Dream Sequence

It’s the final day.  While preparing for the day, I got the distinct feeling that I was forgetting something.  Just as when Jan and I were about to leave, sure enough the phone rang and it was Eric.  Doh!  I was supposed to call him earlier to set up where we’re going to meet and stuff.  Eric is another guy I convinced to come to the con just to see what’s up.  Anyway, after getting to SFU, we met up with him and we all went to the convo mall.

The cosplay capture the flag game was going on there and I just snapped a few pictures.  At 11, the Academie Duello workshop started and I volunteered to be one of those taking part in some rapier and sword training.  I chose long sword training so that I can whoop ass even with just a piece of wood or a pipe.  After some stretches and a few jumping jacks, we were assigned to be in pairs.  I got paired up with a guy called Edwin who’s cosplaying as Allen from D.Gray-man.  I actually took a picture of the guy on Friday.  He had this nice red glove for Allen’s hand.

Anyway, after a bit of wrestling exercises, we finally got our hands on some swords.  We only got wooden swords because all the metal ones were taken.  Darn.  But in retrospect, that was actually for the better.  Because my partner was seriously swinging his sword.  It was only supposed to be nice and slow strokes since the untrained defender doesn’t have the skills to deflect a fast attack.  I had to block his swings seriously or else risk getting hurt.  He hit me hard a couple of times on my hand but he said he was sorry.  I accepted it since I’m pretty sure he wasn’t aware that he was swinging it hard.  He was flailing wildly but I guess I should’ve told him.  What can I say?  It was pretty exciting trying to deflect his attacks.  Anyway, I learned about the "five places of pain".  No doubt that will be useful in some situations… fufufu.  After learning some attacks, we learned some defenses.  I especially like the defense techniques that also attack the opponent.  I think it would look cool if it were actually done in real life.  Later, my brother told me he took some pictures of my swordplay.  Hehehe, it actually doesn’t look bad.  As the instructor said, "If it looks good, you’re doing something right".

After lunch with Jenny, Eric, and Wayne (just a student, not a con attendee), I headed off to the charity auction.  I was still a bit early so I watched a couple of AMV entries.  I went back to where they were holding the auction and I didn’t really see anything that caught my eye except the Last Exile stuff.  During the auction, I bid on a Kingdom Hearts necklace, an FFVII AC necklace and a Kadaj keychain.  I won them with a bid of $15.  I think that’s a pretty good price and even if it’s not, it’s for a good cause.  The proceeds of the auction goes to the BC Children’s Hospital.  Finally, the Last Exile figurine and mousepad set came up with an opening bid of $30.  I was embroiled in a bidding war with this guy who, when I bid a value, would just bid $1 higher.  We went up to $55 and he, of course, went to $56.  $50 was actually my ceiling for this so I gladly just let him have it.  I’ll get him back later.  A Kiddy Grade DVD box set was soon up and my friend, Andrew, and that same guy got into a bidding war.  Andrew went to $55, and the guy went to $56 (obviously).  Andrew wasn’t saying anything so when the auctioneer said "going twice", I yelled "$60".  The guy let me have it this time.  I later told Andrew that this time, I wI was pretty happy with that.  $60 for a complete DVD set is pretty good, and the DVD’s aren’t the thin-pak versions but rather the ones with the regular cases.  Other highlights of the auction include a BACK-ON framed concert poster that went for $320 :O. 

I had to leave the auction early so that I can get a poster signed by BACK-ON since we were only allowed one thing to get signed before.  Since it was still a bit early, I went to the panel room where people were asking BACK-ON a bunch of questions.  I only heard a few questions and their responses then it was time to go to the autograph place.

The autograph session was pretty much the same as Day 2’s.  I line up, get one thing signed, and shake the hands of each member.  Woot!  I should have used my left hand to shake their hands so that I would have equal BACK-ON goodness on my hands.  Anyway, I also took a photo of them while signing other people’s stuff because you can’t have a picture taken with them.

After getting my 2nd set of autographs, I ran into Jenny and we watched a couple of episodes of Elemental Gelade.  It was decent, and I never knew that the main guy is voiced by Ishida Akira.  I headed for the convo mall with her to attend the closing ceremony.  The main thing was the Anime Idol finals.  I missed the first contestant, but the last two were pretty good.  The third contestant sang the Romeo x Juliet opening, which is a cover of "You Raise Me Up".  I thought the music was too loud, but she actually sang the last chorus pretty well.  The BACK-ON members were actually guest judges at this thing.  The funniest part was during the judging of the third contestant when Teeda, the rapper of BACK-ON, said something in Japanese, and the translator said it means "Be my gf".  The contestant shot him down saying that she wasn’t ready yet.  LOL @ Teeda.

