Recent events

Two weekends ago, I was supposed to go help volunteer at the API Equality booth on Saturday.  They never showed up.  I walked around but didn’t really feel like taking pics.  Sunday, decided I didn’t really want to be in the crowd so didn’t go to the parade.  I notice several days later they’d left a message saying they didn’t have a booth so it had been canceled, but that we could join them for the parade if we wanted to.  Don’t think I would’ve really wanted to. :P

Last weekend, met up with Jenny and her friends in Moraga to watch fireworks.  I think for once, I may actually have fireworks pictures not obscured by cloud/fog.  Though the wind still creates some odd effects.

Today, met up with #fanime people.  Meeting people from online is a bit odd but people were friendly and we had fun.  Without my guidance, they ended up taking the very scenic route through SF. :P  We met up at Pacific Catch for dinner.

Alice Summerthing 2009

Well.  As usual food there is overpriced and not that good.  Why do I always decide to eat there though? :(

Was still eating lunch when Parachute came up.   By the time I got sorta close they’d just finished.  Waited for Sugar Ray, who were kinda entertaining.  Then I napped under a tree away from the crowds and got sunburnt (the shade moved) while Matt Nathanson was playing, and didn’t stay for Gavin Rosdale.

The concerts and the crowd was generally pretty mellow.  Which was actually kinda disappointing as I was trying to see if there were songs which were suitable otagei.  Sugar Ray did eventually do a couple rock songs that I felt would work, but nobody’s put a video up of that.  The DJ they had was fun though.  But generally, the crowd responsiveness felt sort of lukewarm.

I mean, compare with :P

Though watching the videos now from further back, looks like the girls were getting into the mood.  Maybe it’s a male-band thing.

Someone had a huge-ass $5000 lens attached to a full-frame camera.  Another photographer next to me joked about how that lens cost more than his last car. :P  I think that was probably overkill for the concert.

Also, thank goodness for earphones doubling as earplugs.  Don’t think I could’ve been able to withstand standing so close to the speakers for so long otherwise.

Not directly related, but I got a voicemail from Radio Alice the previous week thanking me for listening to their radio/going to their site and inviting feedback.  It was definitely a personalized call though as they were trying to say my name and talking about butchering the pronunciation

BayAnime, Bird Nest, Ankle

Saturday I met up with people from BayAnime in Japantown.  First meeting for the group actually.  I’ve been looking for some group to expend my excess energy ever since Fanime so this is a good thing.  I actually met some of the people before I reached the meeting place (On the Bridge).  I actually thought they might’ve been going to it beforehand, but it wasn’t when they mentioned On the Bridge in their conversation that I was sure. :P

Anyway, 13 people showed up.  Food was actually pretty good and with proper portions for the price.  The waitress also gave us all a free soup or salad because of such a large group.  The owner talked to one of the group members a bit in Japanese, and then later gave us all some marshmallow with chocolate-filling for dessert.  Very good service.

Pretty varied backgrounds.  SFSU anime club co-presidents, someone from Gaia Online, Sailor Moon, people who’d gone to Fanime.  A lot of people were working (or even came from work) so I didn’t feel like the age group was too young.  Lots of interest in gaming too.  Got a beardog pin.

Sunday, while outside, I saw a bird nest on the ground.  Thought about putting it back in the tree, but unfortunately it had flipped over when it fell so the two eggs were cracked.  A boy walked by and asked me what it was, when I told him, his instinct was also to put it back in the tree.  I liked that pure, innocent nature, though he too gave up when I told him the eggs were already cracked.

Today, went for my 6-month checkup on my ankle.  X-rays look good.    I still have a little stiffness when I lift my ankle-inward.  Doctor said there should be improvement up to a year, and my surgery was in October, so it may still get better.  Still weird seeing all that metal in my leg.

Dine about Town and Up

Thursday I went to Roy’s Hawaiian Fusion Cuisine with Jenny for lunch for Dine About Town.  The appetizer sampler was nice in its variety (Sampler Trio – Crunchy Golden Lobster Potsticker, Teppanyaki Seared Shrimp and a daily Sushi Bite).  I liked my main course, which was “short ribs” (Honey Mustard Garlic-Charred Beef Short Ribs – Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Natural Sauce) though it had no actual rib.  Jenny had fish (Roy’s Classic Roasted Macadamia Nut Crusted Mahi Mahi with Lobster Butter Sauce) which she thought was a bit dry.    The dessert was Hawaiian Passion Fruit Tart which we thought was meh.  She doesn’t like fruit, and I thought the fruits were too sour.

