Which place is better to work at, regardless of salary?

Ikea, or an R&D chocolate 'lab'?

If there's anyone here who received my 'email' saying I'm in Botswana and asking for money, ignore it. I'm still in Malaysia, and some conman moron or a bot hijacked my old account: balddecision@yahoo.com. Got a call from my buddies about the situation...

Or if it's some 4chan-like jackass who hijacked it for lulz, then someone needs to slap these insensitive morons proper. There's a difference between being funny and being a stupid bullying prankster.

Well, that's my theory for now...

Ah, scratch-building. I've always wanted to always build my own stuff without having to wait for a replica that I like to be produce by companies or custom-builders, and spending money on a model kit that you might be afraid that it'll break or you painted wrong or you accidentally cut off a piece that you shouldn't cut off. Not to mention if it's a rare resin model kit that you acquired for about RM800 or more(I'm serious. There are some toy-convention-only kits that could cost that much. Ouch.).

Truth is, I've gotten this perception that if you wanna scratch-build your own triple-cannon mounted super tank or a super-mecha of doom, you need some really advance superskills and expensive tools and materials to start building one. It sounds scary, doesn't it? Not really. It's actually a good thing that I researched a bit about this so-called 'scary' foray into scratch building, and found that... it's not as overwhelming as I thought.

This all started out when I couldn't find any existing toy to the Front Mission series(a mecha strategy game in the truest sense of the word, not to mention the setting and technology in the game has to be the greatest examples of realism I've seen in a while.), and if you look at my use icon displayed now, that is the wanzer(shorten from "Wanderung Panzer", which means Walking Tank in German. Quite spiffy) I want. Bad enough that even the gashapons of the mechs are no longer around. So why waste time waiting or searching for what toy I want to get that's no longer there?

And thus I finally got off my butt to finally do something worthwhile. Here are the supplies that I got that's enough to start out(bought them at Hobby HQ in City Square):

- 0.35mm and 0.5mm styrene sheets(it's technically plastic, I think). Cost is RM10 per sheet.

- Tamiya Epoxy Putty(quick dry. Use for sculpturing. It's something like clay.). RM19.90

- Mr.Cement Deluxe. RM20(I forgot the actual price)

- A durable knife. If you can find something that's even more durable than your usual paper-cutting knife, it'll make cutting easier. But I manage to cut the 0.35mm sheet with my paper knife, but it took a second cut to pry it off...

- A cutting board(will get that later)

But really, all of these is a waste of money if you DO NOT PLAN AHEAD FIRST. That's right, take out some papers, take out your pen, pencil and ruler, and start drawing out your ultimate plans of destruct-... er, blueprint of the subject of choice. Really work out how it'll work in your build. You can't blindly build without any sort of reference. Believe me, I tried. It didn't work.

Below are some of the websites on scratch-building and references that I've come across that'll really help:

http://www.starshipmodeler.com/tech/aj_scratch.htm <--- Scratch-Building 101. This guy explains it better than me. If I confused you too much, go here.

http://www.geocities.com/duom/tfproject/wwprime/wip/wipprime.html <--- One of the best examples I've seen of scratch-building. But if there are others better than this, lemme know.

http://www.nevolution.org/tutorial.php <--- Helps if you don't know what to get to get started. Note that you don't NEED some of the more expensive stuff that's listed... for now.

http://www.hlj.com/top/Sup <--- HobbyLink Japan's is one of the more well-known online hobby stores that I know of.

The easiest form of scratch-building that's been seen quite often is kitbashing. It's basically taking an existing model and modifying the heck out of it to become something else that you want. Try googling 'Transformers kitbash' and see what I mean.

There are GONNA be MISTAKES when you start out scratch-building. Hell, anything that you're new to will always have mistakes laden around. It's inevitably part of the learning process. I remember when I sculptured figurines for a game design project for college, I had to throw them aside because I used the wrong material for it(I had to use kid's clay instead of a the quick-drying paper clay). It wasn't easy.

Right now, I'm currently planing a simple test scratch-build figure to test out what I can do. I'm not simply gonna go straight into building that wanzer that I like.

I'm writing this as part of what I knew of scratch-building. I'm no expert and not claiming to be. I'm a novice myself who just started getting into this.

