I'm an Otaku

Otaku (おたく/オタク) is a Japanese term used to refer to people with obsessive interests, particularly anime, manga, and video games.

I wouldn't call myself obsessed but I do tend to get carried away with my hobbies sometimes. I've always been intrigued with Japanese culture and their television series since I was a kid. Even at this age I watch anime and buy Japanese hobby kits to build in my spare time.

One thing which I could never understand was the Japanese infatuation with cuteness and miniature things. Gundam models come in a variety of scales and shapes but recently I was tempted into buying an "SD" Gundam. SD stands for Super Deformed and they're quite popular in Japan. What they do is take a normal proportioned character and then deform the proportions to make it look child-like or cute.

I just finished this set and now I understand why they're crazy about it, it does look nice !

Note: this is a Grade 2 skill kit and can be finished easily.

Kobe Tetsujin

First it was Odaiba with a 1:1 scale Gundam, now its Kobe and they're setting up a 1:1 scale figure of Tetsujin. If this keeps up pretty soon Japan is gonna be filled with life size robots from various animes. Maybe this is part of their defense system against Korea.

More info at Kobe Project [link]

IT'S ALIVE!!!

I'd been eagerly following the developments on the life size 1:1 scale Gundam RX-78 that was being constructed in Odaiba, Japan. Bloggers like Danny Choo and Punynari kept us updated with tons of cool pictures* and info. Now the sound effects have been setup and it even moves! How awesome is that ?

Here is the photo article from Danny Choo [link]


Wish I could go to Odaiba to see this in person.
*pictures from Danny Choo and Punynari

Awesome Kuwaiti photographers

A lot of people may not know this but there are a lot of very talented artists in Kuwait and recently I've noticed a lot more exhibitions and art related events in Kuwait, which is a good thing.

Last week I had the honor of meeting one of my Flickr contacts in person when I visited the KVWC exhibition. Here are some more talented guys on Flickr. (click on the names to see their photostreams)

GTM


Bonemer


Talal


AlFoudry

Anuj Nair, photographer and more..

Mr. Anuj Nair is one of my friends on Flickr and also from my hometown. He is an extremely talented photographer and song writer. If you take a look at his photostream you'll see that he has takes breathtaking nature photos.

Recently I was pleasantly surprised to hear that he had made a series of music videos and one of them is a fully animated music video made by himself.

Check out his videos on Youtube



My love for you [link]

Simple truth [link]

Anuj's Flickr stream [link]

Personal website [link]

This is why you're fat !!

A lot of people ask themselves.. "why am I fat ??"
THIS IS WHY !!!


WARNING: This blog that contains some of the fattiest, greasiest, heart stopping examples of junk food out there!!

thisiswhyyourefat.com [link]

Lonely Planet's "Things to do in Kuwait"

I found this neat list of things to do and places to visit in Kuwait.

Lonely Planet [link]

Shooting light trails

One of my preferred methods of photography is long exposures. Some may call me lazy but I get my desired results when I'm not in a hurry and have ample time to setup my tripod and camera gear. After setting up the camera on top of a pedestrian bridge I patiently wait till the time is right, ie, heavy traffic to take my shot.

Here are some of the things you need when doing long exposures.

A good stable tripod,
Some food and water (depending on how long you're gonna be there)

Things to note;
. close up the aperture from 11 to above to get a good sharp image
. turn off optical image stabilization, VR, SteadyShot or whatever its called on your camera
. try different shutter speeds with the same aperture settings to get longer or shorter streaks

Visit my Light Trails page for more pictures [link]

Gundam Kits from Hobby Link Japan

A few people have asked me this and I've also noticed some hits on my HLJ post so here are the details.

Hobby Link Japan [link]
Shipping costs [link]
For first time visitors [link]

You can buy all kinds of modeling kits and resin models from Hobby Link Japan and have it shipped to you in a matter of days. With regards to Kuwait, they accept all credit cards and payment thru Paypal. The preferred mode of shipping is EMS and it takes about 5 days to ship from Tokyo to Kuwait. Once your package arrives you get an SMS from the Ministry of Communication (MOC) asking you to collect your package from their EMS counter. There might be a slight delay at the counter sometimes so I prefer to go after 4 pm.










If you want to have a small project or just something to do in your spare time try one of the kits on HLJ you wont be disappointed.