Akon 2008 Con Report
Or how we almost got arrested, almost got Syd's lip pierced, got into the Guiness Book of World Records, and almost died on the drive back.
THURSDAY
worked Wednesday night, got off work, came home, and got hurried out the door right away. Got a fast dinner at Waffle House, got socks, and left. Drove all morning, arrived in Carrollton about 1:45. The whole way, my service engine light was on, which scared me for a while. Did some running around when we got there, got glowsticks and such, then went back to Syd's mom's house and crashed. Got our hair dyed Thursday night, Syd's mom did an AMAZING job.
FRIDAY
Got up early to take Syd's mom to get her car, got ready for the con, my makeup was AWESOME. Got to the con early, met Eggie, sat in a epic line, got our badges, and started hanging out. Realized we forgot the digital camera at Syd's mom's house, so we bought an overpriced disposable camera. Also bought goggles, new hitai-ate for our cosplays, as I'd forgotten mine and Syd's goggles didn't arrive in the mail. Got a call from Brian saying that packages had arrived; apparently, the overnighted goggles were sent to the wrong place, and the ones we originally ordered finally arrived.
Went to some pub/grill deal with Eggie and her friends, which was rather cool. Some guy asked about our outfits and my makeup, and in hindsight we should've told him that I got the shit kicked out of me. Oh well. On our way back to the con, though, we were stopped by an officer, who told us to empty our pockets. Mind you, Syd was carrying the baton in a pocket and batons are apparently illegal in Texas, so I was all set to go to jail until the cop pulled a small wadded up bit of cash from a pocket and asked who dropped it. Turns out, the pockets in my scrub-ish pants suck and I'd almost lost five bucks. Went back to con with a few years shaved off my life.
Went to opening ceremonies, then went to the concerts. I liked Budo Grape, it was very cheery and uplifting and happy. Forgot to buy their CD, though. Versailles didn't impress me at the time. Way too much distortion, and we'd already been standing in a tight crowd for a long time, so we were ready to leave. Ended up leaving halfway through Versailles (which, in retrospect, we are kicking ourselves for, because had the sound crew been doing their jobs, Versailles would've blown me away. Hizaki is AMAZING with a guitar...). Returned to Eggie's friend's room in the Westin for a while, tried to rest my legs, but eventually we went back to Syd's mom's place. Had blisters all over my legs from the extremely-tight knee-high boots I wore under the pants (they were the only black shoes I had... Syd was wearing the others). I am never wearing those again. Not unless I drop 35 lbs and tone my legs. Holy crap.
SATURDAY
Got up, got ready, went to the con. Wandered around a bit, went to the Naruto photoshoot (again at the Cancer Survivors Plaza...), got some pictures taken of me. Left that early to go to the Guiness book of World Records thing, sat in a pay phone bay with Eggie and some of her friends taking pictures of people as they inched into the Guiness registration room. Eventually the con staff closed registrations because we were completely breaking every fire code in that side of the building, and all video game cosplayers were ushered onto the terrace, where we got some good SquareEnix impromptu photoshoot pictures. Eventually, an overhead picture was taken of the terrace and the official count was made public: 697 video game cosplayers. The previous record was 80, in England. Wow.
Went to the cosplay contest, which I didn't think was all that great, and tried to meet up with friends for the piercing party, except... everyone had other stuff that they needed to do. So everyone left, except us, and we just kinda hung out. We sat in the rave for a while, but we'd forgotten glowsticks, so we didn't really do much. Also, I was afraid to buy a drink and share it with Syd, because con security was rather tight. After a while, though, we bought some Jones sodas and Syd wandered around balancing a bottle, which was kinda cool. So now Syd is Bottle Reno.
SUNDAY
Dealer's room and artist's alley day! Looked at corsets in the dealer's room, wanted to look at kimono but I don't even wear the one I bought last year so I skipped on that. Bought scrolls to hang on the walls, but.... that was about all we really bought, that and a cute shirt. o_o;;. Went to the artist's alley and bought two prints to hang on the walls too, hung out at Cutemew's table for a while, and got lineart portraits done of us. Went to the Plaza of the Americas and went ice skating after our second attempt at the piercing party fell through, had fun with that even though I suck at skating, met up with some goth lolita girls and their friend and sat around in the convention hall talking until security kicked us out. Went back to Syd's mom's house to watch movies and clean up.