After work, we went to see Up in 3D.  Story itself was kinda touching but predictable in all aspects.  The 3D effect was well-done.  Haven’t actually seen 3D movies since I was a kid at Disneyland and the glasses were still red and blue.  I guess the glasses they have now are basically polarizers.  I wonder what would happen if I used my camera polarizer, would it work, or are the 3D effects tuned for these glasses?  We did notice that without the glasses, everything looked blurry, and fast moving things didn’t look smooth.  The glasses were also a bit uncomfortable, hanging out further out on my nose than my normal glasses, making it feel weird/itchy.

20th anniversary of Tiananmen Square and the Chinese censors are running amok

http://www.danwei.org/net_nanny_follies/twitter_domain_blocked_in_chin.php

http://www.danwei.org/net_nanny_follies/chinese_websites_under_mainten.php

Those are the two main articles to look at.  The funny thing is, while trying to post these links on Xiaonei, I ran into some interesting censorship.

The link to the second URL, the google spreadsheet link inside it, a tinyurl link to the spreadsheet, and the words “tiananmen” and “中国网站维护日” all cause the following error to pop up:

“请不要发布政治敏感内容、色情内容、商业广告或其他不恰当内容”

Edit: Looks like even “June 4″ and “20th” is blocked.

More Fanime Halko Momoi concert

Interestingly, I still have not crashed.  I think the energy of her songs (which I’ve been listening to, esp. someone’s recording of the concert) is continuing to keep my mind in a pretty hyper state.

Here’s a nice video showing the complete otagei of her LOVE.EXE song in Japan, which means I at least have one video from which to practice.  Whee.

If you have a niconico video account, http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/1236649570 is even better, esp. since it has all the scrolling comments (which helps in understanding what the people are yelling)

Here’s someone’s recording of the same song at Fanime.  In retrospect, I am very glad I didn’t make it onto the stage now. :P

This is probably one of the only ways to make me dance willingly. :P

Fanime 2nd half report (Halko Momoi concert)

Sunday – Finally the wallet comes out.  I got some figurines for Joyce basically as thanks for the help with the hotel room.  Got myself some Touhou playing cards from the Dealer’s Hall and a Patchouli Knowledge bookmark in the Artist Alley.

So the original plan was to go to the MusicFest, but while going there, I saw a couple girls sit down next to the guy who was the start of the line.  I thought they were crazy and went in and put my bag down.  But after a bit, I decided screw it, I don’t really care about the bands for the MusicFest anyway, and so I went and plopped myself down with the line as #4.  This was about 1:45.  The concert wasn’t going to begin till 8.  Yeah. :P  I just decided I may as well do something crazy for once.

Eventually people start lining up.  I think they thought it was weird that even though I hadn’t heard of Momoi until a couple days ago, I was in line this already. :P  I got Ultra Orange #2 and a bottle of water for that though, I think.  Thankfully, the sun moved and we got the shade for most of our wait.  Eventually while they were passing out the glowsticks to everyone else, I got Ultra Orange #3.  Despite this, I ended up having to get another 2 glowsticks during the concert (a blue one for one of the songs, and another orange one for the encore).

There was a bit of confusion when we were finally allowed in and we thought we weren’t allowed to sit at the front.  But we were.  Unfortunately, the hesitation meant there weren’t enough seats for all of us at the front and center row, so some of the people who were waiting with us went to the side.  The first act wasn’t actually Momoi though, it was the Makenai group from the afternoon.  Apparently, the girls were only interested in that and left after that so the seating turned out ok.

The convention people would turn out to be a little oppressive though.  The fans were doing a live web stream, but they were forced to close it down because the hall was unionized and they’d have to pay some union worker $3000 + $300 webcast fee.  Regular recording was apparently allowed though.  http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=Ruezu&view=videos has some videos.  I’d be somewhere in the front row, with the regular dull glowsticks (compared to their battery powered glowsticks) and not entirely sure of what I’m supposed to be doing half the time. :P  There’s also an audio recording where you can hear the calls going on.

