Category Archives: stuff

My “default”. Just general stuff about what’s going on with me, or that doesn’t fit any of my other pigeon-holes.

This week’s musings

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The biggest problem with keeping up a regular blog—or journal, for that matter—is that I don’t think my everyday life is particularly interesting at the moment. But here goes anyway…

So when I got up and went for my walk the other morning, I’d had this blister on my right heel and got another on my left heel. I’d bandaged and padded them up, but at about 1.5 miles out, I was in a lot of pain. I took off my socks to find that the bandages had slipped and torn off the loose skin—I had to walk back a mile and a half barefoot. I didn’t walk again until this morning, and did my 4+ miles in my flip-flops.

Speaking of walking, my usual route is just over 4 miles (about 4.2, actually) and I’ve been doing that every day. I’ve even done it twice in a day. The walking seems to be doing wonders in my weight loss program along with my moderation in diet and eating. FYI, I’m doing my eating based loosely on The Abs Diet, which is an interesting book. I just haven’t been able to get enthused about going to the gym (even though it’s only downstairs…sheesh) so I’m concentrating on simply being active and doing something that will turn up my fat-burning metabolism. A week from today, the Adult swim coaching class starts, and that’s what I plan to do going forward—swim. This morning I weighed 179.6 and my plan is to drop down to 150 by year’s end.

Victoria seems pretty lively, and she even played with me and some string today. She’s still way too skinny and doesn’t seem to be eating enough. I’m not sure what to do next…

Last night, due to a last-minute schedule change, I ended up hosting game night at my place. We played a few games of DBA with a variety of asian armies (the Mongols SUCK in DBA…) and generally socialized.

Finally, I happened across a link somewhere to a website specifically designed for journal writing. I’ve decided to start gathering up all my old journals and source materials that I can still find and transcribing them online to eventually be published in book form. The service is pretty cool and reasonably priced ($30.00/year + any book printing costs)—you should check it out: http://pyxlinjournal.familylearn.com/home/

So that’s it for my boring week. stay tuned with baited breath in case something even MORE interesting happens…

FINALLY! The 180-pound barrier broken!

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Today, I’m ECSTATIC! After waking up and taking my 4-mile morning walk, I got home, weighed myself and was 179! This is the first time I’ve been under the 180 pound barrier in years! Obviously my weight loss/diet/exercise program is beginning to work. Now I’ve just got 30 more pounds to go. I was happy that—even after eating at McDonald’s for lunch in Vegas AND that chocolate shake on the way home—I didn’t gain any extra weight on my trip. Playing tennis with Mike last night also helped, I’m sure. Coming up a week from Saturday will be the adult swim coaching class I’m planning on starting. If I can take everyone’s advice to “take up swimming because it’ll be easier on your bad knee” and learn how to swim for real, then maybe I can get back in shape quicker.

So Victoria is home with me again. She really didn’t fatten up at all (I guess I was too optimistic for the 4 days). She seems happier and her eyes are brighter, so she’s feeling better. I still get to give her hydration IV’s for a few more days and finish dosing the Epogen. Beyond that, nobody from the vet said what to do next—guess I’ll have to give them another call later. Now that I’ve spent so much money and time on her, I hope it’ll be worth it and she’ll be happy and her sweet self again for a while.

I’ve GOT to find work. I did manage to sell a couple things on eBay while I was away, so that’s a tiny help, but I MUST find something very, very soon. I’m working on it as best I can, but have no leads yet. I’m going to spend the rest of this week searching and posting online, but then will probably sign up with the temp agency across the street. Even SOME money coming in is better than NONE. That, and I’ll continue posting eBay ads. And maybe following the next voice workshop I do, I can get something going in that direction as well…

Last Moments in Vegas, then home again…

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Well, the final day has arrived. The problem with the Monday of this convention is that I always miss out on something cool because I want to get home early and avoid as much traffic as I can. Holiday traffic back to L.A. can be a nightmare.

So basically all I did in the morning was eat my last $3.99 breakfast special, play my last $5.00 in quarters in the video poker machines (but this time, I actually WON $8.50—which I cashed out and brought home) then drop by to wander around the con for a couple of hours to bid my farewells. I did actually attend the first half of Monica Rial’s panel this morning and asked her a bunch of questions. She’d said that one of her favorite roles to play was Haruka in RahXephon and I enjoyed hearing that. She also commented that sometimes it’s lots of fun to play the smaller roles because she can really get wild with them. She talked quite a bit about Ayu-chan from Best Student Council which is one of my favorites.

