Cosplay And Drinking

It can go hand in hand if you're smart.

So yesterday or Friday I stumble across this image below:

Now, as some who enjoys cosplaying and drinking, I was like "WTF?"  This shit is WAY out of proportion. I say whatever and move along...

Sometime later, I come across this:

As you can see, it's the total opposite.  It's the closest to what I agree with, so I shared that image.

But overall, in both situations, we have a failure to communicate.  It's okay to go out to the bar and have a few drinks.  It's okay to goto cons and cosplay.  But it is NOT okay to take both seriously to the level of where people look at you stupid.  One should not be at the bar and drink themselves stupid, nor should you see that cosplay is all there is in the world.

You know what? Listen...  I goto cons and at night, I hit the bar.  You know what I find there? Other cosplayers.  You know what we talk about? Everything except cons and cosplay.  To me that's how it should be.  What I said describes 80 - 85% of us out there.  Nobody's perfect.  You got those who binge drink and think they are Sailor Moon or Lightning.  But they don't represent us, and they never will.

So kick back, relax, enjoy a drink. It's on me.

Thanks to Dark Sakura, Onezumi, and Taiki for helping me to pull this image off... And Mako-chan for proof-reading.

Kicking Off 2012!

Let me start off with a belated Happy New Year!  How did you celebrate yours?  I celebrated mine by drinking a tequila, along with several 16oz Solo cups of Margaritas, and shutting down a 10 year friendship that was going to fall apart. :D

I knew I'd catch you on that part.

Normally, I change people's names or hide them when I tell a story.  But this time I can't, only because I'm not protecting the innocent.

What you're about to read is how our friendship became to be and what made it fall apart... In three different sections.  Fair warning, this is a long story... Pipebombs are eminent.

Backstory:

In 2001 or 2002, I met this girl named Andrea, who was also a big Ranma 1/2 fan.  We hit off right away.  We ended up calling each other Ranma and Akane.  Over time, those feelings of friendship developed into wantings of a relationship.  So I decided to go for it and she thought I was in character and got rejected.  But that didn't stop her from making out with me almost every time we hung out.  For a while, it seemed that we stopped talking altogether.  but that didn't last long, seeing how that we ran in the same circle of friends.  Skip up to 2010.  She tells me she's engaged.  I'm happy for her.  That night at the Anime Boston formal, we confess our feelings for each other and decided it's for the best we go separate ways. Continued to casually talk via AIM/FB.

Midstory:

In September, my friend Jasmine had an engagement party.  I suggested that me and Andrea go together.  Only because she was driving there and would have to pass my house.  That was agreed.  But after I made those plans, I forgot I was going down to the shore.  Changed it so that I'd get a ride to New Brunwick with a friend that was going.  The two of use would go to her place, then back to my place for my suit and camcorder, then to the party.  I didn't bring all that because it was too much to bring with me, but I could have if I knew my other friend was video recording the event.

And because of traffic, we got there late.  It's wasn't bad getting to her house. Getting to mine and to the hall was chaotic.  It was me, her, Victor (my other ride), and Edd (aka Snaggletooth).  I told Edd and Andrea to get me to the Verrazano, and I'll direct them from there.  Taking the scenic route to said bridge and traffic to the Bronx, because of the Yankees game did us in.  Now Andrea got quite upset about being late.  I said not to worry, as long as we're there, it's all that mattered.  She was more concerned about the food.  So Edd said, "This wouldn't happened if we had to pick you up." Not once, but twice.  I let it go.

Later that night, Edd pulls me aside and tells me if I don't give him $10, he'll leave me behind.  It was how he said it.  If you come to me asking to help chip in for gas, cool.  Don't demand. I give him the money even though the agreement was that I didn't need to, oh well.  Two nights later, I call Andrea and tell her how I did not like being taken advantage of, and talked down to.  Instead of fighting, she apologized.  We made plans to hang out, but they fell apart.

New Years:

I'm drunk. Drinking 16 oz solo cups of Margaritas and drinking tequila straight.  I check in on New Years on foursquare.  Andrea checks in at something like "Staying at home." And so we start busting chops, like we always do.  Then here comes Edd and some other chick named Rachel accusing me of stealing her. Fuck it, I'm done.  After fighting on foursquare, I explode with rage on my personal facebook page (which I then deleted), calling her out for who she is.  She then calls me on the phone and I explode on her and hang up.  This happens again two more times.  I get a message from some guy named Steve telling me not to get involved, not to mess with him.  He obviously doesn't know who I am.

And that's how a 10 year friendship is over in a blink of an eye.  And lemme finish up with this.

