Post-Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo update

The CCEE was awesome! I absolutely loved volunteering there. It was nice helping people to have a good time. Not only that, but I saw a lot of my old friends... friends I hadn't seen in years! The CCEE had brought me together with many new and old people.

Me hard at work helping people, lol. My friend Dustin
and his GF Lorraine in the background.

There were a few hiccups with the Expo. We projected high attendance (especially because of the huge names) but nothing like we had received that weekend. It got to the point where admissions couldn't let anyone else into the Expo because they had met (exceeded?) fire code capacity. Because of that, we had a few panicked exhibitors because they couldn't get their help inside of the Expo, and I had a lot of disgruntled friends on Twitter tweeting about long waits and how the Expo sucked. Interestingly, once they got in, their tune completely changed and they loved the Expo.

I found that kind of funny.

It was definitely a learning experience for all of the organizers. I think what this taught us is that geek culture is a lot more popular than we had all imagined. I learned that not from the backed up lines but from the many costumes worn by people of all walks of life, big and small, old and young, male and female. It really made me happy, deep down.

I volunteered both Friday and Saturday, and tried to keep Sunday open to explore the Expo myself. Sometimes life isn't that easy... I ended up coming down with a cold on Saturday night, and decided to sleep in and give myself some time to recover. It was a bummer because I really did want to see some of the panels and meet some people, but that's okay. I got to look around. I didn't even do any shopping, except for a replacement game for my cousin.

I did, however, get to see a lot of wicked costumes from my nice vantage point at the info booth. Here are some of the pictures!

My friend Devon and I. Devon made his own costume: a warrior from the Companions in Skyrim.

Me and Gir! This kid was sooo cute... he would have preferred
to drink his drink than get pictures with me, haha.

Quistis, (Drunk) Squall and I from FF8, in their SeeD outfits!

My friend Brennan as Gordon Freeman from Half Life. <3

My friend Luke and I... Though I can't remember for the life
of me where his costume is from! But he made it too!

My friend Dara in her Demon Hunter costume that she made from
scratch. She won Best Costume in her category! <3

Not only that, but my Chain Chomp earrings were a HUGE success! They turned out incredibly well. To be honest, I was pretty impressed with myself.

Elspeth. <3

Next year, Club N3rd and I are planning to do a group cosplay. 2013 is Year of the Plainswalkers, and I'll be making a Elspeth Tirel costume. I want to get started right away, too, so that there are no hiccups come Expo time.

The hardest part about cosplay, I'm learning, is it's so hard to just choose one costume and run with it... Bleh! I started playing Final Fantasy 13-2 shortly after my Winter semester ended and I am in love with Lightning's new outfit! She's another potential costume. So let's see... that makes:
- Terra Branford from FF6
- Dark Phoenix from MvC3/X-men
- Elspeth Tirel from Magic: The Gathering, and
- Lightning from FF13-2

... @.@

Anyway, that's enough of an update for now. Take care everyone!

Reading break: it's anything but!

Ah reading break... the Canadian equivalent to Spring break, though not set in spring and not nearly as exciting.

A week-long holiday from school with the expectation that students will read and catch up on various assignments.

Haha! Funny.

... As a diligent student, I will be doing at least some reading. I have 2 research papers to complete and a midterm upon coming back. I also have thousands of Magic cards, Final Fantasy 13-2, and Tales of the Abyss for the 3DS that I've been itching to play with. Oh, and of course the commissions on my crafts, hanging out with friends, catching up on sleep, cleaning the house...

Aiya...

This reading break, I plan to do everything above... somehow. I mean... last night, I made one of my commissions (another Nyan Cat perler) and I did 2 loads of laundry today, tidied up a bit, went to the gym, beat a random newb at MTG: Duel of the Plainswalkers for the PS3.. I even made my workout video for editing either later tonight or tomorrow. I'd say I'm well on my way!

Oh PS: I scored large on Valentine's day. Look at what I got!

A whole box of MTG: Dark Ascension boosters. Better than a box of chocolate any day!

Tales of the Abyss for the 3DS from John and the first Sailor Moon manga from my friend Andrea! <3

Tales of the Abyss seems pretty okay so far. Pretty much the same as the PS2 version, only they made the in-game content 3D. I was hoping they could somehow do some of the cut scenes in 3D too, but alas... that's me expecting too much, I suppose. I'll likely give a full-on review sometime in the future.

The Sailor Moon manga is so cute! It's very similar to the episode! I've been reading it on and off while I'm making dinner... thank you again Andrea! <3



I'm probably going to leave FF13-2 wrapped up too, for now. I have the collectors edition (because that's how I roll), and I'm hesitant to break the seal. =(

I like collector's edition everything... no good for a poor student.

Cosplay stuff is slowly being pieced together... I bought some fabric for Terra's costume yesterday. One thing I want to get my hands on is a sewing machine. I need to find someone with one, or think about getting my own. Bleh! Buuut check out what I have so far!

Some of the fabric for around her waist.

Beads for her jewelry!

A couple bracelets I bought at a thrift store. I might use the gold one for her hair... haven't decided yet.

 

Her cape! This fabric is perfect for it!

I think the biggest trick will be finding the fabric for her dress and gloves. I was hoping to find fabric with a flower design on it, but it's proving to be difficult. I even had a dream about how I might have to paint the design on myself with fabric paint... :o

Also, I got a text  earlier today from a friend saying he got all his Warhammer 40k stuff from his old place. Looks like I get to learn that this Tuesday! I'll tell you how it goes... I'm really excited!

Not much else to report. I'm pretty excited about the time off, but with all these engagements... I doubt it'll be very restful. =P

Any Canadian readers in the house? If you're on Reading break, how are you gunna spend it? What are your thoughts on 40k? M:tG? FF13-2? I need to prioritize my week! =P

I miss Skyrim... QQ

I set the backlighting to red when it's Dragon Killing Time.
You don't need to tell me how awesome I am. I know.

So it's week 2 into the semester and I started to miss my beloved Skyrim before I even went back to school. I knew it would turn out like this... and I know, in my heart, it's for the best that I'm not playing Skyrim while in school, but my heart aches for it.

It's really awkward.

It's not that I have an addiction to it or anything. Actually, I don't get really 'addicted' to video games. It shows in the fact that I don't think about playing while at home, alone, studying. But I just feel that during those 3 weeks of my break, we built something special between us, my character and I. We killed so many dragons together. The last battle we had before school was that I killed 2 giants and a mammoth, single-handedly...

I was level 31.

*Sigh*

At least at school I get some geeking in. I'm meeting with some friends later to play MTG (Magic: The Gathering) and I bring my 3DS to school and chip away at LoZ: Ocarina of Time. I'm more excited about StreetPass and collecting puzzle pieces and doing that little adventure game, Find Mii. Simple pleasures... simple pleasures. =P

And in my defense, it's a quick fix before getting back to business. Nya!

<3