I think I'm turning 25. I really think so.

I am now 25 years old. It's really quite weird. I'm a quarter century years of age now. So much I've learned, yet so much yet to be experienced.

I'm getting up there in age, but I'm not that "old" quite yet.

I suppose that is where the "quarter life crisis" is supposed to hit, yeah?

I mean, you know that you're on the verge of something, but you're not quite sure what it is. Whether it's good or bad, or happy or sad. You're gaining momentum. You're just not sure in which direction.

I find that there's always something fun about living by the seat of your pants. I've been living by the seat of my pants for all my 25 years now, and I've had a great time. Sure there's been life's many ups and downs, but you take them as they come. I'm in a good place right now: I've got a great family, and great friends, and as much as I know them to be a great show of care and support, I enjoy the unknown that still awaits me. The one without safety nets or back-up plans.

It's part of the thrill. It's part of life. It's what makes everything that we care about so damn worth it.

It feels pretty good to be 25.

SDCC 09

So my last entry in this bad boy was May 1st? Damn. Well, alright.

Last week, as most of you know, was Comic-Con. It went by pretty damn quick, and I don't know whether that's a good thing, or bad thing. Either way, it was absolute blast. The majority of my time was spent with my fellow Caballeros/Castaways, and there were a few other friends I had at the con that I didn't even get to hang out with.

I'm crunched for time, so I'm just gonna write down some things and hope it all just happens to make sense. Deal?... ok

Thursday, I had to wake up at 5am, get ready, and make my 7:50am flight. Thankfully, I didn't have any delays, and got into San Diego by about 9:15. Got to the hotel, the Hilton-Bayfront, which is right across the street from the convention center, at about 10, and started my day.

That fuckin' line for Hall H (re Twilight) was so fuckin ridiculously long that it snaked around the convention center, and even behind it.

LongBox Digital Comics panel.

Quiet lunch by myself at Petco Park's Park in the Park.

Tron 2 scavenger hunt. It was awesome! Really, all you need to know. That, and Daft Punk. Sweet.

Really fuckin good Thai-dinner.

Friday. Darwyn Cooke panel. Batman panel. Dinner at Hooters.

Saturday. Roamed exhibit hall. DC panel.


Pop Candy meet-up. I talked to Whitney incessantly about Justice, Crookers, and The Bloody Beetroots. Especially JUSTICE. If you've never read Whitney's blog, then that's just a shame, really... kidding. Well sorta. Anyway, she was gracious enough to put this picture here as part of her recap of the party. You can find that here.

Later Saturday night, I went to the PopculTour party for the CBLDF at Onyx/Thin. I missed Paul Pope's DJ set, and was to drunk to realize Murs was performing down stairs, and not up on the main stage. Oh well. Me, Nick, and Mike still had a good time dancing upstairs on the main floor. Me also trying to get the attention of one of the girls dancing in a circle as well as the one really hot girl off to the side. The only thing there is I couldn't if the girl was talking to a guy whom I wasn't sure if she had come there with. Again, oh well. Still had a grand time. Even got to talk with Paul, and Murs. Took a picture with Murs, too.

Sorry if these pictures appear too big, but these are lifted from my facebook, and I still haven't uploaded them to my flickr.

Sunday was spent mostly roaming the exhibit hall, and saying goodbye to friends as I went along. Even saw Whitney again, and yes, I plugged Justice, again. What else is new, right?

Some cool comics I got: To The Power Against #4 (Carrie and Stephanie's comic series), Phonogram fanzine, CoolJerk mini-comic... I tried to keep my wallet in my pocket as much as I could this time around, as you can tell.

Other swag: I got Jamie McKelvie to add another sketch to my noir sketchbook: this time in the form of Phonogram's David Kohl. Haven't scanned it yet, sorry. "Flynn's Arcade" token from Thursday night, as well as a "Flynn's Arcade" t-shirt, and a "Flynn Lives" poster.

A fun time with Caballeros/Castaways, in no particular order: Mike, Nick, Carrie, Stephanie, Randy, David, Jen, and Janine... okay so the last two aren't technically Caballeros, but they are definitely cool people. David and Jen went to the con on Thursday dressed as Scott Pilgrim and Ramona Flowers. There are some really cool pictures that Bryan Lee O'Malley took with them. If you know David and Jen, you know which one they are.

I hitched a ride with Mike and Nick up to Irvine so I could hang out with my ol roommie, Niks for a day and a half. Saw The Ugly Truth on Sunday night, then had lunch on Monday at Pink's Hot Dogs, then 500 Days of Summer on Monday at the ArcLight.

There are so many pictures taken, and so much more word I can use to describe how awesomely wonderful last weekend was, but I am super pressed for time. Maybe I'll get to it, maybe not. But here are some links to a couple write-ups I didon my Examiner page. Check it out!

DCU Editorial panel from Saturday.

Batman- New Dynamic panel from Friday.

My write-up of Darwyn Cooke's spotlight panel from Friday/ review of his adaptation of Richard Stark's Parker novel, The Hunter.

Later ya'll! I'm off to Tahoe!

coacHELLA 2009

So by the end of the weekend, I realized that I did not twitter all that much throughout the festival, and on the way home I tried to figure out a cool way to recap the my first Coachella. Eventually, I settled on the idea of just recapping the memorable something(s) by throwing out short, succinct sentences the same way I would have done had I actually, you know, twittered in the first place.

