Tenburn's Reviews

A Mindset And A Pinnacle: Midwest Vapefest 2010 In Review

Aug 222010

Post Theme Song:
Frank Black – The Hostess With The Mostest dedicated to Spikey

Hey There,

I am going to be lazy and steal pictures later as people put them up. Right now I just wanted to get these thoughts down before they are gone forever like a summer romance.

My participation in Vapefest this time was confined to a small window in a web browser. Thanks to the genuine good nature of the live participants, us prisoners resigned to viewing the festivities through the camera of a Google employee’s laptop were kept amused. All manner of attendee stopped by to say hi, translate the hard to hear things, and show us cool things people brought. Prizes were handed out. You could tell an effort was made to include as many people as possible in the rampant gift giving. Even us “onliners” got to win. I won a few things, including a documentary on the future career prospects of paid convention models. Experts in the vaping industry were on site in full force. And much drinking and laughing made its way to my netbook screen.

Watching the events transpire made me think about how rapidly the whole community has grown as a whole in the past three years. Early on it was a handful of early adopters raving about the new thing from China on Youtube. A year later it was the rise of the big battery mod. A year later safer chemistry, voltage boosters, regulators, etc. Not to mention the ongoing legal battles and countless hours put in by people that know they are saving lives. And best of all, they are what I call folk. All walks of life. People that were not content to simply roll over and play dead when big money interests and pharmaceutical shills like ASH tried to take away our salvation.

Brand new vapers, people that just walked in off the street got hooked up with starter kits, and open arms. We are a passionate lot.

Top it off with the Vapefest write-up on STL Today, The most unbiased and well written e-cig story ever done by a traditional media source, and you could feel that this was the moment when everything changed. When things changed for the better forever.

I predict four times the turnout next time. I am being conservative.

Luvya,

Technology: PV Tech Predictions From An Expert

Technology, Vaping

Aug 162010

The Nuck Fist Pack in blue. This is the one I’d get.

Post Theme Song:
NOFX – Thank God It’s Monday

Hello There!

Nuck of Fist Pack fame http://www.fistpacks.com has made some startlingly logical conclusions on the direction tech will take in the personal vaporizer (PV) market. His predictions are based on what has happened (we call that persistence), and the way things are trending now. You can read the original article HERE (pops) on Vaper’s Forum. Here is the quoted text:

During my vacation I’ve been spending a lot of time contemplating the current state of ecigs and tinkering around. The question that constantly pops up is what will be the direction ecig technology will take.

During the early days the Chinese designers set the atty resistance to control how much current the badly overstressed batteries they used could handle. There was a fixation with making them look like real cigs and that unfortunately led to the problems of higher resistance atties than were useful.

The modders responded by using better, larger batteries and increasing the power using multiple batteries in series. At first it was raw, uncontrolled power that left the user at the mercy of the battery cycle to control the power.

To solve the problem of consistency, controlled power was added and has become very popular. I know there are people that still think raw battery power is good enough. They’re wrong . The quality of the vape, hit after hit, is ultimately the deciding factor and managed power is inevitable for all mods.

The current state of the market has seen numerous mods using linear regulators to control the power. It’s cheap and easy and it works well. The problem is that it’s also bulkier, highly inefficient and removes the ability to easily add a charging circuit to the mod.

Boosting solves these problems but there is still the problem of cost and that fact that we have to boost voltages quite high in order to match the higher resistance of the atties to generate the power that will make the atty operate at its optimal level.

Enter the LR atties. I’ve never been a fan because I thought they were a band-aid solution to the problem of managed power. A cheap way to feel like you’re getting enough power that ignored the underlying issue. The user is still at the mercy of the battery cycle. What I never considered was that LR atties finally set the resistance to match the power source. It allows the voltage of a single battery to be sufficient to fully drive the atomizer.

I’ve come to the conclusion that LR atties are the obvious choice for becoming the standard for all ecigs down the road, particularly as battery technology continues to improve. The standardization of the resistance for all atty models means the power source becomes universal and users will select the atty model based on whatever their personal criteria at the moment is. It may be size, cart size, air mixture, etc.

