Thursday, April 19, 2007

   Back to real-time . . . ish . . .
I found it! Remember that mirror-esque picture I was talking about back on Day 2 that we posed forever for and that there have to be like, five thousand pictures out there of it now? Well, I finally found one of 'em:


(Myself and "Yoruichi" on the near side; "Byakuya" and "Icecore" opposite us)

So now you see how brilliantly badass we were about this? Yes, now you see. This is why I must find more of this picture from different angles and stuff . . . maybe from the other side of the glass too . . .


That aside . . . I also uploaded the video of me doing my "Legend of Zelda: Annoying Navi" voice for the camera which can be seen here:

(It's a little embarrassing for me, but meh, posterity and all . . .)


I don't have too much else to really say tonight. I'll just answer some questions:
-We slept on the floor because there were two beds and six people; further, we weren't all close, close friends yet (or still not yet).
-I'm not that touchy about my age. This particular issue was an isolated incident.
-Best way to check for theO meet-ups would be to try to set one up in the comments of the monthy convention listing at the start of each new month or whenever Gail gets 'em up. Maybe try to PM around with people who are mentioning that they're going or somethin'.


And so to sign off, I shall say have a good rest of the week, root beer floats are love, and so far it looks like we're gonna have about two dozen Shinsengumi cosplayers at Anime Evolution 2007. That in itself is badass.
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Tuesday, April 17, 2007

   Sakura-Con: Epilogue
First, comments:

'Kiro: I seem to be a good guy, eh? Haha . . . nice.
Mimmsters: Yeah, I do alright.
Reddou: Now that I've gotten over my photographer's shyness, I shall always take many pictures at all the cons I go to.
Schultzers: Yeah, I do alright.
Kuroneko': I guess that means I'll talk about Monday, then!
Kikii: Yes, much yatta.
JD: Luckily, conventions are inherently friendly, and you'll find you'll pretty much be chumming up with anyone and everyone naturally. Because geeks love to be geeks around other geeks in public.
Tox': I did hear about that on the radio yesterday morning, yeah. It's scary, especially since Virginia seems to be getting hit by a lot of these sorts of things. Anyways, I was in Seattle from Thursday, April 5th until the 8th; spent a night in Bellevue 'til the 9th and came home. I also mostly stuck with just the one cosplay all convention. And yeah, I was the one in the back in that other picture.
Finally . . . a very important message for you:
I'm Twenty-three. I'm NOT lying about it. My birthday is August 5th, 1983. I count my age by western standards. Do the math and remember that it's April right now and my birthday this year has not come up yet. I'm NOT twenty-four no matter how much you want to believe it. I don't hate you for this at all or anything, and I love ya for always coming by to read my posts and comment on them and all . . . but this age thing has to stop. It's getting ridiculous. I promise when I turn twenty-four I will tell you; but at the moment, I am still just twenty-three. 23. This shall be the last I ever want to speak of this - please accept it because I don't want to have to start getting rude about it.


And now for Monday . . .

Oh, further addendum: Ed had a spare iPod Shuffle for some reason (either he got it from someone but didn't need it or something like that). In fact he had specifically asked me to ask "Yoruichi" some weeks prior if she wanted it (we all knew we'd get together at some point during this road trip and stuff); I said she already had an iPod and probably didn't need it . . . but that was then. Sunday night, he then basically asked everyone in the car if anyone wanted it; "Yoruichi" said sure. So that night I presented her with a brand new iPod Shuffle which she greatly appreciated. In any case, she thanked both Ed and myself for it, which was all good . . . heh, though once I was home Ed scolded me, saying I was supposed to have told her that I asked him to get it for her . . . I filled him in on why that was unnecessary afterwards . . . anyways, that was the last bits of Sunday night.


I'm sure we were all in some phase of half-awakeness when the sun came up the next morning; we were more awake after Ed got out of the shower and was pretty much ready for the day (he had to go to work, after all). So we all got up, got dressed into whatever clean clothes we may or may not have had by that point (or equally, may have just gotten up in whatever non-pajama clothes we were already sleeping in). We mostly just figured we could wash up and stuff once we were back in Vancouver, so we held off on any serious bathroom-related stuff for the moment . . . y'know, save the really important ones if we had to.

But yeah, the night was alright, I guess; "Icecore" is just good at sleeping anywhere, it seems, I was comfortable enough, "Yoruichi" was still coughing a bit, and "Souji" commented that tonight was the coldest night yet . . . yeah, we should've turned up the heat before we went to bed . . . . . d'oh.

(Preparing to leave Bellevue for home . . .)
Redmond and the Microsoft campus was on the way home, so we gave Ed a ride to work (I know, he works at Microsoft, how did that happen?). Gotta say, though, the Microsoft campus wasn't half bad. Big, looked impressive enough . . . but yeah, Ed said he'd give us a call once we were back on the road so he could tell us how to get back to the interstate and go home . . . after he got out of the car, everyone commented that he was very nice (well, "Icecore" knew him prior to this trip, so mostly it was the girls commenting). Yeah, it's always a good thing when your newer friends like your older friends.

In any case, I had already overshot my turn-off point before he called me from his desk and online map stuff . . . buuuut, he still turned us back around well enough and we made it back to the I-405 and eventually the I-5 . . . unless we ended up getting directly to the I-5? Hmm . . . not important. What's important is that we got back on track towards home.

We pulled over once to get gas and supplies like food and water (and bathroom if we needed it) at some little place just off the Interstate (I was specifically looking for a gas station like this, where I could pretty much exit the freeway, stock up, and re-enter immediately afterwards). "Icecore", ever the gracious passenger, paid for my gas again. Inside the gas station, I found out that I had picked the ONE gas station with no more bottled water . . . this was a burn for all of us, especially the sick-type ones. Ah well . . . so I got a coffee drink and a Sobe (also got a muffin which I never ate until I got home); everyone else got jerky or lunchables or stuff like that. I must say, though, that the gas station attendant was really really nice; she was very friendly, very helpful, and was an all-around nice person to chat with during our break. Anyways, back to the road . . .

We probably hooked up "Yoruichi's" iPod music to the car radio again at this point, listening to Spanish hip-hop again as we drove (I generally don't listen to rap/hip-hop, but yeah . . .). At some point it also started raining . . . then it started REALLY raining . . . we basically drove through a storm, which really sucked just because you never wanna have to drive through crappy weather on a road trip . . . . . so we did that for an hour or so until it all cleared up again about a half hour before the border.

And yeah, it was really clear once we hit the Canada-US border! Score . . . so yeah, I wake up the people in the back to "gather weapons and ammo" (also known as ID); it was a quick line, gotta say, and people were flying through really fast. Heh . . . again, I practiced all the questions and answers in my head as we came up down to exactly what I had bought and how much it was worth . . .

"Welcome . . . [takes our IDs] . . . where do you all live?"
"Two Richmond, one Langley and a New Westminster."
"How long were you out of the country?"
"Four days."
"How far south did you travel?"
"Down to Seattle."
"And what was the purpose of this trip?"
"Anime convention." (The guy did not bat a single eye at this. Impressive.)
"You guys buy anything down there?"
"Yes."
"About how much worth would you say you're bringing back?"
"About . . . three-fifty, four-hundred dollars."
"[hands stuff back . . .] Okay, have a safe drive."
"Thank you."

Yeah, that was really easy . . . again, I was secretly kinda disappointed. Whatever . . . let's just go home . . . . .

