Orlando Slideshow Geekiness

Here's a slide show video I made with photos I took while on vacation in Orlando last week. Enjoy!

Super Smash Brothers Brawl

My entire week thus far has been consumed with the new Nintendo WII game Super Smash Brothers Brawl. Its a fighting game filled with classic Nintendo characters and some third-party non-Nintendo characters. It's frantic, seizure-inducing pace and massive amounts of collectibles have kept my obsessive side busy and quite entertained. Today I present to you some screen-grabs from the game.


Squirtle taking it to Pikachu in the Pokemon Arena


Squirtle teaching Nana and Popo (of Ice Climbers fame) a lesson


Squirtle taking on Master Hand, the final boss in the Classic Mode


I unlocked Solid Snake (from the Metal Gear Solid series) just last night... here he is shooting down Olimar from the Pikmin games


Solid Snake vs. King Dedede (Kirby's rival)


Snake doing what he does best!


Captain Falcon from F-Zero duking it out with Giant Pikachu!


Here's a diorama I made in-game of some of the trophies I've won so far. From left to right: Turret Tusk from Donkey Kong Jungle Beat; HM Mech Rosa from Chosoju Mecha MG; and ROB 64 from Star Fox


Feel free to brag about your own exploits in the game here. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go play some more. I'm having withdrawals!

In the Far Future... There Can Be Only War!

I'm featuring two different games today. Both are sci-fi strategy games. The first is the new Warhammer 40K video game due out for the Nintendo DS and Sony PSP called Squad Command.

The other is a rival offering to 40K by the French game company Rackham. It's called AT-43.

WARHAMMER 40,000: SQUAD COMMAND:





AT-43 ACCORDING TO WIKI:

"AT-43: No one Escapes War! is a science fiction tabletop wargame using 28mm miniature figures and terrain to scale developed and published by the French company Rackham.

Released in December 2006, the game features pre-painted plastic miniatures of mechs and infantry units with corresponding cards showing the stats and gameplay options for each unit type."



Here's the newest expansion army. They're called Karmans:







U.N.A. FORCES:


THERIAN FORCES:




RED BLOK ARMY:

100th Post! And it's about GUNDAM! Japan officials edited Wikipedia at work

Japan officials edited Wikipedia at work

From Yahoo! News:

TOKYO - Japan's Agriculture Ministry reprimanded six bureaucrats after an internal probe found they spent work hours contributing to Wikipedia on topics unrelated to farm issues — including 260 entries about cartoon robots.

The six civil servants together made 408 entries on the popular Web site encyclopedia from ministry computers since 2003, an official said Friday.

One of the six focused solely on Gundam — the popular, long-running animated series about giant robots — to which he contributed 260 times. The series has spun off intricate toy robots popular among schoolchildren as well as adults known as "otaku" nerds.

"The Agriculture Ministry is not in charge of Gundam," said ministry official Tsutomu Shimomura.

SOURCE

GUNDAM FIGHT!


One of my prized possessions: a Gundam Wing Zero Collectible!


Special thanks to J. Ho for bringing this news article to my attention. Check out his art blog, he loves drawing robots and He-Man. Now if only he'd draw robotic He-Man.

If - E - Zine(tm) Issue Number 9 is HERE and it's FREE!!!

Hey Folks!

These are exciting times! Not only is Issue Number 9 of If - E - Zine(tm) now available as of today, but the site has a whole new look!

I'm especially excited because this issue is not only Issue 9 and Special Halloween Edition 5 (If - E - Zine(tm) is now four years old and going strong!) but it's also the First Ever Monster Issue!

What makes this the First Ever Monster Issue?

Firstly, there’s quite a monstrous amount of material for you to peruse! There's three short stories:

In “A Bit Of Chocolate” we see three space-faring scientists attempt to discover the roots of the mysterious ‘Space Fever’.

In “A Touch of Rust” a grandfather’s desperation leads him to extreme measures to convince his young grandson that there are still parts of the world where trees exist.

And in “Hunter of the Dead” we're introduced to the character Urdgar the Hunter, a Viking that finds himself thrust into a zombie-filled apocalypse! Yep, Vikings vs. Zombies!

As if that weren’t enough, Issue Number 9 of If - E - Zine(tm) is also loaded with Kaiju Katana: Monster Maker(tm)! This is a set of rules for you and your friends to make giant-sized monsters (like Godzilla, King Kong, the Zords and Ultraman) and pit them in mortal combat with one another!

Now the second reason I call this the First Ever Monster Issue is that I’ve decided to borrow an idea from the original Outer Limits television show. In their initial season the producers of the show required at least one monster per episode. After the first season they dropped this requirement and the shows' ratings diminished horribly.

With Issue Number 9 of If - E - Zine(tm) I promise, dear readers, to provide at least one story per issue (starting with this issue) that includes the appearance of at least one monster!

I also want to take a quick moment and thank everyone who has supported me and my fiction and If - E - Zine(tm) over the last four years. I also want to welcome all the new readers from MySpace. I appreciate all the support I receive.

Also, dear readers, please note that the If - E - Zine(tm) MySpace profile has some new tunes for you to listen to while at work, at home or wherever you can access the internet! It's all science fiction- and Halloween-themed right now. Help me celebrate the Halloween Season and enjoy listening!

Enough talk! Let's get to that FREE fiction!

With much thanks,

~ charles

BONUS POST! A Gentleman's Duel

I'm afraid the full version was taken down, perhaps by Blur Studios. That's fine. here's the trailer for it.