Sunday, May 29, 2005
ANIME NORTH 2005

This weekend I attended my first ever anime convention and I absolutely loved it! The convention ran from Friday to Sunday and was packed with tons of fun events. It was held in two buildings: The Toronto Congress Center and the Double Tree hotel which was just across the road (these are both really close to the airport... if anyone was wondering).

Friday night I bought my weekend pass (for $45.00) and basically spent most of the evening just orienting myself. The place was really big and I was by myself so I was a little confused but we were provided with maps so I figured it out alright in the end. Since I got there a little late that night I didn't really attend many events. I mostly just walked around and checked stuff out (dealers room, artists alley, art gallery). After I had a good idea what was going on everywhere I decided to attend a panel on Dubs vs. Subs. It turned out to be quite interesting. One of the convention guests who is involved in the production of anime on DVD came to the talk so it was really informative. After that, I watched the first episode of Tsukuyomi Moon Phase, which I must say was better than I had thought it would be so I may actually consider watching a few more episodes.

Saturday I got to the con at around 11:30am and got myself drawn as an anime character (check out the pic... does it look like me?... ya I know the quality isn't that great but I don't have a scanner so I had to take a picture of it):

 


After that I headed over to the hotel to check out "anime name that tune". It was interesting to watch but the people chose the most unknown songs so a lot of the time no one on stage or even in the audience knew what it was. Once that was over I spent a little time at the fruits basket panel before I met up with some people and we headed over to another room to watch Laputa Castle in the Sky. I absolutely loved this movie and hightly suggest that if you haven't seen it do so right away cuz it's just great. Sooo, after that it was back to the dealers room and artists alley where I bought some Fullmetal Alchemist Figures and mini book marks.



After dinner I watched some Spiral (have no clue what episodes) and Yami no Matsui. Both shows were intersting so I'll probably watch some more of them too. Hmm I think I'm missing some other stuff I did on Saturday but oh well there probably arn't too many people reading this anyway.

This morning I got to the show bright and early to watch a little mahou shoujo. I caught an episode of Ultra Maniac (which I have already seen and btw is being released in June!! Manga version that is). After that I watched two episodes of Princess Tutu which I really liked even though it is somewhat strange ... but I can say with 100% certainty that I'll be watching the rest of that one). OK lets see... oh ya it was over to part two of anime name that tune then lunch followed some anime music videos and two panels. The first panel I attended was Converstational Japanese: Osaka. So it was basically an Osaka-ben class and the second panel was about fansubbing. This was run by three fansubbers: one from the group doing Peach Girl, one from the group that did Mermaid Melody and the other from a group I can't remember hehehe. Anyway, this panel was really interesting. They talked about about how fansubs are done, showed us the programs they use and showed us some bad examples of fansubbing (i.e. animejunkies).

Overall the convention was a lot of fun so I will most definitely will be going back next year. The next one coming up is going to be really huge and will be held at the end of August at the Convention Centre downtown Toronto. A lot of really famous people are supposed to be attending, including Angela, so I'll definitely be preregistering for that one. I already can hardly wait!


Wednesday, May 18, 2005
DOES YOUR FLOOR CRUNCH?

My kitchen floor crunches when you walk on it... jee I wonder what that could mean?So I haven't written in a while because, well, I've been doing nothing. I mostly just sit at home and look for jobs. In between that I've taken to being a good little housewife hehe. I clean the house, do the laundry, dishes and whatever else needs to be done. It's all in vain though because the second my mom gets home everything turns into a big disaster. It's almost as if she's working against me to keep the house in a state of utter disarray. This I really can't comprehend because before I started taking care of the house she always complained that things weren't organized. But everytime I put things back in order she just messes them up again. Like the towels for example. She specifically told me she's never had an organized linen closet. So I organized all the towels by size and folded everything nicely. Everyday I have to reorganize the closet though because every morning she grabs a pile of towel and throws them around her room. I don't even know why I bother... It doesn't take much to keep things organized, but it's a real pain in the arse to reorganize stuff.

