I've now uploaded the pictures from my camera, and I thought I'd share a few with you. (I didn't actually take that many - most of them were of rurounigochan in her Asuka cosplay, and none of them were of me..)

( A couple of unusual Avatar cosplayers - Kyoshi warrior!Azula and an Air priestess )

( Crow takes a leaf out of Kakashi's book )

( Gochan and I on the Buzz Lightyear ride )

( This sight greeted us upon our return from Disneyland )

In other news, I've just caught up with the Naruto manga (is it wrong of me to be worried about Deidara?), I've been thinking a lot about Goose, and I'm having a hard time finding non-slash Iruka wallpaper. It's making me so irritated that I may have to just make some for myself.

And in other other news, my horrific sunburn is much better. It's started healing, and is approaching normal sunburn status.

(PS~ Saw "Transformers" again today with isauraoktobre - still TEH AWESOME! And even cooler now that I could understand the lines!)

First of all, TRANSFORMERS IS TEH AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Though I have to go see it again soon because thousands of screaming and cheering geeks makes for a lot of missed dialogue. ^^; (See it again? Oh darn!)

Next, for those of you who missed it, the AX Masquerade was pretty fun. And the half-time show, featuring "Naruto" and "One Piece" in "Pirates vs. Ninjas", was even more fun. I just subjected Gwen to it, and she thought it was hilarious.

And you can watch it all on YouTube here!! (I haven't gone through all their videos.. there are a lot.. but the half-time show starts here!)

Some other links from AX that are fun times:

"Code Monkey" AMV of "Black Heaven" (another audio gem from Jonathan Coulton, and video is very cute!)
"Skittles" AMV of "The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya" that was very well put together (be warned - is kinda suggestive..)
"Does L Creep You Out" AMV of "Death Note" (song by Weird Al - that's warning enough for you! ;P)
And "The Guardian Gene", winner for best action/adventure, AMV of "Scrapped Princess" (hosted on AMV.org, so you'll probably have to sign in to see it)

And a new favorite bit of mine.. Naruto Abridged - extremely quotable!

Kakashi: Sakura, you shouldn't take the chuunin exams.
Sakura: Why?
Kakashi: Because it's dangerous, and you.. might.. be.... Know what, nevermind. Do your best. Not only that - fight that kid Gaara, Sakura. I hear he's a wuss.

OH YES!!!! MY ROGUE MADE 40 LAST NIGHT AND BOUGHT A KITTY!!!!!! I played hard this weekend - 3 levels in the last few days, I think. Rested XP = love

Also, I ordered a Horde hoodie. ^_^ Even though my highest is Alliance, and I play both about evenly. I'm excited to wear it in public, cuz I just don't *look* like a Horde player.
My characters as they stand just now:
Esyllt - 40 Night Elf Rogue (the only one who could *afford* a mount)
Mauleen - 35-ish Undead Warlock (free mount from quest! yes!)
Eritrea - 22-ish Human Paladin (also free mount from quest!)
Gwyndir - 16 Blood Elf Mage (my boy! he's fun to play. and pretty.)
Katiyeh - 12-ish Blood Elf Hunter (on hold, for playing with my bro)
Zallay - 8-ish Draenei Hunter (must play more.. got swept aside when I transferred Esyllt to her server..)

I like WoW. Kind of a lot. And I'm exhausted and somewhat nonfunctional today because I've been staying up so late.

~~~~~

In other news.. I leave for AX on Thursday, and I still don't know what costumes to bring. ^^; I'm definitely bringing ANBU and Bastila.. probably Matsumoto as well. Maybe I should bring SeeD Quistis? Too bad I didn't make a Chuunin/Jounin vest yet (which is it, folks? is there a difference?) or I would wear that.

What are we taking to Disneyland?

I'll be bringing my Enneagram book for our amusement, and my sewing machine if I can get it back from my brother. Maybe I can find some Jounin blues and some green fabric and then make it there? Maybe I should just not worry about it this year. I feel like it'd be quite the undertaking, and we'll be doing other stuff.

TRANSFORMERS!!!!

And I need to bring my Caboose shirt, because the fellow who voices Caboose will be there! (as well as the voices of Griff and Tex, and the writer of the RoosterTeeth comic) Maybe I can get my picture taken with them!

~~~~~

Also, I found out that Stephenie Meyer is NOT coming to Utah on her Eclipse tour, but she'll be in Tempe on August 18th. So I called home to see if that'd be a good weekend to visit, and was told that I was ridiculous and they wanted me to come visit whenever I can. Mom said that the kids asked if I would visit before summer's over, and that when she told my youngest brother (age 9) that I probably wouldn't ever live with them again, he CRIED!!!! Talk about making me feel bad about moving forward with life! DX

It sure is weird to be chatting again. It's been forever since I used AIM. I feel like I should be doing other stuff, too, instead of just sitting there.

So you get a post! How 'bout that!

