Oni-Con '06
'Nyway...I'm back from Houston! Much fun was had by all and minimal near-death experiences on the freeway. I haven't downloaded pics yet but..
Friday
Got off work at 6 o'clock and me and Josh ran around like headless chickens trying to get everything ready in time. Hehe, Chris didn't know where Shelly lived tho', so we had to get her and then go all the way back to my apartments for him, and then we were off. My car was actin' funny but turns out it was fine (er, fine I hope). We played "Old Lady With an A" and got Taco Bell and came into Houston around 8 or 9. One incident with Josh scaring a hapless motorist and a chat with an eccentric hobo later, we'd found free parking and headed up to the hotel. We beat Joe and Shannon to the room, so it was pretty cool looking down the hall and seein' Vash and Meryl walking towards us when they did show up. It was too late to get our badges but we did go to the convention center and walk around, familiarizing with the area and checking out the night-owl cosplayers.
Saturday
I woke up earlier than everybody else...as is always the case at cons for some reason...and got my costume on so's everybody else could go in and out of the bathroom without being subjected to the horror of me putting on my ninja wraps. Josh and Vash got some lovin' from the girls, because both of them required some heavy-duty hair maintenance and all three of us were working on them at a time. Both turned out pretty good except the orange hair dye I got for Josh's Wakka costume didn't work too great. It still looked fine though. Shelly wore her Kairi costume, Joe wore his Vash costume, and Shannon was Meryl, and finally we got Josh into costume (the one I worked on for a BAJILLION hours) and got to show it off a bit, took some pictures, and then we took off. Shelly 'n I went to the dealer room which was, sadly, not as good as Akon or Animefest but still all right. There were tons of cool cosplayers we got to meet and neat stuff to look at. We went back up to the room later 'cause my stomach was hurting from the wraps and we wanted to eat/relax before watching the actual cosplay. I took a nap, some of Vash's friends showed up. We left for the Cosplay around 5 and got some great spots in line, though we had to wait around with stinky weirdos for an hour. -_- Josh had been roaming the halls and came back with tidings of an awesome Sephiroth, so I held the spot while Shelly ran off to meet the one-winged angel. Turns out it was Lord Masamune, best Sephiroth cosplayer EVAR. When we finally did get to go in, we were on the third row, about as close as you could get. Cosplay was great, opened by the singing group Sailor Jamboree and hosted by Cherry of Limit Break Cosplay as Reno. The audio guy was a moron, though, and screwed up several of the skits. Vash and Meryl's went really well though, and was awesome. They deserved an award. When the judging finally came around, we thought they picked some that were good and some that were terrible...didn't make much sense. But anyway, it was a lot of fun and time for me to get out of costume 'cos I was getting uncomfortable. X( Buuut...Lord Masamune was one of the judges so I got to snap a photo of him before we left.
Sunday
I was still hurtin' from Saturday's costume so I decided to just wear my Konoha headband and not get dressed up. We spent the morning packing and clearing the room of our junk and took it downstairs with only a setback or two, and I got to put my "My other ride is a Chocobo" decal on my car. Because I'm a nerd, see. There wasn't a lot to do on Sunday; we checked out the gaming room, which was sadly void of DDR, and went to an amusing panel on crossplay (don't ask). Shelly and I lost track of Josh somewhere along the way but when we found him again he was with this cute guy that had a cool Jing cosplay the night before. Turns out they knew each other and had gone to the same high school! He was awesome and in a Full Metal Panic costume this time around. Well we wandered around with him for a bit until we got bored, then we rounded up Chris and went along our merry way. A near standstill on I-45 caused us to reroute a different way, but it turned out for the better. An' we spent the rest of the day when we got back playing FF7 and such. Th' end!
There will be pictures later. Until then you can see the ones Shelly took.
And that's that for the people who asked...and I guess for the ones that didn't too.
Friday
Got off work at 6 o'clock and me and Josh ran around like headless chickens trying to get everything ready in time. Hehe, Chris didn't know where Shelly lived tho', so we had to get her and then go all the way back to my apartments for him, and then we were off. My car was actin' funny but turns out it was fine (er, fine I hope). We played "Old Lady With an A" and got Taco Bell and came into Houston around 8 or 9. One incident with Josh scaring a hapless motorist and a chat with an eccentric hobo later, we'd found free parking and headed up to the hotel. We beat Joe and Shannon to the room, so it was pretty cool looking down the hall and seein' Vash and Meryl walking towards us when they did show up. It was too late to get our badges but we did go to the convention center and walk around, familiarizing with the area and checking out the night-owl cosplayers.
Saturday
I woke up earlier than everybody else...as is always the case at cons for some reason...and got my costume on so's everybody else could go in and out of the bathroom without being subjected to the horror of me putting on my ninja wraps. Josh and Vash got some lovin' from the girls, because both of them required some heavy-duty hair maintenance and all three of us were working on them at a time. Both turned out pretty good except the orange hair dye I got for Josh's Wakka costume didn't work too great. It still looked fine though. Shelly wore her Kairi costume, Joe wore his Vash costume, and Shannon was Meryl, and finally we got Josh into costume (the one I worked on for a BAJILLION hours) and got to show it off a bit, took some pictures, and then we took off. Shelly 'n I went to the dealer room which was, sadly, not as good as Akon or Animefest but still all right. There were tons of cool cosplayers we got to meet and neat stuff to look at. We went back up to the room later 'cause my stomach was hurting from the wraps and we wanted to eat/relax before watching the actual cosplay. I took a nap, some of Vash's friends showed up. We left for the Cosplay around 5 and got some great spots in line, though we had to wait around with stinky weirdos for an hour. -_- Josh had been roaming the halls and came back with tidings of an awesome Sephiroth, so I held the spot while Shelly ran off to meet the one-winged angel. Turns out it was Lord Masamune, best Sephiroth cosplayer EVAR. When we finally did get to go in, we were on the third row, about as close as you could get. Cosplay was great, opened by the singing group Sailor Jamboree and hosted by Cherry of Limit Break Cosplay as Reno. The audio guy was a moron, though, and screwed up several of the skits. Vash and Meryl's went really well though, and was awesome. They deserved an award. When the judging finally came around, we thought they picked some that were good and some that were terrible...didn't make much sense. But anyway, it was a lot of fun and time for me to get out of costume 'cos I was getting uncomfortable. X( Buuut...Lord Masamune was one of the judges so I got to snap a photo of him before we left.
Sunday
I was still hurtin' from Saturday's costume so I decided to just wear my Konoha headband and not get dressed up. We spent the morning packing and clearing the room of our junk and took it downstairs with only a setback or two, and I got to put my "My other ride is a Chocobo" decal on my car. Because I'm a nerd, see. There wasn't a lot to do on Sunday; we checked out the gaming room, which was sadly void of DDR, and went to an amusing panel on crossplay (don't ask). Shelly and I lost track of Josh somewhere along the way but when we found him again he was with this cute guy that had a cool Jing cosplay the night before. Turns out they knew each other and had gone to the same high school! He was awesome and in a Full Metal Panic costume this time around. Well we wandered around with him for a bit until we got bored, then we rounded up Chris and went along our merry way. A near standstill on I-45 caused us to reroute a different way, but it turned out for the better. An' we spent the rest of the day when we got back playing FF7 and such. Th' end!
There will be pictures later. Until then you can see the ones Shelly took.
And that's that for the people who asked...and I guess for the ones that didn't too.