Pulled The Trigger

As of February 26th, I am fully registered for the con.

So I have the hotel reserved & my badge paid for. There are a few items to work out, but that won't be probably until late March and into April & May.

Either than that, I have something in plan if everything works out in April...

Sac-Con March '08

Unfortunately, I forgot to bring my camera along with me so I don't have any pictures to post. :(
However, the Conpix guy took my picture of couple of times so those will be posted when he posts them.

This con gave me a chance to see everyone and to make good use of a day off (that I didn't even take off!).

Unlike the last con, I was very reserved when it came to peacebonding, not going after everyone and keeping quiet. I think if I just lay back and do my job without any outbursts, I'll be good. And for the most part, I ran into no resistance.

The Masquarade always brings in new flavors, and I always see something newe specially with the amount of work that these cosplayers put into. Makes me want to buy a sowing machine and start churning out costumes left and right.

Good times, good times.

Now if you will excuse me, I need to prepare for Fanime.

Building a AX Blog...

While I was down in LA (Yeah, I went to Disneyland among other things), my uncle told me that one of my cousins who lives down here was interested in going to an anime convention in the area. I asked him if it was AX, and he said yes.

At that point, I had a serious consideration of coming down to AX. One of my major problems, however, is my finances after FanimeCon (and thus, me posting this on the FanimeCon Blog). The good thing is that it's not too much to fly to LA (more like Ontario) and back, and I would be staying with family instead of a hotel, which makes the finance situation better and would improve the odds of me going. The tax rebate check could also make things easier, especially if I put that check towards AX.

I won't really know until after Fanime, but I really want to go back to AX - it would be 6 years since my first visit to an anime convention, AX '02 down in Long Beach (which was a good locale for the attendance size in '02 compared to '07, but I can't speak on that because I didn't go).

I've reserved the blog URL for my AX Blog, and I've added some items so that the layout mirrors that of the two other blogs. If I go, the blog stays; if I don't go, the blog goes bye-bye.

Meanwhile...*waits for Fanime*

More of them?

I finally found my pics at ConsPlayers, but, again, it's me with my badge on!

However, this is the best shot he got from me on Saturday:

Reaction To My Skit

For some odd reason, I keep forgetting to post this...



I never had a recorded reaction to how everything went with the skit, so when I got up there I decided to set my camera down and let it roll from the time I'm up there to when I got back. In all, it was about 2 minutes from Point A to Point B.

The music you hear is from Call of Duty 4, an edited version of "Coup" - the first 24 seconds is cut and starts with the main part of the music (for the people who have played the game, it's right after Al-Fulani gets hit by a buttstock of a AK-47 and is driven away). I had them fade it at the max time for a walk-on, 30 seconds, so I had enough for about 3 poses.

I picked up on some people that said certain things, then I listened to when they say it. One person saids "Oh come on!" but I think that's when I started to walk off. But that's the reason why I got the vid, to key off people's reactions.

What's funny is that Bart, the photographer on the way right, notices that the camera is rolling and just stares at it before I pick it up and prepare to take pictures for #5 (the eventual "Best In Show").

(A funny fact - I sat between the Best In Show [#5] and Best Costume [#1, the Zelda]. It's kind of hard act to swallow, but hey at least I can say that I sat between two winners.)

I like what I got, and I hope do it again if I get back on stage.

Random fun with me Pt. 1

Gah, I got bored waiting in line at the FMA panel...




Now it's time for Story Story Die, Ouran Edition!

Pt. 1


Pt. 2


Pt. 3

Reservations

Maybe I jumped the gun on it, but on the shoutbox at the Sac-Anime Forums, someone said that the Hilton was sold out for Fanime. So I did the correct thing, and put down my reservations for the Marriot for Fanime. That way, I can get it out of the way and only worry about pre-registering, which I will immediately do after my tax refund gets back (which, I need to get started on, probably tomorrow).

I'm probably going to keep my two costumes for Fanime, my Ouran (which I'm going to fix for Fanime) and my FMA (which had a strong showing at Sac-Anime Winter 2008). There is currently no plans to cosplay a third costume, unless I get a very good idea.

