Well hello again! Today I'm writing about PC Village. PC Village is a computer shop for computer enthusiasts. They currently have six branches and one head office, if you can count, that's seven in all. I've visited the PC Village branch over in Scarborough once, may be three times. I must say, they have quite a bit of products there. Not like TigerDirect (in Markham), where they mostly have products from ULTRA, or some other cheap feeling products. In PC Village at Scarborough, they sell quality products. Unfortunately, their customer service sort of stinks. I ordered the Asus A8N32-SLI Deluxe motherboard. They said that it would be stocked in about one week. I took their word of deposited $50. After about two weeks, I started to worry. They didn't even bother calling me where it may be delayed or not. During week three, I just said, "forget it". It wasn't worth my time. I promptly took back my $50 deposit. About two weeks from then, I received a call saying that they had it in stock... Well too late. The clerk at the Scarborough tries to belittle you. He makes it sound as if you don't know anything. If only he knew that I knew exactly everything he was talking about. They should treat the customer respectfully, not treat them as if they are of a lower class and don't know what they're talking about. This took place at around New Years.

Going back to present, I gave a call to Bernie from the PC Village branch in Markham. Bernie was very nice and helpful. I have ordered the Asus M2N32-SLI Deluxe Wireless Edition motherboard and an AMD Sempron64 3600+ Manila core AM2 processor from him. He told me that he had the motherboard in stock and the processor would be in on Thursday. He was kind enough to place the motherboard on hold until I came buy to pay for it and pick it up. I received an email on Wednesday and Bernie told me that the processor was already in stock! I really liked his service. I promptly came by to the store on Saturday to pay for the hardware. Bernie also asked me if I wanted to join a raffle going on for a new LCD monitor. I probably didn't win, but that's okay. Bernie was very helpful. I emailed him just recently regarding Coolermaster's Aerogate II fan controller and temp reader panel for my PC. He told me that it isn't in stock but that he would order it. He estimates that it will be in on Tuesday. That's amazing service. He ordered it without me even having to ask! I will hopefully purchase it next Saturday, or whenever I have free time that week after Tuesday. Bernie is a very good man, and I hope other customer service reps and clerks follow along just like him.

Another update! I just recently started test fitting the Mitsubishi GTO body onto its chassis. For sure, now it needs a bit of modification to fit properly and securely. I've taken a couple of pictures from the webcam. Yes, yes, I know. It's pretty low quality, but then again, its a webcam shaped of a baseball, so of course it's not going to be of reasonable or astounding quality. I hope you can make out the general look of the model through the pictures, though.

Here you can see the general view of the GTO model. You can see that the windsplitter (or front-spoiler, as it is commonly know as, is tilted upwards. You don't see that on real cars... Except may be on Civic or Integra ricers trying to fly. But this just won't do for a high-performance car. I will need to shave off the side splitters and use whatever's left to make some kind of body kit and then use a carbon fiber sheet to re-create an aftermarket add-on windsplitter_


Next, we have a picture of the car from the rear (click on the photo to enlarge for a better view). Here you can see the stock exhaust system on the car. I am planning to keep the rear bumper as stock looking as possible. Here you can also see my diffuser (the clear object under the car). I'll be painting it a mock carbon fiber to stimulate RE Amemiya diffusers on RX-7_


Here we have a styleshot. Just me fooling around with the camera. You can sort of see how much ride height this car is achieving. Since it'll be this high (I'm not into modifying the suspension for it to sit any lower), I'll be adding more putty (once I get some Milliput) to make a lower sitting front body kit. I will also use styrene sheets to aid in creating skirts on the side of the car_


And finally, we have a profile shot. Here you can get a pretty good idea of what I meant earlier about the windsplitter in the front. You can see as the vertical cannards tilt upwards like its trying to get airborne. I'll need to trim them off and make a better and smoother looking bodykit. As well, I'll need to create a skirt on both sides of the car to compensate for the ride height and make it look like it has a lower centre of gravity (note, don't be a ricer and do that in real life, don't just cut your springs, either. Lowering your car will also mean that you need to change your shocks (or dampers) so that your suspension isn't so soft that your car's chassis is rubbing the ground when you turn, or that you don't rub the chassis on speed bumps). In the picture you can also see how aerodynamic looking the car is. Not that it is, at the moment, since the rear wing is tilted at such an extreme angle, and tha the front spoiler is tilted up. Not a good setup to acheive any performance or handling gains_


As you can see in the first, third, and fourth pictures. My side-view mirrors aren't on the doors where they were meant to be, or in-between the A-pillar and door, like on some cars. This was merely added for style, and because many older cars, specifically the early Fairlady Z's had their side-view mirrors on the front quarter panels. But my original inspiration of putting them there came from a poster in my room with the RE Amemiya GReddy FD3S drift car. I've included a picture of the car below.

