Believe it or not, I had very little interest in dolls and action figures as a kid.
Halloween is over and, like a small-time addict, I'm already skirting my "No Christmas until after Thanksgiving" rule by sneaking peeks at Hallmark's ornament display and listening to my beloved Year with Frog and Toad soundtrack. (There's a very sweet Christmas carol at the end, which is okay to listen to early if it's part of a play!)
Really, the way this summer has gone you can't blame me if I'm already in the Christmas spirit, by which I mean TOYS! Oh, the toys I have acquired this summer, capped off yesterday by my box from Japan, that slooooooow box on that slooooooow boat, finally arriving! In celebration, I present to you [approximately] all of my new toys acquired since July.
It's, um, kind of more than a responsible grown-up needs.
::insert standard disclaimer about lighting and using the old camera for most of the work shots here::
And now, in roughly chronological order:
So hey, here's a sight you regular readers haven't seen in a while: my desk! It's looking very bare in this picture (well, the walls are, anyway) since it's the week after Anime Expo and I'm getting ready to redecorate. Notice the toys and art strewn about.
The left side in progress as I try to decide what to put in the corner. The kleenex box still has last year's chess theme in place.
Roxas helped decorate while Mickey supervised. (Because he's the King, you see. Also, his arms aren't long enough or posable enough to put in pushpins.)
The final wall. Would you believe I stitched this together from three photos? The seams are practically invisible, I know!
I have been told variously that I have created merely a mess or complete color chaos (assuming my co-workers noticed I had redecorated at all), but I assure you it all makes perfect, organized sense to me, so there.
The rock concert made its move to the desk without much trouble. I have a mini taiko drum and some other instruments from the nendoroid culture festival set that I keep meaning to bring in and forgetting, but I'll remember one of these days. Light, L, and Near joined the spectators.
...Well, I'm not sure if Light's there to spectate or dispense justice. Posable!Miku looks rather alarmed at the prospect, and, though he's not in this photo, L is talking intently on his cellphone, possibly about Kira and possibly about desert.
The right side. That One Piece picture cracks me up every time I look at it, and considering it's been four months, that's a pretty good track record.
Roxas and Mickey have now taken to dueling with keyblades, while there's a before and after thing going on with Izaya and Shizuo on either side of the white board.
I keep meaning to figure out a way to make some sort of boat for the One Piece figures to differentiate their side of the "water" from the Aria figures, but haven't come up with anything yet. I did, however, buy a lucky bamboo plant with a dolphin of the side of the pot (not pictured).
During this summer, there were about a million yellow and white butterflies in this one grassy field I frequently pass on my lunchtime walks, and I decided I'd try and get a picture of one.
You would not believe how difficult it can be to get a butterfly to stay still, especially when there are no convenient nearby flowers for them to rest on. This photo was pure luck.
In August, I received the next two figures in my Strong World set, Usopp and Robin. Since the rock concert was at work, I took the opportunity to clean off the mantle and make it look nice. (This lasted about a month.)
That pile in the corner is all the heads and accessories not currently on display.
Hats for everyone!
My soy beans managed to produce a pod.
And my tomato plants were doing well, too.
The eventual fate of several tomatoes. Mmmmm.
Despite the fact that my apartment faces east (and therefore if I see the sunrise, it's usually because I've stayed up way past my bedtime again) and the timestamp on these was about 9 pm, I still spent several minutes trying to figure out if this was the sun or the moon.
...It's the moon, obviously. Sure looks pretty, doesn't it?
Meanwhile at work, the deliciously interchangeable nature of my nendoroids began to rear its mismatched head. (Except for Light and Near, every figure in this photo is has been switched around. It's noticeable to me...)
New flowers in the vase on the mantle meant more photos. Despite still not being very good at lighting or getting little details properly in focus, I find I'm really into toy photography. I blame Tomopop.
Zoro, intrepid jungle explorer!
When I went to see Joseph at the Playhouse Theater, they had up a stand you could stick your head over and have your picture taken. Somehow, I think I was a little bigger than the intended target audience. For one, I had to move the step stool out of the way.
Natsume! I should really come up with a better background for him than my DVDs (though I did at least put him in front of the xxxHolic box), but until then he's chilling here while Zoro and Sanji attempt to work together for just ten seconds. (Really, that's what they're doing. It's from the Davy Back Fight arc, which I expect all of two of you to know.)
We had a huge number of storms during August and September, and this one knocked out the power for a good couple hours. I was bored and didn't want to go to sleep yet, so I ended up taking pictures of toys by candlelight. Didn't really work, but what the hell. Here's Natsume with candle-lighting in the front and lightning-lighting in the back.
