A very delayed post ^^

My Senior Project kind of ate my soul this semester, hence why I haven’t blogged in forever (but I got an A, so its all okay!). The photo book came out AWESOME! I’m going to be putting it public on Blurb (the site I made it through) so people can buy it, if the people I know that are in the book are interested. I have to make some minor tweaks, because some images didn’t come out as well as they looked on my computer. If I get good interest, I may offer to make books like this for people that I shoot at cons this summer.

So since my last post, I’ve been to three conventions – Katsucon in February, I-Con in March, and Anime Boston in April. Katsucon was during a hectic week for me – I was at the con all weekend, then covering the Westminster Dog Show the Monday & Tuesday after the con for my school’s paper, came back to campus that Wednesday and had to do homework and do my article, then had the first half of my Senior Project due that Friday (which was supposed to be that Wednesday, but I got an extension because there was NO WAY IN HELL I was getting it done by then).

The hotel where the convention was held was GORGEOUS! There was this pretty indoor gazebo in this open area, and a leafy area with fountains downstairs. My crew got there later than expected due to traffic, but I was still able to catch part of the Fushigi Yuugi photoshoot. I was so pumped for it – Fushigi Yuugi was the first series I ever cosplayed from, and I haven’t seen any cosplayers/photoshoots from it in years. So when I saw people were planning a shoot, I dug out Amiboshi from my basement – since he was the least beat up of the four costumes ^^. (Okay, I’m trying to upload pictures to this post, but WordPress is being a FAIL. I’ll try to fix this later).

I was in Cosplay Chess as Tifa from Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. Unlike at most cons, Chess there wasn’t a Main Event, but was fan-organized and held not on a big stage. Still was fun though – I got to beat some dude from some series I don’t remember lol, then Ryu from Street Fighter, but I eventually got beat by Death the Kid from Soul Eater.

This was the first con I got to try out the portrait lens I got for Christmas, and I LOVE LOVE LOVE it =D. Katsucon was the first con in a while where I was really impressed by a bunch of costumes. I also met some cool people and got a few interviews done for my project. The Masquerade was also pretty hilarious, and one of my Hetalia friends ended up winning a few awards =D. One of the judges was wearing an awesome Codex costume – I hope mine comes out that good this summer ^^. There was a Pokemon photoshoot after the Masquerade – which was pretty small, especially compared to the insanity that was the shoot at Otakon last summer lol. Ends up the Lt. Surge that was at Zenkaikon was there (he did not tease me this time, as I was Jolteon ^^), and the awesome quadruped Suicune girl that I see at Otakon every year – she had won an award in the Hall Costume Contest ^^.

Sunday was short, but fun because my boyfriend and I were Dr. Horrible and Penny – and we ran into a female Captain Hammer.

Tomorrow, I’ll post about I-Con and Anime Boston. Promise!

Anime Boston Cosplay Chess!

So I got majorly excited last night because Anime Boston’s website  (finally) put up information for Cosplay Chess! Speak of the devil, and they shall come… because I had told my friend Billy (my Ash from Chess at last year’s AB) that I’ve been obsessive-compulsively checking the site for info. We both had a blast last year, and want in again.

The theme for chess this year is “Past vs. Future”, with the Cosplot being “Mad Science and Time Travel”. I’m sooooo applying with a large chunk or my costumes. They say on the Chess and Cosplot pages “The more costumes you include on your application, the more likely you are to be accepted.” and “Priority will go to experienced cosplayers, especially those who have participated in other cosplay events at past Anime Boston conventions, particularly Cosplay Human Chess and the Anime Dating Game.”  I have… over 20 costumes completed at this point (with a few in the works), have been cosplaying for nearly 7 years, and I was in Cosplay Chess last year – so my chances look pretty sweet I hope =D.

