Lafiel

While I love the Nerdi Gras of Dragoncon, Heroes con IS my favourite convention. Its friendly, its low key, its a great location and the convention center is full of so much awesomeness and dippin dots.

My Swag
- Mary Marvel Sketch from Cully
- Huntress Sketch from Stephanie Roux
- Wasp sketch from Dean Trippe
- Perhapanauts 1 & 2
- Empowered 5
- Hellcat Trade

Good
- Got a sketch from Cully (Mary marvel!), Stephanies Roux (huntress) and Dean Trippe (wasp).
- Mary Marvel, Wasp and the Scarlet witch went over well. I was worried I wouldn't finish the armor.
- Learned how to play Texas hold'em (still not very good)
- Got to meet a lot of talented artist I never knew of before, my favorite being Eric Canete, Uko and Dean.
- Was able to lend a hand in costume at the auction!
- Chris did an amazing job on Scarlet witch’s mask, I totally loved it!
- Ate wild wings *yum*

Bad
- Westin isn't as nice as I remember. Our room was also too hot, the TV didn't work, and the shower didn't drain properly.
- Missed out on Casey Jones sketch list.
- Some people didn't know who I was when I dressed as Wasp or Mary marvels.. Pfft Fans! READ MORE!
- Lost $20 playing Texas hold'em
- DUB right next door (its a one of those loud car shows :P)
- Didn't get to have enough amaretto!

Ugmo
- My forehead; For some reason the wasp wig caused me to have an infection on my forehead. It looks like I got clothes lined. Its slowly healing now.

Photos
I didn't get very many photos from the convention because Valerie had a nice big camera and I'm a size queen. Seriously though I'm terrible at remember to take photos. 1. never have any pockets 2. I'm lazy :P

There is a story behind this picture, everyone as SO damn tall. So we took the first picture and I told everyone "You’re so damn tall, Screw this I'm JUMPING" Of course Scott wasn't expecting it and and he got a mouth full of hair. Look Ma I'm 6"1!




Another cosplayer (Rinoawannabe) and I. I remember she had a black
canary costume she was going to wear but needed to Safety pin, Luckily
I had one but I never got to see her in the costume. She was very
sweet, Perhaps it was our wigs that brought us together :P




This is Valerie with Supergirl and I... whoa I realize now looking at this picture is almost as tall as me and I'm wearing heels. That’s depressing! haha Anyways Beth (supergirl) and her Dad were completely awesome and she was such great help at the auction. We talked a lot throughout the weekend and promised to keep in touch. A cosplayer in the making! Someone joked I'm a Cos mom, watching out for the up and coming cosplayers so they can learn from my experience of panty lines, sweat stains and seams ripping.





There is a shot of the back of the costume, now normally I'm completely
against butt shots. But this is to show some small detailing I added.
Its Wing Slots when I'm Waspie size, it was great to have lots of
people notice and comment on it. The "Where are your wings" comment never got old... :P I'm FULL SIZE!






So here is the only photo I had on my camera (The rest of the photos I swiped from the
awesome people who posted on flickr.), this is Scott Adsit, Mark
McHaley and I enjoying some wild wings and they were playing disco. I've never seen this look on my face it must be the pure bliss of a wildwing / disco combo..




I'll post a couple more when I get photos from Valerie, it was a fantastic weekend.

A quick post about SDCC, because I been getting a lot of questions about it. I won't be at SDCC this year, but thank you to everyone who showed interest in wanting to cross paths there.

I hope everyone has a fantastic time, I'll be stalking flickr for photos! So many sure when you TAG your photo you put sdcc2009 cosplay!! Well I gotta go and finishing molding a life size statue of a choirboy... :P 1 Down 2 more choir kids to go!

I gotta post more here, but it just takes me so long to write up something, and then I realize how stupid it sounds cause I'm caught in the moment of what I'm writing. Not to mention I have been trying to really limit my internet time, especially when SDCC coming up, while I'm not going, I have to get Adam/Allison ready to go and I have a couple huge mold projects due in the next two week.

Hey!

I thought I would put this out there, anyone know any escrow company that would handle a vehicle transaction? Basically I know Moneybooker, but I haven't read very good things about them. I'm looking for a company that will hold my money, allow me to receive the vehicle, have it inspected and if something is defective with it allow me to have it sent back and get my money back (usually within 5 days).

