Okay - I'm gonna make this LJ post shorter than I'd like to, b/c I'm worn out & kinda tired. SO - 

Anime Boston '08 has been the best con I've been to yet, and '08 has (IMO) been the best Anime Boston yet. Things that have happened in the last two days (in no particular order):

- I got told by a fellow Otaku that I was the best Sakura they'd seen at the con all day (Friday)
- Someone asked me (as Sakura) to hug a friend of theirs-twice
- I got an Anime Boston patch, a 2008 t-shirt, and AB pins from the years '05-'08
- I got a red 'leaf village' headband (Yay!)
- I lost one of Sakura's gloves... somewhere (but I found a headband, so I'm happy)
- I got a lot of photos taken of my friends & I - both as Sakura and as Rinoa
- I got to be in 2 group 'Naruto' photoshoots and 1 'Final Fantasy' photoshoot
- Hill bought me a little Rinoa and a little Sakura figurine from the Dealer's Room
- I got to fight over a Sasuke ('Ship' version!) with other Sakuras (during one of the Naruto photoshoots), a couple Narutos, and an Orochimaru
- My friends & I saw Monica Rial (voice actress) in the Sheraton hotel lobby late last night & got our pictures taken with her (she's so nice!)
- I mutilated my jeans (well... cut most of the legs off) for the sake of cosplay
- I got Colleen Clinkenbeard (another voice actress) to autograph the cover of my 'Fullmetal Alchemist' Season 1, Part 1 DVD set at the LAST possible minute (she was about to leave the table soon - she's also wicked nice!)
- I got dipped backwards by a female rocker Naruto (again, photoshoot)
- I got a lot of compliments on Rinoa's weapon/prop, the 'Shooting Star'
- And much more!

     I'm sure I'll be a lot more descriptive when my brain isn't so mushy, but for now - I need sleep, lol. I have to get to Easter Sunday mass at the chapel next to the Hynes Convention Center tomorrow morning, and it's gonna be hectic from there on preparing for the Cosplay Chess match to watch Chris as Sesshomaru 'fight'. Woot! More to come later! 

PS - It was very nice to meet you, stebia!!!  ^___^

WTFisthisSH*T?!?!?!?!?! 
::fumes::

.....I was working on my cosplay/AB stuff all night yesterday. By the time I got to shower & go to bed, it was about 12:30am. I had to get up @ 6am to get to my classes this morning. I got all the way to Boston w/ my suitcase & 'Shooting Star' (in a garbage bag, so no one would see it & so it wouldn't get wet/gross). I was out of the Back Bay Station & just crossing Copley Square, when suddently it hit me: I forgot to pack my pink Sakura wig.

!#$%^&*%^&*!#$!!!!!!!!

.....I'm better now than I was, but I was sooooooooo mad at myself earlier. If they weren't already crappy, I'd have punched myself in the kidneys. I knew I was going to forget to pack something! And I'm not about to throw 2 hours of my life away going all the way home (1 hour on train), going to my house, grabbing the wig, & coming allll the way back. URGH!!!  ::tantrum::

::deep breath::  So... after my classes are over, I'm gonna try to go to 'Dorothy's Boutique' on Mass. Ave - hopefully they'll have a cheap pink wig I can customize there. Oooh... I hope I hope I hope...  ::crosses her fingers::  I've never been there before, so hopefully I won't walk all the way over there for nothing.

Ugh... I can't wait to see Chris & Hill, b/c this is not a good start.....

The Good News: Chris got into the AB Cosplay Chess Match, and Anime Boston is in two days. YAY!!!

The Bad News: I'm still working on stuff for both my Rinoa & my Sakura costume at this point.

The Ugly: 1) I don't think I'm gonna be able to complete Rinoa's weapon (the 'Shooting Star') - not b/c of the time running out, but b/c I made it a little too big, and it's most likely not gonna fit in even my large rolling suitcase.  ::imitates season 3 Blackadder::  "D*mn!!!"  I may just leave it 1/2 done to fit in my suitcase, and finish hot gluing it when I get there. Ugh... man, what a pain.....
     2) I still have a bunch of little things to do for my Sakura costume, and time is VERY quickly running out! If I get really desperate (which I'm beginning to be!), I may just end up hot gluing the d*mn thing together - which I don't want to do, because it might look cheap and it'll certainly feel cheap, but... I want it to be done! Waah!  ::poutpout::
     3) I'm gonna have to bring my huge-*$$ rolling suitcase to Boston b/c of my costumes & stuff - and I have 2 classes to go to Thursday morning! Urgh!!! So I can either look retarded & wheel my mini-hearse into my classes with me..... or go to the Sheraton, see if they'll hold my suitcase for me for a few hours, probably be late for my first class, finish my 2nd class at about 12:20pm, go back to the Sheraton, and wait for Chris & Hill to arrive.

