Time Flies!

Posted on October 11, 2016 by Chris Biewer

Whoa it’s been almost a month since I have been on here, writing updates and sharing the current state of my project Cosmic Rage.

It’s been a very exciting time and there has been a ton of things going on since I last blogged. I don’t like taking long breaks from the blog but there was just a lot of life event going on and Cosmic Rage was put on hold for a bit to get things sorted out. So let’s back track a bit and get all of our bases covered!

I was at Anime Fargo last month and really enjoyed the con. I had a great time talking with new people and seeing some familiar faces. I have been to Anime Fargo each of the last 3 years, which is how long the con has been running. It is always a good time to chat and catch up with people there. I met some awesome people in the Pokemon party room that were kind enough to share info about the local nests. In between events I was able to get to a nearby park that was actually a Bulbasaur nest!

After Anime Fargo, I spent the time finishing up packing for the move before I left to go on a family vacation. When I am on vacation, I really like to unplug so I try not to use social media since I am typically online for over half the day anyways. It’s a nice time to relax and enjoy nature. I did my first (and only so far) inktober piece on vacation as well. I was inspired by the ocean and the nearby Pokemon gyms so I drew up a Lapras.

Once we were back from vacation, it was time for the move. We spent all weekend moving things from our apartment to our new house. Plus, we had to remove our community garden too. Talk about a relaxing weekend right? Yesterday the internet was hooked up so I could get back online after work and get updates posted and get back into the swing of things.

So what is on deck for the upcoming week? Well, my e-book revisions are in. So I need to sit down this weekend and get those knocked out. Ideally I would like to get the book into the store over the weekend too. But I am not 100% sure how that process works since this is my first e-book. The other task at hand, I need to get my desk put back into place and get it ready to go. Things are moved into rooms, now it is just a matter of unpacking and putting things in order.

I am ready to get back into Episode 2!

Production Update 188: Where is my E-book?

Posted on September 19, 2016 by Chris Biewer

The last month has been a hectic whirlwind. Packing for the move has been in full force, it never ceases to amaze me at how much “stuff” I have until it comes time to move. Everything fits into the apartment but when it comes time to putting it in boxes, boy it feels like an endless endeavor. I love packing up my movies and seeing all of the great ones that I need to have on when I get back into work shortly. Castle in the Sky anyone? I also plan on legitimately starting a “to watch” pile for the films and series that have made their way onto my shelves and haven’t gotten viewed yet, it feels like a crime. Ghost in the Shell Innocence? *Facepalm

I got my revisions made to my e-book and have them submitted to my editor for one final pass before publishing. This should be good to go into the store soon. Most of the edits have been making sure pages didn’t have a pixel bleed that was distracting and I also need to tweak a few pieces of art, which will be things I tackle tonight. Mostly subbing in new renders for ones I didn’t get to before as I was working on the episode and shelved the e-book for a bit.

Things will calm down this week a little bit more. I finished up one of my freelance projects and things are moving pretty well on the packing front. That will wrap up before I head on vacation to unplug for a bit. More stuff coming soon!

Quick Update + Pain

Posted on June 25, 2015 by Chris Biewer

Just got back from vacation in the woods in northern Minnesota. Needless to say, the internet connection up there is a little less than desirable which is why I missed this weeks production update. I also had a pinched nerve last week, presumably from working in the garden, so I missed some work time with that. Never experienced a pinched nerve before. I woke up one morning at 4AM and thought I was paralyzed, pretty scary stuff for that early in the morning.

Anyways, be sure to check back on Monday for another production update!

Japan Adventure Day 12

Posted on November 16, 2012 by Chris Biewer

After recovering from the Mt Fuji hike and not getting a case of pneumonia we left the hotel in search of more adventures in Tokyo. In our planning phase of our trip, we both had decided that we wanted to go to a museum and get a little bit of a “learn on” while we were in Japan. Our online searches had directed us to the Edo-Tokyo museum, where we could learn about life in the period and the development of Tokyo to its present day.

One of the things I enjoyed about the museum was all of the models to show castles, cities and bridges. At one point the museum had a mock storefront of a print shop with all sorts of ukiyo-e art and how the woodblock printing process works.

Later in the museum we started to see the western influence in Japanese society, in architecture, cars and clothes. The museum contained items all the way up until post World War 2. We also learned a lot of what life was like in Japan during the war. Kids were forced to the country because they were afraid of fire bombs and raids in the cities. It even had artwork from kids in school at thte time about the war.

