Batcave

Pandas and politics don't mix...

2011-08-11T15:15:00.001-05:00

Blogger for Android test post

2011-02-06T04:06:00.001-06:00

So how does this work?

Good? Bad? Why should I even use blogger these days? :)

It's me, Mario...

2010-02-02T17:41:00.000-06:00

Mostly just testing to see if mobile photo posting still works.

The end of an era...

2010-02-02T15:31:00.003-06:00

I received an email today from Blogger informing me that as of March 26th they will no longer support FTP blog publishing. My blog has been powered by Blogger since 2004 and FTPed to my hosting service.

I really don't know exactly what I plan to do. This site can remain exactly as it is but I will no longer be able to update it via Blogger. For the time being I plan to move this blog over to http://batcaveweb.blogspot.com. Google supports custom domains and such but I'm not really sure I want to continue to use Blogger after this change. I will loose all of my custom sub-pages and a whole lot of customization ability.

The same goes for the Istari blog. I will be moving it over to http://istariguild.blogspot.com.

I may at some point use the custom domain option to redirect batcaveweb to the Blogger server but I doubt it. I will probably have to start from scratch and move to some custom content system. However, I really don't use my blog all that much these days so who knows when I will get around to doing that, if ever.
Unfortunatly the move to blogspot hosting will pretty much require a complete redesign of my blog. I will most likley just pick one of the Blogger templates for now just to ease the pain. All of my sub pages and such will still be here at batcaveweb.com.
Also note that my RSS feed will change as well. The current feed will still be here but no longer updated. You will need to visit the new Batcave on blogspot to get the new feed.

So in the mean time you can keep up with me at the following locations:

Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/jasonandrewlee
Twitter - http://twitter.com/jasonandrewlee
The new/temp Batcave - http://batcaveweb.blogspot.com

It is rather sad. I've used this blog in basically this format since 2004...

So here it is... The last post ever on the batcave as it is today...

Catch ya later..

Oh, why not...

2009-09-11T10:59:00.001-05:00

Mmmm.. Tacos.

2009-09-08T13:35:00.003-05:00

In today's issue we head a little south of the border...

Oh noes... Busted Bat-taco...

This is why I can't stand a fanboy...

2009-09-08T09:25:00.003-05:00

A friend recently linked this article on twitter so I thought I'd give it a read.
I was expecting a logical, well though out argument about how Apple has drastically changed the mobile phone industry in the United States...

That wasn't what I got.

As I read on I thought he proceeded to mock the anti Apple folks, you know, the haters with out provocation? Well deserved, they should be mocked. People who rail on something without getting their facts strait (regardless of their views) need to be set strait.
After a few more paragraphs I assumed I would start to see the logic and reasoning of the cleverly crafted article... It never happened... What I got instead was a completely biased and inaccurate list of things that only Apple themselves could do.

So, lets look at the list shall we? (I'll add my comments below each numbered entry.)

1. Carriers ruled the industry with an iron fist
(True, but only in the United States. Anyone with any will or knowledge could easily acquire an unlocked GSM phone and use it with any GMS carrier in the US.)

2. To access carriers’ networks handset makers capitulated everything
(Yes, only in the US.)

3. Carriers dictated phone designs, features, apps, prices, marketing, advertising and branding
(Again, only in the US.)

4. Phones were reduced to cheap, disposable lures for carriers’ service contracts
(See above)

5. There was no revenue sharing between carriers and manufacturers
(True, as far as I know.)

6. There was no notion of phone networks becoming dumb pipes anytime soon
(That whole in the US thing again...)

7. Affordable, unlimited data plans as standard were unheard of
(I have paid $19.95 per month for UNLIMITED date on my phone since 2001. Available to any phone on the carrier.)

8. A phone that would entice people to switch networks by the millions was a pipe dream
(This is very true. Apple has the marketing magic.)

9. Mobile devices were phones first and last, not usable handheld computers
(This is a completely ridiculous comment. The first smart phones were introduced in the early 1990's. By the late 1990's/early 2000's Nokia and Palm/Handspring were picking up steam along with that upstart RIM and their Blackberry. By 2002 Microsoft had converted their Pocket PC OS over to a smart phone version. I have had a full blown computer in my pocket since 2002 when I got my first smart phone. And since 1995 if you count the handheld computer I tethered to my phone.)

10. Even the smartest phones didn’t have seamless WiFi integration
(My first first Smartphone from 2002 had seamlessly integrated WiFi.)

11. Without Visual Voice Mail, messages couldn’t be managed non-linearly
(True for mobile phone voice mail.)

12. There were no manufacturer owned and operated on-the-phone application stores as the sole source
(True, there were MANY other application stores out there. However, none were manufacture owned.)

