MACGYVER
This weekend was the London Expo, meaning that much nerdiness was afoot. Let us make this an update about such things! It'll be a great change from abstract character ramblings and vague angst, hahaha.
I didn't bother packing until about ten minutes before leaving the house, because that I how I do things. I am basically the most awful. It did not require much packing, mind, but I threw everything into one of those pull along travel bags, and not until it was too late did I realise that a rucksack would have been the far wiser choice. You see, I have to travel five hours on a train to get to London. Coming back on Sunday means carrying all our luggage around the con with us, then going straight to the station and making the long journey home. Tiring and not completely convenient, but LIFE MARCHES ON AND SO MUST WE.
However, I, in my rush, had selected the wrong bag! 'Oh well,' I thought, 'I'm sure we'll figure something out'. Little did I know that this decision would set into motion a series of events that eventually set us back a whole day, hahaha. SO I'M JUST GOING TO TELL YOU ALL THE MORAL NOW - PACK AHEAD OF TIME, BE ORGANISED.
The train journey there, with Tibby (truly_bohemian), was pretty successful. I THINK? I do not remember anything terrible. A bit of a frustrating ticket mishap, but... We reached Katherine's house with fairly low fuss, and I think it all started out rather well! Excluding that poor Tibby had a very rasping throat the entire time. That got worse over the course of the weekend, and I hope she feels better soon. >:
SO THE ACTUAL CON, it was just... nice this year! Nothing terrible happened, nothing offensive or creepy or awful. We ate well (a miracle!), we didn't get seperated every five minutes, and it was just... nice! The first stall we came to had a whole bunch of quite varied Pokémon plush, and it turned out that Pokémon was just all round a big thing this year. I suppose it shouldn't be so much of a surprise, hahaha. So my first purchase was a Darumaka plush, like so, and I'm so delighted with it you guys, you don't even know. I love Darumaka you guys. I love Darmanitan. Gosh I can not even express how much I love my Darumaka. He's just the perfect shape to cup in your hands, and I'm holding him in the crook of my arm as I type right now and he is JUST PERFECT. MY PERFECT DARUMAKA.
So we wandered around, ahhh, what else did I buy when...? We passed the rowdy yaoi salesman (a staple of this con :|b), so I ended up with another Simon/Rossiu doujinshi because that is also a staple of con attending. Oh dear, oh dear. (I swear I would mix the content up if I could, but that they sold more things that actually appealed to me. We won't even touch the yuri and het sections - I am really not the target audience there, it seems. ): ).
Tibby bought me the first volume of Maoh since I've been casually curious about it for a while. I liked it enough to go back for more volumes on Sunday, though they unfortunately lacked volume three so I only have the first two right now. It's not perfect, but I'm definitely happy to have something to buy again. Still need to finish Let Dai, but everything else I'd spend money on is either unlicensed or currently in the possession of, oh dear, Tokyopop. Anyway, so, Maoh is alright. (The MacGyver sequence was the most unintentionally hilarious thing I've stumbled on in a while though, goodness me.)
I purchased a gay badge, haha, andddd... a sort of pixel art thing of Fantina, which was a really happy surprise to see! I am very fond of Fantina, ahhh hahahah. And some cheap Pocky, because I don't know, why not, and... I think that's everything from the first day. As we wandered the artists tables, though, I started to wonder... if I printed a reference, would someone take a commission? So I pondered, and decided to ask someone, and she readily agreed and said she'd be in the same place tomorrow. THE STAGE WAS SET.
We went back to Katherine's on Saturday night, ate a delicious healthy stir-fry, and watched Doctor Who and Jaws 4: The Revenge. I am not familiar enough with Doctor Who to comment much, but I can say without hesitation that Jaws 4 was, of course, superb. (Apparently, we saw one of two versions of the ending - Jake doesn't actually die in the other one, which might at least explain why everyone was so damn happy in the final shots and nothing was shown of Jake's suddenly widowed wife. I'LL GIVE YOU THIS ONE, JAWS 4....)
I then went online to print out pictures of Thilan and Daliquinn......
On Sunday, we decided that it might be better to leave our belongings at Katherine's. Since I'd brought the wrong bag, it might be better to just leave the con early, collect our belongings, and head to the station from there. It would mean less convention time, but was surely ultimately for the better. HM...
I found my artist girl easy enough, and spent a little while fretting over who she should draw. I finally settled on Quinn, though. I might very well have another commission chance lined up in the near future, and I would really like that artist to draw Thilan if all goes ahead as I'm hoping. Besides which, I didn't want to embarrass myself and this poor artist both by rambling on about either character's particular personality traits, and the posing of the Quinn print out was much closer to IC than Thilan's serious business stance. So I gave her Quinn, gave some vague details about what I'd like*, and promised to return in a while.