The next step will be LR atties paired with cheap and efficient buck-boost technology. This will allow the mod to give a strong, consistent hit throughout the battery cycle for every cycle of the batteries entire life. By pairing the proper battery with this, you remove the constant early death of batteries that we currently see with most mods. It will also lead to permanent batteries that are unstressed and last the entire lifespan they were designed for.

More sophisticated mods controlled by a microprocessor that can detect and adapt the power based on fluctuations of the atomizer resistance will make an appearance. The Pulse is even adding the ability to control the power curve of the vape to front load the heating.

So quick recap of my prediction for the coming year:

* All atties will be a uniform resistance in the range 1.5 to 1.7 ohm
* Newer mods will use buck-boost circuits to manage the levels between 3.x and 4.0v with 3.7-3.8 considered the “sweet spot”.
* Microprocessors will begin to appear with increasing frequency.
* Permanent or semi-permanent batteries will become more common

I should make note that the reason we have LR atties at all is due to the ideas and implementation of Cisco. He was the first to understand the limitations and to come up with a solution. The industry being what it is, his ideas were quickly cloned and the market flooded with imitations but credit is due and our thanks are definitely owed to the creator. He was also the first to raise the bar by designing microprocessor controlled power. His contributions have been understated in our community. (note: I couldn’t have said it better myself. Cisco is the reason we have a lot of nice things.)

All in all, the refinement of the vape at its most fundamental level is inevitable. It’s a great time to be a vaper.

It’s rare that I read things of this nature from anyone about anything, and not detect the hint of “hopeful bias” they have for their pet favorites. A posting this balanced is a rare and beautiful thing. Thanks Nuck.

Luvya,

Fight Fungus, Build a Bat House

News

Aug 092010

Gavin Castleton – Beetlemeet

Since 2006, a frigid fungus called Geomyces destructans has killed over one million bats from nine different bat species by giving them milk mustaches.

It does the body Death.

It’s called White Nose Syndrome (WNS) and its been described as one of the worst wildlife crises in North America. Apparently, the fungus produces what looks like a milk mustache on these sleeping bats, making them wake from from their hibernation in the dead of winter. Upon their arousal, they realize it is indeed not a milk mustache on their face and they must now find other food to eat. But, a nice tasty grub is hard to find under the frost of a North American winter, and the unsuspecting Chiroptera starve.

Ladies and gentleman, this is a travesty. We need to educate these poor creatures about safe hibernation because the sad truth is (while we sometimes trek inside caves and maybe carry fungus on us) White Nose Syndrome is spread primarily through bat-to-bat interaction.

What’s more, bats eat their weight in insects every night. That means there are 2.4 million pounds of creepy crawly per year that are not getting eaten. Literally tons of mosquitos and all manner of foul creatures all because the bats don’t know. They don’t know about the bat houses.

Because bird cottages are so last winter.

If more bats practiced safe-hibernation, sleeping together wouldn’t be so deadly. Plus, then we can get close and do this.

Oh, yes. Brushie.

No Kidding,

-Boomy

Long Term Review: Blue Mist Vaping Caramel Tobacco

Vaping

Aug 062010

That’s 150ml of Blue Mist Vaping’s Caramel Tobacco next to a Super T Manufacturing Super Six (that I designed, ask Dave) with two adapters chained, and a BE112 atomizer.

Post Theme Song:
Fountains of Wayne – Red Dragon Tattoo

First of all, pay attention here. If someone ever offers a “long term review” on an e-juice, pay attention. Taste-buds across the board are varied on favorites, but you’ll notice a very ry4-ish pattern when it comes to long term favorites. Lots of people love that original “Marbro/molasses” thing they started with. So it’s no surprise that other “candy/tobacco” favorites have ALWAYS been in vogue. Hilton? 555 Express? Candy Tobacco.

So, I said I would vape nothing but Blue Mist Vaping‘s Caramel Tobacco in 24mg nic, VG, with extra flavoring. Not bored yet. Love it. This is the first e-juice I have found that is more enjoyable and more loveable than sweet ry4. And it is such a simple combination. It is just done amazingly well. The base tobacco flavoring is divine. The caramel is thick. The balance is perfect. This is wondrous. I could vape this fovever and never get bored. This vape beats ry4. For me. It might for you.

