MTAC recap.

MTAC was fun this year, though we weren’t there nearly as much this year, since we opted not to get a hotel room to save money. We also ended up not dressing up at all because we couldn’t figure out what costumes to wear that we wouldn’t be dying to get out of after a few hours. (The purpose of getting a hotel room: to easily change in and out of costume.)

On Friday, we went to see the Kaiju Big Battel screening. Louden Noxious and the Beav, the commentators on the show, were there to provide live commentary. One of the kaiju, Unibouzu, also made an appearance. We got pictures with him and with Louden. After that, we stopped by the game room, and Ben played Smash Bros for a little while. Then we decided to go to the Build Your Own Kaiju contest. Ben had to be at work later, so we couldn’t participate, since we couldn’t stay till the end. That was a little disappointing, but we watched them build the costumes for a little while, and I took a picture of one I dubbed Mr. Butterheart.

On Saturday, we arrived just in time for the Kaiju Big Battel press conference. Once again, Louden and the Beav were hosting it. Several other kaiju showed up, including the infamous Dr. Cube, who gave Ben a “Dr. Cube’s Posse” t-shirt. After the press conference, we contemplated getting in line for the cosplay contest. We started following the line down the hall…around the corner…down another hall…through the doors to outside…down the stairs…up the sidewalk….yeah, it was long. And the room wasn’t that big, so we figured it would be rather pointless to get in line. Instead, we walked around to the front of the hotel, and then I heard someone calling my name. Confused, I looked around. Then I spotted my niece, Meagan. She was there to play the taiko drums, but I hadn’t known anything about it, so it was a very big coincidence. I went and talked to her mom for a bit, and then we watched her perform. I was really impressed! She said she messed up once, but I didn’t notice.

After that surprise, we decided to see if we could get into the room for the overflow of people trying to get into the cosplay contest. We made it in without ever having to wait in line. Unfortunately, because we weren’t actually in the room with the people on stage, the pre-teens/teens/I-really-have-no-idea-how-old-they-were-but-they-were-acting-about-12 decided they would scream insults and stuff to the people hosting the event. Especially when they were having to stall for time (like it was their fault…sheesh) or accidentally mispronounced the name of a character or something. Ben and I were getting awfully irritated, and I was really wanting to chew some people out and/or have security call their parents, but I just tried to block them out as much as I could. It was mainly one side of the room, and not the side we were on, but it was just really ridiculous. I really hope my kids will have more respect for other people than those kids seemed to. Anyway, it was hard to tell details of the costumes on the screen, but from what I can tell, there were some decent costumes. At intermission, they announced the theme for next year, of course: ninjas.

After the contest was over, we went back to the game room. There was a Smash Bros tournament underway, and Ben tried to join in, but it was a double tournament, and he won’t let me play with him, haha. Okay, I’m not GREAT at the game, but I’m not awful either. But I probably would have declined anyway, because with that many people watching, I definitely wouldn’t have been all that good. Since nothing else was really going on, we left.

Ben had to work Sunday, so we didn’t go back. I stayed at home playing with my DS all day instead. It was kind of weird being there not in costume, but at the same time, it was kind of a relief. I think we got to enjoy parts of the con that we don’t normally get to, because we are usually stopping every 5 seconds to take a picture and it takes forever to get anywhere. It was kind of nice being inconspicuous for once.

The MTAC schedule is up!

Yep, Ben and I are still going to MTAC this year. No new costumes, though, and we are not staying in the hotel. Here’s a rough idea of what we might be doing each day, based on stuff that sounds interesting to me.

Friday -
12:15 pm: Kaiju Big Battel screening
2:30 pm: Build your own kaiju

Saturday -
12:00 pm: DS social?
3:30 pm: Kaiju Big Battel press conference
6:00 pm: Cosplay contest

Sunday -
1:15 pm: Guide to electronic music

No word on what the video game tournaments are, as they are set up by Gamestop. Maybe Ben can find out early.