"Yoruichi" was the closest to the border, so she was first. Of course, being me in all my Ryoga-esque glory, I missed every possible turn-off to get her home and we ended up taking a big half-hour long loop around before we finally got her home. I mean seriously, we had to make a bathroom break before we got her back home. 'Cause I suck like that. Nevertheless, she got home, got her stuff out, got hugs from all of us . . . and we were off to Richmond.

. . . what? You expected more? There were other people around and we were all smelly and stuff and she had lots of bags to carry all at once . . . it happens, okay?


Half an hour's drive later, we get "Souji" back to her house. Again, we unload, she gives us hugs and thanks us for "the best weekend of her life". Strong words, I know . . . but hey, I suppose it happens.

Shortly after that, "Icecore" got home. We nodded to each other as we parted ways. We're guys, that's how it happens.


Another half-hour later, maybe just a little before 2pm, I FINALLY get home. I'm tired, my right foot is a little messed up from all the walking in poorly-supported footwear . . . and it takes me a while to finally get all the stuff out of the car and into the house. Mimmi's owl pillow evidently had a ton of dust in it by that point so I beat on that in the backyard for a bit before bringing it in; similarly, I shook out all the fleece blankets.

There were notes all over the house for me from my currently-overseas parents telling me to call this or that, to arrange one or two things, to take out the garbage since the next day was garbage day . . . I took care of most of that stuff after a long-deserved shower, though . . . didn't really unpack until the next day . . . annnd . . . yeah.


The Sakura-Con road trip was officially over . . .


. . . . . and then I forgot to take out the garbage. This past week has kinda sucked for that . . . luckily I took care of that last night, so today we'll have empty trash cans again. The end.
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Monday, April 16, 2007

   Sakura-Con: Day 3
Nikki: different girl from before.


Before I really get into Day 3, I need to set it up. The day before, during one of my many trips into the dealer's room, "Kisuke" saw a Yoruichi keychain and showed me. "This is who ["Yoruchi"] is cosplaying as," he tells me unnecessarily. Well, right after he put it back, I grabbed it and bought it . . .


A few hours after going to bed for a power-nap, the sun is blasting through the big window again. "Kisuke" is completely exhausted because he was at the rave until 4am; "Icecore" is mostly exhausted because he was watching different shows all over the place all night; "Yoruichi" and I were mostly tired but not exhausted from our late night Downtown Seattle adventure . . . not too bad, though. So anyways, this morning we weren't exactly in a rush, but we weren't exactly without some meetings to make. That sounds really awkward, so I'll explain in this next paragraph:

Today, Day 3, was the day that "Peacemaker Kurogane" was being screened in the "dub theater" at the con' at 11am. Well, the six Shinsengumi cosplayers (all from Vancouver, no less) decided we had to crash the screening somehow . . . specifically, I had the idea that we'd go in chasing someone ("Yoruichi" volunteered) and whatnot. Heh, except when you have four people who all need to use the bathroom and change and get decent, it takes a little longer than you'd like . . . especially when you all only have about an hour to REALLY get ready . . . well, we started to run late, "Icecore" ran ahead to meet up with the other squad to fill them in and to tell them we were coming. Meanwhile, "Yoruichi" was having eye-sensitivity issues with her contacts that morning and badly needed her sunglasses and whatnot . . .

At some point during all this, I scrawled out a quick note for "Yoruichi" while she was out of sight. Just a general thank you type thing for a great weekend, for just being cool in general, y'know . . . heh, despite our looking for different things in each other and all . . . but yeah, I wrapped up the Yoruichi keychain inside it, taped it closed, signed the outside with "To the Best Damn Yoruichi of Sakura-Con 2007:", and tossed it into her suitcase while she wasn't looking.

Oh wait! I remember why we were so back-logged! It was because we were checking out that day and had to get all our stuff out of the room and into the car! Well, eventualy the four of us (myself, "Icecore", "Yoruichi" and "Souji") finally got our bags into the car and eventually arrived outside the screening room before the second Peacemaker episode ended . . .

(The Shinsengumi ready to spring into action . . .)
"Yoruichi" and I quickly threw together a fight-sequence where I'd rush her with a sword, she'd kick the sword out of the way, palm-strike me in the face, then draw my wakizashi from my belt and slash me with it; she'd then run back out of the room with the rest of the Shinsengumi in tow . . . heh, it probably didn't all have the effect we were hoping for, but it was still fun as hell - even after the volunteers warned us about such . . . displays, in the screening rooms. Bwahaha . . . "Icecore" took video, but it's just too dark. We need night-vision cameras . . .

("Yoruichi", "Kenpachi" and two "Yachiru". . .)
It was about noon by this point. From what I heard there was going to be yet another informal Bleach photo shoot outside. Heh . . . alright, it ended up being an informal Bleach shoot that also happened to have a bunch of Shinsengumi in there as well . . . yeah, we were just chillin', takin' pictures and stuff again, trying to think of cool poses and shots and stuff . . . oh yeah, "Byakuya" found us there too, 'cause he was a good guy and cool like that.
("Yoruichi" perched on "Byakuya's" arm . . .)

At some point "Yoruichi" ran back up into a tree to chill, I stood up on "Kenpachi's" shoulders after lamenting about how absorbent straw sandals were, and . . . all of us just ended up with a whole lotta really funny pictures . . .
(Ichigo manhandles the Shinsengumi . . .)

"Yoruichi" and I also recreated a photo-op that a photographer requested last day as well:


And then "Baby Kon" came along with "Daddy Hollow Ichigo" and "Momma Orihime". This was the same "Baby Kon" that was all pissed off and irritated last day He was painfully adorable, especially after he was changed into "Baby Kisuke". Y'know what? I'm gonna forego the 1000 words and just flood you with pictures:
("Baby Kisuke", "Hollow Ichigo" and "Yoruichi" . . .)
("Baby Kisuke" walkin' around . . .)
("Baby Kisuke didn't like the hat much . . .)
("Urahara" (not our "Kisuke") lends "Baby Kisuke" a fan . . .)
("Baby Kisuke" plays with the nekomimi once again . . .)
("Baby Kisuke" and "Yoruichi" . . .)

And finally, to finish off the glory that is "Baby Kisuke":


Well, eventually the other squad of Shinsengumi packed up and were heading back to Vancouver; the rest of us hung out in the courtyard a bit longer until we got hungry or so . . . but FIRST, we had to go back to the dealer's room for one last go before it was all gone . . .
("Yoruichi" and this ridiculously hot Ivy cosplayer . . .)

("Big Chris" in the dealer's room outside theCNL's cage . . . he's awesome . . .)
So going into the dealer's room was myself, "Icecore", "Souji", "Yoruichi", and "Byakuya". And yeah, it didn't take long for us all to get separated from each other. Ah well . . . at some point, "Icecore" and I bought wooden replicas of "Bankai Zangetsu" since they were only $20. Heh, we had a lot of swords on us after that - katana and wakizashi in the belt, and a big friggin' sword slung on the back. Made for some neat pictures, though . . . haven't found 'em online anywhere yet, but I bet they're there . . . heh, and then apparently "Yoruichi" got hit on by the Red vs Blue guys. She got some neat stuff out of it, though, so hey.
("Yoruichi and the Red vs Blue guys . . .)

After all that, the five of us went to . . . no wait . . . I wanna say the five of us, but I feel like "Souji" headed somewhere else at this point with some other people to check something out. Alright, we'll go with that story . . .

(Yes, I took pictures of gummi bears . . .)
So the four of us (myself, "Yoruichi", "Icecore" and "Byakuya") went to the little mini-mart next to the convention center for food and stuff. We stocked up on corn dogs, sandwiches, Full Throttle (for me), milk, Powerade, and . . . gummi bears. It felt good to put into our bellies.
("Yoruichi" drinking milk. It just makes sense.)