Make sense? Yeah, me neither. I'll try to go in chronological order, but there are some things that ran pretty much the whole weekend. So here it goes:

Three key words of the weekend: Zip-Ties (technically two), HELLA, and Iowa.


Some key things that any one of us COULD NOT go any considerable length of time without: frozen lemonade slushies, our Coachella waterbottles, dancing, shade, sandwiches, and candy.


We got to the Polo fields at about 7am after spending an hour at the local grocery store.


Of the sixteen, three of them I hadn't met nor partied with before: Drew, Rob, and Amy.

Because there was so much of us, we had hella room to set up our tents, which meant we had HELLA shade. In fact, if our campsite were a house, you could say that our tents were our bedrooms, and we had enough space that one E-Z-up was our living room that everybody hangs out at, and the other covering was the family room you go to chill.


We brought PVC pipes to hang our NORCAL flag.


It took HELLA long for Mikey and Dang to plant that NORCAL flag. But worth it.




We got HELLA compliments on the Norcal t-shirts that Alex, Anderson, and Christina made for us.

There were hella people crowding, and rushing at Crystal Castles set. Alice Glass is cool and all, but, all she was doing was meowing during the beginning of the set, and we bounced.


Some people were on the fence about Sir Paul's performance on Friday night, but I thought it was amazing, and the sore legs, back, and shoulders were absolutely worth the 2 and a half hours, and 2 encores.

Because there was so much shade, to go around, that Mikey, Thao, and I slept outside the first night. Eventually, most of the others would do the same for Saturday and Sunday.

Since most of the group spent the majority of the first day separated, we actually had planned meet-up spots on Saturday and then on Sunday too. Both days of which were made infinitely more awesome.

Personally, I had the most fun on Saturday.

The showers were the most ridiculously longest on Saturday, too. And I mean Stupid long, and felt completely justified in taking a shower the night before after getting back from McCartney's ass set. Just felt refreshed as walking back to the campsite from the shower trailer.


Our Iowa neighbors showed us how to play "flippy-cup." We kicked their arses.

I think most of us have resolved to just refer to each of them as "Iowa."

To close out their set in the Sahara Tent on Saturday night, MSTRKRFT's brought out John Legend to perform a live to their remixes to "Green Light" and then "Heartbreaker."


I wanted to use our NORCAL bandana do something clever with them in a photo, 'say no evil, see no evil, hear no evil.' Only thing this I'm the one who isn't all the way visible... ha! plus some random yahoo made it into our picture, too. oh well.

Once I started telling Rob about Phonogram, and he showed an interest in it, I pretty much talked his ear off about it the rest of the time. (This is what happens when I find out someone new I meet shows even a remote interest in comics, btw. My nerdery knows no bounds.)

I felt a kind of "the apprentice has become the master" kinda moment when Mimi took my phone and plugged it in an outlet behind the computer desks of the internet cafe tent. Very reminiscent of what her older brother, Dang, would do.

Thao recalling to us her reasoning as to why she first introduced Alex and Dang: "I just think you guys should meet."

Yeah Yeah Yeahs were pretty cool. Karen O was very rock and roll by taking swigs of of her Heineken mini-keg in between songs. But it took her a moment or two to jog her memory on the first few lyrics to Maps. Being the big YYY fan, I can over look it for the most part.

During the YYY's set, I saw Robert Smith walking and wondering around the crowd with someone. Rob was less than sure. That is until we realized he was wearing the same thing he was on stage as he was wandering through the crowd. thus, concluding the fact that Rob and I did indeed see Robert Smith walking through a crowd of people. We even shook hands on it.

I'm not much for The Cure, but their set was pretty solid. Too bad, Coachella's organizers did them dirty by cutting off the power for playing past midnight.

Anderson and Christina, the masters of fun facilitators, never cease to amaze. In addition to the shirts, they had bandanas made up, and passed out confetti to us to throw into the air at the end of the Cure's set. (before the unplugging occurred, of course)

We broke out into chorus of Happy Birthday at different point of the weekend, singing it both to Rob and Anderson.


Dang got Rob a woman's tank-top at the merch booth.



After we got back to the campsite on Sunday night, nobody really wanted to go to sleep. So the first one to fall asleep would get drawn upon. Brian was the first, but Rob only got to P-E-N- (you can guess what was the goal)

Addendum: I joked with Alex that in a lot of ways, Coachella is a lot like San Diego Comic-Con: long lines everywhere, multiple things you'd like to see but they're scheduled at conflicting times, lots of partying. The only real difference is that there's more females at Coachella.



Also, we followed the coachella parade of crazy people around. Too much fun was had, and I just can't fit everything else in here. I didn't use flash photography for fear of safety.

A couple weeks back, a co-worker of mine asked me why I was so excited about Coachella this year. What with the lineup being so-so, at best. Well, with the right people to party with, a good time is always to be had.

I hope I've answered his question.

