Convention taime! - Animania

Ok so - I am so super duper sorry that I happen to be a lazy motha, I really am, its only going to get worse because Post-grad uni work starts NEXT WEEK, I'm going to die I'm going to be a little busy.

Are you sufficiently jealous sick satisfied with my revels in Filo-land? I'm not.  

You cannot Imagine the 'homesickness' I feel for the Philippines.  There have been genuine tears of nostalgia.  And waking up wishing Little A was sleeping next to me.  And the puppy and the sunshine and the noise and the pollution and the mayhem and the food and family.

Ugh.

Aaanyway.  I went to a convention.

Behold!!!

After getting back from Manila I went to into a flurry explosion of craftingness and made decorative antlers and headbands to wear for my new collection of products to sell at the T'EMPorium. 

I made a set a day and managed to make a relatively decent haul – at least to cover costs and make a bit of profit, which, yay! I did.

Sold!

Sold!

I was super duper happy to be seated next to Nekochii, The Geeky Bee and Curious Empire, K, A, J and I split our time between chomping down on lots of chocolate, watching J power through a level 80 sandwich and eventually got bored and started scrapbooking by the last day.  Also - Nekochii's J was also AMAZING and collabed with me by making adorable soft cuddly deer ears that accompanied my antler pieces!!!

slide on ears!

Also – I had the flu.  Fun times.  I caught up with K on the set-up day before the con and he got to behold me degenerate into this (again):

It was acceptable at the time...

Our conversations revolved mostly around watching Rambo, zombies, Abraham Lincoln (I guess cause of the vampire hunting movie? I don’t remember) and my obsessive lust for frozen yoghurt, which he kindly took me to buy after we finished setting up.  When not chatting I was wobbly-ly singing Maniac in order to not collapse in a fevered heap.

I lost my voice! I had watery eyes! made worse by coloured contact lenses.  I swear that was an exercise in futility.  The contact lenses were 'Aqua', and they did not make even so much make a smidge of difference on my eyes.  HOW THE HELL?!?!?!? AQUA IS AN ENTIRELY WEIRD COLOUR FOR SOMEONE WHO HAS BROWN-ISH EYES!!!!

Day two got my Orchid Purple lenses which sort of scare me.  They look like circle lenses and you can still see the brown underneath. 

Seriously, how do them gyarus and ganguros do it?

Aaanyhoo. It was pretty fun playing dress up, and I got to really take good advantage of my Illamasqua stash to make some interesting looks.  However, I will say this – False Lashes are the Enemy.  I really wanted to take a chance on them since they just look oh-so-pretty on other people but damnit, they are stubborn little shitty thingimabobs and will always, ALWAYS find a way to somehow curl in and poke me in the eyeball.  They ended up making a huge mess and I had to peel them off before the day was done. 

More importantly, I managed to set up my table, the format was the same as last year.  I was sat next to my good old buddies but I must say, my neighbours on the other side of me were a somewhat unfortunate (or not? see further) choice. 

Three tables worth of Manga art books and Llama plushies are certainly harmless, and the Llama plushies are a sure fire heart warmer for the likes of me, but what really got me were the body size love pillow-cases hanging on the walls of their booth, one was almost infringing onto my wall.  All naughty bits were covered by bright neon yellow post-it notes.  You know, for modesty.

oh the sexy (little girls)....

While I would have laughed and made 4chan jokes in my earlier years, I barely batted an eyelid (not just because it was glued open by lash-glue).  I am no stranger to giant, bouncy, bulbous, glowy…vegetables.  I am also not bothered by boobs. Love pillows are not that alien to me and hell, there have been times when we (I do mean collectively, my friends and I) have pitched in to buy a friend a pillow case in order to reinforce the joke that the receiver is most likely some sort of sad-sack.  I would give a few more choice descriptions, but the internet fills that insult void better than I do.

What did bother me was the somewhat excessive amount of lolis prevalent in the designs.  I know hentai has focused a lot on the hyper sexualisation of females who look underaged but this was getting damn uncomfortable.  And while I could talk about how buying a love-pillow with a seductive, innocent looking loli on it is better than let's say, making a pass at some young girl, the fact that this was even acceptable as being a product to be sold at an event was just downright saying something.  What that something is, I haven't worked out yet.  

Further, while I didn't really see many of these pillows getting sold, (because really, what self-conscious teenaged boy is going to go up there in front of the eyes of so many onlookers and say, "uh, I'll take the one with the pigtails please"?), I heard a ridiculous amount of immature guffawing. 

