ACen 2014 Adverts

Anime Central 2014 advertisements, business cards, and promos…GO!!!

• A Slap on Titan – In the vein of hilarious Team Four Star parodies, this one is for Attack on Titan, which is all the rage these days. Because naked giants chasing after you is scary as hell.
• Albert The Alien – Kickstarter for a new graphic novel and OH HEY! This is a venture from Trevor Mueller! Which means it’s badass and deserves to get pushed through. DO IT!!!
• Anime California – Anime convention that’s in California…obviously…and sponsored by Crunchyroll.
• Anime NebrasKon – Anime convention that’s in Nebraska…and DANG that’s fine word play! I’m sold!

Cryptic ACen 2014 Meanings

We once more bring you another annual blog post to explain the summarized tweet I always put out after coming back from Anime Central. It’s been another great convention of cosplay, fandom, anime, geekdom, madness, emotion, exhaustion, walking, laughing, and…*sigh*…I may as well just admit it. This was the worst ACen I’ve ever had. Not on the part of ACen or those I spent it with, because they have always been awesome to me. The reason for it sucking should actually be very apparent for those who understand what I’ve been going through, and should come as no surprise.

Depression – Of the many rules one must follow when going to any sort of convention, not going alone is paramount. Having strong connections with people to properly decompress with and bounce things off of just makes a con that much better, if not the very reason you go to begin with. As many know I’ve kept myself alone for the longest time, and this has resulted in me not speaking anyone right up to the point ACen started. The vast majority of my free time at ACen was spent sitting by myself and watching others appreciate each other’s company, and I did everything I could to keep myself from crying because I wanted and needed their company as well, but had no idea how I should go about it or even bother trusting in others for that matter.

To Be Thankful

This writing started near the end of Thanksgiving, which I spent alone in my apartment because I was going to have my family gathering on the upcoming Saturday. It has only been finished now because it’s a hell of a long piece and an emotionally invested one at that. Emotions are hard to translate into language and quantify in general, and the pauses between understanding what needs to be said about them and the crippling sensations they give tend to add up. But finished it I have, and it’s likely the only thing of worth that came from me this whole holiday season. *shiver*

Despite the obvious, this piece of writing isn’t Thanksgiving, Christmas, or even New Year related, though it could be said to have arisen as an idea when another talked about being thankful. I never undertook the idea because it was too large and over the top, and certainly not my style (never be a bother, hide in room, only communicate if it’s absolutely necessary, etc.). However, due to my life crumbling into depths I dreaded it could go, changing how I think, act and cope needs to become centric for survival. So why the hell not take on the one idea which could properly let the world know what I’m thankful for? I may not get another chance.

An Update, The Massacre, and A Video

So it’s been over a month since I went over the deep end. Those who managed to attempt contact or at least note the media I created (social or otherwise) know that I am alive, and now those who read this blog (heh) know this fact too. I’m only better in the sense I can actually make things happen outside of working a job, sometimes eating well, and the favorite pastime of all depressives, sleeping. Those first couple weeks were really rotten, and I’m quite glad they are over and done with. All the same, odd thoughts continue to creep up on me (an example of which is noted below), and it’s going to be awhile before I risk giving myself up to the world again.

Despite the fact I’ve neglected updating here, things are still coming along despite me not making official notices of them. I’m still making the video production happen, though it’s tedious trying to work a worthless body when the soul wants to do so much. I’ve also moved onto my next lent, given the prior Lent was finished in the midst of last month. I’ll talk about it in its own post, though hopefully before the business finishes. No, not going to check the calender to make sure, because that’s too much stress and work for me to handle…really. Then there are the few times I go out and do social things with folk, but only if they are truly necessary under the government shutdown I’m in. I had one such event on October 12th when I went to The Massacre, a 24 film fest held at the Patio Theater.

ACen 2013 Adverts

And thus we round off another Anime Central with a list of all the advertisements, business cards, promos, etc. that I have collected through my walks in the convention space and hotel. I try and keep away from sharing duplicated adverts from previous years, so in other words get yon butts to those previous posts and giver yer business to them wonderful folk. There’s an industry and fandom to support, you hear? Onward!

• 8-Bit Pixel Visions – Pixel art made with Perler beads. Commissions are available. Erin Carroll? Bravo.
• A Certain Scientific Railgun – It’s an anime with lots of boom n’ bang. Filled with schoolgirls. So every anime ever? *shrug*
  

Cryptic ACen 2013 Meanings

You know the drill. I make a vague tweet, I write a blog to explain things, everyone reads it and become so enlightened by my insights they throw grand amounts of feels at me so I don’t think I’m just talking to myself and thus wasting my time. Oh who am I kidding, the latter happens pretty much all of the time, so whatever. Ever I need to get my thoughts out of my head, given there’s usually a mess in there if I don’t organize them in some fashion. Onward to breaking down key moments of Anime Central 2013, Sweet 16.

