Dave's Rantlets

8:27pm: PlasmaTECH review updated
Added bio fic on the Cloaked Base set.

7:53pm: Salvage vehicle and robot modes complete
( Proper salvage truck behind cut )

( And now the robot mode )

4:15pm: Go, Speed, Go!
Just got back from seeing Speed Racer. While pretty much any scene focusing on Spridle was as painfully bad as you'd expect, and there's a couple places where they shouldn't have tried to copy visual signatures of the old cartoon, I generally enjoyed the movie. Do be warned, though, the melodrama sliders are cranked up pretty high in a LOT of scenes.

I didn't have a problem sitting in the front row, but I also mentally filed several sequences away as "I'll figure out what happened there later when it's on DVD".

Oh, and Richard Roundtree's part was small but significant and well-played.

( Potentially spoilery and WAY too-much-thought-put-into-it ponderings under the cut. )

One last thought: several of the cars that got toys were literally "blink and you miss it" stuff. So I'm hoping that the line does well enough to get a second wave...I want the three "headhunter" teams from the rally race to get toy love. Especially the Thor-azines, viking-themed racers who use the ball and chain weapon seen in the ads (and on one of the toys).

10:53pm: Some kitbashing in progress: Salvage
( Dinged it up, making new bedcover details. )

4:24pm: Review: Stealth Bumblebee, Salvage
Not just another black repaint.... Sadly, QC is the pits.

7:40pm: Comics for May 7, 2008
( Book of Note: Amelia Rules! v4; First Looks: Guardians of the Galaxy #1, Iron Man Legacy of Doom #2, Amazing Spider-Man #559 )

   Dave Van Domelen, "In a recent story on the sci-fi game 'Mass Effect,' a Fox News panelist described the game as 'LUKE SKYWALKER MEETS DEBBIE DOES DALLAS.'" "Really?" "Yeah. Do you want to --" "Do they have a SCRIPT for that?" "No, it was a metaphor for --" "Can we get someone WORKING on a script for that?" - Preacher from Crispygamer.com and Mark Hamill, PS238 #31 (the Backward Compatible strips).

9:22am: A serious meme for once.
A lost story of the Holocaust. Spread it around. Closing comments on this, commentary really should go to the original post. Found on ebony14's page.

5:07pm: Transformers motivational poster, of sorts
( Done for an AllSpark.com art challenge )

8:46pm: Transformers Robot Heroes wave 5
Including DISPENSOR!

6:08pm: Free Comic Book Day 2008 titles I read
( Plus a short review of the Iron Man movie. )

   Dave Van Domelen, "This was not supposed to happen." "No, URGH...no, this pretty much ALWAYS happens." - mad scientist and Atomic Robo.

7:12pm: ASH: Sourcebook - Collapsinum
Collapsinum - ASH's super-metal.

2:25pm: Ew.
( Squickworthy diabetes symptom behind cut. )

6:29pm: Atomic Art!


A colleague solicited "expert" drawings of conceptions of atoms, to compare to student drawings for a research project. I decided I could only really express my conception in paint, and a to-be-discarded empty DVD case made the perfect canvas...black, and the texture's just right to pick up the fuzziness I was shooting for. (Aside: ever since high school, I've thought of positive charge as being green, due to the accent colors I had available...red was already assigned to something else, so positive charge got to be green.)

8:38pm: Under $10,000
Assuming the automatic withdrawal went off on schedule, I now owe less than ten grand on my car.

7:50pm: Comics for April 30, 2008
( Book of Note: Hulk vs. Hercules #1; First Looks: Nova #13, MA Spider-Man #39, Avengers/Invaders #1, Invincible Iron Man #1, Amazing Spider-Man #558 )

   Dave Van Domelen, "Feh. The RED SKULL did not appreciate me either." - Baron von Blitzschlag, too verdammnt old to angst, Avengers the Initiative #12

8:23am: ASH: LL&DD #8 - Everyday Things
LL&DD #8 - Everyday Things: Snapshots of the couple's life as seen through the lens of some "everyday things". By jarodrussell.

7:54pm: YouTube: The Toy Dave Saga Continues
Now for cleanup...

11:20am: Aha! Not Mazinger after all!
Mach Baron, released in the Spanish-language market as Mazinger Z to coattail-ride the Nagai trend of the late 70s. :) Which explains the MB belt buckle and the general lack of resemblance to Mazinger.

12:59am: Attacktix Unicorn (Iron Man villain)
( Semi-obscure villain behind cut. )

4:25pm: Picspam: Live-action Mazinger Z
( Photos taken of the TV, so quality isn't good. Then again, you really can't give 'quality' to some of these things.... )

2:31pm: You know, this wouldn't make sense in ANY language
Okay, yesterday at a Walgreens I bought a Mazinger-Z DVD for a buck, in Spanish. I figured, based on the cover art, that this was just a few cartoon episodes (the ones that became Tranzor Z) dubbed into Spanish...but it's not. It's a live action movie. Not sure which one, IMDB is pretty slim on the Mazinger movie info.

Anyway, after the first big fight (in which Mazinger is almost all red, for some reason), Doctor Infierno (Doctor Hell) sends his assassins to kill Our Hero.

These assassins rush up to him, dressed as...football players. The helmets-and-padding kind. They tie him up and kick exploding footballs at him, until he's saved by the arrival of a police inspector who has attached a child's balloon to his motorscooter so as to fly in to the rescue.

( More observations behind cut )

11:51pm: Crucible Element character art: Strobe
( Glowy lady behind cut )

8:10pm: Realization about tonight's Doctor Who....
( Spoiler behind cut, SciFi Channel airing. Websnark readers may get this.... )

5:30pm: Beer of my forefathers...
Dommelsch Beer is the primary export of the small Dutch town/region/whatever of Dommel, the place from which my family name (Van Domelen) comes from. My uncle found a few of their ads on YouTube:

Pervy Spysat - NSFW (breasts)

Archaeological Mystery - SFW, but might disturb some

brU-boat - Kinda loud, but otherwise SFW.

10:33am: Wherein my media geekitude comes in helpful professionally
In the recent issue of The Physics Teacher there's some photographs (subscription required) that puzzled the person who sent them in, a set of wavy skidmarks on a back road. Neatly sinusoidal, ending in a donut.

Naturally, I recognized it as the result of someone practicing their drifting, and have let both the submitter and the journal editors know. :)

( Rehosted the pics behind cut )