Penny Arcade Expo Prime 2012: Part 2

Day 2: Slow Redemption

We found amazingly cheap all day parking that morning at the convention centre ($10 flat rate!). Had absolutely no idea why that was cheap the way it was. Never again did we find it.

• Dishonored: Ran into electricity-barriered doorways constantly and died a lot; the people who were watching must've had a good chuckle... and I threw grenades at point blank just because I could.
• Injustice: A great take on fist-fighting with DC superheroes. I was intrigued.
• Sleeping Dogs: Running and fisting is all I remember doing.

Another strangely short list but it was mainly Kojima day. We lined up early to get ourselves some good seats at Kojima Hideo's panel where he talked about his MGS franchise. Very scripted but it was still a great interview to listen in on. We followed to line up for his autograph (and obligatory handshake) right after. It was unfortunate he didn't sign personal items as my friend lugged his MGS PS3, but we all got a standard poster instead.

Gee-off, Kojima-san, Translator-san

For evening foods, we ended up having a strangely huge group of people but still managed to get a table at a Thai place at Pacific Place. We then spent the rest of the night playing Key Largo with the few of us who stuck around.

Day 3: Progress
The last day ended up being the best of all days as we all knew which games we wanted to tag.

• Last of Us: We watched the employee in the back play through the demo live. Another amazing cinematic-feel movie game.
• God of War Ascension: The multiplayer looked interesting so we joined as a team and beat the crap out of the other party. :D
• Lost Planet 3: This demo was a whopping 20 minutes. The main character's design bugged me to no end; too clean and too good looking for a guy in his situation.
• Hell Yeah!: Super entertaining game with great humour and a variety of fun randomness.
• Adventure Time: Strangely fun for a 3DS game. I need a 3DS.
• Hawken: Amazingly fun game. I would've truly loved swag for this great game. Definitely looking forward to this one.

During the last bit of the day, we stumbled around to buy ourselves any last minute swag of whatever that was left.. and unfortunately there wasn't much. Yeah, probably should've done that earlier.

Taphouse nummehs.

Taphouse happened and then it was off to the event of the night -- bowling... with beer. We enjoyed ourselves fries and beer while we waited for enough lanes to accommodate 15 of us. I played like poo. Then we followed to play a few rounds of Dominion back at Rift's afterwards. Can't let the weekend end so... zzzz

The Post-PAX Thoughts

Yet another vastly different PAX experience. This year felt abnormally busy yet, when looking back, we didn't get much done at all. Not my most favourite but it was an extraordinary weekend to hang with friends. The expo has yet again expanded in size and clearly also in fandom considering the speed of how fast it sold out once tickets were available. They dedicated almost a whole floor to the League of Legends nationals tourny, moving the freeplay PC and BYOC to the hard to locate basement area. [Good] swag seemed particularly harder to get ahold of. One freebie I would've loved to get was a Borderlands 2 t-shirt but, for a game that's to release within the same month, the line for it was stupidly long.

The games featured there this year felt rather underwhelming, considering how close the release dates were/are for a good chunk of them. Some of which have already released since this post.

Serious LoL business.

Final notes:

• Missed: SimCity was playable at the Nvidia booth, and I WAS THERE! D:
• Tempted to try but didn't: Fable the Journey, Devil May Cry
• Favourite game of the show: Hawken
• Favourite swag: LoL water D&D Neverwinter glass mug
• That's a super NEAT idea: Cards Against Humanity t-shirt matching game!
• Bamco, why no treat us with delicious TALES?!
• Will continue to keep my eyes peeled for the very scarce Japanesey things.

Last but not least, the roots:

Penny Arcade Expo Prime 2012: Part 1

Day 0: The Pre-PAX
This year was yet another different crew of PAXers. A notable new recruit, Y2James, joined the fray to get a taste of the event and get another helping of Vancouver (and join me for the way down). We had ourselves some nummy dim sum and filled up on Starbucks before we began the journey, and was making some great time until we encountered a series of unfortunate events: traffic crossing the border was rather nasty for a Thursday morning; we didn't think too much of it until we got detained in the border crossing customs office for an additional few hours where they took a ridiculous amount of precious time and our pocket money from us to let us through (reality: needed a Visa for land travel). The longer the line got, the less people there were working at the desks as they seemed to love taking their sweet ass time.

When that mess was over and done with, we continued our journey down to Seattle, encountering disgusting long weekend traffic, and stopped at Rift's new place to find out that he wasn't quite home yet. Since our karaoke plans were ruined, we figured we'd check out the Gearbox & Joystiq Pre-PAX party at Pink's, near the convention area. Ion met up with us and then we chugged our way through that disgusting traffic again, which further added to all the delays that day. We parked near Ion's friend's place, who lived in walking distance to the downtown core where it was held, and met up with more of his friends before we walked our way there.

