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Stephen "FPilot" Bierce / 美朝深恬
Date: 2009-12-19 14:22
Subject: Writer's Block: The Best Action Adventure Epic Ever
Security: Public
Tags:fandom, fantasy, film, full frontal nerdity, movies, writer's block

What’s the best action adventure epic ever made?

Sponsored by AVATAR. In theaters December 18. Buy tickets now.


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The Lord of the Rings Trilogy. 'Nuff said.

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Stephen "FPilot" Bierce / 美朝深恬
Date: 2009-12-14 20:20
Subject: Let's Put Weird And Weird Together...
Security: Public
Tags:anime, comments, culture, facebook, fandom, friends, human nature, japan, otaku, pop culture, weirdness

Weird Japan Is Super-Weird--(with apologies to the theme song of Urusei Yatsura) but we love it anyway. Thanks to [info]robotech_master, who posted this on his Facebook.

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Stephen "FPilot" Bierce / 美朝深恬
Date: 2009-12-14 11:26
Subject: Resistors Are Fissile: Meme C/O [info]thejim
Security: Public
Tags:aviation, battletech, comments, fandom, friends, livejournal, meme, quizzes, robotech, robots, school, science-fiction, who am i

Leave me a comment saying "Cripes A'Mighty."
• I'll respond by asking you five questions so I can satisfy my curiosity
• Update your journal with the answers to the questions
• Include this explanation in the post and offer to ask other people questions


[[info]thejim's Questions:] 1) Favourite Mecha and why?
Probably the Aestivalis from Nadesico. Granted, it's not that big and it's not that powerful, but it's quick, it's tough, it looks cool, and can be adapted dozens of ways depending on the mission.

2) Favourite Mecha-centric series and why?
Right now it's a bizarre even split between Zeta Gundam and The Big O. Zeta Gundam because I identify a lot with Camille Vidan and how, as a misfit, he'd get himself in trouble every so often. The Big O because of its psychology and how it works in spite of its juxtaposition of police/private eye procedural and giant superhero robot elements.

3) Aviation Management...what is it? What got you interested in it?
The economic science and practices behind the running of an aviation-related business: airlines, airports, aircraft factories, flight schools, crop dusting, air taxi and so on. This was a compromise because my folks didn't have the funds for me to concentrate strictly on a Professional Pilot program (which is aimed at making the student Airline Captain material).

4) What got you interested in Mecha in the first place?
I'd been a fan of Japanese science-fiction cartoons since childhood, specifically Speed Racer, Battle of the Planets and Star Blazers...so when Robotech came along at the time I left High School, I was pretty receptive to it.

5) What is the air-speed velocity of an unladen GRF-5K Griffin? Alternately, what is the level-ground maximum speed of a Scopedog? Why did you know either of those?
The -5K variant is new to me. I only have handy information on the earlier models...although, if the Griffin were fitted with the disposable wing system its anime Soltic Roundfacer inspiration could use, then it could easily exceed the 15 meters per second "book figures". As for the Scopedog, the Roller Dash system redlines at 108 kilometers per hour. This isn't spelled out in the VOTOMS RPG rulebook, but can be easily calculated. PS: Just saw on SARNA.net that the -5K Griffin can do 24 meters per second airborne.

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Stephen "FPilot" Bierce / 美朝深恬
Date: 2009-12-09 18:57
Subject: Full Frontal Nerdity
Security: Public
Tags:comics, fandom, film, full frontal nerdity, guns, humor, movies, science-fiction, snarky, time machines, weapons, webcomics

The Gun Pr0n Genre Begins To Reach Its Logical Extreme? )

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Stephen "FPilot" Bierce / 美朝深恬
Date: 2009-12-06 00:01
Subject: I'm Bord! I'm BORD! I'm Chairman Of The...BORD.
Security: Public
Tags:anime, backward compatible, battletech, fandom, full frontal nerdity, games, gaming, gundam, heavy gear, japan, otaku, robotech, robots, science-fiction, stuff i want, video, video games, wargames, youtube

Border Break! )

A new Japanese arcade video game that looks very MMO-ish. With the current state of console games these days, is a MMO like this possible now?

SEGA!

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Stephen "FPilot" Bierce / 美朝深恬
Date: 2009-11-29 14:38
Subject: Blessed Be Wikipedia!
Security: Public
Tags:anime, cd, fandom, language, learning, music, reading, research addict, science-fiction, troubleshooting

Hunted down all the tracks for the Legends of Galactic Heroes soundtrack. I don't know if it was the data on the disks themselves or Gracenote that had the problem, but when I ripped the disks to Winamp the titles didn't all match what was on the liner notes. The liner notes were right tho'.

Dunno if there are any fan sites that keep track of this sort of thing that are current. I may just put my track listing up here if anybody is really interested.

