Dream Sequence

It’s the last day of the con so I’m sad.  It also means back to work tomorrow -_-;;.

My sister cosplayed as a Goth girl today so she’s officially a hardcore cosplayer now, with 3 costumes in 3 days.  Anyway, we got there early enough that there’s nothing to do.  Being bored, I went to the gaming room to game.  As usual, I got my ass kicked, but at least I saw a Naruto fighting game for the GameCube and it looks cool.

After gaming, I went to one of the movie rooms and watched a bit of "Miracle Fighters".  It’s a Chinese magic/martial arts movie that has some cheap special effects.  I did enjoy it though as the humour and action scenes were well done.

On my way to lunch, I ran into Ren this time (BOBJ Anime SIG: For those keeping count, that makes three BOBJ guys I ran into while walking around, not counting Winnie since I knew where to find her).  We talked for a bit and then I met up with my brother.

We went to the dealer’s room since I wanted to get some souvenir.  It didn’t matter what as long as it’s cheap and looks good.  I settled on a necklace and ring with Bleach’s Captain Hitsugaya’s sword’s guard as the design (If you’re not a sword afficionado, the guard of Hitsugaya’s sword is the star-shaped thing).  We headed to lunch and after that, we headed to the convo mall for the Anime Walkoff.

Ugh…I managed to stay away from this event because there were other more interesting stuff to do.  Unfortunately, I didn’t find any other events more interesting than this so there I was.  To my surprise, I was pleasantly entertained.  The stunts the guys pulled were either too bold, too impressive, too funny, or various combinations of the three.  Anyway we had a blast and a new King of Bishounen was crowned.

While my brother rehearsed for the final time, I went to the charity auction where I sat beside Ka-Lok.  The highlight of that auction was a Gundam Wing print that went all the way up to $250.  I managed to bid successfully for a Bakuretsu Tenshi (Burst Angel) poster signed by the director himself, Koichi Ohata.  It cost me $45 but reasonable since the proceeds of the auction goes to the BC Children’s Hospital.  Ka-Lok got the limited edition of the Gungrave complete collection so I am kind of jealous since I also bid on that (No, Ka-Lok did not outbid me.  Some other guy did and I’m glad KL got it in the end.).  I asked him if he watched it before and he said he didn’t (BOBJ Anime SIG: KL’s gonna bring it to work one of these days.  Rejoice!).  Anyway, it was soon time for the closing ceremonies.

The charity auction ran late so by the time I got to the convo mall, I had to find an open seat close enough to the stage to take pictures of my brother during his performance.  I found one and I was ready for Jan’s finale.

The first contestant sang "Komm, susser Tod" from Evangelion.  She was really good so Jan had to sing perfectly if he wants to win.  His song was "Kimi ga Iru" from Initial D.  He actually sang it as his first song last year and he said that in retrospect, he should’ve saved it for the second day last year.  Anyway, it was redemption time and he perfectly nailed every note.  I was going to take a picture of him singing but right when I took the shot, a row of girls in front of me suddenly held up signs.  OMG, after two days of him singing, my brother actually developed quite a following.  He had fans last year too, but none of them had signs.  Needless to say, I can only shake my head at my ruined shot and chuckle at the thought of my brother’s fangirls.  Near the end of the song, he took out a rose as he sang the last lines, then put it on the ground after he sang "Kimi wa everlasting memory".  I’m sure all the girls swooned at that, hehehe.  Like my sister and I told him yesterday, he needs to emote with the song if he wants that extra edge.  I’m glad he took that advice and delivered in a creative way.  Anyway, the judges deliberated and after what seemed like an eternity, they finally delivered their verdict…*drum roll*…JAN IS THE AE 2006 ANIME IDOL!  Woot!  Everyone was cheering loudly, especially me.  I’m the brother of a celebrity now, hehe. 

