Happy Belated Moe Day

Yeah, so apparently yesterday was Moe Day. I unknowingly celebrated it by watching some of the new Fall 2009 anime.

From alafista:

10th October is officially Moe Day because the combination of Kanji [十日十月] would come together to form the word – 萌.

And for those that don't know:

From the Wikipedia:

Moe (萌え?, pronounced [mo.e], literally "budding", as with a plant) is a Japanese slang word originally referring to a strong interest in particular types of character in video games or anime and manga.

And now for some moeblobbery from K-On!

Summer Wrap-up: Fourth of July

Hey folks, continuing my string of entries about my summer today is how I spent my Fourth of July this year. During the day I went with my family to downtown Sausalito, which is a short ferry ride from San Francisco. At night, I headed down to my friend Matt's house to watch the fireworks from his roof.
















Lol Matt fireworks are thata way

The Single Life

Hey guys, since I'm behind on my summer entries, I decided to just go ahead and post some current stuff in between, starting with my single room at school:

View from my door


Big 2009 calendar featuring idol Akina Minami


I sleep on my futon since my loft is a bit shaky


Closet space


Redid the bulletin board


Some posters from Megami Magazine...as for the calendar, thanks guys lol.


Got an ASUS monitor; SF4 looks great on it. The Haruhi wallscroll reminds me to go to class.


Bathroom


Finally, a friend of mine picked up ODST for me. Firefight anyone?

I chose a single because I prefer a quiet room where I can relax after a long day or study in silence. I don't have to worry about disturbing a roomie and the other way around; however, I share the bathroom with another single.

Come Around

I know I said I was going to update more about my Hawaii trip, but I'm sure most people that talk to me fairly often already know what I did during my trip there, so I probably won't update on that anymore. I will if you guys want me to though.

Anyways, this past weekend I went to The Foreign Exchange show here in SF. It was held at this place called Yoshi's on Fillmore street.



No, not that Yoshi's. This one:


(taken from yelp)

Some background info on The Foreign Exchange: they're basically a jazzy sounding hip-hop duo that actually originated over the internet. Phonte of Little Brother contacted Nicolay over message boards. They began recording and just sent music back and forth without ever having met each other in person. What's crazy is the fact that Nicolay was actually living in the Netherlands at the time while Phonte was in the US. Thus the name "The Foreign Exchange" was created. (Nicolay lives in the US now in case you guys were wondering)

Anyways, my friends and I have were on these guys' nuts over Christmas break and basically listened to them 24/7. When we heard they were having a show for the first time in SF, we knew we had to go. On the day of the show, we got there around 11:20 PM because the show was supposed to start at around 12. When I first walked in, I was in awe. Everything inside looked hella nice and it overall just had a really chill vibe. They had a dope DJ actually playing some really good music (not the super played out annoying shit that you always hear on the radio) while everyone else was dancing or just chilling on the side. After picking up our tickets from roll call, we took the elevator upstairs and just chilled and took some pictures while we waited for the show to start.


Us chilling waiting for the show to start

We got to our seats at around 12:20ish and we chilled for a bit while we waited for the show to start. A couple of minutes later, I see this giant white dude come out of the curtains and my friends and I just look at each other and say "Holy shit, Nicolay's fucking huge." (in the pants. No just kidding, but maybe he is ;]) But yeah Nicolay the 6'6" giant comes out and everyone just starts going crazy. Moments later the rest of the band comes out and Phonte comes out last.


The Foreign Exchange getting ready to play.

After greeting everyone, they started off with a song that I actually didn't recognize because it was a song from Nicolay's new album "City Lights Vol. 2: Shibuya" (which is actually pretty dope because I listened to it afterwards). After that song, they realized that the sound was low on their microphones so they did a sound check. Normally I wouldn't care about a sound check and I would want them to just continue with the show. However, with this sound check they just started freestyling music in a true jazz fashion and I thought it was insane. After their sound check, they played "House of Cards". I thought it was a really fitting opening song because of the way the bass sounds in the beginning of the song. It just has an opening song feel to it. Towards the end of the song, Phonte started freestyling a introduction to everyone while the band accompanied him with music. He introduced Soul (keyboardist), the drummer (I forgot your name sorry, but you were really good!) Yahzarah (vocals), Darien Brockington (vocals), Carlita (vocals), Nicolay (keyboardist), and himself.

Anyways, instead of giving you a minute-by-minute recap of what happened, I'm just going to highlight some stuff. (and I'm pretty tired and I have school tomorrow) I would have to say my favorite song of the night was when they performed "Come Around." Before this show, I liked this song, but I wouldn't consider it to be in the top 3 for my favorite FE songs. But after seeing this performance, its probably #2 behind "Be Allright [Nicolay's Easybreezy Sunday Afternoon Remix]". The way they got involved with the crowd was awesome and just their energy and vibe during the song was great. After that I would have to say their "I Wanna Know" performance was the second best of the night. The way they related it to relationships was pretty awesome and made me realize what the song was truly about. Other than those two performaces, I would have to say the highlights for me was Phonte's comedy (hes hilarious), Yahzarah's vocals (she has an amazing voice), D-Brock (I'm on his nuts yes homo), and the way they ended the show.

Overall, I would have to say the money I paid for the show was definitely worth it and I'm definitely planning on going again if they ever decide to have another show here in SF. On to some pictures:


People starting to gather on the dance floor and waiting for them to come out.


One of their many dope performances.


Our view from the balcony. (Reserved seating yeee!) Oh and btw, trackademicks were sitting like 2 tables away from us.


"I'm sorry San Francisco, I didn't mean to fall in love tonight..." (Phonte's closing line)

Great job Foreign Exchange. You made my very first show be completely dope. I didn't think I could be more of a fan, but now I am.

(btw Daniel, they're performing at Roxy's in LA tonight if you even know where that is)

Tsundere-chan

Yeah I decided to change the banner since CLANNAD has been over for a while. The current banner features Hitagi Senjougahara from this season's hit anime Bakemonogatari. Original image uploaded by Shuggo on Konachan.

Here's the second ED:

Summer Wrap-up: FanimeCon 2009 Part 1 Cosplay

Well, summer's over for me and I want to share some photos I took over the past few months:

I attended Fanime for the first time back in May. FanimeCon is the largest anime convention in Northern California and it's held annually at the San Jose Convention Center in downtown San Jose.

Like any anime convention, FanimeCon was packed with cosplayers. They invaded downtown San Jose and it was pretty funny crossing the street with Ash Ketchum, Naruto and Hatsune Miku.

Since this was my first con, I didn't feel comfortable taking pictures of strangers. As the day progressed, however, I just went up and asked people if I could take their picture and all of them said yes. I also snapped a few shots when crowds gathered for a photo shoot.