Of the three books I looked at, Chobits was the closest I came to actually buying.  In Borders it is $24.99, on Amazon it is $17.99.  I have a hard time overlooking $7, especially when the brick and mortar is going to add tax, which would make the different over $9.  I wasn’t sure if I wanted the book, which is what actually stopped me from buying that particular item.  The next two books… were much more clear cut.

Next on the list is The Official Ubuntu Server Book.  In Borders it is $39.99, but only $26.39 on Amazon.  A $13 difference (Plus Tax) is just not even close.  After flipping through this book, I decided it was actually quite nice and rather wanted to buy it.  So I purchased it from Amazon right there in Borders, using my Amazon Android application. The book will be here shortly.

Last was the LPI Linux Certification in a Nutshell book.  In Borders it is a tech-book typical $49.99.  Demonstrating that it just isn’t financially feasible to use brick and mortar stores is Amazon with a price tag of just $31.49 which is an $18.50 difference (not including tax).  I realize that the $49.99 value is list price, but how can any consumer seriously consider spending 60% more on one single book, just to buy it in store.  Sure, if you absolutely, positively MUST have the book right that second, you’ve got no choice.  If I had any option whatsoever, I’d Amazon it.  $3.99 for overnight shipping is still much, much cheaper.

Yes, I like to be able to pick up the books and flip through them before I buy them.  Yes, I like to just browse the shelves of a bookstore.  But no, I will not pay a $39.10 premium to do so.  That is enough to go and buy a copy of Ubuntu: Up and Running: A Power User’s Desktop Guide AND the Ubuntu Pocket Reference Guide AND still have $6.00 left to buy a coffee at Starbucks.  Sorry, Borders loses.

Gun and Tits, a simple recipe for a happy Jon

Last month I was linked the Tortucam video on YouTube, which was totally awesome.  It’s a turtle running about which some kick ass background music.  Makes me which I was a Turtle too.  I liked the music so much, I went and found it on Amazon.  The part that really confused me was that it was labeled “Manga Soundtrack”.  I wasn’t sure why a manga needed a soundtrack, but the music was kick’n enough to warrant investigation.  After reading the manga, I’m pleased that I did.

After a quick Google, I found the Tokyo Pop page for the books, which actually lets you read the manga online.  The interface sucks terribly, but the fact that you can leaf through the first 9 chapters (which is the first entire book) online, is really cool.  Of course, I thought the manga was quite good, worthy of buying.  The story line revolves around two assassins and the hijinks they get in to.  See, in this world, being an assassin is a legitimate job (kind like repo men), all you need is a license.  Mostly the books are damn hilarious with the artist having a ton of fun with text/arrows on Doyle’s (the main characters) shirts.

After reading Volume 1 I wandered down to my local Amazon outlet and picked it up (supporting the creator and all that) along with Volume 2.  The second volume didn’t let me down either, and I rather look forward to more of this series (I hope there is more at least).  After finishing the reading, I discovered something new…

That something new is “iManga”.  Basically they take the Manga and make it animated-ish.  You can check out Riding Shotgun iManaga #1 for yourself (Full playlist) to see what I mean.  After the iManga, the logic of having a “Riding Shotgun Soundtrack“… a soundtrack for a BOOK …. suddenly made so much more sense.  Of course, my uber favorite song, “Round Round“, makes its appearance in iManga #1 at about the 1:40 mark.

Gungrave is about the same length as Trigun (approximately 650 minutes), so it is a fairly quick watch. Overall I found it quite amusing, except for one little thing….

There will be some minor generic spoilers with relation to the story progression, though nothing terribly specific.

The story opens with the character on the cover of the DVD (“Beyond the Grave”) saving a girl and a scientist defeat some zombies. Then we get some backstory, and then a whole bunch more backstory. In fact we actually rewind several years and find out how we got where we are today for about half the series. During this, I found myself forgetting about the first sequence of the anime, that is until we find the first zombie (corpses that have been “necrolized” and are actually referred to as “ordmen); then I remembered that we were actually in a flashback and wondered how we were going to get back to where the show started.

