Goodies snagged at BGSU

BGSU had "Animarathon 7" yesterday, as well as Case Western's Japan
Connection "Anime Marathon", both single-day student-run spring events
at their campuses.

BGSU's event had a nice dealer's room (and partial artists area), and I
still managed to find a few things, mostly bought from Anime Palace, in
spite of having only 15 minutes to browse.

Revoltech's Yotsubato figure! posable, with addition head and hands and
props.

Some keychains - 3 of Lettuce from Tokyo Mew Mew, though I have 2 of one
style... and a few keychain figures from Galaxy Angel, including Ranpha.
Yay! Those were not from Anime Palace, btw.

I also got the "candy toy" Pretty Cure Max Heart figures of Cure White
and Shiny Luminous, and 3 "Pretty Cure 5" figures for Milky Rose,
Komachi in school uniform, and Cure Aqua. The bases for the PC5 figures
have a notch in the back, obviously for something like a card, but it's
not clear if the card is to come from the packaging or if you can use a
photo, or what.

I almost got a figure of one of the girls from He Is My Master, but held
off. If Anime Palace still has her at Colossalcon, I may end up buying
her. And maybe Air anime disks 3 and 4 from Fast Food Anime. I see
myself not spending a whole lot because I'm really not looking for much.
I have a hotel room to help pay for. I'm always looking for a deal
online, like Book Closeouts Tokyopop manga blowout sale!!



Edit: Doh!! I just saw a misspelling in a title on my video... Well, I ain't fixing it now!

Anime mini-cons today

Here I sit bleary eyed at 5 am to tell you how this day went, which was
quite well, even considering I got home so much later than I thought I
would.

Adam, the guy heading the anime club I go to, as well as the chairman of
Colossalcon, let some members know about some 1 day anime mini-cons
going on. These would be also our chance to distribute some flyers
promoting Colossalcon. One in Akron, mainly for gamers, was cancelled at
the last minute. That left the Anime Marathon thingy (I have a flyer
from that one so I don't remember the name right at the moment because
it's not near me) at Case Western Reserve University, and then one event
going on at Bowling Green State University near Toledo, Ohio.

I decided, yes, I would like to do this.

An early start to my day, around 7 am, had me washing a stack of dishes
(after all, no fun without some work first), getting Breakfast, and then
hopefully setting up Mom's meals for the rest of the day with her aid. I
hope that went as planned.

My day, however, had a hiccup early on. I had not realized Adam had
moved. When I asked him The Usual Place at the meeting, meaning Adam's
house and he said yes, it was not the place I remembered. I needlessly
and embarassedly bothered some woman who now occupied the previous
address I remember Adam living at, and she had been there already for
about a year. Doh! I profusedly apologized, and asked her if she had
other people coming to not find Adam as well. I'm glad I didn't use his
last name!! ^_^;;;

So I get some gas, backtrack to one place I know has a public phone (I
don't know why these things are getting harder to find, but I thank
Walmart for having them, but at least put them away from the blowers
near your front doors!!), and called some dear friends who helped me out
to no end. I cannot thank them enough!! (Thank you guys! you know who
you are. I hope nobody got in trouble.) Yes, I know this would have been
a good case where "I should have a cellphone", but I hope I now have
Adam's cellphone number, and I also definitely know where he now
lives!!! And how to get to it.

SO anywho. We finally get on the road, and eventually make our way up to
Case Western. It was a 1-day event, no fee entry, into the hall with
their meet-up. I'm sad to say I didn't get to checking out the video
rooms (They were showing Zero's Familiar - something I've been wanting
to see). Not a whole lot was happening during the time we were there. It
started at 2 pm, and about the best thing going on was the Kendou
demonstration, complete with the bamboo blades (wink) and the full armor
and equipment. That was a highlight of that visit. I was in awe of what
they were doing that I didn't get any pictures or video of that. Sorry
people! I'm hoping that it picked up a lot as night came, but we didn't
have the time. Also, I don't think the anime club at Case Western is
well-received - while in the men's restroom photographing the poster on
telling you how to wash your hands (come on, people - do college
students know how to do this already?) I noticed one of their little
flyers ripped off the wall in the trash. (sigh)