.............

::sighs::
.....Once again, nothing is ever easy.

((cross-posted to ))

 

katiep_cosplay, my cosplay LJ

    In case anyone cares (lol), I just thought I'd mention that I updated my cosplay LJ a little bit. The 2 newest entries are my previous 2 entries here (re: 'Sakura-gate'), so you're not missing anything if you read this LJ.
    I think I'm eventually going to be phasing out posting cosplay news on here and post it more often on my cosplay LJ. So... it'll be there from now on if you're interested, and if not... well, whatever, lol (I'm just too tired to care right now).

Here's the site for my cosplay LJ:
http://katiep-cosplay.livejournal.com/

    I got on the train to Boston this morning and checked my e-mail (they have WiFi on some of the train cars now. Yes, I am that type of person.  ::rolls hey eyes:: Anyway...). To my surprise, I saw that 'QQCosplay' had already e-mailed me back with a reply on the Sakura costume situation:
(Note: I did not make a mistake in typing the following message, this is the exact message they sent me. Just FYI.)

<<Thank you for the feedback. This is the first negative feedback for this costume.  We are so sorry that you are not happy the costume.

This is the SECOND time that I've had to type this entry (and I was almost done the first time, too!), b/c AOL is a rotten rat b*stard that should die a horrible, painful death. So, 20 minutes down the drain, here I go again.

My Sakura ('Naruto: Shippuuden') costume came in the mail today, and I was wicked excited to open it - especially since 'QQCosplay', the online store that I got it from shipped it in less than a week after I ordered it.

.....Once again, I am a chump.
 

So... I wasn't going to post photos of me in the costume that I took earlier tonight b/c, frankly, I was embarassed of the d*mn thing. But, I believe people need to see them to see why I was upset. So - here goes, and keep in mind that there are quite a few graphics under the LJ-Cut, so slow computer loading people beware.

Just a few pics of me dressed up as Sally from Tim Burton's 'The Nightmare Before Christmas':

1) http://pics.livejournal.com/sprocket135/pic/00009a81/g1
2) http://pics.livejournal.com/sprocket135/pic/0000aqhr/g1
3) http://pics.livejournal.com/sprocket135/pic/0000b87a/g1

I dressed like this on Tues., Oct. 30th to school, and Wed the 31st to work. ...And for any 'NmBC' fans, I'm aware that my face 'stitch' is on the wrong side of my face. These pics are just from the 30th, not the 31st - and I did my makeup in the mirror, so (naturally) it looked like it was on the right side when I did it. HOWEVER - I fixed it for the 31st, I just haven't put those pics on my computer yet. SO - more costume pics will follow soon!


PS - Halloween was... kinda boring this year. I worked at iParty from 10am-6:30pm, went home exhausted, had some dinner, watched some TV, & went to bed. The End. We didn't get any trick-or-treaters again this year (anyone who's seen my street/driveway/house probably knows why), so not much really happened. The highlight of my day was when a smiling little girl came up to me at work & was like, "I'm being you for Halloween!" It was so cute, lol! Anyway, more pics to come later!

BOOYAH!

So the Halloween party itself was all right... a few people did dress up, but not a lot... no more than like, 12 people. I got a few compliments on my costume and had my picture taken by a few people, so that was cool. They had a pumpkin painting contest, and gave out gift certificates ($10, $20, & $30) to Burger King to the top 3 painters. I didn't participate in that one, but I DID participate in the costume contest - and guess what: I KICKED ASS!!!!!
::does a happy dance::
FIRST PRIZE! And guess what I won? - A $50 MasterCard gift card! WOOOOOT!!!
(The main judge's exact words were something like this: "First prize goes to... the... 'ghoul girl'!" LOL.)

.....Okay, true, I didn't have too many people to beat... and of the few costumes that I did beat, most were kind of half-@$$ed. BUT! I'm going to enjoy this anyway, because now I have a $50 gift card to enjoy! WOOHOO!!!!!
(Now... what should I buy with it? What to buy, what to buy? BWAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!)

