Dino Blog!
My New Desktop
Saturday 12:19, Apr 07, 2012
Finally getting everything up and running with my new desktop. So how good is it? The overall Windows Experience Index is rated at 7.2, and that's my CPU!
So, the details:
- AMD FX-4100 3.6GHz
- G.SKILL 4 x 4GB DDR3 RAM (16 GB total)
- Crucial M4 64 GB SATA3 SSD (primary HDD)
- Seagate 1TB 7200RPM SATA3 HDD (for storage)
- LG 12x Blu-ray Writer
- LG super-multi DVD Writer
- Sapphire Radeon HD6770 1GB (DVI/HDMI/VGA out)
- Cooler Master Extreme Power plus 700W
- Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO CPU Cooler
- Gigabyte GA-970-A-UD3 motherboard (with USB 3)
- Antec Three Hundred Two Mini Tower (not that mini at all...)
With Windows 7 Home Premium, this cost me $1246 CAD, but that's worth it, since I have SSD (everything loads in a breeze), I have Blu-ray (now I can buy some Blu-ray to watch), and I have so much RAM I can open as many programs as I needed! Now if only Windows will behave a little bit, as I have seen I bit of unstable behaviour plus a few BSOD while trying to set things up, not to mention one of the updates cannot be installed properly at all...
I Got a PSP, and Now I Need a New Desktop...
Monday 12:10, Apr 02, 2012
Why the hack will I buy a outdated PSP when there is PS VITA?? Shining Blade, that's why. I got the system last Thursday from Future Shop, and since I had a $100 store gift card, I only needed to pay $45 bucks for it! As I never played with PSP before, I am impressed with how good it is... well Shining Blade is excellent too, and I love the new battle system!
On the other hand, my primary desktop has been in a flunk ever since some trojans have been deteched on some backups from my client's websites... it is so bad that I have to place an order for a new custom desktop from Memory Express (a west coast chain with stores in Alberta) last Friday. Now I have to work from my laptop until the system is ready (probably before Thursday). So, what kind of custom stuff I have ordered? Stay tune.
KOTOBUKIYA Pia Carrot 3 Fuyuki Miharu Floral Type 1/8 PVC Figure
Saturday 15:17, Mar 24, 2012
I bought one back in December 2005 on my trip to Hong kong, or so I thought... turns out I got a fake one, which I suspected and confirmed later on. Since then, I have been on the lookout for a genuine one on eBay forever, and there were two sellers on my watch for a long long time, one from japan and one from Hong Kong. While the Japan seller has one brand new and one used, the Hong Kong seller has one brand new at the cheapest price available... so I took a chance with the Hong Kong seller this month and hoped for the best, and lucky for me, it is a genuine release from KOTOBUKIYA!! Now I can definitely open the fake one when I have room to display her...
KOTOBUKIYA Shining Blade Aria Blanc Neige Gardinas 1/8 PVC Figure
Thursday 22:59, Mar 22, 2012
KOTOBUKIYA has done it again to squeeze more money out of all Blanc Neige fans, a new sculpt of Blanc Neige based on her appearance in Shining Blade, with a slightly different pose from the original... still, a must have for all diehard Blanc Neige fans!
MAX FACTORY VOCALOID2 Character Vocal Series 03 Megurine Luka Tony ver. 1/7 PVC Figure
Thursday 23:30, Mar 08, 2012
Tony and Chieri have done it again, turning up another lovely illustration into a nice PVC figure... Luka certainly looks great, and expect her to be a hard-to-find item soon (not to mention plenty of fakes on eBay).
KOTOBUKIYA Shining Hearts Urayukihime / Hayane 1/8 PVC Figure
Thursday 23:26, Mar 08, 2012
She was on sale at aroun 50% off at Hobby Search last month, so I went ahead and bought one... shipping for her is not cheap since I have seen how big her box was first hand while I was in Hong Kong 4 months ago, but I certainly get a good bargain for her this time! Nice legs...
