Manga reading updates:

Naruto 464: DAAAARKNNNNNNESS! (PLOT HAX ARMOR STUCK AT MAXIMUM)
Bleach 374: How about a children's color game... OF DEATH! (Still no sign of the plot, sir!)
One Piece 557: Luffy challenging White Beard? Oh Strawhat, how I love you
Negima 264: No, seriously, Negi is going to be the biggest pimp in shounen history. Also, superior darkness

NEW!
Franken Fran ch.1-23: At first I was like "OH GAWD! THIS IS TWISTED SHIT, MAN! TWISTED" but now I'm like "LOL. OH FRAN, WHAT WON'T YOU DO?"

ANIME:
Umineko 12:

O.k, enough of this. Time for an update
So I've been doing the college thing, but since I'm being lazy right now, I am only taking one class: Gender Psychology and Interpretation. It was just like I thought, but it's fine since I'm usually use to the majority of the room being feminist and such. Especially how they get heated over some things. For me, these girls are the easiest to make laugh. Which makes me happy! It's an easy class too, so it's a cake walk

As for work, nothing's changed. Well, it hasn't changed for years, minus the whole store moving across the street and stuff. But right now, I am dealing with some financial problems as a mishap at a fast room restaraunt made it so I had to pay over 500 dollars for a burrito. Try to get my money back faster, even though my bank and the restaurant says the transaction was voided and the money will return to my count within a few days... which was a couple of days ago. Yes, it is not very comforting for me.

Now let's go my drawing life. It's unusual, but I have been drawing a lot of fanart. Of course, when you love Ryukishi's work as much as I do, then of course you'll end up drawing that much! Unfortunately, I stand by my word of not posting up any new material until I get Photoshop from my uncle and am able to color it. Of course, if I have the usual few nagging fans/friends to post my work up, I'll eventually do it. But until then, no!

Finally, there is my internet life, which has become fairly crazy during these past couple of months. First of all, I won't mention names or places, but I will give you a hint to my life. If you visit my crunchy roll account and have been keeping up with my past journals, you will be able to figure it out. DO YOU HAVE THE GENIUS IT TAKES TO SOLVE MY EPITAPH?! lol, Anyways, I'll start by saying, I got roped into some inner circle within one of the most infamous places on the net. In the end, I ended up talking to these people through a certain method which I won't say for the time being. I became good friends with them soon. But what makes me more surprised is that a good percentage of posts within the website revolves around me and a few of my fellow cohorts. Yes, without even realizing it, I made a name for myself (in a way, quite literally) and ended up becoming famous... er, or infamous is more like it as to take in all the hate that usually comes from the posts. Hey, this wouldn't have happened if my last group I was involved in did go kamikaze and nuked themselves! Anyways, that enough info for you! You'll have to figure out the rest for yourself!

Anyways, that's all I will say for now. Until then, see ya; oh, and I'll leave you with this line:

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHH DDDEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSIIIIIIIRRRRRRRRR EEEEEEEEEEEE~!!!

***AGAIN UNEDITED, SO TOUGH BEANS!****

So, people might ask “why take so long in making this journal entry.” The I say only one thing:

Umineko no naku koro ni

SHIT. IS. CASH!
I got addicted to it when my cousin helped install it for me in my computer. Mind you this was the night I came home from AnimeExpo so I had it laying around for a while too. After a couple of weeks, I finally started to play it and after that, I was addicted. Seriously, I though Ryukishi07 could not top Higurashi, but I was wrong. … Then again, I have met a lot of people who says Higurashi is the superior one and it is still my all-time favorite anime (hell, I’m about to pick up playing the original VN soon). But I believe that Umineko shows just how far it’s writer has grown in all areas: story development, characters, even the gore and horror parts are more mind blowing. And it’s not only that, but he even added new elements in his Visual Novel which I found very cool. But anyways, it took me about 3 weeks of non-stop reading to completely finish the question arcs and all the extras which have been given and translated out of the game (i.e. Bern’s Letter, Lambda’s Diary, A cook’s notes, ect). And I spent another whole month talking and obsessing over it with other Umineko fans on several boards, reading and sharing theories, interpreting crime scenes, ect. Before I realized it, it was time to head back to the college. Then it hit me, that I should really be finishing up this journal. So, here I am! Alright, enough Umineko stuff for now! Time to get back to AX09 journal

