Within the Darkness...

Temjin 747 8A

2012-02-01T08:56:00.004+08:00

I had bought one Virtual On model, Temjin 747 8A last year, in October.

Also known as White Rainbow Knight, it is one of the most beautiful Temjin models I had seen in Temjin family.

This is also the first time I get myself a non Bandai model. After doing a lot of Gundams, thought I want to try on something non Gundam and since I had wanted to get my hand on the Virtual On for so long, I decided to get one.

Here is the box:

I google up Temjin 747 8A to get some tips on how to build the model and found that Hasegawa Virtual On models use lots and lots of decals.

No kidding.

Here are the decals for Temjin 747 8A:

Two sheets of wonderful detailed decals. Some are very very tiny… It was quite a nerve wrecking sight especially for me. I had never touch decals yet so far in my plastic model building life and this will pose to be my greatest challenge yet...

New boxes!

2011-06-12T22:39:00.003+08:00

Hurray! New boxes arrived last month! Amidst the business going to and fro, I managed to squeeze my time to pick this boxes that arrived from Japan. Now I have more Gundams to build…

Here they are!

Anyway, when I posted this, I had actually finished some of them… That will be for another post…

Gone...?

2011-06-06T10:53:00.002+08:00

Wargh! Before I knew it, May just flew by just like that!

Our home did not have internet for like half of the month due to some faulty reasons. I was away from the office for nearly the whole May. So I did not get to blog in May! AT ALL!

My camera also ceases to work… It fell down hard on the lens and all the photos taken after that were blurry. Now I need a new camera… I felt bad because I just get to know how to use the camera properly and now I have to get a new one… This is going to burn my pocket…

Owh… Before I forget, this lady here gave an award for the April Challenge. Thanks! It was a great April!

Anyway, I will be going to update my blog soon. Thanks for the patient…

Zombie...

2011-04-30T04:30:00.003+08:00

For my last entry, I want to share this favorite game of mine. I usually play this game with my brothers.

You need at least two people to play this game and you also need NERF blaster.

Now you have to decide, who will hold the NERF blaster and who will be the zombie.

The zombie starting position is lying down on the floor. It does not matter whether you lay down on your tummy or on your back. Whichever makes you happy.

The guy with NERF blaster can start anywhere he wants too. It is preferably within the shooting range (Come on now, obviously you have to shoot the zombie, so do not give the guy with NERF blaster a hard time).

When everyone is ready, the game starts...

1) The zombie guy, please, as zombiesh as possible, raise from the floor.

If you are not sure how to act like a zombie, here are some zombie movies for your reference.

The key to this game is to be as zombiesh as possible. Keeping to the good classic zombie style, try to move as painfully slow as possible. Drop your head to one side of your body like a real zombie too.

Owh, and do make the zombie moan as well. You can call out for brain if you want, like the zombies in Plant vs Zombie.

2) Now the guy with NERF blaster has an easier life.

SHOOT THE ZOMBIE!

BANG! BANG! BANG!

3) When the zombie get shot, please, act accordingly. Always have the knock back effect after each shot hit you.

When the guy with NERF blaster is out of bullets,

just try to bite him, claw at him or do anything that a zombie will do.

4) The guy with NERF blaster should try to reload while avoiding the zombie.

RELOAD! RELOAD! RELOAD!

Kick the zombie ~~in the head~~ if you must while reloading.

5) Once you are done with reload…

SHOOT THE ZOMBIE!

BANG! BANG! BANG!

And it will go on and on and on and on… Just keep repeating the step 1 until step 5. Remember, the zombie guy can fall and lie on the floor should he feel tired and rise again as mentioned in step 1. Zombie will rise again and again whenever he is shot down. A zombie will never give up!

I actually have not decided how to end the game… ~~Because zombie can never die!~~ So you will have to decide how to end the game.

But I do hope you will enjoy this game. Remember you can play with more than two people. Owh, and do remember this as well, two NERF blasters are better than one!

ENJOY!

Thank you very much for reading my A to Z Challenge entries. I had great fun writing them…

Till next year!

Yellow...

2011-04-29T04:29:00.000+08:00

Yellow is the color of fear in the world of Green Lantern.

The Yellow Lantern Corps or rather the Sinestro Corps strikes fear into their enemy heart. Their members are capable to instill fear.

You,

yourself is someone you should fear, holding you back when you want to press forward to achieve glorious victory. You succumb to laziness when you should get out of comfort for greater change and greater good.

Yesterday mistakes and bad experiences, if you could not overcome them, will be your fear.

Yearning for something and afraid of failure in achieving it is also fear.

Yelling people also strikes fear to some.

Yapping dogs to some can be fearsome too.

Yolk of the egg was feared for high cholesterol and people are still debating whether it is true or false.

Young people have this fear of aging.

Years passing by and if you notice it, reminding you are not that young anymore and instill fear of facing death soon… If you are not prepared for death.

Xanthippe...

2011-04-28T04:28:00.002+08:00

Here is the meaning of today word from webster online dictionary:

1. Biographies / Xanthippe F, Greek, MISC: wife of Socrates) the wife of Socrates, proverbial as a scolding and quarrelsome woman

2. Any nagging, peevish, or irritable woman

When I was in my teen age years, I did not really like my mother for she always nag at me at home. She was Xanthippe to me ~~and she still is~~. Our favorite topics at that time would be why I could not study more, I should be playing games less, I should be sleeping earlier etc…

Then I stumble upon this quote:

If you have never been hated by your child you have never been a parent. ~Bette Davis

Then I guess, my mother is a parent. And I also found out that most mothers are a Xanthippe. In most of the teenagers’ point of view, I guess…

I was also told that nagging is a way to show their love.

Anyway, it will be Mother’s day soon…

Weather...

2011-04-27T04:27:00.002+08:00

I met this one lady once upon a time. We were both from the same country. So by right, we had the same weather. Sunny rainy tropical weather.

I met her when I was doing my Bachelor Degree in a country where they have spring, summer, autumn and winter. The winter was not really that cold, the coldest I had felt was at 5ºC. Still not too bad but I was shivering like hell.

I met her when she was about to leave the country where I studied. She complaint that, when she return, her son would have difficulty adjusting to our country weather after so long staying in a four season country.

I was like, “Okaaaaayyyyy…”

I said that because:

1) Her son grew up in our country and only stays in the four season country just like for 2 or 3 years only.

2) Only in winter it was cold. In other season, it could be freaking hot, nearly up to 40ishºC. That is about the same temperature in our country.

Nothing much I can say except for "Welcome back!"

Nice sunny picture of where I reside courtesy from this blog.

Violin...

2011-04-26T04:26:00.000+08:00

It is one of my favorite string instruments and I do not know how to play it. I do enjoy the music produces by the delicate instrument. Music streaming from a violin, to me, touches the soul of a person. You can really feel the emotion carried by a violin.

One of the reason I love Kamen Rider Kiva apart from his vampire like feature, is his unique violin named Bloody Rose.

Kamen Rider Kiva is not only a violinist but also a luthier or also known as violin maker. Bloody Rose is supposed to be the ultimate violin in mankind history, made by his father, Otoya Kurenai with the help of Fangire Queen, Maya. Otoya was also one of the greatest violinists.

Violin is informally known as fiddle. Thus a violinist is also known as a fiddler.

Vanessa Mae is also one of my favorite violinists. I especially love her music piece called, Art of War.

Usagi...

2011-04-25T16:25:00.001+08:00

Usagi Yojimbo (literally means Rabbit Bodyguard) is one of my favorite comic book series. I get to know Usagi through Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. He has his own action figure, in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles action figure line. Back then, I thought he was only one of the characters that appear in TMNT series…

He actually has his own comic. Anyway, where I lived last time, comic like Usagi Yojimbo was unheard of. I had the opportunity to read Usagi Yojimbo’s comics only when I was doing my Bachelor degree. I was able to borrow the comics from the local library then.

USAGI YOJIMBO’s comics are GREAT! Do not mind the black and white pages;

they do not really matter once you had read the comic. The great story line is supported by beautifully drawn comic. Characters grow as the storyline go further.

Usagi Yojimbo is modeled after Miyamoto Musashi, set at beginning of Edo period of Japan. Miyamoto Usagi has also appeared few times in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comics and animated series and the turtles have also visited Usagi’s world.

He seems to get along very well with Leonardo, the turtles leader because they share the same ideals and code of ethics.

I have yet to read Space Usagi, story of Usagi descendant set in the far future. It should be as great as well.

Most of the Usagi drama in the comic will also stir your emotions. Even without any words, you can feel the emotions and the feeling pouring out of each panel in the comic. Indeed Stan Sakai is a master of story telling and had won 3 Eisner Awards because of Usagi series. That is one prestigious award for the comic world, equivalent to Oscar Awards for the movies.

Great work Stan! Really love your work! I am looking forward to read more of Usagi adventure... I bought Usagi Yojimbo: The Special Edition, collection of his first seven volumes.

Owh, CONGRATULATIONS and HAPPY 25th YEAR ANNIVERSARY!

Tierens...

2011-04-23T04:23:00.001+08:00

I had started with yet another plastic model in my effort of turning the mountain of plastic models smaller…

This is my first time building a mobile suit that is not a Gundam. Let me think again…

Hmmmmm…

Yes, my first time it is.

All this while, I had been putting together Gundam and Gundam only. Why I never bought other mobile suits you ask?

Well…

Financial constraint was one of the issues. If you have certain amount of money, you really cannot buy a lot of models. So in my case, I straightaway choose something that I really like which is the Gundams. I did wish I could buy some enemies mobile suits to create diorama or something like that…

I was lucky enough to come across a great bargain! There this sale and Tierens was selling cheap.

Thus I bought 3 Tieren models. A small army of Tieren for myself!

Tieren being a mass produced mobile suit, will not look good standing alone. For me, to make Tieren looks good, 3 units at least is a must.

Now, MSJ-06 II-A Tieren is Gundam 00 world’s Zaku. In fact, Tieren looks like a cross between a Zaku and an army tank. A bipedal tank that is. Tieren was produced in China and thus its name is also in Chinese. Tieren in Mandarin means Iron Man. Tieren come in quite a few varieties such as for space, antiaircraft, heavy artillery and high mobility to name a few. My favorite is the land unit and its green color really makes it look like it belongs to an army.

I built the 3 Tierens simultaneously. Everything was fine until I have to paint the shoulder parts orange.

Somehow, the paint would not stick well on the surface. It gave somewhat shabby looking orange instead.

I was not pleased with it and thus scrapped the paint off.

With heavy heart, I used the stickers provided for the shoulder parts instead. Well, it does not really look that bad.

The models actually did not really need to be painted much. Some German Grey on certain parts. Painted White on the tip of the antenna.

The eye base was painted black with Metallic Red for the mono eye.

Look! Support at his heel to maintain his balance.

Finished up with panel linings and the Tierens looked awesome!

The Tierens look bulky and menacing at the same time.

The articulation points for a bulky mobile suit are quite impressive too!

I am quite pleased with my Tierens.

Now, destroy the Gundam!

Smelly...

2011-04-22T04:22:00.002+08:00

The sweat patches at the shirt arm pit area are not nice.

Once you start to sweat, it automatically triggers the patches to start producing pungent stench. This overpowering smell, which you can usually get a whiff if you ride the bus or train back home after work, is said to be the work of bacteria. Nobody knows up to now, why the bacteria cannot produce nice smelling aroma instead.

I have tried this method, which I found from the internet and from a household handy book.

All you need is bicarbonate of soda and water.

Mix bicarbonate of soda with water until it becomes some sort of paste.

Do not eat it ~~because eating~~ ~~it would not make your sweat smell nicer or anything~~ but instead apply the paste on those sweat patches on your shirt.

Leave it for half an hour or more…

Now you can go and check your Facebook account.

