thirteen

Choke by Chuck Palahniuk

next on my list:

The Acme Novelty Library by Chris Ware

i read somewhere that the captain america from the past will be appearing in the next marvel storyline and so will the heroes from the past like bucky and other ww2 heroes.

 

damn... and after they got cap killed, they want to bring him back again.

that's not surprising at all...the only comic characters that stay dead are those without any fans. Every comicbook collector already knows Marvel will bring back Cap within 2 years. Just like the death of Superman, no one really thought they'd let him stay dead, right?

Don't know if this is true....but the local carriers are really negotiating with Apple to have exclusive rights when the iphone is finally launched locally. Word is that Sun Cellular seems to be the company with the most aggressive pitch.

Got a text from my suki toystore....Skywarp Masterpiece Edition is set to be released early next week. Medyo weird nga lang...mas mahal siya compared to the Masterpiece Starscream nung unang labas.

Can anyone comment on the lcd screen of the newer macbooks? How's the viewing angle and the brightness? I was checking my friend's first gen macbook and I wasn't impressed with the viewing angle...move your eyes a few inches and the colors noticeably change. the brightness wasn't that uniform either.

I don't know if its just me, but somehow the last gen G4 powerbooks have a better LCD screen than the current macbook. Is it just me?

I'm seriously thinking of getting a laptop, but I don't know if i want to spend another 50k for a macbook pro when a macbook can suffice. I'll be using it primarily with indesign, illustrator and some photoshop.

Keeping your pc on 24/7 is ok....Just be sure you don't have a cheap PSU! It's also good practice to turn the pc off once in a while to vacuum or clean the internal fans.

Ive read in a Superman comic compilation ages ago, When Supes visited the shrunken bottled Kryptonian City of Kandor (inside the Fortress of Solitude), A shrunken Kal-El and Jimmy Olsen would don masks & costumes, prance around the city as caped crimefighters, inspired by Batman & Robin... hehe

 

Supes of course has no super powers when he is inside Kandor

Parang I remember this....I think its a story by alan moore...I could be wrong though.

cno po may nakakakilala na nabili ng antique cameras??

i think there's a shop sa Cubao X (formerly Marikina Shoe Expo) that has a collection of antique cameras.

I can't recall if I've seen one in a price guide but some of them goes up in value but it's very rare. I think early

TPBs (first printings) rise up in value too although it's really rare. I also have TPBs and buy some from time to

time if I have some extra cash.

TPBs increase in value...but only those in small print numbers, and are usually indie titles that eventually make it big.

You'll have better luck collecting limited run hardcover collections...the first volume of The Absolute Authority sells for around $150 to $200 on ebay for mint copies. The first hardcover edition of Stardust is valued around the same price range. Early Sandman hardcovers are also well sought after...usually around $60 to $100. I saw a signed first-edition HC of Death:THCL go for about $200 a few years ago.

Ordered the Heaven pills a few weeks ago...but I've been so busy lately that I've only had until recently to try 'em. I've tried the scorpion pills before, but those gave me a really bad headache, higher body temp, and made my eyes really sensitive to light. The Heaven pills work great! No headaches or change higher body temp--my only complaint is that it still caused some slight discomfort to the light, but not as much as before. Otherwise, works like a charm!

Released last month you say? The new iMacs would have been in production by then. I would not be surprised if these are the same processors but tuned down a bit to reduce heat (Apple hates fans and will keep their use to a minimum) in the tight package. On the other hand, 2 ghz and 2.33 ghx is an insignificant difference. No one will notice the difference. Thats just oneupmanship. If you've got a Mac you're already up on the guys on Windows.

While the new iMacs would have been in production last month, prototypes of the newer chips would have been issued to hardware manufacturers months earlier than the actual market, to allow them lead time to design new boards to support the new chips. I have a feeling a "new" round of faster iMacs will probably be launched in January or Feb.

On a side note, I just noticed that the iMacs use laptop memory clocked at 667Mhz (correct me if I'm wrong). The newer chips have a faster bus speed (1333 Mhz). Perhaps apple is waiting for the prices of faster-specced RAM to drop before they introduce the new chips. Speculations, speculations.....

I don't get it....why isn't apple using the new C2Duos Intel released last month? Wouldn't that make more sense considering they've already gone through the trouble of totally redesigning the iMac? Correct me if I'm wrong, but the processor speeds listed in the Press Releases don't correspond to the newer Intel processors (E6550 = 2.33Ghz, E6750 = 2.66Ghz, E6850 = 3.0Ghz).

hmm..pwede sa focusing but if ever the focusing is right, naka tripod and inanimate ung object, are there any more reasons why a picture will be blurred?

