Sephi Hakubi

So here I am, doing my laundry at a Holiday Inn about 5 miles from Lackland AFB, Texas writing my update of my escape from what I call HELLburt and enjoying the rest of my life as a human being.  The funny thing is that after 6 years, I find myself back where I started in the Air Force, and that is the gateway itself.  This is going to be a really long blog and I owe so much from the last two weeks so I’m going to split it up into two parts.  I’ll post Part 2 tomorrow.

As you can see from the picture above, after I left Fort Walton Beach, Florida, Rin and I joined rukia8492 to attend the 7th Kawaii Kon.  Videos are being edited, rendered, and uploaded to www.youtube.com/Sushicrowd right now and I’ll be posting pics up hopefully this week as I’ve got some time in my hands, but I’ll see if I can recount all that went on up to today.

Rin and I flew to Hawaii without much problem except either American Airlines or Cheaptickets mismatched out seats.  We were able to sit together but not exactly the seats we wanted to get, lucky enough whoever we sat next to was tolerable to say the least.  I had worst as I remember my trip to Vegas sitting in between 2 beached whales and a crying child.  I know that sounded really mean, but I do have a right to heel when I didn’t get any sleep on that flight.  Anyway, I digress; we make it to Waikiki after realizing how much more debt we start to incur due to rental insurance and parking and check-in to Waikiki Gateway Hotel.  Now to give detail on the hotel, I don’t know whether it’s Cheaptickets or the hotel itself, but it’s got to be the absolute WORST hotel in the strip and whatever was advertised as a queen bed and roomy space is FALSE.  I’ve never seen Rin so pissed off on vacation, and to top it off, we volunteered to house Cory J and Andrew from Take One Productions on the first night.  Across the street was the Maile Sky Court where we stayed at last year.  We thought Waikiki Gateway was closer but after that, well no need to explain how much of a waste that was.  Rin and I met up with rukia8492 and Sakis to show Rin what real ramen is at Taiyo near Ala Moana Shopping Center, I would think Rin would love ramen as she likes the fake kind but she wasn’t too into the miso base.  We walked around Ala Moana for a good amount until Rukia had to report back to his unit so Rin and I went back to the hotel awaiting Take One’s arrival.  We went back out later to pick up Cory and Andy and thank goodness for these guys because they made us forget that we had such a crappy hotel room.  After recently signing them, Happy! Project, and SNFU Gaming into the Sushicrowd alliance, their stay-over was a great opportunity to get to know them better on a personal and professional level to help us in Sushicrowd give these guys the push and support where they need it.  Hopefully during my stay in Texas, I’ll have the same opportunity with Happy! Project.

Cory, Andy, Rin, and I toured Waikiki and the Ala Moana mall and I have to admit, I am a bit envious of their wit because they can turn any bad or dull situation into something ridiculously funny.  I swear these guys are the wish for peace on Earth.  Ala Moana is what I’ve remembered it and for what I get excited for in Hawaii, I ended up following through it.  The past few months I’ve lost about 20lbs, probably to gain it all back in Hawaii eating BBQ plate lunches and Korean BBQ.  After lunch, we got involved in a filming of a Take One skit which I can say involved persistence, DDR, and demand for competition.  I promise there’s a hot chick in there somewhere    After walking the mall and part of Waikiki, we cooled down from the heat and then proceeded to head back out for our Press Pass pickup and our traditional Kountdown to Kawaii Kon dinner at iHOP.  The dinner along with other moments make it seem that I live in Hawaii still and that my friends are indeed close to my heart; however, I realized this year that my personal fun at Kawaii Kon may not start until it is over.  I’ve made countless announcements about my hiatus before but now I’ll illustrate one of the reasons why.