Before we left the museum, we watched a few performers at the museum do tricks with umbrellas and balance things on them. It was quite an interesting show.

After the museum we went to Ikebukuro to find the Sunshine aquarium. It happened to be the one year anniversary for the aquarium so it was jammed packed. We saw all sorts of cool fish and a crab that was the size of a small car. Little kids were taking all sorts of videos and pictures with their Nintendo DS.

They had several tanks that you could walk under and see jellyfish, and even sharks. There were tanks of lizards, seals and turtles also. We had the chance to see a lot of interesting creatures.

The aquarium had an outdoor area where we saw seals, penguins and some other birds. The seals had an interesting tank that you could walk underneath and see the seals from under them. The same seals also performed a show with all sorts of tricks and acts.

After the aquarium we stopped at a restaurant for some food and I had an awesome bowl of soup. Ikebukuro had a little bit of a nightlife that we decided to enjoy that evening. We spent most of the night at an arcade playing crane games and a pokemon game that gave us tokens that had computer information on them that we could use on other pokemon machines.

As we searched the arcade for other games before heading out for the night, I found a crane game for a show called Penguin Drum. The machine had all sorts of penguins in it. I deposited 500Yen and got an extra play, I ended up dumping out 6 penguin toys. I also grabbed a pepsi in the flavor of “salty watermelon” and we headed back to the hotel. Next week is the final day in Japan!

*(First image: The sign for the Edo Tokyo Museum, the second: a bomb from WW2 that was found well after the war, the third: penguins from the aquarium, the fourth: the seal tank that you could walk under).

Japan Adventure Day 10 & 11

Posted on November 8, 2012 by Chris Biewer

Days 10 and 11 in Japan were solely focused on hiking to the top of Mt Fuji. We slept in that morning because the plan was to start hiking Fuji in the afternoon, sleep on the mountain and then get to the summit in time to see the sunrise. This method is pretty much the norm among hikers and we were hiking during the busiest week of the year. My friend and I stopped at a Subway (yes the sandwich place in the states) and had breakfast. We also stopped by a nearby convenience store to grab a few extra eats and some water for our trek.

In my pack I had a pair of pants, a hoodie, 2-2liters of water, spare socks and some food. *Spoiler alert* Notice the above paragraph and notice the lack of certain things packed, such as a light and more clothes.

The morning was spent train hopping a bit until we got to the place where we were to switch to a bus. At this point it was the middle of the afternoon. Our originally planned bus was actually canceled so we didn’t board the bus to get to the base of Fuji until almost 3PM. We grabbed another quick bite to eat and boarded the bus.

The next hour and a half was spent on the bus driving through fog, and clouds to get to our base station. We got to our starting point around 4:30, we were already a couple hours behind where we wanted to be at in terms of time. We purchased a couple walking sticks so we could get wood burnings in them as we reached certain stations.

The base of the mountain was pretty wooded and the trails were pretty easy to hike. Certain areas of the early path was even paved for hikers. We kept up with our fluids and took small snack breaks every so often to keep up our calorie intake. I wasn’t looking forward to trying to have to suffice on granola bars and bananas too much, so I wanted to keep kind of full as I hiked.

As we hiked through the woods, we would find some outlook points where we could look back and see down the side of the mountain and get a peak at the peak as well. It was a little unbelievable at the time to think we were going to make the journey. The clouds were really moving by the peak and the summit would clear at one point and then behind the clouds and fog another.

At this point we had put on our extra clothes since the elevation had made it drastically cooler than we had experienced before we got on the bus. The air was a lot cooler and humidity wasn’t a factor.

We reached our first check point and got our first wood burnings as well. We sat at a table and took a little bit of an extended break. We were making pretty solid time as we were making our way to a hut that we had reservations for that night.

The next section of trail was again wooded but trees were starting to thin out a bit. As we made our way out of the trees we were now hiking in the wide open space and night time was starting to creep in. We made it to another checkpoint and my friend was starting to get tired.

After a long break we started our journey again as night time fell upon us. It was now pretty dark, the lights in the cities below the mountain were starting to turn on. A little time passed after we started hiking again and my friend couldn’t go any more. We formulated a plan where he would go back down to the station and we would meet up tomorrow. There was a distinct trail we were on so we knew if we stayed on the trail we would meet up the next day.

