Anime North 2013!!!
So I went to Anime North last weekend!! It was a lot of fun!! Although, there wasn't as much good panels I wanted to go see, or other stuff, I did find things to do and had a really great time!
Rachelle went up to Toronto early, and had B and mine registration confirmations, so she picked up our badges on Thursday so we didn't have to wait in line! Which was really awesome of her. Thursday night, I got home from work, dragged B to the grocery store to pick up some snack things before finishing packing.
B woke me up bright and early Friday morning, about 8:15, and I rushed to get my CPAP and things packed. We got ourselves out the door at 10:00!! We had a good drive, not too much traffic, saw a cosplayer at one of the rest stops. She was sooooooooo cute!!! I saw her later at AN, but didn't want to see like a stalker.
We got into the hotel after taking the wrong exit (woops), but I followed the signs to the TCC and after getting my bearings, found our way to the hotel. Even though I forgot the instructions at home. Woops. I also forgot my make-up remover at home. The only two things I forgot. Oh well. I made do without, and some of my skin as broken out, but not too badly.
Got checked in and started getting into costume. Met up with Rachelle and Dave to get our badges and figure out what we'll do. We went to see the 404s improv act, and then went into artist alley. I bought a beautiful lace cuff for my costume. We also went into the dealers room and Dave got me GUNDAMS!!!! and MANGA!!!!!!! This weekend, I got the rest of Banana Fish, two volumes of Spiral, and seven volumes of Nabari no Ou. Eight of those I bought myself. I've already finished the seven volumes of Banana Fish and built the small $10 1/144 Wing Gundam (so cute!).
We met up with more friends from Waterloo, and decided to go for dinner. Not a very easy thing to do. There were hour long waits every where around the con. So we decided to go to this dinner a little drive away. It was really good! I had an omelet and it was so big I saved half of it for Saturday breakfast. (I had a fridge and microwave in my room) I got some milk to go and was all set.
Saturday morning, we went to the Marvel vs DC cosplay chess game. It was soooooo much fun!!! And then they said that Sundays game was first-come, first-play, B and I both said "I'm in".
Dave and I tried to get into the Gundam panel, but traffic in the Doubletree was congested. So I took a look at the schedule, and noticed that in a bit A Certain Magical Index was playing downstairs, and A Certain Scientific Railgun after. I suggested that we go down and watch anime, cause yeah, crowds of people? no. We got down there and watched a bit of the anime playing before, which was interesting. Dave ran out and grabbed us pizza and coke from the nearby stall, and that was our lunch/dinner. B texted us to say he was going off to do his own thing for a bit.
So yeah, watched anime for five hours straight. I really like Magical Index, I want to see the rest of it. Talking to others, I'm told that I'd like The Devil is a Part Timer (right title?). Definitely will check out, especially since the seasons over here are over. Catch up on anime time!!!
We went to Milestones for dinner, since it was the only place without a line out the door. As we were waiting to be seated, a family with a kids came in, and the kids semi-swarmed me, asking questions like "could I fly?" and was I like Tinkerbell and such. Very cute.
We had a delicious meal there, and then made our way back to the car. B had tried walking back to the hotel, but had missed the turn, so we had to go rescue him. But we basically went to bed from there.
Sunday, I got up early so I could pack up and get my make up on. I was checked out by 10, and we got into the TCC a little after that. We wandered the Artist Alley for a bit until they let us in to sign up for the cosplay chess. I don't know chess, so when they asked me which position I wanted to be, I said "whatever", which means I was a pawn. It was a loooooong game, where I basically stood there for a long time. But it was fun! I danced in spot to the music, chatted with the other players near me. A lot of them kept very in character. Me, I designed my character to be ME, and I had juice that morning....
Eventually, I was killed by a really scary looking character. Since it was "battle chess", I had first attack. I waved my flower fairy wand at him with "Flower Power!" When it didn't do anything, I backed away all scared like. I meant to stop at my start position, and wait for him to attack me, so I could fall into a "dead" pose, but I kinda went over the line of the board. And my opponent was like "Come back here so I can rip off your wings!" and an already-dead player from my side said to run to Panda (the one actually playing the game). So I played up really scared, and ran to Panda, who gave me a hug. Then I got my button for playing.
