COMIC-CON 2010!

Me and Brian at COMIC-CON!

NERDS, GEEKS, INDUSTRY PEOPLE, BOOTH BABES, PHOTOGRAPHERS, BLOGGERS, STARS SUCH AS ROBERT DOWNEY JR, SAM JACKSON, NATALIE PORTMAN, ETC. ETC. and AVENGERS ASSSSSSSEEEEEEEEEMMMMMMBBBBBBLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE.

WOW! Not sure where to start, got inside the expo hall at roughly 10:30am and insanity ensued.

I started on the far right of the hall (facing from the entrances) where the numbers were in the 100's. The expo hall starts from 0 and goes to around the 5000's...

I got tons of free Merch, some highlights would be:
Starer Deck and a thumb drive from Magic the Gathering Booth
A sweet looking T-shirt from the Zombie Defense Network Booth ( you had to sign into Gowalla to get the shirt)
A bunch of comics from the DC Booth
A sweet T-shirt from the Vindictus booth (actually landed 2 of them due to the fact I was trying to get tickets to win a spirit hood) Vindictus Spirit Hood... *sigh*

I went to the Namco booth and got a comic for a game coming out, called Enslaved, got Dragon Ball Z trading cards, a T-shirt (Xl way too big anyone want it??!?!) and I got a super, special, select ticket which I was able to return at a later time and exchange that ticket for a sweeeeeeeeet pacman lanyard, I'll post pic later of it.
At the DC Universe booth I had to play the game and I got a DC Universe lanyard too, not bad.
From a random grab bag when I was waiting to play Vindictus I got a pillow case that said, something to lines of , don't worry we'll actually sleep with you... hahaha

Bought items:
I bought the tron lightcycle, $5 figure that is probably the coolest thing you could buy for $5.
I bought the Tokidoki shirt that has all the Marvel characters on them, for $30, most expensive thing I bought at Comic-Con.

Lastly... I bought a Darth Vader backpack for $20. Such a sweet buy, can't go wrong with it. I took it to Disneyland last night and no joke got 13 compliments, so awesome.


Went to the Avengers cartoon panel and it wasn't that bad, I wish they would have made Iron Man a little more douchey like he is supposed to be but it's a cartoon and for kids. The whole reason I stayed in the panel is because of the Adult Swim panel that happened right afterwards. Remember sacrifice your time and go to a less crowded panel before the panel you want to go to because they do not clear out the halls after panels. I then left the Adult Swim panel and got a bathroom pass to go to a Spirit Hood giveaway and then returned to the hall for Q&A session w/ the Aqua Teen Hunger Force guys, Tim and Eric and other Adult Swim guys. I asked Eric about upcoming Major Lazer music video and his response was, "it's gonna be wwwhhhhaaaaacccckkkkk brah" hahaha good times.

It was amazing and I will definitely going back next year!

A real, fully functioning R2 Droid!


TOKIDOKI!


One of the Mechs in Iron Man 2!


Mark I


Mark III




Best Costume/Look a like combo

I'M GOING TO COMIC CON!

So thanks to an old friend, the beautiful Shauna Ryanne, I will be at the SAN DEIGO COMIC-CON!

Because every blog needs some eye candy

Shauna's Facebook

Shauna's Twitter

Also if anyone is at Comic-Con look for Shauna she should be working through out the weekend. =)

Anyway, getting back on topic here; I will be getting to go to Comic-Con this year which is rather unexpected and last minute. Thankfully I have friends in San Diego, shout out to Brian and Aimee <3 that I can stay at since hotels have been booked well um... let's just say when tickets sold out about 8 months ago or so.

As most convention go-ers have 2-3 days ahead of me, I plan on storming this convention with little time I have.

I leave work today around 4pm, then I have to head home and pack it all up, dinner with some friends, then I'll enter San Diego tonight, and then it's go time. SDCC 2010.

