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I live in a small town up in Mendocino County. So, it takes me anywhere from 4 1/2 to 5 1/2 hours depending on how fast I'm going. I envy you guys who live within a jump and a skip away.

I'm going to be doing my Ion Fortuna cosplay, so I'm definitely looking forward to the gathering. His artbook version with the red has been driving me crazy, but it's going to be sooo worth it. Catch you guys there!

Thursday: Drive 6 hours to San Jose while listening to insanely loud jpop, jrock, and all things dance. Arrive at the Fairmont, check in, head to the center and wait in line for my badge.

As for Friday: First thing I'm going to do is head to the dealer's room when it opens and pray to Jesus the same booth with all the contact lenses is there so I can buy a pair of green contacts for my cosplay X )

While it will obviously cost more for an extra night, I highly encourage it. I always head down on Thursday, just because I live about 6 hours away and I really detest having to rush on the day of the con to arrive, check in, get everything put away, and then finally head over to the con. And like others have mentioned, if you pre-registered, you can pick up your badge, socialize with other people in line ( I always manage to find at least one person to talk to and it's usually pretty lighthearted and fun ) and just relax. I mean, you know how tiring it can be running around being crazy otaku junkies, so it's nice to have that extra night of relaxation. All this of course, if you're willing to part with a bit more money : )

I posted something a bit similar in a different thread, but what the hey. This may be just from personal experience, but please don't fight with your friends. Seriously, my first con back in '03 ended ugly. We were in the dealer's room and I wanted to buy some yaoi doujinshi because, well, I lacked any. I wasn't 18 at the time and so I had a friend buy it for me. It also happened to be a very nice, and quite rare doujin, which I also did not know it was at the time.

So, I go and sit down with other friends, when a second friend comes up to me and I show her what I had bought. Mind you, I just show it to her. She grabs it and says to me "Where did you find this?!!?!?!!" And I simply direct her towards where it was bought. So, she goes and looks and surprise, there's no second copy. Later on, as I'm sitting with friends she asks me if I would sell her the doujin, and I politely refuse. That's where it all went downhill. She yells at me, says she hates me, and storms off.

To make the story short ( well, it's long already, but I wont' bore you ) the entire time we were fighting because I wouldn't give her my doujin. In the end I sold it to her, but a month later I found out she twisted the entire story around as to make me the villain and I stopped talking to her for about half a year. We've reconciled since then, it's been years, but yeah, I suggest not to fight with your friends. Particularly over stupid things.

Thanks Moonblossom

*sigh* Damn it, I was hoping in the back of my mind that it wouldn't be that horribly expensive. Oh well, I'll pass on the information to my roomies. Thanks again.

This will be my 5th year attending Fanime. My first was the last year they had it at the Santa Clara convention center. I actually liked the way it was set up there a lot more, then again, it might because it was my first con and I just thought it was nifty.

Let's just say over the years, I've gained lots of experience and things to avoid. The main one being, don't fight with your friends. My first con, a friend and I got into a huge fight, it being her fault mind you and she admits it now, and I didn't talk to her for about 6-7 months afterwards.

But anyways, bad memories aside, I'm hoping this Fanime will be just as, if not more awesome, than last year.

I'm going to be staying at the Fairmont this year. I heard a couple months ago that the parking there is insanely expensive. Normally I wouldn't care about parking because ever since my first Fanime, I just get dropped off and then picked up on Monday.

However, this year my roomies are driving in and I'm pretty sure they're not getting dropped off like me. So, if anyone knows exactly how much the parking is there, I would appreciate knowing so I can inform them about it.

Ha ha, thank you very much~ <3 I was surprised to see how many people knew Manga Carta last year, so that was like, a bonus. x3

All I need to do is redo my sun pendant (thing is cursed; I've remade it four times, going on five), and I'll be good to go~ ;D

I have yet to see a Raul cosplay done, so I hope I do the character justice. Right now all the sewing is pretty much done, and I'm working on the armor pieces. They are seriously kicking my ass though, it's my first time working with wonderflex and I've ultimately decided to cover them in vinyl since the gesso and plaster I used has backfired on me. Oh well, I've learned from it. I'll be looking for ya at Fanime though!

Hey! Last year's Azel here~ :3 I don't know if Calintz and Agreian are attending, but I could bring my Azel for some photos~ <3

XD You were an amazing Azel! Your group was super, I absolutely loved your guys' cosplay. If you bring your Azel cosplay, I would LOVE to take a couple pics with ya! Seriously, Magna Carta doesn't get enough love and there's a serious lack of people doing any cosplay. Feel free to PM me anytime!

So, is anybody out there going as any of the characters from the Magna Carta series? I know last year there was a small group consisting of an Azel, Calintz, and Agreian. They did an awesome job, I'm pretty sure I have a couple pics of them somewhere.

So who's going as who? I'm going as the Celestial Hero, Raul. Hope to see fellow M.C. cosplayers there!

blancoisma
I loved your cosplay last year!!! It was totally fun helping to get your wings on XD

XD Thank you! You and your friends were seriously the only people that were willing to help me get into those horrid, constricting wings. Unfortunately, the cosplay is currently retired. My wig had to be recycled for this year's cosplay, so it's no longer green, and the wings are dead. I need to figure out a new structure for them, cause what I did last year was pretty fail-tastic. But, thanks again XpHoBiaX, you guys were totally awesome for the help last year. Maybe I'll see you again this time! 