At one point, Momoi made Jun-chan (the head maid of the maid cafe) go up and sing the ENOZ song.  She also let people up on the stage for the LOVE.EXE song.  Unfortunately, I didn’t know what was happening till too late and got stopped by the rovers. :( Though I guess that’s better, since I wasn’t wearing one of her shirts like the others, and wouldn’t know what to do either.  Apparently someone also accidentally unplugged the guitarists’s guitar, and one of the guys noticed and plugged it back for him.

Another interesting point of note, her dress for this performance was made in Taiwan.

I got some goods after the concert (shirt, CD), and a lot of the fans stayed around to continue the live webcast.  The convention people continued to be anal about it though,  and turned off the lights on us (I went back later and the lights were on then too).  It didn’t matter, and people just used glowsticks/flashlights for lighting.  They actually started doing the Nico Nico Douga medley again.  Eventually most of the group left to get food I think, but some went to the convention center to finish the webcast, which was filled with random stuff.  I guess it’s somewhere on Nico Nico Video.  I decided to go back to my room then.  But then I noticed I couldn’t find my call book.  Went back down to find it and couldn’t find it.  Luckily I ran into them again and managed to get another book from them.

Momoists up on the stage with Momoi

Monday – Got up really early to check out and meet Joyce.  But Joyce overslept so I went to wait in line, which was already forming 2 hours before the signing event.  I got my CD case cover signed.  Convention people again imposed random rules and wouldn’t even let us take any photos inside (it was supposed to be no posing only).  I also decided to get a wristband.

Went to the Para Para panel and that’s when Joyce arrived.  Everything was completely foreign to her since this is her first convention, so I had to explain stuff to her.  What was ironic was that she was using a friend’s Industry pass.  Introduced her to Wei-chen and helped her pick out a couple wall scrolls for her brother.  Watched some AMVs, watched people para paraing (one of the instructors from the panel was at the arcade), put stuff in her car, and then watched the closing ceremonies, which consisted of AMVs and a charity auction.  The most interesting thing was when they were auctioning off a Wii guitar signed by every guest of honor, including Momoi.  Instant attention from every Momoi fan in the room.  In fact, Jun-chan’s boyfriend started the bid at $100, and made a gesture at me.  Quick bidding war that eventually ended at $250.  But he passed on that.  Then they announced there was a *second* guitar.  He gave in on that.  If he couldn’t do it, I think I would’ve been willing to help augment his bid by a few bucks.  Last thing to go was a Wii signed by last year and this year’s guests of honors.  Starting bid was $600… nobody was willing to do it.  Eventually a staffer made the bid and donated it back for next year’s auction again.  You could tell it was done as a “somebody has to do it” move, but very awesome regardless.

Some observations/thoughts now that Fanime is over:

1) The momoists are some of the coolest and most generous people I’ve ever met.

2) It’s a good thing I didn’t win the exclusive Yamaga invitation earlier, since that was the same time as the Momoi concert.  Would’ve altered my life a little bit I think.

3) The whole glomping/hugging thing is fascinating.  I’m not sure why it’s such a feature in anime conventions.  I think it’s the whole people letting loose.  I was still being my pretty introverted self, but I was quite a bit more willing to try things out.  Certainly talked to a lot more strangers than I usually would.

4) While at the convention, I was basically living in a completely separate reality.  Completely ignored everything from my usual life.

5) This convention has rekindled my geek interests by quite a bit.  I haven’t really been watching anime/listening to Japanese music for a while now, and I’ve pretty much spent the entire day listening to Japanese music, and Haruhi is now in its 2nd season which means something to watch (just as American shows I were watching are reaching their finales).

6) Kingdom Hearts cosplayers tend to uniformly have pretty cool costumes (their keys).

7) Wearing furry costumes will get you a lot of glomps/hugs.

8) Convention food/drink is way too expensive.  $4 bottles of water just should not happen, especially if you can get the same water a block away from a restaurant for $1.60.  This is a safety hazard as it causes people to drink less fluids than they really should be drinking.

