Birthday Weekend

Friday 9/21

We picked up our friend Dan at the butt crack of dawn, just before 6 am. Made a short pit stop at Barstow and made another pit stop at Chino for some breakfast at IHOP. Then it was straight to Anaheim from there. We encountered a bit of heavy traffic before noon due to reports of the Endeavor Shuttle flying over Disneyland. There were people standing by the sidewalks, at the top parking garage and at the roof of Paradise Pier, hoping to catch a glance. It wasn’t until we were waiting in line to buy the tickets that it flew over us. It was quite a sight to behold as everyone cheered as it flew over and the mass stood still for a few minutes to update their statuses and upload their pics (I only recorded a few seconds of it). Vince got to see the redesigned Carthay Circle Restaurant and admire his work. Of course, he won't get credit can't put it in his portfolio :/

Originally, I wanted to try doing the day hopper but we settled for Disney California Adventure since I’ve never been to it while Dan and Vince haven’t been there for a few years. In no particular order, we rode at Radiator Springs, Tower of Terror, Monsters, Inc., Goofy’s Sky School, Ariel’s Undersea Adventure, Grizzly River Run and Soarin’ Over California. We checked out the Frankenweenie exhibition, Sorceror’s Workshop and the Aladdin Musical at the Hyperion Theater. We met up with Corinne and ate at Tortilla Jo’s before riding Goofy’s Sky School. By then, most of the rides were full. Although we missed World of Color, we got to catch the fireworks at 9:45 pm over at Disneyland. I bought my first pair of ears, something I didn’t do when I first got to Disneyland.

Saturday 9/22

One minor bday gift was seeing pics of Jim Carrey as Colonel Stars for Kick Ass 2! This day was somewhat more laidback. We drove to Torrance to eat at Capriciossa for Lunch. It’s an Italian/Japanese restaurant that I use to frequent on Guam. Vince and I had to black ink squid pasta (family size) and it was well worth the price and trip. Next stop was Little Tokyo, although we took an odd turn and ended up in the bad part of China Town before we got to the right place. The Japanese Arcade that Dan and Vince talked about was… okay. We eventually made our way to the Kinokuniya bookstore and Marukai market. We checked out a little art exhibit/show called Tokusatsu and bought a few shirts. There wasn’t enough time to check out other places so we ended up grabbing some White Castle burgers from Stater Bros and playing some SNES games.

Sunday 9/23

Woke up early and had a big breakfast at Original House of Pancakes before going to Downtown Disney. We only stayed for less than 3 hours for the free parking. I bought a Tokidoki shirt from D Street since we were not able to go to Tokidoki at Melrose and we enjoyed an Apple Pie Apple from Marceline’s Confectionary. Well, I did but Vince's stomach didn't. We drove home to check up on our girls. It looks like they survived not having any human contact for a full 2 days. We weren’t able to get anyone to watch them at the last minute. It was a short weekend but it was a good birthday weekend :)

More pics and/or video to be uploaded soon!

Day 3 of ANIMEGACON 2012

So! Las Vegas’s 2nd anime convention was… well, small. Their whole “GO BIG OR GO HOME!” attitude and determination to make it a veteran con-goer experience was for the most part, too ambitious for them.  All we saw were giant rooms with very few people in there and no moderators for the panels. Seriously, for their “Mega Events” Rooms, they had a big stage with a table and no chairs. The previous panel had their guests sit on top of the tables!  As for the cosplayers, we saw a few good ones and some that look like they either bought their costumes online or did it at the last minute. As for me, I fall in the latter because I was cosplaying for the first time. I was Wendy from Gravity Falls and the only thing I had to make the look complete was the teal plaid shirt, dark skinny jeans, boots, a furry aviator hat, the orange wig (which was uncomfortably hot and tight) and her name tag. Only one person recognized my costume and happily admitted that she was a big fan of the show. Maybe by next year, we’ll see a few more Gravity Falls cosplayers?

We only went on Sunday for Vampy’s (Linda Le) panel and that alone was worth the $25. We saw Vig Mignona with a very petite but attractive girl cosplaying as Felicia after his panel ended. We saw Quinton Flynn happily talking with Vampy before he went on stage for his panel. We went to the exhibit hall and saw a few venders and their artist alley. The notable venders were ABCTOY4ME (with an amusing sign begging customers to support their online gaming addiction) and J-List/J-Box. I only bought a Funko Chococat figure and Neko Tamago keychain from those two. Other venders included someone selling Nazi-type uniforms, gothic Lolita costume, Yaoi dounjinshi comics, those Necomimi ears, the usual weapons booth and other smaller vendors selling almost the same things. Their gaming hall was huge and we only played a few rounds of SSMB Brawl. We walked by the card game room and it smelled awful! Didn’t get to experience the maid café but their servers were very cute-looking.

Overall, it was an all right experience but it literally pales in comparison to Anime Vegas. I remember the first one when it was just a small room from the Cashman Center. Each year, they grew bigger and better with their events and guests but had recently settled for the Alexis Resort as their venue. Animegacon still has a long way to go and hopefully they can do it without controversy (http://jezebel.com/5933319/anime-convention-bizarrely-offers-established-cosplayer-a-stripper-gig-in-exchange-for-200-and-snacks)

Academic Advice

So my faith in enrolling Ai of Pittsburgh (Online Divison) has greatly dwindled. Again. It's a pretty low reservoir mind you. Thanks to some sound advice from my "academic counselor" who was nice enough to let me know that he's switching teams and I might get a new academic counselor. What was the advice? It was regarding finding work before I graduate. I said I have been trying to apply for internships but I needed a certain number of credits to do so. He recommended 99Designs.com. It sounded pretty promising until he mentioned spec work... SPEC WORK.

SPEC-F*CKING-WORK.

From there he talked elaborately (or read off a script) on how I can do some freelance work and get some extra cash on the side. I just have to put my watermark on my designs and if I get picked, I can get paid for it. I could brag (lie) to that I've worked "internationally." Yeah, I really want to fill up my portfolio with that. My "academic counselor" even recommended Zazzle.com! Really? I would've expected notable websites to apply for internships. When I had my portfolio reviewed at San Diego Comic Con, I was recommended to try applying at smaller studios like BentoBox or Titmouse to get started. This guy tells me to make t-shirts and mugs.

Thanks man. Really.