Strider Hiryu

I use Winamp (with a very lovely Macross Frontier skin) for music when I'm not using Pandora or Last.fm for recommendations for new music (not that I don't have enough to listen too already). Used to use WMP but with it's lack of support for FLAC and other lossless formats I went back to Winamp (originally used it but stopped for some reason). As for chat programs I use Trillian for yahoo and AIM. I also use Windows Live because I'm not to hip on the MSN plug-in that comes with Trillian (just don't like my MSN contacts in that window, confuses the crap out of me sometimes when I have friends that use all three programs). Don't bother skinning Trillian since I never have the window up to see who's on (hey, I'm only logged in when I sleep so I see no reason in seeing who's on. This explains the reason I never respond when you guys message me (sorry GG and Eppy, I miss out on a lot of convo's with you guys because of this)) so I never have to look at the skin.

Old laptop is 1280x800 and the new laptop is 1920x1200 widescreen.

Interesting, this is news to me. I'm 6'2" and haven't had a girlfriend in 4 years. I should really think about moving to your area, then again I'm not currently looking for one either. Seriously just need to keep trying, might luck out and find one who's into shorter guys (or you can move down here, most of the women I see around Phoenix/Tempe are all with men their height or about 3-6" taller then them. You tend to notice this stuff working in a grocery store since a lot of couples frequent them).

Tell my Grandmother that, they just got hit with snow last week again (west side of state). Whiskey cures everything, hell so does Vodka

Old fart Now make the snow go away in ND, thats your new mission.

Considering what I hear from my friend and class mate who's from Cali Arnold would make a bad president. Sorry if he were to ever become president I would lose all faith in this country and pack my bags and leave it (I do fully support someone becoming president even if they weren't born on US soil because I'm sure there are plenty of people in the world who could run it better, just wanted to make sure I clarified that much).

After having played FFXI for three months I'd have to say WoW is shit. Why? It's the community. Which is why when XIV comes out I'll probably quit WoW for good (if I already haven't for Aion). I play for enjoyment and when the majority of that enjoyment is taken away because of a community of whiny little brats who think their shit don't stink (like WoW) it's not worth playing anymore. I only play WoW as a timesink right now. Plus FFXI moves at a nice pace, my only beef is to get anything done in that game you need to be on for 3+ hours. I won't even touch the new Star Wars MMO. It's going to be full of fail and turn out exactly like Galaxies did. I can already forsee it. Nothing Bioware/EA will do will convince me otherwise (plus I refuse to support EA in anyway outside of buying an occassional game, I really hate that freaking company and refuse to pay them a monthly fee). Consoles can take the strain Kite. Ever do a 72 hour marathon Halo LAN party? I have and my old XBox still worked as good as it did the day I got it. Hell my roommate used to play FFXI on his 360 for 16 hours a day back when I first moved in with him.

Best Buy still sells anime and you can still pick anime up on their website. Considering the Anime boom has died in the US BB was clearing up stock at some of their stores due to this. I know the Best Buys in my area still sell anime but the ones I went to to get the deal have shrunk their collections considerably. The only titles that will be found at those stores will be the high moving ones that sell considerably well (what those titles are I don't know).

Actually, considering it is an MMO, it's on PC also. XIV is to replace XI as Square-Enix's new MMO.

Heh, yeah I was blown away when I watched it live on the Press Conference. Gah, I seriously can't wait for this game now.

That's a problem I'll concede to. Zeta threw a lot of information out in a short amount of time which overwhelms people, especially if you haven't seen the first Gundam when you watch it. Plus Zeta conflicted itself a lot by telling you one thing and then later on down the road that thing changed into something completely different (happened on a few occasions but none come to mind as of now). The whole Char being a pedo started with Lalah from the first series as she was quite younger then him when they first met. That also started the whole rivalry between Char and Amuro (or at least heated it up) as they vied for her affection. After that they just ran with it and made it part of his personality which really sucked (but it was a good tool for using the women, I mean he made Haman what she was and made Quess into what she was just on making them fall for him). He'll always be my favorite character though because of his beliefs and how he stuck to them so fervently. For me the political ideals in GW kinda turned me off when they introduced the idea of total pacifism (something that can never truthfully exist as its not in our nature to be at peace, humans love conflict). Thats when the story started to just go downhill for me and what took it out of the Gundam franchise for me. Still though GW was a great show but when you try to introduce a concept that goes against the very nature of what a Gundam/mecha show is it just kinda makes you take a different look at the whole scenario. Still though damn good show. There were some points in Zeta where the political and idealogical conversations came to fruition but the major one was Char's speech in Dacar. Sadly it's the only real place where that really came out as there wasn't really much time for those discussions and plotlines when the majority of the show is fighting and teenage angst (still though the plotline with Camille and Four was great, lots of drama). Meh, I couldn't get into Battlestar Galactica. For one I was a fan of the original and I just really didn't like where they took the new one. Yea Haman was badass, I won't deny that but I just could never come to like her. Compared to Char and Amuro she was a weakling as a newtype (they were the most powerful when it came to their abilities, hell even Camille was becoming more powerful before he got mindf**cked by Scirroco) and she really only had that power because the Zabi girl was practically still an infant so the power was left in her hands. I just think that power went to her head a little, especially after her little afair with Char.

