The collection in my cubicle has grown from 4 to 6. I should take a picture or something.
Bleh
Someone call the Internet repairman, it’s broken…
I wonder if it’s still under warranty…
AX Wrapup
So Sunday was the last day of AX, and once again I had to wake up for the morning shift. It was quite uneventful, in fact the day was mostly uneventful until the con was almost over.
Once again, our friend the bulleted list:
- I had a dream Saturday night. I dreamt that I was in a McDonalds, but for some reason the person taking my order was psychic and handed me my order before I even said out loud what it was. I freaked out and ran, and as I got further away from her, I thought to myself “I wonder how far she can reach” and I hear her say “November 23rd!”
- I must have been fixating on the smells of the soap, but I noticed that the hand soap in the Hyatt’s bathrooms was banana-scented, and the hand soap in the Renessaince’s smelled sweet, and reminded me of a certain weird cookie that i used to eat at Hebrew School. Must be a cross-wired olfactory memory.
- For some weird reason, when I’m in Southern California, my phone switches from “AT&T” to “ROAM” and back again repeatedly. I have no idea if that means I’m actually not roaming or not…
- I was introduced to a new concept yesterday: Wine flavored Pocky. I was so surprised that I was running all over the room shoving the Pocky under people’s noses, saying “smell this!”
- At the very last minute, I was quite surprised when I ran into ElfEater, who said she’d been at the con the whole time. Of course, I hadn’t been hanging out by the DDR machines, which is probably where she was most of the time. 😛
So I think the themes that we take away from this Anime Expo are weird smells, audio clips, lines, walking and rain.
I’ve gotta go to work tomorrow. I don’t wanna go to work tomorrow. I’ve got a week’s worth of email and work awaiting me tomorrow.
And I still have to unpack…
AX Day Three
It’s all over. I can’t remember if I spilled the beans here or not, but this was 5XL’s last concert. We mean it. And when I say “we mean it,” we mean it more than “this is our last song” and then 30 seconds later break out an encore that we honestly weren’t planning on doing.
It was an effort of passion, something we did because it was fun, we did it for the fans, the glory, but certainly not for the money… ’cause it cost us way more than it made. It was quite a ride, and now it’s time to take a break.
Changing gears, it’s time for some mini-updates.
- It happened again. A completely different conversation, a completely different situation, and of course, a completely different girl. “My boyfriend” jumps out of the conversation and into my long term memory, a burned-in audio clip that will echo around for too long of a time.
- So if AX fans line up for hours for an event they already have tickets for, how long do they wait for the tickets themselves? I woke up and went to my staff shift at 8am this morning as was surprised by quite a long line already outside. Little did I know, it was actually the third segment of the line, and the first person had actually started lining up at one in the morning. Insanity. Pure insanity.
- On the way to the concert, my mom got a flat tire. Only later, I find out it was more than that. Remember that Firestone recall on Ford Explorers? Well, that’s what happened to her; she had defective tires and one of them blew out.
- So I invited an old high school friend to the concert today. Of course, he was there before the concert, and left early, so he didn’t get to see my mom. Oh well. It was weird seeing him. I also found out that one of the people he still hangs out with that I used to know in high school is now married… and so the ratio goes up.
Only one more day left. It’s been four days, and I’ve built up enough emotional baggage to last me almost half a year… what a vicious cycle. I’ll have just gotten over everything, and it’ll be the convention season again.
Time for bed, I have to get up early again, of course. My feet hurt so much.
AX Day Two
Compared to yesterday, not much happened today. And when I say “not much” I mean “only the equivalent of one week’s worth of social stimulus, not two weeks’.”
I’ve noticed that at anime conventions, people will line up two or three hours before an event even if the tickets are assigned seats. Force of habit, I guess.
The soap here at the hotel smells like Play Doh.
This one’s short. Time to go to sleep, tomorrow’s the big day, concert and all.
AX Day One
Okay, so we get a bunch of little updates, as if they were separate entries. (This is what I get when I only get to use a computer once a day… what a raw deal!)
- These last few days have been draining on my cell phone. I’ve gotten so many phone calls, made so many phone calls, and gotten so many voice mails. The last bit in particular is interesting, because I tried checking my voice mail yesterday and had a bit of a problem. Normally I press ‘1’ during my voice message to interrupt it and check my messages. For some reason, it didn’t work. So I called again, and it still didn’t work. I waited a few minutes, and it still didn’t work. I tried hitting random numbers instead of ‘1’ and managed to send myself a random page. Eventually, I try hitting ‘#’ and, lo and behold, I get my password prompt.
