Eat, eat, and eat.

The family is all here and so I've spent most of the day eating. My sis came up the other night so we made waffles, bacon, toast, and eggs for breakfast. Well, I had an egg at least. She's strange and doesn't like eggs...

By the time we got done with all that we got cleaned up and wrapped a few presents. Then it was time for lunch! Roasted potatoes with herbs, onions, a bell pepper, and whatever else we could find. We also made roasted chicken breasts but we kinda overcooked them. A little dry but still OK. I really need more photogenic plates.



Then we watched some Buffy and it was suddenly dinnertime. My parents finally made it up with their trailer and we went out for dinner at our favorite pizza joint. We normally just have pizza but they moved their Wed night BBQ to Tues night. They didn't want to have it Wed for the next couple of weeks because of New Years and Christmas Eve. Ribs, garlic toast, combo pizza, and Sam Adams! Man I was stuffed...



But desert was needed. So off to Williams Sonoma hot chocolate! So good. No powdery stuff here. It is actual chocolate shavings. Just like the package says...rich and creamy goodness.

Today I'm gonna be an apple pie and cookie bakin' fool. This much food is pretty normal when the family is around...I should have all that weight I lost during finals week back on in no time!

Time to clean

Well, the semester is over and my family is coming up. I guess my sister is staying with me for the week rather than putting up with my parents. This means I actually have to clean my otaku den rather than just shove things out of the way. It is OK. I really needed to do it anyways. This picture was from about half way through the day long process.


I seriously took 5 or 6 boxes of old papers, letters, printouts, and other miscellaneous things to the recycling bin and a couple other boxes to the dumpster. I accumulate way too much crap during the semester since I never really know what I'll need or get too busy/lazy to throw it all out. Things tend to just form little piles in all the nooks and crannies waiting for the break to be sorted and tossed. Today was the day for it!

Unfortunately, I still need to dust some things but I'm almost done...My bookshelves are still an unorganized mess also.

In other news, the people over at Company B sent me extra copies of the books I worked on. Because they're super nice they also sent me a bunch of enameled pins from Galaxy Angel! There are 2 sets so if anyone reads this blog wants a set just let me know. I'm keeping the Milfuelle keychains though..

turbo

Pat is in town for a few weeks right now. I went out to dinner with him tonight then over to his sister's place where he is working on his car. One of the turbos went belly up on him so he is replacing them. The engine is pulled out and I was amazed at all the wires and hoses around it. It is a twin turbo all wheel drive Audi so it is much more complex than my little 240. Speaking of which...I finally gave it an oil change. Hadn't done that all semester and it runs much better now.



Hard to tell in this picture but it is so much bigger! Should give him some nice power once he gets it all back together.



This is his sister's bike. I want to get one some day so we talked about it for a while. It is raining a lot lately so she doesn't ride it every day like she used to. It is also set up for the track so it has no coolant in it. There was a little heater nearby to warm it up on cold days before she starts it otherwise it would just blow up. She's way more hardcore than I am. As far as I know, since she sold her Evolution this is the only transportation she has...

Decompression time

The semester is over so we had a small celebration last night. A few of us gathered over a L*'s house (the un-official NEO gathering place #1) and drank the night away. It was good to just sit around and not worry about anything for a night. I got there around 7 and didn't get home until somewhere around 3AM...I don't really remember since I just got home and passed out until noon today. Feeling so lazy right now.


We just shot pool, played games on the Wii most of the night. There was the typical party foods there; chips and pizza (which we ordered online like the nerds we are) but there was an interesting mix of drinks that we all brought. Champagne, absinthe, lychee flavored sake, and Blue Moon. Quite satisfying.

We were 20

\

Today ended on a sad note. The faculty held portfolio reviews for all the Junior class and a few people from my class. I haven't heard the status of the Jr. class but we lost 2 more from our class which brings us down to 20 people. So sad!

