Back in Hell

First off I have to say, Fuck TV commercials. The last couple of weeks of summer came by faster than I expected and all I'm trying to do is enjoy the time I have left but all I see is commercial after commercial about "Back to School". What the hell? These commercials started in JULY!

No I do not want to get a new haircut for school (Well, actually I did get a haircut, but I don't need a commercial to tell me to get a haircut, I just look in the mirror and if my hair looks bad and I can't do anything with it then it's time for a cut). No I do not want to get a whole new wardrobe for back to school. And FUCK NOOOOO I was not "Rock-Staring" at you, but I'm about to Rock-Shove-My-Foot-Up-Your-Ass!!!! (thank you Connor for the last quote :P) These TV advertisements made sure that school was never from my mind and therefore a constant downer on my mood.

Anyways I'm back in school again, didn't manage to get that creative writing class with Connor and I have a crappy lunch but that's why they call it hell school right? This summer sucked weatherwise with all the raining but I was also lazy so my gundam remains uncompleted. It's about 95% done with primer but....now the parts are just sitting at my desks. It rained again today.

And now something to make this post not all about me and my whining. The Trailer for Avatar came out yesterday and it looks amazing. For those of you who don't know its a Sci-Fi film that was planned 14 years ago by director James Cameron who also filmed Aliens, Terminator 2 and Titanic. Short synopsis is humans are colonizing a life-bearing planet with a race of sentient beings known as the Na'vi. The atmosphere is not breathable by humans so they create a Na'vi/human hybrid that harbors a human's consciousness as the "pilot". Then the battle for the planet ensues. James Cameron is supposed to be using some pretty incredible new technology to film this movie such as a 3d camera that uses two lenses to simulate depth of vision just like our eyes. The HD trailer looked quite amazing and if nothing else the movie will be gorgeous to watch. Here's to hoping it turns out ok.

My Gundam will Kick Your Gundam's Ass

Well, unfortunately this summer has sucked for painting my Gundams. It rains every couple of days, jacking up the humidity so that the paint will dry poorly and look like ugly betty. The Primer that I ordered came yesterday (While I was at Connor's house) and now I just need to pick up some laquer thinner from a hardware store and wait for a good day to finish painting, hopefully tomorrow.

The stuff I wanted to use was called Mr. Surfacer and is made in Japan so it's pretty hard to find in the states and most places you'll find it online will make you pay for international shipping and will take weeks. Luckily I found this great site "Weber Plastic Models", and was able to pick it up for $5.39 and a $2 shipping charge. This stuff is supposed to be like the best stuff to use for plastic model kits. I'm excited to get to try it out.



I just set up a photostream for my gundam pics on flickr here: Gundam Pics. Hopefully I'll get some new pictures of a fully primed gundam up there soon.

Swine Flu has entered my World.....of Warcraft

Yep, you read that title correctly, swine flu....in World of Warcraft. Here's a screenie:

Click to Enlarge

Apparently this disease has been in the game for more than a year, and its just coincidence that we're being plagued (ha, pun) by the same disease today. WoW really brightened my day when I saw this, yep, I felt joy at the sight of a deadly disease, how awesome. Heres a link on the stats of this disease on wowhead.com: Swine Flu

On a somewhat related note, 2 days ago I recieved an email from Blizzard Entertainment (devolopers of WoW) that my old account that I no longer use was signed up for a free 10 day trail. I thought this was odd but didn't really think anything of it. Today I get another email, here is an exerpt:

****Notice of Account Closure****

Account Name: EXIMIUSNERO

Account Action: Closure
Reason for Action: Terms of Use Violation - Economy Exploitation

After a thorough investigation, we have found that a player of the account listed above participated in activities designed to gain an unfair advantage in the World of Warcraft economy.

Damnit! I inadvertently broke those terms that nobody reads!

Hmm, so I guess someone hacked into my old account, time to change the password on my new one!!!

Assorted funstuffs

Well, haven't posted in a while, but thought I'd tell you about what I've been up to.

I finally read Watchmen 2 weeks ago and man, what an amazing book. Rorschach has you sucked into the story from the first page. The things that happened in that book were pretty shocking, and more so because it was written in the 80's. I love Dr. Manhattan. Anyway I'm super excited to see the movie, I'm going opening day this Friday.

