Well, here I am again at the end of the month and once again I haven't posted anything since the end of last month...

So, what's been up in the first month since leaving the full-time employment of Bandai Entertainment? Well, a lot of working on Kurokami to make sure it goes on every week. (Although there was a hiccup along the way, but that was something beyond my control and I'm not going to dwell on it as it's back on track again.) It's been nice bringing in people who normally don't work in anime such as Wil Wheaton and Peter Fernandez. I hope see who else I can bring in before the show is over.

I went to Katsu couple of weeks back and had an amazing time catching up with friends. Too bad Trish got the dreaded Katsu Plague and then passed it on to me. That kept me out of commision for nearly a week and I missed a lot of work and other things. One of them is wishing some people I hold dear a Happy Birthday on their actual birthdate. (You know who you are...)

Oh, and margauxz, Happy Birthday and I wish I could have seen you at Disneyland today.

Other than that, I'm trying to catch up on some of my translation work and spending time with my family. Pretty much all my free time has been spent with my family and also taking advantage of my Annual Pass to Disneyland. I swear, my son and I have been there more times in the last 2 months than I have all my life previously. I'll be back down south on Monday and if I have time, I'll probably go to the park again if there is time.

I'm not sure what the next few months will be like, but I'm hoping I can get back in the game again full-time soon...

Well, the internet is a buzz with what's been going on. Using information from twitter and such, even my own personal one. It's almost like you can't say anything these days.

So, consider this post a post for my friends, and for any bloggers and press consider this post "off the record" and let's see if anyone actually respects that.

I am fine. I am still a producer for Bandai Entertainment. I will continue to work on all my titles. However I will not be going it from the Bandai office as I am now on a contract with them. (Similar to the situation I had with Viz when I got the contract to finish out Inuyasha.) I'm moving back up north for the time being to be with my family and traveling back and forth to SoCal a lot. (Pretty much what I used to do, except in reverse.)

Thank you to all my friends who called, sent SMS/tweets and email.

So, I finally got to announce the "great experiment" that I've been working on the for the last couple of months. It was revealed at the Bandai "Black Sunday" event yesterday and Michael Sinterniklaas, who's directing the show, was kind of enough to show up. Bandai Entertainment has acquired the rights to Kurokami: The Animation. What makes it the "great experiment" is the fact that it's the first time a show is being produced simultaneously in Japan, Korea and the US. (Other fans have pointed out some previous occurrences, but from what I can tell, they've been pretty much co-productions whereas this is a licensed show being worked on at the same time it is being done in Japan.) But with the production beginning just before Thanksgiving and Christmas just days away, it's been kind of crazy with actors going out of town. Because regardless of what day it is, I still need to deliver a new episode a week until the show is done. So at this point, the secrecy of the project is no more, but that's a momentary breather before I have to buckle down before the premiere on January 8th on iaTV...

Well, I broke a promise I made to myself about at least putting up a single post on LJ a month...so much for that. So here's a update of what's been up since the last post back in early September...

WORK
It's a bit over six months since I started here at Bandai, but on some days it feels like I've been here a really long time. I guess it's partially due to the fact that I'm only seeing my family on weekends, because these six months away from Trish and Hajime have been hard. (I can only imagine how much harder it must be for Trish having to be more-or-less a single mother with me living down in Southern California.) But the good news is, I just put a deposit in for an apartment in Long Beach that will have enough room (barely) for Trish and Hajime to move down to.

Projects wise, I'm finishing up the Dolby Digital mixes of Gurren Lagann for DVD, working on finishing the Anime Legends collection of Clamp School Detectives featuring an all-new dub, more episodes of Ghost Slayer Ayashi, preparing the SD DVD release of Freedom and lastly making preparations for a title yet to be announced...2009 is going to be pretty busy.

AWA
It was great being at Anime Weekend Atlanta again for the first time in 11 years. The con has grown a lot and I had a great time there. I have to say one of the best parts was hanging out with old friends like Emily and meeting new ones like Anime Vice's Gia.

