Welcome to this week’s post of my Geek Journal!

Sorry that I skipped last week’s entry; I was busy working at Anime Mid-Atlantic. ^^

If you’ve been keeping up with the news lately, you’ve heard that several big celebrities have passed away this week:  Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett, and Michael Jackson.  I’m not going to say much except that they will all be missed in their own way and that out of the three, Jackson’s death was the most unexpected to me.

Not much in the way of geeky movies last week, but we’re good to go this week:  The second Transformers film was released this past Wednesday.  Reviews have been mixed from what I’ve heard, but a friend and co-worker who has already seen it said that he really enjoyed it and thinks that it’s better than the first one.  I’ll have to wait on my own judgment until I see it tomorrow.

Windows 7 is still working quite well for me on both my main system and my laptop.  Microsoft recently announced the upgrade and full version pricing, so now I have an idea on what it’s going to cost me to switch permanently to Win7.  With the ability to do an in-place upgrade to a different version of Win7 being made easy (Home Premium -> Pro -> Ultimate, just buy a new product key, no need to do a new install), I’m thinking of going with the full version of Home Premium to start, then upgrading as needed; however, this is dependent on what the pricing will be to do said upgrade(s).  If it costs more than the difference between the versions’ normal prices to do an upgrade, I’m sure Microsoft will get a lot of flack for that.  If they’re smart, the in-place upgrades will be cheaper.

This concludes this week’s post, thanks for reading!

The air is changing… The breezes whisper its arrival…

Time grows short.

Yes, that’s right, Anime Expo (AX), one of the largest anime (/manga/video game/etc.) conventions in the nation is almost upon us!  If you plan to cosplay at AX and haven’t started your costume yet – better get crackin’!

The vast majority of costumes require more than just cotton or polyester; they require titanium alloys, precious stones, tiny supercomputers, and other impossible pieces to make up a character’s armor and accessories.  But unless you’re insanely wealthy (and probably a little insane), you’ll take the budget route and use tried and true materials, like resin, foam, wood, or clay.

Clay is great for armor details and oddly-shaped accessories – which is the reason I chose it to form the jewelry that Princess Zelda adorns in her Twilight Princess form.  As you can see, it’s definitely not something you can pick up at a store, and if you try to buy a ready-made set online, you’re looking at spending a couple hundred bucks – and that’s just for the headdress!  If you’re artistic or can bribe a friend who is, you’re better off trying to attempt making it yourself…

…no matter how daunting the task may appear. *gulp*

To make accessories like these, you can choose from a variety of clay on the market.  I’m going to focus on two for now – Crayola Model Magic and Sculpey UltraLight.  Crayola’s Model Magic seems like a cosplayer’s dream – it’s cheap (one 4 oz. bag costs around $3.00), it air dries in a day, and it’s lightweight.  But Model Magic requires a surprising amount of extra work to ensure long life of a prop.  Most cosplayers that use Model Magic recommend coating the dried piece with a few coats of gesso, glazing, and/or covering with material to strengthen the piece.  The old (and possibly current) formula of Model Magic also performs a magic trick when paired with metal – it chemically reacts with the metal, producing a brown, rusty goo over time (I learned this the hard way with some ornaments I created years ago and unearthed later).  If you’re making a one-time-use prop and don’t care about durability as much as cost, this is a good way to go.

On the other hand, if you want all that blood, sweat, and tears spent trying to form these intricate pieces not to have been spent in vain, Sculpey UltraLight is a great option.  I stumbled upon this stuff while trying to hunt down some Hearty Clay, and decided to give it a shot.  I love this stuff.  It’s soft and forms easily (a little too easily at times – I don’t think Zelda would approve of my fingerprints all over her jewelry), it bakes well, can be sanded and drilled, and best of all, it’s pretty durable.  I made an extra test piece and when dropped, it bounced and didn’t shatter.  Now mind you, this was a piece shaped like one of the leaves in Zelda’s crown, and not something super delicate, but I was surprised at how well it stood up to the repeated abuse my fiancé and I put it through.

