Ethan Is A Loserface -> CTcon
well, first off, Ethan told me that I ought to update my livejournal with stuff about ConnectiCon (thus to be shorten CTcon because I am lazy) Well, that covers Ethan being a loserface =)
Well, to set some background, CTcon is a multimedia convention that has been held in Hartford every year for something like 4 years i think...i dunno, ask Ethan, he'd know better. I dont remember what was said, i know it was less than 10, but i dont know how much. Anyways, people cosplay (dress up as a character from something) as assorted things, i went as a dragoon from FFXI. Some people didnt dress up, and that's fine too. Shayna asked me to dress up, and its hard for me to say no to her. Well, she helped me make the costume, but she tried to make me do most of it myself. I suck at making costumes, so she ended up doing it. I feel bad about that, and i felt bad that night when i had to leave it with her. We were at a costume making party at her friend's house (of course, avoiding using names, if people dont feel the need to hide, come forth and I will unveil you, i guess would be the right term) Well, it was a good costume making party, and it went well. Most everyone had their costumes done, and a few went over because they were put towards the end of the processing line. The person whose house we were over was really nice and her mom helped so very, very much. I dont think any of us could thank her enough. That was on the Sunday before the con.
By Wednesday, Shayna broke up with me, making some of the con awkward, and I didnt want to say that event, but since everyone here loves me and I trust all of them, I had to say it. Plus, it gives a dynamic to the Con.
Thursday, Skit practice at the person's house (jeez, be nice to use a name ::sigh::) Nearly nobody came. We had a few people, but the person who needed to practice the most since he never even got acquainted with the set (Conti/Chuck Norris) did not even appear. We had the practice because we were told he could come. Anyways, I got to hang out with this cool chick Leanna who had this glowy, musical staff-ish thing. We even decoded the music the thing played...at least we feel we did. She is really cool, I wish I knew her screen name or email address, be nice to continue talking to her. I remember then hitting up some stores to find a long sleeve red shirt and white gloves for me to dress up in for Mario in the skit since Shayna's shirt felt didnt really feel like it covered a lot, and left a very visible neckline. Well, we went around and couldnt find a shirt, but we got the gloves and later massacred them since they were the arm length kind. Luckily, the girl playing Riku needed white arm band like things, so the stuff chopped off my gloves went to her costume. Then we hit a ShopRite, i bought some CokeBlack, which is a horrible soda. It is a mixture of coffee and soda, and let me tell you...neither dissolves in teh other. So, yeah, its coffee flavored, then you taste coke, and then you are disgusted when both flavors hit your mouth afterwards...Our Chuck Norris liked it, and only him. When we were checking out, teh cashier was like, well, never tasted it. I told him it was horrible, and gave him one ^_^ we later came back to buy water, and I wanted to see if he was sick to his stomach, i guess his shift ended before we came back...Then, I dont really remember everything else until this parent of someone came and gave a very moving speech. I felt a real connection there, and i think it was very important. However, its something I cant go into detail about. Still moving however, really makes you think and know yourself. I thought it was nice, did i mention i felt a good connection with the parent...yup. Then, I went to this other person's house to stay the night to go to CTcon in the morning as a group.
Friday, we get up early. Before 8am i think. We were told that everyone had to meet at the girl's house (calling her Leader from here on in, since she organized all of us going to the Con and stuff) at 9am, but we didnt have to go to her house since the guy's mom was going to drive us there since she didnt trust her son driving on the highway...or at all maybe? I dunno. If he would like to clarify, that is open for clarification. Anyways, so we get there when we think they'd get there since they were going to leave Leader's house at 9am. So, none of our group is there, none of them left her house even...they had some sort of delay. So, the guys of the group (since we all had to stay at the guy's house...see the connection. Leader works stuff out well) arrive at like 9:30, standing in line for stuff. We realize, Hot Damn, that is the pre-registered line, and got into the pre-reg'd line after 5 minutes of being in normal line. It was great, so much shorter. We got in, worried that we fucked up our pre-registration, realized we didnt, got upstairs and went straight into the opening ceremonies. They were fun, bit tedious, but had to be done. There was a video that was repeated several times throughout the convention about CTcon almost disappearing because it was costing a lot, then they made some money from people donating, enough to fund the con and then some. Then there was a little thing with the vice chair being stupid with a dance.
