First off, ‘tokidoki’ is a word from the Japanese language that can be translated to ‘sometimes’. For example, “Sometimes, I go to the movies” or “I like to play video games sometimes.” Back in Japanese class last year, I learned the word and laughed every time I said it. C’mon! It’s a silly word! ^_^

So I was up in NYC getting lost in the East (?) Village and found this cute little store that sold watches and Tokidoki purses. This guy named Simone Legno is the creator, although… I don’t think he’s Japanese…

There is a huge following for the Tokidoki brand online. The business has created little dolls of the characters off the purses, and notepads, posters, etc. People go crazy when they see these. Did I mention the characters have names?

The Purses!

You can tell I keep leaning towards the same design. Color, bright, busy, VERY anime-like. My style has been found, finally. I always hated going to the mall trying to find that one bag that I liked, because they are always $400.00 Coach purses, or LV purses, or fake-designer, or sequins so much they look like fish… Although these range $100.00 to $200.00 for each Tokidoki purse, I’m not put off because I really like the design.

And that was my girl-on-a-soap-box speech for the day.

Darren and I decided to leave late on Wednesday night. I tried to put my own suitcase into his car, thus throwing my back out of place and delaying out trip by half an hour.  Eventually we got on the road and reached Mubix’s house to let him borrow a camera for Defcon.

Eventually we got to Jenn‘s house on Thursday afternoon, just in time for some delicious Italian eats at Il Paesano.  Afterwards, we hung out and cleaned up a bit back at her place, then headed downtown for the big Second City show called Barack To The Future. The show was hilarious, and they served delicious beverages and appetizers!

Down the street from Second City was a nice little bar called Gabby’s, where I had many beers and delicious Caesar’s.  It was here that I made sure to Twitter my friend and forum mod, Weiman, as well as Spec Ops Kerrigan- two guys from the Pure Pwnage forums.

We all hung out and had drinks for a few hours before eventually heading back to Jenn’s for much needed sleep.

On Friday, we woke up for lunch with some IPTV folk, and chilled at their workplace for a few hours. I was sooo happy to finally meet these three people who have done so much for the IPTV world. We got to talk about everything from our show at Hak5 to their shows as well. It was quite the experience, and I was lucky enough to bring an adorable squishy cow home.

After lunch, Jenn took Darren and I to the Eaton Centre in Toronto, where I found a cute miniature plushie green Yoshi and Darren bought matching Yoshi house slippers. I LOVED the Eaton Centre.  Holy crap, it’s the biggest mall I’ve ever been in. I think.

After the Eaton Centre, we joined up with Pronobozo and we took off to a Sushi joint for dinner. Sushi was delicious as usual. I wanted to join up with some friends from Pure Pwnage, so I got ahold of them and we walked to their hotel. About 10 people met us outside – this including Myren, Evan, Weiman, Dr. Toker, Gamer Chick, Aeros, Corpus, IW4, Shorteh, along with a few others… who am I forgetting? We all walked to a bar that said we had too many people in our group… So sadly, we gave up and split up. They headed to New Gen, and we headed to a bar called Einstein’s.

Einstein’s wasn’t the best bar as far as service goes, but damn, their drinks were strong!  Darren, Jenn, Pronobozo, and I all had drinks and played pool together.  Jenn and I kicked the boys asses in pool, and the boys rickrolled the bar by playing Rick Astley on the jukebox.  Eventually Nav, a new friend, showed up and I gave her some pointers on pool (so well, in fact, that she kicked my ass!). After some beers, a punch, and meeting some random TO’s, we went back to Ponzo’s for sleep, only to wake up with a hangover the next day.

I’ve never had such a bad hangover.  I felt sick throughout the whole premiere, but I tried my best to hide it and ignore the pain, because I wanted to have fun!

Darren, Ponzo, and I got to the theatre, cut the line, and gave out some free schwag from Hak5. We also got some short clips of the fans for a (hopefully) segment on the show. I was able to chat up some of the Pure Pwnage crew and cast, as well as a TON of random forum members and totally awesome PP fans. Everyone was SOOO nice and welcoming!!!

The show was awesome. Linda Gallant sang a few songs, the cast was introduced, and we watched Ep. 16, 17, and 18. This time, the eps weren’t in black and white, and there was no delay. The episodes were very funny, and totally worth the trip. I played some Tetris and got pwned by someone in teh audience. Guess it just wasn’t my day! The only thing I forgot to do was go by the n00bstore and pick up some Pure Pwnage schwag to wear on Hak5.

After the show, the two boys and I went to Labrynth bar and food for some lunch/dinner before the afterparty. We grabbed our foodz and headed back to Pauper’s Pub, where the afterparty was said to start. The afterparty was insane and fun. I met up with so many old friends, and made a ton of new ones. We all drank and had a wonderful time. The guys from PlayerFIVE.com bought me a beer, and Geoff bought me a Caesar and a shot of something… On the taxi to Pauper’s Pub, I had lost my camera, so during the whole afterparty I took pix with Shorteh’s camera (thank you!) and asked others to snap TONs of photos so I could save them when I got home.

After the afterparty and a lovely dinner with some of the PP ppl, Darren and I headed to our hotel for the night…

Apparently a propane tank blew up that night but we didn’t hear or see a thing. It looked like a frackin Atomic Bomb though, from the videos I saw.

We joined Geoff and Myren on Sunday morning for a delicious breakfast at another new place called Over Easy.  After breakfast and fun talks about exciting things happening with our different shows, Darren and I went to a game store called A&C Games. Just down the road on Spadina, I found a store that selled NOTHING BUT manga and anime merchandise! HOLY CRAP!!!!

I spent so much money at Anime Extreme. I found Sailor Moon posters, various keychains, a t-shirt, some Pocky, and a Mario yellow star plushie. I probably spent way too much at this store, but it was so worth it.

We met up with Pronobozo again at a bar called Sneaky Dee’s which is one of my favorites. Their caesar drinks are terrific and they always play good music! I wasn’t really feeling like a bar on Sunday night, so we went over to Evan’s to chill with him and Weiman.  Weiman pwned me at tennis, then I pwned him at bowling on the Wii. Evan showed us Skrie’s mod that he’s been working on, and OMG I can’t wait til it’s done.

Darren and I left Evan’s place and headed back to the hotel… but we passed a pub called Hoops and decided to get a pint before bed.

On Monday, we woke up early to leave Toronto.  I bought some Timbits from Tim Hortons (lol, Tim’s Bits), and we checked out a lighting store in Toronto, looking for new lights for Hak5. After not finding anything perfect for our show, we headed home.

We bought some syrup, Canadian candy, and Canadian beer at the Duty Free before leaving the country.

And I miss Toronto Canada already.

インターステラ5555 is an animated movie that goes along with the Daft Punk album Discovery.  From start to finish, there’s no dialog, few sound effects, and tons and tons of hot spicy Daft Punk dance mixes to keep you bobbing your head for an hour straight.  Since the animator Matsumoto of Galaxy Express 999 fame created this movie along with the production being overlooked by the Daft Punk band, needless to say it’s an amazing feat.  Interstella 5555 came out in 2003 and is definetly one of my favorite music videos   Go wiki it and read more, if you like anime or Daft Punk, you’ll like this film.

In other news, I GRADUATED!!!!!!! I finally graduated college and I’m moving in with my boyfriend.  Wow!!!  A year ago, I wouldn’t have thought I’d be in the shoes I’m in now.  This is a new chapter in my life and I’m so excited to share it with you all

But I guess graduating is more important? EEK!!! 11 weeks!

Anime Central

Sayonara

-Shannon