I really enjoyed the “flashback” portion of the anime. The story was fairly well done though the protagonist was occasionally annoyingly terse. Once we got back to the main event, lots more death and destruction occurs. Which brings me to the part I didn’t like… the girl, Mika Asagi, is supremely annoying. I realize as the watcher I have more information than her, but she just continues to ask these idiotic questions and makes ludicrous suggestions/demands that make me want very badly for someone to shoot her, repeatedly, in the trachea.

Other than the incredibly annoying chick, this anime was quite enjoyable and I would recommend it to others. One big difference from Trigun: lack of humor, though if it had been inserted I don’t know that it would have held its air of despair as well as it did.

Cosplay of Yoko from Gurren Lagann, taken at Fanimecon 2010. Copyright Richard Tom.

This weekend I spent some of my free time watching Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, or more simply Gurren Lagann.  This is by no means a new series (it has been out since 2007) I just never got around to watching it.  I had heard mixed reviews about it, especially around the character of Yoko.  Anyways, after seeing Yoko done well in cosplay, I thought I should endeavor to see such as a fantastic series.

Now that I’ve finished watching it, I figured I’d share my thoughts.  NO SPOILERS

Yoko's "Space" costume. I approve!

Overall, this series is over the top and a bit… nuts. I tend not to be a fan of that totally over the top style of anime, so the first episode or two I wasn’t too sure about it.  As the episodes continued the “over the top” bits weren’t so over the top as to turn me off, and actually turned out to be quite fun.

I found Gurren Lagann, as a series, quite surprising.  They went directions and did things I wasn’t quite expecting, and are fairly unusual for a “feel good” series.  I won’t spoil whom, but they kill off a character fairly early on in the story, which I really did not expect.  In a lot of animes, a death of a character would be cause for those close to them to angst for practically the rest of the series.  In Lagann, they lightly angsted over the death for the next episode and a half.  But the end of that second episode, they got their act together and pushed on.  There were other bad things that happened, but basically no one sat about angsting for any amount of time, except for Rossiu (whom I didn’t like anyways).

As for the accusations that Yoko (pictured several times now) is a problem in the series, I disagree.  She plays a love interest, on occasion, to give the series a little more diversity other than just continuous awesome.  In reality, even though I’ve posted multiple pictures of her and she’s one of the “core” characters of the Gurren Brigade (as they call themselves), she doesn’t actually get all that much screen time.  Seeing as how she is the advertising tits to get you to watch the series (hey, it worked on me), I thought she’d play a bigger part.  I didn’t find her personality or the way she acted particularly annoying, and would have liked to see more of her, but alas it was not to be.

The length and speed of the series was great.  It was 27 episodes, which is an unusual number of episodes, but that really didn’t matter.  Basically, each episode they powered through the enemies or challenges they had.  Rarely did the series spend more than 2 episodes in one particular area.  The series is about the good guys winning, kicking ass, and being awesome.  The director realized they didn’t need to spend 3 episodes on every demi-boss fight to illustrate how awesome our protagonists are.  Thank you kami-sama.  Not to say I wouldn’t like to have seen a little more of the series, because I enjoyed it so much, but they wrapped the series up nicely and tied a bow on it even.  When it ended, it left me with the feeling of “Ahh, that was good… and now it is done”.  No strings left dangling, no loose ends, just complete.

Kamina, Simon and Yoko

It should be obvious by now, that I highly recommend watching Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann.  If I wasn’t, I would have included spoilers.  Let’s just say that the journey of Simon The Digger and his pig-mole, Boota (who is a critical component in the series), is a fun and worthwhile watch.  It might be crazy and over the top, but soon that becomes part of the hilarious good time of Gurren Lagann.

We arrived via our respective motorcycles and pulled into the Hilton parking garage around 2:30 PM and thankfully were able to checkin early. After sherpaing our bags to the room, we changed and headed down to check out the con. Before we had even gotten to the Dealers Hall, we heard a shrill cry break the relative silence, we both stopped and looked toward the sound, just as it glomped me at full speed and ran off. We both looked at each other and busted out laughing. Jon was disappointed that he didn’t get a picture. I was more surprised than anything by the small woman with a backpack who ran full tilt into me, glomped, and then ran off again. A fine way to start the con I decided.

