Truly truly truly outrageous!
Jem and the Holograms
On Sunday I became Kimber Benton, vibrantly coloured little sister to Jem and songwriter/keytar/keyboard player for the Holograms. It was awesome, a true group effort with M, A and Giffy.
Together we judged the Cosplay contest, the competition where people try to recreate their favourite charcters. The competitors was really strong this year, lots of interesting choices of characters to do (Pyramid Head, The Tick and Arthur, Zoey from Left for Dead, a Warhammer ultramarine and a World of Warcraft mage just for a couple of examples), lots of high level impressive costumes but overall I was impressed with the nature of the group as a whole. Everyone was really sweet and polite, and supportive of each other. For example, at the start of the day when we were checking people off the list and giving them numbers (the order they would be judged and then appear on stage), they were applauding each person as they came into the room. Just a little thing, but I’m sure appreciated by those going in!
They were also super organised when it came time to getting on stage, oprganising themselves in the correct order well in advance of the time we’d been scheduled on and waiting patiently dispite many of them having costumes that were difficult to wear or shoes that were causing pain after a long day. This organisation was appreciated by us running the thing more than you can imagine. I’m sure I’m sounding like a proud mother hen, and I think I’m justified in that since I’ve been in the Cosplay nearly every year since 2002. I’m a trailblazer right? Well, whatever. I am proud of them! They are making it a competition of high standards and decent people.
It was great being in such a recognisable group, although we were only recognisable to people over a certain age….but we were appreciated! In fact I got asked out within 20 seconds of walking into Armageddon! We were asked for heaps of group photos in the afternoon, once we’d finished with the judging and we got a lot of parents explaining to their kids who we were.
Breakdown of my costume: jacket, white satin, pale blue lining made by my mother in law. Authentic 80s red heart button with white spots. My pants: Glassons sale capris painted with glitter fabric paint from Gordon Harris. It’s iron set so potentially won’t wash off but I was leaving sparkles everywhere I sat yesterday so I’m not sure. My top is a white racerback singlet with glittery red mesh ruffles sewn on. I did seperate wee armwarmers with ruffles so they’d poke out of the sleeves. My shoes are incredibly expensive number 1 shoe warehouse clearance flats. These aren’t what the character would wear, but I’m no good at heels and can’t wear them for a whole day. The colour is right though! I made the keytar and Aja’s guitar using three layers of cardboard apiece. Appropriately enough, the cardboard was taken from the boxes our Rock Band 2 game came in. There’s a lot of masking tape and layers of paint in those babies and they stood up to the hard use of the day admirably.
Hard punk rock chicks, no really!
General photos from Armageddon, including cosplayers as well as guest stars, etc can be found at the Armageddon Pop Culture Expo flickr pool.
Mention in stuff, featuring a picture of the overall winner and the Chobits twins.
Jem and the Holograms ‘live’ on stage video.
Edited to add this fantastic picture M found online Oh yes, I am rocking out hard.
And finally (because I see this entry is getting rather a lot of traffic….) my reference images for Kimber.
Confidence
The weekend was busy, over too fast like always. We stayed in on Friday night because I was just so exhausted. As soon as I got home I ran a bath, Lee came home and was very confused: I usually wait til after dinner!
I baked a delicious cake and a disaster ginger crunch. I shouldn’t have left it in its baking tin all night, and it seemed to have too much butter in it. The cake was a banana cake with milk chocolate and marshmallows on top. So good.
On Saturday I stayed in bed as long as I could, reading Epileptic and putting off cleaning. Then I did some cleaning, dishes and basically got ready for my family birthday celebrations. Family came, hung around. It was nice, although I found myself wanting a nap more than anything else! Played a round of Buzz: the big quiz and then Scene it! which is a rather good DVD board game.
Workmates party on Saturday night was fun, I didn’t end up wearing the Cindy Lauper dress for two very important reasons: 1. it was too tight in the waist. 2. it doesn’t cover my butt. Yeah.
So I wore my jeans, legwarmers and a black lace singlet with a ruched cropped singlet over the top and a black lace band in my hair. Lots of bangles and funky eye make up and I was fully 80s.
There were salsa dancers at the party which was pretty fun, they taught us a basic meringue and it turns out Lee is way taller than me, and that matters for salsa dancing. Huh.
Sunday was Retail Heaven Armageddon. I wore my favourite funky clothes and saw lots of friends. I also bought too much stuff. Now have no money until I get paid again. Eh-heh.
