このアップルパイがアップルいっぱい、ね？
(Kono APPURU PAI ga APPURU ippai, ne?)
[This apple pie is full of apple, eh?]
Lifted that pun from Sailor Moon, episode 107. Translation isn’t punny at all, but in Japanese it’s totally corny.
Made this pie tonight. Used the skills I picked up in GBC. Sending it to a Thanksgiving get together tomorrow. Should be good eats!
I think my mind is wanting to write one of those weird train of thought entries. Please bear with me.
Today was my first day back at work, which was something of a welcome relief from all of the vacation time. Yeah, does that make me an oddball? Likely, but it’s been established that a whole lot of you reading this are oddballs in the same way, so…there. Anyway, when I came in, I was surprised at just how open concept the place was. Without the cubicle walls, I could see that the office was still in such disarray. It wasn’t even until midday that out Internet connections were up and running. No matter. Hiccups like these are almost expected during such a move, yes? My desk is pretty nice. It’s kind of prone to minor foot traffic, but the possibilities for social interaction are higher. God, what a relief that is. In our previous place I was relatively removed from the group just due to how desks were positioned. There were many moments I felt isolated. My personality type could handle it but it was still kind of hard. Our team’s area has one of those stereotypical views of Toronto. Just outside of the window we have a good view of the tower. Seriously, the view is really how you’d imagine it to be.
So, anyway, just to kill some time, a group of us went out for lunch on King St. We ended up eating at a gourmet burrito place. It tasted pretty fresh. The beans were certainly potent. I was feeling them well into the afternoon. Yuuuup. There really was a lot of discussion about where to go for lunch because this move seemed to open up a whole new world of possiblities. See, oddly, at our old place it’s not even like we were that far from King. Most of our focus though was along Queen and up to Chinatown and Kensington. King was still some region that was ever so slightly out of range. Does that make sense?
How can I compare it?
Well, a good comparison I can think of right now (if you’ll allow me to indulge my inner gamer) is to compare it to one of those classic Super Nintendo RPGs. Think: Final Fantasy or Chrono Trigger. It’s like, at the start you’re limited to exploring certain areas. You get to know those areas well and have probably explored the nooks and crannies for hidden treasures–maybe gold, potions, or OOH new equipment. After a while though, there’s nothing new. You know of other areas but some mysterious force blocks you from really going there. Then, after some plot points are advanced, you end up moving to a new area and previously inaccessible places once shrouded in fog become available. Sure, the new areas have more expensive stuff, but at that point you’ve probably levelled up a bit.
I swear, all of this makes absolute sense to me! I actually have RPGs on my mind because I recently got a copy of the re-release of Chrono Trigger for my Nintendo DS. I’ve been playing through it over the Christmas break. It’s a satisfying game. I remember spending so many hours playing it in high school. Playing it now on the DS really bring back memories. Very nostalgic, you know?
As far as gaming soundtracks go, Chrono Trigger is really good, isn’t it? It’s up there with some Final Fantasy OSTs. Out of curiosity, I went to CDJapan to see if the had any CT Soundtrack CDs. I was looking for an arranged symphonic version to the music. I’m not interested in the bloop bloop versions I hear in the game–I want to hear real instruments, right? Well, I spotted the CD I wanted. It’s definitely under consideration. I trust CDJapan; I’ve actually ordered from them in the past. The last few times I’ve ordered form them were for some Seramyu DVDs from Japan. Yeah, no shit. Marina Kuroki took the lead role when she was 12 years old. How young! By the time the plays ended their run, she was 16. She really grew into her role.
OK so, enough wandering. Time to do some backtracking. Hmm…
Marina–>CDJapan–>Chrono Trigger–>RPGs–>King St.–>burritos–>lunch–>the new office.
Yes. The new office. It’s a comfortable place, for sure. I’m sure I’ll get used to the new nuances as time passes. I mean, it sure beats a place where I’ve breathed in gases from an exploded sewage pipe.
I don’t know if this has been a long time brewing, but all of a sudden I’ve been hit with a sudden urge to change the name of this blog. I think it’s really starting to bug me that the name is just plain average. It didn’t start out that way. The name is what it is only because of it origin–and not because I thought “The Impact” is cool or interesting at all. According to my entries, the last time I changed the name was back in November 2007. At that point I cut the name back to “The Impact.” Prior to that, the name was “Hades Impact.” Where did that name come from? To be honest, the origin is obscure and makes me mildly sheepish when I explain it, so…I won’t (explicitly).
