Comic Con 2008 and a LOT of good luck

What a weekend I had

I was kinda down and out on luck. My budget was really getting strained and it was 3am in the morning on the 23^rd of July.

I was trying to make a deadline for this SDSU ( San Diego State University) Teen Camp seminar on Video Games. I was to talk about Work Ethics. To top that I had to again refuse a position from a video game test company due to the fact the location was REALLY FAR.

So there I was trying to revive most of my Power Point skills. I was at the end of my 7 page template on Do’s and Don’ts when working in a gaming company, importance of customer service, blah blah blah…all the important stuff. I was really in a bad mood. Budget down, I left being an RB Mod. I posted too that very risky article about how disappointed I was with the RB Mod Management.

The friend I had also was gloating the whole week about how she got Comic Con Tickets. Just so you know, Comic Con is one of the biggest pop culture and media convention. Big stars from film, comic and movie industry would go there and mingle with fans. This year they had Heroes as usual, people from the Iron Man movie, Kim Kardashi, Stan Lee, Keanu Reeves and many more. If you did not pre register yourself for the tickets, the tickets itself for the Saturday event would sell up to 200$ from its original 60$ value. Of course the fact she can go and I would be stuck at home made me extra miserable as is.

I then got a call from my ex. He’s here in California. I dated him during the time I was in Sony Playstation well actually after I left Sony then went back to work with them again hahaha. He had a free ticket to Comic Con on the Most Wanted day event. The Saturday event. But being stoned I was from staring at the laptop monitor for the last 5 hours, the realization of what LUCK I got didn’t hit me till the next morning.

The Gaming seminar followed smoothly. I spoke to some highschool kids. They were a quiet bunch. The topic should be boring but surprisingly, a lot participated in the discussion. I was happy about that. To top it off I got to speak with David Hernandez, a game animator who was the head of the Video Game camp. He was cuuuuuuttttteee. We got to speak about the Thor Movie and the new Xmen Origins and Comic Con.

The next day, I got a call from a company that I had previously interviewed for. I was put in conference call. This interviewed took WEEEKS before they got back to me on anything, I went through a lot with the final interview after being dissected by their company VP. In the end they made me a lucrative offer. I was sobbing on the phone. Miffling it really. What LUCK I am having. All I could think was, I have to get to church. I needed to pray. In addition, my weight has been going down constantly due to my Cardio. Im sooooo happy.

It was Pasalamat at our church. I was able to get to our Local at the right time. My friend James drove me there. He spent the night at the boarding house Im staying to save gas. At church, I was sobbing during the prayer. It was a tough year. And this was the first sign of good stuff that happened to me. However, my good luck meant bad for my friend who originally got Comic Con passes. Her own contact never came through for her, you can imagine how PISSED she was at me when I told her I finally had tickets. At that time I assumed she had hers and wanted to go together with her

It did not end there. I got to attend a Bridal Convention too. The entrance fee was really cheap. And I went there for the free cake tasting. I won a contest for a free banquet room at a local water hole. I still need to think HOW to use it.

Roll in Comic Con which I attended 2 days ago. I had to wait for Daniel to give out my pass. When he did, he wanted us to walk 3 blocks to the parking lot which I was swearing like mad because I was getting trampled by the cosplayers on our way. He then treated me to a REALLY posh Hotel Restaurant…man was I intimidated.

Then we finally headed off to the
Comic Con convention area. On our way there I didn’t know I bumped into Seth Green and guys from Adult swim. I was sooooooo annoyed that I wasn’t able to get a picture. But once we reached the main halls, the first place I jumped into was the Square Enix Booth. One guy wanted me to buy Aeriths Mana necklace…wahhh no budget yet. Then off to DC. Where I got a cool piture with the Batman team. I was really shy. But my eyes were locked on to Robin. He was cute. I said I wanted to take a picture with him. To his reply “ IT’S ABOUT TIME!!!”

It was really funny since if you see the pic all the rest of the DC crew were staring at him as he had my arms wrapped around him. My ex was pretty annoyed too. Dragging me out of the DC Booth. He blamed the flower on my head. He’s half Hawaiian, so I wore the flower on the side of my head that says Single…after that I REALLY got good pictures. ( Sorry Goenitz huhuhu)

I did pass by the Capcom section and bought my dear Goenitz a limited edition Capcon Hologram comic

My luck didn’t ended there. Remember that article I made? I never thought anyone would take notice. An RBer actually made a topic about it. I gained some good comments but I did had to clear some issues, just to make sure I don’t have animosity towards some of my ex managers. The article was deleted but I felt happy and really grateful on some of the supportive comments they gave me.

Its been a good week so far. And God is good. Bad things happened too, but that’s another story for now

Birthday week

Birthday week

I didnt realized how fast my bday was approaching until my laptop told me it was already the 15th.

Its still a few days short of the B-day but since budget has been tight, Ill just have a cupcake for my bday cake.

I'll be attending a Bridal bazaar on my bday too, I got a free pass ( sorta) so I'll get to sample some free wedding cakes. At least I have cakes ( damn you Goenitz where are u lately)

On the other hand, I have finally relinquished my Ragnaboards role as Moderator...sorta.

I always thought that, I would never have to be touched by the "political games" Level Up tends to play with its employees from time to time. I have my own share of horror stories, that I personally have witnessed from former co-workers and some even got a few hits and misses myself. If not for a few good friends in LU who knew of my naiveness that helped me out before

However, most of them are gone now.

I left being a Moderator in Ragnaboards for maaaany personal reasons

I RB more than I work, so yeah my IRL work sometimes gets affected however I never got caught :-)

I loose sleep on weekends just RBing

Ever since my PC downgraded, I cant play RO as much so I have limited knowledge of the game nowadays.

