JTown on a Rainy Sunday

Holy smokes, you should see and smell JTown on a rainy Sunday morning. It's nice after the rain.

Most of JTown was closed when I visited and I didn't want to wait until they opened at 11 AM, so I left as soon as I arrived. Got things to do and places to be.

Anime North 2016

It was really hot this year at Anime North. It wasn't just the sunlight that made it warm, the humidity played a huge role. I think most people who attended Anime North this year would agree with me that it was the warmest AN so far.

I did almost the whole Anime North package: staying at a hotel, visiting the main Toronto Congress Centre building, bringing food rations, and sitting through panels. I didn't add the fifth element to my package though--the element that defines your Anime North experience, such as cosplay or photography, art, dealing, videogames, dolls, or whatever your niche is. I wanted to spend more time looking for and chatting with my friends rather than focusing too much attention to my regular niche of taking pictures of cosplayers. I took pictures, but it's a lot less than what I would usually take at an anime convention.

My favourite baldy in multiple forms.

One Punch man photoshoot group!
I didn't visit many of the photoshoots. I didn't want to stay in the heat too long and I didn't feel as comfortable visiting photoshoots since last year's disorganized Fire Emblem shoot.

The only photoshoots I visited were One Punch Man and Fate.

I had a budget of $300 this year and spent only $209.29. (Nice!)

It was super tempting to buy the cute plushies in the dealers room and artist alley, but I resisted. I have too many plushies at home.

The collected spoils.
I was also able to pack lighter this year. Not cosplaying, deciding to re-wear most of my clothing, and not bringing all of my skin creams helped. I used a backpack instead of a carry-on bag and I found that it was easier to move around with. It was a choice I made in case it rained. I think I may stick to it next year. I prefer not to leave my bags in a vehicle because I don't want any figurines I buy to be in the heat.

I ended up taking selfies with cosplayers and friends over the weekend. (Some of the photos haven't been uploaded to the album because I don't know if all of my friends who didn't cosplay are comfortable with my sharing their photos.)

Jesus (The Christian Bible) and Paine (Final Fantasy X-2)

Claymores! Teresa and Claire cosplayers are tough to find.
An AN traffic officer was chasing us for blocking the flow of traffic, so I couldn't get a few retakes with them.

Yami Yugi (Yu-Gi-Oh!) and that hair. I think I may have held the camera too high for this one.

Robin (Teen Titans) fed me a chicken ball! I was thankful for the free food. （⌒▽⌒ゞ

I forgot what my friend cosplayed as, but she had a well made red suit with a gas mask.

Garnet (Steven Universe) with them jazzy glasses.

Genderbend Yang (RWBY) in a Jojo pose. I tried to Jojo it up, but failed. But hey, I'm a Jo, so does that mean it's a Jojo pose?

Kill la Kill's Gamagoori, my homeboy! σ(≧ε≦ｏ)
I later found out the cosplayer is a friend's brother.

Isabel, my dearest secretary, sorry I've been a neglectful mayor. ಠ╭╮ಠ
(Animal Crossing: New Leaf)
Conclusion: It was fun this year. I'm glad I had the chance to meet more of my friends this time around. I'm definitely going to attend next year to annihilate the competition at the Beyblade tournament, provided they allow my beyblade's participation.

Click for
my Anime North 2016 Album

2016!

It's already way past New Years. I made a few goals for this year and I am happy to report that I did it: I paid off my student debt. Rejoice!

Now I'm broke.

Onto the next goals!

Recently, I received a collection of cactuses and a No Face doll (from the anime "Spirited Away). I had a little fun with them.

Out of Sight, In the Mind

I've been disappointed lately. Disappointed in myself, and sad about my future. I'm taking accounting courses and re-studying Project Management, but I don't know where all this effort will take me. It's like... why didn't I do this when I was younger?

The following graphs are what makes me most stressed. Ladies and gents, allow me to present my carelessness with my personal spending.

Notice how monthly spending is higher than monthly earnings. Most of the money I am spending are from my emergency savings.

