Legend of Zelda TCG: Collector's Edition

Being a huge Legend of Zelda freak I just had to have a booster box of the Zelda TCG. I highly doubt it will get far, however it may become a collector's item one of these days and I love having collector's items. The Booster box contains 6 boosters featuring Twilight Princess trading cards. I have not (and will not) opened the box, so I am not sure exactly what the cards look like or how the game is actually played. The box art is cool; but is probably stuff you have seen before. The booster box is retailing for $19.99 USD, for collectors purposes if you are a Zelda fan, I highly recommend picking it up before they decide to take it off of the market.

Tallgeese III final touches

I had doubts when inking this thing, but the Tallgeese has really come out quite nicely especially with the metallic blue. I have a few finishing touches to do with it, but it is practically done. Easy model to build, I had zero to no problems with the construction (be careful with the fragile gun). Going to stain and sand the stand, glue 'em on there in my favorite pose, and I have a cheaper, DIY Gundam figure =D $50.00 versus $90++, AND I did it. I take pride in my work. But how the hell did you do it so quickly?? Well I have been working since 12pm this afternoon, it's now about 6:00pm. On and off really, but I still have painting to do with the gun and shield because frankly, they will make or break this model.

TallGeese III Custom: Purchase

FINALLY a GUNDAM model!!!! Went out to HobbyTown USA today and decided to get some paint for my USS Constitution build. Found an imported Tallgeese III Custom and I just had to pick it up. This will be my side project that I plan on finishing before the USS Constitution. Gonna start punching out morning hours so I can get these things done. Also got a few WOW cards I can add to my deck.

Latest Internet Phenomenon: Drama Prairie Dog!

I saw this on G4's "Attack of the Show" while visiting a friends house in Maryland. FREAKING HILLARIOUS.

World of Warcraft TCG

So what is this TCG I have been talking about?

The WOW TCG is a new trading card game that was released in late 2006 by Upper Deck Entertainment by the permission of Blizzard Ent. The game borrows heavily from Magic, a little bit from Yu-Gi-Oh!, but allows more choices and a ton more strategies through a MMORPG like setting: Your hero may be equipped for battle and invite allies.

The game is set between two factions: The Horde and The Alliance. You will control a hero, who enters the game not through your deck, but from the start. You draw a card every turn. You may equip your hero with weapons and armor, or summon allies. Each turn, you may set a maximum of one resource card. Resource cards are "exhausted" (aka "tapped") to pay the cost to play something. If my ally costs 3 resources to summon, I must exhaust 3 resources. If my opponent is going to play a big move his next turn, I may want to hold off and save the resources to counter his move. The game presents tough calls you have to make; it makes deck building a lot tougher.

There are oversized cards too, perfectly legal and useable in tournament play (they are for collectible and artwork reasons). You get fascinating cards with great matching artwork. A lot of powerful cards are common, but the uber (powerfully elite) cards are even harder to get than ultimate rares in Yu-Gi-Oh!. Cards put into your deck must share similar traits: you can't mix and match horde and alliance cards. If I am running an alliance deck, I cannot fit a Horde quest or ability inside my deck. I CAN however put an alliance card into my deck if my hero is part of the alliance. The minimum deck/card limit is 60 cards, and the maximum copies you can have of each card is 4. Some cards also have "unlimited", which means my entire deck can consist of them, if you so choose.

The game has been very sucessful. To mimic and celebrate the MMORPG World of Warcraft, Blizzard has released raid decks. Raid decks are bosses as the heroes who will take an actual effort to defeat. Bosses are so difficult that players must unite to defeat the boss, sort of like Dungeons and Dragons. I havn't been in a raid yet, but I have been traded some of the uberly powerful cards from the "treasure pack". The game looks promising, and I will contiune to play for a long time.