Anyway, yada yada yada and the closing ceremony was done.  I stuck around for a bit to listen to Moo-ve play again while waiting for my brother and sister so we can go home.  We all went to the townhouse she was staying at to get some of her stuff.  A couple of staff members went with us so we drove them home and we were finally on the way home, listening to BACK-ON all the while during the trip.

It was definitely an AE to remember.  I met a couple of new friends. I spent a bunch of money (I’ll feel the impact of this soon).  I took a lot of pictures so it’s definitely going to be something I’ll remember for a long time.

Day 3 end!  See you next year unless I actually post stuff in between.

My brother and I got to the con at around 10:30 am today.  There’s not a lot going on so I went to the dealers’ room.  I got a couple of free videotapes from one of the sellers.  I also saw my friend, Winnie, who’s helping out at one of the tables.  She cosplayed and the character looked familiar but I don’t know where exactly I saw it.  I talked with her a  bit and I moved on to browsing other stuff.  She was selling mostly doujins and there’s a box full of yaoi ones >.>.  Anyway, I looked at a bunch of various merchandise but I didn’t find anything I liked.  There was an interesting one that I saw: a set of Code Geass trading cards.  I thought it was kinda expensive though: $50 for 54 regular cards and 9 "special" cards.  Anyway, I went to the CNL section and bought the Karekano DVD set for $70.  I was originally aiming for Last Exile but it was $100 for the whole thing.

We met up with Jenny, one of our friends.  I actually managed to convince her to come.  Because of various interests, the three of us often ended up splitting up and leaving each other to his own devices.  Well, as long as everyone enjoys the con, it’s all good.  During various times throughout the day, I’m either alone, with my brother, with Jenny, or with both of them.  It’s like an RPG where your party members come and go as they please.

After going to the dealers’ room, I lined up with my brother for the cosplay cafe.  A whole squad of nice-looking girls in various costumes greeted us.  A server in a kimono was assigned to our table and we ordered some noodles and milk tea.  The big rip was that the one who actually brought the food to us was a guy.  What the fuck, man!  This is not what I came for in a cosplay cafe for obvious reasons.  Another disturbance was that someone asked me to help out a couple of her friends who needed a guardian to get into the con.  Yup, I unofficially became the guardian of two guys that day.  Anyway, I got back to the table and ate my cup noodles and milk tea in a tetra pack :P.

After the cosplay cafe, I watched the cosplay contest for a bit.  The most memorable performance I saw was by two Prince of Persia cosplayers.  They had this battle scene and they performed some nifty moves.  Pretty impressive.  I later learned that they were the judges’ choice for one of the judging categories.

At 3:00 pm, I watched the Full Metal Alchemist movie.  The bad thing was that they showed the dubbed version.  The voices are ok but I watched the anime in Japanese with subtitles.  The movie itself was ok, but not something I’d be giddy about.

After the movie, I went back to the Convocation Mall for the 2nd round of the Anime Idol contest.  Some singing again and then my brother got surprised when the organizers asked him to perform a song.  Apparently, their intermission act was unavailable and so they needed one in quick notice.  My brother actually obliged them and sang a verse and chorus of Gackt’s "Love Letter" in a capella.  His performance was pretty good.

I went to another dealers’ area in the convo mall and bought a couple of Magic precontructed decks, and played a bit of Magic with my brother.  I used the mono-blue precon while his was a red-black concoction. 

Shortly before the concerts started, I went backto the convo mall to get seats for the concerts.  I also happened to see Jessica and Jaclyn (I saw her pass and this is the spelling.  I’m too lazy to edit the previous post.).  We talked for a while and then it was time for the Moo-ve concert.  Moo-ve is a Japanese cover band but they’re based in Vancouver.  They cover Japanese songs but during the concert they played a lot of L’Arc-en-Ciel songs.

In the middle of the concert, my brother said that they’re selling some BACK-ON merchandise.  My brother and I lined up and we bought a bunch of stuff.  I bought the Chain and Blaze Line singles plus one of their mini albums, New World for a grand total of $50.  With that, I got a free BACK-ON poster.  My brother bought a T-shirt on the other hand.  But man, I’m a sucker for free stuff.  That was actually pretty expensive.  On the plus side, I got a silver wristband so I have priority for the autograph session.

The Moo-ve concert finally ended and I really enjoyed it.  The band played with a lot of energy.  Anyway, I tried to convince Jessica and Jaclyn that BACK-ON was really good.  I also told them I heard their live concerts are excellent.  They didn’t really believe so it’s up to BACK-ON themselves to convince them.