With all the limited edition merchandise that will be in present and by present I mean limited amounts and highly fought for like Batman fighting Joker for sanctity of Gotham, I, Dustin Ma will be hunting these items: The tron lightcycle action figure priced at $5 will not be easily obtained but I am hoping for the best on this one. (not likely to get) Tokidoki marvel shirt, I love the mash ups Tokidoki has done in the past year and while the Tokidoki booth is not listed on the official Comic-Con website it is there... and so will be swarms of nerds, geeks, and the likes will be battling me for Tokidoki shirt supremacy. The Boom booth has toy story 3 custom sketches for characters for the Comic-Con event and as a huge Disney fan I'd love to get a hold of one. They also have Duck Tales and Darkwing Duck comics I'd really like to grab. Maybe i'll get to see the terror that flaps at the Comic-Con! Iron Man 2 cells I'd imagine will be a battle for, as well anything that deals with Tony Stark is typically bad ass and kicks a lot of ass. Hopefully I can land one of the cheap cells from the film. Star Wars Keepsake button from Hallmark would be an awesome souvenir for SDCC and I'll will use the force to obtain such an object. Maybe a Zenscope comic they are making special comics for San Diego, dealing with amazing hot comic girls on the cover in a football center hiking position and other poses/covers for comics showcasing some of San Diego's finest features, granted I am not a Chargers fan, yes I'd say the Chargers are one of SD's finest features.

Anyways ladies and gentleman...

S D C C 2 0 1 0

I'll keep you posted

Diplo's Newest Child - Favela On Blast

This blog post is an extremely fun one for me to write. As a huge Diplo fan and having been on the Major Lazer band wagon before there was a band wagon, anything Diplo touches I have a moderate interest to say the least. Last night at a Hollywood club called Cinespace their was a screening for Diplo's latest piece of work, a documentary called Favela on Blast. The screening was great, there was an AWESOME Q&A with Diplo afterwards, then an open bar for a half hour, all while Mad Decent & Dim Mak DJ's throwing it down til the early hours into the morning. Diplo even played a new track of his and an amazing dubstep ver. of Outkast- Bombs over Baghdad (not sure if it was a double drop or a remix or what but it was amazing). Time to take it to the Favelas.



Wesley Pentz aka Diplo, has become a common house hold name in the music industry. From co-producing M.I.A.'s grammy nominated Paper Planes to working with artists from all over the world such as dancehall powerhouse Vybz Kartel, to the Atlanta bad boy and King of Crunk Lil Jon, to the Netherlands trance sensation Tiësto, Diplo has managed to work with just about everyone. Roughly 6 years ago Diplo received a cassette filled with music that was fresh, original, yet extremely familiar. What he heard on this cassette was so enticing it lead Diplo on a journey to Brazil which ultimately lead to Favela on Blast.


While many hear the words, Favela on Blast, I'm sure they imagine getting a 25 kill streak in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and calling in a nuclear strike on the Favela map; however, Favela on Blast is a 80 minute adventure and exploration of a music scene that is unfamiliar to the world. The sound that brought the Philly native to the southern part of South America into the ghettos and slums of Rio De Janeiro is called Funk Carioca or Baile Funk. Funk as the natives call it, derived from Miami Bass; however, Baile funk is (in my opinion) far greater than that. With portugese MCs laying down vocals (some songs having the raunchiest lyrics I have ever heard, sorry Ninjasonik I thought you guys had that award) and samples, breaks, and drum sounds what may have originally derived from Miami bass has far surpassed that

A glimpse of the what the Favelas look like.

The tracks played in Favela on Blast are to say the least, insane. It's like what booty breaks was always meant to be; and while I may not be able to understand what the MCs are saying w/o the subtitles you don't need to know, the music moves you (it moved me so much I was almost daggering in Cinespace during the film).

Favela on Blast also explores some of the violent acts that take place in the Favelas. In particular the violence, disgust and hatred towards the Funk scene. Funk is seen as "ghetto music" and many Funk parties are often shut down. A close similarity to the early Los Angeles rave scene with raids and busts but instead of using batons and tear gas, authorities in the Favelas use guns and much stronger violence.

Favela On Blast is a must for any documentary fans or any fan of music. The Funk scene in the Favelas has more culture and substance than I'd argue any top 40 song being played in the US. The Funk music scene is not ran by record labels but the musicians themselves. They create the beats, they play the beats, they run the show. Favela on Blast has countless interviews and interactions with DJs and Mcs in the Funk scene. One segment even showed their own sound systems being built. These guys had their own F-1 sound system, no not the Function-1 sound system, I'm talking about a home made Favela-1 sound system.

Favela on Blast is a must see, and has the potential of becoming a new favorite and classic of mine. Anyways, I'm off to try and find some of this music, and something tells me that's going to be a lot easier said than done...



[from the left] My friend Brandon, Candace, DIPLO! and yours truly.

I haven't posted in forever and I'm taking my blog in a new direction

A once SEO blog used for getting clients (had to turn them down during the school year couldn't keep up with everything) I'm really gonna use this blog for everything now. I live a pretty exciting life, and highly opinionated, so I'll still use this for SEO tips/Social Media tips/etc. but I'm going to hit all across the board really.

