Monday, September 24, 2007

The Nugget Conspiracy!



McNuggets, golden oil drenched little chunks of wonder often taken with scrumptiously sweet BBQ sauce. Sure it's not as healthy a snack as lets say an apple, but there's no fun in eating an apple (even if you dip it in BBQ sauce). McNuggets have been around for quite a while now. I still remember the time they were new, and they were very much the rave. Now, they are overlooked due to the fact that they tend to cost more than your average meal that would probably fill you up before you finished your sixth nugget. This post isn't however about the semantics of pricing. This is about a dark conspiracy (well maybe not dark, and not much of a conspiracy either). More of a fun fact that you probably didn't know about...


Uhmmm... There was a sixth piece... but it fell... down a bottomless pit... yeah thats right!

Who hasn't eaten McNuggets? I mean if you're reading this post chances are very good you've had one at some point in your life. Well this post really applies to those who've eaten at least 12. I have always wondered why each time I bought nuggets there would always be a boot shaped nugget in my batch. Every time there would be one, on almost every batch I ate after I noticed that there was a boot shaped nugget.



Here is the boot shaped nugget in all its glory, and aside from this I realized that there were others that held the same visage.



The standard circular nugget



The square shaped one.


But most tell tale of all was the boot shaped one, was it because they used some part of a chicken shaped like a boot, or do aliens have some hand in this peculiar shaping phenomenon? So I did a little research onto why my McNuggets were usually the same shape (because I had so many other things I needed to do) and found out that McNuggets weren't just randomly shaped pieces of chicken strips. They came from molds!

An entry from Wikipedia reads - "Chicken McNuggets come in three shapes. The first resembles a boot – a rectangular shape with a stub jutting out of one of the corners. The second is a circle/ diamond. The third is roughly rectangular, but without the stub. Though the exact origin of these shapes is unclear, some believe the shapes resulted from a need to maximize yield from the meat mixture, coupled with a need for shapes that appear like random chunks, and not homogeneously mass produced." - from this article.

So there you have it... More useless information that may benefit you in some cosmic way provided by your friendly neighborhood McDonalds critique...

God I need a life...

Gundam Weekend Again!

Phew, it has been a while since my last entry and safe to say there have been some new additions to our current roster of Gunpla. Though a full and complete entry is still pending, I decided to just upload a couple of images on what has been accomplished the past 2 weekends of Gunpla building.

First off let me introduce MG ACGUY! He's not a Gundam I know, but we wanted to stray from our Gundam madness and try building a bad guy. We chose him over other evil mobile suits because... well... he's just really cute. Building him was a complete joy and holding him in your arms feels akin to holding a teddy bear!

Almost everything about him is HUUUGE! His foot alone is just about the same size as the torso of your average MG Gundam. MG Acguy is heavily reviewed at my buddy's blog Senses Lumines.

Next off the bat, we decided to try building other cute things. This is from the Keroro Gunso line ok MKII mecha. Yes, yes... very cute. About the size of your average sd Gundam, they also come complete with poly caps and well, they're really just Gundams with frog themes.

We've been able to build two thus far, Keroro himself and Kululu. The kits are hard to come by here in the Phils. but they sure are worth it! Also, if you complete all five MKII mechas, they combine into a giant gestalt! Wheeee, now if we could only find the others! Keroro kits are also reviewed here...

Last, but not the least. We continued on our building of bad mechas, and adding to the roster was a version 2.0 Zaku II (Char Aznable's custom). This was another treat to build. The design is very far removed from your basic Gundam construction, and he comes with a lot of new improvements over the past MG kits we built. If you notice he is able to pull off peace signs with ease (that's without modifications). We opted not to paint this one yet because of recent painting mishaps...

Zaku II reviewed here...

Stay tuned for more updates as they come (as I get the drive to type em...hehe)
Peace! O_o

Friday, September 7, 2007

Burrrr...Months (Reflections)



The other day I ate out with friends (as per usual whenever we stay late at work), and after our cheap yet satisfying BBQ dinner over at "lesser Inengs" amidst a flurry of jokes and side comments a friend of mine looked at me and started commenting on how it was getting chilly. She added that it's the "Burr" months and December is fast approaching. The look of genuine excitement on her face at the approach of the season of credit cards and insane traffic gave me shudders too. Christmas is really just around the corner, the moment you hit the "Bers" at the end of the names of the month signal that the holiday seasons are barely just 3 months away (the season not the holiday itself).

