Yes, after four plus years, I turned in my notice over two weeks ago and left my job with Astaro; it was an odd feeling saying goodbye to the place and realizing I would be the "new guy" once again. However, this is balanced out by the company I was headed to... Turbine, Inc., makers of Lord of the Rings Online.

The dream has come true; I've landed a job with a gaming company, a successful one at that. I'll be working as a web developer and have made it through my first week. While it is a game company, I've already seen the typical office shenanigans, politics, etc. After all, this is a company trying to make business, and business is always going on as usual. Still, there is a fundamental difference in the vibe of the office -- plenty of toys, lots of monitors, and very little overhead light.

Getting to Turbine was a long, strange ride; I had been considering a new job for a long time but never worked up the energy to find one. Last October, fate seemed to be nudging my immovable arse when a recruiter from Google rang me. Went through a few months of phone screens with different departments, but nothing more ever came from them.

Then in January, I was thrown for a loop when YouTube wanted to fly me out for an on-site interview. Score! Who wouldn't want to work for them; flew out and was treated to an interesting day. They had just moved into their new digs, which were quite impressive. The interviews went as expected; many obtuse logic/programming questions that really had little bearing on what I would actually be doing if I got the position.

When I was having lunch with the hiring manager, he asked me what sort of questions his team was asking. After he heard my answer, he paused briefly and said "Yeah... I don't think I could get hired here anymore." That sums up my feelings on most programming interviews these days; most of these questions are designed to show you just how small your intellectual dick is compared to the interviewer's. Flew back home and found out shortly after that they didn't want to pursue things further; I'll never know if it was because they felt my skills weren't up to snuff or if the fact they would have to relocate me tipped the scales against me.

Was quite crushed after that; would have loved to moved to California and worked in that building. Couldn't be down for too long though; a fire was burning in me, making me want to find something new to do. Threw my resume on Monster, hooked up with a recruiter, and started more phone screens. I applied to Turbine directly via Monster and had a phone screen with them soon after. Had two phone screens with Amazon also; that was an even odder process than what I had experienced with Google and YouTube. Seemed very disorganized.

Was brought in for an interview with Turbine and faced the most straightforward session I've had since... hell, I can't remember when. The questions were directly related to the position requirements; no cock and bull about ransom notes, big O notation, elaborate sorting schemes with no practical use. Came out feeling good, a feeling that was confirmed when they offered me the job.

The rest is now on-going history...

8 photos inside

Packed in with the limited edition DVD of the recent Green VS Red OVA was a special figure sculpted by PansonWorks. Dressed in a black jacket, the preview photos for the figure had fans drooling over the possibilities it might hold for the OVA itself. Sadly, the black jacket did not play into the OVA's story; you can check out my thoughts on the OVA for more details.

But, let's talk about the figure itself; clad in a black jacket and pants, this figure completes its wardrobe with an orange dress shirt and purple tie. The black gives Lupin that signature cat burglar look, but the orange and purple accents allows Lupin's devil-may-care attitude slip out a bit. What really drew my eye was the sculpt of the face; it's sharp, clean, and with all the right details that makes the figure look like it stepped out of the television.

I'm not a big fan of the logos they slapped onto the jacket though; the front bears a small bullet and circular Lupin logo on the left lapel. They are small, but I would have preferred a clean black jacket or a small dab of color in the lapel like a handkerchief or carnation. The back of the jacket is emblazoned with two smoking Walthers, the circular logo, and a few other details. Would have preferred this to appear on the figure's base, but you'll likely be displaying this head-on leaving this image hidden.

As for the base, Lupin's feet each bear two pegs that slot in easily but firmly into the solid black, circular base. The figure itself comes in two pieces; just push fit Lupin's torso at the waist and stand him up. Close-up, the arms have noticeable join lines; you can't remove the arms or pose them differently though. Stepping back, the lines look more like the folds of Lupin's jacket, so this shouldn't be a great distraction.