And holy, did they do some convincing!  All the songs were awesome.  I was jumping around, waving my arms, and singing along to the songs that I know.  Chain, Hikari Sasuhou, Blaze Line, Eyes, etc… they were all awesome.  I was yelling "Trust meeeeee" during the Eyes chorus.  I was pumping my fists during almost every song.  If not, I was waving my arms and jumping around.

In the middle of all this, Jenny suddenly showed up.  Good thing she didn’t miss the concert.  Jaclyn was all pumped up too and she was really into it.  In fact, she ran to the merchandise section during the concert and bought a cd XD.  It’s a testament to how good BACK-ON is.  If my words weren’t enough to persuade her, then their music definitely is.  I’m pretty sure Jenny, Jaclyn and Jessica (lol, all J’s) were all converted.

In the end, my arms were tired from all the waving and my throat was hurting from all the screaming and singing.  BACK-ON did a couple of encore songs and that was that.  The concert was pretty short, but definitely enjoyable.  My brother, Jaclyn and I headed to the autograph lineup afterwards.  BACK-ON Chain single: $15, Blaze Line single: $15, New World mini album: $20, meeting BACK-ON up close and personal, shaking their hands and getting a CD autographed: priceless.

After the autograph session, I took some pictures of my sister, Jamie.  OK, so she was wearing a schoolgirl uniform that day because she was also in the cosplay.  Being the slightly perverted, newly converted zettai ryouiki fetishist brother that I am, I asked her to raise her socks above the knees.  She grudgingly allowed me this… perverseness, mainly because I told her about this concept beforehand as a suggested moe concept for the cosplay cafe.  I took a couple of pictures of her holding a paper fan.  Her friend offered to take a picture of us, with Jamie hitting me with the fan.  As she was pretending to hit me, she also called me "Onii-chan".  I just about melted right there as massive amounts of moe hit me like a one-ton anvil.  Anywaaay, after that, my sister took a picture of me, Jaclyn and Jessica (who also got a cd and had it signed) holding our recently signed stuff.  I look so dark compared to the two girls ;_;.

After some chatting and more picture taking, I finally said my goodbyes and headed to the karaoke room where my brother and a bunch of mutual friends were going to sing.  I badly messed up my song though because I can’t read the karaoke because of the font and the fact that the text moves downwards as it is being sung.  But all in all, we all had a blast.

Day 2 end! Final day blog coming later.

Yay, AE!  After having a blast on Thursday night’s masquerade ball, I was pumped for the actual con.  Since my sister is a staff member, she’s actually staying at the townhouses in the convention grounds.  I forgot to mention that, again, the con is held in Simon Fraser University.

So on Friday morning, my brother and I drove up to SFU at around 10 am.  Since it’s the first day, nothing much is really going on before the opening ceremonies.  I actually tried to see my thesis supervisor but he wasn’t in his office.  There goes killing two birds with one stone.

Anyway, I saw lots of cosplayers throughout the day.  I had more time to walk around since the first day didn’t have many events that I wanted to go to.  My highlights of the day include seeing Rei and Asuka in their sexy plugsuits.  I actually saw them first while they were adding bits and pieces to their plugsuits, so I didn’t want to bother them.  Unfortunately, I thought I’d catch them when they’re done but I missed them.  Dammit.  The second time, I only saw Asuka.  I decided to seize the opportunity and try to get a picture.  By this time, I already took some pictures, so by the time I got to Asuka, it figures that my camera would run out of batteries.  Dammit again.  Fortunately, she said that she and Rei are going to be attending for the whole weekend so I’ll have plenty of opportunity to take a picture.  Later that day, I finally caught the vivacious pair and took a photo of them.  Yesss… I was flying to the moon after that.

The other big highlight is seeing a Kamina and Yoko pair.  Holy shit!  That was one awesome cape on Kamina!  The Gurren-dan symbol was well done and the cape was bright red.  The Yoko cosplayer is sexy (Thank god!) and her costume was well done too.  I took a photo of them together.  But surprise!  Kamina said that we get a bonus.  He turned to Yoko and kissed her.  I was fumbling with my camera (which I borrowed from my sister), but fortunately and impressively, the two locked lips until I finished taking the shot.  Thanking them profusely and being giddy from taking that shot, I took my leave.

