DAY-HOUSE: A SHORT TOUR.

Some photos I took today to show off my condo, since I've yet to figure out what form my house-warming should take (I'm open to suggestions... ^_^;;;), just to further prove that I know how to take care of myself.

BREAKFAST: 09/07/09










During the week I don't have enough time in the morning to make a really elaborate breakfast, so I usually just have cereal and some kind of fruit, and wait until I get to work to have my morning coffee, but on the weekends I cut loose. Breakfast is my favorite meal; let's face it, it's fucking delicious. Here is my usual "Big Breakfast" special: Two buttermilk pancakes, four pieces of bacon; crispy, two sausages, home fries, scrambled eggs, orange juice and coffee. MMM-HMMMMM, GOOD!

KITCHEN: Entry View













A little dark, but hopefully it gives a sense of scale.

KITCHEN: Front View










Kitchen from the front.

KITCHEN: Side View













Kitchen from the side. Not very interesting, really... it has stuff I use to keep myself alive in it.

LIVING ROOM: North East










The living room, which is where I do all my living! From here you can see my computer desk, which is covered with interesting knick-knacks and do-dads; sketch books, change bucket, some toys (Pluto defends the modem from hackers, while Nami and Vivi flank my giant COMPLETE CALVIN AND HOBBES hardcover).

LIVING ROOM: North West










From here you can see my two awesome book shelves (the BENNO from Ikea... superior to the BILLY in my opinion; sturdier, more customizable, and cost effective), the right one has all my oversized and 'special' manga, and the left one for my various hardcovers and 'special' comics. I won't go into what makes a book 'special' here, but it boils down to books that I am not embarassed to have on display when my parents or comics snobs visit.

LIVING ROOM: West










A little dark again, but you can see my moderately not shitty view... better than looking out on scenic Yonge Street! :B You can see my grandmothers old house from here, as well as a school that is most assuredly going to become a condo someday!

LIVING ROOM: South West













From here you can see my "Tower of Triumph", which is all my electronics stacked on top of each other. They combine together like DEVASTATOR or some other TRANSFORMER gestalt to form ENTERTAINOR, the only being in the universe who has the power to fight off my boredom. You can also see a small part of my DVD collection... all my TV shows and nerd DVD's. I need more shelves. -_-

LIVING ROOM: East










And we're back around to the kitchen.

BATHROOM: Entry View













Bathroom... stay out of it for at least 35... 45 minutes (points to anyone that gets that reference).

BEDROOM: Entry View













Now entering my bedroom...

BEDROOM: North East













This is what I see when I wake up in the morning. And if you think that TV is too big for a bedroom, you are WRONG! If only it could be bigger...

BEDROOM: North













The first of my many NERDWALLS... look at all the books! Of course... this isn't all the books I brought with me... I've had to shed a LOT of stuff. A LOT. And I have yet more to shed... -_-

BEDROOM: North West













A little dark, but this is my secondary manga shelf. I'll have to replace it with something else eventually, and put these in the living room. I use that TV table as a nightstand when I sleep.

BEDROOM: South West










Speaking of sleep... my bed! This is probably the BEST futon I've ever had... I got it from IKEA, like most of my furniture, and it's operation is as smooth as silk and requires no effort on my part at all. It's queen size, has a comfortable, firm, matress, and is entirely affordable at, like, $250.00 CAD. Plus there's storage space underneath.

BEDROOM: Closet Right













I like keeping my nerdwalls behind doors, so that I can hide my nerdiness if nessessary... though I guess that's pointless, since there are other nerdwalls all over the place. Still, when the doors are closed, at least I'm only 75% nerd. The dresser has more manga in it, and there's anime and import manga sitting on top.

BEDROOM: Closet Left













More anime, and then art books... guess what's in that inconspicuous brown box. Just guess.

BEDROOM: Display Case













And finally, this is the display case were I keep (most) of my toys. Unfortunately, I'm totally out of space, and I still have a rather large box of gashapon left in my storage locker that I'm trying to figure out what to do with...

ME: Enjoying the Fuck out of Life













Yes I am.

CONAN O'BRIEN DUBS GHOST IN THE SHELL

Fucking AWESOME. I would buy that dub.

MARVEL ANIME TRAILERS

I stumbled up these just a few minutes ago and totally blew my nerd-wad up in this bitch!



The WOLVERINE trailer is... fucking confusing. Either they're adapting that shitty DEL REY "manga", or they never bothered to read a WOLVERINE book. I have a strong suspicion that Wolverine will, at some point, make out with Sabertooth, thus releasing years of built up sexual tension and titilating both 12-year old yaoi obsessed fangirls, and homosexual comic store managers (you know who you are).