(Shaolin Soccer cosplayers. Brilliance . . .)
Heh, what else are we gonna do with time to kill? Head back upstairs to the outdoor courtyard, of course! Honestly, it's really funny. My very first con was three summers ago; I went to a bunch of anime screenings that year. My next con was the summer after that; I soaked in a whole bunch of lecture panels and voice actor panels. Last summer was my first year cosplaying, and aside from a few choice voice actor panels I was mostly just chilling on the grass with everyone else. At Sakura-Con, chilling out with cosplayers was practially all I did! Just some funny food for thought . . .

So what happened after that . . . oh! The "Dark Tournament"! Well, it had rained a little bit at some point during all this, so now the ground outside was damp. Damn . . . but that didn't faze the tournament organizers, so out we all went (well, specifically because they convinced "Yoruichi" to "compete" in it)! As for what this "Dark Tournament" was, the premise was that it'd be freeze-frame battles, as an opportunity to get some more neat pictures . . . heh, some people got into it pretty hard and forgot the "freeze frame" part . . . they had to give a warning halfway through . . . but yeah, it was pretty funny:


At some point after all that excitement we went to the main stage place where they were doing the charity auction . . . and wow, you would never believe how much money people will be willing to spend on certain objects! Goodness . . . lucky charity indeed . . . but yeah, early on "Yoruichi" was bidding now and then on things (which scared me because I wasn't sure if she actually meant to back them up or not [though I'm pretty sure she was]). Eventually "Icecore" won an auction for a doujin about video game characters or something . . . good for him . . .

So the auction went on for a while . . . mostly I was just using it as an excuse to sit down and just kinda veg' a bit. Eventually after that ended they went into closing ceremonies . . . y'know, watch a few winning AMVs, hear some closing statements, clap for the guy who's retiring from his many-year position . . . that kind of stuff.
Oh, and if any of you were there for the closing ceremonies, you might remember a point when they gave the final tally of Sakura-Con attendance of eleven thousand and something-rather . . . if you were there, I was the one who shouted "IT'S OVER NINE THOUSAAAAAND!!!" after he said that. Yeah, I'm a dick like that.


And then Sakura-Con was over. I called Ed/Faramir in Bellevue to reconfirm what we were doing for dinner and that we were coming, exchanged contact info with "Byakuya" so we could keep in touch . . . and that was that. Off to the parkade, unloaded our gear ("Yoruichi" got changed between the open car doors), I tried to call Gail and John at that point to apologise for not getting to get together on the Sunday after all (parkade reception issues killed that, though) . . . and we headed out to Bellevue.

Oh yeah, parking for 3 days straight cost us about $80, of which we barely had enough cash for. Dang . . . but yeah, it was now raining, we were tired, hungry and kinda feeling bleh . . . "Yoruichi" had gotten sick at some point and was coughing . . . but yeah, after about 40 minutes of driving and getting lost twice we finally made it to Ed/Faramir's house in Bellevue.


Hehe, he wanted to know what took us so long since he was hungry . . . but yeah, we arrived, brought our bags in, changed into normal clothes (again I dipped into my "Monday clothes"), chatted with Ed/Faramir and Heather/Sakura (from myO, who is going out with Ed/Faramir) . . . I called John from there, we had our last words with each other and whatnot. Again, I think I need to stress that Gail and John are two of the most wonderful people you can ever wish to meet in your lifetime. They were just cool like that.

Oh, and while "Yoruichi" went through her luggage, packing up and whatnot while she could, she found the note "To the Best Damn Yoruichi of Sakura-Con 2007". So right then and there she found my little gift, read the note . . . said it was sweet . . . . . so that was pretty cool.

FINALLY, after all that . . . we FINALLY went to Denny's for supper!
It was like, 8pm by this point; but it's my new tradition to eat at Denny's after a con', so we had to do it. Ed was a very gracious guy, and covered a lot of the bill to make sure we were stuffed (y'know, post-con munchies). Heh . . . and then "Yoruichi" had some words with the people there re: bad service and cheesecake. So yeah, we had some extra food for later that night . . . but it was really nice to finally just sit down, eat, relax, have old friends meet new friends . . . yeah, Denny's rules . . .

Heather/Sakura headed home from there, so I quickly grabbed the third and final UBC teddy bear from my car to give it to her before she drove off. After that, we were off to Safeway for groceries . . . groceries, of course in Ed's mindset, meaning wine, coolers, and beer. Oh, and cough medicine/lozenges for "Yoruichi" because we're smart like that.

But yeah, we had a fun night that night drinking, watching "Yoruichi's" Red vs Blue DVD, watching my GTO DVD, watching bits of "Ju-On 2" . . . at some point I muttered "fucking otaku" regarding something "Yoruichi" did or said, so she punched three consecutive holes into my back (they got progressively louder) . . . at some other point she punched Ed which made me smile . . . . .

Ultimately by about 2am or something we all knew we had to sleep; being that I was driving the next morning, I was already lying on my makeshift floorspace and mostly asleep by the time the other three came out to their patches of floor (funny thing about Ed's house: he has a Bowflex in his living room, but no couch . . .). Heh, of course the wine and coolers helped a little too . . . but yeah, aside from "Yoruichi's" occasional coughing it was a pretty quiet night . . . mostly, anyway . . .


I think it was maybe 4am or so when a bunch of us coincidentally stirred a bit at the same time. I was thirsty and went to get some water, guided by my little metal flashlight; after I came back, "Icecore" got up to pee. Since I was conscious, I gave him some flashlight light so he could get back to his patch underneath a table (yeah, don't ask, I didn't). He went back to sleep. I, however, got back up to look for the bag of Halls cough drops that we bought for "Yoruichi" since she was still coughing. With my muzzled flashlight light I walked around the apartment trying to figure out where we put them . . . well, "Yoruichi" was now awake and going through her bags to get them herself, so I guess she had them all along. I went over to her, again with the muzzled light just to see how she was . . . she felt bad that she was keeping everyone awake, I told her she was being silly or something. I refilled her glass of water that was sitting next to her (which I had put there earlier though she didn't notice it until then), told her to try to rest for now . . . she seemed to cough a little less after all that, but yeah . . .

I went back to my flat blanket and rolled up jeans/pillow, clicked off the flashlight . . . and thus ended Day 3.


Do I need to recount the Monday when we come home? It's not too interesting, but I can if you wanna . . .

[TO BE CONTINUED?]
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Sunday, April 15, 2007

   Sakura-Con: Day 2 . . .
(My arm after sleeping on it all night . . .)
I'm sure I woke up at some point in the early morning; sun was coming through the window, everyone else was still sound asleep (seemed like, at least). I probably got up at some point to stretch out, take care of bodily functions (again, six people in the room) . . . went back to bed eventually . . . . . in any case, when we really started to wake up finally, my arms were numb, my face felt funny . . . and my hair was still orangey-red. Nevertheless, I decided that that night was enough, and tonight the damn messy gel was washing out. 'Cause sleeping normally is just too important. In any case, we all slept pretty well that night and all woke up really well.
("Kisuke" posing with his Kon . . .)

