My previous figure sales resulted in me raising enough funds to adopt Dollfie Dream Sakura.  For that, I really do thank you.  This time I will be using the proceeds from this sell to get a ‘special item’ so your patronage would be greatly appreciated.  Thank you.

Suzumiya Haruhi x Nagato Yuki Set
(Gothic Lolita Ver.)

Griffon Enterprises
Never removed from package

Set of 2 – $180

Illustration figures are based on. Sadly didn’t have Mikuru to include in set.

Front Innocent Artbook x Faye Figure
(Warning: Art book and figure are ecchi)

Art book is missing poster when I got it
Figure is unopened

Set for $100

Ignis “Blazing Scarlet” Version
Yamamoto – Creator’s Labo #16 Repaint Version
(Unopened)

Sale Price – $95.00

This last Saturday was July 4th, which for those in the United States means Independence Day.  It was nice as I got to enjoy a lovely three-day weekend from work (July 5th federal offices were closed).  Relaxed, at some BBQ, and caught a bit of fireworks – about the extent of my 4th activities.

But figured I should post something even if I didn’t do much.  And of course Heroman came to mind, especially when I remembered seeing the image above.  Really like that image, maybe I’m sentimental but really like the flag background.  Just looks patriotic to me ^^;

I hope everyone had a safe holiday.  As for me, its back to work after a rather nice three-day weekend.  I rather enjoyed it, even if I didn’t do much.  Always enjoy extended weekends.

I couldn’t resist adding this.   What better way to end this post than with Lina David in her ‘patriotic’ attire.  As a hot-blooded (American) male, obviously don’t mind adding a bit of fanservice.

Last night I was checking referral data for my site the last few days.  Noticed two search terms that were leading to increased referrals were “DD Sakura” and “Dollfie Dream Sakura” – so being the curious person I am decided to Google those to see where I fell in the search results.

I pull up Google homepage, and to my surprise I noticed that now a background appears.  It also looked like you had the option to change the background to some approved images as well.  But what really caught my attention was the option to upload your own backgrounds.  So I decided to play around with it using an image of my Rin Tohsaka Dollfie Dream =3

As far as the decision to include background images, the move seems a bit…Bing-ish…to me, but certainly nice feature.  I am interested to see if this feature will be a permanent addition to Google or if its just a test.

Have you tried it out yet?  What do you think of it?  Do you like it or not?  And please, feel free to share links to your custom Google homepages.  Interested to see what others are doing too!

If you would like this wonderful pic of Rin for your Google homepage, its available for download here.

As I have mentioned in the past, I am a fan of the Yu-Gi-Oh! franchise.  I enjoy watching the anime and playing the collectible card game (though its only on rare occasions now).  I have been watching the latest series in the franchise, 5D’s and have been pretty much hooked.  The concept of riding duels as well as the cast of characters make the show enjoyable to me.

Recently, the full version of the latest opening (OP 5) was released on CD.  The song is “Believe in Nexus” sung by Masaaki Endoh.  I will admit I was disappointed that there was less Aki in this opening, but the song was upbeat enough for me to like the opening.  Fitting song for the world of speed that exist in 5Ds.

Well I decided to pick up the CD.  Have to say, I really enjoy listening to this song – especially while driving.  You can hear the song below.

You can download the song via iTunes.  Be sure that you set the iTunes Store country to Japan and have a iTunes account for Japanese store.  If you need credits to make the purchase, Japanese iTunes cards are available at Jlist.

You can also order the CD via Amazon JP (includes the insert song “Clear Mind” as well as instrumental version of both songs).

BTW, “Clear Mind” is the song played when Yusei uses Accel Sychro for the first time to summon Shooting Star Dragon.  You can hear the song below.

Couple of days ago, decided to submit an entry for Otacool 3, answering the call Danny Choo put out for otaku workspaces.  My attempt for Otacool (World Wide Rooms edition) was pretty lame in my opinion.  So wanted to do a bit better this time around.  So we’ll see what happens =D

You can see my submission over at figure.fm, along with annotations on the various pics.  Also posting the pics here, but encourage you to check out the actual submission just to see the notes =)

This is who I am =D

Just an update regarding the Dollfe Dream Sakura lotto draw.  I put order in Tuesday May 4th with the last day to enter the drawing being May 7th.  Winners were scheduled to be notified on Friday May 14th, so needless to say it was going to be a long wait.

Image Source:  ameblo.jp/10be/entry-10528912363.html

On May 16th (a little past projected contact time) finally received the good news from VOLKS USA.  I had won my DD Sakura Matou as well as her Black Transformation set.  I had entered for all of her outfits, which also included the swimsuit and casual wear.  Unfortunately I did not win those, but pretty happy that I did get Sakura and the transformation set was the one I really wanted anyway.

I remained positive that I would secure Sakura mainly because I have always had good luck when ordering on the VOLKS USA site.  Plus I have a secret technique that seems to work when it comes to lotto draws ^^;;

More importantly, thank you again for all of you who helped make it possible by purchasing items I was selling and through kind donations!

I say that because Sakura wasn’t the only Dollfie Dream I won from the Dolpa 23 lotto.  I also entered for DDdy Alna, the latest of VOLKS Afterschool Akihabara Girls.  She isn’t for me though, I actually made this entery for my comrade Daimaru X.  He has big plans for her too, can’t wait to see him bring out her potential.

She is absolutely gorgeous.  She will make many people happy!

Another great angle!

Both Alna and Sakura are scheduled for August delivery according to email.  But considering I got Rin and Yoko ahead of projected schedule last year, have a strong feeling I may see these girls before then.  Alna won’t be with me long though, as soon as she arrives she will be heading across the world!  But don’t worry, Sakura will be around to see her at Ultima-i and already have some great Sakura x Rin ideas.

