December Toronto Anime Con 2008

If I had known that you only need to pay money to get into the dealer's room, I would have saved that ten or fifteen dollars and stayed in the lobby to take pictures of people. As for the books I bought for my sister and myself: the world's biggest book store had them and they were on sale.

Madeline and I kept wondering around the convention area taking pictures of random cosplayers and people. I'd say the fun level was 3 on a scale of 5. I kept harassing random people to do things for me to capture. The first request was dancing, and that's when I felt like making a music video of the convention.

Video for DTAC 2008.



Description of the place, time, and what's happening is on its YouTube page.


Here's a little bit of the description:

Utahikarasu and I wanted to do an experiment where people stand in a line facing in one direction. Each person would stay on a spot with their hands on the shoulders of the person in front of them. They would then push the shoulders of the person in front of them, but there was a misunderstanding. The line ended up as a chu-chu-train.

The convention was great. The line to get into the dealer's room didn't take over 2 hours and the dealer's room was very crowded. Being in a crowd is fun and frustrating. (YouTube)

There were some pretty random people, but that's common in conventions. I think. By random I mean they would suddenly appear from somewhere unnoticed, they ask for hugs when it's not relevent to the topic you ask them, and people dance. They just start dancing. Okay, maybe these things wouldn't seem random if I hang out with them all day, but I don't do that.



Conclusion: DTAC is a cool story.

Fan Expo 2008

(I'm going to be adding comments in brackets in my old posts from my old blog about my time in conventions.)

So we made our first round around the place and found a nicely done wax sculpture. Dharshi suddenly wondered if her pinky could fit in the nose.

There were many wax and plastic statues in display for the horror section of the convention. (All well finished.) Many of them looked like they would start moving at any second. (It was nice and scary.)

We went out to get hot dogs to eat. It was so warm outside!

We went back in hoping to find something to do. We ended up sitting at a column and taking turns using the washroom. It was then that I discovered a new convention hobbie: video taping a normal scene at a convention. Some would call it spying or stalking. I call it watching. Later on, we just left.

Conclusion: Fan Expo 2008 was the start of me being a creeper and coming up with activities for people to do for research, a.k.a. experimenting.

Anime North 2008

(I'm going to be adding comments in brackets in my old posts from my old blog about my time in conventions.)

The line-up to get into the building was really long. I think my friends and I stood there for about 2 hours at the least. Our legs were cramping, but once we got in it's like someone fed us some unknown energy oxygen. (I meant energy drink.) The line-up for at-the-door registration to Anime North was shorter in 2005. Pre-registering is recommended: last year we stood in line for only 20 minutes.

Stalking the mushroom-like heartless. She's the same Bleach cosplayer from Anime North 2007.

Went to look for friends and we found them 30 minutes later. It took so long: partly because there were so many people we had to get pictures of. Later on, we simply walked around taking pictures of random people and cosplayers. I suppose it's what people call "hanging out". There were three people in our group that kept avoiding my camera.

Look at them moes. Standing there being all... moe-ey... =3=


Moes eating their Tim Hortons lunches.

Anime North 2007

(I'm going to be adding comments in brackets in my old posts from my old blog about my time in conventions.)


Dharshi cosplaying as a character from Bleach.

We (My little sister, mother, Madeline and I) met up with Madeline's friends Allison, Dharshi, and Elaine after arriving to the convention center in the afternoon hoping that the line for pre-registrators wasn't long, and it wasn't. We stood around for awhile before walking closer to the artists' alley and dealer's room.

Some loser cosplaying as a character from Naruto.

Allison and Madeline moved into the picture. ;P

I couldn't see anything through the orange mask. Everything was just... darker by 80%. I knew there were a lot more people cosplaying as naruto characters, because once in a lot of while someone would come up to me and tell me what they were cosplaying as. (Which I thank you if you're one of them.)

Conclusion: you don't get much of the convention's excitement when you're wearing a blindfold of a prop.

March Toronto Anime Con 2007

(I'm going to be adding comments in brackets in my old posts from my old blog about my time in conventions.)