I’m making notes for myself here of who would fit on what side:

Amiboshi (Fushigi Yuugi) ~ Past (considering how I’m touching him up for Katsucon, he’d be my choice of my FY arsenal. Soi’s wig is a mess, Hikitsu’s not very well-known, and Tasuki’s really old and I have not idea what condition the fan is in)

North Italy (Hetalia) ~ Past

Flareon (Pokemon) ~ could be either

Jolteon (Pokemon) ~ could be either

White Mage (Final Fantasy Tactics) ~ Past

Penny & my boyfriend as Dr. Horrible (Dr. Horrible’s Sing-along Blog) ~ Future (because Dr. Horrible is the future leader of the world, mwahahahaha!). Since I just realized that the Cosplot is Mad Science and Time Travel, I think these guys may be the best fit/our best chance of getting in.

Faye Valentine (Cowboy Bebop) ~ Future

Tifa (Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children) ~ not sure what side she’d be. Future? (edit – lol okay so according to the Final Fantasy Wiki, Tifa was born in 1987 and is 22 at the time of Advent Children – making her be in the Present. Scratch her XD)

Definitely not applying with Reno or Irvine, since my hair is not long enough to do the ponytail. Misa Misa would be the Present, so she doesn’t fit (plus I wouldn’t apply to something like this with her since I don’t have a wig). Espeon’s the plainest of my Eeveelutions, so my chances wouldn’t be that good. Most of my other characteter would either qualify as the Present, or are just old/some part of the costume doesn’t fit anymore.

Oh man…

That starts the Saturday of Zenkaikon. I think a road trip to a Toys R Us that weekend in Pokemon costume is in order… ^_^

WOOHOO!!!

It’s currently 2:41am, I so should be asleep because I need to get up early, but I’ve got something that needs to be blogged about.

My home convention, I-Con, is back at SUNY Stony Brook this year! Don’t get me wrong, the con wasn’t bad at Suffolk County  Community College last year – but it just didn’t have the same vibe. I-Con is the first ever convention I went to back in the day, so it holds a special  place in my heart ^^. It’s moved back a few weeks, to March 26-28th, which is fine with me because it won’t conflict with Anime Boston.

And what makes things even more made of win is that pre-reg prices for the next two weeks are CHEAP for them. It’s only $35 for students, which rocks. I remember last year it costing like only $5 less than Otakon, and while I love my I-Con – its no Otakon. I may actually go all three days this year, depending on how insane my life is.

And this is really funny that I come home and read the Facebook message about this, because I was just talking to my friend today about how it sucks that it’d be at SCCC again =P

NYAF Con Report – Sunday

Sunday didn’t start off too well, as it was grey and rainy. I was a dork and had put a plastic bag over my Flareon tail so it wouldn’t get wet. Left around the same time, and would have made the 9:05 again – if it weren’t for a FRIGGIN’ TRIATHALON! Seriously, on the way to the Metro North, we got stuck in traffic for at least 20 minutes because of cyclists in a triathalon going through the intersection. We were all fuming, especially because there were so many gaps where we could have gone through – but the traffic controller wench sucked balls.

Finally, we get to the Metro North, missed the two preferrable trains, and because it was Sunday we had a nice long 30+ minute wait until the next train >_<. So since we had been bad con-goers that weekend and hadn’t really eaten well, we got breakfast at the food stand downstairs. I was getting a little dissapointed on the train (and pissed at the cyclists), because I had been looking forward to getting the Pokemon voice actresses’ autographs, but now we weren’t sure if we’d get there in time.

Ran to get the shuttle, then walked as fast as we could in the yucky weather to the Javits Center. It was 11:20ish, I put on the rest of my costume, and my friends and I decided to go to the autograph room anyway (they were doing autographs from 11-12) because it wouldn’t hurt. Ends up, the line was really short because a large chunk of the voice actors/actresses didn’t show up – but Veronica Taylor was still there! So I drew on my nose, and my friends and I got a little giggly as we were let in. Luckily, the guy they also wanted an autograph from, Jamie McGonnagal (I soooo butchered that, and I lost my program book), was the only other person there =D. Veronica Taylor was a sweetheart, and said she liked my costume ^^. She signed my box set “Kiera, Follow your dreams! – Veronica Taylor”

<– I look like a total ‘tard =P

I start to put my camera away and get my stuff situated while the rest of my crew were getting their autographs/pics with Veronica Taylor, when Jamie asked if he could see my  camera – which lead to a nice chat about cameras/photography. He started playing around with my Nikon D40, and ended up getting a nice pic of me.