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Stephen "FPilot" Bierce / 美朝深恬
Date: 2009-11-28 15:36
Subject: I Went There To Sell--
Security: Public
Tags:anime, business, cd, culture, education, errands, fandom, geoeconomics, japan, language, learning, money, music, otaku, radio, science-fiction, shopping, stuff i want, taiwan

--And wound up buying. I suppose that means the economy might actually rebound.

THERE is a stall at the Kodak Flea Market, one that trades in comic books, action figures and other such memorabilia. What I brought to sell is unimportant.

What I bought is two anime soundtrack CDs: Idol Defense Force Hummingbird and the third part of Legends of the Galactic Heroes TV series. In the process of uploading the content to my computer. It'll take a while; the LOGH soundtrack set is three disks!

The seller has a couple milk crates worth of anime CDs for cheap. Initial D, Ex-Driver, Urusei*Yatsura, Orange Road, Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water, game soundtracks...

And they're cheap because, as I noticed when I opened the packaging, they're Taiwanese bootlegs. I suppose I get what I pay for.

FP

PS: On the LOGH content...as those of you who are hard-core otaku may know, the overwhelming majority of the music for the show is symphonic classical, which means my decades of listening to local NPR stations' afternoon programs is "paying off"--somewhat. (What do you mean we don't have any Shostakovich in our CD collection?--Guess I have to look it up in the Encyclopedia if I have any hope of spelling that correctly.) I can read kana...but figuring out classical catalog notion when it's rendered in kanji is a challenge. At least all the numbers are "Arabic" Numerals.

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Stephen "FPilot" Bierce / 美朝深恬
Date: 2009-11-26 00:43
Subject: All Ahead (Brain)Warp Factor 2!
Security: Public
Tags:backward compatible, fandom, full frontal nerdity, gaming, humor, science-fiction, star trek, wargames, webcomics

Where's a Vulcan When You Need One? )

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Stephen "FPilot" Bierce / 美朝深恬
Date: 2009-11-25 16:24
Subject: Tough Times For The Anime Industry: Via Wall Street Journal
Security: Public
Tags:anime, business, childhood, dysfunction, fandom, japan, links, news, nostalgia, otaku, pop culture, tv

Foreign competition, outsourcing, low morale...is this the end of an era?

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Stephen "FPilot" Bierce / 美朝深恬
Date: 2009-11-25 13:24
Subject: There Are Times I Wonder Why My Friends Are My Friends
Security: Public
Tags:comedians, fandom, friends, mike birchfield, movies, otaku, science-fiction, sempai, star trek

Sempai Mike called last night. I asked him my question about what actor they'd cast in the role of Khan in Star Trek. He said Cheech Marin.

What a goofball.

I bet he thinks the same thing about me, though.

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Stephen "FPilot" Bierce / 美朝深恬
Date: 2009-11-10 15:04
Subject: KHAN! KHA~A~A~AN!
Security: Public
Tags:fandom, fantasy, film, movies, science-fiction, star trek, stuff i want

Last week news broke that Khan was going to show up soon in the Star Trek movies, and I think it would be a good idea to brainstorm actors we might want to see in the role.

Viggo Mortensen?

Johnny Depp?

Sean Bean?

Antonio Banderas?

Who acting today can carry off the combination of menace, panache and (let's be honest here) studliness that Ricardo Montalban had in the role? Your thoughts.

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Stephen "FPilot" Bierce / 美朝深恬
Date: 2009-11-07 15:19
Subject: I'm Too Old.
Security: Public
Tags:airplanes, aviation, boredom, effects, fandom, fantasy, film, godzilla, horror, movies, tv, weapons

The Americanized Godzilla was just on whatever that network is, the one that also carries the WWE Wrestling and that. Anyway, I was so underengaged that when the Navy was bombing Madison Square Garden, I was thinking can they even DO that with Harpoon missiles? Are those FAE warheads?

And in the finale when Godzi was trapped in the cables and the F-18s were shooting it was those must be Slammer rockets because if he's cold-blooded then there wouldn't be anything for Sidewinders to lock onto. How much heat would you need to target a Sidewinder, anyway?

I'm too old and too much into reality to just enjoy the scene, you know what I mean?

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Stephen "FPilot" Bierce / 美朝深恬
Date: 2009-11-04 22:55
Subject: There Is Safety In Numb3rs, Isn't There?
Security: Public
Tags:comments, facebook, fandom, feedback, mystery, numb3rs, stuff i want, super star, tv

Numb3rs star Rob Morrow said on his Facebook account tonight:

(CBS) pulled us back to 16 eps from an original order of 22. not a good sign. but, we're not over yet. we need a big write-in campaign. ya'll have to get everyone u know to blitz the network with unrelenting letters. keep numb3rs alive....xxoo, rob m

If you're a fan of Numb3rs like myself and want to see the show continue on Friday nights, write a letter or postcard to:

Nina Tassler, President
CBS Entertainment
4024 Radford Ave., Room 3118
Studio City, CA 91604


I know I will!