Heh, Camille annoyed everyone believe me (he grew on me toward the end when he quit whining but yeah he was annoying in the beginning. Then again Amuro was too). The real reason Amuro wasn't the main character this time around is because Tomino doesn't like using the same characters over and over again to tell a story, he wanted to switch the protagonist around and thus Camille came to be. Then again when Amuro is introduced he's under house arrest by the Federation due to his actions during the Zeon-Fed war and because of his abilities as a newtype. The thing about Zeta is that it's a direct sequel to the original Gundam, no other shows came inbetween Gundam wise. Watching the first one makes Zeta easier to understand, especially when they talk about previous battles and events that took place in the first Gundam (as well as to get to know a majority of the characters) but it is definitely not needed to actually enjoy Zeta. The key thing you need to remember (and something I constantly have to point out to others) is that Gundam is a story about war and it's effects on people. As we all know war is drawn out with battles that seem to mean nothing, events that seem to be repetative, etc. Mobile Suit Gundam and Zeta Gundam are the only two Gundam series that actually portray the truth about war and as such seem long and drawn out. Yea, it doesn't make for good entertainment for most (I enjoy true war stories, heck my favorite TV show of all time is Band of Brothers and it's got repetative points and downright boring stretches) but it portrays a truth, something most fans don't seem to understand especially when their first Gundam was Wing or G Gundam. Those series suck at actually portraying war (yea Wing did portray a war but Wing was more about politics and ideals, not war. G Gundam is just a joke and shouldn't even be considered but I have to add it in for this). Also remember Sledge Zeta was just re-released 3-4 years ago in movie format (3 movies, they do an alright of summing up the entirity of the series but they rewrite the ending and completely write Double Zeta out of the timeline). Actually Gundam stories aren't stories about the one war to end all wars, yes the shows are throwback to WWI and WWII (Tomino lived during them so they greatly influenced his story ideas). Gundam, or UC Gundam anyways, focuses on space, humanity, and evolution. War just happens to be a pretense to tell the story and show the themes but sadly it does suffer from most of the other mecha niches that all mecah anime follow. Char has always been consistent (no I'm not trying to start a debate either but most people seem to think Char changes his mind about what he wants but he doesn't). Char's main goal has always been about helping humanity evolve into the next state, newtypes. How he goes about realizing this goal changes between series (original Gundam he was using Zeon to reach these goals while exacting his revenge on the Zabi family, Zeta he was trying to stop the Titans from ruling with an iron fist while still trying to realize his goal of getting humanity into space, and Char's Counterattack was Char's last ploy to get humanity into space which just happened to be the drastic measure of dropping an asteroid on Earth to force humanity to space to evolve). Different was of going about it but his ideals stayed the same no matter what. Just wanted to point that out (which is why Zechs is technically the best Char clone to date, he actually held Char's idealologies and went about realizing them the same (though newtypes didn't exist and there was different reasons)). Char suffered from that loli infactuation a little to much, something I don't like about what they did about his character. Ruined it in my opinion but I'm not the one who created it. It's the only real flaw his character has. Sadly Double Zeta failed as a show because through the first half Tomino tried to play the "lets be happy so lets put kids into the story and lighten it up a bit". This is generally why when you ask a UC Gundam fan about Double Zeta they tell you to watch the last half, the first half if a complete joke. Like I said I'm not trying to start a debate but I just wanted to point out some stuff that most people generally overlook about the story and the characters. Outside of 0080, 0083, 8th MS Team, and Double Zeta the only other two shows that fall into the UC timeline are the movie Gundam F91 (damn good movie, I suggest seeing this) and Victory Gundam (still have yet to watch it but I hear good things about it). The new UC series will either be released in the fall/winter season this year or next spring/summer. I'm not entirely sure as I haven't read anything new on it in a month. Char is dead Sledge so he won't be in it. The new series is about a Federation Special forces unit using the RX-78-7 Gundam (one of the last of the RX-78 series). It takes place in 0081, one year after the original war and is between this group and a small Zeon remnant force with the mission of reviving Zeon. It should prove to be very nice (which reminds me I need to start watching MS IGLOO, I've had that dled forever and just haven't sat down to watch it yet). Haman just creeps me out. I love a woman in power too, no doubt about it, but Haman just doesn't do it for me. She's just that egotistical b**ch that doesn't know when to stop. To each their own I guess but seriously, why Haman? It's just so wrong.

