Editorial: Matthew's 2014 Year End Thoughts

NOTE: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the official policy or position of the California Conventions Blog or its associates.

The following piece is not a "end of the year" review as done in year's past. This is more of my overall thoughts of state of the blog as 2014 comes to a close (thus, the Editorial disclaimer because some of these thoughts may not resignate with the other associates who work with me). This also may be confusing because I'm laying down my thoughts as they come along but hopefully it's all sorted out.

Seven years. I’ve been at this for seven years (seven and a half years technically if you count from FanimeCon 2007). I mentioned this a bit during an Otakon Vegas video, but I’m getting real old real quick. It was only yesterday that I remember being a [community] college kid going to his first ever anime convention in the Bay Area and now I’m in my late 20s still attending conventions, doing the same exact thing that I did back when I started – with some changes here and there. I’m not sure how much more this will last. I have mentioned that 2017 will be the last year when we say farewell by attending Otakon in Washington D.C. when they officially move from Baltimore to the nation’s capital, but that’s two and a half years from now. And as someone who likes to plan things out in advance, I can’t plan that far out at least immediately. There’s always the possibility that I could hand off the blog to someone else, but again that’s too far out to predict.

Tom announcing that he was leaving the blog was both a shocker and not a shocker to me. Shiro (a nickname that I call him on occasion, it goes back to our RP days over on WinMX) has been running with me unofficially since Day 1 when I told him my plans to run a convention blog and he’s supported me since. He did have some pieces here and there and had a wealth of convention knowledge from a time when my feet were getting wet, but was never utilized because of his situation within his own life. I wish I could keep him longer, but I learned between FanimeCon 2011 and Anime Expo 2013 that life always take precedence over an anime convention.

In between posting daily photos and getting everyone ready for the next slate of conventions within the past month, there was a change within the blog in terms of an associate moving on. At the moment I will not comment on the nature of which the associate was let go, but I will say that I was highly disappointed in said nature compared to the other decisions that I’ve made in the past.

What will 2015 bring? Hopefully our first trip to EVO especially if I decide to skip Fanime (which would be a shocker given my attendance there) and Anime Expo in favor of the video game tournament in Las Vegas. Other than that, it looks like the usual slate as we gain another year under the belt plus a few conventions that we're looking at.

I can’t thank all of my associates – both current and past – who have worked with me. I love how someone from the Touhou fandom, the Persona fandom, the Homestuck fandom, and the Dr. Who fandom can see one event four different ways – and that’s what I look at when reports go up. Each report is independent of one another versus having a collaboration for one report. I also can’t thank all my readers and supporters who look at our reports, check out daily cosplay photos, and engage in conversation surrounding various subjects. There's the “we would be talking to zeros and ones” technology one-liner that I say every time I thank the readers, but to me it's true. I know that somewhere we’re sharing our awesome stories and adventures about the conventions we attend all across California and Nevada and that they take it as both a report to see if a convention is “good” or “bad” as well as a documentation of the current state of the modern anime convention.

As the clock ticks away to 2015, there are so many moments to think about. Surely more will be added in the New Year.

- Matthew, Founder & Editor-in-Chief