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Auchinawa 2008… Jolly Good, Chaps.

November 22, 2008

Last weekend, I went up to Auchinawa, an anime convention in Glasgow. I’ve never been to an anime convention before, and the reasons are probably obvious – I don’t think it’d be fun to stay in a hotel for a weekend while being surrounded by flailing crazies ranting on about how Natuto is better than Dragonball Z, and so forth. Myself, I certainly do like anime, and treat it as an equal to any other form of visual media, but I’m not an obsessive otaku. So when Anicom decided they were going to go to the convention earlier in the year and I put my name down, I didn’t really know what to expect, or whether I was going to enjoy myself.

Turns out that I had a fantastic time over the three days. I was right about the whole crazed otaku thing, but it wasn’t really that bad. Nobody tried to stab anyone with a cardboard weapon or pretended they had super powers, so any disasters were averted. Most of my time was just spent socialising with the Anicom lot, or slowly melting on the DDR machine (Damn you, DDR:UK!), but the events were kinda fun. Here’s a few highlights that you won’t get unless you were there with us:

Elevators and alcohol bring out Rob’s bad side… apologies to the Canadian cosplayer.
Bunnies are bad. Very, very bad.
We’re very susceptible to advertising, and the Glasgow Airport area is now Pimms-free. Bolly good.
PBC is the society’s ‘drunken uncle’ when it comes to dancing.
Pictochat is sadistically hilarious at times when you’re in a room full of retards.

So, yeah, good times. Made a few new friends, did some animu-related things, and had a good time overall. But compared to everyone else attending, our society sucks when it comes to liking anime. Oh well, at least we know our drinks.

auchi1

Posted in Anime | Tagged anicom, Anime, auchinawa, ddr, pimms | 1 Comment »

New York, New York…

July 2, 2008

So here I am, sitting in a Holiday Inn in the Middle of Fucking Nowhere, NY (I think Mark Twain’s buried here, but that’s about all I know), and this computer runs like a piece of shit. Still, I might as well let you know how I’m getting on.

New York is… well, hectic. that’s the only way I can describe it. The Empire State Building is tall, and there’s no sign of a naked cowboy in Times Square, unfortunately. Spamalot was awesome as well, all you UK folks should go check it out in London, seeing as you can’t get to Broadway…

I’m almost ashamed to say it, but I bough Guitar Hero DS yesterday, and I’m actually enjoying it. Yes, I look like a right and utter retard whilst ‘rocking out’, and the addon is a bit uncomfortable to hold, but you get the hang of it after a while. Also been keeping myself busy with the Charlie Brooker books (thanks for the recommendation, Allan!), as well as watching I, My, Me! Strawberry Eggs! (fucked up beyond belief, but thanks to Matt for the recommendation anyway ^^;). I’ll add some pics to this post (and probably add a little more text as well) when I get the chance, so for now, adios!

Posted in Anime, Gaming | Tagged charlie brooker, guitar hero, holiday, new york | Leave a Comment »

Mmm… Pretty Boys…

April 2, 2008

S’been a while since I wrote something, ’cause most of my spare time is now busy doing work. Let’s see… I must talk about the new Panic at the Disco album, entitled ‘Pretty. Odd.’. Most popular bands seem to just churn out albums that sound the same every year or so, but it seems that Brendon and folks actually sat down and thought about it for a change (it’s been two years, so they’ve certainly had long enough to thing about it). The album sounds very uplifting and cheery, even (dare I say it?) Beatles-esque at points. The signature track, ‘Nine in the Afternoon’ really reminds me of Electric Light Orchestra’s ‘Mr. Blue Sky’, and they seem to have a slightly different sounding style on each track (with none of those styles being synth disco pop). It’s not that I didn’t like them before, I just prefer their new sound. Go check it out folks, as well as getting the new Raconteurs album while you’re at it.