*shudder* Good god that would be scary. Heh, now you know where Tomino got his nickname "Kill-em all". Zeta is by far the best Gundam out there (imo of course, it's got one of the most depressing and drama filled stories of the series). God, how can you love Haman? Just when your gaining points in my book you dash them all and go negative again.

X'D, my epic battles have been placed behind me I'm afraid Hey now I never said I didn't like Gundam Wing, hell I dl'ed a dvd rip of it 2 months back (just have yet to sit down and watch it again). GW was a damn good anime but only that far (I know I think hell froze over, I think I should call my contact down there and find out). As an actual Gundam anime if failed in my opinion. Seriously it strayed to far from it's roots only to try and bring females into the fan base. It really started the Gundam franchises spiral into bad decisions and shows (I mean G Gundam, SEED, and SEED Destiny all spawned from it. Gah I shudder to think what will come next after the new UC inspired series thats coming out next year). So you are safe for now GG. Just don't let me catch you spewing nonsense that GW is the best Gundam ever made, that calls for drastic measures if you do

Man there are times when I wish you lived near me Kuwa, just so I could smack you upside the head. *smacks Kuwa upside the head* Now go sit in the corner and think about what you've done. Leading poor newbs astray, I thought you were trained better then that. Sigh

X'D Ohwell, still very informative for a wikipedia post about Gundam.

Damn, I'm slipping when someone else answers a Gundam question before me. I'll just be in this corner. Damn though, very informative Kite. Going back to the original persons question, if you mean story wise nothing comes before Gundam Wing. It is it's own story in itself, different universe and everything. Just wanted to point that out just in case thats what the question meant.

I'm starting to notice the problem on my old laptop, like right now Firefox 3.0 is freaking crashing my laptop. Have to access everything using my school laptop as Firefox isn't making it freeze up.

And get slapped with so many lawsuits that you'll be under legal red tape for the rest of your life Though I'm sure the news story will be quite hilarious

Yea no, that dub is horrible. Lockon's voice is just so freaking wrong it's not even funny.

Season 2 was certainly better then Season 1 that much is for sure. Overall it was ok. Looking at 00 as a whole it had quite a few flaws in it that, imo, needed to be addressed (the Thrones from Season 1, the Louise/Saji angst, lack of Innovator/Innovado info, etc) but really didn't seem to hinder it from a decent story with some decent characters (ok one and he died in the first season). From a tech perspective it took more from AU series like Gundam Wing and SEED then it did from UC Gundam, something that peeved me a little in the beginning but overall actually worked for this show (more or less because Gundam 00 Raiser is so damn smexy). I was actually surprised by what they used as power sources as I'm used to nuclear reactors/minovsky generators so it was rather interesting to see a near limitless reactor used to power such overly powered suits. As I said earlier it was a fun ride. Overall I enjoyed Season 2 more then 1 as the story was a lot darker and actually made more sense then Season 1's. Was it right for the Gundam Franchise? As much as I preach that I think AU is killing the Gundam franchise this one I think did more good. Talking with other Gundam fans, who like me are die hard UC fans, I've come to notice that this one had something that all Gundam fans liked and actually did more to stabilize the fan base and keep the franchise alive. Sadly though it really didn't have the impact I would of liked it to have. I had high hopes for this one, most of which were dashed in the first season and the second did little to redeem it in my eyes but it was still good. As a whole 00 gets a 6 out of 10, above average but lacking true content that could of made it so much better.

The biggest disappointment of the movie - Sigh, why does this not surprise me? We seriously need to get you a girl

We got plenty of that in Arizona, I'd send you some if I could because I seriously want some freaking clouds and rain (god I hate this state).