I have joined the new millennium and have started to use a BlackBerry.

It is green. It’s a GreenBerry.

Green wasn’t my idea. This is something of a hand me down. I’ve had it for awhile now and it worked fine as a phone, but now I’ve got it set up with e-mail, maps, games, Twitter, Yelp, and so on. I don’t want to become one of those tools who is always got their face buried in their BlackBerry, but it has become quite handy in recent weeks.

My favorite thing, though, is the simple “Memo Pad” application. Of course, I can use it to wright little notes to myself to remind me of things I need to get done, but I’ve mostly been using it to keep track of how insane I am. I created a list called “Secret Ideas” and whenever a strange thought occurs to me, I type it out so that I have it saved forever. Most of these thoughts are about monsters, robots, and weird characters. Some are very specific, others are quite vague, and the list has gotten quite large. Here are a select few the bizarre things I’ve come up with.

• Turkey robot
• Walrus God
• Garlic creature
• Skatebording pizza robot
• Robot space squid
• Ham super hero
• Kid in ghost costume piloting robot
• Doom Clown
• Octopus police
• Gorilla in Gorilla-mech
• Banana in Banana-mech
• Computer cake

Just think, these multi-million dollar gems could have been lost forever had I not been able to quickly jot them down on my BlackBerry. I don’t know how or why these ideas occur to me, but for whatever reason, they do. Now I can save them and do something with them.

This is a lot more fun than playing BrickBreaker or whatever.

In cleaning out a closet last week I had to pull out this cardboard box full of video game magazines from the early-to-mid 1990’s.

The box is packed to the brim with these magazines. It’s so incredibly heavy that it can barely be moved except by slowly pushing it along the floor. Lifting it would cause the bottom of the box to give out.

I didn’t really go though the contents very thoroughly but I know that there are mainly issues of Gamepro and Nintendo Power with a few assorted issues of Electronic Gaming Monthly, Die Hard Game Fan and others, covering the 18-bit era of the Super Nintendo and the Sega Genesis and moving towards the original Playstation and Nintendo 64.

When I was buying magazines like this regularly, I would end up spending maybe $20 a month on them. In retrospect, this was kind of foolish. That money could have added up to enough to buy more games. I guess one could justify it by using the magazine reviews to pick out which games were worth buying, but considering that most of the games I bought in those days were the big hits that were well known and guaranteed to be good, I don’t know if that excuse would hold up.

I see now that that these magazines did do for me though, and that was to introduce me to the concept of a video game culture. It was cool as a gamer back then to know things that others didn’t, to have your own language, to find out what was going on in Japan, and to be on top of what was new and what was yet to come. Buying a game magazine was like buying a ticket into that still burgeoning culture. Reading each new issue was like taking the next step into an ever expanding world. That meant a lot to me at the time.

Nowadays most gamers would get their info from the Internet, and magazines like this aren’t as important or popular as they once were. I suppose it’s just as well. When I first got the internet at home, video game sites were the first web pages I visited. And I suppose shortly after that is when I stopped buying game magazines monthly.

Even though I was cleaning out a closet, I just couldn’t see myself getting rid of this box. Too many memories. These magazines are a relic of a nearly forgotten age. I doubt they’d ever be worth any money, but as cultural artifacts they still might have some value. It’s funny to think of video games, often thought of as being the new kid on the block of technology and entertainment, having this ancient history to it, but here we are.

Seeing this box not only brings to mind how times have changed, but also how I’ve changed. Back then I just had to know about all the newest stuff, but the last time I visited a video game website to check up on the latest news was weeks ago. Despite all the advancements in technology, the game industry these days just isn’t as compelling to me now. I don’t play as much and when I do buy new games, it’s usually after the price lowers. Perhaps I pine for a return towards the games of my youth. But, when it’s all said and done, I’m just mostly going to be interested in the really good ones, just like back in the old days.

Sayonara.

As if it were destiny that I continue to become more like my hero, Doctor Doom, my desk now looks like this:

 Yes, there are 6 screens. Hardcore! Let’s look at them in order.

First is the 21 inch monitor hooked up to the computer I do most of my art on. I watch video and Blu Rays on it too. It also has a TV card so I can watch regular cable TV. Hey look, Conan is on!

Below that is my Wacom Cintiq 12WSX. I’ve had it for about 2 years now. It’s been a life changer. I’ve got a work-in-progress going there but you can’t really see it. Suspenseful!

Then there is my laptop, an 18.4 inch Acer which I’ve also had for about 2 years. It’s still pretty awesome escept for the fact that it still runs Windows Vista. I don’t usually set it up on the desk like this. Here it’s playing Spore.

Then there’s my regular everyday surfing computer, which has 2 monitors. The one on the left was just sort of found somewhere and given to me. I have it turned on its side because that’s the only way it’ll fit with everything else on the desk. I’ve got an old Wacom Graphire hooked up there. I put my Twitter on so I could read my own tweets because I think I’m pretty funny.

Lastly is another computer, because 3 computers was just not enough. Actually, no. It’s from work. They asked me to take it home to test out a few things and see what it could do. I won’t be keeping it here forever. It’s got a brand new Wacom Bamboo Pen & Touch hooked up. In fact, 10 of those arrived at the studio this week! Oh yeah, something big is going on!

Will talk more about this exciting development later.

Sayonara.

So, enough about stuff I haven’t watched yet. This is what I have been watching!

I remember when Batman Beyond was first announced. The fans were pretty skeptical, but when the show debuted it was clear that the crew responsible had the magic touch, because it was something special.