There was a stupid long line that wrapped around the mall's floor of the lounge when we got there but hey, we had nothing else to do, so why not join in on the lining. After a good hour we finally got in, figured out how this "open bar" thing worked and ordered away. We all knew it was a bad idea to drink on an empty stomach because we (or at least I?) regretted it very much afterwards. Oh the party itself was, well, just a drinking fest. Borderlands? What Borderlands? Oh, yeah, it was some video trailer that was played on repeat on the TVs. The rest of the night was extremely unpleasant but we did manage to get back to Rift's place to pass out on his couch.

The Joystiq & Gearbox (Borderlands 2) Party @ Pink's

Day 1: Hate you, Pre-PAX

Okay, learnt my lesson to not get greedy with an empty stomach because, ugh, not only did I not sleep well, but I felt like shit all morning. The hangover feel did end up delaying our wake and prevent us from getting our usual close parking at the convention. Day 1 notables:

• Final Fantasy 25th Anniversary Event: This was quite the disappointment. For a few hour line, standing outside under the heat, we got a poster, a silly photobooth opportunity to pose with giant head-only plushies of their mascots (chocobo, gob, mog, mandy) and a meaningless fizzy drink which we didn't even bother finishing. The only thing to do there was a ring toss game and consoles of each  main numbered Final Fantasy games for you to play.
• Phantasy Star Online 2: There really wasn't a need to play this game, but me and Ion were off it for a few days so there was an itch. We wanted that free mousepad too anyway.
• D&D Neverwinter Nights: The freebies for demoing this game were definitely different from the norm so we tried our luck at getting one of the random prizes. Oh, the game itself was okay. Can't say there's much to be impressed about. Just another MMO?

The first day felt pretty unproductive, as we walked the floor for most of the day. We were extremely hungry come 4ish, so we decided to have food early at no other than the Cheesecake Factory! Regrettably, we checked out Triton's PAX party right after to find FREE food available (and more open bar). Finally we ended the night with the Giant Bombcast Live but ended up missing the VSO (they might have played Chrono Cross AGHRGHGRHGH).

Healthier.

Triton's party.

With the official first day behind us, we looked forward to some better times in the next two days...

Anime Revolution 2012

That ceiling!

There was a strange level of expectation for its launch year: first being their ridiculously priced registration, second for their departure from their former self as AE (taking many minions with them), and lastly the slow trickle of guest announcements (although all western guests at the time) throughout the year. Not until the final few months did they finally give us want we really want and brought one amazing Japanese guest to our shores. Whether that one amazing guest justified the rest of the con is another story completely however...

The day before:

Thought I'd be smart and stop by to grab my badge early at the pre-reg, and but nope, not as smart as one would think. Got there after work, joined the silly long line, and waited like a sucker for an hour and a half. Alright!

The first day:
The morning I got a ride from LightningSabre and got there to lineup again for another hour or so for his badge (not that there was anything else happening during that time anyway, which actually became a reoccurring thing). We made our way to the dealers hall first thing, strolled around, said hi to some of LS' friends, and stayed on the lookout for cosplayers that caught our eye.

When lunch rolled around, we met up with one of LS' friends who worked in the actual building itself for food at Mahony & Sons, then headed back. We sat in on the Ghibli panel where the dude just showed clips that were badly clipped. What seemed like not long after we had lunch, we went to grab dinner at the neighbouring food court (more to waste as much time as possible). The only other interesting panel we thought we'd stop by was the Terri, Ron, and Sugar Q&A (mainly for Sugar). We couldn't help but notice the frequent disruption from the adjoining panel "room" (room = an actual room divided by a cloth wall, to make the separate "rooms"), which was rather annoying.

(l-r) Terri Hawkes, Ron Rubin, and Sugar Lyn Beard

With nothing else interesting lined up, we found a place to chill for a few hours without being yelled at by AR staff for being a fire hazard. Our final panel for the day was the swimsuit contest which, is strange for me to say but, was quite entertaining and worth the wait. A bit overboard on the innuendos and puns but the contestants counterattacked them all pretty well.

The next day:
Ended up joining LightningSabre again that day and caught the tail end of his ball joint meet. Found Lester (and Ty eventually) and got our Nakata Jouji autographs. With nothing better to do, we checked out the Aniplex panel but, as a consequence, we were unable to get into Nakata Jouji's panel because of the silly underestimated person capacity. We spent the rest of the day chilling at KL-chan's booth when Tofu joined in on our exciting lack of festivities. Also, interestingly enough, discovered that PiggyHoHo, from way back when of the online CCS community days, is a local and had a booth right beside us in the AA. Small world. ;o

Nakata Jouji

That night we deferred night market fooding to the next day and decided to finish up in the downtown area with Sanpachi Ramen for dinners.

The Sanpachi Ramyuns.

Seeing how the first two days were already a snore, I opted to skip out on Sunday to get errands done. The hanging out and stuffing our faces with street food at the night market later that day was more engrossing than the two days prior combined.

