Holidays and absences

David H wrote:Just a quick check in. The big gathering will be this weekend. Here's some pictures taken from the support boat. Nobody was taking pictures during the biggest seas.

That one picture is rather terrifiying to me. Hasia said "how did they live, did God help them? She is Jewish and aboriginal, Okanagan in fact and the hand carved boats for racing are often seen practising at Kin lake. The awesome carving, the spectacular colors, The one fellow standing somehow, full head dress, the drum. It takes my breath away.

Well, I'm back.

I've slept for about 15 hours in the last three nights and have spent over 31 waking hours at the convention center: 13 each on Friday and Saturday, plus 4.5 today, which ended earlier. Once you remove travel time I've been home and awake for probably less than six hours since Friday morning and I am pretty exhausted. I don't go out or party a ton conventions are overwhelming no matter what, so it'll probably be a while before I'm fully active again. Thursday, the last day before the con started, feels like it was weeks ago. But I had an AMAZING time and a ton of fun. It was fairly indescribably awesome and I am super pleased that my first convention went so well.

Here's a really terrible picture of me, along with my brother (who is much more photogenic than me; he's not smiling because he's in character), in our cosplay. We went as the characters Mugen and Jin from Samurai Champloo, though we only wore costumes for the first day because they were a little inconvenient and also got soaked in sweat. Baltimore in the summer is not the most fun place to be, though the convention center was air conditioned, of course.



For comparison, a screenshot of the characters in the actual show.



The convention's website outlined a fairly strict weapons policy which was largely ignored in practice, but since this was our first time we didn't know that and didn't bring any props. One of many things we learned for next year.

And with that, I'm off to take a nap. And then watch some anime!

wow, sounds fun ;D a strict weapon policy you say but people ignored it? so lots of Samurai swords I presume xD oh.. america ..

good cosplays btw. couldn't tell the difference.

I once cosplayed Sam. When my hair was still short.

Thanks Norc.

Yeah, there were lots of swords. Most of them were models but there were a number that were metal. I think the rule against sharp steel was generally respected. There were supposed to be restrictions on model guns but those were the ones that were most ignored as far as I could tell. They were supposed to be clearly toys and have an orange tip but there were tons of cosplayers with guns that were neither.

I was also surprised by how many people, mostly girls, went in pretty much nothing but their underwear. Not complaining, but surprised. For what it's worth, my brother wasn't.

Looking good there Eldo- glad to see you have a theatrical streak in you! (Not that I ever doubted it).
But going to watch anime!!! We're all waiting on you to catch up on the Who thread you know!! Sleeps for wimps too- get on with it- sleep when your dead.

your brother was complaining or not surprised?
I could never go in public in next to nothing. I have a hard time wearing a bikini, because, it is practicly underwear, and one doesn't parade the streets in underwear. anyway, many animes have girl characters very over-sex'ed. you don't see men that way in comics or animes. I think the reason is because there are mostly men who writes animes/comics, so the girls are very sexy and men shows muscles and power. If there were women, you'de see it differently I think.

guys wanna be the guy and be with the girl.

now Eldo! WHO!!!

That Norc reminds me of a Calvin and Hobbes strip where Calvin is arguing the merits of modern comics and Hobbes asks "Is Amazons Womans superpower the ability to squeeze into that outfit?" To which Calvin replies, "No, they can all do that!"

I'll watch some Who when I'm more awake ... probably tomorrow. I want to be able to give it my full attention. Plus I've already seen The Eleventh Hour so I don't have to catch up on that.

Yeah, I found it rather ironic that they had a panel on "Sexism in Anime" when there were so many female cosplayers dressed like that. The actual industry doesn't help itself either. All sorts of merchandise and packaging shows female characters in really revealing clothing regardless of what they actually wear in the show. I guess fanservice sells but I don't really need soft core porn mixed in with the rest of my anime. Still not complaining about cosplayers though.

And my brother was not surprised, but he wasn't complaining either.

Pettytyrant101 wrote:Looking good there Eldo- glad to see you have a theatrical streak in you! (Not that I ever doubted it).

Thanks Petty. It was a lot of fun. I was a bit self-conscious because there were so many cosplayers there, though. Some people were really, really into it and had multiple elaborate costumes they would wear. Not everyone was that intense though. On Friday I would estimate that at least half the crowd was wearing a costume or accessories of some sort. Speaking of which, the crowd was over 30,000 people last year and was likely even larger this year. It filled the entire convention center and the conference areas of the attached hotel, spanning some four city blocks. It's the second-largest anime convention in North America and the largest one on the East Coast (#1 is Anime Expo in LA) and I feel incredibly lucky that it's practically in my back yard.

