Xmas! Present Galore!

I say present 'cause I only got one :> but it's all good.

For Xmas, I got the MXL 990 USB Condenser Microphone with a standard pop screen. I'd been looking at it for a while, and I read some good reviews, so I asked for it.

It really is good, but it gave me a bit of trouble starting up. Once I downloaded the right drivers though, it was pretty much the quality I expected it to be. I imagine I'd have truly professional quality when I go to record in the music room at college.

So here's some pics. Hopefully I can get some awesome stuff out with that mic soon too.

End of Welcome Week: Block Party!

So, after all of the classes today, my roommates and I went out to the block party. It was pretty chill, there wasn't too much dancing or anything going on, though there was a lot of smoking.

So, here are a few pictures from said party.

A few of the booths offering food.

My roommates and I, picture taken by me.

Dancing banana, selling bananas.

Some random Korean BBQ pitchman. He was actually pretty good.

Our mascot, Scotty the Bear, walking around. (This is a nice shot)

It's nighttime. My roommate decided to take a picture of me. The picture sucks

A picture of the HUB, Highlander Union Building I think. Not really relevant.

So that was the first week of my college life. One down, a lot more to go.

Welcome Week Day 1: Maz Jobrani

Gosh, my camera sucks, or maybe it's just my hand. All of the pictures came out blurry as all hell, so I don't have much to show off.

So we had a Freshman Convocation, where we met our Dean and stuff. He's actually a really chill guy. Once the meeting was over, he stripped off his chancellor outfit and we danced and did the wave. I think we've got an awesome school.

Then, we went to see Maz Jobrani, a comedian. He was pretty good, his stuff was relevant and interesting, he certainly engaged the audience.

I really feel welcome, I think it's going to be a good year. Classes start on Thursday I think, I'll be ready for that. I hope the dean was right when he said that the years will just wiz by, 'cause I already can't wait to be done (not in the bad way, I'm excited about school, but I'm excited about what's beyond that too).

Blurry as all hell picture!!!

A new life begins

I have moved into my college dorm room, and am blogging from here. It's not too bad, it's pretty cozy. Here are more pictures.

Here is my one of my roommates, John. He's playing around with his gundam models

My closet. Not much to say about that.
One corner of the room, Nick's computer and TV.
Another view of the room.
My bed. It's not really made.
My 'mates' beds.

So that's it. Hopefully this'll be a good year. Can't wait to see what the year has in store for me.

Last days of Summer at La Jolla Beach

So, the end of summer approaches, but it's fun. Spent the day at La Jolla beach. The water is so clear and pretty, and strong. I got tossed around so much I actually hurt my ankle. Sucks, I became physically inable to go snorkeling later that day, but it was still fun. The view was nice, the air was fresh, and the water was fun. I spent a lot of my time in a little cove, that was nice.

Here's a picture of me, enjoy :D

Picnic at Poway

081509Poway

So, we were invited to a picnic at Poway Lake. It was nice. I met some nice people, saw some nice sights, and overall had a lot of fun.

Lunch consisted of burritos. The meal was accompanied with lots of soda, watermelon, strawberries, grapes, and sesame seed balls (they're really good).

We rented boats and went out on the lake. It was pretty great. First time rowing a boat, so it took a little while to get used to, but I did it.

The rest of the day was spent socializing and playing card games.

That was my day. Pictures and video are available.

Back from the 5 day absence that was Comic-Con

JonFawkes Comic-Con 2009

Puwaaaa, I got the chance to go to Comic-con all 4 days plus preview night. What a week.

Day 0: Preview Night
Preview night was alright. It already felt like a normal comic-con day, just a little more crowded than normal. It certainly gave me a preview of how big comic-con was this year compared to last. Normally all of the booths would be half set-up, but this year, everyone was ready for business. I guess it could be counted as the fifth day of comic-con.

Day 1: What do we have here?
Today was mostly exploring and shopping and stuff. I saw a buncha neat stuff, namely at the Kinokuniya booth. Light-saber chopsticks! I hung around with Kat-chan for most of the day, looking at figures and hanging around the J-list booth. Wandered around for a long time, saw a buncha stuff. Kat-chan bought a lot of games, which was cool. I didn't buy anything though.