Checking out the Dealers Hall and Artists Alley was fun and it was nice to be somewhere that was meant to handle a multitude of people between the aisles, rather than the sardine can that is standard at every gun show I’ve ever attended. Jon assured me that it would get much more packed the following day, and it did, but it was never as bad as a gun show in Reno. To be fair though, there are rarely any cosplayers at a gun show (the occasional “Wild West” getup is about it).

Over the course of the weekend I saw 3 other Vashes. I talked to one of the other Vashes and he said he had gotten his costume from Hot Topic a few years back which I thought was pretty darn nifty; he (like myself) was Vash all weekend. The last Vash I saw (and only saw him one day) was this guy who had a pretty incredible leather costume.
I also saw 2 Wolfwoods (both with crosses), and managed to get a couple pictures with one. He had made his cross and it was indeed functional (and heavy!), in that it popped out as a huge gun. He pointed out something that I had been sort of noticing all weekend: half the props you see people walking around violate the con policies. The policies are mostly there so that they can get rid of the people/props who are creating problems, and if they say your prop isn’t allowed, then you just take it back to your room and leave it there. Next time, I’ll bring the gun that was beautifully painted for me by my good friend, Ashley (who will eventually get her costume shop open to the public so everyone else can partake in her excellent work).

The con graciously provided WiFi at the con, and you would generally see a small crowd near the router throughout the day. It was a bit disappointing to not have it in the room, and neither Jon nor I were going to pay $6 per day for it when we could easily get it elsewhere for free (me downstairs, he via his Nexus One). On the topic of our room, it was nice, and provided a good respite for when we needed to decompress (read: take the costume off for a few minutes) in the middle of the day (I know this is an anime related post, but please stop thinking yaoi thoughts – and if you don’t know what that is, for the sake of your job, don’t google it at work). At one point, Jon seriously managed to lose his shoes in the room (complete with swearing), much to my own amusement.

One of my favorite activities at Fanime was the Swap Meet on Friday. It was a blast going through the gaming hall and seeing what everyone had to offer, as Jon pointed out, we made a couple circuits, much fun had by all. I was disappointed that they only do it on Thursday and Friday night; it would have been great if they also did it Saturday night or perhaps Saturday night instead of Thursday night.

As Jon pointed out, staying for Monday was not worth it. There weren’t any deals that I noticed and I had already bought what I wanted the previous night. Next time, I would definitely leave Sunday. I also think that bringing a car rather than motorcycle would have been a better idea, as Jon and I were both getting kind of crazy with our packing strategies as we left the hotel.

Last but not least, here is a picture of me in costume.

After we got all packed and basically ready to get out the door, we headed downstairs to the con for one last round in the Dealers Hall. We had a bit of time to burn so we checked out the other areas to see if there was any excitement going on. Granted it was before 10am, but there was still next to nothing going on. Out front of the convention center was very quite, just a few people sitting around (getting a tan?). As it turned out, a majority of the people awake were waiting for the dealers hall to open, all nicely queued up. We joined them since we had nothing better to do. The idea on going to the dealers hall is to get stuff on the cheap. At least… that was the theory because I heard many people talk about getting “good deals” and “cheap stuff”. Except… that isn’t how it worked out.

Moka-san

Getting into the Dealers Hall, almost nothing was discounted. Sure I saw a few ultra-expensive models here and there that were marked down. Though on the whole, the prices I saw Sunday were the same for Monday. I had hoped for deals, but realistically didn’t think there actually would be any, and for one simple reason: most of the dealers are local shops – they have ZERO incentive to dump inventory. Sure, they might have slightly over stocked for Fanime, but it isn’t that huge, and they probably sold most of that stock. Even the groups that made their wares, like the cat ear hats, weren’t on sale. I actually did end up buying something, a Moka-San (inner) figurine – my one (non-pocky/daifuku) purchase of the weekend. So I guess it wasn’t a total loss.