Day 3
This day was actually one of the more relaxed one that I had. Since I didn’t have much sleep last night and had nothing to do on the third day, I decided to catch up on a few Z. I ended up catching a good 9-10 hours of sleep that night. When I woke up, my cousin and I headed over to the Photoshop 102 panel. Once again Ms. Christina gave an excellent and humorous lecture on photoshop, going into channels, flats, patterns with brushes and all the secret tips and tricks which she shared with us. I felt very honored even though later I would feel depressed since the version of photoshop that I had would not possess channels and would be completely useless for coloring. Yah, it sucked and what made it worse is that my dad had the only PC in the house that had photoshop on it slicked and upgraded so no-more photoshop until I find a proper place to “borrow” it from. Anyways, after the photoshop lesson, my cousin and I took commands from our stomachs to head over to Subway. He got the salad (cheapskate) and I got a footlong Philly cheese steak (yum!).

After that, we relaxed for a bit in the hotel room. I’m pretty sure that was the end of the day for my cousin, but as for me, I headed out an hour later to look over at the exhibition hall. There, I ended up picking up a small Konata figurine for my baby sister who’s birthday was around the corner. I think I bumped into :iconwatchtophat: in the Exhibition hall that day too and she helped me pick out the figurine. Also, after a little connect-and-disconnect, we both found Crispin Freeman sitting a both learning something on a Mac. A woman was speaking to him while pointing out stuff on the screen so I’m guess she was teaching him and telling him something later for use. I was shocked to see him there, but even more shocked to see his panel crowded around with screaming fans. It was baffling. Watchatophat and I asked the lady hosting the both (no, not the one with Crispin) what the booth was all about. Yah, I was too embarrassed to ask about why no one was paying attention to Crispin, but we concluded that no one should bother a star when they are working. Turns out Crispin was doing a panel the next day on voice acting classes under his tutelage. This made my female companion excited and made it a highlight for tomorrow.

Later that day, I went to line up early for the Masquerade. I considered this part of the AX to be:

==================THE BEST PART================

While I was sitting in line, of course, I was sitting around other AX goers. It started with complimenting my art work. Then, nothing much else for a while. A good 20 minutes and the line was being moved. Oh, btw, we were in the shade for the lining. However, the line was then moved into the freak’n sun area. We all started complaining and joking about it, all the people around me. Then we ended up talking about anime. And then the conversationg took off, with us laughing, playing guessing games of which song I would play from an anime OP, famous animes. What I found really hilarious was me telling a bunch of spoilers of anime, especially Code Geass. “Euphie Dies. Rolo Dies. Lelouch Dies.” I ended up getting kicked for that though, lol . My favorite part was discussing stuff with this one girl who was with (or maybe they share the account, I’m not sure) Anyways, it was fun cause I got to talk about all the currently running anime with her including ToraDora, Eden of the East, ect. It was very rare to talk to someone irl with a powerlevel close or maybe even over mine and not another shounenfag or Narutard (and I thought she was pretty cute too). Then we all ended up quoting anime memes when the line actually started moving. It needed more desu anyways . It was hard to keep moving with the line because of all the fun we were having fun. Even when we got into the West Hall, we were still laughing and talking about anime. I truly wished it would have done like that forever (I know, it cheesy, but it’s how I feel). The masquerade started and it I thought the first dozen were amusing, though not haha, kind of amusing. Though I liked the hosts (same trio as before minus Kamina so it was only a duo this year). I also enjoyed female Train’s dry and witty remarks towards the performances. However, it wasn’t long before the three groups I was hanging with took off one by one, only leaving me to watch the half-time performance, or whatever. And hour or so later, I left, almost around midnight and reunited with my roomies at the hotel. It was sad, but we all prepared ourselves for our departure for the next day.

Day 4
And so, the final day of AX arrived. I slept for an average amount this time, only to be woken up by A.P. who was the first to get ready to leave. Soon, we all woke up and said our goodbyes to A.P. I’ll miss you, pal. Hope to see you next year at AX too! Since he came solely for the concert and living in SD, I think we can expect him to bump into him in ’10. Then the three of us, my cousin, , and myself packed up our things and had the car stuffed with luggage once more (although, Watchatophat had to drag her luggage around with her at AX, lol)

At the Expo, Watchatophat and I went to the BangZoom VA panel (again?) in the midst of the process. We ended up sitting on the ground and watching a few new scenes being voiced by amateurs once more. It was a little different, but still the same as before. When it ended, me and Watcha said around goodbyes to one another while I waited for Photoshop 103 to begin. However, I did get a good shot of Watcha being hit on by a Brock cosplayer after the panel (pure gold, baby!).