On the up side, I got four new plushies, heaps of Full Metal Alchemist on DVD, heaps of Fruits Basket manga for $10 less than fishpond sells ‘em and a couple of pencil boards. Jasper Morello on DVD which we will watch on Wednesday I think. I am very happy and I have the cutest pink elephant beanie in the world ever. I am so ridiculously pleased by my pink elephant….
I kept waking up in the night, stoopid period mucks up my body temperature. This means that I didn’t want to wake up with the alarm this morning. Ah sleep, how I wish I could indulge you.
PoF: boring
CO: money
barcha barcha
More socks ordered, yay yay. I have no willpower, yay yay yay.
I went to Jville mall during my lunchtime today and bought awful clashing knee highs for my Cindy Lauper impersonation on Saturday: solid yellow, purple fishnet, dark green camo. Must contact my sister and see if she still has that little black bowler hat.
I don’t have much news today. I only have three episodes of Buffy Season 5 to go, I can’t believe how little screen time Glory gets, she’s like, hardly around! I guess they made her so strong that they can’t really have multiple head-to-head battles without it getting boring real fast.
Lee’s out tonight so I’ll finish up Buffy and make some birthday cards, one for my sister one for my Dad.
I am really tempted to go to Armageddon briefly on Saturday morning just so cool stuff isn’t sold out when I go on Sunday. I am quite confident I won’t give in, especially since Lee is coming with me on Sunday, but I can’t help worrying that I’ll miss out on awesome DVD deals, Totoro pins, cute plushies, etc etc if I don’t get in there first thing Saturday. Oh, how I wish for a dealer’s pass.
PoF: supergirl t, purple and black stripe OTKs and wrestler boots (the boots of autumn)
CO: Armageddon. I need: Azumanga Daioh DVD #6
Fruits Basket manga 10, 11, 12, 13, 15 and up
Full Metal Alchemist DVDs vol. 2 onwards
Chobits manga (check numbers at home)
Cute anime pencil boards
Cute anime pins
Cute anime plushies
**Stickers, tshirts, etc.** Less important. Impulse buys.
Holy crap! Fishpond have all the fruits basket manga, plus a cd soundtrack, plus an official fruits basket journal!!! It’s ’spensive though, $25 each. I’ll wait and see after the weekend.
quick, before my parents arrive
Fly by reportage.
I had a nice party. I gots good presents and had a fairly high turn out of people in costume. I wasn’t as outnumbered by companions as I had feared! I thought everyone looked fantastic and it was great to catch up with people I don’t see as often (although I may have neglected the peeps I see more regularly to do this. Sorry!)
Lesson learned: mingling is hard, don’t get lazy and stay in the same place all night!
Space Man ‘candy sticks’ went down a treat and we’re left with less than a half of the box so that’s neatie. Cake seemed well appreciated and hotdogs and samosas very good indeed. I enjoyed my mead and lindauer fraise a lot, but prolly shouldn’t have started drinking so early. I haven’t got great photos of people’s costumes because I didn’t bully people into standing up/posing with me/getting into a clear area.
Lesson learned: drink comes second to scrapbooking resources.
Heh.
People said nice things about how I looked which is always nice and I think all my girlfriends and boyz looked great too.
Last people cleared off at about 2am and Lee and I did a quick whip around for any mess (hardly any!) and fell into bed and straight to sleep within 15 minutes! Am a nana. Hope the stragglers didn’t feel like I was pushing them out the door, because late night conversations are always good.
Thanks to all who came, I had a great time.
Next up: Day 3 in Jenni’s 3 day birthday festival – family stuff.
Point of Fashion: Charm necklace from Simon and jellyfish singlet
Current Obsession: weird taste in mouth.
Mooooooonday
Serenity tonight.
I sewed a furry teddy bear shape onto my coveralls. I ironed on three embroidered patches, 2 ladybirds and a daisy. The effect is adorable.
I have done nothing on my jacket, so it’ll just be coveralls tonight. I don’t mind I’ll be comfy.
I moaned to Giffy last night that I’ll have the least pretty outfit of all the girls at my party. She told me that my outfit will be pretty with the jacket but still. If most of the girls are going as companions they’re going to be looking more impressive than me. But that’s what I chose so I shouldn’t really complain. I’ll be the one getting presents after all!
I just feel funny about it since I saw a picture of my gorgeous pirate party dress on Saturday and I wanted it back. I’ll be comfy though, very comfy in my coveralls.
