Day Forty-Two: Quest for the Comic Con Shirt

7/25/14, 9:50 PM PDT

Thanks to my dad's connections, I was able to land a Comic Con ticket literally YESTERDAY. Since this would be the first time EVER that I would actually go inside of Comic Con, my nerdy self stayed up until 3 AM last night looking through the entire Comic Con schedule to make an hour-by-hour plan of what I'll be doing today.

Unfortunately, that late-night study session resulted in me waking up late. Late enough that my mom couldn't drive me Downtown like I planned. So I took the trolley.

Just like everyone else.

You don't know, but out of frame to my right was a large man wearing
a tie breathing down my neck while playing Angry Birds. No joke.

Upon arriving at the Convention Center, this is the first thing that I see.

THEY DECAPITATED FINN AND PUT HIS HEAD ON DISPLAY OH
MY GLOB.

Cute. You know. As cute as gigantic severed heads of my favorite cartoon characters can get.

First thing I did today? Went over to the Nintendo Gaming Lounge to play me some...

SUPER SMASH BROS 4 OH YES.

LOOK AT THEIR BEAUTIFUL LIVESTREAM SETUP.

It's... it's breathtaking.

During my late-night research, I heard that if you play the demo, you can win an AWESOME free Smash t-shirt. I made it my primary goal to win that t-shirt today.

And it is SURPRISINGLY hard to win that shirt. First of all, you have to play a six-minute 3DS demo. After those six minutes, if you end up placing first against all of the other CPUs, you get this ticket:

Who am I? Triple-O four two nine!

Then, you can cash that ticket in to play against three other people that also cashed in their tickets. In that four-player, items-on, final smashes legal free-for-all, whoever ends up in first place wins the t-shirt.

So yes, it is very hard to win that t-shirt.

I mean winning the actual tickets was a piece of cake. The CPUs weren't geniuses, so if you set them all to a super weak character like Yoshi, you're basically guaranteed to win every time. Sorry Yoshi, I love you and I love aMSa, but in Smash 4, let's face it: you suck.

Owowowowowowowowow.
(via destructoid.com)

But winning multiplayer? It's ridiculously hard. Especially when winning pretty much involves getting all the OP items/Smash Balls before anyone else can.

So obviously, I didn't win my first multiplayer game. But I don't call my first multiplayer match a total failure. Why? Because while I was in line for the multiplayer match, the kid in front of me was talking soooo much shit. He kept saying stuff like how we all suck at the game and if this were Melee, then he could wreck us all by playing Pichu, even in a Stamina Match. And he had the most annoying high-pitched voice too. For a thirteen, fourteen year old boy, he sure did sound like a little girl on helium. But hey, maybe his oversized braces doubled as a voice changer.

Alright, that was a little mean, but seriously, this guy was just the WORST sport. I wanted to punch him in the throat but I restrained myself because if I got arrested, my chances of winning that t-shirt would be damn close to zero.

So instead, I punched him in the throat. Through the new Smash Bros game of course. When I got put in his group for the multiplayer match, I chose Fox and just harassed the guy. Every time he got within range of me, I'd lock him in a drill kick and every time he tried to run away I'd laser the back of his stupid head and every time my charged up-smash foot connected with his sorry face and launched him into a blast zone, he let out a very vocal "GOD DAMN IT" which just fueled my fire.

In the end, I placed second to a kid that got the Smash Ball twice and absolutely wrecked everyone as Super Sonic. But damn, did it feel good to put that mouthy kid in his place.

Filthy casual. Talks shit, can't even tech.
(via brutalgamer.com)

Alright, my mini-vent is over. Pardon the language, but you have no idea how awful that kid was.

Anyway, after my multiplayer match, the clock struck 1:24, which meant it was about time for me to head into the convention center to watch the Assassin's Creed: Unity game demo/Q&A, which consisted of the head director of the project, the guy that voiced Arno (the new assassin), a co-creator of The Walking Dead (more on him later) and Aisha Tyler.