While in opening ceremonies, we saw two people (out of a group of 4...) that we recognized (if Leanna was with them, we saw 3 out of 5) and we didnt know who the hell the other 2 were. REGARDLESS! we went to the gameroom next, saw another friend and she had a friend too (haha, while laughing that the people that went to Leader's house were still not around...well, not laughing, but we thought about it) They have been around for a while, they had to video tape for a show they worked for...its Wallingford based, so me telling you what show wont help because Hamden wont pick it up, and I dont think anyone but Lexi lives in Wallingford, and i doubt she will be looking at this.
Then, we watched a couple games, and i seperated from the rest of the guys, and kinda just chilled with the camera girl and one of the girls who we saw at opening ceremonies. I hung out with opening ceremonies girl more though, since i didnt want her to be by herself in Hartford...shows my trust of people. So, just chilled with her until Leader and them got there. Then a mad rush for signing up our skit for masquerade, then...I visited games and panels, and such. Oh, and while I was waiting with the for Leader and others to get there, Rich called (NO! Rich does not get any anonimousity, i dont feel like it) and asked me to sign up him and Nate (nope, not Nate either) for the Tekken tournament, but to seperate them on the list. So, i signed up Rich first, left to wait for others to sign up after Rich, came back a couple times, no one signed up after Rich. Finally I thought, screw it, they'll just have to play each other, went back, list was taken, tournament started, tehy werent inside yet. SO! Rich lost to the guy who won the tournament, and Nate never got to enter.
Then, we kinda walked around, I was sulky, met some people, talked to camera girl. Got to know her a little better. She is pretty damn cool, her friend entered the Smash Bros Melee tournament, and felt like throwing up...well, he did, eventually. Then he later, when the tournament occurred, he cleared the first round. We left him there after that with our Chuck Norris, who also cleared round 1. We then left them to go to Cosplay Dating, which was hilarious. We met this girl who was the President at the Anime Club at Dartmouth in line. She had a cool costume on that day, it was dark with a newsie-ish cap. But, before that, camera girl, her friend, and I went to Cosplay Court. It rocked...well the first case did. The second case was schmeh. Cavan was ther during the second case...he was on trial, he nearly killed someone...in real life...regardless, first case. The defendant was Spike from Cowboy Bebop. What he had against him, his hair defied teh law of gravity, and was immoral, inhumane, and made men question their masculinity. The prosecution, some guy cosplaying Maes Hughes, from Full Metal Alchemist, and one of our friends that stayed at Leader's house who cosplayed someone from Bleach...I dont know Bleach character, sorry... Defense included Riku, from Kingdom Hearts, and a battery...i think...The judge...Leanna.
Well, Spike lost, Hughes had a lot of pictures of the family in his character's wallet. And, i laughed so much. Then, we had practice for the skit somewhere around 4pm in the parking garage! woot! first practice ever, we had everyone there, we got everything at least taught, cues not memorized, and blocking barely set. This was our first practice...and also second to last. Then the tournament, and waiting in line, and stuff. Then, i remember Piano Squall! HE WAS AWESOME! to say the least. I recommend at least going to a convention somewhere to just hear him play. I also got his website right here where you can download for free his music. Piano Squall! If we had time, I was going to request Alis's Nightmare from Phantasy Star, but we didnt have time for requests. Then, after that, I dont really remember what we did, I think we went home. Whenever I was in a panel, workshop, or mainroom event, i didnt have my mind on her...it was refreshing now frowning and feeling sad.
