In which the Otakuthon took place

Please feel free to (finally) have a look at my cosplay. Here is the completed result. The photos are scanned, though, so forgive the poor quality of them. The second photo was taken from above, so the angle is a little odd... But I am glad at how it turned out!



Anyways, on with the post...

For one glorious weekend, I was back among the living. No work. No stress. Just some great fun with even greater friends.

I attended the Otakuthon, a Quebec anime convention that takes place in Montreal. Considering how insignificant the convention was a few years back, it has much improved, featuring stars of anime like the Full Metal Alchemist voice actors and the master cosplayers Sarcasm Hime and Lillyxandra.

My cosplay turned out AMAZING! For those who do not yet know, I was cosplaying the Archangel Gabriel (aka Jibril) from the manga Angel Sanctuary. The specific costume I made was actually from the second Artbook by Kaori Yuki (the mangaka mastermind behind Angel Sanctuary), called Lost Angel. Despite all my complaining and my near depression with the difficult progress of the costume, I am really happy at how it turned out! I only finished it at 4 a.m. on the Saturday, just before the convention. With bags under my eyes, but a smile, I went to the convention with a happy strut.

Quick details about my costume. It was hard to make. First of all, because my job is eating up so much of my time and I do not feel like doing anything when I get home. But it was also difficult because I had one single picture as a reference and no proper pattern to work with. I did buy a commercial pattern, because the waist of the dress seemed to suit my cosplay, but, upon further observation, I noticed that the dress pattern was entirely wrong for my purposes. I had to ditch the skirt of it and use a skirt pattern from something completely different and I also had to change some seams around to have the zipper on the side instead of in the back, not to mention all the tweaking and shortening that was done to the waist bit. Then came the really hard part. Improv. I had no pattern for either sleeve, so I just measured my arms, cut some fabric, and improvised. I sewed my left sleeve a grand total of four times before succeeding. The hood and the neck corset nearly gave me an ulcer from all the work it took. I basically did my own pattern drafting for these pieces... except without a drafted pattern. I should buy pattern paper, because improvising on your fabric can be stressful when you only have limited amounts of it. I then used a pattern for the bum-roll and completely improvised the tulle petticoat.

There are a few things I want to change about my design, but I believe I can make all those changes for Anime North and maybe absolutely rock the house there. I am even considering entering the masquerade (the costume contest of the convention) at Anime North if I manage to bring this costume up to scratch (amongst other things, I should really think of adding the wings). One thing I know for sure is that I am never using such ichy fabric again!! The main part of the dress was fine, that was not the ichy part. It was the neck corset and my left sleeve... they were made of a sheer, tulle-like fabric that iched like chicken-pox! It was driving me NUTS during the whole convention!!

I also have to give great credit to my roommate, Vanessa, who handcrafted my head jewel and the jewel on the neckpiece. She also did my make-up, as my make-up talents are very limited and the flowers on the original drawing were very intricate.

It made me deliriously happy to see my friends at the convention. We went to loads of events and had a lot of fun. I even made new friends, which was great!! And many, MANY people took pictures of me wherever I went. This has never happened to me before, but I really enjoyed it! I think about 100 random people must have asked for my picture! AWESOME! Not too bad for a first convention cosplay, eh?

My main joy to the Otakuthon, though, was a major fangirl moment, when I met Lillyxandra face-to-face. I had been following that amazing woman's website for ages, ever since I discovered her on cosplay.com (which must have been about two years ago, now). She is one of my very favourite cosplayers! She does many original designs and absolutely gorgeous fairy costumes! Her work is jaw-dropping and stunning! I got a hug from her, which made me very happy! I am also the proud owner of her autograph. The best part, though, was when Lillyxandra actually complimented me about my costume. She loved the paint-job I did on the bra and the way I had made the costume. She thought it was well made and said that she loved that outfit from the artbook and had considered making it for herself too. It made me very happy and I had a major squee moment. Then we talked for a long time. She was there on both the Saturday and the Sunday, dressed as Queen Serenity on the Saturday, and as her own Fairy Design on the Sunday. I hope to be as gifted as she is with costumes someday!

I also met Sarcasm Hime!! (She is another of my favourite cosplayer, by the way.) However, she had to run, as she was on the judging pannel for the masquerade. But she suggested I contact her by email! She was so nice!