Although this clay requires an oven to harden pieces, it only takes fifteen minutes per quarter inch of thickness to bake – much nicer than waiting the twenty-four hours required for Model Magic.  Once the piece has cooled, you can sand it and paint it with standard acrylic paint.  If you don’t sand the entire piece beforehand (I didn’t…), it’ll just require a few extra coats of paint – something you’d want to do anyway, sanded or not.

I haven’t completed my Zelda armor/jewelry yet, but so far, I’m very happy with the results I’ve experienced with the Sculpey UltraLight.  It’s a bit more pricey than Model Magic – it comes in a 10oz package only, which runs around $10.00 – $12.00, but the saved frustration from having to remake your props will make it all worthwhile.

You can find Model Magic and Sculpey UltraLight at most craft stores and online.

Have a safe Cinco de Mayo, Spwug readers, and may you finish your costume BEFORE 3 AM the night before AX!

Greetings, my fellow Spwugians.

Remember that six-week-long course you were forced to take to fulfill some ridiculous college requirement?  You probably came out of those “how to study” or “find your true calling” classes with an armload of books you never cracked open and only an ounce more useful information than you started with.  What if I told you there was a six-week course that was actually interesting and gave you something useful for your hard-earned money?  If you’ve got six free Sunday afternoons and some extra cash (yeah, I know, I just snickered too) , the makers of Warhammer 40,000 and the new War of the Ring tabletop games have a proposition for you – to join them in the “Games Workshop Academy.”

For your fifty dollar academy fee (yes, that’s a “5” and a “0”), you’ll be enrolled in a six-week class made up of you and up to five other students.  Each week, you’ll focus on a different gaming-related topic – from figure construction and painting to rules and gameplay of some of the tabletop games the workshop offers.  During that time you may possibly score yourself a free (no slight of hand required) figure or two, and at the end of the course, each student receives a large case to house your future armies or any other game elements.  So sure, sounds fantastic on paper, but is the course really worth the hefty price-tag?

All sugar-coating aside – this academy is not for everyone.  If you’re just curious about model building or painting, you’re better off buying a book or searching for tutorials on the Internet, and spending the fifty dollars on materials.

This class is best-suited for people who are very interested in the Games Workshop games or similar tabletop games, want to know how to get started, and how to build the same awesome armies and terrain displayed on each Games Workshop game table.  The majority of the classes (obviously) are geared towards setting players up with the figures, paints, books, and other tools necessary to play the game.  In other words, in place of that fifty-dollar “Study Skills” book, you’ll be encouraged to buy the fifty-dollar game bible.  If you’re planning on playing the game, you’re pretty set.  If not, as with any other course, you can skip the homework that requires the book, deal with your instructor’s sighs, and move on.

Luckily, in my experience at least, the instructors never force the game on you – they’re more excited to show you how much fun you can have and how you can customize the game to your liking.  They don’t work on commission, so they’re free to treat you like a fellow human being, not part of a quota.  Just as with any other class, the instructor can make or break each session.  I definitely experienced a distinct range with my instructors.  My favorite instructor kept the class light and extremely nerdy, while my least favorite decided to spend most of the time talking (mainly about his awesome painting skills) and only allowed us a few moments of hands-on learning.  My advice is to check out your nearest shop beforehand and get a feel for the people working there.

One last piece of advice – if at all possible, try to take the classes with friends.  Not only will you have a better time (duh), you may be able to score a larger terrain set (i.e. a fort) to share collectively, and you’ll have more freedom over your schedule (i.e. Freedom to collectively postpone classes if need be.  Be advised that if you miss a class, your instructor will insist you make it up at some point during the week!)

My final verdict?  If you’re looking to get into these types of games or want to do something fun and nerdy with your friends, this is a good way to go.  If not, you’re better off sinking the money into materials and scouring the Internet.  I think I’ve learned some useful information from my time spent as an academy student – especially on how to build terrain.  Let me put it this way, if my home someday includes a miniature replica of Rivendell, complete with tiny working lanterns, you know why.

For more information about Games Workshop and their collection of games, visit:

http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/home.jsp

Does anyone here still read? No, video game text, comic books, or your screen at work doesn’t count. Nor do audio books. I’m talking about going to the book store, perusing your genre of choice, and being like, “This sounds good,” and taking it home. For me, that genre would have been fantasy, of course. 