9) I’m tempted to do some otage at the next American concert I go to with friends, just so I can have people stare at me and wonder what the heck I’m doing.  Bonus points if I can get said friends to do it with me (chance of that happening?  <1%)

10) I guess I should find some Para Para videos and just practice off that if I actually want to try the machine next year.

Fanime Sunday

My day can be summed up in one word.

Otagei.

A longer, more detailed post will come later. I am beat.

Fanime midway report

Thursday – not an actual fanime day. But had lunch with Catherine, Joyce, and Joyce’s cousin at Boulette’s Larder. Best tasting thing was the pork tenderloin which Cat got. While there there was a spontaneous decision with Cat to watch Star Trek at night, and… it was good. Yay Sylar. :P I’m just happy the spoilers I saw weren’t what I expected/occurred early/didn’t matter (yay for not having been psychologically raped)

Friday – I had 3 hours of sleep because of the Star Trek movie and packing and researching. I took the day off work. I left an hour later than I’d planned. Got there, checked into hotel without a problem (Joyce booked the room for me), and then got in line for registration, which turned out to take an our. The two people I thought was coming today ended up not coming today (Joyce and Wei-chen)

I saw Lupin III vs. Detective Conan completely by accident, which was a surprise for me. I’ve never properly watched a Lupin III anime before but it was one of the old games I played on the Famicom a lot

Spent most of the day wandering around. Actually took a lot fewer photos than I thought I would be taking.

Because of the much bigger convention center, there wasn’t the whole portable players huddled together playing together thing going on. A lot of DSes but everyone was mainly doing their own thing. Didn’t register for tournaments because I knew it would be futile and the board games they had didn’t really interest me (and I’d have to find strangers to play with).

It was also fun watching people play the arcades. I will say that DDR is completely BORING compared to the Para Para machine. Good DDR play mainly consists of people holding onto a handle at the back and just stomping their feat. Really good DDR doesn’t normally happen (the ones where they actually do a dance routine and don’t look at the screen anymore). Para Para on the other hand, that’s actual dancing, and you’re generally moving your entire body, especially the arms. That makes it a lot more interesting to watch, and especially since the moves are the actual moves to the dance. Of course, there are the normal folks who mainly just wave their arms around to hit the sensors and that’s not interesting either. But people only need to be good, and not really good, to make it interesting.

I do wonder how people get that good though. I guess watch someone else play and memorize the moves then?

Watched people play a game with coming up with anime titles for prizes. There was an INCREDIBLY RUDE mother there who kept harassing the other contestant that her daughter was facing. Though her daugher won, I was really happy that she couldn’t get the real prize (to meet the executive director of GAINAX tomorrow in a 100-person exclusive party) because she was underage. God what a prick that woman was.

Dinner at this hoagies place was awful. The hoagie itself was just portion with really bad presentation. The fries were just not good and required ketchup to make it palatable.

Only real panel I went to was Ric Meyers’ “Yelling back at the screen” panel. Very interesting guy. But I don’t think we really click. (The writers are the ones who have the most to discuss with him). He did confirm that the new G.I. Joe movie is pretty much gonna suck (though that was kinda obvious from the trailer. The special effects weren’t nearly as good as Star Trek’s)

Randomly caught the second half of Ip Man. I can see why Leqi really liked that movie now. The fights were awesome.

Saturday – laziness meant I didn’t get to go try out the breakfast place I wanted. Ran into Wei-chen when I was going to get lunch. We didn’t quite recognize each other at first. :P

Maid Cafe opened today but the line was loooooong. So I just went and watched their live performance. I will definitely say that was a good decision. Mostly for them singing some oldie anime from my childhood (Ranma 1/2 and Urusei Yatsura) and the Touhou stuff (didn’t recognize the song though), and the new Nico Nico Douga medley video which was great because it meant a lot of the inside jokes and references that I used to be really into. Must definitely try their cafe tomorrow.

Also, what made it so much better was the presence of Momoi. I didn’t know it was her until I saw a ton of people taking photos of her. She’s not someone I really knew before today but she’s done some stuff that I’ve seen or played. She had a group of fans on the side doing Calls with glowsticks, which was pretty cool.