I'm guessing probably about half of us got out of the hotel at a time again, being that some of us took longer to get presentable than others (again, hair products and flat-irons and whatnot). Putting together the picture in my head, I think the most likely adventuring party would have been myself, "Icecore", "Souji" and "Yoruichi". So mid-morning we were out, back at the convention and just hanging around. We went to the Dealer's room eventually since I hadn't gone in there yet (same with a few others, I'm sure), so we went there. I eventually bought some stretchy tabi socks (FINALLY have real-ish ones!) and some really cheap straw zori sandals (FINALLY have real-ish ones!); as it turned out I bought sandals way too big for me, so I eventually bought smaller ones . . . not yet, though . . . oh, I also may or may not have bought the live-action GTO drama on DVD here . . . sure, they're the same subs as I already have, but I can watch them on the TV now! Probably!
(My tabi and "large" zori . . .)

We headed back to the hotel quickly to check on the others and to drop off the stuff we had just picked up (otherwise I'd have a bag of flip-flops resting at the base of my spine for the rest of the day). Actually, I think "Yoruichi" might have dashed off to mingle while we did this . . . heh, yeah, Day 2's a bit of a blur to me right now . . . in any case, we were back at the hotel, we picked up "Kisuke" who wanted to buy some sort of bag that he could carry his stuff around while still being "in character" . . . so back to the con', back to the dealer's room . . .

(The Dealer's Room . . . infinitely bigger than AE's . . .)
So it was myself, "Icecore", "Souji", and "Kisuke" in his Tamaki-clothes. Again we just kinda walked up and down, chilling, looking at all the stuff we may or may not want to buy . . . oh, I think "Icecore" was actually looking for tabi socks now that I had some . . . or something like that. In any case, our group got separated, and "Souji" and "Kisuke" were lost somewhere inside the dealer's room while "Icecore" and I slowly moved around. Oh, and at some point "Yoruichi" found us in there, and she was wearing nekomimi including tail AND bell around her neck which was cute as all hell . . . she wore that for the rest of the con'. Ahem . . . but yeah, I still felt kinda bad about how "Souji" got separated from us the night before and was stuck outside the hotel without a key and stuff . . . so "Icecore" and I waited around the entrace to the dealer's room hoping to find them again. We did get some good photo ops' going both ways, though . . .
(Catbus at the entrance to the dealer's room!)

We eventually finally found "Souji" and "Kisuke" probably some time a bit after noon. Now, we had gone long enough without food by this point and I seriously needed to take the theOtaku.com meet-up into account as 2pm was getting closer and closer. So "Souji", "Kisuke" and myself lined up for the Subway in the convention center while "Icecore" headed back to the hotel to drop stuff off. It was a half-hour queue which sucked, but totally worth it at the end when I got my footlong Italian BMT on honey-oat (it was either that or roasted parmesean since their bread supply was tapped). In any case it was past 1pm by this point so I hauled ass back to the hotel (and subsequently to the parking lot) so I could grab stuff for the meet-up . . . figured I'd eat in the hotel and all . . .

And lo and behold! "Icecore" (who met me at the Subway though he was satiated on Ensure suppliments all weekend) and I are flying down the escalators, heading to the exit . . . it was about 1:20pm or something . . .
"James?" Dead stop. Who's sitting at the table there, trench coat folded up in her arms?

Aurus. Booyah. Considering our general distance from each other, you'd think we'd have been some of the first myOers to meet up face to face! But no, we got beat out by a couple years . . . ah well, all good . . . so she came with us back to the hotel so I could inhale six inches of sandwich and grab my car keys . . . parking lot, grabbed two teddy bears from the University of British Columbia book store . . . a golden one for Aurus, and a black one for Gail once we got to the meet-up (it would have been a panda for obvious reasons, but well, the UBC bookstore failed me).


We got back to the meeting area pretty much RIGHT at 2pm. We saw four people sitting on one side (made me wonder), and Gail and John on the other side. I quickly jogged over to Gail, gave her a hug and a teddy bear . . . at that point a voice at the other seats go, "are we all people from theOtaku.com?"

So the meet-up officially started. So we all get acquainted with each other finally, share some hugs, meet the "awkward turtle" for the first time . . . wished I got a picture of that, damn . . . . . but alas, instead one of Aurus' friends came by dressed up like a Kiyoshi Warrior . . . so I took her picture.
(It's Suki!!!)

And then my batteries died. Right before the real meat of the meet-up. Son of a bitch . . .

I WANTED to take like, a million pictures of us. I WANTED to take some video, have some silly interviews and the like . . . I WANTED to do so much with that damn camera . . . and then it died. So damnit. Damnit damnit damnit. Well, nevertheless, Gail had a ton of schwag to give out . . . I evidently was privileged to pick from the selection without need of a draw or anything, so I grabbed some Trinity Blood DVDs . . . but now we needed to make sure we were all here and not elsewhere on the floor.

So, being the comfortably assertive guy I am (at least at conventions), I turned towards the rest of the seating areas and bellowed,
"If anyone here is a member of theOtaku.com, you need to be down here right now! You will get free stuff if you are!"
Yeah, nothin'. Ah well, more free stuff for us, then!

Heh, so we took some group photos which are in everyone else's photo galleries except mine, I traded my Trinity Bloods for Gatchamans (Jazie really didn't want Gatchaman; all good!). Some last-minute hugs, Miss Anonymous picked me up . . . and we were done. Oh, and "Icecore" officially stated his intention to join theOtaku.com upon arriving back home. He's not using myO yet, but he has a cosplay thing submitted thus far (here's a hint: every single Peacemaker cosplay at this site is from Greater Vancouver).


After the meet-up, Aurus, "Icecore", Gail and John and I all went back up to the fifth floor; I had just called a head guy from Anime Evolution and we were going to meet him and talk for a bit (he wanted to trade scam-stories, his "con before AE" story for our "AnimeFF" story). Well, Aurus went into the registration line since she had to do that still (poor girl . . . the line-up got worse that day) while the rest of us hunted down the Anime Evolution booth in the dealer's room.

We found it, we all talked a bit . . . oh, except the guy I was looking for wasn't there. He had to run off quickly for a meeting with some other people; AE-type business, totally understandable, he's got his own con' to worry about after all. So yeah, with a little luck, we might have a Panda in Vancouver this summer . . . heh, and I pre-registered while we were there . . .

While still in the dealer's room I ended up buying "medium" sized zori which fit much better. I gave the larger ones to "Icecore".

Rest of the afternoon and early evening is a bit of a blur to me. We ran back into "Yoruichi" after having lost her all afternoon . . . and were pleasantly surprised by how she was decked out: yellow contact lenses! Seriously, nekomimi and coloured contacts rocked ass . . . mostly we were back outside in the courtyard, getting our pictures taken and stuff . . . "Byakuya" was also out there and we hung out with him as well . . . yeah, all sorts of fun posing, hanging off of trees and stuff . . . a really pissed off baby dressed in a Kon-hoodie was thrashing around unhappy about something . . . "Yoruichi" immediately calmed him by offering her cat ears for him to touch and play with . . . once pulled away, though, he got cranky again. Poor kid.


There was also a really cool picture that I'm still dying to find in someone's online galleries! So you see, at some point "Byakuya" and "Icecore" were inside, sitting against the big window/walls on the convention 5th floor. "Yoruichi" and I saw this, and snuck up behind them from the outside of the glass, tapped it and whatnot . . . hilarity ensued . . . but then brilliance came from it right after . . .

At some point we started mirroring each other's stances, especially with one hand up against the glass on either side. I eventually even took out my swords and slid them into the opposite side of my belt so I would better mirror "Byakuya" inside . . . so we held this pose, "Icecore" and "Yoruichi" doing the same on their end of the pane of glass, and people started taking pictures.
And more people started taking pictures. And it was a cool picture, because not only did you get the funny mirroring of characters, but the glass also gave a slight reflection depending on which side you were on - mirroring AND meshing!
And more people came by to take pictures on both sides of the glass. This is why I know there HAVE to be pictures of it out there, 'cause we posed for like, five minutes straight like that! Ah man . . .