Seriously, though, Wolverine is a beautiful, beautiful, man in this trailer, and it's weirding me out. He's, like, 7 feet tall, has no body hair, and is totally not Canadian. It may as well just NOT be Wolverine. I can't tell is I'm being a fanboy asshole for nit-picking on what a confoundingly off model adaptation this looks to be, or if I have the right to be a little peeved that they seem to have totally missed the mark here.

The animation is beautiful though.



IRON MAN, on the other hand, looks SICK AS FUCK. That is EXACTLY what you both want and expect from the anime version of Iron Man... cool ass robots, shit exploding, and guys being rocket punched through the Tokyo Tower! BOOSH! Nerd-wad exploded. I heard tell that this was going to be a 26 episode series, which totally has me excited, and unlike the WOLVERINE trailer, while they obviously took some liberties, I think the premise of Iron Man actually sort of appeals to the Japanese storytelling sensiblities and remains mostly intact. Same but different is totally the way to go with a project like this, combining the best of both worlds and making something that has broad appeal on both sides of the planet.

On an unrelated note, I've also starte watching the French produced, CGI animated, IRON MAN: ARMORED ADVENTURES, and it's actually really good. The animation is really nice, the storytelling is smart and mature without going so adult as to alienate the younger audience, and some of the design stuff is fucking amazing... he has an EVANGELION LAUNCH TUBE! Awesome. I don't know how IRON MAN went from being a B-Grade comic book hero to MARVEL's top media property (*cough* Robert Downey JR *cough*), but he's beating the FUCK out of media cross-promotion.

On a related note...

PLANET HULK: The Movie



I'm totally excited, as MARVEL has finally been getting their animation game together since HULK/WOLVERINE/THOR, which was awesome, and PLANET HULK is the best HULK story I've probably ever read... it's HULK as CONAN. Awesome monsters, gladiator fights, giant robots, incredible violence, drama, romance, a strong character arc... PLANET HULK has fucking EVERYTHING.

My only complaint is with the Hulk design... why is he so tiny and so pretty? That's a little weak. Other than that, I'm totally exited.

ANIME NORTH 2009: PHOTO STORM Part 4

I took a lot more pictures than I thought this year...

ANIMENORTH Photo Storm Part 4

Zero from the MEGA MAN ZERO series. I swear this guy looked super cool from, like, 20 feet away...

SPEED RACER if they had cast Seth Rogan. It would have been a VERY different movie. VERY different. O_O This guy couldn't look less like Speed Racer.

It's the Bunny Girl! Bunny Girl was at my first AN (working for the Beguiling), and at almost ever one from then on, except for last year. She's put on a little weight, but still looks good. Also, SHE macked Eric Kim... unbelievable!

It's the FINAL FANTASY: ADVENT CHILDREN crew. These guys actually look pretty good. Zack's creepy dead eyes scare the shit out of me though. Brian Harvey had a serious problem with these kids huge fucking swords though... like, conceptually. He just didn't think they were practical, and I suppose they aren't. But MAN do they look cool!

It's the WORLD WARRIORS of STREET FIGHTER! Cammy, Guile, Fei Long, and Ryu Hayabusa! This was actually a pretty impressive and accurate lot... until you get to White Heavy-Set Ryu, who shatters an otherwise perfect illusion. Still, you have to admire their professionalism. They had a whole spiel worked out... especially Guile; that guy went the distance.

Another GUILTY GEAR character, May. She is (A) on model (B) ethnically accurate (I think... I can never tell when anime characters are NOT supposed to be Japanese) and (C) adorable. It's a cosplay hattrick! Also you can see Peter hustling his wares in the background. Peter is a pretty good hustler.

More GURREN LAGANN. The Enki is pretty solid, but that was probably the least impressive Yoko of the weekend. It's the lame shoes that break the illusion.

HA HA HA HA HA HA HA! Ok... technically this guy is awesome, but once again, he's at totally the wrong show. To the people of ANIME NORTH, this guy is the Tom Baker Doctor; the BEST Doctor; this is just some guy with a really weird sense of style. I'm assuming a lot of people just thought that he dressed like this, like, all the time, to stand out from the highschool crowd. Sorry Tom Baker Doctor; NO PUSSY FOR YOU!

Link Blogging: GIANT ROBOT DEFENDS JAPAN? WHO WOULDA SEEN THAT COMING?

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ANIME NORTH 2009: PHOTO STORM Part 3

The ANIME NORTH 2009 Photo Storm continues...

A pretty solid Chun-Li... if you ignore the lack of Asian-ness. I'm always a little unclear on the etiquette of cosplaying as a character of a specific ethnicity. Most characters in anime are of questionable ethnic background as most are either entirely fantasy based, or their character designs are as such that you cannot determine a specific background (even the though a lot of anime takes place in Japan, no one ever looks specifically Japanese unless they're designed by Katsuhiro Otomo or Mamoru Oshii, :B), but a character like Chun-Li, or in fact all characters from STREET FIGHTER are pretty much defined by their nationality. I guess, in the end, it's all just good fun as long as you don't tape your eyes back and do it up like some horrible '40-'50's stereotype. MAN were they racist back then...

