Seto Kaiba

MEMO is short for MEMO1DOMINION... he's one of thought police/volunteer moderators on robotech.com and the owner/admin of robotechx.com. He's a long-time wanna-be bigshot in the Robotech fandom who has done a lot of backstabbing and taking credit for the handiwork of others to raise his stock in the eyes of Tommy Yune. He's one of the worst of Robotech's die-hard lunatic fringe, and the slanderer-in-chief holding Bendo and JuanRT's strings. He's reportedly doing all this because he thinks if he kisses Tommy's ass hard enough he'll land himself a job at Harmony Gold. Word has it his Robotech obsession was even the reason his wife divorced him...

The most recent example was February 2010, when Harmony Gold put the screws to the almost-finished Robotech Genesis, a fan-made animated Robotech feature... sent them a cease and desist letter demanding they stop use of the Robotech name and images similar to those in the 1985 Robotech TV series. You can read the piece on Kena Cubed about it here or the RobotechX news piece on it here. Yeah... when UEG first received the cease and desist order, MEMO contacted UEG Productions to claim that I had used my influence at Harmony Gold to have the project shut down for some unclear and petty reason. As soon as the news became public, he changed his story and started claiming that the irregularities in the cease and desist order were because I had faked the documents to trick them into shutting down. Later, I ended up having a chat with UEG's head honcho and he assured me he wasn't buying MEMO's BS for a second, and he filled me in on what really went down.

Yeah... but unlike the problem children we're "at war" with overseas, this nutjob's grip on reality is so tenuous that he actually thinks his views are that of the majority and that he's a respected and admired spokesman for the entire Robotech fandom. I'd say he just can't tell the difference between "laughing with" and "laughing at", but his problems are deeper than that. I'm no clinical psychologist, but you don't need a Psy.D to see that he's got a massive inferiority complex, that he's trying to compensate for his humiliating minimum wage job and lack of a future by being an internet tough guy, and that he has a penis fixation so pronounced that even Sigmund Freud would've found it excessive. As I see it, his tendency to ignore niceties like spelling and grammar to the winds and typing like someone in dire need of a copy of "English for Dummies" is the least of his problems. Totally... if half the stuff they said about me were true, Robotech wouldn't be in the state it's in today. If I had the kind of clout they say I do, I wouldn't be wasting my time using it to get Harmony Gold's lawyers to put the kibosh on fan films. I'd have long since scuttled the whole worthless franchise and sold the rights to the three original shows off to someone with a working brain. Of course, I'd also have to worry about the upkeep costs and landscaping for my suburban volcano doom fortress and legion of witless minions. If you're really serious about having their behavior examined, I know a guy who could help... he doesn't have his degree yet, but he's a senior level student in a good clinical psychology program.

Hm... presently, my favorites are Macross the First, B Gata H Kei, and Trinity Blood.

You ain't seen nothin' yet. Believe it or not, what you're reading is Bendo on his best behavior and at his most balanced. To him, it probably is... mind you, he's probably spending a substantial percentage of his own income on his Robotech-related activities. I understand he's pushing 30, lives at home with his mother, and works full time as a "sales floor associate" at a BestBuy in Ohio.

Woah... now that is a new experience, hearing about another site's online drama on MacrossWorld that I'd first heard about ages ago from my father of all people. To be honest, I wasn't aware there was still anything like activity on that site. The few old time Robotech fans I still talk to nowadays usually described RDF HQ as a ghost town, and I see it's not without cause. Looks like that one isolated drama thread is about the only sign that the place hasn't completely dried up and died. There's too much concentrated stupid in that thread for me to consider giving it a thorough read-through though.

