My Alto-hime was so Yakk DECULTRE that I simply had to have a Hime-Custom of my own. I blame ghostlightning for this he made me jealous. At least that extra scratch I get for being an E-5 will cover it.
So yeah my VF-25F Hime-Custom arrived earlier this month and given a small sliver of time I can finally post a picture and proudly declare how I broke my first New Year’s resolution to hold off on model kit purchases. If only I had GODLY free hand skills I would paint a pinup based on one of them ero-stickers, but alas my skills are not so great. It was a good start to a new year, and oddly enough January has been a month chock full of pleasant surprises. I made E-5 (Sergeant/Petty Officer 2nd Class/Air Force Staff Sergeant, take a good guess why don’t you) on the first of January and did not find out about it until a drill weekend, I guess I should have checked the promotion lists when they got published, but being a cynic I didn’t even bother. I also get to update all my uniforms with new rank insignia, but hey it’s an expense I’ll gladly pay with that new raise I get by default and through the promotion, I also have to add my first bean stripe for the years I spent eating beans since I enlisted. Seeing as how I am in a fair mood for this month I also wish to ramble about what a good start to this year I have been blessed with.
So yeah Inauguration Day has come and gone and my new boss has already added to the cacophony of pleasant surprises this month. I never did think that I would live to see a person of color (a.k.a. COMBO BREAKER) be elected to the Presidency in my life time. You learn a couple things when you join the military one of them being how Churchill was right when he said, “Many forms of Government have been tried and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.” One of the reasons why I liked LOGH so damn much was because I could appreciate Yang Wenli’s problems. I promised to tell some of you what I thought for all these years, true to my word if you wanted to know here it is.
How I Threw My Vote Away, Twice
I wish, if only more people voted Libertarian…
So the eight years of neo-conservatism have passed, and personally I feel very much relieved, my old boss is a good and decent man as a private citizen, but I confess that I never, rightly or wrongly, voted for him. Patton supposedly once remarked, “I am in the pay of the United States government. If I vote against the administration I am voting against my commander-in-chief. If I vote for the administration in office I am being bought.” I did not like the idea of being bought so I voted Libertarian on both occasions (inb4 I threw my vote away) so that they could get recognition, besides I don’t think much of neo-conservative dogma as it is now. I still wonder about the big “what ifs,” like what if we listened to General Shinseki or what if enough of us doubted Powell on WMDs. I believed in General (retired) Powell and I still believe that he is an honest man. He was an army man and on that alone I did not doubt him even slightly. I still would by the man a drink. I don’t believe that he lied, but even the best of us can get duped by the CIA, hell Kennedy was. On a personal level my biggest regret was that we could not trade the CIA (why Made in USA ain’t all that great) for the Mossad. The only thing I am thankful for after all this time is that with Mr. Gates at the helm things seem to be as they should, it never really seemed like that to me (then again I am so low on the totem pole I probably wasn’t aware of all that was right) when his predecessor got all high and mighty at times. Well farewell and Good Day to them all.
I gots one.
With President Obama it seems that at least now the Army might be issuing less waivers than they used to, maybe this new crop of Born Again Patriots were prompted by Obamania or their pockets. I am a humanist though when it comes to mein kamraden heck we’re all in the same boat now I hope they all work hard and give it their all. My only hope is that no matter what the Military Brass says that they will not pay dearly for going against the highest office in the land, like Shinseki did. I hope this new spirit of public service will prompt the best and brightest to go into government instead of Wall Street for the time being. The overall problem of previous years was that the best and brightest never went into government, instead they chose to make bigger scratch in the private sector, hopefully if public service becomes desirable again then the US will be better off in the future for some time before the tide shifts.
Me and My Circumstances
Like this kid right here, some of us were just born to be Soldaten.
