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The Glomp is a Lie
Mar. 5th, 2008 08:55 pmHowever the cosplay convention was a great deal of fun, very tiring*, but fun. The title apart from being a obligatory Portal reference, is really in reference to the difference between the nature of the con I had been presented and the one I actually witnessed - basically while there may have been many fan girls, I was not glomped once! Of course as explained to me this has more to do with the more experienced nature of Minami and those who go to it than anything else. I had a great deal of fun wandering around chatting to semi-random strangers, and a couple of people I had met before, and taking loads of photos of mostly everyone in costume. I even managed to get a couple of reasonable bits of video** thanks to getting a reasonable seat at the masquerade.
Friday at the start was definitely somewhat disorientating, of course that was because it consisted mostly of people who already knew each other meeting up and chatting away. Still once that initial period was over it was much easier to get into the whole thing. Over the weekend I didn't do much of anything, but then I again I was more than happy to just wander around and enjoy the atmosphere (even getting a few moments of much needed peace and quiet away from other people). I turtle raced, which I sucked at***, watching a bit of sushi making, finally saw the FMA movie, tasted sake which was good, tastes Japanese snacks that weren't so good****, wandered around asking people for photos while Ralph***** encouraged in his desire to not ask himself, got served cake in a cosplay cafe, and just generally had a good time while dressed in bright primary colours...
Costume wise the Monster in the Darkness did not particularly survive the weekend, one of the umbrella supports bent quickly and the interfacing on the fabric held creases from where I ended up having to fold it. It all shares an unsurprising amount in common with a tent, being kinda of heavy to hold for long periods of time, and warm too. Still it was fun to wander around in, even if I could only see the reactions not hear them. I have plans and ideas about how to make it both better and stronger for future, though it's going to involve a lot more hand sewing and glue removal.
The Dragon Quest 8 Hero worked well and I wore it for most of Saturday and Sunday, my only complaint is that using Wellington's as a base for the feet, was quite tiring on my feet, and er the sweaty result of wearing them all day was not pleasant. There was another Hero about, but my was clearly better, as even he himself admitted. I could see a desire to tidy it up in future, and find a better alternative that glue gun glue for attaching the boot covers to the wellies, still all in all I'm very happy with how it came out as a first costume.
The con itself was definitely inspiring and I will have to do better, neater and more complicated costumes on the next few cons. And more recognisable ones too, you can get away with not being recognisable if you're female and attractive, otherwise though the key to getting photos of you taken is something really good or well known. Though I didn't recognise many of the characters over the weekend, I must admit.
Photos can be found here.
EDIT: Oh yeah I nearly forgot. Highlights of Minami:
-Seeing![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
ilpala as Optimus Prime for the first time. Utterly amazing costume. Video of the skit here, see if you can spot me in the audience
-During the Friday night party, when the random games were happening and the portal song started playing. Singing alone reflexively and then making eye contact, as all of us singing spotted each other. One of those part of something bigger (and geeky) moments.
-Hearing people talk about the MitD and try and guess what it was.
-Being in the better made Dragon Quest 8 costume.
-Meeting lots of lovely, but random people.
-Pretty much every other amazing costume.
In less costumey related news, work has me commuting to Newport for "six months" (translates roughly to in work speak some indefinite point), though I plan to do my best to get back to Bath as close to the six month mark as possible. Of course this means 6am rising, to get there in time. I foresee a lot of early nights in my future. Tonight for example I intend to be getting to sleep at around 9pm...
*Probably not helped because the week before hand had been tiring too.
**Going to have to find someone with the time and inclination to do a bit of video editing, especially to er account for one particular interesting filming choice.
***ailsa_chan's immensely effective turtle whisperer/cheerleader approach went on to win it.
****especially one in particular that had me fleeing to the toilets to spit it out and wash out my mouth.
*****Ralph's a nice bloke who's easily bored nature explains his car, and also told me some interesting things about the area around bath, and showing me some very impressive bits of light painting he had done. Though as has been demonstrated light painting aside he's not a good photographer.
Friday at the start was definitely somewhat disorientating, of course that was because it consisted mostly of people who already knew each other meeting up and chatting away. Still once that initial period was over it was much easier to get into the whole thing. Over the weekend I didn't do much of anything, but then I again I was more than happy to just wander around and enjoy the atmosphere (even getting a few moments of much needed peace and quiet away from other people). I turtle raced, which I sucked at***, watching a bit of sushi making, finally saw the FMA movie, tasted sake which was good, tastes Japanese snacks that weren't so good****, wandered around asking people for photos while Ralph***** encouraged in his desire to not ask himself, got served cake in a cosplay cafe, and just generally had a good time while dressed in bright primary colours...
Costume wise the Monster in the Darkness did not particularly survive the weekend, one of the umbrella supports bent quickly and the interfacing on the fabric held creases from where I ended up having to fold it. It all shares an unsurprising amount in common with a tent, being kinda of heavy to hold for long periods of time, and warm too. Still it was fun to wander around in, even if I could only see the reactions not hear them. I have plans and ideas about how to make it both better and stronger for future, though it's going to involve a lot more hand sewing and glue removal.
The Dragon Quest 8 Hero worked well and I wore it for most of Saturday and Sunday, my only complaint is that using Wellington's as a base for the feet, was quite tiring on my feet, and er the sweaty result of wearing them all day was not pleasant. There was another Hero about, but my was clearly better, as even he himself admitted. I could see a desire to tidy it up in future, and find a better alternative that glue gun glue for attaching the boot covers to the wellies, still all in all I'm very happy with how it came out as a first costume.
The con itself was definitely inspiring and I will have to do better, neater and more complicated costumes on the next few cons. And more recognisable ones too, you can get away with not being recognisable if you're female and attractive, otherwise though the key to getting photos of you taken is something really good or well known. Though I didn't recognise many of the characters over the weekend, I must admit.
Photos can be found here.
EDIT: Oh yeah I nearly forgot. Highlights of Minami:
-Seeing
ilpala as Optimus Prime for the first time. Utterly amazing costume. Video of the skit here, see if you can spot me in the audience-During the Friday night party, when the random games were happening and the portal song started playing. Singing alone reflexively and then making eye contact, as all of us singing spotted each other. One of those part of something bigger (and geeky) moments.
-Hearing people talk about the MitD and try and guess what it was.
-Being in the better made Dragon Quest 8 costume.
-Meeting lots of lovely, but random people.
-Pretty much every other amazing costume.
In less costumey related news, work has me commuting to Newport for "six months" (translates roughly to in work speak some indefinite point), though I plan to do my best to get back to Bath as close to the six month mark as possible. Of course this means 6am rising, to get there in time. I foresee a lot of early nights in my future. Tonight for example I intend to be getting to sleep at around 9pm...
*Probably not helped because the week before hand had been tiring too.
**Going to have to find someone with the time and inclination to do a bit of video editing, especially to er account for one particular interesting filming choice.
***
ailsa_chan's immensely effective turtle whisperer/cheerleader approach went on to win it.****especially one in particular that had me fleeing to the toilets to spit it out and wash out my mouth.
*****Ralph's a nice bloke who's easily bored nature explains his car, and also told me some interesting things about the area around bath, and showing me some very impressive bits of light painting he had done. Though as has been demonstrated light painting aside he's not a good photographer.