Saturday, early in the morning, rising to the street, went straight to Leader's house to get Chuck Norris fitted for Conti (heh, i make myself laugh...its all i got now in my bouts of depression) We did some the night before (Shayna, the Director, her sister, Chuck Norris, and myself), but yeah...we didnt finish. We finished there the next morning of course, went to teh con late and was lost along the way anyways. We had fun when we got there. It was awkward being in a car with her, but I talked to Chuck Norris, and didnt do much more than maybe tear up, but no crying. No one knew about the break up except for those who were told, and i told the Camera Girl (who wondered why i was sad) and the director only told leader, as far as I know. But somehow, Chuck Norris figured it out. Regardless, we got to teh con, hit up the dealer's room, figured out we needed a lot of Bunny Bucks to afford various versions of Munchkin, then set out to figure out how to do that. We didnt figure out any ways. So, we went to Iron Cosplay. We dressed up the guy whose house I was staying at as Yuna from FFX-2 (well, we went with that version of her, she is in FFX also) and we won 60 Bunny Bucks, and Hughes was like, if walks around like that for the rest of the day, ill give you teh 10 Bunny Bucks we won. Well, we got those Bunny Bucks, and got ourselves a version of Munchkin (it was 40 BB) Oh, by the way, we saw Dartmouth Anime Girl there, but Saturday, she was dressed as a pink fairy with a needle for a hand. I saw that before, but i dont remember where...ANYWAYS, so then we had another practice, we got everything somewhere near down pat...again in teh parking garage. Then we go upstairs to wait for Masquerade. I then ran into Ethan who took a picture of me (and I welcome him to comment with a link to that picture) since I was dressed as Mario...including Shayna's shirt (tell me if the neckline was too low...) Then I realized I lost my moustache (it was a prop) and I ran to the garage pretty damn quick, especially quick consider the elevator was broken. Well, i did that in record time, people were amazed (people were like WHOA, THAT'S FUCKING FAST as i passed them, so i must assume it was record timing) So we made anotehr moustache out of...YUNA'S HAIR! Then we went to Masquerade practice...which consisted of no practice. We sat, we did our skit , we were worried, we enjoyed all the other skits though. Notable other skits are:
Princess Leia's Dance (i.e. prisoner of Jabba)
Dude Likes Like A Lady
Naruto Team Hunger Force a mere segment of the skit, i thought these guys were gonna beat us...but we beat them, they got second i think...
After masquerade, and we won, I went to the dance...it sucked. There was techno music, which is good stuff, but no one was putting the energy into it that it deserved. There were SOME people who were dancing, still not enough energy, but most people where SWAYING. SWAYING does NOT equal TECHNO DANCING. I break danced a double times, demonstrated some fancy footwork, to no avail. I left that, and we went home soon afterwards.
I didnt go Sunday, it was my mom's birthday. However, except for the times I was with Shayna and the times I was sitting doing nothing and thus thought about her, I was in good spirits. To rate the convention
9.8/10
Because I wont give anything a perfect score because nothing is perfect, and because there were a couple things that could have been better...like better notice when something was cancelled...Loudspeakers maybe? I dunno. I do recommend everyone at least go next year. If I can pull it off, I want to go as Frank the Rabbit from Donnie Darko...because Frank pwns everything...
Well, to set some background, CTcon is a multimedia convention that has been held in Hartford every year for something like 4 years i think...i dunno, ask Ethan, he'd know better. I dont remember what was said, i know it was less than 10, but i dont know how much. Anyways, people cosplay (dress up as a character from something) as assorted things, i went as a dragoon from FFXI. Some people didnt dress up, and that's fine too. Shayna asked me to dress up, and its hard for me to say no to her. Well, she helped me make the costume, but she tried to make me do most of it myself. I suck at making costumes, so she ended up doing it. I feel bad about that, and i felt bad that night when i had to leave it with her. We were at a costume making party at her friend's house (of course, avoiding using names, if people dont feel the need to hide, come forth and I will unveil you, i guess would be the right term) Well, it was a good costume making party, and it went well. Most everyone had their costumes done, and a few went over because they were put towards the end of the processing line. The person whose house we were over was really nice and her mom helped so very, very much. I dont think any of us could thank her enough. That was on the Sunday before the con.
By Wednesday, Shayna broke up with me, making some of the con awkward, and I didnt want to say that event, but since everyone here loves me and I trust all of them, I had to say it. Plus, it gives a dynamic to the Con.
Thursday, Skit practice at the person's house (jeez, be nice to use a name ::sigh::) Nearly nobody came. We had a few people, but the person who needed to practice the most since he never even got acquainted with the set (Conti/Chuck Norris) did not even appear. We had the practice because we were told he could come. Anyways, I got to hang out with this cool chick Leanna who had this glowy, musical staff-ish thing. We even decoded the music the thing played...at least we feel we did. She is really cool, I wish I knew her screen name or email address, be nice to continue talking to her. I remember then hitting up some stores to find a long sleeve red shirt and white gloves for me to dress up in for Mario in the skit since Shayna's shirt felt didnt really feel like it covered a lot, and left a very visible neckline. Well, we went around and couldnt find a shirt, but we got the gloves and later massacred them since they were the arm length kind. Luckily, the girl playing Riku needed white arm band like things, so the stuff chopped off my gloves went to her costume. Then we hit a ShopRite, i bought some CokeBlack, which is a horrible soda. It is a mixture of coffee and soda, and let me tell you...neither dissolves in teh other. So, yeah, its coffee flavored, then you taste coke, and then you are disgusted when both flavors hit your mouth afterwards...Our Chuck Norris liked it, and only him. When we were checking out, teh cashier was like, well, never tasted it. I told him it was horrible, and gave him one ^_^ we later came back to buy water, and I wanted to see if he was sick to his stomach, i guess his shift ended before we came back...Then, I dont really remember everything else until this parent of someone came and gave a very moving speech. I felt a real connection there, and i think it was very important. However, its something I cant go into detail about. Still moving however, really makes you think and know yourself. I thought it was nice, did i mention i felt a good connection with the parent...yup. Then, I went to this other person's house to stay the night to go to CTcon in the morning as a group.
