You've come a long way baby

I seriously can not thank everyone enough last night, and I mean everyone who came down or was involved since this was one epic show to pull off and I personally believe this was a combination of everyone's efforts, every put in so much whether they were DJing, serving sushi, dancing the night away, taking photos, hanging out with friends and hyping up the show, serious thank you.

You may have noticed that I hyped up the show claiming to be the biggest one yet and I hope it did turn out that way, since I had a pretty huge vision for this one and I think it ended up working out, behind the scenes there was a lot of nerves in regards to so many things needing to fall into place and it did and honestly there were some lots of amazing surprises from people I wasn't expecting which made the night fall into plan well.

When I meant the biggest show yet it proved to be a big challenge, thankfully Susannah was there since managing 30 staff was a huge new test for me but we also had an amazing team too.  It's scary from a personal view to see how far we've come, take a look at a few of the pics and a bit of a brief description at the first Neko Nation in comparison.

The first Neko Nation only had 4 DJ's, I ended up DJing half the night, not due to talent, simply because I could not find anyone to play J-Rock or any sort of Japanese electronic music at all!  The attendance was only round 100 and at best we only saw 10 people dancing at one time.  We only had two catgirls, Kae-chan and a friend fly over Saccharine, the rest between the two of us was history.

To say we've grown is an understatement and I can only see more happening next year especially with some massive new plans.  Although for now, it's time for a well rested break after trying to pull this show off with an insane work schedule outside of Neko Nation.  Then it's time for Christmas and some wonderful and awesome new projects.  ^^

Perth +++

The plans are to head back to Perth and I have to admit I'm pretty excited to do so.  Yes there may be a lot of pro-Adelaide posts on my page (you know, it does help being a bit of a popular well known figure in their animu scene, even if quite a few people don't know my real name, XD).  Anyways, here's some stuff I'm looking forward to returning back too and have actually really missed about Perth.

It should be noted that this is not a Perth vs Adelaide post, just things I'm looking forward to seeing again in Perth.  XP

Events
It's kind of bizarre, I think the one thing that made me fall for Adelaide was Tokyo Electro Invasion.  I saw Adelaide people knew how to do events right in 2009.  Fast forward to 2011 and to be honest, I haven't really gotten into any event in Adelaide.  I guess it's a lot harder for me this year since I'm often going to events after 50-60 hour working weeks so exhaustion heavily kicks in insanely but without Susannah by my side I probably wouldn't have had too much fun out at various nights and events.  In particular Perth used to have some pretty fun and amazing raves and I had a blast at Sin and Unknown and just haven't enjoyed Adelaide events as much.

Speed
It's actually nice to be able to drive faster than 60km/h and not being fined $300+ for going less than 10kms over the speed limits.  I can't say I'm a massive hoon but it's kind of frustrating to be slowed down quite a bit over here.  XD


Game City
Seriously, I love the fact that there's this insane In The Groove and dancing games community in Perth and some of the most amazing dancing machines in Australia here if not the best by far.  There's a lot of amazing ITG players in Perth and not just terms of talent but also with their creativity their urge to push each other without any bitchiness or arrogance, it's  amazing.  In comparison, all the arcade communities in Adelaide don't want to know me.  XP

Economy
I miss living in a city with a good economy where it was easy to get jobs, it was pretty interesting to have so many god damn jobs in Perth and it's kind of sad I could barely find anything.  Let's ignore the fact I'm not pretty much now insanely busy with both Neko Nation and Tokyo Hardcore to care these days.  XP

Kings Park
Seriously, I miss the view up there, plus it's an immensely signficant place in my life, since it's where I proposed to Susannah.

Friends
I actually am a bit bummed just as I was making a fair few good friendships in Perth I had to leave for good and unfortunately my last trip and my next trip will be brief due to business (although story of all my travelling).  There's a fair few to name and while obviously the Neko Nation crew always get seen I'm working far too intensely on the show to really properly hang out with many people but I'm hoping there's plenty to see in regards to Wai-Con later this year.

Wai-Con Cosplay Competition
While the best city for cosplay is debatable I believe Perth has an amazing competition just due to the location, it's really nice to be able to rock up in the massive theatre and see the cosplay competition on stage.  Wai-Con is always fun and I'm looking forward to checking it out next month.

Work Updates

Totally failed at this whole updating the behind the scenes blog post a while back, things just went into absolutely Marisa stole the precious overdrive mode the previous week but then again that's pretty much my life in general.

Anyways, been having an interesting week, watching Tokyo Hardcore grow significantly after we went through the "Skyrim Slump" (jk, most of our customers were just at uni).  Been working hard on the website to get it up and running hopefully by this week if all goes really well.

However I guess most of the news that's been quite exciting on my end has been around Neko Nation, with lots of huge and exciting news such as making it down to Perth soon, exciting new decorations being worked on plus some pretty awesome super secret stuff that I'm hoping to reveal later this month.  Basically, I'm starting to get the work noticed, which is pretty epicly awesome and very exciting.  ^^

More different posts on different things soon.  ^^

November Behind the scenes - Tuesday

Short post this time.

Usually, I have quite interesting and varied days revolving around all sorts of tasks.  Today, basically struggled with CSS coding and various E-Commerce testing and failing hard.  In the end I've given up on the hard way and basically going to get something practical done hopefully by the end of the week even if it's nowhere near what I originally planned and wanted.