*I'm sure it's different from artist to artist, but I'm never at all sure how much detail I should go into. Do they want something vague to build from, or very precise guidelines to stay within? Do they want to know exactly what expression to draw, and to what extent? Is it infuriating when someone says 'just as long as it's not like X I'm not too concerned', or is that liberating? IT'S SO HARD TO KNOW. The correct answer is undoubtedly to ask the artist how much detail they'd like you to provide, hahaha, but. WORDS ARE HARD. End aside.
Back to wandering, I found Spartacus: Blood and Sand DVD boxsets for sale. Grabbed those up happily. I really only bought the DVD's and my commission on the second day, except for tiny negligible things like food and small gifts and things, but I still spent an awful lot of money, hahaha. I guess certain things add up quickly. Tibby purchased some manga, some little figurines and keyrings, some nice artwork, and likely things I'm forgetting. She and Katherine both bought Clow Card decks, hahaha. Katherine probably ended up with the most? I feel like I purchased the least, but perhaps that is a defense mechanism......
So whatever, we wandered around, everything was lovely and fun, a lot of people asked me where I got my Pokéball hat from and did I make it myself which was pleasant and unfortunate because I couldn't really give them a very good answer. I should make note of the creator next time she posts sales at pokemon so I can pass people her way, hahaha. AND YEAH so I went back to see how my picture turned out...
And this is the part where I'm too lazy to get my scanner out from storage, I apologise for leading you all on so cruelly. But I'm really honestly happy with it, it's lovely and it's in my hands. I own it, it is a commission all for me! And it's wonderful, and he looks so... hard-faced and handsome and quietly obviously angry. It makes me think... of that sort of transitional period, somewhere between all the cruel smirking jabs and then that point where he just snaps into a fury. This is post- taking Krag to Sylvanas but pre- Razor Hill, haha, if you wanted a point in time. BECAUSE THAT MEANS SO MUCH TO ALL OF YOU. He's this close to showing his teeth. I'M GOING TO STOP BEING WEIRD ABOUT MY COMMISSION NOW, I'm just very happy with it okay.
(Also he has pupils and irises, hahaha. It excites me to have variations on this, since Blizzard itself isn't consistent about exactly what Blood Elf eyes look like beyond 'green glow'. ALL VARIATIONS ALL THE TIME, more commissions for me..............)
(Also also, midriff-exposing level ten armor is now immortalised for all time. MOST IMPORTANT.)
SO we attended a voice acting panel with no one I particularly knew but they were both funny, interesting, nice guys. AND THEN IT WAS TIME TO LEAVE. Surely two and a half hours would be plenty of time to get back to Katherine's and then onwards to our train? SURELY?
Well, no, it wasn't. We were still some five stops and a five minute wait away from Paddington when our train was due to be leaving, and it's not like we experienced any delays or such. We just... severely misjudged how long it would take, clearly! If I'd just bought a rucksack, this wouldn't have happened. But happy coincidence number one, it so happens that we purchased open return tickets this time so we didn't need to repurchase. It was just a matter of catching the next train.
I asked the gentleman on customer information, and he said we should catch the next train going to Plymouth, and from there we'd be able to change and finish our intended journey. Okay, so, only an hour to wait and then just head on! It was going to be a bit of a delay, but nothing drastic. I called Katherine up to let her know that we'd be okay after all, we wouldn't need to come back, we grabbed some fast food and waited out the forty minutes before we could board, and all was looking pretty good!
Only once we were on board and travelling, the conductor on the train said we wouldn't be able to catch a connecting train after all. There wasn't another one until tomorrow, he said. Oops, misinformed apparently! He was very nice about it, said he could probably get something organised if we'd missed our first train due to a problem with the London Underground or such.... b-but no, it was our own error, and I told him so. I can't help it okay, lying to helpful friendly people makes me sad :(
SO WE CALLED JENNY. vampireduzell is the hero of the hour. Happy coincidence number two, Jenny has finished university and was planning to return home... Monday, as in today! Meaning yes, just for this one last night, she could give us a place to stay, hahaha. SAVED. And it all worked out beautifully, because she had far too much stuff to take home on the train by herself, so me and Tibby were able to assist her with all of her belongings and finish up the journey in her company. So honestly, as setbacks go, it all worked out pretty well, I think! Except that poor Tibby was still feeling pretty croaky and sore during all this and probably would have liked her own bed, but. :< I have learned my lesson, okay, I will be responsible and pack in advance next time.