I got three out of the four, that's still a C right?

They started the panel off with this trailer for the new game.

And oh my god, for the entire trailer, I had goosebumps. This was the first time I've ever seen that trailer and god damn is it awesome.

Aisha kept making awkward adult jokes throughout the panel. At one point she was talking about getting stabbed in the balls or something, I'm not entirely too sure on the context but I heard "knife" and "in your balls" in the same sentence. But it was funny. I guess.

Also, the co-creator of The Walking Dead (Tony Moore) also made an animated short film with Rob Zombie about Assassin's Creed: Unity, which he premiered at the panel. It was really cool, but I think it might have been a bit too gorey for other people's taste, especially the scene that had a really graphic eye-stabbing shot.

Basically this, but with French people.
(via explosm.net)

A cool gameplay demo, followed by a kinda boring Q&A session, and the panel ended.

...But not without the unveiling of a WHOLE NEW ASSASSIN'S CREED: UNITY TRAILER THAT ABSOLUTELY BLEW THE MINDS OF EVERYONE IN THE ROOM. Why? Because it showed a FEMALE TEMPLAR WORKING SIDE-BY-SIDE WITH ARNO. CRAAAAAAAAAZY. Am I even allowed to post that on my blog or is that too big of a leak? Ah well, a few hundred people saw the same panel I did anyway, it's bound to be on the Internet by now.

After the panel, I roamed the main convention floor for a bit. Nothing too notable. I found the Cyanide and Happiness booth.

Right next to this very disappointed girl.

The Cartoon Network booth was interesting too, but the line was a bit too long for my tastes.

No thanks, I don't want to get digested today.

And while looking up, I found this thing. Not too sure what it is, but hey, it's cute.

Love that goldfish especially.

Eventually stumbled over to the Nintendo booth, where, lo and behold, they also were giving out tokens for free shirts. Except in here, the lines to play/compete were substantially shorter since one, it required a badge to enter as opposed to the Nintendo Lounge and two, it was competing with giant replicas of eggs from Alien and Uncle Grandpa cave mouths.

So in a typical MMO fashion, I decided to grind. Tickets, that is. Not the dance move, I promise.

Basically, I just played the 3DS demo over and over again until I got 10 or so tickets. Then I camped at the multiplayer area, hoping to win within 10 tries. On my second attempt, I got paired up with a girl dressed as a female assassin and two guys that looked like effing PROFESSIONALS at the game. I don't know what, but something about those two just radiated intimidation/mastery at a simple party game.

"Go on. Take my Smash Ball. I dare you."
(via usatoday.com)

But to my surprise, they didn't really know how to play. And I stomped (erm, punched) all three of them with Little Mac. And it was GLORIOUS.

Here are the spoils of my victory.

The token and the flyer they gave me upon being crowned the Champion.

The reverse side of the token.

Went back to the Nintendo Lounge to cash the token in and I FINALLY GOT THE SHIRT. Look at it. It's so beautiful.

The front. Ignore my Gamecube controller for now.

The back.

Shoulder design too. Wow, fancy.

Watched the rest of the Smash 4 3DS tournament while I was at the lounge, which took me until 6 PM. Worth it though, because it resulted in some AMAZING fights. Especially grand finals, where stuff like this happened. Hopefully with all the hype that happened in this tournament, Smash 4 can be a waaaaay better and faster game than Brawl ever was.

Oh, and I got signatures from famous Melee players too! Check it out.

Westballz and Scar signed the front.

Larry and Toph signed the right handle.

Tafokints signed the left handle. Also, I mispronounced his name as
"Takofints" when I met him and now I feel bad.

And what's a convention without taking pictures with some COSPLAYERS?! Ignore my stupid, stupid facial expression in most of them, I still have to learn how to properly smile.

Up first, Mako Mori from Pacific Rim.

Miss Takei?!

Next, some Danganronpa peeps.

Leon and Junko. Or ██████, can't tell which.

