I'm ba-aaack, and with a long con report! Rejoice, all! (Yeah, whatever.) It was super-fun, and heeeere's what happened!


Friday

We left earlier than I thought we would, but damned if I'm glad we did! Despite the nasty traffic, we got to Anaheim sometime in the afternoon, and headed off for registration. SHORTEST. LINE. EVAR. I was shocked at how we just walked through the hall and got our badges straightaway. Gone was the waiting-for-three-hours-in-a-neverending-line! We sure as heck need to do that again next year! :D

Although, in some sort of cosmic karma twist, the amount of free stuff we received this year was pretty much nil. Oh well...I'd rather them spend money on making lines shorter than free stuff, anyway. We met up with sbctaka, who was kind enough to let us stay in her room for that night. Hooray! We went out to eat at IHOP, and invited over a fellow anime fan that we just chatted it up with. It was absolutely hilarious for me to discover that she was also (not closely) involved with the big MsScribe wank. Hooray for Harry/Hermione fans that are not crazy! ;_;

Friday ended with us being quite tired and crashing in Care's room. corrielle was smart enough to ask the hotel to put our room next to Care's, so moving our junk was a complete breeze. Take that, overcrowded elevators! On to...

Saturday

Where corrielle, gaelic_bohemian, scifichicx and estelofimladris scurried off to the Harry Potter cosplay gathering. Fun pictures to be had by all! Although I got kinda lost in the crowd holding bags, and apparently ghettopeach had creepy conversations with stalkers. I snapped a few! Afterwards we decided to wait in line for the dealer's hall to open, which may have been a mistake, as the line stretched out around the arena and it was ten frillion degrees outside. Saw some cool cosplayers, tho!

We finally got into the dealer's hall, which I actually didn't realize was TWICE as big as before. This was another Smart Idea on the part of the AX staff, as it gave people room to move around, even though it meant more footwork. I quickly bought craploads of manga, particularly "global manga" (see list of Awesome Crap I Wasted Money On below) I searched high and low for the Axel figurine, but had no success! D: *cry* I shall have to try again at Comic Con, although I figured it would've been easier to find at AX...

I was so exhausted from all that walking that I trudged back to the hotel room for a break and some manga-reading. And I got ghettopeach addicted to Death Note, BWAHAHAHAHA. (Oh, I never did get a Death Note bag...curses!) Once we met up with the whole gang again, we went to sit in line for AMV, which I always love doing. We got excellent seats this year! :D While AMV started a little late, there was entertainment to be had by way of some anime episodes screened (Hikaru no Go looks interesting!) and then a martial arts competition with "anime characters" as judges. Ansem PWNED. Bwah! XD

AMV was so-so this year. Action had some terrific entries (and nobody used Linkin Park songs! Yay!) and the Drama category had some different ones, such as one from Kimba the White Lion to Simon and Garfunkel's "Scarborough Fair," and a really haunting one from...aw dang, I don't remember the anime, but I think it's about Tianamen Square. Very bloody. Some interesting ones in the AmTV category, although I got kinda sick of Naruto after awhile. Comedy was mehh this year. There were two Avenue Q songs (I guess people were capitalizing on the success of last year's), and TWO entries that used the "Ultimate Showdown" song. Nothing that had me crying tears of laughter like last year's "Wizard of Ozaka." :/ When I caught the tail end of the AMV awards on Tuesday, I think the Tianamen Square movie won, which I did vote for as best in show. The song that went with it was perfect.

Sunday

Wow, what a busy day! corrielle and I headed down to Artist's Alley early in the morning, where I met up with all kinds of fun people! I found pinkchan, who was busy with commissions, handed off the Gargoyle comics I bought to Goblinqueeen, and said hi to gmfuu and lazesummerstone. Artist's Alley was AMAZING this year. Everyone was just putting out such high-quality work, and there were lots of finished books out for sale! I felt so overwhelmed! :O But depending on where I am, I might try Artist's Alley again next year. We'll see how quickly the tables sell out, though!

