Basics

• Plane tix – check
• Hotel – check, thx Alexd
• Admission – check
• Concert tix – check
• Concert Tix – somewhat check
• Ride from LAX to hotel – will figure it out once I land
• Ride from hotel to LAX – should be np.

Content

• Hocchan item – Manabi Straight, Love Destiny, ToraDora, Pickup Voice, Love hina wwww,
  
• KitaEri item – ToraDora, Working!!
• Yuu Asakura item – BGC 2040 Box Love hina wwww
• Masakazu Morita item – Interlude DVD
• Katsuyuki Konishi item – Some Gurren Lagann thing (dvd?)
• Nabeshin item – again? have to farm dealer room for him. Or maybe Narima Daicon Bros.
• Toshihiro Kawamoto item – again? I mean, uh. Xam’d goods? Bebop? Dunnos.
• Eden of the East crew – Probably an Eden of the East poster (from dealers? I dunnos). Possibly skip. Minipato.
• Mell – What did I get signed last Otakon lol totally forgot, USB wrists
• Mamegu – her cd, Tanabata Sonic booklet, mac+ movie booklet
• May’n – Streets or Styles, or Tanabata Sonic booklet, mac+ movie booklet

Deliveries

• Alex’s ninety bucks
• Alex’s Mouse volume 1

Social

• Begin talking to Tim – check
• Hook up with west coast bloggers – Saturday evening
• Press crap – tbd
• Mock up the tentative schedule – in progress
• Contact with Bob – got phone number, need to set time

To bring

• Money – when the time comes
• Lights – on hand, battery changed
• “Contents” – still listing them
• Stuff to survive – when the time comes
• All the cables – if I don’t forget

Others

• Budget this thing – done
• Raise some funds – in progress?

PS: I’ll take credit for the careful torturing here — that really *is* all me, and I’ve been doing it since before we announced L’Arc~en~Ciel wayyy back in 2004. I’ve been pretty up front about how much I enjoy that aspect of it, and I’m glad you guys seem to appreciate it. :)

But making musical guests happen takes more than just me; I’m just the boss, so I’m supposed to provide vision and direction and keep people on track. I do a fair amount of negotiating and strategizing, but it would all be useless without the right staff to pull it off.

There are years of groundwork laid by my immediate predecessors as Relations Chief (the Heaton brothers and Jonathan Harmon) — and by a guy named Jeff Kleist who has been involved in this stuff since the beginning and has really been bringing his A-game the last couple of years. Then when acts get onsite, I’ve got Jeff Kleist, my assistant Jeff Lee, and former con chair Terry Chu (who was chair in 2004) all taking point for various musical guests. Our main events staff (led by Mike Lee) and our tech ops coordinator (Walt Sysak), plus the guys from DSL Sound, make all these crazy things happen. And our interpreters make sure we can all communicate.

And then we have folks like our many contacts and friends in the industry, who campaign on our behalf. Folks at Sony and Geneon and Avex and King Records and Domo and Lantis…be very glad that there are folks on the business side who get it and believe in it and that really makes a difference. We earned their trust over the last decade, but they’ve also earned ours by playing fair in an industry not really known for that.

So when you’re sending your positive vibes and your thanks, remember that it’s not just “Jim Vowles”, it’s the entire team of people who make this happen.

This post has been edited by alabaster: Yesterday, 04:45 PM

——————–

Maybe I should share his post about last weekend too. Or maybe I’m just getting old.

Because she post pics like these.

It’s not exactly a secret, but I can’t read Japanese. So why do I read Japanese blogs? I’m subscribed to Makkun’s blog, out of some misguided sense of duty–the same reason why I buy almost every solo CD she puts out I guess.

I also follow ItoShiz’s blog, but because she usually posts some interesting pictures and she doesn’t post much anyways, so it isn’t as if it makes a difference.

I follow a few other Japanese blogs for non-informational purposes, but they usually have some actual utility even if I can’t read it.

(BTW this post will get crossposted to omonomono.com in a slightly different form.)

I’ve looked around. The kind of cabinets I want run usually for about $300-400. If I get a break on price I can probably score something I like for under $250, but, well, that’s still a lot more than $60. And the DETOLF is serviceable. If anything, picky people can try to repaint the top and bottom slaps of wood to match their interior decor. I just went with what the walls were painted like.