To be clear, I am saying that as an ex-cigarette smoker, this particular e-juice from this particular vendor is so ungodly satisfying, and so amazingly well done, that I can’t imagine vaping anything else at this time. I think I’ve actually found “my brand”. Bravo Blue Mist Vaping. If it doesn’t become legend, it is at least an instant classic.

Luvya,

Green Blanky Review: Super T Manufacturing's Precise P18 18650 mod

Vaping

Aug 022010

Post Theme Song
The Pixies – Alec Eiffel

The idea when starting this review was to compare this incredible mod from Super T Manufacturing (clicky) against the 80 dollar Puresmoker (clicky) Prodigy V3. Understanding full well that the V3 costs 80 bucks, and I threw down 160 bucks to be quite literally the first guy in line for this sucker. Because of that, I took my sweet time using the device for over a week to make damn sure I wasn’t still under the effects of newness syndrome. Add the fact that I’ve been nothing but an unabashed Super T fan since my first T1. There’s a little bias there to overcome. Because of this I’ll give you a straight “value” verdict beforehand:

If you read back through my vaping reviews, you’ll notice I straight up said that the Puresmoker Prodigy V3 was excellent. In fact, it’s so excellent it’s the only mod I know of that can compete with the Super T P18. It’s made of stainless steel, and has the perfect bottom button location for big battery mods (more on that later). It’s well engineered, excellently finished, and has a great button location, and button action. If you are talking pure value? NOTHING on this earth touches the Puresmoker Prodigy V3. Period. Get you one. Why this over the Super T Manufacturing P18? I’ll explain. Even if you are an 18650 vaper already, and you have TEN of them, the 17670 from AW is excellent. It’s 1600mAH. That’s more than enough to last 1 day. You swap that battery every day and you are set. Plus they are seven bucks cheaper than the truly incredible AW 18650′s. Are they exactly as good? Assuming LR atomizers, no. I’m sorry. After 12 hours, you’ll feel the drop-off. At that point, the AW 18650 is probably halfway through where you are going to feel drop-off. However, it’s not that bad. With the 17670, it isn’t like the steep cliff dropoff you get with the AW 18650. You can usually limp home and change the battery with plenty of vapor left. That, and mere mortals to vaping that aren’t ex-HighVolt refuges won’t have any problem. Even if you have to spend 40 bucks on 4 new AW 17670′s, the V3 is still a better overall value. HOWEVER…..

Do you want the best at any cost? Because that’s what we are talking about here. OF COURSE the new Corvette ZR1 is a better value at 120k than the Ferrari 599GTB Fiorano and has almost identical stats while costing 220,000 dollars less. But is it going to feel as good as a daily driver? No. I’m sorry. Is it going to be as easy to drive? No. I’m sorry. Fit and finish?

Forget it. Even if they nail the exact same time around a track (and probably will), the Ferrari is three times more car. And that’s the kind of comparison you can make between the V3 and the P18.

Lets look at the widths.

Notice how the P18 while taking a battery with 1000 more mAH isn’t very much thicker than the 80 dollar cheaper V3. Notice how the thick as hell GGTS (the brass one) isn’t even in the game at all. While being made of brass and aluminum, the GGTS with an 18650 setup is noticeably heavily than both the V3 and the P18. I’d imagine the pure aluminum GGTS is lighter. But we aren’t talking about a huge difference here. All three are more than manageable with their big battery setups. Still, because of the circumference and weight distribution, the V3 and the P18 feel about identical in the hand as far as weight is concerned. Operationally, there’s no difference in feel where heft is concerned. It’s spooky. The GGTS feels like a log in comparison.

Lets look at fit and finish:

Now, I’m not including the GGTS in this. Quite simply, it’s the “Swiss Army Vape”. It’s made of tarnishing brass and aluminum, and it can’t compete in this arena. One week with a GGTS and it will no longer be shiny. I can say it was polished like a mirror when I received it, but it simply can’t compete with the stainless steel of the V3 and P18. If you want lazy, you want stainless steel.