Austin, her sister, and her friends then started taking to him and figuring out what they wanted signed. He voiced a character from a series they love,  El Cazador de la Bruja (so spelled that wrong too ^^;) – Jamie was surprised that they watched the series. He was a really cool guy, so I got him to sign my NYAF badge (he’s also done the voice of Barry, the rival in the latest episode of Pokemon. Gary motherf’n Oak >>>> Barry ^_~).

So we were all giggly, happy ‘tards and collectively agreed that this made up for being late thanks to the cyclists. We headed to the Dealer’s Room  to do our shopping, and ran into the Japanese twins from the Masquerade that were still cosplaying from Vocaloid, leading to Austin, Krystyna, and Megan getting a pic with them. Reni Mimura was selling CD’s at her booth, so we headed over there. They were doing a game where you could win free stuff at 12, so we did some power-shopping in the 10 minutes ’till then. The game was playing Rock-Paper-Scissors with Reni, and Austin ended up winning over everyone ^^. She got a few free pins, then we got in line to get her CD & an autograph.

We had plenty of time to kill before ichiP!’s dance workshop at 3:30, so we split up and went to shop. While still together, we came across this booth that were selling this apparently really,  really sour chewing gum. We’re watching this group of people try a piece while the booth videotaped them, and they’re making these faces like it was living up to the hype, so we had to try. Nikki was the brave soul who went first and bought a Blue Raspberry pack – at first, it didn’t do much, but shortly it kicked in and we cracked up. I was next, and got a Lemon pack. Anyone remember those candies that were popular years ago, Warheads?  This was the gum equivalent of those – I’m chewing the piece and it just tastes lemony, but then I got to the sour and it burned! But it was still tasty! Megan went next, and had a similar reaction. Krystyna bought a pack, but she was a chicken and wouldn’t try it out in front of the booth =P.

I didn’t buy much this weekend, because nothing really jumped out at me. I  got a figure of Aeris from Final  Fantasy VII, since I’m working on getting the whole cast of the game (they better eventually make Cid and Barret, and I don’t really care about getting the Kadaj figure until the main characters are all out). Of course, after I buy mine for $24 (the cheapest price I had seen), we go to another booth that had marked it down to $20 lol.  I had wanted to get this set of Murloc figures from World of Warcraft to split with my boyfriend, but the booth where I had seen them were sold out, and no where else had them. Got a print from the Artist’s Alley of Cid Highwind  with a Chocobo and a tea set =D. *looks at wall* I need Yuffie, Barret, Sephy, and Vincent prints to complete the cast.

Our group was tired and still had time before ichiP!, so we plopped by a wall and people watched. I ran off at one point to buy more of that sour gum (got Blue Raspberry and Strawberry), and a Mana Potion  energy drink for my boyfriend and I. Whenever I end up cosplaying Codex, I want to be a dork  and have a potion prop so I can say “Share a potion with me?” =D. We were resting by the door to a panel room, and at one point Jamie McG came out and saw us and said “Hi ladies!”; we squee’d “HI!” (we dorked out a little because he recognized us ^^). Austin, the resident yaoi fangirl, wandered off at one point because there was a game of Spin The Bottle going on.

Eventually, we headed to the Apple Kissa stage to get a good spot. The maids were hosting a dance competition, which was pretty entertaining. The music ranged from Britney Spears to cutesy Japanese stuff to Korn. One girl got a lot of cheers because she grabbed someone (I assume she knew) sitting near the stage and started doing yuri and dancing with them. But yuri had no chance against the hilarity that was the Spiderman cosplayers.  Spiderman’s a pimp, yo.

Our friend Nikki (from school, not the one in our travelling group) was the Mama-san of the Maid Cafe and we hadn’t sene much of her all weekend, so we yelled at her to try to get her attention after the competiton. We yelled  “NIKKI! TODD FROM GAMESTOP! MEL GIBSON!”, all inside jokes, but she didn’t hear us – finally one of the other maids got her attention for us.