But the main reason perhaps that I also fail to admit to myself and everyone, is that I am losing motivation to manage RB. Being of what it has become. The rowdy people, disrespectful ( often idiotic players), but most of all the obvious rift between the mod team and me.

To make matters worse I think I left RB just in time. You see the rules in the boards? Thats about to change soon. I spoke to the manager handling RB about the " professionalism " issues we were having internally in the team.

When the manager told me that she doesnt care about the personal, team fighting issues as long as we do the job right, that statement hit a very sensitive chord. I told her that in LU and in Rb during my time, that wasnt how things run. Since you need team work to make everything run smoother and at least some level of reprimandation for those few mods who tend to lose their way ( that includes me).

The response she gave me was very disappointing. She told me since we mods are not being paid, its ok to do " whatever" we want in the boards as long as we do the job. Any personal issues, or fights, wala na sya don. Also she said " Iba yung dati, iba na yung ngayon: pertaining how LUG/RB was before to the now system. Frankly I dont like the Now system

The RB Mod team in the past few months has its shares of ups and downs. More downs than ups to be exact. We had a couple of rouge mods who basically said things that are NOT supposed to be said to players. We had internal issues in which a few mods would take leaves yet they still used the mod account to just chat ( The manager told me that NOW thats ok). I spoke to other former LU managers, they said that action is a bit irresponsible since a mod on leave should not use a property of LU for personal reasons, in case that mod makes a mistakes its LU who will get the negative hit.

We had mods who would NOT pass reports, and basically what just ticked me off in the end was the blatant disrespect and arrogance of some of them.

In my opinion, perhaps because we have a difference of what we think is morally correct is the one thing that divided us the most. Some of the mods have gained more preference from both LU and the public despite if what they do is right or wrong...basically, I got outnumbered and they have the public to back them up.

What I find wrong too is the amnesty they would give to their friends when they commit offenses or offensive remarks to other or to me. In some cases they too would chime in with the crudeness of the pack. And when you point it out the call you the one being " Unprofessional or childish"

Im not saying Im the perfect mod or GM either I have my mood swings. And lets face it, my grammar can even be beaten by a 3rd grader. Sometimes I often over reprimand a person in the forums, and my " Ate" attitude gets the best of me when reprimanding anyone younger than me.

Bottom line, I can make as much terrible mistakes as anyone. And no matter how much anger sometimes boils in my heart, in the end I really would rather would like to resolve things. That is the one thing many of the LU employees lack especially people in the mod team. Apologize doesnt seem to be an option

The last few days I had in RB were really sad. And in one instance some one used a very personal and uncalled for remark about my family member.

I'm tired of it, the politics, the corruption, all the red tape crap. And I am losing my pride to have once worked with Level Up after the way they have taken advantage of most of its employees, not just mods but good people in general . Everything I stand up for, defended and believed that RB was the one good place in Level Ups' bad rep, was shattered in an instant.

Worse is that I lost the people whom I thought were my friends.

Maybe Im being too emotional about all this. But only because, I always regarded my role in Level Up as one of the best Jobs I had in my life. The relationships I built were some of the strongest I still have. I cant say entirely for the mod team its the same. You cannot please people who do not want to be pleased.

I should have listened to my friend in LUG who told me, that I should play the politics game...too bad I never did. I don't entirely regret it, but at least maybe i could have made changes to prevent whats become of RB now...I dunno.

I do however feel that whatever contributions I did do for RB or LU were completely forgotten if not taken for granted. I sometimes even fear pointing them out due to the fact I dont want to be labeled as a person who thrives on attention or my "laurels"

Wouldnt matter anymore.

Ohhhh well Happy Bday then to me.

Anime Expo 2009

Anime Expo 2008. How did it go?

I would give the experience a 50/50 score.

The Los Angeles Convention Center was too big that everything in the convention was spread out. By walking from one event to another, takes time making us miss other core shows.

Our day started out slightly wrong. The video cam I bought for a cheap 20$ got broken right out of the store and needed an exchange.

We spent 50$ just for the gas going there. The car were in had no aircon, we needed to have our windows down on desert heat weather.

The good news is there was no line anymore on the badge claim section. And there were fewer Naruto cosplays. Not that I’m against Naruto however, most Naruto cosplays always ended up in disaster. There were fewer Deathnote cosplayers though.

The place was HUGE parking was 13$. And the cafeteria was too small for all the thousands of attendees. But there was some decent short ribs.

There was Japanese Traditional dancing and Japan paranormal panels both I missed because I got stuck in the cosplay exhibition.

But when I saw the Gravity station I basically stayed there as much as I could. There were to give away RO2 box sets. I didn’t win it though I got through the raffle. The Gravity exhibitioners were nice enough to tell me that the USA team for RWC were preparing for their server eliminations.

I do feel though there were fewer cosplays this year.

There were other kiosks too like Funimation, Manibogi games ( RO competion in Korea) Maple Story, Xbox, Viz media, lots of Lolita/Goth fashion stands and many more.

We skipped the 2^nd day fast and decided to enjoy the rest of LA by going to the beach. Santa Monica Beach ( Beverly Hills was too far).

The beach had a pier with a small theme park. The Jonas Brothers were there as well. They had roller coasters, a small beach memorial for the soldiers and victims who died in the Iraq war.

Back at the hotel was a slight disaster. We booked a semi posh hotel with a nice whirpool and soft beds. Like the one in the websites. Well websites are misleading. The hallway stinked of cigarettes, the pool was by the paring lot and the outdoor Jacuzzi had a smell.

The good news, we had a place to sleep and we had the pool to ourselves at night.

Next year though we may not anymore participate for the 09 Anime Expo but instead do the Comic Con instead. Depends if I have cash