Day 16

Friday May 24th, 2013

It is So Incredibly Hot right now. I might just go in my bathroom and write this. Maybe. I'm thinkin bout it.

HERE IT IS. THE LONG-AWAITED-BY-VERY-FEW CON RECAP: FRIDAY!

Friday May 24th marks the DAWN of Anime Boston. Unfortunately I didn't take the day off from work to play around at AB so I wasn't able to run until around 8:00 PM.

8:00 PM I get on a bus to the Hynes Convention Center. My heart beating like that of a little schoolgirl making a confession to the boy she loves. It was Fancy Friday at work so I was wearing my pencil skirt and heels.

Anyways, the plan for Friday was to hit up the karaoke room and see if I could sign up for the "competition" on Saturday. Of course, there were only 5 spots open and it was first come first serve (ridiculous!) so I didn't get a spot. No surprise there. There was only one panel I wanted to go to on Friday and it got completely BOOKED so I couldn't get in. I ended up hanging around the terrible karaoke room for the rest of the night.

I sign up for karaoke cause WHY THE HELL NOT. You only get SO MANY CHANCES to sing Anime Karaoke, so you better take it. The line was long so I sat around for a few (shamefully terrible - just the way it should be) performances, then hopped over to the room next door to watch some English Dub screenings of Panty & Stocking, which is basically Powerpuff Girls but with SEX.

I love the show. Here's the premise:

Panty and Stocking – the Anarchy Sisters – are two nasty-ass angels who got booted from the pearly gates for being foul-mouthed bitches! Now they spend their nights blowing up ghosts in the seedy abyss between Heaven and Earth. Panty likes sex, Stocking likes sweets, their afro-sporting main man Garter Belt has a fetish we can't mention. Together, they're turning the mean streets of Daten City into a buffet of bodily fluids. Ghosts don't stand a chance against their lingerie of mass destruction, and if this debaucherous duo can collect enough Heaven Coins, they just might get their halos back. It's a slim chance in hell, but anything can happen when you're rolling commando, especially with Panty and Stocking!

So I sit down and watch an episode or two and this guy sits down next to me. I walk out of the screening room to go back to karaoke and this dude follows me in. Turns out this guy has no idea what Anime Boston is all about. He doesn't even really watch anime. His name is Lee Smith and he's a 30-year-old Vietnamese guy who came to check out the con because of some online single-persons dating thing meet up I have no idea. He says he's lived in Boston for 10 years and that he's a preschool teacher and aquatic instructor on the weekends. He thought I was 25.

I'm like, oh that's cool. You're a little weird and creepy and also 30 years old but I have no friends here so I shall talk to you a bit I guess. I'm talking to him and this cool-looking asian guy goes on stage to sing. And then I'm next! So I get on stage and start belting it out and I'm real cool and singing anime songs and reciting Japanese lyrics that I don't understand.

THE WHOLE CROWD OF PEOPLE DRESSED AS FICTIONAL CHARACTERS GOES WILD! And then I'm like yay and I get off the stage and sit back down next to Lee.

The cool asian guy that was on stage right before comes over and goes:

Guy: "Sorry, wow that was really good. I just had to come over here and say something to you."
Me: "Omg hahasdlfkjadlkbkadf" *still shaky from being nervous. I'm kinda stage-nervous??* "hahhahahahhahah thankssssss."
Guy: "Hey, listen. Are you gonna be here tomorrow?"
Me: "Yeah, I'll be coming all weekend."
Guy: "Wanna do a duet tomorrow?"

UH YEAH!!!

So we exchange numbers and names (his name is Richard) and then he's like "gotta run!" and dashes away.

I decide it's getting a bit late and tell Lee that I'm heading home. He's going to the Green Line as well so we both walk there together. This was REAL risky. I could've been KIDNAPPED by this 30 year old Vietnamese guy but I decided to walk to the T in the dark with him anyways.

And since I'm sitting here writing this post, you can all stop worrying because Lee was a normal, cool guy (other than the fact that he's kinda jittery and a little creepy). We (well, I reluctantly) exchange numbers so we can maybe meet up again tomorrow and he gets on his train and zooms into the darkness.

After that, it was pretty smooth sailing back home.

