I'm reading an english translation of a Japanese Manga called Vagabond, which is an adaption of a novel about Miyamoto Musashi, arguably the greatest swordsman Japan has ever known. The manga's is about his life and how he transforms from an almost feral peasant to the famed swordsman of history. The part I'm reading now is about one of his duels in his younger years and it has an awesome moment of humor where Musashi is staring down his opponent, a master of a school of swordsmanship, and trying to psych himself up for it.
He asks himself, "Besides, what's the worst that could happen?"
The next page is him imagining his body exploding in gory pieces as the master slices him to bits.
"Well, I guess that's the worse," Musashi thinks on the page after.
Maybe it's the art or whatever, but that struck me as hilarious.
Saw the released specs on the 2011 Ford Mustang and Wow...
My old 2002 GT Convertible made something like 262 HP and 300 torque. The Cobra for that year made (with a supercharger) 390 HP and torque.
Keeping that in mind, I come to see that the '11 V6, that's SIX-CYLINDER, will make 305 HP and 280 torque. The fucking SIX...! They're also touting the six will make 30 MPG on the highway (19 city). Unless, of course, you get the optional performance package which has steeper rear-gears (3.31 to 2.73 stock). Six speed trannys...
The GT will make 412 HP/390 torque!! AND it will be bringing back the 5.0 displacement engine!
I, uh, I might have to go back into looking at Mustangs... you know... *drool*
Came down with food poisoning early Tuesday morning. Wiped all three of us out. We think it was the ground beef from Costco, but not really sure. I'm still feeling it this morning, but I think Soapie is pretty much all back to normal.
In the wake of the awesomeness of the Yamato live-action trailer, I've gone through a Matsumoto revival. (Matsumoto is considered a creator of Yamato, despite not being the actual originator of the idea. It was his art and ideas that really made it what it is.) His other well known works (relatively speaking) are Galaxy Express 999 and Space Pirate Harlock.
Way back when I was a kid, in the early 1980s, while I was in Japan visiting, one of my relatives, I think it might have been an uncle, got me a toy Yamato. This one:
Now, almost thirty years later, mine is looking so mint as this one. Mine was played with hard. It's gotten broken pieces, and lost pieces, and plastic chroming has worn away. At some point in the past, I sprayed it with hair spray. I think it was an effort to preserve it as it was starting to discolor from sunlight. That, in turn, made a thick THICK layer of dust and gunk accumulate. As well as continuing to discolor.
It doesn't look thrashed by any means, but it's certainly seen better days. I don't have any pics of it now. But, yeah, I would not call it a sterling example of its kind. I suppose, though, it's pretty amazing that it survived my childhood. (Ask OMC, he'll tell you I had a knack for breaking toys). And, I even still have it here with me. It's been in a box. Largely because it looks all crummy. I've made some half-hearted attempts over the years to clean it, but whatever is coating it now is pretty stubborn.
With my Matsumoto revival, I've been kicking around the idea of attempting a restoration of the toy. I've got some model-building/painting experience under my belt and better ideas about what need to be done. My dilemma is what exactly to do. Do I just go the route of disassembly, washing, scrubbing, and minor repairing thus leaving the toy largely in its original form. OR do I try the route of all that PLUS modifying/painting to try and make the Yamato closer to its namesake then to a toy. Go back and look at the pic again. I'm proposing that I'd disassemble the toy, remove the toy controls, seal and putty up the non-canon things like the dual-opening space yacht things. In reassembling it, I'd be permanently joining pieces together, like the bridge wouldn't pop off anymore. I'd give it a new paintjob, keeping the original color scheme, of course, but using metallic and matte paints.
In all, I'd be attempting to take it close to looking along these lines (but limited, of course, by my skill and the basic starting form):
I experimented last night with removing, disassembling, and washing/scrubbing throughly the bridge section and it's a HUGE improvement over the crusty beginnings. I'm pretty sure, with the examinations I've done so far, that I could throughly disassemble and reassemble the thing. I guess where I'm torn is, will I be destroying the toy to make it something it's not (and thus, technically destroying it's value). I've been researching the restoration subject a little and trying to keep the thing as close as possible to its original form appears more desirable then bashing it into something else. I think I'd enjoy the challenge as I'm burned out on Gundam models for now. I just don't want to feel like I'm committing some sort of toy crime by doing it.
Anyone had a chance to try Domino's since they've changed their pizza? I gotta admit, I'm really curious to try it out myself, even though it's weird cause it's Domino's and they're "crappy pizza" (I like Dominos myself, though my favorite pizza is from a local chain called The Pie). Guess it's because I grew up with them and Pizza Hut.
I ate a lot of Domino's when I used to go to Japan. They had one on the first floor of my uncle's condos. It's where I saw my first tuna and corn pizza. Yeah, that's about as weird as it sounds...
There is a secret message here. There are secret messages everywhere on this site. Trust no one. That SUBMIT button may only be a clever ruse that actually is attached to the Nielsen's Survey system that will deviously use your click to register yet another vote for ANOTHER year of V.I.P!!! STOP THE INSANITY!!!
