my moral standing is lying down

Fanvideo of cosplayers from this past weekend's Ohayocon 2011.

I like the slo-mo, I like the song, I like the fluttering costumes and the sort-of-wavy pan ins/outs. Doesn't go any deeper than that. (I can't be bothered with cosplay politics, people.) Enjoy! =D

I'm right smack-dab in the middle of World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks, and it is pretty darn awesome. I'm not usually one for non-fiction, and even though this is obviously fiction, it's written in a non-fiction/doctumentary style. HOWEVER, I have been in the mood to read non-fiction lately, so it worked out to perfect timing. (It's been sitting in my office desk drawer for the last year, lent to me by my boss.)

I really like how it starts at the beginning, chronologically, and goes through the war. Every "interview" is with a different person, in a different state or country, and reveals more and more about the status of the world's survival strategy (or lack thereof).

In most books and novels I read, I feel like the author tells a story -- the story is built up as events happen in the present time; even the history of the characters or the world they're in is "added" in for exposition or affect. In this case, however, I feel that Brooks slowly reveals what has happened in such a subtle and talented way. I'm not sure if that's only because of the documentary style he adopts, but he pulls it off perfectly. It's absolutely captivating. I can't wait to finish it.

I know the rights to the movie have been bought, but it's not even in pre-production yet. Seems like they're still working on the script? This would make such an awesome documentary-style movie; I wonder if they'd keep it that way, or if they'd just make it into a typical movie instead.

Speaking of movies, I've re-watched a million recently while working on cosplay at home. I finally watched Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (#3), which I thought was much better than the second one (which was insanely boring and stupid). The third still had way too much Keira Knightly in it, but the scenes of Jack in Davey Jones' Locker are surreal and amazing. Those scenes make the whole movie worth seeing; they're absolutely gorgeous.

So yes, at home I'm working slaving over our Drakengard cosplay. As usual, we leave things for the last minute, and now we're cramming to get everything done in time for Otakon. I'm actually apprehensive that we won't be able to finish things up (unlike previous years where I was confident we'd finish by deadline). So we'll see how that works out. I'm excited for it, but I know that not many will recognize where we're from, which is too bad as I think that game ROCKS!

Even better? I'm actually going to have fake rose petals with me so I spin around and be crazy. (See icon above.)

Maryann asked me about Rei from Breath of Fire III, so I did an image search to refresh my memory about the details of his clothing and look what I came across...

Otakon 2001 pics... ah memories

But that isn't the funniest part...

The first picture in the second row has Liz (metallicapixie) and Angelica (koyappi) in it! Liz was 13 at the time... <3! And Angelica and I were 20... >_<;

Back in 2001 we didn't even bother to look for pics of ourselves online...


In other news, I'm watching the DVR recording of tonight's Rangers vs. Devils game... it's a really good game, and I'm excited to see what the result will be. I never thought I'd be so happy to have a DVR -- I thought I wouldn't be interested in watching a game that wasn't live, but as long as I don't spoil myself, I still enjoy it. It's also even better, because if I miss something, I can just rewind it! Hahahaha! I've seen every game since the season opener (except for the second one) and I've been having a really good time following everything. I hope to continue following the games as religiously as possible. =D

Cake is going to be playing at the Starland Ballroom!!!!

Wednesday, October 1st
7:00pm
$31.50 GA
tickets

I want to go SO BAD! And it's relatively cheap! But it's at Starland, which means it's a PAIN to get to from the city by mass transit and it's on a weekday, to boot. ;_; I've never seen Cake before live, and I'd really like to, dammit!

It's times like these I really wish I had a car.


In other news, Zoltan confirmed that he & Jon would both be joining us, so yaye~ more people in the room. =D I wonder what their experience will be like, with a 25,000-people con as their first. It's actually really difficult for me to imagine what it's like coming to cons for the first time nowadays since it's been so long since I started attending these... and since it's been so long since I've actually done anything but cosplay and hang out.

