After the month-end madness at work, I was more than grateful when my boss gave me an extra day off this weekend.

Unfortunately, I spent much of it nursing my back. As luck would have it, Thursday morning, as I'm setting down my pair of 15 lb. dumbbells, using my knees like I'm supposed to, I feel that ol' stabbing pain in my lower back.

Nothing new. I just soldier on through the day. Originally, a coworker had put in to take Friday off, but said coworker's plans changed at the last minute, and Friday was open for me to take my day off. Needless to say, I was more than happy to spend it resting and recuperating.

Saturday morning, I was still feeling sore, but well enough to venture out to Los Angeles for Pacific Media Expo - if only for a day. In the familiar halls of the Hilton LAX, I met up with my pal Bordin Marsinkul of and David K. Wong, both of whom were at Anime Expo's Artist Alley this past summer. I got commissions from each of them of my Dance of Fire heroine Amira...

By David Wong:


By Bordin Marsinkul:




I spent a few hours watching the Filipino Martial Arts World Eskrima Kali Arnis Federation Western Regional Tournament. Aside from the Dealer's Room, most of my time was spent in the console gaming room, where I finally got to sit down and enjoy Street Fighter IV (love Rose's alternate costume), The King of Fighters XII (love Leona's new outfit), and an oldie-but-goodie Elemental Gearbolt.

Later that evening, I joined my parents and sister, along with her boyfriend, for dinner at Red Robin.

Today, Sunday, I'd considered going out to the Aquarium of the Pacific for its Autumn Festival event, but by mid-morning, I'd succumbed to listlessness and just spent much of the day resting and recuperating some more - the better to be in optimal shape to face another manic Monday. And save my pennies.

I did venture out this evening to watch the movie Surrogates, which I definitely recommend to any cyberpunk fan.

Well, Morpheus beckons.

More as the Wheel turns.

~Edgard

EDIT: Don't mind the hyperlinked text in the latter half of this entry - for some reason the image code from photobucket is linking it to the second commission image. No clue why.

EDIT: Many thanks to for telling me how to get rid of the underlining.