After that, just drop the shirt into the washing machine. Wash it as usual. Dry it the normal way. Should your shirt still have that pungent aroma, apply the bicarbonate paste again…

Hopefully you are not contributing to the air pollution anymore after this…

Especially after work…

Restaurant...

2011-04-21T04:21:00.000+08:00

I own a great restaurant. I had been working there since early 2009. There had been up and down but now, I would say, I am able to grasp it well. How I wish running a restaurant, a real restaurant can be as easy as Restaurant City game…

If I own a restaurant, I would love mine to have dungeon theme. Meaning the restaurant should be eerie and spooky. Probably I need some automated monsters like the one in Restaurant City.

Nice…

Queen...

2011-04-20T04:20:00.000+08:00

People had been throwing this question a lot, ever since I had got my Bachelor degree:

When will you have a queen by your side?

In other word, when will I get married?

Thank you for your concern... But that is a question I cannot really answer. To put it in a simple explanation:

I can build a coffin, dress myself as a dead man and lie down in the coffin waiting for death. If it is not my time yet, then I will still be lying there, waiting for death to come. Death comes when my time is up. That is not for me to know when.

Same goes with the queen in my life question. When the time comes, trust me, I will tell you. It is not really in my power to make it happen either faster or slower. I can make plan that is for sure.

For now, I am still looking for the qualifying queen…

She might be close to me or she might pop up somewhere in my near future…

I do not mind Albinass of Dragon Quest: Adventure of Dai to be my queen.

She was created from Queen Chess piece to be a warrior.

Anyway, I still do not know who will be the queen that I will fall for just yet…

Path...

2011-04-19T16:19:00.001+08:00

This is a collection of songs, sung by the hobbits. The first song was sung when Bilbo Baggins return to Shire from his adventure, in The Hobbit.

Roads go ever ever on,

Over rock and under tree,

By caves where never sun has shone,

By streams that never find the sea;

Over snow by winter sown,

And through the merry flowers of June,

Over grass and over stone,

And under mountains in the moon.

Roads go ever ever on

Under cloud and under star,

Yet feet that wandering have gone

Turn at last to home afar.

Eyes that fire and sword have seen

And horror in the halls of stone

Look at last on meadows green

And trees and hills they long have known

And Bilbo sang another version of the song when he gave up his ring to Frodo in The Lord of The Rings.

The Road goes ever on and on

Down from the door where it began.

Now far ahead the Road has gone,

And I must follow, if I can,

Pursuing it with eager feet,

Until it joins some larger way

Where many paths and errands meet.

And whither then? I cannot say.

The same song was sung by Frodo, with a slight change of word in the fifth verse, when the Hobbits were at the border of Shire, at the start of their adventure.

The Road goes ever on and on

Down from the door where it began.

Now far ahead the Road has gone,

And I must follow, if I can,

Pursuing it with weary feet,

Until it joins some larger way

Where many paths and errands meet.

And whither then? I cannot say.

This song then was sung by Bilbo again when they returned from their journey in Rivendell.

The Road goes ever on and on

Out from the door where it began.

Now far ahead the Road has gone,

Let others follow it who can!

Let them a journey new begin,

But I at last with weary feet

Will turn towards the lighted inn,

My evening-rest and sleep to meet.

And this last verse, was sung by Frodo when he was about to leave Shire for Grey Havens.

Still round the corner there may wait

A new road or a secret gate,

And though I oft have passed them by,

A day will come at last when I

Shall take the hidden paths that run

West of the Moon, East of the Sun.

I am walking down my path, at the moment not knowing where it may lead…

I am quite tired of walking and I wish I get to walk on the path that I want without falling into a different path along the way…

Sometimes, it is just so difficult to choose a path and to walk comfortably on it…

Orange...

2011-04-18T04:18:00.001+08:00

Interestingly the color orange

originate from the fruit called orange.

Before the English language came to know the fruit, the color orange was originally known as geoluhred (yellowred).

For those who did not know anything about color, orange is a product of yellow mixed with red.

The word orange probably comes from Sanskrit word, narangah. Somehow the word became orange due to someone who was too lazy to pronounce it narangah.

And that is why the color orange is called orange. Not geoluhred…

Orange is also the color of avarice in Green Lantern series.

The Orange Lantern Corps is one of the Lantern Corps in DC Universe.

Wonder how it will be if we call it Geoluhred Lantern...

Nah…

Does not sound cool enough. I am glad the English language bumped into Oranges…

Nadleeh...

2011-04-16T04:16:00.000+08:00

This is old news… But Nadleeh is Navajo word for two spirit people. It indicates a person whose body simultaneously houses a masculine spirit and a feminine spirit. So in the case of this Gundam from Gundam 00 series, Gundam Virtue who is the masculine part, Gundam Nadleeh is the feminine part.

Gundam Virtue is one of the central mobile suits in the first season of Gundam 00 series. Gundam Virtue have powerful firepower, capable of destroying multiple mobile suits in one massive blast with his GN Bazooka, an energy cannon or his pair of shoulder mounted, double barreled GN Cannons.

Virtue, the masculine part reveals his feminine side when his bulky armor is cast off.

Virtue has limited speed and maneuverability due to his bulky and heavy armor is not recommended for melee combat.

The uncovered Gundam Nadleeh though, has higher mobility.

Slimmer in shape (talk about drastic weight loss), Nadleeh is more mobile and fare better in melee combat.

In this form, the beam sabers equipped at both of his knees, can be utilized better (Virtue is mentioned to be able to use the beam sabers but did not due to his lack of mobility).

Interestingly, Nadleeh has long silky beautiful shiny maroon hair.

He is so far the only Gundam own by a guy, that has long hair. The hair is actually cables connecting Nadleeh to Virtue armor.

The model’s hair though is static and cannot be moved around. I should think, if Bandai used soft cables as the hair instead, at least you can position Nadleeh's hair however you like. It will definitely look cooler.

Nadleeh can also weild Virtue’s shoulder mounted double barreled GN Cannons as handheld GN Cannons to deal serious damage.

In the model though, the wrist joints are not strong enough to hold the GN Cannons in any pose that you want. With GN Cannons in his hands, it will just go limp. So you can really make good dramatic action poses with the GN Cannons in his hands. He cannot make the poses that he did in the series due to his model mobility limit as well…

When I first saw Nadleeh revealed in the episode 19 of Gundam 00 season one, I went: “WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!”

The model though, lack of mobility to do justice to what he can do in the series.

Nadleeh with cast off Virtue’s armor parts…

Nadleeh equips extra armaments later in the series but the model that I bought did not have the extra armaments. Bandai should have added those extra armaments too.

Sigh…

Musha...

2011-04-15T04:15:00.001+08:00

I had bought Musha Gekitou (Heavyarm) in the year 1995 if I am not mistaken. He is actually one of the member in a team of three. His other team members, I did not get to buy due to financial constraint at that time. Every time I went to the toys shop, I kept promising myself to get his other two members to accompany him. That wish gets to realize only in the year 2009.

I was surprise to find an SD Gundam from the year 1990’s at this one hypermarket at where I stay at the moment. The best surprise was to be able to get my hand on Musha Full Armor Gundam

as well as Musha Gekitou. Unfortunately, their team leader, Musha Eifu Kyujuuichi was nowhere to be seen. Never mind that, but to have few more Musha Gekitou and his friend is like a dream to me.

You see, I bought this Kazaguruma Hyakushiki and Zakrello set

few years after I bought Musha Gekitou.Need to paint them so they will look like the drawings…

In the set, they gave new set of armors for both Musha Gekitou and Musha Full Armor. With that, they can be changed into another form called Raijin Gundam and Fuujin Gundam respectively.

To be able to see them in their different forms, I need three of each SD Gundam. So I bought another two Musha Gekitous and three Musha Full Armor. It was excited to be able to built Musha Gekitou, remembering how clumsy and green I was at that time. I was disappointed that Musha Full Armor's face is not as good looking as Musha Gekitou.

I painted them right after I cut them off from their runner. It is easier to paint them before you put them together. I will also do the panel lining after painting the parts. This time around, I did not use a file to file down the bits left after cutting them off the runner. I started to practice using the hobby knife to make a clean cut. Not a bad job I will say so myself…

Here is Musha Gekitou and his buddy, Musha Full Armor. Each has a bazooka. Musha Gekitou has two katanas and Musha Full Armor only has one katana only.

Here is the power up Musha Gekitou and Musha Full Armor. If you do not have one of them, you can still do the power up form albeit it is not a full form. You need to do parts swapping to achieve the full power up form.

Musha Gekitou takes Musha Full Armor’s bazooka along with its shoulder armor piece to turn into his power up form.

When I look at him in this form, it somehow reminds me of RX77 Guncannon…

Musha Full Armor power up form takes Musha Gekitou’s shoulder armor piece and armed himself with his arm scissors and blade. He also put on his shoe pieces and donned a mouth piece.

Musha Gekitou is named Raijin Gundam and Musha Full Armor is Fuujin Gundam in their third power up form.

They put on magical armor that imbued with the natural element of lightning (Raijin) and wind (Fuujin). They give up their bazooka to don this new armor.

Raijin has new horns for his helmet shaped like lightning and a new right shoulder piece which also hold his two katanas. He also has a spear with his old horns attached to it as a new weapon.

Fuujin has new horns too on his helmet and a shoulder piece for his right arm with wind motif. He still retains his shoes with its extra pieces which also help him to stand straight while holding his hand cannon.

Here are Musha Full Armor and Musha Gekitou in their respective forms.

Lunula...

2011-04-14T04:14:00.002+08:00

There this one area at the root of your fingernail that is called Lunula or Lunulae for plural. It is Latin for little itsy bitsy moon. It does look like a half of little white moon on your finger.

What is so special about this tiny part of your fingernail you ask?

Sometime, when people passed out or fainted, when we try to revive him or waking him up, we poke needles or pins and may also pinch him hard to get him to wake up.

Yes, the pain is good to sort of shock him to wake up. Just that, by doing that, you are also may endanger his health. Using unsanitized metal i.e. the needle, will not only pierce and cut him, bleeding him and exposing him to various contaminant but you may also pass disease to him. The needle point may be rusty and dirty with god-knows-what-sort-of-microorganism sitting there. You might infect him with even serious health condition.

Pinching might also work, but you may leave mark on his delicate skin. If you pinch with your fingernails, you might even leaves a small cut on the skin, exposing him to various contaminant and passes god-knows-what-sort-of-microorganism from your fingernails. Again, you might infect him with even serious disease. That person, if he revives, might also bring you to court for inflicting him with wounds.

So here is where Lunula comes in. All you have to do is apply some force using your fingernail on the Lunulaa.

This will cause a great shocking pain but leaves no traces of damage inflicted on the person. You save him and you are not adding more health problem to him. The next best thing, you are also safe from any assault claim.

~~You can also use it to really hurt somebody without leaving a mark on his or her body~~…

Use it wisely…

Kraken...

2011-04-13T04:13:00.002+08:00

When the world was younger and when ships were the main vessels to cross the ocean, the word Kraken strikes fear in the heart of anybody on ship. As you can see why…

Nobody is sure yet whether Kraken was an Octopus

or a Squid…

But it was humongous and gigantic enough to sink a ship. I guess, he was one of the Sink the Ships game greatest fan…

Kraken was enormously fearsome sea monster that a gentleman dedicated this beautiful poem just for the it:

Below the thunders of the upper deep;

Far, far beneath in the abysmal sea,

His ancient, dreamless, uninvaded sleep

The Kraken sleepeth: faintest sunlights flee

About his shadowy sides: above him swell

Huge sponges of millennial growth and height;

And far away into the sickly light,

From many a wondrous grot and secret cell

Unnumbered and enormous polypi

Winnow with giant arms the slumbering green.

There hath he lain for ages and will lie

Battening upon huge sea-worms in his sleep,

Until the latter fire shall heat the deep;

Then once by man and angels to be seen,

In roaring he shall rise and on the surface die.