Nor I am sure were you Eldo (I know I wouldnt have been at your age! Or at my age come to think about it!)

Plus I've already seen The Eleventh Hour so I don't have to catch up on that.- Eldo

I'm afraid in her wonderful enthusasm Norc is 3/4 through series 5. So a bit of catching up to do.

Pettytyrant101 wrote:
I'm afraid in her wonderful enthusasm Norc is 3/4 through series 5. So a bit of catching up to do.

Loving the Tardis- I'm nicking that!

lotr emoticons ELDORION!

http://www.members.shaw.ca/korinchan/adoptee/alotr.html

I don't think I'm lucky to match Norc's pace, then. : Especially because I also have Olympics stuff to catch up on. I pretty much dropped out of everything else about life for this weekend.

I did have numerous reminders of my infidelity to Who throughout the weekend though, because cosplay was by no means limited to Japanese characters. There were many Doctors there, mostly Smith, but I saw a few Tenants as well. About half of the Smiths were wearing a fez. There were also several people dressed as the TARDIS. One of them was wearing what appeared to be a painted cardboard box but others just had shirts or dresses painted blue and white with the words "Police (Public Call) Box" written on.

I didn't get photos of them, but I did get a photo of the most adorable Dalek I have ever seen. Some guy made it out of cardboard and a remote control car.



I also spotted a Sherlock cosplayer, and I got a photo of him just for you, Norc.



There were a couple of Irene Adlers there as well -- wearing heels and Sherlock's coat and carrying riding crops -- but I didn't get any pictures of them. I didn't see any Watsons.

wearing heels and Sherlock's coat and carrying riding crops-- but I didn't get any pictures of them. - Eldo

And why the hell not!!!

Eldorion wrote:I don't think I'm lucky to match Norc's pace, then. : Especially because I also have Olympics stuff to catch up on. I pretty much dropped out of everything else about life for this weekend.


I also spotted a Sherlock cosplayer, and I got a photo of him just for you, Norc.



There were a couple of Irene Adlers there as well -- wearing heels and Sherlock's coat and carrying riding crops -- but I didn't get any pictures of them. I didn't see any Watsons.

you should try to catch up though, at the moment I've only discussed Who with Petty, and you don't want his crabbitness influent me too much (joke, Petty is great to talk to about Who )

Love the Sherlock!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! thanks! (he was cute *u* and not just because he dressed up as Sherlock) and really, no Watsons?

and Petty. He was probably too afraid of the ridingcrops to ask for a photograph

drop the olympics, boy! they suck and you always get the main stuff in anyways!

A man never feels fearful when confronted by a woman with nothing on but a coat and heels and holdng a riding crop. The emotion we have there Norc is 'hope'.

If they wore both heels and coat, then they failed. It's coat and barefoot or heels and nothing.

or heels and nothing.- Norc

That wouldnt be a convention- that would be something else- and probably held in Germany.

why germany?

You're to young to know the answer to that.

I blame the lederhosen and the wurstel.

leelee wrote:
That one picture is rather terrifiying to me. Hasia said "how did they live, did God help them? She is Jewish and aboriginal, Okanagan in fact and the hand carved boats for racing are often seen practising at Kin lake. The awesome carving, the spectacular colors, The one fellow standing somehow, full head dress, the drum. It takes my breath away.

Please tell Hasia that for those of us who grew up with the ocean these are the type of waves that are friendly and fun. They may be as tall as a house (these were about 12 feet) but they have a long period and are not steep at all. They're like big grassy hills that aren't hard to walk up and give you a wonderful view once you get to the top, but hide you when you're down in the valleys between them. Paddling a canoe over these sea swells is just like walking over rolling hills.

For those of us who knew that water it was a perfect day, but we had a paddler in our canoe whose people were Lakota Sioux, a horse people not used to the motion of water. Although he was a strong paddler, the motion was strange to him and he became quite seasick in those waves

I just got back tonight from the welcoming protocol for all the journeying canoes. Here's the only story I could find in the news so far. I wish there was a good picture of all 100 of the big canoes to go with the story. It was impressive!
http://www.thenewstribune.com/2012/07/30/2233569/canoes-cultures-crowds.html