Soon though, she left and the Photoshop 103 panel began. Shortly though, my cousin found me and I gave him the sit I was saving him next to me. Throug the panel, we learned a thing or 2 on how Photoshop was done through a demonstration from Ms. Christina herself, coloring one of her own works. However, what I should have said was that my cousin got to see it, as for I, half way through, went off to the exhibition hall to pick up a few more items for my collection. I grabbed a TTGL poster and a Negima poster for 12 bucks so it wasn’t a complete waste. However, what I spent most of my time doing was circling around, looking for ‘s table in Artist Alley nearby and about nearly an hour later, I found it. I took a pic of both the girls and received a nice sketch of the three of us as a symbol of our time we spent together. By that time as I was heading back, I got a call from Watchatophat and decided to meet up with her for one last goodbye. After getting lost for a good 25 minutes, I found her in a line for autographs for, I think, the Voice Actors that came to AX. We hugged, took a souvenir pic together, and parted ways (well, she was in line still, I went back to the photoshop panel). I took my sit once more next to my cousin in Photoshop 103, 10 minutes before it ended. I still enjoyed myself though. After the panel ended, we went back to the car and hit the road a little after 1 o’clock. And so, our journey ended.

THE END!

Well, that’s it! I’ll try to write more in my journal for DA and post more pics, despite them being uncolored and sketchy (even though I’m pretty sure no one is viewing my page…. HELLO! ANYONE OUT THERE! ECHO!)

Until next time viewers!

ONCE AGIAN, NOT EDITED... SO SHUT UP!

Day 2
I woke up with only 4-5 hours of sleeping, knowing I had a crunch day ahead of me. Eating, shower, wasting time, the usual. Although I ended up on a wild goose chase around LA trying to find a bank which my cousin told me existed, but never found. Not a good way to start the day. After going back to the con defeated and finding another means to get my money, I sat down with :watchatophicon: and watched the other half of the BangZoom! Entertainment VA Panel. Even though I seen these things before through Extras on youtube and other Anime DVDs, it was a different experience actually seeing it in front of me. They even asked for volunteers, but I just didn’t feel up to VAing that day (and not just because I have no acting skills whatsoever). As I thought, was too chicken to do it (but I guess I had no room to say that either).




When everything was said and done, people filed out and my VA cohort took off to do her own thing. I saved a seat in the front for my cousin Chris so that, 30 minutes later, we would be able to get a good viewing of Photoshop 101. And, just like the name of the panel would suggest, taught me and my cousin the very basics of Photoshop starting with the tools and their uses. I believe the name of the woman behind this one-person panel was Christina Strain. Ms. Strain was quite informative in her methods behind her uses of Photoshop and how she used it with her job by Marvel. She was also very humorous when she was teaching us, so when she said she wanted to be a teacher in this field, I knew she already had the job in the bag. Well, 2 hours of note taking later, the panel ended and so I quickly darted back to the Exhibition hall to pick up my replacement Higurashi figurines and do a little browsing along the way. Of course, I forgot about the time and soon I received a phone call from my hotel roomie, A.P., who said to hurry up. He was holding my seat and wasn’t sure if he could hold it anymore considering the usual fan boys who love to seat hope when the concert time came near.




And so, I bolted over to the Morning Musume Concert. I have to say, this concert did NOT disappoint. A.P. even gave me a couple of glow sticks to wave around while me and everyone else around me jumped up and down screaming. The Morning Musume group were all very cute girls, even though at first I couldn’t tell them apart. But they had awesome singing voices and loved their choreography. They even had a bunch of surprise guests like ex-groupie Hungry-Hungry (no Angry though) and this guy called… I think Tsunko who looked like a very important talk show host. However, I think what I loved the most about the concert was the fact that I was in the middle center block, surrounded by dancing, sing-along fan boys. You’d think it would be annoying as hell to be with people like that, but to my own surprise, it actually made the experience more enriching. I guess their enthusiasm made me enjoy the concert even more. We begged for an encore for a good 30 minutes after it was all over, but the staff forced us out.





