i'll paint the stars

Yay! The famed conreport, for once I am not lame and actually wrote one up! ^^;;;

( I am cutting it because it got a little long and I'm quite sure not everyone wants to read it :D; )

Of course, five minutes after I got home my kitchen ceiling started leaking. >>; Apparently the guy upstairs has a leak behind his kitchen sink. But I called and it's being taken care of, thankfully.

In other news, last week Anime Club started up again for real, and it was lots of fun~ We're watching Genshiken, Samurai 7, School Rumble 2, and Angelic Layer. I went with Diana and Scott, who decided to give it a try, and I think he liked it. ^^; He's out of town this week, so he can't come tomorrow, but I guess I can fill him in if he wants to keep going. Definitely looking forward to hanging out with Diana again though~! <3 If you're reading this, I'll give you a call tomorrow! ^_^

And this entire MONTH the steam to our building is out. See, they're building a building behind ours, and so stuff gets randomly turned off. And apparently the way UF controls indoor temp in our building is by running chilled water through the pipes until the building is nice and freezing, and then using steam to bring it back up above frigidness. Now, it's normally cold inside, but just the regular cold that happens due to A/C. NOW, though, it's absolutely frigid in there. D: Thus we're all bundled up and I'm going to wear my Jayne hat for an entire month, I swear! I also refuse to go in on Monday next week, because they're turning all the water off and if I can't use the bathroom then I'm going to work from home!

Today was the Jonathan Tan-organized "get to know people in the other department" thing between Astronomy and Physics, so I sat through something like eighty one-minute (for the most part...) talks about "hi this is who I am and this is what I do." :D; I went for myself and also for Scott, who was morphed into a tiny plastic Triceratops for the occasion~ There was a reception-thing afterwards but I didn't really feel like going, so I came home and got some dinner here.^^ And now have this-land.net updated as best I can~ :D

HOLLY BLACK is going to be at Dragon*Con! *squee~!* AND Peter S. Beagle, and Heather Alexander, and OMG XANDER. XDDD AND TASHA YAR! Er. I mean Denise Crosby~

... I'm going to spend the whole weekend fangirling the guests, geez. :D;; Forty-two pages of them, ZOMG!

Okay, that's all, really. :D; I'm off to paper mache my ... apple-on-a-string-thing for River~ Apologies for the spam. ^^;;; <3


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Edit: No Jayne! DD: Sadness, he had to cancel.

ZOMG it's been so busy here! But busy in a good way~ ^_^ Anyway, I haven't really had the chance to do much of anything computer-y, with the exception of checking a few RP journals, for pretty much a week. So, um, I'm alive and I'm very glad all of you are, too! <3

So, uh, first order of business! AFO! It was a lot of fun; I hung out with mostly Persimmon and Diana, but I got to see a lot of awesome people that I don't always get to see and it was very, very good. <3 I would, um, make a list but it would take half a page. But thanks to all of you for talking to me and making AFO so great!!

( A short rundown for those who care ^^; )

And then Jennie and Dad came Monday. :D

( Another cut, again so I'm not cluttering any flists! ^^;; )

o.o; Man, my hands hurt! Anyway, the drive back was really nice and when I got back this afternoon I headed into the department because Glenda had send me an email two days ago saying OMG FILL OUT THIS PAPERWORK BY FRIDAY OR YOU CAN'T GET PAID!!! and then when I got there she said, "Oh, nevermind, it's already on file" and I almost died. ._.; So I stuck around for a little bit but I was really tired, so I headed back and fell asleep until the repair guy came to fix the A/C (again) because it was dripping (again); I fell back asleep and had the craziest dream that we owned a Chinese restaurant :D;; and just woke up about an hour or two ago, now. ^^;

So, uh, yeah, I've had a crazy week, but I'm back and around again and stuff! I should be mostly caught up on my flist, but I didn't get to comment for the past week or so, so, um, <3s to EVERYONE and I really have been reading as best I can. ^^ I hope everything's going well for everyone and I'm sure I'll be able to catch up with you all for real soon!