Ominous!
Zoro, intrepid cave explorer!
Luffy's shadow here totally looks like Shanks when he's giving him the hat. Coincidence, or fridge brilliance?
You probably already know I love Iowa's clouds, but we've also been getting some really beautiful sunsets lately. This photo was taken at the mall, of all places.
And here's one of the same sunset a bit later after I got home.
Me about to be mauled by a bear at Judy's wedding. In retrospect, I maybe should have gotten a photo in before the wedding and reception and not after when I was all tired, but oh well.
Since I was in the Quad Cities anyway, I thought I'd visit the Niabi Zoo while I was there. I always see the sign for it when I drive to Ohio.
It wasn't a very big zoo, and a lot of the enclosures were still stuck in the eighties (bars and chainlink, which is a major pain to take photos through) with not enough money to renovate everything at once, but they still had some nice exhibits, like this walkabout.
Oh, god.
Okay, so I like to support zoos, and I've been in a few lorikeet landings before. They're fun, and I usually get a seed stick and feed a couple birds and take pictures and all is well with the world.
My first clue that this would be different should have been when they didn't have the seed sticks but only sugar water stuff. As you will know if you have ever been in a lorikeet landing, the birds love the sugar water stuff much more than the seed sticks, but the sticks are more photogenic and allow you to keep a small amount of distance between you and the birds, hence my preference.
My second clue that this would be different should have been when I realized that no one else was inside the enclosure except the keeper on duty since it was a rather slow day at the zoo. Hence, not too many visitors had been in with sugar water stuff.
My third clue was when the second I entered, about eight birds immediately swarmed me.
That clue, I picked up on. And had the presence of mind to ask the keeper to film. For posterity, you know.
Roar!
For whatever reason (I'm guessing cheap and durable yet fun theming), there were a bunch of metal dinosaur skeletons over by the koi pond. This t-rex was looming over the fence.
Sanji showed up in October, finishing out the crew if not the collection. (I'm still waiting for the suit versions of Zoro and Chopper to come out. I'm skipping Franky, Brook, and shirt!Nami.)
I had to take off about half of Usopp's accessories and finally let Zoro sheathe his sword so that I could line up all the bases next to each other. And poor Chopper looks so small off to the side. Everyone's lined up by join date at the moment, but I'll probably move them around later so Chopper's not on the end.
You know what, I'm getting kind of tired and I still want to watch Jon Stewart report on the news someone else is reporting, so I'll actually break this off here. To be continued...!
Really, the way this summer has gone you can't blame me if I'm already in the Christmas spirit, by which I mean TOYS! Oh, the toys I have acquired this summer, capped off yesterday by my box from Japan, that slooooooow box on that slooooooow boat, finally arriving! In celebration, I present to you [approximately] all of my new toys acquired since July.
It's, um, kind of more than a responsible grown-up needs.
::insert standard disclaimer about lighting and using the old camera for most of the work shots here::
And now, in roughly chronological order:
So hey, here's a sight you regular readers haven't seen in a while: my desk! It's looking very bare in this picture (well, the walls are, anyway) since it's the week after Anime Expo and I'm getting ready to redecorate. Notice the toys and art strewn about.
The left side in progress as I try to decide what to put in the corner. The kleenex box still has last year's chess theme in place.
Roxas helped decorate while Mickey supervised. (Because he's the King, you see. Also, his arms aren't long enough or posable enough to put in pushpins.)
The final wall. Would you believe I stitched this together from three photos? The seams are practically invisible, I know!
I have been told variously that I have created merely a mess or complete color chaos (assuming my co-workers noticed I had redecorated at all), but I assure you it all makes perfect, organized sense to me, so there.
The rock concert made its move to the desk without much trouble. I have a mini taiko drum and some other instruments from the nendoroid culture festival set that I keep meaning to bring in and forgetting, but I'll remember one of these days. Light, L, and Near joined the spectators.
...Well, I'm not sure if Light's there to spectate or dispense justice. Posable!Miku looks rather alarmed at the prospect, and, though he's not in this photo, L is talking intently on his cellphone, possibly about Kira and possibly about desert.
The right side. That One Piece picture cracks me up every time I look at it, and considering it's been four months, that's a pretty good track record.
Roxas and Mickey have now taken to dueling with keyblades, while there's a before and after thing going on with Izaya and Shizuo on either side of the white board.
I keep meaning to figure out a way to make some sort of boat for the One Piece figures to differentiate their side of the "water" from the Aria figures, but haven't come up with anything yet. I did, however, buy a lucky bamboo plant with a dolphin of the side of the pot (not pictured).