Steve: You don't know me.  Like I said, I live in Brooklyn, come at me if you got a problem.
Edd: You got what you wanted, you destroyed a 10 year friendship. Thanks asshole.
Rachel: When you can be a better mother, then talk to me.  There more to life than just leaving your kid with your mom and playing Warcraft all the time.
Andrea: You are a weakling. You live in your brother's shadow and you lash out at others for it.  You can't even fight your own battles anymore.  I didn't cause this, you did.

Geeks and Dating

Today I'll be talking about two things.  TLC's Geek Love and the Kotaku article, Nerds and Male privilege (which originated from here).

Geek Love-

Yes, I watched it.  Not just because I was on there, I wanted to see how it turned out.  It wasn't as much of a train wreck as I thought it was.  What you saw was no edits whatsoever.  Also what you didn't know is that in the Sunday session I was in, about half those girls I speed dated with were in the Saturday night session as well. 

Did I get a contact? Yes.

I was expecting more contacts, but I realized something yet again. I am not eye candy to most geek girls.  Yes I made them laugh and I got along so well with them.  But if I have the personality, but not the looks (I know I'm not an eye catch, but I am handsome), I will not be walking away with those digits/facebook/email, etc...  This is something I figured out a long time ago. I don't like it, but I've accepted it for what it is.  I understand when we all look for that someone, we have various expectations.  But be serious with yourself, you're not going to find that 100%.  You find something very close and when you give it a shot, that person may just turn into that 100%.  Looks don't mean a thing if the person can't carry a conversation. ^_~

And I speed dated with Anna, the Star Wars fangirl. She gave me the stink eye when I said that I was not into Star Wars...

Nerds and Male Privilege-

I back this article 100%.  I thought I had more to say about it, but I really don't. I reread it, fully understanding it a lot more.  I really don't see myself as having the male privilege, because I tend to think of myself as the average geek, but it is what it is.

Donate to Callie Care!

See that button on the right hand side? I'm asking all of you who read this blog to add that button and help Callie out.  More information is posted on the link to that button.  We're raising funds for her to help pay for medical bills. ^_^

If you can't donate or bid on the auctions, just pay it forward.  Click the link and add the HTML code to your site. I promise it won't break anything. :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Well everyone, have a great Turkey Day. ^_^

I do have some good news tho.  Remember this post here - http://www.djranmas.net/2011/10/learning-from-your-mistakes.html

I have an update.  So here's the thing.  I have this rule of where if I see someone more than three times that weekend at a con, I talk to that person.  Well this person in the first story... I saw her profile pop up twice while I was logged into LinkedIn, Foursquare, and Facebook.  I took a deep breath and added her to my Facebook.  Next day I saw she accepted the request.  Went over and said hi, she liked it and chatted back.  Ended up talking over Skype and things are cool now.

And I'm happy about that.

I am truly thankful of that.  The guilt that I carried around was lifted off my shoulders and disappeared.  Especially the fact that I look at her as family... Hell, I still do.  I think she knows if she needed help, I'd come, guns blasting, the whole nine.

Now, I'm gonna have some tea, a little tv, and prepare for my trip to my grandparents house.

RIP Heavy D

I didn't think I'd would be posting about another sad thing so soon... But this is something I really took to heart about...

I really don't get upset over celebrity deaths, but I have to admit that it did hit me hard about passing of Dwight Myers aka Heavy D. I grew up in the same town that he grew up in during his career in the 80s - 90s. That was Mount Vernon, New York. Every year he would throw a Labor Day BBQ in the playground on 7th Avenue and I actually got a chance to go and have fun. I remember working in a video store and he came in and I got his autograph.

This will always be my favorite Heavy D song because it mentioned my hometown in it. RIP Heavy D. To be honest, I always said that nothing good came out of that town because over the years, it's gotten a lot more dangerous to live there.  But I will say this much tho, thank you for giving me a reason to be proud that I'm from Mount Vernon.

Pay it Forward, Help Out

Usually my blog posts are about something relevant, something that bothers or even annoy me and I need a place to put these thoughts in hopes that someone would understand.

This time it's different.

I had just chatted with my bro Dymatrex.  It seems that a friend of ours from the past was just recently hit by a car over the weekend.  Upon finding that out, all of my memories with her just flooded back...  The skits, photoshoots, hanging out, all that good stuff.

I had even thought about getting in touch with her, just to see how she was doing and so forth.  Now that may not happen, and I feel guilty for not doing so.

I setup my shrine, lit my incense and candle. Callie, I wish a fast and speedy recovery for you.

You can head over to Jessi's blog for more info - http://jessiawesome.blogspot.com/2011/11/dear-friend-of-mine-callie-was-driving.html.  I ask that you give if she needs any help whatsoever.

Thank you.