So I think that's more or less an update about the con! It's mostly about buying things, that's how these things always seem to go. I apologise. Darumaka waves.
I didn't bother packing until about ten minutes before leaving the house, because that I how I do things. I am basically the most awful. It did not require much packing, mind, but I threw everything into one of those pull along travel bags, and not until it was too late did I realise that a rucksack would have been the far wiser choice. You see, I have to travel five hours on a train to get to London. Coming back on Sunday means carrying all our luggage around the con with us, then going straight to the station and making the long journey home. Tiring and not completely convenient, but LIFE MARCHES ON AND SO MUST WE.
However, I, in my rush, had selected the wrong bag! 'Oh well,' I thought, 'I'm sure we'll figure something out'. Little did I know that this decision would set into motion a series of events that eventually set us back a whole day, hahaha. SO I'M JUST GOING TO TELL YOU ALL THE MORAL NOW - PACK AHEAD OF TIME, BE ORGANISED.
The train journey there, with Tibby (truly_bohemian), was pretty successful. I THINK? I do not remember anything terrible. A bit of a frustrating ticket mishap, but... We reached Katherine's house with fairly low fuss, and I think it all started out rather well! Excluding that poor Tibby had a very rasping throat the entire time. That got worse over the course of the weekend, and I hope she feels better soon. >:
SO THE ACTUAL CON, it was just... nice this year! Nothing terrible happened, nothing offensive or creepy or awful. We ate well (a miracle!), we didn't get seperated every five minutes, and it was just... nice! The first stall we came to had a whole bunch of quite varied Pokémon plush, and it turned out that Pokémon was just all round a big thing this year. I suppose it shouldn't be so much of a surprise, hahaha. So my first purchase was a Darumaka plush, like so, and I'm so delighted with it you guys, you don't even know. I love Darumaka you guys. I love Darmanitan. Gosh I can not even express how much I love my Darumaka. He's just the perfect shape to cup in your hands, and I'm holding him in the crook of my arm as I type right now and he is JUST PERFECT. MY PERFECT DARUMAKA.
So we wandered around, ahhh, what else did I buy when...? We passed the rowdy yaoi salesman (a staple of this con :|b), so I ended up with another Simon/Rossiu doujinshi because that is also a staple of con attending. Oh dear, oh dear. (I swear I would mix the content up if I could, but that they sold more things that actually appealed to me. We won't even touch the yuri and het sections - I am really not the target audience there, it seems. ): ).
Tibby bought me the first volume of Maoh since I've been casually curious about it for a while. I liked it enough to go back for more volumes on Sunday, though they unfortunately lacked volume three so I only have the first two right now. It's not perfect, but I'm definitely happy to have something to buy again. Still need to finish Let Dai, but everything else I'd spend money on is either unlicensed or currently in the possession of, oh dear, Tokyopop. Anyway, so, Maoh is alright. (The MacGyver sequence was the most unintentionally hilarious thing I've stumbled on in a while though, goodness me.)
I purchased a gay badge, haha, andddd... a sort of pixel art thing of Fantina, which was a really happy surprise to see! I am very fond of Fantina, ahhh hahahah. And some cheap Pocky, because I don't know, why not, and... I think that's everything from the first day. As we wandered the artists tables, though, I started to wonder... if I printed a reference, would someone take a commission? So I pondered, and decided to ask someone, and she readily agreed and said she'd be in the same place tomorrow. THE STAGE WAS SET.
We went back to Katherine's on Saturday night, ate a delicious healthy stir-fry, and watched Doctor Who and Jaws 4: The Revenge. I am not familiar enough with Doctor Who to comment much, but I can say without hesitation that Jaws 4 was, of course, superb. (Apparently, we saw one of two versions of the ending - Jake doesn't actually die in the other one, which might at least explain why everyone was so damn happy in the final shots and nothing was shown of Jake's suddenly widowed wife. I'LL GIVE YOU THIS ONE, JAWS 4....)
I then went online to print out pictures of Thilan and Daliquinn......
On Sunday, we decided that it might be better to leave our belongings at Katherine's. Since I'd brought the wrong bag, it might be better to just leave the con early, collect our belongings, and head to the station from there. It would mean less convention time, but was surely ultimately for the better. HM...
I found my artist girl easy enough, and spent a little while fretting over who she should draw. I finally settled on Quinn, though. I might very well have another commission chance lined up in the near future, and I would really like that artist to draw Thilan if all goes ahead as I'm hoping. Besides which, I didn't want to embarrass myself and this poor artist both by rambling on about either character's particular personality traits, and the posing of the Quinn print out was much closer to IC than Thilan's serious business stance. So I gave her Quinn, gave some vague details about what I'd like*, and promised to return in a while.