And that was it for Friday. I was literally there for like 3.5 hours, MAX, and I made two 'friends'! Social nerd skills go!

Day 15

You guys seem eager to hear about Anime Boston. A surprisingly monumental number of people (~6-8) have actually commented on the blog's pause. So here we go.

Thursday May 23rd, 2013

Normal work day. It's honestly been too long for me to remember specifics. I probably played ping pong with Matt or Giles (not Ryan - that kid is too good for me dammit), but other than that all I remember is being very excited to go get my ANIME BOSTON BADGE!!!

For those of you who don't know anything about anime conventions (the majority of my supposed 'readers'), 9 times out of 10, you need a 'badge' to get into the convention. This badge is like your ticket. Think of it like a pass to Cedar Point. A neon green bracelet you wear to prove that you paid to get in to laser tag.

Yes, you have to pay to get into anime conventions. Yes, it's a hefty amount. I shelled out $55 for a weekend pass to AB (Anime Boston). And that's just to walk into the front door. If you buy a 2-day pass at the convention, you'll have to fork over $60 (eh, not that much more. But we're entering a whole 'nother deca (??) here).

And a badge is LITERALLY a printed slip of paper with your name on it - with a shiny sticker on it - that you hang around your neck. Or as the form was formatted for AB, "Name (as written on ID), Handle (name you want on your badge)" -- that's for people who want to be called "neko" or "dark lord-sama" or some shit. I'm just Lulu, jesus.

I left at 8:00 PM on the dot to catch Bus 1 to the Hynes Convention Center, where AB was being held. I'm sitting on the bus and I'm jittery. I'm so excited. I'm looking at my clothes, wondering if I look weird enough to be picking up a badge for an anime convention. I'm not, but that's okay because I'm so happy. All I have is a loose Hello Kitty top on. Good enough. I get off the bus and I make my way to the center. The closer I get to Hynes, the higher the saturation of WEIRD ASS PEOPLE is. My heart is beating faster and faster, I'm muttering things like "oh my god oh geez" as I approach the front doors. And when I enter, the lobby is filled with cosplayers and chubby nerds and normal people with purple and pink wigs on. I see the most color I've seen in a crowd of people in a while and I practically JUMP out of my skin in excitement.

I walk up to the Pre-Reg counter and I start getting my ID out. The girl behind the counter goes, "Oh my god I love your Hello Kitty shirt!!! I wish I could have it!"

I'm at home.

After getting my badge, I started looking through the guidebook for events and panels and shows and things like that. Nothing was happening on Thursday, so I hopped on the green line back home.

And then missed my stop. Of course.

I sat down on the train next to an Indian guy talking on his phone and started flipping through the guidebook (this thing is thick. Lots to read. Lots to plan.). As I'm looking at the schedule, the guy next to me finishes his phone call and looks over.

Him: "Is that the schedule for Memorial weekend?"
Me: "Hm? Oh, no, this is, heh, the schedule for Anime Boston."
Him: "Anime!"
Me: "Yeah, it's an anime convention happening starting tomorrow through the weekend."

I'm thoroughly embarrassed. Anime is a bit embarrassing. Regular non-anime-fan Americans usually don't get it and think it's all about the tentacle porn (NOT ANIME) and superpowered pink-haired girls (some anime).

Anyways, I started chatting with this guy. His name was Pamelov or Palemov or Pavelom or something. And he told me about the beaches around Boston and how he's been in Boston for 5 years and there are good restaurants near his stop on the green line and... "Did I miss my stop? I was supposed to get off at Kenmore." "Yep."

So I got off with him at his stop and he pointed me towards the 57 bus I was supposed to get on down the street.

As I made my way down the street, a sketch older man says, "Miss! Excuse me, miss!" Being the naive, distinctly not city girl I am, I stopped and gave him my brief attention.

Him: "Miss, when I saw you -- you really broke my heart. You - You just broke my heart --"
Me: *interrupting him* "Excuse me, I have to go."

I quickly turned and fast-walked to the bus stop. Well, that was terrifying. As I waited patiently at the correct bus stop, I saw a bus on the opposite side of the street with the bus information that I was looking for -- Correct direction, correct number -- Gee, I said to myself. That Indian guy who has lived here for 5 years might have pointed me in the wrong direction. I should get on this bus!!