The reason we didn't have the time to spare was that the event going on
at Bowling Green included a dealers room and lots of panels. It had
started much earlier in the day, so we missed events like their
Masquerade / Cosplay thing, but their dealer's room closed around 6:30
pm. Clear across the state. We had a dickens of a time getting out of
Cleveland as it was to find the Turnpike. Adam did one heck of a job
driving there and we had a short 15 minutes to see which dealers showed
up and to find a few nice goodies to snap up.

Entry was free at the time we showed up - they just needed people to
sign in for a badge to have an accurate head count. Neither event
required you to be a student, so that was good. However, they were
selling the left-over laminated badges just before we left. Argh!!

Fast Food Anime and Anime Palace were there - they also come to
Colossalcon. I think I might end up spend less at Colossalcon this year
unless they get dealers I've never seen before. And then there was this
other guy with his over-priced DVDs. I was told he was a former rep for
ADV. I don't really care for the guy. He comes off as too brusque for my
tastes, and like I said, he prices his stock way too high. I've
purchased only 1 DVD from him in all the time at Colossalcon.

I did manage to get some photos and video clips from both events. There
were more cosplayers at BGSU, and I had more fun there. I wish their
wireless network wasn't set up the way it was though. But still, their
event was much better.

One thing I have to wonder about at Case Western and this may only be me
and my experience with this: I saw guys with the sweater and a tie thing
going on. The only time I saw this is in movies like Animal House. I
considered that mode of dress a movie cliche when depicting student life
on a college campus in a time like the 1950s. I don't think the
atmosphere at CWRU would suit me very well. I dunno, there was something
about it. BGSU though was much different, more fun, more like the
atmosphere of a real anime convention. They really did a great job.

We left BGSU to go home, but Adam wanted to show us the Kalahari Indoor
Water Park, Hotel, and Convention center - the site of Colossalcon 2009.
It's HUGE. Freaking big. We didn't get there in time to walk around the
convention space. I still can't believe that at 1 a.m., there were still
kids and adults wide awake in the water park indoor portion!! They have
3 "Big Ass Fans" in there, too.

Spaces for things like dealers and main events are over double last
year's facilities. Nice wide hallways, too. I just don't know how they
got a place like Kalahari for the convention. Even I would have trouble
getting a place like that! They also have cameras around the hotel
space, and pretty good security keeping an eye on things which will help
the convention staff a lot.

On our way back we noticed what was probably some recent aftermath of a
crash on one highway on the northbound lanes of Route 21. Adam called
the highway patrol to report it in case it hadn't been already. So one
good deed done.

I'm going to sleep now. I've been up for almost 24 hours. Sorta like if
I had been at an actual anime convention. ^_^

Not a bad day for once

I managed to find some wood pieces I can try to use to stabilize my bed.

I finished both crosswords in today's newspaper.

Both my tax refund and Lucky Star V.6 arrived in the mail today.

Heh!! It's a year later and I still got a little more money out of that
unemployment compensation I got and then had to pay back. I didn't get a
fight over it. I was expecting having to look for the credit card
statement from the month I had to write that check to pay back what was
rightfully mine anyway. Those bastards at the Louisville Giant Eagle!
Death to Rick Seigal!! (One can hope, right?)

Rules for the workplace:
1. Don't date coworkers.
2. Don't trust management.
3. Don't shop where you work.
4. Avoid customers when possible.
5. Don't say too much to customers.
6. Try to hide displeasure of customers. (not easy for someone like me
who "wears their heart on their shirt sleeve.")

7. Customers may not always be right, but they are often stupid.

Ok, so that's not a rule but an observation, but it is something to keep
in mind.