Friday, we get up early. Before 8am i think. We were told that everyone had to meet at the girl's house (calling her Leader from here on in, since she organized all of us going to the Con and stuff) at 9am, but we didnt have to go to her house since the guy's mom was going to drive us there since she didnt trust her son driving on the highway...or at all maybe? I dunno. If he would like to clarify, that is open for clarification. Anyways, so we get there when we think they'd get there since they were going to leave Leader's house at 9am. So, none of our group is there, none of them left her house even...they had some sort of delay. So, the guys of the group (since we all had to stay at the guy's house...see the connection. Leader works stuff out well) arrive at like 9:30, standing in line for stuff. We realize, Hot Damn, that is the pre-registered line, and got into the pre-reg'd line after 5 minutes of being in normal line. It was great, so much shorter. We got in, worried that we fucked up our pre-registration, realized we didnt, got upstairs and went straight into the opening ceremonies. They were fun, bit tedious, but had to be done. There was a video that was repeated several times throughout the convention about CTcon almost disappearing because it was costing a lot, then they made some money from people donating, enough to fund the con and then some. Then there was a little thing with the vice chair being stupid with a dance.
While in opening ceremonies, we saw two people (out of a group of 4...) that we recognized (if Leanna was with them, we saw 3 out of 5) and we didnt know who the hell the other 2 were. REGARDLESS! we went to the gameroom next, saw another friend and she had a friend too (haha, while laughing that the people that went to Leader's house were still not around...well, not laughing, but we thought about it) They have been around for a while, they had to video tape for a show they worked for...its Wallingford based, so me telling you what show wont help because Hamden wont pick it up, and I dont think anyone but Lexi lives in Wallingford, and i doubt she will be looking at this.
Then, we watched a couple games, and i seperated from the rest of the guys, and kinda just chilled with the camera girl and one of the girls who we saw at opening ceremonies. I hung out with opening ceremonies girl more though, since i didnt want her to be by herself in Hartford...shows my trust of people. So, just chilled with her until Leader and them got there. Then a mad rush for signing up our skit for masquerade, then...I visited games and panels, and such. Oh, and while I was waiting with the for Leader and others to get there, Rich called (NO! Rich does not get any anonimousity, i dont feel like it) and asked me to sign up him and Nate (nope, not Nate either) for the Tekken tournament, but to seperate them on the list. So, i signed up Rich first, left to wait for others to sign up after Rich, came back a couple times, no one signed up after Rich. Finally I thought, screw it, they'll just have to play each other, went back, list was taken, tournament started, tehy werent inside yet. SO! Rich lost to the guy who won the tournament, and Nate never got to enter.
Then, we kinda walked around, I was sulky, met some people, talked to camera girl. Got to know her a little better. She is pretty damn cool, her friend entered the Smash Bros Melee tournament, and felt like throwing up...well, he did, eventually. Then he later, when the tournament occurred, he cleared the first round. We left him there after that with our Chuck Norris, who also cleared round 1. We then left them to go to Cosplay Dating, which was hilarious. We met this girl who was the President at the Anime Club at Dartmouth in line. She had a cool costume on that day, it was dark with a newsie-ish cap. But, before that, camera girl, her friend, and I went to Cosplay Court. It rocked...well the first case did. The second case was schmeh. Cavan was ther during the second case...he was on trial, he nearly killed someone...in real life...regardless, first case. The defendant was Spike from Cowboy Bebop. What he had against him, his hair defied teh law of gravity, and was immoral, inhumane, and made men question their masculinity. The prosecution, some guy cosplaying Maes Hughes, from Full Metal Alchemist, and one of our friends that stayed at Leader's house who cosplayed someone from Bleach...I dont know Bleach character, sorry... Defense included Riku, from Kingdom Hearts, and a battery...i think...The judge...Leanna.