No, I'm not... remember, the super fold booster's main improvement (aside from being able to pass through fold faults) is that it eliminates the disparity between subjective time and objective time. If the time displacement for conventional fold travel was the old 1:240, "a tenth" would have been a dramatic understatement. Luca wasn't talking about a super fold booster when he described the difference between subjective and objective time as a rough 1:7 when he was describing travelling to Gallia IV, he was talking about getting there by conventional fold travel. (and, in the context of Leon's later remarks in that same episode, it would seem the overall travel time in subjective and objective terms is overlong because of the fault surface, not one or the other)

True... I suppose it would probably be safer to err towards the higher of the estimates to approximate covering that distance in a single fold jump rather than two with downtime in the middle. Still, an approximation is a nice thing to have... True again... 's why I cited increments of ~1000ly for a long-distance trip, since that's the longest known (planned but not executed) fold jump explicitly mentioned in Macross. They were charging up for a substantial period of time just to fold the Frontier that distance... I doubt that any ship could store the necessary amounts of energy to fold tens or hundreds of thousands of light years in a single jump. Huh... oh well. On reflection, the 1:7 figure cited by Luca makes a good deal more sense in the context of his later description of the fold booster as making the galaxy "a tenth" the size it once was. 's still not a bad setup, that'd make the trip from Earth to Eden about two and a half hours subjective, not much different from a bog standard commuter flight. When you can think about it like that, it really gives you a feel for the scale of the thing... Thanks for pointing that out, I completely missed that somehow.

I didn't... I was trying to err on the side of caution with my estimate of speed. Huh... I'd just gone with the figure I had on hand at the time. I don't recall the Chronicle sheet being all that precise about the time differential between the real time and subjective time, though it has been a while since I reviewed it. I'll go back to check and, if necessary, redo my math. EDIT: On re-examination, Macross Frontier's dialogue seems to posit a difference of 1:7 rather than 1:240, thought a change that significant doesn't make much sense. Gonna try to confirm with other sources... EDIT #2: 'kay... it's confirmed, but the wording isn't exactly clear. Luca attributes the unusually long (7 day) travel time to a large fold fault, but it's unclear whether the fold fault is the reason for the longer subjective AND objective time, or a larger disparity between the two... can you shed any light on this sketchley? Either way, the distance elapsed over objective time hasn't changed, so the drive speed math ought to be sound... it's just the subjective time estimates that need to be recalibrated (possibly).

I don't see any reason why fold communications would be impeded by being outside the galaxy. Yes, if you're willing to work out the distance-over-time math on your own... I've no idea where they got that 1ly/6min equivalency, because as far as I know it has no basis in canon. Thanks to some helpful info from the Worldguide sheet for Eden in Macross Chronicle that establishes how long it takes to cover the 11.7 light year distance between Eden and Earth (18-24 hours) we can establish a mean fold velocity of approximately 4,884 times the speed of light. With the approximate differential between real time and experienced time stated by Misa in Super Dimension Fortress Macross, we can estimate that the crew would experience roughly 5 minutes and 15 seconds during the 21 hour fold jump. (The velocity derived from distance over time has a pretty wide range, being as fast as 5,698c or as slow as 4,273c, in the interest of expediency, I'm just going to split it down the middle and use 21 hours) Using the above-noted mean velocity of 4,884c for conventional fold travel (11.7ly in 21 hours), it would take over 409 years (real time) of continuous fold travel to cover the 2 million light year distance to Andromeda. If that were done in one continuous fold (certainly impossible, due to the geometric progression of energy consumption) the crew would only experience about 1 year and 257 days as a result of the time differential... barring any fold faults or anything like that. Realistically, they'd probably find it impossible without using a zero-time fold engine. It'd take months between jumps to charge the drive for ~1000ly increments, and probably take centuries to get there even if they had the fuel to pull it off. If they DID use a zero-time fold engine to get there, it'd take the aforementioned ~1.7 years of continuous fold travel to get there.

I'm more curious as to who they're using as a face for the Dominion of Ishtar up there... it's clearly a Mamoru Nagano design, maybe Mecorr Litra from Five Star Stories?