After the Dealers Hall was a trip up to the room, checkout via TV (first time we turned it on that weekend), and out. Of course the “out” part was difficult due to the elevator situation. The elevators in the Hilton were extremely slow and problematic all weekend, but Monday really pushed them over the limit. After a few minute wait, I just gave up and started down the stairs (from the 12th floor). John waited for the elevator and I beat him by a good five minutes. Apparently they packed the elevator to the brim (Tetris style), but still had to stop at every floor (but 3) on the way down and apologize to the people who wanted in.

Motorcycles FTW

The last hurdle on the way out was the Hilton Parking Staff. I feel the need to mention this because they gave me so much grief over the course of the weekend. Understand, John and I rode our motorcycles. These aren’t some huge BMW K1200LT or Honda Goldwing touring bikes, these are normal sized bikes. In fact, when we arrived, they asked us to park in some unusable space between cement columns. We had no problem with this. Why? Because that’s why we love our bikes. But guess what? They still charged us $20 a day to park there. On the way out, they tried (and failed, because I’m a miserable bastard) to charge us $20/day PER BIKE. I’m sorry, but we didn’t even take up a parking space… we shouldn’t have to pay anything. To be entirely honest, I could have entered and exited the garage without their permission because their gates didn’t cover enough of the driveway to stop motorcycles. Next time I just might…

Monday Signout – 23:30 (Monday) – Wow, before midnight.

Our first Con event of the day for myself and John was watching Eureka Seven: Good Night, Sleep Tight, Young Lovers. I, honestly, totally and completely missed the fact that there was a Eureka Seven movie and a re-imagined one at that. I was a little startled by the fact that I made such a mistake while John was worried if he should watch it or not – as he’s not watched Eureka 7. I thought the movie was interesting and good, but not great. I liked seeing how they re-did the characters in new positions. Some of the people had wildly different personalities (like Anemone not being a crazy bitch and Hap being ultra-paranoid), while most were fairly… similar. The story was interesting and I think a little easier to understand for the newbie as compared to the standard Eureka 7 series, but having the girls as “robot spies” was a bit… out of universe. In the end, the main issue was the fact that the movie had distinct “stops”, like it was couple episodes tied together rather than a movie. I will watch it again when I get home, but I don’t think John is much turned onto Eureka 7 thanks to the movie.

After your standard wandering, exploring, and being pictured (well John was, no one cared about my picture) I wandered off to my first panel. Well, I almost got to my first panel and then found my pass missing. It was attached to my trench coat and I have no idea how it came off. It survived the previous two days without issue, guess my luck ran out. I, after instructed by staff, ran over to con-ops to see if they had it. As it lucked out, they did. From the scratches on it, I’d guess I lost it outside in the front crowd and it got stepped on a few times. Thank goodness it got turned in rather than someone claiming it as their own, it would have been really annoying to deal with the fallout of that (I presume I’d have to buy a new pass… though I have no idea).

So with a few minutes to spare, I got to my first panel. In my 3 years of going to Fanime I had never actually attended a real panel. Either they were forgotten or too full to bother. Once, last year, I did stop in for about 10 minutes on a K-Pop music video panel, but that was just watching videos and hardly counts. The panel I attended was “Pop Japan Travel” hosted, as it turned out, by a group/company of that same name. I didn’t know anything about this panel in advance, but it sounded interesting (by title) as I’m planning to go to Japan. They discussed some of their past trips and some of their future ones. As is their name, they are about pop culture. They’ve got a (essentially) Yaoi (or fan girl) tour, a tour for those interested in music & video games, even a tour specifically for the budding manga artist (in which you get to see your manga, which they translate, at a Japanese con). The tours were roughly $2000 USD and 10 days in length (including air). The price wasn’t bad, not cheap, but once you take out airfare that’s less than $150 a day. They do include everything except for the cost of food, which can add a bit… but that is basically up to the tourist. Will I take a tour from these people? I don’t know. I think that once I go on my own, I’ll likely not want to get stuck in a tour, but who knows – they have some nifty pop tours.

