FSC con report...now with photos of some fierce bitches!
So as I mentioned before, FSC was totally awesome! Here's a little pros/cons breakdown (much like everyone did post-Jacon).
Pros:
- swanky hotel, cheap room rates (our 3-room bathroom had a see-through wall to the toilet room!)
- great guests (Jem's VA, Harry Potter folks, yummy J-Rock guy from CA, etc)
- lots of friends came....much retardation ensued
- 3 birthdays were celebrated in our room throughout the weekend!
- nice dealer's room and I got to practice my Nihongo with one of the girls working a booth
- AWESOME prejudging for the costume contest (although at 9 AM)...I had seams turned, questions asked about my props, even if I had entered the costume at Megacon
- very high level of costuming represented...the bar is set high now for SoFla
- all the award winners duly deserved their awards
Cons:
- parking at the hotel was fucking horrendous
- lame-o hotel blocking off the hallway that connected the convention area to the main lobby/pool area. Made it hard to get to the pool for events...we were forced to walk outside in the 90+ degree heat and humidity for a LONG ways to get over there.
- fucking 5 AM fire alarm being pulled...probably by some underage Narutard. I thought my head was going to explode from the shrill noise.
- getting attitude/poor service from hotel staff while in costume (not me, but others with me tried to get a drink at the bar and were very obviously ignored, also being laughed at when asking if our building did need to evacuate during the aforementioned fire alarm)
- FL cons need to get it through their thick heads that costume contest participants NEED TO BE LINED UP IN A FUCKING GREENROOM BEFORE THE CONTEST!!!!! We were along a hallway, blocking traffic, and were yelled at consistently by the "security" people for merely standing against the wall. Honestly, well-run costume contests put the entrants in a greenroom before the contest...where they can sit down, get a drink of water, fix something on their costume if necessary, etc. THIS IS NOT FUCKING ROCKET SURGERY.
- shitty microphones available for use by cosplay contest entrants....I didn't even think it was on for 3/4 of my song, nor could we understand anything being said into it by the judges, even though we were 10 feet away
- I didn't get to make any beautiful half-Japanese babies with the aforementioned J-Rock guest T_T
Even though there was a bunch of crappy mostly hotel-related stuff, the con as a whole was really great. Bri's boyfriend John pwned Rock Band and got mad props from Master Shake (Dana Snyder)...including the comment that led to "John causes chafing!" I got to meet the voice of Jem, who stopped in midsentence when I walked into the room to make a comment on my costume. Also fangirled HARD over Tadahisa Yoshida (the J-Rock guest) and spoke some Nihongo with Peelander-Z-tachi. Dominique also got propositioned by Peelander Yellow, LOL! Highlight of Saturday was being asked by some of the celeb guests (Samantha Newark, Brian fucking O'Halloran!) for our photo in costume!!
The costume contest was really amazing...I like the new format and that it was at night. I'm still reeling from taking Best In Show....I was convinced that Dominique was going to get it for her amazing Amano Rosa with all that hand-beading! I said to Chiefy and Bri before they announced it: "Well there's no way it's me, and if it is I'll crap my pantsu." You know that moment when you can't believe someone said something, but then you realize they did? That totally happened to me in the audience. Then I did the pageant hand-flutter-over-the-mouth squeal and ran back up to the stage. I honestly couldn't tell you what happened when I was up there, but I was shaking SO bad and starting to cry. I could barely hold the trophy, let alone figure out what other swag they had given me. After it was over I was all weepy and telling Yaya that this was my first BoS (which surprised her). I had a great nighttime photoshoot with Nicole too, so I finally have some pics of the finished Seras costume.
Cosplay contest on Sunday was all right....mostly lost my voice during the weekend, so I have a feeling I was all cracky and sounding like poo, but someone must've liked it since I ended up with "Best Individual - Drama." I was a little bummed since I didn't get to hang with people as much on Sunday, although I did run into the guy who cuts my fabric at Joann's...dressed in an adorable frilly pink loli dress and bonnet! But all was well when we went for sushi post-con, then I jumped back in Kuruma Ebi (my car's name) to come back to Miami.
Celebrating Bri's birthday!
Me with hottie J-Rocker Tadahisa Yoshida!! (Thanks to Nicole for the pic!)
Me with the voice of Jem, Samantha Newark!
