Alienware have been busy and Girlygeekdom had the privilege of being invited to the European launch of their new magical box, the X51. Upon first look, it reminds me of the XBox 360 S console with the almost monolithic yet sleek lines. However, this does not mean the insides are meager. On the contrary, it can pack an Intel i7-2600 CPU with an NVIDIA GTX 555 graphics card. Because of the compact size and the mini-ITX motherboard, you can’t have a SLi combination but it is highly unlikely that you will need this for every day gaming.

Several games were showcased on the X51, including the much awaited Mass Effect 3. I played the demo which includes the intro and the events that unfold during the beginning of the game. There was also an additional mission to play which involves saving a Krogan female. Without spoiling the plot for players who have avoided all contact with this, all I can say is that we’re in for a game of epic proportions. It is arguably the best of the three in the trilogy and I am pleased to report that it runs smoothly on the X51. Taking a peek at the graphics settings, there wasn’t much to change apart from the resolution which was set at 1920 x 1200. Perhaps additional graphic tweaking for the game could be made in the NVIDIA control panel.

Being an Alienware product, you will get the obligatory colour panel where you can change the colour of the X51′s case lights.There is a reason why people buy Alienware products; they want the bling and they certainly do stand out from the crowd.

Connectivity wise, there are eight USB ports, HDMI, coaxial and optical port for audio which is most welcome. I own a set of Logitech Z5500 speakers pumping out sound for multiple devices and optical has always been my preferred choice. For a small box, the Alienware team still managed to cram as much as possible at the back.

There are customisable options for the X51 depending on your budget; the main specs you can change are your CPU, RAM and graphics card options. The prices start from £699 but if you go on the Dell US site it is priced at $699. Yup, they have gone and flipped the currency symbol on us again and they expect this to go unnoticed. Unfortunately not and this does mean we are paying more than our American cousins.

As part of the fun, we were all invited to take part in a Street Fighter IV tournament, where I lost miserably in the first round. Now if a proper PC game was hosted such as StarCraft 2 then I may have had a chance but alas.

More fun was had with a talented caricature artist who expertly drew me as Cat Woman, meow. NVIDIA was also on hand to create 3D models of us via a face scanner, which I should later receive through the post once the models are created using a 3D printer. Let us not forget the greatness that was Team Dignitas who was casting the tournament for us; I follow some of their pro gamers very frequently, especially the StarCraft 2 tournaments, and it was a privilege to meet and talk to them in person.

So a special thanks to DignitasODEE and his TeamDignitas guys for being great on the night (especially Apollo who came all the way to perhaps cast an SC2 game but couldn’t) and Asim for once again hosting another fantastic Alienware event. Dell have done a great job in understanding the Alienware brand and it is good to see that they are developing the gaming community as a whole. Now all I ask is this, Intel Ivy Bridge in the X51 please?

I actually thought Mat Smith from Engadget had the tournament in the bag but alas...

About Motoko

First embraced the inner geek at the age of 10 with a Commodore 64 and programming in BASIC. Avid PC gamer, Gundam Gunpla builder, manga editor and anime enthusiast. Loves Mountain Dew and Ghost in the Shell. Twitter: @Motoko_K

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With only two days left till Christmas, you may still be thinking of what to get for that special someone in your life. Well fear not, as I have compiled a list of gadgety ideas for that last minute shopping spree.

Western Digital Live  - Streaming Media Player. I have reviewed one of these before, but this latest iteration includes a network port at the back to hook up to your home network. All the usual things are here, such as DLNA support which is greatly appreciated and playback for a myriad of file formats such as MKV and MPEG 1/2/4. The price has gone up a notch to just over £100, but it’s still a nice little player.

WOWee One Portable Speaker. I was quite impressed with this pocket speaker. The ingenuity lies in how it can turn everyday surfaces into boom boxes; you can play music anywhere without having to carry large speakers with you. This MTV branded device comes with a gel pad on one side which can be used to stick onto glass I.E a window. I was quite impressed with how good this was, considering how portable it is. I plan to do a real test with this in a later review. As advertised on their website, you can pick this up for £49.99 which is a real bargain.

Bedphones Earphones. This is certainly an interesting concept; a pair of earphones that you can sleep with. I know a few friends who need some soft music or ambient noise before they can drift off into dreamland, this would be just the thing for those sleepless nights. I had a quick nap with them and they took awhile to get used to, but they were reasonably comfortable. The alternative is to buy a pillow with speakers built-in, but these would be much more portable. At £19.99 they won’t break the bank.