Now off to edit that XP log so it can get POSTED!

jfisadjfapoijf tiny GBA Niou. XD; He's about as cute as tiny GBA Kirihara~ Who looks like a lemming. |D;; I am such a PoT videogame junkie. D:

So! In any case, I am back from Boston. ^^; Er, not that many people probably noticed my absence, but I apologize for totally missing about five days of my flist and thus being unable to comment on all your lives. ;_; I tried to kind of scroll through the past few days, but I'm sure I missed more than I should have. ><; Um. And I'm leaving again tomorrow for Tampa to help Jen with moving stuffs and go to Metrocon, so I may or may not be around for another few days. I will be back in G'ville on Monday for sure, and actually alive on the internets again then as well. :D;; I hope. And then I get to remember what the heck I'm supposed to be doing that earns money this summer. Multidrizzle I hate you.

Oh! And speaking of Boston (er, well, in that previous paragraph...), I will have a conreport-thing sometime soon. Maybe next week, but maybe before if I get the chance to work on it tomorrow. ^^; Very short version, AniBos was tons of fun~ I somehow ended up running around almost the whole time! o.o; For not having much to do, I sure was busy! Our Mai-HiME outfits went over really well on Friday (so all the Mai-HiME fans hide up north, apparently :D;;). I got one ribbon recommendation for my costume on Saturday. ^^; Two people recognized Kira on the way home from the con (damn you, no love for SEED D:), but! I got to be Ryoma in the chess match and MURAKI molested and killed me :O. Monday was run-around-Boston day, and Tuesday was kind of all over the place until we flew home in the evening. ^^; AND that's it for the uber-short-mostly-costume-oriented version~ It was awesome to meet Mina and Harpy, too, btw. <3 Seigaku fight-o! :D

And now I have three new posters to hang up. Man, I have to stop buying posters at cons. ^^;; But I think I should get a frame for the PoT one, because it's big-ish and pretty and I don't want to tape-ify it.

Um. And now that I'm talking about cosplay (or was), does anyone have any decent pix of Soi Fong? Wow I really hope that's how you spell it. I lose. Apparently I have decided to join the legions of Bleach cosplayers. :D;; But that's for after Metrocon, since I have no time to really think between now and then. ^^; I have to admit, I am definitely looking forward to being HOME for more than a day. My cat probably hates me by now. ;_;

Huh. This new version of Semagic seems to have forgotten everything from the previous versions. D: ::kicks it::

Okay. I think that's it. There may be a billion edits to this, or not. Er. Hope it's not too long, and like I said, it's utterly random, so, um, a prize if you actually read this! Um. Though I don't know what prize it should be. <3s? ^^;

Next post may (hopefully) have the, like, six memes I was tagged for. :D;;

So! Here's a somewhat abbreviated Metrocon report, along with the very few pictures that I took.

Friday: Drove down to Tampa as Naruto with Itachi and Sasuke in the car. Needless to say, that was interesting. ("Itachi's playing with my hair!" "No sharingan in the car!") Got to Tampa and couldn't quite find the Convention Center (At one point my phone rang and it was Jen, "Are you lost? Look behind you....") and so Jen and I drove around in a two-car caravan until we got separated but eventually found the hotel/Convention Center. We ran around the con for a few hours and went to opening ceremonies, then waited for our room for an hour and a half but finally got checked in okay and ran around the con some more. Jen's Prince of Tennis panel was that evening (I changed into Ryoma for that), and though it had an extremely small turnout (as we kind of expected), I had fun. And I got to drink a grape Fanta. XD I so want Ryoma to be in the chess match next year solely so I can be him. Um... Friday night Jirru and I hung out and she is teh awesome; we found a secret cave and sat in/under it and fangirled and it was really, really fun. ^_^