*There’s not a huge difference when you are talking about the surface finish between the V3 and P18. The metal treatment is raw stainless steel, and very well done on both with a slight nod to the P18 for a majestically perfect satin finish, and my V3 being very slightly behind.

*The V3 has a “top cap” that has been accused of looking somewhat “phallic”. I think this is an unfair judgement. It’s a great looking um, unit. Shut up. I’m saying grow the hell up. It’s a fine looking mod. However, top caps aren’t easy to pull off. I’d have been much happier with the internal precisely machined threads of the P18. Oh, and those threads are HUGE. You aren’t so worried about cross-threading your cap accidentally on the P18. It’s a worry with the top cap on the V3. Still, I doubt it’s common. The threads on the V3, while not being as robust and precise as the ones on the P18, are more than adequate and better than any prior Prodigy version. And you’ll be using that top cap to replace your battery. I’ll explain.

*The button on the V3 is a fantastic lockable affair. However, you will have situations where you’ll go to unlock the button lock and end up unscrewing the entire bottom from the body. Happened to me a lot. So, you’ll do what I did and tighten up the bottom as much as you can so you don’t accidentally unscrew the whole thing when you go to unlock your button. This necessitates unscrewing the top cap to replace your battery. You have none of these issues on the P18. The button assembly is half body, half button cap. No active lock, just a passive one. No lock to worry about. The P18 design is superior. It wont go off in a pocket. You don’t have to care about a lock. HOWEVER… Some people want an active lock. From the short research I’ve done, the people that want an active lock carry their PV’s in purses and not front pockets. Hint Hint.

*When talking about precision in manufacturing, Dave at Super T wasn’t just bragging when he called this thing “The Precise”. The machining and the tolerances on parts isn’t just great, it’s impossible to notice a flaw with the human eye. That’s the kind of quality you are paying for. While not as good as the Precise, the V3 is no slouch. Things aren’t as tight and perfect, but they are still better than anything else in the sub 100 dollar mod market by far.

*The P18 does NOT have a visible “juice well”.

Manufacturers took to putting a recessed well around the atomizer connector to capture leaking juice so it didn’t drip down all over your hand. The V3 has a veritable MOAT surrounding it’s connector. The P18 does not. HOWEVER…. It’s there. It’s just under the bottom of the atomizer when it’s screwed in. There is a juice catch area, it’s just obscured by clever machining. So you don’t have the ugliness of a “juice catcher” on the top of your mod. If you are a disciple of the “juice flick” where you flick your PV down in one fluid motion (picked up this habit with the Prodigy V1 actually) you won’t be disappointed with the P18. It’s the best of both worlds. You get your juice catch, but you don’t have to look at it. I seriously over-drip atomizers, and I haven’t gotten juice down the side of my P18 yet. Once again, just a great design.

It’s simply the best right now for big battery 510 mods for low resistance atomizers.

Final Verdict: The V3 is a better value. But if you have to have the best, there’s nothing better right now than the Precise P18. Period.

Now, as for the bottom button being the optimal location for big battery mods, it’s a no brainer really. You have the weight of the mod to help you with the button. Gravity itself makes a great bottom button much easier and natural than any other button. On lighter mods I can understand the disinterest in having a bottom button, but with a big battery mod it’s really nice. They are naturally heavier and longer mods, so it feels better than anything else. Wait for it….. HOWEVER…..

While reviewing both of these, I still found time to pick up my GGTS. While not optimal, there’s just something about that button position with the magnet spring option. I can’t help but hope that Imeo hops on the stainless steel bandwagon, and makes an all stainless GGTS. I’d have to get one. I still maintain that while not affordable, and not as good as the V3 or P18 with big batteries, the GGTS is a fantastic mod if only for its versatility. If there was a GGTS in stainless, and I could only have one mod for the rest of my life, it would be a stainless steel GGTS. No question.

Luvya,

Presidential Review: Obama

People

Jul 222010

Obama enjoying a Newport Cigarette

So, I find myself in a position to talk about the President. This is rare for me because I’m not thoroughly convinced that the “President” of these here states united is nothing more than a heatsink. I mean, Bush in the depths of his ignorance seemed to be nothing more than a fallguy for the morons at the American Enterprise Institute. Typical Gov’t thinktank that has thoughts that have no basis in reality, and just charges forward with their ill conceived notions with no logical test they could have done ahead of time, and no problem wagering the lives of poor American children that just wanted to make some money for college.