Cresyn Pastel Headphones C300H. Another set from iHeadphones, this time these are headphones that come in a variety of pastel colours. It’s certainly different and less boring than the usual black or silver you see in most headphones. I was surprised by the sound quality, however it does not handle bass as well as I would have liked especially at high volume. But at £17.99 you really can’t complain and in comparison they sound better than some other ones I have tried in the past, from the likes of Sony et al.

Lightspeed i-Helicopter. A word of warning, make sure that no precious ornaments are nearby because you will destroy them with this helicopter. Having said that, this is a lot of fun to mess around with. You control the helicopter by downloading an app for your iPhone or Android and use the phone’s gyro for control. It’s not exactly the most accurate control mechanism but you aren’t controlling a real life Apache Longbow so this is not bad all things considered. I will have to try this more thoroughly when I’m not nosediving headlong into surrounding furniture. It’s on sale right now on Amazon for £32.99, go buy it now!

Last but not least… the Canon 7D DSLR Camera which I reviewed recently. Yes it is over a grand for the body plus stock lens but my goodness I love it to death. I love it more than I love Pocky, that’s how much I love this camera.

About Motoko

First embraced the inner geek at the age of 10 with a Commodore 64 and programming in BASIC. Avid PC gamer, Gundam Gunpla builder, manga editor and anime enthusiast. Loves Mountain Dew and Ghost in the Shell. Twitter: @Motoko_K

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First of all, I’m not a professional photographer by any stretch of the imagination, but I do appreciate a fine camera when I see one. I used to have a Sony DSC-R1 for many years; in fact at every event or spectacle it rarely left my side. I felt that it was lacking somewhat in certain areas and it was time to step up with something a bit more beefy. Believe me when I tell you that the Canon EOS 7D is beefy.

Solid build
With a magnesium body it feels weighty; it seems slightly heavier than my R1 but it was roughly the same so it did not seem too heavy for me. For some it may, but with most professionals cameras once you start using it, it becomes second nature to hold. I felt that holding a Canon seems more comfortable than say a Nikon; I’m not sure whether it’s the type of grip or the shape but in comparison, my significant other prefers the Nikon for this reason. The grip is very important and you need to feel comfortable, especially if you plan to shoot continuously throughout the day.

The Canon 7D comes with kit lens packs and I decided upon the body plus the 135mm lens. A nice all rounder and not a bad lens to start with; I took a picture of the moon with this lens and I was quite impressed. I will eventually upgrade to a higher zoom lens (perhaps a Sigma) but this will suffice for many situations. The only downside to this type of lens is the aperture does not go low enough for dark environments, so I bought a separate Sigma 30mm 1.4 lens on top. This lens is amazing in the dark if you need it for events where lighting isn’t fantastic, but the autofocus needs a little fine tuning during use compared to Canon lenses.

Features
Without going into immense detail because there are a lot of features here, the one that stands out for me is the continuous shooting mode. Built into the 7D are Dual “DIGIC 4” processors, and you see this in action instantly when taking pictures non-stop. It can take pictures at 8 FPS which is great for moving objects. I left the button pressed for mere seconds and the speed of which pictures were captured was insane. It is worthy to note that you should invest in a good memory card with large capacity; I decided on a SanDisk Extreme 60 MB/s 16GB CompactFlash card. The images taken are amazing and the autofocus does not disappoint. The camera is best used in full manual mode; I felt that if you let the camera work out the aperture and shutter on its own, you tend to not get the results you want. But trial and error when you have manual control is what makes it fun to use.

Other features that are useful include three custom camera settings for different conditions, a RAW JPEG button, spot/multi metering, plus video recording. The one thing that drew me to the 7D is the ability to record video in HD. I don’t particular want to carry a DSLR and a camcorder so this would be the perfect solution. The quality of video is impressive, using the zoom lens for zooming into objects if necessary. The only downside is that if the distance from the object changes, it will lose autofocus. From my experience, it cannot autofocus by itself without forcing it.

On top of all this, the ISO can go up to a staggering 6400 and an even more crazy 12800 when expanded. I have cranked up the ISO to 6400 on a few occastions and that was in pitch black conditions. You do lose some picture quality of course, but to be able to take a picture at all in complete darkness is something to appreciate.