I haven’t done that in what feels like 10 years, and it has probably literally been that long, if not longer. I fell out of place with reading. I think gamers like us tend to get so absorbed with our more media-driven hobbies that sitting down with a book just falls so far down the priority chain that it rarely ever happens. Add this to the fact that we aren’t the most socially driven sub-culture in human history, and you generally could go your entire life without talking to another game about what (if) they read. 

So you head to the bookstore by yourself. You figure, no problem. I’ll just go pick something up. But when you get there, and THIS is what you see, (not the two books, but the rows upon rows of books) the intimidation factor kind of takes over.

The entire face of the fantasy genre has changed. There are entirely new series’ that span multiple trilogies, games like Warcraft and Halo have their own expanded universes, and the Dragonlance books have exploded into an entire shelf worthy of being called “the RPG” shelf, where they can also dump the game strategy guides and D&D campaigns. 

So being a blog writer, I’m probably supposed to have the answer. I should be able to tell ya’ll, this is how you spot a good series, or this author is the bee’s knees, pick up his book today. But the last book I read was Christopher Paolini’s Eragon. And if you want my opinion on that… Well that’s another blog altogether. The two word review: It sucked. 

Hence the other problem. If you’ve been out of reading for so long, your tastes change. I’ve tried to get back into Dragonlance. But now I find that those books lack the maturity to keep me interested. Eragon suffered from the same problem. And people who actually CAN recommend good fantasy series’ are few and far between. It feels like an even more subjective market than regular reading, because once you take a dive into a series, if you can even find the first book, you’re in for the long haul. That seems to be a fantasy author’s end goal these days – suck someone into a world and keep them there for as long as he/she can keep the characters interesting. Makes you miss Tolkien. 

So without any further hemming and hawing about how lame the situation is, I’m gonna open this one up to you, the reader. (However few there are.) What do you read? Why do you read it? And for the love of god, do you know of any fantasy books better than Eragon? 

Or maybe like Graham Aker’s Union Flag Custom.  Personally, I like the black trim more than red.  But I digress — March went by in a blur!  Sorry I was away folks, but a LOT of things happened, and some really awesome events demanded my full attention. 

-I’ll be in the UDON Comics’ Darkstalkers Tribute!  Among 2070+ submissions, I’ll be in their monster sized tribute book!  Look for “Crybringer” and I hope y’all like it!

-Mighty Flip Champs, an announced downloadable Nintendo DS title by Wayforward Technologies has my artwork in it!  Took 10 days and a LOT of work, but that’s one for the record books!

-ShamrockFest 2009 was a blast, and DJ Enferno is not to be missed or messed with!

-I’ll be driving 11 hours down to Nashville to attend Middle Tennessee Anime Con 2009 this weekend, so wish me luck.  Angry Viking Press is rolling out their premier line of comics with Haven/Enemi Distribution in your local comic book stores.  “The Demon Mages”, my seven-issue miniseries for 2009/2010 will be among them, so check it out!

That’s all for now.  See ya sooner than later!

(Do not adjust your calendar, it’s still Monday.  Your regularly scheduled Scott and I decided to switch places for a week.  Er… article-wise, not in the Freaky Friday sense).

When I was in elementary school, I was made fun of a lot – mainly because while the majority of my female peers were spending their money on the latest Teen Beat and trendy accessories, I chose to invest my money in more important things – like Barbies, Ninja Turtles, and Lego playsets.  And after awhile, I decided to keep my buying habits a secret.  But years later, something wonderful happened.

Nostalgia happened.

Suddenly, the world decided, “Hey, these fandoms are freakin’ awesome and if you don’t agree, you can kiss my ass!”  And I rejoiced.

If you’re like me, and enjoyed (or still enjoy) collecting Lego playsets, you’re really going to like something I discovered (a little late) this past weekend.  Two words – Lego keychains.

Sure, you could have one of those “normal” keychains with the emblem of your car make’s company or one imprinted with the name of some location you visited this past summer, but why settle for something so trite when you could have a Lego character dangling from your ignition!