I'll still give them credit for being able to pull together a huge guest line-up for their first attempt, which is rather impressive in comparison to their competitors. However they get negative points for their ugly usage of the venue and the lack of activities available. Their pre-registration line is also inexcusable; on-site registration should NOT be available on a pre-register day and that manpower and booth space should also be solely used for that pre-reg line present. Providing some proper seating area would also be greatly appreciated. Otherwise, good try. Now try harder.

Summer Travels: EVO 2012 World Championships

Day 1: Warming Up

Come early Monday morning, the tournaments were well on their way. I headed to the Caesar Palace's to catch Kozu's first match for KoF and to also scope out the floor. Sty finally woke up hours later and together we met up with some people we used to play with in a private Ragnarok Online server many years ago. We opted to have some quick food at the food court and then went back to catch more of the matches, such as the showdown between Noah and Mago, Air well representing Canada, Tokido getting beat by a fellow Canadian, and our .bRO keyboard-playing friend, Roogle's, match against Uryo.

Noah (left) vs. Mago (right)

Playstation All Stars was readily available for playing so I gave that a whirl and unfortunately I wasn't particularly fond it. Also, Street Fighter X Tekken is only amazing because of Toro and Kuro. That's all.

Later that night I convinced everyone we had to do the 24 hour buffet and thus our buffet adventure started with Paris' because of its location. It was sad Paris' has continued to drop in quality; it was a bit of a disappointment but still satisfactory nonetheless.

Day 2: Wandering
Our next buffet was at the Flamingo for brunch. The afternoon consisted of a round of P4A, getting an autograph (and photo) from Daigo Umehara, and wandering around the floor. The room was more packed than the day before so we had less opportunity to sit down to observe the matches.

Capcom's fancy car display plus bored car guard man

Our final buffet was at Planet Hollywood, which was safe to say was the best of the three we had. I also picked up a Evo 2012 T, which ended up becoming my autograph shirt. On the way to and from places, we encountered "celebrities" (sans locals except Air and JWong) which Kozu helped identify.

Day 3: The Finale
After having a string of buffets, we decided to get some fast food before heading to the last and most exciting day of all matches. The floor was cleared of exhibits and was all filled with chairs. Next door was the overflow room where the livestream was set up. Although the commentary was nice, the unexpected streaming failures were rather annoying. Without a doubt, the KoF and MvC3 matches were the most exciting games to watch whereas AE had very little battering between the two players, thus rather underwhelming.

Daigo's final AE match

The Prologue
After having experienced a fighting game tournament in person, it really inspires you to pick up a fighting stick and play some fighting games yourself. The energy, emotions, and rivalry in the room is incomparable to a mere livestream. As for me though, I may have an accessible fighting stick and may get my hands on a game or two, but I would sadly have no one to play/practice with. Despite saying that, I will consider dropping by LV for EVO again next year since flying to LV is rather affordable compared to other US destinations.

So, the next morning we had a pasta buffet. Don't do it; it's a trap! Pastas are so filling! What were we thinking!

Also on the way back, I saw Air while crossing customs. He's a Vancouverite!

And finally, loot picture which lazily includes Anime Expo shtuff too:

Thus ended my summer travels adventures and back to work I went, successfully still pale as a vampire. Take that 45°C Las Vegas weather! However, I did have to deal with a cold/flu/cough attack which lasted me a good 2 1/2 weeks. I'm beginning to see a trend in my health post-travels...

Summer Travels: Geek Downtime

Between two fun & geek-filled weekends of Anime Expo and EVO, Sty and I made the effort to keep ourselves occupied. In hindsight, we could've devoted some of that time to sleeping and just chillaxing a bit more. Maybe I'm just getting old but, boy, was I sleepy!

Tuesday, July 3
Sty and I decided to take an "official" tour of LA during our downtime between events considering the number of times we've visited and would never do the real touristy things. We picked a decently reviewed tour online before we left on our trip and left it at that. We were running late that morning, so we called in to the tour group to confirm the time. They suggested we go straight to their office but we stayed on track and headed to the hotel pickup location we originally picked at booking. For some reason they figured that we agreed to meet them at their office and decided not to pick us up at our pickup location. We waited over an hour and then an additional hour after we called them to ask wtf was going on until their bus finally came by to grab us.

When we got to the office we were forced onto the other later tour that featured less an area of LA, which fortunately wasn't that huge of a concern. On the tour, we stopped at the Farmer's Market where we had "real" donuts for the first time (vs. Canadian "donuts"), Hollywood where we took pictures of the stars we cared for (BIG BIRD!), and Venice Beach for fake merch window shopping (and the beach too). The rest of LA, like Rodeo Drive, was driven through on the tour bus, so there wasn't much to that part.

It finished up earlier than we expected, so we called up Ken to come and grab us. Considering it was high traffic 4pm, he ended up getting stuck for the longest time, which we felt super bad for. :( When he finally did manage to make it to us, we decided to make a stop at Fry's again for some time wasting before meeting up with HB for dinner.