8. Take too long to do something, and you will be accused of wasting
time, but if you do something quickly that takes other people a longer
time to do the same task, you are accused of not doing a good enough job
even if it's the same result. Take detailed notes as to what you are
doing, and if possible, explain why you don't have to take as long.

For those with bad bosses, rest assured that some form of cancer will
come along and kill them. Sure is one hell of a lifestyle changer,
innit?

If your bad boss travels a lot, hope for a traffic accident or plane
crash.

If you have bad management staff underneath them, hope for the same
things.

Getting my bed up to speed

I used to have a decent bed before we had to move for reasons I could
not control. It was a twin size bed, and the frame and everything with
that provided plenty of support. Not a problem with it in the long time
I used it. I wish I had it back. It was a no-nonsense bed frame.

Jump to living at my grandfather's house. The bed this time is a king or
something. It's wider than my twin bed. Why do I not still have the
twin? The box springs and the mattress literally disintegrated upon
moving it. I didn't have the money to replace them considering the job I
had at the time. It had become very comfortable for my purposes. It was
a perfect sleeper. Unfortunately, it was left behind.

So I get this bed my grandparents had. One of two by the way. It has
flimsy thin metal rails. No support structure underneath the box
springs. One of the rails bent the first day I sat on the bed, requiring
ever since a stack of books and pieces of wood to prevent further
sagging, which it didn't quite prevent but for a while it worked.

Jump to the house we're in now. Only now do I discover that the floor is
not square, actually. One side of my bed where it sits now is higher
than the other and I think the floor sags or something. It wasn't made
very well. And the bent rail is a bit more bent. I was able to get a
formerly used metal futon frame kindly donated to me by a friend with
the plan of using it for support. It has an 11 inch lift from the floor,
so I expected some play as I would use it to support my bed, since its
rails were supposed to support the box springs at 10 inches off the
floor.

It also doesn't help that the two pieces of metal, fashioned in some way
as hooks of really thick wire, designed to keep the rails of the bed
together and provide some means of support actually snapped off the
hooks in the middle of the box springs. Rendering them useless. I
replaced it with a muchly knotted bungee cord.

What I would really like are rails of square tubing metal, or at least
something of that nature either replacing the crap I've got now or
somehow securely welded and / or bolted to the rails I got now.

At the time in 1995 (7 long months of hell) during which my older sister
was renovating the house we used to have, there was an offer made to
make for me a bed frame pedestal thing of sorts. I turned it down due to
the fact that I do not want my older sister in my room for any purpose
because she's nosy and would make all sorts of unnecessary comments
about things she has no business making comments about. Sort of like my
father. If it could have been made outside, then I bring it inside in
pieces and I assemble it myself, that might have worked. But as it was,
I had a good bed already.

I certainly didn't want a bigger bed just yet. Which is also why I am
not using the waterbed frame. It's too honking big.

At any rate, I think I will need far less wood under the box springs to
stop the seesaw motion the mattress and all have now. But at least it
won't fall through the rails anymore!

What were those 3 things?

Trying to find info on the "3 things your girlfriend gets rid of when
you get married."

I figure 2 of those were Your Porn collection, and Your Friends.

Maybe that 3rd one was "Your Stuff"?

Or the things she makes you get rid of? At any rate, I'm not getting rid
of my stuff. I like my stuff. I spent a long time collecting it. There's
some stuff I'm trying to get rid of, by either deciding it's junk and
just toss it, or by selling it because there's some value in it.

If you have an assortment of pr0n, it's the rare girl who shares your
interest in it, and it'll be mainly because she's smart enough to know
(and some therapists even say so) that a couple that engages in a
healthy sexual relationship use pr0n as a way to keep their love life
renewed and prevent it from becoming boring. Find a goddess like that,
and you definitely marry her. You'll still have to decide what to get
rid of (or give away), but at least the entire treasure trove isn't in
jeopardy.