-Alfred Lord Tennyson

To me, whether the Kraken is an octopus or a squid, it will still be Calamari to me.

I love Fried Calamari, Octopus salad or Squid in Soy Sauce.

Owh, do not forget, Kraken’s tentacles are pure heaven in to the tongue taste bud when you eat it with Kangkung (kung-kong) or also known as water Convolvulus or Water Spinach. You pour sweet sauce, sprinkled with ground peanuts over the Kraken pieces and Kangkung. This heavenly taste dish is called Rojak (row-ja’).

Kraken is one of my favorite… Dish.

Pictures courtesy of image Googling Kraken, Octopus, Squid, Calamari and Rojak Sotong Kangkung…

Job...

2011-04-12T04:12:00.001+08:00

I wish my job is capturing wild Pokemons…

And to battle my Pokemons with other trainer to earn money.

I wish my job is to kill monsters and demons…

Dead, they drop gold pieces and stuff for me to sell for tons of money.

I wish my job is to jump around the city…

And carry out mission (stealing stuff, assassination etc.) making me richer.

I wish I am working in a Gundam facality…

Building more Gundams or at least help with maintenance and repair.

At the moment, I am an Engineer stuck in this office room…

Wishing one of the wishes to come true.

Insert...

2011-04-10T04:11:00.000+08:00

I love to build things, putting things together. In 1995 if I am not mistaken I found these paper models made out hard paper in a grocery shop. These paper models came together with these Japanese chewing gums. I did not really care for the gums.

There were ten different models all in all. My sister and I at that time managed to complete the whole set. Now these models are quite worn out and missing few parts too.

I guess it was a habit of mine to assemble and disassemble things. One of the reasons my mother bought LEGO for me. When I finished building the paper model, I took them apart and put them together again.

The model was really easy to assemble. Here is my first model that I bought, The Hamburger Outlet. Pieces of the outlet were printed and ready cut on 2 pieces of cardboard. You just need to push the pieces out and you have pieces to put together.

Then you just have to insert the paper stub into the slit.

It was very easy to assemble. The slits were designed to fit the stubs nicely.

The design on the model are quite detail.

Like the Hamburger Outlet have a real rubbish bin the fast food outlet style. The counter has menu on it. Behind the counter, there is the chips station. You can see stacks of chips ready to be served.

There are few props for the outlet too. For this model, we have a tray of burgers with soda. A small table with two chairs. Burgers and chips. The cash register.

The Hamburger Outlet is a nice cozy shop made of red bricks. The color of the shop is in harmony with each other and it is really eye catching too!

Three cut out figures came with the model too. The Hamburger girl and her two customers, a boy and a girl. They have two designs on them. On one side, it will show these:

When you flip it to the other side, you will see this:

And there you go, one of the oldest models I have unearthed from my drawer. Another cool thing is, notes and coins are also included. What you see here is a pile of notes and coins for all 10 outlet models I have.

Hygiene...

2011-04-09T04:09:00.002+08:00

When I leave home to continue my study, my mother reminded me about hygiene...

I) Don’t share your towel with others.

II) Don’t share your nail clipper with others.

III) Don’t share your toothbrush with others.

IV) Don’t share your comb with others.

V) Don’t drink using same cup with your friends.

VI) Don’t share shaving blade with others.

VII) Don’t share underwear with others.

VIII)Try your best, not to share clothes too.

IX) Don't let other people sleep on your bed.

This is so that I won’t easily get disease from some random guys who you don’t know where they come from and you don’t know their health background.

Thank you Pikachu!

Games...

2011-04-08T04:08:00.000+08:00

Before I have all these…

Giant board games…

Great card games…

Grand electronics games…

I had to make do with just paper, pencil, eraser, glue, scissors, ruler and my imagination…

Thus I came up with my own games. Using papers drawn with squares and some sort of snakes and ladders style, I created different board games with different challenges.

I even cut my erasers as square as possible for the dice.

The counter can be anything but usually I will draw some sort of characters onto pieces of cards to be used as counters. Usually I will use the cereal box.

I also made some sort of games to mimic the electronic games (which was very expensive at that time) by using a piece of hard paper. Then lines were drawn on it. There were games where I had drawn monsters, traps or hazards to avoid.

Both side of the paper were folded into fan.

This made the paper springy. Then using a small eraser piece as the counter, you just need to tap the springy side of the paper to move it around.

Just tap tap tap to guide the eraser piece around… After a while though, the paper would be worn out and a new piece had to be made…

Glorious time for the creative and imaginative brain of mine…

Family...

2011-04-07T04:07:00.003+08:00

I love my family from my Grandfather to the youngest cousin. I bear no hatred and I am sure, no sane soul does either.

There are times you are not pleased with your family member. It is irk actually. It is not hatred.

Probably because we are too close to each other, small itsy bitsy matter will lead to war with each other.

Probably because we are too comfortable with each other, words splash so easily on each other without much thought of the effect on the feelings.

Probably because we do not really communicate well enough with each other, we do lots of assumption instead without actually trying to communicate to understand better.

Probably because we stay too long with each other, we remember past more that we forget the past had been left behind and now, the present is a new different matter.

Probably it is easier to consult with other friends and stranger that we forget that there are boundaries on what you should say and should not say to people outside of your family.

Probably sometimes we forget that, your family, is also human being with feelings and should be understand as an individual with different and unique needs and behavior.

No matter how weird my family members are, I still love them. It is just that I don’t have all the money in the world to show how much I love all of them ~~because I have to buy load of gundams, comics, manga, nintendo ds, ds games and kamen rider figures~~.

Together we will be able to face the whole world…

I rewrite this entry because after reading it again and again, it just does not feel nice. I actually find it hard to filter my own feeling out and write its true meaning. Just some thoughts to be shared with all of you about family and probably these thoughts will make us a better family member…

Escape...

2011-04-06T04:06:00.000+08:00

There were times when I was chained up.

I was experiencing difficulties that I felt as if I was chained to the problem itself.

Life sometimes would make it exhilarating by loosen up the chain and let me escape. Then I would embrace the so call freedom.

I looked back and realized I was still chained. Excitement all drained and freedom tasted stale.

I wanted to escape. I wanted to exit the world of hardship and pain. I wanted to enter the world of easiness and enjoyment.

I felt empty then.

Expecting all that, I had kept myself chained.

I could not escape.

I came up with excuses upon excuses on why I was still chained.

Even enduring those long period of exhausting trial did not open my eyes just yet. Exalting my own woes, I was eluded from my escape for long and maybe forever.

Only then I found enlightenment. I was my only enemy to be defeated to escape. By executing ways to defeat myself, I was enabled to face my other challenges.

I was entirely in control.

I felt so eellogofusciouhipoppokunurious to finally emprise changes that allowed me to escape…

I felt as an empowered emperor ready to exterminate everything in my path.

That was then.

The old chain is gone, epulation is over and I am now facing another enemy…

I am now chained to another problem.

Here we go again…

Exciting photos courtesy of my Neon Genesis Evangelion

Unit 00 and Unit 01

with their enemies, the angel

Sachiel and Shamshel.

Deathscythe...

2011-04-05T04:05:00.000+08:00

I had finished this Gundam for a while now but never get to put him on my blog. So here he is, Gundam Deathscythe Hell Custom.

He is one of the five main Gundams in Gundam Wing Endless Waltz OVA. This model had been around for quite a while, but I manage to get hold of him just last year. Better late than never!

One of the main things I like about Deathscythe Hell Custom is his grim reaper motif. Designed by Katoki Hajime, Deathscythe Hell Custom looks creepier and grimmer compare to his television series design.

One thing about Katoki Hajime design is his Gundams are usually shorter than the other Gundams. As you can see, Gundam Astray Red Frame and Gundam RX-78-2 are slightly taller than Deathscythe Hell Custom.

The hand, although movable, cannot really hold the scythe well. I had some difficulty trying to get him hold his scythe in different positions.

Not much details on his body, but painting his face is quite a challenge because there were lots of details on his face.

The three red stripes on his cheek really test my skill with the brush. Should have painted the eyes with metallic green so that it can appear as if the eyes are glowing… Maybe I will do that.

Overall mobility of this model is not really that spectacular. His knee cannot really bend much and thus his poses are also quite limited.

All in all, the model is quite plain. The wings especially could probably look better with some details…The wings can be folded to cover his body.

I will probably get the Master Grade Gundam Deathscythe Hell Custom and compare how technology can make a difference.

Camera...

2011-04-04T04:04:00.000+08:00

Photos capture moments in your life. You may remember those moments but with photos they can be clearer.

Photos can also be windows for others to see what you saw. Like in my case, when I was studying at this one place, my mother asked me to take lots of photos. Then when I came home, I will tell them what I saw in my surrounding, where I stay, how I go around, people I had met and so on. Those photos made my storytelling easier and it is easier for the listener to relate and figure out.

This is my first camera

and at that time when I bought it, digital camera was very very new and very very expensive.

Photo taking using films is very precious because it is expensive to develop the photos later.

There was this one time when my father agreed to let me use his camera. I went trigger happy with the camera, taking photos of nearly everything I saw and trying lots of stuff with the camera.

He was really mad after we developed the films because I took quite lots of photos which to him were a waste.

Still, knowing that films photo taking is expensive, I cautiously took photos for them to see. I envy those who had digital camera at that time…

Then, my mother was able to get me a digital camera.

I was really excited because I was able to go trigger happy on photo taking. I could take photos of clouds in the sky, leaves falling, rubbish bins, cars, weird graffiti, strange people, every inch of a building, my room, stuff I bought etc… In another word, I can just take photo of everything in this world!

The next best thing is, you don’t have to be afraid to make mistakes. If the first photo is not good, snap another picture. Snap a hundred if you want and get the best. You are given the freedom to explore different approaches and styles in photo taking.

I am still using this digital camera of mine until now. Most of the photos you see here in my blog are compliment to my digital camera.

One or two years after digital camera is easily obtained by lots of people in my country, it was common to hear this joke:

“Wow, you are taking quite lots of pictures… Aren’t you worried that you will run out of films?”

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

If you do that now…

“Dude, seriously, are you really from this century?”

Brainless...

2011-04-02T04:02:00.001+08:00

I had interesting experience few nights ago. I let my cute cousin practice her driving skills while I was running my errands. Our first stop was the bank, because I needed to withdraw money.

So we drove there in the “I-just-got-my-driving-license” style. When we reached the bank, there was this one empty parking spot. Right next to it was a car parked as if “I-do-not-know-how-to-park-my-car-because-I-do-not-actually-have-a-driving-license” style.

Anyway, because there were quite a space so I asked my cousin to drive in as far too the right as possible. Apparently, it was still quite close to the car but I could still get out of the car.

When I opened the door, it bumped slightly on the car body. So when I walked past the driver, he looked quite mad, glaring at me like a dragon which had just lost his entire treasure hoard. I signaled with my hand that his car was poorly parked and went into the bank.

As expected, the sore driver lowered his window and looked so eager to have a pleasant chat with me.

Thus when I walked back to the car, the fuming, glaring driver started his remarkable chatting:

Brainless: Why did you bump my car with the door?

Me: Well duh, you didn’t park your car properly and I don’t have enough space for me to open the door…

Brainless: Can’t you open the door carefully?

Me: I did try my best… But you should park your car properly…

Brainless: Poorly parked? The car on the other side didn’t have a problem.

Me: Duh… (Of course the other car had more space than mine; obviously… Refer to the above picture…)

Brainless: Now my car is dented, so you think you can pay for it?

Me: Hey man, look carefully, there was not even a scratch! It was just a bump!

Brainless: This is Vios! Do you know how much a Vios cost? You don’t know how to take care a car is it?

Me: Errrrr… No damage done? Unfortunately, your brain is not up to Vios level…

Brainless: Why can’t you just park there instead? (Where the white car is parked in the picture)

Me: But we have a parking space here…I mean, parking spaces are for cars to park right?