The first free convention I've ever attended. I was very excited to be there. Since it was free entry, my whole family attended. (Oh no.) My father kept taking pictures of people without asking them first. (He was raging with the camera in hand and people were raging at him.) XD We only had 2 hours there, so I decided to find and take pictures of all the Sasuke (Naruto) cosplayers at the convention with Madeline. Not surprisingly, most of the Sasuke cosplayers were female. (Sad to be you you creeper.)

Conclusion: I'm a creep at conventions.

Hong Kong Comic and Game Festival 2005

(I'm going to be adding comments in brackets in my old posts from my old blog about my time in conventions.)

The line was a lot greater than the one at Anime North 2005, and there were a lot more people. Actually, there was (were) so many people that by (the) afternoon, it was so crowded that you can't (wouldn't be able to) really move. (It was crazy.) Since it was an anime and game show, some chinese online games like fairyland (I think it was initially from another country.) had set up booths to advertise for their games. There were (was) also a market place where the prices were somewhat cheap while the product was (were) fantastic! Too bad that there weren't any english doushinji to buy. (Yeah. Sorry kid, you're in Hong Kong.) They were all mostly Chinese or Japanese mangas, magazines, and books. One of the booths were about signing up for a Japanese sword class [?] I think that is what it's called. There were cosplayers that looked extremely (=_=' Stop with the extremely bad grammer, please.) like the characters from the show that they're dressing from. There were mostly Gundam Seed or Gundam Seed Destiny cosplayers. A girl who was selling Chobits dolls was dressed as Chi. She really looked like her! I was amazed too much. (Her cuteness factor was over the roof!) If only she had the hair though. (She still looked hot.)

Conclusion: asian conventions have perfectionist cosplayers and are crowded to the point where you wouldn't be able to move much in the afternoon. This was the year when Amplified played at the convention. I didn't see them play. D:

Anime North 2005

(I'm going to be adding comments in brackets in my old posts from my old blog about my time in conventions.)

A friend came along to the convention with me along (What? You realize you used along twice, right?) with my mother and little sister. The line was so long even though it was early! But in the afternoon, there was almost no one in line. So unfair. (No... it's not unfair.) It was very exciting! (... Very?) There were so many people there, that the number of people was even greater than the students at school. (... Wow, I didn't go out much.) I even saw the authors of Pandect and Sassi the butterflylady! (Yay! ...) Though I think I may have weirded them out. (No, really?) Along with the people that I took pictures of. (Yeah, I still do that.) Anime North was so fun that I only had 2 pennies left at the end of the day. (I remember that. My wallet felt so light.)

The first person who came up to me and asked for a picture. (Yes, I was cosplaying.) It was a woman who was dressed as Riku Harada from D.N. Angel! We were wearing the same costumes and I really wanted to take a picture of her too, so I took a picture. (To this day, I regret cosplaying that character.
After walking around and seeing all these other cool costumes, (Wha-what? I don't remember how they look like.) I got sick and tired of being shy to ask for other people's pictures that when I saw a guy dressed as Cloud from Final Fantasy 7, I jumped at him and asked him for a picture. (Yeah! Turn on the super creepy mode!) My friend thought I was weird, but she also wanted to take a picture of the guy's costume. Though he wasn't the only Cloud, and with my friend as a Cloud fan, it was pretty amusing. (It sure was. I remember there was at least 2 Cloud cosplayers in every 5 meter radius everywhere I walked.)

We saw a guy who just walked to a corner and sat down when I yelled, "I'm going to take a picture of you!!" He just sat there while I was trying to get the camera to work. The camera was stuck... on something. (Yup. The guy pretty much didn't care what I was doing as long as it didn't bother him.) My friend told me he's a magician from one of the Final Fantasy series. (Which I still haven't played.) After that, he began drawing out a cat toy. There were many Final Fantasy cosplayers when we were there. (I didn't what was from Final Fantasy because I never knew about it. Actually, I still don't know much about it.)