Anyway, I was really struggling to find something appropriate so I started asking around for opinions. In the end, a friend simply went for the obvious: “why not citizen of the planet?” See, I’ve had that as my MSN name since I’ve come back from Japan. It comes from a song by Alanis from her latest Flavors of Entanglement. I think it’s appropriate and sounds cool. So, that’s the name I’m going with for now. We’ll see how long it sticks. 
Drawn to my attention the other day. Suppose you know I had to post this. As seen on an episode of The Price Is Right.
Well here’s a bit of fun news for me. Kyleen and her daughter are in town from Michigan. See, the daughter wanted to attend the really big nerd convention happening downtown this weekend. Kyleen obliged, which means I’m fortunate enough to meet up with her again. Last time I saw her was during the Japan tour in 2006, so it’s been a while now.
Well, while I had to finish work they headed for the convention and attended a few panels that interested them. I ventured over after to wait and while I was waiting I spotted a lot of people in costumes dressed as their favourite anime/sci-fi/comic book characters. I recognized two Sailor Jupiters, a Neku from the video game The World Ends with You, a Tidus from Final Fantasy X, and a group consisting of Mario, Luigi, Peach and Daisy. There were lots of other costumed people, but none really struck a chord with me. I’ve attended in 2005, and really once is enough for now. I haven’t had the urge to head back in and brave the nerd-dom. Although, I have to admit, watching the cosplayers is pretty interesting. Some of them are really intricate and match details really well–I can only imagine how long it would have taken to put some of these things together. In some cases though, I can spot a detail off in one or two locations, and it really detracts from the overall effect (e.g. the boots are supposed to be ankle-high green lace ups! WTF?). I guess most people wouldn’t notice such things, and applaud the effort. What, am I exposing my fanboy side? Pah.
Well, I got out of there and Kyleen and I went to the Korean Grill House to get stuffed and get drunk while the kids were enjoying the convention. Fun times, eh? We had to walk around a fair bit after eating just so we didn’t feel entirely gross.
Tomorrow should be fun. I’m going to drag her to the Ex. I have plans to eat shitloads while I’m there. Whoo!
On my second last day in Japan I headed back to Akihabara to check out what I considered to be a super-geek store. Now, the area is already known for having a lot of the geek shops–video games, manga (adult and otherwise), anime, hobby figures, etc. This one particular store though seems to consolidate it all into one shop. Back in 2006, we’d gone to a branch of the store out in the far west of the city. Being that they opened a store closer to where I was located, I thought I’d check it out.
I wandered around looking for the building being unsure what to expect, but when I saw a tall black tower I knew that I’d found it. I was a little unsure about walking in. Why? Hmm…maybe I was suddenly hit by a little bit of self-consciousness. Did I want to be seen walking into such the place? Then it occurred to me that no one would ever see me again. Point! So, I started wandering around. Eight floors of geek-wares. Second floor had costumes and anime cels. The third floor had all sorts of manga and artbooks. I made a feeble attempt to look for a particular title, but I got lost amid all the kanji. I found two artbooks that I wanted though so I purchased them. In the other location, they put the contents in these heavy black bags which were designed to hide the contents. Now, that’s dead useful if you purchased something pervy, or mildly embarrassing. Thing is, in carrying a black bag, you’re sort of giving away the fact that you’re carrying something that you don’t want broadcast. This time, they put my purchase in a paper bag and taped it shut with three pieces of tape. Still opaque, but branded with the company’s name. I think such a bag still induces curiosity if you recognize the company, right?
So, again, why is an opaque bag important? Well, the fourth floor of the building was purely hentai. There were so many illustrated boobies and flying fluids. It was fascinating. This floor was actually the most popular floor in the building from what I remembered. There were a lot of guys perusing thing, pawing at the good, collecting piles and piles of…whatever. It all caught me off guard. As I walked up to the fifth floor, I saw a sign describing floor contents. I couldn’t make out all of the details, but I noticed that the fourth floor (the floor I was just at) had kanji for “men” on it. The fifth floor had kanji for “women” on it. Well, I wasn’t in the mood to face a full floor of men loving men, so I headed for floor 6. I don’t recall exactly what was on the floor. I think it was a full floor of doujinshi. Floors 7 and 8 had video games and hobby figures. Once again though, they didn’t have much in the way of figures from [that one show] that I would have been interested in. Feh.
