The Lost Ouran Host Club Photo from FanimeCon 2009

I've been looking for this for a long time...thanks Ryan.

Poll: California Conventions Blog & Twitter feed

As always, I always roll something major out at FanimeCon. Last year, it was the live tweeting and the Twitter Prize Giveaway. However, both of them ran on my personal Twitter account which contains all my other tweets.

As 2010 starts to get serious for the blog, I was thinking of rolling out a separate Twitter feed just for the California Conventions Blog in time for FanimeCon 2010. It would contain all the updates as well as live tweets from conventions.

So I leave it up to you (the readers and fans of the blog) via a poll: Should the California Conventions Blog get its own Twitter feed?

Introducing A New Staff Member

If you haven't seen yet, there's one more entry to the Staff bios. I would like to introduce Ryan Silva, the newest (and first) staff member of the California Conventions Blog as a photographer and videographer. I first met Ryan back at FanimeCon 2009 when me and him hooked up to do the Ouran gathering - which we are co-hosting again this year - as well as taking a few shots of him at the Saturday Gundam gathering. Recently we reunited at ALA and hung out the whole entire weekend; thus the majority of the pictures, videos, and articles have him listed.

If you are looking to be part of my blog, please don't hesitate to contact me via e-mail, AOL instant messenger, personal message at the Cosplay.com or FanimeCon forums, or in person at a convention.

FanimeCon 2010 Budgeting Update

It's the second day of February, meaning there's less than four months away to FanimeCon. While I haven't put all my focus on FanimeCon since I have ChibiCon to worry about, I have updated my budget.

While I originally thought of just buying breakfast, drinks, and snacks for the hotel room, I am considering adding in lunch as well; I'm still allocating a line item for dinner, although if anything my projection is on the high side. I also found out that there's two FoodMaxx supermarkets in San Jose, all within a reasonable drive without getting lost. With their reputation for having low prices, I can save a considerable amount when buying food there.
 
I also slashed spending cash, but the reason for that I will tell another time...

ChibiCon in San Jose?

ChibiCon?

According to the SoCal Host Club (which now I am a part of), we are supposed to be at ChibiCon at Branham High School in San Jose on March 20th, a Saturday, holding another Host Club event like we did back at ALA.

The funny thing about this is that so far, my con outlook for 2010 has dramatically changed - I went to ALA instead of Sac-Anime in January, now ChibiCon in addition to Sac-Con in the month of March, and possibly skipping Sac-Anime AGAIN in favor of Anime Vegas in September since the SoCal Host Club is looking to be part of that convention as well.

For some reason, I don't feel like driving all the way up and back in one day. Since Ryan is headed up there to host, I might take the train down to San Jose, have him pick me up at the train station, we go to the con together, have him drop me off back at the train station, and take the train back up to Sacramento. Given it takes $~30 for a full tank of gas and I burn most of it with that distance, it's only about $20 more with a student discount (and another $10 for parking). The only problem is that the first train out of Sacramento that will arrive before the con starts is 5:40am, so again I have to be up early to head down there. At least the ride is 3 hours both ways, so at least I can catch extra sleep before and after the con.

I will be talking to the SoCal Host Club again to finalize this, and I will post more soon as we get closer.

FanimeCon Staff Meeting Mini-Report: January 2010

I've been hinting with some people, but today I had the chance to pitch an idea to bring a Ouran-style Host Club to FanimeCon. Despite some of the roadblocks that me and the SoCal Host Club founders are facing, we have a ton of options out there to explore and somehow we will have a separate event from the actual gathering, which I also got some information on. Overall the staff was very helpful in answering all my questions and explaining everything to me. When this is your first foray in event and gathering planning, you probably want to make sure you got everything covered. Plus meeting the con chair was awesome. A good use of a asked weekend off (in addition to visiting my good friend that lives in the Bay Area).

It may seem a long time, but FanimeCon 2010 is quickly creeping up...get those rooms reserved and get crackin' on those cosplays!

UPDATE: After talking to the members of the SoCal Host Club, they have decided to push back the idea and try for FanimeCon 2011. I agree with decision given how much it takes to get a large event planned out. There will still be an Ouran gathering, so all is not lost here.

Sac-Anime Flashback: January 2008 - Reaction Video to Skit #2

This one is pretty self-explanatory. I get on stage at the Masquerade at Sac-Anime Winter 2008 (January 2008), and I film the audience's reactions.



That's all I have for the flashback videos.

Sac-Con Flashback: December 2007 - Masquerade

I have three videos from the Sac-Con December 2007 Masquerade featuring Phoenix Wright cosplayers, candy, and The 12 Days of Christmas.

Sac-Con Flashback: December 2006 - DDR

I took video of people playing DDR back at Sac-Con in December 2006.

Sac-Anime Flashback: July 2005 - The Coconut Song

Even before I had this blog up, I was still taking pictures and videos. This is one of them, from the 1st ever Sac-Anime that I attended back in July of 2005 at the Sunrise Mall - the only time it would be at the Sunrise Mall.

Keep in mind: this was before I graduated from high school. Then things got better.

I should of been doing this a long time ago, transferring my old videos from my main account and reuploading them to the blog account. Be on the lookout for more of these flashback videos.