Over a year since my last journal update? That just won't do!

OK, so I'm laid off for now while my company tries to get its affairs in order. I might be going back to work for them in the future, but in the meantime I'm applying for other positions. While it sucks to not have an income for now, I have more than enough to keep me busy.

I'm finding time finally to build some of the model kits that have been languishing in my cupboard for ages, including a Patlabor and an Orguss (Check out my 80s Anime Mecha archive to see what I'm talking about!). Unfortunately I lost the end of the Patlabor's main head fin somewhere along the way, so I had to make a new one out of Sculpey. It's not quite perfect, but it'll do if you squint at it.

I finished watching two anime series this month, "Gun X Sword" and "Overman King Gainer". I enjoyed both of them, but I liked GXS more. It was kind of like "Trigun" with giant robots, though that's not a perfect comparison. The thing that made that show for me was the characters and their interactions; I'd almost be tempted to say the robots were kind of incidental to the story. King Gainer had its good points too; the characters aren't quite as well-rounded as in GXS, but it's got an enthusiastic energy to it, and some really wild mech designs. King Gainer is by the creator of Gundam, Ideon, and Brain Powerd, and it's really interesting to see the contrast between those shows.

You may have seen my recent entry for Seventh Sanctum's 'Extreme Characters' contest, Violet Pandemonium. Originally I created her in a vacuum, with no intention of going any further with her. Unfortunately, my brain abhors a vacuum, and now my head is full of ideas for a series that is basically an homage / pastiche of 80s action sci-fi and fantasy anime. You might see a little bit more from her world pop up in my gallery sometime.

Well, that's enough for now, I think. Hopefully it won't be another year before I think to update this again.