And where did the exits lead me to? The line up for the next event I wanted to be in: the AMV Contest! So I was in a good spot considering that AMV tickets could only be purchased through registration and not through buying. I saw down for a good hour before I asked the guy next to me to hold my seat while I head back to the hotel room. I picked up my laptop, some bottled drinks, and meds and left my higurashi figurines in the closet (I AM NOT MAKING THE SAME MISTAKE TWICE THIS TIME especially with around seventy dollar figurines from my top favorite anime). A ran back as fast as I could and thanked the guy saving my seat with a bottled water and a viewing of AMVs on my laptop. Although I did offer him my friendship too, I think he appreciated the AMVs and bottled water more. Him and one other guy became my AMV line buddies (this happens a lot apparently) and enjoyed each other’s company (at least I think we did). Soon enough, called me up saying she was bored, not knowing what to do next. So I told her to shut her trap and come over to the AMV line lol. After finding me in the increasingly long line, I treated her headache with one of my meds and we continued to relax… that was until I had to call my cousin up and tell him it was time for the AMV Contest. Now with my cousin, it was a lot more of a challenge to guide him with the line that watchatophat. Her and my new buds all kept laughing as I kept on trying my best to guide my poor blood relative through the maze called a convention center and the line which, if it was stretched out straight instead of squished, was about the length of two and a half football fields. Eventually, thank god, he found his way to where we were at, all of us laughing at his journey. Good thing he found us too because a little after, the line started moving and we were soon enjoying the air conditioned room where the AMVs were held. Ironically, it was in the same room I was just in for the concert 4-5 hours ago (but I digress).





We saw a lot of awesome old AMVs like Be A Man and Bride of Berserk. But, once more, what really shocked me was that we got to see snippets of Dead Fantasy III. And on top of that himself showed up IN THE FLESH among the audience. I was like “NO FUCKING WAY! HE’S HERE?!” I was looking frantically around and I saw him stand up, but I didn’t get a good look of his face. That’s alright, I guess, since his icon has his face on it already. Now for the AMVs. This year, there were some that were plain awesome and some that were o.k. but all in all, they were very entertaining. Though Death Note Rhasody, which apparently won both drama and Best of Show later on, seemed more of a comedy to me. Don’t get me wrong, I liked it, but I felt it didn’t belong in drama and that sorta gave it an edge in the contest. But maybe that’s just me. I laughed when Fate/ Eternal Inferno, Best of Show for 08 Sakuracon, came up since I showed it to all my roomies that same morning. I was like “that’s going to win action, hands down.” And it did. But watchatophat was right too… anything with Dragonforce as a song had a good advantage over many action AMVs. But I had to disagree to an extent too. The editing and collection of scenes, from both the F/SN anime and games is what really made it a masterpiece. Well, anyways, There were those AMVs and

Robots
We need you
Dance Dance Celebration
Valhalla (convinced me to watch Macross Frontier)
CODE: Roll (song only)
Roritech MK II
Untamed

Those AMVs went straight to my MUST DOWNLOAD list. After voting, me, Chris, and watchatophat all went back to the hotel, all the while discussing our favorite AMVs, what we liked about them and the anime we were inspired to watch because of them. When we hit the hotel, there was A.P. already fast asleep. Show, eat, and a little t.v. is how we ended the night which I was glad since I was exhausted. I knew my body was in quite a bit of pain too, but after guzzling down at least 4-5 packs of melt-in-your-mouth Bayer’s medicine, you stop feeling it. And so, I slept, knowing that tomorrow was going to be a bit lighter than what today was (hurray for sleeping in!).

NOT EDITED... SO DEAL WITH IT!

Day Zero
I was really excited to AX, so I made my cousin and myself triple check everything. I even ended up bringing 3 bags to go with us while my cousin only had one lol. Well, one was for food and the other was the rest of my things. Sometimes I think I am the only one who thinks about the well being of my roommates’ stomachs.

Anyways, we left my house around 10, ended up quadriple checking everything and ended up buying what we forgot at the Target I worked at. Afterwards, we hit the road, talking about anime while eating chicken. Surprisingly, time went by a lot faster than it should have and we actually made it at our destination on the schedule time it said on map quest. My cousin and I had some trouble parking, but we found a spot in the end. We soon met up with, A.P., a friendly pino who looked around our age. He seems like a good and honest person (which he was). Next, we checked in and had these security bracelet’s shackled onto our wrists. The whole time and even now, it was annoying to eat, sleep and even bath with it, but anyways. We did more in depth intros and small talk upstairs into what seemed to be a middle-easterned themes hotel room. Compared to all the previous hotels, this one seems less luxurious, with only what was needed and a few luxuries. Once we all settled in and had a bit to eat (mainly from the lupia we were going to survive off of for the rest of the Con) we headed out toward registration. I was amazed at how close we were to the convention center (and even more surprised to find out the main characters of FF13 was plastered on the front of the hotel building.