One of the professional photographers also took some really good shots of "Yoruichi". I hope I can find his gallery sooner than later . . . I bet he has a picture of the mirror-thing too!


Ummm, so let's see . . . after that, we met up with "Souji", went back to the hotel to rest up and change if we had to for the rave later that night . . . heh, "Byakuya" ate the other half of my Subway and thanked me graciously for it before heading back to his room to power down . . . seems his friend/relative was basically forcing him to go to the rave and chill like normal people . . . hehe . . .
("Souji" modified to "Rave Souji", "Yoruichi" out of orange . . .)

("Yoruichi" with hair, ears, eyes, and bell . . .)
Here's where we go into side-stories: "Yoruichi" listens to hip-hop. Rave music? Not her thing. She really, really didn't want to go to this thing. Buuuut, we tried all we could to convince her to go with us 'cause we're jerks . . . eventually she said she needed contact lens fluid so she could wash her coloured lenses and all that . . . well, we couldn't argue with that, so I asked a cleaner at the center where we could get that. He told us there was a little mini-mart next to the center.
We only learned about this place just now. We could have done some serious grocery shopping there all weekend. Damnit. Damnit damnit damnit. Ah well . . .

Inside the rave, the floor was bouncing because it was really just a ballroom not designed for raving. Well, we were all in there but with different people: "Kisuke" and Axel with some people, myself, "Yoruichi", "Souji" and "Icecore" with some others (those "Canadian" girls from the other day, in fact). Well, "Yoruichi" didn't want to dance and sat at the back, all the while urging us to go and "have fun!" Heh . . . I spent a great deal of time trying to convince her to come with us, being that "I didn't come to this dance just for the sake of dancing . . ." Nevertheless, she told me to "go!" and "have fun!"

I eventually came back to her and she said she had to get out; so she eventually headed out and hung out with some Japanese dude with a guitar who had gathered a crowd. "Icecore" also eventually headed out to clear his head while "Souji" and I stayed inside and bounced to deep bass and stuff . . . . . heh, yeah, I don't really like raving either . . .


When we were all sufficiently tired, we came out, found each other on the outside, and headed back to the hotel for the night. Oh, except "Icecore" who decided he'd go around, watch some anime, pull and all-nighter like a pro. "Kisuke" and Axel were still inside dancing. Heh . . . rest of us went back to the hotel.

So I finally showered, got that red crap out of my hair, tried my best to not get it all over the place . . . felt good. By now it was past 1am because Axel came back to the hotel (rule regarding minors at the con). So he was on the phone with some female-friend of his (not his girlfriend, though, he alleges), "Souji" was more or less asleep on the floor, and "Yoruichi" decided we needed to order pizza. Smart girl, that one.

One large pepperoni, one large mushroom, and pesto cheese bread. Honestly, best thing to have possibly gotten at that point in time . . . very nice. So we chomped on that while watching The Boondocks on CN (most of us are Canadian so it's important to watch this channel when we have the chance) . . . so it seemed like a nice end to the day/night . . . . .

. . . except "Yoruichi" wanted to go for a walk. Remember, it's like 2am by this point, and she wanted to go back out into downtown Seattle . . . well, I wasn't about to decline (though the rest did for sleep-reasons). So I threw on my jacket, put on my "Monday clothes" (as opposed to cosplay clothes planned for the actual con') . . . I pocketed my metal flashlight for just in case . . . "Yoruichi" pocketed my pocket-knife for just in case . . . . . yeaaaaah . . .


I'll give the short version of this: we walked around Seattle for about three hours, talking about whatever. She FINALLY mentioned that along with disliking the music and feeling generally uncomfortable, her ankle still kinda hurt from those tall boots at the beginning of Day 1 (to which I replied, "why didn't you say that in the first place?!") Of course I was no better and not fully expressing my intentions and my reasons for not going off to "have fun" back at the rave (to which she replied, "why didn't you say that in the first place?!"). Along with that we were getting lost, finding ourselves outside the Crocodile Cafe (which was infinitely cool to run into because they went there in the "Beck" manga!), under the Space Needle (which is powerfully phallic), and to the waterfront, outside the aquarium, and back finally. We also discussed all our current romantic aspirations (or lack thereof in the case of some parties involved) and whatnot. And then at some point she plucked a tulip and gave it to me, which I brought all the way back to the hotel eventually. Ahem . . . so yeah, her heart's hardened and her mind's made up; I still insist on chipping at it, though, so we'll see . . .

Birds were waking up, it was past 5am, I wanted my knife back . . . so we got back to the hotel, slept for maybe a few hours (woke up everyone in the hotel room as we came in, no less . . .) . . . I slept sitting against the bottom of Axel's bed . . . wasn't too bad . . .

So that was Day 2.
(The tulip in water the next morning . . .)

[TO BE CONTINUED . . . . .]
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Saturday, April 14, 2007

   Intermission . . . . .
First, to get some comments and questions out of the way:

Sahki': Hey, you can't diss the San Diego ComicCon. I'd absolutely love to go there some day . . . they talk about Avatar and Transformers there! Wanna take me some time?
Mimmsters: Yeah, I'm kinda sad that guy's back there to ruin my moment with the hot Rinoa . . . ah well. And yes, I totally brought the owl with me . . . though "Souji" ended up using it all trip instead of me somehow . . . hmm . . .
Nikki: The thing about "fucking otaku" was whenever we saw the REALLY bad geeks. Y'know, the ones who speak Japanese nonsense in the elevators, or make huge spectacles of themselves . . . y'know, the people with the bad kind of "no shame". Thus, I saw them, I would mutter "fucking otaku . . ." Something like that.
Anonymous: Honestly, I'm really sad my batteries died on Day 2. I wanted to take video of the theO meet-up and everything! But alas . . .
Red: You know that's all part of an internet meme joke, right? Bleach cosplayers did not actually make up 85% of the entire convention attendance . . . come now . . .
Jazie: Not counting the hour and a half of sitting in the line before registration started . . . I'd say maybe 20-30 minutes tops. So the irony is that we probably could have saved time had we just gone to the line after registration (it wasn't too bad Friday morning, especially compared to later days).
JD: I dunno, man. People love Kira; they see Kira, they glomp Kira.
Toxyu: Sorry . . . gotta keep on schedule. Thankfully archives'll always be there . . .


Also, as an addendum to last post, I forgot that we also went to McDonald's for dinner at some point (Myself, "Yoruichi", "Byakuya" and his friend/relative; I was in my Turk suit, and "Yoruichi" and "Byakuya" were in their cosplays. We felt slightly out of place until some other cosplayers came in later (the McDonald's was some blocks away from the convention center).

Any more comments come this way, I'll answer by editing this post itself. Anyway, Day 2 comes tomorrow!
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Friday, April 13, 2007

   Sakura-Con: Day 1
Again, if you don't like reading a lot, you're in the wrong place. Go vote on the poll and write a caption on the front page instead if this is not your thing . . .

. . . by the way, I'm Chinese. "Icecore" is the Filipino one . . .


I got up from my pillows and patch of hotel floor at about 4:50am - someone's watch alarm was beeping. Scanning around the dark room, everyone else was still completely asleep. From a pile next to my head I grabbed my metal LED flashlight and watch to see the time. Like I had said earlier, we had all stayed up way too late and most likely needed all the sleep we could get. I knew another alarm would go off sooner or later, so I laid back down and waited quietly. 5am, Axel's cell phone went off, playing the battle theme from FFX. At that point I could see "Kisuke" reaching over to the night stand trying to either find the phone or turn on the lamp. I was standing up by this point, so I turned the lamp on for him and after a bit gave him the phone; he promptly turned off the alarm and flopped back to bed . . . I'm not lying, the man was unconscious the second his head hit the pillow.