That’s the problem with reality. Our reality. The big problem with it. I live in a world of tech. In my world, we do this thing called “end to end testing” before we roll anything out because we don’t WANT things to blow up. There appears to be an intellectual laziness in the corridors of power. They’ll just keep throwing things until something sticks.

Obama is someone I do not envy. As a rule, I fear fame. Fame is like a last ditch low-hanging-fruit effort at success that only the least intelligent amongst us pursue once they realize that outside of making people laugh or gasp, they have nothing to contribute to society. They have given up, or in some sick homage to narcissism, have decided it is all they have left to lean on. You have to really question the mental faculties of anyone that has decided they want to make a living in the public eye on purpose. There’s a great little youtube vid that says what I’m trying to say better than I could:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRpr6w3nU-8

Who the hell would want that?

That’s how America sees you. You are the crossing guards. The hall monitors. With your sociopathic narcissistic need to impose your vision of reality onto all of us.

I mean, there’s the bulk of America that just doesn’t care all that much. We don’t want to be leaders. It’s just sometimes hard to take someone seriously that would WANT to be one in certain circumstances. That turns it all into another sporting event like the Olypmics, or NASCAR. That’s why you have the louder types types involved with the tea parties working overtime to pretend they aren’t just hating on democrats (and failing miserably), and you have the nutball insane hippy douchebags on the left trying their damndest to back up, and equivocate everything Obama does. It’s sad and pathetic.

Meanwhile, you have this ordained juggling expert. That’s Obama. That’s his job. His job is to keep the attention focused where it needs to be while holding as much of it all together as possible while appeasing 10,000 special interest groups. That’s it. His reputation is credit. He is spending that credit trying his damndest to make as many people happy as possible at all times, while making token gestures to “pay off” the people that put him where he is.

That’s all any President has done since our last TRUE president, Ike Eisenhower. Do some quick math to make as many of the tens of thousands of angry people screaming for his head as happy as possible.

We got smarter. We’ve been smarter for a while. If you still think of America in blue and red, you are part of a shrinking majority.

The same bullshit circus isn’t going to work too much longer. A lot of us know the special interests call the ball. And a lot of us were driven into figuring that out because of outrage exhaustion. I figured it out when I didn’t recognize my party anymore.

So,

How is Obama doing? Great. He’s playing his part perfectly. He’s Zaphod Beeblebrox Lite. He is making the crazier people in the tea parties froth at the mouth, and he’s making the ultra-liberal hippynuts sing. He’s a perfect President for our times.

You have to give serious credit to his handlers, backers, and speech writers.

Luvya,

Metric Mechanic: Why (if you have the patience) you should own an older BMW

Cars

Jul 202010

Let me tell you about sex. Sex is simply some physical whatever that happens sometimes and makes babies. When you evolve past that, there’s where you find your visceral joy. I know mine. Old BMW inline-6 engines. And there’s some love there. Let me tell you a story….

I love this car

The elusive best looking car BMW ever made. Honestly. The only other cars they’ve made close to this amount of awesome are the 88 M5, the M1, and the M6 version of this car. GOOD LUCK finding one of those that isn’t destroyed. I’ve tried. It’s not hard to find a 635CSi in great shape. People just love them so much, like they love their dog or their children. This is a car that inspires that level of love. And lets talk about what that means for the potential driver:

1) 8:1 compression engine almost MADE for boost. You will not find a more suitable engine for forced induction in our reality. I’m sorry. It’s a special engine that is perfect for a forced induction setup.

2) Sexy car. Even if you go “low brow” and pick up an 80′s 5 series, you already got more sexy than you can buy at a dealership. Women have that John Hughes romantic crap burned into their roms. You show up with a classic 80′s BMW or Porsche, they’ll think you are clever and classic. If you are pushing 480hp with a TCD Stage 2 turbo kit, that’s just gravy and EASY with this particular engine.