User experience
The UI is very easy to navigate on the LCD screen, which they have enlarged slightly in comparison to other models. Button placement does not get in the way of using the camera which is also another plus; with a little practice I can flick through the buttons to change aperture or shutter speed without having to leave the viewfinder. Most of the functions will come from the multi-purpose dial and the buttons on the top to change ISO or aperture etc. Going back to the three custom settings, if you have settings for day, night, and indoors then it makes your life much easier. It comes with the usual modes such as shutter priority and aperture priority. You will find these two will be your best friend.

Overall
I love this camera, there is so much power under the hood and yet it feels effortless to tap into. Although perhaps pricey compared to the 60D which is very good as well, I would not want to swap the 7D for any other. My other consideration was the 5D which is a full frame camera, but the video capture with the 7D trumped this without breaking the bank. Of course, a decent investment in lenses will be the next step to fully take advantage at what this camera has to offer. If you buy this as a Christmas present for someone, they will love you forever.

If you are interested, my first foray with this camera was when I used it in L.A. Here’s some links to my flickr gallery. The real test was in Disneyland and BlizzCon where adequate lighting was limited in certain areas.

BlizzCon 2011 flickr set

Disneyland California flickr set

About Motoko

First embraced the inner geek at the age of 10 with a Commodore 64 and programming in BASIC. Avid PC gamer, Gundam Gunpla builder, manga editor and anime enthusiast. Loves Mountain Dew and Ghost in the Shell. Twitter: @Motoko_K

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GirlyGeekdom and Girl Geek Dinners are delighted to offer our members and readers the opportunity to purchase discounted tickets for the Mozilla Festival which is happening from the 4th -6th November 2011.  All you need to do is select the “student/partner community member” option. Being part of our community gives you the discount! How awesome is that!

A big chunk (1/3) of the people signed up already fall into these two categories. But they need even more developers and designers to add rocket fuel for the Festival’s roster of design challenges and hack sprints.

http://mozillafestival.org/program/design-challenges/

More specifically they want more:

• Javascript developers, HTML5 video and audio enthusiasts, front end developers, news app developers, and other news hackers. To help build everything from data-driven journalism kits to mobile news apps to amazing browser-based video games that run right in the browser.
• User experience and interface designers, graphic designers, game developers and 3D modeling people. To help create everything from data visualizations to translation workflow to whole new ways of imagining news and information.

Know anyone who fits the bill? Please ask them to join us in London by signing up here:

https://donate.mozilla.org/page/contribute/festival-register/

If you aren’t one of those skill sets do not fear! You are still welcome to sign up and head down! GirlyGeekdom will be there along with loads of other awesome Geeky folks!

About Sarah Lamb

Sarah is the founder of the Girl Geek Dinners & GirlyGeekdom. She is a lover of gadgets, geeky things and sport! Find out more about her on her website.

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I had the pleasure of trying out the Neato XV-15, a helping hand to the busy modern lifestyle. I’ve always wanted a robotic vacuum cleaner, but I had reservations on whether such a device so small can carry out the functions of my Dyson. Suffice it to say, I was quite surprised and rather amused.

First impressions

With the Neato, you get a base station for recharging the unit and a roll of black strip. There may be places you don’t want the Neato to go and it will avoid these areas if it encounters the black strip with its sensors. I left it parked at the base station for an afternoon and then it was ready to go!

The house gets vacuumed regularly every week so it was interesting to see if it performs any better. The initial test was the living room, which comprises of various obstacles such as tables and chairs, sofas and the TV stand. To help it along, I put the chairs on top of the dining table. It is quite thorough and will go over the same spot several times. It may seem slow when you are watching it work, but you’ll most likely let it do its thing while you are out.

Always learning

As it trundles along, it remembers the layout of the rooms it visits. Sensors on top of the Neato will detect walls and such like; sometimes it may bump into a few things but it will most likely not do it a second time. It is quite remarkable how it remembers where things are, this was self evident when I placed a cardboard box in an area where it thought it was clear. But if I left the box there, it will remember it and try to avoid.

After the living room, it entered the hallway and then the kitchen. The great thing the Neato does is because it is so low on the ground; it can hug the skirting board quite happily to pick up as much as possible. There are times when my Dyson can’t do this because it just can’t vacuum that closely. Additionally, it transitioned to the kitchen very well and did not crash into any of the doors or furniture on the way in or out.