A few quick updates:

The videos from MTAC and Brina’s shower are now up, as are photos from both events.

Some pictures of our costumes from last weekend are up in the cosplay section, but more will be coming since the official photos haven’t been posted yet.

Samantha has talked me into doing a faerie costume for the Tennessee Renaissance Festival, so I will apparently be working on that instead of taking a break from costumes for a month like I had planned. I drew up a preliminary sketch, and hopefully it won’t be too time consuming.

I need to take my bridesmaid’s dress for Jason and Becka’s wedding to be altered, as I don’t trust myself to take in a fully lined bodice on a dress.

My obligatory MTAC post…

I spent most of Thursday night running around trying to finish up everything before Friday morning. I had decided that the boots I had purchased for my Celes costume were too tall and went on a fruitless 2.5 hour search through Opry Mills and Cool Springs for mid-calf white boots with a narrow heel. They don’t exist in April. However, Charlotte Russe was having a $4.99 boot sale and I did find some brown boots that I decided to cover with white fabric. So, then I had to make a trip to Joann’s for the fabric. I also went to Target for a few things, then went by the Marriott to pick up our passes for the con. After I got home, I had to cover the boots I had bought, finish painting Ben’s knife for Locke, do laundry, sew Ben’s belt for Locke, pack, and other various little things. I need to teach Ben to sew. I finally went to bed around 2:30 am.

I got up early Friday morning and drove to Clarksville to pick up Sabrina. Then we went back to the apartment, packed up both my car and Ben’s and then were off to Franklin. We arrived and checked into the hotel. The room was ready and on the third floor, right next to the elevator. Perfect. I went with Sabrina to pick up her pass and to get a schedule. Ben and I changed into our Wallmarket costumes and then went back downstairs. We ate lunch at the restaurant in the hotel, Lorraine’s. I had some very yummy chicken, pork roast, and cheesecake.

Wallmarket Aeris and Cloud were a big hit. Everyone seemed really surprised and happy to see cross-dressing Cloud, since it is so rarely done. At 2:00, we went to the Make Your Own Movie panel. We watched a short film on how to get rid of a dead body, which was pretty funny. They explained how to do some different camera angles. It was pretty interesting. After that, we changed costumes into Black Mage and Misa and walked around for a bit. Around 6:30, we decided to make a run to Kroger to get some snacks and soda, and also went to McDonald’s for a bite to eat.

Ben and I got in line to see the Protomen at 8:30. Sabrina didn’t think she could stand up for very long, so she decided to go back to the room. Which turned out to be a great idea, since we waited…..and waited…..and waited…..and waited. After 10:00 passed, we were so fed up with waiting that we left. I have no idea what time the concert actually started, but an hour and a half late is WAY too late.

On Saturday, Sabrina and I got up and went to the con suite for breakfast. I had a yummy egg, cheese, and sausage croissant and a banana. There was supposedly a Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy photoshoot at 1:00, so we went to get Ben up. We put on our Celes and Locke costumes and went downstairs. We found the photoshoot, but it seemed to be exclusively Kingdom Hearts, and we thought we would look a little out of place, so we decided to do something else. We went to the Build Your Own Mecha Workshop, in which four teams were competing to build a mecha out of random scraps of things, like keyboard parts, circuits, aluminum foil, and duct tape. It was pretty interesting to see what each of the teams created.

Then I drove Sabrina back to Clarksville while Ben hung out with Wayne. When I returned, we put our Wallmarket costumes back on and went downstairs to get in line for the cosplay competition. While we were walking past the people who were already in line, everyone broke out in applause for Ben’s costume, hehe.

The competition was pretty good, and the skits (ugggh) didn’t go on too long. At cosplay half-time, they announced the theme of next year’s MTAC: giant monsters (like Godzilla). They also announced that Kaiju Big Battel would be there next year. Ben and I freaked out about that. If you’ve never seen it (it comes on G4 in the mornings sometimes), it basically involves people in very weird costumes fighting. It’s hilarious.

