Today is the 4th of July the day when America’s celebrate that day back in 1776 when the founding fathers told old King George where he could stick it, and so the United States of America was born.

Unfortunately because of the resent wildfires most all most all cities have either canceled or postponed the usual firework displays. Were I live the local display is put on by the local volunteer Fire Department. Most of them are either out fighting the wildfires or on high call alert because most of the CalFire guys who provide fire protection for the county are out on the fire. It’s the old trickle down theory at work.

So I get CG fireworks instead. The above picture is from SkyRockets 1.3. Its a pretty slick simulation with sound, smoke trails and stars. Luckily there is no virtual audience cause every now and one of the skyrockets goes off course and blows up on the ground.

Well with the year half over it’s time to look back and see how I’m doing on the New Year’s Resolutions.

1. A daily post on the blog. On the downside I missed a day early in the year cause a power outage and a couple of days when I went to Sukuracon. On the upside other then those four days it’s been all good with several days having double posts. So, this one goes in the win column.

2. Work on my Photgraphy more. Didn’t happen I got no excuses so NEXT!

3. Lose weight. Well I end up gaining I’m back up to 250 or so, another for the loss column.

4. Get the room more organized. Well except for the shelving for the girls haven’t made much headway. I’m planning to take a week off work soon so I may be able to salvage this one by the end of the year.

5. Work on learning Japanese. Another for the loss column ’nuff said.

6. Look for a new Job. Well I did have an interview for a different job with the company that I work for now but ended up with thanks but no thanks letter. Other then that haven’t really been job hunting. Need to brush up my resume some and get it out there.

So lets see, thats 1 win, 3 loss and 2 undecided. So basically its been a suckfest. Will try to turn it around for the second half of the year but knowing me it might not happen.

As for the picture above who do you choose Louise or Shana?
Pic via moe.imouto.org

Well Max Factory continues it’s release of Luck☆Star figmas in September with Kagami Hiiragi. As always with the figma line she is not to any true scale but is complete posable and comes with a couple of hand and face options. She stands in a 13.5cm tall and will retail for 2,500 yen. She is already up for preorder over at Hobbysearch, and KidNemo. Max Factory seems to be mostly releasing figmas as of late. For the third quarter of this year figmas out number figures 7 to 4.

More pics after the cut and over at Ami Ami.

Related Figures:
Fate Stay/Night: Figma Rin Tousaka
Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya: Figma Kyon

Well after watching Wall-E Monday I headed to the Home Improvement store and picked up a few shelves for the figure collection. Up until now the girls have been sitting here and there, mostly taking up all the space on the workbench desk. I still need to do the photo shoot of Louise as I need to get her out of the box to make room for the other girls that will be here in the next couple of weeks. Along the left is my diplomas, the upper one is an AA in Computer Electronics and the lowest is an BS in Computer Information Systems. Between them are certificates that I got for making Dean’s List the first two semesters I was at Chico State. I’ve been half way thinking about taking some online classes and getting a Masters but seeing how I’ve done nothing with the BS so far it just might be a waste of money.

There are still 27 wildfire areas in California, down from a high of 34. The good news is that the smoke dome that we have been living under for most of last week got cleared out over the weekend. Due to a slight breeze out of the south for most of Saturday and Sunday. Luckily for those out on the fire lines the wind never got strong enough to cause much of a problem. CalFire’s new strategy also seems to be paying off. They are using most of their resources to protect houses and letting the true wilderness fires burn themselves out. With over 423,000 acres (1700 sq kilometers) burned they have only lost, 29 residences, 1 commercial building, and 20 outbuildings. There is still a good amount of smoke and haze along the horizon but overhead the sky is mostly clear. With the return of the clear skies the hight temps have returned with the temps hitting the high 90s°F (35° C) luckily it still drops down around 65°F (18°C) at night.