It's funny and creepy how fast time flies without you noticing. Pretty soon carolers will patrol the streets as well as ornaments going up across the Metro. I have to admit I too am a season buff. I really am a holiday junkie, and it's not just because of bonuses and days off. It's the season itself.

As far as I can remember I have always enjoyed the holidays. As a kid it was all about the gifts and food and people that you get to share the holidays with. As an adult its very different, it becomes MORE about the gifts and food and people. Seriously, as adults we really should enjoy every break from "adulthood" we can.




There's a saying that goes, "Christmas is for kids." and though it holds little truth, the grain of salt we can get from that saying is that "kids" may also mean young at heart. We need a little craziness and wonder and awe in our life. Moments that we have away from the strictness of our adult lives should be treasured and not frowned upon as fits of immaturity. I just love sitting by the tree smelling the smell of wrapping and plastic mixed with the electric buzz that Christmas lights give off. Just call me a kid at heart, but I welcome the "ber" months and all that they entail!

Hopefully readers out there realize that Christmas isn't just for kids, it's a season of peace and joy akin to a warm blanket that wraps around those whose hearts are open to a little wonder.

Sunday, September 2, 2007

Gundam Weekend Part Too!


Well, after another payday (wheee!) we were able to fund another "Gundam Weekend" (which is what I'm starting to call a weekend devoted to Gunpla construction and other Gundam related activities). This weekend we were able to complete painting and construction of a MG RX78-5, and yes it's a somewhat older mold, but we liked how it looked and it was also within our budgets. (hehehe)







He came with relatively fewer parts compared to our other MG's but we had a few problems regarding the paint and panel lines, this plus our new construction method put his completion time up there along with the others. Our new method used last Gundam Weekend entailed that we panel lined before we painted, but this time around after painting, the panel lines started to run. This was rather annoying, because we normally progress in our builds, not regress.

The final product still looks nice, but we learned the hard way that not all paints will accept panel lines before hand. So we may include a panel line paint test before we start on anything next time. The over all procedure was also a bit more streamlined now, we were able to cut away a mass of parts for painting even without considering their position in the kit. We just examined the pieced carefully before construction.

We also noticed that for a MG kit, his body was a little "HGish", there were barely any internals, and his entire shoulder joint consists of just one polycap! He does have screws on each upper arm joint, and his legs and arms are complex with parts, but because he is an older mold, he wasn't as heavily detailed as the newer kits. We still enjoyed building him all the same!


Parts fresh with paint.



This is RX78-5's shoulder joint. For an MG it's a little bare with just one polycap to hold everything in place.



We also began experimenting with styrene boards, experienced modelers use styrene in very many ways, and they are even able to build entire armor pieces and various other modifications all from styrene. So we are currently trying simple styrene detail applications.



Styrene being added to the head.



We also observed with RX78-5 that he had a massive foot, one that was not jointed at the ankles that we have grown accustomed to. Also adding to his lack of poseability was the limited amount his entire leg could compress due to the rather bulky armor plates.



The legs maximum crouch position.



All comments aside yet again, after completing the entire kit, we were very surprised at how nice the entire color scheme was. Also impressive was his apparent heft, size wise he has more bulk to him that our other kits, and combined with his very impressive giant gattling gun we were very happy to add him to our collection.




RX78-5 in all his completed glory! Nice!



That same night, we also continued work with our Strike and IWSP modifications. Last time we were able to modify the color scheme of Strike, this time we modded the colors of the IWSP pack as well.




Strike with IWSP custom colors.



It still is not fully comleted, as it still needs a few tweaks here and there. Hopefully we will be able to complete him soon.


Our collection so far, looking forward to adding more members to the brotherhood of Gundams.



After every Gundam Weekend we always pack up our collection for safe keeping!



Wonder what our next Gundam Weekend will bring? Will keep you posted...

For more details on Gundam Weekend mosey on down to Senses Lumines where he covers the details (pros and cons) of the RX78-5 construction as well as the custom painting of Strike with IWSP, and various other experiences during Gundam modeling.