So yeah. I’m incredibly impressed with the engine head that Metric Mechanic made for my rare and awesome car. No KIDDING I am. The cam is absolutely amazing. Driving a car with even a mildly aggressive camshaft is confusing at first if you are used to traditional engine behavior. Most engines are set up to have moderate to strong low end torque. The idea of the camshaft is to move that torque around so you have more usable power in the upper rpm range where you’d normally be anyway if driving in a spirited fashion. This is accomplished with M30 engines by giving the intake valve more lift duration. The Metric Mechanic sport camshaft gives it 276 degrees of lift compared to the stock 260. They also work some magic with the shape of the lobes. The end result is tiny bit less horsepower and torque over a very aggressive cam like a Shrick 285, but you keep a lot more of your low end power. A lot of upgraded camshafts make you suffer with a huge power loss at low rpm that makes daily driving a huge pain in the ass. With their camshaft, there’s a noticeable difference at low rpm, but it’s not too painful. Pairing this camshaft with a lighter flywheel makes for a revvy powerful engine that’s just disgustingly fun to play with.

With my otherwise unmodified engine, really needing a custom spark and injection map, running the stock 24 year old engine program, the Metric Mechanic engine head is saving me (rough estimate) 4 miles per gallon that I’d rather be spending on rubber. It’s incredible. Their M30 head design is so advanced, I’m already seeing savings at the pump. They aren’t cheap. But this is really a case of getting what you pay for. Their head isn’t just a better performer, it’s a rethought design with upgraded components that are much more durable than stock. They’ve got a customer that has put 500k on one of their engines.

3) Not being every other guy with an M3. You can forgive the rich guys with M5′s. They had enough money to spend on being awesome. But any M3 owner (I was one) simply wasn’t smart enough to understand how easy it is to boost M30 engine’d BMW’s. It’s almost not fair. (However, the M3 is a fantastic car. Just too common here).

Recently I test drove a newer M6. It felt HUGE compared to my e24. MASSIVE in weight as it lumbered through corners like a cement truck with a flat tire. It sounded incredible. It had amazing power and torque. But it also felt like an army of tiny robots was keeping the numb feeling handling together. And I’m sure it out-handles my old e24, and it destroys it on paper, but I can’t get over how not fun this 100,000 dollar car was to drive. I imagine it was a bunch of little things over time that added up and made their cars feel more distant and uninspired.

I love my old car. With a metric mechanic M30 head, a lighter flywheel, some custom fuel and spark, and a little forced induction, you’ll have a smile on your face that a sander couldn’t remove. Driving a souped up piece of automotive history for a fraction of the cost of a new car is always great, and very inexpensive if you go the M30 engine route.

Luvya,

Because Only 31 are Allowed!

News

Jul 182010

Billy Ward and His Dominoes – Stardust

Like Crayola, Baskin-Robbins likes to name stuff. Except Baskin-Robbins didn’t have the foresight to realize that, eventually, naming stuff just gets too fun and you aren’t supposed to limit yourself or else you end up giving up great flavors that no one could possibly hate.

Next time, Baskin-Robbins, take a page from Crayola and have your Macaroni and Cheese while still enjoying the sweet visual burst of Mango Tango. That way, you only need to retire flavors people could actually live without.

The Milky Way of assorted flavors is a beautiful thing. But, since 32 flavors of ice cream would cause the fun of the world to implode on itself into a black hole of creamy goodness, here is what we all will soon be missing:

ICED: Caramel Praline Cheesecake:

Look at that. Disgusting.

ICED: Campfire S’mores:

Because nostalgia is for sissies.

ICED:Apple Pie a La Mode

Go back to Cracker Barrel, loser.

ICED: Superfudge Truffle

That there is the Devil's Food.

ICED: French Vanilla

It's French. Should have done this a long time ago.

No Kidding,

-Boomy

Sure, That's the REAL Story

Entertainment News

Jul 162010

01 Everything Hits At Once

Call me a cynic, but sometimes I really think that the media just makes things up to get people to read what they are writing. I guess I could be wrong. I mean, all they are there for is to tell us the truth.

