Anime Evolution 2009

Last week, I went to AE.

This was the first time I went to any anime related conventions.
I remember seeing photos that AE used to happen outdoors.
Thankfully, this year, it is indoors. I would melt standing outside.
But I wish it would be held at SFU, because I live near there.
I saw a lot of really good costumes.
I also saw some really good performances.
Unfortunately, the two panels I went to both had technical difficulties.

This was also the first time I dressed up as anything.


Unfortunately, there was no park bench nearby.

I went to pick up my pass on Thursday evening.
For some reason, I never received the e-mail that has my pass number.
I had to line up on another line to find out my number before lining up again for my pass.
I was told that last year some people had to line up for many hours just to pick up the pass.
I only had to line up for a total of 20 minutes for my pass. Of the 20 minutes, 19 minutes were to find out my number.

On Friday, I arrived at around 8 or 9 am.
There isn't much to do until 11am when the Dealer and exhibitor's room open.
Once inside, I looked around the vendor area, and found a Yoko nendoroid.
In the end, I bought a Shana nendoroid.

The rest of the day, I didn't do much.
Followed Clear Tranquil to the Vocaloid photo shoot, followed my friends from school around, took a few photos of them
walked around the Artist's alley some more, saw a piece of art I like but did not buy, dinner at Gyoza King, discounted expired snacks and drink at Konbiniya.

On Saturday, I carpooled with Clear Tranquil to the convention center.
Once I arrived, I heard someone singing Mizuki Nana's Shin-ai.
My thoughts on the singing: She started off really well. Performance went down slightly near the end of the song. Overall, she did quite good. Good enough that I would put a copy of it in my I-pod.
Since we arrived late, the Dealer and exhibitor's room was already open.
I walked around some more.
I saw a wall scroll that I liked, but didn't buy at the time.
Then I ate a hotdog.

Then for the whole afternoon, I just walked around.
I saw that piece of art that I liked again.
For whatever reason, I missed the SMB photoshoot...
I went back hoping to buy that wall scroll I saw earlier, but then someone bought it!
I bought a different one instead...

I later found out the one I wanted to buy, a friend of mine bought it for another friend of mine...
And then later, I followed a few friends from school into the Honeydew Syndrome Q&A.
I did not know what it was about. And they ran into technical difficulty.
Then I went to the cosplay contest to film a certain performance.
I didn't upload my video to youtube, but here is one of the many that appeared there.
After that, we went home.
On the way back, we passed by a Burger King for dinner.
It was the worse BK I have ever went to.

On Sunday, as requested from a few friends, I made one small modification to my "costume".
I won't say what it is.
People who saw me will know what I changed.
Not much happened for most of the day.
Walked around with the friends from school, took a few photos, etc.
In the end, I finally bought the piece of art that I liked.
After that, it was finally time for the Nico Nico Douga Panel.
They did a live broadcast of the panel on Nico.
I have an impression that the panel kind of lacks planning.
And there were technical difficulties again...
Highlight of the panel for me was the dance.
I didn't dance, but I was amazed that they know so many of them.
After that, the whole group of friends from school (minus a few, plus some others) went to Red Robins for dinner.
The topics that came up where really colourful.


Of the 3 things I bought in AE, I liked this one the most.



Some of my other photos here.


________________
Update: Read Clear Tranquil's blog to see the small modification I made.


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VCMC Track Day

Today I went to my first track day for 2009.

Other than having more camber at the front, less camber at the back, and new front tires, there are no changes done to the car since last year.

The track day was ran in groups.
Participants are separated into 4 groups based on driver experience and car performance.
Each group will run on the track for 15 minutes.
As the last car from the previous group comes in, the first car from the next group goes on the track. There is no time wasted between run groups.
Each group has 4 sessions.

I was really happy with how the car handles in the turns.
It had a little over steer when the tires were cold.
After the tires warmed up, the car manages to go exactly where I want it to go.
In the last session, where I ran the bonus session back to back with my normal session, the tires finally overheat, which resulted in a little under steer.

And then there are a few places I feel is lacking.
It was really hard coming out of a turn because the inside front tire doesn't grip.

Even worse is brake fade.
Brand new bottle of brake fluid, flushed into the car less than a week ago.
The brake pedal got soft on my second lap in the morning, and it got worse as I go faster thru out the day.
Then on one of the later laps during the bonus session, I lost the brakes after the long front straight.

Experenced HPDE-ers on ClubRSX suggested it could be the problem with the old rubber brake lines. Brake ducts may also help.

During my faster laps, the oil temperature went up to 125C (about 257F).


This is a video during session 3.
It is not the fastest (session 4 is faster), but I think I had the least problem with brake fade in this session while driving somewhat the correct line.





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Working on the car

I will be going to my first track day for 2009.
Before I go, I want to do a little over-due maintenance.
Except things don't always go as planned.

First, I did a compression test.
The numbers were quite good.
All the cylinders reads 220psi.

After that, I did a valve adjustment.
Only 2 valves needs adjusting.

But then came the first problem.
One of the spark plug hole seal separated in half.


It was 5:30pm. All the local car parts store were already closed.
There was nothing I could have done, so I just try my best at making it seal.

After that, I bleeded the brakes.
The brake fluid in there were already one year old, so it will not work on the track.
Then I spilled a little brake fluid near the strut tower.
Also, air would keep coming out of the front right bleeder.
I have no idea what it was or where it came from.

Then finally, I also bleeded the clutch lines.
Nothing went wrong there.

After that, I took the car out for a test drive.
The brakes worked a lot better than before.
The clutch felt smoother.

As I drove down the block, One more thing went wrong.
The car suddenly made a really loud clunk noise.
The car drove fine and I didn't see anything in the rear view mirror, so I thought nothing of it.

Once I got to the main street, my friend commented on how my car sounds like it had an exhaust leak.
I thought it sounded weird, but couldn't tell what was wrong with it.

I drove to an empty industrial area to do a datalog.
The car got lean cut almost the instant I got on the gas.
Tried one more time, same thing.
At that point, I realize something was wrong.
I got my flash light, and checked out the engine bay.
Looking down the back of it, I noticed something at the bottom was missing.
Where was the exhaust hanger for the pipe?

Then I took a look from the bottom.

A hole!

That explained the exhaust leak sound!

The bigger problem was that the hole was before the primary O2 sensor.
Luckily, I already installed K-pro, and Hondata has a decent base map.
So I drove home in open loop...
Surprisingly, I got less knocks than driving around in closed loop...

Before going back home, I went back to the street where I heard the loud clunk.
I found the piece I was looking for.

The exhaust hanger that fell off.

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update:

The hole as seen from under the hoist.


Fixed.

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