After the cosplay, we hung out with some random people and ate Domino’s. Later, Ben and I went to check out the Random Battle Group. Ben got asked by one of the participants to be a summon (he was in his Black Mage costume again) and he agreed. I got this all on video (which will be up at a later date).

On Sunday, we didn’t do a whole lot. We ate breakfast in the con suite again (I had generic Froot Loops this time) and then packed. We were planning on going to watch the Ramen Eating Contest, but didn’t make it in time, so we went home after that, since Ben had to be at work and I had to go to Sabrina’s baby shower at 4:00.

It was a pretty good weekend….I definitely can’t wait till next year.

Less than two weeks until MTAC! :O

Costumes are coming along. I shouldn’t have any problems finishing in time, with little to no last minute rush, so that’s good. I need to run out to Burlington Coat Factory (the only place that sells gloves when it’s not winter) and a few thrift stores to find some things. Does anyone happen to have knee-high white 2″ narrow heel boots in a size 7? Hehe.

Here’s what I have left to do (taken from this post):

Celes Chere - Amano - 100% done!

Locke Cole - 95% done
• Purchase shirt - plain white, forgot it on my Wal-mart run yesterday
• Paint knife

Misa Amane - 100% done!

Aeris Gainsborough - Wallmarket - 100% done!

Cloud Strife - Wallmarket - 100% done!

At least now the air is back on…

Edited to add: There’s also a couple things I need to update on my Terra costume. Mainly, I need to size the gloves properly, glue the claws back on, and get some better shoes. There’s always shoes….

And now for a real update…

Not a lot has really been going on lately.

The apartment complex is being renovated, and they have been working on it since sometime last fall. From what I understand, they fired the first group of people and then hired some new ones. In the meantime, my balcony was closed off for the entire winter, and supposedly they are adding new doors and windows this week. The biggest problem? They shut the air conditioning off.

It is regularly between 85-90 degrees in my apartment during the day, even with windows open. Now, I’m a naturally cold person and I like heat, so while that’s an annoyance, it’s not THAT big a deal to me. The thing that annoys me the most is that the humidity in my apartment is messing up my TiVo. It’s nearly impossible to watch because the audio constantly crackles. It only does it every now and then, but this afternoon it wasn’t letting up (I was able to watch “Splash” this morning without having any problems). I didn’t understand why this was going on at first, so I spent 20-30 minutes googling the problem. And finally I narrowed it down to: it’s too humid. Today is probably the hottest it’s been in here (at least while I’ve been home) so that would explain why it’s being so relentless today (since I’ve had the windows and sliding door open). As far as I can tell, it’s not recording the crackles, so as soon as the air conditioning comes back on (they say it will be on before April 1…still a week away) I should be able to watch the stuff I’ve recorded crackle-free. And I can usually watch stuff at night when it’s not so hot in here. But I was trying to get some sewing done, and wanted the TV on for background noise. And a staticky crackling sound is NOT good background noise.

As for everything else, I went to Michelle’s baby shower yesterday. I took a few pictures, which I’ll add in a little bit. I went and saw “300″ a couple weeks ago, which I recommend. Ben’s birthday is next weekend. MTAC is in three weeks. I’m doing good on costumes (I think). Right now, I’m at: Misa - 100% done, Celes - 50%, Aeris (Wallmarket) - 90%, Terra - 90% (I need to do some touch-ups), Locke - 5% (I’ve bought some fabric and that’s about it), and Cloud (Wallmarket) - 70%. It’s hard to get motivated with it being so hot in here.

I think that’s about all that’s been going on.

MTAC, anyone?

