Random Notes (2008/04/03)

[slave_to_anime]

• General: I think I've just been out of sorts in general for a while now. Not completely sure why, though. I've had fun the last few weekends though, with all the cherry blossom stuff, and party times and Magic Mountain with friends. But it just makes the workweek that much more unbearable.
• Anime Watching: I haven't watched much of anything at all in the last few weeks. My "need-to-watch" and "want-to-watch" queue looks formidable. I need another life, I think. Zetsubou-sensei and Gurren-Lagann are highest priority. Everything else kinda falls below that. The current season looks bleh to me. There won't be anything interesting for me until at least July when we should get Birdy the Mighty, and then or beyond for Suzumiya Haruhi 2nd season and Slayers REVOLUTION.
• Gaming: SSBB is in the Wii. Haven't played much of it at all the last few nights. FWIW, though, I haven't even tried the online capabilities of the game at all, really, except spectator mode. Keep in mind I still really really suck at the game, like I do with almost all fighting games. Parts of me want to really go back and continue playing Disgaea 2 to keep making my über-character of doom. I'm also still waiting though for Disgaea DS. :3
• Gear Work: Camera's still in warranty service for a dead pixel and sensor cleaning, along with my 85mm lens for the slow focusing issue. I wanted to take care of those during a lull period so that I'd have equipment back in time for the next shoots.
• Gear Purchases: I'm still thinking about the off-shoe flash kits (a la Strobist). May or may not buy something like that in time for Fanime.
• Picture Editing: Um, so I've been on a break of sorts. It's not good that a set of images I thought I could have edited before Katsucon still isn't edited. But for now, I'm just moving slowly, I think. I'm still backlogged in December shots, for those keeping score. Which isn't all that good. I'll get somewhere. Eventually.
• So. Cal. Spring Gathering: Oh crud, that's next week, isn't it? Plans? Me? I'll go with a camera, a smile, and a please. Though xkokuux, did you perhaps want me to bring my infrared gear so you can take a looksie?
• Fanime: Haven't been thinking about this as much as I should. Though I do have some planning in place. It looks like I'll be targeting somewhere between 10 and 12 slots for the convention, to keep myself busy. My only committed schedule locked shoot at the moment is to shoot nightroad's/lunaneko's Black Lagoon shoot, though I believe I've also agreed in principle to do a few other shoots with blueyeswhtdragn or someone else. Which as soon as I can remember what they are, I'll list them. I'm likely to make a post about scheduling up at some point in a few weeks, but not until at least the other photographers on my friends list have opened up on their plans. After all, it's still only the beginning of April.
  
  I'm definitely leaning toward watching An Cafe in concert on Sunday night. I've got my fingers crossed that they might let the press shoot the concert, or at least the first 3 songs, since they're on an indie label. I have no idea what to do about masquerade on Saturday, though I think since I might be running with a press badge this time, I might be looking at at least something easier to deal with time scheduling.


• AX: Still a go for all 4 days. I'm actually still holding a hotel room, and have been internally debating whether I want to keep it or not. It'd be pricey to hold the room if I'm solo on this one. It's a tough choice. Other than the hotel room, I don't have much in the way of plans except stalking Shokotan XD. I have to remember to go contact Chase though about press badges, because I already bought a regular badge and their system apparently doesn't like me trying to register for two badges for myself.
• Otakon: Damned JAM Project. Right now, I'm still leaning against going, even if it bugs the hell outta me. As much as I want to see them, the difficulties for hotels near the convention center combined with ~$400 flights makes this look too expensive to be really feasible unless I can really convince myself that I want to go. Since basically, if I went, I'd be going to hit the JAM Project concert and panels, and then probably have not much else in mind. Right now, if I went, this looks like a 3-man team we'd be pushing with, though.
• DragonCon: I still need to look into flights for this, but this one looks almost certain to be a solo mission if I choose to go. Right now on the fence about this. Not sure if I'll enjoy it or not, and going solo in a hotel room isn't cheap. That said, I'm still leaning stronger on this than I am on Otakon. I've heard the basic arguments already (lots of costumes, party party party, etc.). Would anyone like to try to make any type of argument outside the conventional one that they think might swing me? The alternatives are to stay home that weekend, go and hit Anime Vegas, or go really nuts and hit AnimeFest.
• Beyond DragonCon: Crap, I need to look into hotel for YaoiCon, don't I. Outside of that, ACC2:CH, and, uh, that's it?
• 2009-2010: One of these two years, I'd LOVE to start planning for a Japan trip. I'm not likely to make one any sooner than these points, if only because something like that would have to be an EPIC trip. :3 Other than that, outside of what I've already planned, I'd like to take another shot at looking at A-Kon again. I don't think I'll be planning to go this year, but I'd like to see if next year I can reasonably pull it off.
• Photoshoots: I'm still trying to stay relatively light on shoots for a while to at least not exacerbate my backlog. I mean, I got a lot of great shots from March already. That said, ideas still floating around include trying to shoot in Downtown LA at some point, requests for casual shoots, and I'd still love to hit NorCal during a non-convention weekend to just go shooting whoever wants to. Or maybe I could go really nuts and hit the East Coast for a random weekend. ::shrug::
• ACP/ACE: I'll do waynekaa's and genjitsu's bidding. If you haven't seen the new updates, why not? Go go go. Male cosplayers should be all over that stuff by now because I need more people to pick from when I start doing crazy stuff like upgrading people. I won't name names. But you guys know what you need to do.
• Politics: I think at this point, I've stopped giving a damned for a while. Things are mostly out of our control at this point, since our primary is long done and it really doesn't matter how I vote in the general because the Democrat has a 98+% chance of winning here.
• Finances: State tax refund is in. Just waiting for the federal one now, plus the tax credit advance next month. Likely saving the federal refund completely into the general emergency fund, and still not sure what to do with the tax credit. Hookers and blow sounds like a better option every day. Still don't know if I'll be getting any sort of raise this evaluation cycle at work, because of the promotion I got in December. However, I do have fingers crossed.
• Oh yeah. MOOOOOOOOOOOF!