Afterwards, I scurried over with Em and Rei to the Kingdom Hearts cosplay gathering! Holy HELL, but there were a million cosplayers for KH this year! (Is that any surprise?) There were just so many people that it was impossible to get a picture of everybody! I managed to snatch quite a few Organization pics (there were a LOOOT of Org. members this year), some great Rikus and Kairis, and form!Soras. There was even an Antiform!Sora! XD There were more Roxas...es than I knew what to do with. I ended up using all the pictures in my cheap-ass disposable camera quickly, but luckily corrielle also got a pic of Tron!Sora for me! Squee! ^^

I managed to meet up with Tim at 3:00, and he invited me and tentopet over to the Hilton's Starbucks for a chat. I was really glad for the break and the talk! As it turns out, I guess the first pitch I sent in was too fantasy after all. :( He also said that he thought that story didn't quite match my abilities, which I found odd, since I thought that the Artifactory story would be a better fit with my cartoon-y style. However, he DID give me a suggestion on the sort of story they currently are looking for that he felt matched my style. I like the idea! So now that I know what TP's looking for, I'm going to do lots of research (Blockbuster and local library, here I come!) and come up with a great pitch that TP is more likely to pick up. I feel motivated about it! XD I also really want to have some ideas together before Comic Con so that I can talk with Tim in person about it there. Also, Tim talked a bunch with tentopet and her artistic process, which was absolutely terrific 'cause Tento's always fun to talk with. ;) All in all a very useful con break.

Since it was really close to the time we were supposed to meet TP and Pseudome people, I just hung out with tentopet while she did her interview with Patachu, and read Fool's Gold. (Go buy it and read it, you crazies!) Afterwards, we met at pinkchan's table in Artist's Alley, and after a late start, finally got going to Coco's, which was the same place we met and ate last year. XD I can't list everyone here 'cause it was a ton of people, but was I stoked to finally meet deedupuy and derjmeister. We had awesome times at Coco's...and this time I had the good sense to not order their seafood or salad!

After hilarious talk, we headed back to the con and did a random sketchjam in the Hilton...basically we passed around our sketchbooks and drew in each others' books. Woot! (Sorry my drawings sucked! D:) Here's what ended up in mine:



From derjmeister, it's a tennis-playing werewolf OH YEAH.



From pinkchan, Sora being ghetto!Organization LAWLS.



From beanclam, Riku ABOUT TO POUNCE. :O



From azu79, it's a generic schoolgirl with wings, yay!



From...(oh craps, I can't remember!) Silencea, I believe! Naked catboys with yarn, YAAAY.



And finally, I got wyna_hiros and famira to sketch in my book while we were out getting McDonalds. XD Also, Shadowthree started a picture and didn't finish it, and tentopet drew me a picture but is a dorkface asked me not to post it. (I wish I knew how to use Copics...)

We also got accosted by all manner of others! Wyna, Famira and co. found me at one point (in search of the video games room) and sharamordinae stopped by briefly. We also had some complete strangers that just stopped by and joined in the drawing! It was great hilarious fun especially with beanclam being slightly tipsy. ;D I could have made it to the rum party with everyone else from the room afterwards, but I was very tired and decided to hit the hay. That might have been a good thing, 'cause I didn't hear roomies come in until 5:00 in the morning afterwards. o_O They shared many stories of fun, though! We also gained three more roommates on the floor that night. ;D

Monday

I got up earlier than everyone else to meet TP and Pseudome people again for breakfast! Pata and azu79 joined us this time, and we went to IHOP! I'm shocked they were able to find a table for us so quickly, considering there were twelve of us. There was more food, hilarious conversation and sketching to be had. Lots of people had to leave early for panels and Artist's Alley, so our ranks thinned pretty quickly, but it was still good times. I hit the dealer's hall afterwards, where I bought more Deathnote, returned my copy of Manga Studio, and discovered that the picture I wanted in the Art Show would be sent to auction. Met up with ghettopeach and caedhe by pure stroke of luck, and they accompanied me to the TokyoPop creator's panel, where tentopet and beanclam were talking. Felipe Smith naturally hammed it up again. Bwah, it was great to finally hear Lillian talk! I was also happy to see the room full of quite a few people...it's good to know the "OEL" thing is not so much of a "fad," even though it may be harder and harder for just straight pitches to be accepted now.

I crashed back at the hotel for a bit of lunch and rest before deciding to try and track down more friends I usually don't see. I finally found Wyna and Famira's hotel room, and helped them and Hayley in a massive McDonalds run. (Holy HELL, that restaurant was crowded beyond reason!) Hayley had to leave, as she is actually taking the Maya 3D classes I'm considering, but Wyna and Famira and I delivered the food back to their room. As it turns out, they had some extra Masquerade tickets, so they invited me along! I also invited corrielle, as she wanted to see the Masquerade. Played SSBM for a little bit before we actually got going down to sit in line. This was probably the longest line we had to sit in, as we had the less-than-perfect seats, but we still got in there on time.

