Matthew Miranda - Founder and Editor-in-Chief
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| Matthew as Junpei Iori from Persona 3 posing with a Starbucks cup at SacAnime Winter 2012. (Photo Credit: Ray) |
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| Matthew interviewing Gilles Poitras, Guest of Honor, at FanimeCon 2011. |
Matthew Miranda is the founder of the California Conventions Blog. He is currently attending California State University, Sacramento majoring in Economics. He plans to work for the State of California or a private company once he graduates in Spring of 2012. In addition to maintaining this blog and providing anime convention coverage, he is an avid gamer and loves to work on computers. He also likes to play Texas Hold'em poker and dreams of winning the World Series of Poker's No-Limit Hold'em Championship. Of course, he does watch anime and does read some manga; his favorite series (in no particular order) are:
Infinite Stratos,
Eureka Seven,
Cowboy Bebop,
Black Lagoon,
Durarara!!, and
THE iDOLM@STER.
Lucas Chang - Floor Photographer and Videographer
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| Lucas (right) chatting it up with another Souji cosplayer from Persona 4 during FanimeCon 2011. |
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| Lucas leading the crowd as Austria at the Axis Powers: Hetalia Gathering at Anime Los Angeles 7 (2011). |
Lucas Chang is photographer and videographer for the California Conventions Blog. A relative new comer to the world of conventions and cosplaying, and this year at AX will be his one year anniversary of cosplaying. He has been to conventions such as Anime Expo, San Diego Comic Con, Anime LA, Pacific Media Expo and FanimeCon. In addition to taking photographs and videos, he is also a big fan of drawing (see
deviantART) anime, manga, an amateur fencer, video gamer, swimmer and pianist (see
YouTube). Some favorite anime include Code Geass, Angel Beats, Scrapped Princess, School Rumble, Full Metal Alchemist, Baka to Test, and many more.
Tom Gifford - Convention Specialist and Historian
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| Tom singing at the FanimeCon 2011 Karaoke Contest. |
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| Tom joins a team huddle with the other members of the FanimeCon 2011 Press Team. |
Tom Gifford is the Convention Specialist for the California Conventions Blog. He is currently attending the College of Marin in San Rafael, majoring in Computer Science with a desired specialty of Video Game Design and Programming. He is good friends with blog founder Matthew. Like the other staff members, he is an avid gamer, and is also quite a good singer, frequently entering in karaoke contests at the cons he attends. He has been attending anime conventions for 10 years, beginning with FanimeCon 2001. His favorite anime series are: The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Eureka Seven, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Star Ocean EX and Ys. He prefers to play RPGs, but does play other video game genres as well. His favorite RPG series are (in order): LUNAR, Phantasy Star, Persona, Ys, Atelier, Star Ocean, Valkyrie Profile, Xenosaga and Final Fantasy. His other favorite game series are: Sonic The Hedgehog, Mega Man, Jak, Ratchet & Clank, Sly Cooper, the video games of Mobile Suit Gundam, Street Fighter, and Tokimeki Memorial. He prefers to go by his online nickname "Shiro."
Zanney Sperber - Convention Specialist & Author of 'CCB Insider'
Jackie Doncaster - Lead Artist & Assistant to Zanney
Zanney's warped sense of humor is a great morale booster.
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| Jackie drew caricatures for visitors to the CCB fan table at Anaheim Comic Con 2011. |
Zanney Sperber likes to describe herself as "just your average, run-of-the-mill nerd from Southern California." Right now, her heart belongs to blogging, voice acting and cosplay, but the love of her life is our lead artist, Jackie Doncaster (shown above). The couple have been partners in fandom for about two years now and hope to officially tie the knot before the end of the third.
Aubrie Hollands - Lead Studio Photographer
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| One of the many self-portraits Aubrie takes on her spare time. |
Aubrie Hollands is the Lead studio Photographer for the California Conventions Blog. She has over 4 years of schooling for photography and Photoshop under her belt. She mainly does photos of cosplay for the blog and uses her portable studio for her jobs. She also does family photography and model photography for a living. She cosplays as Maka from
Soul Eater, Tamaki from
Ouran High School Host Club, and so much more!
Aubrie and her husband Bryan welcomed the newest member of their family, Daniel Wilder, on February 19th, 2012. The California Conventions Blog Team sends the growing family our love and support and all the good vibes as we prepare for the Spring and Summer Convention Season!
Robbie Pleasant - Convention Specialist
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| Robbie as Giovanni from the Pokemon series taken by BlizzardTerrak Photography. |
Robbie Pleasant, also known as Eliteslayer, has been attending anime conventions around California for several years. An avid cosplayer, he's no stranger to cosplay gatherings (having hosted quite a few) and masquerades. You can see him around conventions in northern California, or watch his
Abridged Series of Ranma 1/2 on YouTube.
Robbie also has a blog called "
Whatever I Read," a blog dedicated whatever he likes to read.
Ray Ancheta - Convention Specialist
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| Ray as Wriggle from Touhou at SacAnime Summer 2011. |
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| Ray (cosplaying as Yu Narukami/Protagonist from Persona 4) presenting at the STG 101 panel at SacAnime Summer 2011. |
Ray Ancheta, also known as Ray Scarlet, goes to a wide variety of conventions in Northern California, such as Kin-Yoobi Con, Sac-Anime, Animation on Display, and of course, Fanime. He started going to Fanime in 2006, then started going to other conventions in 2009. In addition to conventions, Ray also attends many cosplay gatherings (sometimes at a rate of as many as 2-3 per month), such as those hosted by Bay Area Conventions in San Francisco and Sencha Productions in the Silicon Valley area. Much of his current social life lies in the cosplay and convention scene. He runs a convention panel called
STG 101: Intro to Shoot-Em-Ups, a panel aimed at introducing the audience to 2D scrolling shooters. Usually he collaborates with one or two other friends, although on rare occasions he hosts alone.
In his spare time, Ray plays a lot of video games, mainly shmups (i.e. Touhou and various CAVE games), Shin Megami Tensei, and Eastern rhythm games (i.e. DJMAX, beatmania IIDX). He is also into Vocaloid (mainly Len Kagmaine and Luka Megurine) and some anime series, such as Ano Hana and Kimi ni Todoke.
Sierra Lamont - Interpreter
Coming soon!
Avianna Tiscareno - Texas Convention Correspondent
Avi watches over her fan table at Mizuumi-con 5 in San Antonio, Texas.
Avi's interests encompass a wide variety of anime, manga, video games, and other Asian media ranging from fashion to music to travel to culture. She has also been a guest on the Otaku no Podcast and provided her vocal talents to various fan dub projects along with Zanney and Jackie. She is also the editor in chief of
Hetalia Etiquette on Tumblr.
Her current favorites in anime are Kuragehime, Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Hyouka and Hetalia: Axis Powers. Avi likes to stay on top of what's trending both in Japan and in the States and everyone on the CCB staff can attest to the fact that our guru is very well-versed in all things Lolita.
Avianna was born and raised in the Los Angeles and Santa Barbara area of California. She recently moved to San Antonio, Texas, where she interns for a local comic book publisher and works at a comic book store. Well versed in the styles of Lolita and other Japanese street fashions, she's a jack-of-all-trades who enjoys style and panache while incoporating those things into her handiwork.
Avi watches over her fan table at Mizuumi-con 5 in San Antonio, Texas.