As we were already starving by then, we had a small snack at Jogasaki which was right outside the Fry's; it was really good! After some shopping, we made our way to Ramen Yamadaya and met up with HB. We also had a side of sake with our ramen to celebrate the occasion.

Jogasaki rolls~

Yamadaya ramen~

Btw, we wrote in to the tour company and got the difference in tour costs back.

Wednesday, July 4
We didn't realize our planned Universal Studios day was right on Independence Day (combined with the summer holidays) so the place was packed.

The park was peppered with water mist spray areas, but fortunately it wasn't THAT excessively hot that day. I made Curious George upset for not wanting him in the photo with me and Fievel. Yeah, was never really a fan of Curious George, so too bad for him. Transformers the Ride was the best out of the bunch, second was King Kong, and the third was probably the Studio Tour (bonus points for having a cute-looking tour guide ;)).

Thanks to our front of the line passes, we managed to see everything by the end of the day. We walked the city walk but didn't manage to decide on dinner so we left the park to find food elsewhere. Ken called up his friends who were checking out some local fireworks and they brought us to Umami Burger where we had delicious high-end burger and fries. P:

Thursday, July 5
We packed up our shtuff and made our way towards Korea town where we were to be dropped off for our bus trip to our next destination, Las Vegas! We had some pretty authentic (or so I think!) Korean tofu pot to-go from BCD for our ride there. The tofu was really quite good, btw~

The ride itself was a bit rough – the seats weren't particularly comfortable, the bus was super packed, the movie they played was super loud – but I was so tired, I just forced myself to nap while I could. For the cost of the one-way, hassle-free trip, it wasn't that horrible of an experience.

Upon arrival, me and Sty hung out at the casino/bar area of the Bally's hotel where we were to stay at before Kozu and crew showed up. We drove out to grab some nummy late night fast food at Sonic's after dropping off our stuff and got to check out the tail end of a motorcycle meetup that took over the whole drive-in parking lot. The peach and coke was my winning drink combination. <3

Sleep happened probably. I think some Sengoku Basara did too.

Summer Travels: Anime Expo 2012 – Part 4

Day 3: One Bad Judgement
Bright and early again on Sunday. I borrowed a press badge in the morning to line up for potentially extra press-reserved LiSA tickets. Being the first person in and out, I snagged two and made my way back to the hotel to "wake up." I headed out again when I was ready and went to Koyama Rikiya's panel, which was then followed by the Fate/Zero industry autograph session. I foolishly through I would have been able to get their autographs after trying for some Madhouse industry autos but I should have figured the autograph session wouldn't start on time. Regardless, I got a fancy King Kazma sketch from the character designer and moved on. Moved on to another autograph that just so happened to be there: Muvluv Total Eclipsers. The merch was more to be desired so I opted for a shikishi signing before me and Kozu mad sped to LiSA's concert.

LiSA's concert was fun but I only know of her music from Angel Beats! and Fate/Zero so most of her music escaped me. She also had a fun hand motion dance she had us perform to one of her songs. I was sad to not hear "alchemy" though her version of "My Soul, Your Beats" was decent.

After the concert we walked the exhibitor's hall's artist alley section this time. We stopped by to say hi to (ahem, bothered) the artsy friends and then finished up the exhibitor's hall (finally!). There was nothing else better to do that night so Kozu and I also checked out the Total Eclipse screening, which ended up getting delayed quite a bit. The actual screening consisted of Kuribayashi and ayami singing their theme songs live up on stage before showing us the first two episodes of Total Eclipse. Eh, safe to skip that series imho. Bring the original Muvluv to screens and we'll talk.

After the late showing, we went for food. Dinner ended up only being me and Sty at the Yard House across from our hotel. Verdict? Absolute shit.

Day 4: A Nice Surprise
Once again I did some press badge borrowing to sneak my way into the exhibitor's hall to see if I could get my hands on ANYTHING to redeem my failure yesterday. Unfortunately all the booth freebies were out for the last day and there were no additional Koyama autographs. With nothing to do, I started lining up at the LiSA autographs before Kozu showed up to take my place. I casually scrolled through the schedule on his phone until I spotted an interesting guest appearance by Kishio Daisuke (wut the fruit?!) at Anime Jungle's panel.

The panel itself was quite the squeeee fest, as it was not only super intimate (with only a dozen or so of us in the audience) but we had the opportunity to ask multiple questions. My one mission, the ultimate question: "seme or uke?" which I successfully asked, in which he took by surprise. Done and done~! After the panel, most of us girls stalked him to the side hallway (ufufufu~) and requested a group photo, which he was more than happy to join in for. It was unfortunate that he wasn't properly announced in the proper media outlets but I imagine Anime Jungle only mentioned it themselves. If only I knew he was coming, I would've hunted him down for an autograph as well. If anything, he's one of the bigger seiyuu out of all the other seiyuu present (second to Horikawa). Which well reminds of Kuribayashi Minami's situation as well (she'd be bigger than LiSA, at least).