13. An on-the-phone store having 65,000 apps downloaded nearly 2 billion times was not on anyone’s radar screen
(True for on-the-phone stores. Says nothing of the billions of programs sold via the thousands of other mobile software stores since the 1990's. I totally agree that Apple revolutionized the mobile software store by placing it directly in front of the user.)

14. Low-cost, high-volume app pricing strategy with a 70/30 split didn’t exist
(Ok)

15. Robust one-click in-app transactions were unknown
(True, though I not sure this is a good thing.)

16. There was no efficient, large scale, consistent and lucrative mobile app market for developers large and small
(Handango.com, Pocketgear.com, plus many many others.)

17. Buttons, keys, joysticks, sliders…anything but the screen was the focus of phones
(And who says this is a bad thing? Preferences people. Give me a physical keyboard any day.)

18. Phones didn’t come with huge 3.5″ touch screens
(What about my first phone at 3.6 inches, or that 4" Toshiba, or that crazy 5" HTC? All pre-iphone. Only recently did some screens shrink to the 2.8" range.)

19. Pervasive multitouch, gesture-based UI was science fiction
(True)

20. Actually usable, multi-language, multitouch virtual keyboards on phones didn’t exist
(Not entirely true, Resco keyboard, Spb keyboard, Fitaly, and countless other full and half screen touch keyboards have been around for years with support for many languages. No multi touch though.)

21. Integrated sensors like accelerometers and proximity detectors had no place in phones
(Quite a few phones had ambient light sensors. I will agree that Apple brought the accelerometer to the mobile phone world.)

22. Phones could never compete in 3D/gaming with dedicated portable consoles
(There are several HP and Toshiba devices with integrated 3D graphics chips that were out years before the iphone. Several desktop PC games were ported to these devices.)

23. iPod-class audio/video players on mobiles didn’t exist
(True, much higher class audio and video player existed before.)

24. No phone had ever offered a desktop-like web browser experience
(Not true, I had Opera mini on my old Motorola phone, then later Opera mobile on my smartphone. With flash support mind you.)

25. Sophisticated SDKs and phones were strangers to each other
(... You are kidding right? Palm, Symbian, Windows Mobile have all had SDKs for years before the iphone existed. The Windows Mobile SDK was usable in the exact same environment that windows programmers had used for years.)

I will admit, the author has several valid points. And I agree, Apple really kicked the mobile phone market in the ass. They have helped advance products much faster than would have happened without the launch of the iphone. Competition is good and Apple sure brought it.

What I cannot agree with is the ranting against fact-less fanboyism on once side only to turn around and do it himself. While Apple may not be "evil" as the author claims, they sure as hell are not "God" as he implies. No company is perfect. All devices have their flaws. And people have their preferences. All these things much be acknowledged in order to have a valid discussion. Pointing and yelling, "Mine's better than yours is!", all day isn't going to get us anywhere.

Thanks for playin.

Batman says...

2009-08-27T13:39:00.003-05:00

Did you ever think it would be funny to hear something said in the "Batman voice"? You know... Something that you would probably never hear Batman say.

Maybe I should do more of these... Dunno.. We'll see.

*remember to read it in your best Batman voice. :)

Yo JoeCon!

2009-08-15T00:34:00.000-05:00

Saturday we are headed out to Kansas City to our first ever G.I. Joe convention. I don't know if it will be half as cool as BotCon but I am very excited.

Good news is that it isn't all that far from home so if it sucks not a huge wasted trip. :)

Check it out: http://www.gijoecon.com

Sure Ninjas rock...

2009-08-07T10:37:00.002-05:00

But some times you just gotta face the facts...

So much to say...

2009-07-07T12:50:00.003-05:00

And so little time...

So many things I am thinking about today and no time to ramble on about them...
Can't cram it all into 140 characters. ;)

Twikini version 1.0 released!

2009-05-19T23:52:00.006-05:00

The entire reason I started using Twitter if the first place was to have an excuse to play with the many clients available for Windows Mobile. I have a thing for good software. :)

After quite some time I thought I had finally settled on a Twitter client for my phone... Until I saw a news post about this great new Twitter client called Twikini. I'll admit, the name put me off a bit at first but it looked nice and claimed to be fast (which my current Twitter client was far from) so I gave it a try.
Having only used Twikini for a day I was convinced. It was FAST and just had that feel of really well written software. It was a joy to use.

Twikini's feature set is truly amazing, there are far too many to go into here but I'll touch on a few I really like.

Inline display of Twitpic pictures!
This is a great feature and a true time saver. Most of the time a quick thumbnail view is all you really need to get the gist of someone's Twitpic post. For those times when you need more you can still click the link or the picture to view the full Twitpic page in your browser.

