Today was a pretty cool day. My college hosts this pretty big animation conference that had all sorts of people, and since I'm a student, I was able to get in for FREE! The joy I felt during registration; knowing that the greedy selfish volunteer won't be getting a single cent from my ass LMAO I could tell they were silently seething.

I talked to a guy that did some concept art for Epic Mickey 2, one of the greatest games ever made. I really wanted to talk to him more but I quickly ran out of questions, and after asking him about his current work (he uh was kinda in between jobs at the moment) I kinda ruined the vibe. So I just bought a cool frieza sticker and left. Didn't tip. I probably should've tipped.

Sat through a really assuring conference talk, too. The head of a pretty major animation studio was talking about how to pitch ideas to studios. It was INCREDIBLY valuable, but the thing that made me really happy was what he said about the most important part of a pitch (or at least what he focused on the most). The "Why me?". Why should YOU tell this particular story? He basically said that what he loved the most about stories was hearing other people's perspectives and experiences. And how creatives should take advantage of their perspectives to tell interesting stories. Like, the Wire, one of the best TV shows ever made according to people who jelq it to their own letterboxd reviews, was written by a journalist who worked with the Baltimore PD for 20 years. He was able to inject so much life and relatability into the show because he was very familiar with the subject matter. And thaaaaat's basically what I said in my REALLY GOOD VIDEO, so yeah crazy ego boost. It's not so much that art should be a 1 to 1 recreation of lived through experiences, but rather draw from the reality of those experiences to create something new yet relatable. I think I'm going to make a sequel to that video because there is SO much more I have to say about this topic but that's for another day.

It was real awkward, though. I was going here SOLO. Yeah it was nice seeing all the artists booths and listening to the speakers and I had a really good time. But part of me was yearning for a COMPANION like MAN. The desire to geek out about all these pieces of media I adored with someone, ANYONE, was overwhelming. I did strike up some conversations with people I knew from the animation club, but that was kinda moot.

A lil gem of wisdom for y'all because I'm wise beyond my years and you should listen to me; it's really important to just talk to people, not expecting to form some lifelong best friendship with them. So that’s what I tried to do here. Said hi to some people, engaged in some conversations, nothing too crazy or desperate. I figured by just making myself known to people helps a bunch. Because who knows, maybe one day someone will actually come up to me saying "Yo you're the guy from [blank] right! How it going!!!" yeah yeah pipe dream.

Anywho, what was really refreshing was what happened outside the conference, when I was getting lunch. There's this dude that's in my programming class. A classic Joe Football (he doesn't play football tho). It feels that at any moment while talking to him, he's just gonna catch a rogue football, flash an all-american smile, summon a tsunami of vaginal fluids from all the women in the area, then go back to talking to ya like nothing happened because he's just a nice guy. Ima be real, I was kinda seething at him for a bit because I did that thing where you walk past a guy and you don't know whether or not to say hi to 'em so you try to kinda avoid them but you can't so you end up saying hi and then you can tell they weren't really expecting that and yada yada yada overthinking.

BUT he saw me and actually greeted me!! So I instantly capitalized on the opportunity and asked if he was tryna sit with me. W play man W play. He accepts, we sit down, and we have some basic small talk and all that. Then I start injecting some of the Shrubstur™ charm by telling him some stupid stories and making dumb jokes and GUESS WHAT, he actually MATCHES MY VIBE. It instantly became so much easier to talk and I was actually enjoying myself. Then politics came up and I got real anxious because this stuff can make or break an interaction. Like, I'm not trying to be one of those "ahh politics are so stupid why can't we all just get along" nah nah EVERYTHING IS POLITICS and you SHOULD CARE ABOUT POLITICS. But not the red vs blue freaking sports team type politics where you're either 100% left or right with no nuance and you need to care about every single issue and if anyone disagrees then they're horrible. I'll talk about this in a thoughts logs later. yeah unfortunately this site was bound to get somewhat political but trust I have the cool enlightened centrist positions. Not the lame fence sitting "both sides suck lol HAHAHAHAH I'm too afraid to have an opinion" eh you'll see what I mean.

That's besides the point. Let's just say that we AGREED 100% and it was SO NICE AND SO AMAZING AND EVERYTHING WAS RIGHT IN THE UNIVERSE. It shouldn't be political/conspiracy to say that algorithms literally run the world, America is a corporation run by profit, and people need to start looking up rather then left and right but whatever.

I can’t overstate how pleasant this was man. I'm making a video all about my failed socialization attempts, so we about to go mainstream up in here. But I was (and honestly still kinda am) in such a foul mood before all this. y'know constantly being reminded about my lack of friends and inability to connect with people kinda dampens your mood. But dude it's been such a long while since I had a genuine good time with someone who wasn't from high school that it's kinda insane. This man wasn't some weird alternative art person who was just like me fr. He was just a normal guy, maybe a little bit of a "popular kid" if this were still high school, but really a normal dude. And we were able to get along because at the end of the day, we're both just people.



The whole shindig really hammered in the fact that friends are more than just people who like what you like. That's a big part of it of course but having someone willing to LISTEN and TALK is way more important to me now. Makes it all the more aggravating when I see people who overemphasize how "weird" they are and how "they're not like everyone else" (I see that look watch yourself buddy). Like I don't know shawty, you ever think that you should try to give people the same open-mindedness that you want from them? And maybe wait a tiny bit to actually learn about someone before you categorize them in the "stupid normie npc" box? Sure, 8 times out of 10 it's probably not gonna work out, but that's usually because someone isn't reciprocating. But when they do man it is the best feeling ever. God I still hate alternative people I'm still fighting the good fight don't worry soldier.

I'm glad to have some actual good happen to me on this site. Yeah the bad stuff is really funny but good stuff is nice too. Tho before writing this I was listening to "I Really Want To Stay At Your House" and was straight disassociating. Bro where's my Lucy??? Where's my found family lovable ragtag group of misfits??? I think I've been bitten by the lovebug because I've been in a real "hopeless romantic" arc lately… definitely anomalous behavior.