So there I was, pretty much awake in a room of five other sleeping people freaking out about what to do: they definitely deserve the sleep, but we also had to register . . . after about ten minutes of thinking, I finally decided to wake up "Icecore" so at least the two of us could head off and nab a point in the line for everyone. So we got up, I set the phone alarm for 5:30 (later I wish I had put it to 6am), and left a note. "Icecore" and I dressed in "half-cosplay" of Shinsengumi haori, forehead protector and jeans and started heading out. "Yoruichi" stirred up just before we left, so I filled her in on what was going on and we were out the door.

"Icecore" and I actually got a really close-in point in the line-up, so that was alright. Mostly we just sat on the floor, eyes closed (or in "Icecore's" case, playing a DS). "Yoruichi" eventually met up with us while the rest slept or got ready. I could probably elaborate more, but the gist is that the phrase "fucking otaku" came up many a time in that early morning queue . . . yeah . . . . . but, we registered alright even after "Yoruichi" had to argue herself out of waiting in another line (again, more of that guardian/minor type stuff that drove her nuts the day before). But, we finally registered, felt good about it . . . as we left we saw the others from our room in the registration line-up at about 20-30 minutes away from the end. So that was good . . .

Back to the hotel to freshen up, possibly shower (I think I used yesterday's t-shirt as a towel), gel my hair with that ridiculously messy coloured hair gel, and REALLY change afterwards. Well, "Yoruichi" cleaned up a lot quicker than the rest of us and was dressed up in a sort of "chick pirate" dealie that involved some knee-high high-heeled boots and stuff (which I never got a picture of, sadly). While she was out, the rest of the guys piled into the room so they too could get ready ("Kisuke" had a lot of hair stuff to work with). Well, just as "Icecore", "Souji" and I finished getting our samurai clothes on, "Yoruichi" comes back into the room to change - seems her ridiculously badass boots are also impossible to walk in and had already hurt her! So, she was now finally officially "Yoruichi" for Sakura-Con . . . but she still had to put all her stuff together and do the finishing touches. So, "Icecore", "Souji" and I headed off to the con' and to soak up some early morningness.

We kinda just chilled, going up and down the escalators, taking a few pictures here and there, getting our pictures taken here and there . . . saw Big Chris dressed up as Afro (SO good . . .) . . . eventually "Yoruichi" made her debut in full garb and we joined our little party of Shinsengumi members. We eventually headed upstairs to where the main convention areas were once again and saw some familiar faces from Vancouver, so we went over to talk. Now, "Zack" who had actually won the "AE Bishounen Walkoff" in Vancouver was actually a Seattle native, but all the same he was an old face willing to chat for a bit.
Yeah, "Zack" is a good guy . . . gave me directions to Denny's.)

Oh yeah, it was during this late morning period where I saw a familiar face: Gail!!! Hugged her, said hello, had a good chat that probably bored everyone else I was with . . . but hey, it's cool to finally meet theOers, y'know? So yeah, Gail rules . . . and I love her laugh . . .

(Back to the hotel and back . . .)
I forget exactly why, but we went back to the hotel once again . . . probably to grab "Kisuke" and Axel, who were still putting themselves together - well, "Kisuke" more so . . . again, lots of hair products and flat irons and stuff. But we headed back, took some pictures . . . it was a bit before noon, before everything opening: Opening Ceremonies, Dealer's room . . . in our specific case, a Shinsengumi photo shoot . . .

(The other Shinsengumi squad . . .)
We found our other team waiting outside the line-up to go to the opening ceremonies. It goes without saying that once six uniforms were all together, there was a desparate need for photos. When a Kenshin cosplayer came by, well . . . it goes without saying that there was a desparate need for photos. So yeah, we got our pictures taken. Good times.

At noon we went to the "official" meeting place for our photo-shoot in case there were actually other Shinsengumi cosplayers there (of which there weren't). At that time, "Yoruichi", "Kisuke" and Axel went to the dealer's room to get stuff. We eventually went outside in the courtyard to take some more pictures under trees and stuff. Uhhm . . . there's really nothing more I need to add to that. We took pictures, took video of us charging the camera . . . then we were done.

Headed back in, ran into "Yoruichi", joined up with her, walked around some more . . . ran into "Kisuke" who had found an Ouran blazer in the dealer's room and was now Tamaki (and remained so for the rest of the con' . . . for our purposes, I'll keep calling him "Kisuke", though). From here on I think we pretty much just hung out all around the place, taking pictures, talking to other people . . . we eventually went to the "Host Club Panel", where Ouran cosplayers would try to entertain customers . . . heh. "Kisuke" was bored of watching it and left, while "Yoruichi" was hosted by "Kyouya" (whom she instead weirded out with weird discussion topics, apparently). Yeah, it sounded like the SCon Host Club was a bit of a bust . . . heh, and their Rangiku was scary.
("Yoruichi gets hosted . . . poorly, according to her . . .)

Well, eventually in the mid-afternoon it was time for the Bleach photoshoot, which "Yoruichi" obviously had to attend . . . we walked through the Final Fantasy shoot first, though, where I got some very important pictures: Zidane headbutting someone in the chest, and a picture with Rinoa (who also happened to be really hot. At some point during this I also took some pictures with some girls who later glomped me and stuff, saying something about how I was nice to let them do all that. My response, "It makes sense, I'm Canadian." Immediately they go "So are we!" Then we all geeked out and had a Canadian group hug . . . yeah, good times.

(One of many Bleach group shots)
But yeah, I took a LOT of Bleach pictures. There were a lot of them, after all (OVER 9000 of them!!!). And if they weren't of Bleach cosplayers specifically, they were of "Yoruichi" hanging out in trees. Heh, it worked, what can I say? Anyways, the other Shinsengumi guys came by and we talked some more . . . for you see, we had evil intentions . . . "crash the Bleach photoshoot!"

The five of us ("Souji" was off elsewhere somewhere, probably not according to plan) shouted and charged through the masses of shinigami . . . it was funny. And it sparked off ideas . . . I posted a link to the video before, but I'll post it again:


(Panda and Monkey Orange)
Also during this time I ran into Gail again as she was all decked out in Unohana cosplay. I also called her "Madam" to her face for the first time ever . . . she cracked up, I commented that she must have found it weird to hear it for the very first time ever . . . good times. But yeah, Gail and John are awesome people, and I can't praise them enough . . . but I'll do more of that tomorrow. Meantimes, I'll also mention that I met all of Monkey Orange's people . . . now, they were cool because they were all cosplaying from different shows, so when you went for the picture they all had very unique looks and poses . . . loved it!
(Monkey Orange's people . . .)

Anyways, after that shoot it was getting later, and there was a Masquerade Ball I wanted to go to - y'know, formalish dance stuff. So, we all headed back to the hotel to refresh and change (out of cosplay, as the case was for many). At this point I dressed into a suit as sort of a nameless Turk or something . . . in any case, it turned out that I didn't go to that, being that the person I wanted to go with wasn't quite as interested anymore. Dang. Again, just more walking around and stuff . . . "Kisuke" had apparently been kidnapped by the

We went for food after that, though. It was myself, "Icecore", "Yoruichi", and a couple new friends that "Yoruichi" knew from a previous year. A "Byakuya" cosplayer and his friend/relative (I never quite figured that out). In any case, we grabbed an electronic Queue thing from the Cheesecake Factory (again!) and began our 1-hour wait . . . while we waited we just talked, pissed off the Link cosplayers some more because it just worked out so well this time around because since it was really late most of the convention doors were now locked . . . so they were rattling wrong doors while we shouted "Hey! Listen! You're going the wrong way!" Oh, quick tangent . . .

