Tracking numbers!

If you are regular consumer of on-line retail shops like myself, it's a most exciting experience when the parcel finally arrives and you get to rip it open to see what treasures await in the (recycle-able) cardboard box. It's like Christmas every time.

But then there are occasions where the parcel never arrives. Tracking down where the fault is along the line is one headache. One thing that helps this laborious chore immensely is to have some means of tracking the parcel. Mainly by way of a tracking number.

I'm currently experiencing one of these moments. No, I've actually got 2 - 3 parcels I'm waiting on. I have since discovered, with the help of the only parcel that has a tracking number that my local postal service attempted delivery but failed, sent the parcel back to the depot and left a note-to-call. I have never received the note-to-call, so would have never known whether they'd attempted to send it or otherwise. But with the help of the tracking number, I might yet be able to recover the parcels. Well, one of them at the very least.

The lesson learned: tracking numbers are handy. Most well established sellers like Amazon.com and many on-line shops will have a tracking number as a standard part of their deliveries. But for personal sales such as those made through on-line auction sites, it may pay to pay a few extra dollars for the safety of a tracking number.

Bovril is not Bovril anymore?

Warning: This blog entry may not be suitable for extra-hard-core vegetarians since it's mainly just me babbling on about a product derived from beef extracts. Beyond that I have nothing against your diet lifestyle of choice - but that's beside the point.

Growing up, I used to enjoy a product known as Bovril, which I understand might not be familiar to everyone. It's similar to products like Marmite or Vegemite. Only it's made of beef extracts. If your country was previously colonized by Britain some time in its past when all the major world powers went mad and tried to lay claim to most of the world, you might have it in some local grocery stores. If not, perhaps it'll be in shops specializing in imported foodstuffs from Britain.

Back to where I started, I used to have this product when I was growing up. Either as spread in cheese sandwiches (toasted or plain), on plain crackers, as flavour for rice porridge or even as a nice broth by just mixing it with hot water.

Though I do like beef, I do not eat it very often. In fact, I hardly have anything resembling a beefsteak at all during the course of a year. This is because one of my parents has an allergic reaction many meats and seafoods, thus the whole family's diet follows suit. Thus I used to enjoy having Bovril for its beefiness - even if isn't really meat nor can it substitute for a piece of leather.

Suddenly, a new turning point in my life, I leave college and fly to New Zealand to live and as well as continue my studies at University. Bovril turns out to be not a particularly common product in the local supermarkets. More prolific are Vegemite and Marmite. Marmite being the local speciality, and Vegemite more Australian than Kiwi. Still, they were the major source of the salty dark pasty non-meat extracts spreads, and they are just as delicious. Once or twice I've found real imported Bovril in shops (a South African goods shop, actually) and took advantage of them. It's probably a decade now since I've really had a good taste of Bovril.

Just a few days ago, I saw one in my local supermarket. I took it off the shelf thinking it would be a nice change for a spread. Then something on the label caught my eye. 'Suitable for Vegetarians'. For a moment there I was left a bit confused. Bewildered even. Then after reading the label, my world shattered.

There's no beef in it. Not even just the extracts. I must admit though that I did not check if had any imitation beef flavouring. Bovril is now just another Vegemite or Marmite.

Now, I can only assume the worldwide Mad Cow problem we not too long ago may very well be responsible for the removal of the beef.. I might just be overreacting, but what's bothering me the most at the moment is why are they still calling it Bovril? Where's the Bovine in it?

That's my aimless rant for the day. And I bid you a good night.



edit: I might give up on the e-mail posting if this keeps up. It seems to play havoc with the text formatting and inserts carriage returns that were never there. Or it might just by my e-mail options. Might give it a few more tries. In the meantime - manual edits! There, all fixed.

The never ending battle against Technology

I'm trying out this new Technology doohicky (which probably has been around since the stone ages, but I've only discovered recently) whereby blogs can be updated by e-mail.

Amazing stuff. Doesn't help that I often make new posts and then spend the rest of the night editing and revising it and then re-publishing it before I'm finally satisfied. If this works, then perhaps more frequent blog updates would be forthcoming. Pictures and formatting may require direct intervention, but simple text such as this should be no problem.

Take that technology, you have not bested me this round!

edit: on second thought, maybe I have been bested. My screen is showing some odd paragraph formatting. Next time I'll go with a plain text e-mail.

Closet anime fan surfaces?