I headed back to the exhibitor's hall for one last visit and was reminded of the autograph for Niikawa Souhei so I stopped by to snag that. While in line, I met up with Benji, whom I last and first met two years ago also at AX. After determining there really was nothing left (and unable to find that cheap full size body pillow store again), I went back to meet the rest of the crew who were chilling at the Starbucks for unlimited wifi goodness.

We said our goodbyes and parted ways, heading back to the hotel to grab our belongings. We bumped into the Touhous one last time and finally stuffed our stuff into Ken's car. As it was still early in the day, we decided to stop by another Fry's for some potential shopping, seeing the stores in Little Tokyo were not open because of AX. After the detour, we opted for Pho's for dinner since it was nearby. Later that night  I helped Ken get his PC set up for PSO2 after all the talk that was done at the Starbucks round table but I think the language barrier is still hindering him from playing further. :x

In Closing
Anime Expo was decent this year but relatively underwhelming compared to other years. It was almost a bit of a cheat for AX to bring Kajiura again this year, but at least the "group" was different and because of her return, I managed to complete my See-Saw autograph. It would have also been ideal if Kuribayashi and Kishio were upgraded to guest of honor status so they would get the publicity they deserve. Can you imagine a Kuribayashi concert? YUS. That would be amazing.

X-Games was definitely the reason for AX's underperformance this year. Having less the venue space (/hotel space?) prevents them from getting more people in. It also got in the poor little attendees way of getting to and from our hotel safe and sound, without being harassed by WOO EXTREME SPORTS! people.

Also wished I brought my own camera instead. The battery for my own cam seems to be failing so I opted to use my mother's and didn't realize just how bad it is. It's BAD. I wasn't able to get any celebrity shots with the camera at all (thus the lack of photos, you noticed?).

Regardless, it was still awesome to see friends I haven't seen in two years and geek it up at our usual convention. More AX years to come? We will see.

Summer Travels: Anime Expo 2012 – Part 3

Day 2: Hit and Miss.
ALREADY SO TIRED.
I woke up and left first to make it to the Aniplex AoEx photoshoot and Okamoto Nobuhiko autograph session at 10, and boy did I choose the wrong path that morning. I decided to take my chances by taking the other coarse in front of the convention center (rather than behind, through parking lots) and discovered we get rerouted around two to three street blocks before getting to an entrance of the LACC. While weaving around slow trekkers, I gracefully PK'd, and ended up with some minor hand scrapes. I picked up a free energy drink on the way, which ended up being both a nice pain reliever for my scraped hands and a much needed energy boost. I arrived to find that the autograph lineup was already well packed and the cut-off was already determined. Regardless, I joined the line to take my chances and, fortunately, Okamoto was a FAST autographer and breezed through the line. With one success, Sty finally joined me and brought breakfast (mocha cookie crumble frappucino mmmm...).

[some asian blogging flare]

After Okamoto's autographin' he panel'd next and that's where we headed. The panel itself mostly consisted of girls asking for character quote requests, which was nothing new, but super disappointing. When that disappointment ended, we continued our exhibition hall rounds before I made my way to the fan AoEx photoshoot later that afternoon.

So the photoshoot was quite the mess. Somehow some girl with no knowledge of the series was appointed to be the screamer (aka. the person who tells which characters go up and pose). After wasting some-odd precious minutes listening to the screamer scream all while staring back at random X-Gamers peering over the fence (probably wondering why this girl was screaming at blankly staring cosplayers), I headed back to the exhibition hall in attempts to finish walking it.

Without much success, me and Sty stripped down at the hotel (drop everything unnecessary) before making our way to the Kajiura/FJ concert. Seating was behind schedule and as it was assigned seating, we chilled outside in the shade while watching the lineuppers make their way in the hall under the blazing sun.

The concert itself was amazing. Despite it being in a hall rather than an actual concert-appropriate venue like the Staples Center or even the Nokia Club, the hall was decent for what it was. Kajiura kicked it off with bgms from Fate/Zero, then touched on Xenosaga II, .hack, vocal themes from Hokuto no Ken and Pandora Hearts, the extraordinary "salva nos" from Noir, the epic bgms from Madoka, Mai-HiME, Aquarian Age (never knew; I guess it was a less memorable ost), and to top it off, they encored with "The World." Unfortunately there was no tribute to any Gundams, seeing they were all YUUKA's tracks who was not present.

The concert ended around 9pm and we were well ready to have our first real meal of the day. Sty, Kozu, and I hung out in the empty convention halls while Kozu gathered more men for the trip to the Original Pantry Cafe for breakfast food. We got the usual big plates of breakfast goodies and then figured headed back for much needed sleep.

