Categories
Anime, Manga, Etc cosplay Tech

Youmacon 2009 Cosplay Slideshow Is Up!

Actually, I finally got around to putting together my traditional post convention slideshow last week, but I want to give the WordPress 2.9 improved video embedding a little test. The slideshow is the first video I’ve made on my Mac using iMovie. iMovie is okay, if you haven’t used other, more conventional, video editors. But I found it a bit confusing at first and later too limiting. Still, for a simple slideshow, iMovie is fine. But I’ll be sticking to Sony Vegas 8 for my bigger projects. Yeah, it means booting Windows, but I’m not in the mood to spend a lot of money moving to a native Mac solution and having to learn a new tool. I still hope there will be a Mac OS X version of Sony Vegas some day.

Anyhow, here’s the slideshow!

Hmm, in the end I still had to put in the object code by hand to embed the video. Just putting in the link only gives a link… Well I’ll look into it some more later… Maybe it doesn’t like Chrome.

Categories
Anime, Manga, Etc cosplay

Otakon 2009 Aftermath

Almost a week has passed since I began yet another excellent Otakon adventure. I can scarcely believe I’ve been driving there and back from Chicago every summer for the past 5 years. Happily, this year that driving did not involve getting a speeding ticket!

All in all I had a ridiculously good time. Things got off to a less than stellar start though with a 90 wait in the pre-reg line. This lead to my missing dinner with the Mega Tokyo crowd and I also skipped the pub meetup which due to the pre-reg line delay started a lot later than I could stay up. But from those hiccups came the secret of my Otakon 2009 fun, think different!

I decided to do things a little differently this year, go to some different panels than I might normally choose. I was not disappointed. I saw Kikuko Inoue, soooo cute! Mary Elizabeth McGlynn, awesome! And Crispin Freeman, cool cool cool! MELL concert, OMG!

The main changes I made were skipping the rave and masquerade on Saturday night in favor of other things. Friday night’s rave was so crowded I literally could not dance and what little room I had left was taken up by the break dancing circles. The final straw was the truly horrid mix played by the DJ during the time I was there. It was the same beat over and over again. So, given the extra 5000 people that seemed to be present, I doubted Saturday would be any better.

I ended up using the Otacafe and karaoke as my main activity hub between panels and taking pics of cosplayers and showing off my own cosplays. I’m sooo happy at how well received my Princess Sakura cosplay was! I worked late night for two weeks straight finishing up the costume before the con. But the boots totally killed my feet, lol! Looking back, I must have walked a mile in those boots before returning to my room to change into my flats and hose as planned. I knew the boots could be trouble, so bought some matching flats at the last minute.

The gothic lolita look must really suit me, because I got a good number of compliments and picture requests. And I think there was even one guy who seemed to particularly like me dressed up this way… I was so happy with the outfit and the reaction that I wore it again on Sunday.

I usually shop and try to get in some last karaoke on Sunday. I got to sing two more songs that day, including the very last song of the con before the Otacafe shut down. That still gives me a warm glow because everything was nearly perfect. I sang Shizukana Yoruni from Gundam Seed which is one of my favorites and went well with my Princess Sakura cosplay.

In the end, there are always a billion things I would have liked to have done, but couldn’t. But that’s just life anyway. I had a really good time meeting old friends, making some new ones, and doing the things I enjoy the most. What more can anyone ask for from life?

Firefox

Categories
cosplay

Otakon: To Infinity And Beyond!

With only a week to go until Otakon, I’m feverishly working, as usual, to finish a new costume. I keep telling myself that this may be the last one, but I just know that may not be true. It is certainly one of my more challenging projects.

This is one of the outfits Sakura wore on chess world in Tsubasa Chronicle
This is one of the outfits Sakura wore on chess world in Tsubasa Chronicle

I still don’t know if I’ll finish in time, but last night I had one of those OMG moments I get when I feel that things are looking good!^^

Categories
Anime, Manga, Etc cosplay

Anime Central 2006 Sayonara!

It’s been a week since ACEN 2006 started and now I bid it a fond farewell. One thing I’ve noticed this year is that it seems that there is a lot more after-con interaction going on. The ACEN forums are still fairly active and there seems to be a thriving year round community there. As for me, my fun meter is still pretty full, and after going to 3 cons last year, I’ve decided to throttle back a bit this year and skip Otakon. Next year’s Anime Central will be the 10th, so I want to do something special. I’ve enjoyed taking pictures of cosplayers so much, that I think it’s time to join them! So as a parting bow, here’s a shot of one of my favorite cosplayers at ACEN 2006!

My Favorite Card Captor Sakura!
Categories
Anime, Manga, Etc cosplay

Another Anime Central In The Books

I’ll probably write more later, but another Anime Central is in the books. This was my third ACEN, and overall, I would say its the best one yet. The ACEN staff did a great job, and the Hyatt Regency staff were just fantastic. The only real bumps were mostly of my own making, but still it was a great con and my family had a good time. My oldest daughter even won 3rd place in the Children’s Art Contest! And the band Tsu Shi Ma Mi Re picked up a new fan (sore ga ai deshou…). They really rocked! Here’s a picture of me and the band.

Tsu Shi Ma Mi Re and a New Fan

Click here for my ACEN 2006 Cosplay pictures.