Brainless: Then,why didn’t you let the girl (my cousin and also the driver that night) get the money instead?

Me: Uh… My account? My money?

Brainless: You dare to talk back! You have never got into trouble is it?

Me: Errrr…

Brainless: This is the problem with our race, why can’t you just say sorry?

Me: Well, you shouldn’t park this way in the first place… You should say sorry too… But, I’m sorry ~~for arguing with a dumb guy like you~~…

Brainless: See, so much easier isn’t it? Why can’t you just do that?

Me: Like I said, why can’t you park your car properly?

Brainless: You really have no manner! Why can’t you just say sorry?

Me: Fine… If that is what you want.

SOOOOWWWWRREEEEEE! SOOOOWWWWWRREEEEE!

More or less the content of our charming chat together.

He was not really pleased and happy with my apologies.

Anyway, I need to do my errands quickly and my mother did remind me not to argue with a brainless idiotic stupid moronic dumb guy like him else I will be at his level as well…

Apparently from the way he talked, he was and I am sorry to say, very very very stupid.

APRIL...

2011-04-01T04:01:00.001+08:00

It is APRIL again!

Do you know that April used to be the second month, earlier in the Roman calendar but pushed to be the fourth month when January is used as the first month. People in the world are still not sure where the name April derived from. It may derive from the word aperire which is “to open” in Latin, being the season when trees and flowers begin to “open” is in this month. It is also possible that April is named in honor of the Roman goddess, Venus.

Aprilis was suggested to be originally her month Aphrilis, taken from her Greek name Aphrodite (Aphros) or from Etruscan name Apru.

The fourth month in the year in the Gregorian calendar is the month I was born in and shared with few other favorite characters of mine.

Kamen Rider debuted on the 3rd 1971.

We will be watching Kamen Riders 40th Anniversary Film on the 1st of April this year.

Super Sentai appeared for the first time on 5th 1975.

Their film will be out this year to commemorate 35th Anniversary.

Gundam series started on the 7th 1979.

Here is a link to this webpage I stumbled when I did research on the month of April. It is a list of celebration in the month of April. I love to read and do craft. Thus I am proud to say that:

National Card & letter Writing Month

National Decorating Month

National Poetry Month

National Library Day is on the 12th

DEAR (Drop Everything And Read) Day is on the 12th

Poem in Your Pocket Day is on the 28th

You can read the rest of celebrations they have in April in the link I had provided here.

It is interesting to know that McDonald’s Day is on the 15th.

I just had a very good experience with McDonald recently which I will blog soon.

My first entry of the month… Happy April!

Facts on April gathered from Wikipedia…

McDonald outlet photo taken from here.

Pictures taken from websites after googling their names...

There this one cute girl that I know of and her birthday is on the 10th.

Tomorrow is April...

2011-03-31T23:45:00.002+08:00

I have decided to join the April A to Z Challenge...

So I will be blogging about stuff starting with the letter A on 1st April until the last day of April which will be the letter Z.

Each day will be a post related to different letter in the alphabet.

We will not post blogs on Sundays thus 26 letters for 26 days in the month of April.

April is tomorrow…

Here I go!

Musha Gekitou Gundam

2011-03-30T11:07:00.006+08:00

My first SD Gundam was quite plain when compared to the pictures on its box. Thus I did a few things to the limitation of my resources and experience to make my Musha Gekitou look a bit colorful.

Only few years after that (which is like 10 years or more), my Musha Gekitou get the proper coloring that he deserved. I used the Metallic Red, Metallic Blue, Metallic Green, Gold and Silver Gundam markers with my white and black enamel paint. Gundam panel lining pen was used for the lines.

I will not say much, so see for yourself the difference before and after I painted my Musha Gekitou.

The left side photos were how Musha Gekitou looked. The right side photos are after he is given colors.

All of his armors and weapons look even awesome now, compare to before.

I especially love his dual katanas and the bazooka. After painting, they look so beautiful.

After I painted Musha Gekitou, I fell in love with him again…

Jyokou Serpent on RAMPAGE!

2011-03-29T16:05:00.002+08:00

One of the latest complete SD Gundam that I have in my room is Jyokou Serpent of the SD Gundam Sangokuden Brave Battle Warriors series. Jyokou Serpent is design base on MMS-01 Serpent, a mobile suit that appeared in Gundam Wing Endless Waltz OVA.

When I said complete, it meant that I had finished putting it together and painted.

I was doing my SD soldiers military unit when I finished my Jyokou Serpent. I painted them before I put them together. When I look at it, I was like, “Hey they will make good props for battle field diorama!” Sure enough, when you arranged them on the floor, they look like fallen soldiers on the battlefield.

So I took photos of Jyokou Serpent stepping over the fallen soldiers…

Owh, and Jyokou Serpent although he is blue, is not in the same team with the blue soldiers…

Raining… Acid?

2011-03-15T16:01:00.003+08:00

It was raining heavily when this picture was taken.

Today I received an interesting text message from a concern and loving cousin of mine telling me that:

Fukushima power plant exploded at 4.30AM today. If it rains tomorrow or later, don’t go outside. If you are outside, be sure that you have rain protectors. It’s acid rain. Don’t let it touch you. You may burn your skin, lose your hair or have cancer. Please pass. Stay safe & remind everyone you know.

Thank you for showing that you care… But then again you should also check your resources before you spread information. I had read that, this text message had stir panic within Philippine community.

Rumors easily spread like wild fire with the help of FaceBook and Twitter to name a few. So nowadays, you should always and always check any information received before you take it and spread to other people. Wrong information can be disastrous to other people who act on it.

Here are some good tips on verifying information you get from internet.

Just a point to ponder, if such thing does really happen, should not we had the same news when Hiroshima was nuked in the World War II?

Pray that the country affected by Earthquake, especially Japan recently will stay strong and will have a fast recovery.

The First Gundam of Mine…

2011-03-14T15:14:00.002+08:00

My first Gundam was an SD Gundam.

I bought that Gundam when I was about 11 years old. Back then I had never heard of Gundam. The robots that I knew at that time were Transformers, Patlabor, Macross and Gobots.

Gundam? Never heard of it…

Even when I first bought it, I did wonder how that robot can fit into such small box. I had never built a model too at this time of my age. The pictures around the box do look attractive and beautiful though. Out of my strong curiosity, I bought one.

It was mesmerizing at first when I saw the runners. I have to build it! YEAH!

I was very new to plastic model and all the instructions in the manual were in Japanese but the pictures did help with putting the model together. So I actually did not have any problem at all. I did not have any plastic model tools at that time. So I twist the parts out of the runner and trim any protruding bits with nail clipper. I used the nail clipper file to file the protruding bits too. That was quite a rough work then comparing to how I build my Gundams today.

Bandai provided stickers to make your model slightly colorful. After sticking them on my Gundam, I was still not satisfied because my Gundam still did not look close to the pictures shown on the box. So I cut whatever left of the sticker into smaller pieces and stick them on parts that need some more color. Problem with stickers is that after you play with the model a few times, they tend to get loose and start unstuck, creating curls on the edge of the stickers.

Being green in plastic model, I even tried to use my color pens to add more color to my Gundam. I was actually quite pleased with it. I named my first Gundam Akira because I could not read Japanese at that time and I did not know the name for the Gundam. SD Gundams usually have different forms you can change to. For Akira, he has without armor form, armored form and power up form. I kept changing him into different forms like once every hour. Below are the photos of Akira with his armor parts.

Thus by a month, most of the parts were quite loose.

Today, I get to know the real name for Akira is actually Musha Gekitou Gundam.

Anyway, whatever it is, I had enjoyed the experience of building the model. It was exciting to see how Akira slowly built into a Gundam.

And that is how I started out in Gundam plastic model…

Special Month Ahead, APRIL!

2011-03-10T10:03:00.000+08:00

I came across this special announcement from one of the blog that I follow for a while now, Open The Toy.

According to the information I gathered from the original source which is from Tossing It Out, we just need to blog from A to Z in April only on weekdays. That is a letter for each day, from the letter A until the last letter Z. Minus the Sundays in April that is 26 days for the 26 letters in the Alphabet.

Intriguing…

I am considering joining this feat. I will let you know if I sign up for this event…

We had been given early notice to get ready for that month anyway so should not be much of problem.

Add Me, Add Me!

2011-03-07T10:43:00.006+08:00

As the technology moves forward, it seems that social etiquettes are getting rare and less.

Take FaceBook for example:

One of the reason why have a FaceBook account is so that I can ~~play all the games, stalking cute chicks, sign up for all those stupid groups and campaigns, read whiny status every second,~~ keep up to date with my friends.

It is also an amazing experience to be able to connect to your long lost friends.

Then we have these people who suddenly pop up, wanting to be your friend.

Right…

I should not have problem accepting these people as my friend if:

They show their real picture of themselves. Some people love to put a group photo as their display picture. Then you have to guess which face belongs to the name that wanted to be added as a friend. Or we have people who like to put other people photos (usually artist, well known person~~, favorite porn star~~, their beloved partner, their children, their pets etc). The worst display photo would be picture of cartoon or logo… Come on, what is the resemblance to your real look? Why can’t you just put your photo? After all you want people to easily recognize you. If you want to be so secretive, then why ~~the hell~~ do you want to set up a FaceBook account?
They, at least, introduce themselves. Ok, alright, you do not have a recognizable photo to jog my memory of who you are. Your name also does not ring a bell… Then, WHY ~~THE HELL~~ YOU CAN’T EVEN INTRODUCE YOURSELF? At least, tell me your name and just in case I probably have forgotten you, just a brief introduction of yourself, where we had met, how, when etc just so that I know who ~~the hell~~ you are if you want me to click the add me button…

If they do not fulfill the requirements I had put down as shown above, then, forget it, I am not interested to know or add you ~~even if you have a cute chick in bikini as your display photo~~…

Power Ranger’s MEGAZORD!

2011-03-04T16:03:00.004+08:00

Actually my favorite part in the Power Ranger series is when they call for their huge robot to battle. Now, for those who are still in the dark, let me give you guys a brief, simplest, concise plot in a Power Ranger series…

Usually the show starts with the villain latest plot to take over the world. Then the villain will built, make, summon etc a monster appropriate for the job.

The monster then will start to terrorize the place. Few screams later, the Power Rangers will be notified and they will rush to the terrorize scene to fight the evil monster.

When they arrived at the place where the monster is having fun, few henchmen or grunts or soldiers will also appear. Just to be fair mind you (5 rangers against one scary evil super strong monster). The rangers changed to their costume and knock the monsters and its henchmen around. Usually there will be around 6 henchmen. They will appear to be more when the scene shows each ranger fighting.

Once the henchmen are down, the rangers will do a finishing move on the weaken monster.

Somehow, there will be a device that will greatly enhance the monster size and you will have a huge giant evil monster prepared for another round of fun with the rangers.

This is the cue for the rangers to call their huge gigantic vehicles that could be in the form of errr… vehicles such as cars, planes, copters, boats, truck or animals such mammals, reptiles, dinosaurs or even mythical creatures.

You will have awesome display of these vehicles exiting their respective garages or resting places.

Then they will all combine into a robot. Another awesome display of these vehicles or creatures transforming into respective body parts of the robot.

While all this happen, the monster will be resting quietly and waiting patiently for them to finish. After all, the monster had just been revived and blown into a humongous size. So shut up and watch the robot formed.

Once the robot is ready, the monster will approach the robot in the most menacing manner. The monster also might destroy one or two building in the process. The battle begins!

The robot and monster will knock each other around until it gets close to the ending of the show, the robot will whip out its finishing move, killing the monster for good. YAY!

The day is saved once again thanks to the rangers!