Summer Travels: Anime Expo 2012 – Part 2

Taken over Staples Center

Day 1: A Slow Start
It was difficult waking up that morning but we managed to leave Ken's place, charge through the bad LA traffic, and arrive about half way through the Total Eclipse panel. Speaking at the panel was Yoshimune Kouki (producer/creator), ayami, and, returning pop star, Kuribayashi Minami. Sadly Kuribayashi did not get the big name treatment again this time, and silently came with the "Total Eclipse" package. We found Kozu doing his press work in the room before heading to the exhibitor's hall for our first round of shopping. We followed the line going into the hall and caught some unwanted sunshine while we snaked around. We managed to walk a few rows in the hall before heading to the "secret" Kajiura/FictionJunction autograph session. So, for some reason I discovered a text file in the mirrored AX schedule folder the night before, which had a list of all, if not most, of the autograph sessions happening at the con. I decided to take the chance and get in on the line and, what did you know, it really was happening!

After snagging autos, we headed to their panel. Although the translator was kinda awful at her job and the few "OMG you are the prettiest females in the world!" Q&A comments aside, we still got a few good discussions going such as finding out Kajiura's what-could-have-been job, if she didn't get involved in music (spoiler: she would've been a software engineer – say what!?).

Post panel we returned to the exhibitor's hall for some last minute strolling before deciding to finally check-in to our hotel at the JW Marriott. We picked up our stuff from Ken's car and wheeled our way to the hotel. It was then we discovered that the hotel was not as convenient this year as we hoped, all wonderfully thanks to the X-Games. Paths were blocked and the through passageway required us to go through multiple parking lots, backstreets, and walking around road intersections. When we managed to get to our hotel, we chilled in for quite sometime before meeting up with HB, Kozu, and the Touhou group (from the previous year) to plan dinner.

First meal of the day.

Since we wanted to check out the JAST panel later that night, we opted to eat at a curry house in Little Tokyo, which was our closest and opened late option, even though I recalled the food being not so great. The restaurant stayed open way later their scheduled closing time (which was nice) and managed to seat our kinda big table of ten after a whiles wait (which was not nice). With less than an hour left for us to eat and fly back, we scarfed down our food, dropped our monies, and headed back before the TH group.

The JAST panel had a pretty amusing simulated gameplay of a scenario from School Days HQ, but the giveaway that followed was horribly organized. Regardless, we called it a night and headed back to our room to chat and chill.

Summer Travels: Anime Expo 2012 – Part 1

The AX building looking the same.

It's hard to believe that my biggest trip of the year has already come and gone. The planning leading up to the  trip was less than smooth, but things managed to come together in the nick of time, both work and itinerary. Now that it's over though, that just means that more than half the year has gone by. Sigh.

Day 0 – Hello, Heat!
I made my way to the airport three hours in advance, as the obedient international flyer that I am, and strangely enough bumped into my travel companion, Sty, who was scheduled to leave 3 hours before me. It wasn't until I kicked her in the butt hard enough (figuratively) to urge her to gtfo, did she hurry it up and get to her plane on time.

Since I spent the night before staying up and paranoiding as to what I might have forgotten to pack, I had hoped to catch some shut eye while waiting for my flight but it seemed like somebody forgot to turn on the heat in the building. :| To add to that, the plane ride was also kinda chilly, and uncomfortably cramped as I sat beside a huge dude.

Upon my arrival, I was greeted by Sty and Ken, and the familiar smell of smoggy L.A. We grabbed some tasty hot dogs from Pink's and did some air-conditioned mall loitering in Beverly Hills. Ken wanted to pick up something from Fry's so, for convenience sake, we chose the nearest location which turned out to be the worst location. The hour-long traffic combined with the smallest product selection, almost made our trip there almost meaningless. He still did manage to get what he wanted, but even with my want-to-spend-money mode on, I personally wasn't able to get anything.

The sun was starting to set when we finally made our way to the convention centre for pre-reg badge pickup. We dodged random high fives and went in and out in 45mins, which was delicious record time in comparison to another friend who lined up for many hours under the dreadful high noon sun.

However things looked a bit different than usual this year. Right next door we had:

Herrooo, AX-Games!

Thanks to the X-Games this year, AX lost a good chunk of the usual amazing venue (Staples Center and Nokia Theatre) and most of the general convention area which was blocked off from entry. Little did I know then that it was going to be more troublesome that I originally anticipated. It looked interesting from afar and that's all there was to it at the time.

With our most important task of the day completed, we made our way to Ken's place, hunted down his local favourite Mexican food truck for some delicious cheap eats, and eventually fell asleep to 21 Jump Street playing in the background that night.

To be continued in Part 2, when the real party begins...!

Fan Expo Vancouver 2012

Fan Expo has finally taken over the west side of Canada and as a big name convention in Canada, it had to be checked out.

The pre-registration pick-up line was long but moved quickly, although it was ridiculous to see how there was absolutely no line for the on-site registrants. The convention pass was a mere glittery wrist band, or a stamp on the hand for single day passes. The simple wrist band made it transferable, which was nice (whether transferring was even allowed or not is another story). The convention *was* the exhibition hall where practically everything was held: autographs, photographs, dealers, and artist alley. They had one relatively giant area broken off from the hall and one extra, smaller conference room upstairs that were used for panels. The smaller room was way too small for the people they should've expected to show up so if you weren't lining up early, you have basically missed your chance. And if you missed your chance and had already strolled around the exhibition hall enough times, you've just set yourself up to be bored for the rest of the event. The dealers present were of a nice variety, mostly focusing on comics, and then there were the other geeky cultures covered. Speaking of other geeky cultures, the anime cosplaying crowd were the most prominent (an excuse for them to dress up?), but there definitely were a number of awesome old school appearances from childhood cartoons as well.