"Uhyuk, hawwww, lookit that, nekkid gurls! haw haw!" And yes, this is an almost true-to-life quote.  I kid you not.  It was like being in a corral of donkeys.  And it wasn't just the boys, it was EVERY ANIMU WEABOO FAN THAT PASSED IT.  Ok, I understand, young people, potential boobies, titillation and all that.  But really?  But having that stall next to me was just so weird. I'm not sure if it hurt sales, but it did hurt my eardrums.

a bit too close... just a bit

It was great meeting up with old friends though.  Andrias from Poporetto and his sisters were there and I managed to add an adorable miniature Captain Ameriwuff in a bottle (along with a free badge!) to my collection.  I now have a veritable album of their work and they always get better! Also I have a new cute beer bottle opener, SWEET!!!

Loot! (Triforce!!!)

Old friends from Void also attended and I got my table cleaned out by a very enthusiastic girl and her boyfriend (aka – human wallet).  She bought so much from me it was crazy! I gave her a free bracelet for her enthusiasm. 

people wanted the ponies more than the merch...

All in all, I sold decently, at least on the first day.  Sunday was atrocious.  I started to make beaded rings just to add new things to my table to sell.  I was bored and began to make scrapbooks and generally hallucinated after a while because my voice was totally gone and my eyesight was doubled and effed up three ways from Tuesday. 

Singing 80s tunes helped, until I started dancing… 

TELL ME THIS IS NOT MOTIVATING!!!

I will take moment to give special acclaim to the vendor of ILikeShinies.  She messaged me a few months ago saying that I had inspired her to make her own little miniature cakes and sweeties accessory shop.  Frankly, while that was a really sweet and flattering thing to tell me, I cannot for one second believe it because this girl is AMAZING and I cannot possibly imagine how I could have inspired such adorable and well made products when I used to have so much fucking trouble making my own.  Ugh, I bought a small bottle of young mandrake root in a bottle and she gave me a Triforce pendant and a small bottle of Felix Felicis.  I gave her a customised sketchbook with all sorts of deco-den stuff all over it.  We hugged and squealed and I felt awesome despite my flu.  

I also got to have a chat with Blue Fishies regarding the sales of indie art and admired her epic draw skillz.  Damnit photoshop – y u no do that for me?

Its times like those when we share badges and talk to fellow vendors and exchanging art that I feel completely and utterly satisfied about attending things like this. 

Sadly, everything else was lacking.  There were less cosplayers around and from what I heard, the staff made it difficult for photographers to do their shoots at the venue.  The focal Japanese lifestyle booth was horrible beyond belief.  Normally there is a booth with a nice display of some sort of Japanese cultural theme.  Last year, it was a tea ceremony display, the year before it was Lolita.  This year it was this horrifying wishing tree display with dirty cheap xmas trees and badly tied paper wishes tied to the branches.  And you had to pay to pick a wish!!!! 

Also – it looked like the Maid Café was a disappointment of epic proportions for all fans of things moe.  

NoooooooOOOOOOOOOOOooooOOOOOOO!!!!!

The skits were bland, boring and repetitive and THERE WAS TOO MUCH GANGNAM!!! Even I got sick of Psy after one hour of constant repetition.

But hey, we did well and Nekochii and I celebrated with long awaited beer and Korean food. 

Now, I am going to work on new projects, and I have a nice photographing session coming up to showcase my stuffs.  I am so excited but am equally nervous that every photo will have derp-face. 

Also – I regretfully must mention that:

I got my postgrads! Yes, plural, certificate and diploma – YAY ME my studies was for naught, I now have pieces of paper. 

paper paper paper

On the other hand, it also means – MORE STUDIES NOOOOOOOOOooooOOOooOO!!!!

I have enrolled in my second-to-last class before I receive my masters and damnit, I am so NOT looking forward to this.  It’s a policing course and I feel really out of my depth.

But as I say to that elusive masters qualification: CHALLENGE ACCEPTED. T_T…

Also – another niece/nephew is on the way!!! EEEEeeeeEEEEEEeeeeE!!!! clucky time!

Also – new art projects, just because I am restarting my studies, I am not going to give up on my work.  So yes, full time job, part time studies, all-time gaming and most-time crafting and arting.

CHALLENGE ACCEPTED AGAIN!

test project!

Also – gaming, my computer is dying (sadface).  Cant finish Borderlands, let alone start B2 cause my computer keeps randomly shutting down!!! Its an overheating issue I cannot fix myself so I need to save up a bit to get it repaired.  So no B2 or Dishonored for me – or XCOM (sob!!!!)

Also – I still haven’t finished Dragon Age 2 – its so boring!!!! Why??? I love killing things and running and armour and magic? I'll finish it eventually, Borderlands is more fun at the moment and I am so incredibly exited to play Dishonored. 

Also – I am actually still enjoying WoW.  I love going from one place to another.  Buggered if I know what the quests are about? I never read the descriptions.  I just like the pretty landscapes.

So much true ;_;

So – until next month, which hopefully has more pictures and better humor and hopefully news that I have finished something, be it an academic paper or a friggin video game.

Toodlios!!!