Laser technology

Even though the base station is downstairs, you can carry it upstairs to vacuum there as well. It will not traverse down a set of stairs of course to park back to the base station, but it will stop at the point where it started once it is finished. It will even politely tell you to pick it up and put it back on charge. In a way it is rather cute and unobtrusive.

I was apprehensive about how it detects stairs; I waiting at the top ready to catch it but I needn’t had bothered. On the verge of suicide, it stopped abruptly to turn around and veer back to safety. The sensors use laser rangefinder technology and triangulation, developed by Neato Robotics. The laser-mapping system or SLAM (Systematic Localisation and Mapping) is impressive to watch when I saw it in action; if you have antique furniture you don’t want to have the Neato ploughing into them!

However… it did have problems with my IKEA Poäng chair. Because the base of the chair is only half an inch high, the Neato couldn’t detect the obstruction and tried to climb over it. After several minutes, it was becoming more and more amusing as it tried to hump its way over to the other side. In the end I had to help it out of its predicament, but it decided to go back to the same place again. I can only assume it felt it had not vacuumed the last 10 square inches of carpet and was determined to finish the job.

Look at that dust!

Upstairs and downstairs took about an hour to do, 5 rooms in total. I decided to check the contents of the dirt bin and I was amazed at how much it had collected. Considering the house was vacuumed only 2 days ago, it did a good job. The only thing it may struggle with is long hair which wasn’t picked up 100% of the time, but one cannot complain too much considering how small it is. The suction on this for such a small unit did surprise me.

You can update your Neato via the USB port, just like any other gadget you may have in your house that require firmware updates and the like. I got rather attached to it at the end of my review and will be sad to see it go. An added bonus is that if you add a cup holder on top of it, it can also serve as a robotic waiter while it cleans the house

The XV-15 is priced at £399.99; although it is a large chunk of cash to invest in a vacuum cleaner, if you have a hectic lifestyle then this will be ideal and will save you a lot of time.

A snippet from Neato Robotics

NEATO ROBOTICS LAUNCHES NEW ROBOTIC VACUUM CLEANER TO KEEP BRITISH HOMES NEAT AND CLEAN

Some of the other innovative features and benefits of the Neato XV-15 multi-floor robotic vacuum cleaner include:

• Scuff-free navigation: The robot’s laser-mapping technology constantly updates its internal map so it can accurately detect objects greater than four inches in height and carefully clean around them without damaging furniture and walls.

• Low-profile access: The robotic vacuum cleaner’s low profile (less than four inches high) allows it to clean under beds, sofas, and kick boards in the kitchen.

• Smart design and large dirt bin: The Neato XV-15’s D-shape is equipped with a forward-positioned wide brush allows it to better clean the corners and edges of a room compared to other circular-shaped robots with short, centrally-positioned brushes. This industrial design also allows for a larger dirt bin (660cc or .65 litres) 

• Self-docking to re-power: After completing its cleaning, the robot returns automatically to its base to re-charge itself. By utilising the charging base, the Neato XV-15 is charged and ready to go when it’s needed most.

• Cleaning scheduler: With its easy-to-use interface, consumers can schedule the robot to clean every day, keeping homes spic and span.

EDIT: I reviewed the XV-11 which is the same as the XV-15 in the UK. The article has been amended with the UK model number to reflect the UK market.

About Motoko

First embraced the inner geek at the age of 10 with a Commodore 64 and programming in BASIC. Avid PC gamer, Gundam Gunpla builder, manga editor and anime enthusiast. Loves Mountain Dew and Ghost in the Shell. Twitter: @Motoko_K

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Even if you can’t join us for the full OTA11 event, you should definitely try to make it out to Bletchley Park for Friday evening, as we will be introducing an exciting new element to the programme:

Ignite is a global event, organized by volunteers, where participants are given five minutes to speak about their ideas and personal or professional passions, accompanied by 20 slides. Each slide is displayed for 15 seconds, and slides are automatically advanced. The Ignite format is similar to Pecha Kucha, which features 20 slides displayed for 20 seconds each. The presentations are meant to “ignite” the audience on a subject, i.e. to generate awareness and to stimulate thought and action on the subjects- Wikipedia

The event-within-an-event is being organised by Ignite Cardiff’s  very own Claire Scantlebury, and the submission form is now open for speakers to come along and volunteer to give a five minute talk. The rule is – you can’t talk about yourself or your job (so no blatant self-promotion is allowed) but if you’re passionate about something or want to talk about something cool and innovative then just fill in the form below and we’ll be in touch.