Comment count: 1997. 7th form. Free periods hanging out in the window seat in the common room, eating 2 minute noodles.
Slow motion
I am in slow motion still. On Saturday night after we had people over for a roast chicken dinner I tried to get a nice long sleep so that I could feel better. (The cold was extremely runny-nosed and sneezy, even after a post-Yum Char nap and relaxation period.) Unfortunately my nose had other ideas and I had one of those terrible nights of watching the clock tick the time over while wishing I was asleep.
It’s a testament to how sick I was that I didn’t get angry about not sleeping, I just kept on blowing my nose and turning over and wishing to sleep. I must have been pretty close to sleeping much of the time because after 4ish hours of proper sleep I actually didn’t feel too bad. I spent Sunday morning in the animation room at Armageddon helping to run it, but really just watching anime. I saw: first three episodes of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex which I found entertaining but inherently creepy and disturbing. I think I’ll watch the rest of the series but not re-watch it.
First two episodes of Mezzo: DSA which I really enjoyed. It’s about an organisation of well, kinda mercenaries. It’s silly and funny and the main chick is really cute and tough and right up my cosplay alley. Hee hee.
First two episodes of Twelve Kingdoms which seems really cool except for the incredibly annoying whiny main character. Maybe it’d be less annoying in Japanese with English subs?
Then I wandered around the expo in a kind of cold-sickness daze and met up with Matt, Debbie, Luke and Sam. They are nice people. Then I had to get changed into most of my costume and wait for Giffy so we could be judged for the cosplay.
On average the standard of costuming in the competition was very high. I was a little disappointed that so many people were wearing outfits made by just one or two people. Some of those people won prizes that I hope they passed on to their seamstresses! I’m glad the question “who made your costume” is in the registration form so no one is confused.
I was very impressed with a lot of the costumes. Especially the adorable Chii and the Father and Son Jedi combo. Giffy and I were dressed as Tomoyo and Sakura from Cardcaptor Sakura and we had a borrowed toddler dressed as Kero so we got the cuteness award. Well, we got into the top ten mostly on the cute vote I think. That and the hats I made for us and our attention to hair detail! We actually looked quite good which I was faintly surprised about because we left the costumes so late and spent very little time working on them.
Giffy and I have agreed not to cosplay school girls at Armageddon again. We’re too old and it’s getting obvious! I don’t mind cosplaying, but when practically all the rest of the entrants are teenagers it makes me feel much older.
In between the judging and the stage show for Cosplay I wandered around a bit more. Saw Muggle and her boy, Evie and Jarratt, Frank and numerous friendly cosplayers. Didn’t buy anything due to lack of cash money, which was probably all for the best. I did get a free beanie baby, though which I am unexpectedly really happy with. He’s a teal triceratops with a red neck frill. I love him. I need a name for him though….
Anyway, I was chuffed that we got in the cosplay top ten and now Giffy and I have a new DVD. We got Mezzo DSA because it was cool, and most of the really awesome ones had already been picked….Then it was a bit of posing for photos and then home. I was pretty wiped so I watched some Azumanga Daioh and the news in case the TV camera that filmed me was working for the news, and then I watched Two Weeks Notice and some more Azumanga and then I went to bed. Lee was home pretty late after network gaming so I had been trying to stay up for him but I gave up.
Thankfully my sleep on Sunday night was warm and deep and uninterrupted. I don’t feel entirely better today, as I am still in slow motion. My nose has eased up somewhat though and for that I am likewise thankful.
Where’s your ‘ead at?
I thought that song went “way! Tomb Raider” for the longest time. I was singing along to it when Lee pointed out my error.
I finished 1984 last night…joy! Freedom! Mind-fuck! It was good, but unpleasant. It was nasty and depressing and ended without hope. I liked it, but I don’t know about reading it again. Maybe one day. It is very clever and I like Newspeak a lot.
Last night I made wings for a baby Kero. I did no other sewing because I am a lazy lazy person. I found out this morning that I have a cold so it may have been something to do with coming down with it that made me so very tired yesterday. Or I could just be very lazy indeed.
I am working at not clenching my teeth. I do it more than I had realised and it is a Very Bad Habit Indeed. No more clenching, allow your jaw to relax.
It had become very cold. The weather freezes me. I know that it is very cold because I wore long sleeved top to bed last night with my flannel pj pants and I didn’t get too hot. Lee and I were fighting over the duvet as well. Might have to bring in another duvet so we have one each. Mmmmm bliss.