I passed out last night at midnight -- on the floor, no less -- after sewing the collar onto Liz's kimono. Tonight I will be making up for it by most likely not sleeping until I get on the greyhound tomorrow morning. Ah, crunch time. >_<;

Friday night weirdness ensued when half the power in the house went out (oddly enough, all the power was out except for the TV outlet, so Rock Band was still able to be played... in the dark, except for the one lamp that's plugged in next to the TV), and was mirrored outside where you could see that half the block had power and half didn't. I took advantage of this opportunity to scare Maryann, which never gets old =D It's really too bad she wasn't at Anna's place on Sunday when the winds of hell blew the balcony door open abruptly as I know she would have been across the apartment in 1 second flat, possibly even clinging to the ceiling. And then when the TV turned off by itself -- ahh, what missed opportunities!

Saturday, Maryann and I went over to Judy's. Not surprisingly, we headed out a little later than we intended, but Judy got super-wasted the night before, so it worked out alright. I finished that damn Little Sister dress some time around 1am, I think! It was kind of fun to put on a dress that so obviously looks like a 5 year old should be wearing it. ^^; It was white at the time, but Judy soaked the dresses in coffee for a dirty look, though she wants to add "blood splatters" & etc., so we still have finishing touches to add. Maryann is helping us out by making a Big Daddy plushie, which I have named Mr. Bubbles, which is only fitting. He's coming along nicely. =D

We didn't get to sleep til around 3am, and woke up the next day a little before 10am to get to the New Year Parade in Chinatown, which was quite fun. Ate some decent food and actually got a decent view of the parade. I took lots of pictures, of which I may post one or two later. Maryann bought 2 "poppers" and we exploded them, which was exciting. And Judy bought a box of snaps, which I was extremely happy about as I miss sitting out on my old fire escape and throwing them down at people. Ah, nostalgia~. ALSO! I GOT MY WATCH BATTERY CHANGED, FINALLY! YAYE~!

Met up with Anna after the parade and went to her place to discuss Cosclips business. Which was probably 75% hanging out and 25% discussing business, but still, we discussed what we had to. Jim was cool and drove us all to our respective houses, for which I was extremely relieved because if I'd had to go home by train/bus from Manhattan at midnight when we got to Judy's, or at 1:30am, when we finally called it a night, it would have taken me at least 2 hours to get to Queens, plus a cab ride from the subway station to get home -- in the bitter, bitter cold, and with 3 bags, 2 large umbrellas, and a partridge in a pear tree.

Instead, it took twenty minutes, so I got home at 2am, and it was a nice toasty car ride on the extremely deserted highway. =D

Though, of course, that means I didn't get to sleep til 3am because Maryann was still up when I got home. Hahaha.

Even so, I was so full of energy -- I had a really fun time all day yesterday, and I probably could have stayed up for another hour or two, but I was well aware it was Sunday night and I had to be in decent shape for today. Good thing, too, because I've been insanely busy since around 11:30 or so. I was very sleepy during those first two hours of not having much to do. And I'm feeling a bit tired again now that it's almost quittin' time, but I have Japanese class soon...

Shoot 'Em Up on Friday was fun. We had a big group and actually bumped into Anna and Ben at the theater, who had just seen Dragonwars?, and decided to sneak into the theater with us. Two for the price of one is always good. ^^ The movie itself was almost literally non-stop action, so the boys were very pleased with it. I found it to be very amusing and slightly silly, but I liked it still. There were a couple of parts that I really loved. And Clive Owen was excellent.

Judy's 80s party on Saturday was awesome! I had so much fun dressing up; I was so excited to be able to finally use that petticoat that I've had for years. It took me a long time to finally match Liz's blue boots, so I was all excited about wearing them, but then they were off within 1/2 hour, replaced with Liz's sexy gray patent leather 3" heels. ♥ Too bad I took them off at some point and stubbed my pinky toe really badly on the couch -- the toe is now swollen and bruised with the bruise extending like 2" down onto my foot. ^^; It's only a little painful, and fortunately not horrible.

Everyone that dressed up looked great. Kelly & Katie, not surprisingly, looked amazing. I absolutely loved Katie's white blazer with zebra print trim.

And of course there was 80s music. A good mix, and definitely some of my new wave favorites, like Adam Ant's Goody Two Shoes... A-Ha's Take On Me, Bon Jovi, lots of other stuff I can't remember -- oh yes, Judy humored me and downloaded the Jem theme song! LOL! Unfortunately, I did not get to hear Berlin's The Metro. Judy mentioned that she'd probably play more of the 80s music at her Halloween/birthday party, so we'll get to hear more of it.