We spent most of the rest of the day just burning time and cruising about. There were only a few panels that mildly interested us, and they were not till much later. We were basically the walking dead by dinner time, sad to say. The “off our game” bit really showed itself as the day wore on. Two full days of tearing about in a pocky fueled, caffeine boosted frenzy really wore us out. It wasn’t the lack of sleep, mostly the excess of walking and the lack of things to do. Most of the rest of the anime playing on Sunday that I knew anything about, was not the beginning of a series. I didn’t want to watch Code Geass R2, when I never finished season 1. In the same vein I didn’t want to subject John to the 19 hour marathon of One Piece (which I had to explain wasn’t anywhere near the entire series, or all the movies).

I discussed it with John briefly before bed on Saturday night, and after Sunday he agrees with me, Friday to Sunday is a little too long. I would have been just fine with checking out of the hotel Sunday. We wouldn’t have to leave first thing in the morning, we could still catch some events, but be gone by mid to late day. Friday is certainly a fun day and Saturday is where it is at, everything after that just can’t match up. Maybe if there were more activities we wanted to go, or had more friends around (Jonas and his crew left early this morning, so it was just John and I)… it would be worth staying. All things being as they are now, little too long.

Sunday Signout – 00:10 (Monday) – Happy Memorial Day!

The day itself actually started… oh hell… I can’t say a specific time, but eventually I was conscious, out of bed, and caffeine infused. Coke Zero & Doughnut holes, while not healthy, is a great way to take me from grumpy to hyper in nothing flat. After that it was off to breakfast at a place called Peggy Sues. They are your typical American restaurant in the fact that they serve enough food (per person) to feed at least 3 normal people. As a side bonus, their breakfasts were much cheaper than the $15 hotel buffet John enjoyed (he actually slept thanks to the joys of earbuds).

First activity of the Con was to pick up the results of speed dating. Was interesting to see. At least one person I was sure would match, didn’t and some I didn’t think would, did. As of this point in time, I’ve not connected with any of them… so the process is “ongoing”. Still think it was interesting, and needs some refinement. Checked in with John who had already begun the daily recon and we wandered off to the dealers hall.

Cheap Pocky!

One of those Saturday requirements is hitting up the Dealers Hall and Artists Alley. You can go on Friday fine, but you’ve got to go on Saturday because everyone is there and everybody is out with their best stuff. Saturday is the “the day” at the con. Friday is just a warm up for it. It was at this point in time that I realized that having a bunch of anime crazed friends who are too lazy to come to Fanime themselves… is a serious issue. Everyone was sending me orders for stuff to buy for them. I’m not a goddamn pack mule, plus I’m on a motorcycle… sure, I’ll just strap that sword you want to the side. I’m sure the CHP won’t have any issue with that. As for myself, I did not buy anything (that day). I’ve never been one to buy anime “stuff”. Sure, I’ve got a few small things from last year, but nothing too major. This year I’ll wait till late Sunday or Monday. If I can get something cheaper, it might be worth it.

The Black Lagoon Crew sans Rock

A good portion of the day was simply spent wandering around and taking pictures of other people. It was actually during this that one of the dealers recognized me. He asked if I was from Speed Grapher, which I confirmed. He said the camera gave it away, shocking, I know. At least someone knew who I was (if not by name, by series). Jonas and his crew were dressed up as Revy (hawt), Dutch and Benny Boy from Black Lagoon. They did a very good job of it, and even got a few recognitions. I realized very quickly that if I traded the belt pouches and trench coat for a tie and cigarette – I could have done Rock. Of course if I had a nice tie and a jacket instead I could have done Spike (from Cowboy Bebop). If I had a jacket and cross instead, I could have been Nicolas D Wolfwood – to John’s Vash (of Trigun fame). Oh well, maybe next year.