If the villains have real working thinking brain with them, my best bet of destroying the rangers will be when the robot is combining. DO NOT LET THE ROBOT FINISH COMBINING WITH EACH OTHER! After all they do not really have any defensive measure taken to counter an attack while combining. Then again, that is stupidity for you…

Mind boggling stuff…

It is amazing how some of the Power Ranger team can have a huge cockpit that can fit everybody in and how they get in there is also another great question.

Usually I do not really mind the part of the show before the monster is blown into a jumbo size bulldozer. I just want to see the robot part of the show only. That is the most interesting part to me…

Once again, the pictures are taken from Googling Power Ranger Megazord… And mostly from HenshinGrid Blogspot. The awesome Power Rangers MegaZord robots photos taken from this awesome guy in the RangerBoard forum.

POWER RANGERS!

2011-03-03T11:22:00.008+08:00

When I was just a little boy, watching the Power Rangers series was the highlight of the day. For those who don’t know, ‘Power Rangers’ is a general term. There are lots and lots of Power Rangers team.

I grow up with Japanese Super Sentai such as FlashMan, MaskMan and then the American Mighty Morphin Power Ranger. Super Sentai is the Japanese term for Power Ranger if you don’t know already…

This year will be the 35th Anniversary of the Super Sentai series…

So that is quite a lot of Power Rangers over 35 years now.Anyway, these Power Rangers are here to protect and save the world.

But, and I had been thinking about this since the first day I know the Power Rangers, why do they:
1. Stay in one place only? Somehow the evil villains are stupid enough to focus only in one part of the world. And taking over that one place in the world is equivalent to the whole world… No wonder you guys are losers…

2. Fight one monster per week? Or in other word, each encounter, they will face one monster plus the regular evil villains (that may consist of 2 to 3 guys max). And those regular evil villains usually just hang around throwing insults and encouraging that monster to do all the dirty job. What do you expect from evil losers… Anyway, it is very very rare to see the Power Rangers fighting against 2 or more monsters at one time… Lucky guys…

3. Use huge noticeable gestures every time they talk. You can say one hand swing per word. And they will always gather to do group pose before they attack the evil villains… And to make it worse, the evil villains will wait patiently for they to complete their group pose or join them by doing their own pose.

4. Have the same power as a normal human being when they changed into their costume or Power Ranger form. If you watch closely, actually whether they changed or not, they still at the same power level. Except that they have all the weapons and stuff…

5. Have to wear their respective color even when they are not wearing their custom or Power Ranger form. Do they really like the color given to them or they are forced o wear that one color day in and day out? Pity them if that is the case…

So that was what running through my mind every time I watched the Power Ranger series…

Pictures acquired from googling Power Rangers images…

Another Quick Lazy Pop up Card…

2011-02-17T11:15:00.009+08:00

Seeing that I am still in the mood and the tools and papers still lying around, I decided to make another card but still using the same principal.

I printed out the letters I needed to make the words I wanted on the card. I used few different fonts for different letters.

Then I used my circles templates to draw circles for each letters. Some circles cover the letters completely, some are smaller than the letters and some partially let the letter burst through.

Stick them together with my glue stick, arranging them nicely so they could tuck into the card nicely…

This can be done rather quickly. Just randomly stick them together.

There you go, instant pop up card with customized greeting!

Then I just make a simple cover for the card and viola!

The card is done!

I made this card in less than 2 hours!

Pop up cards…

2011-02-17T08:04:00.010+08:00

My last long weekend was the best so far. It was very relaxing and I

get to do a lot of stuff that I had not been doing for a long time.

I used to make lots of pop up cards before I enter University. I am not really keen with the normal cards because these cards are… normal… plain… boring…

Well to me that is…

So I am more into the pop up cards.

I was inspired by this pop up card design I stumble upon from here.

Since it will be a long weekend, I was itching to make pop up cards again.

Because the design is too plain for me, I decided to use other design but still follow the original layout. Since I loved Megaman Zero art work so much, I had incorporated one of the designs from the art book that I have into my card. I used the Cyber Elf design to replace the angel. Here is the little Cyber Elf drawn in pencil...

These were the tools used to make the card. I forgot to put in my glue stick and

scissors. I used embossing tool to make the card fold nicely.

At first, I wanted to just draw the Cyber Elf onto the white card and cut it out just like the original design. It looks to plain, plus the color painted was not striking enough for me.

So I chose to break the design into smaller parts using different colored cards. Now I do not have to the coloring and the color is nicer. Just that I have to cut small pieces...

Half way making the card, I remember someone who is heartbroken. I changed the heart design into broken heart. Now I am going to make the Cyber Elf fix the broken heart by putting the broken pieces together.

Gluing the parts together and they are ready to be stick inside the card.

I used white ink pen to outline the Cyber Elves so the details will stand out. Use black marker for the eyes and crayon for their blushes...

I used a piece of card, as shown in the yellow circle below, to connect the two hearts together, so that they would pop up and stand up nicely.

Actually I want to leave out the wings for the Cyber Elf. Seeing that the Elves look plain and boring without their wings, I added the wings too. Now the elves look better.

My first pop up card for the year 2011…

Took me one day to finish it…

Always Never…

2011-02-08T10:59:00.000+08:00

ALWAYS and NEVER are the two words I hate to hear. This is probably because people around me always misused those words. Especially the adult…

Somehow, the adult loved to use them. Like for instance, say you had been doing all the housework and stuff for few days during Eid. You know, preparing the food, cleaning up the house and kitchen, serving the guests and entertaining relatives. Then, there this one day where you can get out for few hours, you know, taking a break after doing all that. Then when you get back, guess what the adult will say?

Why you ALWAYS go out when we need you here?

Why you ALWAYS leave the kitchen in such a mess?

You NEVER clean up after you.

You NEVER help in the house.

That should be enough… Anyway, how do you feel after working hard to please the adult and just because of few hours of getaway, you get bombard with all of that? That is one reason why I used to rebel and get really angry with them.

If they said that, then do not expect me to do all that because you said ALWAYS and NEVER. It meant, in my whole life, I had NEVER done all the work that the adult said. It meant, in my whole life, I ALWAYS do all that (in this case, all the stuff that they do not like us to do, such as going out and have fun, going to cinema, not cleaning up the house and etc.).

There are times I noticed, like what just happened recently, even if you just did it once, you will still get the ALWAYS and NEVER word. Is not that not fair?

I wish and how I wish the adult can be a bit more considerate when they talk. Look at past event, count how many time such event occur before you use ALWAYS and NEVER.

If you use ALWAYS, you are saying that I do it every day and every time. I ALWAYS breathe, I ALWAYS look at girls, I ALWAYS go online etc…

If you use NEVER, you are saying that I never do such thing in my whole life. I NEVER kill a person, I NEVER been to USA, I NEVER get married yet etc…

And the funny thing is, when the adult themselves use those two words among themselves; they do not like it either. My my my, I just wonder why…

New socks…

2011-02-02T10:48:00.003+08:00

You know it is time to ditch your current socks and get a new pair when it is not doing this anymore…

Sticking to your ankle.

I somewhat do not like to have my socks slipping down my ankle all the time. I really need to get new socks because it keeps on slipping down my ankle every few minutes. That mean I had been wasting few minutes of my precious time while wearing the socks to pull it up. Say if I wear the socks for like 8 hours per day and it keep on slipping down like every minute, and it takes me like 5 seconds to pull it up…

8 hours is 480 minutes. That mean I pulled up my socks for 5 seconds x 480 times which is 2400 seconds. Thus I wasted 40 minutes during my whole 8 hours working in the office just pulling up my socks. Don’t you just love math…

Anyway, to avoid wasting that precious minutes so that I can ~~surf the net, write for my blogs, laugh at people blogs, search for Gundams or look for stuff to buy at Amazon~~ be an efficient worker, I need to buy myself new socks. So there you go.

I don’t like to have my socks sliding down my ankle and rest underneath my feet sandwich between my shoes and my feet. The most uncomfortable feeling for my feet…

I BOUGHT LOTS AND LOTS OF GUNDAMS!

2011-01-26T14:25:00.006+08:00

When my cute ~~petit~~ sister came back for semester break, I asked her to buy me these three Gundams, 00 Gundam Seven Swords (which if you count properly, is actually eight swords), Gundam Throne Zwei and Gundam Throne Drei (I had wanted the Thrones badly for so long…).

I started to buy the HG plamo because of XN Raiser unit i had received from my friend in Japan. Thanks Reikochan! The XN Raiser was given together with the magazine as customizable parts. Anyway I was curious with how good HG is nowadays…

Near Christmas, the magazine gave out this Mobile Suit Hangar as prop for the Gundams. I am tempted to get myself an RG RX-78-2 now…

Then this huge one day sale came… And I bought these… 3x 0 Raisers, Gadessa, 0 Gundam, Astraea Gundam and Gundam Exia Avalanche Dash. I just looooove 0 Gundam!

Just last week, there was another sale! WHOAH! Some of the Gundams were sold for 50% off! That is why I have this new pile of mobile suits… Gundam 00 QanT and 3x Tierens Ground type. Thus my Exia linage is now complete and I have Tierens for the Gundams to bash up now!

All the Gundams that I had not build yet… A lots of them…

I have not even touched my MGs yet…

My Astrays are sitting on the board games. Do not worry, all completed years ago. Yes, I like Monopoly… My PG Astray still waiting there patiently…

So, I have a mountain of Gundams waiting to be built… I had completed like only 10% out of the whole thing…

Balls Juggling...

2011-01-21T10:58:00.002+08:00

One of my goals in life is to master juggling. I had started to train when one of my Pilipino friend taught me to juggle. I did try before that but doing it just from reading books was not really a good idea. I still need a teacher.

Don’t ask me why I like juggling. It is just like asking why the sky is blue. I am not really sure why… but I just like to see those balls bouncing from the juggler’s hands without falling. Maybe I grew up in the time where circus was still rampant and I read a lot of books on circus.

So now I am still trying to be a better juggler. Hopefully I can juggle three balls for one hour straight soon… Well, I still need to work on juggling those balls for at least a minute for now…

My Office...

2011-01-20T11:28:00.006+08:00

Lately my boss is getting to hype up with people getting into the office on time. Maybe he wants to get his money worth… ~~Also maybe it is because he just gave us a raise, he regret that action and this is a way to get that money back…~~

Anyway, he is so obsess with it that our punch-in system is going to evolve with few rules and regulations. Before, we just have to punch our card into the errrrr… punch machine.

After that we have this security system, where every worker has to have a card each for them to enter the premise and punch our card into the punch machine.

Whoever comes in late will get a red punch card. Which mean certain amount of your salary will be deducted. He does not want us to do banking, sending mails or other stuff during working hours. Understandable… but even if there are no other stuff to do in the office. With that he provided an answer: Get half day leave if you need to do all that stuff. ~~Just another way to finish up your precious leaves and if you have none, another saving for the company!~~ Nice one boss!

Seeing that we can still get away with the punch card system by asking a good colleague

To punch-in instead (a good colleague who come early that is), he then devises another plan. Get a watch dog! He gets another worker to take up part time job as a guard, guarding so that a person can only punch-in once and not more than that.

It is good to come in on time. It is your responsibility as a worker. It is also not every day we come in late. There are these everyday things that you cannot control. Like the traffic, weather and other unplanned, random events (such as the need to go to toilet, driving people to other destination, fill up the car petrol, etc). So at times, it is nice if he can be a bit understanding and tolerate. After all we are not very late, just few minutes late (by few minutes, it range between 5 to 10 minutes). ~~And to make thing worse, we do not really have lots of stuff to do.~~

So I heard, he will have fingerprint scanner installed in the future. How soon it will be implemented, hard to say. But he is very keen to have that. Then he will not only foil the-ask-your-buddy-to-punch-for-you-in-the-morning technique but also will be able to catch those who came in late after morning break and lunch break. With that, he will also be able to monitor each and every person movement in the office. Sneaky…

In the future, I will not be surprise if he even gets us implanted with chip so that he can track us using GPS. Or to make it better, he get a helicopter for the company and get a guy to hover around the city where I live. Then, if we come in late because of the traffic jam, he will be able to show the photos of every route taken until 8am and confirm that we are stuck in the jam or lying.