Umm, didn't you read Eurobeat's post? What were you expecting when you said what you said. And like he mentioned, go right ahead and cosplay as a generic shinigami. But when you think about it, are you having fun doing so? Are you cosplaying as that generic character because that's simply what your body type is allowing you? With that kind of thought, to me at least, and that's just my opinion, it seems that you're not having fun. And that's what cosplay is all about, having fun. Then again, that's just my two cents.

Dude, what the heck. I am having fun. I love Bleach and I want to dress as Shinigami but none of the shinigami in Bleach itself.

Alright, great. You're having fun, I never said you weren't, I like Bleach as well. That was simply my opinion and how I interpreted things. But part of what I said was are you simply cosplaying as the generic shinigami because that's what your body type allows you? By what you originally stated, I am led to believe so. I'm not trying to stir anything up, just throwing my view out there.

Umm, didn't you read Eurobeat's post? What were you expecting when you said what you said. And like he mentioned, go right ahead and cosplay as a generic shinigami. But when you think about it, are you having fun doing so? Are you cosplaying as that generic character because that's simply what your body type is allowing you? With that kind of thought, to me at least, and that's just my opinion, it seems that you're not having fun. And that's what cosplay is all about, having fun. Then again, that's just my two cents.

Oh! How stupid of me, I forgot a crucial thing. I meant characters that have the same colored hair/similar style as the wig I'm wearing, duh. Like I said, I'm brain dead.

I'm currently working on my Raul cosplay from Magna Carta:Crimson Stigmata and it's coming along great. I get to play with Wonderflex for the first time and it's been rather fun.

Now, since there's still some time till Fanime, I'm being a bit ambitious and wanting to do another cosplay. However, seeing that I've already planned out my expenses, I don't want to spend a whole lot more money. So, I want to reuse the wig I am using for my Raul cosplay for another one. So, since I am like, brain dead at the moment, I was hoping ya'll could give me some suggestions. Here are some pics of me ( I look like crap, so please excuse me for looking completely out of it ) with the wig unstyled, but if you could come up with some characters, I'm cool with that. And please, nothing Naruto related. I don't mean to offend anyone, but it's just not my cup of tea. Thanks!

P.S. ( I'm too lazy to remember how to correctly put images up so I'll just provide the links :P )

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e335/Ixma/brownwig.jpg

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e335/Ixma/brownwig2.jpg

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e335/Ixma/brownwig3.jpg

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e335/Ixma/brownwig4.jpg

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e335/Ixma/brownwig5.jpg

Hey there! I would like to request a shoot if its okay. So, let's see here...

1) 1 person (myself)

2) Raul of Magna Carta: Crimson Stigmata/Tears of Blood

3) 3:00 pm Friday

Userspray - From my understanding, metal props, meaning, made of metal and it doesn't matter if they're not sharp at all, are not allowed. To be honest with you, I'd feel a bit uncomfortable knowing someone is walking around with live metal. I'm not saying that you yourself are not responsible and wouldn't do something stupid like waving it around and causing a scene, but others might not realize that. Until the new rules are posted, or whatever, I would bet that bringing in those weapons might not be a good idea.

I'm going to be staying at the Fairmont, but I had a question and I was hoping you could answer it.

I originally booked a 4 night stay at the Fairmont, for two people thinking that I was going to be going with my friend. However, she won't be able to go, but I am going to possibly end up with 3 other people. Now, will that present a problem at the hotel when I go to check in and say that there will be four people, including myself? Part of me thinks that it shouldn't, seeing that the room has two beds, so two people to a bed, right. But I'm paranoid about these things. I don't want to drive 6 hours to Fanime and then have trouble with the hotel.

I've been going to Fanime since 2003, and this year has got to be my least favorite. Don't get me wrong or anything, Fanime was still a lot of fun, but there was just...something about it that totally didn't do it for me. So, here are my dislikes and likes:

Lo Bueno:
- Great atmosphere, everyone was quite friendly and people seemed genuinely happy.
- schedules were definetely improved, props on that.
- staff, the staff is always helpful and friendly.

Lo Malo:
- there was a lack of goods in the dealer's room. I am the type of person to buy everything at once and then have no money left for the remaining days, but I had a really difficult time finding anything that I liked. I got some great stuff in the end, but when I walk into the dealer's room I've kind of built myself up to find something great.
- I was really annoyed by the vast amounts of Naruto and Bleach I saw. While this is something that can't be helped, it was very annoying to see it everywhere I went. I know it's because of the popularity, but still. Now, I'm being a bit vain here, but my cosplay took many many hours to do, and I put a lot of work into it. Yet my cosplay was horribly overlooked compared to something like Naruto. Once again, this can't be helped because my cosplay was obscure and not many are familiar with it. But people should be able to acknowledge when something is well made, and was made with a lot of effort. To all that commented on my cosplay and took pics, thank you so much for your kind words ( I was the one with the large wings and the green wig, King Chaos )


Those were my only gripes with Fanime really. The rest is simply stuff on my part that I could have done to make it more enjoyable. For instance, rooming with someone else. This year I came alone, and spent most of my time alone. I had groups of friends come to Fanime, but I spent very little time with them due to the fact that their schedule just didn't coincide with mine. I seriously spent most of my time in my hotel room staring at the ceiling because I felt so alone. The other thing I could have done was bring my own supply of snacks and water, things like that. That was just me being stupid, so yah.

Anywho, that's enough from me. I still had a great time, but if I manage to get the same time off next year, I will come again. Hopefully by next year the dealer's room might grow a bit more and have a bit more variety. And most of all, I will not come alone. I hate being alone. I'll be seeing everyone in '08!