herro, I'm a certified foreign language teacher

I didn't have a social life the past week of intense schooling but I have returned! Returned to be a NEET and back to the dreadful process of job hunting.

Yes, I've successfully completed my TEFL certification. It's quite amazing to think about just how much content was covered in the last week. It wasn't so much jargon (which there still was quite a few) but it was more about adjusting what we already know (as past students ourselves) and applying/adapting/changing it to a different role -- the teacher. I think our class finally got to know and warm up to each other just before it all ended. It was great how the teachers were all experienced in their field and brought in their stories from abroad which made it all the more relevant to us as aspiring ESL teachers. It felt like quite the bittersweet end.

I'm glad I took on the course though... or I'd be absolutely clueless as to what I was really getting myself into if I did get sent off overseas. The thought process and effort actually put into creating effective lesson plans and whatnot... you wouldn't really care as a student, but now that I've seen and done it from the teacher's perspective, it changes everything. Now that that door has opened, the option I've always been considering is there for me anytime.

Either way, I need to settle the present life stuff first... such as... OH, A JOB MAYBE. To pay off some, OH, BEELZ MAYBE.

Summer Lovin'

The weather looks like it has finally decided to stay and the heatwave has subsided. Yay for cool days~

While job hunting, I stumbled upon a TEFL scholarship provided by my school in conjunction with a language institution. I decided to give it a shot since I had nothing to lose, considering the job hunting scene was rather depressing anyway. I only just handed in my complete application last Sunday and got a response Monday, saying they received my application. Wednesday rolled around and surprisingly enough, I got it! I have no clue how many people actually try out for this since it's a monthly award but regardless, I was to start classes that upcoming Saturday. I then found out it's a 60 hour intensive course which spans across 9 days. I also had no idea that it was that intensive but again, nothing to lose, right?

My weekend was decided to the first two classes, 9 hours both days. It's a shockingly small class - 4 people, including myself. Another mind-blogging shock is that we have a particular classmate who already has experience in the teaching field overseas but is a /shit/ speller. How do people like him get in? Oh yeah, right... he's an excessive talker and persuader (and he's white! I'm not even being racist here; it's the truth... they got it easy). That's probably not the biggest shock, however. I already have to design and teach a lesson plan for tomorrow (which is being marked), after a mere two days of classes. I don't know wtf I'm doing.

What am I doing now? I needed to get away from all that unproductive thinking.

Onto other news, I also got picked from a random drawing (for mula!) of an official educational survey I took back in university. It's not much at all but it's godsend for a NEET... every penny counts! Yes, thank you, money goes towards bills here. BEELZ.

The fireworks are also starting this Wednesday. For some reason they're earlier by a week this year so I won't be able to make it to the first week due to my classes. Meh.

I can basically write-off the rest of this week as not existent. Alright, back to homework... see you in the future!

Renewing

I come back from LA, and bam - hellooo heatwave~

The unpleasant and motivation deteriorating heat aside though, summer's already half over and I've been hit with a number of reality checks. The biggest deciding factor is definitely the lack of income.

Job hunting is excruciating but currently in progress nonetheless!

I've given up on my Newtype subscription, which ended this month. Not sure how many years it has been but I've realized that I ran out of space to store them anyway.

However... The biggest sacrifice this year will be the release of my kidd.nu domain. The registrar has been ruthless since day 1: charging for dns changes, info changes, and the domain renewal prices are of the wrist-slitting level. It's been 9 wonderful years and it's my oldest existing domain. It hurts thinking about it but there's still a month left for me to enjoy it while I can... whatever that "enjoying" may be.

Anime Expo 2010 Report [Day 4, Final Thoughts & Loot]

Oh how the 4 (5) days went by like nothing.

Day 4 - July 4
The final day was dedicated to the exhibitor's hall. Eh, in retrospect, it was way too much free time. I should've lined up for more autographs at the open autograph session; it would've been a better use of my time. I basically walked the exhibitor's hall about 3 times to scope out the competition and prices and only one store had some I had interest in. At the end of the hour, the store didn't even drop any prices so it was a waste of time to camp for it. There were some pretty insane price drops though... nothing I really, really wanted to get unfortunately. I was even bored enough to line up for the Hi-Chew raffle for free candy but only managed to get a magnet which I gave to Tofu. I got one final autograph from Kuuchuu Yousai who signed the back of my mousepad info sheet to finish things up.

When the hall closed, we all met up outside and hung around, figuring out what to do next. We spotted Nakajima Megumi trying to camouflage in with the crowd, but we let her have her fun. We finally decided that we needed food before our flight back so we drove all around town (and the surrounding towns) to see what was open on July 4th. We finalized on The Islands for some good ol' burgers and fries.