After all that P* and I went to Borders to work at the gift wrapping table for a fundraiser. The location of it sucked so we didn't make much money. Who would put the table on the second floor back in some corner? Really now...We ended up reading and chatting for most of the 6 hours. P* read The Watchmen and I read Haruhi and some other random mangas. I also dozed off a couple times because I had been up for nearly 36 hours at this point. Had to get those final projects done!

Kr* joined us later on and we ended up chatting more and flipping through some design books then we went off to eat at Chili's. P* had a steak and I had a hamburger again. So bad for me but so good. I took photos but my camera phone sucks in low light and they didn't come out.

Now to hibernate before tomorrow's post-semester party.

It's Over!

The semester is over! Dear gods this one was draining. I basically spent the last week only sleeping a few hours a night. I had to do one last push to finish it all up today...Been up near 35hrs right now with a little nap in between. Feels good to be done though. Now to catch up on sleep and gain some weight back. I'm all the way down to 136! Yay for malnourishment.

It also means it is time to clean out the room for those who have been living here. Tables are piled with junk right now but it is slowly clearing out. We've accumulated lots of crap these last few months. Lots of food, pillows, heaters, etc. are necessary for those all night sessions. Tonight is a gift wrapping session followed by a well deserved beer and delicious sleep!

crunch

Sometimes I wonder about the animation/illustration students on campus...

Free Pot(s)

It is the end of the semester so everyone is cleaning out their rooms. You tend to find some fun, interesting, and/or useful stuff around this time of year. I found a few of my props for photo or design projects laying around the buildings here before.

I was on my way into our room today to drop some stuff off when I saw this. Normally the dumpster is full of broken projects from glass blowing but not today. Guess they cleaned out one of the ceramics rooms. So, if you feel the need for an un-glazed, imperfect, and slightly chipped (or down right busted) pot the swing on by. The first one is free but after that...

Geeky Christmas List

So I put together a nerdish wish list on Amazon. A lot of this list is stuff that I've had on my personal wish list but never gotten around to/felt too poor at the time to buy. I put it together so my family could buy me something cheap as a present if they want to...Well, OK, so Persona 4 isn't really cheap but it is on there anyways. Not that I really need more books or have the time to play games. My family has already bought me all their presents so I'm not really sure why I made the list. haha I don't expect anyone who might read this to actually buy me something but thought I'd share it with you all anyways. A little look into my geek habits I suppose.

The picture is of one of my shelves...This is one of my 'find room to put somewhere stacks.' AKA the 'too lazy to re-arrange shelves' stack. Now back to work!

School has been driving me nuts lately but there is only a week left. Uh oh...Time to get to working my ass off! Anyways, this is a bit of an update with pictures I've taken recently. There are a bunch of ginko trees on campus that are turning colors. I think they're really pretty. There are two of them outside of the art building but unfortunately one of them is a male tree. Super stinky seeds! This is the nice non-poop smelling one.


We had our last official day of class on Thursday. I say official because we're still meeting through finals week. After class a few of us went out for dinner. The burger special that week was a cowboy burger. Meat, jack cheese (Or was it swiss?), bacon, mushrooms, and grilled onions. With a stack like that who could pass it up? Three of us got it. Also, garlic fries!


And the required Blonde Bock! Most potent thing on the menu. After two of these I'm feeling pretty good. Slightly bitter hoppy full taste. Love em!


Then today I went to the American Apparel outlet to get some shirts to screen for design class. When I went in these kids were setting up and when I came out they were totally rocking the place! I was pretty impressed. Plus, the bassist has good taste. lol. A Schecter CV4! I've got the Hellraiser from them so she got bonus points in my book.

Miku obsession

OK. Today I've been wasting time on Youtube again. As some people out there know I've got this strange obsession with Hatsune Miku and all the other Vocaloids. I've liked the idea of a virtual idol since the first time I saw Macross Plus way back in the mid 90's. There was that OAV, then William Gibson's book Idoru, and some girl (can't remember her name right now...ARGH!) who tried to simulate one. She was a real person but only ever appeared in an animated form. [Edit: Kyoko Date was who I was thinking of...]

