What? Oh, don't mind me... I'm only 2 weeks past due on my blog post.
I do sincerely apologize for the very, very late post! I have some legitimate excuses (and some maybe not so legitmate excuses) for my belated post.
First off, the morning after I got home I awoke at 4am to puke my guts out every hour for the next four hours.
I am guessing it was food poisoning. I can't say for sure, as I have never had it. But thanks to WebMD and Mayo Clinic I believe I accurately diagnosed myself. Whatever it was, it was horrible. And thankfully only lasted a few days.
But Edward, that only accounts for 3 or your 14 late days?
Yes, yes I know. Another reason I am tardy is because I needed time to edit my photos and create my video. Which took a whole hell of a lot longer than I anticipated. There were some technical difficulties, but I was finally successful in my attempts! (We'll get back to my con video in a moment...)
Ok, so it took you like a week to edit photos and video. What about the rest of the days??
Ok, look... After a 4 day con and a 5 hour drive home AND puking my guts out, it was time for some R&R! I had to take a break from the cosplay world for a bit. And I needed.... I mean SERIOUSLY NEEDED to play some Skyrim. No really! I hadn't got to play it in like a month because of all the sewing I had to do! Ok? OK?! It was really important.... Really....
Ok! Excuses are done! Now to get on with what you've all been waiting for (I think): My Con review and round up video!
Anime Oasis 2013
Overall I had a really fun time! I got to spend lots of time with my friends, did some things I haven't done before, did some things I like to do every year, and had lots of money to spend and buy awesome stuffs! What else can one ask for at a con?
Some things I particularly enjoyed this year were Deadtown (If you don't know what Deadtown is, you must go play it at Tomodachi Fest this year!), the burlesque show, the lolita fashion show, karaoke (where I watched my friend propose!) and (my most favorite) the ElfQuest photo shoot!
Deadtown was fun, as always. If you don't know what it is, it's like an interactive choose your own adventure type game, but with zombies. Your group must work together to escape the undead and a crazy government faction that is trying to blow you up. It is a mix between group and individual decision making. When you go into the event room you are given a card with an identity, occupation and any special skills you might have. This time I was a "tween girl" and my "skills" were being weak and small. The weak part wasn't so great, but the small part came in handy when we had to fit people onto our bus (as small people didn't take up a seat). The game play, though basically the same story, is different every time you play with different outcomes. How quickly your group can make decisions and what kind of skills members of your group have all affect the outcome of your game. It's really a whole ton of fun and I highly recommend it! I play every chance I get! (By the way, I survived. Yay me!)
They brought the burlesque show back this year, which I was really excited about! They had new types of performances and a special guest I know personally, Lemme Addams! Who is also Sonny Strait's (voice actor and comic book artist) wife! The show was a lot of fun (and had boobies this year!). Some of my favorites were the belly dancers, the pole dancers, and Lemme of course! Though it was on the long side. I didn't stay for the whole thing and missed some stuff I would have liked to see. But it was still fun!
This year I got to enter the Lolita fashion show! It was fun and I felt pretty! Haha. I feel like my coords are getting better and that I've "leveled up" as a Lolita. Haha. Everyone seemed to like my coord (a few who have been in the fashion a long time) and it made me feel I am headed in the right direction. I also made several new Loli friends and have had a lot more activity on my Lolita Facebook page and more folks are coming to the Teddy Bear Picnic (I'll discuss that in a moment). Yay! It was kind of funny at the Lolita discussion, my friend and I showed up and kind of took over the room (not on purpose!). Lol. But I think we helped get a few more folks interested in the fashion! Which makes me feel really great!!
Karaoke was especially awesome because my good friend proposed to her girlfriend right in the middle of the festivities! She had told me about how she wanted to propose publicly at AO and I'm so glad I got to witness it! I had started recording it but my phone ran out of memory right as she was pulling out the ring!