*I'm sure it's different from artist to artist, but I'm never at all sure how much detail I should go into. Do they want something vague to build from, or very precise guidelines to stay within? Do they want to know exactly what expression to draw, and to what extent? Is it infuriating when someone says 'just as long as it's not like X I'm not too concerned', or is that liberating? IT'S SO HARD TO KNOW. The correct answer is undoubtedly to ask the artist how much detail they'd like you to provide, hahaha, but. WORDS ARE HARD. End aside.
Back to wandering, I found Spartacus: Blood and Sand DVD boxsets for sale. Grabbed those up happily. I really only bought the DVD's and my commission on the second day, except for tiny negligible things like food and small gifts and things, but I still spent an awful lot of money, hahaha. I guess certain things add up quickly. Tibby purchased some manga, some little figurines and keyrings, some nice artwork, and likely things I'm forgetting. She and Katherine both bought Clow Card decks, hahaha. Katherine probably ended up with the most? I feel like I purchased the least, but perhaps that is a defense mechanism......
So whatever, we wandered around, everything was lovely and fun, a lot of people asked me where I got my Pokéball hat from and did I make it myself which was pleasant and unfortunate because I couldn't really give them a very good answer. I should make note of the creator next time she posts sales at pokemon so I can pass people her way, hahaha. AND YEAH so I went back to see how my picture turned out...
And this is the part where I'm too lazy to get my scanner out from storage, I apologise for leading you all on so cruelly. But I'm really honestly happy with it, it's lovely and it's in my hands. I own it, it is a commission all for me! And it's wonderful, and he looks so... hard-faced and handsome and quietly obviously angry. It makes me think... of that sort of transitional period, somewhere between all the cruel smirking jabs and then that point where he just snaps into a fury. This is post- taking Krag to Sylvanas but pre- Razor Hill, haha, if you wanted a point in time. BECAUSE THAT MEANS SO MUCH TO ALL OF YOU. He's this close to showing his teeth. I'M GOING TO STOP BEING WEIRD ABOUT MY COMMISSION NOW, I'm just very happy with it okay.
(Also he has pupils and irises, hahaha. It excites me to have variations on this, since Blizzard itself isn't consistent about exactly what Blood Elf eyes look like beyond 'green glow'. ALL VARIATIONS ALL THE TIME, more commissions for me..............)
(Also also, midriff-exposing level ten armor is now immortalised for all time. MOST IMPORTANT.)
SO we attended a voice acting panel with no one I particularly knew but they were both funny, interesting, nice guys. AND THEN IT WAS TIME TO LEAVE. Surely two and a half hours would be plenty of time to get back to Katherine's and then onwards to our train? SURELY?
Well, no, it wasn't. We were still some five stops and a five minute wait away from Paddington when our train was due to be leaving, and it's not like we experienced any delays or such. We just... severely misjudged how long it would take, clearly! If I'd just bought a rucksack, this wouldn't have happened. But happy coincidence number one, it so happens that we purchased open return tickets this time so we didn't need to repurchase. It was just a matter of catching the next train.
I asked the gentleman on customer information, and he said we should catch the next train going to Plymouth, and from there we'd be able to change and finish our intended journey. Okay, so, only an hour to wait and then just head on! It was going to be a bit of a delay, but nothing drastic. I called Katherine up to let her know that we'd be okay after all, we wouldn't need to come back, we grabbed some fast food and waited out the forty minutes before we could board, and all was looking pretty good!
Only once we were on board and travelling, the conductor on the train said we wouldn't be able to catch a connecting train after all. There wasn't another one until tomorrow, he said. Oops, misinformed apparently! He was very nice about it, said he could probably get something organised if we'd missed our first train due to a problem with the London Underground or such.... b-but no, it was our own error, and I told him so. I can't help it okay, lying to helpful friendly people makes me sad :(
SO WE CALLED JENNY. vampireduzell is the hero of the hour. Happy coincidence number two, Jenny has finished university and was planning to return home... Monday, as in today! Meaning yes, just for this one last night, she could give us a place to stay, hahaha. SAVED. And it all worked out beautifully, because she had far too much stuff to take home on the train by herself, so me and Tibby were able to assist her with all of her belongings and finish up the journey in her company. So honestly, as setbacks go, it all worked out pretty well, I think! Except that poor Tibby was still feeling pretty croaky and sore during all this and probably would have liked her own bed, but. :< I have learned my lesson, okay, I will be responsible and pack in advance next time.
So I think that's more or less an update about the con! It's mostly about buying things, that's how these things always seem to go. I apologise. Darumaka waves.