Last year Yamaha came out with the Vocaloid 2 software which is uses fully synthesized voices to make music. People went nuts over it. It got worse after they released Miku Miku Dance. MMD is a freeware 3D model program that has the Vocaloids pre-rendered. You just download it and start to make her pose and dance. I tried it out and it's super easy to use.

I'm not alone in this obsession either if the huge number of videos online are any indicator. Typing in "Vocaloid" on youtube gets 10,600 videos. 初音ミク on Nico Nico Douga gets 39,448 videos...Every now and then I do a search and check out all the strange things she is doing.

Here are a few of them. There are more popular/better ones out there but these are some that I watched today and found interesting. I'm only going to display a few on the main page so be sure to click through to hear her sing classical music. Sadly, no Toccata and Fugue in D Minor yet.

And, yes, I did get my cell phone in gray and blue because it matched Miku's color scheme. That said, if anyone wants to buy me a Miku figure for Christmas...

Tunak Tunak - Hatsune Miku version 初音ミク



Miku Hatsune sings ABC song with sign language (ASL) - take2





【MikuMikuDance】"I Wanna Love You Tender" MMD
(Not sung by Miku, but using Miku Miku Dance. A little freaky... BTW, the gray haired version is Haku who is normally portrayed as a drunk. It was made by fans to represent people who suck at using the software and can't get Miku to sing right. There are actually a number of alternate versions of Miku.)



"Take Me Home, Country Road", John Denver (Vocaloid2 ver)



She isn't all pop either...People have been having her do more classical stuff lately.

【MikuMikuDance】 ミクとハクが片手ずつ鍵盤を演奏
(surprised they got Haku to concentrate that long. haha)



初音ミク／魔笛：夜の女王のアリア２　［STEREO］



Beethoven Symphony No. 5 1st mov. Miku ver. 【初音ミク】 ベートーヴェン 「運命」第一楽章
(mikumikumikumikumikumikumikumikumikumikumikumimikukumiku)



初音ミク　バッハ　小フーガ　BACH FUGUE G-minor BWV 578
(look at her try to hit those high notes. haha)



BWV 244 No.1 初音ミク【バッハ】マタイ受難曲 BACH　Matthew Passion



【初音ミク】　天津祝詞　 【PV】　 AMATSU-NORITO　　JAPANESE ARIA



Now back to work!

Turkey time

Oh, Thanksgiving. How I love you for your overindulgence in food. Such a good day but so fattening.

I went to my Aunt's house down the street again this year. We had turkey (of course), mashed potatoes with gravy, stuffing, cranberry sauce, yams, broccoli, asparagus, croissants, and wine...followed by both apple and pumpkin pie with whipped cream and coffee. All this for just three people. Totally stuffed and happy with plenty of left-overs! This is a pic of the aftermath. My cousin had gone off to take a nap and my aunt was prepping the coffee at the time. Yes, I know you're supposed to have white wine with bird, but we're hopelessly addicted to the reds.

Gods my aunt is a good cook. Everything was moist and delicious. After we ate one of her neighbors brought over some home made egg rolls fresh from the deep fryer. We made sure she left with some turkey and stuffing in exchange. Nice day today. Now for a weekend of hell.

I'm not junk!

Holy crap! Yakult? In my Luckys? This makes Gin very happy indeed. I was pretty surprised to see it...Does anyone actually drink it? I got some a while back from Mitsuwas and it was surprisingly good tasting. Not sure that I'd drink it on a regular basis though.

Divine Brew

Totally forgot about this picture on my cell phone. He'Brew, The Chosen Beer! Oh, BevMo...How I love you. We bought some but didn't drink it that night. We had the imperial stouts instead. I'll have to ask J* if it is actually any good or not.


In other news, it is raining today which means all Californians forget how to drive. There was a guy in the left lane doing 20-25mph in a 40 on my way to the station. And another guy on the same road doing 50+. Wait a minute. That's every day around here. Nevermind.

