Spiff and I went to an anime convention, Nan Desu Kan (NDK), last weekend, and it was a LOT of fun.  I posted some pictures from it on Tuesday.  Sadly, my stoopid camera screwed up and failed to take some pictures I thought I took.  Before that, I screwed up and failed to charge up my new camera.  I got the notion in my head I just had to plug the camera in, but that does nothing for the battery.  Since plugging it in turns on the screen, the battery drained rather than charge.  It was only when the thing was empty I remembered it had a separate battery charger which I could not locate.  So I have one in my Amazon cart along with two spare batteries waiting for my next paycheck.

 

I went to a Q&A panel with some voice over actors which was really interesting.  Mike and I went to a voice over thing where people were picked to read lines and “audition” for parts.  (I don’t know if anybody was really being recruited, although the person running the panel was, in fact, a casting person for an anime voice over company.)  There was a cool “late night” thing (in the style of David Letterman or something like that) and some awesome music videos and a “Masquerave” (rave with lots of people in costume) with great music and amazing artists and dealers selling neat stuff and lots and lots of people in fantastic costumes.  I got to take pictures of cute girls in hot costumes.  It’s great asking a girl to pose for a picture and getting a smile and a “sure” in reply.  We will be pre-registering for next year’s NDK con soon.

 

Meanwhile, SOE finally opened up Beta registration for their next expansion, Veils of Alaris.  I registered and got my invitation, times three.  I loaded the beta onto my laptop yesterday and (after some difficulty I brought upon myself) got it to run.  I have now visited four of the new zones.  Two of them were truly awesome-looking.  One was okay to really nice looking, and the last had some interesting mobs but I was a little disappointed in the look of the place.  In its defense, it is supposed to be a windy place, so there’s not a lot of color and cool stuff expected, I guess.  I can’t say much more–I am under an NDA–so you won’t hear much more from me in the next few weeks other than generic stuff like I completed a task or a mission or something.

 

At work, I am on long hours again.  Call volume has gotten high and we are not likely to hire anyone anytime soon as we have no place to put them.  So I am doing ten hour days four days a week and working Thursdays (normally a day off) for eight hours.  The four days includes Saturdays for the next two Saturdays, but that may or may not continue.  The main overtime during the week looks likely to continue for awhile.  Eventually, we’ll move into a larger space and hire more people.  We’ll also be supporting a larger area, so it may be an uphill fight to keep good coverage.

 

One last bit:  I have, thus far, posted every day this week.  Monday’s rant wasn’t very rant-ish, but it was there.  Hopefully I can maintain the daily posting thing again.  See you tomorrow.