That's usually the first thing girlfriends try to make guys get rid of.
She doesn't want the competition? Insecure? Guys are guys, and they'll
always take a look at it. That's just the way they are. It's the smart
and emotionally stable woman who realizes this could be good for the
both of them. Good marriages come from the realization that every day is
a day to fall in love with the one you married.

I'm still of the mind of wanting to get married, mainly because I want
to have some daughters someday, but it's going to be hard to find the
girl who likes anime and manga as much as I do and doesn't afraid of
hentai. The more she's like me, the better off it'll be. as long as
she's cute.

What's up with Best Buy? The Quest for Lucky Star DVD #6

Is Best Buy having problems? I had to buy Lucky Star V.5 and 6 online. I
went in there to get V.5 last month or so only to suddenly see all their
Limited Edition boxes gone (presumably sold), and found out thanks to a
store employee that the local BB store wasn't going to carry Lucky Star
#6.

So instead, which I think I shouldn't have done, was to zero out the
gift card I got buy using it as a $1.69 coupon off a stack of Memorex
"Cool Colors" blank CDs. Only this time they mean the data side being
colored in also. Umm... What? Last time I bought a Cool Colors stack,
only 1 side was colored. I don't like those stacks because the black CDs
aren't easy to write on unless you have a silver Sharpie. I don't have a
silver sharpie, only black and maybe 1 Red Sharpie, but it has the same
visibility problems that a black sharpie has on a black Memorex Cool
Color CD.

"You press a black button with letters in black on a black background
where a black light lights up black to let you know you've pressed it."
HHGTTG inspired quote

Instead I should have held onto the gift card and bought a stack of HP
blank CD media at Big Lots for $9. But at this point I figured it was
pointless to go back to Best Buy since that store wasn't going to have
more Lucky Star, an anime that has been easily outselling most of their
other titles.

There was another 50 disk stack of Memorex media that wasn't Cool Colors
but for some odd reason it was $20.

I needed some good media anyway (maybe someday I'll find Verbatim media
at good price because they're supposed to be pretty darn good) because
one stack of Aldi's now discontinued $5 25-disk blank CD media turned
out to have problems. It's easy to tell apart from the other Tevion
stack that is working because the bad stack has different packaging and
has a number of sorts pressed into the center ring of the plastic. So
those will be test or audio CDs because when I'm burning through them,
it won't be so important like computer data is. When I heard the burner
dance across a disk at 32x without problems or slowing down, I know it
has a good chance to be a good working disk.

Anywho, instead of buying Lucky Star #6 at BB, I went to Borders
(there's a 2nd Suzumiya Haruhi manga book out that I didn't have - Did I
miss ordering it?) and they didn't have LS #6 either. Actually, their
selection of anime sucks and it's over priced. Went to BB&B-yond for a
french fry slicer, then got the foodstuffs Mom wanted.

Wow. All 3 of those stores' names begin with B. Odd.

I think it will be awhile before I go nuts over a recently-released
anime. I have a few Funimation series to complete after raiding Big Lots
(ARGH!! !! Another B Store!) for a bunch of anime DVDs there.

Bewildered.

Can I rant time now?

What is it with people and not pulling up to the white strip on the
pavement that shows where people are to stop when driving and at a red
light? Some people don't stop in the right place and then sit there for
freaking forever wondering why the light isn't changing. Usually they're
leaving open a precious half car-length of space that should be taken
up. It drives me absolutely f-ing nuts. PULL UP YOU SIMPLETON ASS!! I've
also seen people stop _before_ the detector loop on the pavement! I
waited for one couple for over 5 minutes on a light that usually changes
with 30 seconds of stopping in the right spot. They eventually just got
fed up, pulled up, and ended up driving through a red light - only
because they didn't stop at the right spot, and that's usually (always!)
the white strip where they show you this is the best place to wait,
don't take up more space than necessary. Damn.

People are a problem.

Product Review: Fix-A-Windshield

Maybe I wish I had found out about this product some years ago while
driving that Dakota truck and before that crack grew longer than my arm
and was on there for over a year.