~Riki

First off thank you to everyone who took the time to come and see me while I was in Winnipeg. I know it was such short notice and many of you were busy with work, deadline, raiding, convention stuff, etc that it ment a lot to me.

Especially thank you to My parents and Kwan for putting up with me the most.
I pretty much got everything on my list checked off besides a slurpee, but it will always be there.

Let me see if I can give a quick run down, I know I’m going to forget something!



( My trip w/ pictures )


I did have had a chance to watch a bunch of new anime episodes while I was gone, which have been great. Here are just short tidbits of my initially impression.

( Anime impressions )


It’s not an exciting post but I did want to document everything I did down.
On to Superhero showdown and the disaster that was free comic book day!

I'm a little behind on my posts!

First off want to thank everyone for contributing to the digital frame photo that Kwan gave me for Christmas! Now I will always have a special place to have all my photos, once the new office is built its going to be the first thing I bring to put on my work desk.

I came, I saw, I did not Conquer.
I finally got to experience the 11lb pizza.
I did NOT go into the competition, but Danny decided to give it a try with his friend who was visiting from out of town. Danny was amazing! Splitting it down the middle you have to each eat 4 slices, each slice is a little over a pound.. Danny was SO close to just finishing his half. But I'm pretty sure neither him nor his friend ever want to see, smell or hear the word pizza again.

I barely got through 1 slice of my own. Its not so much that I was full, but I have the same problem danny had in which you just get bored of the flavor and chewing. I'm sure if it was a tasty Pizza Milkshake I could have eaten more then a slice.




Squinty eye! 8 of these made up 1 pizza~!

My inner child was pretty gleeful last week, I can't remember how I started looking but I became obsessed with finding these 2 movies that I loved as a child; The original little mermaid and Swan Lake.

I find they are both made by Toei, I find clips on youtube, I download the little songs that I liked and then I see if there are any torrents out there. I do find japanese subbed torrents, but part of me wants the English voices even though I remember them being terrible. Even back then I knew the prince in the little mermaid wasn't quite right cause he seemed to be wearing eye makeup, and fritz was annoying.

Of course they aren't available on DVD, so I would have to get a VHS and encode it or maybe just wait till D*C to see if someone already made a dvd of it. Toei just needs to go back and make a dvd double feature with those 2, I would buy it.

Moster vs Alien; I loved Kung fu Panda, So incredibly much. Monster vs Aliens.. wow I don't know what to say. I had no expectations, yet I was still disappointed. This movie was terrible, as a kid I wouldn't find it enjoyable, as an adult I wouldn't find it enjoyable, as ME I didn't find it enjoyable.

The most redeeming factor of the WHOLE movie was the credits.
1. Ment the movie was over.
2. B'52s

If you don't like the B52's, well you still have the #1 point. But trust me its not worth sitting through just to get that.. "OH thank goodness its over" feeling cause its quickly followed by... "DAMNNIT I could have been doing something else" or "I wasted money on this ticket!". Now I didn't get the last emotion because I had a free pass, but I still got the "I just wasted my free pass on this ARGH!"

I rarely buy toys now a days, Chris takes care of most the awesome comic stuff (Hot toys iron man finally arrived!)

But I did manage to get a great deal on Odin Sphere Gwendolyn statue. I had seen a few from the series and I think this is my favorite. The biggest complaint I have about it its pvc and not resin. While I know she is a little higher quality then most little PVC figures I just always fear the PVC 'lean'. I need to take pictures of my collection soon. For now here is a picture of the statue.



Winnipeg post coming soon!

Now that I can travel freely between both countries and got a new fancy passport and all my shots, figured now is the best time to go to winnipeg.

Work is slowish and I could take the time off before things really start moving. Tickets were more then I thought they would be, but Chris and I agree that its best to see my dad before he heads back up to the north pole, as well as everyone else.

April 16th
Arrive in Winnipeg 4:06p

April 28th
Leave Winnipeg 11:00 a

Things I want/need to do
- Slurpee
- Spicy peanut soup
- Dim sum
- A&W Mama burger
- Hang out with family and friends and puppies.
- Go through all my old books and toys in the basement
- Work on website
- Work on some video games when everyones at work!
- Learn to cook some new dishes from my dad.
- Make everyone red velvet cupcakes *yum!*

Weird how food comes first :P
If anyone can think of anything they want me to bring back just say so!