<– Nikki’s the one on the left, she’s a character ^-^

ichiP!’s dance workshop was fun, we learned the dance to Bacchkoi from Naruto, and part of another routine. Afterwards, we were all tired and spent – so homeward bound we were.

I still have to put up my new posters I got. Hope you all that attended NYAF as well had a good time!

NYAF Con Report – Saturday

Got up pretty early on Saturday, because we had to be at the con at 11 to see Uncle Yo’s performance and we wanted to stop at the Sanrio store beforehand. Left school at 8:30ish and caught a 9:05 express train. All the way to the Sanrio store, we made a point to wave to all the tourist buses we passed until at least one person waved back =D. Browsed around the store, but didn’t buy anything because we had to motor – took a group picture outside the store, and had fun when a bus was stopped at the traffic light in front of the store, people on the topof the bus took pictures of us ^_^.

I went to get a spot for Uncle Yo while the others had to run to the bathroom for costume adjustments.  Uncle Yo is an alum of my college, SUNY Purchase, so we had to represent! He was funny, as per usual, though I couldn’t get good pics because I was stuck on the side of the stage.

I managed to lose my crew after the show, so I wandered around and did some shopping. Ran into an Ash, Misty, and Pikachu cosplayers and got a pic taken with them –  and as things typically go, once you get a few people from a series posing, the cameras come out of nowhere.

Oh, and I had also competed in the Maid Cafe’s Costume Contest – i got 2nd place to a Kiki (from Kiki’s Delivery Service) cosplayer. I won a pack of strawberry Yan-Yan, and I got a COW cookie stick in it=D!

<– it says “MUUUUUUUU” ^_^

I didn’t buy much in the Dealer’s Room, though I did get some nifty stuff from the Artist’s Alley. I got these prints at Otakon from an artist that were a group of Water and Fire Pokemon (all their Pokemon pics had the Eeveelution for that type in it ^^) – they were at NYAF so I completed the set and got the Electric and Grass prints. There was also this artist had had these beautiful prints of girls representing the different animals of the Chinese Zodiac (along with other pretty Asian-style works), I got the Sheep because it was adorable and the Ox because it was badass.

I finally caught up with Austin and the crew because I saw them getting their pictures taken at one of the pro photography booths. I dumped my stuff with them and went to buy a funnel cake, because the smell had finally got to me and I hadn’t eaten anything. While hanging around by the booth while they waited for their pictures, the crazyness happened. The guy was taking a picture of a Honey from Ouran High School Host Club cosplayer, and some random guy threw up on the corner of his seamless background. The photographer (understandably, as a photographer I know any equipment is expensive) starts flipping out at the guy and security, and we’re just sitting there like “O_O;” We felt so bad for the Honey cosplayer and his mom. We shopped a bit in the Alley afterwards (I got my friend Drew this cute Captain Hammer statue, since it was his birthday), then got on line really early (around 3:15ish?) for the Masquerade. Last year’s was amazing, and we wanted a got spot and nothing else was going on that interested us.

Watched people get hit with a yaoi paddle, and semi-napped on line. While on line (or earlier, brain fart) I read in the program book that the Japanese idol singer that opened the Masquerade at Otakon, Reni Mimura, would be opening the Masq. at NYAF. Seriously, she is the textbook definition of kawaii =3. When NYAF staff finally figured out where the line was starting, it ends up we were third in line =D.

Hours later, we’re finally let in – we ended up being second-row to the left side of the stage, right near the podium.

<– Domo can has presidency?

<– this little girl was sitting in front of us, she was so cute  ^^.

While everyone was being seated, random staff people would be standing/walking past the camera that was filming on the large screen. One guy was holding this large rollof masking tape, and seemed to be talking about something important – which led our crew to narrate what was going on. It got into some crazy story where the tape was top-secret tape, and there was something about a pony named Vito. We’re very easily-entertained children, if you couldn’t tell already ^^.

The show opening up with Uncle Yo and Mario Bueno singing the “Otaku National Anthem”

which caused everyone to LOL, then sing along. That’s our childhood right there!

