numenor.ca

Giant Mecha Maids FTW

jay — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 18:43:56 +0000

Danbo is love

jay — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 18:39:26 +0000

Kiyohiko Azuma was generally responsible for my re-introduction to anime when Azumanga Daioh fansubs started showing up in my old ftp dropbox. Like many people, the simple slice-of-life episodes managed to be both utterly charming and deeply hilarious. This is quite the feat, as few shows have managed to get that magical blend right. Aria manages the “charming” bit quite well, and Lucky Star does the comedy bits to perfection, well, at least after the first seven-episode warmup. The closest anything has come to Azumanga’s high-water mark is Hidamari Sketch, though in all honesty, that may simply be an artifact of chronological sentimentality; I suspect that had I come to both shows at the same time, the order may well be reversed.

Be that as it may, Kiyohiko Azuma hasn’t been resting on his laurels; he’s been writing the deliciously wonderful Yotsuba&! (which you can peruse at your leisure, but I highly recommend picking up the manga from your local friendly comicshop). It was during the process of scouring the interwebatron for more Yotsuba information that I stumbled upon Calonyr11’s Danbo Flickr stream.

Using a Danboard artfully posed out in natural areas (and, eventually, taken on trips to Paris), Calonyr11 has managed to recreate that sense of charm and child-like wonder that is so everpresent in Azuma’s work. It’s particularly telling that the tagline for Yotsuba&! is “Enjoy Everything”. It kind of makes me want to find my old Nikon D20 SLR and see what I can do with my own toys, though I doubt a 1/30th scale Tachikoma has quite the same presence as a Danboard.

Comics Update GET!

jay — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 18:06:06 +0000

Since I’m occasionally slow on the uptake, I’ve been using my webcomics page to surf the stuff I normally read… and then manually enter the URLs for sites that I hadn’t included on the linklist. When the stupidity of this set in, I decided a page repair was in order, so voila, updates.

Some comics had shut down — like Minus (beautiful and frightening as it was), and others had ended before I even had a chance to get into them serially, such as Riceboy, which some folks on the /co subforum had pointed me out to ages ago but, as usual, I was slow on the follow-up.

At least Gunnerkrigg Court is still running, and I finally got around to linking some ALL TIME SMASH HITS like Awkward Zombie and Wonderella. My comics life is complete. Or would be if the guy who updates Gone With the Blastwave would do so more often than semi-annually.

Get Equipped with… Custom Air Man!

jay — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 21:24:53 +0000

I’ve been casing out the plamo scene for a bit now (which, to people who know me, should send them running in terrified circles, given my predilection to be somewhat… careless… with power tools and chemicals). I’ll eventually make a longer-form post on the process of scratchbuilding a fully-realized plastic model, but for now, I needed to share the awesomeness of Air Man.

I’d give an arm and a leg (well, someone else’s arm and a leg) for this baby. It’s not only decorative, but functional (and soothing! given the insane summer heat the Pacific Northwest is sweltering under these days).

Next step: Vibroblades

jay — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 22:58:24 +0000

While I’m certainly not the mall ninja type, I can appreciate the bizarre functionality of the WASP injection knife.

At first glance, I thought the gas reservoir at the back was used to launch the blade, but closer perusal showed that basically, jabbing the knife-tip in and depressing the stopper injected a basketball sized ball of pressurized gas into the target.

As the manufacturer says:

The effects of this injection will drop many of the world’s largest land predators. The effects of the compressed gas not only cause over-inflation during ascent when used underwater, but also freezes all tissues and organs surrounding the point of injection on land or at sea. When used underwater, the injected gas carries the predator to the surface BEFORE blood is released into the water. Thus giving the diver added protection by diverting other potential predators to the surface.

Yow.