The state of search in 2024:
Google: "We threw away decades of search knowledge and Internet indexing and just made an answer up "
Bing: "Here's 100 tangentially related pages from 2010 that I only included because your query appears in a tag cloud in the website's footer"
DuckDuckGo: "Here are the Bing results, only with ✨privacy✨"
Reddit: (this user has deleted their entire post history using PowerDeleteMyShit. Fuck /u/Spez)
Yahoo: "Oh thank god, someone's actually using our search engine! No, we're not just Bing!" *frantically trying to cover up the giant Bing sticker* "NO DON'T GO TO GOOGLE!!!!"
Yandex: "Here are all of the Russian-owned resources on this topic. Only Russian sources are trustworthy. Everything else is fake ne—I MEAN, misinformation"
Kagi: "We'll give you what Google used to give you for free, for the low low price of $10/month!"
Ask.com: [hoarse screaming and clawing noises can be heard from the ground beneath a headstone that says "Here lies Jeeves: 1996-2006"]
How to Identify that Light in the Sky
Illustration Credit & Copyright: HK (The League of Lost Causes)
Well, hopefully. If I did manage to remove the entire sticky coating, it should stay clean and I'll be happy. I'll definitely be keeping an eye on him, though.
Basically, the coat was so gross that even if I'd wrecked it, it wouldn't be any worse than it already was. I think it had sat by the sink in the 'get to cleaning this random crap' pile for more years than I want to count.
Maybe when I get all this done I can compile some stuff-cleaning-tips-for-nerds.
Next clients, when I can: Jade and Anise gashapon from Tales of the Abyss.
If Ed is not one of the very early Square-Enix Play-Arts figures, he's from whatever became them. At the time he was incredibly affordable, but also well-articulated and, like, those accessories. IIRC he has his spear as well that's still with my FMA stuff.
The line also had Al and Winry, though I'm not sure I still have either. Al was notorious because the front came off his armor except it was nearly impossible to actually remove. I don't think I ever managed to do it.
But seriously, stellar figures. I'm really glad that I was able to fix Ed's coat.
Spa Day 1 - Client: Edward Elric('s Coat)
With a bad case of plastic stickiness (seriously, you could pick the coat up, let go, and it'd stay on your hand), Ed's coat needed help.
Reddit suggested rubbing alcohol and after three gentle-but-thorough applications via cotton-ball the stickiness has gone from, like, 9/10 to 1.5/10.
Apparently the stickiness is from a finish coating that needs to be removed entirely. It didn't harm the color or tampos on the coat but YMMV.
Ed's alternate hands and arms are all fine. Different plastic.
I've cleaned off a chunk of countertop to be a "dolly spa", though atm it's a doll-pony-gashapon-general-toys spa.
This is arguably to clean up some toys to sell, but also take care of condition issues on stuff I'm keeping.
It's a lot of Monster High. Really fun doll-line, love them but kinda overdid with collecting. Also notorious for condition issues, like, right out of the box. My summer is going to be washing doll hair.
Current customers: MLP G1 Boy Pony, gashapon Jade & Anise from Tales of the Abyss, Ed Elric's red coat.
The Voice of A Generation of Fans: An Interview With Steve Blum: An interview with voice actor Steve Blum, that covers his work on Cowboy Bebop, the early anime dubbing scene, and the challenges and joys that come from voicing Toonami's TOM mascot.
The Wild World of Anime CD-ROMs in North America - Mark McDonald explores the anime CD-ROM micro-boom of the 1990s, looking at the history format and their rise and fall, while highlighting exemplars of the format like the Anime Hyperguide and The World of U.S. Manga Corps.
Link: http://hera.fyi/cdroms
The first book of the Bible is called Mega Drive in Europe, it's only Genesis in the US.
Wild boar.
Ludwig Beckmann, from "Brehms Tierleben," vol. 3 by Alfred Edmund Brehm, Leipzig, Vienna: 1900 #illustration #art https://www.oldbookillustrations.com/illustrations/wild-boar/
Looking Back on Protoculture Addicts 15 Years Later: Red Bard covers the history of Protoculture Addicts, which currently stands as the longest running anime magazine in North America. They examine the publication's founding, its partnership with ANN, and its settling into dormancy.
Link: https://www.animeherald.com/2023/10/14/looking-back-on-protoculture-addicts-15-years-later/
The Book Wheel was an invention from the 16th century for people that needed multiple tabs open before browsers were invented.
Hello! | こんにちは! FE/FF/SaGa/GBF. I'm here for mobage/video games, general geekery, writing, and whatnot.