Naturally, because of that, I had to go to the Momoi Calls Workshop panel (I was gonna go anyway though). Her longest Japanese fan was actually there to teach us the moves. It is… basically synchronized audience participation. Pretty sure it’s not something that happens with Western music. I think it actually has some standardized moves that are used regardless of the artist. Apparently there are also otaku versions of the moves, which they also taught us, which is basically the regular moves that are overdone, which is basically what otakus do in general. :P Anyway, it’s actually a bit of workout to do the calls because there’s a lot of jumping, twirling, and arm movements. It was tiring for 2 songs (+ practice before). It will be hell for 2 hours tomorrow. The thing is, this pretty much puts me in a spot where I have to choose between my camera or participating. Not sure what I’ll choose yet. There is no way I’m subjecting my camera to that sort of punishment. :P They also gave us each one of the “Ultra Orange” glowsticks. Apparently these are different from regular glowsticks in that they burn brighter and faster (lasting only about 5 minutes)

After that was basically the anime masquerade. Looooooooooooooooooooooooong line. It pretty much wrapped completely around the convention center. They actually stopped letting people in later in the night because it would be a safety hazard (though there were still seats). Anyway, yay skits. My most favorite skit was the one the MC (who was Ric Meyers) refused to say, “Tiny Flat Chest” and I knew exactly what it was from that. It was the tsurupettan song, but they did an English version and it was with Zero no Tsukaima instead of Touhou. I’m pretty sure this has been done on Youtube. :P Tip to organizers. You’ll have more luck getting people to turn off their flash if you don’t let all those people in the special section use their flashes because they’ll see the hypocrisy/unfairness, especially since those people are all closer to the stage and light and need the flash even less. :P Another highlight was them showing the first episode of the 2nd season of Suzumiya Haruhi.  I had found this the night before I left but hadn’t had a chance to watch it yet, so it was a good coincidence.  Most of the people had left by this point though.

Got back in time to see Dead Fantasy 3 and Dead Fantasy 4. They’re still works in progress. Huge crowd for that.

I still did not buy anything today, but I might tomorrow.

I’m happy that I’ve been seeing quite a few Touhou characters running around. Didn’t get to yell “China/Chuugoku” at Meiling though :( (inside joke). Was kinda tempted to say “baka” to the Cirno I saw though (but if the person didn’t know the inside joke concerning the character, the might’ve been offended).

Also, this hotel’s (Marriott) internet connection is really awful. And it’s not free. If my laptop battery didn’t decide to die again (I really hate Macs), I’d just take my laptop down and use it in the convention area. :(

Oh, the last thing to note was that the Christian protesters from last year were back again. The one where one of the guy’s sons was dating a convention goer. :P Lots of fun hijinks from people yelling back at them. Like them chanting “Kira is god” (Death Note reference), some guy holding up a Liber Chaotica (woo, I have that book), and… Jesus himself being worshipped by followers right next to them. :P Speaking of Jesus, I got a free hug from him in the elevator. I should’ve denied him two more times first though (extreme inside joke that only I know, you can ask me if you wanna know, but I know nobody will ask :P).

Sunburned

On Saturday I got up at 4:15AM, arrived at the area at 5AM (an hour early), and volunteered till 9AM, helped out a little more after that, took pics, met up with Cat, and went home at 1.  My arms have been sunburned since then.

This was for the Asian Heritage Street Celebration.

1. I was surprised at how many people are actually up at 4:30 in the morning on the bus.

2. Before my shift, I was basically helping out with barricades.

3. During my shift,  it was mostly just standing around, giving directions, and arguing with people unhappy about the barricades. :P (Future note to the organizers, it’s probably a bad idea to surround the entrance to Federal building garages with your barriers).

4. I sort of forgot I was wearing the volunteer shirt, but I’m guessing it probably gave me a +1 to my Charisma rolls while at the event while off-duty.

5. Portable toilets suck.  I used the public library’s.

6. Everyone and their dog has a DSLR now.  Especially near the stage.  Otherwise they’re using the video recording function on their P&S.  By next year, the DSLR people will be doing video as well (see T1i, D90, 5DMk2)

7. Ended up napping in the afternoon.