Humbled I Am.

It's not often I get praise for the things that I do.  When it does happen, I get all odd and awkward about it, for I am not used to it.  And I feel humbled.  I always say that I am doing my job.  Early this year when I uploaded my con photos, I saw a spike in the number of likes and comments.  Seeing that made me smile.  I knew that people out there enjoyed the work that I love doing.  I don't cherry pick when it comes to cosplayers.  I try to hit as many I can for photos if they're not in a rush or inconvenienced.  If I am inspired, I'll do an impromptu photoshoot (it has happened a few times).

To everyone that has liked my photos, videos, commented... Thank you.  You all are the reason why I goto cons and do this.  I am truly blessed, thankful, honored, and humbled.

I leave you all with this video:

Donate to Callie Care!

See that button on the right hand side? I'm asking all of you who read this blog to add that button and help Callie out.  More information is posted on the link to that button.  We're raising funds for her to help pay for medical bills. ^_^

If you can't donate or bid on the auctions, just pay it forward.  Click the link and add the HTML code to your site. I promise it won't break anything. :)

Learning From Your Mistakes

I've been cosplaying for over ten years.  During this time, I've made stupid mistakes.  Mostly of me speaking before I think.  Granted most of us are guilty of that, but me more so than others.  I am thankful that I've learned from that.  I'm going to share with you all a couple of short stories of where my mouth has gotten me into trouble and how I learned from it.

A few years ago I was a cosplay judge at Anime Boston. After watching all of the skits and we went into the back to figure things out, I spoke out of turn about a Silent Hill skit. Honestly, I didn't know and I didn't realize what I had done.  One of my friends who was a judge told me the mistake I made and I apologized profusely about it. I didn't realize that after that, word gotten out to those people in that skit what I said. I had thought that what was said in closed doors, stayed there.  I thought wrong.

Monday night, said former friend called me up screaming about what I said.  And I was hurt over that.  I didn't think or realize that cosplays/cosplaying held a higher weight than a friendship.  I tried to apologize and explain, but she didn't want to hear it.  That was the last of it. I shed a tear and moved on.  Come to find out later that said person was still pissed.  It seems that a certain photo of her was leaked and someone was talking smack about her and the skits on various forums.  Was it me?  Nope.  I thought about trying to defend myself, but from what I saw, noone would believe me.  I said fuck it, and moved on.

Lately, I've been thinking about trying to fix that friendship.  But I don't have the willpower to do so, because I fear that trying to will just blow up in my face.  I do hope that this person knows that I'd like to fix that and let it be.

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Let's skip ahead to a few years later, Anime NEXT.  This one girl I was crushing on big time, stayed with me for the con.  She too had a thing for me, but whenever I tried to pursue, she pull up her defenses and start playing mind games.  Eventually I said fuck that and moved on.  She would stay at my house before and after the con.  Also because she would meet up with local photographers and needed crash space.  After the con, my best friend drove us home and we hung out on the Coney Island boardwalk.  Then after that, I really didn't hear too much from her.  I didn't think twice about that because I got swamped with work and other projects.

A few months later I dropped her a line to see what's up and she was quite rude to me. I demanded to know what her problem was.  She was mad at me because I told people that we slept together and that she was with me.  Immediately I told her that was an outright lie.  That con weekend, I never told anyone such a thing, but she didn't believe me.  I also found out that $700 was missing from the house too.  That would also explain why she stopped talking to me, and also why she stopped coming up to conventions in the NY / NJ / DC / MD areas, specifically the ones I goto.  I called her out for that and no response.

Skip to today where my new roommate is friends with her.  I told him everything what happened and he was like "Damn".  I sent her a friend request, thinking that she had let it be.  No reply.  I got angry, so wanted to call her out for her antics, but I said fuck it.  But I was hurt.  Hurt that she came up with this lie to cover up for the fact that she stole from my roommate.  I tried to put her on blast once, but that blew up in my face.  How I feel now? I just want her to admit she lied and she stole the money then all is forgiven.

Hopefully from reading these stories, you guys and gals understand why it's always a good thing to think before you speak and watch what you say....

GOODNIGHT!

Getting Laid Off Isn't That Bad...

Well my first grand return to my blog was supposed to be something different. But that is life. ^^

So, what some of you don't know is that I am a PC Technician. It's what I went to school for.  It's what I was doing at this job.  What I would is support the teachers and make sure that the software ran without any problems.  During the summer I would help with hardware maintenance.  I have only been there for four months.  A wonderful four months at that. I learned a lot from my fellow techs there.

So last week, a couple of people got laid off.  Today was my turn. The CIO assured me that it was nothing of my doing. He enjoyed and respect the work I brought to the table.  The issue was that the sales department wasn't selling our company teaching software as well as they were.  I was told that I'd get severance and that I may return if things improve.  Speaking with a senior tech, he told me that I'd be back soon.

I gotta tell you tho, I LOVED this job.  It was fun, my coworkers were a blast to work with.  The CIO fought hard for me to stay on, but there's only oh so much that he can do. And I truly appreciate that.  Sometimes as I worked there, I kept thinking that I'd do something stupid and get fired.  But I didn't.  When I got a call from another tech asking where I was and that I was needed in the office, I knew this had to be it.  After being told, I was stunned...

But I took it all in stride.  As I said in the meeting, "It is what it is.  If I can lose a $300 camera on vacation and not freak out, then this is a walk in the park." Hell, I'm still having my BBQ and I'm inviting a few of my coworkers over. I'm still gonna roll with the punches.  Granted that I was upset because all of my future plans got wrecked and/or delayed.

First person I called was my girlfriend. She wasn't upset, granted the reasoning behind it.

So I'm going to stay focused, keep my head up, go back to school, and keep working at it.