Will add more later, I think I still have the meat chills from trying to eat a 11 lb pizza. I got through one slice, which is a little over a pound.

Wow I'm hitting only monthly updates
I should post like I should eat, Smaller more often

Costume: Still going rather slow, but starting the 2nd costume for the year. I had Jenny (idle ambition) come over and we were talking about costumes we want to do and she wants to do another Ghost in the shell outfit and she knows mine (GITS 2nd season) has been in the works for awhile now (1 1/2 years) as I am really trying to experiment with using different fabrics. In fact for this bodysuit someones sister had to sew it for me cause normal machines don't go through the Neoprene so well. Its been a headache that’s for sure, but I had jenny put it on, because we are essentially the same size I just have a bit more up top and down below. She fit in it great and I think it looks really good. So I know the fabrics go together. Well I'll try to keep plugging away that till is fits me. It could be one of those designs that aren't suited to my body and I don't want to alter the design so much to adjust for my body type that is loses the lines. We will see how it goes, I'm hopeful!

Here is a picture of Jenny in the costume thus far. Just taken at my place no crazy photoshoot or something. Normally I don't post pictures of costumes till they are done but in this case. The wig warped a bit when I moved so I need to straighten it out but I don't really like the wig as much as I use too anyways and found a one that has better color and better shape.



( A bunch of other stuff below )

Though this Sunday I plan to take a few people and eat a 11lb pizza (30 inches) at a place we saw when we watched man vs food. I'm sure it'll feel like a kung fu fight just went on in my stomach after wards but it'll be totally worth it... I will take pictures of us eating slices of pizza the size of a baby. Nom nom nom nom.

Also I sent my passport out to be renewed so hopefully it'll be back soon and I can go up to winnipeg to visit. Part of me wants to wait till it warms a bit though :)

So this is my updates... Mostly gaming stuff.

 

( Long Post )
Well going to wrap this up as I have written a lot. So I’m sure there a half a dozen grammer mistakes. Plus I know there was more stuff I was thinking about writing, I’m surprised if you made it this far. In return I give you this video of Balloon animals making sweet loving. Might not be work safe cause there is a lot of sexual squeaking.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5sTBrs4fhQ

 

Jenny (Idleambition) and I got together this weekend to work on a project together. Late in December we really talked about trying to get together more often to work on creative projects and this was the first one for 2009. Jenny pretty much did everything in the span of 24 hours (Concept, dress/props, photos, edit), we also had some awesome help from Danny (fire marshall)  and Sarah (Hair/Makeup/fire breathing).   I was just along for the ride and had to make sure when I was buried in the remains of the burnt down house we were in that I didn't get stabbed with any nails or bitten by brown recluses. I dunno what else to say except thanks to Jenny for asking me to be apart of this.

The rest of the pictures are under the cut.

( More Pictures!  )

I have a "What I been up to Post" due soon... but I wanted to post that I made  some Bacon Ice Cream and it didn't suck. It was well recieved by all :)  Yipeee.

Yesterday was my birthday!

Thank you everyone for your birthday wishes.

First off Wicked was fun. I wasn't to keen on a lot of the songs, but the 2 main actresses were Hilarious. My only compliant was being inside the aisle and people not moving so I could get back to my seat, but looking at me like I have a problem. Everyone has to Pee sometimes lady!

Chris had made secret plans for me for my birthday, then Spa place called me on saturday to confirm my appointment. I'm like.. Durr? What appointment? From there they figured out  they weren't suppose to call me they were suppose to call Chris' cell phone (as noted in the file). Then the morning of, I had to call and tell them I would be a few minutes late... then they proceeded to tell me exactly what I was getting before I could stop them. GAH! No surprises!

Anyways it was still great, I got an awesome massage by this guy who looked like Captain America, the one downfall is his breath smelled a little. Best massage I have ever gotten though, not that I have gotten a lot. Always worried that I'm going to relax so much I'll fart or something.
Then I got a Jassam (?) peel. IT BURRRRRRRRNED. Well actually not to bad, but it was a little itchy. I will being shedding in a few days :P

Then once all that was done spent most of the afternoon at the Zoo. I have only been to one other Zoo ever so it was pretty exciting. I got to see elephants, Reptiles, pandas, gorillas, etc. I learned that China owns ALL pandas, and merely leases them out. Even if the babies are born outside of China, the babies than belong to them. Atlanta pays 1.2 million for a 5 year contract to own the pair of panda bears. China has an awesome deal worked out.