KOTOBUKIYA Shining Hearts Urayukihime Swimsuit Ver. 1/7 PVC Figure
Wednesday 23:38, Feb 15, 2012
As a figure clone of Blanc Neige Swimsuit Ver., Urayukihime still looks gorgeous in that bikini! I will get one more if she goes on sale...
KOTOBUKIYA Shining Hearts Nellis 1/8 PVC Figure
Tuesday 00:03, Feb 07, 2012
She arrived today in a long shipping box, and I have to say, she is a gem! The reason she was shipped in a shipping box twice the height of the figure's box is because there is a first press bonus item: a high quality tapestry / wall scroll of Nellis in that pose, illustrated by Tony of course! I never have bought or got such a high quality tapestry before (sure beat those lousy fake wall scrolls I used to buy), and I am not going to hang it around...
CD Japan certainly did a good job with the special order service, and I will definitely use it again when I need it!
GOOD SMILE COMPANY Cheerful JAPAN! Nendoroid Megurine Luka Cheerful Ver.
Friday 16:05, Jan 13, 2012
The latest GSC Cheerful JAPAN! item is Nendoroid Luka, plus the pompoms, a tambourine, a pony-tail hair piece for Luka, and a small cheerful hat for Tako Luka, along with the original variations. Get her directly from GSC before January 29!
KOTOBUKIYA Shining Blade Sakuya -Mode: Cerulean- 1/8 PVC Figure
Monday 14:35, Dec 26, 2011
For all Shining Hearts Maxima fans out there, KOTOBUKIYA just found another way to ding your wallet: Sakuya in her ice spirit mode. Well her outfit does not look as good as her regular outfit, but good enough... I wonder if her "fire" mode will also get done down the road?
GOOD SMILE COMPANY Fate/Zero Saber & Saber Motored Cuirassier 1/8 PVC Figure
Wednesday 23:26, Dec 21, 2011
This will be the top pick for best PVC figure of 2012 — Saber on a hot rod, as seen in Fate/Zero!! Price is damn expensive (even more than Saber Lily), but who cares! She is coming out in May 2012.
GOOD SMILE COMPANY Cheerful JAPAN! Campaign Update
Thursday 17:11, Dec 15, 2011
For the current month, in addition to the Fate/stay night Nendoroid Saber and Rin Cheerful set being available, A T-shirt featuring both Saber and Rin in costume is also available, while I am not interested in the Nendoroid set, the T-shirt will be another matter...
Pick them up through GSC here.
GOOD SMILE COMPANY Theatrical Version Fate/stay night UNLIMITED BLADE WORKS Tohsaka Rin -UNLIMITED BLADE WORKS- 1/7 PVC Figure
Monday 16:43, Dec 12, 2011
Well, I did not bought her when the first run was released back in June, and for the next few months I was in regret mode since everyone was selling her at a premium on eBay, and I tried to order one through Yesasia but they could not got me one... until GSC suddenly announced the second run a few months ago, and since I have points to waste with CD Japan, I put them to good use, knocking off about two-thirds of the original cost and shipping. Yep, I have her at a bargain!
On another note, I also got my second KOTOBUKIYA Blanc Neige swimsuit figure from amiami today. At around $50 CAD including shipping, a good deal for her!
Hong Kong Trip
Tuesday 14:45, Dec 06, 2011
As I mentioned in the previous post, I spent two weeks in Hong Kong in November. Originally I never planned to spend much during the trip, having most of the stuff that I really wanted either already ordered or keeping an eye on for sales on certain sites during the trip. Then again, I am still amazed by how easily I got tempted...
- Megami Magazine December 2011 and NyanType September 2011 — never thought I would be buying magazines on the trip, but the bookstore I bought them from was running an promotion (spend $200 HKD and get a 10% coupon), plus the NyanType was on discount...
- Dengeki G's Festival COMIC Vol. 8 — never thought I will find a copy, but the sexy Kenshin figure drove me to buy it. I left the book in Hong Kong after flipping through it once...
