Digital Copy - Read the Fine Print.

Some months ago I bought the Family Guy: Blue Harvest DVD. It was the hilarious Star Wars spoof they did. This was a Fox DVD and was labeled as including a Digital Copy, which you can download to your computer and mobile devices. It was so cool :). It had several options. I was able to get a copy of the DVD through iTunes for my iPod and also download a WMV version for the computer, which I was also able to upload to my PSP. All of this was absolutely free and awesome. I thought this was how grand the future would be.

Then recently I bought the Warner Bros. DVD of the movie Mongol. On the package was labeled "Get a Digital Copy." Now based on my previous experience, I was overjoyed. I thought I'd have another movie for my mobile devices. So, I just tried to download this Warner Bros. branded "Digital Copy." Following the instructions I went to the WB website link, and it redirects me to a third party site I've never heard of, where to my surprise I'd have to pay $1.99 to download the "Digital Copy" :(. I had failed to read the very fine print on the packaging that said there were additional charges to get the "Digital Copy." I know $1.99 isn't really a lot of money for that convenience. But, after the freebie from the Family Guy DVD, it just seems lame to charge for the "digital copy." It seemed like such a cool reward and selling point for buying an official DVD. In any case, I'm going to be much more careful in reading the fine print on DVDs with "Digital Copy" labeled on them.

Hail to the Geek

I really get a kick out of this song :).



Hail to the Geek by Deaf Pedestrians

(Note: Extended Lyrics)

I got a Spiderman t-shirt
I got Converse that are rotting off my feet
I got a bad mustache
A reoccurring rash
And not a lot of cash
I spend it on my stash
Man it's good to be a geek

Well it's good to be a geek
It's good to be a creep
It's good to draw my pictures
That no one will ever see.
It's good to be a geek
It's good to be unknown
It's good I'm never waiting
Right beside the telephone
Cuz no one ever...

I play Dungeons and Dragons
I got a 13th level halfling fighter thief
Got seven hit die on my backstab
Sometimes you know it's good to be a geek.
It's good to be a geek
It's good to play the freak
It's good to comb my mullet once every other week
As far as I can see
It's good to play the Wii
Then stay up painting miniatures 'til 2 or 3
Cuz no one ever...

Someday I'll learn to play guitar
Start up a band and be a star
And when you wind up pumping gas
Just fill 'er up and kiss my a$$...

I'm addicted to star trek
I'm a Klingon speaking Federation freak
I find I'm more inclined
To spend the bulk of my time
On the starship Enterprise
Than talking to girls I meet

Well I never get the girl
But I like to be alone
Cuz I can always m@sterb@te when there's no one home
It's good to have a plan
It's good to be the man
It's good to download p0rn0 from a website in Japan
Cuz no one ever...

Someday I'll learn to play guitar
Start up a band and be a star
And when you wind up pumping gas
Just fill 'er up and kiss my a$$...

Ninth grade is when I got the swirlie
Tenth grade is when I got the indian burn
Four years of continuous wedgies
Wore nine pairs of briefs so they could all get a turn
Someday I'll buy a fancy condo
Someday I'll drive a car that's more than your house
Someday you'll kiss my a$$

It's good to make some noise
It's good to scream outloud
It's good to feel immortal
Like your last name is MacLeod
It's good to be a geek
Its good to be unseen
Its good to watch The Wrath of Khan on a plasma screen
It's good to be a geek
It's good to be the man
It's good to download p0rn0 from a website in japan
It's good to be a geek
It's good to be unknown
It's good I'm never waiting
Right beside the telephone
Cuz no one ever...

I got a bad mustache
A reoccurring rash
And not a lot of cash
I spend it on my stash
Man it's good to be a geek
You know I've gone in debt
To look like Boba Fett
I got my Holland set
Although it makes me sweat
Man it's good to be a geek!

Some Fun with ANIMOTO

So, I've been playing around with this ANIMOTO site, and am very impressed with the results. Basically ANIMOTO is a new way to make dynamic, slideshow videos set to music without any editing. Just upload your pics, pick a song from their list, and then the site mixes it up into a cool video. It amazes me actually. Unfortunately it only lets you make 30 second videos for free, about 12-15 pics. But you do get to make an unlimited amount. Longer videos you'll have to pay for. I believe $3 per video or $30 for a year's unlimited use. Not a bad deal, but for now I'll just play around with the free service.





Here are some videos I made of my Warhammer 40,000 collection. These are some of the models that I have built and painted :). It's really cool to see them this way :).

New York Anime Festival 2008

Well last weekend (Fri-Sun,) I spent at the New York Anime Festival :). Was a great time, though I do wonder about the anime and manga industry. Compared to last year, there were fewer industry booths, but a lot more, smaller, merch venders. Noticeably missing this year were ADV, TokyoPOP and Viz. Also absent this year was any sort of video or table-top gaming at the con.

The companies that were present, had a few interesting offerings. Bandai Entertainment will be bringing out the Gundam 00 anime. Their booth seemed to be the most popular with a lot of swag giveaways and lots of Haruhi and Lucky Star dance lines :). There was even a NYAF Lucky Star dance contest video that is hilarious :) Del Rey Manga was there promoting a Dean Koontz manga, In Odd We Trust. They will also be putting out The Genshiken Official Book soon. Yen Press was new to the show promoting their Haruhi and Soul Eater manga. They also had free copies of their Yen Plus magazine.

I only went to a few panels at the con. At the Gaia Online panel they announced that their ZOMG MMO will be out by the end of the year. Robin Sevakis of Anime News Nina fame had a panel on making comics with Photoshop. I also attended a panel on the history of Gekiga, which is a genre of mature, dramatic comics from japan. Where Manga literally translates to "Whimsical Pictures," Gekiga literally translates to "Dramatic Pictures." One series brought up in the panel was the Sanctuary manga, which the lecturer said was out of print and took him over a year to find the entire series. I happily thought in my head how I bought and read the entire series around the time they were released ages ago :).

I attended the mc chris concert on friday night at the convention. One thing that bothers me is that the con charged $10 extra for tickets to the concert. At every con I've ever been to, the concerts had always been free, even at last year's New York Anime Festival. Last year's Unicorn Table concert was awesome. This time around the extra ticket price had the effect of low interest among the con goers. Only about 1/3 of the seats were filled. The mc chris performance also had so many sound and lighting technical difficulties. It was a real disappointment, but mc chris's performance and comedy pulled the show together as best as possible.

I was not able to see the Rie Tanaka concert at the Masquerade event, which was free. The room they had it in was filled to capacity leaving many attendees to miss the event, another flub of the con organizers. I don't know how Reed Exhibitions could make these kinds of mistakes when they know from last year's con how popular these performances are. This year they did not provide adequate seating and space for most events.



So, what did I get at the con? Well, mostly manga. I needed to catch up on some series and there were many good deals on manga at the con. Pictured here is the stack that I got. I picked up some Negima, Genshiken, Welcome to the NHK, Megatokyo and others. I also got a Yotsuba Revoltech figure and the Yuki Nagato Figma figure :). Not pictured is the Final Fantasy VII Yuffie figure in the original costume and the Gundam: Char's Counter Attack DVD which I got.

Overall, the con was great, but with a few problems. The attendance is growing with enthusiastic crowds and cosplayers, but the con organizers and industry really slacked off this year and provided a less than stellar show. I don't know if it is due to the economy and lowered promotion budgets, but one thing is for sure, that the fans are willing to gather in great numbers and have fun even if they have to rely on themselves to party :).