Hm... a toss-up between B Gata H Kei, Ichiban Ushiro no Daimaou, and Seitokai Yakuindomo. Honorable mention to Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, since it started airing in '09, but continued into '10. Dishonorable mention to K-On!! and The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya for being absolute garbage. To be honest, I don't think there was one... or if there was, it certainly wasn't coming out of Hollywood. In my experience, the best thing on TV these days is the Off button. The best series still airing new material during 2010? Probably Dirty Jobs. Probably Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood... beautifully-designed game engine wasted on an utterly mediocre game. Huh... I'd say the latest iteration of the Zune HD. Don't collect that sort of thing...

Rough 1-ply nothing... if they handle it the way they handled the Maia Sterling MPC, it'll be a roll of 40 grit sandpaper.

Eh... I think you're being overly generous. There were reportedly a fair few Robotech fans who were willing to return their Maia MPCs to be exchanged for the "fixed" version with even more manufacturing problems which came from the very same factory as the earlier defective version and which Harmony Gold promised that they wouldn't use. Knowingly purchasing a badly designed and poorly manufactured product just because it's the only one available is NOT the mark of a discerning consumer. If someone's putting out poor quality products, you're not supposed to buy them for shits and giggles. You're supposed to look elsewhere for someone who knows how to make a higher quality product. I really wish the average Robotech fan was as discerning and intelligent as you want them to be. I really do. It would solve a LOT of Robotech's problems. The sad truth is that, based on my own experiences, you often give them far more credit than they deserve. Indeed... in the past year or so, I've seem a marked increase in the exodus of frustrated and betrayed fans looking for something of actual quality instead of more dreary Robotech-as-reimagined-by-Tommy-Yune mess coupled with empty promises.

Oh, now you've done it... just you watch, a year from now that'll be their next big merchandising innovation: Robotech toilet paper.

Huh... if this latest Robotech project really is a dub of Love Live Alive, then I can only assume it's some kind of homage to all the other horrible creative decisions they've made in the last 25 years. Kind of a late "25th Anniversary Screw-Up Spectacular". I can't imagine another terribad rewrite would go over very well in this day in age... Granted, the promo art that Tommy was so mad about having leaked via cell phone wouldn't make much sense if the film were Love Live Alive. All the same, when has Harmony Gold ever let good business sense get in the way of jerking fans around and making a quick buck off of their nostalgia-blinded fans? It's entirely possible that Tommy's promo pic was something he did years ago for Shadow Chronicles and never got around to showing. He certainly didn't put much effort into designing a logo for the 25th anniversary...

I'd love to know that myself... but Jasonc is a fairly well-connected guy, so I'd weight hearsay from him at a slightly higher level of reliability than I would anyone else who wasn't directly involved in the production. Yeah, HG did a big tribute to Carl on the convention tour right after he died... and it wouldn't surprise me at all if what you predicted comes to pass.

Hell, it should go without saying that you aren't going to get an honest answer about the health of the Robotech franchise from anyone on the Harmony Gold payroll... much less their head of marketing. The common business wisdom is that marketing is the use of fraud and deception to sell trash to idiots, and a marketeer who also has a history as a frothy-mouthed pro-Robotech fanatic is even less likely to tell it like it is. He'll never try to quantify Robotech's "success" because doing so would destroy the credibility of his claims that they're doing great. Even Tommy's been more upfront about the current situation with Robotech... at least he openly admitted that Shadow Rising was on hold while they waited for the LAM that might never get made to raise Robotech's value in the eyes of investors. It's McKeever's job to backpedal, to mince words, and to dissemble copiously. It's what they pay him for. Let's make no mistake, that "2011" project is the ONLY Robotech coming in the foreseeable future, and by all accounts it's going to be a bad joke.

There's no link to give, because it's one of those "facts" Robotech die-hards made up on the spot in an effort to defend Robotech's lack of forward motion. Rhade is the one who started running off at the mouth about it, and he flat-out refuses to produce the source he claims to have gotten the information from. If such a statement had been made, trust me, you would NOT need to ask around for the source... it'd be a huge news topic here.

