COMEDY RANT TIME.

Daniel Tosh this weekend in Irvine. Tosh was my first comedy show ever -- holy crap, nearly two years ago? Wow. Why is it that no other Improv down here gets anyone I give two shits about? I'd be more than happy to drive to LA or Temecula for a good show but Irvine's the only decent one. Also dear comedians: WHY NO SAN DIEGO LOVE? I need to keep a better tabs on what's going on at the Comedy Store but fuck if their website isn't an abomination against GOD. I was very disappointed to have missed Robert Schimmel a few months ago. I'd really like to see him live.

Kathy Griffin's new album did not capture my attention. But then again I hardly fit in to her demographic in spite of being queer -- too much pop culture references that are over my head. It's not a bad album, I just couldn't keep up with it, her last album was much more accessible. Margaret Cho's new album has weirded me out. I need to give it another chance because it's not BAD, it's just weird. I recently listened to Jeff Durham and discovered that I CAN'T FUCKING STAND HIM. Now let me set this straight. I'm not a racist. I have nothing against puppets. I don't even have anything against ventriloquists. I just find his comedy mediocre, the content boring and trite and SOMEHOW he manages to me to come across as more homophobic than any of the Blue Collar comedy tour. At least the Blue Collar boys wear their homophobia on their sleeves and some of them can even poke fun at themselves about queer shit (I love Bill Engvall, enjoy Ron White and appreciate Larry the Cable guy, believe it or not.) But Durham has a couple of jokes that feel like REAL homophobia behind a veil of condescending, cutesy bullshit. How the hell did this guy get his own THEATRE at the fucking Bellagio exactly? And a huge following? I don't even know. Anyway the most irritating thing about listening to him is that it's like listening to a fucking State of the Union speech. His audience goes into seizures of applause every thirty-five seconds or so, having fits of euphoria for the most mundane and unimpressive and poorly delivered jokes.

Cho's new album is suffering from this as well and I find it incredibly distracting to listen to, detracting from the comedy itself as much as any heckler would. Don't get me wrong, THERE ARE JOKES THAT DESERVE APPLAUSE. Just not ALL of them. What's more, Margaret Cho no longer sounds like Margaret Cho to me. Like her voice itself. She sounds older and WHITER on this album and that shit was freaking me out. Margaret was a comedian that I listened to at three in the morning with my ear pressed to the TV when I was twelve. It's been interesting watching her evolution.

I DISCOVERED DIMITRI MARTIN IS 36. WHAT. THE FUCK. That man looks like he's 24. Comedy repeatedly seems to assure me that you don't have to be a child prodigy to make it in the business. In fact none of the comedians I follow are under thirty. I also discovered that fucking EMO PHILLIPS is still doing stand up pretty regularly. I REALLY WANT TO SEE HIM NOW. I've been tempted lately to familiarize myself with Twitter more to keep up with my comedy crushes. BUT I AM OLD. Or stubborn. Or something.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                             
...That was even rantier than I intended. Hm. I had more that I was going to talk about a whole bunch of other stuff but that got so out of hand that I need to now sleep. Genius.

This post brought to you by: Completely Fucking Useless Bullshit

 I hate when a new album comes out and I can't properly listen to it at work so I TORTURE MYSELF WITH LONGING. UGH. I don't know HOW I am not on Greg Behrendt's mailing list. I swear to god I signed up for it, I mean fuck I was looking for a way to just SEND him an email this year... I think somehow I didn't post about my birthday this year in April. Jess, Heather and Aaron went and saw Greg and it was the BEST show I've ever seen. We sat front and left and I got so much SO MUCH ATTENTION from him during the show, including getting his crotch in my face. This guy has been in my top five comedians for OVER A DECADE. It was really weird being at that show because at least half of it was very obviously middle aged women in the following he's picked up since producing the two books with his wife and you know OPRAH. When I went to get his autograph at the end of the show, I told him I'd been a fan of him since I was fifteen, none of this lady-come-lately bullshit that I can tell bothers him a bit. He gave me a big hug and gave me a free copy of his DVD which he signed with a big heart instead of the skull he was putting on everyone else's. X3 It totally made my birthday. And now the album he was working that material together for at that show came out today. DAMN YOU WORK. GIVE ME MY MENDERMINT FIX. In the meantime, Snow Patrol collection and new Switchfoot album keep my rage at bay.