- PHANTOM BREAKER Visual Collection — again, never thought I would buy a copy, but I am a sucker for anything done by Suzuhira Hiro, and this time I do overpay for it a little bit...
- FREEing SHUFFLE! Nendoroid Plus Primula's Little Big Adventure!? — see previous post.
- Negima! Vol. 15 limited edition — now that's the highlight of my shopping trip. I never thought I would ever find a brand new, unopened copy ever. It was the only Negima! limited edition volume that I did not own until then (I got volume 14 from Kinokuniya Seatlle back in August), and now I have them all!
FREEing SHUFFLE! Nendoroid Plus Primula's Little Big Adventure!?
Tuesday 14:29, Dec 06, 2011
I spent two weeks in Hong Kong back in late November, and on one of my shopping trips I stumbled upon Primula at a store I used to frequent, and I only need about two minutes of wringling inside my brain before buying her for $428 HKD — a relative bargain sans shipping considering that she is hard to get on eBay (only one seleer is selling her right now for $144 USD, shipping extra). Too bad it is just the regular edition, I want the "embrassed face" version...
Ah yes, it comes with a CD-ROM too, plus Primula's favourite three neko dolls.
KOTOBUKIYA 4-Leaves CLANNAD Sakagami Tomoyo -Uniform Ver.- 1/6 PVC Figure
Tuesday 14:17, Dec 06, 2011
Just got her yesterday, and thanks to the box size I have to get it shipped by EMS instead of SAL. Well, Tomoyo is worth it though, as she looks great in that school uniform...
Griffon Figutto! Shining Wind Seena Kanon
Tuesday 14:13, Dec 06, 2011
I bought one from amaimi when they put her on sale a few weeks ago, and this Figutto! series is certainly well-made, much better than figma in quality and larger in size (so more expensive as a result). Now if Griffon will release Kureha and/or Xecty down the road...
1 Million+ Hits for Otaku HQ
Thursday 22:48, Oct 27, 2011
It actually passed the 1 million hit mark a few months ago, and had been passing the 1 milion hit mark for the last few months. None the less, for a niche site that is significant and a big milestone. I launched the site back in May 2007 and took me 4 years to this, with no budget for SEO and simply overloading the site with pictures and less than stellar content. It is a proof that the site actually serves figure lovers worldwide.
Good thing I did not sell the domain when someone asked for it 2 years ago...
GOOD SMILE COMPANY actsta Takamachi Nanoha
Wednesday 21:19, Oct 19, 2011
With Nanoha-chan arriving earlier today, my collection of the whole actsta lineup is now complete! Not only that, I got three out of four (Teana, Fate-chan and Nanoha-chan) at a bargain! (Subaru was close, but I ended up paying $80 USD for her through eBay). I sure hope GSC will keep this line going!
I Hate WordPress Migration
Wednesday 21:29, Oct 12, 2011
I spent more than three hours today helping a client to migrate one of his client's WordPress site to another one I helped setup, and now I know why I really hate WordPress:
- You cannot migrate the whole database from one site to another without trashing the existing setup for the new site.
- Exporting pages and posts through the import/export tool in the admin area is silly and tedious when your resulting XML feed ends up bigger than 2MB — the import form cannot handle that.
- Every time you export the data out to a feed all the authors' data get exported again and again — you have to reset all author's data every single time because of that.
- You cannot just dump all posts and pages from your existing site to the new site through SQL.
- Best of all, you can easily destroy your painfully-built WordPress menus on the new site if you just replace the data from the old site.
KOTOBUKIYA Shining Hearts Urayukihime -Swimsuit Ver.- 1/7 PVC Figure
Monday 14:29, Sep 26, 2011
Another lovely swimsuit figure from KOTOBUKIYA, and yet you know you have seen her before... yep, she is based on the same model used to make Shining Wind Blanc Neige Swimsuit Ver. 1/7 PVC Figure, so convenient eh? Oh well, I will buy one for sure...
You can compare Urayukihime and Blanc Neige below and see for yourself. Hint: hair is done differently for both.