It took some time for Reni and her backup dancers to be ready, but they were SUPER ADORABLE so it was okay! They tried to teach Uncle Yo a dance to one of her songs, and it was on of of the more hilarious moments of the con:

<– too cute

As per usual for a Masquerade, some skits are epic while others are kind of fail. I have to say though, that the costumes in the NYAF Masquerade have been some of the most gorgeous I’ve even seen, better or at least very close to the level at Otakon.

<– Paradise Kiss

<– Vampire Hunter D skit. Pretty costumes + the lolz = Win.

<– This L skit had the whole audience cracking up! L, very dramatically, makes an ice cream sundae.

<– they missed part of the beginning, and importantly the end. See, he had all his supplies in one of those foam cooler-things, and the thing broke and melted ice cream spilled on the floor! L cleaned it up himself, and everyone cracked up again when Uncle Yo went and took some of the whipped cream off of L’s face.

<– *grumbles* Damn (gorgeous) Trinity Blood…

<– adorable Vocaloid-cosplaying twins from Japan ^^

<– I don’t remember what series they were from, but they were ridonkulously gorgeous costumes.

^– F’n EPIC like 7-8 foot tall Bumblebee! EPIC!

So while the judges deliberated, teams from Mexico, France, and a guy from Japan performed Exhibition skits:

<– Team Mexico

<– Team France

<– Gundam dude

Awards time, yay!

The little girl cosplaying from Bleach ended up winning a Youth award =3.

<– that old guy judge was a total creeper, btw.

<– a TACTICS White Mage won Best Prop =D. Of course I yelled “YEAH TACTICS!” when they said where she was from.

Epic Bumblebee won a Best Craftsmanship award,  mega duh. ParaKiss, the Japanese twins, the Vampire Hunter D people  (MANAMANA!) won awards in the Masquerade, though I don’t remember what. Aaaaaand predictably, the *grumble* damn Trinity Blood cosplayers won like Best Craftsmanship. I have nothing against Trinity Blood, I’ve actually never seen/read it, its just that if you’re in a Masquerade and there’s a Trinity  Blood group – forget winning an award lol.

<– the pretty vampire people ended up winning the show’s big award, where they get an all-expense paid week long trip to the Tokyo Anime Fair (something in Tokyo!). They so deserved it. After the Masquerade, we ran around getting some pics of the epic costumes, then headed on home

<– Nana from ParaKiss

<– see all those little red things and shiny bits? Hand sewn. Hand-friggin’-sewn.  Damn Trinity Blood =P

<– Japanese cosplayers and other people

Sunday’s report will be either later tonight, definitely by tomorrow!

NYAF Con Report – Friday

I ended up not wearing Misa Misa on Friday – the temperature was nice for it, but the wind and the skirt really weren’t agreeing with each other – so I wore my Gothic Lolita dress instead. My friend Austin (my ride to the train station) was running late, so we didn’t leave campus ’till close to four. Austin, her sister Kristina (sorry  if I spelled that wrong!), and her sister’s girlfriend, Nikki were all cosplaying characters from Vocaloid (Megan, their other friend from home, didn’t cosplay on Friday).

Once at the Metro North, we had an encounter with a nice “norm”. We were buying our tickets, and this guy asks is if we’re going to “that anime convention in the city”, to which we reply “Yeah!”. He tells us that he heard about it, and that his 13-year-old daughter is really into anime, and asked if the con was still going happening on Sunday because he really wanted to take his daughter now =D. We didn’t see him around on Sunday (not that means much, since there’s a loooot of people at a con lol), but I hope he did take her despite the yucky weather. Got the standard looks/questions from the norms on the train and the Shuttle, but nothing rude or nasty.

We came up from the subway in one of the sections where Times Square is a plaza-like place, and there’s someone in a SpongeBob Squarepants suit (Elmo was across the street). Our collective reaction was “We don’t look so odd now!”.

