Oldschool Gaming + My Massive Haul for February…

So I just wanna apologize for the lack of an update last week…and the week before that. I was just super busy all of last week at work, and all I wanted to do when I got home was veg out to some good ol’ anime with some video gaming on the side. Which is what I mostly did. So… Sorry!

Lately I’ve been old-schooling it up a notch with Final Fantasy 9 for the PSX (or One for those of you who stumbled onto the PS scene late…). Very fun stuff. I haven’t played an old-school RPG in quite some time, so this was actually refreshing – in a nostalgic kind of way.  In fact I feel a bit strange referring to FF9 as being oldschool, but … it’s been a decade and considering our current video gaming technology, by that definition would be considered “old” by most. “Old” as it is, I’d forgotten how quirky and fun FF9 can be, and I really enjoy the distinguished artwork – though funny enough, my friend Adam from work seems to HATE it, and claims that apparently lots of people didn’t really like FF9.

Ushering in a New Year Along With Some Resolutions…

Happy New Year! Okay, I did miss the western new year, but at least I’m here to wish a belated Chinese New Year!

I also figured that I would take this opportunity to address what’s been going on with my blog. So what has been going on? Well, as you can see, not really a whole lot. In fact, painfully so.

What happened?

Back! (From My Uber Lazy Induced “Sabbatical”)

Or whatever that means.

Last you heard from me, I mentioned I was off to PAX… and it was a blast! But I was too lazy to update about it here…

Gomen! I want to be able to say I’ve been busy, but that would be a lie. Aside from being super busy at work when I got back from the convention, I didn’t really have any reason for not being able to blog about it, I was just plain and simple being lazy about it. Then it started getting to the point where I had put it off so long, that I was worried about having left the update for so long which ended up with me continuing to procrastinate over it. A vicious cycle that just kept getting worse and worse, I know. I’m very good at pushing that voice that tells me to do things into the back of my head, until it gets to the point where I can no longer ignore it.

I guess also I want to be able to post about my experience, and do it justice somehow?

So! About PAX…

I’m not going to go into great detail about each day, since… well that was a month ago, so I can’t quite recall it anymore, plus I was pretty lazy about taking any pictures. We did haul back lotsa free swag, including t-shirts, posters, buttons, coupons, cards, etc… and some other swag I bought including Volume 2 & 3 of APPLE, VENT 001, a PAX10 shirt, the 11.5 year Anniversary Penny-Arcade book, the 6th PA book, and Atelier Iris for PS2. We also met this guy who just randomly joined our late night session of board gaming, who turned out to be from Vancouver as well, and he had a wife who was also into gaming. Which was really awesome because we don’t really have any gamer friends (at least ones who are more serious about gaming, outside of casual games), and them being a gamer couple was a bonus! We exchanged contacts, and have since met up once for a board gaming session, and it was really fun…looking forward to future gaming sessions!

What else… Oh yeah! While we hung out mostly in the exhibitors hall for most of the time there, we did manage to get into some panels. The best panel (at least IMO) that we were able to attend was the “Create a Strip” panel, where you got to watch the PA guys go at it and make an actual strip. It was really awe-inspiring to watch Mike draw and put the strip together all within the length of the panel which was only scheduled to be an hour long. Not to say that Jerry didn’t do any work, though for most of the panel of course he was entertaining, while Mike worked his magic. He even finished well before the panel was up, and had plenty of time afterward to doodle a really neat looking collage of all the PA characters they’ve created since it’s founding.

Well I was hoping to make this a more substantial posting, but it looks like it’s time for bed… So I will try – scratch that, I WILL post tomorrow more details on PAX with what few pictures I did manage to snap at the event.

Annual Gamer Trek…We’re Off To Attend PAX!

Off to our yearly gamer trek to Seattle!

