But this is made of awesome:

Sakura-Con was fun, but extremely tiring. I did my usual pseudo-founder retiree schtick by guest liaising. This year, I played chaperone for Todd Haberkorn, a voice actor from Funimation. I also got to hang out with Brina Palencia (also Funimation). Both of them were extremely cool and fun: professional, engaging, and just about everything you could ask for in a guest.

In the couple weeks leading into the con, I was starting to wonder if I should go. This is the eleventh year, and I'm one of a very small group who's been and staffed every year. Kinda wears after a while.

However, after doing the con, I'm really glad I went. It might have been the most fun I've had as a guest liaison. Besides Todd and Brina, I got to chat with Caitlin Glass (also Funi) and Steve Prince (LA area), who were likewise cool and fun.

Other highlights include seeing Nagahama-san again, who is always fun and engaging (even if there's a bit of a language barrier without a translator).

I only managed to catch one of the four music acts, a rather new rock foursome of Japanese girls (I think they're about 16) called Scandal. They're a bit poppy, rough, and manufactured, but seem to have a fairly strong core talent, a lot of energy, and catchy songs. No current CDs in release, but I'll probably keep my eye out in the future.

Plus, they are very, very cute.

Another of the Japanese bands, Ketchup Mania, seemed quite cool. I didn't get a chance to hear any of their music until after the con, but they've got an album on iTunes which I may get in the near future. They've got an energetic pop-punky sound.

I found out Funi is making a shift away from individual volumes, instead doing releases in ~13 episode boxes. This is an awesome change. They've got one or two series that will finish up the individual volumes, but from then on, this looks like the way of the future.

I picked up the first half of Aquarion and pondered strongly about getitng some Full Metal Alchemist. Once box sets are available, I'll need to get School Rumble, Mushishi, and xxxHolic.

Over the course of the weekend, I crashed at my brother's place, which was cool, but wasn't available for Sunday night. My initial plan was to head back to my grandparents' in the evening, but that got sidelined when I ended up becoming one of the drivers after dropping Todd off at the airport. It was necessary that I remain available for driving on Monday. Ultimately, the con got a room for myself, Loony, and James (all of us driving on Monday), which was great, because the Seattle Grand Hyatt is an awesome hotel.

OTOH, I had no change of clothes.

Monday was hectic, heading to the airport and back with vanloads of equipment and people. Eventually, most had been deposited at their airlines, so Loony and I made our way back to Tacoma to drop off one of the vans.

The evening was comprised of shower, laundry, and a nap before work. Today, I slept for about 9 hour.

Weirdest moment of the weekend had to have been running into Chris Frederick randomly while walking between the con and the hotel. A few of us in relations have been trying to convince him to get on staff. Perhaps next year will work out.

Oh, and after watching the first episode of Aquarion, it's really weird and creepy, but good. Seems to have a slightly Eva-esque vibe.

Annihilation - Hot damn, this was awesome. It sorta cements in my mind the strength of the "meta series". There's very little that's messed up here and it's considerably more satisfying than Civil War was. Can't wait for Conquest.

Interestingly, the last really great miniseries I enjoyed was Seven Soldiers, which had a similar layout.

She-Hulk - Ah, so we come to the end of Dan Slott's amazing run. I've heard some complaints about how this fits into the rest of the Marvel U, but I really don't care. The combination of humor and action along with some really clever plots (The Gamma Defense! Awesome!) made it a book I always looked forward to.

Here's hoping Peter David (?) can keep up the good work. Of course, if Young Justice is any indication, he can.

Bomb Queen vol 2. - After I finished, I pondered that boundry of satire. It's interesting here because Robinson doesn't cross the line of offensiveness twice. There's a LOT of T&A in Bomb Queen, but it's satire, and rather good at that. (It took me a bit to get the pants.)

I'm interesting in seeing more of his work that isn't in the superhero mold.

Powers: Cosmic - Woo! Powers. Please, Bendis, stop writing Avengers so we can get more Powers.