I was thinking about how I can reduce my spending, but it looks like most of the money goes to bills and student debt repayment. I guess that's okay.

I'm not sure why personal spending needs to exceed food, but that's how I save to get what I want-- I use my food money to buy personal stuff. Personal spending includes medical fees, clothing, hygiene products, and everything else that doesn't fit in the other major spending categories. (This is why I'm malnourished and thin.) I still have yet to get professional help with these 2-inch calluses under my feet and my facial eczema. My "cheap" methods of treating them have made them worse.

I wanted bills and loan repayment to be 50% of the pie graph, but it looks like it won't be possible. Ever. A portion of my earnings go to family spending. I'm always crying on the inside when I think about my debt. I don't want to be over 30 years old when I finish paying it all off.

The best way I can increase my savings and loan repayment is if I decrease the number of outings I have, but I feel bad rejecting invitations to things I know that my friends want to share and enjoy. I would invite them to my place if it was my place to begin with-- I'm still living with my family. Probably will live with them until I die. My family has this thing against people coming into the house. They think people are after us and all the stuff we hoarded. It just won't work out: having family and friends together in the same house can get awkward.

If I look at this financial situation in a different angle, maybe what I need is not just reducing my spending. I'm currently working three jobs. Maybe I should find another job with higher pay.

Market Village

There's a redevelopment plan for Market Village and it's taking them quite awhile to go ahead with them. It's been years since they announced it with the redevelopment proposal and miniature model of the new building. I will miss the cute outer corners of the current Market Village building when the shopping centre gone.

Bloor Mango Shopping

I had the pleasure of going manga shopping with Ariana and Oie Lin last Friday. I almost found all of the old volumes of Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles by Del Rey at BMV, Labyrinth, the Beguiling, and Anime Xtreme. I just need the last volume, which I plan to buy from eBay when I'm ready. Hope I can finish Paradise Kiss soon too.

Wish me luck!

_{Photo of an interesting looking alleyway on Bloor Street.}

Prepping the Decor

Summerween. If we're going to do this, we need to prepare for it beforehand like we do with Halloween.

Let's do this.

Since I don't want to attract Raccoons or any other local animals to my house, I will be using plastic for the watermelon pumpkins. Hopefully, the local party stores have freakishly round-like-watermelon plastic pumpkins in stock. Looking forward to painting these fake watermelons!

Instead of candy, I think I'll give out granola bars. I doubt anyone will ring my bell on June 22, but if a neighbor asks about the jack-o-melons, I will give them a granola bar.

Anime North 2015: Sunday

Sunday was another chill day. I think I spent most of my time at the convention running and sitting around. There weren't that many deals: the deals were on items that were initially over-priced. The convention seemed more crowded on Sunday than on Saturday.

The dealer's room and artist alley were expanded this year: there was more space between tables and a lot more tables. I was impressed with the number of dealers because it reminded me of Fan Expo. Even with the extra space in the hall, I felt claustrophobic in the dealer's room and artist alley. I freaked out at one point because I thought I wasn't going to be able to get out of the building. Staff weren't letting me out and all the no exit signs left me even more frustrated. I hated how I was lost during the first half of the convention in the TCC building. I hated the signage and lack of exits even more. At least I had a better weekend than the cops on traffic duty. One of them was frustrated to the point of angrily shouting at people. (He shouted at me too and it was not a nice feeling. It felt like I killed someone.) I hope there are more arrow signage and maps around the convention next year.

The whole weekend was tiring, but I guess I had fun. I plan to spend more time at the hotel next year. I don't stay at hotels that often, so I want to try spending half a day awake in one.

Should I cosplay next year, I'm thinking about cosplaying someone from Girls of the Wild's or someone else from Tower of God. I look forward to Beyblade battling next year too. Nothing like watching spinning tops bumping into each other.

Best part of the whole weekend was seeing this:

I'll never be able to have a tsundere license plate but at least I witnessed it. Hope you all had a great Anime North 2015!

