So today the sky decided to erupt rain all over Houston. This is not the first time this has happened, but it has been awhile. As I stood by the window of my 19th floor office, I watched as helpless little smart cars, and ricers rolled the dice, only to find out just how deep the water goes. One by one, the lake in front of my office devoured them all, then seemed to chuckle, "Please, bring me some more!" Then the true kings of the road, the long forgotten gas guzzling SUV's and trucks popped out and the flood waters quaked with fear. As the trucks plowed through without hesitation, the waters parted like the Red Sea and the tens of thousands of little cars were free from their liquid prison. Still, it was funny while it lasted.

Pro-tip: if your car has the clearance of a skateboard, then ANY water puddle is too deep.

Seeing as I've been getting more and more lazy about updating this thing, more than likely this will be the last entry for 2011. Alot has happened since my last post so I'm not sure if I can put it all down here. Here are some of the highlights. My friend Kevin Turner got sponsored by Quantic Gaming. This was huge news since this was their first time sponsoring a fighting game player. I knew of their group from MLG and their National Championship Call of Duty Black Ops winning team Next Threat. Kevin recently went out to Cali for the SoCal Regionals and had a good showing in his first official event competing under the Quantic Kensou name.

Last week also saw PZ playing host to its first Starcraft 2 tournament. The original bracket was held earlier and drew 64 players, many on the Grand Master level, in an online run preliminary to cut the field down to the top 16. The top 16 played in front of a live audience at the Westchase Marriott hotel and played out on TeSPA's stream site in association with Quantic. I have an interview with the winner of the tournament coming up next week, so be on the lookout for that!

2 weeks ago, the Space Circuit car show was held. I went to go check it out with Kevin and got to see DJ Heavygrinder freezing her butt off while spinning for the crowd. Pretty neat event, just wish the weather cooperated a little more.

Later today, PZ will continue on with their weekly SF4 series of tournaments. But this time they are adding a new wrinkle. Kevin, and a co-host to be named later, will be hosting a live stream show for the weeklies. This is a pretty exciting venture and will definitely help bring some needed exposure for the Houston scene and its players. After the huge success of the UH meet this past Monday, events like this will just keep getting bigger and better.

Another month another post, lol! Anyhow, we're like literally days away from one of the biggest gaming weekends in history! Tokyo Game Show is playing host to the Tokyo Jamma Show, and Tougeki's Super Battle Opera. Not only is it the largest gaming expo in the world, but now its added the largest Arcade industry event and the largest arcade fighting game tournament in the world. I have a couple of sources headed there for the festivities since I can't make it, and hopefully they'll be able to dig up some goodies for me to write about.

This past week I actually came out of a semi retirement to play in a couple of tournaments. Planet Zero's SSF4AE weeklies and a PS3 Tetris tournament at Insomnia in North Houston. Scrubbed out a couple wins in SSF4AE, but yeah, I don't really play it at all. Tetris was interesting, I love playing it, but not used to playing it on a controller, especially not on PS3. Took me a few games to get semi used to it, but in the end it came back to bite me in critical moments. No shame in 3rd place, lost to both the champ and runner up. Maybe next time, especially since its like right by my parents house. For those up north that wanted to find anime toys, games, and goodies, but were forced to travel to Planet Anime, or Bedrock comics, Insomia is a nice little place carrying some of the latest toys and figures from Kotobukiya, Kid Robot and other big name brands off 1960 and Mighty Oak in the same shopping center as the eternal Feng Ling restaurant.

This coming weekend, PZ is also holding their monthly Cosplay event. So for fans of cosplay and those who love to cosplay, this is the perfect weekend to break out the outfits ya'll are planning to unveil at Oni-Con next month, or just to dust off the old ones that need to breathe!

Trying to finish up cleaning up my new place before the weekend. Planet Zero is hosting an SBO qualifier for Super Street Fighter 4 AE and BlazBlue CS2. Going to host a post bday/house warming party of sorts afterwards. Hopefully it doesn't get too messy. Last time I threw a house party, cops were involved, and a lot of people redecorated my front yard.

This year MLG seems to have problems with their lineup. Trying to find a good balance between all the games and match the popularity of Starcraft 2. Even Halo Reach is having trouble matching the hype from Blizzard's big creation. After introducing Mortal Kombat 9 into the mix 2 events ago, now comes League of Legends. To be honest, I know nothing about the game. I had to ask some friends what it was. But they seem to be excited about it, and so must all the hardcore LoL players as well. Hopefully it takes off and becomes a full fledged tournament game like SC2.