More soon to come. Will post pics next time.

http://www.copyright.gov/docs/regstat031308.html

I went nuts at first, thought it was gonna be like "OHNOES-MY-ART-IS-NO-LONGER-COPYRIGHT-AND-ITS-GONNA-BE-STOLEN" and shit, and I found out about the above link when I come across Meredith Patterson's LJ.

Basically, You still own the copyright over the art/picture/work the moment you created it. However, if you, the copyright holder is no longer around(read: dead or don't care) and cannot be reached at all to deal with the issue, it becomes an ORPHANED work(as in, and orphaned child who lost his/her parents). Thus, "Orphan" Works.

Yes, I know this is an isolated matter, but it did cause a scare and the potential to spill over. The thing is, it's just an isolated matter that isn't much of a threat.

Aaah. Hehe, right now the people at DA is going batshit crazy over the issue after reading Mark Simon's article and thinking it really is true. Guess I'll do my part in damage control...

EDIT: Another thing I like to state... this legislation hasn't been approved, nor does it exist now. There was something similar in the past but got shot downed. So relax, people.

Turns out it was a bag of cloths in yesterdays The Star newspaper. And it didn't warrant a front page material as it gets a small dinky section. Lol.

Some guy who found the bag thought he heard clicking sounds in the bag. Could be a clock or his imagination.

You heard that right, Malaysians.

Got a call from my freaked-out sis and mom about this.

Stay clear from KLCC today if you're planning to go there.

Hope it's just a hoax... Correct me if I'm wrong, but weren't there other city bomb threats in the past before this? In Malaysian cities?

Better safe than sorry.

I don't really get why there are some people who can't and won't suspend belief.

Ok, here's an example(Not that this really happened, but it's an example):

Me: *watching Transformers*
Some guy: Why are you watching that?
Me: Why can't I? Something wrong?
Guy: Yeah. I mean, come on, robots from another world that can transform into cars? That ain't real and impractical. If someone builds those kind of robots, it won't last, tanks will blow their legs off blah, blah, blah, blah(goes into all this technobabble/superior knowledge about how real-life and all that)...
Me: So? It's a cartoon. What does this have to do with real life?
Guy: IT just doesn't WORK!
Me: Well, what about the recent advances with that Asimo bot and that small transforming robot I saw in some robot show?
Guy: They're IMPRACTICAL! They'll be shot while transforming blah blah blah...
Me: Not saying it's practical and all, but just because you say so, does not mean others share the same mindset...
Guy: It doesn't matter! It won't WORK because I KNOW!
Me:... Okaaaaaayyyy. ISSUUUUUUES. :D

If people can watch this shows and still have the common sense to suspend belief towards anything the silver screen and the idiot box conjures up, surely the so-called 'real-life' fellows would do the same. Why the hell do they waste their time telling other people that 'it's not possible'?

Well, GEE, Einstein, it's on TV. Of course it's NOT real. Of course it's unrealistic to see one soldier beat a whole army of Nazis or Vietcong's all by himself without a scratch. Or an awfully colored super-duper-robot that could destroy entire fleets of heavily armed battle ships(See? I ain't a Gundam SEED fan :p ). Or superheroes flying in their bright, red panties(lol had to go there.).

But why this extreme need to debunk fiction every single time? Why the need to ruin other people's time and enjoyment just because you think it's not right, not real, and not impractical?

If it's a little wee lad, that's alright. They're gonna grow up anyway and know it's not how it is in real life(of course you have to responsible for their upbringing). But why keep insisting to other people how it won't be 'this and that' in the real world?

Political correctness be damned.

Sure there are morons in the world, but not everyone is. For once, just shelved that uber-developed brain of yours somewhere, and just have FUN and watch TV, for God's sake. It's not gonna end the world, create mass poverty and mass warfare, and halt development. *sigh*

*Phew* I normally don't do this of late, but recently some of these so-called brainy people are getting on my nerves. I hope this rant is my last *crosses fingers*.

Mu?

Mumumumumummu. mumumumumumu? mumumu, mumumumumu!

Mumumumumumumumumumumumumumumumumumumumumumumumumumumumumumumumumumumumumumu!

Mumumumumumumumumumumumumumumumumumumumumumumumumumumumumumumumumumumumumumu!


MUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!!!!







.... Ok, just trying to dust off this dirty journal.

Random side note: Front Mission 5. For the PS2. Get it if you like mechs and strategy games, and if you don't mind it in Japanese (Square-Enix is too scared to release it outside Japan due to the poor sales of the previous game, Front Mission 4. Considering the fact that they make a LOTTA money from kissing Final bloody Fantasy's already dry butt, I'm not so sure...). There's GameFAQs and a translation patch that's almost done.

What, expected me to post bad news? There's enough coming from newspapers and online blogs as it is. :p

Hey people.

Surely some of you in Malaysia know of Comic Fiesta 2007, which begins tomorrow (Saturday and Sunday, 15th and 16th December respectively) at Berjaya Times Square, situated at the Golden Triangle in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for the non-Malaysians.

Dead Fish Chronicles will be releasing two comic 'zines, OhLaLa Vol.2 and Pop!, the latter which is only available at CF itself. Both Pop! and OhLala Vol.2 are priced around RM 5. The artists involve are Gen, Bokson, and myself as a guest artist, Sealslammer(finally, a permanent nick).

Previews:

OhLala Volume 2-

OhLaLa Vol.2 Cover

Gen's comic
Bokson's comic
Comic by the one who's writing this damn blog thing :p

Pop!-

Pop! Cover

Gen's comic
Bokson's comic

Be sure to pay a visit to DFC's booth, and have fun!

More details at http://comicfiesta.com/forumy/index.php?showtopic=15022

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/11/17/saudi.rape.victim/index.html?iref=mpstoryview

Jailed for being raped?

What.

The.

Fuck.

I'm lost for words. Outrage is an understatement when describing this.

Checked Brandokay's journal and discovered an interesting upheaval that's currently shaking up the U.S. entertainment industry. Discovered this video in his journal:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJ55Ir2jCxk

The fact that writers are the main constant creative force, the STEELY, BLOOD-PUMPING HEART THAT KEEPS THE BODY ALIVE behind your fave shows makes the reasonings behind this video VALID.

When will those fat asses up there in their Armani suits respect the professions of those who inject fresh and stimulating new ideas into shows like Battlestar Galactica and My Name is Earl?

See why I don't watch that much TV anymore?

The reason why I like to be my own boss if I want my web comic(Azul Strider) to go animated one day(probably wishful thinking... for now).

Sure, I ain't American, but those who don't live in the west do watch these TV shows. So those who love watching House abroad might have to suffer reruns or even worse *gasp*, reality shows. Fear Factor my hairy, fat, and brown ass.

Check out the Writer's Guild of America right here: http://www.wga.org/subpage_member.aspx?id=2529

I support!

Oh, I got another art piece in the works. Still sketchy, but here it is:

( Lighting our darkest hour... )

I initially redesign his look so he'd no longer have anymore disappearing trailers(tradition can kiss my hairy, brown and large behind), as his legs and hands ARE the trailer itself when he transforms. Yes, he's huge again. :)

Yeah, Transformer fanboys might state that the Japanese Transformer "Battlestar" series may already done that legs-as-trailer thing with Star Convoy. But whatever, this is fanart anyway. :P

Optimus Prime and anything Transformers related is Copyrighted @ Hasbro

Ok, feel a little better.

Sorry for the bitterness on the last 2 posts. It was just that bad memories came to surface when that person posted. It's something I didn't want to deal with again.

Ok, now that's out of the way, I'm gonna start up this. As the preview comic is in progress(5 sketches in pencils), I'll introduce the characters that will appear in the series(This are the ones I posted on my DA a few weeks ago):

( Cut to save space. )

*slaps mouth* Ok, enough talk. Will post the comic here when December pasts, and a new year blooms.

EDIT: Ergh, forgot about the dangers of not putting watermarks on your works. *phew*

And you'll still be in the dark on why we're no longer friends. Rejection? You really are that narrow-minded, are you?

*sigh* I could say anything that comes to mind when I read that condescending post, but you'll be doing nothing but smiling behind that monitor while thinking "Oh, look, he's angry and whining again. Oh well, it was fun. *shrugs&sarcasm*".