Treasure Island Music Fest 2008

I wanted to go to Coachella this year, but being what my financial situation was, it was either Coachella or New York and San Diego. It’s pretty obvious by now that I opted for the latter two destinations. However, I was not about to miss out on a music festival just up the highway in San Francisco at Treasure Island. Especially with Justice and CSS playing the bill, and as the schedule was made clear, the two bands that closed out Saturday’s end of things. As much I’m sure Sunday would have been, Justice is who all of us wanted to catch.

Thanks in large part to Dang and Alisha, I’ve gotten into Justice this summer, while I owe my thanks to another friend for getting me into CSS late last year. The name of that person: well, it might be best to just let that be for now.



Basically, all that needs to be said is that it was an entire day of awesome motherfuckin fun! Everyone will say they have the best friends in the world, so who am I to not miss a chance to harp on that same sentiment with my friends? Because in addition to the likelihood that I’ll be going to Coachella next year, I am also currently contemplating going to Glastonbury! Anyone else down to party?

Happy 24th, Justin!

For Reference

Today is what would’ve been Justin’s 24th Birthday. I’m sure that today, and this next week is gonna be just as weird/difficult/reflective as it has been the last four years since Justin’s passing (September 4th).

Not since 2004, have I had such an extraordinarily challenging year to waver through. This year I lost my maternal grandmother, which was excruciatingly hard. Also, my paternal grandmother’s health isn’t doing all too well. Also, I’m not exactly happy with where I am in my life right now. But in spite of that line, I am trying to use it as fuel to get myself out of the rut I feel I’m in; or at least do so as best as I can.

Don’t get me wrong; there have been a lot of good times this year to balance all the difficulties. Within the last nine months both my sister and brother have made new additions to their respective families, bringing the niece/nephew count to eight. That’s not counting to the nieces and nephews I already have from all of cousins. One of which just had another baby matter of fact.

What’s more, I actually got to travel to New York for the first time and San Diego for Comic-Con this summer, too.

Yet, at the same time, I’m just ready to clear the slate and move forward. But today has me thinking about Justin, and the good times I know my friends and I have had without him physically there with us, and knowing how much he would’ve enjoyed getting to do the things he wasn’t able to while sick, and the good times I wish he could’ve had since his 2004.

Justin had a way of not letting the bad things in his life effect his bright outlook on life; he didn’t sweat the small stuff. It’s one of the things that I try to adhere everyday. But every now and then, especially every year this week, it’s just a wee bit more bittersweet.

Happy Birthday, Justin!

How I Spent My Summer Vacation: New York

Before going to San Diego last month, I had taken a visit to New York with my friends Joseph and Alisha. Joe and I had originally planned to go to New York sometime last summer as a graduation gift to ourselves. But due to poor planning, and just plain too much to do and take care of the first half of last year, we had to scrap plans for the big trip. So by the time 2008 rolled around, we made it imperative to start planning things to make this trip happen. Which for me that included having to sacrifice going to Coachella back in April with Alisha, Dang, and a bunch of other friends. I actually bought tickets to the event, but luckily, Keoki, who hadn’t yet bought his tickets to the festival took them off my hands.

Then after a while, and Joe and I began eyeing dates in which to go, Alisha told us she was thinking how much she’d like to see New York. Which led to Dang also to contemplate a trip out east. But in the end, Dang just wasn’t gonna be able to make it out with us. So it was Joe, Alisha, and myself.

Being the big, gigantic Oakland Athletics fans –let alone baseball fans– that Joe and I, we just had to make sure that we had to see a baseball game in Yankee Stadium. This 2008 season of course being the last season the Yanks would play before moving next door into the new Yankee Stadium. It just so happened that the A’s were playing a weekend series in New York in July. What worked out so picture fucking perfect and then some, was that the weekend after the trip to New York, was Comic-Con weekend.

To maximize our time in New York, we figured getting on a red-eye that left SFO on Wednesday night, and our connecting flight from Las Vegas to JFK would get us into New York at a little past 8am Thursday morning. In the cab ride into the city, I chuckled to myself as Alisha and Joe were either still kind of sleepy or had their attention elsewhere as we passed by an exit to Queens Boulevard. I mouthed the phrase: “I AM QUEENS BOULEVARD.” Joseph being a fan of Entourage as well, I thought he’d get a kick out of it as well, and I tried to show him the exit sign before it was too late. Hell, I got so much a kick out of it that I tweeted: “I am Queens Blvd.”

Anyhow, after checking our bags into the hotel (located in Times Square), we headed straight for the Statue of Liberty, which I gotta preface by saying that it pays to not only buy your tickets for these sightseeing stuff ahead of time, and online, but also to get the express passes. It really is so freakin damn worth it considering all the time you save, especially considering we were running from place to place at break-neck like speed –might be over-exaggerating with that, but still– we had to if we wanted to see and do everything that we wanted to see and do.

After the Statue, we had to conserve a little energy to get to Rockafeller Center for the tours we had planned for there, so we didn’t bother getting off the ferry again to see Ellis Island. Following the Statue of Liberty, the three of us headed to Rockafeller Center to take a pair of tours: the NBC Studio Tour and the Top of the Rock Tour.