The NFL season is almost upon us, and that means Fantasy Football time. I'm in 2 leagues currently, one with SRK friends, and one with co-workers. So naturally, we end up watching camp news, latest injuries, and so forth in preparation for our drafts. But why watch pre-season football? I mean, sitting at home is one thing, theres nothing else really on, but actually buying a ticket and going to watch it? I hope the tix were discounted cause I really can't imagine doing that at full price. The starters are out there for all of 1 quarter, if they suit up at all! Watching 3 quarters of bumbling 4th string kick return backups trying to figure out which side of the ball their on is not my idea of premium NFL action. But then again, I guess if you're really starved for football, its better than watching some random school get their butt kicked by some powerhouse school.

For those of you living in a non-gaming cave, the largest Fighting Game gathering in America is taking place this weekend in Las Vegas, Evo2k11. A large number of players from Houston will be going, sadly I won't be able to, not that I'm remotely competitive anymore, but it would have been a fun trip. Why am I not going to attend the biggest convention that holds my interests? I'm moving...

Rather still moving, I've been moving my crap from my old location to the new one for the past week now. Ugh, so tired of shuffling crap that I just want to throw it all away and buy new crap. I finally bought a new microwave, so now I can trash the old cube that couldn't pop popcorn. And my new fridge has an ice maker! For some reason that is the most exciting thing about my new place to me! Sad I know.

Kamikazecon was this past weekend in Houston. In the Galleria Marriott. Basically, across the street from me. Did any of you go? Yeah, me neither. I pretty much forgot it was happening until a friend from out of town popped up all of a sudden and we were like, "What in the world are you doing here?" When he replied that he was here for KKC, I was pretty shocked. Not that I forgot about the con, but because our friend actually traveled out of state for it.

In addition to losing out on seeing UMvC3(not to be confused with UMK3) and SFxT demos, I'll also be missing MLG Anaheim. Ugh, I haven't been to California in.... geez, 5 or 6 years. Sigh, hopefully I'll be finally done settling in with my new place and work, then I can go travel a little bit. Looking at MLG Orlando in August, A-Fest in Sept, and the rest of the MLG season.... Rhode Island! Another state I get to check off my list!

Last night I finally got to watch the last Harry Potter movie. I have to admit that I was not really a big fan of the movie series until later, but the final movie was definitely a must see. Definitely more than Tekken Blood Vengence... I can't really say it was unexpected. Video game movies are kind of expected to flop, so this limited release showing definitely limits it to their target audience. At Edwards MarqE, the showing was literally packed with gamers from Planet Zero, and old school Tekken players. While it did have some nice fighting visuals, and the main characters were modeled well(they had a Xiaoyu shower scene!), it made all the background characters and details look very bad. A friend of mine put it best, this looks like a 2nd rate Final Fantasy movie. The plot was kind of round a bout, much like how the Street Fighter Alpha animated movie was, centering around a movie only character. But the real head scratcher was the main focus being Ling Xiaoyu and Alisa. Unless you're big fans of those 2, you will probably be disappointed since 75% of the cast is not even mentioned in this feature(Lei Wulong barely made it in with on a text message...) Maybe they'll add some extra stuff when its released on Blu-Ray with TTT HD.

So Jemine decided a few days ago that she wanted to make a video for The Nerd Machine. For those that saw my other video with her, that was made in 3 days. I was really hoping to avoid doing that again. Well, when I got to see the video contest webpage and rules... the deadline is... July 3rd. She tweeted me Wednesday, came up with the idea Thursday, recorded the song Friday, shot scenes Friday and Saturday, spent all night editing, and now I'm uploading it... I showed it to Tito, and will upload it to my Facebook acct. Tito said, "Looks good man, even better than the first one." I'm sitting here thinking yeah, I'm getting good at these 2 day shoots... OMG GIVE ME MORE TIME TO DO THIS!!! Anyway, its not perfect by any means, theres a few shots that I really couldn't fix and is pisses me off. I need better camcorders, or lenses, but I don't think this model allows that. Someday, I'm gonna need to upgrade everything, PC's, cameras, lighting eq, etc. Someday. Anyhow, you can watch the video below, or download it from the link below as well.

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=A6V6WFDC

Whew this weekend went fast! A-Kon 22 was a blast, got to see a lot of old friends I hadn't seen in a while. Also got to do an interview with the lovely Yaya Han, got to see the upcoming Ninja Gaiden 3, and the latest works by Monty Oum! Never watched Red vs Blue, but Monty showed us an episode he had free reign on, definitely got me hooked! Oh and more Dead Fantasy! You are NOT ready for some of the stuff he's got cooking!

Found some cool new toys for my exploding collection of gashapon figures, this time from To Aru no Railgun and K-On!! I just wish I got my paycheck before the con, then again probably not, I would have used it all up in an instant. I got to see some cool cosplay, that was while I wasn't being trampled or stampeded by the extreme amount of people at the con. I also got to eat In-and-Out for the first time in years! Definitely a fun trip, if you missed A-Kon then shame on ya! There are plenty more cons coming up though, like Anime Expo in 2 weeks. Prob gonna hit A-Fest in Sept, and don't forget Anime Matsuri April 6-8, 2012 at the Woodlands Waterway Marriott!

