Yo! This LJ is friends only because I want to know who's reading it! So please, drop me a line here if you friend me, unless you only want to read my public con reports, because if you don't introduce yourself and give me SOME reason to do so, I won't friend you back, simple as that!

UPDATE: Okay, guys, so my friend's list is starting to get kind of ridiculously large... and in order to avoid a friends cut, I'm implementing a new rule. If you're not a cosplayer or a cosplay enthusiast, you can feel free to friend me, but please, don't ask me to friend you back. The reason behind this is that I created this LJ almost solely to interact with my cosplayer friends from around the country and talk about, for the most part, cosplay. So please, feel free to friend me and enjoy my con reports, but if you aren't a cosplayer and mostly talk about your private life on LJ, please don't ask me to friend you back... ^^;;

Soooo, Animu South kids. If you've somehow missed it, I am Cosplay Coordinator for the con now, and thus, I get a free room to fill up with close friends. We'll probably be getting a family suite, which means either one king or two doubles, a pull-out couch, and an adorable bunk bed. Aka, 6-8 people. The reason I say 6 to 8 instead of 7-8 is because if we end up with a king-size, it will just be Cliff and myself, not 3-people-per-king because that would just be AWKWARD... Thus, I can either say I have 8 slots and 2 people might end up on the floor, or I can be safe and go with 6 and not have to worry about that. Hell, I don't even care if we fill the room because it's not like we're splitting costs! Here's who is "confirmed" (?) so far. I'd like to keep it just to close friends, please, so if I don't know you very well (aka, we've never met or never spoken in person for more than 5 minutes), please refrain from asking to room unless I make a second post in which I'm willing to take on anyone. ^_^

• Here are the definites:
  
  
  
  • Myself
    
  • Cliff
    
  • violet_lane
    
  • samu_chan
    
  • Steven
    

So if Daisy confirms, that makes 6, which means if anyone else wants in, or Kevin decides to come (although I still don't even know if Diana is really gonna ask XD), then I need to make sure that we have a room with two queens instead of one king.

We have 5 with one for one more!

If you're like me, you're probably thinking "...where are Karen and Nathan??" and I am sad to say that neither are coming to Anime South anymore.... T______________T 'TIS A GREAT LOSS FOR THE CON... A GREAT LOSS, INDEED.

In case you missed it:


Part 1 - http://katielovespink.livejournal.com/113690.html

Part 2 - http://katielovespink.livejournal.com/114098.html

Part 3 - http://katielovespink.livejournal.com/114279.html

Featuring MER~~~!!! (She asked me to add that. ;D)

Sunday was the day I wore Princess Aurora 2.0 and Dr. Girlfriend. AWESOME STORIES TO FOLLOW....

( You don't want to miss this! )

And that was Dragon*con 2009! If you haven't been to this amazing con yet, then all I have to say is WHAT THE FRAK ARE YOU WAITING FOR?????

See you in 2010, bitches.

So Saturday I awoke (not hungover! Heck yes!), and for the first time ever, I had absolutely no idea what costume to wear. I'm always the kind of cosplayer to schedule exactly when I'm going to don a costume well in advance, but Cliff isn't, so I dropped my schedule in order to be more flexible (so I'd actually get to wear my costumes with him). He mentioned not wanting to do Monarch early in the day, so I suggested we go ahead and get Prince Phillip and Briar Rose over with- so we did. Anyway, we woke up at about 10 to noise from below-- turns out, we had an AWESOME view of the Dragon*con parade from our balcony! We watched most of it, then decided to nap since we'd been out since 5 am the night before. I don't remember when we woke up and got dressed, but I think we didn't make it back to the con (especially since free food was available 20 feet from our room) until 5 pm. AGAIN. Note to self: staying out til 5am is not worth missing a good chunk of daylight at Dragon*con.

( Honestly, I don't remember as many details on Saturday, so I'm just skipping to the pictures! )

And that ends Part 2: Saturday. Part 3 will conclude my Dragon*con report with both Day 3 and Day 4.

Hey LJ, who here uses Dreamweaver to build websites? Does anyone have any good sites for tutorials that they can recommend me? I've always built HTML by hand in the past, so with this, I'm just like "HURRRRRRRRRRR, WUT?" I wish I had the patience to teach myself like I did with Photoshop at 14, but 14-year-old Katie had a lot more free time. XD

Any advice?

That's a somewhat inauspicious subtitle for a con...

So, AX. This year. Had its highs and lows. The obvious high? Mother fucking Morning Musume. The obvious low? Masquerade fail. However, my love for MM completely outweighs my disgust for how we were treated backstage, so all in all, I would still call this year pretty amazing, even if I did leave AX with a kind of "Goodbye, biggest animu con in the nation! Peace out! I'm finally over you!" kind of feeling. But, that might have just been inevitable after 5 years of attendance anyway, who knows?

