Last Saturday was both an exciting and busy time as I attended SpringFest NY 2013 at the Polytechnic Institute of NYU in Brooklyn, NY. It was my second year attending the college-run anime convention and some new changes came with the major announcement that it would the first year where it would be a two day convention and that people would have to pay for their tickets instead of it being a free convention (even though tickets were a reasonable or affordable price.) I was shooting for a two day pass, but I was lucky enough to even go anyway, so I went for Saturday only instead. I’m used to only going one day like last year, so I decided to go for one day again this year, just to see how things turned out. It was also the first time at a convention that I stayed from the start to the end of the day, which I’m glad I did. I need to do that more often, no matter how tiring it is~!

Turns out, it went very well! Besides some problems with the registration (since it started late, which kinda pushed some panels times around), I still had fun. This was especially true since this year I actually met some friends later on who then also introduced me to some new friends too. The whole group I hanged with was very cool and they were nice to me. If it wasn’t for them, and then later on with things calming down, I wouldn’t of had the nice time that I ended up having. 

The cosplayers and cosplays were very nice and there was no one central series that was focused on. There was a lot of variety and each person either had their own original outfit or a cosplay or a variation of one. I just wished I took some more pictures! (I didn’t take a lot of pictures last year, so this year’s was definitely an improvement!) I didn’t cosplay, but man, do I really want to! I really want to at least have some kind of outfit or cosplay ready for another event or next SpringFest.

I spent most of the time down on the first floor with the Dealer’s Room/Dealer’s Alley (which was where the Gaming Tournament took place last year). I only went upstairs once to go to the “Just Got Splash Beats!!! The Legacy of Bemani” panel, which despite some schedule issues and technical difficulties, I enjoyed it. I finally got to see what an arcade style/DJ Dao beatmania IIDX controller looks and handles like and I played a few rounds (and incredibly failed.) The game is awesome but it’s definitely challenging and it will kick your butt if your not used to the arcade versions and if you don’t practice a lot, but I got to experience it first hand, so it was amazing. At least I finally know that there are some Bemani players in the New York area. I also talked and made friends with the panelists. 

Compared to last year, I didn’t go to a lot of panels, as much as I wanted to. I also didn’t make it to a lot of the musical guests and the game tournaments either, but you know, stuff happens. I meant to stop at the maid cafe and the anime screening rooms, but the time screwed me up too. Oh, well, there’s always next time. The only other thing I did stop by was the rave near the end of the night, which was fun. It was my first time going to one at a convention and I had a blast. Before the rave, I also met with Ernie Layug from The Fan’s P.O.V. and told him I was a fan of the show and I enjoyed his team’s work and we talked about how my experience at SpringFest was. Without their show, I wouldn’t have learned about SpringFest in the first place.

All in all, it was a great time! Even though I went for only one of the two days, I feel like one day is enough to at least get a general idea of what to do and see and possibly buy stuff, but I would have liked to at least get an idea of how both Saturday and Sunday were. I would definitely come back next year, especially since it’s close and it’s affordable; this might just be my home convention. And depending on if they decide to continue making it a two day convention, and if I’m lucky, I might just try to go for both days. Either way, I’m looking forward to next years convention and I hope to also do more events this year as well.   

Hello Everyone.

Haven’t been on Tumblr that much as of late, but the first two months of 2012 were OK at best. It’s already March and nothing much has happened, but things are starting to pick up. Let’s see…

I have been taking a break from college and hopefully will return soon. I’m still really looking for a job, but I’m really more focused on either volunteering or internships for now until I can find something. At least my regular camp art position will at least be ready for the summer months.

As for volunteering, I helped a bunch of kids do a background collage for a stage production over their winter recess about a week ago. Their show was actually yesterday, but I didn’t go; I’m guessing the end result was nothing short of great, especially since the art teacher took over and fixed some parts near the end. I hope it went well. The teacher asked if he could see my my art work and saw some promise, but wanted me to work on some more things. I should probably put aside some money to get some new art supplies soon too, I defiantly need another sketchbook.

Bought another game. Last time was Otomedius Excellent for XBox 360 back in October of last year, this time it’s Hakuoki: Demon of the Fleeting Blossom for PSP near the end of Febuary. Unlike Otomedius though, this was a day one purchase, even though I had no intentions of buying it in the first place; I didn’t even know that there was going to be a Otome game being released, but it lead me to buy the game on impulse. Now, I’m going to try to save up some money and buy a PSP in order to play it, because it will be worth it (and despite waiting until the end of it’s run, there are some games that I wanted, like the DJMAX series for example) and I want to support more visual novels being released, so it all works out.

I’m going to SpringFest NY for the first time next Saturday. After watching a review last year (and to learn that it was tickets were free), I decided to go.  I’ll be going there by myself for the most part, but I’ll gladly be ready to sit in some good panels, buy some stuff and make some new friends.

Speaking about events, I may or may not be going to AnimeNEXT or New York Comic Con.  Between money, possibly cosplaying, hotel searching (in terms of ANEXT) and other things to take into consideration, I may just hold off going again until next year’s (or more depending on the situation). However, I have been thinking about at least going to events like Japan Day @ Central Park or Sakura Matsuri at the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens and small meet ups. Start off small and work your way up from there.

Other than those things, just being creative. Because I want to cosplay in the future, I decided to take a beginners sewing class at JoAnn’s. Learned the basics items and terms of sewing and learned how to work around a sewing machine. Our first project was a small bag to keep a small cell phone or a few cards. Need to get to a sewing machine to finish making it, but it came out very nicely and will post up pictures when finished. Other than that, just working on story ideas.