Anime North, T-minus 30 days and counting

It’s almost here. Anime North 2010. Again, no cosplay this year but that’s fine, I want to flesh out some ideas first before I do this. My first cosplay is going to rock, no way around it, I’m a perfectionist when it comes to that sort of thing. I either do it well or not at all. Not looking forward to the 5 hour drive to Toronto but whatevs. It’s still going to be an awesome weekend.

Just a quick update on my ‘other project’; I’m tentatively looking to launch it June 1st. I have the domain, the logo is being worked on, and I’m always working on content and design. I’ve decided to go with WordPress as the backend of the site. It’s a great CMS and I’m familiar with it. No, this isn’t going to be a blog, nor will it really look like one when I’m done with the design/layout. More to come in the following weeks.

GuiStyle for Trillian Astra – Out Now!

GuiStyle for Trillian Astra

After a year of procrastinating, I have finally released GuiStyle for Trillian Astra. You can download it over at deviantART: http://elessarbarton.deviantart.com/art/GuiStyle-for-Trillian-Astra-31593069

I’m not considering updating Alien Technology…not sure yet, but we’ll see. I would love to create something original but nothing has come to mind yet and I’m still working on getting my ‘other’ project up and running. Will keep you posted

Anime North 2010

Just a quick update. Anime North 2010 is approaching fast and we (Callan and I) are looking forward to our 3rd year I recently bought a camcorder, a Kodak PlaySport ZX3…it does HD (1080p) as well as stills (5 MP) and I paid $94.44 (plus take off about $10.xx in Bing Cashback) so not too bad if you ask me. Callan bought a new digital camera, a Kodak M1063, 10.x MP, should be nice. We’re staying at the Holiday Inn which is like, .5 miles away from the Toronto Congress Centre, a very short walk, it’ll be nice not having to cross that bridge to get to the Crown Plaza.

Will post a review of the Kodak PlaySport ZX3 camcorder when my SDHC card arrives. Out.

Blu-ray splurge…

First off, this is a tag-heavy post. Roughly 23 tags and I’m sure I’ll add more before this post is over. It’s been almost a month since my last update, somy apologies (to those who actually read this). Work is going well, though I really want to find a full-time, Monday-Friday job sometime soon, that would be nice. In all honesty, I want to wear a shirt and tie to work everyday…I’ve been looking forward to it ever since I started working towards my Bachelors in Business back in 2005. Unfortunately, my degree has not helped me what-so-ever here in Massena, NY. Callan recently obtained a great paying job (for the area) so relocating isn’t really in the cards right now and I’d prefer to stay close-ish to family. So the hunt continues. If anyone in the Massena area is looking for a hard-working, level-headed go-getter, feel free to contact me.

Moving on, Chicago was fun, Utada was amazing, and next up is Anime North in Toronto in May. Definitely looking forward to it this year, especially since our hotel is literally right next to the Toronto Congress Centre (well, a short, short walk away). No cosplaying this year. A combination of not finding the material/parts and lack of inspiration did us in again…maybe next year?

Aside from work and anime, I’ve been building up my Blu-ray collection. If you check the tags (which is up to 33 now), you’ll see quite a few movies there. All are Blu-ray and all are mine now My most recent purchase was Firefly which was part of Amazon’s lightning deal yesterday. $27.xx shipped for the Blu-ray version, amazing deal if you ask me, and with Prime shipping it should be here Tuesday. I wont list off every movie, nor will I comment on every one as well, but I’m looking forward to watching Band of Brothers, That arrived earlier this week but I haven’t had a chance to watch any of it yet. Heard it was amazing though. Ponyo on the other hand was awesome. 2D, hand-drawn animation has never looked so good, seriously. Miyazaki never fails to impress you with his creations. Here’s hoping his other works (Spirited Away, Howl’s Moving Castle) are released on Blu-ray soon. I also (finally) got Blade Runner: The Final Cut…never seen this movie before, though everyone tells me I should. I’ll get around to watching it sometime soon I’m sure. 5 discs though, including the workprint, pretty impressive, and I only paid $13.98 for it at DeepDiscount.com.