( Pre-con shenanigans with Daisy )

So, then sleep. And the next day, we headed into the con (which took way longer than it should have, due to the shitfest that is LA traffic), I picked up my badge and Momusu tickets, met Peter, and retired to the room to finish mixing the skit, which I did. Strangely enough, the auto-tune plug-in that I installed should have totally expired (it's supposed to be a 10-day trial of a $400 plug-in), and it hasn't yet. Awesome, right?? :D I actually had asked my friend Christina Vee to record lines for Ranka, then I decided to have Mer re-record them instead because Christina's rendition sounded a bit too bratty-Skuld-voice for my tastes. I felt bad because I begged her super last minute, and I wanted to have the skit before the con, but since I didn't, and Mer had access to my mic now... well... XD;;;

Anyway, more about that later. Day 1 was the day that Mer and I decided to wear casual Ranka and Sheryl, and wear our Buono! outfits despite the decision to forego PopShock due to all of AX's stupid scheduling mistakes.

( Photos from Day One! + The Momusu Panel! )

Later that night, I got THE CALL from Leonard. The one asking me if I was interested in doing the Meet the Guests breakfast in the morning, where Morning Musume would be present. YES. YES, I WOULD. So I did. And at was awesome. My adventures are chronicled on youtube because I believe only a blog could capture my excitement and faggotry.





No, really, I'm an enormous faggot.

So, as I mentioned...

( Day 2 was Morning Musume day! )

So just like that, the final day was upon us. Downtrodden and with not as much energy as before, Mer and I donned our final costumes for the weekend, Moka and Mizore. The response to which was... to say the least, NOT QUITE WHAT I EXPECTED...

( DAY FOUR: AKA, WHY THE FUCK ARE THESE COSTUMES SO POPULAR? DAY )

So that was AX! Masquerade sucked, but Morning Musume rocked my face off! And my friends are awesome. :D

After the con, I went back to Daisy's to spend a few more nights with her. Epic fun times were had, even though I missed my annual theme park visit. ;_; Oh, well, didn't really have the funds for it anyway! XD;; And of course, on my last night, a group of us all went out and did karaoke together~. My voice was COMPLETELY GONE from the Momusu panel + concert, but I still attempted to rock out because that's just what I do. Koda Kumi comes REALLY NATURALLY when I have no voice. LOL Does anyone have pictures?? All I have is this:

( Two pictures from Little Tokyo )

On my way home, we actually flew over the Grand Canyon! I've never been, so this was epic! I took pictures.

( The Grand Canyon from a few thousand feet overhead )

And as you (may?) already know, I will not be attending Anime Expo 2010 next year, because I will be at San Diego Comic Con with my boyfriend instead. Let's hope it doesn't disappoint!

So, remember when I said I had made a make-up tutorial when I did my Dr. Girlfriend make-up test, and that I would post it "soon"? So much for soon, huh? Anyway, I change my favorite make-up techniques so frequently that I think I need to post this NOW, before it gets so outdated I'm mocking myself for being so terrible. lol

( Katie's Cosplay Make-up Tutorial -or- How Katie tends to do her make-up for cosplay )

Wow, I never realized what a whore I've become for Maybelline lately. I always thought I was more of a CoverGirl-girl. In case you're wondering, though, I generally just go for whatever's cheapest (but is a step above Jane, NYC, Wet&Wild, etc, etc. XD)

If anyone wants pictures of my brushes, let me know! And was this helpful? Would you like more? (Especially since I just recently updated my techniques!)

BITCHES CAN'T STOP ME! I'M ON A ROLL!

So for those who don't know, Anime Alabama was Marc Yu's (director of Anime South) attempt to bring lower Alabama its first anime con, and from my perspective, it was a GREAT success! So many congoers told us how happy and grateful they were to have a con in their area, and for most of them, it was their first! Although the likelihood of AniAl happening next year is slim, I still think its many attendees can say it was a great experience for them and they would be more than happy to go again.

( Ballin' con report behind this pimp LJ-cut! )

So that was the first (and last?) Anime Alabama! Unless Marc decides to give it one more year. Or someone else takes the reign. In either case, I am so down with playing Cosplay Director again if Marc/new-Director-san will let me. ^_^

So after being not too entirely pleased with how I looked in Star Date Sheryl, I decided to make Casual "French" blue dress Sheryl for a photoshoot in Atlanta with Mer, Sam, and Steven. Mary was working on a Sheryl costume, too, so we asked her to join us as well. Silas came along to play AZN PHOTOGRAPHAAAA~.

And here are my favorites from the shoot!

( Macross Frontier in Atlanta: Top 36 behind the cut! )

Anime Alabama report up next! Hopefully, it will be the last report where I have to upload photos to flickr and my domain will be back online soon. Oh, LJ Scrapbook, how I miss thee!

Feel free to leave any specific comments on my favorite photos in the Sheryl gallery I made on cosplay.com! http://www.cosplay.com/gallery/144191/ Or here. Wherever's fine.

( This con report is told in mostly caption-narrative style. I left out a few of the more embarassing details, mostly for the sake of Cliff's pride. )

So that was Momocon. I apologize to anyone who had to meet Cliff in that state, so here's hoping that you've had a chance to meet him sober since then! XDDD BLAME THE KITTIES.