MONDAY
Made the drive to Las Cruces, got in kinda late, only to discover that Mom wasn't there. She called me later, saying she was in Carlsbad with her boyfriend. So, with nothing else to do, we got my bike and the mail and drove up to Albuquerque. By the time we arrived in town, I was about dead from driving too much and almost falling asleep at the wheel. Uuugh.
PICTURES TIME
I'm on the very left side, slightly cut-off.
Going for some random Sasuke's eyes weeeeeeeeeeee.
AWWWWWWWWW.
Fantastic Jack Sparrow.
A small sample of the epic Guiness line, with Eggie in the foreground (in blue).
Simply awesome.
Huzzah, Black Mage!
♥
♥♥
An adorable Kairi.
Awwwww.
This guy was badass.
Excellent Rude.
asdf ♥♥
Best Cid I've ever seen.
Badass Altair.
Huzzah, Okami!
I was so happy to see RO cosplayers, though it's been so long since I played that I didn't even recognize the Professor. Buh.
Still awesome, though.
Turks photoshoot.
A small portion of the SquareEnix crowd.
Awesome Lulu.
And the epic hallway jam leaving the terrace after the official picture was taken.
Oh, childhood *_*.
Closeup of my makeup.
Badass.
Insert laz0rs cliche here.
Best Shinku and Jun I've ever seen.
I wish I'd watched more of this series.
Badass wings.
Most natural-looking Ichigo I've ever seen. He was AWESOME.
A very cute Chii.
asdjkfajksfas HOUSE.
I need to finish this series someday.
One of the best Haseo's I've ever seen. His twin blades were amazing.
Bottle Reno!
An adorable Konan.
Shinoooooooo ♥
Such a cute Chibi-Usa.
Huzzah, more KH!
I don't remember where this guy is from, but he was standing in a balcony over the skating rink and dancing while we were skating. It was awesome.
This concludes my con report. I guess I'll wander off and do something else, possibly involving drinking.
THURSDAY
worked Wednesday night, got off work, came home, and got hurried out the door right away. Got a fast dinner at Waffle House, got socks, and left. Drove all morning, arrived in Carrollton about 1:45. The whole way, my service engine light was on, which scared me for a while. Did some running around when we got there, got glowsticks and such, then went back to Syd's mom's house and crashed. Got our hair dyed Thursday night, Syd's mom did an AMAZING job.
FRIDAY
Got up early to take Syd's mom to get her car, got ready for the con, my makeup was AWESOME. Got to the con early, met Eggie, sat in a epic line, got our badges, and started hanging out. Realized we forgot the digital camera at Syd's mom's house, so we bought an overpriced disposable camera. Also bought goggles, new hitai-ate for our cosplays, as I'd forgotten mine and Syd's goggles didn't arrive in the mail. Got a call from Brian saying that packages had arrived; apparently, the overnighted goggles were sent to the wrong place, and the ones we originally ordered finally arrived.
Went to some pub/grill deal with Eggie and her friends, which was rather cool. Some guy asked about our outfits and my makeup, and in hindsight we should've told him that I got the shit kicked out of me. Oh well. On our way back to the con, though, we were stopped by an officer, who told us to empty our pockets. Mind you, Syd was carrying the baton in a pocket and batons are apparently illegal in Texas, so I was all set to go to jail until the cop pulled a small wadded up bit of cash from a pocket and asked who dropped it. Turns out, the pockets in my scrub-ish pants suck and I'd almost lost five bucks. Went back to con with a few years shaved off my life.
Went to opening ceremonies, then went to the concerts. I liked Budo Grape, it was very cheery and uplifting and happy. Forgot to buy their CD, though. Versailles didn't impress me at the time. Way too much distortion, and we'd already been standing in a tight crowd for a long time, so we were ready to leave. Ended up leaving halfway through Versailles (which, in retrospect, we are kicking ourselves for, because had the sound crew been doing their jobs, Versailles would've blown me away. Hizaki is AMAZING with a guitar...). Returned to Eggie's friend's room in the Westin for a while, tried to rest my legs, but eventually we went back to Syd's mom's place. Had blisters all over my legs from the extremely-tight knee-high boots I wore under the pants (they were the only black shoes I had... Syd was wearing the others). I am never wearing those again. Not unless I drop 35 lbs and tone my legs. Holy crap.