Overall, this is a nice, sizable PVC figure for one's Lupin collection. It towers over my other figures, but it remains in the box for now until I can rearrange things and give him a decent spot. Didn't spend much time snapping pics; the meat of this figure is the face sculpt. Tried to capture that as best I could. Enjoy!

Continue reading "Figure: PansonWorks Lupin the Third Green VS Red" »

Thought I would try something a bit different for this review. Let me know what you think of this experiment!

The TV series ending just wasn't enough for the world of Seed Destiny; Final Plus polishes up the final battle and adds a proper prologue for the series. There is barely any new material in the forty plus minute OVA. You can read my review if you wish, but I don't say much more about this title. You can sound off in the AoD forum, but I expect the discussion to be dominated by the usual detractors of the series.

Buy it at RightStuf.com

Haven't rushed to get this written, as there isn't much to write about this year's Anime Boston. Picked up my badge Thursday and spent most of Friday killing time in the dealer's room or catching some shows. There were no anime industry guests from Japan this year leaving only three Japanese bands as seasoning from the East. Only one of them had a panel, Luv and Response. Billed as a fashion oriented dance troupe, I knew they wouldn't be my cup o' tea but checked them out anyway.

The highlight of the panel was "D" admitting he was an otaku; the rest of the troupe chimed in and said he would routinely slip in fashion from Jojo's Bizarre Adventure. eLu admitted to visiting Tokyo Disneyland at least once a month. It was an amusing panel with some genuinely funny moments.

Caught some Beck, dubbed even, some Hell Girl, and Kaleido Star. Bought the Mon-sieur Bome sculpt of Takaya Noriko along with the remaining Japanese volumes of Emma. Basically, I was killing time until the tokyo pinsalocks concert.

Listened to some of their stuff on their MySpace but didn't know what to expect from their live show. They were setup in the ballroom, a small intimate setting. They went on close to 11PM and rocked my world; they put on an amazing live show and had a lot of fun with the crowd. They said they would be touring the US in October, and I'll definitely try to catch their show if they hit a local venue. Best I can describe them is to take Republica and Erasure, stick them in a blender, and then pitch their voices a few octaves higher.

Saturday was a first, as Jm joined me for her first anime convention. She's not really into it much, but she digs Emma and thought it was time to see what the hell I do one weekend every year. Since she wasn't pre-registered, she had to stand in line for two hours or so to get a badge. Stood in line with her most of the time; again, nothing on the schedule really piqued my interest. Bailed only at the last to head up to the AnimeOnDVD.com panel. She caught up with me there, and we went to lunch afterwards. Watched some Mushishi and killed some time in the dealer's room before trying to find the line for the Luv and Response and the pillows concert.

Line was huge and poorly managed; despite the line cock ups, we managed to get seated in the balcony area and settled in. L&R didn't impress me much; they had good choreography but too many distracting elements. Most notably, they had their videos playing on the jumbo screens while they were performing. This wouldn't be terrible except for the fact that they were doing the exact same routine as seen in the video. Maybe this is a cultural difference in how concerts work here and in Japan, but if you are live, I want to see something fresh, something I can't see on a screen.

I've heard the pillows before and knew they would put on a good show. Couldn't understand them half the time due to the acoustics, but they rocked hard and long even making Jm think about picking up some of their tunes. After the concert, we got some ice cream and made our way to the ADV panel. Nothing major announced there except what I was already expecting. All the titles they pulled from their site a month or so ago was due to licensing renegotiations. Titles are slowly finding their way back into production.

Overall, would have liked to have introduced Jm to the kind of con I really enjoy, one with actual anime industry guests from Japan. But, it was cool to spend the time with her and show her just how much costumed flesh there is milling about at one of these. As for the long registration lines on Friday, let's just say they cocked things up royally. Hopefully, they'll have learned their lesson and regroup in '09. Can't say the rhetoric from the officials in the AB forums have been encouraging though... Prove me wrong, guys!