Hero
Aleyah Dawnborn (Horde Paladin, 28 HP)

Allies
4x Bluffwatchers (unlmtd) (2 attk 2 HP)
3x Ra'chee (1 attk 2 HP)
3x Kalnuf Eagleheart (3 attk 2 HP)
3x Greefer (3 attk 2 HP)
2x Magran Proudstep (fero) (1 attk 2 HP)
2x Field Repair Bot 74A (0 attk 2 HP)
2x Guardian Steppestrider (Prot) (5 attk 5 HP)
2x Araelun (1 attk 3 HP)
2x Field Repair Bot 74A (0 attk 2 HP)
2x Bhenn Checks-the-Sky (2 attk 1 HP)
1x Scout Omerrta (Prot) (2 attk 1 HP)
1x Wazzuli Wildmender (3 attk 5 HP)
1x Katsin Bloodoath (Prot) (5 attk 3 HP)
1x Ja'zaron (Prot) (2 attk 3HP)

Quests/Abilities/Equipment
2x Seal of the Crusader
1x Cleanse
1x Eskhandar's Collar
2x Hammer of Justice
1x Aegis of the Blood God
1x Divine Shield
2x Samophlange
3x Ornate Adamantium Breastplate
1x Deathbringer
1x Fel Iron Hatchet
3x Swift Assault
1x Seal of Light
2x Turn Aside
3x Righteous Vengeance
1x Desperate Block
2x Poison Water
3x Finkle Einhorn, At Your Service!
1x Argent Defender
1x Blessing of Might
1x Blessing of Freedom
1x Undaunted Defense
1x Arcane Torrent
1x Vambraces of the Sadist
1x Caught off Guard
1x Guard Duty

Milestone: 300 Posts

This would be my 300th post for "The Guy With Not Enough Time On His Hands" blog. I consider this a large milestone as I progress torwards 500. I am back from vacation, sorting out everything so I may take a little while before moving at a fast pace again. A few things I plan on covering this week:


+ WOW TCG
+ Remainder of Vacation Coverage
+ Kite Loft Review
+ Windows Vista Review
+ Roller Coaster Tycoon 2 Shennanigans


Can't wait! So much to do, so little time.

OC Vacation 2007: Day 5

Did a bit of relaxing today and went over to my best friends house again. His brother was in and we all decided totrade WOW cards, and basically made the other person more equally Uber. Which reminds me, I need to make a poston the WOW TCG. I am running a Horde Paladin deck. In basic terms, paladins are the warriors of the light, my friend is running a hunter deck and his brother is running a warlock deck, basically warriors of the dark (anti paladin).


I got a few cards from their raid deck collection, in exchange for some of the cards they needed from my collection (I went and purchased a booster box). We had a couple of games and ended up playing Guilty Gear X on his Xbox and had some fun. I have played these types of street fighter/scrolling games before, and I caught on very early to how the game worked. I thought it was a lot of fun and very anime-esque. I went back to my hotel luckily in time to do a little kite flying, and I'll be coming back tomorrow with my best friend to hit all of the events going on for seniors in Ocean City.

Hydrofoil Model Sailboat

We were out shopping the boardwalk and I found this store near the very beginning (close to the museum) that sold model ships and other things. I found this one that I really liked, already furnished and put onto a professional wooden stand for a great price. I picked it up and I am still happy with the purchase. The boat was painted very well and was crafted with wood. The rigging is excellent and tight. If the rigging were to come loose, there are hooks that can re-attach the lines in about 2 seconds. Neat foil, great price, and I will definetly pick up another one when I come down next year.

OC Vacation 2007: Day 4

I woke up later today around noon. My sister and her friends went to the local waterpark and myself and my parents tooka trip to the boardwalk for some exercise. My dad wanted to check out the Ocean Gallery store, and I wanted to get out ofthe condo and feel that nice ocean breeze. What's nice about being down in Ocean City is that once you get down here, itis so much easier to breathe at sea level. In the Lehigh Valley PA, we are 3000 some feet above sea level. At Ocean City, we were at sea level, so I did get a temporary nose bleed due to elevation change. We visited Thrashers and I had some of the best french fries (THE BEST) in the world. I highly recommend that you stop near the entrance to the boardwalk, and you musttry Thrashers french fries. We walked down the boardwalk and spent maybe 45 minutes in the Ocean Gallery store.


