Weekend Recap: SoCal Picnic and Other Stuff
First of all, Happy Mother's Day! I hope everybody did something nice for their mother.
I got to the park really early. I woke up at 5AM to eat breakfast and pack up. It was a bit of a mess because somebody spilled milk in the elevator during the night and just left it there. It smelled really bad in the elevator. I was able to load everything very quickly and was at the park shortly after 8AM. At that time, it was only me and fattastik . Within 30 minutes, there was several more of us and we started setting up. Unlike last year, the power was already on in the shelter so that was good.
I didn't know how long it would take to set all of the Rock Band stuff up. It was the first time for me to reassemble this much equipment. It took almost 3 hours of setup. There was still a lot of troubleshooting to do. I found out that all of my downloaded songs wouldn't work while playing offline. At home, the Xbox is connected online all of the time so I never knew about this problem. Most of the licenses were for my old Xbox that gave out last month. That cut my song library by more than half. That sucked because most of the fun songs are downloaded content. We had to settle for what I had available. I was pretty bummed out about it, but there was nothing that could be done. By now, I'm sure everybody has heard about the park rangers and the restrictions that they placed on the event. Even though we had Rock Band last year without any problems, they had a problem with it this year. They wanted me to demonstrate the system to see if it was too loud or something and I had to show them, even though the system wasn't entirely ready at the time. Basically, we had to keep the volume down and honestly, I'm surprised that they let us have it at all. Regardless, it seemed that people had fun with it. It was always in operation. Nothing broke. I got home with everything that I brought with me. I enjoyed wathing people play and playing with other people.
I had a lot of fun at this year's picnic. I took virtually no photos because I had to make sure Rock Band was running all day, but I'm going to have some good memories of this year's event. I paid my admission a long time ago, but the staff wanted to give my money back. I didn't want it, and instead, took the value in raffle tickets, which turned out to be a good thing. There weren't a lot of prizes in the raffle, but I had two winning tickets. I had some good luck coming to me I guess. The first prize I won was a bag full of DVDs, a t-shirt, stickers, a book, CD--lots of cool stuff that's probably worth a lot of money. With my second winning ticket, I got a box full of very girly stuff--also probably worth a lot of money. That was the craziest prize that I could win. Can you guys honestly see me using a furry Hamtaro backpack or a mini Chococat purse?? So, I gave all of that girly stuff away. blueyeswhtdragn , ycysusan , nerdcore , pinkappleparlor , and _shiya_wind all received something from the box of girly prizes. I hope some of my good luck passes to you.
Yes, I am sunburned. While I was setting my video game, the sun eventually came out. I knew I should have put some sunscreen on because I was only wearing a tank top and shorts and sandals. I did, but it was a few hours later and I guess it was too late by then. My shoulders are really red and so is the back of my neck. At least my feet didn't burn.
After the picnic, I went to dinner with
slave_to_anime , talonomega , and
chase_the_bunny .
silver_ruby recommended a ramen place in Diamond Jamboree so we went there. She also recommended the premium pork ramen, which me and Jason tried. When somebody recommends a specific dish, I'm going to try it. It was a good choice and thought it was really good. I would definitely like to have that again when I'm in the neighborhood.
When I got home, I set up my TV and Xbox and went to bed. I was so tired. Thanks to everybody for a really fun day and it was nice to see so many of you. I'll be seeing most of you again really soon at Fanime. People should also donate money to SoCal Cosplay. The rangers would let them to charge admission at the park or take donations. That's a lot of money that was needed to pay for the event. So please make a donation when you can. Support the event if you enjoyed it.
Today, I took my car in for new tires and an alignment. I only wanted to go in for front tires, but after the guy measured the tread in the rear tires, they were close enough to needing replacement, so I ended up getting four new tires. Yes, it was expensive and it's not an expense that I want before going to Fanime, but since it's normal car maintenance, I don't mind so much. Plus, it makes me feel a litter better about making the drive up to Fanime. They also make a lot of difference. The car rides so much better. It's like driving on air. I like these new tires.
In the afternoon, I put the durm kit back together and transferred the licenses for the downloaded content on my Xbox. I shouldn't have the problem that I had at the picnic again unless this new Xbox gives out in less that a year. You can only transfer your licenses once every 12 months. So, it was a fun and productive weekend. Commence preparation for Fanime.