And for $60, I’m rather satisfied with it. The only real issue I have with it is that, well, it’s flimsy like most Ikea furniture. In essence, the DETOLF is 3 tall panes of safety glass held together by two slabs of wood top and bottom. The thing that keeps the cabinet together are these two sets of metal railing, in which you screw into the top and bottom wooden pieces. It also holds the glass shelves inside the case. The two railings are flimsy as all heck! If they were solid and doesn’t vibrate when you walk next to them on hardwood floor, maybe I would be a happer man. If they don’t hit the glass sides of the cabinet when the shelves are empty and make that cheap rattle sound, I’ll be even happier. For extra credit, if the DETOLF was about a foot shorter, I would also be very happy because then I can set it on top of this drawer/desk combination, rather than setting it on the floor.

Setting it on the floor, if you’ve seen a DETOLF (top link has picture), means it is a display case meant for a larger room with more open spaces. Or how else can you see the stuff in the lower shelves? Elevating the DETOLF is the only other way to go. Those more expensive display cabinets all do this, of course. There’s another issue–a lot of figures I own (and probably a fair reflection on what’s on the market) tend to be sculpted with a frame of reference that is even or below the horizontal plane of the figure. In other words, a lot of these figures are meant to be looked UP at, rather than looked down at.

I think my dad’s pottery collection goes better than animu figurines on these shelves.

At any rate, I got a pair of these set up. I also tore into a backlog of figures that I bought over the past 12 months which remained in their boxes. That half-price Ciel I bought via AmiAmi was quite nice, to my surprise. Ureshiko-san donned her umbrella. Tamaki-nee’s chains were a pain to put on, but now she kneels like the eroge giant that she is. Also need to figure out where to put that OTHER Ureshiko-san and the SUPER LARGE Mai Tokiha (is she 1/6? Way too big for 1/6). I probably should also move that surprisingly lovely Itsuki Kannagi/Musumi Shimoyama figure, since that is just 1/10 and looks ridiculous next to a 1/6. Aegis Figma was cute, but probably funnier than cute; my first Figma, too.

As for the bottom shelf, I stuck Etopen there. It’s quite large for a little thing like that, or rather, I think the scale of it in the anime is spot on.

That is on top of all the other figures I already had out in display. Sigh.

To me it’s hardly a surprise. But if I didn’t shop around for ad services for my blogs I probably would have been surprised. There are, to say the least, ethical grey areas in the way some of these services operated, getting paid by post and only when the advertisers are happy about it…

But my question now lies how free samples work. I think in most of the instances that I’ve read, all reviews tend to mention where they got the stuff from. For example if I review Crunchyroll I will say I bought it, because, well, it’s part of the consideration for it. However if I review Strained I will have to say something like “Funimation’s promo copy” or some such. But this is different than people who are otherwise paid for their writing beyond the sample.

That said I think Jtor needs to have a giveaway policy. Right now it feels too much like people are treating the samples like part of their perks for writing for it :x

I’m going through a verbal drought of some kind. Need some time to introspect, recharge, pray or whatever.

And a Nintendo DS is also partly at the heart of the problem. So the DS came in. Took about 2+ weeks for it to ship and get here. I ordered a R4 type thing, or a acekart 2.1. After light research I found a place that sold it for $20, and I’m kind of satisfied with the typical Made-In-China quality, and yet it’s a shade better than I expect. This place I got the stuff from is definitely “good” for a shady consumer enhancement. Shady in that no reputable store sells DS hacks, yet this is just as reputable as any other…

At any rate, it even came with a micro SD card reader and a couple screen protectors. I put one on. Botched it a little. So I highly recommend that store. Ships fast, not too pricy, omake for new owners; what’s not to like?

First game I played was Super Robot Taisen: Original Generation – Endless Frontier. The only cross-over element of it is KOS-MOS and T-elos and couple other guys from previous games. So there’s not a whole lot going on–the entire series of these games ride on fan fumes anyways, but I was surprised the number of boob jokes in the localization, and I guess also the plain amount of boob-age in the game. I mean, there is one token pettanko character (voiced by Mamiko Noto no less) and two guys, which leaves the other 4 characters delicious boobage material. That’s on top of all the enemies you fight (which adhere to the same ratio of boobs:guys:others as your party).

The visuals are as expected; things dash and flash like a pachinko machine as numbers scroll and pop across the screen like 1-yen metal balls falling off the display. Boobs jiggle–lightly and heavily and everywhere in between–when special attacks and supers are called. If you really pay attention, there’s quite a bit of fanservice, but all tampered with some amount of cute or cool, so it’s mostly tolerable. More importantly, it’s toned down so it has a proper ESRB rating, so no clothes come off or undergarment really… but they do wear some pretty sexy costumes. Also, so much furries…

But seriously, this is a kid’s game. So liberal, Japan!

That said, I think I’m playing this game because I’m 18 hours into it and already 2/3  the way through. If I was more on top of it I could have finished it in 3 days…. part of the reason why I bother.