Our Opening Speaker – Bill Thompson

We are thrilled to announce that our opening speaker is Bill Thompson of the BBC, who will be taking a philosophical look at the way the proliferation of online and mobile has changed society and will introduce the Digital Public Space as a concept which will potentially change the landscape of society and the internet.

If you would enjoy the chance to speak passionately for 5 minutes (yes, you get only 5 minutes!), keep your eyes peeled, as once a number of speakers have been confirmed we’ll be opening up the Ignite Bletchley Park programme to proposals.

See you on Friday night!

About Sarah Lamb

Sarah is the founder of the Girl Geek Dinners & GirlyGeekdom. She is a lover of gadgets, geeky things and sport! Find out more about her on her website.

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The latest “The Manga Guide To..” series brings us the universe. This is the second book from the series I have reviewed and I was looking forward to how this will encompass the vastness of the universe as a topic. As always, the story unfolds in manga form while teaching the reader all the questions raised. It starts with the Japanese story of Kaguya-hime, and her wish to go back to the Moon where she came from. This setting opens up the universe, with the book guiding you on your journey.

The history and discovery

What I love about this book is how it goes right back to the roots. Before modern technology, civilisations from ancient times only had their perception of the universe based from what they saw with the naked eye. The ancient Greeks for example adopted the geocentric theory (the Earth being the center of the universe) by Ptolemy for nearly 1,400 years until Copernicus arrived on the scene in 1543. These facts and many more make for an interesting read, with explanations on why each theory was adopted.

This then leads onto the development of telescopes and how great discoveries by Galileo et al changed the way we viewed the universe completely. There are some elements within the book that explain such things and calculations in detail, but the information is not overwhelming to the point where it is hard to understand. Diagrams coupled with analogies reinforces the explanations throughout. This reminds me of The Manga Guide To Relativity which was also laid out in the same vein. I am glad they kept this format as it works quite well.

Manga story with science

The manga story weaves seamlessly with the science; the manga is quite amusing and the fusion between the two works well. The enthusiasm for the topics discussed from the author is noticeable throughout, and you can tell that the passion is there. It is great to see this passion come alive in each of the pages, which makes it a joy to read. I am still amazed by what has been covered in those pages; even though there are so many unanswered questions about the universe it covers so much of what we know and what we want to know. From our solar system, to the universe and multiverses, the book itself seems to expand with knowledge just like the universe expanding as described.

In the end, the story of Kaguya-hime takes an interesting turn as the students play out what they have learned. Even Proessor Sanuki that help them on their cosmic journey plays a part in the end. Overall, I highly recommend this book; as a teaching tool for school kids and for anyone that has a love for manga with science thrown in.

About Motoko

First embraced the inner geek at the age of 10 with a Commodore 64 and programming in BASIC. Avid PC gamer, Gundam Gunpla builder, manga editor and anime enthusiast. Loves Mountain Dew and Ghost in the Shell. Twitter: @Motoko_K

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It was that time again, another birthday for London Girl Geek Dinners and this time Mind Candy kindly hosted the event. Since the lovely Judith Lewis was the organiser, chocolate was involved. A lot, of, chocolate. Monty Bojangles was the highlight with some truffle action and a giant chocolate cake which I never actually got to taste. I was too busy raiding the Mind Candy beer fridge (my apologies).

It wasn’t all about the food however, as we got some interesting and inspiring talks from the Mind Candy staff about Mind Candy and the fun things for them on the horizon. They are doing some great things with the Moshi Monsters franchise and I’m sure it will continue to grow with some great ideas.

LJ Rich from BBC Click gave us some insightful tips on how to communicate an idea to others so that it becomes a reality. She also had a run in with an Angry Bird; this is what happens when you eat all the truffles (actually it was me /guilty).

The talks were followed by some nice light refreshments in the form of wine provided by Dinasto Vivanco, and of course more truffles and having a play with some of the Moshi Monsters dotted around the room. I have to say that Mind Candy seems like a really cool place to work!

