the P.Pole v.2.1

I found some interesting quizzes to take since it’s been awhile since I’ve done any surveys. Here are my results for three (of the four) GamerDNA quizzes:

Today I went down with Amy and her sister to check out Word On the Street, a festival in downtown Toronto. I can’t really explain what it is like, except that it’s sort of like Anime North but with more refinement, no cosplayers, and books as opposed to manga. I went mainly to listen to a panel discussion involving Ryan North (from Dinosaur Comics) and a bunch of other webcomic writers. That was at 5 o’ clock until 6 but I arrived extra early. Amy wanted to hear a reading of “An Imperfect Offering” by James Orbinski (reading material for her PoliSci course) which was at 12:30. I found em after a bit of searching around just outside Queen’s Park.

The day was quite delightful, walking around talking mostly and getting to know her sister, Lynn. She was very shy at the start but was playing with my hair by the end of the day. Strange little girl (who has forearms approximately the same thickness as Amy, her elder sister of ten years). I thought having a young child in tow would be slightly dampening on any mushy fun we might have, but as the day went on it was clear that she actually added an interesting and altogether enjoyable dynamic to the date.

Anyway, meeting Ryan North (again) was neat. No photo this time, but I did have an actual conversation with him. That, and with one of his other webcomic authoring buddies. In the panel, they discussed lots of things to do with webcomic writing as well as giving commentary on broader aspects of society as well. I had a great time because, as is to be expected, comic writers are comic people. I do believe today was well worth the long bus ride down and rush to get back into Loo after. Thanks Amy!

Today I am spending most of my day alone here at my uncle’s place. For the last few days, I’ve been heading out quite a bit to get the legendary cheap and nice stuff that Hong Kong is sort of known for, being a trading city and all. Last night, my mom decided to stay over at her parents’ place in Wah Fu Village but I came back to my uncle’s place for the creature comforts. During the bus ride home alone, which is sort of a rite of passage IMO, I remembered that I left my bags of stuff I got yesterday (stationary stuff like pens, a pocket for pages, a pencil case, a book stand for typing printed text, notebooks, erasers, etc…) with my mom. She’ll have to bring that over sometime, I guess.

I have been getting a lot of stuff, all the stuff I haven’t had the nerve to pay (lots) for in Canada. I also suspect I’ll have to pick up a few more little random items (like a cigarette case to use as a wallet) after my mom returns to Canada (she’s leaving next week, I’m staying). Speaking of, I have today “off” as sort of a restful day by myself. Keith and Iris (my aunt) are both gone to work, Jolie (my baby cousin) is with my mom at the grandparents’ place, so I’ve got an entire loft and neighbouring malls (if I don’t venture on the subway today) to myself. After I go downstairs to the food court and mall for a bit later, I’ll probably find a place to sit down with my books and a cold coffee-tea hybrid from Fairwood (restaurant) and read a bit. Man! I am totally loving vacation in this place!

Note: I’ll probably upload some pictures of the spoils thus far when my mom comes back with the camera and the card. I’ve also been snapping some pictures with my phone’s camera of random store names that are pretty funny.

Today I hit up Anime North at the Toronto Convention Center and the adjacent Double Tree Hotel with accomplice Amy. Noor and Valeria (Amy’s school friends) also came, but were split up from them at the beginning, met up much later, and then went off separately again. We got a ride from Noor’s father in the morning and Amy’s dad was kind enough to drive us all back at night.

The convention was what I’d call “when nerds come out to play” and it was literally packed with cosplayers and fan-artists selling their wares for some very reasonable and some very ridiculous prices. I found myself almost buying many very cool (but expensive) things and actually paying for a few also very cool (but slightly less expensive) things like buttons and a change purse. A lot of the art prints (that for some reason I had not thought of being there) could, according to DeviantArt frequenter Amy, be found on DeviantArt for viewing since the vendors were the artists themselves in blood and flesh. I decided to spend my money on the indie artists and their works instead of on the company manufactured (i.e. professional retailers of such goods) since the indie stuff was cooler and less mass-produced.

We also went over to see a few screenings of old anime at the viewing rooms in the Double Tree Hotel. The dimly lit rooms were filled with quite a few viewers and it was a neat experience, sampling anime that I had previously never thought of seeing or even heard of along with a load of others. Might sound like I enjoyed it a little too much for what it was at face-value, but it was definitely a different experience doing something like anime sampling with a room full of other people sampling just like you.

Anyway, something like Anime North must be seen and explored in-person and can’t really be described. Below I’ve assembled a gallery of mostly safe photos (except maybe one PG13 picture) so enjoy and have a look through. Sorry for the lack of lightbox support, but the pictures are too big for lightbox.

Edit: Amy and I also counted the number of Haruhi cosplays and we counted a total of 28 Haruhi cosplayers, with most of them being the school-girl uniform and a daring two of them being the skimpy bunny-suit version.

With all the awesome stuff doing down this Epic Week (yes, this one, hinting that there are very likely to be future Epic Weeks to come), I cannot help but feel quite a bit of happy in my shoes. On that note, here’s an artist, Kaela Kimura, that I discovered yesterday and her song, “Happiness” which is, quite literally, a very happiful music video. Funky singer with funky expressions. Have a watch (check out the higher resolution version if your connection can handle it). Amy says “she has a cute face” and Amy’s more than usually right. Lyrics (romaji Japanese and then English translation by Cori) after the jump.

› Continue reading

I’d like to think of myself as quite the aspiring thinker (but what exactly does that entail?). Yes, in one sweeping moment of vanity, I’ve just admitted to thinking myself an interesting individual with interesting ideas! And yet, I regret (rhyme’d!) none of it, for it is finally time to begin my spectacufabular (and probably sporadic) series of posts outlining (and hopefully securing) some of my most awesome ideas!

What better way to kick this new what will undoubtedly be a wacky series of posts than with one of my greatest ideas to date: Friction Man. When you think of superheros or supervillains (I personally am a bit annoyed that most villains excepting the likes of Magneto and Doctor Octavius have deplorable-at-best superpowers), what do you think of? Most heroes or villains usually have pretty neat powers like flying or super strength, or in Gob’s case, a wicked crime-fighting chicken dance. Well, FM is here to break all those rules! The super world of superness will never be the same again once Friction Man hits the scene with his awesome powers.

› Continue reading

Today I took a quick self-evaluation (really quick) of my Haruhi-itis. For those of you who aren’t myself, you probably won’t know what this entails IMO. Although mostly concerned with my fascination with Haruhi, it also includes incriminating behavior that has to do, in one way or another, with said fascination. Here’s what I found:

› Continue reading