The Gold Standard has been an annual event thrown together by the LA Weekly Magazine for the past four years. Since LA Weekly is my place of employment, I get to enjoy a complimentary admission and gorge on free food for a few hours. I’ve only gone twice. The first year of the event and then this year. This is an event for the purely hardcore foodies – it was a hot day and the place was extremely crowded.

We had to park three blocks away since the event parking was closed off when we got there (what the heck, guys). I do consider myself somewhat of a “foodie” but I would never actually pay the full price to attend the Gold Standard.

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Long Beach Comic Expo came and went this past Saturday, a small convention dedicated to comic-lovin’ put together by the Long Beach Comic Con crew. Again, I am happy to have these conventions so close to where I live (I don’t have any stalkers out there, do I?)! My friend/co-worker, Liz Ohanesian, was covering the con for the hand that feeds us, LA Weekly, and I agreed to accompany her with my camera.

For me, the day started out extra early. I had bought a badge to be an extra for The Guild, season 5 since they were filming at the convention. All of us extras had to be there by 7:30am. Brutal. I was also on set the Thursday before the convention. It was a 8am to 8pm work day and I felt it. Shooting movies, films and webseries shows truly is a labor of love for these guys and I can not imagine doing it on a regular basis. I found newfound respect for the people of movie land.

Still, the experience to be an extra for my favorite web series was truly a dream come true! I’ve had fantasies about this, people! My mad love-girl-crush on Felicia Day is no secret! I can’t talk much about the details and what I witnessed but it’s all going to be coming out this summer time. That’s not too far away so hold on– I will probably make another blog post once the episode is out. Then I will reveal and tell all. I have to say that I did meet some awesome people on set, so shout out to all my fellow Guildie-extras!

Around noon time, I discarded my Hollywood dress and Liz and I met up and hit the convention floor. I love smaller conventions. I have been going to bigger conventions for many years and those experiences have prepared me for all-day-shenanigans… I often forget that this is not the case with small conventions.

In about two hours, Liz and I have walked in circles around the exhibit hall about 25 times and already met and talked to a bunch of creators. Liz’s articles are online:

Comic Book Series 140 Crowdsources Twitter, While Chafed Imagines Internet as Human

Long Beach Comic Expo: Five Things We Love About Small Conventions

It was real treat to meet Steve Niles (author of 30 Days of Night) in person. In my ‘woke-up-too-early-today’ daze, I completely walked by his booth and missed him. Luckily, he recognized me from my twitter account and flagged me down. I was fangirl-strucked for a couple of minutes (this only happens in front of comic book creators and the Supernatural cast members… go figure) but quickly snapped out of my zombie state. We chatted with him for awhile and received copies of his newest project. Super cool and nice guy and I highly recommend tracking him down on the convention floor.

As Liz mentions in ‘Five Things We Love About Small Conventions’ – Long Beach Comic Expo was not only fun for comic book lovers, but a great way to meet some of the best artists, writers, etc. in the industry. Although the exhibit hall was somewhat crowded since it was a small one, it was completely possible to talk to the people at their booths and get to know these talents.

I can’t say enough good things about LBCC and everyone involved in the organization. Keep it up and I will be there every year!

Check out my LA Weekly Slideshow from the convention!

I reached out to Team Unicorn at the beginning of the month and asked if they’ll be interested in doing an interview for the LA Weekly Style Council online blog. It took a couple of weeks of e-mails back and forth between Michelle Boyd before we finally decided to do the interview via Skype on a Monday morning. Now, you can read it online at LAWeekly.com: Team Unicorn: Sexy and Geeky Girls, They Do Exist!

Team Unicorn: Milynn Sarley, Michele Boyd, Rileah Vanderbilt, and Clare Grant

This was my first professional interview and as much as I was excited to do it– I was also super nervous! I am a Fine Arts student, not a trained journalist. I wasn’t sure what the protocol was… but with a lot of things that are new to me, I tend to just face it head on without hesitation. Otherwise, how can I know if I could actually do it? The worst that could happen is I fail, I suppose, but I try not to think about that.