Doubtful... at present, all Macross licensing in the US has to go thru Harmony Gold since they hold the trademark on the Macross name and logo in the states. I don't think they've ever come out and explicitly said "we don't like HG" from Big West though. Nah... by the look of things, HG is importing them independently for sale at a markup. What I've heard is that HG is basically shopping around for Macross goods that don't sell in Japan, buying 'em cheap, and selling 'em at full price on their site... at least with regard to the Revoltech line.

Eh, I made my thoughts pretty clear in that thread already... it kinda got hijacked by one nutty Robotech fan who thinks Robotech is a part of Macross and that Macross's creators approved of, and were involved in, the creation of Robotech up 'till a "falling out" around 1999-2000 when Harmony Gold started sending cease and desists to anyone importing Macross merch. The thread's OP doesn't seem to actually want to force Macross's creators to make Robotech an official part of Macross the way the thread hijacker (Emperor Ryu) does, he just wants Palladium to be able to make a couple RPGs based on the rest of Macross so he can have "official" (lit. PB-approved) stats to use mecha from Macross shows other than Macross II and SDF Macross (via RT). I guess he's not content with fanmade stats, since those are verboten on Palladium's forums. It doesn't really bear thinking about, let alone actually re-posting. Wow... just wow.

Oh, I've got a fair few pets... my family knows I'm good with animals, so whenever a family friend has a pet they can't take care of anymore for whatever reason, it invariably ends up under my care. Right now I'm looking after four turtles, a rabbit, and a cockatiel on a permanent basis, and I'm also temporarily looking after my family's dog while they're out of town... pics to follow. Here are my four turtles... I had to photograph them in groups of two because they're rather big, and they don't quite grasp the cliche that turtles are supposed to be slow and placid. They've gotten so big I don't have a tank big enough for them, so they live in a kiddie pool in my sun porch... they've gotten rather adept at escaping the pool lately. I've also caught them climbing (no joke, no exaggeration) a fully vertical brick wall. They've got into the bad habit of knocking the towel bin for the hot tub down and sleeping in the spilled towels. Michael (left) and "Baby" (the foot in the bottom left belongs to Duke) Mark (left) and Michael Duke (the troublemaker) Don't have any pictures of my cockatiel, Sullavin... mainly because he's a jerkass who's pushing the upper limits of a cockatiel's lifespan (he's going on 20, IIRC) and keeps mooning the camera. This is Whisper, the unholy terror foisted on me by my sister when one of her friends discovered their college dorm wouldn't let her keep a rabbit... I'm fairly certain it feeds on carrots, human suffering, and the insulation on HDMI cables. and lastly, the dog I'm looking after for today (and the only creature that consented to sit still long enough to be photographed), my family's dog Abagail, a female purebred Boxer.

No, the really amusing part is that it's close enough to the shoddy animation quality of Shadow Chronicles that it really COULD be mistaken for the genuine article!

Yeah, a tendency that surprises nobody... he always was jealous of the people who got to be well known and respected in the Robotech fandom. Even I noticed, and I don't think I've had more than a half-dozen one-on-one conversations with the guy. He always did resent the people other fans looked to as experts, and I don't doubt for a second that he would share concept art like that if he thought it would increase his standing in the community...

Yup... and as Zor Primus already said, we came to the same conclusion. Even putting aside the question of the animation's age, the knee-jerk story changes in Shadow Chronicles would make adding Love Live Alive to the story untenable. Even if this side story thing is an all-new project, I doubt the sane fans will be too kind to it unless it actually advances the setting or story in progress currently on hold. It's pretty much a given that they're not making this side story show for the hell of it, it's a deliberate smokescreen to distract people from the lack of progress with the Robotech live action movie and Shadow Rising.