The Return of the Real Electronics Entertainment Expo
Jun/090
Earlier this month E3 made its semi-glorious comeback to the Los Angeles Convention Center. It didn’t do a major transformation to the LACC but it did make its presence known with huge banners lining the convention and Square Enix with 3 FFXIII wall banners Hotel Figueroa sported. Its definitely on a larger scaled than the toned down E3 we’ve suffered for 2 years but not as glamorous as its last year in 2006.
A lot of companies weren’t there this year. Blizzard for one wasn’t but the other major ones– Sony, SOE, Nintendo, Activision, EA, XBOXLIVE, Bandai Namco, Sega, Konami etc. It definitely heavily revolved around consoles this year.
I didn’t care for it too much but it was nice to see what was available. Booth babes made a return as well since they were banned from E3 in 2006. As an industry perk and on company time, I went for 1 day. I thought I would need 2 but I only needed 1 day. I walked both the South Hall and West Hall in like less than 2 hours. I’m sure if I was more fascinated with what was there I would have taken longer. I checked out the fancy booths but not enough swag this year. Kind of a good thing since I’m a junk collector. I scored a couple of things like a Harvest Moon drawstring backpack from Natsume. They weren’t giving it out but I saw a lady hand somebody one and I went to ask. The best swag I got was a shoulder/cross chest backpack from Alienware. It was a pretty nice backpack and it had a aluminum water bottle, headphones, and a flash drive. I heard the next day Alienware claimed it was for press. If you weren’t Press or had the All-Access pass you were basically a non-important person. The companies disregard you as you present no value to them. You didn’t have access to lounges or special promos. :<
All in all I had fun at E3 and I'm sure others would have appreciated it more than I did. Too bad they don't work for the industry. :>
Memorial Day Weekend
May/090
During the week my routine normally consists of going to work and going home. Not too much excitement but I don’t mind it so much. On weekend it is a different story. Sometimes I wonder if I’m doing too much, which will just cause me to burn out. Heh… hasn’t been a problem yet but it does leave me not wanting to do much on Sundays when I like to relax to myself.
This was my schedule for my 3-day weekend:
Saturday
8AM – Basic Archery Instruction Program @ Pasadena Roving Archers
2PM – DJ 101 course @ Scratch DJ Academy
3:45PM – Terminator Salvation with the fr00t, Ashed one + otouto
7PMish – Tacos @ Taco King
8PM+ – Hanging out
Sunday
4PM – Drive to Nic’s
6PM – Get Beach Pizza
9PM – See Nic’s friend who drives a Nissan Skyline
10:29PM – Another movie – Night at the Museum 2
12:30AM+ – Watch Sailor Moon and talk about Europe trip in July.
3AM – Slept with Nic. <3 
Monday
11AM – Woke up
12PM – Picked up donuts at King Hawaiian and had Dimsum.
1:30PM – Sunken City @ San Pedro
2PM – Redondo Beach Pier
3:30PM – Back at Nic’s to chill
4PM – Jaccuzi
5PM – Drove home
“I want to touch Ferry”
May/090
I’m glad I didn’t talk myself out of seeing Ferry Corsten at Vanguard. My sister and I had to get their early to get our guestlist discount in case there was a crowd. A little after 9:30PM there was a line that we probably waited 15 minutes for. There were like 5 people in front of us (Asian of course) cock blocking basically.
When we got in the floor was empty with the opening DJ spinning. We went to the Patio Area to chill for a little bit to kill time but that really didn’t work. There was no where to sit and blah blah blah. I asked my sister if she wanted to dance and we headed back inside. This time there were a few more people randomly scattered on the floor and my sister and I started our groove. I think the opening DJ’s name was Ryan Sage and he was pretty good. He played some decent trance cueing in new music smoothly and bringing in the highs and lows almost perfectly. I think he did a good job setting up the crowd for Ferry. He went progressive at some point and I looked over to my sister confused. It was one of those tracks that was VERY progressive. It still fit in very well with the set but just a note I’m getting better at distinguishing the difference between the types of electronic music.
My sister and I also met a group of guys there as well. We befriended one of them when he took the opportunity to cockblock this huge smelly fat dude from dancing in front of us being all obnixous. The smelly guy wasn’t hitting us up but he was really being stupid. My sister and I avoided eye contact with that guy so he he would just leave. The nice guy chatted us up a little bit but he wasn’t being a douche or anything. He shared some recreational hobbies with my sister so wanted her contact. She told him she has a boyfriend but he said that wasn’t his goal. I laughed at the guy and said – She doesn’t have a problem, its the boyfriend that would have a problem.