The studio tour took us to the set where Brian Williams does the network’s Nightly News broadcast, which is actually only one room away from where MSNBC does their programming. We also got to see Studio 8H, which is where Saturday Night Live is taped. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to go tour through Conan O’Brien’s set. My guess was that since it was so close to the hour in which they tape the show that they were probably rehearsing. Oh well. Also, they didn’t allow for pictures to be taken on the tour. Again, oh well.

After the studio tour, we took the Top of the Rock tour, which was basically a tour of the Rockafeller Center, and concluded with being shown to the top of the Rockafeller building.

Throughout the trip, I took photos with not only with my digital camera, but with my manual camera, too. I think I took something like four rolls at 24 exposures each. Haven’t gotten them developed yet, but I will, and like the others I’ll end up uploading it onto my flickr.

We went to Papaya King afterward for a quick –and I mean quick– bite to eat, which is also to say, some pretty good hot dogs. We had just enough time to get something to eat before having to get ourselves ready to catch the Avenue Q musical just down the street from the hotel.

When Alisha picked out the musical, I scratched my head sine the title sounded so familiar. They did a run of the production at a theater in San Francisco not too long ago. Thought it was enjoyable, especially considering most of the characters’ arc fit our the themes in which the three of us could relate to.

To cap the night off, we headed down to a movie theater on 34th Ave, where we met up with this fucking guy. Dave and his friend were already in line, as they were waiting for us to catch a midnight screening of The Dark Knight. I’ll share and repeat Dave’s description of the line that night: it was retarded! That line worked its way around the freakin damn corner; it was so long.
Since the theater sold tickets to the movie in four different auditoriums, Dave and his friend had tickets to watch the movie in a different auditorium than the three of us.

But when we met up with Dave after the movie, there was no denying the fact that we were all just in so much fuckin awe of that movie. The way in which Alisha kept describing my reaction to the movie –as the credit rolled– to people: “It was as if Joey had just seen Jesus.” More on The Dark Knight soon, I promise. I’ve been meaning to write something up on the film, and a couple other issues as well.

Anyway, after the film, as Dave was escorting/walking us back to our hotel, he laid this little bit of information on us: last call at bars and clubs in New York is as late as four or five in the AM. Of course, in California, bars and clubs have a last call at around one-thirty or so. Although the three of us were dead damn tired after just the first fuckin day, we took full advantage of this information the next couple nights.

And like the San Diego recap, there’s just too much to fit into in just one single post, so I’ll leave off here, and pick things up in the next couple days.

Currently (w/May and June's Pictures of the Month)

I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: I don’t think I will ever be ceased to be amazed by is the concept of time, especially with how fast time passes once you’re an adult. However, there are instances when life slows down to a snail’s pace.

And if you follow me on twitter, then you’d probably know that for the last week or two, I have been a wreck. My maternal grandmother passed away on June 20th, and this has been really hard on my family and I. However, the cloak of auto pilot status is slowly but surely wearing off.

One of my aunts set up this online obituary and guest book at legacy dot com. I just wrote my guest book entry today, and posted it there. So please, give it a look–see. It usually takes a while for their moderators to, well, moderate the content. So if you go there now, and see that it's not quite posted there yet, give it an hour or so. In about a month or so, I'll probably archive it here on the 'ol blog.

The general rule for my pictures of the month thing is that the pictures chosen for each month’s distinction have to be taken within that given month. But since I’ve been horrible with keeping on schedule with this whole thing, I’ll bend the rules that much more for May and June’s pictures of the month.


May's picture. I forgot what age and what year. I'll look it up soon to see for sure, but I'm pretty sure this was during Christmas one year.

June's picture. February of last year. Nanai with my brother's (current) youngest, Ava. Pat and Bella are expecting another on August 13th. Which just happens to be my birthday, too.

Also, another thing I don’t think I’ll never be ceased to be amazed by are people themselves. To reiterate this post, people are the most fascinating creatures on the planet.

The love and support I’ve gotten from family and friends the last couple weeks have all been appreciated to no end. I’ve expressed that all before, but it certainly doesn’t hurt to do so again.

Today’s the first day of July, which means my trips to New York and San Diego are just around the corner, and I can’t wait.

Life is Crazy

Can’t believe how infrequently I’ve updated this thing this year. Well, actually that’s because I’m just not on the grid as much as I’d like to, but go figure.

The year is practically halfway done. It’s crazy how fast time moves when you’re an adult. Maybe it’s just something that I think about a little too much, but I just don’t think I’ll stop being surprised by the quickness of time. Oh well.

In another news, I just can’t wait for these New York and San Diego trips next month. I still gotta plan what exactly me, Joseph, and Alisha, and hopefully Dang (provided he’s able to make the trip) are gonna be doing during our trip to New York. I mean there are some people that I wanna meet-up with, but our days are yet to get actually detailed.

So far, Joe, Alisha, and I are going to see Ave. Q, on the 17th, and Joe and I are gonna meet up with Dave and head over to the Bronx to see the A’s and the Yankees play on the 18th. But that’s about it so far. Other than of course the fact that I’ve vowed to be inebriated for at least no less than 50% of our trip. And no, I’m not even sure if I’m joking whenever I've express that.