As for what I did the rest of that day, one of them was entering the Soul Calibur 3 tournament.  Entering was pretty much it, as my Raphael was raped by Kilik’s long hard stick, literally and figuratively.  I was 3-0′d to oblivion in a best-of-5 match.  T_T

I made my way to the anime music videos room with my head hung low.  I watched some funny trailer parodies.  Afterward, there was an AMV gameshow.  I tried out to be a contestant but man, the questions were hard.  You have to answer two questions in a row just to become a contestant.  Questions like "What color was the thing in this scene?" or "How many somethings are in the shot with someone?".  Two people actually managed to answer correctly, and I somehow limped in as the third and final contestant.  Each contestant was assigned a music video per round and the contest was two rounds.  After watching, the contestant answers 10 questions in one minute.  Without getting into specifics, I was dead last and behind by quite a number of points going into the second round.  The second round had an interesting rule like the Daily Double question in Jeopardy where you can bet any amount of money you can.  I nailed that question after betting the maximum amount I can bet so I actually made it interesting.  Unfortunately, I still came up short.  I was tied with someone for 2nd place so a tiebreaker was needed.  Since I suck, I promptly lost that and wound up 3rd place out of 3 people.  Woot… T_T  As a consolation, I got two posters: a Blood: the Last Vampire poster and a bigger, cooler poster from Dragoneer’s Aria (I don’t know what this one is, actually).

Wow, I’m 0 for 2 for the day, striking out swinging at my first at-bat, and launching a ball to deep center, only to be caught by the center fielder.

Feeling bummed, I went to the panel I was looking forward to that day, and that was the panel with Dr. Uwe Boll.  I only watched one movie of his before and that was Alone in the Dark, and only because I won free tickets.  I thought it was a pile of **** and so did my dad, brother and sister whom I decided to share the tickets with.  Yeah, they did not appreciate wasting valuable hours of their life.  I actually told this story to some of my IRC buddies so I’ll just post the log below:

> i got a bunch of stuff about uwe-kun to report
>
<Regret> …
<Regret> oh god lol
<Regret> ChaosShadow, i think you can become un-bored from this
> hehe
> where to start? hmm
> how about the fact that no wonder that guy beat up his critics in boxing
<Regret> lmao…
> he’s pretty ripped with his old man muscle
> *muscles
> i was late to the panel though
> but he was talking about the "fucking bible" and "fucking religion" when i got there
> "bullshit" was said a lot of time
> *times
<Regret> rofl
> "fuck" was said a lot of times
> basically he’s an atheist
> and he contradicts himself
> "i have nothing against religion…"
> a few minutes later
> "religion is responsible for the majority of wars and shit"
> anyway, interestingly canadians are a pretty courteous bunch
> i didn’t hear any boos or heckling
> D:
> i was disappointed
> anyway
<Regret>
> later
<Regret> later :O
> someone asked the question i’ve been waiting for
> "what do you feel/think about the people who say your movie are bad"
> *movies
> the guy asked that with a straight face
> i was grinning inside
> i saw the two emcees look at each other and grin as well
> rofl
> duuuude, you know what uwe said?
> basically he said that he’s being treated unfairly by hollywood
<Regret> …
> to quote: "people say that bloodrayne was the same as ultraviolet and elektra, but those movies got 4 in imdb while bloodrayne only got 1.5"
> ROFL
<Regret> …
<Regret> LOL
> that was fucking funny!
> i dunno if he was serious or not
> anyway, the rest of what he said in the panel actually made some sense
<Regret> …made sense? ~~
> well, he was asked about his opinions regarding censorship
> and he said screw censorship
<Regret> lol
> people 18 and over have a right to what they wanna watch
> ratings shouldn’t be decided on the number of swear words but rather on the content
> THAT made sense to me O_o
> i was pretty taken back
<Regret> lol
<Regret> Well, content is a matter of opinion too. :O
> well that shows that he’s a person after all *gasp*
<Regret> unpossible D:
> i know
> and here’s the kicker
> someone asked what his 3 top horror movies are
> he listed 1) Rosemary’s Baby, 2) The Shining, 3) Halloween
> those are damn good choices for top 3
<Regret> pssh… to popular. >_>
> dude, again
> it shows he’s human
<Regret> uwe boll knwos pop culture?!
<Regret> ~shokku~
> not the abomination of a human that i imagined him to be
> anyway at the end
<Regret> did anyone ask about his stuff w/wired?
> hmm i don’t think so
<Regret> oh maaan
> basically people also asked about dungeon siege and farcry
> since he’s doing those too
<Regret> o D:
> anyway
> i managed to shake his hand and get his autograph
> :O
<rhyein> …
<rhyein> did you kill him?
> at the end, i was thinking "this guy is just a normal guy"
> …
> i’m shocked at myself
* Kaneda15 has quit IRC (Ping timeout: 240 seconds)
> but i looked at his signature… what a pile
> looks like chicken scratches
<Regret> …
<Regret> LOL
> no wonder his movies are the same
> again, canadians are too nice
> is the lesson learned here
<ChaosShadow> actually
<ChaosShadow> canada like uwe
<ChaosShadow> ;o
<ChaosShadow> and..
<ChaosShadow> ima shamed of you
<ChaosShadow> YOU TOUCHED HIS HAND
<ChaosShadow> AND DIDNT KILL HIM
<ChaosShadow> i guess ill get caught up on rxj.. since i hear 17 gets decent D:
> chaos, i’m ashamed of myself too
> i don’t get it
<ChaosShadow> you choked
<ChaosShadow> ;o
> i’m only a naturalized canadian D:
<ChaosShadow> YOU WERE RIGHT THERE
> but i acted like a real one