Recently, while driving the Kia, I became yet again a victim to the
shaking of going over a railroad crossing and a falling bit of stone
debris from a hauling truck. It really pissed me off that here I was
finally driving a vehicle with a pristine windshield and a loud POP
sound happened and a small crack-like chip appeared, and nearly in the
middle of the left side of the window.

I must remember to avoid that crossing or pull over further to the right
when going there when a hauling truck is there at that same moment.

Anywho, I thought "Isn't there a product for this?" Like when you get a
flat tire, Fix-A-Flat will repair the tire long enough to get somewhere,
sometimes for longer than you realize - at least until really painfully
killing cold weather comes along and presto, the tire is no longer
fixed.

But there IS. Probably from the same company for all I know. It's
Fix-A-Windshield. About $10 at Walmart. It promises to fix chips and
cracks in your windshield that aren't major (see the product packaging
to see what they claim it will fix). For my purposes, this would likely
do what I need it to do. It claims to fill in those chips and or cracks
and prevent them from spreading, at least those that don't go all the
way through and in one layer of glass.

I had to apply this in the morning before the sun came up because you
can't apply this in full sun. You have to shade the repair area until
ready to leave in the sun, because ultraviolet light cures the resin
used in this kit. Well, early in the morning before the sun is up and
with me standing over the car provided ample shade, plus the instruction
sheet placed over the apparatus also proved handy.

The Apparatus consists of an X formation of plastic support arms and
suction cups, at the center of which is this grooved hole. This is for
the Resin Chamber that screws into this. Center that hole over the main
area of your chip or crack (likely the main impact site), then turn this
until it is firmly against the glass and the hole at the other end opens
up. Then you apply a few drops of the resin (after cutting the little
bottle open), about 4 to 6 drops, into the chamber. Then you have a
Driver to screw into that. It forces air out of the chamber, and in turn
forces the resin into the crack, and hopefully filling in the cracks so
when the resin cures in the sun, they will disappear.

My experience? I might not have applied enough resin for my small chip
or maybe didn't get the driver used quite right, because the slight
crack that appeared beneath the impact site didn't quite disappear. I
waited 4-6 minutes, and even removed and re-inserted the driver thingy
like the instructions said to do. But it _did_ fill in the micro-crater
created by the debris, and when the resin cured, you nearly can't tell
how big that was. It matches the refractive index of the glass well.

I noticed a couple of nearby micro scratches so I used a drop of the
resin and the curing strips to see to that. Oh yeah, forgot those. Once
the resin has been forced into the chip or crack and it looks like the
resin has been asborbed well (the cracks should just about disappear
during this process), carefully remove the apparatus and put these clear
curing strips on top of the application area. Just lay them on, no force
is necessary. Let it sit in the sun and it cures. Also don't put the
suction cups on any of the cracks, as it says in the instructions.

Final opinion: Fix-A-Windshield definitely works! It doesn't seem to
matter what temperature it is outside when making the application, but
it might be best to do this above freezing temps. My repair attempt
might not be 100% perfect, but it did fill in the chip well enough to
suit me and hopefully prevent it from spreading a crack like before.

Sometimes you have to yell at the neighbor's dog

We have these redneck neighbors - well, that's the best way to describe
them in regard to how they 'watch' their dogs - that have these Boxers,
rather decent sized dogs. They have more than a few.

Well, anywho, they have this one male dog. They generally do not tie up
their dogs, so when they get let out, they'll run around, into the road,
across the street, into garbage, poop outside of their yard (on ours,
from time to time). This attitude caused one of their females to get hit
by a train and got injured.

Anywho, around 11:30 last night or so, the male gets let out. He
proceeds to bark incessantly. I'm upstairs getting ready to go to bed.
Mom's downstairs trying to read before she falls asleep. Their dog, when
around front of the house next door, will bark and bark. He runs around,
out in the street, across into the yards, etc. You get the picture. He's
not tied up. While they don't consider him to be any threat, he's a
nuisance nonetheless.

