So when I first wrote back in October 2007 that this site would be “mostly a slice of Kevin’s life again,” I forgot to mention how sparsely the weblog would be updated. What, it’s been since April 10, 2008 since the last bit? Ah, seems it’s time to give a rundown of what’s happened over these few months. Hit “Read more” if you’re interested, but pardon the disorganization ahead…there’s a lot to talk about.
In about one hour, I will be departing State College for a three-hour trip to the Radisson Hotel (Pittsburgh Green Tree) for another gathering of nerdism, Tekkoshocon 2008. Despite being their sixth year in operation, this is another small con unlike the 23,000-person, overcrowded Otakon 2007 (guaranteed again for 2008) – but it’s still several times larger than our own held in downtown University Park. Myself and a couple others from the Penn State Anime Organization will be promoting Setsucon as part of a friendly table exchange that this convention did with us back in January, and more from the PSAO are heading down just to enjoy the atmosphere and programming.
From what I’ve heard and seen, Tekkoshocon is one of the best anime gatherings in the surrounding states, mainly because it’s not so large as to force sloth-like movement and hinder desires to participate in everything on the schedule, but still filled with enough unique things to do in order to provide that “big con” experience. Hopefully, I can spend time updating this blog with some photos (unlike previous posts for Otakon 2007 and Setsucon 2008), as PSU Media Tech has lent me another camera for those spastic picture taking opportunities.
Now if only I had a cosplay ready for this event, since Tekko 2008’s fanart theme is “Super Sentai” – and giant robots are on the list. Or, if only I were better at drawing mecha. Oh well, can’t have it all at once, right? At the very least, thank God for opening up the time for this weekend, as the convention sits neatly between my last set of midterms and the inevitable final exams…
Spring Break has ended, and it’s time to move on with the semester. Too bad most of the exams are jammed between now and the next month and a half! Quite a poor testing schedule on PSU’s part, sadly.
However, before I head off to return a certain Nikon D80 to Penn State Media Tech, the following are some photos of the Pop’n Music Arcade-Style Controller project built over winter break; read more here about the inspiration – and credits to whom it may concern – to construct such a bulky gaming device. Assuredly, it survived Setsucon 2008 quite well, and even more so the subsequent DDR and Import Gaming Nights (held by Dance Dance Maniacs and the Penn State Anime Organization, respectively). In fact, the final three photos are in-use shots from the most recent gaming night before last week’s break. Enjoy!
Laughable given how busy school is, if I were a more avid Gunpla builder, I would’ve crossed dannychoo.com‘s sights more often. And late as I am for reading articles there, a few minutes ago I found this chart (bigger version here) comparing the heights of all sorts of well-known mecha – both real and super; it’s rather humbling for anyone who thinks a Gundam-esque machine is already tall (even the Psycho Gundam). Of course, the full-size image makes a nice wide-screen wallpaper, too.
And…it’s Spring Break for Penn State students. Time to figure out (um, finalize a decision on) what mecha to cosplay as for Otakon 2008 and study for my Differential Equations class. Let’s guess which task will be more fun!
Well, it’s been confirmed that somebody else has already done it: cosplay as the ARX-7 Arbalest from the Full Metal Panic! series. Wow, the entire suit looks stunning. I doubt my first attempt at mecha cosplay will be so refined.
That’s not a Gundam, fellow photographer. It’s made of win. Even better, there’s also a shot of the Arbalest’s archenemy (season one): Venom! A Spanish-to-English (Google) translated thread about both “LSK” and his brother’s FMP! mecha debuts at the TNT GT2 convention (February 2-4, 2008) is here. Seriously, college is holding me back from doing awesome projects, like designing more Tesla Coils; then again, mecha cosplayers are sometimes aspiring engineers, so who says we can’t build a real Gundam with giant rifles and beam swords someday?
In other realms: Burning Fingers (!) and…RollerGundam?
Kevin, also known as "PlasmaFire3000," is an electrical engineer who enjoys living for Jesus Christ, drawing, writing, reading, photography, music, video gaming, anime, manga, and sleepless attempts to build a death-ray laser cannon.
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