…And there you have it.  The only downside is I had to miss the Anime Idol contest that my sister is a contestant in.  Choosing between listening to Uwe-kun and listening to amateurs sing was really tough.  On one hand, my sister is a contestant and on the other, there’s Uwe.  I chose to go to Uwe’s panel because I honestly thought that my sister had the voice to make it to the next round.  But, I was sadly mistaken as I learned later that she was eliminated.

The final stuff that I did was watching some more AMV’s with my brother.  This time, it was the best of Anime Evolution so they showed all the videos from when the con started to the ones from last year’s con.  Pretty epic, really, ranging from serious stuff to comedy.

Day 1 End!

My brother, Jan, and sister, Jamie, went ahead to SFU last Thursday to pick up my 3-day pass.  Apparently, there’s a masquerade ball that night so they said I should come up too.  Well, an AE event is an AE event so I might as well join.

I got there and first up is making the mask.  I met a trio of guys.  I know one’s called Marc and the other is Anthony (heh, easy to remember), but I forgot the name of the third one.  I gave them my e-mail address since it’s the easiest to remember.  Anyway, most of us were wearing glasses and we noticed that putting the mask on will hurt your eyeballs via the glasses.  Needless to say modifications were in order.  I opted for replacing the elastic string with a ribbon that you just tie behind your head.  My brother followed the suggestion of another guy of actually taping the mask to the glasses >.>.

Anyway, we all had masks and it’s time to dance.  I missed the waltz tutorial while making the mask, so I had to wing it.  They made the participant line up in two row: girls on one side and boys on the other.  OK, that saves me from asking someone to dance by myself.  Yeah… I have crap social skills when it comes to stuff like this.  Anyway, I got paired up with a girl named Rebecca.

Oddly enough, the first dance was not a waltz.  It was the cha-cha :o.  I have no clue what to do and neither does my dance partner.  After our introduction, we decided to take a look at the others.  That didn’t really help so we both agreed to just do whatever the hell we want.  Somehow we were dancing.  Dancing felt good but tiring at the same time.  We both enjoyed it but I definitely need to exercise more…

Anyway, swing and tango came next.  We "knew" swing but were totally lost dancing the tango.  Waltz music came on but it was time to line up again.  This time, I got paired with Linda.  She’s pretty and her dress suited her fine.  Unfortunately, this time we have to change partners randomly when the emcee calls "Switch".  After only one dance, I had to move on to the next one. Damn, parting is such sweet sorrow.

So dancing and switching partners became the routine.  I made a habit of asking the name of my partner so that I can have a conversation while dancing.  After a few dances, I finally "mastered" the waltz.  This just means I know the steps and that I can apply it without stepping on my partner’s feet.  This is a good skill to have because it’s not good if you’re just constantly looking at your feet and not at your partner.

By this time, I heard a lot of names.  I’m gonna list them here just to acknowledge them.  Besides the first two, thanks to Shadow (nickname, real name I forgot), Ama (sp?), Adrina, Emilia, Shannon, people I forgot to ask their names, and people I forgot their names (Sorry!).

In the middle of the dancing and switching, I ended up with a girl named Jessica.  he wasn’t wearing a mask since she made one of those with a handle.  I thought she was pretty cute, and I ended up talking to her about her one-week trip to Japan.  Before she could tell me about it, partners switched again and I wound up dancing with Jacqueline (I dunno if this is the spelling of her name since it can be spelled various ways).  It turns out that she’s Jessica’s friend.  I thought she was pretty too, even with the mask.  I forgot what we talked about, but I remember asking her if she went on the Japan trip with Jessica.  Anyway, dance-switch-dance-switch and I was tired as hell.

I took a break and noticed that my brother wasn’t on the dance floor at all.  He was talking to a girl and they seemed to be getting along quite nicely.  I talked to him later and it turns out that she listened to him sing last year when he won the Anime Idol contest so she’s like a fan.  Go, go Jan!