The one really disappointing thing about the convention happened at the very end of it. A disappointing moment aside from the moment of shock when a picture of Michael's ex stared up at me from the photography booth....
Anyways, I decided, after a long debate with myself, to purchase the complete first season DVD box set of Full Metal Alchemist. It is my absolute favourite series, it was at a reasonable price and I had wanted it forever, so it was money well spent, I think. And besides, it was my only purchase during the entire convention (except for a 10$ photoshoot).
Unfortunately for me, I put it in the only bag I had brought to the convention with me. When the time came to leave, I rummaged through the bag in order to find my metro pass. In order to make the search easier, I took out the DVDs. However, I have several friends as witnesses who SWEAR they saw me put the box set back into my bag. So how did it manage to disappear after that? Did I lose it? Was it stolen? I have already shed some tears over the lost DVDs and I am super angry at myself, because I usually never forget this kind of stuff. It is really frustrating for me, because I was really happy about it and looking forward to it until it vanished. And I have no idea what happened either! No recollection of anything. It did not turn up in the lost and found and I searched the premises of the convention myself for it. Zilch. It really ruined what would otherwise have been a great evening. I am really disappointed, both in myself and in the situation. And to put a damper on things (no pun intended), it started pouring rain when I came home, so I got drenched... in costume!

Anyways, I think that is enough updates for today. I will update again soon. I am sorry my writing is not of its usual quality, but I am super tired. I will now turn in for a good night's sleep. Please pray with me, though, that some honest soul has found and will return my DVDs...

P.S. But the Otakuthon was still absolutely awesome! So many pretty cosplays! Wish I had had a camera (which, unfortunately, I did not! *pout*)

In which a wormhole has appeared

I have come to the conclusion that there is a wormhole in my bedroom. Precisely, it is an invisible, perfectly unnoticeable, ten square inch little portal to a parallel universe. I have also concluded that said wormhole is precisely five inches away from my bed, right beside my bedside table.

Now, you may want to ask: "how does one discover a portal into alternate universes when it is invisible and hidden in such an inconspicuous location?" I shall tell you... I am brilliant! That is why. No, in all seriousness (or as serious as this post can be... which is not very...), here is the story.

Last night, I was reading that wonderful book I had mentioned to you before; the wittily written one about writing fantasy. There was even a draft for a story I am writing concealed within the pages of the book. After reading it last night, I made the gargantuan mistake of putting the book down by my bedside and, in doing so, placing it exactly (however inadvertently) into the wormhole! Indeed, by morning, the book and my draft were absolutely nowhere to be found! Even when I came back from work, I searched again... still no sign of any book!

Now, I know that some people (like mum) would argue that it is not surprising that I lose things in my room because "it is so messy!" Well, let me tell you that, despite the rest of my room being messy, my bedside is always kept well organized, because that is where I leave the precious books I read as well as my computer. And I SWEAR that is where I put my book down last night (where I always put my books).

Nonetheless, I ransacked my bedside area as well as the rest of my chaotic bedroom, sadly to no avail. The book just refused to be found. Thus, I concluded that a wormhole must have formed overnight...

My suspicions about the wormhole were confirmed a few minutes later, when I dropped an object at my bedside and was unable to find it. And I bent down to pick it up immediately after it fell, so unless inanimate objects have developed the ability to grow legs or the ability to travel at extremely high speeds, there is not way it could have just vanished... except for the wormhole theory. I wonder where the things that fall into the wormhole go? A parallel universe? Or maybe just the good old anime hammer-space? Anyways, I hope to see my lost items again soon, and I will be sure to avoid the wormhole (or I might just jump right into it... I am still debating on what I ought to do...)

In other news, the CBC television came by at work today. With cameras! Check your national news channels tonight, I just might be on TV. However, I am just in the very far background, working at my counter. Thank God for that, really, because it is not for any good news that the CBC showed up. It turns out that there is a video on youtube where a young agent let veiled women (wearing a chador) board the flight without asking them to remove their veils. This has sparked many outrageous headlines about how Air Canada has embarrassed themselves with lax security measures. It has caused quite the uproar. I do not see why... The women were from Saudi Arabia, where it is quite legal to have a passport photo WITH VEIL in your passeport. So whether you remove it or not in front of the agent makes no difference, because you are wearing a veil on your photo. On top of that, the agents that were on the scene said that they were transparent veils, so asking to remove them would have been rather pointless. Also, there are so many security checks throughout the airport that, by the time someone gets to boarding, they have been inspected enough to confirm their identity. I feel bad for the agent. I know her and she is a temp, like myself...