Registration, of course, had a huge line to it and, surprise surprise, it was in the hot sun. However, some good things happened like, out of no where, my last year rooming bud and ex-coworker, Al, showed up and greeted us. I was pretty shocked. And he was even nice enough to give us some ice cream. That ice cream guy knows how to make a profit, going across AX lines. We also met with my cousin’s groupies and they all chatted up a storm. However, we all ended up doing our own thing and the line started moving… and went inside to another line. However, it wasn’t that bad and soon enough, we got our badges.

My hotel roomies and I went back after we parted with Al. I was so glad that our hotel was a 5 minute walk from the Convention center. We quickly ate what we had, and fell asleep. Not much else happened that day

Day One
So I got ready and what not after around 6 hours of sleep (too excited for AX, I guess). My roommate, A.P. is such a good guy. He went in line 6 o’clock in the morning with his club which means I had a good 2-3 hours of screwing-around time. When I got there, I watched half of the One Piece Movie 6 thing on my Ipod. I seriously love the animation in it. After an hour or so, we rushed in (and it was a pretty good feeling to be in the exhibition hall that seemed almost empty). So, what did I buy, you may ask? Well, I bought…
-Samurai Kotohona T-shirt
-(Free) Mangagamer.com T-shirt
-Higurashi visual novel
-Siesta Figurine
-Ai Yori Aoshi manga vol. 10,11,12 and 14
-Yume Miru Kusuri H-game
-Lucky Star vol.5 DVD
-Nanoha Season 1 DVD Boxset
-Air TV Complete DVD Boxset
-NEW Fist of the North Star DVD vol. 1,2 and 3
-Gasai Yuno Keychain which I got from Artist Alley

I know, it was a bit much, but shopping for it made it so worth it. And of course, the two that shines the most out of all my swag; the higurashi chibi set and Nia Glass cup. Not only do I favor these because they have some special appeal to my heart, but because they have a small story to go with them. For one, the Higurashi chibi set was the most expensive thing I bought out of the whole con. And, of course, I ended up loosing the small figurines the same day. I’ll go into more detail about it later. Then there was the Nia cup, which caught my eye since it was not only one of the few anime cups I’ve seen in a while, but a decent see-through glass cup. So after walking past it a couple (or more like 10) times through the exhibition hall, I finally decided to pick it up. And I’m glad I did since on the 3rd day, they were all out of the Nia cups, but had plenty of the other types (Simon, Kamina, Yoko, ect.). Anyways, I spent most of the day at the Exhibition hall.

When the afternoon hit though, I walked back to the hotel room and placed my new treasures in safe keeping known as the closet. Yah, I am so glad I chose a place that was only a 5 minute walk from the con. Anyways, after eating more ramen and resting a smig, I walked back and ended up doing the other thing I planned for Day 1, which was watching the TTGL Movie, Childhood’s End. But first, I sat through the middle of the Mega64 panel which was pretty funny though I never heard of them before. Anyways, I watched the TTGL movie and as I expected, even though it was subbed, it was an incredible experience. The screaming fans, the booming explosions in stereo, watching Simon and Kamina be GAR 15 feet high, it was just extraordinary. However, through the middle of the movie, called me up and said she needed help with the hotel and stuff. It’s hard enough trying to talk to someone through a movie, much less through a movie like TTGL lol. So I guided the poor and helpless soul through the con and into the room and we watched the other half of the movie together. I loved how she looked all confused whenever people were cheering at one point and laughing at other’s. Still, I think she enjoyed it and it helped her fuel her interest in the over-popular anime.

Although an awesome movie to the end, I still ended up with my first couple of migraines at the end and some disconnections with my roommates leading to some bump along the road of getting everyone into the hotel. The problem ended up being resolved with me ending up over planning and cutting my wrist a little. Though I was happy when was actually concerned about me instead of the usual “What do you want me to do about it” vibe I get from everyone else. Anyways, the day ended with all of us in the room, laughing and enjoying ourselves, just how a vacation should be.

Part 2 coming soon...

... is what I like to say. But today is the day where I feel my status of single heavily weigh on my shoulders. For one, it sorta pisses me off that thing that use to be 5 bucks are now 15 bucks on this day. And for another, is, of course, being more self-conscious about being single by seeing all the girlfriends/boyfriends that the people around you have.

All in all, I'm not even pissed at this. I'm in despair over it

Then I remembered a fav. quote from one of the animes I was watching
Girl one: "Stop complaining and be an adult"
Girl two: "Fine! I'll do what adults do and go drink!"

So instead of Valentine's Day, I nominate this:
"Drink myself silly until I forget I'm single" day

Seriously, I'm this close to breaking my dry spell and just get smashed.
*sigh* Not tonight though, I work (tempted to call out though)
Anyways, just ranting a bit
See ya later