Lovin' the purple and gold (actually yellow)....

Whooo Hoooo!!!!

For those who know me, I'm something of a sports nut. Sure, I LOVE my anime, manga, comic books, Star Trek, Star Wars, Gunpla, etc. Yes. I am a geek but, my online name comes from my love of ALL the University of Colorado sports teams. (Ah...the secret of where "buffalostyle" comes from is finally revealed) Along with my love of all things CU, I absolutely LOVE Louisiana State University as well. While I grew up in colorful Colorado, I was born in Louisiana and (it must be said) ALL Louisianans love LSU.

So, with great excitement and pride, I was able to watch LSU win their sixth College World Series title tonight over the Texas Longhorns. Sweet!!!

They began the onslaught with a four-run home run by Jared Mitchell (above) and, despite Texas tying the score at 4, the Tigers pulled away in the sixth inning and won running away, 11-4.

This is LSU's sixth baseball title but their first in almost ten years as they all but dominated college baseball in the 90's winning five titles from 1990-2000.

You know, after my horrible day at work, this victory absolutely made my DAY!!! Honestly, you can not take this permagrin off of my face right now.... hehehe....

You know, I was looking at some of the blogs that I have on my list and I came across EvaGeeks.org. I haven't been there in a while so I had to see what was exciting and new.

As something of an Eva Geek myself, I was slightly embarrased to find out that Funimation is releasing the new Eva movie, "Evangelion 1.0: You Are (Not) Alone" within the next month or so. In fact, us Denver-area otaku are going to get our Eva groove on for one week around August 14th. The time and place I don't know just yet but, you just KNOW that OtaKrew will be there. Representing...and keeping it REAL!!!

OK...I need this Rolling Stone. Just had to say that. It will get framed and put in a place of honor in my office...er geek central.

The funny part about this whole thing is that we (OtaKrew) were just talking about the state of the domestic anime industry and the fall of ADV Films just this past Monday at forum. It was a given that ADV had the rights to all that is Eva and that they were holding on for the release of this movie (and the "live-action movie") to bring them back to life. Ah...oops.

Really, this shouldn't have been too much of a surprise as (let's not forget) Manga Entertainment got the rights to "Death and Rebirth" as well as to "End of Evangelion".

I really want to rant about the state of the domestic anime industry but at a later time as I have to get up early tomorrow. Inventory...yuck.

p.s. GEAUX TIGERS!!!

DECULTURE!!!

The Aftermath of the Great Purging

As I stated in my previous post, I just moved into a new home. As I was preparing for the move, I spent A LOT of time packing up up all kinds of toys and collectibles. During that time, I came to the conclusion that I had way too many toys and that some would have to go (The Great Purging).

Some of the toys that I parted with were my G-Force (bah, Gatchaman) toys from Diamond Toys. I was able to find Mark (Ken), Princess (Jun) and Keyop (Jinpei) from series one. Series two was a little bit more difficult to find as it featured Condor Joe (perhaps the most popular member of Gatchaman). The series also had Ryu and Berg Katse figures as well. I was able to justify parting with these toys because the sculpts (IMO) weren't all that consistant.

The problem that I have now is that I am going through purging remorse. I want my Gatchaman toys back. Go figure. I've done this before as I tend to just...give away toys to friends. I've given away Eva toys, Gundam models and Godannar gashapons. It usually happens when I run out of room. Of course, with me being in a bigger house, I don't have to worry about running out of room just yet. Still, I don't want to over-run my home with numerous amounts of toys and models.

I did, however, keep my Cool-Girl (Takara) toy of Jun (G3).

This 12" doll is awesome and a very welcomed addition to any Jun-fanboy's collection.

Speaking of Jun and her awesomeness...

nothing like a little Gatcha-cosplay...and with a Galactor minion, to boot.

So, I recently received my confirmation for my pre-registration to NDK2009 and color me impressed. I'm impressed because, in the past, I haven't received my confirmation until a couple of weeks or so prior to the con. If at all. That has been my biggest complaint for NDK registration. How could someone who pre-reg'ed at the previous con not get a confirmation until a few weeks before the next con? With the quickness of my confirmation this year, it seems like they may be getting some things fixed in that area. To that I say..."Well done" and "Keep up the good work".


One thing that my confirmation did was get me excited for this year's convention.

Looking back over pictures from the past, I find myself jonezing for the interaction with the other fanboys and fangirls, the dealer's room and meeting more con guests.

The above picture was taken at NDK07 on Thursday night at the hotel bar. With me are (from right to left) Steve Bennett, Spike Spencer, Nathan and Chibiokaasan.

Let's just say that a good time was had by all as the...ahem...beverages flowed quite freely that evening. Actually, the beverages flowed freely the whole weekend...