I think this one's my favorite. Freaking STEVE from BLUE'S CLUES.

Mailbox's left eye also glowed red occasionally, so I think
she's a terminator.

After taking a picture with me, Steve gave me this sticker, which I will forever treasure.

I didn't know he went to Challenger.

I was SUPER impressed with these guys though. Honest to god, I thought the guy on the left was really Matt Smith because he looks SO MUCH LIKE HIM.

Here's a pic of Matt Smith. Compare and contrast. Go ahead. I'll wait.

Woah, poses!

I asked for a picture with him, but he looked more annoyed than anything.

Whateverrrr, Michael.

I don't know what this thing is, but it was adorable and it was soft so I had to take a picture with it.

Animal Crossing, maybe? Fact check me, Samantha/Kayla.

Here's the female assassin that I fought against when I won my free t-shirt.

Pit does NOT approve.

And a creepshot of a kid I saw cosplaying as Ness. He was really into it and I didn't want to get out of line so I just took this picture without his permission. Sorry, dude.

"It's k bro."

RFotD: When I went to Comic Con badgeless last year, I actually got more free stuff than when I went today with a badge.

SGAT: Nothing. But hell, I went to Comic Con, so this zero day was worth it.

Day Forty-One: I Complain About Miami's Basketball Team

7/24/14, 9:05 PM PDT

Woke up at 9:45-ish to go run with Charles. Which almost didn't happen because lazy, sleepy me didn't go to sleep until 3 AM and didn't want to get out of bed. But I sucked it up, ran to the high school with him, then ran back home while he stayed there for dance practice.

Tell you what, it was a big mistake to wear black today, because the run back was HELL. Dear GOD, it felt like I was on fire the entire time back. The weatherman on some radio station that I happened to be tuned into said that today would easily be the hottest day of the week, with a high of effing 94 degrees Fahrenheit. Considering that I consider anything above 65 degrees "hot," that puts today's high at around... really goddamn hot when converted to Michaelean degrees.

Right above "unbelievably" hot but below "Olivia Wilde In Her Prime" hot.
(via inhabitat.com)

Poor dad. We drove to him while he was doing his mail carrier route and he was BOILING in this heat. Brought him some Yogurtland and a sandwich, but we forgot to bring him a bottle of water even though he specifically told us to bring one. Yep, that'll be on our consciences for a bit. Sorry, dad.

Anyway, spent a large chunk of today editing my short film again. Today's edits: frame-by-frame masking to compensate for environmental glow caused by muzzle flashes. Fun. Here, have another scandalous, scandalous leak.

That's... that's an awful lot of blood...

Oh, and what could probably be the happiest news of today:

YES. I FEEL LIKE I JUST WON THE LOTTERY.

Ubiworkshop also says there will be prizes for who can complete the course the fastest for each of the days. So guess who's gunning for first place?

...Probably Kacy Catanzaro, who ran the course today. If you didn't know, she's the girl that absolutely wrecked the American Ninja Warrior Finals.

"GIVE ME MY FREE SHIRT, UBISOFT!"
(via instagram.com)

Oh, and if (when) I do get to run the course, I'll have a bit of a treat for you guys. But that'll have to wait until tomorrow. Or Saturday.

RFotD: Kacy Catanzaro is the first woman to ever qualify for the finals on American Ninja Warrior.

SGAT: Filmmaked. Is that a word? Well now it is.

Day Forty: Filmmakers Are Like Onions

7/23/14, 11:59 PM PDT

Pretty much spent the entire day editing my short film today. Look at all these LAYERS.

"Psssssh, that's not that many, stop exaggerating, Michael."

Oh really now? See those brown layers? Those are pre-compositions. Basically, I use them like folders to keep even MORE layers organized.

Here's the blood splat pre-comp.

"...Alright, that's a little big, but still, no big deal Michael."

And here's the damn gunshot pre-comp.