Lego has taken the same character figures from a variety of their playsets and turned them into some of the most unique and fun keychains around.

But which Lego keychain is right for you?

If you’re a Star Wars fan…

…there’s the obvious,

or you can allow your keys to turn sith with other members of the Dark Side, like Boba Fett, Emperor Palpatine or a Storm Trooper.  Of course, if you prefer your keys become stronger with the Force, there’s Yoda, Obi Wan, or R2-D2 (to name a few).  I came very close to getting one of these, myself.  The Storm Trooper is especially awesome.

Aside from Star Wars characters, there are favorites from Indiana Jones and Sponge Bob Square Pants, a pirate, dwarf, police officer, rock monsters, and the oldest of the oldskool, the Lego block.  Even the famous block has been upgraded, and comes in standard colors, more exotic ones like pink or lime green, and for those that like their old skool with a side of flashy, there’s a light-up block.  Each keychain features a character or block and a small white Lego logo tag.  I had the worst time trying to choose just one, but in the end…

I couldn’t resist this guy –

(I couldn’t help it!  He’s so ridiculously happy!  You can’t be mad at the person riding your bumper or the douche who just cut you off with him around!  …Right?)

One word of caution – although these are children’s toys and should stand up to normal wear pretty well, their painted features + metal keys ≠ getting along well.  To help your character have a longer relationship with your keys, take some glossy clear scotch tape (i.e. this) and cover any areas you don’t want scratched off.  I’m not sure how well the character arms and hands will stand the test of time, but they seem nice and tight, so they should be okay.

Who’da thunkit, huh?  Now you can have your nostalgia and use it, too.

Lego keychains are available here: http://shop.lego.com/ByCategory/Leaf.aspx?cn=286&d=228 or at a Lego store near you.  Other varieties (including Harry Potter characters) can be found on other toy sites or eBay (they’re a bit more pricey).

Heyoo, Spwug-ites!

Just a brief, but loud notice:  I don’t say this often, but I mean it here — “If you missed it in theatres (for it’s limited release), if you don’t already have it on DVD; if you missed Persepolis — GET PERSEPOLIS NOW.”

I got to see this last Friday.  Released in 2007, it’s an adaptation of Marjane Satrapi’s graphic novel about her growing up during the Iranian Revolution.  I can’t say enough, and I’m keeping it brief to let you viewers praise or dismiss it on your own.  But I can say, I absolutely loved the development of this spunky, hilarious Iranian girl into this snarky, bitter, but hopeful and resilient woman.  It deserves all the accolades it gets, so go and get it, should you know where to find it.

(Casper, from Deathsmiles — from a session with the creator, art crew and friends of Skullgirls.)

In the meantime, I’m getting ready for this weekend — the American side of things says I get the Super Bowl two weeks early, as my hometown heroes in Baltimore clash with their divisional rivals in Pittsburgh!   Also, there’s rumblings of a new UDON artbook in the works.  Two words.  Dark. Stalkers.  Oh yes.  So for now, enjoy the little dash of art, folks.  Oh yeah, and don’t hurt yourselves in this blinding cold trying to advantage of liquidation specials at Circuit City!

-CB, ooooooout!

Happy New Year, Spwug!

Man, do I wish I had a working camera last weekend. Magfest 7 was a five-day bash in Alexandria VA to start 2009. From the ball drop to the Sunday zombie march out of the Hilton, it was wall-to-wall-to-wall-to-wall gaming, music and comraderie!

(0) BUT FIRST, BREAKING NEWS.

-According to reports that went out today — Electronic Gaming Monthly, a 20-year veteran magazine, and one of the most well known gaming publications out there, will launch it’s final issue this month.

EGM, and parts of 1UP.com were sold by it’s parent company Ziff-Davis to UGO to stave off it’s losses, after filing for Ch. 11 bankruptcy protection last year. Simply put, UGO now owns 1UP.com, and maintains that the website’s features will remain, but the side effect was EGM’s sudden conclusion.