Alright, lessee.. I guess I could talk about AX some. ( AX Report, finally )

All in all, it was a way fun trip. I didn't see CLAMP; I didn't even make the effort to see CLAMP, actually, though I've been a fan since Rayearth. I didn't make a lot of money, but I didn't spend a lot of money either (except for hotel and food), and it was well worth it to see the posse again. (I remembered how much I miss having roommates. My little sister doesn't cut it, having only about 5% common interests with me, and my little brothers (though not ROOMmates) are much more interested in poking me, climbing on me, pretending to eviscerate me, and obsessing about games, than most of my other friends. You people will definitely have to come to Anizona. Looks like it's in April this year. And it's seriously only, like, 5 miles from my house. ^_^)

Update later.. but in the meantime, I just found my picture on IGN's website. They were doing a cosplay gallery at their booth in the dealers' room, pulling aside cosplayers and photographing them. Too bad mine turned out kinda fuzzy, and unimaginitive, and you can't see my waraji very well. And it's hard to look attractive in such bulky layers. Ah well.

PS~ I start training on Monday. :)

Just a short one this time. I was just so excited, I had to share.

I woke up rather restlessly (and way too early) this morning, thinking of all the things I still have to do to prepare for AX, and since I couldn't go back to sleep, I just got up and made a list of stuff to get done.

I went to PetCo and bought a choke chain, and had my dad cut off one of the rings on the end because I couldn't fit it over my head, then attached an openable keyring instead - Matsumoto's necklace DONE!

I bought a new pair of black socks that were thicker (so not see-through) and more comfortable, and made of *nylon* this time, so they wouldn't fray when I cut the toes off for my Anbu costume. And I didn't cut the entire toe all the way, just so they'd show through, so I won't have the horrible sock-riding-up-my-foot-and-giving-me-blisters issue that I did at Halloween. Definitely not something I want while trucking around Disneyland.

And last night while looking in my closet for my karate gi, I found my old softball pants from high school - a thousand times better for my Anbu costume than the sweatpants I had last time! So excited!!


PS~ My warlock made lvls 19 and 20 the other day, and now my pally made 20 tonight, too!

And I posted the last of my old KotOR strips (remember the 'Dancing for Vogga' one and the 'Tootsie Roll' one?) that I made last summer, since I decided to just finish the stinkin' thing today.

So, after two days of sewing (I *love* my sewing machine! *huggles*), Matsumoto's top is finished, and looks pretty dang cool. I've got the scarf (but it has some weird fringe that I'm probably going to take off), the hakama, the tabi and waraji.. I'm using a karate gi top for the under-top (the sleeves are narrower, but I don't care), and I still need the necklace and squad badge (any ideas?), and to figure out the belt/sash deal.

I finished about 11:30, and straightaway put on the other pieces. ^_^ Cool stuff. It's hot and kinda bulky, but I'm excited anyway.

And even better - now I know I can do it!! (With a little help from Mom, of course.. but still!)

Also, I didn't play WoW at all today, cuz I was sewing. Heh. But I *did* watch a couple hours of Bleach (over Panda Express).. for research, you know.

Oh! And I had an interview at OfficeMax today - it went pretty well. But the manager who interviewed me said that she doesn't actually do anything with the desktop publishing (the position I was interviewing for), and *her* supervisor, who does it all because they don't have a desktop publisher, is on vacation this weekend, which she'd forgotten when she called me to schedule an interview. So I'm going back on Tuesday to talk to him. But I feel good about it, and pretty confident. I hope it works out.

PS~ Happy b-day to my brother Garrett, who turned 14 today!

I haven't been playing as much WoW the last couple days as I usually do. Partly that's because it was down for a good while, and the patch took forever to download yesterday (something about my stupid firewall, which should have had NOTHING to do with it!), and also partly because I'd waited for eillwony and demontanuki to take my pally to Deadmines (did that the other day - it was *awesome*!), and my warlock is in the Barrens. I hate the Barrens. They remind me of Arizona. Bleh. And there's this thing about dying often lately that just makes me want to throw things. Or not play.

And also I haven't been playing much because I had finally started reading Trickster's Choice, which I got from the library a while ago, and last night I stayed up til 2 reading it. Then woke up at 10 and finished it at noon-ish. (Then went to the library and checked out the sequel, heh! I love libraries..) *huggles George, even though he's old now*

My AX badge came in the mail today (and a graduation check!). chibidrunksanzo, thanks for your patience with me on all the preparation stuff.. I don't know why I'm so worried about it.

I also got, in the mail today, my new DLD cards, which I ordered from VistaPrint for a nice price (I get deals from them all the time now - it's bordering on irritating), which I will be bringing to AX. Yay! I also finally started working on Matsumoto's top.. that is, cutting out the pieces. I realized that I'm leaving *next week*, which kinda jump-started me into actual preparation. I'll sew tomorrow (I'd been kind of waiting for my mom to finish with my sister's wedding dress, because that takes precedence, particularly in terms of work area AND my mom's attention (I always have questions), and it's been taking longer than expected).. So there's that, and figuring out what the heck to do with her belt and squad badge, and making the necklace. I figure I can use two larger rings like from a keychain, and make some wire links in between - my brother even says he has some that he was going to make chain mail from. But my neck is pretty sensitive to metal, so that might not be pretty. We'll see. (Bastila, sadly, is not going to happen this time. But I'm not giving up on her.)