It’s Friday, had L&L for breakfast, wore my “I Bring It” shirt and black trips, packed equipment in the car, omitted cosplay throughout our entire weekend, and went on our way to capture the Kawaii Kon moments.  I began filming the Otaku 5-0 Meet-n-Greet and got to know the cast of the podcast, which proved valuable because a couple of folks on that show want to help record the convention in my absence the next few years.  Immediately after the panel, I got a big lunch at Blazin’ Steaks because it’ll be a while until I see food and worked on the finishing touches of my Memories of Kawaii Kon panel.  My panel went ok but not as  much as I hoped it was like last year; however, I finally invented a dance to that damn Nyan Cat meme (http://youtu.be/31ul5CbaygM).  I got about another hour break before the dark hours of the con ended and school let out, leading to Opening Ceremonies.  Some panels I’ve got to film afterwards were Scott McNeil and Jonathon Tarbox as well as the Karaoke Semifinals competition; however, Sushicrowd was in a pickle when we realized that Take One Improv Show and Eleven Staples concert were taking place at the same time.  I guess if I can say if my last unit had taught me anything, it was to figure it out and be versatile (You guys are still never getting a “Thank You” from me btw).  Rin ended up filming the Take One show with my Sony HD Handycam while I filmed Eleven Staples on my iPhone.  Both turned out really good as our goal was at least 720p.  Finally the night ended in the butishake and as many rave I’ve attended, I felt so sorry for Rin because she unfortunately had one of those “Along Came Polly” moments.  Glad to have run into DJ Tide again since hanging out with Majestix some years ago and finally got to see DJ Helsing mix.  After them and Buma’s AMV mix, now I’m so pumped up for my gig at Sukoshi Con Gadsden and Fan:dom Con after a party like that.

Friday was merciless, my body was in pain and it was just event after event.  Luckily Saturday wasn’t as bad but we had to get up early that morning.  I think my dreams of meeting voice actors have been fulfilled because after 15 years of hearing her on Power Rangers, VR Troopers, Tenchi Muyo, Dirty Pair, and Cowboy Bebop, I’ve met my inspiration for voice acting named Wendee Lee.  It’s been a while since I’ve fanboyed over VAs like Sean Schemmel, Chris Sabat, Vic Mignogna, and I admit I had recently with Richard Epcar and Johnny Yong Bosch, but I was completely thrilled to meet this awesome lady.  I will also say she is indeed very sweet and classy, a true professional.  After my fanboy moment of the year, I got to film more events with Take One and got a longer break in between between panels until my favorite main event, the Cosplay Showcase.  After the showcase, we did a photoshoot with Cory and Andy and then went back to our hotel room to change for the Moonlight Ball.  Before the Moonlight Ball however, I went to film the Alt/Air concert in its HD entirety.  OK, speaking about these events make me wish I have a faster way of getting the videos out because I can’t get into grand detail on these events, just what happened in between.  Finally, we chilled at the elegant Moonlight Ball, something I wish I had more chances to attend but if I ever had to go to something elegant, it’d be at an anime convention.

Sunday was the easiest day of course but it was actually the hardest to many cosplayers and performers as many of the main event competitions took place that day.  Sadly I was not among those competing that day but it was surely the day of competition, not just for Kawaii Kon attendees, but for the billed at the WWE Extreme Rules card.  Other events that took places was the annual Zombie March and mass Caramelldansen introducing the BRAND NEW MASS NYAN-CAT DANCE!!!  Thanks a bunch to Goofy for setting that up by the way!  Finally, the last great memory that made it the best Kawaii Kon ever ironically did not take place at Kawaii Kon, apparently after the Anime Quiz-Wiz, word got out that we killed Osama Bin Laden, and oh boy was it awesome to become part of the attendee’s pop when that was announced.  Now with all that awesomeness, there ended up being some sadness towards the end as I announced my indefinite hiatus at the end of the con.  I’d like to thank Kawaii Kon for letting me do the crazy stuff that I do and filming the show, allowing Sushicrowd to grow and becoming involved with Gamers Evolution Expo conventions.  I hope whenever that event comes that when I come back, I’ll be the guy putting on the show rather than the guy recording the show.

Well I’ve allowed the blog to go long enough.  Tomorrow I will go on and discuss the time in Hawaii after the con as well as the travels from Hawaii to Florida, and finally to Texas.  Besides, I’ve got work tomorrow so it’s night night tiem!