NYAF
It was great being in New York City again after Anime Next stopped inviting me a couple years back. The convention was hard as I had to be booth monkey and stand at the booth for the duration of the dealer's room being open, but the evening activities rocked! It was great catching up with Trisha on Thursday, Hanging out with Margaux and Cheryl on Friday, getting together for drinks at Smith's which became a big old gathering of voice actors and Sunday night was cutting loose with coworkers. (Geez, make me sound like I only hang out in bars after the dealer's room closes...ehem...yeah...)

TWITTER
I swore that I would never-ever get twitter...but I knew it was all over when I got an invite from my wife. So I reluctantly joined, only to find out that she was using it as some kind of example for one of her classes and had no intention of actually putting any twitters up herself. (To this date, she hasn't put up a single post.) But now that I've started, I guess I'll stick with it. I'm still trying to figure out what the etiquette for following people are. I mean, I'm happy that people find my day-to-day things interesting, but do I follow them back, even if I don't know them? I'm sure I'll figure it out eventually, as I did with FaceBook. (On which I had to do a purge of people I had friended, that I really didn't know...)

YOUMACON
I finally made it to my first Youmacon after 3 years of trying to get there. The first year I had an opportunity to do some work with LucasArts Animation or goto the con and that was a no-brainer. Last year, I got deathly ill the day that I was suppose to leave. This year's con fell on Halloween, so I had told them that I can't be away from Hajime on Halloween. So the con invited my entire family. Hajime had a great time as he got to wear his Peter Pan costume for three days instead of just on Halloween. On Friday, as a living accessory to Hajime's costume, I put on a Captain Hook costume and Trish dressed as Wendy. Although, now that I look at the picture of myself with the wig and all, I think I look more like Captain Lou Albano than Hook... ^_^;

So that's more or less covers what's been going on with me...I will do my best to update more often, but I've made that promise before...

RIP Don LaFontaine, King of the Movie Trailer Voice-Over.

So, after being away from the office since last Wednesday, I'm back in the office today. It was good to be back at Otakon, but I have to say I enjoy being 1) a guest, 2) an interpretor in GR and 3) a booth monkey. I spent the whole con at the Bandai booth making sales and didn't see the rest of the convention at all. The only time I saw the anything else was when I visited friends in Spec Ops and did the Bandai Surprise Panel. It was good to see my friends who stopped by the booth and at night when I was tending bar in the convention's Hyatt-based green room/GR ops called the "Battle Bridge." (I even had a psuedo-staff badge that said, "Battle Bridge Bartender.")

Although it was great to hang out with my East Coast friends, I can't help but feel like I missed out on so many things. I never got to talk to Kappei Yamaguchi at all and even though Bandai helped get JAM Project to the con, none of us execpt the Bandai Entertaiment President and VP spent any time with them. I could have seen the concert, but I chose to get dinner with Merideth from Media Blasters instead as I had been on my feet for 8 hours already at that point. Even with the minor disappointments, I had a wonderful time and I wish I could have spent more time with my friends. (You know who you are... ^_^)

So, as I get ready to head into the office with what feels like a con-plague or a relapse of what I had before I left SoCal, I can't help but be grateful that my next convention in a month will be as a guest. I hope see some of you AWA.

Hey guys, if you already didn't know, the premiere of Gurren Lagann is tonight at 11PM on Sci-Fi Channel's Ani-Monday. It's the first time it will be seen in English. (Other than clips I showed at Anime Expo.) We're showing the first 2 episodes every Monday so be sure to tune in!