So although I'm still annoyed at stupid, rude, immature & idiotic Red Sox fans, I feel that Boston has redeemed itself and is safe from my wrath... until the next argument, LOL.

(Work tomorrow should be interesting, considering I'm going to be dressed up then, too)

Grr..... my day has NOT started out well. First of all, at the Franklin train station this morning I got stared at by the largest amount of Red Sox m@$$holes ever - which is okay, I knew that was going to happen, since I'm currently dressed as Sally from 'The Nightmare Before Christmas'. Blue face, stitches, dress & everything. Got stared at the whole train ride. Fine, no problem, I can deal with that.
Got off at Back Bay - had to listen to idiots hooting Red Sox chants, but whatever. Oh, and some wisecracking teenager told me that I scared the $#^@!*& out of him.

I walked to Newbury Street (ignoring staring people), but there was a fence on either side of the street for the @!$^%&^ Red Sox parade, which I personally couldn't give a flying @$^&* about. So for like, 5 minutes I walked back & forth, trying to find a space to get across the street. People were, of course, no help. Finally I found it, & went to cross the street. There was a car that was coming, but it was further up the street & going like, 5-10 mph for the parade, so there was PLENTY of time for me to jog across the couple of yards across the street.

Right as I went to cross, this stupid moron cop held me back & was like, "Ma'am! You can't cross the street, there's a parade going on & there's a car coming!" and stared at me like I was the stupidest person on the planet. I wanted to be like, "Uh... you mean the car alllll the way down there? You stupid moron?", but instead I said something like, "I know... that's why I was trying to cross the street before it got here." However, he wouldn't let me cross until the car had passed, & stared at me like I was absolutely insane. And albeit, I know that I didn't look normal - but for God's sake, I SAW the d@mn car coming.....

So I finally get to my class (10-15 min late) and they were taking the usual Tuesday quiz. So I apologized for being late, sat down, and started the quiz. - Oh, and by the way: not one person in my clinical class was dressed up in costume for the Halloween events today. Just like I knew they wouldn't be. @#$^&ing sheep. (I know Halloween is tomorrow, but there's a Halloween party @ lunch & a costume contest. There were fliers around the school for weeks saying to dress up Tuesday and/or Wednesday) I honestly don't care if I'm the only person who dressed up - really, I don't. I make a good 'Sally', and it's fun to dress up. It just ticks me off when people act like sheep or lemmings & don't participate in stuff because they're afraid to be different. God forbid, right?

Anyway, my teacher wouldn't give me a little more time to do the quiz even though I was later than everyone else for events NOT under my control... so I probably failed the quiz, because I only got a third to a half of it done.

.......ALL OF THIS, BECAUSE OF THE $#@%$^%ING RED SOX, THE @#%&^&ING CROWDS, AND @!$%^%ING BOSTON.

So don't be telling me how much the Sox rule, and how cool the parade was, and how awesome Boston is, because I soooooo do NOT want to hear it right now.

PS - I'll try to put up photos of me in costume later.

     Okay, not that anyone's really keeping track or anything (lol) - but luckily I did find a good wig to use for Sally's ('NMBC') hair at K-Mart tonight. It was a rennaissance maiden wig that had a braid around it (like, around the hairline), but I decided to cut that part off (and the wig still looks perfectly fine). It ended up being only $7.99 too, so that was very cool. It doesn't look bad, so Sally's scalp is saved for now, lol.
(Oh, and on a side note - the Medway K-Mart is really starting to look kinda... rundown & junky. I guess the Target down the street is giving it a real run for its money!)

     I also bought some fabric at Jo-Ann Fabric's to put on the back of my Sally dress, since it's just black on the back the way it came. ...I mean, honestly Disney - do you have to be so cheap that you can't put the same kind of 'patchwork' patterns on both sides of the dress? You guys are so totally lame sometimes. I'm really disappointed in you (actually, I've been disappointed in Disney a lot lately, but that's a whoooolllllle 'nother rant for another time!).
     Anyway, I didn't match the fabric 100% quite right (exact color & fabric type-wise), but I suppose it'll do for now - if I ever decide to wear this costume to a con, I can always fix it later. I'll work on putting it together tomorrow & try to take some pics for anyone who's curious.