Many people are complaining about it but I love the rain. Probably because we rarely got it in the deserts where I grew up. Not too fond of really cold rain but I do like the nice smell and sound of it.

Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner.

Whew. Another long day done. Morning class at 9AM, meeting with a professor, design classes, off to the photo studio until about 10PM. This is pretty typical lately. I had a bit of a break between design and shooting in the studio so I decided to grab some food since I hadn't eaten all day. I was going to just eat a Cliff Bar that I had in my bag.....But I realized that all I've eaten in the past two days was bars, coffee, and some Fritos. Bad me!

So I decided to run to the Vietnamese sandwich place and grab some of their suspiciously cheap food. I got the bbq pork sandwich and some rice ball thing.


The sandwich was good but the rice ball had this super gummy jelly, spiced egg (I think), and something else inside it. I didn't like how it kept sticking to my teeth so I didn't eat it all. Tasted good though. Total cost? $3.25. Perfect price for a college student.

Lazing around.

Lazy weekend. I did a lot but it still feels like I was pretty lazy...But I'm working away now! The highlight (for me at least) was on Friday when I made some Beef Bourguinonne.Despite the fancy French name it was really easy to make. I tried a recipe for it that I found on Williams Sonoma's website and it came out really good. It doesn't look too appealing in this picture but stews generally don't photograph well.

One thing I liked about it was that it used turnips instead of potatoes. I honestly can't remember the last time I ate turnips. They had the same consistency of a golden potato but were a little more...tangy? Not sure. The food describing part of my brain doesn't seem to be working right now. It didn't call for carrots but I had two so I tossed them in there as well. I doubt they changed the flavor too much.

Goobye Broccoli Crew

Well, it's official. I found out this week that my friends out at Broccoli Books are being forced to close shop due to the economy and a myriad of other things. This is really a bummer for me because I had so much fun working with them all over the last few years. They gave me my first design internship, let me tag along with their escapades at conventions, and let me work on some really fun titles. Not really sure what else to say about this...I could rant about any number of things but I'm not going to.

Pictured are some of the books I did the lettering and layout for...Including my printout of GA Party 3. Hmm...Maybe I should bind it myself now that it'll never get an official release. Make a one of a kind copy? I also tried to find the U.S. version Koi Cupid for this photo. It took me a while to realize that my mom borrowed a bunch of my manga the last time she was in town and never gave it back. Hey! I wonder if there are still copies in the bookstore so I can go grab one.

That also reminds me. Maybe I should go buy some Viz books too so I can have copies of the ads I did while I was there. They should be out now.

New Journal

I made a new journal the other day. My last notebook is full of stuff so I have flipped it over and am writing on the backs of the pages. I wanted to keep a more personal journal so I made this one. I used some scraps of papers from other objects to make it. When I put the papers on the cover it looked kinda girly so I shrugged my shoulders and went with it. Thus, the lace that wrap around it to close the book. It also has gridded paper which I'm not too sure I like yet. I got used to writing on completely blank paper. The actual construction of the book came out OK. Not quite perfect yet but it is serviceable.

Now I have a place for all my insider gossip, scandalous little stories and dirty secrets! Wait...Do I actually have any of those? All I do is homework!

relax

I had a counseling session this morning and then since it was such a nice day I decided to sit outside and sketch some ideas for the projects I'm working on at school. I sketched for like an hour or so then fell asleep under this tree. It felt really good. I recommend everyone do it once in a while. I didn't want to go to work. Just sit there like Rip Van Winkle or something. Oh well. Back to work!

We went up to S.F. today for the 50 Books 50 Covers show today. I was really fun! I got to see some really neat books and hang out with cool people. Saw one of my old co-workers there and ended up upstairs in the Chronicle Books offices. Nice vibe and it seemed like it would be cool place to work. Crazy people and beer in the vending machines! Gotta love it.

After that one of my friends and I went in search of food. A Thai restaurant was recommended to us but it had a huge line outside. So we ended up at a bar down the street instead. A bar with a fat orange cat and vintage motorcycles on the ceiling. Nice!

