OK, so as promised the rants and raves about Otakon weekend.

First off, overall I had fun! I got to cosplay as my fave character (Rodo Camelot) and I think I did rather well as I got some nice feedback ^_^. I got my sister to go with me and that by itself is a big accomplishment because she is not an anime/manga fan like the rest of us, though she likes Cowboy Bebop (it's all about Ein and Spike for her) and Initial D (cause she is into cars). She survived the weekend and was not put off or scarred for life by the fans..well you and I know the levels of fans there can be ^^;; hell sometimes they scare me. I also loved how I got to make new friends since for the first time I went in a group (can't really call last year a group). I got to meet my online buddy Dalla and she was a blast..we really have a ton in common, in fact we both picked the same Chrono Crusade badge XD..freaky eh? I was even more extatic that not only did I get to buy all 5 volumes of D.Gray-man (mission accomplished!) but I also saw some fellow cosplayers! I'll post pics below. I finally got my hands on the L'arc-en-ciel USA concert DVD. I had been meaning to get it for some time but it wasn't untill I saw it in the dealers room that I jumped at the chance..needless to say when I got home it was the first thing I popped into the PS2 and it brought back great memories. The behind the scenes stuff was great..I can't believe Laruku walked around Baltimore and they were not seen. It makes me wonder what would have happened if I had happened to walk right by them *faints* Also the close ups of Hyde singing..mmmmm...he is a beautiful man.

Now for the not so good parts about the con. Parking was a bitch! Omg, most lots were full, but we got lucky at one point and found a reliable one that was slightly hidden in an alley but not too far from the con, 12$ for the day so it was not bad at all. Some aspects of my cosplay I was dissapointed at, for example the shoes I wore were comfortable at first but after hours of walking/running I got huge blisters! The weather was terrible too..the humidity made it so you did not want to go outside even though we had to walk back and forth to the parking lot and it was a few blocks away..talk about sweat drenched and frizzy hair. But most of all I was so mad at myself for forgetting my hair-dryer! It was the key item for getting my hair right..as a result my hair did not stand up like it should have..instead I tried my best with the hairspray and gel I had..but with wet after-shower hair it ended up slightly curly anyway *sigh*..I was so pissed, needless to say I will never forget it again ^^;;. An average of 22,000 people attended so while it made things interesting with a variety of cosplay and personalities..it made most things a real pain..getting food was a chore as most of the places had wait times, though I did get a pleasant fill of sushi so I can't complain too much, plus for some reason when I go to cons my body tends to shut down and does not require too much sleep or food..it's convenient. I loved the group I went with but you know how the saying goes..misery loves company and sadly one of friends did not enjoy herself at all. Some cruddy shit went down for her all in the span of 3 days, and while it broke the rest of the groups heart, it was also a bit of a drag. We all wanted so much for her to cheer up and try to enjoy her time, but understandably, losing your best friend and the one you love at the same time is not easy to deal with. It was just a tough situation for all of us, we were ripped between being there for her and trying to enjoy the con ourselves :(.. We tried our best to comfort her but none of us were really good at it..in the end I hope she realizes that the way she feels wont last forever and that sometimes the best medecine is to try your best to put the situation in the back of your mind as hard as that is, cause it's not fair to let someone else ruin an experience for you..especially an expensive experience that only comes once a year @_@. So yeah, getting to know someone who is grieving is not the best way to go about it..but she's a sweet person so I am sure under different circumstances things would have been more of a blast with her ^^ besides if not for her interest in gothic-lolita I don't think I'd appreciate the genre as much as I do now..her outfits were very cute! As for the con itself..they didn't have much to offer and it gets worse and worse each year to tell you the truth. Most of the anime shown (if not all) was liscensed stuff..it can't be avoided since the con can get in trouble for showing fansubbbed things..it just really sucks cause I know a long time ago at past otakons they would introduce me to exciting new series through fansubs..you know, all the latest things going on in Japan, like I owe them the Kare-kano series, Escaflowne movie, CCS movie off the top of my head. This year I had either already seen most of the stuff or was plain not interested in their selection. The biggest proof that Otakon sold out to the liscensing companies was in the dealer's room. The first thing you saw when you walked in were the official booths like Tokyopop, Geneon etc. In the back is where all the other stores were and even then, most of them were selling liscensed english-language material..if not for Sasuga Books being faithful as usual I would not have found my D.Gray-man manga and even that was hard cause I had to search for them heavily (I think I got the last copies of them!). Other booths with import stuff still brought things to cater to american taste..kind of like all the FMA and Naruto merchandise, it made me dizzy *sigh*. I bought some violet contacts for $35 that did not show up at all..I had been so excited too but I guess you get what you pay for hehe. Still it was good practice putting them in since I had never done that before..it was much easier than I thought it would be. Ah well, I am sure if I had been more into the *mainstream* fandom going on right now I would have been much more pleased with the selection at the dealer's room. Oh well.

