“They use a word that rhymes with ‘gritches’ that starts with a B.”

broderic on September 6, 2008

Link of the Day [9.06.08]

Liking anime means that sometimes you end up immersing yourself in that otaku culture. You like what the crowd like (Macross Frontier, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya). You do what the crowd does (wish to go to Japan or Akihibara). You buy things the crowd buys. Anime figures.

Good Smile Company makes very nice figures of characters from anime. They’re mainly the girls, because nothing gets the otaku heart pumping like 2D girls rendered in 3D. Finally, Good Smile Company is recognizing that the otaku culture is no longer contained on the shores of Japan, and with the globalization of anime, it can be found all over the world. They’re creating an English version of the site run by Danny Choo to get all information about their line figures to those who have money to burn. Now I don’t have to learn Japanese.

http://eng.goodsmile.info/top/eng/

Link of the Day [8.17.08]

broderic on August 17, 2008

Warning! Beware of imitators! There are fakes out there!

When you start collecting anime figures, you just want to buy everything you see which is hard because you can only get them from overseas. So you search. You can get the more renowned figures from Amazon.com or other specialty retailers such as KidNemo.com or BigBadToyStore.com. One of the more dangerous places to get them from is ebay. Most of the time they’re from some Hong Kong dude. And (I’m just conjecturing) they may be selling you a fake copy. That’s fine if you want to save money, but the build quality is even less perfect.

Today’s site directs you to Good Smile Company’s informational page on spotting the phony. It’s of Mikuru-chan. I only highlight it today, because I recently got that Mikuru Asahina nendoroid (she’s so kawaii! >.< ) and I hope its real. Oh, I may have a phony in my toy collection. O_o; http://www.goodsmile.info/info/imitation/imitation_03.html

Going smaller

broderic on July 17, 2008

Consumers buying smaller, but more expensive cars? I can attest to
that. My MCS's base price is $22k. After the options I added to that
the car was $28k. And I probably could've gone higher if I wanted to
keep it a reasonable price after the addition of taxes, tags and fees.Funny thing about that article is reading people getting leather in a
Ford Focus. It's not known to be a luxury car, but you make it so with
the addition of leather. Insane thinking, but I also can't go without
the leather. I wish I got the red though. And more color in the
interior. It would've been cool to have, but it would've busted my
budget.

Quote of the Day [7.14.08]

broderic on July 14, 2008

Dr.Sergio Ramos
c/o UNICAJA BANK
Madrid,Spain
Email: sergioramos2414@yahoo.com

Dear friend,

Business Opportunity

I am Dr.Sergio Ramos, head of international banking of UNICAJA Bank a private banking based in Madrid, Spain. I am contacting you concerning a deceased customer, and an investment he placed under our banks management 3years ago. A few years ago, the client, now deceased made a deposit of 10.3 million Euros. I was assigned to manage this account and turn over same over various investments. I followed his instructions and invested his funds in high yield areas and have been monitoring the investment.

At Maturity of the investment, I made attempts to reach him and get his go ahead to turn over the investments but got no response. I made intense but futile efforts to locate him. I consequently passed the task of locating him to the internal investigations department which soon confirmed that my client had passed on. A person who suited his description was declared dead of a heart attack in Cannes, South of France. The bank immediately launched an investigation into possible surviving next of kin to come forward to claim his estate. If you are familiar with private banking affairs, those who patronize our services usually prefer anonymity, but also some levels of detachment from conventional
processes. In his bio-data form, he listed no next of kin.

In the field of private banking, opening an account with us means no one will know of its existence,accounts are rarely held under a name; depositors use numbers and codes to make the accounts anonymous. This bank even gives the choice to depositors of having their mail sent to them or held at the bank itself, ensuring that there are no traces
of the account and as I said, rarely do they nominate next of kin. Private banking clients apart from not nominating next of kin also usually in most cases leave wills in our care, in this case; our now deceased client died without leaving a will.

My official capacity dictates that I am the only party to supervise the investigation and the only party to receive the results of the investigation. It is quite clear now that our client died with no known or identifiable family members. This leaves me as the only person with the full picture of what the prevailing situation is in relation to the deposit of the deceased client. According to normal practice, my bank will by the end of this year broadcast a request for statements of claim. Failing to receive viable claims they will most probably revert the deposit to the Government. I am prepared to put you forward as next of kin and approve same with a view to release the deposit to you as the closest surviving relation.Upon receipt of the deposit, I am prepared to share the money with you in the ratio of 60/40 in my favour.

This will not be too difficult, counting on the fact that I will be on hand to guarantee the funds are released to you, using my official position.This can be done with your cooperation in a few working days.At your request, I will provide further information.It is of paramount importance that you do not contact me via the bank mailing system or switch board
telephones about this project as all official lines are periodically monitored to assess our level of customer care in line with our total Quality Management Policy. I will therefore be inclined to feign ignorance if this happens as i await your response via the above contacts.

Sincerely,

Dr.Sergio Ramos

That New Car Smell

broderic on July 12, 2008

It’s killing me. Way overpowering.

Things I’ve learned buying a new car.

Purchasing options a la carte makes it fun. It can also be expensive.

Taxes suck and makes your car more pricier than you imagined it to be. They also reduce the number of options you can choose as you want to keep the car on budget and affordable.

Owning a car has many hidden costs. The tires. The maintenance. Not to mention gas and insurance. Owning two cars, the costs aren’t so hidden. Twice the gas. Twice the insurance. Half as fun to own.

Watch for extensive hard sell at the close for extended warranty. Or life time tires. Or extra road side assistance. You feel that your pressing your luck when ignoring those options. Especially, that damn lifetime of tires!

Watching really does make the pot not boil. I can’t believe how slow the last few weeks went. Really slow. Down payment on May 31. The days crawled by. On board a ship on June 18. The days inch forward. In the States on June 28. In the dealership on July 4. In my hands on the 11th. Those days in between were interminably long.

Am I going to be Senor Detailer again?

Why won’t that new car smell go away!?

Who’s Next, too?

broderic on June 11, 2008

Are you getting the latest Mac OS?

Snow Leopard is not as fearsome sounding as ocelot would’ve been, but that’s what Apple’s giving us. No new features, but supposedly changes under the hood.

First and foremost, I hope they do some optimization. Make OS X run faster on my MBP. Make it consume less battery.

Next should be some bug fixes. Fix whatever is scary. Then fix the security of the OS. Just make it better.

From a programming perspective, the multi-core programming doo-hicky has to be explained more. I want to know how to make an octocore mac scream. That would be nice.