One of my Muay Thai teammates told me that he appreciates my outlandish geeky personality and the fact that I don’t hide my trash fandoms.

There’s a reason why I am the way I am now, and Comic Con is the main reason for it.

It was a little over 8 years ago, when I was in a long-term relationship with a girl I knew since we were little.  Slowly, as time went on, she took more and more measures to keep me away from my family and friends, and she tried to keep me away from anime and manga.  She wanted me to become the ideal boyfriend for her that was into One Tree Hill, hip hop anonymous dancing, and eventually, her flesh vibrator for her own personal use.

Still, it takes two to tango.  I can’t blame her for everything that happened.  It was my fault for letting things get that far.

Things came to a head in July of 2008, when she wanted me to forgo Comic Con for that year to go to her cousin’s 21st birthday in Vegas.  I’m sorry, but if you’re a San Diegan and you schedule anything during Comic Con weekend then you seriously need your head checked.  I held out, naturally.  By this point, I had had enough of turning myself into someone that I wasn’t.

I eventually got dumped, and I went through a really sad time.

It wasn’t long after that that my homegirl Jenny told me to pick myself up and turn this into a positive, and here we are.  I started a manga that was basically a self-insert fanfiction that was part Gurren Lagann, part Metal Gear Solid, and all types of ill shit.  (Too bad that manga’s script was on my old laptop, that no longer turns on).  I put that on a website, and became comic-con professionally approved, as my comic was published!

I’ve really gotta find that manga, somehow.  Maybe get it redrawn.

Within those 8 years, I made some new friends, discovered Muay Thai, joined an anime convention, ran a half-marathon, and discovered the fact that nothing comes with holding yourself back.  For better or worse.  So yeah, that’s why when I’m not training my butt off at the gym, I’ll be out there catchin’ them Pokémon.

Strawberry Scented Burnout grew as well.  Not just a manga (though we need to get back on that, seriously) anymore, today our website comprises of my little brother Ferris, homeboy Justin, my little sister Ericka as our webmaster, Brian our videographer, Jairus on games, Joshua as our aidoru hell gatekeeper, Mario as our graphic designer, and you readers, reading this crazy website.

Comic Con weekend always gets me nostalgic from where we began, and I can’t help but wonder what lies in store for us next.  I should really look at the panel schedule and see what’s good.  That being said, if you run into me, I won’t ignore you or anything!  Say hi!