I had seen several episodes back when they were first on the air and on the ancient technology of VHS, and my thoughts on the Return of the Joker movie are well known, but this recently released complete DVD box set is the first time I had seen all the episodes all in a row. After spending some really significant time with the show, it’s even more apparent how truly great it was. The concept could have gone so badly, but the stories, the writing, the acting, and the art direction were excellent. The show is so fresh, unique, and unpredictable while still being Batman.

And it’s surprising how this is so not a kids’ show this wound up being, what with all the fighting, scariness, teen angst, and icky kissing scenes. Not that I’m complaining, mind you. But the whole idea was to make a new Batman show with more kid-appeal, and it wound up skewing even older..

Also, the music kind of rocked.

It’s kind of weird to think that a show that takes place in the future and was so progressive at the time is now more than 10 years old. In the worldof cartoons, that’s old! There are actually kids out there who haven’t seen it or even heard of it! Shame. But I’m glad that the character of Terry McGinnis has stuck around, making other animated appearances and even migrating over to the comics. I hope he shows up in Batman: The Brave and the Bold somehow. That would be shway.

Sayonara.

I’ve collected a lot of DVDs over the years. Right now, most of my collection resides inside some large plastic storage containers, packed away about 2 years ago for various reasons. But I’ve acquired more since then, and they piled up here and there until I recently put them in a cardboard box. Most of these titles I have not watched yet, or have not watched all the way through. A few of them still have the plastic wrapping. This might seem strange, but coincidentally  I’ve just read a great article by Mike Toole on Anime News Network about this very subject. It appears that I am not alone.

So let’s take a look at what I’ve got in here. Perhaps this will uncover hidden insight into my personality?

Gunbuster 2 I’ve only seen 2 episodes from, at a Fan Expo back when it first came out. The original Gunbuster is one of my all time favorites, and I bought the Gunbuster Movie box set on Blu Ray, so I guess I bought Gunbuster 2 on eBay last year so I could watch it before I watched the movies. Alas, I have still not watched either.

Then we have Samurai Jack: Season 4. I had purchased the first 3 seasons back when they were first released, but never got around to buying the 4th. One day I just figured that I really aught to fix that, so I searched eBay and there it was for about $10. Awesome show, one of the best cartoons ever made.

Beck: Mongolian Chop Squad is an anime all about Rock and Roll! I was collecting the single DVD volumes but only got half way through. In trying to buy the volumes I was missing I discovered that it was a lot cheaper to just buy a box set. So now I have them all, plus the extra copies of the first 3 disks I already had, and yet I still have to sit and watch the whole thing.

He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (2002) was purchased at Best Buy for about $14 or so. I like this show and I’m pretty sure I saw all of the episodes on TV when they first aired. The packaging is on this set is terrible.

Iron King and Red Barron are live action super hero series from Japan. I don’t know anything about them but I love this kind of thing and they were cheap on eBay so here they are. So little of this kind of material gets an official release in North America.

Cowboy Bebop is one of those shows that everyone has seen and everyone loves. But I still haven’t seen it all yet! One day I’ll get through it all.

Cyborg 009 is an awesome series based on the classic manga, but this DVD of release containing only 8 episodes is all there is of the entire show in English. I bought it for $5, and that’s a great deal, but I’d spend 10 or 20 times that to get all the episodes.

“Birth” is some kind of sci-fi anime. I don’t really know what it’s about and the plastic is still on it. I saw a glowing recommendation for it, so I downloaded a copy. I watched it for a few minutes and then, to my surprise, people started speaking English! So that must mean that a real DVD is out there somewhere. Some eBay research uncovered a number of new copies available for $2. I ditched the download and ordered the real thing.

Otaku no Video is just something I thought I should have based on its reputation, but have not watched yet. It’s something about anime fans in Japan and the guys who founded the studio Gainax, I think.

King Kong vs Godzilla and King Kong Escapes were recently purchased for less than $3 each. I was hesitant to buy them back when they were first released due to lack of extras and no Japanese audio, but for that price I’ll bite. Next to them are a couple of Asian movies I bought at the HMV booth at Fan Expo last year. They are Sukiyaki Western Django, the new version of Zatoichi, and a Thai movie called Chocolate.They were $6 each. I don’t really want to buy DVDs in case there there is a better Blu Ray out there, but in this case I figured why not. All of this stuff still has the plastic wrapper on it.

Then we have Odin: Starlight Mutiny and Garaga. Odin is about a spaceship/boat and was created by the recently deceased Space Battleship Yamato creator Yoshinobu Nishizaki. It’s also, from what I understand, incredibly long and boring. I was really looking forward to seeing just how long and boring it is, but the version I got is actually the edited version with 40 minutes removed (and it’s still 90 minutes long). Oh well. Garaga has apes or something. I like apes so I bought it. Odin was $3 and Garaga was 99 cents on eBay. Big spender, I know.

Lastly we have Beast King Go Lion, the original Japanese show that was edited, re-written dumbed down, and sanitized to become the show we know as Voltron. I bought this at Anime North last year and still haven’t really watched it. It amuses me how the pictures on the back of the box make the show look like a complete bloodbath.

Now that I think about it, I still have a number of other DVDs packed away that I haven’t finished or watched at all yet. It seems like a waste, but what can I say? I’m a collector and I like having a good variety of things to choose from and look back at for future reference. I love this stuff, even if I haven’t seen it all yet. So I’ll put it this way. These are not things I haven’t seen yet. They’re things I look forward to watching some day.

Sayonara.