Out of all the places I have been to here, this store actually impressed me. There is so much art that it is ridiculous, if impossiblenot to stop and admire the art. I made a comment about how it must have taken a lot of effort and time to get all theartwork on display. I really liked this one painting, and my dad decided to get it for me, which I appreciate a lot. It'sa photo of the ruins of a watch light tower beign hit by a huge wave. Really great detail, and I am definatly hanging it up in my room. I walked it all the way back to the old ford (SUV) and we loaded up and went back to the condo. My sisterand her friend met us back there and we had a small brunch. Sister is sleeping, her friend watching TV, both my parentsare taking a nap, and I am here on this laptop (without internet access typing up this post in notepad. This evening I amgoing to go out and try to get my kite up in the air and hopefully get some footage. I think I am gonna leave my dad thecamera so he can get video of me launching and flying, among other pictures. I bet if there is a nice sunset; its gonna looksso cool.

OC Vacation 2007: Day 3

Got the privilidge today of heading over to one of my best friend's house. We've been friends since 6th grade (so that makes it 6 years then!). I clearly remember the day when I met him; crystal clear. There was a really bad snow storm, andthe snow piled up to about 3 feet in most areas. We both got off the bus and all we could see was an endless view of white.He couldn't find his house, and I had no idea where it is. Turned out that I we were actually going in the wrong direction,but we did eventually find it. We flew him up to Pennsylvania for my graduation. I am so glad he was able to make it upfor the occasion, graduating was important to me and with my best friend watching, it made it that much better.


He was over at his girlfriends house, so we got directions there and eventually, I arrived. We had a lot of fun, looking at anime musicvideos and playing the WOW TCG. We talked a bit about college and stuff, and eventually we went down to my best friends house.I pulled out a suprise. Before we left on vacation, I went to Best Buy to browse around. While browsing the anime sectionI found a few awesome releases: Hellsing, Full Metal Panic Fumoffu! (which I picked up) then something that almost made meshout FUKAREZUNA!! (WTF?!?). I found the collector's edition, english release of Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni.


No arguement,I picked it up and went to checkout. The quality obviously went up as Geneon did a fantastic job with the english dubbing.I had predicted they would rape the anime, but Geneon knows what they are doing. We watched the first 5 episodes and playeda little of his Xbox 36 (I am considering purchasing one). We played with his voice changer and a little more of the WOW TCG. He had to work the next day, so I got a ride back and fell asleep back at the condo. During my interesting day, my parents, my sister and her friend (herein "gang") visited Assateaque Island right outsideof Ocean City. I heard they had a good time, and got a suprise visit on the beach by wild horses! One got so close to mydad that he ripped the book out of my dads hands while he was reading it! (he got the book back). They got tons of amazingpictures, and I was sad that I couldn't get video footage for the family vacation video. Plenty for the slide show, but I really need more video.

OC Vacation 2007: Day 2

I havn't really done much today (June 17th) other than go out and relax around the condo. We were treated to a nice showoutside full of speedboats and helicopters. Before we got into town, we had lunch at a local Bob Evans restauraunt. I satagainst the window, and noticed someone was pulling a friggin huge purple boat, upon a closer look I figured out that it wasa speedboat. They must have held a race, because the track was set up like one. They had helicopters chasing the speedboats so I assumed they were filmers taking aerial shots of the boats. The coastguard was around looking for something, and at first I thought it was a part to a boat or something. But even as I type later in the evening, the coastguard chopper still is hovering around, obviously now looking for someone, dead or alive is a good question. (later edit- a 19 year old drowned at sea fighting a rip current.)


