Summer Shenanigans - Part One

Why hello there, fellow ninjas. How have you been?

This has been a bit of a busy/crazy/tumultuous summer for the Ro. Big life changes, some minor(but salvageable) disasters, a constant thorn in my side that somehow also acts as its own morphine(I'm looking at YOU, League of Legends), and the day job(booooo). To be honest, it's been pretty hard to work up the motivation to come back and resume renovation and new construction on ACN, especially over the past couple of months.

That being said, I took a look at all of the things I have in the works, and it's actually been getting me kinda pumped again. I may be slightly(read: "woefully") behind on my convention entries, but I've also done what I said I was gunna long ago and started once again expanding my range of topics beyond just my travels, as was always intended for this blog. I'm looking forward to getting back to rambling on all things geekery, and not just the Convention of the Month/Week.

So along those lines, I hereby begin the first in a series I'll be entitling "Summer Shenanigans," to help y'all get up to speed on the things I've been up to lately, in no particular order. I hope you're excited.

Code Monkey Like Fritos

Note: The opening line to this week's post is from the song "Code Monkey" by Jonathan Coulton. If you haven't heard it, go listen to it, because the song - and the band - is great.

I'd like to talk about something that is near and dear to my heart today, Ninja Faithful. I'd like to, but I'm too busy rolling a friggin' ball around a 3-D rendered plane to think about much else.

Not that kind of ball, but I like how you think.

OMGWTFACNBBQ - OMGcon 2014

Convention Info

Name: OMGcon
Host City: Owensboro, KY
Venue: Owensboro Convention Center
Date: June 13-15, 2014

2014's new base of operations

Greetings and salutations, ninjas!

You may be wondering why I seem a bit more enthusiastic than usual, given the caps in this entry's title. Well, that's because I am even more excited than normal. Every one of us convention addicts started somewhere, and OMGcon was one of the first conventions outside of my GenCon/SugoiCon bubble, back when I was still a shy, uncertain thing in regards to big events with lots of people. Yes, there was a time when Ro was shy and uncertain, and also quiet. Maybe I'll tell you about it sometime.

OMGcon held a lot of "firsts" for me. First time visiting Paducah, KY(the con's original home). First time entering a costume contest, and first time winning a costume contest(though it was purchased and assembled, not handmade, and it was in a group with my Phoenix Wright buddies). First time meeting the staff of EvilleCon, another convention that is among my perennial favorites. First time rolling up to a convention at night with windows down, sunroof open, blasting Tachikoma music. The list goes on and on.

So as this convention holds a little bit of personal significance for me, I think it suitable for me to talk a little about where it comes from before talking about this past year. Though, really, that's probably a good approach for every convention going forward. I'll have to remember that.

My Kentokyo Can't Be This Chibi - Chibi Kentokyocon 2014

Convention Info

Name: Chibi KentokyoCon
Host City: Lexington, KY
Venue: Joseph-Beth Booksellers, The Mall at Lexington Green
Date: April 26th, 2014

Sup ninjas? It's time for another convention entry(*sounds of exultation and joy*). This time, much like with Lexington Comic and Toy Convention, I'm bringing it back local, with one of the small events held right here in my base camp 'o Lexington. Chibi Kentokyocon is the little brother of Kentokycon, the signature event of a group for Kentucky geeks, Bluegrass Otaku. Held since its inception at local book sanctuary Joseph-Beth at Lexington Green, this little shindig is free to attendees, and serves as a teaser for its bigger brother later in the summer, but does a fine job of entertaining on its own merits. Despite being just a single day, it hosts panels, an artist/vendor area, and even a costume contest, in the event that just hanging out with your nerd buddies in a bookstore en masse isn't reason enough to draw you. This'll be a shorter entry than usual, so let's jump right into it.

Reminiscing Mode, Activate - Ghost in the Tank

I have certain issues with Adult Swim. Though some of it still makes me laugh from time-to-time, I feel its brand of humor has drifted considerably from its roots to a point where it no longer resonates with me. Really, part of it is the fact that it's so entirely driven by humor now - when AS started, it was anime-driven, featuring Cowboy Bebop and Yu Yu Hakusho, as well as Pilot Candidate/Candidate for Goddess, Inuyasha, and several other series. But good luck trying to get AS to play anime on more than one night a week, now.

Which is why that one night a week - the revival of the Toonami block on Saturdays - has been pretty rockin'. Toonami was a huge part of my teenage years, serving as an introduction to many series that I had never heard of, and when Toonami Midnight Run premiered - featuring "uncut"(read: "with some of the swearing left intact") episodes of a few shows - I was glued to my TV every midnight. Shortly after I started college, TMR evolved into Adult Swim, and the rest is history.

My Little Eville - EvilleCon 2014

Convention Info

Name: EvilleCon
Host City: Evansville, IN
Venue: Clarion Inn
Date: March 28th-30th, 2014

Forget A.D., or CE. We're on the Anno Ninjae(AN) timeline now, baby.

If you've been keeping score, you may recall that the very first convention post here on ACN was for EvilleCon - their 2013 Year of the Snake show, to be precise. That was my first year attending that convention, and it served as the jumping-off point for the New Era of Almost Certainly Ninja. As such, I think it only appropriate that the most Eville of anime conventions be the first con I do a second entry on. Thus I present to you, My Little Eville - The Year of the Horse(Pony).

Why Can't I Burn All These Dreads? - Persona 3

Soooo I have an obsession. And this time it has nothing to do with shuriken or maids or midday naps.

For some months now, I've been playing Persona 3. I realize I'm a little late to that party, but ever since the Great RPG Rush of '05(or whenever Dragon Quest VIII came out), I've been working on a tremendous and ever-shifting backlog of vidya games, especially RPGs. I was first introduced to the Persona series by my buddy Scrambles when Persona 3's trailers appeared on the Web nearly a decade ago. With my background in classical studies and mythology, I've been a sucker for games with a rich inner lore, so a series like Persona pretty much snagged me right away. I originally planned on playing through the preceding titles before getting into P3, and for some years I held onto that illusion, mostly thanks to the re-release of the original Persona on PSP(as well as that of Persona 2: Innocent Sin, the half of the Persona 2 story that never saw an original North American release). However, the Backlog of Insanity eventually defeated that plan, particularly since Persona 4 has been out for a long while, 5 will be released next year, and the Arena games are wildly popular among my corner of gaming fandom.