Just look at all these options you get while posting a tweet!
You can update your location by typing into the box or by using the GPS built into your phone. What's even better is you can enter your GPS lat & lon or have it translated to an actual street address! And boy is it accurate.
You can also post photos to Twitpic and use various URL shortening services.

The features don't stop there:

Full support for Direct Messages, inbox and sent folders.

Follow and unfollow users.

Delete your own tweets if you make an oopsie.

View users profiles and timelines.

Jump directly to any user, if your following them or not.

View the large version of a users pic.

And so much more!

Head on over to Trinket Software's site and check it out:
http://www.trinketsoftware.com/Twikini

I have tested it on both Windows Mobile 5 and 6.

Twikini is, by far, the best Twitter client out there for Windows Mobile.
Give it a go, you won't regret it.

Shipping overkill?

2009-05-19T13:36:00.002-05:00

We recently purchased 25 refurbished Cisco switches from a company. One of them was defective so we returned it or another one.
Well, that one arrived today in this box...

That's just nuts... ;)

Ah! There is something in there!

All this box for a single switch??! Umm, ok...

Spring hath sprung...

2009-04-08T19:10:00.000-05:00

Yes, spring is here. At least today anyway. Frakin screwy weather...
I had a nice drive home from work todat with the top off the car. Then helped the wife finish off mowing the yard for the first time this year.

Looks like rain and maybe sleet over the next few days though... Least we got one nice day. :)

Go Go Sparkle Monkey!!

2009-03-27T14:18:00.003-05:00

So this is what Alastria comes home with yesterday. He should make a nice addition to my desk. :)

He looks really cool if you turn out the light and shake him real good. :D

Spam fail.

2009-03-25T10:53:00.000-05:00

I got this spam mail today and just had to share...
It is a rather nice spam form letter but it appears that someone actually forgot to populate the form fields. :D

So, if you ever wondered what uncooked spam (mail) looks like here you go. ;)

Spam FAIL!!

The little tree that could.

2009-03-25T10:45:00.000-05:00

Over the last 2 years the wonderful ice storms we had have all but destroyed the trees in our front yard. One we completely cut down to the ground and the other we kinda just left. We tried to cut it down but the wood was too hard for the chainsaw we had.

But that really didn't seem to matter to the trees. :)
The one cut to the gound looks more like a bush now and the shattered stump? Well, you can see how it is doing above. :)

Look to the future...

2009-03-05T15:39:00.002-06:00

Tee hee...

Change...

2009-03-04T15:03:00.003-06:00

Haha. Love it. :)

Which way do we go George...?

2009-02-28T08:50:00.000-06:00

Two days ago... 70. Now? Two and a half inches of snow... *unintelligible babbling noises*

Ahh, February...

2009-02-26T12:15:00.000-06:00

Near 70 in February... Nice. Too bad I didn't have yesterday off work... Oh well. Nothing like workin on the car in the rain...

ummm..

2009-02-07T16:39:00.000-06:00

oooookay....

Network archaeologist...

2009-01-30T11:55:00.000-06:00

Wow.. looky what we found. :)

snow pics

2009-01-30T11:52:00.000-06:00

took these the other night and never got around to posting them.

The beginning of the end: ice storm 2009

2009-01-26T15:58:00.000-06:00

here we go again...

In January!?!

2009-01-22T17:37:00.000-06:00

are you kidding me?

How to know you've married a geek...

2009-01-19T01:27:00.000-06:00

When your wife sends you this picture titled "i has a fibinocci!!"...

Security fail...

2009-01-14T21:20:00.000-06:00

So the entire reason we drove all the way to Joplin was to buy Alastria a new laptop. The Best Buy in Springfield didn't have any in stock. But Joplin did.

As an added bonus it turned out to be $250 cheaper than we anticipated!

So as we are checking out the computer asks the lady to call the credit company. I expected as much. Large amount of money and in the next town over I also received a txt message and an email at the same instant from the credit company saying for me to call them immediately.

Weird...

Anyway, turn out that my card number might have been stolen recently in a hacking incident and they had a close watch on the account. After they verified it was actually me the allowed the transaction and asked if they could close the account and express me a new card... Umm... Ok.

Probably for the best but now I've gotta change a whole lot of online billing. Hehe. Oh wells. Nice to know they are looking out for me... Well, actually covering their own ass... But saved me a potential heap of trouble.

Holy...!

2009-01-14T20:58:00.001-06:00

Just a friendly reminder about in which part of the country we live...

Only at Walmart...

Turtle power!

2009-01-14T20:46:00.000-06:00

ZOMG! Totally awesome, dude!
25th anniversary turtles. Totally repacked in the original package! Kowabunga, dude!!

anti virus fail @target

2009-01-14T20:16:00.000-06:00

lol oops. shouldn't have pluggd that infected flash drive in. :)

mmm... cake.

