The Ides of March

The first lainspotting of 2003 is finally upon us...

I can't believe it's already March. To make up for lost time, I'll skip the pleasantries and jump right into what I've been up to.

Lain in the limelight

First off, the Lain fanart contest was a great success. I couldn't be happier. Overall, I think we advertised it pretty well; the awesome prizes certainly helped the cause. A million thanks to Ray for providing the big ticket prizes and for coming up with the contest idea in the first place. We had a blast, and I look forward to working with him again.

The airing of lain on TechTV also helped boost interest in the contest. If you're a brand new lain fan who has stumbled onto this page, welcome! Over the last few months, there has definitely been renewed interest in lain, and there's likely to be another surge of interest in April, since TechTV is rebroadcasting the series starting on April 27th (Quick update 4/18/03: Unconfirmed sources say that lain will be rebroadcast on May 8th, and not April 27th. Check your local listings). Maybe we'll run another event. Stay tuned (but no promises).

Roadtripping I: Weekend at Jerry's

In February, Carol and I trekked to the suburbs of Philly to attend what is becoming an annual tradition amongst our group of CJAS-alumni friends. We had a lot of fun (playing video games, ping pong, board games, eating Turducken) but the reason I mention it here is because a group of my friends (Jerry, John, Eddie, Greg, and Lillian) got together and bought me and Carol a Playstation 2 (along with Kingdom Hearts, since we're Disney nuts¹)!

We were floored. This is my first gaming console since Sega Genesis (and I had an NES deluxe set before that, complete with a Zapper and R.O.B., the friendly but unhelpful Robotic Operating Buddy). Carol and I have been playing Kingdom Hearts, Hot Shots 3, Gitaroo Man, and a handful of PS1 games. It's added a whole new dimension to our lives, which means there's yet another thing to distract me from updating my website. ^^; Ideally, some of these games will inspire me to create more web content. Until then, however, I'll be grooving out as a virtual guitar hero, making the cartoon girls swoon, and the bad guys tremble in fear. ^_~ Thanks again for the great gift, guys!

Roadtripping II: A return to Ithaca

Just this past weekend, Carol and I made a trip to Ithaca, NY to visit Cornell University, my alma mater. It was my first time back since I graduated in 1998, and I had a great time revisiting old haunts and showing Carol around. The best part of the trip, however, was attending the weekly CJAS showing and chatting with people there. Without a doubt, CJAS has been an important part of my life. Without it, this site probably wouldn't exist. Watching a lot of anime is one thing, and something a person can do alone if they like, but nothing quite matches the experience of watching anime with a large group of your friends. For that reason, I was very glad to see that CJAS is still going strong. Some people say that anime clubs aren't really necessary anymore since anime is so easily available these days. I heartily disagree. I hate to sound trite, but it's all about the community.

That's all I have for this time. Please note: If you've emailed me recently, I may have lost track of it in the barrage of emails I got for the fanart contest. I'm always working on my backlog, but it only seems to get worse. Rest assured that I read all my emails when I get them. Thanks for your patience.