Saturday: Got up bright and early for Chess Match things; Claus got to move chairs and run around giving people glue and scissors and stuffs, then they practiced a few integral parts of the match and it was time to start! I had a really awesome time; though it was an hour long, it went by really quickly from backstage. I got to give Sam his arm and his spear and I totally almost felt more special for that than for Claus' five lines (though I really enjoyed the fifteen seconds of fame I got up on stage! Not nervous at all, really). I feel like I'm kind of slighting the wonderful time I had Saturday morning by not saying more... There was just so much going on, and it was a great culmination of all the effort that everyone put into the production. Everyone I talked to afterwards seemed to enjoy watching the match, and we hung around for a few pictures before Jen and I went back to change into Tetsu and Souji. The stuff I got for the scar worked *really* well and it was awesome. Ran around the con some more until Jen had to go back to get changed again for Anime Idol, and Jirru, Jennie, Eric, and I ordered a pizza because we were starving. Unfortunately I missed Anime Idol, because I would've liked to at least see Jen perform even if I wasn't really going to stick around for many of the other songs. After the pizza I ended up hanging out with Jirru, Fina, Kimmu, and a bunch of the other Sarasota kids; we tried to cheer Kimmu up and ended up having a great time, including finding and talking to Sam (and he gave me a piggyback ride - I feel so special! XD). I eventually went back to get rid of at least the wig and Shinsengumi coat before wandering back to the con for an hour or so at about midnight; I talked to a bunch of the con/chess match staff, as well as Maboroshi, and ended up having a good time doing that as well. It's just... *so* different actually *knowing* people at cons (that aren't Jen); it makes things a totally different experience. ^_^

Sunday: Got up at about 10 to pack and move things out to the car because checkout was noon; after Jen left for her costuming panel I helped Jennie get into Shiva and decided to just hang out all day as Tetsu. Jen and I had planned on entering the Peacemaker stuff in the costume contest, but the line was really long so we opted out to get some lunch (and ended up talking to Diana and her friend) and go to the dealers' room. I did actually run into Anthony too, so I know for real he's not dead. ^_^ Jen and I also stopped in I went to the ADV panel and I met the voice actress who does Tetsu; she was really awesome and thought my costume was cool - she even took a few pix for her fansite! I felt special. The Costume Contestwas after that; I sat with Kimmu/Sarasota Peeps, as well as Jen and Richard, and though it started late, there were a lot of wonderful costumes. I was very impressed. Afterwards Jennie got out of Shiva and we ended up heading home, after stopping at a random Wendy's for some foodage before hitting the highway for real.

All in all, I really had a wonderful time. It was great having Jennie and Eric there (they're still here, in fact, and just finished watching ALL of Last Exile and they ROCK and Eric unlocked so many DBZ characters for me and this is such a run-on sentence). I also really loved actually talking to people and going to events, both things that I usually rarely do because I'm a) antisocial and b) don't know anyone. So yes, MUCH better than last year (which was really only not fun because of not-con-related stuff) and one of my better con experiences, really.


Pix: I want to marry my Con Badge because it has Claus on it. <<;

Itachi playin' with some cards

Hikaru and... Hikaru, backstage before the Chess Match

Sasuke eating a snowcone.

Sam is the coolest he gave me a piggyback ride!

Pre-piggyback ride picture of all of us

Sakura stole Itachi's hat

Jennie in her Shiva makeup and Itachi's clothes (i.e. as Sharkboy), with Eric passed out in the background XD

Jennie took some pix of non-Shinsengumi Tetsu before we left. Part 1

Non-Shinsengumi Tetsu, part 2

Non-Shinsengumi Tetsu, part 3


Con Loot: Jen and I split some Destiny figs and I found a Sokyuu No Fafner Poster OMG.


Other Randomness: Got worshipped by Naruto/Ken... Um... that was cool. ^^;;

I'm sure I'll remember more and amend this later.