Scott Pilgrim - Awesome!

Hack/Slash,: Friday the 31st - I love Hack/Slash. I don't care for horror movies of any sort, much less slasher films, but I love it. Perhaps it's because it plays a reverse of the concept that I like it, but it helps that it plays the reversal quite well. Plus, the little bits of humor are excellent.

"The sex" indeed.

Ex Machina: Power Down - I was a little underwhelmed by Smoke Smoke, but Power Down put things back on track. I really like that Vaughan has a definite end in mind (issue 50 or so), so very little of Ex Machina feels like treading water.

Space Pinchy - It's really weird. It's got so much T&A but because it's so weird, I don't find it titillating.

In truth, it was more interesting when I scanned it a bit in Japanese years ago.

Gravity - Mostly I picked it up to see (more) of how Sean McKeever handles kids. He does okay.

Utawarerumono - My viewing of this is a bit disjointed. I watched the first seventeen or so episodes with Chris on fansub ages ago. And now over the past few days I've watched eps 15-26 on DVD.

Um.

My initial reaction to the show was a bit eh. The plethora of unexplained animal-people (I think the main girls are fox-girls, but don't quote me), had me wondering, but it actually got interesting in a political fantasy kind of way in short order. So Chris and I stuck around.

A common theme of the series is that the enemies are violence crazy. Crazy for the sake of crazy. This probably would have ruined it for me, except one of the first of these had the absolutely BRILLIANT idea of attacking people on his own side for... well, suffice to say the event had me laughing for, well, months, now.

Plus there's one character who carries a sword so heavy that nobody else can lift it. She does it one-handed, cleaving through such things as God did not meant to have clove.

Now that I've finished it, I can say that for the first nineteen episodes, the series is fine. Then it totally comes off its rails as a series of unexplained plot twists, unbelievable plot reveals and a whole heap of elements stolen almost verbatim from EVA (but possibly NOT the ones you'd think) make the last seven episodes nearly a complete write-off.

Oh, well. At least Karula's cool.

So I decided to actually try and make a dent in the massive (and slowly growing) stack of unwatched DVDs I've accumulated. I'm pretty sure I still have one or two that are from back when I first bought a bunch of anime discs from the Cafe in '01.

Over the past two weeks or so, I've managed to watch or finish three series.

Spoilerish reviews follow.

( Kiddy Grade )

( The Gokusen )

( Burn Up Scramble )

And that's it, so far. I'm currently making my way through Mermaid Forest. Two more discs to go, which shouldn't take more than another night or two.

Amazing climbing session on Thursday. Unfortunately my last as a "regular" at Edgeworks. While I know I've not had a chance to sample many other gyms (only other one is the Warehouse Gym in Olympia), I think I'm going to miss Edgeworks. It's got a great atmosphere and there are multiple challenge levels for me.

In any case, due to being busy and booching the time of the gym, the last time Chris and I had gotten there was Sept 4th, about two and a half weeks ago.

So we got there and found that the far side of the bouldering wall had been completely redone. There was another guy there who pointed out a new V2. So I hopped on it and got it on the first try. My first "successful" V2. The guy pointed out something on the green V2 I'd been working on for a few weeks, but it was a long arm stretch which I am not capable of repeating.

In any case, from there, Chris and I started working on this long, new V1. We didn't manage to defeat it, mostly because it's really long and tiring. Even so, we worked on it in tandem quite well, I thought, which was fun. For a while, we've kinda been doing our own things and haven't really had a session where we put our heads together to get through a problem. I'm probably going to miss that.

After we'd been going at it for about an hour (I paused at one point to try a few other things, including doing the new V2 once again) we wrapped it up by doing the easier new routes. We got stuck at one point on what is apparently the most difficult V0- known to man. I actually think it's because someone put a hand element on upside-down.

Still, it felt really good, even if my arms are still aching from the intensity.

