WonderCon 2012: Day 2 recap

I'm sorry it took me over a week to get Day 2's recap up everyone (or anyone?); I caught my first cold of the year thanks to WonderCon...it's what happens when you shake so many hands. But without further ado, here is the recap along with the link to Day 2's Flickr album.

Enjoy!

WonderCon 2012: Day 1 recap

Well, I'm back from my 3 day whirlwind adventure from WonderCon and we have a lot to talk about. First of all, this was our first con since 2007 when Anime Expo changed venues from the Anaheim Convention Center to the Long Beach Convention Center, so we were pretty excited to get back into the con scene. Hopefully, we'll get to experience WonderCon once again next year (or some time in the future) when it returns to its rightful home in San Francisco. 

But let's get to the juicy stuff. I'm going to give you a play-by-play of what we did all three days, with the bulk of the events happening on Day 2. Each day will have its own separate post. If you are so inclined, you can also check out my Flickr photostream starting with Day 1 right here. 

WonderCon 2012

This is it! For the next three days I will be joined by tsudoku, our dearest buddy Vinh, @ohdrahcir, and possibly a few other friends for 3 fun-filled geek-out days at WonderCon! I'm super excited!

In case you didn't already know, WonderCon is kinda like the sister convention to Comic-Con in San Diego. Normally it's held in San Francisco, but this year the convention center in SF is undergoing some renovations, so the organizers at WonderCon have kindly graced the citizens of Orange County with their presence by holding it at the Anaheim Convention Center for one year only.

Tickets are super cheap ($25 at the door for one day only or $40 for all 3 days if purchased online, $50 at the door) and the panels are pretty amazing. There'll be quite a few celebrities, which I don't really care too much about (unless it's Joseph Gordon-Levitt—who will be there to promote his new film Looper—asking me to please, please, please make out with him), a few exclusive movie screenings and short Q&As with cast members, producers and directors (g'day Sir Ridley Scott), vendors (cha-ching, merchandise!), and plenty of cosplaying.

I WANT THIS SHIRT!



There will be cheese - thanks shirt.woot.com and bassanimation.com!

 Ohmygosh...isn't this the most awesome shirt design EVAR?! Aperture Science and rat races never looked so adorable! I stumbled upon this by chance at shirt.woot.com and saw that this shirt was in the "reckoning" department, which means I can STILL order it for the low, low price of $15!

Check out the shirt here and be sure to read the copy; I can't make any sense out of it but there's a "solution" in the forum.

Time is a gift

Lately I've been biding my time by focusing on the more important things in life: exploring Flickr, uploading pictures from our trip to the East Coast (which I will link to at a later date), catching up on reading, hanging out with mom and a few friends, and updating my closet. Notice that none of that included playing any games of any sort - I need a LONG break! Sitting on the sidelines and watching/listening to tsudoku play is fine by me for the time being - and I'm used to it. I'm focusing on me and it's such a wonderful thing!

Since we've returned from vacation I've been bitten by the travel bug and have been going through a case of wanderlust (it's contagious). So...I booked a 3-day cruise with some girlfriends to Ensenada and I'm super excited! I've never been on a cruise - the whole not being able to swim thing kind of kept me away from staying too long on a boat for extended periods of time. But I hear that you get to eat (a lot) on a cruise and you have no access to the internet, which sounds excellent in theory. Regardless, this will be a great exercise in staying off Twitter for 3 days (oh my god I may kill someone).

Check back later for pictures from our trip to New York, and maybe a couple from our friends' wedding in New Jersey. See you later, promise!

PS: we never did get to meet tsudoku's Legion of Honor friends - jerks. Not really, one lives in Rhode Island and the other lives in upstate NY so for them to get to Midtown Manhattan would've been sorta difficult. Still! I don't like being stood up!

Closure.

"Sorry, you're at the wrong gate, Osama." - @jesus

Last night President Obama addressed our nation with the words we've all been waiting to hear for 10 long years: Osama bin Laden is dead. You can imagine the jubilation those five words created across the United States. Finally, this long chapter is over and we can now move on...perhaps even bring our troops home?

But for this moment, right this second, I want to remember where I was when the news was officially dropped (even though the advent of Twitter completely blew up with the news 40 minutes before President Obama made his official statement) because I sure as hell remember where I was when 9/11 happened.

I hadn't cried this hard since 9/11. I didn't know anyone in the Twin Towers, none of my loved ones were in New York when it happened, but that doesn't mean I, and so many others across the country, did not grieve and feel completely helpless when we watched the horror unfold on TV. And now I will remember that last night I was glued in front of my laptop anxiously waiting to hear those five words, crying the hardest tears of joy that I've ever cried in my life. And all the while I was thinking, finally, justice has been served, and I look forward to the day that I can tell my future children about this important chapter in American history.

