This post is especially directed towards my friends who used to work for a certain antivirus software company in the past.
Symantec Japan has announced its ad campaign for its new PC Security Suite Norton Internet Security 2008. Allow me to introduce you to… (Read the article)
Uh… hi. I’m not dead. In fact, I have been working on the entries below… (all 4 of them - that’s right, 4 new things up today! Go read them! They’re full of words!) in fact, the first Mappy Award feature has been in the queue for about 7 months. Really. Sad, huh? I’ve just been working on them during 5-minute study/work breaks over a LONG period of time.
Which reminds me of another important detail: the semester has restarted and so my time has vanished into a sea of coffee beverages and reading assignments. This will, of course, affect how often I post here, but I plan to keep posting since it helps me maintain sanity (whatever sanity implies is up to you…).
So: for those of you who want to don’t want to read about the exciting life of the author, skip down to the next entries. The rest of you may move your mouse closer to these words and click the text that says (Read the article)
Because what better way to end a month long silence than some random distractions? Yeah, I thought so.
Natsumi Slash!! - No, not THAT kind of slash. Ladies, please. This is a cute little flash game that involves cute anime characters with swords. Doesn’t that just fill your heart with joy? The directions are all in Japanese, so here’s a primer for those that don’t speak the lingo: 1)Click start 2)When the opposing character says “DOOOON”, hit the space bar. If you don’t, they’ll kick your ass. That’s bad. 3) Don’t press it too soon, or the game will give you a strike. That’s bad too. For those of you who remember the 8-bit Kirby’s Adventure on the NES, this game might bring back memories of the “Quick Draw” mini game.
Korean DHL Commercial - Ah DHL, you have proven to me why Brown cannot “do” anything for me ever again.
Some of you out there still haven’t seen this. I suppose the best intro I can give for this clip is that it made me laugh out loud on a day that I was dealing with academic dread, which in the past I have only been able to cure through administration of ice cream treatments. Clazziquai Project did a parody of the commerical to promote their latest, Love Child of the Century. It’s worth checking out as well, if only for the person in the big blue…stuffed… whatever the hell it is.
Hamsters - You will either find this extremely sad or very hilarious. It’s kind of like the American polictical system represented by hamsters doing an interpretive dance… if you want to read that much into it at least. The rest of you get to watch hamsters in wheels. Life is good.
And finally, for our 日本語を分かっている readers, the best train station name in Japan EVER: (Read the article)
Why hello there!
Today, in the center of Awards Season (did you notice? I didn’t either…), Worry VS Donuts is proud to announce the arrival of our latest, most SPECTACULAR site feature yet. We call it: THE MAPPY AWARDS.
The Award is given out, without rhyme or reason, to any entity that the author decides is worthy of praise or disgrace. Actually, it’s just a site gimmick for you to read and enjoy. You get this service for free, you know. And now, our first awards of the season: The Most Terrifying US Road Signs. (Read the article)
Times that I lost my stage prop (”the mallet”) during the con: Twice
Times it was returned to me by a kind fan: Twice
Chance that someone would have stolen it, had this been any other convention in the nation: 100%-ish
ケーキを作ろう～： While Anime Improv has been graced with many fine performances through its 7 years of existence, it’s hard to disagree that between the fantastic performance of a 7 year-old fan (who was encouraged to take the stage by her DAD!) as Chiyo-chan and the best Hard Gay impression I’ve ever seen a white guy do, this may have been the finest Anime Improv we’ve ever done. The quality of Improv is (of course) based on whoever gets up on stage, and the performers this year were pretty solid. There are moments when Improv can lag, but knowing that we’ll have shows like this is perhaps the best reason to keep doing it.
Sorry to all the people I didn’t get to hang out with more… hopefully at Detour we’ll meet again^-^.
So how was it?: The hotel is wonderful, the events were fun, the staff worked hard, and I think AI has once again proved to everyone that a good anime con CAN take place in the so-called “middle of nowhere.” Sure, I’ll never be setting up the ANN booth in the AI event hall, but hey - I think social cons like AI are needed to balance out the big cons. It’s a yin-yang thing really. Some people prefer one, some people prefer the other… and some people appreciate both for what they are.
I have issues with certain things, but I’ll bring them up elsewhere^-^. It was fun, people had fun… and that’s the point, right?
Addendum: someone posted a video of the MAS Productions Opening Ceremonies Skit here. Enjoy!
Another con, another… Life in Japan panel. Still, the questions were good and the people at the panel seemed happy with it. Many, MANY thanks to TK and Heidi for helping with the panel! You both rock.
WTF quote of the day: “Ha ha! I froze your cheesecake!” To which I replied, “Yeah, and I defrosted it.” Someone on staff did not have their wheaties. Why that encouraged them to hatch a plot to freeze a cheesecake is beyond me, but it didn’t augment the madness of
CAKE: For the uninitiated, there’s a backstory here. Josh (aka Dube, who runs programming at AI now) was commenting that I could probably do a panel about “anything” if I wanted to. Jo encouraged the idea through a few random conversations we had at Detour over pirate rum (yeah, there was booze involved…), and the result was a panel in the AnimeIowa 2007 Program book:
Cake 4:30 Saturday. Description: Cake!
So how many people show up when that’s the only info you give them? A LOT. The room was standing room only. Geez. The end result: a good time. The concept I came up with was to have people role play a certain task based on an anime or anime-related stereotype in the hopes that people on stage would find it funny. If they laughed the most, they would get cake… in the face. Explaining more would require a lot more space, so I’ll just say this: it was fun, and Chex Mix Japan should hire TK to do PR materials.
And yes, I DID get what was coming to me: a face full of cake. Will I do it again? Maybe… the logistics for this one were hell due to the prep time required and so forth. However, I do have a nasty habit of doing wacky stuff repeatedly, so this one might get repeated.
Because Cake isn’t important: It’s not. Hanging out with friends is. Getting to hang out with the MAS Crew, Beth, Wes, and everyone else made this con what it always has been for me: a blast.
RECS!: Of course, can’t forget these:
I’m not really sure how to describe the work of the following two close friends of mine (other than awesome/pretty/impressive and other nice adjectives) so I’m going to tell you where I’m keeping their fantastic art. The same art that you should go view immediately. 
RubyD: Dian’s work can be found on my wall, on the wall of every cubicle I’ve used in the past two years, and around the apartment.
Holly: Because of Holly, my phone is invincible. Her sculptures and art are on my shelf and my wall.
And the other folks:
Studio Anti Thesis: Once in charge of the workshops at AI, S.A. is still generating fantastic art from their new home base of Madison. Which, as we all know, is a swell place.
Studio Vicemage: Writers of the comic RedZone, which is in print and can also be found at the link here.
Also, another shot out to MangaCandy, who I ran into at Otakon, for coming out to Iowa to sell me more things^-^
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