I left about 11:15 or so, but that was after having a nice farewell discussion with Rich, the convention chairman. He’s a great guy and I vowed that I would come out and be a volunteer next year if I’m still around—he said he’d put me in Guest Relations, which would be loads of fun. Luckily, I also ran into Todd Haberkorn just before I walked out of the building, and thanked him for mentioning me by name in his panel last night.

All in all, a great load of fun and I got to deepen friendships, make new connections and basically relax and enjoy myself.

Even though I left fairly early, there were still the usual pockets of traffic on the way home: Nevada state line to halfway to Baker and then again several miles before the Yermo inspection station. NOTHING frustrates me more than being stuck in dead-stopped, bumper-to-bumper traffic on a two lane highway out in the middle of the desert. There’s NOTHING THERE—why the heck is everyone stopping? Geez…

I still made it home by 5:30 or so after treating myself to another burger AND a chocolate shake at Mega Tom’s in Barstow. Max was still alive and just fine and missed me. Tomorrow morning, I’ll pick up Victoria from the vet—hope she’s put on some weight.

Anime Vegas, Continued

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Today was a little more relaxed and less hectic. Seems like there weren’t as many people crammed into the con either.

First thing I attended was the Bandai panel presented by none other than the President of Bandai USA. They have some interesting things coming out, but nothing that struck me particularly as a “gotta have it” at this point. Lucky Star really does look pretty funny though and The Girl Who Leapt Through TIme looks pretty cool. The biggest thing I wanted to find out was their schedule and plans for Hayate The Combat Butler, which sadly they don’t have much on yet. They basically showed the un-subbed episode opening, but that was at least exciting; their release plans are “Coming Soon” and “Sometime next year” at the moment. My pointed question to them was “Are they committed to bringing it out quickly AND completing the whole series of 52 episodes” and they affirmed they were. (I also made sure to get a public dig in against Viz since they seem to think it’s not important to complete what they’ve started.)

The highlights for me were having time to have some pretty nice conversations with Jerry Jewell, Justin Cook and Todd Haberkorn (not all at the same time). They’re all such great people and I really appreciate them remembering me and taking time to chat—yet another indication of the great work that Funimation does. High quality product, innovative distribution and very, very nice people who actually care about the fans. I hope everyone reading this who is an anime fan goes out and buys everything they can from them!

I also made the decision to sign up for another Bang Zoom Voice Acting seminar, this time with Tony Oliver on September 20. It was a bit more of a chunk of money than I have at the moment and will need to find someplace, but I have this feeling it’s important right now. It’ll be fun and a good experience.

So the con is winding down. I did end up buying another show—the complete set of .hack//SIGN for a pretty decent price. I really wanted .hack//Roots which I saw yesterday, but that’ll have to wait for a Right Stuf sale and preferably a complete series box set.

Tomorrow will be just a quick swing by in the morning, one last spin around the sales hall and another chance to thank and say goodbye to the great VAs one more time. As usual, I’m torn between wanting to stay to the bitter end of the con (they actually do have some cool stuff planned) or getting on the road before I’m stuck in bumper-to-bumper, post-Labor Day Weekend traffic all the way back to L.A. Usually my abhorrence of driving in traffic wins out…

Anime Vegas, Day 1

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Today was opening day for Anime Vegas and it was a lot of fun—I had a great time. But first, some other topics:

My Gambling Story: I don’t really gamble much at all—it’s too lame. But I brought $18.00 of quarters from my change drawer to use (my usual M.O.). I put them in a video poker machine last night and won—$14.25. Typical. I spent a buck or two of that today on stuff, but put the rest in another video poker machine tonight and won—$8.00. Good thing I don’t take this seriously or have the addiction…

Anyway, last night I went to pickup my badge at the new venue (Renaissance Hotel next to the Convention Center) and it’s really nice. I was prepared for a long wait, but it was only 15 minutes. I then made a slight mistake in choosing to eat dinner at The Outback Steakhouse on the strip—the food was great, but i’d forgotten just what a hellacious, crowded, annoying ZOO the Vegas strip can be, especially on a holiday weekend. And don’t even get me started on Las Vegas DRIVERS—the worst I’ve seen anywhere, and I lived in Italy for 2 years…

So then that brings us to today. I attended the Funimation panel first thing and made absolutely certain to publicly thank Funimation and told them they were the only anime company I trust anymore. I also asked about BIG WINDUP, and they said with the volume of shows they’re working on right now, they’re not sure yet when it’ll actually get dubbed and released—probably next year. Just after it started, VA Todd Haberkorn came in and sat next to me too—nice guy.