I wanted to get a breather before Ferry came on and my sister and I went back out to the patio. The nice guy said he’d meet us out there and we’re like okay. While out there we meet the guys the nice guy came with. They were very nice and conversational. We were out there for an hour or so. I started to wonder if Ferry was on stage already and he was! The group of us went back inside but the nice guy helped guide us into the crowd to find a spot to dance.
Ferry was awesome and I have many videos and paparazzi pictures to prove it. He played a few songs I recognized. He played very little vocal Trance and he really got the crowd in a trance (doesn’t help almost everybody was rolling 
). The crowd was nicer than the Armin gigs I’ve attended. People were cheering for Ferry and not being pushy. It was obvious everybody there was there for music appreciation. The same girl kept climbing up the railing to touch Ferry. He was nice enough to shake her hands a few time. I told my sister I want to touch Ferry 
. Through out the set a few more people climbed up to touch Ferry but by then the promoters had bouncers telling people to get the fuck down.
We stayed inside for 2 additional hours. Ferry even played Cressida and a few tunes from his album. We Belong and shortly after Made of Love. We all went nuts for Made of Love. 
My feet were killing me by that point and I was hungry. We went back out to the Patio Area for a breather again and decided to go to BCDs. As we were leaving we saw the group of guys again. We exchange small talk and told them we were leaving. They were actually very nice. Hugged each other and went our way. I guess it made up for the creepy experience we had at Circus the couple weeks before.
As we were leaving through the patio area, these 3 girls were trying to get in for free. One of them said ‘But we’re Asian.’ I laugh out loud and said ‘Bitch please, everybody in there is Asian’ and we continued our merry way feeling really good about the gig. I’m glad I didn’t decide against going.
Tangomoniummmmmmmmm
May/090
Yummy healthy Korean frozen yogurt chain, Red Mango has unleashed their new flavor, Tangomonium, along with their wonderfully awesome plain, green tea and POM. Tangomonium is a light yellow in color and has a mixed citrus taste. While plain can be… well… plain, Tangomonium has just the right of amount of sweetness without the toothache. As I enjoy Red Mango yogurt overall I could never finish a small on my own. With Tangomonium, I finished a small with mochi and Oreos on one go the first time I got it. Now all I get is Tangomonium with Oreos. The light, sweet taste is perfect without an odd aftertaste on your tongue. Tangomonium is my favorite and I suggest everybody to try it. :}
Tangomonium
Meeting Jaren
May/090
Last Saturday on May 2, 2009, Chris, Nic, my sister and I went to Circus Disco. I wanted to see Jaren as it was Cerf, Mitsika and Jaren headlining that night. We were inside the club and one point these 2 ladies walk by and stand next to my sister looking at the DJ stage. I’m looking over thinking to myself… Is that Jaren? It looks like Jaren… Should I ask her? After a few moments of looking they headed back the direction they came from. I spent the next hour or so thinking to myself and regretting the fact I didn’t grab a picture. She latter comes up on the stage to do her gig but gah! again I missed my opportunity for a picture!
With hubby Matt Cerf on the decks Jaren sang her hit trance tunes and a couple from her album I’m assuming. She was awesome of course! The sound system wasn’t so great but she made the best out of it. People there didn’t seem to mind it so much as we all sang along. I sang to my sister hahaha… After her encore performance she exited the stage on the side I wasn’t on. She was mobbed but I didn’t want to be one of those people intruding… I continued on with the night.
I later saw her again to my left with a couple of her friends. She was grabbing her stuff off the stage and I shuffled over for a picture. She was really sweet and smiled at me. I said to her “You’re so beautiful.” XD She thanked me for the comment. I didn’t want to sound generic and be like ‘zomg you are an awesome singer!’ I wanted to get across that she was more than an awesome vocalist as from what I’ve seen I think she’s simply a beautiful person inside and out. I got my picture with her and so did my sister. Haha… sometimes my sister doesn’t care as much as I do. I’m such a fanatic. When I got home I sent her a message on MySpace and she message me back and commented on my twitpic! Check out me and Jaren – http://twitpic.com/4h13h!
I heart Jaren. :}
Haunted
Apr/090
Lately I’ve been having dreams or nightmares about still being in my previous relationship or getting back into it. It wasn’t as frequent as before like once every so many months… but now I’ve been having them either once every other week or a couple nights a week. I’m usually really good at decipher what is a dream or not a dream and I can take control of them sometimes…but with those dreams I wake up wondering if it was real. I even feel myself panicking, wondering why or how I got myself in that situation.
I guess in a sense I am still haunted by it all. I thought I’ve moved on; I thought I finally let go; obviously a huge part of me subconciously hasn’t. It just means I need more time.