There's always camera shake...but if your shutter speed is fast enough (ex. 1/80 at 50mm on a 1.6x crop SLR), you'll have to consider that your lens or camera itself is faulty. In most cases, the lens probably has a front focus or back focus problem. A lens that has front focus has its true focus point a few cm / inches in front of the object you're focusing at. Back focus is the opposite, where the true focus point of the lens is some distance behind the object you're aiming for. You'll have to have the lens calibrated by the manufacturer to fix this. Another culprit could be mold or dew inside the lens. Finally, if the subject of your focus has low contrast with its background, the camera's auto-focus system can be fooled. This usually happens in low-light situations.

An editor??? Wow! Didn't know we had one. With Filipino artists having international recognition I won't be surprised if a Filipino writer would make it big too.

Sorry, I phrased my sentence wrong, what I meant to say was that the DC EIC (Infantino) and a Filpino Penciller (de Zuniga) were the ones who went to the RP looking for talent. I didn't mean my post to read that the EIC was also de Zuniga. It's interesting to note that de Zuniga always held artists like Redondo and Alcala as his major influences when he was still starting out in comics, only to come back years alter to offer them jobs pencilling for an International title!

Redondo and company, on the other hand, never reached the acclaim that Whilce has because the comic industry at that time was not too good.. Sad to say, although talented, its not talent why Redondo and the other Pinoy artists came on board for DC (or Marvel), its because Pinoy artists (and other artists from other 3rd world countries) are considerably cheaper than their American/European counterparts..

 

Still, the talent of Redondo made his name known (at that time) with the hardcore fanatics of the Horror comic genre.. It would always be nice to look at the work of Pinoy artists who penetrated the American comic book industry then..

Aaah...it's surprising to know that the great Filipino comic book artists aren't completely forgotten! Nestor Redondo, Alfredo Alcala, Alex Nino...these were true masters! Imagine, while most current comic artists struggle with 3 or 4 pencilled pages a day, Redondo and Alcala could churn out 9 to 12 inked pages in their prime!

A friend lent me an issue of this magazine about comic artists, and the particular feature for that month was about the first wave of Filipino talent in American comics. Just to share, it was through the efforts of DC Comic's then EIC and Filipino penciller Tony de Zuniga that lead to the hiring of Alcala and the rest of the Filipino comic artists. I think they were initially assigned to the horror and cowboy western titles of DC, but were soon able to share their magic with the mainstream DC and Marvel Titles (Swamp Thing, Capt. Marvel, X-men, Thor, Batman, Superman, etc.).

While Whilce is a well-known penciller, I really think his time has come and gone. The relaunched Wetworks wasn't well received, and he's been taken off pencilling duties for the series he helped create and relaunch. Personally, I think he really needs to evolve his style. While his work is detailed, his shading is a bit too dirty...and his characters all feel too stiff. Here's hoping he can change his style so that it doesn't stay in the 90's.

If there's a Filpino superstar in the US comic industry, it has got to be Leinil Yu (one of Whilce's proteges, currently under an exclusive contract with Marvel, now working on New Avengers). Just to share---some of the other filipino comic artists who made waves in recent years are Lan Medina, Wilson Tortosa, and Roy Allan Martinez.

The superiority of Summicron's/Sonnars/Elmarits vs Nikkors has been proven long ago. From a price-performance standpoint though, the Nikkor lenses would be preferred by most people. The price disparity does not justify the marginal improvement in image quality (which most people do not see). Ah but a red dot is a red dot is a red dot...

The older Leica lenses really do stand out when compared to all the other lenses on the market...there's just something about the colors and sharpness that are different from other manufacturer's lenses. At first I thought it was just the film stock that made the difference, but even on the same kind of slide film, the Leica's images stand out.

Which brings me to the question...can the same be said of their digital cameras? I've yet to see any images produced by a Leica digital camera, so maybe you could give us a personal review or a sample?

You didn't say whether you wanted 'good' or you wanted 'cheap'.

 

I won't waste your time with cheap because unless you are new to digital photography in which case the subtle flaws of small CCD units (which allow them to be sold a lower prices) won't be too noticeable.

 

I looked at all the dSLRs and decided that the cheapest 'good' camera that I am sure I can keep for 10 years or more will have to be only the Leica Digilux 3. Other brands will continuously release newer models that will render your investment obsolete before you can shoot too many pictures. Leicas hold their value. And image quality is professional grade.