Meanwhile, my sister was just sitting near the entrance.  Since she’s staff, she has to check ID’s.  Being the nice brother that I am, I asked her to dance.  I thought it’s not fair that she can’t dance and that she can ask other staff to man the station.  I danced with her twice.  The first time, it was just a normal waltz.  The second time, the music was Nakashima Mika’s "Find the Way", the Gundam Seed 4th ending.  Hahaha, we ended up singing while dancing.  No one can hear us anyway because the music’s pretty loud so it was just fun.  Feeling good about my brotherly love, I went back to rest in one of the chairs.

By this time, I wanted to talk more to Jessica and Jacqueline.  I thought this would be a good opportunity to talk to people that I just met.  I occasionally would run into the trio that I met earlier but obviously, talking with girls you just met is different.  Somehow it’s more difficult if you find them pretty.  So the first step was finding them.  I saw Jessica sitting on one of the chairs.

I thought to myself that this is a good chance.  But what the hell am I gonna say?  Well I think I ended up saying "So how was the dancing?"  Unfortunately, she was talking to a friend one row over and I was calling at her from one row behind.  Crap.  I felt kind of stupid but fortunately she didn’t hear that and no one else heard it.  I tried again after moving to her row.  I got a "Hey" response.  I moved closer and repeated my question.  I learned that the dancing was cut short because someone stepped on her foot.  Sure enough, one of her feet had a dressing.  Ouch.  I felt sorry for Jessica but I felt even more sorry for the guy.

Anyway, after some talking, I went back to dancing when they asked us to line up again.  I was enjoying dancing so I wanted to dance some more.  Well, it was all very fun and near the end, I was talking to Jessica and Jacqueline.  We got to talk some more and we talked a lot.  Since they’re fun to talk to, I asked if we could exchange e-mail addresses.  Since none of us had a pen, I told them that mine was just jennard@hotmail.com.  After a while, I felt bad that I didn’t ask them theirs.  They might forget my address and I’d miss an opportunity.  So after a bit, I asked them for theirs and they told me.

I asked Jacqueline if she wanted to dance one more time and she agreed to dance when the music is suitable.  At that point, Utada Hikaru songs were playing and they’re not really danceable.  Finally, the announcement came that it’s gonna be the last song.  I proceeded to the floor with Jacqueline, but Jessica also went with us.  I felt awkward since I thought she wasn’t going to dance with her injury but I guess it was ok.  Good thing I spotted Anthony and so she had a partner.  Anyway the music was swing, and I was having a good time with Jacqueline.  I looked over at Anthony and Jessica.  Man he sucks.  I told him, "Hey, you gotta move those hips".  He just laughed and continued "dancing".  Oh well.  But you gotta make the most of the music.

After we said our farewells and hoping that we’d run into each other during the con, I began muttering their e-mail addresses again and again.  Wow, I must really want to stay in touch with them.  Thinking about it, it’s obviously because I found them pretty and interesting, and the opportunity arose for me to ask that info.  You don’t let girls like that leave without you knowing their phone number or e-mail.

All in all, the night was awesome.  I got to exchange e-mail addresses with some people and I really had a blast dancing.  Dancing was soooo fun!

Day 1 details coming soon!

I saw the following dream as game graphics.

Dream Start

My brother and I were two Batman’s in the video game.  We were in a subway.  We fought enemies while riding the subway train.  There was a woman that we were fighting to protect.  At the last boss for the stage, I initiated a cool move while my brother continued the combo attack and finished the boss off.  Afterwards, the woman gave my brother a kiss.  I asked her, "Hey, what about me?", but she just giggled.  I went towards my brother and gave him a swift kick in the nuts.  The last shot before the screen faded out was a zoom-in of my boot about to hit his groin (it never actually shows the kick).

In the next sequence, my brother and I were Batman’s again.  We are on the streets given the mission of hunting down and capturing the Hulk and other villains.  We got our asses kicked, and for some reason, we went inside a building.  Inside this building are mutants the size of a little kid, but there were a lot of them.  Again, we got our butts kicked.  We escaped out of the building but the streets were overrun by them.  We were just running and the screen faded.

I was back in the real world and the game is asking me to save the ending, ED01.  The game gave me the option to protect the saved ending from deletion.  I picked NO and saved the game normally.

Suddenly, it switched to a guy buying something from a store.  He was looking at the cashier who had toilet paper wrapped around his head.  The cashier was puzzled then he removed the toilet paper.  The guy said "Ah, I thought you were Vince Carter."  Well, he did look like Vince Carter but when the toilet paper was removed, he had curly hair.  Vince’s head is shaved.