Well, Spike lost, Hughes had a lot of pictures of the family in his character's wallet. And, i laughed so much. Then, we had practice for the skit somewhere around 4pm in the parking garage! woot! first practice ever, we had everyone there, we got everything at least taught, cues not memorized, and blocking barely set. This was our first practice...and also second to last. Then the tournament, and waiting in line, and stuff. Then, i remember Piano Squall! HE WAS AWESOME! to say the least. I recommend at least going to a convention somewhere to just hear him play. I also got his website right here where you can download for free his music. Piano Squall! If we had time, I was going to request Alis's Nightmare from Phantasy Star, but we didnt have time for requests. Then, after that, I dont really remember what we did, I think we went home. Whenever I was in a panel, workshop, or mainroom event, i didnt have my mind on her...it was refreshing now frowning and feeling sad.
Saturday, early in the morning, rising to the street, went straight to Leader's house to get Chuck Norris fitted for Conti (heh, i make myself laugh...its all i got now in my bouts of depression) We did some the night before (Shayna, the Director, her sister, Chuck Norris, and myself), but yeah...we didnt finish. We finished there the next morning of course, went to teh con late and was lost along the way anyways. We had fun when we got there. It was awkward being in a car with her, but I talked to Chuck Norris, and didnt do much more than maybe tear up, but no crying. No one knew about the break up except for those who were told, and i told the Camera Girl (who wondered why i was sad) and the director only told leader, as far as I know. But somehow, Chuck Norris figured it out. Regardless, we got to teh con, hit up the dealer's room, figured out we needed a lot of Bunny Bucks to afford various versions of Munchkin, then set out to figure out how to do that. We didnt figure out any ways. So, we went to Iron Cosplay. We dressed up the guy whose house I was staying at as Yuna from FFX-2 (well, we went with that version of her, she is in FFX also) and we won 60 Bunny Bucks, and Hughes was like, if walks around like that for the rest of the day, ill give you teh 10 Bunny Bucks we won. Well, we got those Bunny Bucks, and got ourselves a version of Munchkin (it was 40 BB) Oh, by the way, we saw Dartmouth Anime Girl there, but Saturday, she was dressed as a pink fairy with a needle for a hand. I saw that before, but i dont remember where...ANYWAYS, so then we had another practice, we got everything somewhere near down pat...again in teh parking garage. Then we go upstairs to wait for Masquerade. I then ran into Ethan who took a picture of me (and I welcome him to comment with a link to that picture) since I was dressed as Mario...including Shayna's shirt (tell me if the neckline was too low...) Then I realized I lost my moustache (it was a prop) and I ran to the garage pretty damn quick, especially quick consider the elevator was broken. Well, i did that in record time, people were amazed (people were like WHOA, THAT'S FUCKING FAST as i passed them, so i must assume it was record timing) So we made anotehr moustache out of...YUNA'S HAIR! Then we went to Masquerade practice...which consisted of no practice. We sat, we did our skit , we were worried, we enjoyed all the other skits though. Notable other skits are:
Princess Leia's Dance (i.e. prisoner of Jabba)
Dude Likes Like A Lady
Naruto Team Hunger Force a mere segment of the skit, i thought these guys were gonna beat us...but we beat them, they got second i think...
After masquerade, and we won, I went to the dance...it sucked. There was techno music, which is good stuff, but no one was putting the energy into it that it deserved. There were SOME people who were dancing, still not enough energy, but most people where SWAYING. SWAYING does NOT equal TECHNO DANCING. I break danced a double times, demonstrated some fancy footwork, to no avail. I left that, and we went home soon afterwards.
I didnt go Sunday, it was my mom's birthday. However, except for the times I was with Shayna and the times I was sitting doing nothing and thus thought about her, I was in good spirits. To rate the convention
9.8/10
Because I wont give anything a perfect score because nothing is perfect, and because there were a couple things that could have been better...like better notice when something was cancelled...Loudspeakers maybe? I dunno. I do recommend everyone at least go next year. If I can pull it off, I want to go as Frank the Rabbit from Donnie Darko...because Frank pwns everything...