Buffy dreams
Yesterday was a gorgeous and hot Wellington day. It was very windy (too windy for my short pleated skirt) but the wind was also hot. Verrrry unusual for Wgtn but I loved it.
I walked into town to meet Zephfi and we went shopping in Supre. I wanted some short pants, peddle pushers really. I tried on some black pinstrie ones which in retrospect would have been Lemony Snicket awesome, except they were a funny fit. Tight at the top but loose around the knees. Weird. I did buy a bright pink tshirt that says “Big F little f what begins with f?” Which I fully intend to wear to work since it’s a Dr Suess reference.
I also bought the cutest little dress o’frills ever. It is strapless and all ruched and has three tiers of frills for the skirt. PLus it’s pink. I think it’s a little too short to wear as a dress in Wgtn but it looks good over my tight jeans so hurrah!
Then Zephfi made me go into the Number 1 Shoe Warehouse and I bought wrestler-type black boots. They are SO GOOD and I love them to bits. It’s a bit too hot to wear them at the moment but I have them displayed prominently in the lounge so I can see and appreciate them. Heee. Since they’re completely black I could use them for super-hero boots, and they have no heel so they’ll be comfy to wear at work. Squeeee!
After the shopping and the purchasing we went to Zeph’s house for icecream and Buffy watching. I loves the Buffy.
Coincidentally I found an old dream journal this morning and the last one recorded is one where I was Buffy from Season 7. I was fighting Caleb, but my object of power wasn’t the Slayer Scythe but a packet of fish’n'chips. If I kept it pressed to my belly I had more power. Apparently I woke up with my hand clutched to my belly.
This morning I dreamed about duct tape. Thanks to Al for suggesting I incorporate duct tape into my Post-Apocalyptic Trucker Amazon costume and causing me to dream about it.
Bleary eyed Sunday
Happy Children’s Day! Happy All Hallow’s Eve!
Last night I went to Rachel and Al’s party as a Gothic doll. I think I looked cool. I might try and upload some pics onto photobucket and link to ‘em in my livejournal. If I can be bothered. I had fun at the party. I got to talk to Will which doesn’t happen much. I caught up with a bunch of people and we talked about the American election and sexy ladies in films and Mupplephone.*
Lots of yummy candy too. Mmmmm candy.
Also yesterday I had Yum Cha which was porklicious and nummy. Let me once more sing “I love Coconut Buns!” Then I went shopping with Evie and bought cool cute things. There’s a new shop full of cutey cheap stuff along Manners Mall and I got cool hair ties. I got Rachel a cat dressed as a pink witch at Morning Glory. Hooray! I kinda wanted it for myself but I gave it away anyway. I might yet go and buy myself a Tokyo-a-Gogo Bratz doll. They’re at Toyworld for $40 *right now*.
On Friday night I saw Coppelia which was wonderful. It is such a happy-happy story, and very funny. Lots of OTT arm movements and facial expressions to convey speaking and arguing. Wonderful. I loved the costumes too. Must own sparkly blue tutu. Jon Trimmer was Dr Coppelius and he was very very good, although I felt pretty bad for him. I mean Ok, he was a bit evil and tried to kill the main guy…but he thougt all his dreams had come true and he was really happy. And of course they hadn’t come true and it was just Swanhilde playing a trick.
Anyway. It was a fantastic ballet AND next year they are putting on the ballet of Dracula again! This is very exciting. The last time I saw Dracula was like, four years ago and it was wonderful and ever since I have wanted to see it again. I have wanted to rewatch it like a DVD or something. but I couldn’t because hello! Ballet! But they’re putting it on again in July so I am totally gonna go and I urge all of you who like the story of Dracula to go as well. It’s a truly awesome ballet and not too ‘dancing for no reason’. It follows the story very closely and is very dark and gothic and spooky.
Anyway, I’ll try and organise a group closer to the time.
I want a Bratz doll.
*Mupplephone is my mythic fourth child. She has social problems.
Woot! Dizzy, but dress!
Ok. I have made and sewn in the drapes, I have attatched the skirt to the bodice (nerve racking…so much material gathered in to a small place!
I have just tried it on and it looks like a dress alright! Now, for the zip and then it’s off to Lee’s parents tonight for presents, dinner and help with the hemming!
Hooray hooray!
Suspect might need crinoline for full effect though.