I have been eating general issue chow for over four years and one thing I learned is how to really not give a fuck what other people think especially those over zealous “activists” who are pushier than the guys asking if Jesus is in my life. Hell, there are plenty of professional activists, who just don’t get that I can easily tune their bitches and moans as I am not the complaint box for Executive Branch. I live in and am garrisoned in and around San Francisco right across from the People’s Republic of Berkeley. I’ll be frank its hippie central and a base for Code Pink, really living with such neighbors means learning to live with and protect people who really hate your guts. I even have to deal with the spawn of China’s new rich at family gatherings because one branch wanted to host some exchange students (a.k.a. Beijing University rejects). They give me crap too for not being patriotic about the motherland and signing up for the Imperial Forces, as if these spoiled commie pricks would join the PLA instead of exploiting migrant laborers and polluting the Yangtze for their designer brand jeans like a bunch of Capitalist Roaders. At least on the internet I have a “fuck you too” button at my disposal.
I have a project for every Hammel with an International Studies degree, makes this funny because it is false, not because it’s true.
In real life I get crap from plenty of college educated man children who make pigeon hole me based solely on my occupation after taking a single quiz in a poli-sci or international studies class. According to these people I am “clearly” sexist, anti-abortion, racist, homophobic, uneducated, poor, and Republican. Given this maybe being mature is realizing how man is really nothing more than a glorified ape with illusions of grandeur especially International Studies Majors. I think after four years I finally know how it must feel like being a priest at a confessional. Given my level tree, I guess leveling up in life is putting more stat points into “not giving a shit.” Even if me an my ilk are held in utter contempt for some reason we still don’t mind protecting these people, oh we bitch about them in private, but at the end of the day the job will get done and they will be able to sleep soundly without a violent interruption.
Why I Blog
Ye Guilty.
I’d like to think that given these circumstances that my point of view is significantly different from everyone else’s. My reasons, unlike usagijen’s, are simple I have no where else to go to talk about animu, mecha, yuri, and shoujo. Heck my brand of humor is black as the withered husk of my own heart, I have to learn to laugh at just about everything because in truth people who are well off probably have never seen a real shit hole before. Hence why US Army is really a misspelling and it should have been YMRA SU which is short for “Yes My Retarded Ass Signed Up.” In all honesty otaku are blessed with a stable society and a good chance at carving out a living. In four short years I have found that there are some Robotech fans, Naruto fans, Bleach fans, DBZ fans, and Miyazaki fans, but when it comes to things like yuri or Skip Beat! I have yet to run into another comrade who likes either or both. Even so I’d like to leave something behind in case I expire before the lot of you, so if my life is to be short then why shouldn’t I enjoy it as I see fit? Being a cynic means also being a fatalist; I plan for the worst case scenario and before every field trip I make sure I have my will in order over at Legal. That alone probably makes me the odd one out as most people under 25 don’t have a will or even a life insurance policy worth 100K. Besides my reality of listening to every half wit about how I am pulling the IDF’s strings gets tiresome, I’d rather watch anime about yuri, shoujo, and mecha than get yet another lecture on how I am working for “the man” and how I am keeping people “down.” Another thing that is great about having Obama as my Commander in Chief is that since the election those people have one by one finally learned to shut the fuck up, well except a few of those goddamn Hamas huggers who think I am a Zionist too. I plan on doing this until the day I die, so if God wanted me to stop I’d be dead already. Life is too short to get emo over one’s circumstances, for the rest of you failure is not fatal, but for all of us it is always the courage to continue that counts.
Ain’t Nothing Gonna Break My Stride
Wing Zero Custom frowns upon your trigger discipline.
Winter so far has proved to be a pleasant surprise Maria+holic is turning out to be better than I had anticipated, I splurged on a VF-25, I actually made it to E-5, and with President Obama in charge I am no longer a pin cushion for those on the left. I anticipate more surprises in the coming year, some of them will perhaps be pleasant others probably not, but hey things look okay on my end so far. So really unless something really shitty happens this bout of pleasant surprise is only going to persist, I still have a job, I have some yuri anime this season, leveled up on the enlisted tree, and get some extra shillings here and there because base pay goes up, BAH goes up, etc. I wish President Obama the best so that those posers who assumed I was a complaint box for the Republican Party for the past couple years finally get OFF MY LAWN.
Kanako is on the prowl, all is well.
I hope to make it look decent in final form.