Luckily last night I had a dream with Armin van Buuren in it. Gosh he saves me everytime. <3
Payback is a bitch
Apr/090
So I went to my online bank account to see how much money I had in there so I can pay some bills. I know I should have over 1k due to being paid on the 15th. Lo and behold a check for $538 was cashed putting me in overdraft minutes before I received my direct deposit. I look up the info on this check and it was written 2 years ago for my ex for the gym membership he bought for me. Hell no mother fucker. Should have a least told me. I called the bank about the check. Not much they can do after its already been cashed via the ATM system as my signature basically gives the right to cash it. Seeing this behavior gives me no sympathy anymore. I found my Movado watch box and I plan to sell the 2 rings he gave me on eBay. I need the money to make up for the loss and for my London trip. Oh payback is such a sweet sweet bitch. I’m going to enjoy every drop of this.
Female Asian drivers with faster cars…
Apr/090
Let me first let you know that I am a proud 2007 Toyota Yaris Liftback owner. My baby is a graphite blue which can be mistaken for grey. It has a 1.5L engine and about 106 horsepower. 106 horsepower. I know very well what my car is capable of and not capable of.
Today as I was leaving San Gabriel, taking the I-10 East home, I have to use one of the nasty interchange/merges that plagues SGV. There is this Acura RSX in front of me and bitch is driving slow. Dude we’re merging on the freeway where everybody is going 60+. I’m literally riding the ass of this car until I switched the lane over and zoomed by. Of course she was female and OF COURSE SHE WAS ASIAN. I’m an Asian female driver as well and I know I’m not the best driver but FUCK I know how to merge so I don’t mother fucking die! I feel like California has too many incompetent and inconsiderate drivers… OH MY GAWD IS THAT A BEND IN THE FREEWAY? I BETTER SLOW DOWN. IS THAT THE 605 COMING UP? I BETTER SLOW DOWN FOR THE LULZ. I see way too much of that bullshit when people just need to be considerate of those needing to merge over and the same time the ones merging should really merge the fuck earlier. Goddamn newbs. I don’t ever remember California being like this… I only started feeling this way after I came home from my study abroad in Japan. Japanese drivers are horrid so seeing the retardation of Californian drivers is slightly confuzzling. People are driving faster yet inable to follow the rules of the road properly? No wonder there are so many accidents…
Armin van Buuren @ Vanguard Hollywood
Apr/090
On Saturday April 11, 2009 I went to see Armin van Buuren’s gig at Vanguard, a club in Hollywood. I preordered my tickets weeks ahead of time. Earlier that week I saw Armin at Red in Newport Beach.
I arrived at Vanguard after paying $10 for parking less than half a block away from the club. My sister couldn’t make it even though I bought a ticket for her. She came down with something and going there was defintely been the death of her health. Anyways, my friend, Eric, accompanyed me to this crowded event. We arrived before 10:30 thanks to the lack of Hollywood traffic. While we were walking over to Vanguard, at the cross walk a dude in a truck drove by and whistled at me. I told Eric it was for him but he doubts that. Once we crossed the street somebody made a cat call. I swear it for Eric. [shrug] We stood in line for about 15 minutes. Security guranteed we were getting in. Once in I bought us drinks and I downed it before I hit the floor. I found a nice little spot and managed to move closer and closer to the DJ stage. The first DJ was OKAY. I felt he was playing the same song over and over with a couple of little tweaks here and there. The 2nd DJ was a bit better. The set before Armin was Jerome Isma-Ae. I just noticed he opened for Armin at Red as well. His set was better than the first dude but I think its just music preferences.
Armin came on a little after 12AM. The crowd went nuts (so did I). At that point people were already pushing and trying to get themselves in front of me to get some pictures of Armin. Was kind of annoying as some girls were pushing their way through. I thought hell fuck no and shoved them out of my way. They probably didn’t notice me pushing because it was already crowded. I got stepped on and squished but I was smart to shove people that were trying to get in my way.
I snagged many pictures of Armin paparzzi style. I wasn’t that up close but my digital camera has 4x optical zoom so I had to avoid the hairy arms that were in my way. Srsly there were like 5 guys surrounding me all with their hands in the air snapping pictures. HAIRY. I also have YT videos of some songs from the gig.
All I really wanted was some close ups and to really see Armin face to face. After I felt content, I went outside to the patio to cool down and for some air. Once we got back inside we hung at the back of the club. The bass was still awesome all around the club so I danced and really enjoyed myself. We left at 2:30AM. I didn’t feel like there was a need to stay longer and best avoid the crowd and the drunk drivers. I had 2 hours worth of Armin. Good enough for me.
It is really amazing seeing somebody who you look up to live in performance. I don’t even know how I managed to get up close this time. I can’t help but talk about seeing Armin live yet I almost don’t have the words to describe how I feel. He’s truly my inspiration. :}