Still Otakon was ok! I was happy people recognized my cosplay and I even got glomped for the first time! *it was by Hakkai no less!* People were friendly so that was a plus ^^. Will I go next year? It all depends on where I am at by then. Dalla wants to go to Neko-con in november..but this time as a guest relations staffer..I've never done that before so the thought is kinda neat! Still as the lazy bum I am, I am a bit put off by the idea of working at a con hehe..but who knows maybe it will be fun..besides I've never been down there before. I'll definitely consider it though, it's a tough decision with the expenses and all. We'll see.

And now for the point of this entire entry..the con pics! I didn't take many..my memory card did not allow it..but what could I do? There were so many people cosplaying that I really had to pick and choose. My main priority was to find and take pics of anyone in D.Gray-man gear, so the majority were those, but really it was Full Metal Alchemist, Naruto and Inuyasha that invaded the con, with Final Fantasy on the vidgame side of things. I am sure tons of other con-going blogs have those pics so I didn't take any..sorry ^^;; Well..here goes! *These images are rather large*

D.Gray-man Cosplay

- This was the first allen I saw, isn't she cute!? I love the coat and she was the only one to wear the hood in a pic! Imagine my joy to see the first D.G. Cosplay!

- Holy shit..the accuracy of this Allen was astounding! Complete with red hand, and different colored contacts!! Later on I found her again and this time I was in costume..unfortunately I didn't have my cam..but we took some nice pics. I hope I find them on the net, if I do I will post. Aw, she was great and very open minded about actually posing scenes from the manga. She says she'll go to Neko-con so I hope we meet again for round two!

- Allen and Rabi! Not only are they my fave pairing, but this Allen came complete with Timcampi and Rabi had his mallet with him! Their dedication did them both justice.

- omg isn't this Linali just adorable?! I like how she gave her some color with the blue hair. She was originally at the con with the first Allen I took a pic of but I caught her buying food hehe.

- Woot! A D.Gray-man group! That Rabi's smile was just so canon! And she was perfectly tall, I was impressed! Linali was really cute, she was perfect! Komui came complete with the mug. All their costumes were so well made I was glad they found me, That's right they were right behind me shouting "Rhode!" LOL..imagine my surprise!

- Pic of the same group; only this time Rero and I jumped in *cough*

- OMG Tiki and the Earl! have you no idea how rare it was to find them? And they were great! Complete with playing cards and tease!! OMG I was so upset that I found them on friday only..I was only in costume Saturday and Sunday..I wanted so bad to take a pic with them! A pic of the Noah Family would have made my day! ;_; Alas..

The following are the pics of my cosplay, I'm not photogenic so I only picked out the very few I liked:

The Finger- This is a rather dark close up of me giving the cam the finger in semi profile..I thought it was rather canon for Rodo to do XD
Crosses- This was me showing off the crosses on my forehead. I set the cam to "sunny" so it's rather yellow looking >_<
Drunk?- *sigh* I look kinda drunk in this piccy..my eyes were half blinking when I took it (kinda creepy looking) but I loved how some of the purple in my contacts actually showed!! So this one is completely unmodified in it's color scheme as proof that the purple was not manipulated into the pic..yay!
Huzzah!- I think I turned out best in this pic..I liked it so much I played around with the colors and gave it a light, purple-ish look..you can really tell I am wearing contacts in it..but I like that effect kinda ^^;;
Eye- Last pic..just for good measure a close up of my eye cause luckily some of the purple came through cause of the light source. I like it enough to post ^^ even if it's only a partial pic.

Last Exile Cosplay

- The very first Last Exile cosplay pic and not only is it Alex and Sophia but it's magnificent! Just look at the detail in the costumes!

- Aww man such a great pair! Dio and Lucciola..the costumes were great and Dio's pose was so like him ^^ very cute! I love that version of Dio's costume too.

- A lone Lucciola..very cute pic and a wonderful costume, yet somehow without Dio around it just looks imcomplete to me ^^;;

Card Captor Sakura Cosplay

- While there were a couple of Syaorans and Sakura's, Eriol and Ruby Moon where very rare so when I found a pair of them, I just couldn't resist!

And there you have it! My Otakon weekend. Feel free to drop e-mail me or drop a note if you went to Otakon and Cosplayed D.Gray-man I would love to see your pics ^_~

Monday, August 22, 2005
10:17 p.m.

Holy crap I can't believe I haven't entered anything for the month of August! It went by too quick @_@

Anyway first off the link up there is for the cutest web comic I have seen in a while! It's like Star Wars chibi play and as cute as it is funny.apparently it's been running for quite a while and nobody told me!? (glares at random people) Anyway if you have yet to discover it..go now!