Time may heal wounds, but time and patience will brings us closure in the end.

Life break

Ah! Hello readers :)

This blogger’s been on quite a long break, and it was really, really needed. I apologize that this space hasn’t seen any activity for quite some time, but a lot’s happened since my last entry…which was what, the ilomilo DLC? Geez, Louise…I’m sorry!

Anyway, if you’re interested, here’s a recap of what’s been going on in my life:

Reading is Sexy!! Goodreads.com 2011 Reading Challenge

Behold a sampling of our massive collection of books

As part of the 2011 Reading Challenge for Goodreads.com, I've decided to tackle some literary works that I normally wouldn't read. Usually I'm all about fiction, memoirs, classics, the occassional graphic novel, or nothing. This year as part of my 28-book reading goal, I'm going to try to change that by adding science-fiction, fantasy, and even *gasp* romance.

The photo above is only a sampling of the books we bought at our favorite used book store, Camelot Books in Fountain Valley, California. There are a few in there I received as birthday gifts, and a couple others I purchased from Barnes & Noble and/or Borders. 

BAFTA 2011 NOMINATIONS!

OMG! You guys! The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) nominations for video games are in and my favorites LIMBO, Call of Duty: Black Ops, Halo: Reach, Mass Effect 2, and Kinect's own Dance Central have made the cut!! This is exciting news and such a terrific way to start my Wednesday morning!

I've never paid much attention to the BAFTAs, although I think they're like the UK's version of the Academy Awards, so to have these titles recognized by such a prestigious institution is totally off the chain! :)

I'll be sure to tune in March 16, 2011 to see which of my favorites walk away with that awesome BAFTA mask.

Visit http://www.bafta.org/ for more information.

Mini-Bibliophile Quiz!

My former Chipotle buddy, talented DIYer and Hello Kitty aficionado @LilMissTati posted this awesome book quiz a while back on her blog Tatiana Supports the Arts, inspiring me to do the same. SO, like a brownie, I snuck into her blog late one night and "borrowed" the quiz (she hasn't found out yet but methinks she soon will once I post this on Twitter, in which case, Hi Tati! When are we gonna hang out and get Chipotle like the good ol' days?) My goal for this year is to read 28 books in 12 months. Why 28? Because that's how old I'm turning in about two weeks (wah!)

After I finished the quiz, I realized that I haven't read enough:

• books written by women
• fantasy/sci-fi novels
• graphic novels
• historical fiction
• steamy romance novels that I'm too embarrassed to buy at the store myself

I'm hoping to change all of this starting this year.

Oh and while you're at it, be sure to check out @LilMissTati's etsy shop, Babushka Designs on your way out...her beautifully hand-crafted goodies are made with yarn, love and no preservatives :)

1. What author do you own the most books by? Chuck Palahniuk
2. What book do you own the most copies of? NONE but I seem to have accumulated quite a few issues of Motor Trend and InStyle
3. Did it bother you that both those questions ended with prepositions? I’ve learned to tune that kind of stuff out when I’m not on the clock    
4. a. What fictional character are you secretly in love with? I’m not entirely in love with him, but if I could have a fictional fling with him it’d be Oliver Mellors from Lady Chatterley’s Lover
4. b. What fictional character would you most like to be? Marla from Fight Club…that girl was absolutely crazy and lived life on the edge, something that I can’t really see myself doing  
4. c. What fictional character do you think most resembles you? Max from Where the Wild Things Are. To this day I still daydream about things that could be

Spring Cleaning

Usually when I make plans for my blog it consists primarily of post ideas from the blogging machine. But after running this blog for the past couple years and uploading a considerable amount of content, I think it's time I take the next step and submit it to Google FeedBurner. With that said, I'm going to have to do some major Spring Cleaning before submitting my blog, kind of like getting rid of a bunch of clothes and donating them to Goodwill. But instead of clothes, it'll be irrelenvant blog posts, giving proper credit to any photos/images, and cleaning up my language.

When I first started Fake It Like Bacon, my intent was to share my gaming and life experiences, but I had no idea how long I would keep this blog going. Now that I know that I have an audience, I'm going to keep writing and keep gaming for as long as you'll have me :) My intent is to make this blog kid-, parent- and gamer-friendly. Of course, I'll include anything of interest in my personal life without turning it into a 13-year-old's LiveJournal.

Thanks again for reading, and keep an eye out for any minor cosmetic changes.