Before I get my two voice messages, I am treated to a system message warning me that, starting July 3rd, I have to hit ‘#’ instead of ‘1’ to access my voice mail. Keep in mind that it’s July 4th. Grrrr.
Current Mood: frustrated - So not only did it rain at the wedding, but it actually rained, and quite a bit for quite a while, today at the convention. It caused a little commotion, lucky for me I actually had my umbrella with me, ’cause I take my umbrella with me wherever I go. 🙂
Current Mood: amused - I keep hearing two words out of context from a conversation I had today. “My boyfriend.” I’m not gonna elaborate, but I think you can probably guess. Let’s just say that those two words let me save face and gave me closure at the same time.
Current Mood: wistful - I brought my portable DVD player and the little radio shack gizmo I need to hook it up to any TV. Well, it turns out that, in addition to there only being one free outlet in the room, there is a thing on the TV connector that prevents it from being disconnected. So I have to watch DVDs on the little screen instead of the TV. Oh well.
Current Mood: frustrated
That is all.
God Bless America
Hey, lucky me, one of my hotelmates has a computer with a modem… you’re gonna get updates while I’m at AX.
This morning I had brunch at the Cheesecake Factory… but we didn’t have cheesecake.
So today was the Fourth of July, and we’re in a hotel in Downtown Long Beach. We got the presidential suite, and we watched the fireworks in Long Beach harbor from the top floor. Then we pointed and laughed at the solid masses of people swarming back into their cars and trying to get on the freeway.
The convention starts tomorrow. I gotta start work at 7am. The time of no sleep begins…
It appears my email continues to work, even after a last-minute remote switch of configurations from my mom’s house last night. Yay. Now I won’t get quota errors or errors sent back to the sender because the DSL is down.
Nighttime for Andy now.
Interlude
So here I am, at my mom’s computer at… well you see the time.
I just got back from another cousin’s wedding. Yes, there will be pictures. No, you don’t get to see them for a while, for I am to head out to Anime Expo! Head West, young man! (Okay, more like Southwest…)
The wedding took place at a very nice place on Palos Verdes overlooking the ocean, right next to the place where Marineland used to be. It only rained a little, and there was only a little bit of lightning.
I know I was going to say more, but I can’t remember quite what, I’m very tired at the moment. I think it had something to do with… ah yes, that’s it… well, one of the “it”s.
They had the traditional throwing of the bouquet, and of course the single girls all dove for it. Then us single guys were out there for the throwing of the garter (by the way, it’s about 11pm when this was happening…) and we’re all out there, and we get this plan. When the garter heads towards us, we’re all gonna dive out of the way, right?
Of course, the little kids don’t get it, and keep diving after it… and my cousin never managed to throw it that far. Comedy in real life is once again thwarted by… real life.
So tomorrow, we head off to the wedding brunch, then I get unceremoniously dropped off at the convention site. Yay. I’m not even at the convention yet and my feet hurt.
Anime Expo and 5XL
So, this is sort of in response to Torak’s comment on my last entry, but it warrants a new entry so you all see it.
For those of you who have delved into my webpage, you may be aware that I play keyboards in a band called 5XL. Well, we’re performing at Anime Expo (in Southern California the end of this week), so anyone who wants to come by, we’re performing on Saturday at 4pm in the Renaissance Hotel (across the street from the Long Beach Convention center), ’cause that’s where they’re holding their concerts and live events.
Miscellany
Okay, I’ve got a few things to share with you today:
- First, a story about how the little amount of Japanese I know actually came in handy. Back when I was interviewing for jobs, I interviewed with a Japanese game company, just for kicks. Well, of the two people interviewing me, only one really knew English, so he was translating quite a bit for the other. At one point, they ask what I like to do in my spare time, and I say I like to play with my computer, play computer games, that sort of thing. The non-english speaking guy comments to the other “ah, konpyutaa otaku,” to which I reply “oh, I’m not that bad.
- Well, today is now the third day of ten in a row off of work. This evening, I will be travelling to Southern California for my cousin’s wedding tomorrow, then Anime Expo for the rest of the week. Needless to say, I probably won’t be posting in LJ. But you never know…
- I forgot the third thing. Oh well.