Something tells me that this website could be evil….

Where do my time go these days?  Work, cook, clean, sleep, etc.  Weekends are usually when I have the most free time but it goes by too fast.  These days I usually catch up on my sleep during the weekends and spend whatever time I have to either play video games, catch up on tv shows or do laundry.

I miss a hobby that I use to do when I was in grade school to high school, working on plastic model kits.  Some people might not get what’s so fun about sitting there assembling pieces together.  It’s about that feeling of accomplishment when you finish.  I’m sure many of you have sat there for hours putting puzzle pieces together, do crossword puzzles, building LEGO™ blocks or assemble furniture.  It’s that moment when you step back to admire your work and feel proud of yourself.

My all time favorite plastic model kits are Gundam kits made by Bandai because I love mechas.  They are also by far the best quality and provides a good challenge to test your skills.  In the beginning I assemble 1/144 scale then move my way up to 1/100 High Grade then 1/100 Master Grade.  The best I’ve done up to date are the Master Grade kits and I would love to try my skill at a Perfect Grade kit.  The major difference between these different level of kits are the skill required, number of parts, and price.  PG kits are usually well over $100 because of the number of parts and the complexity of the design.  They just look plain awesome.

During my early days I never painted any of my kits.  They themselves have colored parts where you just assemble and play.  It was until when I began to paint my mecha I stopped playing with them.  I look at them as artistic pieces that I worked hard on.  The fresh paint really made a huge difference on how the mecha looked comparing to the factory color-injected plastic.  With my horrible painting skill I slowly try to improve by visiting hobby websites for tips.  They would make small modifications to the kits making it look more realistic.  Sealing the seams with putty, put weathering on the mechas and battle damages.  Air brushing to add effects and a smoother coat than using paint brush on large areas.  I realize how much more I can do to improve after seeing how creative people are.

In the past couple of years I accumulated a few Gundam kits from some friends and air brush kit.  I really miss working on them and I’m certainly wanting to start it again.  Of course not until I do some shopping for tools and paint.  It’ll be my first time trying at air brushing and I’ll be sure to create a work log.  If you have any tips or suggestions let me know.

Does these Nanos look like they just crap themselves?

Technically yesterday after I read an email from the AC & C of NYC (Animal Care & Control), the nice volunteer lady informed me that they will have adoptable rabbits at the PETCO up on 86th St.  Since I was planning to go up to the shelter on 110th St to look at their rabbits, I thought I stop by to check it out.  When I arrived at PETCO they had 2 rabbits there, one is a black silver marten named Sally and the other is a chinchilla-american mix named River.  Long story short, I sat in the pen with River and later adopted him.  See below for cuteness.

Here he is, River, for now.  He’s a 6 months old chinchilla-american mix, many of you probably know that chinchillas have really soft fur and River has inherited that.  He looks gray but if you look closely, he is actually tan and white.  He’s a bit shy but he is also curious.  Right now he feels safe inside the box I brought him home in and that’s where he spends most of his time.  When I’m not looking he comes out and does a bit of exploring around the crate.

So far he’s been a real cutie, he will let you pet him but still trying to adapt to the new surrounding.  Earlier I was laying on the floor watching him, he came up to me and gave me a kiss in my nose.  Yeah he literally sholved his nose into my nostril.  It’s ok though, he’ll slowly warm up to me.  I need to get back to ordering some more supplies for River, here are some more pictures.

Going on from yesterday to this weekend (7/17 – 7/20) is the Kyusyu Regeion & Okinawa Gourmet Fair at Mitsuwa’s New Jersey store.

The “Pie Fresh Custard Pudding” is especially delicious!

Bought a PS3 gearing it up for Metal Gear Solid 4.  I also picked up Burnout Paradise just so I have something to play before MGS4 is released next week.  It’s quite heavy for a console but it looks sexy with the glossy black finish, if you’re thinking about getting a PS3 I would recommend getting the 40 GB model.  You can buy a hard drive later and upgrade it yourself for way less than buying the 80 GB model.  A 160 GB notebook hard drive will only run you about $117, the Seagate Momentus 7200.2.  It is very easy to swap it out and the PS3 OS have built-in utilies to format the drive for you.