Well, another Anime Expo has come and gone. It was the seventeenth for me. In terms of sucess, work-wise it was great. The announcements, the booth sales and the booth events like the signings, giveaways and the ACP Lucky Star Cheerleaders went great. On a personal note, I have to say that this year was the worst AX I've attended. It was the first time I didn't have a room at AX, which meant that I had to drive in everyday. (One of the not so good things about living in SoCal, since Bandai won't foot the bill for a local con.) Now, I like to have a few tasty beverages and have a good time at a con, I don't like to put myself in a situation where I have to drink and drive. On top of that, I had my family visiting so when given the choice of partying with my friends or spending it with my family, there really isn't a choice. So at the end of it all, I didn't have a single drink at Anime Expo this year. (Yeah, it shocks me too...) Some people arranged some get togethers like the folks from AWA, Otakon and Sakuracon, but unfortuantely I didn't make it to any of them.

After working 4 days as a "booth monkey" I had a day off for working the 4th, but instead of resting I spent it all day at Disneyland with my family. Hajime had a great time going to his favorite rides and we were happy to find out that he's finally grown tall enough to ride Star Tours, which was a landmark moment for us. He could also ride Space Mountain, Thunder Mountain Rail Road and Spalsh Mountain, but we didn't want to traumatize him right after we finally got him over his fear of the first dip on the Pirates of the Carribean. It's funny how he's tall enough to ride the roller coasters, but not tall enough for the Indiana Jones ride... (48" as opposed to 40") We spent about 13 hours at the park and by the time we drove back to the hotel, Hajime and I were out cold.

So since Tuesday, I've been walking around like the undead, trying to get rest where I can. But in terms of enjoying myself at a con, I'm going to make up for AX at Otakon.

They're pulling out all the stops for the final two episode of this seaon of Doctor Who. It is going to be star-packed! o_O

For those of us who lived in the San Francisco Bay Area, Rory was the great guy who owned operated the comic book shop, Comic Relief, in Berkeley. He was a great supporter of anime and manga from the early days of the industry in the US. Back in the late 80s, I remember staggering into Comic Relief the morning after an Animag meeting (having watched nearly 8 hours of Aura Battler Dunbine for the article in Animag #2) and just hanging out with Rory. I haven't seen him in over a decade but can't help but feel the loss of someone who was so supportive of the industry that we have now in its early years. He will be greatly missed.

One of the updates for the Bandai Entertainment website was to add a blog for the people in the department. I have a hard enough time keeping up to date here, but now I've got another place to post what's going on. So if you're looking for news to print, the new blog may be a better place than my LJ. Anyhow, feel free to check it out. Who knows, maybe some of the questions going around on the net will be answered sooner than later... ^_^

Watching TV with the family this morning, we changed channels looking for something approprite for the boy. (We were getting sick of the Miss Spider's Sunny Patch Friends psuedo-marathon on Noggin.) While channel surfing, we came across an informercial for something called Pancake Puffs. Trish and I couldn't believe our eyes. How can they take a traditional Japanese product and market it like this!?

Hmm...didn't I call them "Octopus Puffs" in the Ranma 1/2 dubs?

So, it's been a full week and day at my new job. I have to say that I've had to hit the ground running and it feels like I'm supposed to start flying any minute now. I've pretty much done 10+ hour days on average and feeling pretty exhausted but as the saying went during the early years of doing Animag, "it's a good kind of tired."

Even though it was a hell of a drive, I drove back up north to see Trish and Hajime over the weekend and it was good...even though it was hard all over again to leave them...

Today, I ended up working a 11 1/2 hour day but one of the shows I was assigned was severely behind schedule at the point of its announcement at NYCC two weekends ago. I mean announced in April with a street date in July? o.O Thankfully, I've got a lot of help to make it happen. I'm already scheduled to do my first con at the end of the month in San Jose. If you're going to be at Fanime, stop by the booth or panel(s).

After being out of anime production for 3 years, I'm finally back in the game. Today was the first day as a newly hired Producer at Bandai Entertainment in Southern California. Man, it feels so good to be in the middle of it all again. And even though I didn't expect to get any of the really hot titles right away, I'm pretty happy with the shows that I've been assigned. ^_^

Unfortunately, this isn't all good news. In order to take the job, I had to relocate to SoCal. Trish, being a school teacher as wells as a student herself getting her teaching credentials, couldn't make the move with me. So for at least the next few months, I'll be living by myself down here without my wife and child. I made sure that I got a webcam working before I left so that I can "see" my family every night. Trish even left it on all night so I could watch her and Hajime fall asleep...

