Tuesday, September 11, 2007

   Okay, so about this beach cosplay . . .
Sunday afternoon I drove down to a beach in West Vancouver (actually one of the ones around UBC [and no, not Wreck Beach where the old hippies discourage clothes]). Met up with some people, scouted around the beaches for good-looking places to take pictures and that weren't too crowded . . .

. . . oh yeah, one of the girls was wearing a yukata. Because she felt all odd and alone, I quickly threw on my "fleece blanket" kimono so she'd feel better.

So yeah, so reiterate, this was gonna be a cosplay photoshoot.


At some point during the walk we also found a cell phone on the beach and picked it up. Eventually the guy called it from his wife's phone and we organised a way for him to pick it up. He was an out of town fellow from Edmonton just walking around the beaches; seemed like a nice guy and everything. He was also not too weirded out by the fact that we were wearing traditional Japanese clothing (or facsimiles of them, in my case). So yeah, that was a fun moment in the day . . .

Got back to the others and took pictures in a wooded area of UBC. Later on we headed back down to the beach, took some pictures on the rocks . . . by this point the sun was going down too, so we got some nice shots of us with sunset . . . it was pretty good. Never a dull moment when you're with a buttload of iaito practitioners in Shinsengumi cosplay (and with iaito, seeing as we're not at a con' with steel sword restrictions!).

Oh yeah, someone brought an extra iaito for me! So I got to play with that for the day which was fun (and everyone was really nice about helping me out with stuff like how to draw the sword, how to hang the sheath . . . stuff like that).

So here, have a picture of me in my "Faramir at Osgiliath" pose:

That was the idea behind it, anyway . . .

Here's a link to one of the other girls' cam-phone gallery:

http://s10.photobucket.com/albums/a136/maiea/shinsengumi090907/


After that we went to Memphis Blues for dinner. It's a Southern US style barbecue place. Very nice, lots of meat . . . everyone enjoyed it.


So that was Beach Cosplay.
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Monday, September 10, 2007

   Beach cosplay. . .
I'm too tired to post about this. Remind me to tell you about beach cosplay later.

Oh yeah, I uploaded a new cosplay album to theO. Looks similar to last year's, but better and with more blue and white haori.
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Saturday, September 8, 2007

   In other news . . . . .
Podcast host is being a dick and isn't letting me login; I think it's a problem on their end. This concerns me at the moment in any case.

I conquered all of Britannia with the Irish; it was amusing. I'm now currently working on dominating the Holy Land as the Byzantine Empire . . . just need to capture Baghdad and all is well . . .

Still haven't gone to talk with those Army Reserve guys just yet . . . need to get on top of that . . .

Started playing with the dumbells in my basement a bit more. Y'know, to build up for AE2008 . . .

It's also Mr. East's birthday. Go poke him - this might be the last chance you'll have for him to acknowledge stuff at the site for a little while. So yeah, go poke him now and punch him 21 times or something . . . doesn't have to be in the face if you don't wanna . . . . .
. . . that said, Happy Birthday, dude.


I think that's about it, then.
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Friday, September 7, 2007

   I'm so screwed . . .
I downloaded the "Densha Otoko" drama since stupid Ed/"Faramir" kept bugging me to watch it.

Why do I do these things?
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Wednesday, September 5, 2007

   My house is a funny place . . .
I'm gonna just blog randomly tonight. Not about conventions, not about finding work, and definitely not about Medieval 2: Total War: Kingdoms.

So ever since my mom remarried way back when . . . holy crap, that was about five years ago now (time flies . . .) . . . so since that happened, my mom's been going out on vacation a lot more than before. She and my stepdad have gone all over the place, and it's pretty cool and I'm very happy for her. So any time they're not home it's not completely weird for us.

Fast forward to this year. My cousin moved in with us so she could work in Vancouver; she works with a music label, and as such goes on business trips with her bands and such. As I have documented very well, I went to Europe for almost two months.

The point of this story: people are always coming and going in this house. A lot.


Alright, so last May my brother and I haul ass to Europe. A few weeks later, my brother comes home. A month or so later, I come home; however, by this point my cousin has left home. Eventually everyone comes home, though the brother leaves home now and then to go camping with friends and whatnot.

Come August, my cousin was off on another trip with her band. Then my stepdad flew out to England to see his father (who passed away a week or so later, but it was for the best). While he was gone, the con- . . . the thing happened that involved three guests sleeping in the basment during the weekend nights. Cousin came back. Stepdad came back. End of the month, brother and I drive out to Alberta for a week . . .