The food was fairly good too. I had the pulled pork. The pork was tender with just a little spice and on a toasted bun so it went down pretty well. T* had a super grilled cheese sandwich. This thing had cheese (of course), tomato, pesto, and avocado coupled with some french onion soup. I was a little jealous that I didn't order it.

After that was a little bar hopping then the drive home where I struggled not to fall asleep. Overall a good end to the week.

Stuff everyhere!

Had an interesting day in class yesterday. For one of my design classes we have to make a fragrance package and ad. Our teacher had us bring in 5 items that we simply liked the form of and 5 items that had sentimental value. Using these we were to talk about them and use them as inspiration for our fragrance. It was really fun to see everyone's collections.

When the end of the class came around he surprised us...We have to do one based on someone else. So we drew items out of a hat and spent the rest of the time playing with other people's possessions and talking. It was a little awkward, but should be interesting.

Sketches of concepts are due Tues for this. But tonight I'm going to slack off. The opening for AIGA's 50 Books 50 Covers is tonight so a group of us our going. I might meet up with Viz designer Fr* and Librarian E* tonight so I'm excited.

Youtube spam

Because I'm it is late and I'm procrastinating here is some youtube spam. I started by looking to see if there was a video to Nana Kitade's cover of the Rose of Versailles opening. It is up there but for some stupid reason the person set it to a Lareine video? What? The video was kinda silly so here is a stream of the song:

Bara wa Utsukushiku Chiru

That didn't last long until I started watching Tokyo Jihen (AKA Tokyo Incident) videos and couldn't seem to stop. I always thought Shiina Ringo was OK when she was doing her solo act. A little nasally but interesting. It wasn't until she added the whole band that I really got into her music.

If they ever come do a concert nearby I totally have to go! These are from a concert series they did the other year called Dynamite Out. There are a ton more but you get the idea.

Ringo no Uta




Sounan


Dynamite


Koinourikomi


Kurumaya-san


If you can touch it


Marunochi Sadistic


The lady is a tramp

Rose Hip Airplane

I felt like getting out for a while today. I went down to the art supply store to buy a screen printing kit but they didn't have them discounted so I left empty handed. I got one much cheaper (35% off) online.

After that I decided to go visit the little rose garden downtown. It was nice to wander around it. I loaded my Holga with SFX film and snapped a few pictures. The ambiance isn't as elegant as the Huntington (the landing airplanes kill it) but I'm glad there is one nearby. They did have a few bushes that were donated by the Huntington Library so it is like a little bit of home up here. Now I really want tea and scones. I thought about just siting there and doing nothing all day but there is work to be done so I came home after an hour or two. FYI, the rose in the picture is called Futura. I got a kick out of that...

I also think I'm getting sick again. This sucks...I've been getting sick a lot lately.

creepy

Work, school, work, school, sleep. You all know the deal. Still not much going on other than the usual. I spent most of today doing photo projects. We had to go on location at 9am and shoot a staged corporate meet and greet in front of these huge ass windows. It was a total pain to light. Not to mention we had to be in, set up, get the perfect shot, then be out in two hours. Ugh!

After that I went back to the studio and shot for another project that is going on concurrently. My assigned theme was "mp3 player in a romantic dinner setting." What? I think I pulled it off although it looks more wedding than romantic. It'll be OK. As I was leaving around 5 that night I realized that I hadn't even had breakfast yet. Just coffee. I've been doing that a lot lately and really need to stop.


This was pretty cool. In the black gallery on campus there was an installation of these things. They looked like wet, drippy flesh stalactites. I think they were made of some sort of glazed clay or ceramic. Anyways, wandering through this room with the strange music playing was a pleasantly creepy experience.

scribble scribble

I've been going through my own little mid-senior-year crisis lately. Thus, no posting. Feeling better even though I'm still drowning in schoolwork. The book is done, the tide chart is done. Studio photo is marching on at it's weekly shoot/crit pace.