Afterwards, we went to Chevy's for dinner so Chris could repay me for the dinner I'd covered recently. We hadn't done that in a while, so it was nice to have the Chevy's salsa, which is good even if the chips are a bit too light. The fish tacos they had were tasty as well. And the plates were huge, even by family mexican standards.

On Friday I got up early so I could call the auto shop about getting my car in. Unfortunately, they can't look at it until Tuesday, which means it's going to be quite tight doing that along with everything else next week. But it needs the tune-up, oil change, and whatnot, especially before I leave. Unfortunately, my mom's got classes starting... really soon, if not already, and my grandparents leave on a trip on Monday, so if I'll need to rely on friends to shuttle me around a bit.

I started heating up the chili for dinner (did the prep work the previous night) and Chris and I went to CBI for, I suppose, the last time I'll be getting comics there for quite a while. Since they didn't have long boxes, we ran down to Spy Comics to get one.

I made fish chili for dinner. It was interesting, because I'm not really familiar with cooking fish. I was a bit rushed overall for the chili, so I forgot a few things... like tomato paste. Also, since I didn't use any chipotles this time and I didn't up the amount of chili powder used, it didn't quite have the rhobust flavor I'd have wanted. Even so, the combination of the black beans (normal and cuban style), corn, bell pepper, and onion worked quite well. Bit of chili powder and cumin, some been and vinegar, and that cooked up well. I briefly fried the fish before portioning it a bit and dropping it in the mix. Then let it cook in the oven for about 45 minutes or so with the cover off to reduce. Made some corn muffins to go with it. It had an interesting sweet undertone. It was popular and gone rather quickly. I think I'll keep doing chili after I move.

We had our "final" anime night. Watched a couple episodes of Ouran High School, welcome to the NHK ep 1, Kamichu, and Last Exile. All new stuff, really. I'd seen everything, but others hadn't. Sam, Jack, and Jack's brother Frank all came by for their first anime night, which was cool.

Now... I am very tired. And nervous about moving. Just a few days left. So much work done, but so much more to do.

Tomorrow after I wake up I need to load my car up with stuff to store at the grandparents', run to CBI for the signing (lots of Brubaker stuff), run to the grandparents' for dinner (since I won't see them until Thanksgiving, likely), and do laundry while there.

Sunday is a big packing day... and maybe Fearless.

Monday is work and packing and probably putting anything that remains into storage.

Tuesday is the car and going up to Seattle for an M's game with Deanna.

Wednesday is packing day. Packing party! Load up the truck with my loot! Buy pizza! Fun times had by all!

Thursday...

From CuSO4 on the AMG ML:
- Sasaki Kiyoshi, 1 of the pitcher of the Hokkaido based Pacific League baseball team Nippon Ham Fighters. He is nick-named Belldandy-Sasaki. Why ? Because he is good at drawing bishoujo characters, and is a doujin artist. In one of the team magazine, he draw an illustration of Belldandy.
Somehow someone has scanned the magazine and put it onto the net. http://suspend.hp.infoseek.co.jp/bel.jpg
His illustration of other anime characters : Kenshin of Kenshin http://f.hatena.ne.jp/images/fotolife/m/megun/20060106/20060106141101.jpg
Natsume Aya of Tenjoutenge http://suspend.hp.infoseek.co.jp/sasaki2mini.jpg

Friday: Superman night. We're going to watch Superman and Superman II in preparation for Superman Returns.
Saturday: Anime night: Infinite Ryvius, Rune Soldier, possibly something else (Aria?)
Sunday: Superman Returns. Looks like we're going to shoot for an early matinee showing at the Lakewood 15.
Monday: Laundry. No, not you, that's me.
Tuesday: Big ol' picnic and firework whattodo, probably in Steilacoom.

We should probably consider when to go see Pirates. Perhaps another early Matinee on Sunday.

In completely different news, I ate too much.