I continued to climb up the mountain solo, for all of the things we read online about the busy season, we didn’t see a whole lot of other hikers. I reached another check station and got my second wood burning.

I tried to make up for some lost time, so I had a brief stop and kept pushing on. As the night sky continued to get darker, I could see fireworks from cities below having their festivals for the season.

It was starting to get cool out, so I hiked to stay warm. The night sky had gotten so dark that it was hard to see in front of your face without a light. With no place to rest at I pushed on through the night.

Between the hours of around 1AM to 4AM I had several thoughts of climbing down the mountain to the station where my friend was staying. These 3 hours were some of the mentally challenging times. I had no light to see the path and the temperature was well cooler than hoodie weather. At this point I had used my bandana to cover my mouth from the wind and I had used my spare pair of socks as mittens. I would sleep outside a check station for less than an hour before I was so cold I had to move, in which I would hike to the next station to warm up and repeat the process.

At each check station i would look for the station our reservation was at to sleep. After not finding it at a few stations and with the hours winding down to when I would have to start my ascent I decided to bypass the hut and just hike. At around 4:30 in the morning I reached a checkpoint where two paths merged and it was jam packed with people. Hikers filled the entire camp, finally I saw the amount of people I read about online.

Hikers had started their ascent to the the top, there was so many people, that there was a line of people hiking towards the top. The line of hikers was so long that by the time people were preparing for the sunrise you could not hike to the top because it was full.

I was one check station below the summit when the sun started to rise. Hikers were cheering as the sun rose and many were taking photos. A storm started rolling in and clouds were blocking the sun at points as they rolled in and out quickly.

After the sun rose people started to descend the summit allowing for others to get to the top. I reached the summit and got my final wood burnings in my hiking stick. I slept at the top of Fuji for a while in a big shelter.

The wind ripped through the summit and clouds rolled over the top that you could see them. The other side of the mountain was even more foggy then the side I climbed.

Our original idea was to climbdown the other side of Fuji but I had to go back to find my friend. The plan we devised last night I was to wait at the top for a few more hours for him. With it being so cold at the summit, or me being so underdressed, I headed back to find him.

As I worked my way down the mountain the fog started to roll in and it started raining. I hiked down to the station he was staying at and didn’t see him. I figured he headed back to the bus stop because we had to be back to the bus my mid afternoon.

The rain continued to fall and the descent trail was soft, loose dirt that filled my shoes as I tried to not fall face down in the dirt. Some hikers were running down the mountain in the dirt, some people slipped and some used the guide rope to stay upright.

I reached the bus station at the base and found my friend, who was dry and was able to stay out of the rain. We hopped on the bus back to the train station and slept for most of the way. As soon as we arrived at the train station we boarded and slept some more.

That night we hung out and talked about our hikes. My friend captured some beautiful sunrise pictures because he was low enough on the mountain he was between cloud layers. My pictures were blocked by clouds.

We grabbed some beef bowls that night and crashed to recover from our hike. I was pretty sure I was going to get some kind of sickness, at least a cold if not pneumonia from that hike, but I actually came out unscathed even when I got back to the states.

It was an awesome hike and it pushed me farther in mental toughness. I was well prepared on the food and water front of the hike but under prepared in terms of clothing. Which is good to know for next time. I had my hiking light and such laid out to take to Japan but they were forgotten at home. I really want to hike Fuji again and hope to get that opportunity again someday 🙂

*(First image is the path pointing us to the trail, second is the wooded area that we hiked in, third is looking up at the summit through the fog and clouds, fourth is a look back at the foot of Fuji, fifth is the same thing only later in the day as night started to fall, sixth is the hike up in the foggy morning, seventh is my clouded sunrise shot, eighth is a shot down at the cities covered by clouds, ninth is the line heading to the summit, tenth is how foggy and cloud covered the summit was, eleventh is how foggy it was at the start of the hike down, and finally the foggy trail further down the mountain).