Other than that nothing exciting has happened in August except for Otakon, but I will come back and write a whole separate entry complete with Con pics! *is waiting for cam battery to charge so she can upload pics* to make it short it was fun..but of course I have a lot of ranting to do too.

Oh remember how I have been having tablet probs? Well It's still not fixed lol..but about two weeks ago I gave up and conceeded to buying a new Alienware comp. It should be here sometime in september and it's a fucking powerhouse so it should last me for a long long time (it was bloody expensive!) and should meet my graphics expectations cause I want to be able to open more than one freakin art program at a time and be able to have more than 4 layers without having the darn thing freeze. I am grateful to my old CompUSA comp..I have had it for years and it has been faithfully chugging along but it is time for something more caught up with todays technology (integrated DVD-rom in the comp is foreign to me..that's how old this comp is). Anyhow along with this comp i will have to shop for a new tablet..the $100+ prices on them are making me insides hurt though. Anhow when all this new stuff comes in..expect better quality pics.

Other than that the most hectic week I have had this month was last week before con-weekend. I decided to do some work for this guy I used to work for a loooong time ago, as a temp secretary while one of them went on vacay. I thought it would be a good opportunity to make some extra spending cash for the con..but holy shit was it the most stressful week of the year! It beats christmas time hands down -_-. The guy runs 3 businesses (reselling, lawn service, moving/storage) from one office and has only two people working for him. Up untill last week I had only been trained to do research/quote requests for the reselling business. But last week? I had to play personal assistant..and for someone really bad at remembering names/numbers and slow on the multi-tasking it was all incredibly hard. I learned a lot thank god..but I also think I have an ulcer going somewhere. Luckily Tim is a nice guy and understanding though he tends to get stressed when info is not readily available as quickly as he needs it to be. Ah well..I survived and nothing was damaged so..I guess it went ok. Needless to say I will never substitute again though @_@ at least for all 3 businesses.

Oh I dunno if I announced this already or not, but my new fanlisting to the Noah Family opened earlier this month. If you like them as much as I adore tham..come join here -->

http://www.blue-cicada.net/noah/index.html

It's finally been listed at AFD..I'm so happy it got approved!

Well that's all for now let me get back to that cam so I can write about Otakon!

Monday, August 22, 2005
06:17 p.m.

Version
This Layout features the D.Grayman crew!

Misc. Stuff
[+] Keeper of Haru's Cowbell
[+] Keeper of Akito's bloody feathers
[+] Keeper of Dilandau's rose
[+] Keeper of Heero's Self-Detonation button
[+] Keeper of Trowa's Mask
[+] Keeper of Trowa's Tears
[+] Keeper of Hisoka's curse

Current Fave Anime

Full Metal Alchemist
Last Exile
Sukisho

Current Fave Manga
D.Grayman!!!!
XXXHolic

Couple of the moment

Rodo x Allen!
Rabi x Allen!
Rodo x Linali
Kanda x Linali
Rodo x Tiki
Kanda x Allen

Video Games

Final Fantasy 7-10
Devil May Cry
Kingdom Hearts
Tomb Raider
Metal Gear Solid
Harry Potter
Silent Hill
.Hack
Halo
Sonic the Hedgehog (All)
Animal Crossing
Mario Bros.
Legend of Zelda (Ocarina)
GTA Vice City/San Andreas

Books

Harry Potter
Darren Shan
Lord of the Rings
Artemis Fowl

Cartoons

Invader Zim
South Park
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Futurama
Aqua Teen Hunger Force
Sea Lab 2021
Mission Hill
Venture Brothers
Drawn Together
Samurai Jack
Powerpuff Girls
Dexter's Laboratory
The Simpsons
Teen Titans
Courage the cowardly dog
Ed, Edd and Eddie
Jackie Chan Adventures
Sonic the Hedgehog
Teenage mutant ninja turtles
Thundercats

Icons

Hello Kitty
Choco Cat
Pucca & Garu
Happy Bunny

TV Shows

Things I Support

My Sites:

Trivial Habit
Suki to Itte
One Who Dreams Alone
The EX Files

Archives
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02Aug-31Aug
10Sep-24Sep
October
November
December
January
February
March
April
May
June
July

Places I Go
[+] PETA.org
[+] Ebaum's World
[+] deviantArt
[+] Y!Hosting
[+] Punks and Nerds
[+] HoroHoro.net
[+] Ochiba Oekaki
[+] Dezy's Oekaki
[+] Anipike
[+] Gaia Online
[+] FanFiction.Net
[+] AMV.org
[+] FanListings.org
[+] AnimeFanListings.org
[+] Quizilla
[+] Anime Lyrics
[+] Harry Potter.com

I Buy Stuff Here
[+] Amazon.Com
[+] EBay
[+] ShonenJump
[+] Newtype USA
[+] Viz Comics
[+] TokyoPop