I joined the Navy in May 2013. The main catalyst in my decision was I wanted to make it to Japan somehow.

As a long-time fan of Japanese video games, especially JRPG's of the 90s, I have dreamed of getting to one day visit the country. I have a big interest in the culture and have studied the religions of the east through my bachelor's degree in religious philosophy. I've been taking Japanese language lessons and have been hoping some day I might make it. As you can probably tell, I'm all about getting there to experience it.

Receiving specific orders to a place you want to go can be very difficult to get. They are called orders after all, not wants, so there was never any guarantee nor even significant chance I would see Japanese shores. Sailors can be stationed all over the world. You're mostly up to the whims of the Navy. For some reason--probably against my better judgment--I chose to take the risk and devote my next five years to military service in order to potentially make my dream a reality.

Turns out today I got the news that I would be changing stations to Yokosuka, Japan, south of Tokyo. It won't be temporary (as in a short time) orders either; I'll be there at least two years, upwards of three. I'm the happiest I've been in a long time, and I feel so fortunate. I don't even think I deserve all the good fortune I've received in the last year and half I've been in the Navy. Realistically, it's not all been positive, but the good has been worth the rest. I am loving life a lot more right now.

That means I won't be creating a video of the convention. It's kinda relieving in a way. The whole thing won't feel like a job where I have to capture footage and edit the video later. I can just enjoy the event, which starts tomorrow.

I will hopefully get to do another video in January, however, when I go to PAX South in San Antonio. Hoping to follow a "less is more" approach next time for that show as opposed to my PAX Prime video, which was nearly 40 minutes.

I'm still considering taking my camera just to make a small video of cosplayers outside Blizzcon. If I end up doing that, I'll post the video as a blog when I get finished editing it.

I captured roughly 100 gigs of video, which made this job the most difficult one of these videos I've made. I still enjoy the whole process starting with turning on the camera to finally uploading the edited piece to Youtube. You can see my other videos as past blogs or less GB-focused on my Youtube channel (Katsucon for example).

This video took a little while to complete mostly due to my hefty workload in the Navy plus tons of footage to evaluate. Sometimes it's difficult to decide what to keep and what to cut. One thing helped this matter this time however. The camera I used was not the one I had used in the past. This current one is a much cheaper model with not-so-great sound, so unfortunately I had to cut out the interviews. Actually, I had hoped to make two videos with all the footage, but the sound prevented the second video.

Anyway, hope you like it. It's pretty Giant Bomb-centric with several appearances from friends of the site.

((Thanks to Kevin MacLeod and his website, Incompetech.com, for the free-to-use, royalty-free music used in this production. The songs in order are: Latin Industries, Tossed Salads & Scrambled Eggs (the theme from Frasier (not from Incompetech.com), Cephalopod, Chipper Doodle v2, Go Cart - Drop Mix, Pinball Spring, Electrodoodle, Killing Time, Babylon, Aitech, Who Likes to Party, Ridin' (not from Incompetech.com), Blipotron, Informer (DJ clip, not from Incompetech.com), Klockworx.))

I'm almost finished with my 38-ish minute PAX video. That will be uploaded tomorrow, I hope. I will have to let it upload to Youtube tonight and blog it on the Giant Bomb forums Thursday.

I wanted to post this short video here as well, because I couldn't find a good way to incorporate it into the main video; however, fans of this site and the Simon's Quest videos might want to see what this duo called Super Soul Bros. can do. They played most of the show, and they knew how to get the crowd going.

I have left the video unedited mostly due to my wanting to show how some of the video recording process happens before bringing it into Adobe Premiere. The sound quality is not good, but it's just for fun anyway.

I feel like a paparazzo sometimes, rushing to get the shot, and you can see some of that at the beginning. I heard the song in the distance, and stopped whatever I was doing. I knew I needed to capture it for Giant Bomb. Plus, about the editing, I didn't want to cut away from the playing. They are quite good.

PAX East was a lot of fun. I got to meet some fellow users of the site and recorded my time at the convention. This video contains some Giant Bomb fan interviews and footage of the Giant Bomb crew. There is some footage in here that you may not have seen of @vinny and Rich Gallup. These videos I post are mostly for fun and a little practice. They aren't serious projects mostly due to lack of time to edit them well, but I hope you can still enjoy.