Gaming-wise, I’ve been playing a lot of Modern Warfare 2 lately, as well as some Final Fantasy XIII which was released on Tuesday. I’m about 8 hours into FFXIII and so far it’s good. I’ve been wanting a good RPG to play lately and the fast-paced battle system + strategies required to win = fun. Well worth it and the Collector’s Guide (I got No. 8,.783/210,000) was well worth the price so far. I’m hoping to hook up the Xbox 360 back in the living room sometime soon (perhaps after I finish FFXIII) so I can finally play some Mass Effect 2. The Collector’s Edition has been sitting on my entertainment center for a few weeks (months?) now.

Looking at the clock, I should probably get ready for work. I’m working on a few projects right; one – to finish up GuiStyle for Trillian Astra and, two – get my other site up and running…I’ll talk more about that later

P.S. the tag count is 47 48..holy shit!

Aliens vs. Predator – Hunter Edition

Aside from Guitar Hero 2 and Rock Band 1, I’ve never spent over $100 for a video game…well, that changed yesterday as I picked up my pre-order for Rebellion’s/SEGA’s new game Aliens vs. Predator. I got the ‘Hunter Edition’, which includes the game in a fancy steelbook case (I ♥ these), a patch, a mini-hardback comic book, a 3D lenticular, 4 exclusive multiplayer maps, AND…last, but certainly not least, a replica facehugger

All for the very low price of $99.99 (plus tax).

I don’t really feel the need to justify the purchase because most ‘Collectors Editions’ go for $69.99 ($10 more than regular editions) and are in a steelbook case…so I paid $30 more for the replica facehugger, and all the other goodies. Can’t really beat that. Anyway, I’ll try to post a review (full or short, we’ll see) in the next few days. You can see what the Hunter Edition looks like here (excuse the cheesiness):

http://img694.imageshack.us/g/sany0291y.jpg/

It was awesome! (Utada + Chicago)

The concert was awesome. Utada was amazing. The guitarist was freaking sweet. Really enjoyed it overall. Would have liked to of had a better view but at least we could see her without being crushed. Aside from her having a great voice, her guitarist almost stole the show. He has some serious talent. Some of the songs were rock-ish and he solos just powered through the entire building, it was great. REALLY hoping she released a DVD of her “In the Flesh” concert at one of the House of Blues.

We checked out the Navy Pier and the Water Tower in Chicago. The Navy Pier was cool, we saw Avatar in 3D at the IMAX, it was fucking awesome. It was also my first IMAX/3D (polarized 3D) experience so not a bad way to pop my cherry (so to speak). The Water Tower on the other hand was really disappointing. Shitty, overpriced stores…no pop up shops in the middle of the floors, a waste of time really. Overall we had a blast. We tried some Lou Malnati’s “famous Chicago-style pizza”. The sauce was amazing, the crust…eh, not so much, still good, but not great. I’ll take my cheesy, thinner-crusted New York-style pizza any day

I’ll try and get the pictures up sometime this weekend, some of them turned out, some didn’t.

EDIT: uploaded some pictures, will upload the rest later. You can view them here: http://twitpic.com/photos/SynGamer

And we’re off!

Just a quick post today. Not only are we leaving for Chicago today, I also get to open the store, by myself, for the first time today so a lot of things are happening Looking forward to the 13+ hour train ride already. Will be nice to get some sleep and just sit back and relax. Hoping the Utada concert is good, I’m sure it will be, and the House of Blues looks very cool. Fingers crossed everything goes as planned and no problems crop up between here and Chicago!

Utada + Chicago = Awesome

So I think I’ve already mentioned this, but Callan and I are going to Chicago in early February to see Utada (Hikaru – the JPop artist) to see her live at the House of Blues. While I’m not a huge fan, I do enjoy her songs and she’s pretty so I figure this can’t be too bad. And we’ll be in Chicago so we’re going to visit Callan’s friend whom she hasn’t seen in a few years. So really, this is killing two birds with one stone, three if you include getting to see my aunt I hardly ever see and four if you include getting to site-see Chicago. All in the course of about 36 hours

We’re taking the train from Syracuse, NY to Chicago, a 13+ hour trip, but it sure as hell beats driving for 15 hours. $212 for 2 round-trip tickets, score. And it only cost us about $50-75 more than if we drove and had to gas the car up. In this case, we’re paying for the luxury of not having to drive, well worth the cost if you ask me. I’m looking forward to the train ride, as well as seeing Chicago, and we’re staying in a Super 8 Motel for like $42 so you really can’t beat the prices.

That’s all for now. I set my phone up to text directing to Twitter so I’m totally going to update while on the train