Burnout Paradise is a great game and now it takes on more of a free form style like the later NFS series.  You drive around looking for events to enter, makes the game less linear.  I always liked the Burnout series since the first one so I was familiar with how it works.  Now the only gripe I have so far is that you can’t hit traffic cars from  the rear anymore, you’ll instantly wreck your car.  I miss being able to slide then blow up your car after you wreck for some collateral damage.  Everything else is still pretty cool from car damages and the crazy crashes, the graphics are amazing too.  Now I just need to get a HDTV to compliment the system.

Not long ago I was just talking about console gaming is becoming more mainstream and now I’m finding myself walking down that path.  I still have love for the PC but only certain games are console worthy for me.  Such as racing, RPG, fighting and sports.  So it’s going to be a weekend of gaming for me. 

OK, so this short blog have nothing to do with Transformers.  I was standing in line with Chris and Natalia last week in Taco Bell and thought it would be awesome if there were automated kiosks for ordering food.  Just like ATMs and in theaters except for food.  Then I Googled it to see if anyone have come up with the same idea and I found this article.  But….THAT WAS 3 YEARS AGO!!  WHERE THE HECK IS MY AUTOMATED FOOD ORDERING THINGAMAJIG!!!

Related article a year later calling it failed….

Lately I have been noticing the trend of releasing games for consoles before PC.  Game consoles are also becoming more mainstream and with the aid of releasing games for the consoles first this can increase sales numbers.

Some of the games released for the console first:

• Halo series


• Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2


• Rainbow Six: Vegas series


• GTA 3


• Mass Effect


• Colin McRae DiRT


• Assassin’s Creed

Just to name a few, the time between console to PC release ranges from days to years.  Last year was when I started to notice this.  The advancement of consoles may have shifted gaming from PC to consoles.  There are still games exclusive for each system but that’s a different topic.

Today’s consoles have caught up to the PC in terms of hardware power, with advance processor and graphic chips they can pump out eye candy visuals that almost match the PC.  It is easy to operate a console, simply turn it on, put a game in and you’re ready to play in minutes.  The down side is that you can’t upgrade the hardware, expensive peripherals, pay to play online.

PC is more versatile, you can do other things besides using it to play games.  You can upgrade the hardware to save money without buying a entirely new system, free online play, can use the same peripherals as consoles.  The bad for the PC is that softwares can conflict and bog down the system, too big to carry around, not multiplayer friendly on one machine, easier to hack up cheats for.

Back in the day consoles couldn’t access the Internet, if you want to play a game with a friend you would have to physically go to their house.  Games were in cartridges, 8-bits, plug it in, turn it on and BAM! you’re playing instantly.  Now games are in hi-def DVDs with gigabytes of storage, the console is more powerful than your mom’s computer, have Internet access so you can play against anyone in the world, the graphics are so real your grandma thinks you’re watching a movie.

Consoles has come a long way, always lagging behind the PC but now it has caught up and every kid on the block have one.  Games look just as good on a console as it is on a PC.  Developers are turning their focus on making games for consoles.  Could this year be the era of console gaming?  If the trend of releasing games first for the console audience continues it just might make it more desirable to own a console. 

So I found this manhole cover and decided to bring it home.

Haha kidding, this mat I ordered arrived the other day look just like a NYC manhole. 

Thanks to Chris for getting ant farms for us a couple of months ago.  Yesterday we finally received our ants in the mail, after months of waiting because of the cold weather they couldn’t send our ants.  Behold!  Took some pictures today.

A couple of ants have started to make tunnels while the other ones slack off.  I’ll do my best to keep a journal of their lives, I hope they’ll last for a couple of months.