. . . on pretty much the same day we drive back home, the cousin flies out to see her parents for a bit (which is funny because we were just there) - this may or may not also include a band trip, I'm not sure . . . probably not, though.

A few days later, brother moves back out to campus for school.

Give another week or so, cousin comes back home and back to work.

End of September, parents go off on vacation for a while again.


Grand home we got here in Greater Vancouver, I tell ya . . . never a dull moment . . .
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Sunday, September 2, 2007

   Hoo boy . . . here we go again . . . . .
So while I was in Alberta I picked up season 1 of "Heroes" and season 2 of "Rome".

Yesterday I picked up the expansion pack for Medieval II: Total War which includes 4 new campaigns of either Britannia (England vs Ireland vs Scotland vs Wales vs Norway), America (New Spain vs Aztecs vs Mayans vs Apacheans), The Crusades (Jerusalem & Antioch vs Egypt and The Turks vs The Byzantines), and the Teutonic Campaign (Teutonic Knights vs Lithuania).


So yeah, don't expect to be seein' too much of me too often for the next little while . . . . . I'll be busy . . .


In other news, yesterday my brother the police officer commented that Defense Lawyers "are the biggest dirtbags ever". Seeing as Phoenix Wright is a Defence Attorney, I laughed . . . such is the difference between fictional lawyers who ALWAYS represent people who are ACTUALLY innocent and real ones . . .

. . . tomorrow I'm also very likely going to go have a talk with someone at the Royal Westminster Regiment's recruiting office . . . . . very likely . . .
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Friday, August 31, 2007

   Time Attack!
This should be fun . . . alright, so the brother and I are about to leave our aunt and uncle's place in Calgary, Alberta and are on our way home to Vancouver, BC.

The current time is about 8:40am Mountain time.

The direct distance between Calgary and Vancouver is 673km (418 miles); this of course does not take into account road curvature (or bloody mountain driving[!!!]).


Right now we're still loading all the stuff we've acquired over the week into the car (thankfully the ultra-heavy sewing machine and its motorised desk are already in there). Also seems like I'll be driving first leg again. Good times . . .

I'll update this when I get home. Let's find out how long it takes . . . I'm guessing somewhere around the 10-12 hour mark, but we shall see.


Be home soon, guys!


EDIT: TIME!!! 7:20pm, Pacific Time.

Crikes, that was almost 12 hours . . . gross. Not completely our fault, though, there were like, five or eight car crashes in Greater Vancouver today (retards . . .) who caused all sorts of slow-downs to get back into the city. Asses . . . my eyes are tired now.

Oh yeah, I got home and I had a package from The Netherlands waiting for me. I'm all excited. I'll post about it later, though; still, meantimes . . . thanks, beautiful!
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Thursday, August 30, 2007

   I'm gonn' have a lot of internet homework when I get home . . .
Still in Calgary at the moment, chillin' with cousins and whatnot, watching DVDs and stuff . . .

I ducked away from watching "Heroes" so I could do the caption battle. It's kinda interesting to do all this work away from home like this. Not THAT interesting, but interesting enough. I'm mostly just glad that I'll be back in town for the podcast. I don't think I'd wanna do that one someone else's computer . . . one too many programs to install on someone else's stuff, ya never wanna hafta do that . . . y'know.


Yeah, I'm mostly blogging for the hell of blogging. It's kinda lame, but while I'm online chatting with people in my aunt's kitchen I might as well do somethin' productive, nya?

Speaking of productivity, I'm bringing home a sewing machine or two from here. Grandma wants to give my mom one so she can play around with it. Heh . . . and then of course I showed her all my cosplay pics (being that she DID make my hakama and kimono and stuff) and now she's all stoked to see me start making clothes and stuff. Funny, huh? I certainly think so . . .


Hmm . . . I think the Heroes DVD just ended and people are likely asleep on the couch in front of it. I should be off now.

See you all soon in . . . a couple days? Aw man, I need to drive through mountains again really soon . . . that suuuuucks!!!
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Tuesday, August 28, 2007

   Hung out with Alexa, v1.4!
So there I was in Edmonton, Alberta a couple days back. I had woken up really early so I could drive to some park with my brother and watch his friend take part in a triathlon (and for the record, those things are nuts).

After that, went to West Edmonton Mall for lunch with said-brother, said-friend and said-friend's girlfriend. We bought clothes and stuff.