In case you can't tell yet, this is going to be one of those LJ entries that goes ALL OVER THE PLACE.

PMX was as much of a disappointment as I expected it to be. It was a risk and for the third year they managed to lure me in with their close location. Then we got there and I had that realization yet again of THIS IS A TRAP. Oh well. We broke even and the bed in that hotel was like a FUCKING DREAM. That mattress could have been full of knives and hypodermic needles but the pillowtop was thick enough to shield a nuclear blast. Also if I could not see a motherfucking loli for six months, that would be great. I've got no problem with cute girls who want to dress like twelve years olds. But it's a little like cotton candy. I enjoy cotton candy. I DO NOT ENJOY FIVE HUNDRED GALLONS OF COTTON CANDY REPEATEDLY FORCED PAST MY TEETH OVER A SPAN OF 48 HOURS.

Oh well. It was still nice spending some time with people and harassing e1njuwannakno at his table. Also chatting with David, making some new connections and plotting with Kei to jeer and wheedle Jess into cosplaying Digimon with us. Ahahaha...

Mediocre con aside, YCon the weekend before WAS EPIC TO END ALL EPICNESS. Okay that might be a slight exaggeration, there have been more epic YCons where we made considerably more money and got more stupidly drunk. But it was a pretty fucking good con and we had a TON of fun with our Varia cosplays. Jess was shockingly hot as Squalo, something that took all of us by surprise, and I'm a little unsettled by the fact that I don't think I've EVER pulled off a character's look as well as I did Lussuria. I wish my mohawk had been more fabulous but I'm growing it out for next time. And I'm going for a brighter shade of red/pink next time.
 

( Photos under cut )

 

So there's Ycon in a bizare nut shell. I also have pictures of Jess and Chas, pantless, clearly raping the tuna-tenth but I won't post those unless I have express permission. Sadly my camera battery died right before those two swapped clothes and we discovered that Squalo in Dino's clothes looks like a dirty hobo.

I wore those boots so fucking fierce that I THREW THEM AWAY at the end of the con because they were straight up falling apart. It probably doesn't help that they were EIGHT YEARS OLD. I wore those things at the second Yaoi Con with Faust from Shaman King. I really want to make younger Lussuria now, I think I may tackle it right after Ken.

So all in all, Yaoi Con was tons and tons of fun. Sales were crappy and it felt really SMALL but I was happy and relaxed. That artist alley is such a dream to do because the coordinator is so easy to work with and helpful. It was great seeing people and spending some time with innueneko  XD I sort of amused the hell out of myself by going shopping for doujinshi with her while dressed as Lussuria and Hibari. HI, I'M A NERD.

Speaking of Reborn-fanthings, I resent fanfiction for being so FUCKING EASY TO WRITE. We struggle and scrape and plotplotplot for working on original storylines. Then we take a break and we're like hey, let's write something D18 to unwind, here's an idea for a little fic that we could dive in to for a bit of smut and then SUDDENLY 24,000 WORDS IN FIVE DAYS. DEEPLY EMOTIONAL BULLSHIT THAT DRAGS ON AND ON AND ON BUT IS SOMEHOW ENJOYABLE TO WRITE. I hate fanfiction. Mostly I hate that I like writing it so much.

....I've got one of the IMVU girls staring at me tempting me to 'Cartoonify myself' and I must be a terrible animu fan because I think the bug-eyed whore makeup CGed alien they interpreted this very attractive girl in to is frigging horrifying. If you think that's hot, you might try fucking a Bratz doll because it'd probably be deeply satisfying.

( This. )

You know it's slow at work when... I should really try to do something semi-productive with my time. Ten bucks says none of the cuts I put in this post work and it fucks up your friends list.

 

So re: Yaoi Con this weekend.

