I Vomit Rainbows

I keep thinking I didn’t do very much in 2011. It was an exhausting year, though. The earthquakes and tsunami in Japan hit everyone hard, and I helped put together the We Heart Japan charity group, which has held several successful fundraiser events. Our biggest one was an art show and signing less than a week after the quake, which raised $14k. I took a lot of pictures, too. I was at San Diego ComiCon (of course), but spent one night shooting every single DC artist and writer who came to the big DC Comics party. I also shot Wondercon (my first!), Comikaze Expo, New York ComiCon, and the Cowboys vs Aliens red carpet premiere. I also made a comic book about Substandard.  I ate the sweetest thing ever. I met and took pics of my favorite people from Doctor Who, Warehouse 13, Adventure Time, as well as George RR Martin. I won the October 2011 Deviousness Award at deviantART. I also won first place in the fake beard category of the DefCon Beard and Moustache Competition. We’ve been running the Pizzabagel room at turntable.fm for months, and there are usually people there on weekdays. I didn’t do a lot of food projects, but I made some intricate tiger cupcakes. NinjaPenguin was really fun, and we built an igloo filled with penguins. I also did a bunch of live art this year, and made my first acrylic charm on my newly launched etsy store. I also messed with shopify a bunch, designed some iPad and Facebook apps, and got a lot of freelance work. Also designed the Scavenger Hunt and Toorcon shirts. Threw TommEE a crazy 40th bday party in Vegas during CES. Flew to NY a couple times and got to know some of the NBC folks better. Went to Ava and Conor’s incredibly fun wedding and explored Japantown and a train tunnel. Played in Christmas snow in Wyoming.

There was also a lot of sadness this year, as people I know went through some difficult health challenges. I have spent far more time in hospitals this year visiting people than I’d like. Seeing the entire hacker community rally together to sign up to donate bone marrow was amazing beyond belief.

And 2012.. NinjaPenguin will be in Africa. In May. It’s time to explore the world again.

(also… I really really love my friends.)

I’ve been running around Japan and ComiCon the last few weeks! Will post more about Japan after the next thing I’m doing.. DefCon! The world’s awesomest hacker convention! On FRIDAY you’ll have a chance to get some original art from me, if you show up at the Queercon party that night. It’ll be in the hardware hacking area, two rooms, and there’s a bar. I’ll be making custom postcards, and projecting it on the wall. On SATURDAY I’ll be at the Ninja Party. Seeya there!

I got interviewed by a new site- ani.me!

Check it out here:  http://www.ani.me/zine/anime/article/13/

(original photo by swamibu)

I don’t want to make a bunch of resolutions i’ll break, so i’m just going to stick with one: throw a party in Antarctica.

By 2020 I want to visit all the continents and go up in space once.

In the past decade I’ve:

Found the perfect boy
Travelled to europe twice and Japan three times
Gotten paid by publishers and websites to take pictures and travel
Thrown parties that have become internet-famous
Got my 6th dan black belt in Tang Soo Do
Went to the Firefly movie premiere & the Season 4 Battlestar Galactica premiere
Got a picture taken with the president (Bush, blegh) at the White House Xmas party
Had back surgery where they fused some bones together and grew new bone over it
Got to see tons of people wearing my tshirt designs at conventions
Hung out in secret bars an partied under a freeway overpass a few times
Partied in an abandoned missile silo
Frequently visited the Magic Castle, and been to Club 33 twice
Burning Man, Tokyo DisneySeas, Love Parade SF, and the Sapporo Snow Festival
Shot lingerie models on an airplane while hanging out in a scary tall crane
Made a LuLu costume with my friend and cosplayed at a few conventions
Won an award for working on a flash video game, at Schmoocon
Appeared in some small movies, and had some art used in one
Eaten raw horse and a foie gras corn dog
Explored many hidden and abandoned places
Shot Red Carpet at the Spike TV Scream Awards twice, and the 300 DVD release
Shot two weddings and attended many weddings
Ran my own karate school
Learned to cook

In the past two decades I’ve:

Thrown punk shows and underground raves
Published (and been published) in zines, comics, and a CD-ROM
Moved around a bunch in three states (California, Texas, Colorado)
Gotten sued for $100,000 by Penguin Books
Been raided by the FBI
Got on the front page of the local newspaper (San Diego)
Been in a bunch of art shows and thrown my own
Been to San Diego ComiCon 16 times
Been to Defcon 12 times. Since Defcon 4 I’ve only missed it once (or twice?)

I kinda lapsed on the comic book publishing thing, but me and Dave are working on a photo book project together. Making this list made me realize how long it’s been since I’ve published anything (The last big thing I made was a comic book on CD-ROM in 1998). I came up with a story idea while in the woods this weekend though.

Happy New Year!

ADV was one of my favorite Anime companies, particularly because my friend over there, Rod Peters, was always recommending amazing stuff for me to check out. They were one of the bigger companies that will always remind me of a time when the anime industry was fresh and new and had tons of energy. I just saw a twitter via intermixi that said they were closing shop, and it’s just really sad news.

One of my favorite shows was Serial Experiments Lain, which pretty much every hacker kid who liked anime in the mid-90s watched. It’s about a girl, and it has a really twisted plotline about a place called “The Wired.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_Experiments_Lain

I actually met the guy who ran the big Lain fansite while on a random Japan trip years later, as well as the creator and producer of the show at several conventions..

Another ADV release that I enjoy greatly is Voices from a Distant Star. It’s short, but it’s touching, and its largely the work of one person. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voices_of_a_Distant_Star It shows what is possible with enough determination.. from wikipedia: “Voices of a Distant Star was written, directed and produced entirely by Makoto on his Macintosh computer. Makoto and his fiancée provided the voice acting for the working dub (A second Japanese dub was later created for the DVD release with professional voice actors). Makoto’s friend Tenmon, who had worked with Makoto at his video game company, provided the soundtrack.”

I miss being excited about anime, and loving anime. ADV really brought some of that brightness into my life. I heard Tokyopop is having a lot of problems too this week. It’ll be interesting to see what changes come about in pop culture.

Hooray! I’ve been blogging sporadically on my deviantART and livejournal pages, but I think this is gonna be my primary art/food/travel blog from now on.