Have a neat summer & K.I.T.!! *smooches*

Tuff Ryderz (@Vickipedia)

FAKE IT LIKE BACON IN NEW JERSEY/NEW YORK 2011!!

Disclaimer: I'm still a bit sick and medicated...if things in this post don't make sense, let me know and I'll fix it when I'm over this cold.

Hola my whimsical whimsies!! Fake It Like Bacon is going on the road to New Jersey and New York! We just booked our tickets for our week-long vacation to New Jersey/New York for April 11-18th and we're looking forward to visiting the Big Apple! (Why is it called the Big Apple anyway?) Two of our really good friends will be getting married in Livingston, NJ but since we'll be out there for a good week, we're going to act like tourists and see what the city has to offer two born and raised Southern Californians.

If you live in the NJ/NY area, get in touch with me with me via Twitter or leave a comment on this blog - what should tsudoku and I do during our brief stay in the East Coast? We both love to eat and drink, I love museums, and have every intention to visit NYU while we're there. And, I hear Dina Lohan (Lindsay's mom) lives in Long Island...if you can make it happen so that we can party with her, that would be uber awesome :) Of course, no trip would be complete without a trek to the famed Jersey Shore...going there will be our ultimate goal!


I'm sure the wedding will be beautiful. Thanks paleisthenewtan.com!

Fist-pumpin' in a town near you starting April 2011!

2010: A Reflection

Happy New Year's Eve everyone! 2010 has been a great year for gaming but for me, it was a terrific year for personal growth. I hardly ever check my horoscope but for some reason I started the year by seeing what mine had to say:

Year 2010 Overview for Aquarius

Aquarius often gets pegged as being a little too cerebral for its own good. But the truth is, that's where you do your best work. The next year is going to give you the opportunity to use those sharp mental powers to focus on what it is you really want out of life. Two eclipses fall in your Twelfth House, which will bring out your intuitive side, and give you a chance to see your life from a less-strictly-logical (yet no less valid) perspective. The additional information they give you about your life and your position in it will be your big chance to put things in order.

Saturn is also going to be bringing big changes as to your philosophical approach to life. What fundamental approaches to life have worked for you, and what haven't? You may have never stopped to ask that question, or known the benefits of finding the right answer to it. This year, those answers will come, and your life is likely to be a saner, better-adjusted place for it.

Of course, it's impossible to have a well-ordered world around you without having a few other people in it. The middle part of the year will see close friends and partners coming and going in your life, more so than you've seen in a long time. In part, this will be a reflection of the changes going on in your "higher mind." And again, the overall effect should be a positive one. It's your worldview, Aquarius -- make it the best you can!

Now, I have no idea what these eclipses are doing in my Twelfth House, but I made sure to keep a look out and shoo them out the front door should they provide me with any problems. However, I didn't take the last paragraph about how close friends and partners will be coming and going out of my life seriously until it actually (coincidentally enough) happened.

But let me talk about the highlights and what I've learned (or cared to remember) about this year before it goes flying out the window.

Not a zombie just yet!

Whew! Sorry I haven't been updating the bacon blog as of late. With the holidays quickly approaching and many, many family arguments to look forward to, I've been staying put in my shell and have tried to spend more time taking care of my only New Year's Resolution from the start of the year - redecorate my home. We're making progress; last night we finally bought an area rug!

But just because I've been M.I.A. for the past couple weeks doesn't mean I haven't kept up with the news, and there have been a TON of gaming news in the grapevine just today alone.

Happy Veterans Day: A Story about my Dad

Vietnam War Memorial at Freedom Park, Westminster, CA. Photo from
theliberaloc.com

Happy Veterans Day! If you are a war veteran, or you knew someone who bravely gave their heart and soul to serve our country, we are all indebted to you. Today's post is dedicated to my pops - the greatest man in the world.

As a kid I never really gave much thought to Veterans Day, Memorial Day, or even Black April. It was only until just this past summer that my dad finally shed some light in his time with the Vietnamese Army during the start of the Viet Nam War. During his early twenties my dad (like most young men) received training to fight in the army against the Viet Cong. Some time during this period he was lucky enough to meet my gorgeous mother, marry her and have a baby (my older sister).

Recap: Dia de Los Muertos Celebration in Downtown Santa Ana

Last night tsudoku, my famous buddy @DavidisALLright, and I headed to downtown Santa Ana for the annual Noche de Las Alturas event as part of Dia de Los Muertos, also known as "The Day of the Dead." Dia de Los Muertos is a Mexican holiday where families gather to honor and pray for friends and family members who've passed. This year the holiday fell on a Tuesday (Election Day), but the celebrations happened all day yesterday. I reminded @DavidisALLright that the Vietnamese have a similar tradition but instead of everyone celebrating all on one day, we pray and remember our ancestors on the day of their death.