Fuck, I am so excited about this con. I'm so happy it's coming. It's my favorite con of the year for obvious reasons. Last year I was such a fucking disaster I couldn't enjoy it at all. I was so depressed I didn't even want to go. When I was there I just wanted to go hide in the hotel room. I was dreading cosplaying.  I made no new costumes for the con and I felt so shitty about myself I didn't want to wear anything. I also discovered that the meds I was on had a very BAD reaction with the glass of wine I had on Friday and that was a disaster. I just couldn't be happy.

This year, I'm psyched. I'm ready to have some fucking fun, I'm really looking forward to seeing people. I've got a shit-kicking new costume and I'm going to look FABULOUS. I've lost 20 pounds and I've got tight leather pants, knee high heels, a mohawk and some of the loveliest purple sunglasses you ever did see. Time to take a trip to Okama country. (...And then the next day do Zoro. WTF.)  I'm going to have an awesome time cosplaying and an awesome time partying. Ladies (and Evan) be warned, I'm on the prowl and I've got lip gloss [even if I don't know how to apply it. might need some help.]

Anyhow, enough of that. Other than being psyched for seeing people and having fun, I have been HORRIBLY LAX this year on the business end of things. We'll probably have two new designs at the table this year. Bleh. Oh well, we're running out of space as it is... I had wanted to put together a fic anthology too and failed on that. Sigh, maybe next year.

Hey my Reborn folks -- Jess, Heather and I are planning on doing Varia on saturday but we might also do it sunday afternoon as Richard has let me know he's available to take a couple photos then. :) I'll be bringing my camera too either way, so if anyone (Reborn or not) wants some shots, let me know. I'm hankering to get some lovely ladies in front of my lens.

 So we now own Marley and Me on BluRay.

You might ask, why, exactly do Jess and Kim own Marley and Me on BluRay? Jess and Kim, purveyors of smut and violence. Lovers of all things gory and action packed and filled with filthy language and tits. Champions of the zombie and the car chase and the word FUCK. Why, exactly, would they own a not terrible but arguably mediocre and pretty depressing family film IN HIGH DEF?

Well here's how that happens.

You have your mother over for an afternoon to do her laundry and have dinner. During that time you take a trip to Blockbuster to watch a movie together but of course, it's your mother who isn't in to violence and smut but prefers romantic comedies and dramas. Marley and Me isn't something you'd be *adverse* to watching and it's better than something along the lines of The Devil Wears Prada, so you get it. Unfortunately they're out of it in DVD but fortunately, your house is a religious sanctuary for game nerds so there is a PS3 in your house so you get it on BluRay. You watch it, don't hate it particularly though find it to be depressing in a way that warns NEVER HAVE CHILDREN, YOUR DREAMS WILL BE CRUSHED LIKE SO MANY ANTS, but Owen Wilson is still cute in a way that laughs in the face of your lesbianism so it isn't an hour and a half completely wasted. You set the movie by the door to be returned to the video store across the street the next day. And then something gets set on top of the movie, you take a trip out of town and a month later when you go back to the video store to rent season 3 of Dexter and delight in the bloodbath, you discover that YOU BOUGHT MARLEY AND ME ON BLURAY.

Because their 'no late fees' policy means if you keep it for a certain amount of time, you buy the movie you rented. And if you don't pay for it, you can't rent anything else. So that's nice.

That aside. I bought all the materials for my Lussuria wig and now I've decided I'm just going to use my own hair and make a hairpiece for the green fringe. GETTIN BACK ON THE BUS TO MOHAWKVILLE. PROBABLY GETTIN TO OLD TO BE THERE. Also picked up color to do Evan's hair for Ryohei. Wheeee there's gonna be rape~! <3

So about last week's Reborn! and One Piece.

First of all, let's address this.

http://www.onemanga.com/Katekyo_Hitman_Reborn/261/02/ [splash image, not manga page]

I'd like to state first of all that I'm not a huge fan of 8059. I've written it and I can enjoy it when it's well done but I'm a die-hard 5927 fan and I find most 8059 to be totally out of character for Gokudera. However. WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS FAGGOTRY HAHAHA. Yamamoto could not POSSIBLY look like he wants to jump Gokudera's bones more and meanwhile Gokudera is posing like SLUTTY LITTLE BITCH AND SHOWING LEG? And then we have Mukuro sporting his best rape face while Tsuna thinks "I can feel his penis from across the room...." The more and more the style of this manga develops, the more I'm convinced that it's going to turn into a full blown BL story. If Tsuna didn't canonly have a female love interest, it's already perfectly set up to be a BL GAME.