My new insanity is the typeface we're making for one of my classes. We have to base it off someone famous. Anyone. Who do I pick? One of my latest fixations: Marie Antoinette. I think it'll make a really fun and over the top typeface but man...So many swirls to get perfect in so little time. I'm still hunting for the perfect system to make things consistent but also a little insane. We'll see what happens. In the mean time, back to drawing.

Book...Finally!

I've been in a bit of a funk lately so I've been absent. Sorry.

We got our books back from one of our teachers today. Turned them in the other week in a very anti-climactic day. He just put them into a box and we did Flash tutorials with the promise to talk about them soon. That was two weeks ago but they are back! It was the first time we got to take our time looking at them and talking. Overall I liked what we did. There is room for improvement on many (including mine) but we are students. There will always be that. It was a tough project. We're working on a typeface design in this class now.

We also got our posters back today with our grades. We talked about them the day we turned them in so it was no big deal. In the middle of a super boring tide chart for this class. Only one and a half weeks to go.

Tomorrow is a crit for my studio photo class. We shot reflective stuff and it was hard. We also find out where our location shoot is going to be next week.

Pumpkin Beer

I had a pretty hellacious week and it is going to be a long weekend so I did what any sensible person would do. I went out for pizza and beer. J* and I went to BJ's and they had some new stuff on the menu. One of them was a Mediterranean Pizza which had pesto, tomatoes, olives, artichoke, pepporchinis and chicken. It was pretty good despite my dislike for non-traditional pizzas. The other was a pumpkin beer which they made for October. It sucked. It tasted like a slightly spoiled pumpkin pie in liquid form. The server said they toned down the pumpkin flavor for this year. Not sure it helped. Maybe a little more would have helped? Or some more hops? It was sorta in the middle of the taste range...Didn't taste like pie, didn't taste like beer, so it was just plain bad.


I had this afterwards. Much better. Nothing beats a good stout. Not many people like a filling beer like this, but I see it more as a 'dessert' or 'winding down the night' drink and I love it.

Hmm, looking at these I really need a small camera that is decent in low light. My cell just doesn't cut it...but it is more convenient to carry around than my SLR.

Chalkboard Heroes

We've been going a little insane with projects lately. I did one all-nighter this week and am planning a semi-all-nighter tonight. Ugh. We finally got a keycard lock on our classroom so people are moving in and spending the night on campus again.

When I came in the other day a few people had been there all night and I guess they went a little nuts. These are all our teachers drawn in chalk on the blackboard. For scale, that little orange/yellow spot on the left is a set of Crayola markers. The drawings are pretty big!

I guess they were just going to do one or two but got carried away and did all of them with super powers. This is what happens when our little minds start to crumble...

Pitbull P

I don't want to drag politics into this blog, but this picture popped up on campus last night. In the vein of most political cartoons it is ridiculously over the top, blindly one sided, and made me laugh. Poor Palin really is getting a lot of jokes aimed at her.

My digital teacher.

Bored, bored, bored. There is nothing like a digital lesson to put me to sleep. Rather than go into class and actually listen to a lecture I get to spend the next 2 weeks doing CD and web based modules. Read, read, read then answer some banal questions. It is bad enough all we do in the class is watch movies and answer the same set of questions for each one.

The topics aren't too boring for me. I love history, watching old film clips, photos, talking about effects of things on society, etc., but training modules like this always drives me nuts.

One entertaining thing is that when he does lecture, all his notes are in a word document using 36pt comic sans. I find this eternally funny for some reason.

Speed Domo

In case you haven't noticed, Domo-kun is popping up everywhere since Target has started using him for Halloween promotions. He's nothing new to the otaku crowd so it is kinda interesting to see him suddenly springing up everywhere. A few other bloggers and myself find his sudden popularity a little baffling. Not that I'm complaining mind you.

I've seen this bike parked at the college a few times now. I always wonder if the owner knew about him before or if it is because of Target. Will he be around after this month? What about his friends coming stateside? I guess only time will tell.