The sketching panels, which featured a few named comic book artists per panel, were the most interesting at the event. While questions were asked, they sketched and by the end of it, they had an amazing piece of art which they gave away to the audience. Other than that, we chilled out at the Bongo Comics panel to cheer on Space and rolled our eyes at the Anime Revolution panels.

I think it's pretty safe to say that the event was successful so I imagine we'll be seeing them again next year.

Sakuracon Repo 2012

Come Easter weekend, come Sakuracon.

This year's convention landed early in the month, mauling my birthday weekend but, hey, the regular dose of geekery was needed. The weekend started slightly earlier for me as I took the Thursday off to give myself some time to get some last minute things done. I ended up spending the Wednesday night finishing up small costume tweaks and my absolutely divine durian-filled cake. Caught a bit of shut-eye before waking up early to pick up Xenoblade Chronicles, a bday package (from my smexy mango sister) at the post office, and some delicious Chinatown nam sammiches with my brother. Mid-afternoon ToFu, Sty, and I made our way down to Seattle to arrive sometime in the evening and followed to unload our stuff at Garret's. Unfortunately the gang wasn't very pro-karaoke and were feeling very pro-pizza, so pizza happened. Ion joined us for food and brought over a Pokemon board game which we tackled for the rest of the night. Also, discovered that beer floats are generally pretty gross (at least the dark beer and vanilla ice cream combination).

Day 1: LineCon.

The convention decided to scrap the Will Call idea without notice this year so me and Sty ended up having to line up to register. Sadly their registration did not improve since I last experienced it a previous year where the wait time was a solid 3 hours. Regrettably, this year was no exception, as we ended up waiting about the same long 3-4 hours (I completely lost track).

With the registration horror finally behind us, we moved to our first panel of the day to a manga work-related talk panel with Zekkyo and Retsu Tateo. Some pretty interesting fetishes were revealed thanks to some smart questioning. We waltzed into the room next door after for the Gen Urobuchi, Atsuhiro Iwakami, and Katsushi Ota Q&A panel. There was a bit of an intro vid for some of their recent works (interestingly enough, all shown were scored by Kajiura Yuki). While barely paying attention to the less then stellar questions, I spotted LightningSabre a few rows in front of me (actually more like I saw his signature Shana jacket.) and flagged him down afterwards. His fancy press badge got me thinking about BLOGGING (= Press = Free). Something to consider! We stayed for the following panel for Wakeshima Kanon and she came out looking a bit rundown with the wig? bleached-dyed hair? that didn't seem to quite suit her. After the Q&A, we headed to the exhibitor hall's final hour to do some quick browsing. Fortunately nothing really caught my eye this time around, except for an artbook or two.

We reassembled our group, met up with ToFu's friend, Magister, and then headed out to finally get our first meal of the day at the Taphouse. I ate his caesar salad. Sorry, dude. :|

The Stereopony concert was already well on its way when we got back to the convention. None of us were huge fans and I wasn't particularly a fan of their music either so it wasn't a loss for any of us. We then spent the next while in the boardgaming room before the Iron Artist panel at 11. The panel turnout seemed bigger than the years past, but it might've been because of the the room size and layout. Unfortunately there wasn't an 18+ version of the panel this year either, but it was still pretty entertaining.

Day 2: Omiyage.
We allowed ourselves to sleep in a bit before making our way to the convention for some artist Q&As. Both panels featured a slideshow of some of the artists' work, projected on a wall that wasn't completely flat. Nothing out of the norm for questions but we did try and prod Zekkyo on her BLing and Retsu on her hot, bald men fetish.

After panels, I headed to check out the AoEx photoshoot which wasn't situated in the best location imho and then visited the ending of the PanSto photoshoot where Lester was at. Made our way to the autograph lines and started with the Aniplex trio, Urobuchi/Ota/Iwakami. Bumped into LS again before the lines started forming were allowed to be formed.

When it got to my turn as I handed my to-sign piece around the table, Ota reached under the table, handed me a Fate/Zero desk mat featuring suit!Sabre, and said "omiyage" (souvenir). So, the surprised me looking like @__@ thanked him, got my autographs, and moved along, still dazed. With a new desk mat in my hand, we wobbled to Steve Blum's extended Q&A panel and caught the last bit of it before returning to the autograph room for HIS autograph.

Fortunately he had some neato postcards featuring some of his work so me and Sty both picked ourselves one each for him to sign. It was a real shame we weren't able to sit in on his panel though. With the remaining time, we took a last visit to the exhibitor's hall before meeting up with the people for that day's round of food at, yet again, the Taphouse. Although this time around, we had a table of at least ten of us but food and drinks came quickly.