Day 2: Lunch at Hooters!
Yeah, that's right. Didn't do too much today. The most interesting thing that happened was that I got to eat lunch at Hooters, with Alex, David, and my lovely girlfriend Kat-chan. They've got really good food, though that shouldn't be surprising. We had a good time too. Also watched some SCA fights. That was pretty cool too. I decided to cosplay this day. I went in my Kaz costume (Pangya). I didn't find any Pangya fans, though a few people stopped me to take pictures. It was all cool. Ended the day with the J-list panel with Kat-chan. That was fun.

Day 3: To buy or not to buy
I decided to buy some stuff to day. Decided. I didn't actually have enough to buy anything, but I made up my mind that I was going to buy a Shinai and an awesome indie-game called Suguri. I went to the SCA fights again, decided to participate. I got a blister popped, but it was fun (the fighting, not the blister popping). Went to the Eureka panel with Kat-chan, that was fun. Also, ate lunch with Kat-chan at an awesome seafood resturaunt.

Day 4: The final day
Bought my Shinai and game. Went to lunch at Horton Plaza with Colette, Alex, and David. It was fun. Kat-chan had to leave early, so I didn't get to spend too much time with her. Spent the last hour or so in the Anime room, then came home to now.

Over the 4 days
I spent a good amount of time in the Anime rooms. I saw a few anime that I could potentially buy. Tears to Tiara, Doujin Work, and Familiar of Zero come immediately to mind. I don't remember the other stuff I saw, but I saw plenty. It was cool.
Also, I took pictures with cosplayers (or rather, I took pictures of my friends with cosplayers). There were some damn impressive cosplayers this year.

The spoils
-Shinai
-Suguri
-Dragonica Online Archer Wallscroll (I wanted the Priest one T.T)
-various freebies

The stuff I missed
I didn't see a bunch of my friends. There was an elementary friend that contacted me on dA, but I missed his number because I didn't get online for the duration of comic-con. My bad. Also, some high-school friends were supposed to be there, but I didn't see them either. Oh well, maybe next year. Comic-con isn't exactly the place where you can decided to find someone and find them.

So that was my experience. Hope everyone else had a good time too. Time to crash.

Beach: Sand Castle Building Contest

I didn't actually build and castles, but I saw a bunch of awesome ones. Here is yet another photoblog entry, maybe I should make a tag for them.

Here's the first one we saw. It looks like a dragon stuck in a castle. Awesome.

Here's a sculpture of what I think is a Cthulhu-like thing attacking a ship. Big octopus.

Here's the ship. Nicely detailed.

Baseball stadium. It doesn't really get much more awesome.

Nope, spoke too soon. Very patriotic.

And this is just more awesome. Close ups following.

Monkies.

Otters.

Alligator.

Piggy, but this was part of a different sculpture.

This isn't a sandcastle, just one of the tents in the beach fair.

So that was my day. That wasn't all of the sculptures, there were probably hundreds. I spent most of my time in the water, that was pretty rocking. I love the beach, I want to invite my friends some time.

My morning

Went out this morning, and I had my camera, so I'm going to photo blog a little

First sign I saw. This sounds like one of the most unhealthy things in the world. I think this was what I smelled though, and it smelled delicious :L Yes, that's the Del Mar fairground


So we actually came to the fair grounds to attend an award ceremony or something for my mom's class. This isn't my mom's work, this was some random person's that I thought was impressive.


This is my mom's work. Best in class and first place (among a few others). Not bad


Just another impressive work


A nice fountain


A hand chair, or a chair that's a hand, whatever


My sister sitting in the hand chair


A bear playing guitar, and a little bear playing violin. You don't see that everyday.


A very nice wall of plants. I want one in my garden (when I get one)


Last, an Asian market we went to to buy lunch and snacks. Just in time for XMas XD Got sandwiches and mochi :3

So yeah, that was my morning. Pretty nice and relaxing. Didn't get to go on any of the rides, but whatever. Pretty good day nonetheless

Messing around with camera

That camera I got for graduation. Just messing around and stuff.

First up, just a pic of the shelf in my room. Full of games, manga, and figurines. Not actually all that impressive actually :/

Just a picture of the crap on top of my dresser. I keep forgetting to give that Hello Kitty to Kat-chan ^^;

My very crowded desk. More unorganized crap, and a TV.

Last, but not least, the wonderful plaque I got from the Knights. Kudos to Colette for this :)

And there we go. Maybe I can actually post more pictures for my blog posts now.