That was certainly the highlight of the closing ceremony, and after a few more words, the con officially ended.  We packed it up and headed home, tired but absolutely happy.  The last three days were a blast!  I’m already looking forward to the next con, but first, I’m gonna check out my Gantz DVDs!  See ya!

PS.  The convention pictures are all in my camera.  I’ll put them up as soon as I can.

I just realized that I forgot to report on a crucial aspect of the convention in my Day 1 report, but I’ll get into that later.

Anyway, I started the day in the lineup for the dealer’s room.  I wanted to get my grubby hands on a complete series collection of one anime, which I didn’t know at the time.  I did have a list of anime that I wanted to get with Last Exile and Gankutsuou at the top of the list.  I was not willing to spend $30 each for each DVD when you can get the entire series for about $100.

At the lineup, I struck conversation with fellow conventioneers and since the lineup was long and the dealer’s room opened late, we had a lot of talking.  I don’t remember what was said, but I remember someone talking about her made up quarter-Vietnamese, quarter-Japanese and half-Chinese ancestry.

Finally the dealer’s room opened and we were able to get in.  We quickly fanned out and I found myself wandering around.  Holy crap, that’s a lot of merchandise!!!  There were different kinds of manga, different kinds of artbooks, different kinds of trinkets: the whole enchilada.  Like I did the past 2 years, I was going to buy a complete series this year.  But which one?  I was torn between Texhnolyze and Gantz.  In the end I chose Gantz because uncut + horror + action = :).  I also found Winnie in the dealer’s room helping out with selling stuff.  We chatted a bit and afterwards, I bid farewell to find other stuff to buy.  Nothing really interested me except for a perfect grade model kit of EVA-01.  I almost drooled and wet my pants.  The box was so purple and alluring.  I so wanted to get it but there is no space at my current home.  If I wanted to buy any model kits, it would have to be after we move to our new house.

Anywa, afterwards, I watched the 404s again.  It was more of the same kind of thing except with mousetraps.  Two guys with blindfolds walking barefeet doing a skit was funny but not as funny as I thought it would be.  I guess I’m not as deviant as I thought, hehehe.

Now I met up with my siblings again to watch the cosplay contest.  That’s right…I neglected to mention the cosplayers.  So many cosplayers, so little time.  I can’t possibly mention all of them but I just want to say cosplayers are awesome.  I can see the amount of time and effort put in making their costumes.  Kudos to all of them.  Maybe I’ll cosplay next time…hmm.  Anyway, the contest was awesome with a group of Soulcalibur cosplayers doing an "Axe Effect" skit getting the top prize.

After the cosplay contest, I went to take pictures of many Bleach cosplayers, including 2 giant Kons.  Many is an understatement.  I will post the pictures later.

We all headed to the Anime Idol event to listen to my brother perform "River", the Gundam Seed 2nd ending.  Again all the contestants were awesome, but my brother’s rendition was spectacular (no bias here ;P).  As expected, my brother made it through to Monday’s final.

Later in the night, we went to the EqlipsE concert.  EqlipsE is a local band who does covers of J-Rock bands like Dir en Grey and Luna Sea.  It was awesome!  The vocalist was cool and I actually thought he was a guy but she was actually a girl!  From where I stood, she looked like a guy that has make-up to look like a girl.  No wonder she looked too much like a girl.

After the concert, my siblings went somewhere while I went to watched some anime.  I catched a bit of Samurai Gun and 2 episodes of Basilisk.  They were pretty good stuff, especially Basilisk.  Ten-on-ten ninja fight to the death is as good a plot as could be.

I went to the dance in the Convocation Mall.  There were some good rocking beats, but we were tired so we left after a couple of songs.

Tomorrow’s the last day so look forward to my Day 3 report.

It’s time for that yearly thing I go to every year.  This year’s event looks larger than ever.  It even starts on a Saturday.  But is larger better?  That’s what I wanted to find out.

Anyway, first things first…I got drunk the night before.  The rooftop gathering turned out to be just a beerfest for the BOBJ workers.  I had 3 coolers and a beer and that was enough to send me to lala-land.  To my credit, it actually broke my personal record of alcoholic drinks in a day, which was previously 3.  Hurray!  On with the con!