SATURDAY
Got up, got ready, went to the con. Wandered around a bit, went to the Naruto photoshoot (again at the Cancer Survivors Plaza...), got some pictures taken of me. Left that early to go to the Guiness book of World Records thing, sat in a pay phone bay with Eggie and some of her friends taking pictures of people as they inched into the Guiness registration room. Eventually the con staff closed registrations because we were completely breaking every fire code in that side of the building, and all video game cosplayers were ushered onto the terrace, where we got some good SquareEnix impromptu photoshoot pictures. Eventually, an overhead picture was taken of the terrace and the official count was made public: 697 video game cosplayers. The previous record was 80, in England. Wow.
Went to the cosplay contest, which I didn't think was all that great, and tried to meet up with friends for the piercing party, except... everyone had other stuff that they needed to do. So everyone left, except us, and we just kinda hung out. We sat in the rave for a while, but we'd forgotten glowsticks, so we didn't really do much. Also, I was afraid to buy a drink and share it with Syd, because con security was rather tight. After a while, though, we bought some Jones sodas and Syd wandered around balancing a bottle, which was kinda cool. So now Syd is Bottle Reno.
SUNDAY
Dealer's room and artist's alley day! Looked at corsets in the dealer's room, wanted to look at kimono but I don't even wear the one I bought last year so I skipped on that. Bought scrolls to hang on the walls, but.... that was about all we really bought, that and a cute shirt. o_o;;. Went to the artist's alley and bought two prints to hang on the walls too, hung out at Cutemew's table for a while, and got lineart portraits done of us. Went to the Plaza of the Americas and went ice skating after our second attempt at the piercing party fell through, had fun with that even though I suck at skating, met up with some goth lolita girls and their friend and sat around in the convention hall talking until security kicked us out. Went back to Syd's mom's house to watch movies and clean up.
MONDAY
Made the drive to Las Cruces, got in kinda late, only to discover that Mom wasn't there. She called me later, saying she was in Carlsbad with her boyfriend. So, with nothing else to do, we got my bike and the mail and drove up to Albuquerque. By the time we arrived in town, I was about dead from driving too much and almost falling asleep at the wheel. Uuugh.
PICTURES TIME
I'm on the very left side, slightly cut-off.
Going for some random Sasuke's eyes weeeeeeeeeeee.
AWWWWWWWWW.
Fantastic Jack Sparrow.
A small sample of the epic Guiness line, with Eggie in the foreground (in blue).
Simply awesome.
Huzzah, Black Mage!
♥
♥♥
An adorable Kairi.
Awwwww.
This guy was badass.
Excellent Rude.
asdf ♥♥
Best Cid I've ever seen.
Badass Altair.
Huzzah, Okami!
I was so happy to see RO cosplayers, though it's been so long since I played that I didn't even recognize the Professor. Buh.
Still awesome, though.
Turks photoshoot.
A small portion of the SquareEnix crowd.
Awesome Lulu.
And the epic hallway jam leaving the terrace after the official picture was taken.
Oh, childhood *_*.
Closeup of my makeup.
Badass.
Insert laz0rs cliche here.
Best Shinku and Jun I've ever seen.
I wish I'd watched more of this series.
Badass wings.
Most natural-looking Ichigo I've ever seen. He was AWESOME.
A very cute Chii.
asdjkfajksfas HOUSE.
I need to finish this series someday.
One of the best Haseo's I've ever seen. His twin blades were amazing.
Bottle Reno!
An adorable Konan.
Shinoooooooo ♥
Such a cute Chibi-Usa.
Huzzah, more KH!
I don't remember where this guy is from, but he was standing in a balcony over the skating rink and dancing while we were skating. It was awesome.
This concludes my con report. I guess I'll wander off and do something else, possibly involving drinking.