All I can say is have a good life,... if you can call it that. *shrugs*

*ahem* Off the record, I might make this my art blog once I get my webcomic online. Maybe by next year or earlier. I'll be working on a preview one-shot on it, and might appear on Dead Fish Chronicles' latest Oh-La-La! anthology. Check that when Comic Fiesta '07 comes around.

Adios!

How do I work this friend filter?

I do not want to deal with certain fuckers and bitches who simply post here just to annoy me. I don't care how I'll be viewed. I don't care about the opinions formed about me. Go and take your condescending stick-up-your-asses and shove it on to someone who's willing.

You know who you are.

And no, it's not you, Kyle. Don't worry.

Heheh, haven't touch this journal for ages. Maybe it's either I'm working(like now, lol), or I seem to have more fun at DeviantArt than I thought(looking at all those pretty pics...)

Well, aside from that, I've been up to no good at the 24 Hours Comic Day in Malaysia, despite the fact my whole body was muscle-aching due to Abs training and Kickboxing a couple of days before that. So if anybody wants to see that oh-so-silly comic that I manage to finish there (I counted and found out, if you include the cover, that I have 25 pages. *gaspSHOCK!*), here's a truckload:

Cover(Or page 1. Urm, never mind)

( Read at your own peril, BUCKOROOS! )

EDIT: Done. I know I've got this on DA, but I feel that I just need to finish this post off. :p

Booyah.

A while back in the early part of 2006, I played around with the idea of cosplaying Optimus Prime. First, I'm not really a cosplayer. Second, Not a single soul in Malaysia did not try cosplaying a robot for:

a) It can get really expensive depending on the resources,
b) A lot of meticulous mechanical planning needs to be done to make the parts work(pivots, torso pivot, arm movement, etc,.)
b) Want to carry such bulky attire here and there, and go through half-and-hour or worse, an hour to put on!?

Here's how I put it: Surviving hell is a means to reach the heavens.

Aaaaand.... it was a nightmare when we arrive at the destination, having to take each bloody piece of mounting-board boxed-up limbs, torso, and such. A team of 3 to 4 fellows were needed to carry all that to the event.

Not to mention that it was also a rushed suit. We were thinking of a more dynamic looking Prime from War Within, but since the project started last month, and my bud who was the Mr. Fix-it of Operation: Old Man, had a detour to Australia, leaving me to struggle with half the project. Let's say that... it didn't go to well.

When he came back, we had a lot of work to be done, with the deadline closing in fast... blistering FAST. So whatever fancy mods or later testings that was planned were tossed out of the window, and went with whatever crap that could help us.

Thus, in the event itself, was the start of the nightmare. Stomach torso keeps falling down from waist(despite me having a bulging stomach), shoulder mechanisms were falling apart, and the quality of the platforms for the foot parts were iffy at best. After hours of frustration, we had no choice but to just put anything that made it F%*&^**&^ stick together, threw out a few pieces that did NOT work, and it worked... sorta.

There I come out... and heads started to turn, shocked and awed. Hey, I do talked about it at times, but did I really went on and on about it? Nada. Never advertise it. That, Ladies and Gentlemen, is the element of surprise. Muahahahahaha.

And... I can't seem to describe how it felt. Almost every soul in the event stopped in their tracks to look at a very shaky looking Autobot leader coming out of the cosplay room, and a few taking pictures while I SLOOOOOWLY walked towards the hall... and while it took them awhile, it was registering in their heads that Optimus Prime is in their midst. I wanted to walk around the area, but it seems a huge wall o' human crowd stopped me in my tracks, cameras snapping away. You know, Me and my bud knew that I might get an attention or two, but seriously, there was a huge row of cosplayers surrounding Prime, and the photo sessions commence...

Two hours later or more, half-way through the event, my right foot part started to buckle. I made a mistake of adjusting, and the platform of the foot part collapse. Well, at least I was still standing. But instead of being embarrassed, I laughed at the situation, cool and steady. Come on, it's called Operation: Old Man. Lol.

And we made it out, my buds took off the armor, and we all screamed in delight. WOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!! We have achieved heaven, baby.

Calling it an awesome experience is an understatement. For all that, I came back in as a human being(to get some amateur comics), and all the sudden, some girl gave me a flower. That sort of thing never happened to me before... and that was something to cherished. Muahahahaha. Oh, and some guy from some Cosplaying club approached me with an offer to join.

