Video tour of the Otaku Lounge

On By Asian EdIn Otaku5 Comments

Once again, Danny Choo has sparked me into action. This time, he posted a call for videos that may be picked for a TV show he’s working on with Tokyo MX. I couldn’t pass this one up, so I got to tidying up and started filming. It took a couple takes, but think I finally have a decent quick walkthrough. The very first attempt was almost 20 minutes long, but I discovered that YouTube only allowed for 10 minute uploads. Here’s what I have now…

I’ll need to do more filming this week, once I locate an HD capable camera. Since this may be broadcast on television, VGA will probably look pretty terrible. Stay tuned for more! I may even try to split this into two videos and cover various parts of the room.

My first DSLR

On By Asian EdIn Life in general5 Comments

Yesterday I brought home my very first DSLR camera. Someone at work had a used one up for sale and I jumped on the opportunity. Even though it’s an older model, it still has enough features to get me started.

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Behold, the 5-year old Nikon D50. The set I picked up included two lenses (18-55mm and 55-200mm), external flash, filters, and a bag. It was lightly used by the previous owner (~1400 shots total) and is in very good shape.

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Setting up the di:stage

On By Asian EdIn Figures3 Comments

First of all, Happy Chinese New Year! Here are some tiger girls to start things off right…

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For more, see the post over at Japanator. Now that I have that out of my system, it’s time to move on. Yesterday, I went to the post office to pick up a package from Japan. Since AmiAmi is offering half off international shipping on all orders shipped in February, I put in an order for some of the di:stage figma display stands. Since my collection of figma is growing, I wanted to create a more dynamic display for them. This would require a decent number of basic sets…

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…so I ordered 10 of them.

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Amusing spam

On By Asian EdIn Computers and Internet1 Comment

Spam sushi

For the most part, spam comments on my blog are uninteresting or just plain gibberish. Most aren’t worth anything more than just emptying out the folder and moving on. Every once in awhile though, something comes along and just makes me laugh…

Oh jesus you’ll not belief this. Our stupid puppy actually farted on my ankle!? I mean what’s the matter with this!? I nourish this thing and I end up with that in exchange. I even now can not really belief that. Anyway, you have several useful facts there in your posting. I knew Yahoo are going to take me to a few fascinating stuff today :) . Alright should search for that pet now! Have a good evening you all!

It’s still a bunch of gibberish, but it’s funny gibberish. Kinda like that picture of spam musubi. Makes me want to go to Hawaii…

Taking stock of my collection

On By Asian EdIn Dollfie, Figures8 Comments

After seeing Radiant’s write up on his collection, I felt inspired to do something I’d been putting off for a little while. It’d been awhile since I actually took stock of what was in my collection and collected it all in one place (read: never). For the most part, my figures are organized by series, character, and type. There are a couple shelves that I can only label as “miscellaneous” since they have figures that don’t really fit in with any others.

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Yoko Real Image Ver. review and Loot from January

On By Asian EdIn Figures6 Comments

Yes, I know, it’s almost February, so isn’t it too late to do a loot post for January? Nonsense! all of the new toys featured here arrived after the new year (despite shipping in December).

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I got two packages in earlier on, one from HLJ and one from AmiAmi. It was my first order from the latter, so was curious to check out their service level. So without further ado, let’s get to the goodies!

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Home network upgrades

On By Asian EdIn Computers and Internet, Hardware4 Comments

After a recent conversation with a certain Austrian Otaku about Home Theater stuffs, I decided it was about time to do an update of what I’m using at home. Since my last overview, I’ve made a couple changes and upgrades through the house. Some have already been talked about (like the TV upgrade) but others haven’t. Here we go…

The biggest change of late has been that I’ve finally retired Belldandy from service. After nearly 7 years of duties ranging from gaming machine to media PC to home server, it was time for her to be sent to greener pastures. The day I parted with her was pretty emotional, though I know someone will put her to good use.

In her place, I welcome Tsukasa into my home network as the bedroom HTPC. Sporting the same case used by Konata, her beginnings were conceived when I bought an Athlon x2 7750BE from someone at the office for $20.

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After pairing the CPU with a Gigabyte GA-MA785GM-US2H motherboard, 2GB of RAM, and a Lite-on Blu-ray reader, she was ready to go into service serving up movies, music, and high definition content.

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Rin goes to Ichibancon!

On By Asian EdIn DollfieLeave a comment

As I mentioned in my previous update, I was planning on taking Rin to today’s ball jointed doll panel at Ichibancon. I had some reservations about packing up such an expensive (and irreplaceable) item and taking it into public, but eventually I caved and came up with a strategy. Since the con was pretty small, I felt more at ease carrying her in for the panel and doing a little browsing afterwards.

Rin is ready to go

I’m pretty happy I decided to bring her, as I got to meet other folks in the area that were collectors. It also gave me a chance to see what other folks do with their dolls. They’ve put a lot of work into the hobby!

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Charlotte’s first anime convention

On By Asian EdIn Anime, Figures1 Comment

I’d gotten word about a month ago that a new anime convention was coming to town. Billed as “the Carolinas’ first anime con of the new year,” it promised to be three days worth of exciting anime goodness. Since it was only a short drive from where I live, I decided to give it a visit. The organizers have dubbed this new foray into the American convention scene Ichibancon (www.ichibancon.com). It was held at the Great Wolf Lodge and Resort in Concord, NC, just a couple minutes north of central Charlotte.

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Given that this was a startup, I didn’t set my expectations very high. The venue itself wasn’t extremely large, so space and attendance would be limited. With that in mind, I set off last night after work to sample the offerings.

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