"IT'S LIKE A BLOOMIN' ONION"

Yesterday, I finished timing/positioning all of the gunshots. Today, I finished all of the rotoscopes I need. And tomorrow, I have to focus on environmental glows that'll be cast by gunshots. Making pretty solid progress on this thing, I'll say.

...Except this is just the intro sequence. I'm barely A THIRD OF THE WAY THROUGH THE MOVIE.

"Come on, step it up!" -Ivan
(via ign.com)

But seriously, I'm probably gonna have to step it up if I want to finish this before I leave for the Philippines. Two weeks, seven minutes of editing plus a two minute intro? No problem. Right?

Right.
(via topmobility.com)

Oh, and today, for the first time ever, I found out what a silverfish looks like. Saw this weird looking insect crawling on one of my cabinets, promptly murdered it, then looked up what the hell the thing was on the Internet. Literally, up until today, I thought silverfish were only mobs in Minecraft, I never thought they'd actually be real.

Yeah, not quite as cute as I thought they'd be.

Note to self: Vacuum and deep-clean room tomorrow to ensure that I never have to see these things again.

RFotD: The scientific name for silverfish is "lepisma saccharina." Their name, "saccharina" derives from the fact that they tend to eat carbohydrates, notably sugars and starches.

SGAT: Edited a BUNCH of my short film.

Day Thirty-Nine: The Worst Parkour Injury Ever

7/22/14, 11:59 PM PDT

OKAY. Yes, I KNOW this entry is super late, and I KNOW that I promised that starting a few days ago, every entry was going to be published at 11:30 PM from here on out. But in my defense, I stayed up pretty late editing this beautiful picture of Nevin for his birthday.

Happy birthday, Nevin.

So am I forgiven, readers? Yes? Alright wonderful. Have this gif as a token of my appreciation.

It's cute, huh?
(via reddit.com)

So today, I discovered this thing:

And of course, I got SUPER HYPED. You all probably know this already, but I am a huge fan of the Assassin's Creed series and I love doing parkour, so it only makes sense that I'd be this excited for something that puts the two together. No combination has ever been this great since peanut butter got with jelly all those years ago.

Well... maybe *this* beats it out. Only by a little though.
(via huffingtonpost.com)

So, in preparation for running the course, my geeky self decided to go outside and practice a bit of parkour. And it went along pretty well.

Until I cut myself when I tried to do a turn vault over a short wall. For future reference: Turn vaults are meant for handrails and edges, NOT walls.

Here's some of the damage.

 

Wrist scrapes. No, I promise I'm not emo.

My left hand's ring finger got pretty cut up too, and I'll save you the trouble of having to see the blood. But hey, I took care of it.

Good as new.

Before the day ended, watched Ju-On: The Curse with Samantha, which was a lot scarier than I remember it to be. Took awhile to fall back asleep because I swore I kept hearing this whenever I closed my eyes.

RFotD: Adhesive bandages were invented in 1920 by Earle Dickson, who made them for his wife, who frequently cut herself while cooking. 

SGAT: Edited more of my video, exercised.

Day Thirty-Eight: The San Diego Dusklife

7/21/14, 11:51 PM PDT

Today, the free "because I said I would" cards that I ordered about a month ago finally came in.

Here's the actual cards.

And here's the note that came with them.

If you've never heard of the guys from "because I said I would," definitely check them out. They're a non-profit organization dedicated to making the world a better place, one promise at a time. And sure, it's just a piece of paper with writing on it, but these pieces of paper have motivated people to do things for the benefit of themselves and the world, from promises to not use their phones while driving, to promises to stop self-harm, to promises to help those in need, etc. It's a really great organization, I definitely recommend visiting their website, where you can read about their stories and even order your own cards. Visit them by clicking this link.

And although my current promise is nowhere near as monumental as some other people's promises, I'll post mine here anyway.

This is for you, my small team of people that worked with me last year.

Same day, 9:51 PM PDT

So I went venue scouting with Samantha and my family. We decided to visit Lestat's Coffee Shop, which was where we were planning on performing our duet poem. Based on the pictures of the place that we saw and the recommendation that Samantha got from her friend about the place, it seemed like a really cool venue in downtown San Diego.