I went up to my japanese class and then had dinner at this delicious resturant called Canoe, afterwards we went over to a friends and had crazy donut from Portland (as they had just come back from there). Tang, fruit loop, dirt and grape flavor... I was sad I didn't get to try Maple bacon. Next time!

So there was a Wonder woman Day which I was invited too, but I wasn't able to make it out. So with the help of my friend AD Larue (did the photoshop) , Adam Hughes (remarque) and Me! Put together these 2 pieces and sent them out to both locations. Those 2 pieces together raised $3100, so all the proceeds go towards battered womans shelter








Also a few weekends ago I got a head cast. Now I had had about 4 in the course of a day and a half due to one error or another. So one of the guys I work for (and a friend of ours) contacted this guy (Wesley) to come in and basically teach us how to take a head mold. Wesley use to work in Hollywood but has since retired from SFX (he is in his mid thirties) he has won and Emmy, Oscar and various other things for his effects work. He has been part of taken molds of people like Julia Roberts, Seth Green and Robin williams. So he was nice enough to come out and give us some advice.  We took a headmold and while there were a a few problems, we all learned a lot from it!

Here are a few stupid pictures :P The Aluminum foil ponytail is so I can communicate to the aliens and garbage bags make awesome dresses.




That's about it.

Going to go see Wicked Tonight.
I been wanting to go for 2 years now. I hope its not a crappy travel show, the venue is beautiful at the fox theatre but I saw sweeny todd there was was SO disappointed, at the time I hadn't seen the movie. I can't say I liked the Tim burton movie... I think hate it a approiate word to use in this instance.

As for the website thanks everyone for your suggestions :P 

I think I'll still keep himearts.com for now.

I'm not a huge fan of using my name for a website URL cause its not that catchy, and Ugly Unicorn was taken..
but I did register "I can't believe its not butterface" cause I thought it was hilarious.

Other then that not much going on. 2 More classes left for japanese, I"m doing alright I suppose. I doubt there will be enough students to start a 103 class as soon as mines done, but I hope I don't have to wait too long to restart.

OH and I finish Lagann gurren, wow I really enjoyed it!
I'm disappointed I took so long to watch it. I would have loved to do a Yoko costume...
I'm slowly getting back into anime, usually only watch episodes on my iphone on the train or on my Cardio work out days.
I 'm now working on Slayers revolution and Macross frontier.

Btw I did pick up Warhammer, I"m a swordMaster.
I'm on the fence about it I'll go more into it later. Benson and Kwan do make it more fun though :)

Ok gotta start my homemade chicken pot pie and get changed for the show.
*note* The chicken pot pie came out AMAZING.... Normally I don't like my own cooking and this was tasty and really light to eat.





 

I know I have had Himearts forever.
Most people have no idea what it means.. and hell if I know how I even came up with it. I rather have something either funny, or interesting.
So I'm seriously thinking about rename my website.. I have a few ideas, but I would be curious to see what you guys can come up with.
It'll be mostly just for costume stuff.

So I would like to hear if anyone has any ideas.

Today after running a few errands I had been thinking about getting a small turtle for our koi pond.

I was informed they eat small Koi if they don't get enough other food... or they get bored.
So I stopped by a pet store and picked up a female red ear slider turtle, a turtle dock and a pond cleaner.
I named her Avocado, since I like Avocado so much and she is green.
If it was a male turtle I probably would have named it Jet Li or something.

Here is a quick shot, I look a little like ass cause I just finished at the gym. But this is before I put her in the pond, since once she is in there I probably not see her much. She poked her head out a few times then quickly swam down.

I will need to take her out before winter hits, since supposedly she will crawl out.


 
we both have our turtlenecks on. Har har :P

Most likely be picking up Warhammer sometime this week.

I finally got to see it...

Has a lot of features wow had ONCE the mods were installed.
I can't even begin to decide what character I would want to be there are so many interesting ones.

 Benson something you would interested in (you think Kwan would play?)  I could totally see you as a squig hearder. Anyone else planning it? What do you think? Pros/cons?

WOW Japanfest SUCKED..

We showed up bright and early and made a be line for th dealers room.
The food option was terrible it was nothing I couldn't get at all japanese resturants.... and the quality was bad.
Danny, Chris, Jenny and I ordered a bit of something each..