PS: FAMIGRIA????? LOL TO THE TENTH POWER.

( Chapter rant under the cut )

So I realized I never posted this photo set.... back in what, May? when we took our trip out to the Salton Sea, I took some photos of Jess and Thea in their dark Oz costumes, as Dorothy and the Scarecrow. :3



( Fifteen some-odd shots under the cut. )

 Jess and I just had a wrestling match which ended with us using massive amounts of sewing pins to attach each other's pant legs to the carpet. She won with a criss-crossing technique that made it surprisingly difficult for me to remove my leg from the ground. My technique of MORE IS BETTER however pretty much failed but it did look pretty awesome.

Had a nice weekend -- on Friday we went to see Zombieland with Thea, Heather and Diana in full on zombie makeup. Diana was the hot chick zombie slayer and the rest of us were the undead. We went to Ruby's before the movie and had burgers and shakes and NO ONE wanted to acknowledge the fact that we had OOZING HEAD WOUNDS and BLOODY NOSES. It was kind of hilarious. The entire staff stared at us and were extremely uncomfortable but not a SINGLE person the entire night said anything, not even to the extent of, "Costume party?" Just awkward and uncomfortable. Except for a couple of kids in line for snacks at the theatre who STARED at Jess and I for two minutes. XD The movie? FUCKING FANTASTIC. I had not a single complaint about it. Loved it from start to finish. A new zombie classic for the ages. If you haven't seen it, GET OFF YOUR ASS.

Had a lazy morning on saturday and then got out for the afternoon for my trip to..... MEXICO. That's right, I am truly an international traveller, on saturday I took a few steps south of the border to get some dental work done.

You may, like most of the US, be horrified at this concept. Surely they will put screws in place of my teeth and a small dog will follow me home which then turns out to be a rat with rabies. Also, I'll get the swine flu.

I've been meaning to get down to TJ to see about some dental work for some time -- since Jess lost her job last year, we also lost our insurance and the work I was in the middle of having done was put on hold. That included an unfinished root canal that never got crowned off. It wasn't particularly troublesome, just irritating as I had to be very careful to keep it clean. The office I went to was recommended to me by my bro and coworker, Miguel whose family goes there. His brother Adrian had an appointment half an hour after mine and met me at the border to show me the way for the first time.

For those of you who don't know San Diego, I live fifteen minutes from the US border by freeway. I parked for eight bucks, crossed the border and the clinic is half a block from the gates. Upon entering, I noticed that the decor of the waiting room was a bit outdated but the place was very clean and full of thriving, live plants. I filled out some standard paperwork after the receptionist translated the form for me and waited a bit to meet the doctor. Her name is Patricia, she speaks excellent English and has a fantastic bedside manner. Kind and communicative. The clinic seems to be a three story building and upstairs was even nicer than down -- everything is very clean and all the paint and fixtures looked brand new. She examined me and did an x-ray, then offered me her prognosis. I need to have the root canal finished up and the post put in, then have the crown done. I also have three old mercury fillings that need to be replaced and I need a cleaning. All of this? $570. $350 for the root canal and crown $40 for the cleaning. $60 each for the fillings. This is probably....At least $2500-$3000 of  work here in the US? Yeah. SHIT IS FUCKING RIDICULOUS.

While I was there, she cleaned out the old root canal which was a really weird experience. She took out the old temp filling and took a cast for the post -- but there was no novicaine for any of this because I didn't need it. The nerve's already been removed so I didn't feel any pain at all. But there's something fucking weird about being drilled on WAY DEEP, like into your damn tooth roots, without any numbing. She put a new temp filling in and weekend after next, I'll be going back to have the post put in and the crown fitted.