Next up is probably Fate Stay Night, but I will have to finish Revelation Space first. Which, so far, is a definitely good change of pace.

1. I ordered a HDD and a mouse from Newegg, thanks to the 10% Bing cashback deal. Bing used to be called Microsoft Live, but it’s the same thing. Wait 60 days and your money can be requested to be sent to your paypal account, or in a check. I was so tempted to just deck out one or three more Fujitsu Spinpoint 1gbs. But no. The HDD I got is a Hitachi 2.5″ 320gb, to be inserted into the PS3. After rebate and cash back I think I’m looking at a $17.50 saving, which knocks the total down to $57.50 before shipping. The mouse I got because…we need a mouse, so I got an intellimouse 1.1 for $16, or something like $15 after cashback. Shipping was something like $6.

2. In the past 2 weeks I ordered 3 figures. Two were  from HLJ and the other was from eBay. HLJ was giving away 10% off coupons at Otakon, for any in stock, non-sale items they had. The coupon doesn’t apply to pre-orders, but still there were a few figures that tempted me. One figure was just tempting and I’ve had my eyes on it for a while now, even if it’s kind of “tempting” in the indecent kind of way. The 10% makes this 1/6 figure actually quite affordable, after SAL shipping. The other figure is a preorder of a popular character, so there’s not much I can do about that besides HLJ’s normal early bird discount.

3. The eBay figure was discounted by Bing’s cashback for eBay, which is currently 14%. The discount value varies all the time, but I guess I caught a break. This figure is a well-rated figure that sold out quickly, so auctions was the only way I can snag it. I think after Bing  cash back (which is instant for eBay) I paid about $107 total, including shipping. The retail price of the one was 7810 yen… wow, I actually made it out close to even! What is interesting is that the figures I got from HLJ are definitely cheaper, despite being slightly bigger in scale, but only because I do math in yen. Once I convert it to USD it doesn’t seem that different.

4. And yeah, I bought a DS and an acekart. The acekart came in already, where as the DS lite is scheduled to arrive sometime betwee 8/15 and 9/15. Weird. The retailer for the acekart (and many other DS “illicit” crap) is good, I recommend them. The retailer for the DS, well, is Amazon/Target. So that’s that.

At any rate, the whole point of this rant is that I need to stop spending money. But the sales! They are so good!

At any rate, Hideki Matsui homered for the 18th time this season last night, his second blast in the game in which a fan kinda-sorta interfered with Ichiro Suzuki during his leap at the right field wall. That means GoGo Curry for the third time in two weeks. It would be the third of four visits if today was a Thursday.

2. Come up with 10 questions for Yamakan – still not done :(

3. Come up with 1 question for Hide-san – done

4. Pack – almost done

5. Print maps – done

6. Inspect car – not done

7. Get money – done

8. Check that I didn’t forget anything (like those nana goods…) – got the nana goods, at least…

Back from Japan. Still recovering. Especially that last concert about 7 days ago.

Otakon bound…leaving Thursday if all goes well.

Will try to list all the loot I got there, here. List is partial right now…

Free loot:

• Aoi Hana…fan without the stem?

Almost free loot:

• Marisa milk tea can (empty)
• nm7 bag
• concert handouts for nana mizuki live diamond
• concert handouts for super space time tanabata sonic
• A LittleBSD thingy
• expired blue glow stick + a ribbon

Not-free loot:

• yokoso japan SUICA (balance of 0 yen \o/)
• Nana mizuki loots–
  • live diamond jersey (black)
  • towel (pink)
  • fan
  • light stick
  • poster a
  • poster b
  • nanaca (x6, unopened!)
• super space time tanabata sonic loots–
  • hiyoko scoop bag (w/ towel and duck)
  • t-shirt (L)
  • program book (x2)
  • the cream puf (+green sticker)
  • music japan magazine/book, june 2009
• manabi straight vol 1-7 set (used, LE pressing)
• Kanon 2002 vol 1-7 set (used…used. Include bonus disc)
• Kanon 2002 vol 1,2,3,5……..yeah.
• Kokoro toshokan 1 (LOLs)
• Utena the movie DVD
• Air Movie LE DVD
• FF8 OST box set (LE, first press)
• Mai Hime OST 1, 2
• Brain powered OST 1, 2
• Simoun ED single
• MKR TV OST 1, 2, 4, 5
• Melody of Oblivion ED single
• Kenshin image ablum 2
• MKR image album 2
• Narima daicon brothers image album
• natsu no arashi op single
• kajiura – fiction
• nana mizuki – eternal blaze
• some ai nonaka album (w/ dvd)
• Canvas 2 ED single
• Asako Nishida artbook
• Akiman turn-a artbook
• Denno Coil meta artbook