I dashed across the street and just made it onto the wrong. bus. I didn't know this at first, so I sat down and waited three stops before I walked up to the bus driver and asked:

Me: "Is this bus going towards Brighton?"
Bus driver: "No."

Oh yeah, and my phone was completely dead. So I got off at the next stop and walked across the road, waited about 20 minutes, and finally got on the correct bus that took me basically to my doorstep. Geez oh wheeze.

And even after all that -- even after ALL OF THAT -- all I could think about was anime. So I made a bowl of ramen, pulled out the AB guidebook and its three 13"x17" pages of schedules, and made THIS BEAUTIFUL SCHEDULE.

Now just wait until you hear about the actual convention and not just the process of getting the goddamn badge.

Pause!

Hello! I'm pausing updates until tomorrow or Monday while I'm attending Anime Boston. Then I'll post a nice big update about all of AB.

Day 15

That was such a cop-out post for yesterday, I apologize. Who am I apologizing to!? Evan Hahn is the only one that actually reads this blog every single day, I think.

Today I woke up at a decent time and ate a yogurt in the kitchen. On the bus, I reached Part Two of Life of Pi -- and things are really starting to pick up now!! There were a few bus rides that I didn't read anything and just opted for staring out the window while listening to Jesse McCartney or Justin Timberlake or some other fruity music. I'm not very into the whole religious thing. It's not that I don't respect religion or anything -- but when I hear religion it's like hearing about politics and it kind of bores me and I think it's because I'm ignorant. So I'm trying not to be. I don't skim over the parts about religion in Life of Pi. I probably pay even more attention because I'm forcing myself to read every word he says about Hinduism and Christianity and Islam.

I got to the office and headed over to the Starbucks down the street to try an Ice White Chocolate Mocha. I usually get the hot, normal version of it, but it was warm-ish today.

I'm never getting it again!

They fill up the cup 3/5 of the way and use the ice to finish the remaining 2/5! Then they put the whipped cream ON TOP OF THE ICE and the whipped cream just kinda melts all over the ice cubes and I don't wanna drink watery whipped cream! Come on! I like whipped cream! A LOT!

I was going to make eggs this morning - trying to be healthy and what not, start the day off on a good foot blah blah blah - but to my dismay, the girl I'm subletting from doesn't own a frying pan. The family I live with is so picky about what I can (more like can't) use and where I can put my things, so I didn't want to use one of their pans and then dry it off as if it was never touched. Not in the morning anyway.

"Wipe down the stove every time you use it! Though, I don't expect you'll be using it much since you're so busy!" Basically, "We don't really expect you to use the stove or know how to cook." To me that means they probably don't want me crowding the kitchen space when they're home. So I just hide up in my room like always.

Okay -- went out of order there a little bit.

I had a really good ping-pong run with Matt today! I think I'm getting better!! We talked about younger siblings and Matt told me about his brilliant little brother who seems to be a star at everything. It was cute! Reminds me of when I talk about my sister and I'm just so proud of her and I love her and she's so much smarter than me and I'm so glad I'm her older sister abububububu <3

I also learned about WordPress today. I started a tutorial on making WP themes and I'm about halfway through it. AUUUUGHHH!!

I went out with Matt for lunch. On our way to Flat Patties, we ducked into an expensive shoe store right next door to Koa Labs. They always seem to have sales outside their store, but inside it's a whole 'nother story. We're talking shoes so expensive, you might as well not look at the price tags, 'cause you're not gonna be able to afford any of them

Matt: "Let's get out of here. I feel poor. I feel so poor. I want a $4 burger."

So we went to Flat Patties and we got our ~$4 burgers. I GOT A FISH SANDWICH!!! OH MY GOD, like a dream come true. Flat Patties is where it's at. I'm gonna go there a LOT now. They have grilled cheese, hot dogs, grilled chicken, FISH SANDWICHES. Ugh. It's disgusting how awesome this place is. I'm ready, Flat Patties, I'm ready. It's like a real fish. In my sandwich!!

Matt: "We went to Flat Patricia."

I got home relatively early again today (around 8:30 ish or so) and cracked open a Compleats Mac & Cheese. It was DISGUSTING. I couldn't eat more than 3 bites. Never again. Compleats has failed me in spaghetti and mac & cheese. It has satisfied me with it's Chicken and Noodles -- and even then it's a bit too salty.