It is amazingly nice outside... which means it's just nigh unbearable inside the apartment. I've got a window open and a fan running full tilt to try and circulate some of that nice air in with this not nice air. Looked at Weather.com and it seems like this weather will keep up for the next week and a bit, which is good, as we're coming up on the 4th.

I still have a watermelon I bought for Pete's BBQ. I will need to crack it open in the next few days.

On, the docket, we're looking at an anime night either Friday or Saturday. A slimmer chance is to have a Shadowrun game either Friday or Saturday, on the day that's not dedicated to anime.

We have many series to watch. I'm personally not through Super Gals, but I don't think anyone else has any interest in that. Infinite Ryvius is sitting and waiting for us to get through the next four volumes. And I've got Rune Soldier which needs to be started. Add to that innumerable fansubs, and we could probably cover two anime nights even before Chris cracks his stuff. So we'll have to see.

Sunday looks like Superman, hitting a matinee.

Next Tuesday is the 4th. We'll need to figure something out. Chris is thinking picnic. I'm not inclined to disagree.

Some various and sundry things are likely to happen in July.

End of July will see Eric and Sam visiting. This will be neat, as I haven't seen Eric since before Thanksgiving.

The lease on the apartment is up at the end of July. Rent is increasing. And it looks like about a 90% likelihood that I'm going to move to San Francisco. Will need to figure out what's going to be done here with various things (I have too much stuff to take with me.) Since my mom's moving back here (well, to Ellensburg), and needs some furniture, I'll likely leave the couch and chair (possibly the bed) for her to use.

At the moment, I'm viewing living in SF as a temporary situation. Tacoma is what I consider "home" and I'd like to live here long term. So I can see moving to SF for a year, enjoy my time there, then come back. A bit like a vacation where I'm paying rent and hanging with friends down there (instead of hanging with friends up here.)

After about twelve hours of industrious shifting, the living room and my little office have been effectively "flipped". The entire purpose of this was so that we could connect my computer to the TV so we could show off fansubs. I had to do a bit of software finnagling but I've managed to get it set up where I don't need any other equipment or to manually switch things around. I checked it with Haruhi episode 11 and it plays stuff just fine. The only downside is that I can't actually see the TV from my computer, so it's a bit tough to actually manipulate things in that window.

So, the plans for Friday are in full Go mode. We'll be having another anime night. Beforehand, those who want to can trek down to the Wood-Fired Neo Pizza place down the street for dinner. I'm going to tentatively guess that we should get together around 5:30-6 to eat so we can start watching stuff by 8 at the latest.

In the offering, we've got Eureka 7 volume 1 (recommended to me by a friend as the Best Anime EVAR. We'll give it a shot) and more fansubs than we can shake a stick at. I've also got Infinite Ryvius, Super Gals, and Rune Soldier on DVD.

Right now it looks like Chris, Wooko, and I are confirmed. Alan, Ro, and Brian may show. If anyone else wants to come, just ping me if you need directions. Otherwise, show up!

For the first time in my life, I'm ordering a hentai title.

I contend, though, that Another Lady Innocent (aka Front Innocent) isn't just a hentai title. It's an Urushihara title, which makes all the difference.

I also ordered both Madlax soundtracks, the second Princess Nine soundtrack, and the first Scrapped Princess and Slayers novels.

More will be ordered once I hear back from other people what stuff to get from the TP order.

Probably the coolest thing I've read in quite some time: Brazil has plans to go completely ethanol... By the end of the year.

Right Stuf is having a sale on Tokyopop items. 33% off. I browsed through the list, and saw a few items that piqued my interest. I think I might use it to grab a random sampling of a number of titles to see what I like. Also, if anyone (Pete, Ro, Chris, Erik) want to, they can give me stuff to order. I'll pile it all on to make the savings better. Note: you can preorder stuff (like, um, the next two or three volumes of Furuba, it seems.)

I find it delightfully odd that the people on my friendslist who talk most about superhero books (ostensibly guy oriented) are girls. Yet I've been having more fascination with more theoretically girl-oriented stuff like what Brian Wood or Becky Cloonan produce.

