Wednesday, August 24, 2011

On one of the best weekends I've had in quite some time

Ramencon was awesome. I can't stop gushing about it on the book of faces. This past weekend was insane. Where to begin?

Friday
Thursday night I got almost zero hours of sleep from my anxiousness at heading out in the morning for a convention with a group of mostly people I didn't really know save a few. So I "wake up" from the slight rest I had at about 8AM and await a text from Brock to tell me that Evan is coming to pick me up. Well, I get it and he shows up and we pack in my one duffel bag and backpack and we ride off to Brock's place. Then we drive out to the milwaukee area to pick up Joe. Now our car is full with people, bags, and costume parts *cough* giant desert punk helmet *cough*. Our car is the first one out, since I am the one holding the reservation for the hotel rooms. It's roughly 10:30 AM now and Brock mentions that "Oh hey there's a White Castle in Kenosha".

"Fuck yeah let's go" we all say.

Never had White Castle before, and I was actually excited waiting in line. I can understand why they label their menu with the word "craving". That's the only way I see this place getting business. It's good stuff, but honestly you can get better tasting everything. It's mostly for the "holy shit am I hungry oh man there's a White Castle" crowd. The sliders are tasty, but I'd rather get a double cheese from Burger King for a "meal". Now, it's early. I usually don't wake up until 11 any given day during summer and never eat earlier than one. So after four sliders and zero sleep Brock says "Oh yeah, these will give you the shits like no other".

Thanks Brock.

So around noon we hit Chicago after being trolled by Willie's car (fuck you for "not picking up Caleb"). We spend a long ass time in noon rush hour Chicago traffic, hereby reffered to by Evan as "The Great Shitstorm of 2011".

Now we hit the Radisson in Merrilville Indiana. Nice place with a classy lobby pool and bar. We waltz around waiting for the two other cars. We unpack, go get our passes for the convention, and wander around some more. Room arrangements are made, with myself rooming with TJ, Kristen, and Vanessa. We all, for the most part, get in costume; me in Minato's getup from Persona 3. We head to the con and there are crowds of people dressed as god knows how many characters. A lot of people liked my costume, some took pictures of me, and a few hugs. And most of them were ladies! I know! I even got glomped by a few (or maybe the same one over and over). Too bad the huggers all looked maybe 15 years old.

Friday is kinda of a blur. Brock in his Ikakku getup with fuckawesome Hozukimaru and I sat in on a performance by Pillows cover band The Pillowcases. Soooo good. I walked around the dealer room. Bought some shit, got more pictures taken of me, and then went back to my room. We all decided to walk down to Hooters for dinner. Also a first time experience. Had some hot wings. Nom nom nom. The party splits up after that and I just kinda decompress in my room and talk to Vanessa for a bit. I can't remember when I hit the pool for the first time in forever. I ended the night in my room and talked to TJ and Kristen for some time before hitting the hay.

Saturday!
Oh man, Saturday. Wake up about 10ish and we all get into our second costumes. We walk around and, natch, more pictures and interactions. I met some new people who I'd tak to again later. The first big event was the panel for Travis Willingham, who voices Roy Mustang among others. I didn't have anything for him to sign except my badge. I got some $3 pizza and watched Case Closed in Brock's room for a bit before heading to the Troy Baker panel. He voiced Greed in FMA, Kanji in Persona 4 (!!!!!!), and Snow in FFXIII. He was pretty hilarious and then he had an accoustic performance which was also great. More autographs and then more wandering.

Our group had all mostly signed up for a cosplay walkway contest the previous night, and tonight was the night for it. I was nervous, natrually. I was in line between fellow carpooler Megan dressed as Kairi and a dude (need to get his name) whom we repeatedly met and talked to dressed as Snow (fantastically I might add). I walked on stage, did some poses, and half stumbled over whatever was holding up the backdrop. Natch. The winners were a really good Vash the Stampede (3rd), Kristen's amazing Yoko Littner (2nd), and some girl in a full Luxray fursuit (1st).

