Tag Archives: jen and tonic

A Weekend at Sakura-Con in Photos

11 Apr

This past weekend I made the short trip up to Seattle to attend Sakura-Con which is one of the largest annual anime conventions in North America. I’ve never been into anime (with the exception of Trigun) but my significant other is, and this was a birthday present to him. So we happily packed our bags and headed North for a weekend of anime antics.

I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. Initially, I thought we’d just be watching anime all day, or attending discussion panels led by the creators of the various shows, but it included a lot more than just those things. They also had: cosplay chess, autograph signings, costume contests, a few dances and a rave, gaming, karaoke, exhibition hall, charity auction, fashion shows and Japanese culture workshops. There were literally things going on all day long, and it was unlike any convention I had gone to before.

The thing I loved the most were the costumes people came dressed in. I was amazed by the inventiveness and dedication to staying in character that some people had. There were obviously people who slapped together a quick Mario and Luigi costume, but there were others who spent hours putting together what they wore, or carefully applying their makeup. I overheard one girl say she spent three months and over $700 in fabric making her costume which was a large full-body wildebeest jumpsuit complete with mascot head. Seriously impressive, especially to someone like me who has a hard enough time hemming my pants.

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Facebook Friends With Benefits

1 Apr

I recently came across an article about a company, Kingfish Labs, which raised $500,000 to help develop a social dating application for Facebook.  You can sign up for their app, Yoke, and select whether or not you’re in a relationship. If you’re coupled you can act as a matchmaker for your single friends, and if you’re unattached the application will recommend users to you based on the commonality of your Facebook profiles.

There are a couple of holes in this plan:

  1. I love my friends dearly, but many of them have a hard enough time setting themselves up. Add the fact that most of us are highly undesirable dating specimen, and you’ve got a recipe for disaster.
  2. A computer can only account for the things that are being said in a profile and not the things that aren’t. You wouldn’t know that someone was a hardcore KKK member until they started fitting you for your head cover.

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A Dog’s Life

28 Mar

Chillin' like a villian
Credit: My mad photo skills

A woman I work with recently went on a trip, and asked me if I could watch her dog while she was gone. The dog comes to the office with her so it wasn’t a total stretch to ask me to dog sit for a few days. Still, you have to seriously question anyone who feels comfortable leaving their pet, child or elderly relative in my care.

We had a great time while she stayed with us. We did all of the typical things I expected: we went for walks,  did doodie duty, fed her, and let her wake us up at an ungodly hour on the weekend. What I didn’t expect was that her brief stay with us would be peppered with wisdom only a dog could dispense.

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Meetings Schmeetings

24 Feb

I’ve never been the corporate type. I’ve never had a job I needed to dress up for, I don’t try to wiggle my way up the corporate ladder, and I have zero desire to ever be the type of person who is married to her job. My parents must be so proud.

In light of this information, one can imagine how excited I am when I find out we’re going to have a team meeting at work. I always go through the same stages whenever one is scheduled: fear, guilt, excitement, resentment, indifference and finally, acceptance. Sitting around a table listening to “business speak” ranks right up there with having my eyelashes ripped out one by one. I always end up zoning out after a few minutes, and wishing I had opted for a job in retail.

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You’ve Got Mail

11 Feb

Have you ever wondered what your mail would say about you? I never gave it any thought until I started receiving mail for someone who used to live in my apartment. When we first moved in I expected there to be some overlap, but we are still regularly receiving mail for a person who hasn’t lived here for nearly a year. Just when I think it has finally stopped, I find an invitation to a college alumni event for a university in Tennessee in my mailbox.

Who is this person who had to leave in such a hurry that she couldn’t submit a change of address form to the postal service? Was she a fugitive running from the long arm of the law? Was she a model who suddenly left for a career-making photo shoot? Was she someone who was turned on by the thought of strangers rifling through her mail? I tried looking her up on Facebook, but unlike me, she has a life which is not consumed by hours of social media interaction.

So I put on my detective hat, and looked at the evidence.

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Sippin’ on Some Tonic

30 Jan

Credit: "Cheetah" by Jen and Tonic

Awhile back on my Facebook Fan Page I asked my fans if they’d be interested in having me get drunk and take to my computer to write a post for my blog. I was surprised to see that so many people fully supported this idea. Apparently I have fans who are either: (1) alcoholics or (2) people who like to see me humiliate myself or (3) a combination of the two. Whichever category you fit into, I love each and every one of you.

So this weekend I did the classiest thing I can think of, and got drunk by myself. Prior to sipping on $2 Pinot Grigio (again, classy) I was expecting that I’d have a full manifesto completed by the end of the night. Considering I didn’t even have the energy to turn my computer on, that didn’t happen. Thankfully, I had my notebook with me and was able to jot down a few things before passing out.

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A Very Tonic New Year

20 Jan

In my previous article I discussed New Year’s Resolutions, and how typical resolutions bore me to tears. I suggested we should break away from the norm, and dare to do something different this year.  Normal resolutions are so vague (I want to be healthier, I want to travel, I want to read….stuff) that it’s no wonder 25% of us have already fallen off the bandwagon after the first week.

If we focus on a series of specific goals rather than unclear ideas, we’ll have a better chance of succeeding. This is why I thought long and hard about what I wanted to achieve this year.  After eliminating things such as “Drinking until I’m better looking” and “French kissing at least 50% of Hall & Oates” I came up with what I consider to be a pretty great list of things to accomplish.

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Happy Mirthday!

13 Dec

 

My reaction to turning 30

“How does it feel now that you’re 30?”

I’ve gotten this question a number of times since turning the big 3-0 two weeks ago. I think everyone expected (and some hoped) that I’d have a nervous breakdown over this milestone birthday. Sorry to disappoint, but I care more about what’s happening between Sam and Ronnie on “Jersey Shore” than I do my own age.

It could have something to do with the fact that I’ve never gone beyond the maturity level of a 5th grader. Perhaps it’s because I grew up with a mother who aged very gracefully, and didn’t freak out over each passing year. The most likely cause of my jubilation is that, like a fine wine, I get better with age…and when paired with a kickass cheese.

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