F-ZeroOne
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Being in the UK, I had to come to Robotech (and, later, Macross) indirectly, through the RPG, but there probably wouldn't have been a RPG for me to find without people like Mr. Macek. I don't know nearly enough about what else he may have done later to really comment one way or the other...
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Toy manufacturers: Probably going to be the first episode of Matt Smiths run thats going to really split the audience. I actually liked it quite a bit, though all the criticisms are valid. From watching the "Confidential", the writer Mark Gatiss clearly intended it to be a tribute to the days of being ten years old, holding Action Man in one hand and a plastic space gun in the other, spending the bank holiday watching "Where Eagles Dare" for the nth time. Some have suggested it should have been a two-parter, but personally I think it could have been better done as a 60 minutes special. Still, big things next week, and also:
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You've probably heard this by now, but pretty much all commercial jet flying in the UK and Europe has been shut for the past day or so due to a huge cloud of volcanic ash darkening the skies, from an eruption in Iceland. This has allowed the press to trot out perhaps the ultimate example of British understatement ever, from Captain Eric Moody on a British Airways flight that ran into one of these clouds back in 1982: "Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. We have a small problem. All four engines have stopped. We are doing our damnedest to get them under control. I trust you are not in too much distress."
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If you're stuck for (English language) reading material, try Towers Records in Shibuya or Books Kinokuniya in Shinjuku (its in the "New Times Square" building, but along a walkway on the fifth floor. I always walk across the building a few times before I get the right corridor... .
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If you get the chance, order the book "Tokyo Underground" by Brian Flynn; theres a new edition out soon but might not be available before you go. Its full of useful advice and tips on the best places for toy hunting. I can speak from experience when I say that the authors know their stuff. Quick advice: 1) Get a good map of Tokyo. You have never been lost until you have been lost in Tokyo. If you are meeting someone or need to be somewhere specific, make sure you have good directions, map and if possible a contact number. When instructions provided by a Japanese business say "4 minutes walk from... " they miss out the part that reads "if you're Usain Bolt". Mentally double walking estimates in these situations. 2) You pockets will fill up with coins pretty quickly. 100 yen, 50 yen and 10 yen coins are useful; 5 yen coins pretty much aren't and 1 yen coins make good tiddly winks. Wait until you visit a shrine and dump them in a donation box, or some convenience stores have charity boxes for loose change. 3) Don't be "da hardcore"; department store toy sections and "ordinary" toy shops can be good places to find recent but older items. Ueno station has a very good toy shop across the road from it; Kiddyland in Harujuku is another. Keep your eyes peeled; there may be shops of interest above or below your eye level. 4) Navigating Shinjuku: for the main part, best done by department store. You need a good map of Tokyo for this (see point 1) which names the department stores but beware the "Marui" trap; you will be looking for the Marui stores and all you see are stores marked "OIOI". They are the Marui stores; the OIOI branding is a word/language play on the name Marui. 5) If you want to see Akihabara at its best, visit on a Saturday or a Sunday, when cat-girls prowl the streets and idols promote the latest dating sim. If you want to get anything done in Akihabara, visit on a weekday around 10:30am, when the shops are just opening. On that note, many smaller Japanese businesses tend to open fairly late in the morning and close on a random day of the week instead of a weekend day. This can be annoying if its your one chance to visit a particular place, so check if possible. 6) If you have an iPhone, PDA or smart phone, try and get a copy of Metro, a free public transport guide that covers several Japanese cities. Very useful. 7) If you're in a hurry, Akihabara or Nakano Broadway are probably the best places to do all your Da Culture shopping in one hit. If you're really in a hurry, the looming Yodabashi Akiba store, just behind Akihabara, is a good place for modern toys and the worlds largest collection of iPod socks. Be prepared to to a lot of walking; Japan has one of the worlds best public transport systems but that doesn't make the corridors any shorter, and shrines, temples and castles are designed to destroy your knees. 9) Travel light; Japanese trains, even bullet trains, tend to be a little short on luggage rack space and some older buildings can have stairs that - I swear - are 90 degrees to the vertical. Bought too much stuff? Ditch packaging before you leave if possible, buy or pack an empty holdall and consider posting items back. Japanese post offices sell boxes, scrunched up newspaper can make reasonable packing material and loans are available to cover the postal costs. 10) Generally, Japanese toilets are of three kinds: traditional "squat" type, Western type (though with unusual twists; that spout on top is not to watch your hands with!) and Toilet Borg 3000s. Toilet Borgs 3000s have control panels which are played with at your own personal risk of being soaked by a six foot arc of high velocity water. 11) DON'T PANIC. Just because everyone else is rushing around doesn't mean you have to. Find a quiet spot, check your map and consider. 12) The tissue thing. You'll find out.
