Naruto @ MindSay

Ok, I guess it may help if people knew a little bit more about me than thumbing through the tabs. I prefer freewheeling like this anyway, so...

 

I am a mechanical engineer, hence the screen name 'magicengineer'. Due to the lack of spaces though, it should obviously read 'magic engineer'. It's the title of a book by L. E. Modisett, Jr. (http://www.travelinlibrarian.info/recluce/recluce/engineer.html) that I read and identified partially with the main character. I also happen to like fantasy, magic, the whole shebang, and I still play D&D on a semi-regular basis, but unlike others who may play it, I don't talk about my characters with others that have never played. Which isn't a bad thing, don't get me wrong, it's just something I don't do. Even if others share their charcter's exploits with me, I'll find it interesting, and may share something funny that my character was in that ended up being clever or really stupid, but that's as far as I take it outside of gaming.

 

So, liking fantasy, and being an engineer by profession, the name sounded like the perfect contradiction-in-terms that someone like me could appreciate, and others could question to start conversations. It was also better than any other pseudonym that I had used in my youth. I've always liked to have meanings-within-meanings, hidden gems like clues to a treasure for people to discover. Look at it one way, it represents that I read, what I like to read, and maybe something about my personality. Look at it another way, and it shows that I'm deeper than what was previously thought.

 

I enjoy tutoring math, with a math background from engineering, I feel that I want to give back and help make life a little less stressful for students who are struggling. I've seen a lot of different levels of math prowess - from the 'I hate it' to the 'I'm really good, but I want to be better'. What I've found is for those students who hate it, really don't hate math, it's that they don't get along with their teacher, or they don't understand the teacher's lesson. Once that happens, the student tends to shut down and not want to learn. Math is one of those subjects that can be spiced up, but it's challenging to do, and not many teachers are doing it. My sister didn't like her Algebra II teacher and got poor grades. Once she took it under a different teacher, she did better. And no, she didn't go through it, learn it, and then it was easier the second time around. She dropped it after the first quarter. Many times when tutoring, I've heard the same complaint, that they understand me better than the teacher. The material hasn't changed! So the only other thing is how it's presented or who's presenting it.

 

Right now I work at a local learning center for math and reading, and tutor on the side online. I'm also on Yahoo! Answers, but that's beginning to wane. I'd rather help one-on-one than compete for someone's attention.

 

I live alone. No pets. I'm allergic to cats, and some dogs, I've found out. Which sucks, because I like animals. I have no food allergies that I'm aware of, and I've adopted my maternal grandmother's view on food - as long as it doesn't bite me first or bite me at 2am, I'll try anything. But I don't eat like there's no tomorrow.  I have a few, really close friends, and a decent amount of good friends that I try to treat like they are close friends.

 

Single, and enjoying it some days, but not so much on others. This past week, not so much.

 

I write as a hobby. I also have a few stacks of model aircraft that I will eventually get to. Some people still call them 'cartoons', I now prefer the more adult term of 'animation' to describe that I still watch cartoons.  My favorite now, to the point of addiction, is Naruto. I've had dreams where I've been running like the ninja there do, arms straight back at full tilt. This is proof to me that I've become addicted. No kyuubi or jinchuuriki dreams yet though. Give it time.

 

 

Note: Heavily Loaded entry full of pictures. 56k users, you have been warned!

On Saturday, August 9th, 2008, Cynthia, her brother and I took a trip to San Antonio, TX to attend the San Japan 1.5 Anime Convention. We left Sugar Land, TX / Katy, TX at around 8:45am and arrived at San Antonio at 11:40am. The drive was pretty peaceful. Considering that I was driving my new 2008 Honda Civic Si, it was a piece of cake. The navigation system of my car helped us get around town. We also brought along MP3 CDs of Samurai Champloo and Cowboy Bebop for our listening pleasure, but eventually tuned in to my XM Radio's comedy channels.


It was pretty easy finding the Auditorium. Once we saw a bunch of otakus in costume, we knew that we finally made it. We went in, we registered and we roamed around for a bit.  Now when I saw the dealers area, I came, I saw, I ^_^!!!


About 90% of the people there were in costume.  It was a totally different world for me, but I knew I was going to enjoy this!  Once we got to the dealers area, I started taking pictures.  Here's a few pictures I took while I was down there (Dealers / Artist area):



Ok, so I purchased a few things: [adult swim] t-shirt, a Shinobi Bladerunner ninja sword, and a sterling silver cross (from Hell Girl).  After this, we went to the other side of the Anime Convention, which was held at the Holiday Inn Tropicano Riverwalk.  On our way there, I took some more pics:



Once we got into the Holiday Inn El Tropicano Riverwalk, here are some of the pics I took:



After that, we went back to the Auditorium to find my girlfriend's brother. We ran into a few interesting peoples:




Then we found her brother. We went back into the Auditorium to watch the Chibi Project, no comment... Then we ran into these people:



We decided to take a break from the convention and decided to walk to the Alamo and to the San Antonio River Center:



After that, we returned to the Holiday Inn to get a glimpse of what's left of the anime convention.




The longer we stayed, the more it felt like home was closer... but it wasn't. We drove for about three hours to get back to Sugar Land, but the drive wasn't all that bad.

Here's a list of the Anime Conventions that I plan to visit:

• Oni-Con: November 21-23, 2008 @ George R. Brown Convention Center, Houston, TX
• Ikkicon: February 6-8, 2009 @ Hilton Austin, Austin, TX
• Anime Matsuri: April 10-12, 2009 @ The Woodlands Waterway Marriot Hotel @ Convention Center, The Woodlands, TX
  (this is going to present a bit of a problem because...)
• KamiKazeCon: April 10-12, 2009 @ JW Marriot Hotel Houston, Houston, TX
  (...I planned to attend this one.)

And believe me, I already put a lot of thought into what I'm going to wear as far as cosplay is concerned... 

Yesterday, Cynthia and I went to San Antonio, TX for the San Japan 1.5 Anime Convention. I'd like to tell you guys more about it, but I have to leave for work in 15 minutes. So I'm just going to post a few pics real quick and I'll post some more later with more pics.



That's all I have for now. I took lots of pics. It's a four hour drive from Houston to San Antonio but we were able to manage doing all this within 24 hours. I'll be back to post more pics tomorrow.

Note: The new few entries regarding the anime convention might be friends-only entries.

send me naruto video.