Anime Expo 2009

Whew.. what a weekend. First of all, it was 4th of July, so that made it a three day weekend, which is always nice. I don't feel like typing much, so I'll keep this short and sweet.. I just feel like I really should update this blog more often... So the title suggests, Anime Expo. I went on Friday and Saturday. Both days were full days.. woke up, showered, jumped on the subway, and wandered around the convention center all day long... I shot a few pics, mostly with my Leica.. but a few digital too. My friend Clement was hosting some Gundam model seminars, so I sat in on those too, even though I know all the stuff he talks about already :D



I watched a couple animes in the screening rooms.. mostly, just people watched though. It was fun, but I don't think this year was as fun as the last couple years. I'm not really sure why that is, maybe it's the anime they were showing didn't interest me as much, or maybe it's that everything felt smaller somehow.. dunno.. Anyways, after the show, we had dinner Friday night in Little Tokyo. It was pretty tasty, but the three beers I had made it even better. Thanks to Dave for giving me a lift home.. heh..



So day two (for me, technically day 3 of the show) was pretty much more of the same as day one. Wandered, took pics, I only took my Leica and one 50mm lens with me this time though, so that made things a little more interesting. It's funny how much attention that camera gets. I had quite a few people come up to me and mention it, or ask about it... that never happens with my other cameras. Speaking of cameras, I'm a little pissed. I lost my lens hood for my Tamron 17-50 f/2.8. It must've just got knocked off while pushing through crowds. I also lost the little cap that goes into the flash port on my M6... bummer...

see, look at all those people staring at my camera..



so, that's my Anime Expo 2009 experience. I didn't buy much stuff, just a $100 gundam tank kit *sniffle*.. but food added up $$$. It was fun, but can't wait for next year... when i'll feel even older around those youngsters.. @_@

Forgot to mention, I won a trophy for my Cammy model kit I built. Sweet..

LA Metro.. You Suck....

I ride the bus to work on days I don't ride my bike. Today, I am riding along, reading my book and notice the bus get into the turn lane a few miles from where it's supposed to. I go ask the driver about it, she tells me "This is the Short Line".. what the heck? I've never heard of that... so I get off and skate the rest of the way to work, couple miles, luckily mostly downhill, but still..

Now that i'm at work, I looked it up, apparently there was a change in the service. It'd have been nice if Metro put up some notices or something.. bastards.. .. ..

*rant over*

LA Metro.. Sometimes It Really Sucks

L.A. Metro. It's our city's public transportation system. Buses and trains. You see the advertising all over town to "Go Metro and save $$". They're trying to get people to realize that, yes, there is alternate transportation other than a car in L.A. It's true, it does work during usual work hours. I take the bus to work when i'm not riding my bike. It gets there in a reasonable time, and I can get home in a decent time as well, but anytime after work hours and you're screwed. The problem is the waiting. I don't know if the buses are just running less later at night or if they're horribly off shedule, but it sucks balls..

Example 1: Last Wed. I went out for some drinks after work with some coworkers. I left the bar/restaurant at around 7:30. At that time, my normal freeway bus isn't running anymore, so I have to take a couple buses instead of just one. No bid deal right? Wrong.. first bus comes quick, and before you know it, i'm at Pico/Fairfax, the location where I'll hop on the next bus. Well.. I have to wait for it I guess.... and wait some more.... and friggin' wait some more... eventually, at least 45 MINUTES LATER!! the bus finally came. (some old lady next to me was complaining too). So now it creeps up Fairfax at a snails pace, picking up and dropping off people. Eventually we get to Hollywood to find that the path is blocked because of a movie premiere so we have to go around, and traffic is fucked meaning that's an extra half hour of bus riding instead of what would've been about 10 minutes.. Ok, this isn't the bus's fault.. i'll give 'em that.. damn Hollywood! So to the point.. what takes me a little over an hour on my bicycle, just turned into a 2 hour bus ride... ugh...

Example 2: Last Night, Sunday July, 27. Gnarls Barkley played at the Hollywood bowl. My friend and I rode the bus down there because parking is a bitch, and the 217 bus is a straight shot to Hollywood/Highland. Worked ok, this was around 6:30. So after the show, 10:30-10:45.. somethin' like that. We're walking down and when we get to the red light at Hollywood/Highland, what do I see across the street? Our bus home... of course it leaves before we can cross the street and catch it. So now we decide just to walk down the street in the direction of home instead of waiting... we get to Vine Metro station and figure, surely a bus will be by soon.. at this point it's around 11:30-ish.. so about an hour after that last 217 bus. Still nothing in sight.. annoying as hell. We decide to take the subway train to Western and walk from there... we get into the subway station and the train takes about a half hour to get there.. so by the time we get home, it ended up taking us 2 hours.. that's only 2 miles away! We shoulda walked...

Go Metro indeed! So LA Metro wants people to take public transportation and that'd be great if it wasn't such a pain in the ass. Maybe i'm missing something, but it seems like they don't think about night life. I guess in the end, LA really is just a car town.

...end rant...

Anime Expo 2008

So, last weekend I went to Anime Expo. It was fun. I mostly walked around to the different video rooms and watched some anime that was showing. I also hung out with some friends that were there. One of the highlights of the weekend was watching the new Evangelion remake, in movie form. It was so much better than watching that long confusing series IMO. I took a few pics.

--the whole set on flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bhop73/sets/72157606006897993