2009-01-09T14:36:00.000-06:00

... add 2 sticks, yellow highlighter. Bake 2 hours at 250 degrees...

New Year sushi party

2009-01-05T22:36:00.000-06:00

I've been meaning to post these for days now. Here are a few pics from our New year party. Such a nice looking setup. :)

eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

2008-12-25T09:41:00.000-06:00

I got the complete Batman: The Animated Series dvd box set! I soooo excited!

Merry Christmas

2008-12-24T23:00:00.000-06:00

It's staring at me...

2008-12-21T09:00:00.000-06:00

Good morning Dave...

brrr...

2008-12-21T08:44:00.000-06:00

Today I go nowhere that doesn't involve warm blankets...

Spectacular Spider-man

2008-12-19T15:25:00.002-06:00

I've really been enjoying the newest Spider-man cartoon, Spectacular Spider-man. It is probably the best Spidey cartoon in quite some time, if not every. It is based off of the Ultimate Spider-man universe (Just like the new movies). The show is set while Peter is in high school, just after he becomes Spider-man. (The show starts with him being bitten by the spider.)

At the same time the new toys for the show are great. I love the look of them and they are very well built. This is the first superhero toy line in quite some time that I have wanted to even get all the villains. They are really cool looking. I don't know if it is the design of the show or the toys or maybe a bit of both. Either way, I like it. :)

Which makes me pretty excited about the possible new Ironman show by the same team. Could be cool.

Happy non-denominational winter solstice celebration!

2008-12-18T16:05:00.005-06:00

(click to enlarge)

This is an actual holiday greeting sent out from a real company... Eesh...

http://www.deanmg.com/

*This post is in no way an actual post. Any resemblance of the letters here in to actual words (English or otherwise) is merely coincidental. Not actual message was intended to be conveyed.

Now with more frosting!!

2008-12-17T22:59:00.000-06:00

If it is gonna winter I wish it would just go ahead and do it. This, layer after layer of slippery frozen mist, is gettting rather irritating...

tee hee

2008-12-16T13:25:00.000-06:00

in bed.

Total geek space heater...

2008-12-16T10:16:00.000-06:00

So it is cold here... Very cold. So in and attempt to keep my office warm, I did what any good geek would do. I fired up my space heater. :D

Welcome to my Monday...

2008-12-01T08:42:00.000-06:00

I didn't have dinner last night so I thought I would start the day off with some tasty biscuits and gravy... This is what I got... Notice anything missing?

Oh noes... we got snowes.

2008-11-30T09:35:00.000-06:00

Of course it will all be gone tomorrow but whatever. :)

I gave up.

2008-11-08T09:06:00.000-06:00

After months of wasting gas trying to find the new wave 10 gi joe toys I gave up and ordered them online. Along with waves 11 and 12 which had not showed up here either. Oh and the new dvd packs.
They got here yesterday!

Yes we can.

2008-11-05T00:40:00.000-06:00

Omnomnom...

2008-10-31T10:39:00.000-05:00

mmmm... mices taste good!

Ugh... The coldness is here.

2008-10-17T16:52:00.000-05:00

Better than the hotness tough. :D

This is Pavel.

2008-10-13T13:55:00.000-05:00

He is a fishy. He lives on our mantle.

The festival begins!

2008-10-11T16:46:00.000-05:00

We arrived earlier and began the meandering. :)

GI Joe collectors creepy?