We ordered
Sashime, that were bonito encusted..... which were FROZEN!?!? encrusted makes me think cooked a little..
Udon noodles that I could have made at home from a packet
Short ribs that didn't have any kind of Asian feel at all.
Onigiri full of Rice and hate.. I took 2 bites and handed it off.

The best thing I had was this piece of beef that was being used to promote Miso meat paste. I ended up buying 2 packets I must have meat.

There were 2 kimono places, I bought a couple accessories for my kimono. I was tempted to buy another kimono but considering I haven't had a chance to wear the one I had I don't want to go crazy. The best thing I saw was this 40lb Koi, where I live we have a community Koi pound but the koi are no bigger then like 5 lbs. We thought it would be HILIRIOUS to buy this huge ass Koi, put it in our pond and see how long ot takes people to notice...

.... still thinking of doing it. The Koi was really beautiful :D

We attended a couple panels, I got a medicore fortune (DAMN YOU JENNY), I got free cotton candy for losing at a ring tosss game.
Other then that it was really weak. Ugh never going back :(

So we cut our losses and left and went to pirate inspired Mini golf, which sadly I didn't win. I got 2 holes in one which was satisfying and made sure to point out that it shouldn't intimadate anyone. And probably had some of the most fun I have had at Dave and busters, but could have used Less kids. I wish after a certain hour kids weren't allowed.... or on certain days.

Finished off with Chocolate fondue and talking about costume plans for next year with Jenny.
See I'm trying to update more.. but it is a little boring ;P 

PS: Regarding previous post..  NO COFFEE MILK@ GAH!!!
 

After Dragoncon.

PHONEZ: OK I had the biggest piece of crap phone for the longest time. It was a Chocolate, which at the time I thought was cool cause I felt it was very Star Trek. Now generally I'm not a big fan of talking on the phone, I feel very akward about it and it causes my conversation to be akward. Its like an uncomfortable hug.. Do we hug.. how hard to I squeeze.. why isn't this person letting me go.. STOP TOUCHING ME!
Then I'll usually blurt out "UM YEAH I GOTTA GO NOW".  So anyways phone sucked, the plan sucked, verizon sucked and the contract sucked. So I broke down and got an Iphone.. of course I had been saving my pennies shortly after I got my chocolate. Plus I had an Itouch which I loved and knew the Iphone would be that and better only cause I can take spy photos now of people and pretend I'm on the phone.

So I have my precious. I haven't done anything funky or crazy with it. But I have delicious plans. Biggest decision for me right now is figuring out what I want on my custom skin. Something with boobs.

Japanese: On my 2nd batch of classes. With costumes being done I'm hoping to be able to focus on studying more on my own throughout the week. 3 people need to have paid to have the set of classes started, yesterday when I went to class it was just me.. at most there is usually 2 of us. WOo its like private lessons for cheaper!

XBox/games: I had the red ring of death, and I was pretty livid about it as I had just gotten tales of Vesperia when it crapped out. So I have been Xbox less for a couple weeks now. Mostly been playing with my DS instead.. still plugging away at Final fantasy tactics a2. Unforunately because of the rough loving I been giving my DS there is a HUGE crack on the middle part of my DS. Maybe I'll put a Snoopy bandaid and call it a day.. I'm really tired of all my electronics breaking down. *grumbles* So far my wii hasn't caused me any problems, other then trying to kill me by tripping me with the sensor bar cord. Wireless sensor bar is a must!

Anime week Atlanta:
Well that was my second time going. I scored some awesome swag last year and managed to convince Jenny to come with me and dress up. She Wore a cute Flonne outfit and I wore my Hikari (ugly beautiful world ) Outfit.

After merely a few moments ther I realized a few things.
1. I felt out of place, moist likely due to my age and the lack of pure sugar coursing through my body to cause the people around me to squeal, glomp and break out in random dance. I'm pretty sure I was never 'that' bad that cons
2. No matter how much you love a costume design, sometimes you can't translate into a flattering real life outfit. The one I was wearing
cause me to look like a purple hourglass. I gotta alter a few things before I take photos in it again. And its not a 'summer' outfit.
3. Dealers room was half the size, I did get a beautiful new range murata statue and ran into miracole selling cat ears. Other then that no much going on. Can't even find any nice cels anymore.
4. I saw many more legs avenue, and duct tape skirts/corsets then I saw actual costumes. I don't tend a lot of conventions but it seems to be becoming a trend.
5. Woo they had bubble tea, how exciting! They ran out of bubbles! Not the same ;( BOoo.