When waiting for someone near the frontdoor inside, I saw a lady walking in with a totally awesome costume. It was mostly blue and white, and I didn't really recognize the character she was dressed as. I couldn't help but to take a picture of her. (I bet.) My little sister kept on trying to jump into some pictures I try to take. When I took a picture of her though, she got annoyed. Which brings me to confusion. (ORLY?) The lady was in a hurry, so after we took her picture, she left to where ever she needed to go.

There were many ninjas at the convention. Mostly from Naruto, but while we were chasing a giant moogle, we ran into a whole group of ninjas dressed in black and white. They looked so cool!!! (OMG!!!!@#*!) So I yelled at them, "all ninjas stay! I'm taking a picture of you!" (What?) They turned their heads and began using some technique thing. (WHAT?) I quickly took a picture of them and ran for the moogle my friends wanted to see, just in case the ninjas actually do attack. o_o But as we were chasing the moogle, my mom made me take a picture of more people that were outside. (Ah ha ha. Mom was excited to be at the convention too.) The people's costumes looked really realistic! (... Not really.) When we were done, the giant Moogle from Final Fantasy turned to a corner and dissappeared. Then we saw a giant black Kitty with a head shaped as a football! (Oh yeah.~)

We saw a moogle that looked very cute, but too bad it out flew us outside. (What am I talking about? Out flew us? Huh?!)

Conclusion: I had fun at my first North American anime convention. :)

Yahoo! GeoCities Free Webhosting

... is closing.

I recently found out that geocities is shutting down (?) and coincidentally, I used to use a geocities account as a blog. I'm going to be transferring some of my old posts from there to here, so be prepared for a major installation of entries. :)

E-fanzines

... are hard to manage. I wanted to make an e-fanzine because I thought it would be cool, so I made a schedule for it. That was when I realized it would take up a lot of the time I needed for school and living necessities, making me having no life but the life of a blogger. I have a feeling I'm a person that's uncapable of making a living out of a blog or a website, so I gave up. I'll just make random updates to pleasacure and not call it an e-fanzine.

Now I'm thinking: "hm... maybe I could make a fanzine in real life instead? Maybe print several copies of it to share with the people who collaborated in its making?" It seems like a pretty good idea when you really want to make one, but I'm not sure about how to do that. Am I suppose to get a group of people to draw, then scan those pictures, print them out with high quality ink and or paper, then get it bound as a book at some print and copy center? That would take more than 3 months with the schedule that most of the people I know have. Mm... I suppose it's worth it as long as the product's nicely done. Alright! I'll try it out... starting in June.

Thursday

In the morning I found out that I had scheduled exams on the majority of the days of an event I wanted to attend to. I was frustrated because I was looking forward to the event since last summer. I made a battle plan and found a friend that will help me with being able to attend. I'm not sure if everything will work out though, so I was still frustrated.

I got to my morning class with my lame excuse of an assignment, ready to hand-in, but when I got there there was a test waiting to be given back to me. When I looked at the comments and grades from the teacher I felt like a failure. Of course I would feel like a failure considering I failed it. I didn't want it to bother me so after class I chucked it into the back of my bag and hoped that I would have time to review whatever it was that I didn't understand.

In the afternoon I relived my fear of public speaking. Usually I would be fine with speaking in front of an audience, but there are times when I get extremely nervous. I had a presentation for another class and I couldn't stop trembling, blushing, and staggering in my speech through out out my part. It was a group project too, and I was afraid of making the presentation awful. The audience gave away on how boring I was. They weren't looking up, and were either looking out into space, concentrating on their laptops, or text messaging on their cellphones. Nice. When it got to my group members' parts, the audience paid attention. I planned to never attend the class again, but there's a second presentation with a larger audience for the same project in 2 weeks. So I felt depressed.

That evening I attended an anime club meeting. The people there know how to make others laugh, and thanks to them I felt at ease. I didn't think I could laugh happily so soon after that presentation. I wanted to give them all hugs, but it would be abnormal and would most likely creep them out. I feel fine now, but I know that once next Thursday comes along I'll feel tense from those classes again. The only thing I've been looking forward to on Thursdays are meeting with friends and that evening club.