Anime North 2015 Album

Anime North 2015: Saturday

Heads up: to access all the full-sized photos I took at Anime North 2015, click on the album link at the end of this entry. Warning: blurry shots ahead.

Saturday was picture day. I wore my Lo Po cosplay during the first half of the day and changed back into normal clothes around 1 PM because it was very warm. Since I was in costume, I asked people to help me take pictures. Thank you for the help, everyone.


This lady took a picture with me and I asked for a picture on my camera too. She wasn't too happy about it.


Mascot buddies


Disgaea penguins


I was holding them up from where ever they were headed to.
During the later half of the day, I spent most of my time taking pictures and trying to figure out how to keep myself hydrated and well-nourished. I don't know the character of some of the cosplayers, so feel free to share in the comments.


Livia and her cosplay of Mystique


Carolyn and her cosplay of Princess Mononoke


She bumped into the Forest Spirit


Lady Lor. Not sure what she is cosplaying as, but well made
as always.


Sailor Jupiter from Sailor Moon tying her shoelaces


A group of RWBY cosplayers
and more RWBY below.




League of Legends (???)


Horo from Spice and Wolf


Zero suit Samus and Captain Falcon


Tiger from Tiger and Bunny


A Suicune sorceress from Pokémon (???)


Street Fighter
Some of the cosplay photoshoots were crowded to the point where I didn't want to go near it. There was no way I could get a good shot, especially when most of the photographers were over 1 foot taller than me...


The One Piece photoshoots were 3 times more crowded
I did manage to get shots from the Super Smash Brothers, Yu-Gi-Oh, Digimon, and [a lot of pictures from the] Fire Emblem photoshoots.








When I arrived at the Fire Emblem photoshoot, everyone was everywhere and there was disorder. The photoshoot didn't start until 15 minutes after its scheduled start time. People were leaving, COSPLAYERS were leaving, and I was in need of pictures of the cosplayers for reference. So I was like...

After a bit of yelling and apologizing (because I've never played Fire Emblem before and I know almost nothing about it), the photoshoot started. My voice sort of died 10 minutes later because I've been raising my voice since Friday while wearing my costume. Thankfully, a friend and two other fans were there to take the baton and run the photoshoot. The cosplayers were helpful with what kind of shots they wanted to take too. All was well.

Until they all decided to battle it out.

The best part of the Fire Emblem photoshoot was this scene:

This guy.

In the late afternoon, we were preparing to attend the masquerade. We weren't sure if we needed the wristbands this year because people online said the convention wasn't using wristbands anymore like they usually did in previous years. We asked Anime North staff at the information booths and they gave us mixed messages: they either said yes, no, or they didn't know and to visit the International Plaza or the North building for information on the wristbands. After an hour of running around, we learned that there were no wristbands this year. (No thanks to the information booths, but thanks for directions to the washrooms.)

In the evening, we lined up to watch the masquerade. I fell asleep while waiting in the line for the masquerade with my friends. Before the masquerade doors were opened, I left to grab food and attempted to enter the Jojo panel. It was too late: there was a line to get in the Jojo panel and another line for the line to get in. The room was already at full capacity. The staff that was managing the line was on edge and let me know that I would probably not be able to get in, but I let her know it was okay. (Don't worry, you did a great job.) I walked around, had dinner, took a few pictures, and visited the outdoor rave.

Well made cosplay, but I don't know what they're from.

Well made armor, but not sure where the character is from.

Not sure who this is, but he had a good skin paint job. Maybe could have cut down on the paint around the arm pits.

It's not easy to manage cosplay with fur.

Junaid, you need to help me with the name of your character.

Unicorn kigurumi

Really well put together Amon from Avatar: The Legend of Korra

Around 11 PM, I visited the outdoor rave again but this time with the troopers. We partied with what little energy we had left and had fun. It was cold outside but warm in the rave area because of everyone's body heat. We didn't get back to the hotel until near midnight. Everyone was so tired, we fell right to sleep.

Anime North 2015 Album