Sdtrk: ‘Panic’ by the Smiths

Hallo there! So d’ye like what I’ve done with the place?

You are looking at the sum total of a week’s worth of work, give or take a couple of days. Many, many thanks are due to MontiLee, aka Penda of the Diner, for helping me set up my WordPress account and getting me well on my way to true Mania. She’s been working with (and sometimes struggling against) WordPress for a number of years now, so she knows what she’s doing. Or, at the very least, gives an air of knowing what she’s doing. I owe you a dinner, babe!

So! Allow me to take a moment to point out the sassy new features of ‘Shouting etc etc Mk II’:

+ Note the picture behind the header at the top of the site? Jamming repeatedly on your keyboard’s F5 button will swap out the pic with various other Davecat-related pics. Synthetiks? Tiny Sixties Euromobiles? Err… Synthetiks? Test your luck with the Magickal Incredible F5 button!

+ CATEGORIES, baby; sexy categories. Makes looking for posts on assorted topics oh so much easier. Each category, if you’re perplexed, has descriptions that pop up if you hover your pointer over them. And if you absolutely can’t find what you’re looking for, there’s a Search function just below them. And unlike the search engine in this blog’s previous incarnation, this one actually works

+ A larger typeface, cos the micro-style one of the previous blog was getting on my wick

+ Century Gothic! Cos unfortunately, most people don’t have the font ‘Futura T’ installed on their computers

+ (Slightly) Larger pictures

+ (Ab)use of the ‘Open link in new window’ function. Now see, personally, since I’m clever enough to use Firefox, I just open a lot of links in separate tabs for later inspection, cos that’s much better than having a herd of windows fighting for space on your desktop. We’ll see if I continue to use that or not…

Also, I’m no longer with YouTube! Well, I’m no longer hosting videos there, as they’re afraid of artificial humans, apparently. So my lovely Synthetik partner Shi-chan is taking the reins, and hosting the clips over at Dailymotion.com. As they’re based out of Europe, they don’t have any problems with seeing bOObs at all, so you can now view what got YouTube into an apoplectic fit by clicking on the ‘Synthetiks videos’ button just beneath the header. Easy peasy!
The move to WordPress still has some bugs to be ironed out, however:

+ So far, I can’t get all your lovely HaloScan comments to import. I’ve got them saved, thankfully, but so far, I’m at a loss Finally done with that particular task, praise “Bob”

+ As far as the links, I still have to indent them properly and place them in the order that I desire

+ Really, everything in that sidebar needs to be indented

+ I require clever little icons for each category, cos I’m anal particular like that

+ Getting descriptive text next to each link in the Synthetik companion types category, just like in ‘Shouting etc etc Mk I’

+ Gravatars need to be implemented again. Of course, it would help greatly if Gravatar’s servers didn’t crash if you merely thought of them. For fuck’s sake, people; really.

So if anyone out there has any formidable WordPress skillz, do let me know, cos I’d greatly appreciate the help, as those Codexes can be intimidating sometimes. In the meantime, ‘Shouting etc etc Mk II’ will be a work in progress. Hopefully that path of progress won’t be too lengthy, but won’t you take my hand, so we can walk it… together?

Sdtrk: ‘el graphic’ by Death by chocolate

Hells yeah! Err, I mean, Why yes, of course!
It seems that 4woods has gone crazy with the sculpting and releasing of not one, but five new models! Well, two of them aren’t really new, they’re resculpts of previous models, but their Sexiness Quotient has increased about 300%. Three hundred per cent! That’s three one hundred per cents!

First off, there’s the new lass, Natsuki, of the A.I.NEO series.

She seems… distracted

Personally, Natsuki is my new favourite. She just has a certain something that I can’t explain, but she’s my tip for the top these days. Not to say that Kunika, Yu-ki et al are no longer comely, but Natsuki is just seven shades of gorgeous. Maybe it’s because she looks a wee bit like my Sidore-chan? Who can say?
Then there’s Kunika Reloaded, a new twist on an old favourite:

‘Eyes up here, matey’

The most alluring features I’d have to say about Natsuki and Kunika Reloaded are their mouths — their lips have that slightly-parted quality to them which is very enticing. And evidently, they brush and floss often!
Then there’s Haruhi, the debut lass of 4woods’ new NEO-J line.