     Um... I guess that's it for now. Thanks to two of you guys (currently) for the wig advice, I honestly appreciate the feedback!  ::gives you both cookies::  

     Oh, and for anyone who's a fan of 'The Nightmare Before Christmas' - I would totally recommend buying the newer version of the soundtrack, because they have a few musical artists singing a few songs from the movie and Dany Elfman singing some demo versions of the songs, and for the most part I'm impressed. I like Marilyn Manson's 'This Is Halloween', Fiona Apple's 'Sally's Song' (my fave one), Fall Out Boy's 'What's This', and Panic At the Disco's 'This Is Halloween' (but I like Marilyn Manson's version better). I'm not a huge fan of these artists normally, and probably won't buy their own CDs, but I like what I did with the songs - except the 'Kidnap the Sandy Claws' song... that one was just weird & stupid, lol. They should have artists singing Disney songs more often. End shameless plug.


((cross-posted to my MySpace))

Don't ever try to dye a wig a different color with hair dye. It's a complete waste of time, energy, and money. Grr.

.....ALL I want is to find a cheap wig (b/c I'm only going to wear it, like, twice) that has long, straight, reddish-brown hair with no bangs. Not complicated. Why is it hard to find?? Oh sure, there's tons of blond hair & black hair like this, but not red. And we sell red-haired wigs @ iParty, but they're not that long, and they're kinda wavy. Plus they're like, $25, and I don't feel like spending that (even with a few $$$ less w/ an employee discount) on a wig that I'm only gonna wear a couple times. GRR!

And sure, I could walk around as Sally from 'The Nightmare Before Christmas' on Halloween with my shorter, blond hair... but it would look kinda dumb, considering she doesn't HAVE blond hair, and her hair is LONG. ::sighs::
Plus, I want to try & buy some fabric for her dress - b/c the dress I bought on eBay, while I like it, has her colors/'patches' on the front, but is completely black in the back. It's stupid. So, I'll probably buy a couple different colors & just make it look like her dress is patchwork all around. Ugh... for a costume that I'm only planning to wear twice (for now), I'm sure putting a lot of work into it. Grr - I don't have the time/energy for this! Waah!

...Can't anything ever come easily to me??

    For anyone who didn't already know, I recently sold a bunch (but not all) of my cosplay costumes on eBay to try & make some extra cash to pay off my huge credit card bill. I just sold my last costume tonight.

     All in all..... not too shabby. After eBay & PayPal fees, I made about $286. Yay! It's a drop in the bucket compared to my bill, but hey - if it makes my bill $286 lighter, then I'm certainly not gonna complain.
     I'm kinda glad it's over, though - it's a pain to keep checking my e-mail, checking the website, getting addresses, sorting about PayPal & money stuff... phew. I won't be completely opposed to selling something over eBay in the future, but I hope I won't have to do it again for at least a little while.

    In other news, I think I'm gonna dress as Sally from the movie 'The Nightmare Before Christmas' for Halloween. I can't wait until Halloween!!! I'm such a little kid, I want to run around Franklin scaring people (and not *necessarily* b/c of my costume), dress up my dog, walk her around to show off her cute, 'poofy-ness'... I hope I don't have to work that day. I mean, it'd be okay if I had to, b/c I'd still get to wear my costume to work, but I'd prefer to have the day off to do whatever I want in costume. So... I guess I'll just have to wait & see what iParty does.

    Okay, very sleepy. Until later!

((cross-posted to my MySpace))

Okay, I have yet another shameless plug... but I really want this one to work, so I hope you guys'll forgive me.

    Until this morning, I'd completely forgotten all about the message board that I'd set up in December to discuss..... anything! Music, movies, anime, costumes, politics (bleh), school, books, and more! (hence, all of the diverse tags on this LJ entry) You could talk about anything you like there! It's kind of a way for me to try & get people to get together in one place to talk about things that are important to them. Yeah, I know - people have LJs or MySpaces or Facebooks for that..... but everyone has their own individual page, and this is one message board - a place for everything and everyone to come all together!
(...Maybe even a good place to promote a certain somewhat-punk recently-formed Bostonian theatre troupe? COUGH COUGH.....   ::wiggles her eyebrows at... someone:: )

    If any of you guys still don't wanna join up, it's cool... but if anyone is willing, I'd really love to have at least one or two people willingly come on down & post some of their ideas/interests - but no pressure!
(I don't want any guilt/pity posts, lol)


So if anyone's interested, here's a link to my message board:
Click HERE to get there, and I hope I see a couple of you guys soon!