The only sad thing that I can't bring the damaged suit to the other event now. But that's all fine and dandy, as my bud and I were thinking of improving the suit, and actually thought of doing this again. Woah.

Now here I put in progress pics of the Optimus Prime suit that I wore in CF(and was intended for Sci-Fi and Fantasy Festival 2006 as well, but leg piece malfunction prevented that. XD).

But first things first:

War Within Optimus Prime

Don Figorea(spell check?)'s design for what Prime looks like before G1 kicks millions of asses in any star systems. So kickass... and so damn detailed. And the fact that I started the project with my friend, Bob(as he wishes to be known online), a month ago makes it bloody impossible to put all those curves and details before the deadline to Comic Fiesta and Sci-Fi and Fantasy convention. Sadly, we had to scrap it. Dammit.

GI Optimus Prime:

Took this off Google and thought it could help me a bit to to build G1 Prime.

Now THIS is an EASY design to build around with. Simple, yet still not out of fashion with today's generation. We had 3-4 weeks to complete the thing, so here's the progress pics:

Progress 1:

The Torso:

Man, are mounting boards "fun" to work with? Heh. THEY TAKE TOO MUCH TIME!!! All the pogs and UHU glueing put into it. Not to mention the smell emitted by the UHU. Blasted smell sorta made us a little high. Hint: We were pulling off one aweful joke after another, and laughed the whole building up. Fresh air outside the office works wonders.

Putting it on requires some bit of stretching upwards with the arm, due to the built borders that we built underneath it.

Progress 2:

Putting it on.

Here's the hard part: Putting it on requires some bit of stretching upwards with the arm, due to the built borders that we built underneath it.

Can't avoid the fact that there's not enough armpit space. Oh well.

Progress 3:

Belt and belly velcro-strapping

At this point, Bob was needed elsewhere, as I was alone in building this. Due to the fact that I had several jobs to finish, I had to postponed it to the second week. Was in the middle of building the legs. Just a simple matter of putting the belt to the torso belly...

Unfortunately, the velcro surface taping tends to fall off due to the heaviness of the mounting boards. Nothing a UHU glue can't glue... i think.

Progress 4:

Feet:

Blegh. The hardest part of the project. My bud suggested to get PVC pipes as stilt parts. It hurt like hell when I went bare foot on the bare stilts, but it was all for the sake of testing.


MORE UPDATES SOON. Needa rest.

Both mysterious and attractive, you captivate people with the fact that you seem to be good at everything! Spending quiet moments with a friend and talking about what life means to you is your ideal situation. You don't like to stand out very much and you seem to be more old-fashioned than modern, but when you do take the spotlight -- you command the floor!

Which Soul Calibur character are you?

this quiz was made by david park

... Dunno about the attractive part, though.

From Megatron's query of the definition of 'evil' in Dear Multiverse.

Everyone's got a different definition. Why do you think the world is such a mess?

Spider-Man's reply just sum it all up about the f***-ups the world is going through today.

Heh.

Ramadan's is just around the corner, and now I'm in front of this computer, figuring out what to write.

For starters, I'm not a total fan of writing about my whole life where anyone can see. That's just for diaries. I'm only doing this 'cause I can use blogging as a means of opinion-sharing and views of what's going on around me and what's going on in the world today, but it won't be about me, unless I sorta had a memory lapse and did one annoying my-life-is-this-and-that. Even then, I'd keep it as cryptic as possible.

As far as I'm concern, my life is no one's (except friends of course) business. Exposing what you do personally everyday to the world isn't the wisest thing around.

That's why I cringe when I 'walked'('surfing sounds so cliche now') around the Internet, and see some poor teeny-booper or poor sap of a person whining about themselves. The more I see them, the more I try to avoid it.

Now you see why I hardly update this blog? It's cause there isn't much to update, and I don't like everyone knowing every single doo-hicky detail of my so-called Life.

So, sorry. I'll repeat this again: Unless I have some sort of memory lapse, I'm keeping my damn personal life away from the world of the Internet.

Sincerely bored and drained,
The Absurd Fellow.

EDIT: I think I did a few personal life blogs in my previous Blogspot journal. But things change. Heh.