<– gotta love the faces the norms are making

We didn’t get lost like last year, even though we were walking off hunches. And we ended up passing the Sanrio store on the way to the Javits Center, so a plan was made to visit there the next day. I managed to trip and semi-wipe out on the way, only proving even more that I walk worse in flip-flops than I do in heels (I was wearing flip-flops so my feet wouldn’t die in my Lolita shoes). Got to the con around 6:30, which gave us enough time to still get a good seat for ichiP!’s performance. My friend Venus is one of the members, and I had told her I would be taking pictures. Ends up my friends Keri and Olua were sitting front row =D. The black curtains made it hard for me to get good pictures during part of their set, since the ichiP! changed into black shirts at one point, but I did get some nifty shots.

<– Hooray for bubblewrap!

<– crowd dancing along

Chatted with  Keri and Olua for a bit after ichiP!’s performance, then wandered away. Not too long afterwards, this random guy comes up to me and says “I know this might sound wierd, but you look really familiar. Were you involved in a robotics team from Uniondale a few years ago?” Small friggin’ world! I reply “OMG, yeah, I was the knight that one year. What team were you from?”

Guy: The Quantum Samurai

Me: You guys were one of our favorites! (Seriosly, they  had the coolest buttons and I still have a bunch on my messenger bag)

So me and the guy had a chat about how we both missed Robotics, and how we’d like to go to the Long Island regional this year. All the good people who were involved in the the original  team have graduated, so who knows how they’ll do.  According to my old roommate from Roosevelt that went last year (and I was pissed she didn’t tell me, wench =P) said Uniondale didn’t do well.

<– I’m the knight

<– the Quantum Samurai

Okay, slight off-topicness over ^^. Nothing much else was going on, and the Dealer’s Room was closed – but the Artist’s Alley was open so we wandered around there a bit. Looked around in the program book a bit, and I noticed that the original voice actresses for Ash (Veronica Taylor),  Misty, and Jessie (Rachel Lillis) were guests and would be doing autographs on Sunday (we’d missed the Friday session). I’ve been on a big Pokemon kick again, so I decided to break my rule of not wearing one costume for more than one day and decided I had to cosplay Flareon on Sunday and get my Pokemon DVD box set signed – because I’m that level of dork. Didn’t stay too long on Friday, and we had dinner at this McDonalds that had a snazzy lit-up awning outside (but was nowhere near as cool as the ’50s McDonalds from Sitacon) on the way home.

The rest of the weekend will be up later today, as I should be sleeping now ^^;

Pictures! Yay!

http://kierasphotography.shutterfly.com/

All of my  NYAF pics are uploaded!

Gah, I hate coming down off a “con high” and having to go back to “regular” life. All you con-goers know what I mean. You have so much fun the 1-3 days you’re at a con, you’re caught up in your own little world… and then it all has to end.

Part of why I love cosplaying and going to conventions is the escape. For a weekend, I don’t have to deal with whatever stress or work I have going on. I have three days where I get to be someone else, and do what I love. You don’t have to deal with boring papers, you don’t have to deal with stressful parents, you don’t have to deal with being a headcase. You’re whatever character you choose to be that day.

I’m also really happy when I get to do another thing I love, photography. I love seeing all the colorful and complicated costumes. Seriously, there were so many GORGEOUS costumes in the Masquerade at NYAF – I already want/need a macro lens so bad, but they made the want even stronger. The people that won the top awards had such ridiculously detailed work, and a macro lens would have captured them so much better. And I love going through my pictures after a con, reliving the memories – I get into a zone, really.

And of course, because I have two assignments due next week for two of my classes, my brain is all “Ahhh screw these, I want to get started on Vespiquen!” =D

Hey there!

Back from NYAF sore, but in one piece. I’m currently editing all my pictures from the con, so they’ll be up by the end of the day! Of course, I’ll post a link to my  photo site once done, and write up a con report.

*happy dance*

Hooray, its bright and sunny out!

Wearing Misa Misa as I type now – its pretty much normal clothes with a lot of accessories. And since we’ll pretty much be going on the train right after my class, shoot, its easier to get dressed before class.

Of course, I kind of feel like wearing my Gothic Lolita outfit today – but I’m not pushing my luck. I change, it’ll rain on Sunday,  and then I’m screwed out of wearing Misa Misa.