31 August 2007

Can't Control My Feet

I got one of these for my birthday, along with this.

DDR is addictive.

This weekend we shall see. DDR vs GW:EN. Who will win?

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29 August 2007

That. Was. AWESOME!

My boyfriend and I were in Seattle from Thursday to Monday at the Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) .

IT
WAS
AWESOME!

Other than our horrible and I mean HORRIBLE flight screwing-overs, of course. Let me touch briefly on that. We booked a month and a half in advance for a direct flight to Seattle from Philly and back. No problem. Around $400 a person. A few weeks before the event they email us telling us they've changed our flight, which now gets us in later than some of our plans. We had to call and change...that was bad enough, but we almost ALMOST missed our connecting flight in Las Vegas on the way home (we ran through the airport, but fortunately the flight out of LV was also delayed about 15 minutes, which allowed us to get our baggage transferred too-- hooray!), and we still got in at midnight EST. We would have gotten in at 6am had we missed that flight, all because they cannot keep their freakin word and give us the direct flights we paid for. Oh, and did you know they have ads the entire way on planes now and you have to pay for like ANY in flight food? Ok.... end rant about the plane flight.

Thursday we went to a "pre-PAX" dinner at P.F. Changs which was awesome. We met some Canadians at our table and had tasty food and got free appetizers. Afterwards, we crashed because of all the wonderful jet lag.

Friday we went and took the Underground Tour of Seattle, took lots of pictures, etc, then we went to the con a wee bit late. It opened at 2, we got there at about 1:45 and because of the line we didnt get in until around 2:45. Lots of DS playing. We rushed to the first theater to see some speed runs of games, then we lined up and got to see Wil Wheaton as the keynote speaker! We checked out the exhibition hall (I ran into my ex and that was kind of awkward). Then we chilled for the rest of the night.

Saturday was even awesomer. We watched people pitch their game ideas to a judge's panel. I went to a short panel on the "History of Guild Wars", but I didn't get to stay the whole time because we left to watch the Assassin's Creed Live Demo! Then it was a little bit of "I'm Getting Old When Life Cuts Into Gaming", focusing on how to balance and intertwine your "real life" and games. Then we took a nap and ate dinner before the concert of: John Coulton, MC Frontalot (OMG OMG OMG) and the Minibosses from 8-2am.  It was awesome, but my back and feet were killing me by the time we got back to the hotel. Also, can someone PLEASE tell the artists not to request that the thousands of smelly nerds raise their arms?

Sunday we watched a round of gaming Family Feud as our wrap up, and we dined at the Space Needle which wasn't even revolving that night, but it was still good.

Monday we came home. I happened to meet and sit behind Tom Fulp, Founder and C.E.O of Newgrounds on the flight home from Las Vegas, which I didn't even realize until now. Awesome!

Hooray for vacation!

P.S. In other less important news, I finished Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, and I've started reading the rest of the Sandman series by Neil Gaiman. Yay!

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16 August 2007

Books and Games and Anime - Oh My!

I really will miss Harry Potter once I'm done the last book. It's flying by and I'm about 1/3 of the way done. There has already been one death and many of the scenes are so incredibly vivid and capturing that I don't realize that 40 pages have passed by in the blink of an eye... If it weren't for the pesky thing called "a job", I would have finished it in a day.

Of course, there are other things to worry about, like all the other games that I'm in the middle of. Okami, Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin, Hotel Dusk, Pokemon Pearl, not to mention Guild Wars and Diablo II that I've suddenly gotten back into.

Samurai Champloo is the current "active" anime. I've already watched it once, but my boyfriend is watching it for the first time. I certainly don't mind watching it again. AWESOME anime- another one of those one-season wonders.

My head is going to explode with all the media intake. But that's nothing compared to next week.

PAX

Oh I am so going. I am so staying in the Sheraton right across from the convention center. I am SO going to the pre-PAX dinner. I am SO going to the nerdcore show and squealing at MC Frontalot, and I am SO going to eat in the revolving restaurant in the Space Needle.

I'm going to pee my pants. Does that count as more than 3oz of liquid? Will the TSA take my pants if I pee them?

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02 August 2007

I Got a Button!

I've only been to two anime conventions in my life. Sad, I know, but I've been previously broke (read: in college) and anime-friendless so I have my excuses. The first was Katsucon last winter in Washington D.C. Then comes my second, Otakon.

My first comment: It didn't feel like 25,000+ people, not in Baltimore Convention Center. It was actually almost, ALMOST a little disappointing considering how much bigger it is than Katsucon. The dealers' room was bigger at Otakon but I liked the dealers' room better at Katsucon... artist's alley was bigger at Otakon too, but I didn't find anything I wanted to buy. I bought a t-shirt and two art prints at Katsucon. There were great costumes at both conventions. There were great animes showing at both. Katsucon had Peelander-Z. Otakon had Eminence.

Honestly, I can't say Otakon was BETTER than Katsucon except in one area-- my own costume.

I was Kikyo at Katsucon. I was exceptionally proud of the costume because the pants were handmade; I didn't buy them. I was sad when only one person even said anything to me and I didn't warrant any pictures. I didn't realize until I stepped out of that role that people who play Kikyos and InuYashas and Mirokus and Narutos are greatly ignored unless you do something REALLY spectacular.

That being said, my friends and I decided to do something in a group for Otakon. My boyfriend introduced me to the Sandman graphic novel series by Neil Gaiman awhile back. We looked at the costumes and figured we could pull off Dream, Death and Destiny. Two months of dedicated work later, we did.

We were all taken aback at not only how many people recognized our costumes, but how many compliments we received and how many times we were asked for pictures. There were at least two other Deaths there, neither as good as me, and no other Dreams or Destinys to speak of. We did meet a Delirium or two along the way, though. Most people recognized me first, and the most overt compliments were directed towards our accuracy and how well Destinys book was done. Curtis (Dream) got hugged by two Okamis, and I was run after by a dealer who gave me a free button that said "Death is but a doorway....here, let me hold that for you". The whole experience exceeded my wildest expectations, and I am exceptionally glad (what's with the ex-words?) that our first serious attempt at cosplay went so well!

Highlights from the con include a box of giant pocky, Speed Racer, Karin, and a last minute tidbit of information that led us to see Sundays concert- Eminence with special guest Hitoshi Sakimoto. Crazy. Oh, and my favorite costume, the poor, poor Optimus Prime.

Edit: Here is my favorite picture of myself from the con.

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