During this summer, there were about a million yellow and white butterflies in this one grassy field I frequently pass on my lunchtime walks, and I decided I'd try and get a picture of one.
You would not believe how difficult it can be to get a butterfly to stay still, especially when there are no convenient nearby flowers for them to rest on. This photo was pure luck.
In August, I received the next two figures in my Strong World set, Usopp and Robin. Since the rock concert was at work, I took the opportunity to clean off the mantle and make it look nice. (This lasted about a month.)
That pile in the corner is all the heads and accessories not currently on display.
Hats for everyone!
My soy beans managed to produce a pod.
And my tomato plants were doing well, too.
The eventual fate of several tomatoes. Mmmmm.
Despite the fact that my apartment faces east (and therefore if I see the sunrise, it's usually because I've stayed up way past my bedtime again) and the timestamp on these was about 9 pm, I still spent several minutes trying to figure out if this was the sun or the moon.
...It's the moon, obviously. Sure looks pretty, doesn't it?
Meanwhile at work, the deliciously interchangeable nature of my nendoroids began to rear its mismatched head. (Except for Light and Near, every figure in this photo is has been switched around. It's noticeable to me...)
New flowers in the vase on the mantle meant more photos. Despite still not being very good at lighting or getting little details properly in focus, I find I'm really into toy photography. I blame Tomopop.
Zoro, intrepid jungle explorer!
When I went to see Joseph at the Playhouse Theater, they had up a stand you could stick your head over and have your picture taken. Somehow, I think I was a little bigger than the intended target audience. For one, I had to move the step stool out of the way.
Natsume! I should really come up with a better background for him than my DVDs (though I did at least put him in front of the xxxHolic box), but until then he's chilling here while Zoro and Sanji attempt to work together for just ten seconds. (Really, that's what they're doing. It's from the Davy Back Fight arc, which I expect all of two of you to know.)
We had a huge number of storms during August and September, and this one knocked out the power for a good couple hours. I was bored and didn't want to go to sleep yet, so I ended up taking pictures of toys by candlelight. Didn't really work, but what the hell. Here's Natsume with candle-lighting in the front and lightning-lighting in the back.
Ominous!
Zoro, intrepid cave explorer!
Luffy's shadow here totally looks like Shanks when he's giving him the hat. Coincidence, or fridge brilliance?
You probably already know I love Iowa's clouds, but we've also been getting some really beautiful sunsets lately. This photo was taken at the mall, of all places.
And here's one of the same sunset a bit later after I got home.
Me about to be mauled by a bear at Judy's wedding. In retrospect, I maybe should have gotten a photo in before the wedding and reception and not after when I was all tired, but oh well.
Since I was in the Quad Cities anyway, I thought I'd visit the Niabi Zoo while I was there. I always see the sign for it when I drive to Ohio.
It wasn't a very big zoo, and a lot of the enclosures were still stuck in the eighties (bars and chainlink, which is a major pain to take photos through) with not enough money to renovate everything at once, but they still had some nice exhibits, like this walkabout.
Oh, god.
Okay, so I like to support zoos, and I've been in a few lorikeet landings before. They're fun, and I usually get a seed stick and feed a couple birds and take pictures and all is well with the world.
My first clue that this would be different should have been when they didn't have the seed sticks but only sugar water stuff. As you will know if you have ever been in a lorikeet landing, the birds love the sugar water stuff much more than the seed sticks, but the sticks are more photogenic and allow you to keep a small amount of distance between you and the birds, hence my preference.
My second clue that this would be different should have been when I realized that no one else was inside the enclosure except the keeper on duty since it was a rather slow day at the zoo. Hence, not too many visitors had been in with sugar water stuff.
My third clue was when the second I entered, about eight birds immediately swarmed me.
That clue, I picked up on. And had the presence of mind to ask the keeper to film. For posterity, you know.
Roar!
For whatever reason (I'm guessing cheap and durable yet fun theming), there were a bunch of metal dinosaur skeletons over by the koi pond. This t-rex was looming over the fence.
Sanji showed up in October, finishing out the crew if not the collection. (I'm still waiting for the suit versions of Zoro and Chopper to come out. I'm skipping Franky, Brook, and shirt!Nami.)
I had to take off about half of Usopp's accessories and finally let Zoro sheathe his sword so that I could line up all the bases next to each other. And poor Chopper looks so small off to the side. Everyone's lined up by join date at the moment, but I'll probably move them around later so Chopper's not on the end.
You know what, I'm getting kind of tired and I still want to watch Jon Stewart report on the news someone else is reporting, so I'll actually break this off here. To be continued...!