Dream End

Analysis and Comments

The obvious meaning of my dream is that I am actually jealous of my brother.  But I don’t know of anything that I’m jealous about so the dream’s wrong.  If something comes up, I’ll post it here.

Regarding the Vince Carter dream, it probably just came up because one of the match-ups in the first round of the NBA playoffs is Toronto Raptors vs New Jersey Nets.  As you may or may not know, Vince currently with the Nets and the Raptors was his previous team.

This story happened when I was 13 or 14 while in 2nd year in Philippine Science High School (PSHS).  I only told this story to my friend while we were sawing something together in the machine shop at university, bored as hell.

Story Start

When I was in PSHS, I stayed at the dormitory, but during the weekends, I stayed with my relatives in Cubao.  We had a live-in maid named Pia.  If I recall, she was only two years older than me.  She was pretty and she was a bit taller than me.  She had short black hair that went down to her neck.  Her eyes were brown (I think) and they were piercing, especially when she’s scolding me. 

She does the housework like cleaning and laundry.  Me?  I was busy doing homework, watching TV and playing games.  Well I was lazy but I was nice to her.  I called her Ate Pia (ate = elder sister).  We would watch soap operas and eat snacks together during her breaks.  Sometimes I would tease her and she’d get annoyed.  Her eyes would narrow and she’d pinch me.  Hard.  It hurts but by next weekend, I would tease her again.  I forget what pranks I pulled or what jokes I told that would lead to that; I just remember the pinches that came after.

Anyway, a few months before my family left for Canada, she had to quit being the maid and go back to her home province, Surigao del something (I forget if it’s del Norte or del Sur).  The night that she left, she was quite emotional.  She went around the house saying goodbye to my relatives.  I was in my bedroom watching TV, sitting on the bed, when she came in.  She looked so sad and her eyes were filled with tears.  Then she suddenly knelt down and hugged me.  I was stunned.  Her chin was on my shoulder and her arms were around me tightly.  Choking back her tears, she said "Aalis na ako, Jennard.  Magpakabait ka. (I’m going, Jennard.  Be a good boy.)".  I said nothing; I couldn’t think of anything to say.  We stayed in silence for a few seconds, with her sobbing a bit and still embracing me.  Finally, she got up and left the room without saying a word.  I was still stunned that by the time I got out of the room and went down the stairs, she was already at the front door.  Then she was gone.

Story End

I never heard from her again.  Soon after, my family left for Canada.  In hindsight, I should have asked for her contact info.  Also, I regret not hugging her back and not saying anything.  She might have hugged me for a while, waiting for words of farewell.  Tsk, I was such a stupid boy.

Ate Pia, sana mabuti ka, saan ka man.  Sorry dahil wala akong sinabi noong niyakap mo ako.  Gusto ko lang sabihin na na-miss kita mula nang umalis ka.  Maraming salamat sa lahat ng ginawa mo para sa akin at sa pasensiya mo.  Sana maligaya ang buhay mo ngayon.  Maraming salamat uli.

I was looking at anime I can download when I came across an OVA called "Today in Class 5-2". Apparently 3 episodes are out with the 4th and last one will be out before the end of March. Fortunately, the manga has been translated and I gave it a read. I was engrossed. It’s totally hilarious. The 5th grade protagonist gets into these hilarious situations with his classmates. Anyway, if you’re into manga, give it a read.

So anyway, this morning, I woke up at 6 am to drive my mom to work. As I was driving her, my mind drifted as I tried to remember what hijinks I got into when I was in grade school and high school back in the Philippines. I also tried to remember my high school life and early university years here in Canada. It dawned on me that I don’t really remember a lot so I decided that morning that I would write them down before I totally forget as I grow (even) older.

So to all the people I met in life, I just want you to know that you might be mentioned in this blog. It’s ok though since no one reads it anyway except my friend who leaves comments all the time (thank you very much!). If you’re offended, comment on the post or send me an e-mail at jennarddy@gmail.com. You can also yell at me through MSN. My Hotmail account is jennard@hotmail.com. If you remember it differently than I remember it, correct me. If you have any stories that involve me, let me know.

The following dream is in anime, my favorite kind of dream.

Dream Start

I am a student in the prestigious Ashford Academy in the same class as Lelouch.  I know this because I saw him and I’m wearing the same school uniform.  I don’t why but I heard some other students wanting to see one of my classmates (I forget the name).  Now, I find myself putting that classmate up for auction in a site like eBay, but I used some other site.  The buyer and our class meet, and the student he bought steps up when the buyer called his name.  Suddenly, the buyer pulls out a small knife, quickly flips it in his right hand, and stabs my classmate in the chest.  It would have been better if it had been "stabs", but he then proceeds to cut across the chest after stabbing him (I think it’s from right to left but not sure).  He then inserts his left hand in the chest and starts pulling out my classmate’s heart.  The poor classmate is gagging and choking, and I don’t even help him.  I never see him actually pull out the heart as all I do is turn my head and close my eyes.  With my eyes closed, I can hear my classmates screaming.