Then at 5:15pm . . . I got my thumb buffed by some dude at a cosmetics kiosk. Serious shine goin' on . . . well, a few minutes after that frightening ordeal, I found Alexa, alias "Color me Evil", alias "ochibi-chan" closing shop. Half an hour we were off with brother, friend and girlfriend getting Baskin Robbins and daring to tap the glass between us and the flamingos (totally my brother's fault . . .).

Seeing as the mall pretty much closed by 5pm (laaaame), we were trying to think of something to do. Eventually we decided to check out the movies . . . unfortunately, our particular mix of five people meant that it was impossible to get a consensus on a single movie to watch; either someone had already seen something, or refused to see something, or what have you. Sooooo ultimately the kiddo and I split off from the others and we went and watched "War" (which said-kiddo otherwise could not have gotten into to see by herself . . . bwahaha, young one . . .).


I'll review in short: violence was really good, story was pretty good considering it's a very straight-forward revenge movie, and it has Chinese guys throwing down with Japanese guys and y'all know I love that (pretty much any time you have a movie with English, both kinds of Chinese and Japanese and I'll be pretty excited). Ultimate execution of the story . . . not so hot; acting is action-movie standard, the black cop is so stereotypically black you wanna groan, Jet Li is getting old and it shows, and the yakuza boss' daughter is a total butterface. Good for fun, not completely irredeemable, but I'll refrain from using the word "awesome" here. It was a'ight, though. There were ninjas in it, after all . . .


So we got out, I called my brother, he found us, we headed to the car so we could get dinner. Annnnd . . . we went to Denny's! Ya know me loves the Denny's . . .

Brother had already eaten (it was about 9:30pm by this point) and was extremely tired, so he mostly kept to himself rest of the night while Alexa and I ate Denny's and talked about whatever stupid stuff we needed to talk about. It was serious good times.

Then we drove the kiddo home, a cat tried to commit suicide by running under the car while it was parked, kiddo and I said good night and all that fun stuff . . . and yeah. So it was good.

Oh yeah, I bought her a box of nice Pocky too. 'Cause it'd be weird if I didn't give her something every time I saw her.


So that was Edmonton. Right now I'm in Calgary with my family here, chillin', playin' Xbox or whatever . . . this has been a good trip so far.

I'll be back Friday night. Until then, I'll keep doing my theOtaku homework from here and stuff. So yeah, no one die while I'm outta town, got it? I'll check back later. Peace!


. . . and go vote on the poll on the front page! It's about magical girls this week!
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Saturday, August 25, 2007

   Anime Evolution: Day 3
I was sleeping really comfortably this morning when the alarm clock went off! This morning was probably the hardest from which to get up of all. Nevertheless, it was game time . . . got out of bed, went into the bigger room, started tapping on nearby metallic things to make noise and get people's attention . . . it mostly worked, but they all went back to sleep for a bit more. Whatever . . .

Well, I had more immediate need to wake up than the others since I definitely had to be at the con' by about 9:30am or so; I was signed up for Capture The Flag! So I got up, spray-painted my head, got changed . . . at some point everyone started waking up slowly. "Pein" was surfing the net in her pyjamas, "Nine" and her boy were showered and working on the flag some more, and I was just kinda going back and forth to see what needed to be done. Mostly, I just had to grab all the stuff I needed to bring: Mecha-Saizou, three copies of the "Shinsengumi!" drama, and my iPod with portable speakers . . . more on that later . . .

Eventually it got to the point that I definitely had to leave before everyone else. It was kinda weird to leave the house while all my house guests were still there . . . but like I said, I had a schedule to meet. So yeah, while those three got ready, I was off . . .

. . . oh yeah, it was raining lightly. The worst possible thing we could have hoped for considering I had both a Capture the Flag game to play and a photoshoot. Grr . . .

I got to campus, arrived at about the same time as "Souji" and her people, and we chatted while I helped her bring her stuff to Artists' Alley. Eventually I headed to the field to see who was there . . . . . yeah, no one was there. I walked around a bit more, found some other friends of mine including a couple Shinsengumi cosplayers (in particular, the soon-to-be recipient of "Mecha-Saizou"!). We chatted, finished off our costumes (I still hadn't bandaged my nose by this point) . . . then I had to go find out about Capture the Flag . . .

I eventually got stopped by a couple girls with a clipboard who asked me if I wanted to play Capture the Flag (I'm guessing this means the turnout wasn't so hot). Hehe . . . anyway, they directed me to a gymnasium where they game would be held . . .

. . . yeah, I found the CTF people outside the gym. Inside were people dancing; SFU had double-booked us again. Grr . . . after more delays, a staff member told us we were gonna play in the Convocation Mall.