Work was interesting tonight since I got to do my E-Train at ANZ so I got to learn about criminal and terrorist banking, plus also sanctions in regards to countries where it's illegal to do business and banking with.  When you've been doing repetitive work for hours upon hours on end this was a nice break.

Failed at Starcraft miserably but things with Neko Nation are looking interesting, Adelaide is getting more and more exciting for our show.  Hopefully good news is coming my way and many others in regards to the rest of the tour soon.

Should be a much more interesting day tomorrow, with pictures too as well too.  ^^

November Behind the scenes - Monday

First day out of seven on behind the scenes blog posts, here we go!

Morning
Wake up in the morning after a pretty decent sleep but it's never enough, especially with a pretty long day coming up.  After the usual getting ready process, I get onto my Evernote, a lovely program which helps me keep a track of my to-do list, on my computer but also on my mobile, it's pretty handy stuff, simple but effective.  My list for the week is insanely long as you can see in the picture.

Afternoon
Spend most of the day fighting of troubles with photoshop, quite simply getting the new graphics ready for Neko Nation Adelaide and all the future shows, which involves some pretty huge graphic files which probably aren't suited for such a laptop like mine.  With many frustrating moments spent, I've got enough work done for now and having a pretty flakey day in regards to concentration and trying to struggle with getting the new website done up and making much more progress on the tour.  I did get a chance to meet one of my favourite peeps who I don't see often, Mel from Miss Pixies which was pretty cool.  ^^

Night
Head off to my work at ANZ, pretty ok day but am absolutely drained from exhaustion with failing to get far on the website.  Arrived back home to my lovely catgirl and had plans to really get onto the website but failed and crash dramatically and hard.  Was originally aiming for an all night caffeine binge but a refreshed morning and a chance to try my work from home tomorrow or in a do not disturb mode will do wonders.  Despite a pretty blah day, things take a much interesting turn for tomorrow once I get back to my messages and e-mails.   ^^

Also chilling out with Starcraft, so Korean.  XD

Survival of the dead and alive

It was an absolutely brutal week this week, insane amounts of dramu, workloads and an insanely high pressured week which far from saw everything go to plan.  It was a case of one small domino screwing up Monday morning and a lot of bad follow throughout the week.

It's been an insane week to get through, I work a minimum of 11 hour days at the moment, 12-13 hour days are not too common and of course that's not excluding work I have to take home or work that I've been somewhat behind as well.  It's looking like there is a solution to everything though as me and Susannah are trying to work our schedules and our roles, plus we're both pretty high achievers so we just want things to go faster and better in terms of the store and Neko Nation.

Getting ready for big things with Tokyo Hardcore preparing for major stock additions across the month and on my end I've decided to turn what was just a Brisbane and Perth show into a 2012 national show tour.  It sucks with the amount of work that has to be done but I'm absolutely over the moon with how things are going there.

Despite all the work, I'm very excited about the tour, there's going to be some amazing people and some amazing experiences along the way, in particular over the moon about Brisbane, which has fallen head over heels for the night!

Anyways, hoping to have a more chillaxed weekend, trying to understand and master Starcraft and also looking to play some ITG as well, while practising some DJing in particular trying to get into some new genres as well this weekend which should be good.  Looking forward to also chatting with some peeps which has been near impossible to do with my recent workload.

Hopefully can summon up the energy to rave tonight as well but we'll see, the thought of me going to someone else's event is really something else, it's been a long time!  XD

Adelaide - Feels good man

After what has been one of the most insanest months of my life, the store has finally opened and a lot of stress relief has finally poured out over the pre-opening week but alas it has been a more than amazing week to make up for it.  Overall it has been an interesting experience in the store, finally being able to be seen in public rather than hiding away in my room.

It's been an interesting week where I've finally gotten a chance to hangout and really start to talk a lot to the cosplay, anime and lolita community, I may seem a bit rude and quiet but the reality is I'm still pretty shy, plus it's been a bit difficult to talk to people here in Adelaide as well since I'm struggling to remember so many new names, trying to learn more about people plus Susannah has a tendancy to talk over me when I'm talking to people as well.  XP

For the record Susannah is pretty much the one running the show but a lot of things have to go through me first since while Susannah has some pretty epic visions, ideas and knows how to work her loli magic, I've got a lot of work in seeing how to realistically make everything work, keeping an active eye on stock, accounts, technical work and in general I do a lot of heavily analysing work in regards to seeing what works, what's the most important things to do write now.  In short Susannah is an amazing creative person who comes up with a lot of ideas, however it's basically keeping a lot of the goals in focus.

I'm starting to enjoy life properly in Adelaide now that things are going well, since it's been a crazy time coming here and I haven't properly enjoyed myself, Susannah pretty much made me start getting to work on Tokyo Hardcore as soon as I landed in Adelaide (=although I did get a trip to Japan out of it, downside was that I was exhausted from overworking to save up for Tokyo Hardcore, exams and just general stress.  Got back to start a new job, new business and quickly got into starting the Neko Nation Tour which over time, has been a lot more work for me as I've been leading the way with the tours, in the same way Susannah has been leading Tokyo Hardcore.

Anyways, things are starting to relax a bit more and with the decision not to work Sundays in terms of taking days off and finally getting a chance to party.  It will be good to get out and finally let myself loose after not properly getting to party at the last Neko Nations and being homebound for so long.

With that said there's always more work and I'm getting excited about the 2012 Neko Nation tour again, so much excite.  ^_____^