Music: Muse - Undisclosed Desires

So I haven't written anything here in weeks, sorry. I've been working on some side projects and trying to get my stupid car working. This is like the 3 major catastrophe this car has had over the past year! Oh well, over the past week I've been working with my roommate DJ Tito, my friend Buddah and cosplay models Lana Marie, Ichi, and SuWan on a video that I'm submitting to A-Kon 22 for one of their film reels. You can see the finished product below on my Youtube channel.



I definitely feel I had a better grasp on what I wanted to achieve with the video versus my earlier ones. Besides the video frame rate correction, I understand a bit better on look, lighting, positioning, etc. Thanks to John Leigh for giving me tips on some plug ins for Adobe Premiere CS5. This was my first time using color correction, you see it with the girls scenes. I tried to make their scenes appear kind of dreamlike or just in some far off place. Also it helped mask the stupid cars in the background. The guys scenes I couldn't do much. I filmed them in my apt, and there just isn't enough light in there. Live and learn, next time I'll have to find a better location. I also need a mic. One day if I can manage some money I'll finally get one. But anyway, I got emails back from the A-Kon film guy and he liked the video so chances are good that you might see it on the A-Kon website or on A-Kon TV in Dallas during the con!

Below are some candid shots of the girls from the shoot, I'm doing interview articles on them for my Examiner column, so be sure to check those out!

Tournaments and Videos

So lately I've been pretty occupied doing random stuff to get ready for Planet Zero's weekly tournaments and making a video for A-Kon. For those that don't know, Planet Zero holds tournament every week for Super Street Fighter 4 Arcade Edition and Marvel vs Capcom 3. In addition to writing random crap on my blog, I also write articles for Examiner.com about those tournaments and other gaming events. I also write a column about Video Game Babes and the girls who dress up as them. Hey! I can picture you rolling your eyes! Stop that!

My other thing I do is make random videos. Somewhat for fun, but also because I'm very interested in the whole process and would eventually like to do something career wise with it. Below are a couple of videos from my Youtube and Facebook channels I enjoyed making the most. I know they aren't masterpieces by any stretch of the imagination, but I don't care. Anyhow, I'm working on a new project that will hopefully be ready to be shown at A-Kon in Dallas. I have some of my friends involved and a script pretty much 90% done, so wish me luck!

So last night Planet Zero had their post Anime Matsuri encore party. As you can see from the pics below, it was extremely packed and cramped and wild in there. If you were into cosplay, there was a contest for it; J-fashion, there was a model pose off; gaming, its PZ! All in all it was a pretty hectic and fun night.

But it didn't end there. Me and my friends Vineet, and Jamail went to the Orbit Room in downtown Houston to check out the return of this past Club AM DJ, the beautiful Heavygrinder! Well, to be honest the club was a piece of crap building, but it had some lights... a table... some speakers... yeah, no it sucked. We started off getting shafted with a $15 cover charge to a club that we needed to get patted down for. Vineet told me it was the first time in his life he had ever been patted down. Same for me. This was only moments after we saw a police cruiser zip by with lights flashing. We walk in a see a lonely DJ spinning in the front room, I mean really lonely, there were like 2 people standing around listening to him spin. We got beers($5 a pop!? Really?!) and checked out the back room. There was another DJ spinning to warm up the crowd, but sadly there wasn't much of one. Where was everybody? Apparently, in the back patio either smoking or chilling. Yup, definitely worth the $15.

About a minute later we see an ambulance pull up. The ushers and owners came flooding into the back asking who called for an ambulance. It was pretty funny how they immediately came out back cause there was NOBODY INSIDE! After about 10 minutes everybody realized it was a hoax and were all equally pissed I'm sure. Then Heavygrinder came in! She's been a guest DJ at Club AM for the past 3 years so she's gotten to know the AM staff pretty well. Hugs all around for us and some of her fans. Soon it was showtime. We all grabbed more drinks and headed to the back room for the performance. Everybody out back did too, the room was filled. Nothing but glow in the dark bikinis and heavy bass for the next hour! I will admit I was a little faded at this point, but I do remember Nathan showing up saying we ditched him, Juan(Fallen) and company poppin in and saying how they were regulars at this joint, Vineet going gaga over this asian chick wearing wings, and the Raver chick in the cut up Deadmau5 shirt that really filled it out nicely. IHOP with the PZ crew DJ Tito finally making an appearance after turning Viet for an evening, and then watched Mike U, Daniel(Last Blade) and Marcus(Nytemare Raven) mash on AH3 before calling it a night.

Music: Depeche Mode - Personal Jesus