This past Friday night a bunch of us went downtown to Crockodile Rock on Adelade. It was kinda a "yes we're done school and we haven't seen eachother in a while" gathering. The place was ok. It had a generally nice atmosphere with a few levels, bar, and mini kind of dance floor (I of course didn't dance though). It was really nice to see everyone again since it had been several months since we were all together. Overall it was a generally nice evening though the most bizzarre thing happened while I was walking to the coat check. Some guy pet me. Yes that's right, pet me... on the head... like I was a cat or something. Since he was behind me and I hadn't seen his face I thought maybe it was one of my friends (just for the record though my friends normally don't pet me but that option seemed slightly more plausible at the time). Anyway, when I turned around some guys that I had never seen before was smiling at me. I'm assuming he was drunk because normal people don't just go around petting people they don't know. So obviously I got out of there fast... On the same topic, last night my mom came up to me while I was sitting at the computer and started to pet my head WTF!! Obviously I pushed her away and told her not to touch me. Like what the heck is going on lately. I'm I giving off some kind of meow meow I'm a cat please pet me vibe!?!

Speaking of cats... Alley had to go in to the doctor this past monday for a biopsy. She had this lump on her breast and the doctor didn't know what it was so he decided to biopsy it. Apparently when he cut it open a lot of fluid came out and it all but collapsed so we're assuming it's just a cyst. We won't know for sure though until the lab results come back. She was so funny when she came home. Since she was still under the effects of the drug she was half out of it. She tried to walk around but kept randomly falling over and bumping into things. It looked like she was drunk. She's all better now though and only has a few stitches in. We'll have to take her back to the doctor later this month to get them removed... And that's about all the exitment in my life lately. I really hope it warms up soon. Maybe I'll actually get to swim in the pool.


Thursday, May 05, 2005
KONPEITO

I had my last exam ever this past Wednesday and moved out of rez so now I'm officially done my undergrad!! (well assuming I passed forensics). I have so much friggin stuff in the house now and have no where to put it all. I used to just store stuff for when I moved back to school but those days are over so now I have to find a place for everything. My room is filled with pillows and junk. My mom has been bugging me to clean up but there's really nowhere to put the stuff... *sigh* this is going to be a big task.

Today I went over to Japan town to pick up the May volume of Ribon. I had to waste some time so I walked around in the little Japanese market across from the book shop. I really wasn't planning on buying anything but I noticed that they were selling Konpeito. I actually wasn't even sure they existed until today. I had seen the candy in Stellvia of the Universe and was curious about them but never really looked into them. Since they were right there and really pretty cheap I decided to pick up a package.

 


They're basically just balls of sugar. I tried all the different colours but they taste exactly the same so they're not flavoured. They actually taste really good so I'm sure I'll be buying them again some time. They look pretty too... and they keep their shape if you just suck on them. I'm not exactly sure how they get them in those little star like shapes but based on the fact that they stay that way as they get smaller I'm assuming the little clumps and made individually... eh but who really knows.

Ribon this month came with some great furoku. A Peter Pan syndrome notebook, stickers, Shinshi Doumei Cross CD case, Saboten no Himitsu pencil board (I think >> it has Konpeito in the background!!), an extra book of stories, and a cd with all sorts of fun stuff on it.



I took a couple screen caps from the cd. These are just a couple of the games you can play. In addition to mini games there is a program to make letters, fortune telling, manga, and a bunch of other things. In the first game below you have to kick falling snakes to kill them (you can also get power-up and do this really kool spinning kick that kills everything around you >> this is a Shinshi Doumei cross game). In the second game below you work at a burger restaurant and you have to fill the order of customers before time runs out. As the game progresses more and more people come in so you have to be quick. This game involves lots of ribon characters including those from manga no longer running in the magazine (i.e Aishiteruze Baby, Fullmoon wo Sagashite).

 



Next months furoku doesn't look as kool. It's just going to be a bracelet from a manga that just started last month and an Ageha 100% jewlery box type thing. Still buying it though. I'm just loving this magazine.