The landlady had just finished making dinner and was assembling the family at the dinner table to eat. (I'm not invited -- I have my microwave dinner, I'm a busy girl. Busy reading comics and watching anime.) But she, so proud of the ginormous pot of soup she has made, offers me a small bowl. I stick around and eat it while standing at the counter, complementing her 1, 2, 3 times before skittering back into my room with my gross mac and cheese and tiny portion of soup. The soup was great! Too bad the landlady is not! I followed up dinner with my very last pack of Gushers. Joe says he'll bring me more when he visits. Heh. Hehehehe.

Tomorrow is TechStars Demo Day and people are probably gonna leave early for the after party and after after party. I'm going to leave early for a different, more shameful, but makes-me-too-happy reason. I'm leaving early tomorrow to pick up my WEEKEND PASS TO ANIME BOSTON.

CAN. YOU. BELIEVE. IT.

I can't wait. And I'm so, so happy that I brought my camera with me to Boston. 

Day 14

Tuesday May 21, 2013

I don't remember much of this day. This was just yesterday and geez my memory sucks. I'm gonna break this post down into a bullet point list to make it easier to digest!

• Breakfast: NONE!
• Lunch: Panera!
• Dinner: Market In The Square Sushi!
• Work! Work! Work!
• Ping pong with Matt!
• Flowers are sprouting! but most of them haven't!
• STAR TREK!!!

• "It's just that end of the day 'I want popcorn' time." - @alexschiff #fetchquotes
  — Fetchnotes (@fetchnotes) May 22, 2013

• Waiting for the subway on our way to Star Trek! twitter.com/lubibul/status…
  — Lulu Tang (@lubibul) May 22, 2013 

• Star Trek was fantastic! I arrived with Schiff and Ryan and shared a refilling large popcorn with Schiff. We sat in the 2nd row of the theatre. It was very close to the screen. Everything was distorted, but it was still so good.
• Got home and finished reading Saga, one of the comics I bought at Million Year Picnic. FANTASTIC. I'm gonna go get volume 2 now!!
• Sleep!

Day 13

Homesickness hit me like a cold brick today on the bus home, looking at a man dressed in traditional African clothing talking on his smartphone and staring at this Rolex. He looked confused, constantly watching the LED screen at the front of the bus and asking the bus driver questions. For whatever reason, this made me homesick for sitting on the couch with my sister at home while we watched 2NE1 videos, and going out to dinner with Joe and him telling me not to order the ice cream for dessert, and walking to class to sit next to Meredith during another 281 lecture.

I've been having weird nightmares recently. The Kidnapper Evan type of 'nightmare', if you can even call it that. Not sure why. Pretty sure it has something to do with the way my foot is positioned on the bed and the yelling in the house and the creepy old guys that look at me at the bus stop when I go home late.

I've been tripping up on posting to this blog too. I'm sure it's affected by the fact that I keep forgetting to make my bed and the increasingly messier desk I come home to. Once I lose routine, I lose everything -- so I have to get back into good habits and structure.

But TODAY...!

Today I got to work and brought a Key Lime Pie Yoplait, which made my stomach hurt later on. Fun fact: Every Asian is at least slightly lactose intolerant! I pulled this fact out of my butt, so it's probably not 100% true. But every Asian that I know - and I know a lot - is slightly lactose intolerant. Some can't drink any milk (Joe), and some can, but either fart a lot afterwards or get stomach aches (me).

I played ping-pong with Matt again today! Speaking of ping-pong, the rankings list on the whiteboard got ERASED by some DEVIL. I don't know who thought it was a cool move to get rid of that list, but it wasn't cool, dude. Nope. Anyways, while Matt was helping me practice, Ryan came in and CHALLENGED ME.

Ryan: "Ehh, I'm not very good."

I thought this meant he was on the same level as I was before I trained hardcore with Matt. In some ways, that's true, in others -- he BEAT ME TO A PULP.

Ryan kept hitting the ball REAL HARD and RIGHT AT ME (like, I guess you're supposed to...) and I lost 3 games in a row real bad. I will beat you someday Ryan!! I WILL! I just... have to learn to aim!

