FRANS

One of my original plans for Saturday fell through; it wasn't anything I was particularly looking forward to though. (Just adulting.) So the day was lunch with M and some planning for the future.

I found info for a scale modelers club down in the City, but they meet Weds evenings. I have a lot of vacation time to blow, so taking a day off isn't a problem to feel them out, but I can't do this month because there's just way too much going on. So maybe next month? They also have an annual model show with tables available and I know M has kits to sell (I don't, but we're in this together); it's in April so there's time to figure this all out.

Started working on a HG Nu Gundam, which I probably picked up more than a decade ago. I mean, also working on my other Project, but there are physical limits to how much of that I can work on. (i.e. I need more sticks with roach-clips on the ends!)

Took off around 6am to drive across the state for the last stop of the Gundam Base Mobile USA Tour. I mostly went for *The Experience* and it was a pretty good one!

We ended up getting there with plenty of time to get food and chat with other folks waiting. After a point, the shopping line was split between folks who'd gotten the (free) VIP tickets and everyone else and because I had tickets, we ended up literally first. ^^;; (The tickets were kind of a fiasco - originally only ~Saturday afternoon needed the free tickets for crowd control and then at some point partway through the tour suddenly every time-slot had ticketing. I only knew this because someone in a little gunpla server I'm in mentioned the change and I was like 'wait what' and went and literally snagged a pair two minutes later. However, they were basically zippering the two lines anyway so the handful of people who'd gotten there before us got in at about the same time anyway.)

We were warned that their last stop had wiped a lot of inventory, and yeah, the selection was a little sparse but I still filled a bag and managed a couple kits I'd had recommended and a couple I'd missed during the online drops.

Tossed all that in the car and came back to build our little event model kits and drink more water. They were very good about handing out water left and right. Took a few pictures and then headed over to the host shop, which is less a general hobby shop and more a game store. Lots of tabletop and card games, along with an entire wall of gunpla that was getting swarmed by locusts. (The shop had plenty of employees! It's just difficult to plan for hundreds of voracious nerds.)

I bought way too many kits, and two sets of dice, and shoved everything in the car and we headed home.

Drive overall okay both ways, aside from a few small moments. Car itself did great. One miserable patch of construction both ways. Other side of the state is quite beautiful; there were a few moments when cresting small hills that the view was absolutely stunning.

I really shouldn't be awake right now but here I am. ^^;;

The pile got too high again...

Gundam SEED Destiny (Original Version + Final Plus) - watched pretty much as canon review for war-gaming and there were a lot of things I kinda forgot or found more interesting this time around. Anyway, Freedom only makes sense with Final Plus and now I'm wondering if they just edited it into the remaster. Actually, I think I started with the Remaster but switched to the original because I like the old English dub (and British!Arthur) a lot.

Char's Counterattack - again, canon review for war-gaming, I swear. It's been some time and I both love and hate everyone and Gyunei is such a jealous boyfriend, lol.

Natsume's Book of Friends (Season 1 & 2) - delightful, though it seems like only a couple more seasons are on disc and the rest streaming-only.

A Magical Girl Retires (Park Seolyeon) - enough people talked about this that I got curious and oh, it's an entire journey and then some in like 150 pages. At it's heart, it is very much a magical girl story and the route to the ending is never entirely obvious.

Jianghu (L Si X Xi Y) - baihe short story, interesting and delightful in weird ways. (More Info)

Broken Controller #4 - zine about retro-gaming. I wanted to like Broken Controller but it became very image-heavy with difficult to read layouts. I know the group doing it are still doing zines and I wish them success but they just weren't for me.

Samurai Pizza Cats - this was a stupid lot of fun; I can't say I paid close attention to every episode but this was great to have on in the background in general. Absolute kudos to the writing team. If you don't know the story, Kyatto Ninden Teyandee underperformed in Japan and a lot of the production materials weren't kept. When it was licensed for an English syndication, it arrived with partial scripts and audio. The writers literally just made everything up and dialed the ridiculous to 11. It does not 100% hold up, but it's very very good.

Twittering Birds Never Fly - a BL movie that kept catching my eye on Sentai's sale page. It was okay to watch but that's about it.

The Da Vinci Code - was given this, after being asked if I'd seen it. I promptly described what I think is actually the plot of American Treasure and then realized that. Anyway, nothing about this felt original but this was an entire genre for awhile, too.

American Graffiti - a loaner that shoot, I need to give back. Didn't get into at first, enjoyed it by the end. Nice cars, good music. I think I'm the wrong generation to really some of the nostalgia, though.

Bastard!! (S1, new anime) - a surprisingly good adaptation! Apparently quite a few of the voice actors went uncredited because it is a horny, mature show. But it's a different actor doing dub-Darsh which is a little disappointing because I still hear OVA!Darsh in my head from time to time. (dub!Darsh sounds a smidge young, which is kind of interesting all around) Spends the entire season telling a thorough version of the story that's raced through in the OVAs.

and then last quarter's JFF titles:

Ito - about an awkward introvert who goes to work at a maid cafe and everything that happens along the way.

A Handful of Salt, The Genealogy of Sake - two documentaries.

Three Sisters - family drama, where I never quite worked out how every single bit of the drama but there was a lot, but also a lot of good moments between the sisters.

Love & The Grand Tug of War - another family drama, also centered on a cultural festival that culminates with a city-wide tug of war.

Nabbie's Love - family drama, and all of these family dramas are set in specific parts of the country so also cultural dramas, with a wall-banger of an ending. This one had a lot of traditional musicians in various roles so there was a lot of music and song.

Of these, I probably liked Ito the best. I enjoyed watching all of them, as well as all the little cultural shorts explaining more about music and food and festivals and art, but none of them really hit the same spots as some previous JFF films.

I know I had something that I wanted to mention... Ah well.

It's honestly kinda nice that the work-week is half over already. Last night wasn't bad at all, either, just normal-busy with a few bits of bad timing. I ended up taking a few bits of a model kit (Starfall) in because while I don't mind gently reaming a single tight hole with my hobby knife now and then, fourteen of the same part is kind of pushing it for patience and safety. So I found an appropriate drill bit in the big box and just quietly took care of all of that between calls. ^^;;

I'm in a couple of gunpla discord servers and in one of them, a handful of people are basically playing tariff-chicken and reporting back. Current (and more research is needed) studies suggest that if a holy grail pops up on Suruga-ya in the $100-150 range, or an order around that amount is made, fees+tariffs pretty much negate the free shipping. Obnoxious but not horrific.

bitesizedcleaning has their Annual September Stampede running right now. I haven't actually started on it, but I do want to give it a try. Flat surfaces... ^^;;

Oh, now I remember - I don't think I even mentioned this, but there was an anime convention last weekend a couple of towns away. I didn't go because it was a first year con, looked messy, and the single-day badges were something like $60. in this economy?! Anyway, some Youtuber guest of theirs was running a non-sanctioned predator sting and while a couple of people were arrested after being confronted, one of them was carrying a (completely legal) gun. I guess that while the police and con-ops were cooperative, they were also very much like 'uh, don't actually do this and we didn't think it'd be during con hours what the actual fuck'. So yeah I do not have words for how catastrophic that could have been and I am very glad I didn't go.