Jenny, Mikeal and Chris were great.
We were all feeling the sting of the convention a bit, pretty much all decided not to come back again.

Immigration:
Sweet Lord... I went in for a physical and I felt like some 3rd world dieased Monkey or moose. They took so much blood and vaccinated me I was a little light headed and sore.  I don't like needles *hiss* I won't be able to come back to Canada for a bunch of months till I get my travelling papers back but at least I won't be giving SARS to anyone.

Lemme see... Time to ramble, more so!

I love statues and figures, but I"m particular since I only have so much shelf space. So its kind of a big deal to me when I buy a statue (of course anything I do, its Kind of a big deal to me). I usually focus on anime statues, I don't collect any particular series, I tend to like the ones that have nice movement, colors, involve food andor make me laugh.

So I got this Air gear statue, now I totally dig the Manga. Just something about Oh greats artwork is really appealing to me. And I think his artwork is a lot tighter then when he did Tenjo Tenge.. while its OH Greats body proportions, they are much more realistic. The anime wasn't nearly as good... But this scene totally cracked me up and when I found out they made a statue of it I HAD to get it. SO much to my delight it was released a little while ago.

RIngo Statue
I have her on my shelf with the bag on her head.

Ok Range Murata is one of my favourite Japanese artists. He can design clothing I would love to wear, furniture I would love to have and the cutest characters. His Color palette totally speaks to me. So  i got his most recent statue (the girl on the couch) at AWA.

I was so excited avatar season 3 box set just came out. I love Avatar... yeah.. wow.. I just thought you should know about that.

Time for bed getting up for Japan fest tomorrow.. Mmm delicious food please enter my mouth.
Really hoping there is the coffee milk by Kirin there. 

Ok I should just post this. I been adding here and there for the last little while.

Sorry about grammer spell check, I hate the LJ spell check so I usually run it through word. Unforunately I don't have word on this particular computer.

Dragon Con was .. well Dragoncon!
That should be its own adverb/verb right there.

It was a lot of fun, there was really no Highs or Lows just a good time all around. It just seemed very short. One special treat was Dan came down from Toronto to hang out, he was the closest thing to a girlfriend I had in Toronto. He is manly enough but he is in touch with his feminine side enough to give advance on hair, makeup and boys. He has been working hard very inspiring.

At the end of D*C I had wish I had gotten to spend more time with the people whose company I enjoy, wish I had gotten to see more people that I know and wish gotten to meet more new people. I realize that is the way dragoncon is, it'll never be enough. Its like a weekend addiction. I wasn't able to go to many hotels much due to the crap badge getting torn off and me losing it, but to be honest, I had a great time staying in the Marriot, the Hyatt seemed better but it was still a nightmare. I only regret missing out on seeing people who were only in the Hyatt. Marriot is the way of the future!

Costume Low down-

Mary Marvel: Originally I was hoping to do a group with some people, but the group didn't work out. As a rule of thumb now I only pick costume that I would want to do on my own so I continued on with it. Though to be honest it wasn't much work on my end, I figured out the shape of the lightning bolt and someone helped me with it in illustrator. We decided it would look best in latex, in some of the illustration it looks too shiny to be anything but. As well as we decided to make the lightning bolt on the chest slightly translucent cause we thought it would be funny. I'm all about costume hilarity...

We had to enlist the help of a talented person we know who use to do custom latex (Vesperi.com), she never ceases to amaze me, and agreed to do this. From then it was just talked about the fitting, what we wanted the lines to look like and so on. I think the hardest part for me was just getting into shape enough to have the nerve to wear it and having a latex wedgie all through Saturday night at D*C. Chris enjoyed this costume for the fact cause of the Lube (to shine the latex) everyone had to keep their hands to themselves.
Photos by Bryan Humphrey

