Rebirth 3: Electric Booga..lee

"And so it came to pass, that after what seemed like an eternity, he returned, with new stories to tell, new things to complain about, and the desire to not be shown up by his colleagues (whom were much better at updating their respective blogs). And it was good. Well, it was satisfactory."

- The Book of Dsar, 29:42



*Blows some dust of the keyboard*

*Ahem* What's that? "Where have you been?" Why right here of course! Haven't you been keeping up to date? Did you miss the riveting saga that was my attempt at getting back in to University? The heartache that ensued after I failed miserably at wooing a tea shop barista? The triumph of my promotion? Geeze, guess those weren't enough to hold your attention!

Oh....I didn't mention those? Ah, well then....no time like the present!

Greetings, fellow Internet users, it has once again been a while, has it not? Maybe this could be my gimmick, just vanish at random for a few...several months, and then see who notices I come back first. In fact, I believe I shall do that right now! Whomever contacts me first about this post, whether with joyous rapture at the return of the blog, or with bile at it's disappearance, shall receive a beverage of their choice, free of charge, be that a coffee, Slushy, martini, whatever they so desire. But you're not here for free drinks, well, you weren't here for that, you may keep coming back in the hopes of free drinks from now on though. No, I should think that you were driven by the desire, however minute, to find out about the goings-on of my life! Am I correct? No? Well then you're disqualified from the drink contest Steve.

How long HAS it been anyway...my Yogg, nearly a year? No...really? Holy smokes. Well that sounds like an excuse to drag out my life for a few posts to me!

The next thing I would have reported on, had I not been the lazy mook that I am, would have been Anime North. For those of you who don't know, Anime North is an annual anime (whoa, surprise eh?) convention held in Toronto, just a few blocks from scenic Pearson International Airport. A few of my friends and I went, clad in costumes we made ourselves, and had an absolutely splendid time.

I really don't know where to start with explaining the event, but I suppose the costumes are a good a point as any. It's a long-standing tradition to go to anime cons dressed up as your favourite characters, in fact, the vast majority of con goers do dress up. I'm not quite prepared to release pictures of them to the Internet, but they're up in great abundance on my Facebook page, and if you'd like to see, just ask and I'll gladly walk you through them. For any curious and Google images savvy people, we went as the main cast of Ouran High School Host Club (I was one of the twins), and as an assortment of Bleach characters (I was Aizen). They all turned out amazingly, major props go out to Ang for being the brutal taskmistress that she is.

Oh, also, the best thing about costumes, aside from helping you to fit in better than street clothes would, is that you become a celebrity for the duration of the con. I kid you not when I say we had a hard time moving about from Azumanga to Mazinger Z without being stopped every five feet with photo requests. And of course, once enough people stop you at any given point, the crowd you create reaches a sort of critical mass, and then you are just stuck there forever as more and more people get sucked in to the gravitational pull of the fans.

The next big thing to mention is the dealers room. Which, to simplify, is huuuuuuuuge room the size of the 400 flea market, that is packed with booths selling DVDs, model kits, plushies, replica weaponry, and all manner of video game and anime related goodness (I found a bunch of X-Files trading cars, $1 a pack!). And when I say packed, I mean literally every square foot is occupied by something. It was sensory overload, and it was awesome.

For time and space reasons, I won't ramble on about anything else. Suffice to say there were panels, well, a few, screenings, the hotel was average, the weather was a tad hot, and I can't wait to do it all again in a few months!

Well! That should do it for now, I'll get back to you all with part le deux sooner rather than in a year, and until next time...


Douglas Gohl Piper, not actually buried in a box for the past year, just in his room