Funny how after 23 years I was finally able to get some closure in my life… by finally finding out how Macross, the anime series, had ended… hehehe

Along the way I was able to catch up to all that had been happening in the “Macross”-verse and its creator, Shoji Kawamori. I did this by watching Macross Plus, this cemented his position further as a producer of fine anime. Then the nightmare that was Macross 7 and which begs the question to Kawamori:”What have you been smoking?” To his redemption in Macross Zero, and finally his elevation to greatness with the release of Macross Frontier.

I’ve sure come a long way since March of 2009, when I had finished watching Macross the TV series.

Sure can’t wait for the new movie…

Here’s an interesting forum topic on how to treat mange in dogs.

I’ve been a dog lover for the most of my life, having grown up with dogs in our household. I even got bitten by our big german shepard when I was young (hey I have the scar to prove it). I think mauled would be a more apt term for it, because I got thrown a few good feet. Despite that, it has never diminished my love for our four legged friends.

It wasn’t until I took a more active part in taking care of our dogs by visiting a vet that I had learned that those scabs we find on our dogs are actually microscopic animals that burrow themselves under the skin.

I’ve been looking for a natural and less toxic way of treating those scabs and chanced upon the tip of using of boiled leaves of the madre de cacao plant. There are other treatments such as a monthly injection or a bathe solution, but I’m scared that they’re too toxic for both the dog and the person giving the treatment.

Ok so maybe not all beef because its made out of Polymer Clay again. Everytime I see this hamburger pendant I feel like going to McDonald’s for a Quarter Pounder. But since the difference in price is only a fraction, I think its best to go for a Big Mac to maximize the experience…

Who wants to live forever, neh?

I’m amazed with how the pattern on this frog was done. It looks like a cute version of a very deadly frog. Once again its made out of polymer clay.

Not really a real cupcake because its just a replica made out of polymer clay that’s supposed to function as jewelry. This falls under the “wearable food” genre that seems to be quite popular nowadays. Or has it always been popular?

The wing designs are made through a process known as “caning”, or basically clumping strings of clay together to form the design them rolling them and slicing afterwards. Pretty hard to explain from here, it would be best to watch a video of how caning is done. Check out videos of it in youtube here.

Link to this product’s description can be found here.

I guess you have to hand it to the Macross Frontier series for re-igniting the interest of fans everywhere to the Macross Anime franchise. And along the way, a newer and younger generation of fans were picked up to carry to cudgels left behind by the fans of the early 80’s who had moved on to more important stuff.

I myself think that I never left. I remember whenever I ended up in Ebay, the things I’d always look up were the prices of Macross Toys. The Bandai 1/55 type.

One time at the Mall a few years back (ages more like it), I got surprised to see a 1/48 sized VF-1J Valkyrie of Hikaru Ichijo at a toy store. 1/48, and it looked really realistic. And I thought I was a dying breed, the long time Macross Fan who still had a warm spot for mecha, a love triangle and great music. Pilars of every Macross cartoon released by Shoji Kawamori and his gang.

The great thing about this day and age to be a fan is that you get to immerse yourself more in the franchise with what they put out in the market than ever before.

I remember before it was all just about Valkyries, in either 1/55 or bootleg 1/72 scale. Now you have DVD’s, PSP Games, Play Station Games, Figurines and other Mecha. Plus you get to leverage the power of the internet that allows you to converge with other fans to talk about similar interests, even though you are miles apart.

Yep, “today” has always been the best day to be a fan.

There’s something about this Macross Plus Movie poster that sends goose bumps up my spine whenever I see it. I find the both picture breath taking and sad.

What more when you combine this with the dedication of the movie to it: Dedicated to All Pioneers, it really sends a strong message. What more when you see the ending dedication of episode 4: Dedicated to You. Our Future Pioneers.

I loved the original Macross series with a passion and when somebody lent me a copy of this way back in college I was once again blown away and became much more dedicated to the franchise.

The creators of the Macross Franchise liked to create small homages and continue the story arcs of the previous Macross series in the existing series. Macross Plus fans however never get their thirst quenched by information as to what happened to the characters of Macross Plus. Specifically Isamu Alva Dyson and Myung Fang Lone

Just read somewhere that a texas republican wanted to pass a law that requires asians to change their names to make it easy for people to understand. Oh well, you can’t please everybody.

Wasn’t the first time, during the 1500’s, the Spanish government required the Filipino’s to change their names in order to make taxation easier.

The price you pay for being in a race with the God given genes of having skin and a complexion that makes you young looking even when you’re past 40 *snicker*

I think I’ve had too much Macross last month. Resulting in me going through the entire Original Macross Series, Macross Plus, Macross Zero and Macross Frontier in the span of just a few days.

Can’t believe that its been 25 years already since the first series, Super Dimension Fortress Macross, was shown.

Macross 7 however seems to be the one I like the least because of the thin story line. At least Shoji Kawamori made up for it with the release of Macross Frontier, which had a superb plot and an awesome soundtrack. Courtesy of Yoko Kanno.

Despite that, I still like some songs in the Macross 7 Soundtrack, especially Dakedo Baby because it’s such a cute song.

Last month I trooped on over to the local government office to pay our family’s real estate taxes. We usually pay on the first month of the year in order to avail of the 20% discount that the local government offers to early birds. But the day came as a shock to me as I found out with the property assessment form given to us that the property taxes in the City of Davao went up by almost 200%. If your property has been classified as either commercial or residential then expect the prices to go up by that much or more depending on the area. Our real estate taxes went up by about 1300%.

One reason that the property value went up was because our house got surrounded by the gated subdivisions put up by property developers. Those guys were valuing their property at over P5,000/sqm and the end result was that properties around it also got valued at that rate.

Bad enough that the neighborhood is going to get crowded and polluted in a few more years, but to also have to suffer with the increase in taxation is added injury. Sheeesh… to comfort ourselves, my wife told me that we should just strive to increase our income instead of worrying about the increased taxes. What’s done is done.

I had to go home to get more money in order to pay our taxes. The process took a whole lot longer as a lot of people were complaining on why their taxes went up by so much. The local assessor’s representative was telling everybody that the city had all the right to increase taxes because the local government code calls for an increase in local taxes every 3 years. The last time they increased taxes was in 1991.

I Thank God that we had the means to pay for our real estate taxes but feel lament for those who were in the line with me looking distraught because of the increase they have to pay. But please don’t get me wrong though, the taxes still came as a blow to us as it was indeed huge, our family had to do some belt tightening for the month because of that.

I just hope that the City puts to good use all those tax money in their coffers right now. More cemented and wider roads would be nice.