It's nice to hear a little about how the beginnings of Giant Bomb happened from a little more of an inside perspective. I always thought those early videos happened mostly the way they did on purpose. I like how Vinny talks about how sometimes accidents like that first video help dictate the future, for example the way it helped set the tone of the site going forward. Makes me wonder how Giant Bomb might be different had the shooting and editing gone perfectly to plan.

After school today, I got my package of four shirts from Giant Bomb, two VinnCo shirts, each a different color, and two Bombduders shirts, also two different colors. I really like the design on these. I assume @buzz_clik is responsible for that part. I can't wait to wear them.

Gallery

The funny thing is, I forgot I had already ordered the VinnCo shirts when I placed an order for another one last night. I soon will have third then. That's fine, because I'll just wear the next one I get in when the others wear out.

I attended Game Over Baltimore March 1, 2014 and captured some video of the live music and video games that the event celebrated. I love going to these types of events to see how artists interpret and recreate music in their own style. This one was pretty small-scale, but I liked that about it.

The noise was pretty substantial, and I did not set up my camera correctly. The only audio from the event is at the end, and it had to be fixed in Adobe Audition, which I've never used until today! Getting better and better with the technical side of this stuff with each video I post though.

There were five bands performing at the show, but there was also additional playlists of prerecorded music going between sets. The Game Over Baltimore concert was also streamed on Twitch.

What's cool about these things is that there are a lot of people who like similar things to me, and I sometimes have trouble finding those groups. What about you? Have you attended a video game concert or something similar, or have you ever watched one of these streams live? Would you like to go to a show if there was one in your area?

As some of you might know, Game of Thrones, season 4, will premiere April 2. I wanted to interview some fans of the show just to get their takes on the books and series. Both said they were excited for the new season to start.

I have not seen many episodes or read the books mostly due to the time commitment, but I would like to give Game of Thrones a more in-depth chance once the series is over.

Of the episodes I have seen, it seems cool. I watched about three episodes over at a friend's house before leaving for the Navy. The main problem for me, I think, was I didn't have the context of what had happened previously to let the show capture me like it has so many others.

If I had to choose between the books and the show, I'd probably read the books first then catch the show.

If you have any experience with GoT, what is your opinion on it?

I also wouldn't mind critiques on the video. Thanks a lot.

Certain games stand out to me in my memory due to how uniquely they affected me or used fairly uncommon techniques. Sometimes the industry subsequently adopts what made those games impactful, for example, over-the-shoulder view from Resident Evil 4.

I have never had a game's control scheme elicit an emotion, however, which is what happened when I played the last section of Brothers. The designers exploited the neuroplasticity of the player's brain and its need to find relationships, which, for me, caused an association to develop between one of the brothers and how I controlled him.

With that, as I played the final parts, like Pavlov's salivating dog except with involuntary feelings, I felt the emotional connection when the spatial connection that had been there through the game was no longer present. I hope that that all was intentional on the part of those behind the game. If so, I'm impressed at how smart it was to work that in such a way as to accentuate the ultimate moments of the story. For this, I will always remember Brothers.

I attended Katsucon XX, an anime and multicultural event, February 14-16 and captured a lot of footage. I wanted to make a small documentary-style highlights video.

It's my first video of this type, and it was fun to make. However, it was a lot more work then I had anticipated, and I wish I would have had more time to work on it. I had only about a day to finish the editing with a little spillover into the next day to add some music.

Hit the CC button if you would like captions.

It's been nice learning Adobe programs like Premiere Pro in order to make these kinds of projects, and I plan to continue doing so in the future. Interviewing people is a lot of fun, and, as a new photojournalist, it's something I can always use more practice perfecting.

I hope I can go back next year and see Katsucon XXI now that I know how enjoyable it can be. I totally wasn't expecting to have that great of a time.

Besides this show, I have been to E3, which was a blast, and some car/boat/RV shows that I barely remember.

What about you? Have you ever attended a convention, and what did you think?

If you haven't, why not?