Category Archives: WHATS GOING ON

Books, BUSINESS, CREATIVE, FIRST STORM MANGA, One Sheet Stories, RANDOMIZER9.COM, TECH SUPPORT, The Rules of Tech Support, WHATS GOING ON, Writing

Second Storm

I believe that every creative person has, in their head somewhere, their masterpiece.  The Big One, the Magnum Opus, that one work that they believe will knock everyone’s socks off and change the world, or at the least, make them rich and/or famous.  One concept that we always preached in First Storm Manga was the idea that your Big One should never, ever, be your first project.

Why not?  As eager as you may be to unleash your book, song or artwork onto an unsuspecting world, the fact of the matter is that when you undertake your first major project, you are more than likely going to make mistakes. Thus, you should undertake a similar smaller project that you aren’t quite as emotionally invested in, so when things go wrong, you won’t be discouraged from having borked up your masterpiece.

Thus, “The Rules of Tech Support” is actually my second ebook.  My first one was “One Sheet Stories” which was a collection of five of my one-page stories.  Nobody bought it, and I also encountered a few slip-ups along the way.  I tried using a service called Smashwords which ended up not working as well as I had hoped.  Their touted ‘Meatgrinder’ conversion program didn’t quite spit out my e-book the way that I wanted it to look, which was frustrating.  I did some research and found a spiffy program called eCub that I could use to convert my text properly to e-book format then upload it directly to Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

That was just one of the lessons I learned while working on “One Sheet Stories” that I was able to apply to the production of “The Rules of Tech Support.”  The process went much smoother because I was doing it the second time around and I didn’t make as many mistakes.  Time will tell whether it “The Rules of Tech Support” will be successful or not, but on a technical level, I am happy with the result.

Its not that you can’t strike gold on your first try, but the unfortunate reality is that most folks will not, and who knows, that small project just could be the one that makes it big!

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AETHERFEST, ANIME, COMICS, CONS, E3, FIRST STORM MANGA, FURRY FIESTA, IKKICON, MIZUUMICON, ORIGINAL-GAMER.COM, RANDOM STOPS, RANDOMIZER9.COM, REALMSCON, SAN JAPAN, STEAMPUNK, TEXAS COMICCON, Uncategorized, WHATS GOING ON

My 2012 Con Schedule!

Doing my thing at San Japan 4TW

Never forget your sanitizer!

Here is my con schedule for 2012.  Frankly, I’m surprised I never did this here before.  Unlike previous years, I won’t be ‘working’ at very many of these.

Ikkicon, Dec 30-Jan 1, Austin, Texas

Technically, this New Year’s Eve con is the first con of the year as well as the last one of last year, so there.  I’ve already done a writeup on it, so there isn’t much else.

Furry Fiesta, Feb 24-26, Dallas, Texas

Going to try something new this year.  Furry Fiesta will be my first-ever furry convention.  It will be interesting to see how similar and different this will be from all the other cons I’ve ever attended.

Mizuumi-con, March 31, San Antonio, Texas

Mizuumi con was one of the first anime cons I ever attended, and is a great place for newbies to dip their toes into the multicolored pool that is anime and manga.  At $15, its inexpensive to go to and the kids out at Our Lady of the Lake University make for a pretty enthusiastic crowd.

Aetherfest, May 4-6, San Antonio, Texas

Set in the beautiful St. Anthony hotel in downtown San Antonio and put together by the San Antonio Neo-Victorian Association, Aetherfest is a three-day steampunk convention that truly stands out with its costumes.  Steampunk attracts a slightly older crowd, so those looking for an alternative to the manic pace of other cons will find plenty to like here. Dress-up is encouraged, but not necessary, or to borrow the words of a certain Mr. Collins, there is ‘no jacket required.’

Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), June 5-7, Los Angeles, California

Of all the cons on this list, this will be one of the few that I will be ‘working’ at.  E3 is the Big One as far as videogame conventions are concerned, and I will be going there in my capacity as Editor of Original-Gamer.com to check out new games and talk to people and write.  It is an industry-only event, so not everyone can go.

Texas Comic Con, June 22-24, San Antonio, Texas

If anime isn’t quite your thing and you want to get your hero on, Texas Comic Con is the place to do it.  In addition to the loads of comic book, action figure and pop culture dealers there are a host of artists, independent publishers, and fan groups ranging from Whovians to Sith to Ghostbusters.  Guest of Honor Larry Hama and Lou Ferrigno are but a few of the names showing up to this one.