Well, walking around with a bag from that store was interesting. I could have sworn that people were looking at the bag wondering what was in it. Or furthermore they were wondering what the foreigner was doing carrying something from the store. Maybe it was all imagined. Actually, I don’t think it was. I did some more general shopping before heading to Sensōji and the Nakamise shopping street. The street is full of souvenir type stuff all leading up to the big Buddhist temple. I’d been there in 2006, so I knew that it was a great place to get stuff. I went into one store to shop for a yukata for myself. I set my bags down as I was trying things on. One of the store clerks had to set them aside to access a storage drawer. As she picked up my bags, the paper bag sort of popped open a little bit possibly exposing the contents. The clerk started apologizing–genuinely sounding like she was sorry that I was possibly ‘exposed’. Oh, she knew. Of course, its not like I was carrying illustrated porn, so I didn’t care too much. In any case, I thought that sort of reaction was interesting.
That store, by the way, forgot to give me a free belt for my yukata. Boo!
Last Friday was the bi-weekly company lunch. It was my first time, and was just expecting a simple catered deal. Thing is, at each of these lunches, all new employees are expected to stand on the stairwell and give a small personal introduction. Apparently, it seemed to be a big deal with everyone. I was “warned” by no less than 5 people about this speech. Whatever. I told one of them that I would have preferred not knowing about having to do so; I sometimes come up with real gems when I’m forced to think on the spot. With so many warnings, my mind went into overdrive over what I was going to say. I couldn’t think of many hobbies that I had (that weren’t embarassing to talk about). I sure as hell wasn’t going to mention anime (which is a half-truth anyway), or worse yet, that show. Umm…no.
In the end, when my turn to talk came around, I spoke about my education and previous experience. When I started talking about my hobbies, I stopped with a dramatic pause and put on a puzzled look. I followed that with: “Well…my hobbies…I don’t have any because school drained me of any soul that I once had.” Well, I was pleasantly surprised when that line was well received by everyone; it got many laughs. Although, now, I think I’ll be forever known in the company as the guy whose soul was crushed.
It’s surprising that I’ve managed to neglect blogging about the CN Anime Expo which happened last weekend. I sudeenly feel that now’s the right time to do so.
I went to the CN Anime Expo on Friday. This was my first BIG anime con. The lineup was ricidulously long. I was shocked to see the multitude of people attending. This was Friday alone. The line up to get into the Dealer Area was ridiculous. It stretched out of the Convention Centre, upstairs, downstairs, to the end of the street, looping back around so that the end of the line was back by the Convention Centre. To be fair, there were 4 other conventions grouped together with the anime con. It was like a geek’s wet dream, let me tell you.
Actually, to tell the truth, the only reason I went to the con was to meet people from the Genvid forums. Thought it would be interesting to see what these people were like in real life. On Friday, I was wandering around looking for them. Not knowing what they looked like, I was just ambling, looking for something familiar like the Genvis t-shirt or something. Alas, nothing. In the end, I just ended up purchasing a lot of merchandise.
On the Saturday, I got a call with them informing me where they would be. Sure enough, I saw them in line waiting to get in the Voice Acting 101 seminar with Roland Parliament. Roland played the voice of Melvin in the NA dub of Sailor Moon. Cool stuff. After the event, we went to an atuograph session with for SM voice stars. Attending were Roland and Kristen Bishop, who played several villains in the show. I bought a poster to get it signed by them.
After, I went for a meal with Jay (owner of Genvid) and my friend Anne. Jay was amused by the fact that he was in Canada, eating at a place called Lonestar Grill. The socialization was great. Like I said, that was the main reason I was there.
Anne and I took in a showing of a homemade Star Trek episode. We were expecting some sort of ghetto show, but it wasn’t so bad. The actors seemed a tad out of place, but overall for a home project it was pretty good. Hell, I’m not even a Trekkie.
In the end, I ended up with a lot of swag. I purchased too much.
Menchi stuffed animal (Excel Saga)
Excel Saga manga vols 1-5
Sailor Mars figurine
Dear My Friend CD (Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon)
Fithos Lusec Vecos Winosec CD (Final Fantasy VIII)
Trigun Poster
Sailor Moon poster
Puni Puni Poemi DVD
On the Sunday, I headed back to the Convention Centre to meet with Genvidders for a final meal before we parted ways. I didn’t want to go to the con anymore. I had my fill. We ate at Jack Astor’s and talked about all things Sailor Moon. Awesome stuff to know people whom I could talk with about the subject. That’s very rare.
That’s what happened last weekend. It was very exhausting, but the people made it all worth it.
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