If anyone else is interesting in attending the Middle Tennessee Anime Convention with us, it is still cheaper to buy tickets now than it will be at the door. The convention is April 13-15 and the theme this year is Robots. In addition to the mecha-themed events (which have yet to be announced), there will be, of course, the cosplay contest, the ramen-eating contest, martial arts tracks, video rooms, gaming rooms and tournaments (prob Guitar Hero 2, they haven’t been announced yet), a Protomen concert, and Pocky!!

I currently have a hotel room for both Friday and Saturday nights. However, I may just keep the room for Saturday night only (and just drive there on Friday since it’s only 20 mins away), depending on what’s events are going on Friday night. We can fit another 2-3 people in the room or, if you need to, you can crash at the apartment.

The current pricing is (good until March 17):
Friday only: $18
Saturday only: $20
Sunday only: $12
Any two days: $28
All three days: $32

Check out more information at mtac.net and let me know if you are coming!

Happy 2007!

I am not making resolutions this year, though I did fairly well at keeping the one I made for 2006 (to keep up with the news better). However, I do have several goals that I intend on trying to meet by the year’s end. These include buying a house around the time my lease is up (beginning of October) and buying a new or new-to-me car around November. I’d like to buy a car before then, but having car payments would severely lower the amount of a mortgage loan I can get. So my goal for the first half of the year is to get my credit cards as paid off as possible. This means attempting to be frugal with money for a few months, so I’m having to cut a few things. Like I doubt I’m going to continue my ballet classes until next year, probably not going to go out very often, and, well, just plan on coming to visit me if you want to see me. I just really, really want a house so I think I can make a few sacrifices for a little while. I might even consider getting a second part-time job to supplement the savings process.

I am, however, still planning on going to both MTAC and DragonCon this year, since tickets to both were purchased prior to me coming to this decision. Probably not going to make it to MomoCon this year and AWA is iffy (especially since it will be right when I’m trying to close on a house). I will be putting off a few costumes until I get the house, such as Presea, since I will need a large space (such as a garage or a yard) for working on her axe. The costumes I plan to complete this year are: FFVI’s Celes (Amano version), FFVI’s Locke (for Ben), Death Note’s Misa, and Dragon Quest VIII’s Jessica. The former three I hope to finish in time for MTAC and have Jessica in time for DragonCon. I’m only planning on working on one costume during the summer since I assume my spare time will be mostly taken up by house hunting.

Anywho, that’s my 2007 plans. Here’s hoping everything goes well!

Back from MTAC…let’s see what I can remember…

Friday, I got dressed in my Miwako costume at my parents’ house and then drove up to Franklin with Samantha following me. We got there and found Ben, Chance, and Kris, who had been dropped off by Wayne. We got the hotel room and registration buttons. While the guys were getting into costume, Samantha and I took Lilli down to the Chibi Corner where she colored a nice picture of purple Pikachu. We went to the dealer’s room and I noted the price of Pocky and also that there was an Aeris figure selling for $65. I wish I had money. Lilli fell asleep after that, so we took her back up to the room and hung out. When she finally woke up, she was hungry, so Samantha, Ben, and I all went down to the hotel restaurant to grab a burger. However, Lilli was pretty cranky, so Samantha left after we ate. I wish we could have hung out longer, but I will see her next month!

We all walked around for a bit, going to the gaming room where Ben played Soul Calibur 3 and I gawked at the people playing DDR whose feet were moving impossibly fast. I took a few pictures, as you can see in the gallery, but this was the only day I carried my camera around.

I wore my Miwako costume on Friday because there was an invitation-only Paradise Kiss party happening at midnight that night. I kept getting stopped by other Parakiss cosplayers asking if I had gotten an invitation, as they were supposed to start handing them out after Opening Ceremonies at 6:15. But by 8:00, we still hadn’t received anything. Finally, around 9-10 pm, I received my invitation. Ben went as my guest and my friend Chris somehow showed up. The party wasn’t much, but we did get free sparkling grape juice.