As for me, I managed to find a room in a shared house only a mile and a half from Bandai. I could even walk to work, but I think I'll use my mountain bike that I brought down here with me. So, all you SoCal friends that I haven't seen in a while, give me a call or email me as I'd love to catch up. (My mobile phone number has never changed.)

I miss my family a lot, but I'm really excited about working again. I figure I'll try to drive/fly up to see my family at least once a month...

To give credit where credit is due, I totally ganked this from zonereyrie

Now, I don't usually post YouTube videos on my journal (in fact, this is my first time doing it) but I had to share the videos I saw on Megazone's LJ. I have to say, when I watched the video, I thought to myself, "Hell, a good number of the people who read my journal definitely qualify as the kind of girl that's not supposed to exist..."

Anyways, the video in question...

And this is really great video response to the above video. (As Megazone pointed out in his LJ, it's better than the video in question.)

Thoughts?

As the Gizmodo article put it, no matter how bad things may look to you, someone has it worse. I can't even imagine owning it, but it's cool to know that someone can...

It's a minor point, but I really like to to be through with my foot notes when I'm translating a manga. It's more or less a throw-away sight gag, but I hate not recognizing something. (There is a scene in a "otaku" store where a bunch of swords go flying. I recognize the sword from Zelda and the sword from Berserk, but I can't place this one. It seems familar and has, in my opinion, a very Clamp-like feel to it, but can anyone out there tell me for certain where it's from? Thanks!

...to get a post out for January in order to keep my minimum of a post a month. ^_^;

It's hard to believe a month has gone by already. I feel like I got very little accomplished in the last month. The woman who runs the daycare is still on maternity leave so I've got Hajime to watch all day while trying to get some work done is as difficult as it's been since the beginning of December. I'm behind schedule on pretty much everything. Because of these delays, I lost my translation gig for Negima, which is really unfortuate as I loved working on the series, but I've got no one to blame but myself. In terms of other work, I've got a couple irons in the fire. One of them could have me back in studio soon, so here's to hoping it comes through.

One of the things that did get done was my sisters and I went and purchased a plot at the Japanese Graveyard in Colma, CA on the anniversary of my mother's passing last year. We've had the ashes for my mother, grandmother and grandfather at the house and we've been wanting to get a place for them. We still have to save up to have a the grave made, but it was a first step.

Other than that, we're going through some tough times, but the family is well and hopefully things will start to improve soon...

Overall, despite the few bright moments I'd have to say 2007 wasn't the best of years for me. My mother passed away, freelance work is making me long for social interaction in an office environment and I could do with a bit more financial stability in my life. That said, here's to looking forward to a better year in 2008.

The holiday season is always crazy around here, but Hajime is now at an age where he can really appreciate Christmas. His pile of presents was pretty big with Trish having a large family and my two sisters joining us as of this year. I didn't do too bad myself, but the biggest coup for me was getting an iPhone for Trish and surprising her completely.

I got to see parasitegirl in the city on Friday and it was really good seeing her. I haven't seen her in person since my last trip to Japan a couple years back and it's amazing how friends can just seem to pick up as if no time had passed. We had some nice Indian food and she verbally abused me like the old days, it was good fun.

I have to say I miss throwing my big NYE party at my apartment in the city but times have changed with a family and child. So this year we're off to my brother-in-law's house for some food, Wii and maybe some poker later in the evening. I hope everyone has a fantastic time tonight, but please be safe and responsible.

Happy New Year to all!

Ganked from leilia

I don't usually like having back-to-back memes but I was amused at my score...




I guess having lived with an editor (now High School English teacher) for half my life has rubbed off on me a little bit... ^_^

ps. If you don't copy the last line of HTML code on these tests, you won't have to put up ads about "payday loans" or "dating in some city"...