GUN-DAMN, what a cool helmet! I would have loved that back when I played hockey, yo! Then I'd have run through those big bastards from Stroud like they they were dirty Zeon Zaku's, WHAT! Seriously, that is a cool helmut. I just wish the guy had put that effort into the rest of his rather lame costume... that tee-shirt and badge combo are fucking WEAK, guy.

Digimon. Digimon. Di-Di-Di-Digimon. DIGIMON, DIGITAL MONSTERS, DIGIMON ARE THE CHAMP-YONS. DIGIMON was so sick back in the '90's, and I cannot express how much fucking better than POKEMON that show was. In fact, FUCK POKEMON.

The great thing about DIGIMON was that, as fun and kid-centric as the show was, it was also able to go super dark, dealing with themes of lose, tragedy, and even death, all within a serialize storyline; particularly in my favorite DIGIMON series, SAVERS (though FRONTIER had the best english opening). A fun show perfectly safe for children, with some nice animation (later) and some great character designs, and all without having to pander (much... FOX really fucked around with the dub).

DAI-GURREN Girl. This is probably the most clever costume I've ever seen... just a genius way of using the mechnical design to your advantage.

GANKUTSUOU: THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO. I-I have no idea what the fuck this has to do with THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO... I seriously have no idea.

Another Haruhi in her ENOZ outfit, but this one actually had a guitar, which was pretty awesome. Should couldn't play GOD KNOWS though.

HOLY SHIT, SON! WHAT THE FUCK IS SPIDER JERUSALEM DOING HERE? Despite that dude being totally on model and in character... the coolness of his costume was fucking LOST... on EVERYONE. So, ha ha, FUCK YOU SPIDER, you can't get pussy at an anime convention cosplaying as a Warren Ellis character. Try Naruto next time. Naruto is the ANIME NORTH pussy magnet.

Speaking of ANIME NORTH pussy magnets... how the FUCK did this guy mack three asian maids? He's not even dressed up as Naruto! That's just senseless. ANIME NORTH man... fucking ANIME NORTH.

ANIME NORTH 2009: PHOTO STORM Part 2

ANIME NORTH 2009 PHOTO STORM part 2

Since the modern anime-kids have no fucking taste, any shows or manga I actually like are usually unpopular. Like BURST ANGEL for instance... yet every year, I always see at least one person cosplaying as either Jo (above) or Meg, which is encouraging. This costume was actually pretty on model too. People have been upping their game every year since this shit start.

I actually don't know who she's supposed to be... Amanda got really excited and started poking me and whisper, "Sexy girl! Sexy girl!" and prompting me to take a picture. It wasn't the first time one of the Beguiling Girls got all excited about a sexy cosplay girl that weekend, which was indescribably hot.

Ha ha ha! One of the things I like to do is catch people being out of character while in costume... sometimes it's sort of 'blah' and sometimes it's pure GOLD! This was pure gold! My favorite POWER RANGER (Zack is still the hippest Black Ranger of all time, bar none) just reading a book, I like the reactions of the people around him too. They're all like, "Man, this is FUCKED UP." His costume was fucking awesome too. There was a really good Red Ranger walking around as well, but I didn't get a picture of him. I like that the old school is making a comeback at AN. I fucking LOVE POWER RANGERS, yo. It was like SAVED BY THE BELL with ASS KICKING... the only thing that could have made SAVED BY THE BELL in any way watchable.

This was a weird one I never thought I'd see at AN (once again, because it was from a show I like), Yurine from KARAS, which is, like, the best 'Henshin' (transforming) hero saga to come out in years. It was an awesome combination of The Crow/Ghostbusters/Kamen Rider. This was another really well done costume from an obscure series that I was pretty sure only had appeal for me... and I was once again proven wrong.

Is this dude ready to kill some fucking Zombies or what? He looks like he could get a part-time job working for COBRA if he's not making enough money at the UMBRELLA CORPERATION.

Another obscure series that I'm surprised people still like, a pretty solid looking Sol Badguy and Dizzy from GUILTY GEAR X, one of my favorite 2-D fighting games that's not STREET FIGHTER. It's like STREET FIGHTER is it was conceived by DethKlok.

Rock Star Haruhi, sans-guitar. It think this costume is actually based on a toy, as she at no point wears this in the series. LOTS of Haruhi this year, even moreso than last year. That is the one show I can agree on with this new generation of fandom as being worth adulation... it's just fucking GOOD. Like anime DOCTOR WHO meets DEGRASSI.


This is for you Jason Azzopardi! This is for you. And a little bit for me. I wouldn't be living up to my nickname if I didn't get a few pictures like this (which I did. :B). I have no idea who she's supposed to be.