Anime London Blog

It’s the night before Anime North… again. ome morning I will be headed there. I’ve charged all my batteries for my various devices including a laptop. With this I hope to be more connected than ever before. Better than I feel as I try to remember everything yet pack light.

It will be a time where I get to meet people I only see at cons like these. It will be busy as I try to juggle picture taking and video.  One Japanese TV show has asked me if they could use my footage of Yatta skits to show the influence of Yatta on North American culture. To that, I will be asking people’s oppinion on this Japanese skit and sending the footage.

I will also be doing limited video to save batteries. I will be asking ‘Tell me about your costume‘ as a possible segment for Youtube. With taping a friend’s wedding just a week after Anime North, I’m going to be busy, busy, busy.  As if I needed my life any more busy.

See ya at Anime North.

The countdown to Anime North continues as I went out and purchased another SD flash card and box of miniDV tapes. I have 4 blanks but with a friend’s wedding a week after Anime North and myself doing video taping of the event; I doubt if 4 is enough.

With that, I found my hard drive full of stuff. With each miniDV tape taking up 13 gigs of hard drive space, I don’t think 9 gigs of free space will suffice. I’m in a major backup mode at this moment. I’m varifying by copying the files on DVDr onto another drive after burning then doing a thumbnail view. I don’t have time to go through every file.

The pages for Anime North have been done prior to March and I will review them before the con to see if all is well. Hopefully the thumbnailing for the gallery will work this time without having to manually do them as the case for Spring (March) Toronto Anime Con.

I’ve yet to print up this year’s cards for convention season. This year’s will have the new 2.0 sections of the site but then I haven’t even update the fornt page for the site. I’m just getting slower or is it taking on too much? TIme will tell.

Every year it seems things change yet remain the same at the same time.

Only a week until Anime North and some habits die hard. Like getting a haircut, buying new shoes and socks for the con. Not that my old shoes with sides coming apart had anything to do with it. Just spending 3 days walking and walking and walking doesn’t appeal to me with poor footware.

Wash is done and those clothes I will want to take will make it into the suitcase tonight. No doubt I’ll have another wash but why dirty which I’ll use there.

I debate more media, aka more DV tapes and another SD flash card. With a friend’s wedding coming up, tapes are on the list. Tripod will be easier this year with shoulder strap I put on it. It gets put into the lugage as well. It becomes a problem of NOT trying to take alot of stuff because in the end I have to keep track of it all.

One casulity this year will be The 4 Koma Project as limited budget doesn’t include art. I will have 4 Koma sheets to hand out to some artists. Just it will be more automonious. Nor will I be spending alot at the dealer’s room. Unless it is exceptional kawaii or exceptional cheap, preferably both, I will be spending most just travel and accomendations. I do have one thing in mind to buy but I have not heard it exists. Worry not since I’ve already enquired at neoTokyo and he’s looking into it. (Of course, you have to ask me at Anime North what it is.)

The countdown to Anime North continues… and I’m feeling melancholy about it. No doubt these feeling will disappear once I’m there. See you all in seven days.

With all the talk of WEB 2.0, it is about time that Anime London’s website join the revolution. Well, almost …

Going to web 2.0 hasn’t been easy. In fact, it’s been alot of work. Alot more work than I thought possible. The new review section still isn’t ready for public release in spite of two months works with 2 weeks of that in a state of crash. Before when an error was made on one page, it didn’t necessay mess up others. Not the case with CMS (Content Management Systems). Any flaw is nearer impossible to fix to it’s complexity. Other than hope for the new revision to fix it, maybe without adding more bugs.

Another problem is each CMS is it’s own deadend. You can’t easily navigate between sections uniformly without some serious adjusting the CMS which leaves mistakes like above mentioned plausible.

One major problem it leaves the site open to spammers. I’ve pretty well turned off comments but keep it in moderation. Which means I have to read the first post first before anyone can see it. Once approved a person can comment away. With over 100 spam comments left by RRS feed bots, it’s getting pretty tiring. The forum hasn’t been hit like other forums. I dread what the new review section will bring.

Still CMS gallery has improved posting times for con pics. Well almost. Trying to edit and upload pictures quickly lead to some patchy jobs on editing the pictures. Video is another challenge which has been falling behind due to personal life getting in the way.

Still we’ll are targeting for Anime North this year as release for new review section so you all have something to pour over while I get my act together on the con reports and galleries. With more and more of our members being at Anime North, maybe we can have more and more pictures.

With new Anime London 2.0, it also means that more and more of those who follow this site can participate in it’s makeup.

Okay I got caught off guard by Free Comic Book Day, being busy and all. Still I manage to catch a few stores during the day while dragging remaining chairs I collected to Worlds Away.

Neo Tokyo was the most generous in that they liquidated some of their old stock as give aways. I manage to pick a quirky looking book which front cover art it didn’t appear much but after I opened the wrapping Tori Koro by Hai Ran was a 4 Koma series. 4 Koma or Japanese comi strips have been an ongoing interest with me. Ah! My Goddess started as a 4 koma.

The real difference with this book over other 4 koma book like Azumanga Diaoh is not rely on making a punch line every 4 panels. In fact, it seems to be a drama of friendship told 4 panels at a time. Reading through 4 komas can be boring at times. Not this book. There are even breaks for a fifth splash panel wich takes up half of a page while the 4 koma is split into two columns. I delightful change. While there is splash pages with sketches, the artwork throughout is raw sketch like style.

All in all, a good read. I have more of this and other book reviews once the new Review section is up. Hopefully in time for Anime North.