For lunch, Greg (the mechanical engie from matter.io), Matt, and I went out to lunch at "Crema Cafe", which has little cakes. I didn't buy any this time, but I'll be back very soon. I got a grilled cheese and some soup that I don't know the name of.

Me: "And... what kind of soups do you have?"
Cashier: "blah blah blah, blah blah, blah cream blah."
Me: "I'll take that last one then."

Thankfully it was chock full of veggies and tasted really good! The grilled cheese was meh. I'll get a real sandwich next time.

Other than that, work happened. Tomorrow we might be going out to see Star Trek or The Great Gatsby as a team! 

Day 12

Today, I had three things on my plate.

1. Do chores for the landlady 
2. Go to the Japan Festival
3. Hang out with Matt

1. Doing chores for the landlady

Ughhhh. Shouldn't have worn a tank top for this. Every week, I have to help the landlady with some kind of chores around the house/yard as part of the agreement. My rent's super cheap and my parents are happy that I'll be learning some "real life skills" by doing chores. So I raked dead leaves out from under these really tall bushes and I got scratched up all over the place. YARD WORK IS THE WORST. 

2. Go to the Japan Festival

This is a free event set up between Boston and the Consulate General of Japan in the Boston City Hall plaza. I wouldn't have known about it if Anime Boston didn't say they were selling Pre-Reg tickets there. It was pretty much what I expected: lots of little booths for selling Japanese knick-knacks, food, cloth, and other stuff. Also...

Lots of, uh, weird people hanging around. I saw cosplayers, Japanese school girls, kimonos & yukatas, a lot of fat people with cat ears, a lot of fat people with pikachu ears (and tails), Aperture Science shirts, girls in maid outfits, boys taking pictures with the girls in maid outfits, Marvel shirts, and MORE!

(my god, I'm terrible at formatting pictures on BlogSpot)

They were also holding performances on stage. According to the program, there were some J-pop performers, so I seated myself at 2:25 to watch YUSA Band. I expected some crazy dude to go running around stage with an awesome bass riff and girls singing the chorus and lots of pikapika and kirakira. I got a dude in a wheelchair singing folk tunes and a string quartet. Hmmmmm okay... I guess that's still J-pop? He was good, don't get me wrong, but I was a little disappointed, is all.

Overall, the Japan Festival was a bust for me. Probably would've been more fun if I went with someone slightly interested in Japanese stuff (Joe), but I think the event was mostly for families and nerds anyways. 

After a very long train/bus ride, I arrived at the team apartment.

3. Hang out with Matt

YAYY! I got to the team apartment and Matt and Mike were home. Mike was, of course, shirtless and hacking the mainframe and all that. Matt was still sick. I made some eggs (hahahahaha stealing their food...) and ate a banana then sang a diddy (Snails by The Format) while Matt played his crazy guitar tunes. Afterwards, we played some old skool kool games. Well, mostly Matt played them and I sucked at them.

Super Mario 2: wasn't originally a Mario game, so Matt says, "It's just weird. I don't know what's going on. Look at this."

Super Mario 3: Matt and I would switch between Mario and Luigi and Matt would just beat the levels and I'd just die over and over again until we moved maps. I never realized how bad I was at Mario!!! Geez!!

Dr. Mario: Okay, I did alright in this one. Matt was obviously way better and beat me every single time, but this game is similar enough to Tetris that I did... okay. I usually didn't top off, Matt just beat me first every time. Oh yeah and when I asked Matt for some "Tips and Trix" he just says, "The winner gets to play the synth with this button." Not a tip, nor a trick, Matt.

After Dr. Mario, we watched Anchorman. I'd never watched it before (which is, whoa! what? you've never seen Anchorman!? Oh my god!!! OKAY, WELL NOT I HAVE, YA DINGDONGS.) and it was funny and I'd heard half of the lines before from Tumblr and the general Internet. It was okay. Probably just 'okay' because the world had been hyping this movie up so much and because I'd heard half of the movie before watching it. But now I'll understand all the references.

Okay, after seeing all these gifs, I'm thinking the movie was pretty good.

After Anchorman, I bused home and a scary Mexican guy with a wandering eye and a moustache waved hello to me at the bus stop and then chuckled.