2008-10-06T16:42:00.001-05:00

Yeah, kinda.
I wouldn't go as far as to say creepy on a hot wheels collector level but some of them are rather "intense".
I've had GI Joe toys all my life. Some of my first toys. They were a LOT cheaper than Transformers and were pretty cool to play with. Neat weapons and vehicles and a cool TV show to boot. But with the end of the 80's so came the end of GI Joe, or mostly. The toy line and show petered out for the most part. There were a few lines over the years since. Not all that successful, until recently. I want to say it started slightly before Sigma 6 There was a new line with slightly different design. Less Joe style more super hero style. The toy design that is. I guess it was pretty big with the collectors and based on their input the toys slowly moved back to more of the original design. Ball joint hips and swivel waste and such. I got a few of these here and there. Just my favorite character or 2, not a lot.
Then the new cartoon, Sigma 6. I am pretty sure most collectors and die hard fans hated it. I actually liked the show, and the toys. They were no longer the 3 inch figures with cool vehicles. These were 9 inch figures that focused all their detail on the weapons and accessories with some very cool results. I got quite a few of these. Great to play with.
So after that show ended (as all good things do because kids these days all have ADD and can't watch the same show for more than one season. I call it the power rangers effect. Revamp the entire show very season just to keep the kiddies hooked. Another topic in entirely.) Hasbro knew that had something. Every other 80's property had be relauched so why not GI Joe? Shortly after there were some very similar to classic GI Joe toys being sold direct to customers from Hasbro's website. I didn't care much so I never got any. Eventually these started making their way into stores. They looked pretty cool. I think I might have got one. This eventually lead to the launch of the 25th anniversary line. Complete remakes of all the original characters with today's technology. Much more detail, better joints and much more durable materials. Again, I wasn't that interested so I only got 2. As more lines came out I snagged a few more of my favorite characters but hadn't really opened any since the beginning when I opened the first Snake Eyes and Timber. As I started getting a few more I got the urge to open another so I peeled open the new version one Snake Eyes. Wow. This toy was much better than the first Snake Eyes. I don't know if it was that toy, in particular, or maybe I was just in the right mood but I had to have more. It was truly a strange impulse. So the next day I went out to buy some more. Grabbed a few more of the characters I really liked all those years ago. Eventually I notice that these things are FREAKING hard to find. I would see a new character one time and then it would be gone forever, never to be seen again. I eventually decided that I was just going to have to buy every new character I saw right then and there otherwise I would never have the chance again.
Was that the fever? The thrill of the hunt? I am by no means a "completeist" collector but I sure seem to be buying a lot of these new GI Joe toys. I only really want one of each character, so I skip most of the repaints or 2 packs that have the same characters in a different color. But geez.. Is this why some of these guys are so intense? Maybe. But from what I've seen it goes way beyond that.
Getting into this collecting buzz I wanted to find some nice websites to keep up to date on the latest GI Joe info. I stumbled across a few web forums and blog sites. This is when I really discovered how "intense" some of these guys were.
I have never really been a collector of anything. Just buy the toys I like. The question is always there, "Is this something I would play with or is just going to sit in the box on a shelf?". I am still not sure where this GI Joe line sits. I had planned to open all of them but they are so freaking hard to find it is almost a shame to open some of them. But I don't want to buy toys that I have no intentions of playing with. Ehhh.. Drifting off topic again.
The stuff I have seen on some of these websites is truly amazing. Many many of the people build and even mold/sculpt custom figures. Some of them look amazing. Just as if Hasbro had done it them selves, sometimes better. Then there are the army builders. People who buy 5 or 10 (or more) of the same "trooper" figure, the viper, B.A.T.s, or Crimson Guard, just to build legions of these little guys. I have seen some very impressive displays to I'm not just talking like the stuff I've seen from Transformer collectors We're not just talking a shelf here with everyone standing in a row. I mean full blown battle scenes made with all that diorama building stuff, you know the little fake grass and trees for you model train set kinda stuff. They are awesome looking.
Maybe it is just because I am not really used to this kind of stuff. I have primarily bought Transformers and random super hero toys in the past, as GI Joe was somewhat passe. I have not seen anything like this. Many of these people are truly "completeist" collectors. The spend hours hunting ebay for a missing gun or panel from one of the original 1982 vehicle. They have gone back and completed the collection they had as a kid. They really do have it all.
I just can't imagine... I got out my box of original GI Joe toys just after I got back into it. The original toys really kinda suck, at least compared to the new ones. The same goes for Transformers, probably even more so. The new Transformer toys are amazing while the originals were cool if you could actually more their arm. :)
I dunno. Maybe I am just coming from a different direction most of these guys. I just get this weird, creepy, feeling when reading some of these forum posts. I am far from "normal" that is for sure but I guess we all have our standards. :)
There is just something about this toy line though.. I never want to get all of everything. So weird. Almost just want to step away before I get sucked in...

Wolvie & Forge

2008-10-04T11:24:00.000-05:00

Alastria found these at Toys R Us yesterday. From what we have seen the line also includes Ultimate Nick Furry and Captain America, Mr. Fantastic and Thing, and Electra and Ronin.
It is nice to actually see a new Forge toy after so many years and as an added bonus Wolverine is actually a new mold. Not just the same one retooled yet again.
Each figure also comes with another set of hands and another head. Which is great for Wolvie, as you can now "retract" his claws and put on a happy face (ok, not happy. just not fangs exposed.)
Only down side is that they both still use those stupid at an angle hip joints... You just shouldn't have to twist the leg three different directions just to lift it.

Over all these are great looking and pretty good playing toys.

New Universe and the missing Joe.

2008-10-01T08:53:00.000-05:00

On one of those "let's stop by Walmart on the way home" kinda trips, I was lucky enough to find the single G. I. Joe character I was missing. I didn't pick him up quick enough the first time around.
Fortunately, Alastria decided to look up as we left the isle and saw the new wave of TF:Universe toys! So I picked up Ironhide, Sideswipe, and Silverstreak (not pictured). Ironhide is very cool. The transformation is like no other transformer I've ever seen. Very complex but works very well.
Very cool stuff!