Japan Adventure Day 3

Posted on September 20, 2012 by Chris Biewer

Day 3 in Japan was our last day in Tokyo before we departed to the countryside for a few days (we were returning to Tokyo afterwards). The goal of the morning was to head to Asakusa and find a yukata to wear to the festival we were heading to the next day. We found a nice street that was filled with vendors near the Kaminarimon Shrine. Fortunately we were able to find yukatas for taller people at an awesome little shop, the shop owners were super friendly and let me take a couple pictures of their shop (see below). It was along this street that I also found a vendor and was able to try takoyaki for the first time. Takoyaki is basically deep fried octopus in a dough ball with various condiments on top. My favorite was Japanese mayo and green onions, fantastic stuff 🙂

After Asakusa, we headed to Akihabara to check out all of the toys, electronics and anime we could ever imagine. I found a shop that sold nothing but gachapons, they are small toys you put together that come from a plastic ball machine. basically a quarter machine we have in the United States except these toys are a little bigger, you put them together and they generally cost between 200-400 Yen. I was able to score some cool Dragonball Z, Neon Genesis Evangelion and My-Hime figures. I didn’t recognize a lot of the other series they had machines for, and there was a lot of them.

We stopped at an amazing ramen shop before we journeyed to a store to buy some liquor for the festival days. Another cool thing in Japan is that there are storage lockers that you can put your stuff in and for 200 Yen or less you can store it in the locker as you continue to shop. We stored our liquor and kept an eye out for eye catching places to check out.

In Akihabara there were lots of maids handing out flyers for various maid cafes, so of course we checked one out. We ordered some desserts and they came out shaped as cute little animals. Of course I ordered a green tea turtle, he was tasty.

After the maid cafe, we roamed around a few more shops as night approached. I found a really cool store that sold all sorts of used toys, so I was able to score some more gachapons. This place would give you money if you brought in older gachapons and they would resell them. Since space is a premium in Japan, I assume people trade in older gachapons for newer ones allowing collectors to find ones they need to complete sets.

As night started to set in, we stopped at a place that served all sorts of fried foods that you could order. They had a rule that if you ordered food and didn’t eat it you actually had to pay more for it, it was to prevent wasting food. We were able to order such things as deep fried lotus root (my favorite), garlic, and asparagus. The food was amazing. We stopped by the locker and picked up our liquor and we headed back to our hotel to get some rest before departing on our countryside excursion the next morning. Stay tuned for day 4!

*(The first image is from the yukata shop in Asakusa, the second is in Akihabara which has 7 story arcades, the third is a glass case of Gundam gachapons in the gachapon shop and the final image is of my green tea turtle sundae at the maid cafe).

Japan Adventure Day 2

Posted on September 13, 2012 by Chris Biewer

Day 2 of my trip to japan started off with a relaxing train ride down to Kamakura. The weather that day was overcast with some rain on and off. We were traveling to Kamakura to visit the Tsurugaoka Hachimangu Shrine to learn a little bit about the history but also to spend some time outside of Tokyo too. The shrine had lots of people visiting and taking pictures of all of the lanterns that were on posts next to the sidewalk up to the stairs of the shrine.

Along the way to the shrine, we discovered a lantern that the creator of Neon Genesis Evangelion had made (picture below). There were so many lanterns to look at, some designed by kids and others by famous artists. While we walked around the temple grounds, we saw a group of artists that had settled in to draw and paint various vantage points of the shrine.

For lunch we stopped at a place that gave out big paper bibs to people that ordered curry or ramen. A few of the travelers ate lunch with the bibs and it allowed us to take some funny before and after pictures. It also allowed us to get out of the rain for a little while as well. After lunch we had a little bit of time to roam Kamakura a bit so my friend and I wandered away from the area we were at. In our small area we went to we discovered the shrine of one of Japan’s famous swordsmiths, Masamune.

After meeting up with the rest of the group, we headed to one of the giant Buddha statues in Japan. You could spend 20 Yen (which is probably in the neighborhood of a quarter) to go inside the Buddha and lean about some of the construction techniques. I found a few gifts to bring home for friends and family here as well.

We weren’t too far away from the beach so we decided to stop and check it out for a while before we headed back to Tokyo. We kept our stuff in a beach shack that was run by a group of party kids that had a DJ playing, they were cool with us keeping our stuff their for free. Since it was my first time to the ocean, I waded into the water a bit and looked for some interesting seashells.

To end the day we headed back to Tokyo and ate at an Izakaya. It was one of our fellow travelers 21st birthdays so we celebrated and ate a lot of delicious food. We had a private room that we ordered food from a touchscreen and someone would bring it in when it was done.

(The first picture is of Hideaki Anno’s Evangelion lantern, the second image is the giant buddha, the third is the ocean, and finally the aftermath of our party meal.)