So Baku was great, in it's "we're unprofessional, but we still love you!" sort of way.

I picked up my badge on Thursday on the way back from Maine. Quite interesting to see the mix of people setting up and the early con-goers sitting around socializing. Went home to try and finish my costume.

I ended up being late on the first day, trying to finish my Fai costume, sewing on snaps and cutting straps and gluing spray painted cardboard in places. I managed to make it look acceptable and got to the convention sometime around...11 I think? Maybe it was 1...hmm... Anyways, I got good reactions for Faye. Tanya tried to tackle-glomp me, but it backfired when I picked her up, I think...sorry Tanya. People kept feeling my coat and asking to borrow it, which was very flattering. I was a little shocked though to find leftover pins in it each and every day, though, and I'm glad no one hurt themselves with the petting. I won a Fuhrer King Bradley figurine at the Yankee Battle Auction Royale! I'm sorry, Andrew, btw, I made you get stuck with sponges. I also went to Costco with Andrew and Jeremy, and got lots of people staring at us. Even a few laughers according to Andrew.

Also of note that day, I picked up Clover, vol. 3 and 4 in the dealer's room. But they were in Japanese, which doesn't quite match the copies of 1 and 2 I have (English), so if anybody wants to buy them, I'll gladly sell them. Or if you know whoever bought the copy of vol. 2 some contact information would be great, because I'm sure they'd be interested in vol. 3 and 4.

Finished the day by skipping the rave to go see Saw V with Andrew and Jeremy, in our costumes. Oh the stares we got. And the laughs. It was worth it though. The movie was great, except for that scene with the last "game" for the prisoners. I had a lot of trouble breathing after that for some reason, and ended up half-unbuttoning the Fai shirt to make it easier.

Saturday I was very late, had to fix several wardrobe malfunctions from the day before for the cosplay contest. Change the trim on the collar so it actually closes, shorten the straps, paint the cardboard affixy-thingies, yatta yatta. I didn't get there till just before the competition prep started, and missed the craftmanship contest. Which actually worked in my favor, as every part of the costume was all half-assed in some way, usually the trim, lol. Many thanks to Hannah, who saved me with a safety pin when my cardboard affixy-thingy fell off just before the contest. (I have that for you, btw, and can give it back next time I see you.)

But the prep was fun, we got to do the Time Warp to loosen up. That song is actually good for something practical, surprisingly. I wish I had thought up some walk-on poses before I went on stage, I get the feeling I wouldn't have sucked so bad up there if I had. >>;

The AMVs were nice, but I wish I hadn't already seen two of the winners at other conventions, and on the internet. BE A MAN was soo awesome. I had forgotten how great that whole movie was, and now I want to see it again.

Dating games were great, at least the yaoi and the yuri ones were. The "hentai" one was just...weak. Nothing funny or interesting happened. Maybe they had been scared into silence by the yaoi game. Yaoi was a little too rambunctious, hard to tell what was going on. Yuri was awesome. Man Rosette did a fantastic job with that. They even reduced the conversation so it was easier to follow. MUCH easier. THANK YOU GIRLS (and guy).

After the convention Andrew Jeremy and I went to Denny's, for a very early breakfast. T'was epic and tasty and beautiful and cheap. Surprisingly a lot of people there for 1 in the morning. Went home and dad wasn't too happy I stayed out late, but so far I'm not grounded or anything, so I guess I'm safe. We'll when Halloween comes around though *shiver*

Sunday was pretty much the redeem-all for any dullness that I had experienced previously. Cosplay chess was fun, mostly. It would have been nice if they had more time to plan it out, so that the character fights matched up better (Aeris beating Fai with a bitch slap = lame) or if they had gotten cool characters to actually fight. Charmeleon and Kankurou could have both had awesome fights with just about anyone (Queen Death though, hard to have an interesting fight with her) and both never fought at all, since they had foolishly been placed on the side rows, doomed to stalemates and never moving. I could understand putting Fai there, I had no battle moves at all. But Charmeleon...wth?! Quite possibly the stupidest plan they had that whole time. That and playing the game as if it were a chess game, instead of as a show. They need to be more entertaining next time.

I also went a little hog wild in the dealers' room. I bought: Extra Large "Itadakimasu" Boxers, a Toji Suzuhara figurine, two Syaoran figurines (lost one, had to buy another), Tokyo Babylon by CLAMP, a C.C. figurine (eating pizza), and an Escaflowne figurine. I almost had Jajuka's Guymelef, SO CLOSE (Jajuka is the Zaibach shiz, btw) but I got Dilandau's cronies' Melef. Not even Dilandau's; his henchman's. A bit of a letdown, but minor. ^_^

Andrew and I also did our Princess Princess cosplays for a couple hours that day. We took too long with the makeup though and ended up missing Hannah and Emma's Gothic Lolita Panel. We felt bad about that, since they're good friends of ours and we said we'd be examples for their presentation. But they went over very well, about equal with guys and girls. We even got our asses grabbed a few times, little awkward. But not quite as awkward as Costco in those things. 9_6 We're thinking of reusing them for Anime Boston this year, since they went over better than we thought they would.

All in all, this was a great convention this year. I loved the mascot election thing, and thought that it was a great plot device to add to the convention, like that whole "warring clans (?)" thing they had at Boston last year. I kinda wish they had played it up a bit more, like candidates going to a panel or event and sort of advertising their campaign there, outside of the mascot debate panel. I got both of them to sign a poster though, so I am satisfied. Now I need to get it framed and hanging on my bedroom wall.

ROBERT AXELROD SIGNED MY SHIRT! WIZARDMON SIGNED MY SHIRT!