Flaming Sushi!!

2008-09-23T09:36:00.000-05:00

ooooo... Pretty.

Lucky trip to Joplin

2008-09-13T01:34:00.000-05:00

Awsome finds. I am one of maybe 3 people in the state to have found these new jets!
Alastria found that the Target in Joplin had "limited" stock so she called and asked if they would hold us one of each while we drove down. Glad she did because that was all they had when we got there.
Also found the super rare HISS tank while we were down there. Bonus!

The new habit... er I mean hobby.

2008-09-08T17:39:00.002-05:00

I, like many others, loved G.I. Joe as a kid. I had G.I. Joe around a full 2 to 3 years before Transformers came out. And they were cheap, comparatively speaking. Needless to say I had a lot of years invested in playing G.I. Joe and a fair ammount of toys. Mostly figures as they vehicles were much more expensive.

So a year or so ago when I first saw the new 25th anniversary line launched I thought they were prety cool but didn't get any. After time I decided to pickeup a few of my favorites, Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow. I never opened them as they seemed really hard to find. Noting that I did buy a few more of my favorite characters over time but no where near all of them. Then something happened. I had opened Snake Eyes that came with Timber some time ago and thought it was pretty cool but eeh. For some reason I decided to open a few more of them. I mean, what is the point of buying toys if you aren't going to play with them? That makes you a "collector" and those guys are creepy. I'm just weird.
Anyway... The more I opened these toys the more of them I wanted. Then Pokemon syndrome hit... Gotta catch 'em all.
But why? What changed? Honestly, I'm not real sure. They are amazing toys though. The articulation and attention to detail is amazing. They make my old Joes look rather silly.

So while I will never have them all, nor do I want them all, I did go through some effort hunting down what I still could find. Only normal retail stores. No ebay or anything crazy. (Again, that creepy "collector" guy.) So, while I will never be able to get the original releases I did a pretty goood job at getting at least some version of most of the characters they have released. And now they are starting to release some of the original vehicles with a few nice updates/fixes. All pretty cool stuff.

What is it that makes me want to get these toys soo bad? Is it the thrill of the hunt, as they are so hard to find? Is it just because they are such cool toys?
I dunno. It just seems kinda weird to me. I just wish they weren't so hard to find. I see a lot of talk in the forums I have stumbled across, about scalpers. I never really see this in any of the TF boards. It may be partly due to the fact that many of these are store exclusives and released if small amounts by normal toy release standards.
Oh well. Just one more way for Hasbro to monopolize this child of the '80s.

What a busy weekend...

2008-09-08T16:44:00.002-05:00

It happens on this weekend every year. What happens you ask? EVERYTHING!!!
Well, ok. Everything that I ever want to see in this town. :)

The Japanese Fall Festival, Blues Fest, and the Ozarks Celebration Festival. All at the same time. We usually skip the Blues fest because it is so expensive and really requires you to dedicate an entire day to it alone. We always manage to hit the other two festivals though. Fortunately this year the Blues fest moved to a new location and i could hear it pretty well from our house. Nice. hehe.

But for now the Blues, Bluegrass and Japanese Tyko weekend is over for another year. Hopefully I can relax some next weekend. :D

We now return you to your regularly scheduled food, music, and culture. ;)

Japanese Fall Fest

2008-09-08T16:41:00.002-05:00

I took a few videos of the Tyko drummers at this year's Japanese Fall Festival.
It was pretty fun. A bunch of us went on Friday night for the candle light walk then back again on Saturday for the drummers and to see everything in the daylight. :)

Blitzwing anyone?

2008-09-04T23:00:00.000-05:00

Wow. I stunbled across mine last week at a Walmart but looks like they are out in force now.

I also picked up Universe Galvatron and Acid Storm as well as Animated Sentinel Prime and Swoop. I passed on the Elite Guard Bumblebee for now. Probably won't get him.

I'll try to gets some pics up later. Been really busy recently.

Royal Flush

2008-08-21T16:21:00.002-05:00

Hmmm... a few plumbing problems at work today. :)

Gah.. why must youtube make all video look like crap?

B.A.T.s...

2008-08-20T14:00:00.000-05:00

Why does it always have to be B.A.T.s?

Obi-Wan says...

2008-08-13T11:07:00.000-05:00

go see The Clone Wars.

PEZ Kitteh

2008-08-12T17:05:00.000-05:00

Alastria took the picture... I edited it. :)

Up, up, and ummm... thatta way...

2008-08-08T11:51:00.000-05:00

Bear wayne becomes...

2008-08-04T18:28:00.002-05:00

Batbear! The not so dark knight...

Alastria took me on my first trip to Build-A-Bear. It was fun. :)

Gasp... Wheeze...