The rest of the day was mostly spent perusing the (slightly overcrowded) dealers’ room, waiting in line to talk with the various VA guests and get their autographs, and watching a few new anime episodes (I think I liked .hack/Roots, and Maburaho looked cute but I’m not sure. Lucky Star also looked fun, but I’m even less sure about it…).

But the BIGGEST thing I attended was an absolutely PACKED panel room where they World-Premiered the first three dubbed episodes of Ouran High School Host Club, one of my favorites and hotly anticipated show. I thought the cast and performances they gave—at least in the first 3—was outstanding. I KNOW it’s going to turn out to be a surprisingly big hit for Funimation, and deservedly so. It always makes me feel really happy when I can DELETE fansubs and BUY the real thing. In fact, as penance I’ll be buying 2 copies: one for me and one to give to a friend!

Stayed until after 7:00 to talk to Colleen Clinkenbeard and Caitlin Glass (and get their autographs, of course), then back to my hotel and my first real food since breakfast: the $2.99 soup & half sandwich special. At least I can afford to eat on my meager gambling winnings…

In Vegas, Baby!

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So I’m sitting here in my surprisingly nice and comfy hotel room at the Vegas Club hotel in the OLD part of Vegas. I drove up here today to attend the Anime Vegas convention this weekend, which is sort of of my new annual tradition (kind of pushing it since this is merely my third time). I came the first time in 2006 since I’d missed the usual Anime cons while I was in Japan, and so the same happened this year. The drive was fast and uneventful (even though my cruise control was set at a mere 5 mph over) and I got here in about 4 hours.

But first, the Victoria update:

She’s getting stronger and a bit brighter, but still is pretty skinny, bony and you can tell she doesn’t feel her usual self. I took her for a checkup yesterday, and the doctor found she was anemic, gave her a shot of iron and—get this— has me giving her Epogen! That seemed to pep her up a bit—she spent time with me, laying on my lap, being more sociable, etc. whereas she’d mostly been sleeping in the bedroom by herself. The doctor also insisted that I board her there this weekend while I’m gone and they will see she gets her meds and try to fatten her up a bit before I pick her up Tuesday morning. Max gets to fend for himself (and by himself) but my Mom & Dad are going to check on him Saturday.

So then, now I’m in Vegas for the weekend. This convention really is a lot of fun and so much more relaxed than the big cons. I mostly come here to socialize, see new stuff and get autographs—It’s always well attended by Funimation VAs and others. I’ll fill you in as the weekend progresses. I don’t have a lot of money at the moment, so there won’t be a whole lot of purchasing going on. One thing new this year, is that they’ve moved it “uptown” to a hotel rather than at the Cashman Center next door to the gun show. That may also mean some other new surprises—can’t wait to see what’ll be new.

Saturday Gaming Field Trip & good news on Victoria

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Yesterday, I took a trip down to Brookhurst Hobbies in Garden Grove, CA because I’d heard through the grapevine that someone from Peter Pig Miniatures would be there demoing a new set of Samurai period wargame rules.

Sure enough, Battle in the Age of Wars turned out to be a lot of fun and quite satisfying historically. I bought the rules and will be using them if and when I get my 10 mm Samurai armies painted. The most interesting thing about the game was that there’s whole pre-game “campaign” that you play before your army actually gets put out on the table. This can drastically effect a lot of things for the upcoming game—from troops that appear late, to hampering your chain-of-command to all kinds of other intrigues and inconveniences. I think that’s what made it so appealing and interesting—you really don’t know exactly how things are going to work out for you.

The game itself is very fast-playing, involving rolling bucket-loads of D6s. The mechanisms make sense, though, and it’s easy to get the hang of things and memorize how to do stuff part way through. With two complete novices and fairly normal sized armies of three wings, our turns were taking about 1/2 an hour and we finished the game in about 3 1/2. Of course, we also had the author himself refereeing for us…

I got so involved in playing the game that time flew by and I missed lunch (not that I need it…), so I treated myself to an early dinner at the only Sonic Drive-In south of Bakersfield—it was yummy!

But now to today’s big news: I brought Victoria home from kitty hospital this morning. She gained nearly 2 pounds in the two days she was there (mostly fluids from the IV bag), but she still isn’t eating. The doctor said she maybe didn’t want to there but would at home. I have to give her liquid antibiotics twice a day and will have to continue with the subcutaneous IV fluids at least once a day in the morning—kind of creepy since it means ME having stick a needle in her. The doctor also said that there seems to be both kidney and liver problems, but she didn’t elaborate yet. I’m going to take care of her this week and go back for a visit on Thursday. Hopefully she’ll be eating by then and on her way to full recovery; if not, I’m going to have to either board her or have a professional pet-sitter come visit while I’m gone to Las Vegas this weekend for the convention.