~~It is time to look for another company then.~~

This is really fun!

New Year Resolutions!

2011-01-04T11:34:00.000+08:00

Happy Gregorian calendar New Year to all of you!

Last month was the New Year for Muslim calendar. Next month will be the Chinese calendar New Year.

So happy happy happy new year to all!

A friend of mine asked what will my New Year resolution be?

Honestly speaking, I do not have any New Year resolutions. But I do have goals to achieve within a time frame.

After all some of my goals changes with where I work and where I am at the moment.

I do have some long term goals. Some of my goals will not be affected greatly by my location, my work or even my marital status.

One of my goals is to finish building my PG Astray Red Frame…

Fingers Splitting Fun...

2010-11-11T11:11:00.002+08:00

Owh yes, I did not tell you that I had my first experience with Gundam modification…

Owhkay… I did not exactly do the modification on a Gundam. And the mobile suit is not even mine, it is my brother’s.

Anyway, what happened was, the material for clear part, which in this case, the Garazzo’s hand with finger beam, does not tolerate thinner well.

This might be because he tried to separate the beam on each fingers apart. Then he paint the beam yellow for the clear part is orange in colour. But the yellow look horrible on the orange clear part. And when he tried to get the colour off by using thinner, the material turned soft.

This was probably because the part where he sliced did not have any protective coating to endure thinner corrosiveness. The hand then looks horrible as if my kitten had bitten it.

So we left the hand to dry and harden a bit. As it gets harder, I cut off the fingers from the hand.

Separated, the fingers were easier for me to file and make them look smoother. The fingers look better after filing.

I also took the liberty to sharpen the end of the beam.

After that, I just glued them back to the hand, each finger slightly apart.

I am so sorry that I lose the photos of the work in progress...

Trying to LOL...

2010-11-08T23:55:00.000+08:00

Once in a while, my colleague crack jokes in the office. This is one of them:

DarkErebus,
Pls convert to PDF and revert back.

Thank you.

Koalemos / sales man

He sent me a document that needs to be converted to PDF. That could be understood well enough…

But, revert the document back? Back to the original form?
Huh?
Seriously?
What was the point you sent it to me then?

Now that is funny…

The Barge...

2010-09-28T14:50:00.001+08:00

I went out again working at the offshore few days before Ramadhan.

Probably the longest I had been so far out at sea.

Probably the longest stay on the barge to date.

The sea was not so kind when we headed to the barge in a fast crew boat. The sea was quite mischievous and playfully push us up in the air few times too many for our own comfort. In fact, we had been tossed up and down on the sea surface too much that I felt whatever I had inside of me was going to take their own trip outside.

When I finally arrived at the barge, the feeling still had not left me. By now, it felt as if everything in my tummy were hanging in my throat, awaiting opportunity to give its evil nudge just to let everything out…

Ewwww…

I did not really had appetite for lunch but force myself to do so just so that I would be energized. Actually I was trying to force the urge down with the food. I did not want to go hungry as well.

Thankfully, after lunch, the feeling, the urge somehow had taken to the sea; drown in the mischievous playful sea…

The Mystery of Missing Underwear

2010-09-23T15:26:00.002+08:00

For the first time ever, I lost my underwear at the offshore. It is quite a puzzling quizzical matter actually. For I was very sure I did not put it into the laundry bag.

For you guys who have never been to the 5 stars hotel of the offshore, whatever you wear can be put into the laundry bag except for your underwear. For health reason they said…

Never ever put underwear into the laundry bag.

EVER.

The laundry boys would not wash it and you have to hunt it down in the laundry room.

Most probably pile into a heap of other god forsaken wear.

I do remember perfectly that I did not put the underwear into the laundry bag. Nor did I bring it to the toilet to be washed.

Hmmmm... Mysteriously puzzling I would say...

Usually I would wait till I have two pieces of underwear before I washed them.

Anyway, I searched high and low for it. Just to be sure, I even searched the platform…

I am pretty sure the fishes have no need of undergarments…

Because of this unfortunate turn of event, I had to wash my underwear every day.

Next time, whenever I go offshore, I will bring spares just in case this sort of thing happens again.

And seriously, it is time for me to get extra underwear...

picture taken from cartoon express

CyCLONE! JOOOKKKAAA!

2010-09-21T14:24:00.007+08:00

Right… I didn’t get to tell you this. It is quite sad really. I really look forward for it every week. Now it is gone. Another Kamen Rider added to the list of my favorite Kamen Rider of all time, KAMEN RIDER W series ended on 29th August this year.

The series started last year on the 6th September. I had been watching it every week then up until the last episode. I do not really understand Japanese, thus I had to wait for a week or two for the series with fan subtitle to come out.

Still I get to watch KAMEN RIDER W!No complaint there then…

I will say the story line was not crappy. Not so much of kamen rider action but still acceptable. One of the kamen riders that used their bike a lot I will say.

By right, kamen rider due to his name, kamen rider, should ride a bike and if possible, more action on the bike. I am pretty sure there are lots of awesome, amazing and spectacular moves you can do on bike while fighting bad guys. Maybe next time…

I do like those Gaia Memories.

It is amazing how the incorporate the letter of each Gaia Memories name with relevant image. See, the blue Gaia Memory in the picture is called Trigger. The T is shaped like a gun. Amazing! The yellow Gaia Memory, Lunar, the letter L is shaped as a crescent. Such creativity!

Oh, and I must say, I like it when the Gaia Memories being activated and their names called out. JOOOKKKAAA!

Akiko is not as pretty as Natsumi though. I am not happy with Akiko behavior too.

Too childish… Sigh…

Natsumi is still my favorite girl! The dopant (the bad guys of the series) designs to me are not really that good and especially for Bird dopant. Come on guys, cool monsters design next time please? The main actors are excellent too! I personally love Hidari Shoutaro’s fashion sense. Philip or Raito for god sake is too girlish. But they do have cool lines and style… Anyway, I have started watching Kamen Rider OOO or Kamen Rider Oz. Not really that good but still better than Kamen Rider Hibiki. I squirmed the whole time while watching Kamen Rider Hibiki series. Let us hope the series get better...

Thank you Kamen Rider W for all the fun! All in all, it was really awesome!
Great show! And GREAT SONGS TOO!

One of the Kamen Rider storyline that can be extended in the future for another great Kamen Rider series!

Let me write the next Kamen Rider series!

Please…

The Offshore...

2010-09-08T13:44:00.006+08:00

Working here can be considered harsh. It is a harsh world out here at offshore. Be it the weather or the surrounding. I am amazed and still amazed that some of the guys out here have been doing this kind of job for half of their life or more.

The sun, because there are no lush greenery to slice the heat down, is merciless especially in the afternoon. The sun itself will not be that bad if we do not have to wear our personal protective equipments all the time on the platform (which is a must whenever you are on the platform). On most sunny days, there will be no wind blowing and your sweat will rain down your body. Most uncomfortable I will say and there is nothing much we can do about it.

The rain is usually received as good tidings due to no work is allowed on the platform when it is raining. The bad side of it, your work will be delayed. Still, I think the rain is a present for those hardworking people on the platform. We do not have weekend here at the offshore and a rainy day is a much needed time for us to catch up with our rest.

The strong wind will also mean a good day of rest if you can stand the rocking and the rolling of the barge that is. On a very windy day, the sea waves are wild and strong. The barge will be rocked heavily like a baby cradle rocked by a furious mother trying to get her baby to sleep (not that it work well when the cradle is rock furiously). This is very dangerous for us to cross the gangway or the small bridge which connect the barge to the platform for the workers to cross. Thus no workers are allowed to cross the gangway.

Dolphins are usually considered bad omen here at the offshore. Sighting of leaping dolphins at the sea means storm is coming and work will be delayed. Still it also means a good day of rest. A good omen for those who need rest…

The Gratings...

2010-09-06T14:45:00.002+08:00

I love walking on the gratings,
especially on the bridges,
crossing from one platform to another platform.

If you look down at your feet,
you can see straight down into the sea.

On lovely sunny days,
the sea water looks beautiful,
like glittering sapphire under the sun.

Heck, even during rough sea,
the water,
which would be churning waves slithering dangerously,
is still beautiful albeit threatening.

Back on Land...

2010-08-30T15:22:00.000+08:00

This post was supposed to be posted on the day I demobilized from offshore platform. Due to family business and work, it is one week late.

All that I want to say is, it is nice to be back to the world where we have weekends and I do not need to wash my underwear with my hands anymore.

Nice…

Gundam Deathscythe Hell Custom…

2010-06-23T15:43:00.003+08:00

Finally…

I have Gundam Deathscythe Hell Custom HG 1/100! Bought this model in KL during my one week holiday. The only one left in this one shop in Low Yatt.

Nice…

Never had I thought that I would be seeing that Gundam again.

Very rare indeed.

The only Gundam that I really like from the Gundam Wing line. Still, all in all, the Gundam Wing’s Gundam designs are still one of the best and unique. The best to me is Gundam Deathscythe Hell Custom! Other Deathscythe’s designs are not really that awesome. I am glad Gundam Deathscythe Hell Custom design did not turn out bad. If not, it would be a shame…

Anyway, I had started to build Gundam Deathscythe Hell Custom. Have not cut the parts off the runners yet. I mean, not all of them.

I usually like to do most of the panel lining and painting while the parts still stuck to the runner. Make it easier for me to do my work. Only if some area of the part is easier to be accessed by cutting it off, then I will do it.

So I had panel line some of the parts.

The horn was painted gold. Basically, that is pretty much it.

This is one of the Gundams that does not need too much paint and panel lining.

Lucky!

Hoping to be able to finish this one pretty quickly…

Good Bye Fullmetal Alchemist! Thank you!

2010-06-17T14:36:00.002+08:00

At last, after being released for nearly 9 years, one of my favourite manga has come to an end.

First chapter came out in August 2001 and its final chapter 108 draws the curtain in June 2010.

I would not want to spill the whole story for you here… But I had always enjoyed the remarkable plot and storyline of Fullmetal Alchemist. The number of characters is not too overwhelming and quite distinct with their own unique character, adding more flavor to the manga. The characters support the plot well.

The best part of the story is the moral values instilled. The manga encourage studying and the main characters never stopped studying. They never give up when they could not understand something and persevere until the knowledge is in their grasp.

It has been a long journey and it is sad to see a good manga has come to the end. Still, the ending was a good one, putting the whole story into perfect balance. Anti climax marvelously done I will say.

I had enjoyed waiting for its new chapter’s release every month from the first day I read it in one of our local magazine. I do hope Hiromu Arakawa will make another good manga.

Perhaps, Fullmetal Alchemist’s new adventure?

Anyhow, thank you so much for the manga, Hiromu Arakawa! You are the greatest!
Fullmetal Alchemist should be one of the gems of the comic world!

Read the manga! It is really that good!

Trust me…

Picture taken from http://ning8poc.wordpress.com/

Spray cans...

2010-04-01T11:12:00.004+08:00

One of the techniques of Gundam Modeling that I am trying to learn is spraying or using air brush.
I cannot afford air brush just yet, so my brothers and I settle for spray cans…

Now at my place here, a good spray can for plastic model is virtually impossible to find. Probably if I go into every shop here at my place, I could possibly find one…

Then again, that is a waste of time.

So we bought these spray cans and tried them on my military units…

Well, one for sure about color spraying, it does take heck lots of time. First I have to cover parts that I do not want to be sprayed. I used a normal masking tape for that. That is the most tedious part to do…

Then spray!