People have been interested to know, ever since I mentioned I was doing this, how I felt about the experience and would I recomend it? My answer: FUCK YES. HAY-SUS CHRISTO DO THIS SHIT. I'm incredibly regretful that I didn't do this sooner and have already spent THOUSANDS of dollars on dental work in the US that I could have gotten done for a fraction of the price with just as good care down there. Short of being on some drug lord crime list that will have you shot on sight at customs, I see no reason anyone shouldn't do this.

So yeah, that was my saturday. Worked on Lussuria a bit more this weekend, went to Farmer's market and took a trip out today to spend a few hours with my mom which was a very nice way to spend the afternoon. I've been enjoying her company a lot lately and found myself able to just TALK for hours with her about anything which is a really nice feeling and something I haven't been able to bring myself to for a while.

Today while chatting with Heather, on the way to the market, I randomly noted that in the three groups of boys from Reborn that we cosplay with her are quite well balanced. We each have a boss role in one of the groups, which are Tsuna/Gokudera/Yamamoto, Xanxus/Squalo/Lussuria (which we're doing at YCon) and Mukuro/Ken/Chikusa (which we're finally going to get around to at ALA -- WE'VE HAD THE FABRIC FOR FUCKING YEARS.) So we each get to be a boss sometimes. Jess pipes up with "Yeah and we each get to be a bitch too -- Ken, Gokudera and Squalo! ...WAIT I'M TWO BITCHES!!" I very nearly killed myself laughing. Speaking of Reborn, I'm thinking about putting a shout out up for a third beta to proof that shit... we've been cranking out the smut lately. But I hate the process of finding someone so damn much that I'm tempted to say fuckit, smut's smut and grammar is for pussies.

Next weekend we're off to Washington DC... AND one of my top five comics, Eugene Mirman is FINALLY releasing a new album on tuesday and I'm FUCKING STOKED for it. Dance you magnificent Jew, DANCE. I've had a huge comedy rant on my mind that I really need to get out of my brain soon. But for the moment perhaps I should get the motherfuckin sleep that I should have gone off for two and a half hours ago.

I'm unusually delighted by this. :D Ryu's dinner got the best of her and was sunbathing with her on the tiki for a good half hour.

Jess got a new computer -- the first Mac in our house. In exploring it, I set up my AIM account up on iChat initially and then set hers up. What I didn't realize is that by setting my account on there, it not only changed my name on AIM to Jess's but also replaced my customary Ace-in-Food avatar on AIM with the roaring lion I chose when I set it up. I discovered this when I logged in using one of the PC machines. And since Jess's AIM account also was set up on the same machine, it took the lion icon as well.

So, the last few days, if you look on Jess's iChat, there are two lions with speech bubbles ROARING LUSSURIAxRYOHEI PORN AT EACH OTHER.

IF THAT SHIT IS NOT MOTHERFUCKING EXTREME, I DON'T KNOW WHAT IS.

So there's something I have to get off my chest.

9 was the worst movie I've ever seen in a theater. I was so fucking close to walking out of that movie -- something I've never even seriously CONTEMPLATED before. It was beautiful. The designs and the visuals were amazing. The concept was solid. The story was a huge steaming pile of shit. Or I'm sorry, the lack of story? The movie had no beginning, middle or end. It had no real PLOT. The dialogue, where it existed was stilted and the characters were meaningless, shallow and failed to make me give half a crap about them. The only relief I had was that when we walked out, Heather, Laura and Jess had exactly the same opinions and I didn't feel like a moron who somehow missed some fantastically deep, artsy bullshit burried in the catacombs of a subconcious, genius plot. TL;DR: In movies, THINGS SHOULD FUCKING HAPPEN.

