SoCal Summer 2007
'As she has planted, so does she harvest; such is the field of karma.'
- Sri Guru Granth Sahib
Well, I dunno what I did. But I must've done something right.
I'll explain about that in a minute.
This is 4th time I have attended SoCal gathering. Twice for spring and now twice for summer. Each time the gathering did not disappoint me, and this time was no exception.
There is no gimmick here. This is what it is. It's a place for cosplayers to relax and socialize under the sun and within nature. This time, they did add something and it is a noble cause. In this picnic,
itsmisstea and crew have gathered donation total of $400 dollars for Make-A-Wish foundation. You don't see deeds like this done everyday. I tip my hat to gathering crew for this, really.
That said, hanging around with
little_serenity,
magi_sammy,
chiyo_no_hikari, and
hyper_sam was awesome times. Less than 10 minutes me and
hyper_sam settled down our stuffs, we got 'kidnapped' into Naruto photoshoot *figures since Deb was in Hinata costume and I was in Sasori*. It took me longer to get to gathering since I came across Laura *Scoby* and we talked for bit *haven't seen her since AX so it was nice*. After that, grabbed food, played card games *not Yu-gi-oh*, more photoshoots, and talk to more people I know.
So where does the asskickin' new camera comes in?
Every SoCal comes with raffle event. Pay for entry fee and you're eligible for raffles. You can buy as many as you want and get prizes if your name/number's called. So, Julia got a new car *Rubicon with Bleach custom paint*, Caitlin got autographed poster card of some sort *Re-Play I think was the manga poster card*, and after they announced winner for *whatever came after Ipod nano*, there it was.
Sony Cybershot digital camera.
7.2 Pixels, 3X zooming, 2.4" LCD, and it's fucking shiny.
and guess whose raffle ticket they called out?
My reaction : 'HOLY SHIT!!'
You have to understand where I'm coming from with this. To me, this wasn't just a prize. This was fuckin' godsend. As some of you might remember, I cracked the lens screen of my old camera back in Anime Expo. It still worked, but the crack on the screen casted odd shadow everytime I took pictures. Plus, it was getting old and stone age since the camera drained battery quicker *or power management broke*. I was thinking of getting a new camera and lo behold I won me a new fuckin' camera. Adding to the excitement was the fact that I suck at these raffle things. To make it better, I only bought 3 tickets. Yeah, 3 Tickets. There were some people that bought 20 tickets and didn't win anything. I had really low odds of getting anything, but a new digital camera? Thank you jebus, buddah, Walter Payton!!
Note : The camera also came with battery but I was too fuckin' dumb to notice it. So I didn't take any pics with this camera. Yes I know, I'm a retard.
Then costume contest came and gone. After that Julia, Caitlin, Niki, and Deb did Hare Hare Yukai with other cosplayers. I know I'm gonna find this on youtube week from now.
Afterwards, Me and Deb went to ramen shop called Shinsengumi with Vlad and his friends *Sorry, Jennifer. But I'll make it up to you somehow*. So many gurren-lagann related crackpot ideas came up, not to mention more shits & giggles involving Yu-Gi-Oh Abridged.
Overall, most motherfuckin' excellent time and it would've never happened if not for everyone involved. I had wonderful time hanging around with Caitlin, Julia, Deb, and Niki *you guys rock*. I also had great time chatting with people I know and it was also awesome to meet new people. I know the gathering will go on as always, but it's a shame to lose Misty to Berkeley. I wish her best of luck in her Berkeley life. Thank you all and much love & peace to everyone.
Overall, SoCal Summer gathering gets 10 CASTLE CRUSHERS!!! out of 5.
PS : I will post details about hotel as soon as I do some research and crunch down some infos.