Hey all! A quick reminder that next weekend is TAKII 13: United We Stand, and in addition to this being a very important season for the event, I've got a VERY special surprise up my sleeve for this season's installment, so any fans of mine who think they can make it definitely should try to attend...;-D

Also, I stress that anyone planning to attend purchase a Contender's Pass; TAKII is free to attend, but it needs your support in order to keep funded and to allow it to run for future seasons, so please do your part to help this wonderful event.

More news to come in the following weeks, so stay tuned and hope to see some of you in Philly!

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Hey all! The details for the track are all in the description, but I wanted to at least give y'all a quick sample of what I've been working on:



More to samples come as they become available! ^_^

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Ok, so here is my wrapup of the DC Sakura Matsuri...which is really a wrapup of the Anime USA Cosplay Fashion Show. ^_~; While the videos below can can also be found in my Video playlist, I wanted to make it easier for people to go right to them in the coming days. You can also find more media from the event here on Facebook, and follow the page for subsequent years worth of material!

Overall, it was a very taxing but rewarding day...as many of you know, I pretty much had no time to properly warm up vocally before the show, and spent the two hours from when I arrived to when I took the stage chattering non-stop to help get things in order. Then the show happened, and I couldn't even stop for water.

With that as the setup, here's how things went down during halftime:





Mind you, this was in front of a crowd LARGER than my AX Idol audience, so there was a ton of pressure to perform. As this was my first live since Next Broadway Star back in the Fall, I was beyond pleased with the results of the training I've been doing since then.

Both models and audience were also super enthusiastic throughout the show, and honestly it was great to see that: with cosplay events like this starting to pop up more frequently, it's good to see that there's more interest in the medium from not only a fan perspective but from a casual observer's perspective. Truly, things have evolved alot since I got into this whole fandom, and I'm grateful for that. ^_^

I also send extensive thank yous to not just the AUSA staff for putting the event together, but Starlighthoney of Cupcake Cosplay for bringing me in on the event and also being so kind as to make sure everything was accommodated for me both in terms of emceeing and performing.

Next update, in addition to touching on my wonderful T-MODE experience, will hopefully have samples from my exciting current project:

ORIGINAL MUSIC!

Let me tell you, this is going to be HUGE if certain elements of this project pan out. Till then, I look forward to sharing the beginning of this new journey. ;-D

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Originally, this was supposed to be a post about T-MODE and how awesome it was. Fear not, that post will happen because it was another UNBELIEVABLY awesome small con that I encourage people to check out.

Today, something came up as a result of an incendiary Twitter discussion that I felt I needed to not only address from the perspective of why it was an anomaly, but also take a moment to soapbox about my view on my choices of social media and why I have it laid out the way I do. Let's start from the top...

FACT: My Facebook and my Twitter show all different sides of me.

Besides being the second-most updated social media platform I use, I encourage people to follow me on Facebook because, much like my website, this is my professional side and the most sanitized for people who want the view of me that I (as a professional artist) naturally wish to share with the world. Also I update this page with event announcements plus other more "fun" stuff, and frankly I feel more people pay attention to Facebook than to this site as a whole. Therefore, it is a logical extension of everything you see here. I even have it feed to my Twitter to make it easier for updates to go out across the different currents of the web.

Meanwhile, my Twitter, the most updated platform I use, is basically my "shoot from the hip", borderline unprofessional textvomit hole that's totally 18+ levels of content conversation. I also tend to talk about more "personal" (i.e. relevant only to me) things there. It's where I also host semi-private conversations in a public forum because of the "drop-in-drop-out" nature of it. A sort of "AIM 2.0", if you will. Which I love. Also I realize the topics that come up are not relevant to everyone's interests, and sometimes they may be downright offensive. In simple terms, it is my "uncensored commentary track" on life.

I don't use forums or formspring because I figure if you have something to say, say it out loud and take accountability for your words/thoughts.

I don't use tumblr or any other posting method of that sort because I don't post enough random pictures to justify it.

I keep the MySpace page because I'm too lazy to link it to Facebook to listen to streaming music without constant nagging. Also occasional contest entries. Don't judge me. XD

I therefore believe that if you're not interested what I have to say, you can simply not follow me on the platforms I've made myself available on. I also believe if you have an opinion you'd like to share publicly, go right ahead. I further believe that if you have to share publicly, you don't need to be a jerk and call people out directly about what you disagree on unless they're in a position of power and NEED to hear it. Or if they have grievously wronged an entire community and need to own up to their mistakes.

Most of all, I believe this social media thing has been an important evolution in how we can get to know each other. Get to live, to love, and to experience. We can connect, we can disconnect; it's all our choice.

This is why I keep two different personas: we have a choice of who and what we can be both in private and in public. I choose to be both the person I am at my core (and optimistic professional who passionately seeks to entertain the world), and the person I know that I end up coming across as at times (an emotional and opinionated artist who will call it as it is with a touch of crude humor).

Both sides of the same coin. Both important for me to express.

Both available for your choosing.

I don't force anyone to follow me, I merely set up my wares and offer them to those who desire them. Again, choice in an age of option. ^_~

This is not an ultimatum, nor a negatively-slanted manifesto. This is just an explanation as to why I conduct myself the way I do across various forums. What you see is always what you get, it's just different expressions of the different elements that make up what you see and what you experience.

With rare exceptions like today, I try to keep my private issues out of these forums because in the grand scheme of things I know many of you don't follow me for that. Frankly, I have a private blog for those things. But because of the nature of things like my Twitter being "personal", I realize on days like today it will just happen to spill over from time to time.

That said, outbursts like today are rare for me. And I will try to keep them off my social media when I can. But I still wish for this post to serve as an "introduction" to those who have yet to figure out where to follow me and what to expect when there.

I apologize for this somewhat serious musing, but I hope it explains alot about how I treat my social media and how I view the grand plains of the world on the web in regards to it all.

Coming next time? T-MODE/DC Matsuri wrap-ups (hopefully) and more announcements! (...Again, hopefully. XD)

Thanks again for taking the time to read this, and I hope you find a new perspective as a result of it!

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