That being said, I am going to go out on a limb here and suggest that maybe Mel Gibson is just an alcoholic idiot. Let’s be honest people. How many of us have an uncle, father, grandfather etc. who gets drunk and acts like a racist, woman hating rant machine? Think about it.

Ok, disclaimer. I do not support threatening and possibly beating people. I also think that telling a woman to blow you or you’ll burn down the house is on the rude side, and not too productive. I’m not sure most women would feel too amorous after that proposal.

Seems to me that Mr. Gibson lost more than a partner when he divorced his first wife. Perhaps she got his sensibility and brains in the divorce settlement? Regardless, the dude has been showing his ass for a while.

Now, my point in bringing this all up? I have no doubt that as time goes on people are going to realize that Oksana is not the poor innocent victim she plays. I think women have the ability to manipulate even the calmest man into being irrational. Now, before you think I am sexist, just realize that I love a lot of women, I respect women, and I actually am a woman. I know what I am capable of. I have driven more than one male to drastic points just by being capable of thinking ten thoughts at once. Throw in some malicious intent, blackmail, babies, dead careers, shitloads of money, and an alcoholic and what do you get?

Well, we all know now. Thanks for answering that question for us Gibby.

I’m curious how many of you wasted your time listening to Mel Gibson pacing and sputtering and panting into a phone at a woman who is entirely too calm (“let’s see…. if I act really really calm he’ll really loose his shit, I’ll look innocent when I release the tapes, and the publicity will make me soar through the heavens on a unicorn of sunshine and sparkles). Did anyone else find that suspect? Entrapment my friends. Where are the beginning and endings of the conversations anyway? Sneaky Sneaky Oksana.

If you found out this woman was a raging maniac normally, would you be surprised? I wouldn’t.

Now, for a encore I will tell you that I also wouldn’t be surprised if Rihanna beat the ever living shit out of Chris Brown from time to time as well. She was accused of beating him with high heels. HIGH HEELS! I know men are usually bigger and stronger than women, except for Richard Simmons. I could take him any day.

But, I have no doubt a woman can inflict misery on a man. I choose that word specifically for you Stephen King fans. Just because you are smaller it doesn’t mean you can’t cause some serious pain. Think of all those ball-pounding toddler, baseball bat, pinata montages on those home video shows. Who likes seeing that anyway? I don’t even have a set and those videos send me into a protective stance of my imaginary gonads.

You see, men might be stronger, but they are also better at getting caught.

Initial Thoughts: Occult Academy

Anime

Jul 122010

Post Theme Song
Frank Black – Lake Of Sin

I normally don’t review an anime this early. There have only been two episodes. Here are some initial thoughts.

Drawing style in opening was incredibly stylish,

The drawing style in the show is delightfully scooby doo sometimes while sharp and beautiful. It has an almost Illustrator quality to it at times.

Humor is slight and brilliant, kinda sneaks up on you.

Took a big chance on this one. I normally avoid anything that looks like it might be another school anime.

Some of the action sequences feature genuine loony toons style physics and accompanying sound effects.

While being smoothly moving, the action is nonstop. Timing the show to music means that the action flows at a set pace that’s very fun.

The strings and piano music is perfectly timed in the tradition of classic horror.

Plot points and devices are done subtle yet smart, snuck up on you stylish and vivid.

I’ve never seen a show like this.

Very rarely do you get a chance to catch one of the truly great ones in the first few episodes. Usually it happens later. Most of them have a rocky start. That’s why I usually give a show 3 or 4 episodes before I pass judgment. Sometimes though it’s a Haruhi Suzumiya. It’s a Baccano. It’s a Black Lagoon. You just know from the first episode, it’s going to be brilliant. This is that kind of show.

I’ll leave with a few thoughts.

1) Of the brand new anime coming out, I have never heard such an amazing score. It strikes you near the end that this is a completely original score. Strings and Piano written just for this show.

2) Of the brand new anime, you can NOT detect CGI in this one outside of the opening credits. Otherwise, it never pops its obvious head. This show looks completely hand drawn. If you told me it was, I might believe you.

3) Best first episode ending in history. You’ll see.

Start watching this. Now.

Luvya,

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