Fear

Many people have something they fear. My parents have a fear of their children's well-being. My sister has a fear of stepping on worms. I do too, but what I'm having trouble comprehending is that I have a greater fear of examinations than being ambushed by a stranger at night.

It could be because of the chances of having examinations is higher than being ambushed, or maybe it's because I've never been seriously attacked by a person before. When ever I find out I have to attend an academic examination I become nervous and paranoid about failing. During examinations, my hands tremble as if the outcome of what I'm about to do will decide if I live or die. At least, that's how I feel. ... Hm. I wonder if this is because of over exposure to academic pressure.

Brave Story

I think the reason why I like to watch Brave Story and the Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya is because I want my life to be like the main character's. Forever fulfilling their goals, doing things people normally wouldn't do in real life, and having the courage to make a happy ending for themselves.
It wasn't thanks to anime that I like blond hair. No wait-- I think it's totally anime's fault. I thought this one guy from Brave Story looked pretty, and I'm a sucker for pretty looking boys. There was this one scene where the blond character was smiling and blinking his eyes while wearing a magician's cloak. I kept watching him rather than the other main character. I feel weird when I think about how much I've stared at him.

And now for some picture feed:





Notice how many pictures there are of the blond girl-looking boy. Notice how evil yet cool he looks. I've wanted to be a character like that since I was a kid.

I've been trying to figure out why the DVD of Brave Story pauses at the middle and skips to the end. I finally figured out that the data wasn't burned into the DVD when I played it on my laptop.

Maple Story

I used to play online games a lot. Especially one called Maple Story. My friends a a few family members used to play it too, and we'd go on all sorts of weird adventures. I don't have the game on my computer anymore, but I there are times when I feel like playing it again. There's something about Maple Story that makes me think of happy times.

Pocky and Toys

I don't know why I like Pocky so much. It's just edible chocolate on a stick with maybe a few other sketchy ingredients, but I used to continuously eat it to the point of getting sick. I don't buy it often anymore since after high school, but there's a part of me that wants to buy a box to eat every time I see it on sale at a store. It could be addiction Hm... I hope not. It leaves my wallet lighter than it usually is whenever I buy them.

What's odd about Pocky is that it comes in all sorts of flavours, sizes, and are made from various places like Thailand, Japan, and Malaysia. I remember there being only chocolate, strawberry, and milk Pocky made in Japan from when I was a kid. I've tried a few of the new flavours and the ones from places other than Japan, but I didn't like them. I'm too used to the usual taste of the Japanese one.



In all my life there have been many toys I've wanted to own. Most of the time the reason to why I wanted a toy is so bad that I'm very ashamed of myself when I think about it: because it's in fashion. Thanks to my peers I wasted over $500 canadian to this day. There are also toys that I find so cute that I feel like I have to buy it so that I could see it everyday in life at home. It's a trap the marketers and designers are good at, so it's hard to avoid coming into contact with something you'll find cute. Then there are the toys that don't exist but you hope they do. Some people custom make toys and sell them at a price where you know it's expensive but you buy it anyways. I've never tried to find a custom made toy, but I have tried to make the toys I wished existed. Such things like Moyashimon figurines. They might exist in Japan, I don't know, but I tried to make one out of a clay-like substance. Now I don't know what to do with it. It's just there on my desk for me to see and for it to catch dust like every other toy I own.

Late. FAIL.

I found a picture I took of fungi at one of York University's Keele campus woods from October 9, 2008. It's one of my favourite pictures from the 2008 album.


I have a bad habit of leaving things for later. I don't like making excuses, but to those that always want to know the reason to things: I'm lazy, uninspired, and easily distracted. Awful and unreasonable reasons to leave things undone. I always feel bad about not finishing things on time, and I've tried many times to prevent it from happening, but it still happens. I feel like I'm wasting my life.