I was so bummed! But I'm glad I got to see it at least. So congrats to Dana and Abby on your engagement!!I finally tried out Roller Disco (while wearing Lolita no less, which I found particularly adorable
) which was a lot of fun! I haven't skated in years! And it took me a few (ok a lot) of laps for me to get the hang of it again. Though, I am tossing around the idea of getting my own roller skates/blades so I don't have to wait for shoes next time. I can't imagine I'd wear them more than the once a year I go to AO, but perhaps I'll host a Lolita Roller Skating event just so I have an excuse to skate more often. The wait really wasn't that long, and I was able to skate for quite a while! I would have skated longer, but the skates we rather uncomfortable.And then.... there were elves. And it was EPIC! Oh man, it really got me pumped up for my ElfQuest camping trip I'm hosting (more on that later)! We had our Winnowill (she's the main evil psychopath) and our chief, Cutter! It was so awesome! I'm sad it was in an area where the lighting was sort of crap, so my pictures didn't turn out very well. But Winnowill looked soooooo amazing!!! I walked out onto the terrace and there she was, in all her majestic, evil glory. I fan girled all over the place! I couldn't even contain myself! Oh man, she looked so awesome! And Cutter too! I entered our hotel room and there was my chief! I wanted to howl in his honor! (but I think our neighbors wouldn't have liked that.) After we took photos on the terrace, we went back to our room and turned off all the lights and did a spooky mini shoot with Winnowill. It was epic! She looked so scary! But sadly my phone ran out of juice right before then. But other than that, it was just amazing. Can you tell I was excited?
And if you aren't an ElfQuest fan, a lot of that was gibberish.
There were only a few complaints about the con itself. It seemed rather unorganized. But perhaps it is that way every year and I only noticed this year because several of my friends are on staff. So I got a peak into the inner workings a bit more. Some events were late, but that's kind of a usual occurrence at a lot of cons. I don't care for how they print out the schedule, it's sort of hard to figure out what time events are at and it doesn't tell you how long events are. I've never liked the way AO does the cosplay contest. They judge the skits and costumes at the same time, which I find confusing. I'd like it better if it was separated (like how it is at every other con I've been to). The discussion and tea rooms were super tiny this year because they changed the layout of the convention.
Some new things I liked about this year was that they moved the dealers room into the arena area. It was nice because it made more room for other events like Deadtown and the late night events. It was nice having the con only on the first and second level, although that was the reason why such small spaces were given to the tea parties and discussion rooms.
I (and many others) have voiced my complaints to the staff of AO and they are making efforts to improve the con. So that is good!
Overall, I had a great time! I spent a lot of time with my friends and made some new ones! And that's the best part about cons!
Below is my round up video of my con experience! It's a little long (nearly 14 minutes) so if you want to skip around to the parts you are interested in, I will list the contents of the video and what times they start at.
IMPORTANT NOTE: This video does contain footage from the burlesque show. It DOES NOT contain nudity, but it has some suggestive content. It IS a burlesque show after all. That's sort of the point. If you want to skip that part it starts at 7:07 and ends at 11:40.
If you see a photo of yourself in the video and would like me to send you a copy, please message me on my Facebook page and I will send it to you!
Edward Insane's Anime Oasis video contents:
0:00- Cosplay pics
3:14- Gangnam style flash mob
4:53- Lolitas
5:48- Karaoke
7:07- Burlesques (at 7:55 Lemme Addams sings and blows me a kiss. That's right. I'm special. XD)
11:40- ElfQuest photo shoot
I hope you all enjoy it!! I don't know if I'll make a video for every con. It was kind of a pain. Maybe I'll do an end of the year con round up and do them all in one fell swoop! We'll see how motivated I am. I will still do my con review post after each con though.
Now to clear up a few things I mentioned earlier....
ElfQuest camping trip you say?? Yes! This weekend I am having all my elf buddies come up to my house so we can take epic photos in the forests of northern Idaho! We've hired a professional photographer (my brother-in-law, haha) to take the photos and it should be tons of fun! Not all my elf brethren will be able to make it, but we will have 9 elves and 1 human to recreate scenes from our beloved comic. It will be awesome! Because not everyone is able to attend we are doing another HUGE photoshoot for Fandemonium. Yay elves!
And also, I'm hosting a Teddy Bear Picnic in July for all the Idaho (and vicinity) Lolitas! It's our first Teddy Bear Picnic and the first Idaho Lolita event I know of, other than the ones at the cons. If you are a Lolita, aspiring Lolita, or are genuinely interested in learning more about the fashion (and other J-fashions) I hope you will attend! It is a potluck style picnic and we are going to the Zoo afterwards. I hope that this will be a yearly event. And if it goes well, I want to host other similar Lolita events (a tea house Christmas party and a Roller Skating event).
Ok! I think that's all the updating I have to do! Because I was so tardy with this post, I will probably do a bonus post to thank you all for your patience. Alright, I will FOR SURE do a bonus post. Maybe a couple.... We'll see.
Thanks again for your patience and I'll see you soon!!
<3 Edward
P.S. OH! And I was also interviewed by another local cosplayer Gorgeous Harmony at the convention! If you want to check it out, here is the video that contains mine and several other interviews. Enjoy!
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