September 7th, 2011: Being as how I am still alive after Glass City Con III , one might suspect that this year's anime convention for which I boldly lead into the flame coated in a protective layer of gasoline has less taxing upon my withering body. This is true only in the sense I declined to play host of a month-long viral partying in my husk as I did last year, allowing me to escape the con with only my mental health in decline. Despite the lack of disease taking its toll on me, when all of the evidenced is stacked up against the convention’s actions against me this year, we have a solid conviction: this con is guilty of attempted murder.

Perhaps the viral oblivion I was spiraling in last time shielded me from certain harsh realities (so I am told), and last year was just as tough, but I suspect this theory is a white elk. The general sense of fatigue sprinkled with failures was visible in the faces of the convention staff. It was obvious that everyone worked harder than ever, though the fruit was not as sweet.

That isn't to say the convention wasn't technically successful. With  over 1,600 attendees (up from 1,100 last time), more than 65 vendors and artists, more guests, and expanded content, Glass City Con III was by and large a success story. The issues that popped up, most of which were out of our hand but not out of the minds of the fickle con-goer, laid heavily on the convention’s legacy.

Technical problems, including a big one wherein the room in which Year 200X and the Rave were held decided it did not want to be darkened, devastating the Rave especially, crept in. Minor hiccups, like mutant laptops provided by panelists which did not like our technology, screening room amps deciding the best time to become deceased was in the middle of the con, and vendors who suddenly required electrical even though it was never requested (or promised), were all par for the con course. The biggest technical hiccup was the cloning facility which was supposed to multiply me so I could attend to the many aspects of the con was overtaken and destroyed in a suicide attack by my clones, who would rather go down in the flaming cloning facility which sprung them rather than work and anime convention. I can't put the blame on them.

There were other issues  which I am not privileged to record in the written word, for the din it would arouse is not something I care to endure. Let me just say there is a wisdom about meeting your heroes that applies and leave it at that.

Currently, I am at a crossroad of whether or not I will continue being a part of this convention. As if I had a choice, as the convention staff has roped me into Glass City Con 4, though I refuse to run it in the traditional sense. I believe anime conventions, Glass City Con in particular, are worthwhile and amazing things, with dedicated, hard-working people bringing their passion into a spectacular display of human triumph. Glass City Con is also an anchor around my neck, pulling me under the sea of my professional and personal life. Thinking back to all of the attempts this con made on my marriage, job, and health, I cannot claim enthusiasm of associating with it again.

I also don’t get to update Pocky Box, though this might be the Hope left in the box.

But that is a matter for that Chris and now it is time for Pocky Box Chris to take over. For a change of pace, we do have some content for you. First off, you may notice the menu has changed slightly. I figured it’s been nearly seven years since I started the site, so it was time to change up the information section a bit. Gone are is the nefarious Rules page, which is just about useless in the face of the selectively-illiterate Internet. Our Staff page has been updated and everything else has been combined into a handy FAQ format. Or maybe NAQ (Never-Asked Question) is more accurate. I suspect there will be some bugs, so let me know.

But on to the actual content! While I intended this update to be more fun in the sense we wouldn’t just be talking just about religion and politics, if I waited until I finished the fun content, we would update sometime in 2017. So let’s just go with what we have. I promise something more fun next time, possibly involving ninjas of a reptilian persuasion.

While the current president has lost a lot of points lately, fishing out political shenanigans overall just isn’t as easy in the Obama Sea  as when we traveled the Bush Puddle, but a state-level abomination known as Senate Bill 5 (now Issue 2 for the voters) ruffled my quills, or keyboard, I suppose, into action. If you don't think your local government has enough power to destroy a country, read on.

Selmek, who has since found comfortable employment with the Augusta Verge, begins what we hope is a sizable series of Bible commentary which may one day be wrapped together into a book: Lucifer’s Gospel.  Be sure to check back next time (which will be in 2011!) for part two.