This blogger remembers vividly the first issue he’d seen in 7th grade — a blitzkrieg of gaming news and info in the heyday of 1990, when Mega Man 3 graced it’s cover. I had no idea just how deep the well of video games ran, and EGM was the light on my helmet. Yeah, Gamepro is still shambling along, and I still have a dusty pile of GameFan magazines laying around, but there was an air of legitimacy with EGM. If it wasn’t covered by EGM — and what wasn’t in that magazine? –then it must not have been good. Time sure have changed, but I sincerely hope those dedicated folks are able to bounce back and find a new mag — or build an even better one.

(1) MAGFEST 7 GAMING, or CRYBRINGER’S CAVE-TASTIC WEEKEND.

Old friend I hadn’t seen in years, much old and new school gaming, and another fantastic performance by The Smash Brothers describes my overall experience with Magfest 7. But honestly, my MISSION as soon as the cabinets got turned on were THESE. I finally got to play three of the most popular shoot-em’-ups by CAVE/AMI! The original arcade boards, in full glorious stereo sound, rich graphical detail, and housed in modern seated cabinets. All three games were runaway hits at the con, bringing in a constant stream of players, and rousing exclaimations of “OMG” or “How can you DODGE that!? That’s ridiculous!” If you’ve read my previous posts, I’d made mention of one or more before. But with several loops and about six hours of total play under my belt, I’m a changed man.

Mushihimesama:

-I’ve actually had a BRIEF run in with the import PS2 release of Mushi, but hardly cracked the first stage. Having done two full runs on both Normal & Maniac difficulties, I can say this is about as pure a vertical shooter as you can get. The title Mushihime (Insect Princess) character Reko has three types of weapons (normal vulcan, wide shot and focused beams,) with two flavors of helpers that either shadow her movements or form up on either side. Said helpers fire long lasers that compliment the main weapon. Tapping the fire button, as most modern shmups do, means faster movement. Holding the button gives a constant stream of firepower with slower movements to get through the stickiest of enemy salvos. Mushihimesama is five decently sized stages, promising a blistering amount of enemy fire throughout. From the smallest of foes to the stage bosses, each hit or kill adds to a combo counter that multiplies the score — seeing a big fat +20,000 hit counter rapidly climbing as the player punishes a boss is a real rush. I’ve long since memorized the soundtrack and drawn plenty of Mushi-inspired artwork, so it’s easy on the eyes & ears… but that’s about it. While it allows 2 players, it feels like a purely solo affair is the best way to clear it and see any extra bonuses. After clearing Maniac difficulty, I was well satisfied and looking for crunchier, more complex shmups to dig into. Luckily…

Ibara:

…There’s Ibara. And “crunchy” is a great description. I tried this in a PS2 re-release — and it’s clear that it’s not nearly as tight or crisp visually. Gameplay is identical, but the devil’s in the details: Ibara pits 1 or 2 players against the assault of the gothic lolita-dressed Rose Sisters, and their army of very-not-child-safe tanks, airships and fortresses; COVERED in spikes, blades and all sorts of painful looking details — said guns and cannons firing shurikens, broadswords(!), knives and Really Big Bullets. The player gets to answer back with five different weapons to pick up in battle, equipped individually on up to three drones, in any combination. Thus, a player can have their main gun, with a flying rocket launcher, flamethrower and 5-way spread gun all at the same time! On top of that, with each super bomb in stock, the player can charge said bomb up, and fire an invinicible super beam; the “Hadou Gun” that nullifies any enemy fire that runs into it, does insane damage to enemies trapped in it, and stays on screen for minutes at a time. Even with that safety net of hot lead, player death erupts in a shower of bullets that does damage to the enemy too.