It’s that time of the year again! So we’ll (my hubby and I) will be taking off sometime tomorrow afternoon to Seattle to attend the Penny Arcade eXpo! Unfortunately I will be trying to juggle some work I brought home with me to make up for the time I’m taking off…though I imagine I won’t spend much time on work during the convention. I’m aiming to tackle some of it tomorrow morning, and most likely try to finish most of it on Monday, but we’ll see…

Funny kind of back story…

Work Desk Eyecandy Part 1

Insanekitten's work desk... at home.

Ahhh noooes I are getting lazies! Gomen. Speaking of lazy, I need to clean my desk… hmmm. I have tons of space between the monitor and keyboard, so I tend to plunk down random figures there. I kinda like it like that but looking at this photo makes me think it’s a tad messy. Ah well…

So here we go with a couple part posts! My very first one!

Moe Moe Kyuuun! Mio Akiyama Figure Review

Last Saturday I received a nice surprise…

moe moe kyun!

Can you guess what I got in the mail? X3

From Me To You

I opened up my Kimi ni Todoke Pinky Street figures.

This set is a regular release set, but interestingly enough, it comes with two complete bodies, meaning there are two sets of hairs, heads/faces, top shirts, and bottom legs (+ skirts). Usually a Pinky Street figure in a regular release comes with one complete body, plus an additional outfit (sans the extra head and hair). So this set actually offers two complete Sawako’s, which is a pretty good deal for a Pinky Street figure, even though the hair is exactly the same style. This set also comes with two stands.

Erm, I guess heels make a big difference?

Everything in this picture is what is included in the set. I didn’t notice until I set the Pinkys on their stands that Sawako’s school uniform outfit is significantly shorter than her regular dress outfit. Standing them side by side makes them almost look like two different people.

Phat Lewt #003: Part of Late July’s Releases

Part of my order from July’s releases came in a couple of days ago. Well actually they came in about a week ago, but I think it was a combination of the mailman forgetting to deliver the slip plus my not checking the mailbox every single day. Oh well…

Part of my haul for July's releases

Anyhoo!

Phat Lewt #002: GSC Goodies Galore!

There were certainly Good Smiles all around for me when a package came in the mail last Friday…

Though I didn’t actually receive the package until SATURDAY. It seems the mailman forgot to leave the pickup slip when they attempted to deliver this package. I was expecting this package, and as it was shipped via EMS, I was anticipating its every move as I tracked it, and on Friday I found out that it was in “Retention” at a zip code matching mine. I knew it had to be at the post office! The nearest post office to my home is a hop, skip, and a jump away. Seriously only takes me about 2 minutes to walk there. So I text messaged my hubby asking him to check the mail as soon as he got home (as he arrives home before I do) , and to meet me at the post office so that I could pick it up without delay, as the post office was on my way home, with the bus stop right across the street from it.

He later responds to me that there was no slip to be found. My heart fell and my excitement died. “What? No slip? Are you sure?” He’s sure he’s sure.

So I go straight home and check the mailbox for myself; of course there’s nothing to be found. Disappointment sets in as I moodily slip inside my home. I attempt to check the tracking again later that evening, and found the same results, the last scan revealing the package was in “Retention”.

The next day I drop by my local post office to try my luck and check to see if there was such a package. “Hmmm….yup, looks like there’s a package here. Weird how you didn’t get a slip.” Damn that mailman! So I sign for the package, went grocery shopping, then came to pick up the package and whisk it away home to relish the goodies from Good Smile Company’s Winter WonderFest 2010 lineup.

Big fat juicy box full of GSC goodness... Mmmmmmm!

Doll Stand Kit Completed…Success!

I put together the Obitsu doll stand late Monday night; it didn’t take too long to snap the pieces out, remove flash from each piece and assemble it all together. Took me about 45 mins altogether. I didn’t have a tiny Philips screwdriver for installing the nuts and screws, but I did however have a just barely small enough slotted screwdriver that did the job. All in all it was a fairly straightforward and easy kit to build.

I tested out the stand and …

Tadahh! Mio now stands!