I love animé - I grew up on bad dubs of things like Transformers Masterforce and Doraemon and what have you so it has been instilled in me since childhood. I just haven't been very vocal about it in my net dealings. Just haven't had a great need to do so rather rather than anything else. Just for the record: I like robots, fantasy, comedy and combinations thereof. Don't like overly serious stuff (like EVA). However I have been trying other genres that I would normally never try to associate with (like Kanon, Clannad and Air), and finding myself thoroughly enjoying them. Also, to peg me into what type of western Anime category I am: I listen to the original audio and use subtitles (to assist - my ears and brain do the bulk of the interpreting). Nothing against dubs if done well, but I am a purist at heart and don't like any of the material changed if at all possible. Even cultural/pop culture references. It's a bit elitist, but while I was quite happy with what they did in, say, Last Exile (which was very good, by the way in either language), you'd have to try listening to the English dub for Dragon Ball (the original first series) and compare it to the story that is told by the original Japanese audio and its subtitles. The difference was at such an extreme level that they were completely different stories. I practically stopped watching my anime through both languages after that. Mind you, I shouldn't have been surprised by that as Westernizing anime and completely changing the stories has been an age old tradition. Look at Robotech, the various Voltrons and Saber Rider and the Star Sherrifs. They share little in common with their source material. Anyway, enough aimless rambling about my personal preferences (it's boring).

Thought I'd list a few quick shows I've watched or rewatched recently (mix of new and old) and my thoughts on them.  

el Cazador de la Bruja - Bounty hunters, genetically engineered witches, secret organizations, shifting loyalties, a good dose of fun and drama, likeable and imperfect protagonists and loopy bad guys that are more messed up in the head than bad to the bone. Great stuff. Highly enjoyed it. Not the greatest show ever, but great viewing all the same if you'd like a good yarn.  

Mobile Fighter G Gundam - Imagine a cross between a world martial arts tournament style stories (like the original Dragonball) and toss Gundams in. Mix well. Definitely not 'Gundam' as far as Gundams go (even the creator says so in the notes), but still extremely enjoyable. Along with shows like War in the Pocket and 08th MS Team, it's fun viewing. Do note that they did change a few Gundam names to soften the blow a little for Western aesthetics.  

Shattered Angles - Fans of UFO Ultramaiden Valkyrie and Steel Angel Kurumi might get a kick out of this for some of its references. The image of Val for example shows up as a Steel Angel. Mixed feelings about it, but I wouldn't say it's bad. Will need to watch it a few more times to truly get a fix on it.  

Princess Tutu - Slow start, but this was quite a good series once it started to pick up. Has the typical magical girl type theme, but not so much in the combat sense as many shows in this genre go. The main protagonist mainly solves problems by dancing. Has bittersweet conclusions and plots twists just like some of the ballets and other stories that are used throughout the series. But I guess it's as herr Drosselmeyer says that perfect heroines (referring to the main protagonist) are boring. I really dislike the way some subtitles are handled, particularly with changing what is said by the characters (like names). You watch enough anime in its original language and you do tend to learn a few words, so things like this irk me to no end. However this story is one case where keeping the subtitles as close to the original source material would have caused some puns to not work. The main character for example is called Ahiru, which is Duck in Japanese. As it also happens, she is also a duck. So it would make sense for Duck to be a duck in the English subtitles and dub. Beyond a few name changes, it's fine. Oh, did I say I adore the main character's voice? Don't know why but the squeaky voice and awkwardness of the character is quite an appealing combination. Note, minor nudity but nothing to froth at the mouth about. That's not the point of the show.  

Baldr Force EXE - exploding heads. Didn't like it. The whole premise of having a virtual entity is that it's virtual. Yet here we have the virtual body being erased and your real life body bursting like an overripe watermelon. Matrix with virtual mecha. OVA format, and way too short and thus felt as though they rushed through everything. Only got it since it was on special, so no skin off my back. What next? Who knows, I have a small library of shows to rewatch over the rest of the year - on top of the new ones. Mainly looking forward to starting on Slayers Revolution as soon as Slayers Revolution R is out. In the meantime, may try to rewatch Kaleido Star and Rune Soldier Louie.