I woke up with a headache (obviously) and promptly took a shower and a quick bite to ease the pain.  My brother, Jan, was ready too and he better be since he’s in the Anime Idol contest.  My sister, Jamie, was ready to go as well and I was surprised that she’s cosplaying!  She was the ninja from the Red Ninja game but except for the kunai with a cord attached, she had a fan with a cord attached.  Cool.  Two of her friends came by and my brother kindly drove us to SFU, knowing my drunken stupor the night before.

When we got there at around 9:30, the 5 of us separated with my sister going to the staff room with her friends.  That’s right…she’s on the staff so various freebies should be coming my way, right?  We’ll see.  Anyway, Jan and I went to get our badges and we found that the pre-registered people’s line was longer than expected.  It was hot, but at least I got a free fan from the registration table.

After that, I told Jan that I’m gonna check out the gaming rooms.  Since he had Anime Idol rehearsal, we went our separate ways.  I promptly found where the gaming rooms were from the handy schedule booklet you get after getting the badge.  Gaming room 1 had various consoles and a bunch of people were already playing.  I saw someone playing Super Smash Brothers Melee so I might as well join in.  I promptly got crushed as I’ve never played it before but oh well.  Someone suggested playing Soulcalibur 2 and I felt something stirring in me.  No, it wasn’t a burning desire to win, but more like hunger pangs.  I was disappointed when SC2 was played on the GameCube.  Being more of an XBOX and PS2 kind of guy, the GC controller proved clunky in my incapable hands.  I decided not to enter the tournament as I had no chance of winning in GC.

It’s finally time for the opening ceremonies and I met up with my siblings.  It was a routine affair designed to get all the formalities out of the way.  We saw our friend, Sam, so we sat with him through the ceremony.  There was a skit involving the AE chairman and 2 guys behind him putting their arms underneath his armpits.  They did some hilarious hand-waving to the chagrin of the chairman.  The ceremony also involved a "yaoi paddle" but I won’t go there.  I saw Alfred while I was sitting so you can look forward to his version of the day’s events.

The four of us headed to the Cornerstone to eat at Ichibankan.  Sam had California rolls while Jan and Jamie had katsudon.  I, naturally, had the katsu-curry don.  My weak sister didn’t finish her rice bowl, so, again naturally, I had to finish it off.  Mmm…that’s good katsu.  Oh, and while waiting for the order, I went to the washroom and on the way there, I met KL, Senor Laptop himself.  You can also forward to his report.

My sister had to do some staff duties while my brother practiced his songs a bit.  I, on the other hand, went to the 404s anime improv show.  These are the same guys who did that skit during the opening ceremonies so you know it’s going to be good.  You know what?  It was absolutely, friggin’ hilarious.  But they were outshined by this volunteer from the audience who delivered the best one-liner.  They were playing this game where they pick scenes from a hat.  The scene was "What minors say when trying to borrow an adult video".  The young female volunteer was dressed as Chii from Chobits and her line was "But I was in that movie!"  Roar of laughter from the audience erupts!

Afterwards, I head to the AMV 2006 Contest.  Thirty videos were shown in succession and I voted for a comedy show that was the funniest in my opinion.  Two serious ones that I think are good are an Air music video and a Rurouni Kenshin music video with Linkin Park’s Breaking the Habit.

It’s 6:00 now and it’s finally time for my brother’s moment in the spotlight.  I gingerly took a seat and waited for the singing to start.  I must say that among the 10 singers, my brother is the best in my opinion.  Of course, it helps that he was the only guy among the 10, and he’s my brother.  He was wearing a shirt that says "HELP! I’m surrounded by women."  The audience had a hoot so after the judges’ deliberations (a la American Idol), he naturally went to the 2nd round on Saturday.