Dream End

I woke up at this moment and find that it’s early Sunday morning already.  It’s freezing cold and despite the macabre nature of the dream, I found myself falling back to sleep.

Dream Start

I seem to be watching an episode of Code Geass this time.  I can see the Guren Mk. II surrounded by Lelouch’s Burai and the rest of the Order of the Black Knights’ Knightmares.  They are on a rocky field and across them are Britannia’s Knightmares, led by Suzaku in his Lancelot.  A ton of other Knightmares are there but I forget their models, but I also see Cornelia’s Knightmare.  There’s a scene of Lelouche saying something to his group, then switches back to the two forces rushing to meet in the middle of the field.

I wake up (?) and open the Tokyo Toshokan site, and I see that Code Geass 12 is ready for download.

Dream End

Analysis and Comments

It’s pretty obvious what the dreams mean.  I really, really, really want to watch Code Geass episode 12.  However, I am at a loss to explain why I dreamt such a nightmare.  More info can be found at the Code Geass wiki page.

This early morning at around 2 am, my family decided to surprise my dad coming home from his night shift.  It’s my dad’s birthday today so my mom wanted us to eat at Knight & Day really early in the morning.  My dad was pleasantly surprised and off we went to the restaurnant.  As usual I ate a lot so I didn’t go to sleep until 5 am in the morning.  The following dream is the result of this late-night eating.

Dream start

I don’t know if it’s supposed to be a movie or not but Julia Roberts is working as a security guard at a school.  A young black female grade school student in a school uniform drops her bottled water after walking past Julia at the front gate.  Julia, being the all-around good woman that she is, gives the student her own bottled water.  Now poor Julia doesn’t have water of her own and is drenched in sweat.  Two young white female high school students in the same school uniforms make fun of Julia and her situation.  The little black girl feels bad about this that she pours some of the water Julia gave her over Julia’s head.

There’s a skip in my dream and suddenly, Julia is tied and gagged in a warehouse room.  She’s seated on a brown chair and a wooden table with some stuff on it is in front of her.  My memory’s fuzzy but there is at least one huge black guy with shades who looks to be guarding her and one woman clad who seems to be the mastermind of this kidnapping.  The woman looks to be around her 50s, white, dressed in a white business suit, and her hair is also silvery white.  The weird thing is my mother and I are watching the kidnappers and Julia on the television.  They seem to be auctioning off Julia’s job as a security guard of that all-girls school (I knew this while watching but I don’t know when it was mentioned).  After a few moments of watching this, my mom switches the channel.

Dream End

Analysis and Comments

From the looks of it, it seems to be an all-girls school that houses both grade school and high school.  The only thing I can think of that relates to me is that the private school that I went to back in elementary was an all-girls school before it became co-ed.

The fact that we were watching it on TV means that maybe it is some kind of reality show.  Since they were auctioning off Julia’s job, it seems to be aimed at men who wants a job looking at girls in school uniforms every day.  Is this dream indicating that that’s what I want to do?  If so, then that means I’m more perverted than I think I am -_-.  Continuing on this train of thought, my mom switching the channel obviously means that she disapproves of my career choice.  That’s good mothering.

There was also some weird racial tones in my dream with some people being black and other people being white.  There were no other races involved in the dream, but I think this is just a coincidence.  I can’t control who’s going to be in my dreams.

I just finished my one-year co-op work term at Business Objects and that same night, I had one of the most vivid dreams I had in a long time.

Dream start

I was in a store buying either bus or train tickets.  The ticket seller was a young East Indian guy who I think is currently in co-op in Business Objects.  He gave me three tickets: two green ones and a purple one.  I asked him, "You gave me two green tickets.  Don’t I need an orange one?".  He replied, "Oh yeah.  Hmm, it seems I sold two green ones and a purple one throughout the day."  I was peering at his ticket dispenser and indeed the dispenser for the two green ones have been used.  He gave me the purple ticket and I spread them out on the counter.  I saw single words were written on the tickets:

Purple - ??? (I forgot what word)

Green - Desktop

Orange - Connection

I paid the guy and promptly went out the store.  Outside, it was night time and I was at the parking lot.  I was walking along when I saw a middle-aged woman driving a small car…

Dream end

…And then my sister woke me up to drive her to work.