Barbarella! Good to see you could make it

Seems like the NEO-J (or NEO-Junior) is not as small-framed as the A.I.Sister line, but not as big as the A.I.Doll line, or as well-endowed as the A.I.NEO line. In fact, it also seems that the company is moving on from their A.I.Doll and A.I.Sister body types, and concentrating more on A.I.NEO and NEO-J. Good, cos all of this is confusing the living hell out of me.
Next up is the new version of Yurio. ‘Hello! I’m Yurio,’ she says on the site, ‘I changed my makeup because my body also got a littele bit of evolutions.’ I completely agree. (??)

Did no-one pay attention to my warning about Doppelgängers??

As you can see from the photo above, they’re also available in ‘Nature colour’ (the pale version) and ‘Asian colour’, which is more of the tanned mocha variation, and any of their Dolls can be poured in either skintone.
And finally we have Neu, their ’20th special’. She’s not their 20th Doll, nor have they been round for 20 years, but from what I can glean from the machine translations is that, basically, everytime 4woods makes Dolls available for purchase, they do it in batches, and Neu commemorates their 20th order batch. Okay, now that makes sense. So does this mean every time 4woods hits a certain batch order number, they’ll make a new special edition Doll? Sounds like a plan!


It could’ve been worse — she could’ve been named Amon Düül

Neu is obviously going to cater to certain, more otaku customers by and large, but it’s neat that they offer her in the first place. Also, if you were to fit her with a sky-blue wig, she could convincingly cosplay as a member of the Abh race from ‘Crest of the Stars‘…
From what the site says, you can order her with regular ears, alternatively, or as they say, ‘a big ear and a usual ear.’ Huh! The better to hear you with, one would assume. Plus, more ear means more piercings, as far as I’m concerned. 🙂

Also, atsushi-san, MaRi-chan‘s boyfriend, mentioned recently in his blog that there’s a new issue of i-doloid Petie Maniax due out soon, that looks to have an article dealing with 4woods new lasses. Any way you slice it — delicious.

And to round off this particular entry, I’m sure everyone’s seen the ‘Skatebording girls‘ video. Why is it so funny? Because it contains Unrefined Humour Molecules, I’m guessing. I could watch it all day! Just… don’t tell Ronald Dotson about it; he might freak out and start crying

arigatou to Wolfgang for the ‘Skatebording girls’ link

Sdtrk: ‘Mr Alphabet’ by The glove

*does excessively dramatic Danny Thomas-style spittake* HOLY

Insanely Rare Velvet Underground LP on eBay for $19K
Pitchfork | 12-01-06

Got a little extra cash from mowing lawns this summer? Or from, say, a massive inheritance, a game show victory, or the child labor racket? If not, you may as well stop reading now, because the following is directed solely at the fiscally well-endowed.

The interweb, as it’s known to do, has been positively buzzing today with reports of an online auction for an insanely, absurdly, preposterously, unfathomably, overwrought-modifier-of-your- choosing-ly rare slab of test-pressed acetate from the one and only Velvet Revolver.

Oh wait, scratch that– the one and only Velvet Underground. Seems that while in NYC’s Chelsea hood in September 2002, a serendipitous young man from Montreal stumbled across an original 1966 test-pressing of an early version of The Velvet Underground & Nico, featuring alternative takes and mixes of nine of the uber-classic’s ramshackle jams.

“ARGUABLY THE RAREST & MOST IMPORTANT ROCK ‘N’ ROLL AND POP-ART ARTIFACT IN THE WORLD”, as the auctioneer subtly puts it, the record has been listed on eBay for the world to bid upon. It’s believed to be the only one of its kind in existence, part of the storied Lost Scepter Studio Recordings, and an unparalleled snapshot of the VU during its infancy.

Best of all, our little Chelsea crate-digger bought this thing for 75 cents. It’s a captivating tale of dumb luck and triumph in the face of– er, mostly dumb luck, and you may read about it in the auction listing here.

As of press time, the record’s going for a cool $19,000, and the auction ends December 8 around dinnertime (central)– so if you don’t want some chump bidder named “emoscreamo” to get his/her grubby hands on the most precious piece of plastic since Barbra Streisand’s fifth nose, best pony up.

Apparently, some bloke named ‘mechadaddy’ (heh) walked away with the acetate, having paid a finance-destroying price of $155,401 USD. That’s impressive, by its sheer fanatical monomania alone.
That individual had better see about remastering it for a Cd version, as I’m sure I’m not the only one that’s really really curious to hear the alternate versions of ‘Venus in furs’, ‘Femme fatale’, and all the others. But egad — for that much dosh, that LP better come with the ghosts of Nico and Sterling Morrison