Hello folks! It's me again. Yes, yes, I rarely update, but that's because I'm quite the busy man (o_0 busy with what?).

Well, next week, starting Monday, is exams. Today is Saturday. I've decided that Sunday would be my review and study day. On Monday I have my exam in Science, Tuesday in Computer Sciences (hope not to fail), Wednesday in Civics, and finally Thursday in Communications Tech. It's going to be so horribe this semester as opposed to last semester... I was deceived that Computer Sciences would be about hardware, etc. But nooo, it has to be about programming... I never wanted to have anything to do with programming. I wanted hardware technologies, but programming?! I'm not even sure I'll take this class again next year. I think I'll just stick with communications tech instead, I'm getting about 65% in computer sciences, a course I didn't even choose... Well, techinically I did, but I was deceived. I feel like crap because of it too...

Well, that is enough boring stuff about how I hope I'll barely pass the exams... But on to the interesting and gut wrenching talk about how 31337 my AM2-based rig is being built up! Here are some specs_

- Asus M2N32-SLI Deluxe Wi-Fi Edition motherboard
- AMD Socket AM2 Sempron64 3600+
- XFX nVidia GeForce 7300 GS graphics card
- Sony DVD/CD ReWritable DRU-810A optical drive
- Sony Generic 3.5 inch Floppy drive
- Seagate Baracuda 80GB hard disk drive
- Ultra V-Series 500W PSU
- Power Up! Premium Black "2531" mid-tower

Yep, pretty decent. Sure it's got a $50 case and a $50 PSU, but that can be replaced if need-be in the future. It's holding up pretty good, though. Though I'd like to put rubber case feet because the plastic ones don't feel very safe to me.

What's very good about this setup is that it utilizes AMD's latest AM2 socket. With a processor upgrade and a graphics card update, it could seriously contend with Intel's up-and-coming Conroe line of processors. I don't intend on making this a ricer computer by adding LED rubber case feet though (which is basically equivalent to putting Altezza tail lights on a piece of junk Civic or Integra... Don't they know that they're called Altezza tail lights for a reason? They're used on the Toyota Altezza (Lexus IS300)).

Well, if you'd like some photos that I took. Sorry in advance for the lousy resolution, what else could you expect from a $1.99 webcamera? Visit my RigShowcase album to view my images. Remember, latest images are at the bottom.

Well I've finally gotten some work done on Belldandy. For sure I'm not 1/2 way though with her yet, but when I am done, I hope it will be spectacular! I've started pinning some of the major components such as her arms and legs, and even her ponytail. I've puttied up most of the side of her body where you can see her skin behind her swimsuit. But now, her arms don't fit as well, so there is still much work to go. There's also quite a bit of work to be done on her hair (all pieces), arms and legs. But truly, not a bad start for a beginner figure modeler. I have included some photos below.

At the time this photo was taken, there weren't any pinholes drilled into her legs yet. Currently, there are, but is unshown_


I will also be having to paint her eyes. I took a few close ups for reference, since when it is time to paint them, they'll be covered over with prime, flesh, and white.

Closeup of Belldandy's eyes_


There are also some parts of Belldandy that had annoyed me. The part which most annoyed me was the tip of her ponytail. Even when I glue it with Tamiya cement, if it even taps another object, it breaks off again. I'm thinking of probably pinning it and using some good 'ole Krazy glue to attatch it. I've still yet bought milliput, which I need to patch up and recreate many parts for Belldandy, such as hair, legs and parts near her 'areas' arms, and her jewelry (earings, wrist band and ankleband).

Tip of her ponytail is temporarily attached_


I've also had some progress with the Mitsubishi GTO Twin Turbo. I've got most of the front bar managed. I just need to re-inforce it some more and clean up the intake vents. I also have plans for installing a diffuser in the rear of the car. I got my inspiration on it not jst from the part that came with the avex DOME MUGEN NSX, but from a few photos of some members rides from RX-7 Owners Club. There are quite a handful of members with recreated RE Amemiya FD3S diffusers. There are even a few on the FC!

Mitsubishi GTO's front bar_


After that, I started playing around with the camera and found out that I really can't cope very well with an auto-focus camera. I got quite frustrated a number of times. I guess its time for an SLR camera! If you look at the photo of my 1/43 Ebbro Raybrig NSX 2003 below, you can see that there are many blurry parts on it.

1/43 Ebbro Raybrig NSX 2003_


After playing around some more with the camera, I tried to take the neatest photos of my Lacus and Cagalli PVC figures. They turned out quite well, not as perfect as I would have hoped, but not bad for an auto-focus digital camera. Though it did make Lacus' skin look quite yellow...

Cagalli_


Lacus_