Septmeber 3, 2010: Over  a month has passed since the GarasuNoShiCon 2010 has concluded, and I have finally sufficiently recovered both physically and mentally well enough to focus my creative endeavors back to Pocky Box, at least for the moment. I am grateful to have been rescued from the savage beating I received from the convention and cared for by the Good Samaritans of time, isolation, and anime. This convention was even more brutal than the last, with more tasks and people to manage and more things to go wrong (and believe me, they did).

Fourteen months of tireless preparation, mental drudgery, and elbow grease culminated in a fantastic knee-slapper of a conclusion when I ended up getting sick for the convention and losing my voice, effectively stripping me of the ability to interact with the convention in any meaningful way, thus invalidating any feeling of accomplishment I felt afterwards (the disease that tormented me for weeks after also helped crimp my mirth). Since then, I had no desire to be part of another convention, though this feeling is slowly subsiding as the wounds gradually close up. There will always be scars, marks I hope will not cause the next convention to turn away in disgust, or worse, feel vindicated in repeating the sins of the past convention.

When I feel up to it, I will chronicle this event in a two-part article, covering the original convention as well, which I have neglected to acknowledge to cleanse my palette of convention thoughts when I'm attempting to do something creative that doesn't involve truckers in school girl uniforms.

I feel there should be more pomp and circumstance for this momentous occasion, but C has finally come out. Before our more sexually flexible readers start prepping their send buttons, I should elaborate that this coming out has nothing to do with sexuality (as much as C does not have to do with sexuality), but instead, he finally reveals to the world of Pocky Box his real name. I present to you, faithful readers, not on the first occasion, Mister Christopher Selmek.

For years, Selmek has remained stern that I not use his real name on the site for fear of reprisal from the army. He's made plenty of negative statements about the army (including specific commanding officers) and the government, but his greatest worry was someone would discover he has Attention Deficient Disorder and this would have been used against him during his career as a soldier. While experience has shown the best way to hide something you don't want anyone to see is to put it on this website, the risk is always there.

Plus, he thought C was really cool.

Now that the army is but a dark, twisted memory that can only harm him by forcing him to wake up in the middle of the night covered in sweat, I began to see no purpose in hiding his name. Using his nick... consonant, I suppose, made writing about our experiences together somewhat awkward. Plus, we'll be featuring more of his work that he has posted under his real name from other sources he has whored his writing out to, so keeping his work archived here correctly attributed to him only makes sense

This also means I have more clean up to do on the site as I transition the change in his name. Oh well.

Speaking of his trick turning, here’s a short piece he offers us about the controversy surrounding a proposed Muslim community center planned to be built near Ground Zero.

Despite the fact I have enough backed articles to fill an encyclopedia volume, I offer up a single article written in response to a comic book I recently ready, a book drawn in "manga-style."

Even in the light of tales of con horror, Selmek revealing his true identity, and the fact we actually updated, these signs are not completely indicative of the End of Times. A more accurate sign of the apocalypse is when Bug gets updated, and so the end is nigh. I haven't touched the strip for about two years, since (don’t let the artwork fool you) it's time consuming to work on. In the time it takes me to do one strip, I can write one or two pages of an article with about twenty times the jokes (if you can call them that). Honestly, I thought I was done with Bug.

I don't want anyone to take the latest update on the strip as a Bug revival, but the little crudely-drawn dog still has some legs and will make an appearance from time to time, especially since we're introducing a new story arc. I have to warn everyone that this one is pretty offensive if you’re culturally sensitive. It's not just a bash at Koreans out of the blue, but a story inspired by Selmek's time stationed in Korea several years back and the culture shock he never quite got over. So if you're offended and want to burn us down, please keep in mind Selmek wrote the entire story arc and it's all his fault...

I will endeavor to bring you more Pocky Box in a span that is better measured in weeks, no months.

February 3, 2010: One of the nice things about running a site no one reads is you can disappear for five months and no one is the wiser.