So. Overall it was an insane AX year, compared to the other years so far. I'm proud (and a bit sad) to not purchase any figurines this time around, however my final autograph count made up for it as I basically got all the autographs I aimed to get, and then some.

• Horie Yui (seiyuu)
• Konishi Katsuyuki (seiyuu)
• Kitamuri Eri (seiyuu) x2
• Nakajima Megumi (seiyuu)
• Morita Masakazu (seiyuu)
• Minami Kuribayashi (musical artist/seiyuu)
• CooRie (musical artist)
• UR@N (musical artist)
• May'n (musical artist)
• MELL (musical artist)
• Kuuchuu Yousai (illustator)
• Katakura Shinji (mangaka, illustrator)
• Yamanaka Takahiro (director)
• REDALiCE (musical artist, DJ)
• DJ CHUCKY (musical artist, DJ)
• NO+CHIN (musical artist, DJ)
• m1dy (musical artist, DJ)
• GUHROOVY (musical artist, DJ)

AX needs to stop this insanity, or I'll be forced to go every damn year.

Hm, final thoughts:

• The lanyards were so cheap this year. Mine even still have the MADE IN CHINA sticker still on it.
• They're making us pay for our concerts now! D:
• They almost made us pay for shuttles! D:
• There could've been more frequent or just more shuttles.  The shuttle buses got full way too quickly and we'd either have to walk in the heat or travel to another hotel to get first dibs.
• Outside events were unpleasant with the gawddamn heat.
• If I didn't have past AX experience, my autograph getting would've been shit (I guess that wasn't bad for me).  They should've used the number system again like last year.
• They needed bigger signs for the autograph lines.
• Konishi was put in too small of a room.  They underestimated him!
• I wish I played the FUNimation scavenger hunt... I wanted Higashi no Eden stuff :(
• I was sad there wasn't a vendor that sold manga (Japanese) and some other figures I'm still looking forever for.
• Almost every event was delayed at least 30 mins.
• Those vuvuzelas were annoying.
• That distance between the West Hall Lobby and the Exhibit Hall still sucks.
• They should've put the autograph area in the unused West Hall.  Forcing us to run through people in the exhibitor's hall was an ass move.
• Needed more late night events later than 2am karaoke.
• Badge pickup on Day 0 was shit.
• I have come to love and appreciate shikishis.

I need to thank Tofu and Rift for allowing me to experience such insanity this year. Can my graduation get any better? Nah, I think that was the final sign for me to get my ass into gear.

Anime Expo 2010 Report [Day 2 & 3]

...and the report continues!


Day 2 - July 2
The day's first order of business was Kitamura Eri's panel at 12:30p. We ended up showing up an hour earlier accidentally thanks to my bad sense of time but that turned out to be a good thing. They featured Kitamura and one of Toradora!'s directors, Yamanaka Takahiro on the panel. Kitamura answered a series of questions picked from the open question box that was at the NIS America booth and they apparently liked and picked my question. I had to go up and ask my own question =_= but because of that, I got the Toradora! premium box set vol.1 as a prize plus her autograph as well. Since the panel was running late into the May'n and Nakajima Megumi's concert, I went to get my prize at a later time.

So, the CONCERT. WAS AMAZING. They sang through the Macross Frontier songs plus some from the MF Movie and their own personal tracks. I was disappointed that Nakajima wasn't as cute as I pictured her. May'n definitely takes the cake. Ahem.

The real amazing part was definitely the appearance of Kanno Yoko out of all people. For the secret guest, we were debating over Kanno Yoko, Sakamoto Maaya, or even Toyoguchi Megumi (Klan) to complete the girls... but wow, she showed up and danced to Seikan Hikou as Nakajima sang it. Then followed to play the piano for a few tracks like Aimo.

After the wicked concert, we came out and swung by check out what was left of the Touhou gathering. The concert ended late, so they had already disbanded by then.

Next stop was Horie Yui's panel. She apparently was behind on schedule so the panel forced us to watch the first episode of Toradora! With only a half n hour left, they answered some questions from the question box and called it a day. I went to pester the Toradora! guy for my goods and tried my luck to ask if he could snag me Horie's autograph as well. He shrugged and said he could do the best he can and asked me to follow him back to the booth to get Kitamura's part at least.

By then, the exhibitor's hall was closing up, so Tofu and I went to meet up with the Touhou group again where we hung out, munching on the genderswap Mokou's snacks while waiting for the rest of the group to show. 8pm rolled around, and HARDCORE SYNERGY was about to start so we skipped real food and went straight there.

For the next 6 hours, I tried not to overexert my energy so I wouldn't sweat to death and feel disgusting. Regardless of me trying to stay cool, there was more than once instance where a really sweaty guy would be jumping, dancing, fist pumping into me and yes, it was very unpleasant. Anyway, the lineup was much like: DJ AMAYA, NO+CHIN, GUHROOVY/DJ CHUCKY, M-Project, DJ Schwarzenegger, REDALiCE, DJ CHUCKY, m1dy, DJ DA/LE. The most strangest thing was probably the KISS wannabe guy who was apparently another host up on stage. He was out of place at a j-core dance, seriously.