I actually lost my button later, but Dave gave me his. I feel sad though, cause you only get those buttons through cosplay chess.
Anyways, I stayed to watch the rest of the game, which ended most entertainingly with a king vs king battle, cause Panda wanted one. And then the rest of the players all turned on Panda. See, the game is mostly for show and entertainment, so it can be rather aggressive at times, and then the rules being bent all weird at the end. I dunno, that's what I gather from chess players in the audience, cause I don't know the rules of chess! But it's a lot of fun! I want to play again!!
After that... hmmm.... what did we do? Oh, we went to the Masquerade judging simulation. While not exactly what we expected (We were thinking masquerade simulation in general), it was interesting to learn about the process and about the International Costuming Guild. And we got DVDs with videos of their Costume Con. Next year April they have one in Toronto. It looks interesting...
From there, we headed back to the TCC, to do final pickings in the dealers room. I got pulled in by a photo booth and paid $40 for a DVD with 10 pictures of me. While my stockings are falling down (I almost requested that they redo the shots... ) and the lightening is too bright (I think) to see the wings very good (all you see is the veins), I like the HD quality of images. It's been hard on my esteem every year to try and find and/or take good shots of myself in costume.
Then I bought my manga, just as the con was closing down. So when I discovered I was missing volumes, I couldn't go back in to get the rest. I had to go home, and I've ordered the missing volumes on Amazon.ca. But we had ourselves dinner at Kelsey's, and then drove home. I was a good drive, although I really want to play more cosplay chess!!
Aaaaah, it seems like we didn't do much, but we had a good time. Maybe we're getting older, but we were wiser and knew what we wanted to see and what we didn't, and took care of ourselves. I'm just kinda disappointed, cause I had to FIND things I wanted to see this year. Also, I bought all this snack food that we didn't EAT!!! Oh well, I can take it for lunches at work.
Oh, and pictures of my costume!!!!
And that's my Anime North!!! Still trying to track down the images from cosplay chess!! I know there were official photographers at both the games, taking pictures of the crowds and the players, as well as general audience people. Not too many people posting stuff online, it seems....
Rachelle went up to Toronto early, and had B and mine registration confirmations, so she picked up our badges on Thursday so we didn't have to wait in line! Which was really awesome of her. Thursday night, I got home from work, dragged B to the grocery store to pick up some snack things before finishing packing.
B woke me up bright and early Friday morning, about 8:15, and I rushed to get my CPAP and things packed. We got ourselves out the door at 10:00!! We had a good drive, not too much traffic, saw a cosplayer at one of the rest stops. She was sooooooooo cute!!! I saw her later at AN, but didn't want to see like a stalker.
We got into the hotel after taking the wrong exit (woops), but I followed the signs to the TCC and after getting my bearings, found our way to the hotel. Even though I forgot the instructions at home. Woops. I also forgot my make-up remover at home. The only two things I forgot. Oh well. I made do without, and some of my skin as broken out, but not too badly.
Got checked in and started getting into costume. Met up with Rachelle and Dave to get our badges and figure out what we'll do. We went to see the 404s improv act, and then went into artist alley. I bought a beautiful lace cuff for my costume. We also went into the dealers room and Dave got me GUNDAMS!!!! and MANGA!!!!!!! This weekend, I got the rest of Banana Fish, two volumes of Spiral, and seven volumes of Nabari no Ou. Eight of those I bought myself. I've already finished the seven volumes of Banana Fish and built the small $10 1/144 Wing Gundam (so cute!).
We met up with more friends from Waterloo, and decided to go for dinner. Not a very easy thing to do. There were hour long waits every where around the con. So we decided to go to this dinner a little drive away. It was really good! I had an omelet and it was so big I saved half of it for Saturday breakfast. (I had a fridge and microwave in my room) I got some milk to go and was all set.
Saturday morning, we went to the Marvel vs DC cosplay chess game. It was soooooo much fun!!! And then they said that Sundays game was first-come, first-play, B and I both said "I'm in".