Media Blasters will release Voltron on DVD. Not sure if I should pony up for it, but it was the first thing I ever got really geeky about.


Fiddling with the new computer. Even with Windows, it's having some issues. Whenever I boot it up, the keyboard doesn't work (works fine in the BIOS and in safe mode. Also worked fine in Linux.) It also doesn't seem to recognize any audio devices, despite the onboard sound. Two very annoying issues. One friend (who helped me with the Windows install) thinks it could be a hardware issue, such as the MoBo dying. Another isn't so sure. I'm afraid it's outside my realm of expertise. If I have to replace the MoBo, that's annoying, and will take a bit of shipping money, but it's better than having to get a whole new one.

Even so, I should try and contact Pat to see if he'd mind coming to look at it.

On the upside, with Windows, I managed to figure out how to do file transfers between the two with little problem. Once I remembered to add foreign language support to the new one, at least. Currently, my music files are transferrring, which they'll probably continue to do for the next hour or so. I, however, will be asleep.

Well, after my last entry, I started to look at my current anime collection.

It's not huge. But I actually still have DVDs I bought when I started collecting (um... back about 4 years ago) that are still in the original packaging. Not that I haven't seen them, but I've never had a reason to re-open them.

So, the realization hits that I don't need all this anime. In particular, I don't need the half-finished series that I'm never going to finish. Especially since my roommate actually has them finished. And opened, so it's not like I've got any huge problem with seeing the series at any time.

I'm probably going to end up trying eBay, but before that, I thought I'd give a chance for my friends to chime in.

The current list:
Cowboy Bebop vols 3 and 5, both in original packaging
Kare Kano 1-3 with box (which holds 1-5)
Love Hina 1-5 with box (which holds 1-6); 2-5 are in original packaging
Excel Saga 1-2, both in original packaging
Boogiepop Phantom 1 in original packaging

Might add some more later. I don't really have any prices set, but if anyone wants them, speak up, and we can discuss it.

Now, for some reason, I have a splitting headache.

I am, nominally, an otaku. Anime fandom has been, for the most part, the only fandom I've taken part in. I suppose I have actually done some great things within it (well, one great thing - starting a now successful convention that doesn't really need me to stick around ^_^).

However, in the past couple of years, I've stopped watching a lot of anime. I'm not actually sure what the last one I bought was. Probably Spirited Away. I tried to do digisubs for a while, but it doesn't feel right. And my computer's pretty crappy, so it tends to skip. Granted, that's probably partially because I tend to have up to ten different windows in at least five different programs running at once. *looks* Eleven in seven programs, at the moment.

In any case, I generally prefer to watch legit, commercially released anime. Of course, I don't really spend the time to find anything new. Back when the Anime Cafe was open, I could plop down a couple bucks to try out a series. There aren't really any local options for that, and I'm not really feeling the urge to check out Netflix just for this reason.

But I've kinda missed it. So this past week, I've tried to check out a bit more. I've -finally- finished watching Vandread, and it was very pleasing. I've started watching Elfen Lied. I think I'll need to dedicate another post to that. I'm not sure I -like- it at all, but I do think I'll need to finish watching it.

I think part of my dropping off, besides lack of money, was that I lost interest in the waiting to collect game. I don't want to have to pick up a new volume every two months. But I got this desire to buy a couple things. After looking around, I decided to get all of Full Metal Panic in a thinpak and Rayearth season 2 Economy Box. (From the description it seems to be all the discs from the second season without any fancy packaging or even inserts. Media Blasters isn't known for good inserts, and this saves over $100 on the price.) I'd seen and liked both series, but never finished, so it'll be nice to see how things pan out for that. Got both for about $90, which feels like a good deal for all that.

Still looking at other stuff to buy. I may get the thinpak of Najica. I'm open to suggestions. However, I only want a series I can buy complete, and preferrably not with individual volumes.

I'm also willing to listen to good current series that I could buy in the not too distant future.