I learned that spraying directly made my models looked ugly…

Later I found out that you cannot spray directly but instead you swing it left and right, with the model between the two points you swing spray…

Hmmmm…

I do not have pictures to show you…

Maybe I will put it up later…

Anyway, that method produced better sprayed coating…

I was lazy to cover the design on the Military Units shields…

So as you can see, when I scrapped off the paint, other part of the paint peeled off as well. I have to cut around the part that I want to scrap the paint of to minimize this. Doesn’t really work that well…

Probably the paint then…

Also because I didn’t put the coating over the paint, it easily gets scratch off. The pictures below shows the paint was scrapped off. Probably I should have done like what my brother did. Make the spear staff thinner and then spray the colour on. It does work with his Military Units though…

After you spray the colour on, the surface gets slightly thicker…

The paint does not really stick well on the plastic surface so probably we still need to find a better spray paint…

I build Gundam here...

2010-03-30T15:56:00.003+08:00

Here is where all of my Gundams were turned into beautiful Gundams! Just a small space where I can keep all the stuff I need and some space for me to work on my Gundams.

Shown in the pictures is the SD Gundam Military Unit that belongs to my brother. The three of us bought a Military set each. In each set, you have a Military Unit for the main three groups: The Dragon (Blue), The Phoenix (Red) and The Tiger (Orange).

One of my brothers chose Orange, the other chose Red and so I get the Blue units. The thing is, most of my SD Gundams are from the Phoenix…

Anyway, I can still use them as enemies for my SD Gundams dioramas.

Now to finish up my Military Units…

Around 80% are done. Maybe I can get to finish them this weekend…

I will let you know.

Gundam Bind 1/100? 1/144?

2010-03-26T16:04:00.005+08:00

The SD Gundam Bind really makes me interested in SD RX 78-2. I now have the urge to do some customization so that I may have a bigger SD RX 78-2 Bind.

It will also be interesting to see RX 78-2 Bind. Whether it will be in scale 1/100 or 1/144, surely it will be awesome. We are talking about the real RX 78-2 not the SD RX 78-2. Some serious customization here…

First thing first, we need to replicate the arm for 1/100 or 1/144 scale. The left arm had to be redesigned for the real size.
Then next thing is to make the arm. I am very very new in this customization business. I will have to know what sort of material and the most important thing how to shape those materials into the left arm of the RX 78-2 Bind. That IS a challenge… Google time!

That also means that I have to sacrifice an RX 78-2 for this project. That shouldn’t be much of problem except that…
It is very hard to find a 1/144 RX 78-2 here at my place. The only model available is a 1/100 RX 78-2 which quite pricey… Still I can just grab an SD RX 78-2 instead.

Another challenge here...

I was thinking, if I can pull this project off, the real size RX 78-2 Bind will sure look awesome! I was thinking of lighting up those evil eyes on him. Creepy…

RX 78-2 Bind has two red eyes. There is one eye on his face and the other eye on his left arm’s face. Thus, I also need to replicate an RX 78-2 face and stick to the left arm. Or maybe if I can get hold of some extra RX 78-2 faces…

To wire up an LED inside these small heads should be a pain… but the effect will be tremendous. Now, we have to figure out how to fit everything inside the model. You would not want wires to stick out of your model don’t you?

Other than the left arm, everything else should be easy. Just need to spray RX 78-2 black. That is all. Probably some splashes of dark purple as shown in the illustration of SD Gundam RX 78-2 Bind from the link here…

The dark purple is at places where it is originally red such as the feet, the hip, the shield and the fore head.

A real challenge indeed and should be a good start into the world of Gundam model customization for me…

SD GUNDAM BIND...

2010-03-26T14:44:00.005+08:00

I had come across the name few times actually without realizing it…

SD Gundam Bind

Only few months ago did I take notice of it…

SD Gundam Bind

After doing a bit of Google, I couldn’t really find much information about…

SD Gundam Bind

All I know is that they are the Gundams shadows or rather the…

SD Gundam Bind

I do like… Hmmmm or rather I do love the evilness and darkness in the design of…

SD Gundam Bind

Only few weeks ago did I noticed that our Toys R Us have been selling this…

SD Gundam Bind

The Gundam Bind series I really took liking is the first series. The nicer design of…

SD Gundam Bind

The later series are not that good. I really like the left arm of SD Gundam RX 78-2’s…

SD Gundam Bind

It took me three visits to Toys R Us before I managed to have all of…

SD Gundam Bind

I don’t really care much of the SD Gundam, all I want is the SD Gundam RX 78-2 and…

SD Gundam Bind

Now that I have all of them, I can mix match the body parts and make a greater…

SD Gundam Bind

Still, I really love the SD Gundam RX 78-2 and his

SD Gundam Bind

Here is the link to some information and the comic of…

SD Gundam Bind

LOL!

2010-03-25T13:31:00.008+08:00

Image taken from wikipedia...

Alice in Wonderland has been my favorite book for a long time. The films, I don’t really like them for they can’t really absorb the feeling of the book.

Contrariwise the new film looks promising enough that I decided to watch it at the movie…

The idea of finally getting to see one of my favorite characters Jabberwocky from the Wonderland is thrilling.

Horribly enough, it was not the film that spoiled the mood. It was some stupid moronic dudes sitting exactly behind me.

When they first came in, it is normal if you chatter around with your friends.

No problem there.

Then the curtain was raised and the show started.

Let the show begin!

Errrrr… Hold on, what was that I heard?

Those guys were still chattering! To make it worst, they were making remarks on nearly every action shown in the movie!

“She is going to fall…”

“Walau”

“So dangerous... Bla bla bla Nearly hit the piano... Bla bla bla”

“Walau”

“Wow”

“Nope, wrong door…Bla bla bla Use the key for... Bla bla bla”

“She is drinking it… Bla bla bla Later she... Bla bla bla”

“Walau”

“LOL”

And so on and on…

Hold on... Ask me why did I write ‘LOL’ up there…

Well, to be honest, for as long as I had lived on Earth, never had I dreamt of hearing people laughing but doesn’t sound like a laugh. Never had I actually dreamt that somebody on this Earth will not laugh like this:

“Hahahahahahaha”

Or “Ghehehehehehehe”

Or slightly muffled “Mphephephephe”

Those nerds actually laugh and said ‘LOL’!

They actually said ‘LOL’!

LOL!

Here comes a funny scene… Now laugh!

LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL!

What sort of laugh is that!?

I know LOL stand for Laugh Out Loud… But you don’t have to say ‘LOL’ when you laugh! Just laugh normally!

Not only they didn’t have movie ethics, their laugh was also pathetic!

I probably should have said something to them, but then I didn’t… Hmmmmm…

Anyway, I do hope that I will have a better movie experience next time. Hopefully I don’t get to sit in front of those dorks again.

LOL!

Come to me...

2010-02-08T11:28:00.004+08:00

I bought quite a lot of Gundams recently. I started to do so ever since I started working in Queensland. I had also upgraded my hobby from just a mere Gundams collector to novice Gundams builder. With my brothers around, I have more motivation to do so. It is nice to have someone to talk about it, share some knowledge and experience it together.

Since I am working, the rate of building the Gundams had been very painstakingly slow… I am really taking my time. I had not even started with my PG Astray Red Frame. I do want to see my first PG standing but I really want to savor the moment of building it…

My Gundams look nicer now with the proper cutting, sanding, filing, coloring and panel lining. The Gundams doesn’t look plain and look quite close to the Gundams portrayed on their boxes.

Right now I am still waiting for my MG Exia Ignition Mode from Japan… When will you be coming to Malaysia? Currently, I still had not received any news about my MG Exia yet. Last time I heard from my friend who help me to buy those Gundams, she was going to post the Gundams to Malaysia. That was in August if I am not mistaken…

Are you alright there? Really sorry to bother you…

I do hope to see my MG Exia soon…

That will be my first MG too…

Sigh…

When will you be coming here? Exia...

My school is the BEST!

2010-02-01T14:20:00.003+08:00

My secondary school was supposed to be the best school in my state. Where great leaders are produce…

Guess that was history…

Now, not that I want to humiliate my own school but to progress, to move forward to a glorious goal, you have to know your weaknesses and work on it. We always shout out that we produce the best students every year…

Though best students academically only. Probably in the past…

Guess that was history…

When you do say that you have the best students, do you only said that for school time only? What ever happened after they left the school? Does anybody take note or follow up on how well the students get on with their lives after school?

I will say the school plays some role in developing the students toward that achievement. Programs and activities conducted in the school should help to instill those values…

The question is… Do the activities in the school do that? I was quite disappointed with the school orientation week for this year.

To me, the activities the school came up with were just pointless and a waste of time. I don’t see the point how those activities can help the students to be great leaders, teach them disciplines and cooperation. The activities were just childish and lean more towards ragging…

Surprisingly another school that my school always looks down did a better job for the orientation week… For whatever reason that might have, my school should learn from them…

Orientation week…

Shouldn’t the school during the week, helps the students to know the school better? Even if you want them to know the staff and their seniors, shouldn’t you have better and dignified way to do that? Shouldn’t you have games that don’t humiliate the students? The facilitators should be more considerate and treat the students with respect as well…

The teachers involved should also play their role to make sure activities are up to the best standard…

The ragging is a custom we weed out in the university life. You go to a university and you will not find it anymore. I don’t understand then why the school still practices that degrading custom then. I mean, the best school still practices barbaric custom?

That should be history…

The first month...

2010-01-29T10:07:00.002+08:00

Quite exciting time for me… I will experience three new years soon. Fist to come was Muslim New Year, then the Gregorian New Year and soon, the Chinese New Year…

Thinking about it, nothing really special though… Just that it is interesting to see human celebrating this so call event. Why do we choose to party all out for the passing of year and ushering the New Year anyway? I still cannot get the true solid reason just yet…

Gundam Astray...

2009-12-21T10:52:00.009+08:00

Most of Gundam designs are more or less the same to the first Gundam RX 78-2. Just add few rearmaments and modifications to the amour; you will get a new Gundam. Then few new series surfaced with fresh new Gundam looks.

I started out with SD Gundams… Then during my secondary school years, I moved on to Gundams. During my school years, it was quite hard to buy Gundams and I depend heavily on my Raya income to buy a new Gundam. The only Gundams that were affordable to me were the High Grade (HG) Gundams with scale of 1/144. Most of the scale 1/100 Gundams were just dreams for me at that time…

During my diploma time, Gundam SEED was a craze. First Grade (FG) was also introduced to the world. FG was very cheap and perfect for my brothers who were just introduced to Gundams. I was not really interested with Gundam SEED line up anyway. That was until I caught sight of Gundam Astray Red Frame…

It was love at first sight!

Gundam Astray so far had been the most unique Gundam. Gundam Astray design was said based on Gundam Mudrock which I failed to see the similarities. I was awed by the details incorporated on Gundam Astray. The arms, the legs, the head are so much different from other Gundams. Back then, I was not yet into Gundam colouring and panel line drawing, but I was drawn into the details already…

Thus, after a long break from the world of Gundam (Need the money to buy other stuff i.e. girlfriends, comics, food blab la bla) I bought myself my first 1/100 scale No Grade (NG) Gundams which were Gundam Astray Red Frame and Gundam Astray Blue Frame 2^nd L. For the first time I assembled Gundams bigger than HG.

Having the models in my own hand deepen my love for Gundam Astrays. Astray Red Frame was so awesome with his Gerbera Straight and Blue Frame looked cool with his huge buster sword. My love for both robots and swords were beautifully packaged in those two models.

Then Gundam Astray Gold Frame Amatsu was next in my Gundam Astray family. The gold plated was enough to make the already awesome frame beautiful. The black gloss amour and the unique weapon make her look awesome and intimidating. Gold Frame Amatsu right arm was taken from Blitz Gundam plus Blitz Trikeros shield. She is one heavily modified Astray.

Just last year, Astray Red Frame was made into Perfect Grade (PG) and after a week of thinking, I decided to preorder a model with a help of my good friend in Japan. I had got myself my first PG and it is also of my favorite Gundam and because it was preordered, it came with an extra set of weapons plus clear amour!