So yeah, all convention - and I mean ALL convention - every time we saw a Link cosplayer, we let him have it. "HEEEY! WISSEN!!!!" Nonstop. We were horrible. And I think we also started a fad . . . but damn, we were horrible . . . anyways, back to Cheesecake Factory . . .

At about the 40 minute mark, "Yoruichi" couldn't hold it anymore and bought a crepe from a place behind us that looked incredibly delicious; thus, she killed her own appetite. What a girl . . . but, they buzzed us in finally, we sat down, ate some cheesecake and stuff . . . felt good . . . apparently Monkey Orange saw me in there in my suit . . . . .

After supper, we met up with a couple of "Yoruichi's" other convention friends. "Byakuya" and his friend/relative hauled ass at this point, being that it was getting beyond late. So now where are we . . . it's myself, "Yoruichi", "Icecore", and two new people. Well, we walked around downtown at night . . . again . . . ended up walking around in a circle . . . yeah. "Icecore" decided there was no more sense to this (especially since he was probably feeling awkward about it all) so he headed back to the hotel; the rest of us went to Pike Place Market. At night.

(Myself posing with my penny from yesterday)
I found my penny! And the gum behind it was still soft! So yeah, I got my picture finally. Eventually "Yoruichi" convinced people to go down to the waterfront area where there were other late-night denizens hangin' around . . . the other two were less impressed by this idea . . . poor things . . . again, like I said, "Yoruichi" is an adventurous person . . .
(The three of them riding a pig at Pike Place Market . . .)

The two girls had enough late night hill-climbing, so back to the hotels we went. Everyone else was already home, chilling, eating crackers, watching tv and such. "Souji" threw a plushie at my head, saying that was punishment for ditching her at the con' (she also didn't have a room key so she was stuck outside for a while . . . I felt bad about that). Nevertheless, there was one true saving grace to the night: we didn't have to wake up early for anything anymore! We could actually sleep tonight!

I showered but didn't wash my hair as I still had all that ridiculously messy coloured hair gel in my hair. Further, I was actually running out of coloured hair gel, so I figured I'd skimp on a day and sleep on my stomach that night. Yeah . . . more on that for tomorrow, though.


The alarms were set for maybe 9am or something like that. In any case, I was gonna have a less fun night face-down in my pillows on the floor . . . . .


[TO BE CONTINUED . . .]
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Thursday, April 12, 2007

   Sakura-Con: Prologue
This is where I shift into Wordy Bastard mode. You've been warned . . .


(To set the stage . . .)
Like I had planned, I got out the door before 8am so I could start picking up all my travelling companions. I hadn't slept much all night because I kept waking up to pack more stuff or just being unable to sleep. Anyways, once in the car I headed westward for half an hour, picked up Icecore (who is now actually a member of theO, might I add) and then picked up "Souji" (whose cosplay was still unfinished at this point). After that, I head BACK eastward for half an hour to forty minutes to get "Yoruichi" (everyone lived quite a ways from each other). Finally, once we had a full trunk and an iPod of Latin Hip-hop (courtesy of "Yoruichi"), we headed southbound.

The actual border was pretty quick an uneventful unlike the last time I headed down by myself. Heh, I actually used "anime convention" in my "purpose of this trip" answer and the guy didn't give it a second thought! The worst of it was that Icecore's hair was substantially longer than it was in his ID, so the border guy kept taking a closer look at him. Buuut, no harm no foul. Off we went!

I forget where we stopped exactly next. It was about an hour south from the border on the I-5 when we pulled off for gas and breakfast at Denny's (which I love). Heh, Denny's is becoming a sort of convention tradition for me, I feel . . . anyone who goes convention-going with me, keep this in mind. But yeah, had breakfast, I drank 3 cups of coffee since I was driving, "Yoruichi" kicked a hole in my shin at some point in the middle just because she could . . . in any case, we were all very full and content. Back to the I-5 . . .

I think we got to the edge of Seattle a bit past noon, where traffic really started to chug down. The drive itself was pretty nice, though - really nice weather, we made good time and all - but once you got close to the actual city, it was game over. Hehe . . . luckily, "Yoruichi" mostly knew where we needed to go as she was a Sakura-Con veteran by this point. We ended up driving past a lot of places in a scouting sort of manner (that, or we just kept getting lost). Either way, we found the Convention Center (and the Cheesecake Factory) and our hotel . . . however, it was another friend of "Yoruichi's" who had booked the room, and he still had a ways to go before arriving in Seattle. Thus, we kept parking in various different pay places here and there in downtown Seattle for the next bit.

(Walkin' around Downtown Seattle.)
Anyways, it's middle of the afternoon, and now the four of us are just walkin' around, takin' in the sights. It's funny, because for us Downtown Seattle feels very much like Downtown Vancouver. Heh, if anything it seemed cleaner to us! A Seattle native later disagreed with us, but yeah . . . that comes later. So we just walked around a bit, jump on a random bus that takes us quite a bits away from downtown Seattle . . . heh, eventually when we had gone over a bridge we decided we needed to turn back around; we just barely got back to the car in time before our parking ran out, but yeah. One saving grace was that "Yoruichi" grabbed a transit map at some point along the way - we finally had a map of the local surroundings!

Oh yeah, before we headed back to the car, we went to the Convention Center first to scout it out and see where the pre-reg' line-up was gonna be. In any case, it wasn't open yet so off we went . . .

Eventually we made our way to Pike Place Market and looked around some more. The market itself was neat, everyone except me bought some form of jewelry at some point . . . tossed some money to an old busker who was singing anti-Bush songs that were amusing . . . . . y'know, good times. In the lower levels we found a jewelry shop lady with a baby strapped to her chest and a dog on her counter; thus, we had to talk to her. She was the one who mentioned that Vancouver was cleaner than Seattle . . . also funny enough, we all had ties to her ethnic background (she was part Chinese, part Filipino, part Hispanic). But yeah, she was a nice lady to talk to . . . and, she pointed us in the direction of the Gum wall!

(The Gum Wall in all its Gum Wall glory)
If you look in my picture gallery I posted last post, you can see pictures of the Gum Wall (in the "Beyond the Con" album). Yeah, that thing was freakin' cool. Except my batteries died before I could get a picture of myself in front of the wall. Damn. In any case, I stuck a Canadian penny to the wall with my gum before we left . . . . . now keep that bit in mind for tomorrow's post, okay? Okay!

It was much later in the day by this point, being about 5pm or something like that. "Yoruichi" was the only one out of us who had pre-registered, and as such was eligible to get her badge and stuff this day instead of Friday morning. So off to the con' we went . . . parked in the convention's parkade next to some anime-related van and headed in.

