Thursday, February 22, 2007

Super Villains
Heroes, one of my favorite TV shows, has a brilliant and powerful villain.

It's a good thing that villains, in the real world, are often as dumb as rocks. :-)

theOtaku.com's extensive coverage will force Aaron and Jeff to use fake names. Anyone who Googles them now sees pages and pages of stuff about the scam convention. This will make future scams much harder, since it adds a new layer of deception to whatever they do.

It was always our intention to resume news coverage by New York Comic Con (this weekend). Friday is a good day to restart. I didn't say anything beforehand because, with Aaron and Jeff checking the main page probably every 10 minutes, I wanted to make them sweat, thinking we'd dig on about them forever.

I've always loved strategy games. There has been so much strategy in every post and move I've made thus far. Some things might not have made sense to all of you, but I'm very happy with what we've achieved.

I sent a newsletter trying to get Art Of Otaku based donations. theOtaku will fill in what isn't given--we are honorable. I hope it's $1,000 or less though.
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Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Why do organizations move so slowly?

I'm dying to announce a few things.
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Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Good News!
The new Art Of Otaku is progressing well. This is going to be the most delayed project in our history, but it's going to be a marathon run anyway. It might take the new AOO 1-2 years to take off.

Artpreneurship, my business 101 book for artists (but strong enough for non-artists), has been submitted to Gail's hard-working and talented husband, John, who has kindly agreed to illustrate it. I can't wait to see what he comes up with.

More than anything else, I want Artpreneurship to become a force of good. Hopefully it will spread far and wide, inspiring people along the way.

In anticipation of NY Comic Con, I also ordered a set of business cards. I hope they come out well! I'll take a photo once they arrive.

We were VERY lucky today. The company that houses our servers was about to unplug everything because there was a billing mix-up. That would have been a disaster :-).
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Monday, February 19, 2007

I've stumbled upon big news related to the AnimeFF debacle. Bigger than when we found out that Jeff was a former WoW currency thief. I'm nervous to post it, however, without confirmation. Hint: It involves the FBI.

Someone also found a picture of our friend Jeff. If you were curious about what he looks like, click here.
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Sunday, February 18, 2007

SomeGuy's Right!
...This is the year of the pig, my year :-). AnimeFF doesn't stand a chance.

From Wikipedia:

According to customary superstition, the Pig type is usually an honest, straightforward and patient person. They are a modest, shy character who prefers to work quietly behind the scenes. When others despair, they are often there to offer support. This type of person is reserved with those they do not know too well, but as time passes and they gain confidence, those around them may discover a lively and warm-hearted person behind that mask of aloofness. Despite those born in the year of pig having a wide circle of friends and acquaintances, they have few close friends who understand them and share their inner thoughts and feelings. It is easy to put trust in pig type; they won't let you down and will never even attempt to do so. Such people simply want to do everything right according to social norms.

Also according to customary superstition, that these people are not vengeful creatures. If someone tries to take advantage of them, the pig type tend to withdraw to reflect on the problem and protect themselves. All they need in such situations is a little time to find a constructive way to respond. The people of the pig type are conservative creatures of habit. They dislike being made to travel too far from familiar surroundings, unless it is a trip to the countryside. They love nature and are never happier than when they are out somewhere, far from the city.

There is a tolerant and peaceful side to the character of Pig types. Such people are never afraid to allow others their freedom of expression; they do not want to cause arguments and if there is any way to avoid arguing, they will probably take this option. They are not weak, however, and if the situation forces them to fight these people will rise to the occasion, whether it is to defend themselves or those close to them. People of the Boar type are the most admired by others.
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Saturday, February 17, 2007

Best VDay Present EVER!
Gail sent me the best Valentine's Day gift ever today.

A bag of candy. (Awesome!)
A Japanese bowl. (Awesome!)
A Bleach keychain (Cool!)

And this is the best part...

A mini-voodoo doll kit!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hm...I wonder who I could use it on (evil grin).
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Friday, February 16, 2007

Otaku Valentines
Thanks to all who sent me a Valentine's greeting (excluding Aaron Ecker, of course).

The lovely Lindsey (ElvesAteMyRamen) sent me one too. We might meet up at NY Comic Con next week. She's one of our new Art Of Otaku artists, so how could I say no?

Also, on Wednesday (V-Day) we received a HUGE surge of traffic. I was so confused why, then I realized: Valentine's Day = eCards. We received 10,000 more visitors Wednesday than our typical day, almost all to the eCards site. So we spread a lot of love that day :).
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Wednesday, February 14, 2007

PR lesson #1,502.

If you were deeply involved in AnimeFF and theOtaku hasn't even started writing anything about the dozens of blatant lies you've told, this is not the type of voice mail you should leave on a personal cell phone:

"Adam you are so f****ing sued...you don't know how f***ing sued you are."

This is from Aaron Ecker, Jeff's partner at AnimeFF. Aaron was not at the convention, but I talked to him at great length beforehand on the phone.

Rich mentions him in his expose.
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Tuesday, February 13, 2007

Notes...
> One of our avid visitors has been invaluable in uncovering information related to AnimeFF's parent company. I'm going to call her Agent 002. I am now 99% convinced that DMI a shell company. I just need that final 1% confirmation.

> If DMI is a shell company directly responsible for this scam, then all our coverage will have been worth it. The worst thing you can do is leave scammers alone, long enough for to come up with yet another plan.

> I'm going to post Rich's story very soon. Rich is the head of Anime Vegas, a pretty serious anime con (3000+ people) and he was hit just as hard as we were from this mess.

> There's two more people I haven't posted about related to AnimeFF/DMI. Soon.
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Monday, February 12, 2007

This made me smile...
Thanks, Chelsea.



The truth is less glamorous, however. The #1 lesson I've learned from this is that seeking justice is just as all-consuming as seeking revenge.

I want to put this incident behind us quickly. Every moment we spend trying to expose AnimeFF/Duplicate Mass Industries/Jeff, is a moment we could have spent creating something great.
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