24 Comments
Congratulations on your new acquisition. Coincidentally I had just transformed the bird into GERWALK form for the first time, and I think that it’s the most striking form to display it as. The form makes the model look twice its size, as well as making itself look dynamic without really trying. The Battloid form disappoints because of the limitations in pose-ability due to the weight of the gun and the weakness of the grip (which is common in Gunpla, even my 1:60 Exia can’t hold on to beam sabers properly), but the Valkyrie is so sexy. I find it difficult now to pick a favorite among Valkyrie forms: YF-19, or the VF-25. I’ll pick the VF-25 for overall sex factor.
May you fare better with the stickers and detailing, because I am horrible at them.
@ ghostlightning
I guess if crusader’s gonna paint it, the stickers won’t be needed. I haven’t built a kit with decals yet myself.
The Macross kits are just too pricey for me to try.
Wait you voted for Ron Paul? Seriously?
I have a same feeling like you on your new acquisition…. cos i still haven’t started assemble the kit when i got it last month
anyway congratulation.(still looking for a day to start my work on this)
Something which has always been niggling at me. With a hand on wood, I ask this; if the US Army finally sponsors your farm, how will we here in the animeblogosphere know about it?
congrats on both the promotion and the new purchase, that reminds me i still have to finish asembling the ozma VF-25S…
anyways i hope your finished VF looks awesome
Looking forward to another year of blogging, flaming, and ranting together, comrade.
I’ll second the others congratulations.
And keep up the good work. I don’t share many of your tastes in anime, but I enjoy reading your stuff nonetheless.
Wait a minute . . . I’m an International Studies major. . .
You’re one of the rare few people whose views I can honestly sympathize with. Also, in subjects not related to Japanese nerd media.
Keep up the good work, Crusader. And don’t die.
Congratulations, PO2 for levelling up. You know, they make more money in the officer world, and you get a cool sword =) Yes, being an yuri-animu fan in the Navy, in San Fran in university studying microbio is quite the quadruple contradiction.
Not normally a watcher of the yuri, but the Maria+Holic entries were enough to give it a shot…glad I did, writing is very sharp, and Maria’s “just as planned” works in crazy ways in an all-girls school.
As for your family members, don’t worry, tell them that you actually have more medals on your PLA uniform, tucked away in waiting for the motherland’s glorious grand plan for world domination.
From your animu pal in the Green Machine in Northern Canuckistan, Gong Hei Fat Chow.
PS: not all int’l studies ppl hate your guts.
PPS: like DCJ, don’t die, k?
re: throwing your vote away.
I have to disagree that you tossed away your vote, provided that you voted for your beliefs. I voted Bush in 00, Peroutka in 04 and wrote in Ron Paul in 08. IMO, the only time I threw away my vote was in 00 because I was voting AGAINST Gore, rather than FOR Bush. I allowed a reactionary fear of someone gaining office to push me to vote for someone that I wasn’t 100% behind.
That is one nice looking VF-25F you got there. It can take on an Alpha, Beta, or Shadow Fighter in terms of sexiness any day, and is comparatively cheaper as well.
Hope this turns out to be a good year for you and everyone at THAT.
Nice treasure you’ve got there, crusader! ban dai’s kits have been improving so much lately, unlike their old kits, the quality of plastic used on this one is a lot less brittle. currently, they are about to release luca’s in 1/72 and i think a 1/100th vf-25F… ’nuff model kit talk. ‘grats on your promotion. Would you be posting progress pics of your vf25 build?
@ghostlightning…
there is a yf-19 kit available from hasegawa. the details are really good. it is using water slide decals, so the markings adhere better to the surface. one downside, it is not transformable. Studio Half Eye has a transformable 1/100 scale resin kit for yf-19 and yf-21… a very nice kit… just too pricey for me.
I almost bought the Ozma model, but like you Crusader I can not paint very well. I want a really nice Yamato or WAVE model to come out already painted up and WITH A F%&$*#( SUPERPACK!!! Really, what’s with the non-superpack model kits? The superpack is what makes the VF-25, IMO.