It's only January, but Fanime plans are chugging along...

Official Sac-Anime Winter 2008 Report

The clouds were still overhead when the con started on Friday, but that didn't damper our spirits. I got there about 8:45AM - way before anyone else showed up. So, I just stuck around, hung out with people that trickled in, and caught more sleep. Eventually things would kick up when the con opened at 3PM, and the people started to pour in wanting their weekend badges. I was ready at my station - peace bonding - and for most of the afternoon I worked and did some crowd control at the front of the con. We had 3 seperate aisles - one for people who were coming in and paying, an exit lane, and a re-entry lane, so we tried to funnel everyone down the right path so that bottlenecks don't occur. I had the chance to meet all four Guests of Honor - Vic, Travis, Laura, and Darrel. I saw Laura Bailey and Travis Willingham at her panel in which I got my Gunslinger Girl DVD signed, just one of the many pieces of merchandise/official material that I would get signed. The Opening Ceremonies were awesome; highlights include all four Guests of Honor battling it out with silly string, and the two dance performances. The Rave went on and was very good, although I thought it was better to crash early and prepare for tomorrow.

As expected, Saturday was a big day. Yeah, it was still cloudy, but that didn't stop more people from coming. Again, I got there around 8:45AM, and I had half my costume already on - I just had to put the coat entail, coat, and my weapons on. At least this time around, everyone showed up around this time since we opened at 10AM. As a peace bonder, you get to see some very nice cosplay costumes, and I was able to get a few snapshots with my camera that I had purchased for just this one purpose - to take better con pictures. Since I heard that the Guests of Honor would be doing additional autograph sessions since they all kick ass, I brought more material for them to sign. The highlight of Day 2 was the FMA Panel; my god, that has to be the best panel I've sat in probably my whole entire con life. However, the panel ran for over 3 hours, not counting the time it took it spent for Vic, Travis, and Laura to sign, especially with the "one item per attendee" rule scrapped out because they love us so much. The gathering did happen, pretty late though, but at least they also showed up for the picture. I found out later that a bunch of other events that I was unaware of happened, such as another FMA photoshoot that the photographer from Conpix.net got, a giant game of Duck Duck Goose, and a giant Conga line out front. The bands came later that night, and I was able to get autographs from The Slants, who were freakin' awesome despite some sound issues. Later in the night was also the very anticipated Rayman Carrot Juice contest - yes, that mini-game. I was very suprised that I put up 2'08", although I knew that a handful of people could beat that time. Still, I ended up in 3rd place, not too bad. Yaoi bingo also took place during that time, and well I didn't win anything. Time for me to go home and get ready for the last day.

Finally, at last - it's a nice, partly cloudy day for the last day of the con. We knew this would be hectic day of them all, with Vic and Travis both running their panels, plus the Masquerade, which I was in. More autograph sessions took place, and in the end everyone went home happy with either autographs. But like always, the Masquerade will take any day of a con, and it sure did that day. There were some good skits and walk-ons, and everyone who won deserved their award for their particular reason. The intermission bits were just as good as the Masquerade - Azn Inspiration performed again, a nice going away dance for us to remember on. But of course, I will never forget how much me and a Riza Hawkeye cosplayer dominated in Anime Jeopardy. It went well for a game that was made an hour ago before the Masquerade started. Yeah, some still think I gloat over it, but hey we all have our memories from a con, and this is mine. By 8:30PM, I was tired and I decided to head on home to rest.

Sure, it's a change of pace from what we experience back in the Red Lion Inn, but everyone put their hard work into putting this con on, and it KICKED ASS! Thanks to everyone who made this possible!

See you all in 9 months (that would be August)...

Getting Back Into Gear

Just as Sac-Anime passed this weekend, this week is passing too, and next week I go back to school. Today I went to City to pick up the rest of my books (I got two online), my UTP sticker, and went to see who was at the ASG office the week before school starts.

My full con report will be coming later in the evening, and the "Best Of" Photos will be up probably tomorrow if I don't do them tonight.

Interesting...

I just realized this...


Here's the question: do I either go to Sac-Con, or save up and go to the Cosplay Picnic instead? This will probably be itching me as we get closer...