Bored students

There was a critique for the lower classmen on campus today. It was in a room I haven't been in for a few years. Apparently there were some really bored people in the back of this class. The paper covering the table had drawings all over it.

The koala-bird gives me a good idea whose class this is. We had to make animal hybrids in it. Good times.

YATATATATATATATA!

I love thrift stores. I was out looking for props for an upcoming photo shoot today. I went in to the Salvation Army store and what do I find? The old dub of Fist of the North Star on VHS. Fuck Yeah!

I know what I'm watching tonight. I was re-watching Lain (again) but it can go on hold for one night.

Some otaku apparently decided to get rid of his VHS collection. There was also Slayers, Record of Lodoss War, Tenchi Movie 2, and a couple others. Didn't grab them tho because I either already have it or it was dubbed.

Ahhh, nostalgia.

CDs? What?

One of the girls in my class did a poster on the design firm Invisible Creature. This, of course, got us onto the discussion of whether or not CD packaging was dead.

I say no. But then again I'm a designer in love with print and crazy person who still doesn't like paying for digital downloads...So I still buy CDs. Flipping through some of the stuff from I.C. gave me hope that CD and vinyl packaging isn't dead, it is just aimed at a smaller audience who appreciates the physicality of it. These CDs were just too much fun to mess around with!

Pictured is one CD booklet that folded out into a game board with the CD itself functioning as a spinner. There was another that had a cut-out on the back label so when you put the CD in the case upside down it completed the composition.

I don't like most of the music...but I still wanted to buy the CDs just for the cool packaging.

I just printed my poster for our first project in type class today. There are lots of things I want to change but that is nothing new. I almost never have the time to do everything...Hopefully the teacher likes it. The other people doing late night printing think it looks good so I shouldn't worry too much. At least it is super colorful which is kinda new for me.

Not just orange, gray, and/or blue!

Crap...I just noticed a huge mistake. I'll fix it before the senior show.

Yaoi-Con 2008

I went to Yaoi-Con today. Yaoi isn't really my thing but I like to go to hang out with people I know. I ran into F* from Viz at registration but didn't see her the rest of the con which is strange since the grounds are so small.

I spent a good portion of the day in the industry panels with Mangacast Eva and her fellow librarian S* who came all the way from North Carolina. I also went to a panel on homosexuality in Japan which was really interesting. In my free time I went to the exhibit hall and bugged the people I know at Aurora and Broccoli/Boysenberry.

Aurora was handing out these. I thought they were lolipops at first but they are actually condoms that had the Deux Press logo on it. It was pretty cool. I first met this publisher at Comic Con and they are all super nice. If you see them at a convention go say hi.

And what is a convention without the loli contingent? There was a fairly high percentage at this one and I took a few pictures of them with my 35mm. In case you didn't know, I'm a big fan of well done lolita (Esp the gothic, shirou, and classic styles). I love the details in the clothing and wish I had the money to get a good male version EGA or Victorian style outfit. Alas, I am poor and would probably just look strange in it.

The rest of the day was spent eating with Shiz and Saki. This was the remains of lunch...We were all hungry and forgot to take photos before we ate. Oops. I just had spring rolls, one of Saki's spicy tuna(?) rolls, and some of these dried green bean things.

Then dinner was at a Korean tofu and BBQ joint. Those are the S's cameras in the back. They took lots more pictures than I did! The little metal dish had brown rice inside for my soup.

Spicy combo tofu soup. It had beef, shimp, and a clam in it. I've never had it before and it was good! When it came out it was still boiling and the waitress cracked a fresh egg into it.


Beer! I wanted an OB but they were all out so I got a hite. The soup was really spicy so this came in handy.
Then we went to Tapioca Express. Saki got shaved ice with condensed milk, tapioca, and grass jelly. I tried some and it was OK. Apparenly they didn't add in any sugar water so it was a little bitter when it should have been sweet.

I had a good time but it was too short. I want to go back tomorrow but there is homework to be done.