Dave and I tried to get into the Gundam panel, but traffic in the Doubletree was congested. So I took a look at the schedule, and noticed that in a bit A Certain Magical Index was playing downstairs, and A Certain Scientific Railgun after. I suggested that we go down and watch anime, cause yeah, crowds of people? no. We got down there and watched a bit of the anime playing before, which was interesting. Dave ran out and grabbed us pizza and coke from the nearby stall, and that was our lunch/dinner. B texted us to say he was going off to do his own thing for a bit.
So yeah, watched anime for five hours straight. I really like Magical Index, I want to see the rest of it. Talking to others, I'm told that I'd like The Devil is a Part Timer (right title?). Definitely will check out, especially since the seasons over here are over. Catch up on anime time!!!
We went to Milestones for dinner, since it was the only place without a line out the door. As we were waiting to be seated, a family with a kids came in, and the kids semi-swarmed me, asking questions like "could I fly?" and was I like Tinkerbell and such. Very cute.
We had a delicious meal there, and then made our way back to the car. B had tried walking back to the hotel, but had missed the turn, so we had to go rescue him. But we basically went to bed from there.
Sunday, I got up early so I could pack up and get my make up on. I was checked out by 10, and we got into the TCC a little after that. We wandered the Artist Alley for a bit until they let us in to sign up for the cosplay chess. I don't know chess, so when they asked me which position I wanted to be, I said "whatever", which means I was a pawn. It was a loooooong game, where I basically stood there for a long time. But it was fun! I danced in spot to the music, chatted with the other players near me. A lot of them kept very in character. Me, I designed my character to be ME, and I had juice that morning....
Eventually, I was killed by a really scary looking character. Since it was "battle chess", I had first attack. I waved my flower fairy wand at him with "Flower Power!" When it didn't do anything, I backed away all scared like. I meant to stop at my start position, and wait for him to attack me, so I could fall into a "dead" pose, but I kinda went over the line of the board. And my opponent was like "Come back here so I can rip off your wings!" and an already-dead player from my side said to run to Panda (the one actually playing the game). So I played up really scared, and ran to Panda, who gave me a hug. Then I got my button for playing.
I actually lost my button later, but Dave gave me his. I feel sad though, cause you only get those buttons through cosplay chess.
Anyways, I stayed to watch the rest of the game, which ended most entertainingly with a king vs king battle, cause Panda wanted one. And then the rest of the players all turned on Panda. See, the game is mostly for show and entertainment, so it can be rather aggressive at times, and then the rules being bent all weird at the end. I dunno, that's what I gather from chess players in the audience, cause I don't know the rules of chess! But it's a lot of fun! I want to play again!!
After that... hmmm.... what did we do? Oh, we went to the Masquerade judging simulation. While not exactly what we expected (We were thinking masquerade simulation in general), it was interesting to learn about the process and about the International Costuming Guild. And we got DVDs with videos of their Costume Con. Next year April they have one in Toronto. It looks interesting...
From there, we headed back to the TCC, to do final pickings in the dealers room. I got pulled in by a photo booth and paid $40 for a DVD with 10 pictures of me. While my stockings are falling down (I almost requested that they redo the shots... ) and the lightening is too bright (I think) to see the wings very good (all you see is the veins), I like the HD quality of images. It's been hard on my esteem every year to try and find and/or take good shots of myself in costume.
Then I bought my manga, just as the con was closing down. So when I discovered I was missing volumes, I couldn't go back in to get the rest. I had to go home, and I've ordered the missing volumes on Amazon.ca. But we had ourselves dinner at Kelsey's, and then drove home. I was a good drive, although I really want to play more cosplay chess!!
Aaaaah, it seems like we didn't do much, but we had a good time. Maybe we're getting older, but we were wiser and knew what we wanted to see and what we didn't, and took care of ourselves. I'm just kinda disappointed, cause I had to FIND things I wanted to see this year. Also, I bought all this snack food that we didn't EAT!!! Oh well, I can take it for lunches at work.
Oh, and pictures of my costume!!!!
And that's my Anime North!!! Still trying to track down the images from cosplay chess!! I know there were official photographers at both the games, taking pictures of the crowds and the players, as well as general audience people. Not too many people posting stuff online, it seems....