PS - You might have to create a screen name w/ 'Proboards' to be able to post there... but that's kinda standard for most message boards, anyway.

((cross-posted to my Facebook & eventually my MySpace))

Okay guys, I got another shameless plug for ya.....

    I recently joined up with Facebook, initially because I'd heard that my younger cousin had one and I wanted to add her as a friend. Here's a link to my profile by the way, in case anyone wants to see it and/or add me:
((click HERE to see it))

    Anyway, I got bored during my lunch break today & created a Facebook group called 'Massachusetts Cosplayers'. So if anyone's interested, here's a link:
((click HERE to go there))

And if not, no big deal... I have too many of these things anyway, LOL.

((cross-posted to my cosplay LJ & eventally my MySpace))

So I came downstairs for breakfast this morning, and guess what was on the dining room table - my Sakura wig! (Well actually, it was a package addressed to me, but I knew it was inside) YAY!!!
::does a happy dance::
Now I can take pics of me in my complete costume! Hooray!

(PS - For anyone interested, I didn't forget my cosplay LJ! It's just that my semester finals are next week @ Gibbs, so I've been very busy. I'll put stuff up there as soon as I can!)

I got my Sakura costume in the mail today! Yay! And it came wicked quick, because I only ordered it a little while ago. I was taking a look at it this afternoon, & it looks totally awesome! And when I tried it on (in case it didn't fit, & I had to send it back), it fit like a glove! YEAH!!!
::does a happy dance::

In more annoying news, my dad acted like a grumpy jerk all day. I know that losing his office was hard on him... but if this is what he's gonna be like all the time, things will get old here, VERY fast.

The worst part was when my parents, Mary, & I all got home from Mary's FHS chorus concert tonight... and nobody had their house key with them. Amy was away at karate class, and she had mom's house key with her. I have a house key, but it was in my other sweater that I was wearing earlier today (I changed sweater's for Mary's concert). Naturally, my dad got mad & blamed Mary & I - which I think is extremely stupid, since he's not only 'the parent', but he was also the driver. If anyone should have had a house key, it should have been him (ESPECIALLY since this happened to us once before - my dad didn't have his house key then, either).
I was being kind of a smart@$$, because he glared at me & said, "Katie, where is your house key?" I immediately replied, "It's in the house. Where's YOURS??"
.....I'm surprised he didn't come across the porch & punch my lights out. BUT, nevertheless, I don't regret what I said, & at least it made Mary snicker (after she gasped in shock).
Thank God Amy soon came home, & we got in the house... but I don't know if I'll be able to stand this for much longer. He'd better learn to deal with stuff & stop getting everyone mad, or he's going to be alone very soon.

((cross-posted to my MySpace))

I think I'm gonna start a cosplay/costume LJ, since my costume ideas keep growing & growing. I started off having only a couple, but I think the #s grown a lot in the last couple years or so. All my past/current/future costumes (12 so far, I just counted) can be found on my CosplayLab site (I haven't updated the Cosplay.com one in a while). Here's a link, for anyone interested:
http://www.cosplaylab.com/cosplayers/detail.asp?memberid=21017

I dunno what I'll call it or anything, but it's almost 1:30 am... who says I have to choose now? Lol.

(Maybe I'll do one for MySpace too...)

I finally got around to updating my CosplayLab profile. Yay! I'm so excited about Anime Boston & Otakon... they're the only things getting me through this crappy school semester.
My 'CosplayLab' profile

(By the way - that stupid job skill school has called me a total of 5 times today - so far. LEAMEE ALONE!!!)

...You know there's something wrong with your country when you'd rather watch "Child's Play 3" (Chucky, the killer doll), on the Spanish channel, than listen to the President's address.
...Take that, Bush! How does it feel? You lost part of your audience to a Spanish-speaking homicidal killer whose soul is trapped inside a doll! HA!

"CHUCKY: EL MUNECO DIABOLICO 3ra PARTE"!

..........

.....Anyway, I was thinking about Anime Boston/Otakon today... and originally one of my costumes was going to be Sakura from 'Naruto', but I dunno if I'm going to go as her after all. I still might, but I'm debating about going as another 'Naruto' character instead. Any sugesstions?
...And obviously, if you've never seen 'Naruto', you won't be much help here (no offense meant).