Corset – Two-parter. One, I finally bought myself a corset from Draconas Creations, the dealer I had pegged the previous year. I had thought I would eventually drive down to their locale and order that way, but no, just waited till the very next ACen. That works. The other half of this deals with the fact I dressed myself up in my pink dress getup. It was my first public outing in the costume as well, and what better place than at ACen where no one will really bat an eye? Save the sexist males who will slap your ass and think it’s totally okay because I’m a man, but as it goes. I’m still looking for pictures of me during Hardcore Synergy because I know they were taken (some with permission too). So if you’ve been wondering who that smiling and dancing fool was while the bass dropped, come at me bro.

UPDATE 12/2014: I do not recommend Draconas Creations. Paid money for a corset in ACen 2013, and it’s been almost 2 years with communication had with the company. I’ve yet to see the corset I paid for. Shame.

40 Days & 40 Nights: Alcohol

Isn’t there always a fun story of how I fail to keep chocolate out of my life? This last Lent of mine was no different, even though the focus was supposed to be on caffeine. But thanks to the fact chocolate normally has caffeine within it, I had to give it up again. Or at the very least try, because wow do I ever note how easy it is to slip or forget where chocolate is present. Ever I fail my attempts to do away with chocolate, but this time is was exceptionally odd.

My first break came when I got the hankering for some more Little Debbie snacks because I’m a fat bastard, or at the very least haven’t let go of my fat bastard tendencies. By this point I was dying for a Cosmic Brownie, but I went with a box of Star Crunch because it didn’t have any chocolate, and I was quite proud I kept to my commitment of. Problem being that a Star Crunch is literally covered with chocolate, and this fact apparently escaped my common sense until I was halfway through my first one. How does this even happen? I can’t even tell you what I was thinking at the time, or what I thought that brown stuff covering the snack was other than chocolate. All I know is I thought I was making the right choice of committing to my Lent, when in reality I had apparently gone insane.

ACen 2012 Adverts

Seeing as I have gone through another yet ACen, I have once again collected a lot of adverts/business cards/etc. which have been handed to me or I collected from the ground. Mostly the latter. Because I loathe money going to waste, I’m doing my part to share good things with the world. And this time I’ve taken the task of alphabetizing everything out instead of writing them out as I pull them. Mistake? And I will make sure I don’t do duplicates from last year’s haul as well. Yes, these are all brand new. Egads.

• 8th Day Anime – A team of artists that do graphic novels, fan art, original art, commissions and a whole lot of other things artists do to make themselves sane and yet still pay the rent. I is jealous of anyone capable of this feat.
• ActionBooth – A photo booth that sets up at events to shoot people in action poses. Cosplayers loved them this year, and were posing themselves silly.
• Adam Anthony Aguas – A tattoo artist who paints as well. One of his paintings was up for bidding on the convention floor, and what was serious business on my mind, I must tell you.
• Alexander Lome – deviantART page of the artist, though the card made sure to share his eBay yet marked out his phone number with a real marker (which failed, by the way).

Cryptic ACen 2012 Meanings

ACen 2012 is passed, and I did it again. And like I thought I’ve been doing for a long time, I confused not only random people but a friend of mine I mentioned in the tweet. So here we are with a detailed explanation of each word. And yes, this is going to be my summary on ACen 2012. Anything more would be overboard, especially given the advertisement write-ups I had to do (to be shared soon enough).

Greens – Each year the IRT staff has to hire on new people to fill in the slots of those who aren’t there or didn’t return. We usually end up understaffed, or with not enough veterans to make things work. Simply put, this year’s hired on Greens were awesome. More so the two Greens I got to work with, who have been Congoers for a few years now and knew more about the con in regards to how it works rather than how the rules are to be enforced. That’s the one flaw I’ve had in regards to ACen (besides being horribly inept), and while I’ve been here since 2010, these Greens showed themselves to be more comfortable in all aspects of the work than I ever have. Kudos to them!

My Akoha History #6 – About High School

“Teach Me” was played on May 17, 2010, and I had to share four adjectives about the teacher who inspired me. Not any specific inspiration or the most inspiration, but just inspired. Looking back, it doesn’t really seem fair with the teacher I selected, because I only had him (I think) for the last two years of high school, making my memory of him incredibly fresh. As fresh as can be at least, because I’ve pretty much forgotten/shrugged off the bulk of my schooling years. And everything else now that I think about it.

It sort of goes like this: I’ve joked many times with people around me I haven’t started living (or even being alive) till 2005, but that’s the god honest truth. Yeah, I’ll blasphemy “god” just to get my point across, whatever. Years before that and especially my schooling years, I just went through the motions that people asked of me. That’s pretty much what the world taught me through those years: to only do what I’m told. There was no teaching me of the concept of freedom, and I made sure I did what I was told rather than have any individuality. I followed the letter so much I at times became the Rules Lawyer against other students who were disruptive or did things to challenge the teachers.