And I applied for two jobs yesterday (while WoW was down/updating), one of which left me a message today about an interview. That's at OfficeMax, as a desktop publisher. We'll see what happens when I call them back tomorrow.

I need some WoW icons.. hmmmmmmm....

Got a package in the mail yesterday - the waraji for my Matsumoto costume (with slight tweaking). And when I remembered how much I spent on them, I decided there really is no going back on this one, so today I went to the fabric store and got some fabric for her gi-top. Or hakama-shita, or kosode, or whatever you want to call it.

I also bought that light-orange fabric for Bastila, too, and decided it might be easier to make the mauve parts out of vinyl or something than out of craft foam or whatever, but it's a good thing I decided not to buy any yet (I don't know how much I'll need) because the two fabrics already cost me a pretty penny. And I still have to redo the mask and arm-guards for my Anbu costume, too. But if all goes according to plan, I'll have Matsumoto, Bastila, SeeD Quistis from last year, Stargate from last year, and Anbu from Halloween. It'll be a little weird having two of them not anime costumes, and not even Japanese, but I think it'll be cool anyway. But I'm not looking forward to all the stupid pairs of shoes I'd have to take. That is, three *different* pairs of boots, the waraji, and my black slides that I hate to walk in (I should figure something else out for the Anbu shoes.. grr..), and my shoes take up quite a bit of space. Ah well. We'll cross that bridge when it comes. (And pixiepilot, you'll have to show me how you lace yours, because I had quite the time trying to follow the directions I found online.. Ridiculous.)

Today I finished my entry for KFM's Dueling Circle, and sent it in. Yay! The voting begins on Friday. And Hayley and I attempted to go to Institute tonight, but due to a detour and the street being closed, we got there 20 minutes late, then decided we didn't want to take any of the classes offered Wednesday night, so we're going to go back tomorrow. Also today, I finally, *finally* finished reading Mercedes Lackey's The Gates of Sleep, which took me *forever*!! It was so hard to get into, and didn't flow like her others, or follow through with the exciting themes it brought up.. definitely not one of her better books. But now I won't feel bad reading Fire and Ashes, which is the book I started to read that series for. Except that first I decided to read Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason first, for a change of pace. And another thing about today - since we're having our drinking water re-somethinged and can't use it (and tap tastes AWFUL), I didn't want to run/walk today, so I went swimming. But I went about 7, and realized that the pool was going to be cold, and it took me a whole 7 minutes to work myself up to jumping in. And it was actually quite lovely, and no colder than it usually is in the mornings.. :P

As for WoW, my human paladin on eillwony's server (who I started in place of the night elf I'd started on my brother's account) is now level 11. Her name's Eritrea. Sorry I seem to keep missing you, Adi!

Took my Japanese final this morning, at 7. Came in to work at 8:15. (I'd told my boss I'd be in at 10 because of the final, but I usually work at 8.) It wasn't too bad, but I'm sure I got some stuff wrong. Watabe-sensei brought us some Hi-Chew from Japan.. ahh, brings back memories..

And now I'm done with finals! It's funny, though.. As I was coming into the library, I realized that I had nothing to be working on in my off-time, so what could I do? Subconscious said, "Kotor fanfic!!!!!" It was very excited, and I had to laugh. So I'm hoping to go through the Dueling Circle fics and not just the art. (Still winning!!)

Watched two more discs of "Wolf's Rain" with pixiepilot and chibidrunksanzo ("studying" for Japanese, you know). One disc left, but I don't think I have time to watch it before leaving. The parents are already on their way up here, and will arrive tonight, so today must be occupied with packing and cleaning. To be commenced as soon as I get off work. Which is pretty much.. whenever I feel like it... And I don't want to clean and pack.. ^^;;

So we'll have to watch the rest of "Wolf's Rain" at AX, about which I'm dang excited. We're going to be an ANBU squad at Disneyland (how are we going to do the masks? Mine doesn't fit very well (I could make a new one, I guess), and it's kind of annoying to pack around.. but it's just not the same without them..), and I've got to figure out other costumes (I'm going to do Matsumoto from Bleach, with a little *ahem* tweaking, but what else?), and what the heck to sell at Artist's Alley? Should I bring my KotOR stuff? I think it'd be fun to make/sell buttons, or do portraits, perhaps?

Still haven't heard from Cheyenne Mountain, but they took the position off their page recently, so maybe I'll hear back soon.

Also, I thought I'd mention a few things I enjoyed going through while writing my paper the last couple of days.. Fun trips down memory lane - I talk about stuff like Marvel Masterpieces and the Hildebrandt Brothers, Sailor Moon, DragonLance and Larry Elmore, Keith Parkinson, ElfQuest, the Ordinary Princess and its original color plates, Drew Struzan, Jody Lee, Michael Whelan, and Darrell K. Sweet (mostly because of his unbelievable prolificness). Ahhhh, I love ElfQuest..... Skywise was my favorite..


Joe, my coworker, has an inhuman amount of ABBA on his playlist. Who knew their stuff was in Spanish, too? O.o;