If it sounds busy, it is. If it sounds intense, believe me, IT IS. Ibara revels in it’s bold, stylish presentation, and delivers on some heavy gameplay — although compared to Mushihimesama, it’s a bit easier in difficulty. Not much, but enough to notice. The last of the three though…

ESP Galuda 2:

…is a big, beautiful, sexy, steampunk inspired BEAST of a vertical shmup. CAVE/AMI pulled out all the stops for the third of their ESP “series” (Galuda 1 & Ra.De.) Stay with me on this one: Genetics, super-science, alchemy, whatever you want to call it, but the three characters; Tateha, Ageha & newcomer Asagi, wage a battle against an imperial family of cyborg psychics (this author assumes…) Shot types differ between the three, and the most basic system is like Mushihimesama. But instead of support drones, the old ESP Ra.De. powered shot and chargeable super bomb/shield returns. And then there’s Kakusei Mode. Pressing the secondary button engages/disengages a ‘bullet-time’ mode that drastically slows down enemy fire. Normally as you kill opponents, they drop green gems, and these gems power Kakusei Mode. If an enemy launches a volley of bullets and is killed before nailing the player, their bullets are converted to gold instead of gems, and racks up extra points. If the player uses up all their gems (a total of 500 to collect) Kakusei Over mode kicks in, DOUBLING the bullet speed and making enemies attack more aggressively! A screen full of fast, angry red bullets is a scary thing. But ESP Galuda 2 goes even further, as if the Kakusei mode button is held, the screen goes into a negative image and Zesshikkai Mode is on.

Now, instead of just changing to gold, every enemy killed turns the screen full of bullets turn into MORE bullets… now AIMED at the player. The player gets an even bigger bonus score for each ‘flip’ of curtain fire from normal to homing and so on, but the same rules apply. Slow down enemy fire for gold, or risk a Zesshikkai Over mode with faster aimed bullets!

Whew! Deep, huh? One can play the game without ever using Kakusei, Zesshikkai or their Over variants (or if they REALLY wanna challenge themselves, they can waste their gems and tackle the whole game in fast-forward!) But the risk vs. reward aspect is VERY tempting and the mechanics of the game are very well executed througout!

(2) SOUNDTRACK UPDATE!

-Even more CAVE/AMI fandom here, as I got an advance listen to the soundtrack for the latest game, Dodonpachi Daifukkatsu. I’ve mentioned it before, but for this gamer a soundtrack can make the experience (or break it.) I’m happy to say, I’ll be ordering this CD VERY soon. If I didn’t know better, I’d say composers Manabu Namiki, Yoshimi Kuzo & Asuza Chiba melded the DDP series (and Namiki’s signature) techno style with live guitar and a decidedly… hip-hop sort of rhythm! “Shadowing World ~ Obverse” hits it’s listeners with a funky R& B drumbeat, a slithering guitar solo and a very pop/game music flourish throughout. The end credits theme, “Who Decided About ‘Dying Peacefully?” at times feels like a young modern hip hop ballad. Of course, boss themes like “Element Daughter” & “Longhena Cantata” rage and throb with brutal 808 beats, and “][|/34<#!” (”Hibachi”, for the l33t impaired — the second half of this repeat video link) is one of Namiki’s better PSYCHOTIC Amen-breakbeat spamming sessions — you get points with Crybringer if you can trick him into thinking his speakers flatlined.

“Numerous Blinking Lights In The Night Sky Towards A Shining Future” and “The Battle Was Just ‘To Continue That Future” are just pure Namiki and a real showcase of his musical know-how. Elegant chord progressions, sharp melodies, excellent atmosphere… I CANNOT wait until an arrange album appears, as these are MUSTS to include. If the rest of Basiscape gets a hold of them, watch out…

(3) THERE IS NO NUMBER THREE.

(Mainly because Windows Vista seems to want to think for me instead of letting me do it. I love this new laptop, and don’t have a problem with Vista overall per se. I guess it’s just unfamiliarity with the machine that irks me… now– QUIT SELECTING WHEN I MOUSE OVER STUFF!!!)

That’s about it for now. Best to pace out the new year, eh? See y’all next week!

Heyoo, readers!  Remember, there’s a leap second to consider before kicking off 2009!

I’ll be on my way to Magfest 7 this weekend, and I hope to have a huge roundup of bands playing and games played!  Your resident Crybringer hopes you had a very Merry Christmas (while he celebrates with a new laptop!) and we can kick off 2009 in grand style!  Sing, drink, be happy with friends and good company tonight, and stay safe out there! 

 *ahem!*

Should old acquaintance be forgot,
and never brought to mind ?
Should old acquaintance be forgot,
and old times since ?