Alna Images from her official page:  http://www.volks.co.jp/jp/hag/item_ddalna.html

VOLKS has put up an After Event page for those  that still haven’t had an opportunity to try and secure one of those great girls.  And though I haven’t talked about her, you can also go there to adopt MDD Maria Ushiromiya – she is a cutie pie!!

English site can be found at : http://www.volks.co.jp/en/dollfiedream/index_dollfiedream.aspx

Japanese site here : http://www.volks.co.jp/jp/event/dolpa23/after.html

Info about the web order portion isn’t available yet (still finalizing I suppose) but you can check those pages out to see some of the other great items that were available at Doll Party 23.  Many nice outfits, accessories, and of course lovely Super Dollfies for those that prefer resin dolls.  As always, I personally will be waiting for the clothes and accessories to appear on VOLKS USA.

I may see if I can try to get the two Sakura outfits I missed depending on how high the traffic volume is on the site during the after event.

This first picture is of my dad.  Ran up and took this pic when he was heading off somewhere or another.  May be why he has that funny look on his face ^^;;

I took photography course for two reasons.  First was I have always had an interest in photography growing up.  My mom gave me an old Pentax camera when I was young and I would use it whenever I had the money to buy a roll of film.  I actually used that Pentax camera to take these photos.  That camera has served me well through the years.

Second reason was I was hoping that taking a photography class would get me out of art history, one of the required courses for my undergraduate degree.  Sadly though, it did not and I had no choice but to take art history the next semester.

But I am still glad I took the class because it was a great experience.  Class covered a lot of the basics of photography regarding lighting and composing the shot.  The class also gave us experience using a dark room, as we were required to use ‘analog’ SLR cameras and not digital.  Working in the darkroom alone was well worth taking the course as I learned a lot about processing film.  Though it could be a bit crowded when you have a lot of people all trying to make prints at the same time -.-

I wonder if they still teach darkroom these days, as many people have digital cameras.  Maybe they substitute that time teaching how to accomplish the same techniques in Photoshop?  That would be nice, since a  ‘digital darkroom’ can be more accessible to people.

Over the course of that semester I took hundreds of photos.  The number of assignments escapes me, but I think it was four.  From that we had to make contact sheets, which is basically a print of our developed negatives lined up so can see the entire roll.  We would then chose which ten photos we felt were our best from that assignment and develop a print.  We would then have our prints critiqued by the teacher and classmates.

Our final portfolio consisted of eight prints, chosen from the forty prints that we previously made.  We had to chose our best two shots from each assignment.

We were given the option to use our critiques to try and improve on the prints if we wished.  But sometimes, you actually make it worst – I notice that this print has a lot of dust spots.  Dust is the worst enemy when working in a dark room, especially when it has a lot of traffic going through it.  A problem don’t have to worry about in a digital environment ^^;

On a side note, this was my professor’s favorite photograph from my set.  He liked how the light cut through on the pillar.  Truth be told, I just took this photo just to get to end of my film and didn’t think much of it.

We were also required to mat frame our prints as they were going to put up on display in the art building as part of their student showcases.  On the back of each print we were to put our name, professor’s name, course and time so that they could be returned to us.  I never went back to pick up my prints, mainly because I had these scans of them.

This was my from my first assignment and is my favorite.  Loved the intersecting lines the branches made and the light / dark areas made from the sun shining through the limbs.

Hope you enjoyed the photos.  I have another cache of photos I found plan on sharing next time.

For those keeping up, the last few weeks I have been doing fund raising in order to obtain the adoption fees to secure Dollfie Dream Sakura from Volks.  I would like to give a brief update on who the campaign went.

I listed several figures and dollfie clothing items I was willing to part with.  From those sales I raised a total of $480!!  Thank you to those that purchased items.  You’re purchases helped secure a good portion of the required fee.

I was also running a ‘donation drive’ for  those that saw this banner on the front page.  Was hoping it would be a bit more successful than it was, but I did receive one donation!  Special thanks goes out to Eric for his kind donation!

Due to these combined efforts, I was able to raise enough to cover most of the fee for Sakura.  So thank you again everyone that made it possible.  Lotto entry has been made and hopefully next week I will receive good news at the folks at Volks!!

Congrats to the following people who won the Moo Card giveaway!

SayenMillaray
xraiko
Dr_Cow
yamada25
MotokoYamamoto
cryx

The contest was to give 15 lucky winners cards, but seems that only these folks were interested ^^;;;  Maybe the next giveaway will get a better response.  ^^

If the winners could send me there address info either by DM on twitter or send me a message via my Google Buzz page.

Last October I discussed the Moo cards I received for free. I decided to make these after reading Danny Choo’s post on Meishi (name / business cards).  I made these to try out Moo’s card printing services mainly.  When I received them, I started thinking of possible giveaways I could do with them but never did finalize anything with them.

As I mentioned in that post, these cards have printed on them special codes that will enable you to get 15% off your first order from Moo. I think its a pretty good deal and will certainly save you some money. I was also quite impressed with the quality of the cards I ordered even though I just threw them together at the time ^^;;

Since these cards are suppose to be a networking tool and my recent discussion on social networking, this contest is going to tie into the networking theme.

I’m giving 15 of lovely cards to 15 lucky winners.  All you have to do for a chance to win is tweet the following phrase:

@Ultimaknight, send me one of your cards!! http://bit.ly/aP31w2 #uicardgiveaway

15 winners will be picked at random this time next week.  Be sure you include the #uicardgiveaway hashtag in your tweet so search can find your tweet.  Good opportunity for those who have been wanting to try making their own card or just curious about Moo’s service.  So be sure to enter and feel free to retweet to all your friends!  Good luck!