San Japan, August 10-12, San Antonio, Texas

Easily and consistently one of the best conventions I have been too, San Japan Mach 5 is upping the ante this year as they are moving into the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center this year.  The already-biggest fan con in San Antonio is about to get bigger, which should mean even MORE fun stuff to do.  Sadly, I may be ‘working’ at this one as well for Original-Gamer.com, but we shall see.

RealmsCon, Oct 12-14, Corpus Christi. Texas

RealmsCon is currently (as far as I know) Corpus Christi’s only anime and pop culture convention.  While it is a 3-day affair, my experience is that you can go and see everything in one day.  That doesn’t necessarily make it a bad convention, just a smaller one.

There may be a few other events I go to, but this is what I have planned for so far for the year.  ‘Working’ or not, this year should be fun on a bun!

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24 Things I Noticed While Moving for the Umpteenth Time

Well that's just ducky!

What every new home needs!

I turned in the keys to my old apartment today, and so I once again bid farewell to one apartment while getting settled into a new one.

  1. Whily my method of shuttling stuff back and forth with my compact car is horribly inefficient, it gets me plenty of exercise.
  2. Okay, yeah, its ridonkulous and I should just do everything at once next time.
  3. I thought “why is it pink instead of blue?” upon seeing the toilet paper and rubber duckie above and then I saw the Susan G. Komen card and pink ribbon.  Ohhhh.  Derp.
  4. Speaking of which, I always leave a roll of toilet paper in the old place. I’m not sure why, its just something I do.
  5. Sometimes I wonder if I am really this elated at being here, or am I just high from paint fumes?
  6. It only took two trips to move the crap that wouldn’t fit in my car, so yeah, I should have packed everything else up.
  7. Cable guys are much more efficient when you have the apartment folks call them.
  8. That’s a good thing, too, because once again, I’m facing the wrong way to get a satellite.  Rats.
  9. Digital thermostats are awesome.
  10. The new place’s built-in shelves can hold all of my games and movies, and it is BEAUTIFUL!
  11. I have been in such a better mood now that my commute has been cut in half.  God, how I hate traffic, and once those really tall ramps (or skyways as I like to call ’em) on 281/1604 are done, the commute should be smooth sailing.
  12. My commute should be cut about in half, which is good because holy cats, gas is getting expensive!
  13. It really says something when even the dollar store in the new neighborhood is nicer.
  14. The nearest HEB is an older one.  Somehow, this isn’t a problem.
  15. The nearest Wal-Mart got upgraded from a “Raunchy-Mart” to a Supercenter since my last visit.  Nice.
  16. The nearest Best Buy might just be a little too close, I think I need to freeze my credit card…I mean literally, as in ICE.
  17. I should have gotten rid of that old living room furniture a LONG time ago.
  18. Shopping for new furniture has been a drag so far, maybe I should just get a bunch of beanbags, or move my bed into the living room.
  19. Moving stuff while working the 9-6 shift work during the wintertime SUCKS.
  20. Really, it wasn’t until that first Saturday that I went, “Gee, this is what this place looks like during the day.”
  21. The water heater at my old place didn’t hold enough hot water to take a bath, no wonder I was so cranky there.
  22. The oven here isn’t much bigger than the one at my old place, but at least it has A LIGHT! Seriously, the last one felt like an Easy-Bake.
  23. The margin of error on that thing is pretty darn thin, though, one long paragraph or trip to the bathroom and I end up with dark brown instead of golden brown cookies.
  24. My TV looks kind of small now, maybe its time to upgrade! 🙂
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BUSINESS, CREATIVE, JUST SAYING, MUSIC, RANDOMIZER9.COM, TECH, WHATS GOING ON, Writing

Lights Out, Lights On

The blackout is over and it’s back to unusual here on RANDOMIZER9.COM.  While SOPA may be down for the count, it certainly hasn’t gone away and so we must stay on our guard to make sure it or some other misguided attempt to regulate the Internet never ever rears its ugly head again.  Stay informed, everybody, and a big ‘way to go’ to everyone that participated!

For the entirety of January 18, 2012, I am shutting down RANDOMIZER9.COM in protest against the Protect-IP Act (PIPA) and the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). These are bills that are currently making their way through the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America.

While my blog is but one of millions that are fighting for your attention on the wild kingdom that is the Internet, I feel that if I can make my few visitors aware of what is going on, then I will have done my part.

My blog is currently a labor of love more than anything else, but I do hope to one day make a living from my other creative endeavors and so the topic of piracy is important to me. While the intentions behind those two proposed laws may have been good, their language is so broad and their methods are so draconian that they cannot be allowed to become law.