With filled bellehs, Sty, Lester, Ion and I returned to the convention to check out Wakeshima Kanon's concert (or at least the latter half). I felt the concert was a bit underwhelming, although it may have been because of the lack of songs I personally enjoyed of hers, so I'm probably just being bias. We trekked along to the autographs line afterwards and nabbed myself an autograph. We spend the next bit in the boardgaming room (a fancy anniversary version of Settlers of Catan which was defective!) before the swimsuit contest. I regret not snapping a photo of team Seigaku playing DDR outside the panel room. SO REGRET ...because the swimsuit contest was a huge disappointment. Not even worth mentioning the details.

Day 3: Finishing Up.
Autographs were held for both the Japanese artists in the morning. Sadly they only gave sketches for ticket lotto winners (none of us were lucky enough) so we still got ourselves autographs. Bumped into LS again somewhere here. :D

The rest of the afternoon was a blur, but I do recall checking out the Charity Auction and seeing people bid ridiculous prices on stuff. I do regret letting someone get away with a signed and framed Capcom poster at a mere $120. Oh and watched some of the Gundam EXVS tournament. Aside from that, we bummed around a bit before deciding on dinner and packing up our things for the drive back.

We finalized on Crab Pot again this time around, got our hands and faces dirty, and had a good seafoody feast.

No real loot this year... but I did come back with stuff:

Silver Lining

It felt like it was only new years the other day but, hey look, February's already finishing up.

I had a very special visit from Y2James who stopped by Vancouver on his grand North American trip back in January. Unfortunately all his days here were on weekdays but I did manage to ask for a day off without creating too much of a ruckus at work. Many foods were eaten and soon enough the few days had already gone by, and he was already on his way back to the future (on the other side of the world).

The second visitor came later that month, Rift, visited from Seattle to hang out for a weekend. He also brought up the board games order I made the other week with him, so friends and I ended up investing many, many hours into playing them. Also, for first time in many years, I went up the mountain (Cypress) for some powder! It was a nice refresher but wasn't really long enough to really feel warmed up yet. By the end of the few hours, I/we were already pooped so it was a pretty good indicator of our limit that day.

Chinese new year was pretty early this year. I got to see some relatives I hadn't seen in a long time, and even for the first time, my cousin's wife (no celebration marriage - seems popular nowadays). Kinect time (especially watching them play Dance Central) with the aunties was also pretty amusing.

In comparison to January, February has been quiet. The job hunt has continued to be unsettling, getting offers for less than ideal placements. The results (or lack thereof?) of my searches have lead me to seriously consider going back to school for something more specific to help with this headache. As it's already February (March in less than a week), I'd have a good year to think about where and what exactly I'd aim for. The brief research I've done so far has revealed some pretty frightening tuition costs attached to those programs though, so I probably won't be finalizing on any decisions anytime soon.

In the meantime, games. There's this unexpectedly giant list of awesome games coming out this year. Where did it come from? :/

2012 Greetings

Happy New Year!

2012 is upon us and what was better than getting sick mere days before the new year, rather than getting sick BECAUSE of the new year. So somehow, from somewhere, I caught a serious stomach flu the last Thursday of December, leaving me bedridden the Friday, to only recover enough to celebrate a mild new years eve Saturday playing extremely old Wii party games and enjoy some good drinks.

Due to the timing of things, I finally managed to check in with a walk-in doctor the day after new years. I walked away with some advice and a mission to get it thoroughly checked at a lab to see if it's a bacteria that will require some more serious attention. Fortunately I already took a day off that week to chauffeur my mom to and from her visit to the hospital for a minor surgery appointment. I've yet to get a response from the doctor about my report but no news is good news. I still don't feel like I've recovered completely as _too_ much food still upsets my stomach and leaves me with a rather unpleasant feeling... and it's not exactly the usual ugh-I-ate-too-damn-much feeling.

Sickness aside, it IS the new year and I'm still working where I'm working. I haven't had much luck in the job hunting department and from how things are going now, the workload at work has been lessening quite an amount as of late. It IS also still early into the month so time will ultimately tell how the rest of this job's contract will pan out.

So 2012. My main new years resolution is to settle down on a GOOD long term job. Preferably something that sets me up for a clearer route for the many years to come (assuming 2012 doesn't end as a certain calendar says it will). There aren't too many major plans this year other than the usual traverses to the usual places.

Thinking back on 2011... it wasn't a particularly exciting year on this side of the world or even personally. Natural disasters hit a number of places around the world and devastated my life-changing chance to go to Japan. Things were pretty low-key until I was laid off at my previous job and it was only then life started to get interesting again. Then the year ended abruptly when a flu storm tackled me unexpectedly and now the mundane work life has returned... (but for how much longer?)

Nonetheless, I be looking forward to what 2012 has to offer... (other than D3, ME3, AX, PAX, etcetc.)