Then after New York, it’s a pit-stop back to San Jose before getting back on a plane to San Diego for Comic-Con. I’ve only gone to SDCC once back in ’05, and spread myself too thin during the day, that there was little to no energy for the evening. I had gone to conventions before then, but yet had no idea how much bigger a scale SDCC operates. The conventions that I’ve attended since (and by the by, the only other cons I’ve been to have been WonderCon and Super-Con), I’ve learned to pace myself better, and maximize the fun at the particular panel, presentation, or time on the exhibitor floor that I choose to spend my time at. At cons, there’s always one or two somethings that you’re gonna miss out on. It sucks, but we can’t all vibrate through walls and can’t get from Point A to Point B as quickly as The Flash.

Also, I just found out this afternoon that Tim Russert had passed away earlier today. Tim's passing reminds me of when Peter Jennings passed away three years ago, and like Peter, Tim was a great journalist. And it is indeed a sad day for journalism. Rest peacefully, Tim.

Barack Obama in 30 Seconds

In this world, any and everything is possible. So is it so wrong to hope? Is it so wrong to aspire, and want something more out of ourselves? There is always the possibility of failure, but without hope, how can anyone expect to succeed?

Change can only become a reality if one recognizes it as a necessity. To implement change, it requires support. The more support given, the better the chance for change.

There’re much more smarter people in this world than I to discuss to politics with. But be that as it may, I like to keep positive in all the things that I say, do, and all the things that I am as a person. Is it so wrong to believe in Barack Obama and how much good that his presidency could mean for America?

There are a number of reasons why I wanted to submit an entry into this Obama in 30 Seconds contest. I collaborated on this project with my friend Jason, and for me, some rewards have already born fruit.

Also, Jason and I will be the first to admit that the quality of the video is a little, um, not great. With so many problems we had with scheduling the shoot, editing, and so on, I’m grateful we actually finished. Hopefully, you guys like it.

Voting just started today, and when you go to watch the videos, you’re given random batches of videos, so no ballot stuffing through those means. Another way to get into the second round is have your video have one of the top five most “unique views” (the contest organizers’ words, not mine). So the more you spread the video around, the better the chance mine and Jason’s video can make it in the contest.

Until today, I’ve been off the grid for a couple days, and I’ve already seen a few videos, some of which pretty good.

Watch mine and Jason's video, here:


Vote for it here:
http://obamain30seconds.org/vote/?v=view-2124-YmBHsz

And take a look at the rest of the field here:
http://www.obamain30seconds.org/

Youth is 100% Baseball

Well, yesterday I went to an Oakland Athletics' home opener for the fifth straight year. The A's lost, but they've lost 4 of the 5 times I've gone to these five straight home openers. So no real biggie.

Although, I must admit the A's already had their home opener back in Japan last week. But I won't tell anyone if you won't. Going to opening day is a bit of a tradition for me. To make things short, I've gone to opening day to sort of honor a couple friends that passed away in 2004. Here's a little more background on that. They were friends that loved and enjoyed baseball so much.

I know that at best, the A's have an outside shot of winning the AL West, but I have a feeling they will have surprised people by the end of the season. I also realize the season just started, and everyone has a good feeling about the new season, but I -honest to goodness- really do have a good feeling about the A's 2008 campaign. Maybe not win the AL West, but I believe they can and will turn some heads. After all, this is the Green and Gold we're talking about.

This is what transpired right as the A's DH Jack Cust came up to the plate from the on-deck circle in the second inning:

My friend Mark jokingly shouts: "Cust, you're forgiven for takin roids." (referring to the Mitchell Report)

Me: "As long as you hit a home run."

Cust hit a home run on the first pitch. We laughed our asses off as soon as that happened. And then I noticed on the big screen along side the replay, that everyone in our section, #224, gets a free personal pan pizza because of the home run. But when the vouchers were handed to our rows a couple innings later, we only got two vouchers (there were four of us). But like I said earlier about the A's not winning the game, this was also a no biggie.

WonderCon 2008

So WonderCon has come and gone once again, and once again, I got to hang out and talk with a few Caballeros/Castaways. Last year, it was Triggerman that I hung out with most. Unfortunately, he's back home on the other side of the Atlantic. The same with Nick I.. And of course, Old Man Harris. But not all was lost. This year I got to hang out with fellow Castaway, Kedd. Also another change was the fact that I don't live in San Fran anymore, so my buddy James and his roommates put me up for the weekend.

Anyway, now for some of my Personal Highlights

-Meeting Darwyn Cooke on Thursday night at the Isotope and finding out -among other things- that Cooke and I are both Clash fans, and that his New Frontier character design of Captain Cold is based off Grant Morrison.

-Getting Darwyn Cooke to John Hancock my Absolute New Frontier, as well add a sweet image of the Spirit to the noir sketch book.

-Having a blast at the Get Smart panel.

-Visited Carrie and Stephanie's table, and picked up some of their awesome work.

-"My father doesn't love me."

-Finding out the main reason why Kedd's is able to maintain such a high post count.

-Being present at the DC panel that Kedd made Didio momentarily speechless as well as the moment Bagley called Kedd a trouble maker.

-Watching DC's New Frontier

-The Iron Man movie panel.

-Getting a helluva lot of new reading material throughout the weekend.

-Conversing with Mikie from the 'ol BKV Board. (He has yet to register onto Harris' new board.) Talked some really good stuff with him at both shin digs first at the Isotope on Friday, and then especially good stuff on Saturday.