So! Back from Tampa (as the title would indicate)... Well, I got back three hours ago, but I had to dye my hair Daisuke-colored. ^_^; It's defintely redder now, though a dark reddish; I ended up getting something other than the Herbal Essences I was thinking about, but I'm happy with it. I think that if I put the red gel on it (because I CAN now that it's straightened), I'll actually look like Daisuke! Whee. And then in a few weeks I can enlist Jen to help me MikeVino-ify it.

Practice Saturday was good - I had a lot of fun hanging out with people when I wasn't busy, and people got a LOT of things done. @.@ The read-through/dress rehearsal went well, and things look... excellent. I think it's going to go very well, and I'm excited. And I swear, HALF of the cast came up to me at one point or another after I'd put on Claus and said, "OMG you are the cutest thing ever!" ^//^;; So, um, that was kinda cool! Afterwards Jen and I just kinda crashed, but we went today and got some last-minute Peacemaker supplies (NOTE TO SELF: DO NOT FORGET MAKEUP FOR TETSU'S SCAR DAMMIT!) and worked on things. I hate Tetsu's hair. And I'm sure I'll hate it even more by the time I'm done with the scary scary wig. But Jen was helpful in helping me figure out which pieces get stiffened where and when, so she's awesome. ^_^ Things left to do on Peacemaker:

- WIG
- Bracers for Tetsu and Souji
- Headbands for Tetsu and Souji
- Tetsu's shoes
- Lining on bottom of Tetsu's pants

... I think I can do that. ::nods:: Also gotta re-sew one of the velcro tabs on Claus and touch up the Silvana logo on the back of the harness, but that'll take a few minutes at most. And maybe hand wash the bodysuit, since I was wearing it outside all day Sat and it was HOT (though it could have been MUCH worse, really).

Plus! Jennie comes Wednesday, so I am totally excited. AND my advisor figured out the problem with the program I was working with, so tomorrow I actually have work to do!

Let's see. In other random news, I had this really weird dream last night that... well, first an airplane crashed into our house. But once THAT atrocity was over, I had a different dream that I was sitting outside with Kaidoh, Ryoma, Fuji, and Inui, and were were all playing this board game. And then there was this public bus that kept driving by, and they were like, "Oh, that's Keipi... he hijacked the bus because he thinks you're Ayato and he's stalking you," and it was really weird. >>; Plus I swear there was singing at one point, and making Kaidoh the king of some faerie realm, and my mother came by and said something really weird and I had to explain to Kaidoh that she was being strange. Um. Yes. So. <<;

Also, in other random news, Curtis at school gave me this Green Arrow anthology the other day: "Quiver," which was written by Kevin Smith. And it was AWESOME. Dammit, now I want to read Green Arrow. BUT I hear the downtown branch of the library has actual issues of comic books... I must go check this out. Once I find my library card...

OMG this song is TEH awesome. XD

So! I am actually extremely well-rested, considering the following: I got up at 8:30 yesterday to drive down to Orlando for Jacon, and got back around midnight and went to bed at 1:30. Then I woke up (mostly) of my own accord this morning at 10:40 and actually *got* up. Go me! So I feel like I've been moderately productive today, going running and doing laundry and grocery shopping and all. Now I'm alternately watching my new crack and working on Heihachi (not in equal proportions <<). But first! Jacon Report:

The drive down wasn't bad at all; I made coffee and stopped at Panera for bagels before I left - I think this should become common practice, because it was $1.70 for two bagels and they were quite yummy. ^_^ I got to Orlando about 11 and met up with Jen and Daft (who was still half-asleep) and finished turning into Naruto, including the best prop in the world. (Skuld, you have to look at this.) Said prop was not too happy about his lodgings, but oh well, lots of people thought it was pretty funny. XD We hit the dealers' room first because Jen told me about this and OMG I SO NEEDED IT. It was only $5 and now I can carry around my future husband on a keychain! It's even DOMESTIC!! They also had Lavie and Alvis, but dude. CLAUS KEYCHAIN. If it wasn't sitting here on my desk I might not believe it existed. ^^; I also got a Momiji bunny because it was teh cute and only $13. He can live with the kuso!nezumi that I also own.