Reviews on food places I eat, movies, cds, or music I hear in general, and all sorts of fun stuff.

My goal is a post every day or 2, we'll see if I'm successful on that. No guarantees, don't hold me to that.

Recently Wrote an Article on SEOmoz.org

Well not recently but within the past 2 weeks I did.

Here is the Link - Dustin Ma's Article on SEOmoz.org

The article is titled - Does Google Care about Legitimacy?

Go ahead and take a look and I'd love to hear thoughts about it!

I also wrote another article for the SEOmoz.org it's about Social Media Marketing ( their article theme of the month) it hasn't been published yet but I'll post up the link when it does.

Social networking profiles mixing business with pleasure

The biggest, latest, and greatest method of S.E.O. and S.E.R.M. is social networking. What seems like something new and freshest thing for about the past year or 2, is something some of us have been in on for quite some time. All of my social networking accounts are personal, including my Twitter. My Twitter account I made for 0 means of Search Engine Optimization... but if you Google my name Dustin Ma, I have the first 2 spots of Google because of my Twitter. I have 2150 updates and I created it January of this year. Every single social site I have currently are all personal.( that is about to change because I need to start networking for S.E.O. clients)

So currently I have all my profiles open and I have never once regulated anything on them, I had no reason too. What am I to do now, I created my Myspace back in my sophomore year of high school, I was 15 at the time. You want to talk about a Social Networking or Media expert who remembers or was even around when Tila Tequila (used to be Tila Nguyen) was just making her network and hadn't even broke records yet. Myspace used to run smooth, then they had a huge increase in users and you constantly displayed error messages. (Twitter in the next 6 months anyone?)

So now what do I do, do I change everything I have, do I put everything on private, or do I leave them on public? Most experts say make everything private and I completely understand why, what if a potential client sees it, what if a co-worker sees it, etc. But making everything private leaves room for suspicion. Why do they need it private, what is he hiding, this cover it all up mentality can backfire. The approach I am telling everyone is to make it public and moderate, moderate what you do and say. Almost every single social network site puts the creator in a position to delete comments, and edit everything on there. Imagine an employer goes to your Myspace, Facebook, etc. and they see some questionable material, whether it's you hitting the clubs Saturday night, or that little get together you had on thirsty Thursday. Most employers want to get a sense of honesty with their employees, at least they know who you are and what you do. Now imagine they go to your site and see a "You have to be this person's friend to view their profile" type message. Most people assume the worst and they think they are hiding something, then they use the company acct. to send you a friend add. Now instead of a client or employer just looking at your site, they want to be friends, so all those fun surveys you post and all those dumb quizzes you do, will be known. Sure you can ignore the add but then it really can hurt your potential new job.

My take from someone who has had profiles much longer than many others is keep it open, just moderate.

Duplicate Information/Articles with Google's new Algorithm

In years past most of the duplicate "information" on websites that hurt your S.E.O. mostly lied in the titles. Previous Google crawlers, bots, spiders whatever you want to call them, only really "had time" to check titles, that is why they developed the 301, 302, etc. re-directs and now the even more effective canonical tag. However, I recently experimented this and figured titles are not the only thing being crawled for duplicate information, but content as a whole.

It only makes sense that as time goes on, the crawlers for Google in 2000 would not nearly be as advanced as the ones we have in 2009. That simply content as a whole is being checked for spam not just titles or links, etc... For one of my clients I did an experiment on this, a blogspot blog and a wordpress blog. The blogspot I sent to multiple blog directories, and social bookmarking sites, and the wordpress I did that to many only 3 sites. I had made about 12-13 posts on the blogspot and I copied each and every post exactly the same including titles to the wordpress, which means they have similiar URL's.

One day I checked Google and the blogspot was on the front page with yelp.com then I checked later that day both yelp.com and the blogspot were pushed back to page 4. The wordpress was on page 2 or 3, it fluctuated and it was definitely above the blogspot. At that point I used,

http://www.webconfs.com/similar-page-checker.php

they were roughly 79% similiar. I went in and changed articles, keywords, tags, and titles, to a point of 19% similiarity.

Roughly a day or 2 later... blogspot was not just on page one but was in a decent spot on the front page. However the wordpress is seemingly non exsistent on Google searches. Now this is just one case and definitely something I am going to continue experimenting with, but becareful on article submissions and profile submissions. I am currently changing text for almost everything so nothing is really "identitcal" especially with Google's new algorithm original content is becoming more and more crutial.