FP

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Stephen "FPilot" Bierce / 美朝深恬
Date: 2009-10-30 11:49
Subject: Writer's Block: Who will you be?
Security: Public
Tags:comic books, costume, dc comics, fandom, fantasy, halloween, holidays, marvel comics, stuff i want, who am i, writer's block

What are you going to be for Halloween this year? Are you going to wear coordinating costumes with a friend or partner? Did you buy something pre-fab or make it yourself?

Submitted By [info]crazyprotein


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Have you any idea how difficult it is in these parts to find a suitable peaked cap to convert to a Fifty Mission Crush so I can cosplay Blackhawk or the Sky Master? I've been trying for YEARS.

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Stephen "FPilot" Bierce / 美朝深恬
Date: 2009-10-29 18:40
Subject: Writer's Block: Mysterious benefactor
Security: Public
Tags:fandom, fantasy, qotd, what do you have to say?, who am i, writer's block

If you could give a secret gift of any value to one anonymous recipient, who would you choose and what would you give them?

Submitted By [info]enchantra71


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Week of the Titan, remember? I want to give the whole human race more planets to live on. I'd much rather do that than spend the rest of my life seeing bloody wars break out over who owns what olive tree.

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Stephen "FPilot" Bierce / 美朝深恬
Date: 2009-10-27 12:19
Subject: Writer's Block: Seeing Stars
Security: Public
Tags:dreams, fandom, fantasy, law, love, mystery, qotd, relationship, tv, writer's block, writing

Which character from any film, television show, or book would you most like to take on a date and why?

Submitted By [info]blue_mariposa88


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I'm not the dating kind. Tho' I have to admit I was contemplating writing a fanfic about myself and Agent Prentice of Criminal Minds being forced to spend a weekend together.

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Stephen "FPilot" Bierce / 美朝深恬
Date: 2009-10-20 00:07
Subject: Those Who Know? Tell ME Please!
Security: Public
Tags:airplanes, anime, aviation, canada, fandom, science-fiction, stuff i want, tv, video, youtube

A CAN-ime TV Series From Ten Years Ago--That I Never HEARD Of Till TONIGHT! )

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Stephen "FPilot" Bierce / 美朝深恬
Date: 2009-10-08 01:11
Subject: Sci-Fi Movie Nobody Would Make
Security: Public
Tags:dysfunction, fandom, fantasy, history, ideas, movies, science-fiction, time, time machines

...Tho' I'd probably have to ask Paul Francis and Steve Johnson about that.

The Quest For Apocalypse

Somebody in the present day receives time-travellers from the far future. Turns out they were hoping to see the end of the world as it allegedly happened in their falsified history books. The future leaders had gotten to power under the lie that they had regenerated civilization after dark ages that started sometime in the Twentieth Century...a lie that they had manufactured using disaster movies from our current era. The host feels duty bound to tag along with the travelers, not only to keep them out of trouble but to prevent them from causing the events that would lead to the dark ages. Luckily, the time travelers realize what the dark age really is, and go back to their own time to bring about a different kind of Apocalypse.

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Stephen "FPilot" Bierce / 美朝深恬
Date: 2009-10-06 01:20
Subject: The Real Reason Dad Bought A Sanyo TV
Security: Public
Tags:cars, dad, fandom, photography, race cars, sports, tv



HER picture was on the box. Ashley Force Hood.

Now we know who we're rooting for in NHRA from now on.

(I'm kind of kidding, tho'; Dad made a wise decision given the circumstances.)

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Stephen "FPilot" Bierce / 美朝深恬
Date: 2009-10-03 12:14
Subject: Dreams I Shouldn't Have, But Do
Security: Public
Tags:comedy, dreams, errands, facebook, fandom, film, friends, horror, remakes, science-fiction, shopping, snarky, star wars, the 1980s

Remember my post about Sparkplugs: The Swindle? Had another one of the dreams last night. Same filmmakers. They made a parody prequel of Spaceballs titled Spaceballs - (Minus) : The Menace Attacks Revenge...basically doing the lampoon job Spaceballs did on the initial Star Wars movies for the prequel trilogy.

It was about the child who would grow up to become Dark Helmet, of course. The main sequence in the first reel was a demolition derby, and Dark Helmet was sore that as the only surviving driver, he wasn't declared the winner...only problem was that all the officials, most of the spectators, all of the media and all of the citizens of the spaceport hosting the event were killed off in the derby's collateral damage. I gave up on watching the rest because 1) I never SAW Spaceballs; 2) I haven't seen most of the Star Wars prequels.

PS: In my travels today I went to a flea-market I know. At the zone that sells action figures, old video game cartridges and comic books, they had a replica of the Assault Rifle/pegleg from Grindhouse. As bizarre as I thought it was I thought "I bet my Facebook buddy Paul already has one."

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