-On Saturday, I went to Trad'r Sam for the first time since May of last year. This time with James (guy w/darkened Raiders cap) and crew. For Arvin (far left), it was his first time ever at Trad'r Sam, and he didn't listen to our warnings of just how strong Trad'r Sam drinks are. Yeah, he got messed up. But I on the other hand, am happy to report that I actually did a good job of getting a real good buzz, and yet, not getting defeated by the dreaded Scorpion Bowl.

-Getting a couple Tiny Titans posters from the DC Booth. Some of them are for my nieces and nephews, I swear.

-Here's a quote from James Sime's Twitter that best describes the mass of people from Saturday night.

-Seeing so many Castaways (unfortunately except for Capntightpants and Christopher)

-And getting Mark Bagley to add an utterly bad ass noir Batman to the sketchbook.

Good times. Good times. Good times. I usually take a lot of pictures when out on the town, but for some reason, not all that much in the span of four days... Probably because I "feel" more photogenic, and camera trigger happy when I have more than just a good buzz. Oh well.

Here be the rest of the weekend's photos.

EDIT on Weds. Feb 27: Forgot to add the highlight of chit-chatting it up with Brian Wood, and getting him to sign my first two issues of DEMO, and vol. 1 of DMZ. Awesome guy.

The Castaways formerly known as Caballeros

So last week, when Brian Vaughan hinted that we Caballeros should get our Cabal related affairs order, I wanted to post an entry say just how deflated I felt about it. Moreover, that the reason I felt so heart struck was because the people that inhabited the board are just damn good people; some of which I have had the pleasure to meet and hang out in real life. And in the years that Brian has had the board up, our little community of Caballeros have become extremely tight-knit.

Case in point: Most of us Caballeros registered on Tony Harris' original Jolly Roger message board via ezboard, as well as on the Caballeroslove freeforum that NothingFace and Michael Heide (high fives go out to them).

I had a film professor that described that what made Jean Renoir and his films so great was that in each and everyone of his films included practically every aspect in life: love, family, war, death, youth, everything. And not only am I inclined to agree completely with that, but also I believe that to be one of the reasons why the Cabal was such a fun destination to hit each day I got on the internet. We had threads on comics (obviously), movies, politics, sex, and the birth of nnnnn, and a helluva lot more of course.

Last year at WonderCon, Brian signed my copy of Pride of Baghdad:

Joey JP-
Long live the Caballeros.
Brian K. Vaughan

While we are to still be Caballeros at heart, alas, we are now Castaways (at least I think that's the name that has been settled on). I guess it's kinda like when Zach de la Rocha left Rage Against the Machine, and Tom Morello, Tim Commerford, and Brad Wilk joined up with Chris Cornell and formed Audioslave.

Awesome new digs, right? (It's been said many times, but it's worth saying again: Mucho props to Tony Harris, Michael Heide, and NothingFace)

Happy New Year

There is so much to say about what was 2007, and about what 2008 is capable of being. But what it boils down to is that 2007 was big, and 2008 is expected to be bigger. I just don't have any kind of best of list other than there were plenty of things that I enjoyed, and had plenty of family, friends, and acquaintances to enjoy all the good times with. I have a New Year's ("Substance") Potluck Party to get to, so let's leave things at that. And hope all of you reading this had a good 2007, and an even better 2008. And be safe in all your New Year's Celebrations.

I have a lot, and I mean a helluva lot of photos that I gotta upload to myspace and flickr that date as far back as October. So hopefully, I'll get to post a Photo Parade blog entry by next week at the latest. Also, I wanna write a bit about a sorely missed television favorite: Arrested Development. All in due time, of course. Until then, and once again, Happy 2008 err-body!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays

Yeah, folksies, have a good and Merry Dec. 25th. This day otherwise known as Christmas. Be safe and be well, eat some grub, and make sure you remember to not forget to bring your gift receipts when you go back to the mall tomorrow.

I am so tired.

First, Halloween, wasn't bad, I guess, but walking aimlessly around downtown San Jose wasn't all that fun either. I'll post pictures soon. I've said that a lot lately, but I will get to it.

Today I checked my email for the first time since last Friday afternoon. I spent Thursday and Friday night at my day job at the ol bookstore. Hung out at the casa de Dang-alang, MAnthony, and T'Money's place after work on Friday. Then spent Saturday and Sunday revising the ol screenplay. When I say the entire weekend, I mean I left the house only twice. Once on Saturday, and once on Sunday. I kept myself in the house for probably what would amount to 30 minutes, but that's mostly because the drive-thru line as Taco Bell and In-N-Out Burger was so damn long.

Anyway, I'm goin to San Francisco for the day tomorrow to talk to a former professor, and hopefully see some friends. Plus I've spent the last couple hours catching up on what I've missed... I've missed a quite a number of things. And I've been uploading some pictures from within the last month that I haven't been able to get to yet. Plus, the WGA is officially now on strike, and they have my full support. I'll share more of my thoughts soon, but right now, FUCK, I'm hungry.