The last few days have been lovely. Jess is out of town and it's always weird for me to be home alone since she acts as an appendage to me most of the time. But wednesday I spent the evening with Thea and last night, Heather and I sat down to watch Starship Troopers and were instantly bored to death by it. It doesn't help that I've read the book and from the twenty minutes I saw, it might be the worst book to movie adaptation I've ever seen. They turned the main character who is in the book a likeable Hispanic boy who we experience great growth with into Whitey Mc Whiterstein who just rolled in from Supersquarejawville and who instantly comes off as shallow, immature and annoying. Done. Anyway, we had a much better time just talking anyway. XD

I feel lately like I'm getting a bit of that back. It's been a lot easier for me to open up to people even though I'm still fucking awkward sometimes in my attempts to emulate human interraction. I've had several people ask me at the end of a conversation "So... why did you ask that?" and I have to awkwardly explain this is how I'm trying to be a human being with thoughts and emotions as stilted and robotic as it sometimes comes. I'm a year away now from the episode I had last fall -- dangerous levels of depression. I still struggle with it somewhat from time to time, but considering my family history and the bullshit I still have to deal with with my family NOW, I can't really kick myself. It's still unsettling to think that *I'm* the emotionally stable and reliable one in my family. It's nice now, with YCon approaching I'm actually REALLY looking forward to it and looking forward to cosplay. Last year I was such a trainwreck I didn't even want to go to the con and the idea of costuming had me paralyzed.

On that note, this weekend I'm going to start working on Lussuria~~~ I'm fucking FINALLY making this costume and really, it had to be for Yaoi Con. I'm going to pick up the materials for the wig this weekend. Doing TYL!Varia uniforms... so I get to make the EXTRA stupid hair. And EXTRA stupid clothes! Yay! pkgaming... If you are going to Ycon, I'm going to BEG you to throw together TYL!Ryohei for photos with me. You know you want to be my boyfriend. Do it or I'll kill you and fuck your frozen corpse. <3

Speaking of which, Jess and I started, in this spirit and because she bends to my every whim, to write TYL!LussuriaxRyohei porn. It was supposed to be crack but it's turning out to be surprisingly sexy. Confused. And no, no one dies.

Well there was something I wanted to finish this post with and now it's kind of awkward because I just spent a few lines talking about implied necrophilia which is always hard to follow with anything. But here goes.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, piedcrow !!!!

...And sorry about that.

I certainly don't do *this* often...

So, the joy of going to Akon and Fanime back to back is over. THAT WAS JUST LOVELY. In the last 5 weeks, I've been to Oahu, Death Valley, Las Vegas, San Jose and Dallas -- and TWO trips through the hell that is LAX. I reeeeally appreciate our comfortable little airport here in San Diego whenever we have to go to LAX. I got punished for being a cheapskate on our trip out to Dallas where the parking place, while dirt cheap SUCKED BALLS and left us waiting for half an hour for a shuttle.

That and other little travel annoyances and PANIC getting ready for Fanime and NO SLEEP due to red-eyeing it to Dallas, both cons were awesome.

Fanime was a blast, as busy as it was. Made a trip out to SF for a shoot with my favorite model and Jess was suuuuuper nice to me, manning the booth while I was running around taking photos. I haven't unloaded since before KawaiiKon and I now have about 2500 god damn photos I need to go through. I should stop being so trigger happy. ::snickers::

Fanime masq was total fun-times relaxo skit and we got a great reaction to it. I'm actually really happy with how my Chris costume turned out and am tempted to wear it again in spite of not knowing anything about Resident Evil >_> I just have to not get cornered by a fan who will ask me questions!!

Wore the new revamped Zoro -- first time doing Zoro in probably... two years? Was nervous about it but enjoyed myself. Love my new swords and my new haramaki, though the swords are going to get some parts sanded and redone... definitely want to get some real tsuba-ito for Wadou's hilt. Do that shit right. Probably going to sand off the blades and redo those too with a stencil. And I've still got all of Shuusui's details to paint. I need to get some decent photos of them for the lady that whittled them for me. XD

Re: Zoro.... I was really intimidated about putting on this costume again. I stopped wearing it because I started getting real selfconcious when my old haramaki stopped fitting. And I didn't think I could pull it off with a wig. But I've really missed doing it and though I was selfconcious still, and felt inadequate with my mushy arms and thick hips, I had a great time. I was the ONLY chick Zoro at the gathering, if I'm not mistaken. ...Also we all nearly killed one another when it came time for the Zoro group photo and EVERYONE pulled out their swords. That was like being in the middle of a porcupine.