My sister now had dinner in the staff room so Sam, Jan and I went to Mr. Sub to get, well, subs, and saw another friend, Warren, there.  We went to the Convocation Mall where the ZZ concert will take place.  ZZ is a J-Pop/J-Rock band that did songs for One Piece and Eyeshield 21.  Warren wondered why ZZ would perform here in Canada, and we just shrugged and thought it was for international exposure.

The concert finally started after some delays, some plugging for ZZ merchandise, and some filler from one of the 404s guys.  I must say this is my first J-Pop/J-Rock concert and I was impressed.  ZZ is good!!!  Their lead singer’s style kinda reminds me of the lead guy from Uverworld who did the Bleach 2nd opening.  After a couple of songs, most of us were still seated but from the third song onwards, all the audience were jumping and waving their arms, and singing along with the band.  It was a great concert and ZZ even came back for an encore.  The lead guy said during the concert "I want to live in Canada, but, BUT the taxes are too high!  I can’t pay it!".  We were all laughing.  Their keyboardist, a woman, also said some funny stuff:  "It’s a hot day today.  Are you hot?  I’m hot!".  All the male members of the audience howled and cheered.  Since the band members’ English is not so good, I wonder if she realized the double meaning in her words.

After the concert, my sister went to buy some ZZ merchandise while my brother and I watched AMV Hell 3: The Motion Picture.  It was one long anime music video, which was funny early on but eventually got tiresome near the end.  When we met our sister, she got the CDs she bought autographed by the ZZ members and she even conversed with them in Japanese, which she learned in school.  How cool is that?

Our day was done but look forward to Day 2 details next time!

This post is late but I have my reasons.  The convention was a blast; I had a lot of fun with my siblings and some friends.  At the end, I was flat broke after buying a lot of stuff.  I bought the entire DVD set of RahXephon and promptly watched them all after the convention ended (1st reason).  It’s an excellent series though I see why it’s being compared to Evangelion. 

Anyway, back to the convention.  I went to a lot of events and programs, but the most important one is the Anime Idol contest.  Why is it important?  Because my brother, Jan, was in it.  On the first day, he was easily the best contestant among the 10 because of his singing power and mastery of the song.  I was very impressed, but I won’t tell him this directly because it’ll just make him sing all the time, hehe.  On the second day though, he messed up the timing of the song and that probably is what cost him a shot at singing during the last day, because I seriously think that he was the best of the 5 remaining contestants vocally.  Too bad, but he can try again next year.

The other important event was the Soul Calibur 2 tournament that I joined.  I originally just planned to kill time by playing SC2 but since there was already a tournament underway, I was forced to join.  However, since I joined in the 3rd round, I was 2 games behind everyone else.  Everyone was pretty good, but the eventual champion’s Nightmare was just too much for everyone including myself.  That guy went 10-0 en route to first place.  At that point, 4 people had 4 wins each, including me (Yes, I came back to share 2nd place with 3 other people).  It was decided by the referee to award 2nd place to the person who gets to 7 wins first.  After a series of button mashing, I emerged as 2nd place winner with 7 wins and 2 losses.  I used Raphael, and his speed was just too much for the other players.  For my 7th win, I went against a girl who also used Raphael so it was definitely an interesting match.

My next post will be about my family’s vacation to Victoria that ended last Wednesday (2nd reason).

Woohoo!  I just finished watching all 26 episodes of my favorite anime of all time, Neon Genesis Evangelion.  I bought the boxed set one year ago and the reason I’m watching it again this year is because this weekend is Anime Evolution up in SFU.  Yes, I watched the entire series a year ago, I watched it again this year, and I will most probably watch it again next year and the years to come.

Why is it my favorite?  Because all the episodes tell a good story.  All in all, I watched it 3 times already, and I never get bored of the series no matter how many times I watch it.  On another note, the final 2 episodes are slowly but surely making sense to me now (which is kinda scary).  I plan to watch End of Evangelion to complete the NGE experience, and then it’s off to Anime Evolution on Friday with my brother and sister.