Fire & Ice: Late last year a costumer named Miracole moved to Atlanta. I thought it would be fun to do a costume pair together so I came up with doing Fire & Ice, which I think fit our personalities very well. I decided to do the versions that Adam Hughes came up with from his run on JLA. I did photoshop mock-ups where I tried to have the costume lines similar to one another so they look like a team rather than individual costumes. I also lucked out and was able to find the fabric for both Fire and Ice fabric at Gail K's. Miracole agreed with the fabric choice, that is was great for Fire. For mine I wanted to give it a nordic look, that's why we used that reversed seams. I did find the White micro suede but then I wasn't able to find a blue that would stretch as much (which wasn't much AT ALL!) so had to Dye the white to be Blue. And as always finding boots is always a trial, due to the fact my feet stop growing when I was 8. And of course finding a place to scotch guide was a task so ended up doing it myself. In my mind scotch guide was suppose to shield the costume from things, kind of like in those commercials were the guy spills something on his pants. It just runs right off. Alas TV has lied to me yet again, these costume still picks up all kinds of dirt.  In the end, I'm really happy how well both costumes were executed. Btw Thanks Miracole for the tshirt I did wear it Saturday night :D
Photo by Eurobeat King.

Amazonia: Other than some minor adjustments to the costume (new boning, wig stuff, etc), its pretty much is what it is :). Supergirl was such a cutie.

Empowered: As a rule of thumb I don't default to spandex for a super hero costumes, unless I feel its appropriate. So it's kind of a big deal that this was my first Spandex costume, well other then the first huntress I did.  Irony being a 2 days after the costume was finished I found the perfect fabric, also the spandex ended up partially destroying my beautiful wig (Spandex = Velcro to wigs). Remember kids hold out for what you want. Never settle... That's a life lesson brought to you by me, a Can of zoodles and and episode of Doctor Who. Not many people I did this costume our of pure love for the character. I can relate to this character (big HIPS FTW) and few comics make me laugh out loud like this one. Other then the shoes killing my feet it was a pretty easy costume.  Though by the end of the night the wig was a tangled mess. I spent an hour and a half brushing the wig out when I got home that night.

HellGirl:  After I wore Hellgrrl last year Jenny(idleamibition) had made this joke about being 'babe sapien' I was like HELL YA! But of course like many costume plans eventually it was forgotten. So a couple months prior to Dragoncon, Jenny and I decide we want to do a pair together well, somewhat at the last moment we change our minds thinking Babe Sapien would be easier. Turns out it was more work then any of us expect.

She is much better at keeping track of her process then me.
Check out her LJ here.
http://idleambition.livejournal.com/84632.html

She is an amazing cosplayer, I hope to do many more costumes with her in the future :P. I did some adjustments to my costume, Jenny styled the wig based on the cutest artwork on found on DA, we fixed the tail, new horn application, and other minor things. I used Bodypaint the first time which caused weird cracking issues and rubbed off, so I would like to find a better body paint so I don't have to wear a shiny jumpsuit.

I think the group went over really well considering we weren't on the floor for very long, Jenny was hardcore considering the only thing exposed was her lips, which made the costume very warm to wear.
Photos by Lionel Lum

My Camera went Kapoot at the convention, so a lot of the shots were blurry. The photos I did have are posted on my Flickr account you can check them out here My Flickr Account and what post on my myspace.

 

http://www.theworld.org/?q=node/19853

I wish it had been able to be turn around and talk more about general positive things about costuming or fandom rather then just about dialogue and shiny costumes.

Jenny, we need to enter WCS for kicks :P
*pokes you*

Holy Crap I'm still alive...

I have been neglecting Livejournal something fierce.. Still haven't even finished writing out my Japan stuff. That was what was hanging me up on writing other things.

- Due to the prices of gas, purchased a scooter. Nice thing its 50CC so I don't need a license/tags/insurance. I can get my sweet hog up to 40 on straight stretchway. Can't take it on highways though. I couldn't find my camera for the longest time so I haven't had a chance to take a picture of it.

- My mom came to visit for a bit which was a lot of fun, we took her down to Savannah and stayed at the coolest bed and breakfast. Which included wine and Hors devours in the front room. I totally ate my moneys worth of that. They never saw it coming. Mmm Delicious crab dips. Took her to other places like Stone Mountain and Aquarium.

- Went to my convention of the year, the only other one is D*C. Maybe AWA. But Heroes con was a lot of fun, I wore wonder Woman and Ice. Which ever generally pretty comfortable. Except for the people coming up to me and going.. "who are you?" "Ice" "I knew that!".... Then why do you ask! :P It happens with every costume. Got a few sketchs as well, one of my favourite from Darwyn Cooke. It was Zatanna. Got to see a lot of people I knew from last year and meet even more people. Not to mention the Westin Beds are awesome, except the pillows.. those are ass. Ended up injuring my ankle quite bad though. Its better though.