Is it just me, or is D*C one of those cons that gets more and more awesome the more you think about it in hindsight? Like, when it was Monday, I was kinda sad about all the things I didn't get to do, but as my post-con depression continues to wear off, I realize what an awesome year this was. Although my birthday plans to gather all my friends and mingle with them all at once kinda failed, and Cliff ended up accidentally ditching me because my phone never received his text OR his phone call + voicemail (I heard this happened to a lot of people at D*C) telling me to come eat out at a diner with his friends (which explains why he was so confused when I called him in a bad mood- he thought I was partying with MY friends and didn't want to hang with him. I thought he had just abandoned me on my birthday.). I think I need to post a few teaser pictures of some highlights of the con, though...

( DRAGON*CON TEASER PHOTOS BEHIND CUT )

DETAILS ON THAT STORY LATER... I think I might start my con report backlog going in reverse... D*C, then AX, then Anime Alabama, Momocon, etc.

So I know quite a few people responded to my post with "You need roomies?? WE need roomies!" But I'm afraid I just gotta decline. I REALLY want to stay with Aimi, Mary, and Velvy (hopefully?), and I definitely want to be at the Westin. It's just way nicer and probably where Morning Musume is staying, and I would rather have a bed and be comfortable in a room of 5 people than a room of 8ish. @_@

That said, anyone still need a room for Day 0-Day 4? We'd take 1-2 people in who need it. 1 more person makes it $181 per person and 2 more people makes it $151 per person. Again, halp?

Also, unrelated, but my suitcase is going to be REALLY stuffed this year because my new one is a slight size downgrade from last year's. That said, Aimi, Mary, Velvy, are any of you going to be bringing a wig head? I might need to do last-minute styling before I throw on Miyabi, but I don't have room for one at allll. Halp? If not, Mary, can I ask you to bring one since I'm lending you my Nana wig? Perty please? She'll probably need a little more straightening before you put it on, and I don't have time to do it before I pack. :[

#################################
If you are looking for a place to stay at AX, or you know anyone who is,
PLEASE HELP.

Due to super unfortunate circumstances, myself, Aimi, and Mary have lost two roommates for AX- Diana, who cannot attend due to school, and Velvy, who would rather save money and commute.

ANYWAY, that means we now have a room at the Westin Bonaventure with only 3 girls for 5 nights (Day 0-Day 4, so we don't have to spend half of the last day of the con checking out/putting our suitcases in a $$$luggage check-in$$$), and that would be EXPENSIVE AS SHIT. I'm kind of praying that there will be some miracle and Cliff will be able to fly out to AX (he had so much fun at Anime Alabama that he actually wants to try the COMPLETE OPPOSITE END OF THE SPECTRUM now! LOL), but there's maybe a 15% chance of that happening, so I'd feel much safer finding at least 2 roomies NOW.

To copypasta from Aimi's LJ, the cost will be $181.26 (this INCLUDES tax) if we have a total of 5 people, and $151.05 if we have a total of 6. The first person to get in on this will be on the room list and get a shuttle pass, the 5th and 6th will not. As far as I know, being accompanied by someone who does have a shuttle pass can get you on them, though. Or, at least, it will DEFINITELY get you up to the room if they actually enforce that wristband shit (which I doubt they will). So please, PLEASE. If you are thinking about staying at an AX hotel, but haven't found a place to stay, and aren't positive you want to, PLEASE do us this favor and join our room. We're really desperate, and it kinda sucks to be us right now... I know $180-150 sounds like a lot of money, but we'll be paying $300 a person if no one stays with us...... think about how much more THAT will suck for something that's really not our fault. :[

Entry is locked because yeah.... THAT desperate.

THIS IS AN NYAF REPORT, KINDA



I say "kinda" because honestly, there's not much to report... I didn't cosplay Friday or Sunday, and most of the pictures, I look pretty dreadful, between all my DURP faces and that wig just looking RETARDED on me. Glad I styled a new one for Anime South. @_@ Now if only I could sell the old one...

On Thursday, D and I flew into New York late at night and were picked up by Kat, who took us on the Subway to her apartment, but not before a glorious late-night (See: 3 AM) McDonald's visit!

( lol Friday. )

( WCS, Oh shit. )

The next day, Diana flew back to Florida, and since my flight wasn't until several hours later, Kat and I ran and got lunch together at one of her favorite spots ('TWAS DELICIOUS~ Mmmm...) and then went to a cheap wig store where I bought my wig for my Falsetto costume that shall ONE DAY BE REALIZED. (See wig here!) Then I said my goodbyes to Kat and flew back to Alabama, where a week later, professors would be lying in wait to pounce and tell me that I was on probation in the BFA program for having priorities outside the theatre. GREAT semester last year, lemme tell ya.

If anyone is wondering about whether or not Diana and I are doing WCS again this year, we're still talking about it. We both said we'll only do it if we can come up with a really good idea (by AX) or else, why bother? I know I certainly don't won't to waste another $700, only to lose again. Then I REALLY could have bought a ticket to Japan with the $1400 I lost trying to win one. And I don't want to put that kind of money into cosplay and competitions these days, anyway.