We started the interview at around 9am on a Monday morning and the girls were so laid back and kind that I relaxed. There was a lot of laughter. It was difficult to keep myself from having a full on conversation with them. They talked about a lot of the same things I liked and I just wanted to jump in! I held back and reminded myself that I needed to get full answers for a proper interview. At the end of it, I thanked them for taking the time to talk to me and they said they agreed to the interview because I asked really good questions (I had sent them the questions via e-mail in advance)! :D I was very happy to hear this because I did try to come up with questions that were relevant and entertaining. Even the more general questions, I tried to spin it in a more interesting way.

Of course, having a little over half an hour interview with four girls turned out to be a whole lot of material. The final draft is about half of the original conversation, but I worked hard to edit it down to the best Q&As and still keep the fun and playful spirit.

In the end, the interview was met with a lot of positive responses and Team Unicorn seems proud and happy about it too! Hooray for satisfying results all around! I’m glad that this first interview had gone well and I know I can only improve as I do more of it. Wish me luck!

Check out the article, Team Unicorn: Sexy and Geeky Girls, They Do Exist!

On St. Patrick’s Day, Meltdown Comics hosted a charity art event called We Heart Japan. Since I would be missing the rest of the charity art shows that weekend, I wanted to attend at least one event– and it has been awhile since I’ve made a stop at Meltdown Comics! My friend and co-worker, Liz Ohanesian, covered the event that night for LA Weekly and I accompanied her as her photographer. I got to watch her be a pro and interview some of the voice actors and artists that night!

The event was  put together by Stephanie Sheh, an American voice actress who has worked within the anime industry primarily. She recruited a long list of voice actors to come out and do autograph signings. Among the few actors present were Wendee Lee, Crispin Freeman, Travis Willingham and Daran Norris. There were a lot of wonderful artwork that were donated by different artists inside Meltdown’s art gallery.

We also got to see friends all night. Mike of The Wandering Kaijyu and Daniella of All About Manga were both present at the party. My friend, Shing,creator of Marlowe the Monster, was one of the artist who donated art and also volunteered for most of the night.

Money raised during the event and from the art sales went towards the aid of victims in Japan from the earthquake and tsunami.

Check out Liz’s blog on LA Weekly’s Style Council for a full report: Voice Actors, Artists and Anime Fans Say ‘We Heart Japan’ at Meltdown Comics.

Click here to check out my LA Weekly Slideshow and see more photos from the event!

My first ever blog on the LA Weekly’s Style Council section is now up: Arcade Infinity, the Final Round: Video Game Hotspot Closes. I wrote about Arcade Infinity’s last night before it closed permanently, with interviews from the gamers that visited AI frequently throughout the eleven years it was open. It was my first time professionally going out and doing a report. I have a long way to go when it comes to asking people questions during interviews, but I hope I learn by experience as I fumble along the way.

My boyfriend took this photo of me conducting one of my interviews at AI :)

For those who doesn’t know, I am an Advertising Graphic Designer for the LA Weekly Magazine. I have been working for them for almost three years now! I do like my job a lot and the people I work with. Recently, my co-worker (a writer) and friend, Liz Ohanesian, asked me to contribute as a blogger too and I agreed. Despite the fact that I’ve been writing in my personal blogs for many years now, it is different to blog professionally. Readers expect you to be more of a reporter and to have your facts straight and in order. Although, my worst fear is actually my weak grammar!

For those who have been reading Defective Geeks have probably noticed my lack of grammar expertise. I try my best, I swear! Thankfully, Gizzy has agreed to help proofread my LA Weekly blogs before I submit them. It’s good to have more eloquent, English-experts on your team.

I also realized I will probably be dealing with some anonymous commenters who will go out of their way to leave rude comments. This bothers me less. I think I have been on the internet for far too long to waste my time on those kind of people. We all get far too brave when we are typing behind the safety of our computer monitors. It is only fact that many drop their manners and find joy in the fake empowerment of being mean to online strangers. I know that if those people ever saw me in person, most of them will not have the balls to even talk to me.

For those who will help me with my new freelance blog endeavor- the ones who will leave constructive criticism in a polite way and give me feedback… I thank you all in advance! Your support means a lot to me.

To those who will come out of the woodwork and hate on me for no reason… prepared to be thoroughly ignored.

Again, please go and check out the blog: Final Round: Video Game Hotspot Closes. Don’t forget to check out all the other great entries from our many writers too.

My boyfriend and his younger cousin, holding their last AI token! He is saving it for the memories :)

Check out our flickr gallery for the rest of our photos!