I need a 1/72 to go next to my VF-1S (with superpack BTW)
@ghostlightning
Nuts so it’s not that perfect? Ah well I guess I should be happy it can transform into three modes. My VF-1 doesn’t do that…
@schneider
There aren’t any decals, but stickers I wonder if it will work just the same though.
@Anonymous
So what of it? It’ll be years before the Libertarian party gets big enough to count. I ma just help raising what I hope will one day be a force to be reckoned with.
@davwon
It will be a labor of love.
@Ascaloth
Easy when I stop covering yuri shows, and some how forget that there is Macross movie due out in summer.
@blind_dead_mcjones
Thanks, good luck with you VF-25S I just hope somewhere down the line we might get an up grade pack, super or armor would be nice.
@Calawain
Hehe I look forward to it too, comrade.
@Ian K
Well just keep in mind if you ask about the DMZ and you get an irreverent response from us about it, just keep in mind we don’t want to be there forever and that we do have serious questions as to how the reunification of the Korean Peninsula will play out since a mass exodus from the North would overwhelm South Korean social services.
Your not all irritating, but you have your share of nitwits too.
@Dorian Cornelius Jasper
Thanks, if it happens it was probably meant to be, besides if it comes why flinch?
@cdn delta
Thanks, if I am going to be an officer I’d rather it be a Warrant Officer with a officer sword soaked in salt water.
I do have one thing in common with my neighbors thouhg, I am crazy enough to live with them…
@Kidan
I realized some time ago that unless an election is going to be real close my state is going Democrat more often than not, as such giving votes to the Libertarian Party at least ensures that they stick around for a while and that some Libertarian platform ideas might get adopted in the war for the center.
@Einherjar
The year will be even more awesome if I can get an armor pack for my Hime-Custom.
Thanks.
@KaeBoo
With any luck in time for the Macross F Movie: Do You Remember Hime.
@Lowlife
I don’t know but eventually I hope for an armor pack upgrade for the Hime-Custom.
@ crusader,
your welcome and thanks, speaking of which they’re releasing the super pack (along with re-releasing the VF-25F with the super pack) sometime in february
though in all honesty even if it came out i wouldn’t get the armoured pack for Ozma’s VF-25, as it would completely obscure that lovely skull logo on its back
Crusader = most enjoyable poster of THAT.
I can only agree with Kuro-rin only because of the Gundam leaderboard he updates. Otherwise, it’s quite close. But hot damn, a leaderboard. Doesn’t get more troll than THAT.
@Crusader,
Then at least adjust your will such that someone in the animeblogosphere (like Impz, for example) will be informed about it if your farm gets sponsored, so that we can at least be in time to raise a toast to you. :p
The VF-25F should be the secretary of smexiness in the Optimus Prime administration. Quite simply I’ve got the same reasons for reading this blog as you do for writing it crusader. It’s impossible to find anyone who is into comedy, shoujo, yuri, and mecha. Not to mention anyone who can use shock and awe to describe romance is deserving of a standing ovation in my book.
Congratulations on the promotion and hopefully you can make the VF-25 at least look decent.
Hope this brings a smirk to you face mang. Sorta old, but still fresh.
http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=163653&title=Marines-in-Berkeley
Code Pink invaded my school. It wasn’t fun.
@Kendodude
I always loved that spoof. Just the pure hypocrisy and idiocy by code pink is amazing. What’s even more funny though is that the recruitment station at berkley (and other stations nearby) get fairly high recruitment rates from what I saw in another news piece.
so im like the spawn of evil being a Dual International Studies Major / International business Major
welcome to the fold
that Vf-25F is sick
So is it ready for an update picture yet?
I also got this kit as a present from Hubby at Christmas, though I only just started working on it.
Production got stopped because I got sick, but I’ll have to get moving on it again since I also have Ozma’s Valkyrie to build.
Although hubby admits that was a slightly selfish purchase since he wanted it but didn’t have the patience to build it and so bought it for me instead.
Plus if I can get them both done, he hinted I might get more in the future… and there happens to be a certain blue Valkyrie I so desperately want…