I'm so tired of this Chicago weather. I need it to be spring so I can spray paint my gundams :(

I revisited Batman: Gotham Knight this weekend after having another dismal weekend at my dad's. Watched it twice, the second time with commentary on and it was awesome. I noticed a lot more things this time and picked out the few links between the 6 episodes written by different writers. This was the first commentary I've seen on a dvd and I thought it was great. I felt a lot closer to the dvd and batman in general (lol I sound gay) and it was really cool to hear what these guys and Kevin Conroy ( I love him! lol more gayness) had to say.

Batman R.I.P. Ends!

Well, Batman R.I.P. ended this december and it was a great ride. I'm still new to the comic book world (starting at the infinite crisis a couple of years ago) and this monthly batman comic has been my favorite so far (Booster Gold coming in a close second though). In this six issue arc bruce tries to find the leader of the Black glove, an organization he believes to be out to kill him. Some of the ideas Morrison used in writing this series were great, like using very strange and campy batman stories from 50 years ago and somehow making them work in a modern day comic book.

I have to say though, I am a bit disapointed with the ending. It leaves off Batman's fate and the identity of the black glove pretty ambigous (though we all know Bruce isn't going to die right :P). I myself was getting very excited for the big reveal and was sort of letdown with the lack of clear answers. I guess I'll have to read closer on subsequent reads.

Batman R.I.P.

I haven't posted in some time, for which I apologize, but I have been very busy with school work, building my Gundam (yay), hanging out with Connor, and of course reading comics. Which brings me to my discussion today, Batman R.I.P.

Those of you who have been following Grant Morrison's (current writer of the Batman comic) run on Batman (which is amazing in this humble reader's opinion) know that R.I.P. is what he's been building up to for the past two years. To give you all an idea of how huge and awesome this story arc is going to be, in an interview at the Comic Book Resource Forums, Grant Morrison said that what will happen to Batman will be,

"so much better than death. People have killed characters in the past but to me, that kind of ends the story! I like to keep the story twisting and turning. So what I am doing is a fate worse than death. Things that no one would expect to happen to these guys at all. This is the end of Bruce Wayne as Batman." Full Interview HERE.

Morrison's writing is great and brings back many obscure ideas from past Batman comics (that flew over my head) that seem very fresh. He always keeps you guessing, but gives you just enough information so you won't hate him and will follow the story to its inevitable explosive ending. Every issue is cleverly laced with clues to the storyline. Each one challenging you to figure out what the "answer" is, then smacking you in the face when you're wrong.

With 4 issues out already (Oh man! I haven't read the 4th yet!), R.I.P. is shaping up to be one of the best stories I've read in a long time, defiantly much better than that letdown Countdown. Don't even get me started on that series. On another note, if you are reading Batman R.I.P. or are planning to, you might want to check out GeniusBoyFireMelon's Blog. His explanations have been invaluable to my understanding of this series, which is a little challenging to read, especially for new readers like me.

Batman: Gotham Knight

For those of you who haven't heard, B:GK is a "film" that shows the Batman's transformation from newbie to professional badass. I use the term film loosely because this dvd is actually a series of semi-standalone episodes. Each episode is directed by a different person and has a different visual style. It is also produced by the same people who did Batman Begins and The Dark Knight.

Now some people might be turned away from this film because its anime visual style but I thought it brought a whole different element to the Batman. There are 3 anime studios who work on this productions. Even anime lovers might question what they're getting into if they're not familiar with the art style in the first episode "Have I got a story for you". I admit at first I didn't like it but I found that it was perfect for the theme of the episode, in which a group of kids tell of their experiences seeing the Batman. The background animation is simply superb; they are full of such detail. Some of the later episodes, most notably "Deadshot", had some of the best animation I've seen.

On a completely different note, Hearing the AMAZING voice talent of Kevin Conroy, voice of Batman in Batman the Animated series as well as Justice League, was one of the best features of this film.

On the whole I would have to rate this an 8/10. The choppiness was a bit jarring at times, and aside from the visuals I was never really blown away. Though there were some great stories in there. It also didn't seem to have much in common with the Chris Nolan films, although it did reference the Narrows and the idea of the gangs could play a part in The Dark Knight. I also have to say it was too short, I wanted more.I would recommend this to any hardcore batman fan or a casual viewer who won't be turned off by the visuals; anyone else should probably rent it first.