More packing

Packed up more stuff for the move today. Spent most of it in nostalgia land again while I dug through my old stuff. These are some copies of Animage from 1999/2000. Gundam, Inu Yasha, and Cardcaptor Sakura...Shonen action and magical girls. Got me thinking about how much (or how little) has changed in anime over the last 10 years.


Also unearthed this little jem. My sketchbook from about 12 years ago! Lots of really bad sketches in it, but also lots of memories. This is a picture of one of the flyers I did for our club and a Ranma character guide I had started to work on. Right around the start of my interest in design before I really thought about making a career out of it. Funny thing is, I've started to swing back towards hand lettering things...


Made these bookmarks a couple years back. Didn't cut the linoleum block right so I never took it past the test printing phase. I still love printmaking and do them now and again. The cuts are messy but if you want one just let me know!


Ahhhh...My Comic Party doujin. I did scan and digitally letter this but there wasn't much interest at the time so I never printed any copies. Not sure what happened to the files or the script but I did find the thumbnails and a few notes so I could probably re-make it if I wanted to. Must be from around 2004 because it is on Deleter paper which I bought at Gamers.


Aaaand my signboards just before I boxed them up. Big thanks to the Bro Crew for getting me these and many other sketches over the years. Each one has their own crazy little back story of anime convention hi-jinks which makes me chuckle each time.

Moving

In case you haven't heard I'm moving soon. Not a very big move...Just to another apartment in the same complex. They lowered the rates here but won't drop mine unless I move into a new place so off I go!

I've been putting it off packing for a while. The thought of putting everything in boxes is really daunting since I've amassed a large amount of stuff since I moved here a few years ago. Got rid of a bunch of it but there is still way more to go.

Mainly because I'm one of those obsessive otaku types and have been for years. I don't want to move all this stuff but can't get rid of it either. And books and DVDs are super heavy...Case in point: the picture above. Started boxing things up and got about half way through my books. All my DVDs and figures are boxed up at least! That is what you see in the pic above. So, only three more bookshelves worth of manga, novels, and artbooks to go! Luckily my ~300 VHS tapes are already crated up in the closet. You can see one box of them in this pic...That has some that I had on the shelf because I still watch them periodically. Stuff like Royal Space Force, Dirty Pait TV, and Oniisama-e. Maybe when I get it finished I'll stack the boxes all together and take a picture of the giant stack of otaku shame.


It isn't all horrid tho. I also like it because I find stuff I had almost forgotten about or not read in a while. Things like this, my Clow Card set! Can't remember when I bought it but it was a long time ago. Even if I can't remember the details of this purchase it still conjures up some nostalgia because of the series it is from....Good gods, the US TV version got me all riled up when it started airing.


It also gives me time to flip through old floppies and magazines. I was one of those guys who had an account at a comic shop for a while. Also had subscriptions off and on to a number of anthology magazines. I love to subscribe when I have the money and normally give the first year a go. Thus, these are all the first issue of those pubs...But only one of them is still around. Used to have a handfull of Pulp also but those got lost in a move many moons ago. Still a little bitter about that.

Anyways, call me old fashioned but times like this are why I still love print much more than digital distro. Sure, the sweating while lugging around boxes of dead tree sucks a lot more than tossing my CD case in the back of my car...But I'm having much more fun flipping through old copies of SMB! to re-read Club 9 and Shadow Star. Can't recall the last time I popped in a disk to find a PDF I burned 6 years ago. Just isn't as accessable or enjoyable to me.

Time to catch some sleep then get back to packing and job hunting tomorrow.

Mission Peak

A few of my friends and I decided it was time to defeat Mission Peak and went on a hike yesterday. It was a fun time but my gods it got hot pretty quick. Didn't take too long for my out of shape self to start sweating like mad...which is pretty normal even if I exercise a lot unfortunately.



Anyways, as usual we set out a little later than planned. Ran into a few cows blocking the trail which we were warned about. Made it to the top in 2.5hrs and there were a lot of people also tackling the mountain. A lot!

I brought along a couple video cameras...One of which was our old teacher's which I haven't given back. Decided we should hold it for ransom.

The hike back down went really quick and painlessly. Once we got to the bottom we decided we were hungry and set out to find some prime rib. There was a place nearby that P said had really good meat but when we got there they were closed...only open for dinner. Determined to get steaks we headed out for Outback...and they were closed until dinner also. Damn! Ended up at the Cheesecake Factory.

Ran home, took a quick nap then jaunted over to another friends place for some BBQ till midnight or so. Really long day. Now I'm sore and pretty tired but feel good. Got a bit of a sunburn but when you are as pasty as I am that is to be expected.

Back to job hunting now!