2008-08-04T18:14:00.002-05:00

Glad I drove the car that has AC today. ;)
And this is at almost 6:00PM.

The heat wave continues...

The best just keeps getting better...

2008-08-02T11:49:00.001-05:00

Cause it's too hot, too hot lady...

Especially with the humidity running between 60 and 80%... esh.

1900BC... world's oldest fart joke.

2008-08-01T09:27:00.001-05:00

Breaking news about breaking wind: the world's oldest joke is a one-liner about flatulence, researchers say.

Check out the link for more. :)

Rucky numba Sirteen...

2008-07-31T21:33:00.001-05:00

wish my chinese food.

The best is yet to come...

2008-07-31T08:01:00.000-05:00

Toasty!!!

More concert pics

2008-07-29T01:31:00.000-05:00

I hope to have some from the camera with zoom sometime soon...

Weird Al is awsome!

2008-07-29T01:19:00.000-05:00

Live! From the Weird Al concert.

2008-07-28T19:48:00.000-05:00

Here we are. 14 minutes til show time. Sooooo exciting!

Zombie Harmony

2008-07-24T22:36:00.000-05:00

lols. :)

Sunstreaker says...

2008-07-24T19:36:00.000-05:00

Awsome suit you have there Iron Man but it's still no match for my astonishing paint job.

Marvel Crossovers!

2008-07-24T19:26:00.000-05:00

So Alastria did a bit of shopping today after she got off work. Look what I found waiting for me when I got home!

Iron Man, Hulk, Spider-man, and Vemon. Tony Stark constructed battle suits derived from alien technology. Somewhat weak back story but they toys look prety cool. Better than the lame story behind the Star Wars Transformers. :D

Interesting promotion...

2008-07-23T12:40:00.000-05:00

Can I get a rain check? ;)

oooo creepy...

2008-07-22T09:29:00.001-05:00

That's the biggest brown recluse I've ever seen. We feed him a fly. :)

wow

2008-07-19T15:03:00.001-05:00

go see the dark knight

All hail! Megatron!

2008-07-14T18:03:00.001-05:00

And the beat goes on...

2008-07-14T17:43:00.001-05:00

Republic Walmart:
Classics 2.0 - Check
Animated Leader Class toys - BONUS!!

We weren't sure we would even find the classics toys much less both Leader class Bulkhead and Megatron!
And now with that we have all of the currently available Animated toys and all of the classics line.
Only thing left to hunt for now is the marvel crossover line.

BTW, this new Megatron has to be the coolest Megatron toy ever made.

Luck strikes again

2008-07-14T15:52:00.000-05:00

So we go to walmart to pick up some milk and what do we find when touring the toy isle? They are stocking the new TF:Animated Activators toys as we walk into the isle.
Also the lady working there says her friend from the Republic walmart called her earlier and saud they had the new TF:Classics in stock... So guess where we are driving as I type? :)

What the hell is wrong with our country!?

2008-07-14T00:46:00.001-05:00

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7504574.stm

Tha ninja masta!!

2008-07-10T16:02:00.001-05:00

Jazz, the Cybertron Elite Guard's ninja bot.

Yes, ladies and gents... this bot has a cool vehicle mode and nunchaku. :D

Jazz has always been one of my favorite Autobots and the new version of the character in Transformers Animated is no exception. He is a great character in the show and a very cool toy.

Welll crap...

2008-07-10T09:04:00.001-05:00

So we go out for dinner last night and decide to do a little shopping afterwards. We hit the usual places, Toys R Us, Target, and Walmart. Alastria was wanting to show me the new The Dark Knight Batmobile she found at walmart on he way home from work. We hit the stores in driving order. Toys R Us first. Nothing new there, except for the fact they FINALLY have freakin Wiis in stock. Unfortunately we cannot get one yet as I need to pay off the TV we bought to play it on. lol

On to Target. I stumbled across the new Star Wars Transformer I had been waiting for. Obi Wan's Jedi star fighter with the cool hyper drive ring around the front but I had to put it back. About that time I hear a huge gasp from the other end of the isle. When I look down, Alastria is franticlly grabbing at things... They just happened to stock one case of the new TF:Animated wave 3 deluxe figures. So we got one of each. Jazz, Snarl, Soundwave, and Oilslick. Very cool. Jazz has always been one of my favorite characters and this new toy is just amazing.

Anyway, on to Walmart. Of course... they also have a Wii in stock. Damnit! On to the toy isle. They had one row of the older TF:Animated deluxe figure and while I was browsing through them I am interrupted with yet another gasp followed shortly by a "Holy crap!".
This time I turn to look and she is hauling this huge ass box from the lower shelf. I had actually forgotten about this guy. Yep, Supreme class Optimus Prime. He is almost 2 feet tall with lots of lights and sound.