The "I don't know what to title this blog entry" Entry

So I went out with, Gino, Gen, and Alisha to ViVid (night club). I went out as Peter Parker. Took some photos, and post them soon. I know I've somewhere around 125-plus photos to post that which I've taken within the last two weeks or so, and this only adds to it, but I will post them soon. Gino, Alisha, Gen, and Diane: I WILL GET TO IT SOON. Please stop your snickering. nahaha

Anyway. Lotsa girls dressed very scantily walking and dancing at ViVid and downtown San Jose in general. Twas fun, saw Wilson from Home Improvement. The guy brought a piece of paper in the shape of a picket fence, and held it up to his face most of the night. A couple dressed (I use the term, "dressed," loosely) as Adam and Eve. I even took a picture with Quail-Man. Austin Powers was behind the turntables, and Dr. Evil doin a lil dancing near the turntables.

Gino only brought a mask out to the club, and Gen dressed as Snow White, and Alisha slapped on some tanning lotion to darken her skin, and wore a afro-wig to pull off a 70s basketball player. She brought a basketball intending to take it into the club, but we told her it was a bad idea, and she ended up leaving it in the car. She said she created some dance-moves with said basketball. And by the end of the night when we wanted to see it, she said she was just joking... Me and Gino didn't buy it.

At the end of the night, we hung out in Gino's garage talking about two tv shows that we love so fuckin much: The Office (the U.S. version. not that the U.K. one isn't funny. which it is, by the by), and Arrested Development. Good times. And hopefully on Wednesday night, Halloween Night, when we are back to full force (re: the rest of the guys are back in town), more fun times will ensue.

Now to some fucked up stuff: Namely, my cell phone. My VX9800. My texter friendly phone. Hrmm, both screens are plain white now, and it couldn't have decided to gone and done so at a worser time. As I said, it is a very texter friendly phone, and texting a particular person would probably solve a particular situation that I'd like to pursue. Them's the breaks I guess. I mean, I haven't been the most careful handler of this particular phone. But still, this sucks.

Okay, let's end this on a less sucky note. Over on BKV's Cabal,
Nick I. named me the "Best caballero you easily could get a beer...maybe two...with: Joey JP (who also wins for coolest sketchbook theme)" Very cool thing of him to say, and here's my response: "Thanks Nick, and if you're planning to come back for WonderCon again next year, we're increasing that number..."

Hrmm, that response sounds like I'm an alcoholic. Haha. Which no, I am not. I gave an award to NothingFace and DavePress for almost always having good comic recommendations (other than Brian himself) on the Cabal. A tightly knit bunch of Caballeros that we are. I have a handle on boards like Newsarama, and I think on Interpol's site too, and yeah, I think that's it. But yeah, the Cabal is a very cool board if just for the positivity.

P.S. I've just nominated myself for being the Caballero that best knows the way to San Jose. Ridiculousness, I know. :P

Whirlwind Weekend

Well yeah, I haven't abused my liver like this weekend since my birthday back in August. Pretty crazy. Pretty fun.

Here's a quick run down: lots of drinking... yeah that sums it up nicely. I'll post some pictures via Flickr and Myspace soon enough. But yeah, all that really needs to be said is how fortunate I am to have the enormous amount of friends that I have, and how much fun they are to hang out with, have fun with, and yeah, get pissed drunk with. And no, I am not currently buzzed, drunk, or otherwise inebriated. I am completely sober as I write this. And yes, that probably make this all the more a mushy blog entry. But yeah. Twas a fun weekend... yet now I am also thinking that I didn't get much writing done this weekend... FUCK!!

Oh well, just more inspiration for further ideas, nahaha :P

I Remember...

Today is Justin's birthday. In preparation for this blog this week, I've been thinking about him, and about those last two weeks of August, and how life has gone on in these three years since Justin passed. It's so many things: trippy, surreal, and everything else.

I thought about those two weeks in August of 2004 the other night when the Lunar Eclipse was happening. Almost all of it came back to me.

I remember the night Justin asked me to come by his house. He said he had some people coming over. I remember arriving a little late, and actually a little surprised that there were quite a lot of people in the house. Turns out that was the night Justin let us all know he was gonna stop fighting.

I do believe that it was not long after Justin's announcement that I got a call from Susan and Kristin. They called me from Justin's house, and Susan told me that I should come by because there's a good chance Justin could go. I rushed over as soon as humanly possible. Besides Justin's family, it was still only Susan and Kristin that were at the house. The rest of the night saw a a steady stream of people walk up the driveway and through the front door. It was like that every night til the end of August and into September.

Justin was baptized in his room at his house on either Sept. 2 or 3rd. I can't be completely for certain. But I was there in his room that morning. I also remember receiving a call at around half past six in the am of Sept. 4th. It was Kris. He told me that Justin had passed in the in the middle of the night.

Frances didn't think I should be driving, so my sister dropped me off at Justin's house. I remember it was Steven that I first hugged, and then I think any memory of who I embraced therafter, and what order just gets blurry.

The summer of 2004 was by far the most difficult stretch of time for me personally. I had an anxiety attack in April. Went to the hospital twice in three nights. The specifics of what got me to that point aren't embarrassing or stupid, but definitely something I just shouldn't have let get to me. I was 19, and I let my worries and doubts kick me when I was down, and couldn't pull myself up. But in the weeks that followed I began to get over myself, and my fears. That is until Derek died.