Actually, the extent of my con loot was this. The magazine, thanks to Daft and Jillian, is teh pretty. And there's this REALLY hot picture of Shinn on the last page. I will scan that... later. When I've cleaned the drool off. <<;;; (You guys rock - it's so full of Gundam SEED-y goodness for my poor starved mind!) Daft gave me her Ryoma and Taka plushies, for which she is also awesome. ^^ Now I have a Ryoma with a MOUTH! Momo is much relieved. ^_^

Right - so rest of constuffs. It's all kind of jumbly, and not particularly worth going over in detail, but needless to say I had a lot of fun. Hung out with Jen, Daft, Persimmon (and Sarah... until she DIED), Jillian, Jasmine, Travis, and an Iruka-sensei whose name I forget at the moment because I'm lame like that. ^^; Also saw Lindsey, who proved that going to MIT is bad for your health. Gotta watch out for that zombification. So basically, there was much hanging out, dealers' room scouting, and an interesting trip to Pizza Hut that (as we discovered later) was actually completely unnecessary. It was fun. And I DIDN'T get a headache! Other con highlights include the passing around of Naruto's pants, the entirety of said unnecessary Pizza Hut Trip, and general fangirling and getting to see the aforementioned bunch of cool people I hung out with.

So! On to the new crack. Sokyuu No Fafner. I was paging through the Shinn-plastered Newtype when I found this review of this show that looked suspiciously like SEED, but wasn't. After some difficulty (as the whole thing is in Japanese), I figured out that it was Sokyuu No Fafner, and being that I am a Gundam SEED-addicted little girl, and it's animated by the same people and involves mechs, and Destiny only comes out once a week, I figured I should check this show out.

If you take the Gundam SEED characters, toss them into the EVA-verse, and throw in a little confusion, you get Sokyuu No Fafner. You also get the main character, Kazuki, who is *totally* Athrun and Shinn's love child. (Impressive, I think, being as they hate each other so much...) It's a decent show, so far, though it does totally rip off of EVA sometimes. It's also a little confusing, but I've only seen two episodes and I'm hoping everything will start making sense soon. Despite that, and despite the fact that I'm not really sure too many other people I know would like it, I love it. Is this new? Of course not, as I always love things no one else does, but such is my lot in life. More Sokyuu for me! ^_^ AND since, also as per usual, it's from last season-ish, it's either already done or at least there's a full season out for me to watch.

No, I don't want to cosplay from this show already. Really, really I don't.

Really!

<<;;;;;;

(One way to possibly convince at least some of my friends to perhaps watch it is the... sketchiness I've already picked up on between Kazuki and Soushi. Or maybe I'm just making it up. >>)

This may be a bad thing, as I HAVE to finish Heihachi soon and it's the end of the semester so I have the Radio project due Friday and my ISM final on Tuesday, after THAT TEST, which any of us will have been lucky to have passed. >> Seriously. It would have been nice if, say, *anything* I'd studied had been on that test. -_- Ah well. There's still the final to fail.

And wow. This is my first update in half a month. Sorry about that. ^^;; Probably more later - now I'm going to go work on Heihachi so I can watch some more anime goodness when I get something done. ^^

Well, I have nothing else to do... so here are the AFO pix. Most belong to either Maboroshi of Risingsun.net or Cosplaylab.com but I did take some myself, down towards the bottom.

Here you go:

AFO 2004 Pix

Here's the page for my MetroCon pix:

http://web.mit.edu/ajkles/www/metro04.htm

As I probably mentioned, they're mostly of ninjas and tennis players. Ah well. ^^;

The (maybe) long-awaited Anime Central 2004 pictures can be found

here

Rachel, there are some nice PoT ones, if you want to check them out. ^^; We had a boy Yuuta!