Giant Robot Store and GR2 News
Figures. The dude on the left is an alien by our friend in HK, and occasional GR contributor, Prodip. I’ll get more of the story later, but I think this is his first figure. Sculpted by Mr Lau, this is based on a real alien.
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Uglycon continues… at gr/eats. We have more than 20 entries into the drawing component of Uglycon. Here’s a few than are hanging up at gr/eats. I’m digging this whole thing. It’s pretty amazing. Whoa, Mr T! I’m impressed that people are taking the drawing part serious. In some cases, it’s jokey looking, but sometimes, that works out the best. There’s some technically well done pieces, and some loose ones, I’m not sure which ones are the best.
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Holiday workin’. Today was saturday and a busy shopping day at GR. I decided to help out and bag stuff, work the front, and generally try to do anything I can. This is “small” or “little” Michelle, which means there’s a “Big” Michelle. Is being known as “Big” Michelle a good thing? I think “small” Michelle is taller than the “Big” Michelle. But “Big” Michelle is louder than the super quiet “small” Michelle. Confused? I sort of botched this shot. The kid is just staring at David who’s eating his lunch in the middle of GR2. I bet the kid was blown away that Dave was munching on chicken pesto pasta with no shame. Fun times. From what I could tell the day went smooth, not too many unhappy campers. I have the urge to reorder just about everything we’re low on, but I really can’t. It’s too late in the year… and we have a ton of merch to check in anyway – meaning, we have tons of new stuff even this late in the year.
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Jazz Cat Cafe – 640 Valley Blvd – Alhambra, CA 626-293-8999Themed spots are fun and this one makes weird but endearing sense. At Jazz Cat, the walls are painted with murals of cats playing music and people into jazz. There’s a bulletin board of pictures of real cats near the counter where you can also order a selection of boba drinks. Jazz Cat’s spacious and loungish, but then when you see people at their tables, it’s hot pot everywhere. When we walked in, Astrud Gilberto piped through the speakers, it was bossanova hour. The menu has noodles, and a variety of dishes, but the main feature is the hot pot dishes. There’s two kinds, one that’s more like a shabu shabu but personal size, and another that has a butter cream sauce as it’s base (I passed on the latter). This is the vegetarian version, and there’s plenty of dishes with meat and different flavors. There’s thai style, spicy, curry, and a house special. The vegetarian pot comes with bushels of veggies, more than you can handle. The sauce is peanutish and works perfect. The blue flame is strong and will boil for a while. As it burned down, I mistakenly tried to add some of the pink flammable fuel from my pot which wasn’t ignited. Mistake! I spilled a bit on the table, and my chopsticks and the fuel started to burn on the table. Flames started to grow. I started to extinguish it with the cabbage. But that didn’t quite work, so I dipped napkin in the soup broth and poof, it went out… This is what the vegetarian dish looks like when it shows up at your table. Take away some veggies and add some red meat and there you have it. You can choose rice or onigiri with each entree. For $1.95 you can add a sweet type of boba drink and for 3.95 you can get a drink and dessert! Can you eat it all?! I ordered the special kimchee seafood udon. Close to a kimchee chigae, I wasn’t up for the regular hot pots, but this one did the trick. The broth was rich, the shrimp, mussels, and squid were great and walked out perspiring. Enjoy the Jazz Cat for it’s weird ambiance in cold weather. It’s perfect winter fare.
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I’m posting this since these comments about what to do when stuck in the snow, might actually help. Thanks for the comments, Gabe, Duane, and anonymous(2). Gabe said… I just read somewhere about the rule of three for survival (think it was on CNN): - you can survive three hours without shelter- you can survive three days without water- you can survive three weeks without food I think this list assumes you are in horrible conditions (i.e. extreme cold) and have fulfilled the requirements preceeding each step. Sucks about the CNET guy. Guy went for it, and his family was saved. Anonymous said… if you live in a cold climate or plan on travelling it’s a good idea to bring an emergency kit in your car if you breakdown/get stranded: -extra gloves, socks, hats-flares-flashlight/spare batteries-matches/lighters-bag of sand, or salt or kitty litter (something to provide traction for stuck tires)-first aid kit-blankets-food (fruit, chocolate, energy bars etc)-bottled water-jumper cables-small shovel-fully charged cell phone also read somewhere that if you do get stranded you should turn the car on for 10 minutes every few hours to provide some heat while still rationing the gas. 6:32 PM Duane Fernanez said… GOOD List – I also read recently that you should TRY to conserve the heater and only use it 15 – 20 minutes every hour. AND VERY important – make sure snow doesn’t pack up against the tail pipe, as you can die from Carbon monoxide poisoning. 8:19 PM Anonymous said… I think once you got your car running, the snow would melt from your exhaust, but it is smart to clear it. The map they used was a paper road map that showed the route they attempted as “scenic”, not “impassable in winter”. Which is tragic. It was also only raining when they started from Roseburg, quickly turning into snowy impassable winter. They had a few things with them, and obviously they had extra clothes since they were on a long family road vacation. But stocking up on food supplies, particularly high caloric ones in an emergency, is smart. Having extra blankets, hats, etc. in an wintry excursion, is smart. I would think burning tires for warmth and signaling would be a last act, once you are out of gas. Stomping out in the snow is smarter, they are looking for irregular patterns in a sea of trees. Plus, when visibility is low, smoke doesn’t matter too much. Still, it’s brilliant. Too bad it didn’t work. From what I understand, the gate was supposed to be locked (and they turned onto a logging road because it wasn’t locked), the owner of the Black Bar Lodge tried to call Emergency Services to let them know he’d seen tire tracks, but no one got back to him. He tried to check it on his own, but couldn’t get his snowmobile in all the way. The SAR teams who noted the road and open gate called it in and were told the OWNER OF THE...
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