The new 1/144 Zaku II F2

I was poor on cash last month so didn't have much of a capacity to buy much for myself bar the essentials. However, it gave me a chance to work on some of the model kits I had been collecting but not building. This consisted of a bunch of Gundam kits involving various High Grade 1/144 GM's. GM's are the mass-produced Gundam units used by Earth Federation Forces/Space Forces, and function solely for the Zeon army to destroy by the handful. Basically it's the EFF/EFSF version of the Zaku II in function. But that's just a bit of useless information. In addition to the GM's, I was especially excited to try Bandai's brand new 1/144 Zaku II F2 kit, which is the Zaku variation that appeared in the 0083 Stardust Memory series. Not to be confused with the good old Master Grade 1/100 model. This new kit is fairly recent and was released about a month or two ago of this posting. There are two releases of this, the Zeon and the EFF version. Built here is the green Zeon version. I haven't had much of a chance to construct the other, but is otherwise identical bar a tan paint scheme. The MS-06F2 appears to be a rather a heavily armoured variant of Zaku II MS-06F, with heavier plates on the arms, chest and loops to secure the piping around the waist. Though lacking in double jointed elbows, which seems to be the standard in the more recent model kits (like the Gundams and the Zaku I circa 2006 and onwards), this model is a vast improvement over the previous High Grade Zaku II offering. In fact, I dare say it's almost tries to mimic the shoulder and hip articulation found on the Master Grade v2.0 Zaku's, particularly with the shoulder and hip assemblies. The head is a bit smaller than in the previous 1/144 Zaku II, the proportions look a whole lot better, and almost matches its 1/100 v2.0 counterparts. There are actually three helmet variants available during assembly. The standard (as above), commander's antennae and one with three armoured plates along the forehead. The 1/100 Master Grade EFF Paintball version of this chap had these armour plates that you can glue onto the helmet. The only thing that I find that is missing from this kit is the 280mm Zaku Bazooka, which is practically a standard fitting on most Zaku II model kits as is the obligatory 120mm Zaku machine gun. The 120mm Zaku Machinegun is present but with a different stock and under-barrel grenade launcher attachment. The Zaku Machingun even comes with the alternate ammo magazine used by the EFF Zaku's during Paintball practice. It is molded into the rifle, so you only need to remove the standard ammo drum to reveal it. Other accessories include theHeat Hawk (axe, and also the second obligatory weapon next to the Zaku machinegun) , a pair of triple tube rocket launchers that fit on the legs and a 90mm heavy machine gun as seen in the top picture. The only real major complaint I have about this kit is the clip that holds the Heat Hawk to the armour skirting. Rather than the usual round peg and peghole setup, it's a rectangular recess that you have to fit a flat diagonal peg into. It doesn't like to stay in very well. An undocumented and probably unofficial use of the axe holder is to slot it between the 'open 'optional hand to make it look like the Zaku is handling the axe in a more casual manner. Overall I must say that I do highly approve of this new Zaku, though it could use double jointed elbows and a better axe holder. Now I'm crossing my fingers in hope that they release the humble Zaku II in Bandai's new RG (Real Grade) series, which I am lead to believe is like cross between the level of detail or complexity of a Master-Grade scaled with the usual High Grade scale (1/144). First up in the RG line is the iconic RX-78 Gundam, which I may actually cave in and try out one of these days when it is finally released.

Building Zaku II v2.0's the hard way

Sometimes I challenge myself and do some really hard things just for the heck of it. This might be partly due to the X-COM series, which some of you who know me, am a fan of. The first three games in the series are very harsh on beginners. So hard that many new players will often have to rely on save/reload to beat it. Nutters like myself, who want to make it harder, make occasional self-imposed challenges to just plain make it harder for the heck of it. From time to time I appear to extended this idiosyncrasy (or perhaps a case of masochism?), just for the heck of it, on other aspects of my life. Mostly on other computer games. But now, I've attempted it with model kit building. For the first time ever, I've built two 1/100 Master Grade MS-06J Zaku II v2.0 model kits completely without once referring to the manuals. Welcome MS-06F #2 and MS-06J "White Ogre" #2 (Blue Eye) to the family. Note: The photo for the MS-06F may appear to be cut in half if viewed from the main Blog window. Just click on it to open the full image directly from my Photobucket account. Now, I will admit that I have had practice in the past. At least 10 variants of these guys so far, so it's not as if I started blindly. Also their basic frames are the same and differ only in minor details. There are still hundreds of bits of pieces to put together and it's been months and months since the last build. The one thing I found about this fun feat was that the entire build process was so much faster. Normally I can take about 8 hours to build one. I think I only took 5 - 6 hours this time. After this, there are still five v2.0 Zaku's, 1 v2.0 Gouf (based on the Zaku 2.0 frame), a 1/100 and 1/144 MS06F2 that are waiting to be built. Still need to get a Geara Zulu, which is very Zaku-ish. I do declare that I have a serious case of Zaku-Zaku-mania. I suppose it is better (and probably cheaper) than alcohol addiction.

Fishing pictures up

Too long to be a tweet - the Fishing Gallery is up. Only half a dozen photos at the moment, but they are some of the better (non blurry) ones. Next up, I'll throw in some of the boring pre-production photos.