A long belated post….

Mic check. Is this on? Hello. Hello…

 I’ve been a terrible blogger: amid working to the bone till deadlines, watching my 401k drop quite precipitously and hoping that it will rise again, and watching people get married I guess the blog was the last on my mind. /end_sad_excuse_for_being_a_luddite

Internet, as you can see, I’ve been playing Burnout – massive amounts of it alongside Lego Star Wars and Lego Batman. I’ve had the pleasure to friend some readers from here on the good ol’ PS3 and perhaps soon enough the gaming stars will align and we shall get some sort of game-on of some type. Meanwhile, I’ll forge along and try to get my first platinum trophy before my up and coming birthday.

Otherwise, lets get back into the groove of things. Did I mention I met Yoshitaka Amano? You know, the guy that created the image known from most Final Fantasies? I did, didn’t I? He drew a moogle for Mr. Geek, but what did he draw for me? Ahhh let’s see:

 The convention went well, but was quite small relatively to some past cons I’ve been to. I’m really out of the groove of things when it comes to things anime, but nonetheless I had a fun time. I mean, where else can I see storm troopers shop for kimonos, storm troopers with kitty ears, and three knights from Castle Crashers?

..and no, I did not dress up.

Here’s some rumors to feed into the rumor mill, as I get back into the groove of updating and maintaining this blog:

• A fellow press member from a panel (you can hear him next to me in the video) that I attended brought to my attention that Yoshitaka Amano had directed a part in this movie that is soon to be released state side called 10 Nights of Dreams. It is called Yume Jūya in Japanese and you can hear more about it in this video:

• Amano is also rumored to be hired as a character designer for an upcoming Ubisoft title called Beyond Good & Evil 2 that will come out for Xbox 360 and PS3. Since this is just rumored, I cannot confirm it.

You can watch the video of the panel I attended after the jump.

So I should post…

Excuses excusseeeesss. Shame on me! What with a day job and everything else I can only manage to scourge up this…

…an image taken of a moogle that was drawn by none other than Yoshitaka Amano himself courtesy of Mr Geek. I should have more pictures up (including what he drew for me) and stories (OH STORIES) to tell in the next post. Stay tuned!

Conventions

Once upon a time, a character named Miss Geek went to anime conventions and was really into anime. Time passed, school happened, Miss Geek graduated and found herself in real life realizing that she kind of grew out of that hobby.

Things happen, in my shoes it was the discovery of snowboarding and the love for extreme sports. I still watch a bit of anime and read a bit of manga but it’s limited to a very select few. By select I mean an obscure anime called Junni Kokki and gorefest juggernaut Berserk.

I used to go to these conventions really hyped but – even dressed up at one Otakon. (No, I will not include pics) But I guess other things started to consume my life, and anime conventions soon took to the backseat along with things that I feel I “outgrew”.

With that said, the New York Anime Festival is coming in a few weeks and this is the first time I’m REALLY amped to go. I say AMPED because my favorite artist is going to be there: Yoshitaka Amano.

Who is this man do you ask??? Does this ring a bell? :

If it doesn’t, it’s Terra from Final Fantasy 6. He’s not only renowned in the videogame world as the character designer for series like Final Fantasy and Front Mission. He’s done works in anime alongside with another guest at NYAF Hideyuki Kikuchi in Vampire Hunter D, and collaborated with Neil Gaiman in the comic book realm to create The Sandman: Dream Hunters.

His artistic style just awes me and it’d be great to come face to face with one of the people who designed the character detail in the game series that I most love and have been an avid fan since my first encounter. Oh yeah, and Hideyuki Kikuchi isn’t so bad for a novelist. This year is going to prove epic and you can bet your sweet ass I’ll be in line early trying to get tickets to try and swag and autograph with him. (VIP tickets were sold out….epic underestimation of con attendance on my part…)

Is anybody in the NY tri-state area going to this shindig? (If you’re interested click on the link above or…erm…this one to get more information and to buy tickets.) If so, mayhaps you might be able to meet Miss Geek I’ll be there on Saturday. I might be taking pictures! Stay tuned.

The power of the XX chromosome.

“I haven’t seen you in a while!”
-Guy that works at my local Gamestop

You know when you buy games too much when the people at Gamestop say that as soon as you walk in. I’m sure there are more prolific buyers out there, but as far as I know I have a one-up on most Gamestop customers: the xx chromosome – boobs, intelligence and wit, somewhat good looks, good hygiene, ability to distinguish what a GPU is, uncanny ability to make geeks feel at ease (this has been pointed out by various friends), etc. BUT do all these traits actually matter? Let’s examine the situation:

So I came in to buy a filler game until the fall game rush gets on, and it happened to be Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga for the PS3. It’s a good game that’s great  in a casual way, especially since I don’t have achievement whoring to worry about. My work schedule (and sideline projects) tends to gear me towards a casual oriented gameplay.

(Side note: I’m still playing Final Fantasy 4. I should be done with it as soon as work projects are done this week. Le sigh to real life…)

While the guy was ringing me up, I began to think about my schedule and I realized I should pre-order a few games that will be coming out in the near future. Namely:

• Mercenaries 2
• LittleBigPlanet
• Fallout 3

His eyes twinkled as I gave this list. Here I am ordering a miniture self Christmas babbling about how I can’t wait for my tin lunch box with vault boy bobblehead, and there he was finding out that I could possibly be the best chick he’s met this side of the universe (/being_self_absorbed). I think that’s what set him off to give me a ton of other free stuff (Kratos costume code for LBP WIN!!!!!!), stuffing my gamestop bag to the brim with the Fallout pre-order exclusives and then stopping to hesitate about the Mercs 2 free swag.

Guy: “Uhh I don’t know if you actually get this…but….”
Me: “It’s okay man, I don’t mind if you can’t give me the stuff.”
Guy: “Oh whatever. [shoves stuff in bag] It’ll be in good hands.”

I got a promo insiders guide as well as a neat beanie hat (SCOOOOORRRREEEEE I <333333 beanies). It wasn’t too bad either, the hat just had the mercs 2 symbol on it so it’s easily wearable without being too much like a walking advertisement.

Of course, in most cases you get the swag by default just for pre-ordering, but does it come with a beaming smile and pleasant conversation? Probably not. I’ll have to try to get one of my guy friends to do the same and see what comes of it. Pending social experiment #1 for Miss Geek?

Perhaps! Stay tuned. :]