Aaron's Brook costume was the bell of the motherfuckin ball and Jess and I couldn't be prouder. He was a fucking TROOPER wearing all that make up for two days in a row. I had a ton of fun applying it. I miss working with prosthetics and foam latex is so awesome. I really kind of want to make someone be Magellan so I can do that stupid, stupid baboon face. Either that or I should stop being a lazy bastard and make Absalom for myself. Anyway, Brook-Aaron = fucking awesome and inability to walk through the hallways for more than 5 feet.

And then... there was Hetalia.

I. Love. Cosplaying. AMERICA.

I worked fucking HARD on that costume and I dare say it's probably the highest quality I've ever produced. I'm not ashamed to say how proud I am of my bomber jacket. The costume is comfortable as hell, flattering, I get to use my own hair AND wear my glasses and be competely. Fucking. Retarded. Hetalia cosplayers are fun to interract with and extremely enthusiastic which is nice. :D Met tons of nice people at both Akon and Fanime. Although at Akon I was mistaken TWICE for Montana Max (oh I see it. I saw it the moment I put on the costume and parted my hair.) and once as... AMELIA EARHART? That one I didn't let slide. For one guy who was really disappointed that I wasn't heir major, however, I posed like Max for him for a photo.

Also, um. The gathering incident. Here's the thing. I have had no experience whatsoever in the Hetalia community/fandom. I'm not really into slashing it, it sort of weirds me out. But I didn't really think anything of it when Jess and I were taking a photo as England and America at the gathering and the crowd started chanting for fanservice. Obviously the crowd didn't realize we'd been together for six years and have no problem posing naughty for the camera... But I didn't expect the SUBSEQUENT FREAKOUT that followed or the photos all over the Hetalia community. XD;; Ahaha.... Diana did warn me, I suppose I should have been prepared.

The following day, I got into an elevator in my America costume and a girl SQUEEEED and tackle-glomphed me shrieking "I DIDN'T GET TO HUG YOU YET!" So I hugged her. And then she says delightedly, "You're the America that made out with UK at the gathering!!!"

D: So. Yeah. At least I wasn't recognized at Akon the following weekend. In any case it's not hard to give Jess affection in those costumes since Jess is ADORABLE AS ALL GET OUT in her UK costume. Eyebrows and all.

Sunday night we managed to get the whole huge gang together for a dinner at Spaghetti Factory again which seems to be becoming a yearly tradition. I felt so bad that Jess was working her tush off and we were running around doing Masq stuff on her birthday but she was such a good sport about it.

Akon was great as well, if always a bit weird to go to a con where we know far fewer people. But we got to see Spork and Kyra for the first time in AGES and we had tons of fun with them on Saturday night and I got a few shots of their zuper zexy Zoro and Robin costumes. Dammit Kyra, I want to do a photo shoot with your hueg OP group of WIN AND EPIC. ::shakes fist:: Saw Angel again which was yay! And met people that I knew who they WERE but had never met in person. XD If any of you Akon folks are on my FL or have me friended, remind me who you are so I can put LJ handles to faces/costumes, ok?

We ate good food and relaxed with Emi and Kei in the downtime and I learn more and more that my body knows what planes are and that, it knows, is a bed. The MINUTE I sit down on a plane lately, I fall asleep, sleep through take off and landing, just dead to the world. It's nice but then I wake up DYING OF THIRST. Oh man I just realized our next con is driving distance. :D YAY. Flying is second nature by now but toting around two suitcases full of fifty pounds of paper per -- which get to go in overhead bins -- gets old after a while.

So, now we have a month until our next con. Thank GOD. Our house is a complete fucking DISASTER which I am slowly working my way through while Jess slogs through three cons worth of commissions... Next costume I'm digging in to is my ComicCon masq costume which i'm going to try to get completely done by July which is quite feesible since I think the only new thing I'm making for AX is Impel Down ver. Bon Clay. I think I'll then try to get Sokka's outfit from the final scene of the final episode for kickin it at Comic Con. Also I really have an urge to make CLOTHES. I've got fabric lying around that I got with the intent of making a messenger bag and some shirts and hoodies... I should go for it since I was on such a damn roll before Fanime. I don't think I've ever cranked out such decent quality so quickly as I have recently.