I don’t expect everyone reading this message to support this effort, but I hope that you will take the time to read up on the subject and decide for yourself whether we should let control of this crazy new wonderful thing called the Internet fall into the hands of corporations and the government.

Thanks for reading

–Eduardo “Randomizer9” Soliz

www.sopastrike.com

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ANIME, CONS, IKKICON, JUST SAYING, MUSIC, MY LITTLE PONY, NeRiMa, RANDOMIZER9.COM, STEAMPUNK, WHATS GOING ON

20 Things I Noticed During Ikkicon VI

Since the last Ikkicon, I actually have helped run an event (two even, the Mezasu mini-cons) so my checklist of “things I have done at a con” is pretty darn close to complete.  This time, the band I drum for, named NeRiMa ねりま, was scheduled to play Saturday night, so Friday was pretty much a ‘free day.’  Because of my involvement with the event, I don’t feel right ‘reviewing’ it so without further ado, here’s another list of things I noticed:

  1. I am not going to bring up the drum thing. I am not going to bring up the drum thing. I am not going to bring up the drum thing.  I think the drum thing was our fault, anyway.
  2. Okay, the drum thing: I need to invest in an acoustic drum set…once I’m sure there is space for it in my apartment, I’m sure it’ll fit in my car, and I won’t get thrown out of my apartment from the noise…so yeah.
  3. So Band 1 plays before Band 2, but Band 2 does their sound check after Band 1 does theirs and immediately before Band 1 performs…granted, I’m fairly new to the whole “rock band” thing, but am I the only one that finds that weird?
  4. I’d heard there were three versions of the schedule floating around, which probably why nobody minded that we started playing late.
  5. I was a little distressed at seeing such a small crowd at first, but it turns out Safety was checking bags for alcohol at the door, so we waited and it slowly grew.
  6. I think I like playing on Friday better, because we can practice the night before and having the show constantly on my mind for most of the con took a little bit of the fun out of it.
  7. I had a fun time at the concert itself, it was also nice of them to remember the fog machines were there about 2/3 of the way through. :/
  8. I totally forgot to check out the game room, perhaps the memories of last year are way too fresh.
  9. I’m guessing a lot of folks got the Nintendo 3DS for Christmas.  Either that or System Settings is much more engaging than I remember.
  10. I finished 4 Streetpass panels during the event and almost finished Find Mii a second time, w00t!
  11. According to my 3DS’ pedometer, I averaged 6,000+ steps a day, and my legs feel like it today.
  12. Once again, no microwave in the room.  I guess if you can afford to stay at a place like the AT&T Executive Education and Conference Center you aren’t going to be nuking popcorn and noodles for sustenance.
  13. Luckily, the venue was near the University of Texas, so there was plenty of pizza and burger jonts within walking distance.
  14. I love how the layout was prioritized: artists and dealers in the mezzanine, panels and some artists on the first floor, and con alley in steerage, er, I mean, the basement.  They aren’t the only ones to do this, BTW.
  15. The AT&T Executive yadda yadda is split in two between the hotel and the conference center, which is probably why there weren’t too many insane elevator wait times.  That, and it only has seven floors.
  16. I was afraid of that the venue was going to be too small for the number of attendees, but it didn’t seem to get too packed.
  17. I attended the My Little Pony panel to see if I could somehow finish the blog entry I’d been working on for the last two WEEKS. Mission Accomplished.
  18. In spite of my friend Chris’ best efforts, I was not tied down to a chair and forced to watch My Little Pony like the guy in “A Clockwork Orange.”  Jerk.
  19. What is it with badges?  Guest badges, even??  Once again I got a temp badge to start off, but they found the band’s real ones halfway through.
  20. I can’t claim this one (credit goes to my friend Justin of Nine Tails) but I have to include it: while looking at the Sunday schedule, a friend wondered “How come they never have Steampunk 102?”

For me, at least, Ikkicon VI was fun: a good-sized crowd showed up, the location was better in quite a few aspects, and our concert went well.  While there were a few wrinkles here and there, the problems that did come up got taken care of and a good time was had by all.

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ANIME, COMICS, RANDOMIZER9.COM, STEAMPUNK, WHATS GOING ON

Lights! Camera! NERDS!

Comicbreak.com presents Fanboy Flix at the Drafthouse

Arrive early, or sit behind Galactus!

If you want to get your nerd on in the Alamo City, the Alamo Drafthouse theaters feature free showings of various nerdy movies on a regular basis.  With exception of “Anime at the Alamo” these all take place once a month.