Aren't most digital Leicas just rebranded Panasonic cameras? The only digital Leicas that are true Leicas are the M8 and R8 (by virtue of their backwards compatibiltiy with the M and R series Leica mounts).

Liefeld is back with Marvel? since when? His art really blows but some of his early work was ok-ish.

Liefeld resurrected the original X-force for marvel about 2 years back, don't know if he made another project.

As for Jim Lee, it's not surprising that he's doing so much work for DC...DC bought Wildstorm comics a few years ago. Stormwatch, WildCats, The Authority, Wetworks...they're all published under DC (although they are still creator-owned). I'm kinda pissed off with Jim Lee lately because I've been waiting so long for the Wildstorm relaunch, only to find out the better books (WildCats / Authority) are so delayed because Jim Lee couldn't prioritize on which comics to work on. It's like they're back to the old Image days!

can anyone here suggest any digcam with 10 or more megapixel?????

If you're really after 10 or more megapixels, you're better off with a DSLR. Compact cameras have issues with noise and purple fringeing when they've got too many megapixels stuffed on their small CCDs. On another note, I've seen better image quality pictures from a 4-yr old 6 megapixel DSLR than a current 10 megapixel P&S Sony. Even when the 6 megapixel was blown up to the same size as the 10mp, the 6mp still looked better.

i think silver surfer was a villain at first because he was the one scouting for galactus for planets for devour. when he saw the goodness in planet earth biglang nagbago sya. hes said kay galactus not to eat earth pero gusto parin nya so kumampi na si SS sa f4

The Silver Surfer is probably Galactus' best known herald...there were other heralds, but they didn't last as long as the Surfer. It's hard to define the Surfer as a villain since he wasn't strictly evil...his sense of right and wrong were compromised because of Galactus's influence. To Galactus, destroying inhabited worlds is no more evil than killing a chicken or pig to us. He needs to eat, and it just so happens only certain kinds of planets can offer him the energy he needs. When Norrid Radd was transformed into the Silver Surfer, he also shared the same morals as Galactus. It has even been debated that Galactus is more like a force of nature than a cosmic super villain.

Last I heard, price range ng EOS 400D sa Hidalgo is 36k to 39k. Malamang gray market yung 36k, so no local canon warranty.

Did some spring cleaning, finally got around to organize all the boxes in my room (but not before playing with the toys in them first!)

I believe Sony has way better camera's than Canon.

 

Canon uses its own lens.

Sony uses the patented Carl Zeiss optics.

Build quality wise Sony cams are also superb. :thumbsupsmiley:

That's a rather brash over-generalization...

While Carl Zeiss is a very recognized brand for optics, not all CZ lenses are good. Like most brands, they have their share of cheapo and high-quality products. Same goes for other lens makers like Canon and Nikon. Most of the CZ lenses you see on the Sony Point & Shoot cameras have nothing extraordinary about them. As for camera technology, bear in mind that the only reason Sony was able to launch their own DSLR last year was because they bought Konica-Minolta's DSLR technology.

As for build quality....

About 2 years ago, there was a general backlash against many camera manufacturers when the older digicams manufactured between 2002 and 2004 began malfunctioning due to a design and production flaw in the wiring of their CCDs. Some of the brands affected were Canon, Nikon, Sony, KM, etc. All the manufacturers had no choice but to repair, or in some cases, replace the faulty cameras because of the design/manufacturing flaw. I'm sure some of you know a few people who suffered this problem. My friend had to have his 1-year old Canon A70 serviced because of this...it took Canon over 2 months to repair it because the backlog was so long.

Here's the funny thing...it wasn't Canon's fault the camera's CCD suddenly went kaput. ALL the faulty CCDs in the cameras that failed were all made by one manufacturer...SONY.

for more info: http://www.imaging-resource.com/badccds.html

Amazon has always been hassle free to order from. The only problem is the local customs / post office. Best to have it shipped to someone who is going home from the US, padala nalang.

Don't know about E-bay but last i heard, Paypal is pretty much non-existent in this country.

I'm really tempted to get the Masterpiece Megatron...it's just taht i'm a bit disappointed that he doesn't come with a silencer and a stock in gun form. I have a feeling that maybe Takara will offer a new Megatron next year with the extra parts just like they did with Optimus Prime and his trailer. If enough fans complain, or if a third party makes the extra silencer and stock, Takara will make their own version (just like the MP-04 Optimus Prime with Trailer).