And then the new badges for AX.... I want to get SO FUCKING MANY DONE. We have like twenty pages of suggestion sheets/email list sign ups that I need to get typed up, and I need to update our site. Anyone have any specific requests/suggestions for this round? OTHER THAN KIRK/SPOCK, LAURA.

Saw Night at the Museum 2 when we got back from Fanime -- in one of the two nights we were actually home that week. I've been fagging out about this movie almost as much as I fagged out for Madagascar 2. (What the hell, Ben Stiller? I don't even normally LIKE Ben Stiller. Go fig.) Mixed feelings about it. It was extremely enjoyable and thoroughly hilarious but definitely wasn't as cohesive as the first movie. Night at the Museum impressed the hell out of me because it was a movie that hadn't been made for a decade -- a high quality FAMILY movie that was actually something everyone could enjoy. It really harkened back to the movies I loved as a kid. The sequel was less magical and more slapstick without a really strong story -- but it was tons of carefree fun. I didn't find any of the characters in it as likable as in the first one, including my favorites, the little guys. Amy Adams as Amelia Earhart left me conflicted because she looked AMAZING AMAZING AMAZING and had me drooling the whole time (thank you costuming department for those pants) but I found her character to be INCREDIBLY ANNOYING. Every word she said was grating and her whorish persistence was obnoxious. Custer on the other hand MADE MY LIFE. All this criticism aside, I loved the movie and want to see it again. Also is it terrible that I sort of want a cosplay group? Jess and I call Octavius and Jedidiah. XD Although I kind of want to do Custer as well....

We also saw Up on monday. Fuck. Go see this movie right now. I don't think I've cried so much in a movie since I was a kid (not counting Boys Don't Cry... that's not a movie, it's emotional abuse) and yet also LAUGHED so much in a movie... it's just fucking amazing. Also, the short at the beginning made me laugh UNTIL I cried. Can someone please send a memo to Pixar and tell them to learn how to fucking market their films? I had absolutely no excitement about seeing this movie. To me, it looked like a cliche story wrapped in unusual visuals. Old crochety dude doesn't want to deal with the rest of the world, young cute kid teaches him that peoplel aren't so bad. If I knew what the story ACTUALLY WAS and had the previews given any insight whatsoever to the depth of Carl's character, I would have been dying to see this movie. Also I'm not a pussy for crying in this movie -- it just hit really close to home. In a very warm, fuzzy -- but also scary -- kind of way.

So yeah, anyway. Back in town for a month, back to life. I am REALLY looking forward to the weekend since I've now been going full tilt for three weeks without a day off -- believe me, cons don't count. I'm dying to do some writing since we haven't had the chance to do much in over a month...

I think you know you're an adult when you REALLY look forward to being able to vacuum and have a fucking clean floor.
( tl;dr : AMERICA. FUCK YEAH. )

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/04/us/04iowa.html?bl&ex=1238904000&en=e70ffe2956e3a3c3&ei=5087%0A

IOWA!?!? FUCKING IOWA!!

Well. Go Iowa.

One Piece chapter 537.

THERE ARE NO WORDS. NO WORDS EXCEPT...

Last month Jess, Thea, Aaron and I took a trip out to the Salton Sea. It was pretty epic though I should have done a little more research. It was nice to get a feel for the area though so I can do some research now and know what to expect next time I go out.

Warning right now -- there ARE dead things under the cut. Dismembered, old and dry dead things but dead things none the less so if you're not as much of a sicko as me and don't see beauty in death and decay, don't say I didn't warn you.



( About 30 photos under the cut...  )

I'm slowly easing myself back in to LiveJournal... or at least trying. We'll see how it goes. I've been snapping a bit lately... Several weeks ago I had an outing to Balboa Park with </a></font></a>xianpu and kagomechan to get some costume shots for them. Was a fun day!

( Some photos under the cut... )
I'm debating getting a Flikr account. It just almost seems silly when I have an entire website dedicated to my photography. Does considering Flikr make me a comment whore?

I'm slowly forcing my way out of my year long antisocial episode... very, very slowly...