He also barks quite loudly.

I go out there, stand near a front corner of the house. I stand there,
stare at him, and make these really sharp, splitting hand clap noises
that gets most animals' attention. I have to make three of these
threatening clap noises before the dog takes off around the side of the
house away from us. As long as he is there, his barking doesn't bother
us. Problem is, the stupid dog won't stay there, and soon he's back
around front barking again.

He barks at cars, but what I noticed is he's barking at the red lights
visible on the cell phone tower nearby, which are also visible from his
point of view in front of the house next door.

I go out a second time to make my threatening clap noise, and he gets
the idea the first time at this point. I go back in. At some point, this
dog has been out for a couple of hours. He eventually comes back around
front, and now around the side of the house toward ours, still barking
at who knows what, but for some reason he's barking at our back yard.

Around 3:37 AM, I get woken up because he's still barking. He's been out
for 4 hours and those idiots don't hear this?? When our dog has been let
out to potty, I make sure she gets back in as she begins to make noise.
If she's barking, she's not pooping.

This time I've had it. No more noises, he's going to get an angry voice.
I hold back my urge to include profanity. I go to the back door, but
don't turn on the light. That would be a signal and the dog would take
off before he got yelled at.

I step out to make sure the stupid dog is there, and barking. He's going
to get the full brunt of my treatment. I suppose at this point he's
either barking at the tree or the moonlight shining through its
branches. Damn stupid dog.

I wait only a second before I get a bark, and I unleash the loudest
"SHUT UUUUPP!!" Sister Mary Elephant-style that I can angrily manage at
that time in the morning. I lost about 3 to 4 hours of sleep to this
mutt. (OK, idiot dog, but any stupid dog barking for 4 hours in the
middle of the night without its stupid owner excercising control over it
is a mutt in my book.)

The dog immediately turns around and makes a beeline away from there.
And not a single peep out of it for the rest of the night and into the
next morning.

It's a wonder the dog hasn't been shot already due to its wandering out
of the yard into places it's not supposed to be. I'm sure there's
someone out there that will do it, even if it's only a BB gun to the
dog's testicles to teach it a lesson.

Next time, there will be profanity in that angry scream.

An Aha moment

This came quickly - the mirror in the projector could be the only thing
that I might need to adjust! And a slight adjustment at that.

I will try to see about using a higher wattage bulb, but definitely a
fan replacement is in order.

More with WonderWall

OK so I just now tested it out with real-world video. It doesn't seem to
be that bad. It just takes some fiddling adjusting to the focus,
contrast, and color saturation until it looks acceptable. Perhaps using
this with an actual projector screen will improve things, since they are
made to better reflect light shining on it.

Some people who bought and kept this video projector have tried higher
wattage bulbs like 75W. The unit comes with a 50W halogen bulb. I think
the unit needs a better way of reflecting the light evenly. It might
have performed better with a cold-cathode tube, similar to what's in
laptop LCD screens and some scanners, and not much unlike compact
flourescent bulbs. You can't just toss a bulb and mirror in a unit and
expect to get good results. You have to apply some science to things.

Others suggested adjusting the settings in the DVD player used with the
unit. I tried some video from videotape (Beijing olympics opening
ceremony) and some from DVD (Lucky Star V.5). Real-world video tends to
look better than precise-pixel video (like a Ms. Pac-Man game unit). The
projector needs to be aimed directly at the surface it's projecting onto
for best results.

It could be an acceptable method for the general home user to project
video onto a bigger display screen. It's not yet meant for serious use
or for professional presentations. Once I can figure out how to make it
shine more evenly and get that cooling fan replaced with a quiet-run
fan, this could be quite useful. I was pleased to see that it handled
real video rather well, being generally acceptable.

If you use it with mostly letterboxed content, you won't notice the
problem with the uneven illumination, but like I said earlier, I'm going
to see how to fix that.