The birthday party kicked off quite merrily and then I spotted several things. First I noticed the large projector used for the presentations, an amp and then a set of Rock Band drums. It didn’t take me long to find the PS3 hiding in a cupboard; unfortunately the XBox 360 was missing. A couple of button presses on the amp and Mortal Kombat was loading. You can’t hide these things from me… a lot of shouting and screaming was involved as other girl geeks joined in.

A raffle was held with some cookery prizes and yes there was a bar of chocolate in them. By sheer luck the Girl Geek Dinners founder got something! A big thanks goes to Judith for giving up her time to make LGGD a success, the helpers, all the sponsors on the day, the speakers and last but not least Sarah Blow Lamb for starting the Girl Geek Dinners phenomenon in the first place… all those years ago. Roll on 7!

About Motoko

First embraced the inner geek at the age of 10 with a Commodore 64 and programming in BASIC. Avid PC gamer, Gundam Gunpla builder, manga editor and anime enthusiast. Loves Mountain Dew and Ghost in the Shell. Twitter: @Motoko_K

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The 4th annual Over the Air will be held on Friday the 30th of September and Saturday the 1st of October at Bletchley Park- for two days we’ll be based at Station X, hacking in the shadows of the WWII Enigma & Lorenz code-breakers, and hanging out at the home of Colossus the world’s first programmable computer….we’re geeking out already!

Over the Air is a unique tech-agnostic event for and by the developer community,  featuring technical workshops where attendees can roll up their sleeves and tinker with new platforms, operating systems, APIs & SDKs; and tutorial sessions that feature real business cases, new insights and a healthy dollop of inspiration. Attendees are invited to stay overnight so that they can work on ideas, apps and hacks on the fly – to be entered into the various hack-athon competition categories and demo’ed on the second day. It’s a great vibe of bean bags, gadgets, knowledge sharing, hacking & lots of good geekery.

Stay on top of the latest by following Over the Air on Twitter: @overtheair

About Sarah Lamb

Sarah is the founder of the Girl Geek Dinners & GirlyGeekdom. She is a lover of gadgets, geeky things and sport! Find out more about her on her website.

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“The Manga Guide To…” series has been reviewed before, but this time we hit the topic of relativit­y. This being a lazy Sunday afternoon, I had several options. Play StarCraft 2, watch anime or put my brain into gear and see how much information I can absorb. I chose the latter, and this being a manga as well, I figured it would be fun at the same time.

The Prologue sets the scene; it is summer break and the crazy headmaster has decided that all students need to write a report on one topic over the holidays. A quick spin of the wheel and… it lands on relativity. All the students gasp in horror, relativity?! No one has a clue at all! But in steps the heroic Minagi to volunteer and take their place. However, he soon regrets his decision but he has Miss Uraga to teach him.

A dry topic made interesting

The sciences are not something I am particularly strong at; the interest is definitely there but all those numbers and equations. I was never fond of mathematics at all and of course a topic such as relativity does involve calculations a great deal. Also there are many concepts involved which you need to grapple with on top of everything else.

After reading the first couple of chapters, I started to ease into all the explanations. It helps that all the explanations Miss Uraga outlines are demonstrated in story form or scenarios which make it easy to understand. Not only that, but I felt compelled to read on to see the manga story unfold with Minagi. It’s not exactly a full on manga serial, but there are funny elements that keeps the interest.

From the brief to the in-depth

One of the things I like about this book is that after the initial manga explanations, there are much more detailed descriptions afterwards. All important equations are explained with diagrams to help cement them. The key thing with topics like this is the ability to understand without feeling overwhelmed. It does this superbly without having to dumb down too much any of the concepts involved.

Another nice touch is going through the history behind relativity; from Newton to Galileo and of course Mr. Einstein himself. E=MC2 is explained but the reader soon learns there is much more to relativity than this.

To summarise…

I like this book a lot; it is a perfect companion for children wanting to learn more about relativity and for them to develop a sound working knowledge of the theories involved. Even adults would enjoy this and it is pitched just right for people who have no knowledge before. And even if you DO have knowledge of it, you will still find this an engaging read.

About Motoko

First embraced the inner geek at the age of 10 with a Commodore 64 and programming in BASIC. Avid PC gamer, Gundam Gunpla builder, manga editor and anime enthusiast. Loves Mountain Dew and Ghost in the Shell. Twitter: @Motoko_K

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