For auld lang syne, my dear,

for auld lang syne,

we’ll take a cup of kindness yet,

for auld lang syne.

And surely you’ll buy your pint cup !
And surely I’ll buy mine !
And we’ll take a cup o’ kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.

Dear Santa. It’s CB from Spwug!

Yeah, my posting consistency has been oatmealish for the past few months, but I’ve done what I can to provide as much word-on-the-street, fresh-from-the-show reporting. I mean, I could go on and on and on about shmups (and plan to anyway.) But, you gotta admit, a geek report on Coldplay or local student orchestras playing Zelda covers is cool too!

Anyways, I think I’ve been good enough — I haven’t kicked any dogs or set fire to people’s trash cans! And your cadre of elves could use a real workout this time! Money’s tight, Wii’s are hard to find. And these gifts, don’t necessarily come with a price tag.

WHAT I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS THIS YEAR IS:

(10) Comiket 75 is right after your big day, Santa. I can take late gifts. My birthday is only a week after New Years. Doujinshi. Lots of doujinshi! Make it happen, St. Nick!

(9) Reduce the number of double-crosses, trick plays and world-shaking plot twists in Heroes for next season. Thank goodness the Sylar/Elle loveaffair was short lived — but she’s dead now! There’s like FOUR other blondes you coulda bumped off! It’s gotten to the point that this staunch HRG fan has to settle on Hiro — and lemme tell you, he’s actually kinda cool this time out. Is it true he writes his own dialogue for the japanese segments?

(8) Bless the gamers and producers of games out there, and bring the Christmas miracle of a XBOX 360 CAVE/AMI library release Stateside! One can only survive on epic FPS’ and Castle Crashers but so long! I want Dododo-Do-do-do *KABOOOOM!* Dodonpachi DOJ & Ketsui to be on my 360 dashboard! Street Fighter HD Remix and IV will put the fighting game pedal to the floor — shmups new & old should be battling right alongside them!

(7) Santa, when it comes to comic books, you deliver! No complaints! No requests! There’s a wealth of online comics, spectacular print comics, and Small Press Expo this year was an early present! Did I mention Small Press Expo? October in Bethesda/Rockville MD for the Washington DC region? Bigger and better every year? Shame on me. Readers need the likes of Wondermark or Remake in their Christmas haul.

(6) Crazy thing happened several weeks ago; up in Alberta, a meteor the size of a pair of semi trucks BLAZED across the night sky and brought it to daylight for a split second. Think you could fix that up for us again? Convince the unimpressed? Avert a potential apocalypse? There are calls for an asteroid shield, and that’d be kinda nice for the house.

(5) More Wyatt Cenac on Daily Show. The guy has to make his own promos.

(4) One of these. How you get it on the sleigh is not a crazy premise, considering the logistics of your one-night-only world tour runs smack up against the theory of relativity.  Make it happen, Santa.

(3) While we’re at it, one of these too. We’re a year out from 2010, THE geek culture year. Who would have guessed we’d have this figured out?! The whole flying cars joke is played out, but jetpacks more than diamonds dug out with the previously requested trencher are forever.

(2) You’ve already delivered me the gift that even fellow Spwug members probably raise an eyebrow at! A decent, if not amazing turnaround for the Baltimore Ravens! Last season was an EMBARRASSING 5-11 drubbing. This year might end at a complete REVERSE of that. 5 MVP bids. A confident coach. Wins to savor, losses to grow on. A fan of the past three seasons so far, I’m going to rest easy and enjoy Christmas Day knowing one gift has already been delivered!

*sob*, thank you Santa!

(1) My number one request — everything else can fall by the wayside for all I care! The one thing I want is to have a spectacular 2009! I’ve got a lot of travel plans, a lot of events to go, see and do and it kicks off almost IMMEDIATELY from January 1st!

Magfest! Ohayocon! Katsucon! A break in the spring so I can prepare for the epic return to San Diego Comic Con!

That’s my list, big guy. In return, I plan on being better than this year — how else can I score enough points to hit your list’s S+ Rank for 2009?

Merry Christmas!

-Your man with the Options,

“Crybringer”