... =/