Saturday, I woke up at 9 am and couldn’t go back to sleep, so I put on my white mage costume and went downstairs. There was supposedly a cosplay.com photoshoot going on that morning, but I never did find it. However, there was a family taking pictures in front of the atrium fountain. I wondered if they had been warned that there would be a bunch of people in costume roaming around that morning.

I went and bought some Pocky and then went back upstairs to annoy Ben until he woke up, because there was a red mage downstairs and I wanted to get our picture taken with him. The guys all got ready and we went downstairs.

Our mage costumes were insanely popular. We would move five feet, get stopped for 10 photos, move another five feet, 10 more pictures. And they were INSANELY HOT. We had to keep taking breaks from wearing them. It wasn’t so bad at Momocon because it was cool outside, but it was much hotter outside than in this time, so we couldn’t get relief just by stepping out the door.

There was a Final Fantasy photoshoot planned for 5 or 5:30. We hung out by the fountain but no one was showing up. We did see a Yuna and a very pretty Amano Aeris (I wanted a pic of her so bad, but I didn’t have my camera with me!). So we went and sat down and it was in progress when we walked back! So we joined in and everyone took pictures. Most of the people were from Final Fantasy VII, with the exception of us and Yuna.

At 6:00, we got in line for the cosplay contest. I plan on entered these contests at some point, so I like to see who wins to know what I’ll be up against, skill-wise. The guy that was hosting the event may have been the most annoying person in the world, however, and everyone in our group got fed up and left. Except me. I stayed for the whole thing cause I wanted to see who won. You can see the award winners on this site.

After that was the “rave,” but we didn’t go to that. At 11:30, we got in line for Advent Children, hoping that it was the new dubbed version since the voice actor for Vincent, Steve Blum, was introducing it. However, it was the subbed version that we had already seen. I was soooo tired at this point that I kept falling asleep during it. I did stay awake for all the good parts though!

Sunday, we got up and Ben and I put on our Mugen and Fuu costumes. He had to help me tie the obi. I have no idea how anyone does that without help! We checked out of the hotel and went to the Ramen Eating Contest. The winner was a very small 14-year-old girl who somehow downed 13 bowls of ramen noodles! Then we watched some very strange DVD about people who dress in monster costumes and wrestle?? I’m still not sure what that was, but it was pretty funny. We were going to buy more Pocky after that, but the Dealer’s Room was closed, so we ended up just leaving.

Some of the coolest costumes from the weekend were all the Star Wars people roaming around. Stormtroopers, a very tall Chewbacca, and even a remote controlled R2-D2! I got pics of Chewy. I need to find one of R2-D2. He was awesome!

Overall, it was a very fun weekend. Now I need to start preparing for AWA!!

I added a new cosplay section to the site.

I wanted to keep my cosplay pictures separate from the general photo gallery. There’s not much there right now, but I am hopefully getting some sewing stuff for Christmas, so I can get started on these costumes. My Aeris costume (that I wore for Halloween) is basically done. It needs a little editing (mainly the dress needs to be taken in a couple inches, the cuffs need to be attached to the jacket better, and I need a wig) and then I will go take some good pictures of it to go in there.

I currently plan to start on my Fuu costume as soon as I get the sewing machine because I figure a kimono is a nice and simple beginning sewing project, and I hope to have it done by April for the Middle Tennessee Anime Convention. From there, I’m going to work on the Final Fantasy Tactic’s flower girl dress to be worn to the Renaissance Festival in May. After that, I hope to have my Presea costume (which I was going to make for Halloween this year but deemed it too difficult and did Aeris instead) by Halloween time. Yay!

Sorry for the lack of updates. Been uber-busy lately.

Ben’s birthday was this past weekend. We ended up going to Murfreesboro to hang with one of his friends and to an anime convention in Nashville. Whenever I find my USB cable, I will upload some pictures.

There’s less than a month of class left. Needs to hurry up.

Been playing a lot of Sims lately, since the expansion came out a month ago. They recently announced another expansion that’s coming out in fall.

Bonnaroo is only two months away.