Inside, we were looking at a 45-minute line or so. And people were already cosplaying. Heh . . . this was more or less the first of many, many points in the trip where the mutterings, "fucking otaku..." left my lips. 'Cause honestly, some people are just, well . . . . . yeah, "fucking otaku...". Heh, I also learned that my previous theory that "West coast cosplayers are just more attractive than some others" did not apply here. Umm . . . I think I'll that at that. On the plus side, I did see "Big Chris" at the line-up. For those of you who don't know, Chris is famous on the west coast convention path as the big black man with a heart of gold. It's hard not to love him. I just went over to say hi and to tell him that everyone in Vancouver missed him over the summer (personal things came up for him so he didn't make it to Anime Evolution that year). Heh, he in turn saw me and picked me up in a hug. Yeah, cool guy . . .
(Big Chris and I together, Day 1)

Anyways, once "Yoruichi" got to the desks, she got busted because since she's not quite 18 yet she needed a guardian at the con' who already has his or her badge . . . soooo, she had to wait 'til tomorrow morning for me to get mine. Yeah, she was pissed.

We went to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner after that. While "Yoruichi" and "Souji" waited outside with the little electronic queue thingy, Icecore and I got the car out of the Convention Center parkage (which allegedly closes at 8pm). We then parked in the big parkade across from the Convention Center and next to the Cheesecake Factory; by this point, I had long since accepted that I was gonna be paying out the bum for parking this weekend . . .

Cheesecake Factory was good, though. After the hour-wait to get in, we all had burgers and stuff, toasted to friends new and old, and to our luck that we weren't as bad as the "fucking otaku" just yet. Somewhere along the meal "Yoruichi" got called by her friends and our roommates who had finally arrived in Seattle. Well, they had all pre-registered, so maybe there was a chance everyone could still get their badges tonight . . . so, "Yoruichi" hauled ass to meet up with them and see if they could make it . . . they weren't able to, but they tried.

Anyway, where are we . . . oh right, we paid the bill and met the others outside. We had "Kisuke" who booked the room, and his friend Axel (who was actually named Axel, awesomely enough). Anyway, they headed to the Sheraton while we got the car so we could park at the Sheraton's hotel before taking our stuff out.

Here's where it gets funny and sad all at once . . . . . so we leave the parkage, pay $5 or something for the hour or two we spent in there, and start circling the Sheraton trying to follow the signs to their parking. Well, it's not working, so we pull up to their front door to ask them where we're parking. You see, the Seattle Sheraton doesn't ACTUALLY have a parking lot, but we can park at the public parkade across the corner, where they'll give us a thing to hang on our mirror (though we'll still be paying the parkade rates of $26 per 24 hours . . . ick).

Yeah . . . if anyone figured it out, we were supposed to park in the exact same parkade we were just in. We also ended up parking right back in pretty much the exact same spot we had earlier. Burn.

(Chilling in the hotel, fixing our outfits . . .)
Back to the hotel with all our bags and stuff, got up to the 18th floor, got into our room. And yes, we were room stuffing which is a no-no but we couldn't help it. So we all settled in, figured out where everyone was sleeping ("Kisuke" and Axel got beds, "Yoruichi" pushed the big chairs together to make a bed, and "Souji", Icecore and myself were on the floors which was fine). While we chilled for a bit, getting to know each other and whatnot, "Souji" quickly went back to work on finishing her outfit. Yeah, she was really freaking out at this point . . . but, she pulled it off just in time, so yay. "Yoruichi" also put the finishing touches on her top and stuff as well while the rest of us just hung out, took pictures . . .

(Parkade trip!)
Well, "Kisuke" wanted to get stuff out of his car, so we went back to the parkade. If you look at the pictures, you can see that part of the trip . . . along with the dork with the "Saiyan" plates. So we got that stuff; now we needed to decide what to do next.
(Fucking otaku...)

(Axel, "Yoruichi" and "Souji" trapped in the bright Seattle lights)
I think it's important to stress that by this point in the night it was well past midnight. Buuut, "Yoruichi" being the freakin' adventurous person she is wanted to head off into Downtown Seattle . . . we figured maybe we could find food or something, as "Kisuke" and Axel hadn't eaten yet. Heh . . . . . yeah, we didn't find food. They got a little grumpy (they had instant noodles at the hotel, you see). But, it was still fun, we took pictures, ran up some stairs like in Rocky . . . Downtown Seattle was our playground that night . . . we were curious so we swung by the convention center just to see where the "camping out all night" line-up for registration was and how bad it would be . . . at this point many of us were seriously considering camping out for a spot in the line . . . . . thankfully we didn't, but we'll get to that later.


Got back to the hotel, "Kisuke" and Axel made noodles, the coffee pot shattered at some point in the process (it REALLY should not have broken that easily . . .) . . . and by about 2am we figured it was time to go to bed and wake up early enough to get in line for registration - I had heard some scary, scary war stories about registration at Sakura-Con. Thus, we set all our alarms for 5am which would give us enough time to dress enough and get into the line-up . . . then it was bedtime for the six of us, who now only had three hours to really rest up for the longest Friday of the year up to that point . . . . .


[TO BE CONTINUED . . .]
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Wednesday, April 11, 2007

   Sakura-Con: Intro to the Prologue . . .
First off . . . Toxyu, the girl in the picture is Katara, from "Avatar: The Last Airbender". Great show on Nickelodeon, I wholeheartedly recommend it.


Evidently, I'm still feeling too tired and/or lazy to really post about Sakura-Con. So what I will say is that I got my whole album up. Take a look if you'd like:

http://s6.photobucket.com/albums/y238/emonkataren/Sakura-Con%202007/


Aside from that . . . I'm up on YouTube again with videos! Again, take a look if you'd like:

Building up to a battle scene.
Baby Urahara Kisuke.
Yoruichi being frighteningly cute.
Yoruichi kicking Domo-kun's big brown butt.
Me getting cheap laughs.

That last one might not be working yet. It's taking it a long time to register with YouTube . . . but it'll get there eventually . . .


I'll try to blog about the road trip starting tomorrow!


[EDIT:] Since Bossman asked . . . so y'all notice how there are substantially fewer pictures on Day 2 compared to all the other days? As disheartening as it was . . . I actually got caught with dead batteries that day (my extra magazine of batteries apparently wasn't fully charged after all); the picture of Suki from Avatar was literally right next to the theO meet-up and then the batteries went kaput. Mostly we're waiting on Gail and John's photos (which'll look awesome because they have a super camera . . . and the roster sheet).

However, all is not lost . . . my friend took a few random shots here and there of a few of us. Even better, though, is Miss Anonymous' camera, whose theO picture I have in turn just burgled to post at the bottom of this (because unlike me, some members were ACTUALLY trying to help the cause!).

Again, John's pics are the ones you wanna wait for. But in the meantime:

Burgled from Miss Anonymous' Album . . . theOtaku at Sakura-Con!
Including John, that's ten of us. Not too shabby for a first time around, eh?
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Tuesday, April 10, 2007

   Well, I'm back . . .
My feet hurt. And I'm sleepy.

Anyways, I've uploaded Day 1's photos, so go at it:

Sakura-Con, Day 1


I'll tell you more as soon as I can. I will tell you, though, that Gail/Panda has the most wonderful belly-laugh. Further, Link cosplayers probably hate me and will forever and ever.
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Thursday, April 5, 2007

   Alright! My work is done for the week!
Did the DVD releases (and Engrish was spoken)
Did the weekly poll (where records were broken)

And off to pack luggage (two cosplays, no less)
and rest up for driving (3 hours at best)

. . . and might I add, tabi socks weird me out. Even though mine are fake. I need real ones to weird me out some day . . .

. . . oh yeah, and one person wants me to bring a glue gun . . .

. . . . . and I'm supposed to get gas after I cross the border since it'll be cheaper . . .

. . . oh, need to recharge the camera batteries . . .

While I'm gone, watch this to make you feel better:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fVDGu82FeQ


Yeah, I think I'm done. See you guys on . . . Monday. I promise I'll have some fun things for you all when I return!
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