Derek died in a freak bicycle accident as he was biking in Almaden Valley in San Jose. I remember looking into Patrick's eyes the moment he told me. My brother's eyes were watery and red. He had just gotten off the phone with one of Derek's cousins, Christel. The last time I saw Derek was a month earlier when he invited Patrick, Bella, and I to the A's 2004 home opener. Derek worked for Ross, which was a sponsor of the A's. I don't know that they still are, but being a sponsor, Derek's company gave him four tickets to the A's opening night gala. Food was everywhere. I remember dipping some of the deserts into the chocolate fountains. I haven't missed an A's home opener since. I love, and I miss you Derek.

I remember telling a few people of my anxiety attacks. I remember telling Justin of my anxiety attacks. He told me how he experienced them. We talked about things. We talked about Mark's father recently passing away. I remember when I let Justin borrow my Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles vol. 1 dvd. It has the first few episodes of the original 80s-90s cartoon.

I remember back in 2003 when X2-X-Men United came out. Justin, Jory, and I saw it the day after it came out, on Saturday. It was at Mercado 20 in Santa Clara. The original plan was to watch it at around seven or eight o'clock. When I got to Justin's place to pick him and Jory up. Then Jory suggested we should wait til nine or maybe ten. He figured Mercado would be festered with teeny boppers. So we hung out at Justin's for a while. When we got to Mercado later that night, I realized Jory figured right.

The closing shot of of X2 is a crane/helicopter shot above Alkali Lake. There's a voice over of Patrick Stewart as Professor X, talking about rebirth or something other, as well as a faint image of a Phoenix. The whole closing moments of the film, Justin was whispering and repeating aloud and to me: "The Phoenix. The Phoenix."

To my knowledge, Justin wasn't that much into comics. But he did tell me earlier that he went to see the movie the previous night with some other friends. Oh well.

I also remember Justin and I going to see a screening of League of Extraordinary Gentlemen at Mercado as well. It was a late screening. Something around eleven in the pm. He fell asleep somewhere in the middle of it. But it wasn't like he missed anything good. I stayed awake, and I don't know how I didn't fall asleep either.

I remember an episode of the Simpsons, where Jacques, Marge's bowling tutor is trying to seduce her. He's getting ready in his bathroom, waiting to see her. Among other things, he talks to himself about the anticipation being better than the moment itself. Obviously, he's alluding to sex, but what he's saying is certainly true for most everything else. Justin's passing was so numbing. We all knew it was coming, and that impending sense of doom was the scariest. The anticipation. Every night in those last couple weeks, we left Justin's house saying our goodbyes to Justin like they would be our last words with him.

I don't remember my exact last words with Justin because I had so many. I do remember sitting around Justin's bed in the afternoon once. I'm fairly certain it may have been the same day as his baptism actually. I'm also fairly certain that it was Kristin, Susan, myself, and... I think I'm forgetting who else was there in the room at the time, but we decided to have story time. So as it turned out, I was the one who did the reading. I want to say it was the Cow over the Moon story. But I can't commit to that. I do remember reading it to everyone the way that a Kindergarten teacher would read to his/her students: read a page out loud, then show each side of the room the illustrations on the page I just read.

There's a lot of other things that I remember about Justin, and about that summer and fall of 2004. Derek was a family friend, and although his death was tough to take, and I wish he was still here, but my brother was closer to him than I ever was. It was a very difficult time in my life. Personally, Justin's death was like the climax in the third act of a story.

In these three years since Justin passed, there's hardly a day that goes by that I don't think about what could have been. I say that because it's hard to not think about the guy since I wear a yellow Livestrong wristband as well as an orange wrist band that bears Justin's name. The orange band also has the words: "Don't sweat the small stuff." Wish he could've told me that before I had my anxiety attacks. Oh well. =p

I could talk to Justin about any and everything: music, movies, comics, books, sports, news, whatever. He loved The Doors and Jim Morrison, Nirvana and Kurt Cobain, we shared a mutual affinity for movies, The Clash, and he introduced me to Texas Hold 'em, and Da Ali G show.

More often than not, after each time I've visited him at the cemetery in Los Gatos, I would start my car and either Nirvana or the Foo Fighters (the Kurt Cobain connection with Dave Grohl) would be on the radio, and I'd smile.

I woke up this morning to find my mom watching The Today Show. Matt Lauer was interviewing Ellen Degeneres in promotion for the new season of her talk show. Then I remembered Justin was an avid watcher of the Ellen Degeneres Show. I smiled.

I love you Justin, and I miss you. Happy Birthday my friend!

Lunar Eclipse

Anthony texted me this early morning at around three in the am. He said there was an eclipse right outside. I went outside, and sure enough, it was there. Very cool sight. I shit you not when I say that I took a picture of the eclipse on my Canon... needless to say, it didn't come out... Anyway, this week is what would have been Justin's 23rd birthday.

I've been planning on posting something on his actual birthday, Thursday the 30th. So I've been thinking a lot about him, and about what to write. Like I said, I'll wait for Thursday to get all this down.

But yeah, as far as those in North America, only those on the west side of the Rockies would be able to see all phases of the eclipse... pretty cool.