Speaking of j-core and out of placeness, a guy asked me to dance. When he poked my shoulder and asked me, I first thought: "How [the hell] do you dance together to j-core?!? Headbanging? Fist pump together?! Jump in unison!?!" I recall pausing for the longest time, trying to figure out how to answer him while he tried to fill the void with "It's okay if you say no" and I finally was all like "(errrrraghhhh) uh I'm tired! sorry!" And then he disappeared forever. K I felt really bad but really, how! I heard I wasn't the only one to be asked that question either.


All us touhouers made our way to the front to cheer REDALiCE on. When he was done with his performance, I was done with mine and stepped out to _not_ dance to m1dy's speedcore. I like him and his music, but only from a distance and for my ears... nothing more.

When it finally ended at 2am, we went to the Marriott and waited around for other people (plus REDALiCE). It wasn't until way past 3, we finally headed to out for food. By then, I was THIS close to bailing, considering the time of day it was. We had dinner..? er breakfast?.. at the Original Pantry Cafe. Too bad we had it at like effing 4 in the morning though.



Day 3 - July 3
With only an hour of sleep, I started the day with MELL's panel at 10a but got there later that I should've. It sounded like the concert was awesome. :( But VS REDALiCE is a tough one. Anyway, after the panel, I mad dashed to the autograph line up and finished pretty quickly. I headed to the NIS America booth to check on the status of my signed goods but found that Horie's autograph signing was not successful so I hurried to join in on the lineup already forming. Since Kitamura Eri was there again, I had her and the director who was there sign the inside of the DVD book I got. Afterwards, I found Tofu and Kozu already lined up for Nakajima's signing and joined in. It went slower than expected and it delayed into the Konishi Katsuyuki's panel. When I got there, the room was full and all hope was lost. I stood around outside the room for 20 or so minutes figuring out what to do until they suddenly decided to let SIX people in and so I hurried and managed to be that 6th. Man, at least 80% of the fans there were diehard Hetalia fans. I should catch up and get on that bandwagon. P:

After the panel it was another mad dash to the autographs. The amount of people who wanted his autograph was so overwhelming, personalizations were prohibited and photos were limited. Either way, my Tales of Festival book was successfully autographed and I was happy.

With little time left for the exhibit hall, I went over to the MangaGamer booth and got Katakura Shinji to sign his Boukyaku no Senritsu manga. He was super happy to see his own manga from years ago :D Sadly, Kuuchuu Yousai was nowhere to be found (it was my 2nd attempt already then).

The exhibit hall closed up and I headed to the ESPN Zone to check out the Danny Choo meet up. It wasn't particularly packed by the time I got there, and everyone was scattered in their little own groups. It was strange... and I was confused. There was a line, so I lined up and found out that it was to get Danny's autograph/picture so sure, what the heck. When it got to my turn I just asked for a photo and proceeded on. I suppose mingling sorta happened and met with lightningsabre, Ben, Jennifer and her friends. It seems like most people there were waiting on the free stuff but it never happened.


After the rather anticlimactic meetup, I took a quick detour back to the hotel to drop off stuff and returned to the convention to meet up with Tofu and his two friends at the Gurren Lagann movie screening, followed by the cosplay contest. The contest was disappointing but Konishi ended up cosplaying as Kamina so it was all worth it at the end.


Food was in order by then so we drove to Little Tokyo for Daikokuya Ramen. We had to wait outside for [I think] at least an hour before we got a spot but it was awesomely worth it. For some reason, I had ramen three times on the trip and Daikokuya's was by far the best.


The food was great AND they played old school anime music - Digimon, Utena, Kenshin, Shaman King, FMA - which of course rocked super nostalgia socks.

When we got back to the hotel, it was already packing time. The flight back didn't allow for much additional packing, so I decided to put away the costume for the last day.

Next: Anime Expo 2010 - Day 4, Final Thoughts & Loot

Anime Expo 2010 Report [Day 0 & 1]

It's been 'tradition' to go to AX every other year and since I went last year, this year was supposed to be a break year. Somehow, things happened and now this year has become exempt to that tradition. In fact, the tradition's probably nulled now as the years go by (ugh.. age).


Anyway, Anime Expo 2010. Wow. What just happened in the last few days? It went by so much quicker than any other year. Breaks? Sleep? Food? What.

Day 0 - June 30
Me and Tofu's flight was scheduled for 6:30am, so we had to arrive at the airport around 4am. I attempted to sleep as many hours as possible, but only managed about 2 at most. The flight itself was uncomfortable and too cold for me to catch any additional shut eye time. Poked at my DS to pass the time.