So all of us cleared out a whole bunch of chairs (really quickly and smoothly, might I add) and the staff roped off a playing area for us. Now, considering these were 10-person teams, we did not have an especially large playing field . . .

Gaze at the glory of our playing field!

We played three games with three teams. Any time I wasn't playing, I was kneeling at the center line, iPod and speakers in hand . . . . . bwahaha . . . "Chudyk's" sister got video of the game with the music playing (and myself shouting random stuff . . . my voice is quite recognisable, I find):



Considering that the small space meant it was basically "Sudden-Death CTF", it was tons of fun! Of the games we played, my team won all of ours so we were happy (I even got a flag capture!). One more video . . . the organiser cut this video together:


(Bwahaha . . . I do well in this video . . . . . oh, "Chudyk" is the No-Face cosplayer; his sisters are the twins (one is San from Princess Mononoke) who kicked SERIOUS ass during the game)

When the game finally finished, it was right in time for the Shinsengumi photoshoot! So "Souji" (who had come to play as well), "Icecore" (who found us playing) and I headed up to the stairs . . . . . where we found half our troupe was missing! "Nine" and her boy were still in the parking lot, and a few others had locked themselves out of their townhouse and needed to wait for help (we later learned). So our photoshoot didn't really start until about half an hour later. But damn, once it did . . . we had some good times! Now obviously I was actually IN the shoot so I don't have many pictures of us . . . so let's see what I've found all around from other peoples' posts:

We fought Kenshin, naturally . . .
"Icecore" and I pose for Lazlo (who was also Shinsengumi that day)
Our "300" pose on the bridge vs Akatsuki gets interrupted by interlopers . . .
Here's a link to one of our group's albums . . .
One of my favourite pictures she took . . .
"Pein" duels "Icecore" on the bridge . . .
A BRILLIANT shot of our charge!

There's obviously way more that I've found here and there (especially from the three big photographers Lazlo, Photog, and Marmbo). But yeah, you get the idea. And yeah, it goes without saying now that the Shinsengumi fought the Akatsuki a lot in the photos that day . . . "Pein" was awesome in organising her people, I was all tough an authoritative for mine. We did well . . . everyone won from this . . .

After we took our photos . . . we headed off to a secluded area so we could film our charge sequences . . . we have a LOT of great video that I still need to compile together at some point . . . but yeah, it was awesome! Everyone was cooperative, the security guys didn't bust us as long as we kept to the no-contact rule, and we just had a ton of fun! Hell, I even got interviewed about it afterwards by a camera crew filming the AE 2007 documentary! So yes . . . in the next while expect to see a lot of cool stuff . . .


People started scattering at about this point; some wanted food, others wanted to watch the walk-off which was slightly less good today along with all the other stuff . . . also, a guy fell running up the concrete steps to the stage and really gashed his head good . . . put a damper on things a lot. All in all, though, a great effort from the contestants and much fun was had by all . . . even if the judges did come under a huge amount of criticism afterwards . . . . . whatever . . . oh yeah, and behind the stage I waved one of our flags back and forth during the walk-off; then the flag broke and everyone saw it (including the guys who made it!). D'oh . . .

The Shinsengumi gathered back up after the walk-off; we needed to patrol the campus! With a couple commanders in the front, we started a march in double-columns up and down the campus, flags in the rear and ALL of us just looking badass. The icing on the cake? Remember that iPod with speakers I mentioned earlier? I had that in a sachel bag I had across my torso . . . and I had it playing music. The main theme from the "Shinsengumi!" drama; "You Gonna Feel" from "Peacemaker"; hell, I even put Dynasty Warriors music into the mix! So as we marched around, we had this mysterious music playing as well . . . when we were indoors, it worked perfectly . . . and we just marched all the more proud . . .

I won't lie, when you're dressed up like a samurai, walking with other samurai, watching people in the hallways move aside as you walk through . . . you tend to strut and swagger a fair bit . . . . . hehe, power-trip . . . but yeah, we just never stopped marching. If people wanted a picture, they had to rush ahead of us and catch us as we went by (otherwise the second we stopped the photo-op would go on forever). So we went up and down, all around . . . made a big scene . . . eventually we all marched right up onto the stage while the stage crew were setting it up for the next show! As we went up, the MC kinda went, "oh, they're gonna do somethin'..." before we all went "AKU! ZOKU! ZAN!" in unison . . . then we stood there like idiots. Then we finally walked off as the MC told everyone to get off the stage so they could set up . . . bwahaha . . .