Anime-wise, I’m working my way through Death Note at the minute. Just finished the first story arc (the first 26 episodes), and moving onto the Mello/Near storyline soon enough. This is about where I stopped watching it last time, so hopefully I’ll be able to plough through it like I did with Gurren Lagann last month. Oh, and I also finished off Ouran High School Host Club over the Easter weekend, a very refreshing series that I enjoyed a lot. Wait, a pretty boy almost-yaoi series, followed by a dark mystery thriller… where’s all the boobs gone? S’okay, I just finished getting Green Green ^^;

I should be doing a lot more work like everyone else seems to be doing at the moment, but I’m not to stressed about it, to be honest. I have 6 weeks to get everything done still but saying that, it’ll take me three weeks alone just to do the TAC ICA successfully… bah ¬_¬ But at least my money came through a few hours ago, and there’s a 22″ widescreen monitor somewhere with my name on it. Good times! :3

Posted in Anime, Music, University | Leave a Comment »

Yet Another Imsomnia Post ^^;

March 15, 2008

This seems to be another one of those nights where I’m too tired to go to sleep… I really should try and fix myself back on a proper timed schedule, because I’ve missed my 9am Friday lecture for the past three weeks now. Oh well… now to rant on about stuff.

Thursday night, myself and friends headed over to Recon, a Tokyopop and Nintendo sponsored manga event over at Borders, and it was quite a good night. The only downside was that 80% of the people there were 14-year-old fan girls screaming in your ear every five minutes (And before you start, yes, that is a bad thing). God, Auchinawa is going to be much much crazier, and I’m not sure if I’ll handle it well. But at least then I know that everyone there is legal… giggidy. I have to mention that Dave and Dan made the most awesome Death Note cosplay ever, and they didn’t have to do much at all to look like that ^^

This week’s episode of Lost… it’s quite good. Over the past three episodes, we’ve had quite a lot of progression in terms of the mythology (in comparison to the past three seasons, anyway), and hopefully this trend will continue. What else to mention… I just made it to the start of Final Fantasy IX’s second disc, and I have to say that I’m enjoying it more than I thought I would. With past experiences of VIII and X, I just couldn’t seem to get into the story… there was a lack of enthusiasm (and more ‘pretty boys’ than actual ‘fantasy’, to be honest), but this one I’ve settled into nicely. A great recommendation from a great friend, and I’d probably suggest it if you wanted to play a Final Fantasy game… but then again, I haven’t played the other 9 main games in the series, so it’s not really my place to judge, is it? ¬_¬

Oh, and on a side note, Google Image Search has bumped off my Natalia Tena links, so I’m not getting any hits from people searching for her anymore. Now my blog has significantly less visitors, and my page stats feel lonely… Please, think of the poor statistics and make return visits to the site, otherwise the view counter will cry and start listening to Blue October… TT_TT

Posted in Anime, Gaming, Randomness, Television | Leave a Comment »

Anime Extravaganza…

March 11, 2008

Time to get back into the swing of things, don’t you think?

Last Thursday, Anicom (Univeristy of Teesside’s Animation & Comics society) watched the final episode of Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann… and what an epic ending it was to such a fantastic series. I’d definitely put it in one of my favourite anime shows of all time, and I don’t tend to like mech anime that much, so that’s saying something. If you haven’t checked it out yet, then you really really should. Another good anime I’ve watched lately is the movie The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, gaining the Jury’s Pick in this year’s best anime of the year category over at Anime-Reactor. I’ve always liked time travelling stuff, and there’s some really cool emotional bits in this movie that make you feel for the characters considerably. Again, go check it out ^^

Anime I just got… Nana seems to be rather interesting, a slice-of-life drama based on the friendship (and apparently more, giggidy) between two female housemates. It’ll certainly make a change from the boobs, I can tell you. I do need to watch through Death Note again at some point, as well as the second half of Ouran High School Host Club which I haven’t really had much time to watch. Way too busy saying to myself I’m doing work, and just pissing around on the ‘net instead, that’s my problem…

Oh, one more thing, I’m probably going to be going to Auchinawa this year, an anime convention in Glasgow taking place in November. If anyone from the forum is reading this blog, hope to see you at the con later in the year! ^_____^

Posted in Anime | Leave a Comment »

~phil's blog