Woah, it's really pretty.
(via lestats.com)

Man, the ambiance. So beautiful.
(via lestats.com)

You know it's sophisticated when they have a mounted ceramic deer head.
(via lestats.com)

Except this venue was not in downtown San Diego, like we had believed. It was in Normal Heights. And despite its average-sounding name, the area around Lestat's was a bit too... intimidating for our liking. Although these pictures from Google Street View of the neighboring buildings don't really do the scariness of it justice, I tried to show off how sketchy the place looked.

You know it's sketchy when space itself distorts around pawn shop signs.
(via Google Street View)

Notice the eerie lack of pedestrians. And the desolate skyline.

I really wish I grabbed a few pictures of the location since again, Google Street View doesn't make it look like how it does. But let's just say the place looked really... ghetto. And sorry, Lestat's, but I think we'll pass on performing at your venue. Nothing against you guys. We just don't want to get shot any time soon.

But we had two hours to kill and we had expected to go downtown. So we went to Horton Plaza. Dedicated readers of my blog, you might remember that I posted about Horton Plaza before. And yes, even now, I still believe that Horton Plaza is a nightmare to navigate. Let's recap why.

WHERE IS ANYTHING?!
(via 10best.com)

We ate as soon as we got there. Parents/sister ate from Sarku, I ate from Panda Express, Samantha was starving, but she didn't want to eat because she didn't want to get carsick on the ride back. But I forcefed her cream cheese rangoons anyway.

"I'M DOING THIS TO SAVE YOUR LIFE, I PROMISE."
(via caiti-online.blogspot.com)

Afterwards, Samantha, my sister, and I went to look around the mall. We visited Comics N Stuff and looked at comics... and stuff. We tried to look for a Clara action figure in the Doctor Who section, but couldn't find one, unfortunately. But hey, we found a mountain of Pop Bobbleheads in the store. Here's a few notable ones we found.

"I need this in my life." -Samantha

She also found this good-looking guy and said that it's what I looked like when I walked into 6th period.

I... kinda see it..?

And while passing by Hot Topic, I found this really cool Doctor Who shirt.

I'm not big on The Beatles or Doctor Who, but for some reason, the
combination of the two is really awesome.

Then, we grabbed a bite to eat at Wetzel's Pretzels. Bought some Cinnabon for my sister (the nice cashier gave us an extra cinnastick because we had to wait 12 minutes for a new batch, so thanks cashier!), while Samantha bought pretzel bites. Without salt.

Basically, she bought tiny cylinders of bread.

She shared them with me, claiming that she couldn't finish it all. But I know that she's secretly trying to plump me up so that she can put me in the oven and eat me to absorb my powers. And damn it, is it working, because those bread cylinders were surprisingly good.

Tell you what though, Samantha takes tiny bites. Really, those pretzel bites should be renamed pretzel half-bites, since my fatty self can eat two of them at once if I really tried. But I guess they named it specifically for Samantha since she took over two minutes to finish one of them. I wasn't exactly staring at her while she ate, but I swear, she was just taking the tiniest nibbles at the bread at a time.

Come on, put your chipmunk cheeks to use, Samantha!
(via gizmodo.com)

On the drive home, my sister would keep telling the longest stories imaginable. She'd be the only one talking for upwards of two, three minutes at a time and thirty seconds in, I'd forget what she was talking about. But after she stopped talking, Samantha and I would always say "That's good, Megan" and give her pats on the head while saying "pats for Megan." For awhile, she was pretty satisfied, until she figured out that we would do this every time she talked extensively and that we weren't really listening. Then she started resisting.

But hey, SpongeBob references, right?

Bonus points to anyone who can tell me the first blog entry that I used
this exact gif in.

RFotD: I think having a pawn shop near your neighborhood instantly makes your neighborhood scarier.

SGAT: Edited a bit of my film, spent a bunch of time with Samantha.