Aaaand...SHOCK OF SHOCKS. Masquerade not only started on time, they even started EARLY. It was practically unheard of! Heck, they even started before people finished seating, (which would've pissed me off if I'd been one of the blue-ticket holders). Everything ran very smoothly this year; I was impressed! Costumes were pretty good for the most part...the Clow Card skit was both hilarious AND amazing with the cosplay, so I imagine that one won. The SSBM skit was also COMPLETE and TOTAL WIN. There were more Avenue Q skits and jokes than I cared to remember, and the RE4 skit was pretty dang awesome. I saw azu79's costume, and it was swanky! XD I almost didn't want there to be any KH2 skits for fear of Kairibash and idiotic AkuRoku jokes, but the two skits they DID have were quite hilarious (dancing!Xemnas, and Sora dropping his ice cream). As irony would have it, I think they had more skits making fun of KH2's popularity than actual KH2 skits. Go figure!

Either way, after the skits were done our group started to thin out, so I didn't bother to stay and find out who won. I'm betting the Clow Card one did, though. I think roomies went out late again for the dance or somesuch, but I was a tired thing (plus starting to get sick) so I just crashed.

Tuesday

Laaaast day of the con! We got up rather late, packed up the car and checked out of the hotel before doing last-minute stuff. I didn't end up with any last-minute purchases, and I'm kinda sad I didn't buy that Heartless shirt I saw in Artist's Alley. I went up to the art show auction with the hopes that I'd be able to get that Sora/Kairi picture I reeeeally wanted for a good price. (My last bid on it was $40.)

No such luck. Some dude in front kept outbidding me, and I went as high as $123 before calling it quits, so he got it for $125. It was a great picture and I love SoKai, but I didn't have that $120 to spend and I didn't think it was worth that much. I'm shocked it went that high, anyway! o_O Then again, that really really nice Sora & Roxas pic went for almost $200, I think. A TON of nyanko_chan's art went to auction.

Defeated, I met up with the rest of the gang (eventually) in Whose Line Is It Anime, which is always a great end-of-con event. I missed the first half, but the half I did catch was pretty dang funny! Then again, Excel vs. Hyatt at DDR is always hilarious. (Speaking of, my DDR pad broke! I need to buy a new one! Cryyyyy...)

After that, we met up with sharamordinae at Carl's Jr before hitting the road. I spent craploads of money on food that weekend, but I don't really care...it was nice to eat real food at least once a day. ;)

And noooow... my list of awesome crap procured at con!

- Ansem play arts figuring to go with my other KH figurines! (ALTHOUGH HE DOESN'T STAY ON HIS BASE ADJAOWIJDAO)
- Riding Shotgun
- Fool's Gold (Which I got signed by tentopet MWAHA)
- My Cat Loki (SQUEE)
- Rising Stars of Manga #6 (the one I voted for got first place! Yay!)
- Dogby Walks Alone
- Kingdom Hearts #4 (last one!)
- Death Note #6
- first issue of Flight (I really liked it! I should've gotten more!)
- The entire KH: Chain of Memories manga (it was only two volumes long)
- Kingdom Hearts 2 postcard book
- a really nice print of Roxas! Squee!
- really hawt print of Axel from the gal I sat next to at Artist's Alley last year :D
- I got a free print of the Dancing Squirrel and a postcard of Yuna from GoblinQueeen because she's awesome!
- This absolutely hilarious and awesome print of the entire Organization, which I now need to hang on my wall. And signed, woot!
- Directions of Destiny by Hans Tseng!

Stuff I almost bought:
- Manga Studio 3.0. I actually bought it, learned that it was possibly possible for me to get a free copy later so I returned it.
- That Sora/Kairi pic. Curse you, random person I don't know! *fistshake*

PHEW. All in all, it was a great weekend with relatively little drama (at least on my end of things. :P) I had lots of fun, and I hope everyone else did, too! *goes back to reading her purchases*



Drawing: Look, there's some pr0n over here! Otherwise, I wanna draw some more comics for GG's fic, probably start working on the werewolf comic because DAMMIT I should stop just leaving that around, and etc. Also, don't be surprised if there's lots of horses from me in the future. :P

Writing: *plunges back into fun and exciting drabbles*