( hmm, seems like Sean... or Don Johnson...? ...and the wigs... were really making the rounds )

More pics here. It goes from the end to the beginning, so the first ones up there are with lots of buzzed laughing going on. ^^; I think a good number of these pics are making it up on myspace and/or facebook. I think I also might have to make an icon out of one.

So you wanna know how far we got working on our KH-Tron costumes? Hahahaha! We got out the sewing machine and located the patterns. We'd already bought the fabric. Yeah. That's it. We were gonna cut the fabric but then ended up playing some KH to show Juliet. ^^;

But I think we owe blackmage137 for coming over 'cause we probably wouldn't have even brought out the sewing machine and stuff if he hadn't come over. It was really nice to have you over, AJ! =D (Oh, darn, I just realized that I forgot to lend you the Prestige DVD.)

So you know what I did today? I was horribly bad. I went shopping. Oh man. Bags and shoes, baby -- bags. and. shoes. And the most adorable pink plastic piggy earrings. =D The bulk of my spending was in anticipation of having an "office job" -- so it isn't a waste of money. Really. In fact, most of the stuff I got was on sale. It's just that... I don't have a job yet. Haha. ^^;



On a slightly different note, after making that list of what songs I'm into right now, I put in the Buck-Tick tribute album, Parade ~Respective Tracks of Buck-Tick~, which was released in 2005, but that I never got around to listening to. It's AWESOME!!! すごい！ I'm really enjoying hearing BT songs played and sung in different styles and by different people. I'm really enjoying it. =D

What we were cosplaying: Kingdom Hearts II: Timeless River Sora, Donald & Goofy, along with KH2 Hayner, Roxas and Axel.



Goofy (Liz), Hayner (Juliet), Sora (Sara), Donald (Maryann). Click for larger pic.

( More pics. You know you want to see them... )

Some more random pics can be found in this directory.

Oh! Some cool news -- Liz, Maryann and I entered the Hall Costume Contest for Friday in the Novice category (because this was our first time entering a contest) ...and won second place! *squeeeee* We were the very last group to be judged on Friday, and the judges were cool and funny, and it was actually really awesome and fun getting to explain how we went about making everything! *more squee*

KH2:

1. vest pattern
   
2. wig
   
3. hats
   
4. shield
   
5. shoes
   
6. gloves
   
7. stuffing
   
8. single fold bias tape
   
9. hooded jacket pattern
   
10. stiff white twill, 2 yds
    
11. 24" white #8 zipper
    

FMA:

1. dress pattern for Lust (windsorblue, what did you do? Buy a dress/make one from a pattern/make one from awesome sewing knowledge?)
   
2. gloves
   
3. bald cap
   
4. stuffing
   
5. white contacts
   
6. wigs
   
7. denim jacket
   
8. white fur collar
   

Am I forgetting anything?

Probably.

(1) NIN is playing the Friday night of AnimeNEXT at the PNC Bank Arts Center. Oh, what shall I do? Go? Can I afford it? Err, money/planning/decisions.

(2a) OMG, MUCC is playing Otakon.
(2b) We should probably buy bus tickets sometime soon, right?
(2c) Looks like our cosplay group is narrowed down to me, Maryann, Liz, and Juliet cosplaying the grey-scale versions of Sora, Donald & Goofy from the Timeless River world, with Juliet cosplaying Hayner to match up with Angelica's Roxas (except that I think Angelica isn't cosplaying the casual version of Roxas, so it may not quite match) and possibly Lene as Axel. The four of us will also be cosplaying 4 of the homunculi from FMA: Liz and I will be Lust and Gluttony, Maryann will be either Envy or Sloth, and Juliet will be Greed. ♥

(3) For anyone who is going to Ycon, the $40 pre-reg ends May 31st, so you should send in your registration payment by that date. The next tier is $50 until Sept 20th, and $60 at-door.

Angelica, I'd appreciate it if you could find out from your mom if she can get me those opaque, white contact lenses, and how much a pair would be. Sankyuu~