Anyhow, here are some photos from last night's festivities. There were a LOT of altars - every single one of them beautiful and meaningful. The streets of Birch and 4th were filled with the aroma of marigolds and sage; I even bought a couple ceramic sugar skulls, calaveras de azucar in Spanish. If you ever have an opportunity to go to a Dia de Los Muertos celebration, I highly recommend going and taking the kids. It's a cultural experience that cannot be missed.

#tweetyour16yearoldself

Yes, I know what today yesterday is was - YAY FOR THE KINECT!! We just picked ours up (well, tsudoku did; I just picked up Dance Central - woo!), but I want to focus on something else just for a moment. After this post, I promise to get back to talking about the Kinect and my review of Dance Central and Kinect Adventures :)

Today we're going to focus on Twitter's trending topics. I admit, I love Twitter but sometimes (okay, a lot of times) Twitter’s trending topics are freakin' stupid to say the least. Trending topics, usually prefaced with a hash tag (#), range from international aid (Haiti, Indonesia, Darfur) to Hollywood gossip (Demi Lovato goes to rehab, Lindsay Lohan is sentenced to x amount of days in rehab, Mel Gibson knocks out his baby mama, and then goes to rehab). Today's Yestereday's trending topic, however, was one that I could actually relate with: #tweetyour16yearoldself, or tweet your 16 year old self.



Me & tsudoku in high school; we were both probably 16 here



It’s been 11 years since I was 16 and a lot has changed since then (thankfully). I wholly believe that this topic started trending because of the unfortunate tidal wave of teenage suicides that have been happening all over the country as of late. These young people were literally bullied to death because of their sexual orientation, or because they were smaller than everyone else, or because they weren’t citizens, or because they were just trying to fit in.

Like a lot of other kids, I was picked on during junior high and high school probably because I didn’t say hi to someone. But I never had it as bad as these kids. My heart breaks for them and if I could go back and tell those kids (and my own 16 year old self) something in 140 characters or less, it’d probably be along the lines of:

Don’t deny the person that you are. Your quirks, talents, and knowledge are needed in this world. You have to bypass a lot of crap in order for things to get better.

Zombies Amongst Us

"'Twas the night before Halloween, when outside the house,
Some creature was stirring, too human to be a mouse.
The shotguns were hung by the chimney with care,
A warning to zombies that they should beware."

Tonight's post is kind of ironic considering I hate movies or games about the dead reanimated. True, I loved 28 Days Later, but that's not really about "zombies" per se; those crazies were more along the lines of human beings who were pissed off about being infected with some aggro-virus and were just looking to rip up anything as opposed to eating your brains. Oh, and we can't deny the comedy that is Shaun of the Dead; I mean, a Queen song was used in the movie for crying out loud!

Anyhoot, my office was hosting a Halloween costume contest and since I didn't participate last year, I figured I had a shot at winning this year's event. Here's a before picture of me:


Before the makeup and the madness - or how I normally look


And here's an after picture:

BRRRAAAAAIIIIINNNNNNNSSSSSS!!!

This is what happens when I don't have my morning cup of coffee, or my usual helping of Raisin Brain cereal.

November news

The first week or so of November is going to be hectic!

Nov. 2: Election Day. This will be the day that California voters will decide whether they should vote for or against marijuana legalization. Choose wisely voters, and read the voter information packet cover to cover!


Xbox 360 Slim with the Kinect

Nov. 4: The Kinect is officially released! I'm still entertaining the idea of taking the day off to set up the Kinect and start playing, dancing, racing, running...yeah, that's a lot of action verbs.

Nov. 9: Call of Duty: Black Ops is released. I might be standing in line for the midnight release with tsudoku at our local GameStop for this one (in which case, future blog post).



See you at midnight Nov. 9







And to think all of this will happen before Thanksgiving and the Black Friday madness.

Tonight's Soiree: Back to the Future



What year is it, again?  

Tonight one of my good buddies and I are going to go see the 25th anniversary digital re-release of Back to the Future at our local AMC theatre! Twenty-five years ago on October 25, 1985, one Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) literally drove back in time and accidentally messed up the past and realized he needed to fix it, otherwise there would be no future!

I was two when this movie was first released in theatres and I remember watching it over and over again when I was five to well into my preteen years (it's what happens when your parents own a video store). I can't wait to recapture my single-digit youth with a box of popcorn and a theatre full of excited and rowdy twenty- and thirty-somethings :)