First, there is ‘Anime at the Alamo’ sponsored by the folks at Funimation which happens every Monday night at the Westlakes location.  I haven’t been to this one in awhile because there are a load of Mystery Science Theater 3000 wannabees constantly blabbing throughout the movie and they completely ruin the experience for me.

ComicBreak.com’s ‘Fanboy Flix’ brings us various geeky movies from years gone by.  This happens at the Stone Oak location and often features local guest artists.

The San Antonio Neo-Victorian Association gives us “Steampunk Night” for those of us whose pasttime happens to be the future past (ba-doom, tissh!).  Expect lots of really cool costumes and vendors at these events held at the Park North location.

For the Whovians among you, Doctor Who Fans Unite gives us Doctor Who night at the Stone Oak location.  Be sure you’re on time!

The Alamo Drafthouse is a great place to watch movies; and these events are a great chance to enjoy your favorite movies and shows on the big screen.  If you decide to go to one of these events be sure to get there early, because there are often things going on beforehand and the theaters do fill up.

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FOOD, JUST SAYING, WHATS GOING ON

In Defense of the Christmas Creeps

This was taken on September 24th 0_o

I was flipping through the radio stations as I was driving into work today to find that San Antonio station KQXT 101.9 had already started their annual Christmas music marathon.  Now, I love Christmas music, but the fact that they were doing so a week before Thanksgiving struck me as being just a hair too early.

The phenomena is known as “Christmas Creep.” While on a certain level it is getting ridiculous, there is one argument against it that I can’t get onboard with.  It goes like this: “Why does Christmas stuff have to come around so soon…what about Thanksgiving?”

What about Thanksgiving?

There really isn’t much to it.  Most folks will travel, spend a day or two with loved ones and perhaps enjoy a turkey dinner.  That’s it.  Thanksgiving is just what it says on the box: a day to give thanks and get a day off from work (or a four-day weekend if you are truly fortunate).

While Thanksgiving is special to many people, it isn’t sacred by any stretch of the imagination.  Heck, some stores have gone from opening at oh-dark-thirty the day after to opening late on Thanksgiving Day itself.

To be fair, let’s look at it from the store’s perspective: Thanksgiving does little for stores that don’t sell food, so I don’t really blame them for wanting to get an early jump on the Christmas shopping season.

So yeah, while stores opening on Thanksgiving Day sucks and getting a jump on Christmas in September or even October is a bit much, I think the week before Thanksgiving is just fine for retailers to start getting the ball rolling.

Finally, I should confess that I have been tuning to that Christmas music station on occasion, so I’m probably part of the problem.  🙂

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Pre-Paid, or Pre-Pain?

As my cell phone contract nears its end, I find myself metaphorically drooling over the thought of getting a new phone.  Well, okay, so maybe I’m doing a little bit of real-life drooling, too.  While the Samsung Moment I got from Sprint has been fairly reliable these past two years, it would be nice to get something new, and yes, there is some gadget-lust feeding that desire to upgrade as well.

While my desire to keep up with the virtual Joneses is strong, it is tempered by my desire to be more responsible with my finances.  I recently consolidated all my debts and am working on boosting my savings, which, of course, means cutting back on expenses.  I currently pay just under eighty bucks a month for my cell phone plan.  That isn’t bad, but it would be nice if I could get that number to drop.  I recently learned that I can an employee discount through my job.  Even then, I think I can shave even more off my cell phone bill by going with a pre-paid provider.  Doing so will come with a few caveats, but before I go over them, I should mention that I had pre-paid cell service from T-Mobile way back when because money was tight.  It was pretty good, but it was quite some time before I had a smartphone.  Now on to the issues:

The biggest one has to do with the carriers themselves.  While some of them piggyback off of the big boys (for example, Virgin Mobile uses Sprint’s network) and some are run by the big boys (Verizon and AT&T each have their own pre-paid services) others have their own networks that are not as robust as the ones the “big boys” have.  This probably won’t be a big deal when I’m at home in San Antonio, but once I go to other cities for conferences or events things just might not work!

Related to this issue are the phones that are offered by pre-paid providers.  They aren’t nearly quite as nice as the new ones the major providers carry.  From what I have seen in my research, some of them are just downright awful, as they are often made by second- and third-tier manufacturers.  Adding to this is the fact that you have to pay the full cost of a pre-paid phone up front.  That is one of the reasons that pre-paid service is less expensive, those carriers don’t subsidize the cost of their phones.  This isn’t quite as big a deal as it sounds, because the phones that I can get for free from the big boys are about as lousy as the one I have now.  If I want something better, I’m going to have to fork out some cash up front either way.