I got to the park really early. I woke up at 5AM to eat breakfast and pack up. It was a bit of a mess because somebody spilled milk in the elevator during the night and just left it there. It smelled really bad in the elevator. I was able to load everything very quickly and was at the park shortly after 8AM. At that time, it was only me and fattastik . Within 30 minutes, there was several more of us and we started setting up. Unlike last year, the power was already on in the shelter so that was good.
I didn't know how long it would take to set all of the Rock Band stuff up. It was the first time for me to reassemble this much equipment. It took almost 3 hours of setup. There was still a lot of troubleshooting to do. I found out that all of my downloaded songs wouldn't work while playing offline. At home, the Xbox is connected online all of the time so I never knew about this problem. Most of the licenses were for my old Xbox that gave out last month. That cut my song library by more than half. That sucked because most of the fun songs are downloaded content. We had to settle for what I had available. I was pretty bummed out about it, but there was nothing that could be done. By now, I'm sure everybody has heard about the park rangers and the restrictions that they placed on the event. Even though we had Rock Band last year without any problems, they had a problem with it this year. They wanted me to demonstrate the system to see if it was too loud or something and I had to show them, even though the system wasn't entirely ready at the time. Basically, we had to keep the volume down and honestly, I'm surprised that they let us have it at all. Regardless, it seemed that people had fun with it. It was always in operation. Nothing broke. I got home with everything that I brought with me. I enjoyed wathing people play and playing with other people.
I had a lot of fun at this year's picnic. I took virtually no photos because I had to make sure Rock Band was running all day, but I'm going to have some good memories of this year's event. I paid my admission a long time ago, but the staff wanted to give my money back. I didn't want it, and instead, took the value in raffle tickets, which turned out to be a good thing. There weren't a lot of prizes in the raffle, but I had two winning tickets. I had some good luck coming to me I guess. The first prize I won was a bag full of DVDs, a t-shirt, stickers, a book, CD--lots of cool stuff that's probably worth a lot of money. With my second winning ticket, I got a box full of very girly stuff--also probably worth a lot of money. That was the craziest prize that I could win. Can you guys honestly see me using a furry Hamtaro backpack or a mini Chococat purse?? So, I gave all of that girly stuff away. blueyeswhtdragn , ycysusan , nerdcore , pinkappleparlor , and _shiya_wind all received something from the box of girly prizes. I hope some of my good luck passes to you.
Yes, I am sunburned. While I was setting my video game, the sun eventually came out. I knew I should have put some sunscreen on because I was only wearing a tank top and shorts and sandals. I did, but it was a few hours later and I guess it was too late by then. My shoulders are really red and so is the back of my neck. At least my feet didn't burn.
After the picnic, I went to dinner with
slave_to_anime , talonomega , and
chase_the_bunny .
silver_ruby recommended a ramen place in Diamond Jamboree so we went there. She also recommended the premium pork ramen, which me and Jason tried. When somebody recommends a specific dish, I'm going to try it. It was a good choice and thought it was really good. I would definitely like to have that again when I'm in the neighborhood.
When I got home, I set up my TV and Xbox and went to bed. I was so tired. Thanks to everybody for a really fun day and it was nice to see so many of you. I'll be seeing most of you again really soon at Fanime. People should also donate money to SoCal Cosplay. The rangers would let them to charge admission at the park or take donations. That's a lot of money that was needed to pay for the event. So please make a donation when you can. Support the event if you enjoyed it.
Today, I took my car in for new tires and an alignment. I only wanted to go in for front tires, but after the guy measured the tread in the rear tires, they were close enough to needing replacement, so I ended up getting four new tires. Yes, it was expensive and it's not an expense that I want before going to Fanime, but since it's normal car maintenance, I don't mind so much. Plus, it makes me feel a litter better about making the drive up to Fanime. They also make a lot of difference. The car rides so much better. It's like driving on air. I like these new tires.
In the afternoon, I put the durm kit back together and transferred the licenses for the downloaded content on my Xbox. I shouldn't have the problem that I had at the picnic again unless this new Xbox gives out in less that a year. You can only transfer your licenses once every 12 months. So, it was a fun and productive weekend. Commence preparation for Fanime.