We arrived on time and then went to the International Terminal to pass the time while we waited for another friend, Rift, to arrive from another flight coming from Seattle. I never knew/noticed all police officers walked around carrying AK-47s like it's nothing. It was scary.

When he arrived, we did even more waiting for Ray to come and pick us up from the airport which wasn't until well past noon. We had a late lunch in Little Tokyo (Little Tokyo Square) at Hanaichimonme for ramen. It was a disappointing meal but it was still food.


Ray had to return to work so we quickly finished up and had him drop us off at the Westin where Kozu was doing his "press" job, interviewing celebrities in their private suites. Since he was nowhere close to done, we went and checked in at the Sheraton where we were going to be staying for the next few days, followed by wandering the attached mall and the surrounding drug stores. Kozu ended up taking longer than expected, so we decided go to and lineup for our badges first. We got there at 5pm and didn't finish until past 7:30pm. After we walked back to the hotel and stopped by a grocers on the way. We bummed in the hotel for hours until Ray finally got off work around 9:30pm and we headed out to get some deep dish pizza.


Deep dish is deep.
Day 1 - July 1
Finally. The official first day started off with the Japanese DJ panel at 10:45 and met up with Kozu there. The attending DJs were DJ CHUCKY, m1dy, NO+CHIN, and - GASP - REDALiCE. The others were still jetlagged. The translators with them weren't that great as a chunk of questions were mistranslated/misheard. Then a panel group photo was taken at the end. No idea which DJ's page it's going to be on so I can't look up their twitter/blog to find it.

Right after was May'n's panel downstairs, so down we went and we joined Kozu's friends in the long line that was forming. That was followed by the long wait before May'n showed up from the entrance behind us - she was cute as ever!


After her panel it was time for autographs so we headed to the exhibitor's hall where it was held. Kozu made a mad dash there before us so we joined him. While waiting for my turn, I snuck out of the line quickly to catch the DJs who were bored at their autograph table. Sadly there was no sign of REDALiCE but GUHROOVY was there instead.

After the round of autographs, I was making my way to the next thing on my schedule until I bumped into wandering REDALiCE, attacked him for an autograph and picture before letting him go. Continuing on, I went to Morita Masakazu's "panel" (more like event) scheduled at the Nokia Plaza next. I was already worried when I read that it was located at the Nokia Plaza out of all places - an outside stage in the blazing sun. I thought I was late for it at first, but in fact it gets delayed and thus ended up standing around in the heat for the longest time. When they started, I finally knew what was going on - Morita was brought here by Shounen Jump to promote Bleach. The next hour was listening to Morita do a live voice over, then followed by choosing three rounds of random people from the audience to do voice acting. A Rukia cosplayer who was chosen to voice Rukia was so cute and she also gave us some free fan service panty shots thanks to the wind.


Next it was mad dash time to the autograph room which was different from the usual exhibitor's hall area. When I was done, it was already well past the 4pm Kuribayashi Minami mini-concert at the MangaGamer booth but when I was making my way back to the exhibitor's hall, she was still singing. I was able to catch the last two songs or so.


They announced autographs right after, so I joined in with the crowd and managed to get Kuribayashi Minami, CooRie, and UR@N by purchasing their CDs. I got free goodies to go with my purchases: a boobie pad, t-shirt, Dear Drops book and a pretty bag.

It was already nearing 6pm which was around the time the dealer's room closed, so I quickly sped to the artist's alley to avoid getting kicked out to meet up with Tofu, Rift and their artist friends. We headed back to the hotel so I can drop off my goods and change out of costume before heading to the Marriott to meet up with Kozu and his friend, Chris. He drives a hawwwt bmw. :3

We dropped off Tofu and Rift near the restaurant they were eating with their artist friends while Kozu, Chris and I wandered around from place to place to settle on a restaurant that wasn't too long a wait. We finalized on Orochon Ramen - the restaurant famous for their Special #2 eating challenge. Ah, we weren't that fearless but I had the #3 and even that was rather spicy.


We headed back to the convention around 10:30p, picking up Tofu and Rift on the way again and took a peek at the X Japan event that was happening at Club Nokia. At first we all thought it was a fundraiser concert, but it turned out to be a music video shooting. We ughed and decided to check out the dance at the Marriott instead. The dance was pretty much the same as what I saw at Sakuracon's rave, 'cept there was a furry and a ballet dancer. Yep.


It was too difficult to get into it with only 15% of the room full, 40% of the people there were standing around, and the music was just your typical clubbing music. We gave up on that and went back to the lobby where we watched Kozu and Chris play a few rounds of YuGiOh before we called it a night.

Next: AX2010 Report - Day 2 & 3