Month: May 2010

ACen 2010 the 13th Shock Wave Part I

Post author By blueZhift
Post date May 20, 2010

It’s been almost a week since Anime Central 2010 and I’m still riding a wave of enjoyment. So I guess that means I had a really good time! I did indeed have a lot of fun at the con. This year I skipped out on the Thursday meetup to see Pandora Boxx at the Berlin Club in Chicago. That was a lot of fun, but a little crazy staying up so late the night before the con, though I do that all the time!

This year I didn’t have the family come out until Saturday to avoid the trouble of school and other engagements. That left me free to cut loose on Friday. After opening ceremonies I got into my Tohru Goth-loli nurse cosplay now with a new bag and shoes and went out to take pictures of cosplayers. Later I went to the concert featuring the Spoony Bards and Aural Vampire. I’ve always loved the Spoony Bards since they started playing in the lobby at ACen years ago. And Aural Vampire was pretty good too.

Next it was time to change into my second and newest cosplay, Mahoro Andou. I hadn’t given this one nearly enough test fittings, so it took some time to get it all together. I was planning to go over to the AMV room in the Double Tree to see AMV Wars Hentai Edition. I had an entry in the contest and thought it would be sort of ironic to go as Mahoro who definitely doesn’t go for anything echi! LOL I also thought it would be pretty funny if I won because I probably couldn’t tell most of my friends about it, much less show them the video.

Well as it turned out, there were only two entries, mine and the defending champ from last year. I was sure I had no chance, but after I saw his video, I had a glimmer of hope because he didn’t really follow the Sexy Magical Girls theme. Then my video played and the crowd really got into it, clapping to the music! They liked it! They really liked it!

The defending champ had a lot of fans in the audience, so in the end I tied with his video. He won the thong, and I won the bra. People were a little shocked when Mahoro got up to accept her prize! But even better than that, prior to that a young woman had called me adorable! <3 After that I watched some more videos before heading back, bra in hand, for the dance where Mahoro danced into the early morning.

Well, I’ll pick this up a little later. In the meantime here are some awesome Sailor Senshi.

General

Rape In A Box (Moving Box That Is…)

Post author By blueZhift
Post date May 17, 2010

Ooooh, I’m so angry right now! I needed to buy moving boxes so I figured, okay, I’ll go to my neighborhood Ace Hardware store. Ya know, support community businesses and save some gasoline, so green, right? I get there, and 20 small boxes cost $75! I buy the boxes anyway because I’m there with kids and calling my wife on the phone to confirm the $0.67 per box she paid proved fruitless as she did not remember what she paid. She sent a text later about it, but by then it was too late.

I simply couldn’t believe that Ace in competition with Home Depot would be charging so much more for boxes. Just shows what I know. Being irritated and knowing I’d need more boxes, I bit the bullet and drove to Home Depot and confirmed that Ace Hardware was indeed charging astronomically high prices for moving boxes. Yes, I got totally raped by Ace Hardware on those boxes.

I don’t have time to go back to Ace and complain or try to get a refund, but they certainly won’t be getting any business from me again if I have a choice. Next time I hear a sob story about how Home Depot is driving small hardware stores out of business, you’ll only hear laughs from me. Raping your customers is generally a bad business strategy.

Update: Ok, so maybe Ace is not so bad after all. Over the course of the weekend, I discovered that pretty much everyone except Home Depot sells moving boxes for the same relatively high rate! The Home Depot boxes got the job done for me, but I did note that they were a little softer than the more costly ones, meaning that you’re only getting one move outta these guys. The Home Depot boxes were made of 100% recycled paper though, which might explain the softness. Still, I’d go with those cheaper ones every time. I don’t know how anyone plans to compete with Home Depot with such a wide price disparity.

Anime, Manga, Etc cosplay

ACen Just 2 Days Away!

Post author By blueZhift
Post date May 12, 2010

Just two more days until Anime Central! I had hoped to avoid working on costumes at the last minute, but of course at the last minute I am! LOL I had to help my youngest daughter make an Athena costume for the Latin Olympics on Sunday. She’ll probably wear it to ACen too. I just made the skirt and camisole. She made the shield, spear, and is working on the helmet now.

As for my cosplays, I don’t know if I’ll finish Mahoro in time. No matter, I have a finely tuned Tohru, more like tricked out really, ready to go and some others. This year I’ve got more cosplays I’d like to wear than usual. So I may do some mid-day changes. This is going to be sooo much fun!!

Once again, my AMV did not make the cut for the finals. But that’s…okay…*sob* People will still get to see it! And I’ve got one AMV entered in an, *ahem*, adult category as well, a first for me. I hope the people who see them will like my work.

I usually go to the Thursday night meet and greet, but this year that coincides with Pandora Boxx at the Berlin Club, so sadly I’m skipping the meet and greet, probably. I could probably make the meet up, but skip the IHoP portion. It’ll depend on what mood I’m in I guess.

Oooh! Just two days to go!