Seems someone either went overboard or got caught in a rip current and died of exhaustion. We went to Higgins crab house, although I am not a crab (or seafood for that matter) eater, I did have their mozzerella stick appetizer which I found to be really good. We finished up crabs and I got to take a peel inside the Kite Loft off on 7th Street.A lot of the kites impressed me, but honestly I am happy with my 10 foot Delta Kite. I really am considering an abstractflyer or stunt kite next year when I come down. I bought a tail for my 4.5 foot Delta, a 110 pound (80 pound too weak)line along with a matching (but different) 24 foot tube sock for my 10 foot Delta. I was talking with my father about howrecently, I was becoming more frugal and careful with my money. A lot of stuff in Ocean City gift shops really impressesme, but I realize it is stuff I will forget about or really don't need. I'm still looking to get an Aloha type shirt though.

OC Vacation 2007: Day 1

Finally at the Ocean on Vacation. I have been looking forward to this trip for quite some time now, since aroundFebruary. The condominium we rented out is pretty sweet: a 700 square foot condo conmplete with a washer/dryer, two full bathrooms, an oven, microwave, 24" screen TV, a DVD player, a fridge, toaster, blender, you get the picture. Entering our room, I couldn't help but notice the nice small ammenities adorning the room: figures and pictures ofthings collected around Ocean City, or in the theme of it. I walked out onto the patio and found that we had an Ocean-sideview from the second floor- the ocean was beautiful, and it was really easy to breathe in a sigh of relief as you couldbreathe in the salty air coming in from the ocean.


We drove around a bit and decided to walk at the beginning of the boardwalk when my sister and her friend went off anddid other stuff. I remember having a very delicious orange sherbert custard. We walked by a lot of stores and I reallydidn't find anything that interested me. We stopped by this one store and they had dragon sculptures, but I thought theywere to expensive for iron recasts. We walked about a fourth of the way down and decided to head home. We crossed theroute 5o bridge and saw a lot of seamen and fishermen attempting to get a nice catch. I remember my mom making a comment how the seagulls were standing on water when they were actually standing on a sandbar catching the fish that got too close.

New Laptop

Woah ho ho, got a VERY nice grad gift! This is one of Gateway's 2gig+ RAM 200 GB Hard-drive 2 GHz Processor machines. I opened up the package this morning before I went to work, and actually got to play with my new PC (I totally forgot the entire day!) when I got home. It was fantastic that I got it working. It came with Windows Vista, an OS I have never worked with before. The interface was easy to understand, and if I wanted to do something complex, the help menu found what I needed.


Wireless devices (camera, wireless mouse) plugged in and worked flawlessly. Even better, it connected itself to my internet network, just like my Nintendo Wii did! One step higer, the laptop has bluetooth capability, which will allow me to fully harnass and utilize the Penn State network. Fun laptop, should run some of my games smoother than this home PC I have, but I intend it to be a work computer.

USS Constitution Work

Between catching up on time, vacation and work, I havn't gotten a lot of work done. Here is some of the work I finished though, I love how the paint mimics real wood on the styrene plastic. These boats should turn out nicely.

Red Dragon with Wizard Waterglobe

Here is another creation from the HOS Collection: This is one of their smaller (6"-7") dragons, and this is one my friend personally picked up. I will be taking it to him this weekend, but I figured that it was a nice piece, why not post pics of it while I have it.

Lebron James Etch-A-Sketch

Ahh those cool things from childhood. Take a look at this Youtube video. James (plays for the Cavaliers) just made NBA history a week or so ago with an amazing playoff game. The artist, Vlosich, draws a professional etch-a-sketch. Would love to have one of these done, that has to take skill.

5 Headed Dragon- Master Sculpt

I picked this up a few days ago and it is an amazing piece. This is a master sculpt five headed Hydra Dragon from Dorney Park and Wildwater Kingdom's very own Hydra Gifts. This gift shop is (in my opinion, a personal top choice) one of the best inside the park for the coolest gifts. I got it at discount of course, but the sculptures are still quite expensive (which I can understand, the thing is ceramic in material with no faults). The detail is incredible, and it makes for an interesting piece. Modeled after the actual Hydra the Revenge roller coaster. If you are interested, you can find the gallery here.