- Working two jobs, one as a personal assistant for an artist and another working making molds with one of the best mold makers in the country. Both are very different jobs, the molding one is pretty physically demanding for me. Not to mention when I'm doing the rubber portion of the project, I get it everywhere on myself.. including on my eyelids. And it didn't help for a week and a half we had NO AC. So it was like 90c with humidity... but I"m having to wear pretty heavy clothing.

- Very excited for Dragoncon as Dan from Toronto will be coming down and it'll be great to see him. I hope to have all my costumes done beginning of Aug too. Which will be a great change to avoid last minute stress.

- Little picture of me as Huntress with some people was in Maxim, I didn't get a name credit or anything but it was pretty cool.

- I attended the Skin Preparty event in Atlanta. Its basically a Fetish clothing event in Atlanta. The promoter asked me if I wanted to be in the Fashion show for Liberator Latex, I thought it would be fun, so I agreed. I had so much fun last year, and it was a huge thing to win the costume contest. Everyone was so friendly@! Anyways I didn't get any picture of the outfit I wore at the fashion show but I'll see if I can find something online, it was super cute! Prior to the fashion show I wore a female version of John steed from the avengers.

Durr I know I have been doing a lot more... I swear!! I saw a bunch of new movies;

Hulk
- I enjoyed this more then Iron Man. I wasn't a huge fan of pepper potts, and much enjoyed the relationship between Banner and Betty Ross.

Iron Man
- I loved tony stark, the others were soso. It was a great first movie of the summer.

Indiana Jones
- Uh. It had a few ok parts.

Prince Caspian
- Rather long, some location issues. But it had talking animals SQUEE!

WallE
- The movie was really sweet, but I think they could have ended the movie differently for more of an impact.

Hellboy
- In the words of Chris "It was a 200 million fan film". I loved the fairy portion of it but it didn't have any of the same feeling as the source material. Get it out of your system before the Hobbit.


Dark Knight
- Initially the hype had turned me off. But It was an intense movie. This is finally a comic book movie for adults. I find with most comic movies you need to sort of leave your maturity at the door and go into the movie as a kid. Which can be ok, but I want my fandom to grow up with me.

Durr.. Even more then that but have completely forgotten.

I finally finished Professor Layton and all my x360 games. Mostly play the world ends with you, but I have problems dressing myself how am I suppose to influence hot new trends in shibuya :P Promised myself not to get any new games till I finished it. I was going to lament about not being able to find a Wii fit, but todays AH HA! I found one! Doodie doodie dooo!

Awesome Video - Where the Hell is Matt!?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlfKdbWwruY&feature=user

Well I should probably post this thing its been in draft for a few weeks now.

- Castle in Osaka through the wall, then you walk up a hill, then you walk up another hill then you walk up eight floors. Was a little disappointed with the castle interior and mothball smell :O But they had awesome Self serve and I had takoyaki balls. Which about the 5 times throughout the whole trip and burned my mouth EVER time!
- We were trying to get passes at the subway and a gentleman came up and gave us his. How nice!
- More red Heads, stripper boots and booty shorts. :O I seen more red heads here then anywhere! I wondered why all the red is the same color, I walk into a shop and see all the extensions are that color. Mystery Solved!
- Walking through the underground subway area with all the shops, my back has been killing me so I get a massage, and it was awesome :D I think more subway stations should have massage places!
- We notice we get a lot of stink eye from gaijins, and 'Free Information' Doormen.
- We ate at a couple places, most notable is the one with the giant crab on the front, it wasn't too bad but it wasn't that cheap. I love the open markets though, we wander around for most of the evening. Eating Onigiri, crab, mochi, creapes, pasteries. Osaka felt like the food capital of Japan, I wish I had had more time to eat! So much for losing weight on this trip!
- I was in charge of navigating the trains. So we manage to catch this one and I sit down and chris stands by me and I notice no one wants to sit beside us. I was a little shocked, I knew I had showered but maybe I was stinky. I panic and think we are on the wrong train and we hop out. As the train takes off I turn to see a big "Womens Only" sign. Doh! I guess it doesn't mean I smelled.