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Controversy coming in 3... 2... 1... (warning, major spoiler for this Saturdays episode):
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When does the World Cup start again...? Or Wimbledon...?
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Hottest companion? K-9. What? Another nice Moffat-penned episode this week; very 2000AD (long-running British SF comic known for its mostly dystopian future tales). Next week... lets just say old friends.
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"Why is there a gauge marked "tea" level on this panel, Herr Tom...?"
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Earth Defence Force 2017. By every standard of modern game design, it is appalling. And yet it lets you shoot Giant Space Ants with a rocket launcher, over and over and over. Recommended; its like Roger Cormans Halo.
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Apparently the RAF flew a Tornado GR4 strike mission over Afghanistan recently with a British pilot in front and a German - Luftwaffe - navigator in back. You can probably supply the in-cockpit banter...
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First Matt Smith episode finished about, uh, 15 minutes ago over here. You can stop worrying now.
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They seem to have left that particular design requirement out of every account of R.J. Mitchell I've ever read...
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You've had it confirmed, but yes, you did see the flag. Theres probably been enough hints now to suggest the Daleks are up to something over here... (possibly creating the ultimate terror, the Dalek Mk.III "Chav"... )
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Can't gain any electronic intelligence info from its emissions if its burning wreckage now, can we? IIRC, one of the major differences between the B1-B and the "Black Jack" is that the Russian bomber is a fair bit larger.
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We can has new trailer, spoilers: http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/cult/s7/doctor...ve-trailer.html
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I think the kid is going to be all right: http://blogtorwho.blogspot.com/2010/03/ele...aunch-clip.html (short, spoiler-ish clip right at end of interview)
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What Current Anime Series Are You Watching? v2.0
F-ZeroOne replied to Duke Togo's topic in Hall Of The Super Topics
Like the TV series, its a little uneven and I can't recall if it has the closure you want but it features what is quite possibly not just the finest ever Patlabor episode, or one of the finest pieces of anime ever, but one of the finest pieces of comic writing ever. Its the episode where Goto and Nagumo get stuck in a hotel for a night. Thats as much as I'm prepared to give away. -
"Ours is the toner that will pierce the heavens!"
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Just finished it this evening. Why do I feel a sudden urge to go and buy the biggest power drill I can find?
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I think they had a kind of execution chamber which filled with hot caramel (or similar) and somehow the Kandy man got melted by the contents of that. Oddly enough, I always found that thing a fairly scary monster - possibly because Bertie Bassett is such a well known UK character, and the idea of a homicidal Bertie just resonates with us a bit more...
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Could always stick to Liquorice Allsorts. Oh. Wait...
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I think I'm going to offer this piece of advice - read up on any of the titles mentioned in this thread before viewing with your son. Lest you get the "eyeballs going really big" sound.
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Its going to be a bit of a struggle, obviously, but then thats been the burden for every new Doctor; its just that the show is so much of a higher profile now. Its a bit early to say, but going by what I've seen of him so far and how he comes across in the media, I also think hes going to do well...
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Okay; just to make clear it was specifically the Cadburys ones I was thinking of, rather than "Brand X sugar coated small chocolate eggs". They used to be an Easter only thing here, too, but now Easter tends to start just before Christmas...! Its been a while since I had some, might have to buy a packet to see if they've started putting in false ingredients here too...