So now I think the onl TF:Animated toys that have been spotted in the wild that I don't have are the Leader class Megatron and Bulkhead.

Oh and this walmart didn't have that Batmobile that she brought me out to see in stock... Oh well.. maybe next time. ;)

JQH Arena tour

2008-07-09T14:54:00.001-05:00

Today we got a "wiring" tour of the new, yet to be completed, John Q. Hammons Arena. I'll be responsible for making the place wireless. The place is huge. Four floors and lots of hidden rooms below and behind the seating area.

Fireworks!

2008-07-07T11:02:00.004-05:00

This is a test of video upload. :)

Peek-a-boo

2008-07-06T14:23:00.000-05:00

I sees you...

the time draws near...

2008-07-05T21:05:00.001-05:00

soon...

46 inch monitor for WoW? ;)

2008-06-27T20:14:00.001-05:00

My shaman is two feet tall. :)

So awsome!

2008-06-21T22:23:00.001-05:00

That's all there is to it.

SCORE!!

2008-06-21T21:08:00.001-05:00

Voyager class Optimus Prime at target!!!!
Wow. This guy wasn't suppposed to be out for another month. Sooooooooooooo awsome!

We are the champions...

2008-06-21T15:26:00.001-05:00

As the 2008 Computer Services/Financial Services picnic draws to a close only two walk away winners. Jeremy and I dominated the annual horse shoe tournament with our amazing skilz and blind luck. :)

Hulk Guuuud!

2008-06-21T00:45:00.001-05:00

Just got done seeing the new Incredible Hulk movie. We've driving back home now. Sorry I didn't post whil in the movie. I was too busy watching it. ;)
Anyway, it was reallly good. Especially compared to the first one. This movie had a much better feel to it and was completely in line with the Ultimate comics, just like every other recent Marvel movie.
While it wasn't as good as Iron man it is a definite must see and an excellent tie-in with the push toward the Avengers movie. While it had the required Stan Lee cameo and a lot of those little comic fan inside jokes/references the movie did have a much more serious feel to it. Which is good. The older Hulk (and now the newer) Hulk comics have always had a much darker feel to them. Much of the comics focused on the lonelyness and almost hoplessness of Bruce's situation. I think the movie did a good job of touching on that while not dwelling on it, thus bringing the whole story down.
I also think they ended it quite well. It left things in a god place. It wrapped up all of the story dynamics and left things in an open enough state to flow nicely into the Avengers line. I was happy with the ending, it did not leave me wanting more.
Oh and the bit they usually put after the credits was before the credits this time. I think they did that because too many people missed the bit after Iron man. Marvel really wants to drive the fact home that while these may be separate movies they are all tied together.

Good stuff. Go se it.

Rain drops keep fallin on my head...

2008-06-20T20:41:00.001-05:00

Every time it rains hard it actually rains inside the lobby at work. The sad part is they spent two days fixing this exact spot in the ceiling that was damaged bt the leak from the week before. Kinda cool seeing the water pour out of the roof two stories up then flow down the stairs to pool in the basement.

Poor ceiling. Fall down go boom... err more like spat but what ever.

Galvar?

2008-06-20T20:25:00.000-05:00

Who is this Galvar guy?

Oh hum...

2008-06-18T19:45:00.002-05:00

Well that was anti climactic.. After waiting around for an hour they decided that if I really didn't need to be there to manage anything that they would just call me if something didn't work. Oh well.

Hellos to the Secret Service!

2008-06-18T07:38:00.001-05:00

Hey, did you guys read my site yet? If not I'll see you at 11. :)

Guess what I get to do tomorrow?

2008-06-17T21:07:00.001-05:00

John McCain will be coming to campus tomorrow as part of his campaign tour and they want special treatment and wireless access. So guess who gets to set it all up and sit over there all day to make sure it works? :)

Should be interesting though. I get a free background check from the secret service and even get my laptop and wireless equipment sniffed by the bomb dogs! All for free! What a great country we live in. Any other country and I would have to pay top dollar for these services.

Anyway... I took the trouble today to spiff up my phone and my desktop's wallpaper. I figured this should be fitting for the occasion, don't you?

Crazy weather? Hail yeah!

2008-06-16T20:58:00.000-05:00

My 3 days... Yeah. One day I am sitting out in the swing enjoying a nice gentle breeze after having mowed the lawn.
Next day there is 2-4 inches of standing water in the yard. Our rain guage goes to 7 inches... It wasn't enough. This was the most rain we've had in a single day since 1981. 9 inches of rain in 8-10 hours. I've never seen flooding this bad.
And the next day. 15 minute thunderstorm that decided to throw huge chunks of ice at my house...
Beautiful.