The poor agent was being filmed by a passenger without her knowledge of it and he subsequently posted the video on youtube. That passenger completely disregarding common decency and respect and I do believe that he must have violated some human rights somewhere, because the agent never agreed to being filmed! And how in the world was he allowed to film in there? To be fair, with all the cellphones with cameras and iPods that can take videos, it is hard to tell nowadays whether someone is filming something... But, if it is illegal to take photos inside a department store because it is deemed a security breach, then how can someone be allowed to FILM in an area like the airport?? I think this passenger should be sanctionned! And severely! But no one on the news sees the passenger as the wrongdoer. But obviously his flight landed without a hitch, if he was able to post the offensive video on youtube! Here is the video, just by the way... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAB1GffSSZc

Now that you have watched the video, I hope you understand why I take offense. Clearly, this was all filmed for one sole purpose... Muslim Bashing! The jerk who took this clearly disliked muslims! No... the woman did not go through unchecked! She got checked at at least two security points before! Also, it is common practice that only one person hands in all the passports when a family or group of friends are traveling together. But nobody ever complains if they are not muslim... And have you seen how this is filmed? And the offensive written comments? I mean, it is done on purpose to make us look bad. You cannot even see below the people's faces. So maybe they did hand in their passports individually after all! The insufficient moron who posted this just really disliked muslims and found a new way to slander their religion... as well as breach human rights by illegally filming someone and bashing our airline to boot! What a complete *@&$%!##!! There. I said it. You take a guess at what that word was.
Anyways, what that guy posted on youtube is much, much worse than those kids who would post videos of their profs on youtube when their profs knew nothing about it (which is also a horrible practice!). But the posting of teachers on duty on facebook is much more frowned upon than this horrid video! It makes me really, bloody, freakin' ANGRY!

Oh, and for all my readers who are not my beloved Michael, I am aware that my previous post was super mushy lovey-dovey. But that is just the way I am and just how much I love Michael. So just deal with the mushy!! XD

Oh, and before I go, I found an interesting intrigue at the airport today. Two weeks ago, a goth couple on the bus grossed me out particularly. They had arrived on a flight from Paris and were both from France. They were gross because they were kissing in a most un-sexy way: tongue out and ready to swallow each other's mouths long before they were actually in reach of one another! Anyways, the goth girl from that couple, who I would recognize anywhere because she wore the ugliest nose-ring I had ever seen (and she was also uber-tall, toothpick thin and spoke in the snooty French accent and wore the same red-leopard print purse) was at the airport again. With another guy. And they were kissing in the same disgusting way!! And I can guarantee it was another guy because this one was uglier than the first!! What interesting (???) intrigue! lol

Anyways... that is all for today. Hope it makes up for last night's post, lol!

This pisses me off so much, I HAD to post it...

So, turns out the USA bred a stupid bitch called Anne Coulter, who came to make some hate speeches in Canada. She states that she's in the right to do so and that Canadians are unintelligent for not appreciating her...
It's people like Anne Coulter that cause so many smart American students to study elsewhere because she's such a bleeding c*nt!! (sorry for the rudeness!)

Here's an article about her latest speech...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-rowe/sorry-ann-coulter-canadas_b_513865.html

Please read it. And then compare to what the complete twat had to say. I cannot tell you how offended I am that someone as ignorant as her DARES to insult the intelligence of Canadian university students (saying our IQ is 0 and such...)... http://www.anncoulter.com/

Thank goodness she didn't come to McGill, or even I would have found the time to stop working on essays and join the "riot"! Hell, I would have lain down in front of her car if it stopped her reaching the campus - I don't want her to befoul the soil of my dearly beloved school... Unfortunately, she has already tainted the country with the dirty soles of her expensive shoes, earned by promoting hatred...

Sigh. Okay. Rant done. I. Hate. Her. I hope she gets put away and confined to the USA.