I later learned that during this time, "Pein" and the Akatsuki were sorta doing their own march around campus, shouting "Join the Akatsuki!" or raiding the Host Club or stuff like that. Hehe . . . as the day went on, apparently their numbers just grew to over a hundred people, Akatsuki cosplayers or not! "Pein" was in control of all of them . . . heh, and as she later told me, she wanted to get away from the insanity!

The rest of the Shinsengumi had ducked into a secluded outdoor area originally to take more pictures but eventually to just chill and relax. A lot of us took off half our outfits and stuff, just chatted, got each others' contacts, played with swords . . . yeah, we were done. It was time to end the convention for us.

"Pein" called me and basically requested that I rescue her from her army . . . which I did. And believe me, it was hilarious. She kinda goes, "alright, I'd better say goodbye..." and stands up on a bench and goes, "Attention, Akatsuki!"

They all go dead silent and listen. One even gives her an iced tea. She says goodbye, tells them how awesome the weekend was . . . and that they'd do it all over again at Sakura-Con, at Anime Evolution 2008, at every con' from here on out! And damn, they went apeshit . . . big time. Hell, they even kneeled down before her and everything! It was so surreal . . . but yeah, it was cool.

We finished up by heading to the parking lot with "Icecore". On the way, we saw "Zack" and said goodbye, that we'd see him in Seattle next year . . . it was a really good way to end the con', I'd say.

We got out to the parking lot, "Icecore" went to his car and took off his armour, we got "Pein's" stuff out of "Nine's boy's" car, put it into mine . . . and said goodbye to "Nine" and her boy. They weren't coming to dinner with us. Y'see, "Pein" and I had to fulfill another wonderful convention tradition:

Dinner at Denny's!!! In the case of Pein and myself, Dinner at Denny's in cosplay!!!

About ten of us all went to Denny's; myself, "Pein", "Icecore", four other Shinsengumi members, and a few other people we knew. It was heaven . . . seriously, after a weekend of eating not much of anything and then just gorging on comfort food . . . you feel really good after that. And sure, "Pein" and I looked weird in most of our outfits still . . . but hey, this Denny's is close to the convention so they're not unfamiliar with dressed-up weirdos coming in (there were a few other tables with cosplayers . . . the staff just thought it was interesting). So yeah, we were fed, we were happy . . . we were sore as all hell . . . . . but yeah, good con'.

Oh, one fun little anecdote during the dinner . . . we were talking about how fun it was to storm the stage that day. We discussed how else to get us all on the stage; a cosplay skit is a definite possibility, as was being part of a walk-off routine much as the Akatsuki had been on Day 1. At that point, I said about four fatal words: "Hey, one of us should--" and then I stopped talking immediately.
But it was too late; suddenly everyone had the idea of me being in next year's walkoff . . . in fact, they were very supportive of the idea . . . I swore a bunch of times. Buuuuut . . . y'know . . . heh, never say never . . . we'll see what happens . . . . .

Outside after dinner we all said goodbye, everyone got some good hugs . . . and then I was off to drive "Pein" back home.

Well, she told me that I was right, that she did feel at least a little better in the morning after a good night's sleep. She also said that the convention really did take her mind off of things, so I was really happy to hear that. So yeah, half an hour's drive later, she was back home.

Another half hour later, so was I.


And so ends my report of Vancouver's Anime Evolution 2007. I didn't go to any panels, didn't see many guests . . . but I sure as hell had a lot of fun.

Here, have my Day 3 photos . . .



So what happens now?

A LOT of us are already planning for AE 2008. In the past few years the number of Shinsengumi have doubled each successive year. Thus, next year we are aiming to have at least thirty Shinsengumi cosplayers with us. We'll put on a skit for the contest, we'll have an even more epic charge than this year . . . we'll own the con' . . . . .

Outside of the Shinsengumi world, I've also sorta agreed to doing a "300" cosplay as a Spartan. I'm gonna need to do a lot of sit-ups for the next year or so . . .

I'm also imploring ALL of you to go to AE 2008! I mean, it's not a big convention (4200 attendees vs Sakura-Con's 11,000) but it's very friendly and tons of fun. It's a wonderful convention and next year I promise I'll organise a series theOtaku.com meet-up. So yeah, guys . . . next August, you know you can make it!


Eheh . . . okay, I'm done now. I'm goin' on vacation to Alberta for a week now; see ya when I get back unless I post while I'm over there!
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