My Astray family keeps growing with addition of Gundam Astray Green Frame and Gundam Astray Gold Frame. Just recently, my cute brothers bought me Gundam Astray Mirage Frame. Thanks bros!

Green Frame was not really different from Astray original design and his only uniqueness lies in his weapon. Gold Frame was the original model before he was modified into Gold Frame Amatsu. Thus his armour is mostly white and gold as compare to Gold Frame Amatsu whose armour is in black and gold. Mirage Frame is able to transform into another mode and have his own samurai sword. His frame was also modified and made him look quite aggressive.

I had been quite lazy for these past few months and I had not even started with my PG! Yesterday, I decided to start on Gold Frame. With all the colouring and panel lining, I hope I will be able to finish him this weekend. I need purple and green too for Mirage Frame and Green Frame…

Probably colour my Red Frame, Blue Frame and Gold Frame Amatsu before I start with PG Red Frame…

I have lots of Gundams waiting to be built… Sigh… But colouring them and putting each part together are where the fun lies! I am patiently assembling each part after only carefully cutting them from the runners and sand paper or file the edge or cut stumps properly. Let not ruin the beauty of the Gundams! Even then, I do not believe in building the Gundam just for the sake of building it. It is quite sad to see bits and pieces of plastic stumps jutting out from the model…

I am also thinking of modifying my Gold Frame Amatsu into Gold Frame Amatsu Perfect Form where both of her arms are Blitz modified arms. The arms were modified to resemble Astray arms and in black and gold too. Probably need to buy another Gold Frame Amatsu and Blitz Gundam! Unless I can think of cheaper alternatives…

I am also thinking of getting two Astray Master Grade (MG) next year…

Astray Blue Frame 2^nd Revise MG is out and Bandai had announced Astray Red Frame Kai will be next Astray MG coming out in February next year. Wonder what differences will be in Red Frame Kai as it is also slightly expensive compare to MG Blue Frame…

We will get to see it soon I guess…

For now, finish my other Gundams! They had waited far too long in the box…

Happy Country...

2009-12-09T10:58:00.002+08:00

I don’t really like politics especially here in my own country. It is always very dirty and most of the time very stupid… Probably to us, but behind the scene, that stupidity benefits lots of people. Not to all people that is.

I came across this interesting article on the internet. Well, actually few other articles related to this corruption in Sarawak. Finally, someone take notice of years of corruption in Malaysia and now they are putting Sarawak under the microscope…

The news is not a surprise to most of us, in Sarawak. What surprise me are the responses I had read, mostly from our 1Malaysia brothers from across the South East China Sea… I mean, how much more stupid can they be?

Most of them said that, we Sarawak people are to be blame for putting those corrupted Sarawak ministers in their positions… Right…

Then, is it fair to say, it is also our brothers’ fault that the BN still hold rein over Malaysia?

Our brothers over there said we need to wake up and make some changes in Sarawak… Right…

Then what about over there? Are our brothers awake and doing any changes over these years?

If they had made some changes, successful and noticeable changes, perhaps then, the Sarawak brothers probably will have some hope and motivation for change. Hey, come on, we also want better government. What make you think nothing is being done here? You see the effort over there, and then what make you think it is different here? And you expect us to do better? Come on…

With all the talk of changes, nothing significant really happened yet, so far, last time I checked, we are still under BN. So wake up everybody, we are still under the same corrupted ministers.

I don’t really want to write so much on this stuff for you can read and think for yourself (provided you are capable of thinking properly), but if the number one most corrupted guy still holds Malaysia, then don’t be surprised why the number one most corrupted guy in Sarawak is still holding his position. I mean, these people are not stupid, and of course they work with each other, scratching each other back.

COME ON, wake up! We know that already for how many long years?

Pipes with Problems...

2009-10-15T10:18:00.009+08:00

So what do I do and what do I work with?

The nature of the company is doing maintenance and repair in the oil and gas industry.

What sort of maintenance?

Most of our projects involve playing with pipes. Not that sort of pipes you have at home but from the smallest pipes to the biggest pipes available in the oil and gas world…

Now, these industry pipes will get corroded, eroded, rusty, cracks, leaks, holes and pitting. In our world, the term hole is used when you can see through the pipe and a pit is a half develop hole. So you cannot see through them yet.

Then, because these problems with the pipes will hinder the oil and gas operations, they need to replace these pipes. To replace them, they cannot just do it straightaway.

Well, not exactly in that manner…

Lots of paperwork and stuff. Ordering replacement pipes and delivery time. Lots of complicated process involves. So, because the replacement cannot take place immediately, they need to do something about the problem before the whole platform blow up! Or worse, reduce the income!

So, that is where we come in…

“Hello Sir! I see you have seriously critically dangerously corroded pipe there!”

Well, not exactly in that manner…

Usually the client will contact us with their problem. They will also ask for quotation, or how much that the whole repair will cost them. If they are happy with our quotation, then proceed with the repair work. If not, we either renegotiate until the client is happy or ~~just show them the door~~ find another alternative that will work for them… sigh…

Well, not exactly in that manner…

Here let me show you what sort of problem the clients brought forward to us.

As you can see from the pictures, all of these once beautiful hardworking pipes had been corroded, eroded, cracked, leaked, had wall loss, pitted, holed etc. Does not look good at all and look messy, unhygienic and dangerous. The risks of getting problem from the higher up people soar high too. The risk of lowering the production and income also great…

So my company offers these two solutions:

Lokring

StrongBack

These two principals keep those problems in check until replacement can be made. They give our clients more time to do necessary stuff and also keep the production running smoothly at the same time. And the pipes will at least still look presentable…

Pipes are... Pipes!

2009-10-14T14:39:00.003+08:00

When I started working here, I came across these four words that I must know and get use to when I entered the world of oil and gas. These four words are:

Piping

Pipe system that you cannot see with your naked eyes. This is because the pipe system is underground, underwater, in the wall etc.

Linework

Pipe system that you can see with your naked eyes. Like, like, hmmmmm… Well, any pipes system that you can see is linework.

Spool

This when the pipe is connected to valve, tap, filter etc.

Pipe

Well… it is just the hollow cylinder or the tube. That is all. Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezey!

When my senior asked me the meaning of these four words, I could not answer. Then I tried to Google and check Wikipedia. The only correct answer I could find was for pipe. Other three words were and are not available. I had to put are as well because, before I post this, I recheck the terms in Wikipedia…

Still not there.

My senior, after observing that I was totally lost, generously told me the true meaning of those words. Correct only for the oil and gas world usages mind you…

Work work boy!

2009-10-14T00:00:00.008+08:00

Yay! I have got a job! I am an engineer now! Well, sort of…

This stairs connect me from the real world to the world of working...

This is an excerpt from my offer letter on my job scope:

· To carry out workscoping such as site visits for onshore fields and offshore platforms.

· To follow every instructions from Supervisor/Lead Engineer during offshore activities.

· To execute technical aspects of particular project including all technical and QC reports.

· To be able to execute professional and high quality application/ hands on of company’s products for all the jobs secured onshore and offshore.

· Other tasks that may be assigned to you from time to time by the Top Management.

Okay then… In a way of speaking, I am working in oil and gas maintenance and repair company. Our job is to sell solutions to our clients’ problems.

My job… Hmmmmm…

Is to give the see the best solution to the problem, apply the solution and gives the best price for the solution. Sounds simple and easy right?

My job requires me to go offshore as well as onshore sites. There are more offshore sites though here in Malaysia. Just in case you do not know, when I say sites, that includes, oil and gas platforms, ships and tankers and whatsoever stuff related to oil and gas industry. As long as they need our solutions, we call them our clients and sites are our working area…

Not much of excitement just yet for me here in the company. The most exciting event so far was going for my safety offshore training course for three days. It is a must for anybody who is going offshore to g for this sort of training. There are more specific trainings according to the sites requirement that I need to do. If I have to go to those sites that is…

Currently I am stuck to my desk and laptop, doing reading and reports on my company main products or principles as they call it. Not as bad as my university time because I only need to read on the principles only and anything that is related to them for extra knowledge. I need to know the technical data as well as how the principals work.

My last boss did said, if I am to be an engineer, I should know the product, how it works, why it works that way as well as applying it. If I only know the product and applying it only, then I am at the same level of the technicians…

So, this is what the company is grooming me to be.

Preparing me to be an engineer. So that I can also helps the marketing department to do their presentations too. Any technical questions will be pushed to me… Another reason why I should know the principles very well…

Second stage of grooming is to get me to know the proper procedures when a client approaches me with a problem. I have to know what sort of information needed before I can accept or decline the project. If accept the project, then I need to know more information to initiate the project.

Door to world of... Hmmmmm... Boredom... For the moment that is.

Now, as my boss had warned me, my job is to draw up a project milestone, noting down stuffs and number of people I needed. Gives a prediction how long the project will be and how much the cost for this project will be.

When I did all that, everything will be at my neck. Anything went wrong will be pointing at me and my beautiful neck. I was also told that, as I will be working with projects involving oil and gas, any mistakes may cost terrible accidents and lives. These mistakes will also cause the company credibility and my credibility as an engineer. It will make the company harder to get a project in the future. It will also be harder for me to handle a project or worst case scenario; I might end up losing my job.

With bad reputation, it will be hard for me to find a new job as well…

I have to remember as well, the company is paying for other workers too. If I am out of job, I only have to worry about myself, unless I get married. The company has to worry about other workers and they have their own family to feed…

I gulped when I took all this in…

One of my lecturers said the truth back then in my university time:

To be an engineer, you have to be responsible for your work. All your calculations and methods must be correct as the end result will affect lots of people lives and money. In the real world, there are no correct answers to questions. The engineer has to come up with it, be sure that the answer is correct and apply it to the real world…

Anything happened; I am to be blamed…

My working desk... Dead or alive depends greatly on what I do here...

Give me more MONEY...

2009-10-13T16:06:00.003+08:00

I want to make money and have lots of money… For now, I am not really thinking for fun. Of course, with lots of money, it will be very nice.

I can go for a vacation somewhere. (Thinking of China, Japan and Korea)

I can buy more GUNDAMS! (PG 00 Gundam is coming out soon)

I can do house make over! (Seriously, my house need to be rearrange)

More books and comics! (So much more books to read)

And lots of other things such as, new laptop, DSi, Wii, cars, shoes, vest, presents, gifts, courses etc…

But for now, I AM STUCK WITH A HUGE DEBT!

Yes… Happy time is over… Only now the letters catch up with me and give me surprises.

Seriously, when you do business with Government, always make another copy for yourself. If something undesirable comes up, at least you have evidence to back you up…

I have only got to know this cute lawyer friend of mine only later in my life. (She is not a lawyer now, a CT, whatever that is… Forgive me but lawyer terms are too alien for me) She does give me good advises regarding legal stuff…

Unfortunately, most of it already happened and it’s rearing its ugly head now after all these years. I don’t know how long, but I am already blacklisted in PTPTN for not clearing my loan. Ever since I studied oversea, my mother and I had written letters to PTPTN, telling them I couldn’t pay the loan yet for I am still studying.

Now I have got a letter summoning me to court. I called them up to clarify on these issue and they told me I had not send in a form they had sent to my house to inform them that I was still studying. As I was not at home that time, I asked my parents and to that they said, “What forms?”

I don’t understand why our letters are ignored and couldn’t be used as supporting evidence that I was still studying. Nearly every year, when the letter asking for my payment came, my mother would reply with a letter explaining my situation. Apparently, it didn’t get to the person it intended to be for…

I am not angry over the extra amount that I have to pay but for the irresponsibility and incompetency of the officers. The extra amount, insyallah will be used as sadaqah for the money will be used to help another student. No problem at all…

Sigh… With my current salary, it will take years until I get to finish paying for my loans. Time to look for higher pay job or earn extra income somehow… How can I even start saving up for my marriage?