This picture was taken from closing ceremonies at NDK08. With me are (from left to right) Sailor Joe, Yuji Mitsuya (Supreme Kai-DBZ) , Indaglow, Noriko Hidaka (Musicaa-Southern Cross, Kagome-Inu Yasha, Near-Deathnote) , Chris and (once again) my homie Steve Bennett.

What memories to look forward to this year? I'm REALLY looking forward to the return of the Robotech Tour to NDK. Last year, their presence really made the con for me. The sad thing is that we (OtaKrew) didn't keep in touch with the other local Robotech fans that we met last year. Hopefully, we will see ZorMaster again but keep in touch this time.

Speaking of keeping in touch, Gimme Anime (buffalostyle's official anime shop) has changed their hours of operation. They are now open from 10am to 7pm on Monday through Friday and from 12noon till 5pm on Sunday. Unfortunately, having Gimme close at 7pm is tough for me to navigate as my job and where I work usually won't allow me to make it there before 7. Oh well, I do need to get in there soon, however, as Roger is probably wondering what I'm up to. Besides, I like hearing about his trips to out-of-state cons.

Just think, NDK is just a few days over two months away. Wheeee....

DECULTURE!!!

Moving sure is a pain...

I absolutely hate moving.... Since I have so much...stuff...I found that I had a lot to pack and that I will be unpapcking for quite a while. The neat thing about my home is that I have a lot of room for storage. My garage has lots of shelves and my basement has both a crawlspace and a storage room as well.

It looks like my office upstairs is going to be geek central as I have broke out some of my older toys and most of my anime collection will be housed there along with my favorite comics.

Speaking of favorite comics, I am a huge X-Men fan and something of a Romy (Rogue/Gambit) shipper. So, when X-Men #224 came out recently, I was quite pleased with the outcome of the Australian arch of Xavier's odyssey. For fans of the Rogue/Gambit relationship, this comic was a MUST read as it pretty much centers around Rogue and her attempt at learning how to control her powers. At the end of the book, we all get a pleasant surprise.

Then there was the X-Men Origins: Gambit that came out last week. Remy's story has been told before but it was nice to see everything put together as a summary in one issue.
Truth be told, I wouldn't mind if this was turned into a 3-issue mini-series.

MISC COSPLAY

Spotlight on one of my favorite anime of all time, Gatchaman. This is one of the shows that was my EARLY introduction to Japanese animation (anime). These cosplays were done to the updated Gatchaman that was released back in 1994.

Ken the Eagle

Jun the swan (my earliest anime crush)

This OVA totally rocked! I only wish that it was longer than 3 episodes. A little bit of trivia: Maurice White (Co-Lead singer for the R&B group Earth, Wind and Fire) helped with the music for the OVA.

Gatchaman got a remastered release from ADV back in 2005 which featured what was perhaps one of the funniest dubs ever. There were quite a few, "Can you dig it's" and some "Right on's", too. You could tell that they were having a good time with the dub making for a good watching experience. Currently, I own eight of the nine volumes that have been released. Finding that ninth volume is going to be like finding gold. Looks like it might be an Amazon purchase.

So, we broke out episode number 5 of Hellsing Ultimate recently at forum. It has been soooo long since I have seen or read any Hellsing, that I forgot where we were in the story. Let's just say that there was a lot of blood. LOTS of blood. I really don't want to give any of the store away but I will say that it takes place during the events that occured in volumes 5 and 6 of the manga.
The really cool thing about Hellsing Ultimate is that it is following the manga pretty much to the "T" which makes me happy as the manga happens to be one of my favorite reads right now.

When I went home from forum, I decided to finally break out my season one boxset of "True Blood" and watch episode one. Now, anyone who knows me knows that I love vampire stories and having a vampire story set in Louisiana is right up my alley.
I was pleased with the first episode as it introduced us to Sookie Stackhouse (played by Anna Paquin), the main character. She works at a bar in a small (fictional) Louisiana town named Bon Temps. The story takes place in a world where vampires have "come out of the coffin" and live among us as a substitute for blood is invented.
Honestly, I'm surprised that I hadn't picked up any of the novels that the TV show is based on until recently. From what I have seen, and read, it looks like I am going to have to do some purchasing of Charlaine Harris' works. Since I prefer hardcovers, it looks like I'm going to spend some $.

RANDOM THOUGHTS

When I was at the gym just yesterday, there was a guy doing some lunges with a medicine ball. When he reached the bottom of his lunge, he would twist his upper torso with the medicine ball extended in front of him. Honestly, it reminded me of the Fusion Dance that Goten and Trunks from Dragonball Z did to form Gotenks. Man, I am a geek...

DECULTURE!!!