All the awards won by Team Awesome peeps in the room! DAAAMN!!
Pros:
- swanky hotel, cheap room rates (our 3-room bathroom had a see-through wall to the toilet room!)
- great guests (Jem's VA, Harry Potter folks, yummy J-Rock guy from CA, etc)
- lots of friends came....much retardation ensued
- 3 birthdays were celebrated in our room throughout the weekend!
- nice dealer's room and I got to practice my Nihongo with one of the girls working a booth
- AWESOME prejudging for the costume contest (although at 9 AM)...I had seams turned, questions asked about my props, even if I had entered the costume at Megacon
- very high level of costuming represented...the bar is set high now for SoFla
- all the award winners duly deserved their awards
Cons:
- parking at the hotel was fucking horrendous
- lame-o hotel blocking off the hallway that connected the convention area to the main lobby/pool area. Made it hard to get to the pool for events...we were forced to walk outside in the 90+ degree heat and humidity for a LONG ways to get over there.
- fucking 5 AM fire alarm being pulled...probably by some underage Narutard. I thought my head was going to explode from the shrill noise.
- getting attitude/poor service from hotel staff while in costume (not me, but others with me tried to get a drink at the bar and were very obviously ignored, also being laughed at when asking if our building did need to evacuate during the aforementioned fire alarm)
- FL cons need to get it through their thick heads that costume contest participants NEED TO BE LINED UP IN A FUCKING GREENROOM BEFORE THE CONTEST!!!!! We were along a hallway, blocking traffic, and were yelled at consistently by the "security" people for merely standing against the wall. Honestly, well-run costume contests put the entrants in a greenroom before the contest...where they can sit down, get a drink of water, fix something on their costume if necessary, etc. THIS IS NOT FUCKING ROCKET SURGERY.
- shitty microphones available for use by cosplay contest entrants....I didn't even think it was on for 3/4 of my song, nor could we understand anything being said into it by the judges, even though we were 10 feet away
- I didn't get to make any beautiful half-Japanese babies with the aforementioned J-Rock guest T_T
Even though there was a bunch of crappy mostly hotel-related stuff, the con as a whole was really great. Bri's boyfriend John pwned Rock Band and got mad props from Master Shake (Dana Snyder)...including the comment that led to "John causes chafing!" I got to meet the voice of Jem, who stopped in midsentence when I walked into the room to make a comment on my costume. Also fangirled HARD over Tadahisa Yoshida (the J-Rock guest) and spoke some Nihongo with Peelander-Z-tachi. Dominique also got propositioned by Peelander Yellow, LOL! Highlight of Saturday was being asked by some of the celeb guests (Samantha Newark, Brian fucking O'Halloran!) for our photo in costume!!
The costume contest was really amazing...I like the new format and that it was at night. I'm still reeling from taking Best In Show....I was convinced that Dominique was going to get it for her amazing Amano Rosa with all that hand-beading! I said to Chiefy and Bri before they announced it: "Well there's no way it's me, and if it is I'll crap my pantsu." You know that moment when you can't believe someone said something, but then you realize they did? That totally happened to me in the audience. Then I did the pageant hand-flutter-over-the-mouth squeal and ran back up to the stage. I honestly couldn't tell you what happened when I was up there, but I was shaking SO bad and starting to cry. I could barely hold the trophy, let alone figure out what other swag they had given me. After it was over I was all weepy and telling Yaya that this was my first BoS (which surprised her). I had a great nighttime photoshoot with Nicole too, so I finally have some pics of the finished Seras costume.
Cosplay contest on Sunday was all right....mostly lost my voice during the weekend, so I have a feeling I was all cracky and sounding like poo, but someone must've liked it since I ended up with "Best Individual - Drama." I was a little bummed since I didn't get to hang with people as much on Sunday, although I did run into the guy who cuts my fabric at Joann's...dressed in an adorable frilly pink loli dress and bonnet! But all was well when we went for sushi post-con, then I jumped back in Kuruma Ebi (my car's name) to come back to Miami.
Celebrating Bri's birthday!
Me with hottie J-Rocker Tadahisa Yoshida!! (Thanks to Nicole for the pic!)
Me with the voice of Jem, Samantha Newark!
All the awards won by Team Awesome peeps in the room! DAAAMN!!