Dinner was an off campus run down to Ringer Hut, which is a Japanese chain. It has some tasty and more “rare” Japanese food, like Okinomiyaki. It isn’t rare in Japan, just in America (for some unknown reason). This was prompted by Gibson and Katie who came down to visit. Gibson was supposed to join us for the day at the con but went and tried to kill himself again with some random bit a poison (Editor’s note: This was not a suicide attempt, he just happened to get exposed to some noxious chemicals). He’s not the brightest crayon in the box, but his tactical skills are extremely well refined and makes a fantastic assistant in BC2.

The evening’s entertainment was crashing Jonas’ room to watch some anime. I introduced the crew to Rosario+Vampire (which I think everyone enjoyed) and Speed Grapher. Normally I keep the samplers light and fun, but since I was cosplaying Saiga, and no one knew who I was… it was in order. John says I’ve got Saiga’s driving style down (and mumbled something about “asshat” afterward). He wasn’t a fan of my busy San Jose street navigation to Dinner. Obviously it is his fault for not having a more “sporty” bike (snicker snicker).

Saturday Signout – 00:40 (Sunday morning)

Since we didn’t get to the hotel till about 2:30, we could check-in (we requested early check in previously). We were staying at the Hilton which is attached to the convention center. It is a nice hotel for the most part. The place (especially the rooms) is decorated in a vaguely art deco style. Stainless steel fixtures, perpendiculars, that kinda stuff. Of course the real “tell” that we’re in the heart of Silicon Valley is the complimentary room magazine. In most hotels you get some random travel mag or maybe something generic like People or Time. Here? We got PC Today. That amusement aside, there are only two real complaints about the hotel. #1 – the elevators suck (they need reprogramming). #2 The in room A/C sucks. We set it to 60F and maybe got 70 out of it (too warm for my blood). As I type this, I’m sitting in the corner of the room under the “A/C” and next to the window that opens about an inch and a half.

Due to the popularity of pre-registration check-ins on Thursday and early this morning, we had almost zero wait (maybe 5 minutes) before we were registered. We got our badges with zero fight (their system has been pleasantly refined) and were off to the races. John thought the dealers hall had a “lot of space” in the rows, because gun shows typically are “one and a half persons wide”, but John just hasn’t seen what it’ll be like tomorrow. Saturday is NUTS day at Fanime, NUTS I say, but a fun nuts.

After some wandering and dinner, John and I attended the Fanime speed dating event. My first time doing anything like that, so I have nothing to compare it against. As it was their first batch on the first year they offered it… it had a bit of a rocky start. We were instructed to be there 30 minutes in advance, but they didn’t actually start registering anyone till about 10 minutes till. Of course with registration starting so late, we didn’t get started till about 20mn after the designated start time. This wasn’t a big deal in the grand scheme of things, but it did make for a bit of a wait initially. The main gripe I have is the amount of time allotted. I realize it is “speed” dating, but they set 3 minutes and as soon as the bell rang to shift locations, they reset the timer. There wasn’t any time in between to write down your notes or even get to the next location. Both sides wanted the time, so generally after the first one or two rotations, both sides spent the first 30 seconds to a minute writing. In the end it was amusing and a generally pleasant experience – albeit brief (only 8 ladies and 11 guys).

Last “event” for the evening was the swap meet. I went in their twice, once when it first opened and once later in the night when things had died down a bit. The first foray was a nightmare. They had people setup for swap along 3 of the 4 walls in the gaming room – and let me tell you – it was a BUNCH of sellers setup. In front of every square foot of seller was people at least 4 deep, some kneeling, some just pushing by, but most everyone looking. It was, as I said, a nightmare of people. On my return later that evening, it wasn’t quite so bad. Granted some of the stuff had sold, but a majority was still there. If you were looking for some cheap stuff, especially lovingly used manga and doujin – that was the place to be.

Friday signout – 00:15 (Saturday morning)

Jon and I are currently at Fanime. Jon went last year (and the year before that), and as I previously mentioned, he convinced me to go this year.
I flew down to meet Jon (and get my motorcycle back) yesterday and after an enjoyable dinner we headed back to his place to finish final preparations.

If you are in the San Jose area, we both encourage you to come on down and stop by; we will be there for the whole show. The show is fairly inexpensive and a single day pass is between $25 and $35 depending on the day.