Today marked the start of my finals:  3 grueling exams that will test my mental stamina and good understanding of the material learned this semester.  It was open book and open notes, so I brought my book and all my notes for that microelectronics course.

At 12 pm, the exam started.  I looked at the front page, and I thought, "Hmm, so far so good", as I proceeded to write my name and student number.  When I flipped the page, I stared at the circuit drawn on it for a few seconds.  Scratching my chin, I flipped the page again.  After about 7 flips, I reached the end of the exam.  I gulped.  The questions all look hard.  I resorted to my secret weapon: prayer.  After a few words to the Lord, I swear that my mind suddenly got clearer.  I put away my fear of the hard questions and I tried to understand them as best I could.  I then proceeded to answer them one by one.

After 3 hours, it was finally over.  Hopefully, I answered most of them correctly.  As everyone was shuffling out of the room, I got together with my lab group and discussed the questions that we encountered.  We didn’t get far when one of us said "Let us never talk about this again".  We each went our separate ways soon afterwards.  I walked over to the student lounge, ate, and then drowned my sorrows and mental anguish with some good old foosball with some other engineering students.

It’s 6 more days until my next exam.  Argh, I also have a damn project due on the 15th so some of those 6 days will be spent doing that.

1 down, 2 to go.

Last Monday morning, I had a weird dream.  I was eagerly awaiting the release of Gundam Seed Destiny 39 because Kira’s new Gundam was going to show up.  When I slept, the desire must have kindled my consciousness to produce Gundam-related dreams.  Anyway, I dreamt that Point-Blank posted the torrent for the Gundam episode.  In my dream, I was going "Holy shit, holy shit, holy shiiiit!".  I was trying to wake myself up and finally succeeded after a few grunts.  I ran to my sister’s room with the new comp and looked at Point-Blank’s website to see if it is there.  Since it was a dream, I knew that the chances that the torrent is actually posted is low.  Imagine my surprise when I looked at the website and saw the link!  It was even in the right order exactly as I saw it in my dream!

Some people say that dreams predict the future.  Others say that they are just the product of the brain processing the day’s information.  Whatever it was, for one brief moment that Monday morning, I was psychic.

Dammit!!!  The power supply for my laptop was busted last Saturday.  I went to Future Shop to get it fixed/replaced.  They’re going to call sometime this week, but how long would it take to plug the damn thing and say it’s busted?  I got suckered into buying their Product Service Plan, but I guess it’s a good thing since it’s been two years and then this shit happens.

Now the major hassle: all the programs I need for my assignments are all installed in my laptop.  Ugh…this means that I will have to stay late in the lab just to finish my homework.  The good thing is the due date for one of my assignments has been extended to Monday.

Losing the use of my laptop made me realize how much I depended on it.  I got to thinking how I survived without it and I shuddered at the memories of the days when I shared a computer with my 3 siblings.  Man those days sucked.  Every hour, one of them would whine about using the computer so I only used it for purely educational reasons.  That’s right…no porn for me (not that I download them, but I mean there is no time nor opportunity to do so).  To tell the truth, I became addicted to the power of downloading, not to the actual content themselves.  With my laptop, I download just because I can.  Ah, sweet release after all those years.

I just recently started playing this Worms-like game.  Now I remember why I didn’t play it before: I suck at it.  I suck at aiming while my opponents always hit me.  On the other hand, it is a great stress reliever even though I often lose.  As of now, my record stands at 18-36 (i.e. 33% win percentage).  Yes…I’m that bad…

I just watched the game between the Heat and the Wizards.  I was disappointed that Wizards lost the series 4-0.  I thought they were doing well this game except that damn Eddie Jones made that 3.  Oh well…I’m just rooting for the Wizards because my dad and brother are rooting for the Heat.  On the other half of the Eastern Conference playoffs, I’m behind the Pacers on this one since I like Miller and it would be nice to see a Pacers-Heat matchup instead of Pistons-Heat.