Hiatus Update

I need to apologize: I have not been posting like I normally do. Graduation events and parties have had me running around nuts, and this evening work needed to keep me late and pay me overtime. It's a lot to get over with, and I havn't had any good time to myself lately. I have a few upcoming posts I'll elaborate on when I find the time and energy to:

1) MasterSculpt 5 Headed Dragon Statue Pictures
2) World of Warcraft TCG: initial thoughts
3) USS Constitution Updates

Ending June Hiatus, Beginning Another!

Graduation is done, yes!

The year is finally done and my mind is on Penn State. I got some time off of work to spend my "Grad" vacation with one of my best friends. Some of our neighbors stopped buy, along with out of state family to attend the backyard BBQ and good fun. I have a video that I will post in a little bit of the graduation. I'm proud to say that I earned my diploma the hard way, because I can.

Got to go to Dorney Park with my best friend and we took a good 3 hour road trip and went for quite a few rounds of world class laser tag (WORKOUT). I had a lot of fun and in the next week or so I will be hitting Ocean City MD (If dad brings the laptop, I can post like normal). Hope to have some fun and good pictures to share. Great times, but Penn State is closer than I think.

Nintendo Wii a Potential Cultural Phenomenon- Rival to Pac-Man?

If you have read some Wii articles before, read only the red text. From:

http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/arts/story.html?id=d56a9925-06b8-444f-82ba-6482c8b69044&p=1

Nintendo's Wii flattens competition
Darren Bernhardt, CanWest News ServicePublished: Friday, June 01, 2007
The stratospheric rise of Nintendo's latest gaming system has been nothing shy of Wii-markable, flattening Sony's PS3 and charging after Microsoft's Xbox 360. The company is thriving in markets around the world. The Wii was the top-selling console system in Canada, the Nintendo DS handheld was the top-selling portable gaming system, and Nintendo held the top four spots for games (Pokemon Diamond Version DS, Pokemon Pearl Version DS, Wii Play, and Super Paper Mario for Wii) for the period of April 8 to May 5, according to the latest Canadian figures released by independent market researchers NPD Group Inc.

Nintendo boasted the same achievements in the United States while in France the 15 top-selling games are all for Nintendo systems. "We're ecstatic over the explosive appeal of Wii and Nintendo DS," said vice president and general manager of Nintendo of Canada Ron Bertram.
At the November 2006 launch of the Wii in Toronto, Bertram anticipated good things for the console and hoped for "a strong second place" showing. The actual success is beyond anyone's expectations. In less than five months since introduction, the company has sold six million Wii systems globally and nearly 29 million Wii games. The console has taken a step toward becoming a cultural phenomenon.

"Wii is selling out everything we put into the marketplace," said Reggie Fils-Aime, president and CEO of Nintendo of America, speaking at a conference in Seattle on May 22 to announce sales achievements and upcoming games for the company. The reason for Nintendo's rise is its approach to new consumers and giving them something different, said Fils-Aime.

With its innovative motion-sensing controller, Wii gamers get as close to the action as possible. Players swing the controller like a baseball bat or golf club, leap around their living rooms to make a backhand return in tennis, jab madly away at the air in a boxing bout, and point it at the screen to aim their weapons. Sitting on the couch and pressing buttons just doesn't cut it anymore.

The Wii remote controller is also simple to use. It's based more on gestures than button combinations, so there are very few gadgets on it, making it less intimidating to people who've never played games before. Nintendo has also taken aim at non-gamers with titles that veer away from the shooters and racers that appeal to males aged 18 to 35. "We're not just competing with Sony and Microsoft any more. We're competing with movies and other leisure activities," said Fils-Aime.

Nintendo began feeding non-gamers with Nintendogs, a non-competitive and quirky game that requires people to adopt, care for, and raise a computerized canine companion. It has since put out a series of puzzle games, and a collection of mentally stimulating mini-games to test thinking, memorization, analysis, identification and computation.

Consequently, "the market is changing in unprecedented ways," said Fils-Aime. "There's no question consumers are picking up a controller who've never played before. And these games are becoming a part of everyday life for many of them."

Sunset over Nazareth

Fitting photo for the ending weekend of my school career (save college). Working on my high school manifesto (one of those posts) and will post it once I find the time.