Another reason the ‘lousy phone’ thing may not be an issue is the fact that I just don’t do a whole lot with my smartphone.  For all the “OMG THOUSANDS OF APPS” available on Android, I barely have any apps installed and use less than ten on a regular basis.  Non-smartphones have gotten smarter these days, so I might be able to ditch a smartphone completely and go with a much cheaper non-smartphone plan.  If I can find a messaging phone that does Facebook, Twitter, and e-mail, that would be just about perfect.  The obvious downside is that I would probably be very limited to what I could install on that not-so-smartphone.

One final consideration is the porting of my current phone number.  I’ve had the same phone number for a few years now and have gotten pretty attached to it, so I’m a little jittery about moving to a new provider.  I get even jitterier (yes it’s a word, BTW) when I consider that a lower-cost operation may not have all of those nice people answering phones for them in customer service.  I’ve actually received good customer service the few times I’ve had to call Sprint, and shudder at the thought of talking to who knows who from who-knows-where.  That isn’t an “I hate Indian call center” thing, either.  In my AT&T debacle from earlier this year, I was actually glad to get a polite person with an accent instead of all the home-grown jerkasses I had been dealing with up to that point.  Yeah, the ‘USA-based support’ they were so proudly trumpeting was that bad.

While the thought of getting a shiny new phone with a nice big screen, new operating system and fast CPU is a pleasant one, the thought of being caught without enough money in the event of an emergency is enough to make me think over the amount of cash I’m currently shelling out for my phone service.  On the other hand, the service I have been getting has been pretty good, even in the boonies of my hometown and I’m not sure that going with someone different for the sake of saving a few bucks is the best plan in the world.  My bill should be dropping thanks to the employee discount, so I’m wondering if perhaps going pre-paid isn’t worth the trouble when things are working well as it is.

And yeah, those shiny new phones in the Sprint Store are looking pretty nice!

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Why a Tablet?

I have been thinking about getting a tablet as of late, going as far as to even take one for a test drive not too long ago. Of course, the question then becomes “Why?”  Here are my reasons for wanting to “small-grade” down to a tablet:

I DON’T REALLY DO A LOT WITH MY LAPTOP

When I am on the road with my laptop, I increasingly find myself either doing stuff inside of a web browser or in Microsoft Word.  I don’t play games with it, I don’t do any programming (yet!) and except for the occasional trip to YouTube, I don’t watch very many movies or videos.  All of the “big stuff,” such as editing audio or video, I do on my desktop, which has plenty of horsepower and a nice, big 24-inch screen.

PHONE TOO SMALL, LAPTOP TOO BIG

I have owned smartphones for about four years now, with my first one being a Windows Mobile 6 phone that I had before my current Samsung Moment running Android.  They work okay, but their screens and keyboards are just too small to type on for extended periods of time.  I am due for an upgrade soon and am leaning towards a phone with a larger screen, but even then I don’t think that they will not be big enough to use for any extended length of time.  As I mentioned in my Vizio Tablet review, I tend to carry a lot of crap in my laptop bag, which even at 12-inches, makes more cumbersome to lug around than it should be.  A tablet, on the other hand, would be more usable than a phone because of its smaller screen, and more portable than a laptop.  It should be the best of both worlds.

INSTANT-ON

Ideas don’t wait, so when something pops in my head I want to be able to jot it down before it gets lost with all of the other stuff being tossed around in the clothes dryer that is my brain.  While Windows 7 is nice, it does take a while to boot up and shut down.  With a tablet, I can turn it on at the touch of a button, type down whatever Big Idea I have, put it back into sleep mode and then get back to using the crapper or whatever it was I was doing when inspiration struck.

BACK TO A DUMB PHONE

These days, Wi-Fi is widespread enough to the point where it’s available nearly everywhere you go.  For those times when WiFi isn’t available, I have a pre-paid MiFi device which works well, even in the hole in the Internet that is my hometown.  Since an Android tablet can to do everything that my phone can do, there doesn’t seem to be much point in carrying an Android phone.  Thus, I should be able to ‘downgrade’ my phone to a more basic model that does not require a data plan which should save a few bucks in the long term, especially since Sprint is bumping up the price of the their smartphone plans another 10 bucks.

So there you have it, four reasons I will be soon purchasing an Android tablet.  I’m looking forward to having the near-ultimate in portability in the palm of my hand!  Move over, laptop!

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