Woot.

I'm tired now. But nope, we're all rearing to go to the midnight rave! With an hour to kill though, Brock and I hit up another Pillowcases set that was cut short (boooo). But now, rave time. I thought I'd be there for maybe fifteen minutes and just chill and go to bed.

Nope.avi.

All 12 of us (well, minus Joe I think) party until roughly 2:30 AM with a mess of other people. I've never done that before. It was awesome. I "danced" with and/or around a bunch of people I knew and didn't know. I had about ten glasses of what Brock called "god water"; water that never seemed to run out and was always the perfect temperature.

My legs are only now starting to not hurt.

Sunday
I wake up in an aching daze Sunday morning. Evan, Brock, and I hit up breakfast at 9AM. Another mistake on my part about early foodstuffs, but eh. The last day wasn't too eventful. The last bit of people doing the last bit of congoing. Our car is the one that stays until the closing ceremony, which only Brock really checked out. Basically, we just met up with other congoers discussing various anime, tv shows, hair boners, yaoi, yuri, pedophiles, and traps. Not typos. Then we moved to a different location and switched talking partners. We went and bought the last of the shit we wanted to buy and said farewell. We packed up and drove towards Canada.

We passed through "The Great Shitstorm of 2011 Part 2: Electric Buggaloo".

On Friends Old and New
I had an amazing weekend. I want to thank Evan, Brock, Kristen, Vanessa, Willie, Joe, Megan, Justin, Zack, Caleb, and TJ for helping this to be one of the best weekends I can remember. Especially Brock for inviting me along when they needed their first 21 year old to get the room. I'm glad I hung out, talked to, and got to know you guys, as well as the fellow congoers that I am now friends with on facebook. Talking to all of you was so out of my comprehension before this weekend, but I loved every second of it. A lot of times after most social situations I find myself analyzing what I did or what I said or didn't say regarding a certain coversation. I should have said this or that was dumb, that sort of thing.

I did none of that this weekend. And that is one hell of an accomplishment for me.


And thanks Ramencon for being so great. I'm sure we'll be back next year.
____________
Ride on shooting star.

Monday, August 15, 2011

hey look another post about Ramencon

So, four days prior to the event, me, Brock, and a mess of other people met to discuss the plan of attack for Ramencon. Who's going in which car, how many cars, what about toll roads, can we fit a body in the trunk, the usual. It was originally a pool party that, hey, since all of the Ramencon goers are here, might as well talk about that too.

I mostly went for the meeting portion, not the pool portion, which was a considerably large portion. Didn't wanna swim, no trunks, no towel, so none of that crazy "fun" everyone seems to be talking about for me. Still got my pants wet though.

And they never properly dried before heading home. So sorry Brock if your passenger seat is somehow still moist. I doubt it is.

I sorta mingled with people once the pool was not a focused activity, but it was a lot of people I hadn't previously met so yup here come the social anxieties whooo. I would like to get to know these people better though. I just wish I could give off something remotely close to an impression when people meet me.

Gotta work on that.

Speaking of working, my Ramencon costume I ordered August 1st is looking like it won't get to me by convention time. So, a trip to Goodwill later, and I have the basic costume set up for $16. Very half-assed and cobbled together, but I guess once the real costume shows up I'll have a better spare for future cons.
At the least I can make a halfway decent Junpei Iori look. Otherwise, props and badges are coming along. Not smoothly or any other adverb to give off a sort of confidence, but they are coming into existance which is good enough.

The small one sticks on with velcro and the big badge actually has a pin in it. I made both from craft foam and it works well enough since the ones I ordered won't be here.
My gun just needs paint.

And look how small it is. That's what I get for being to lazy to try to measure a proper template instead of printing off the first thing that works. It'll be fine though.

I hope.

________
Late night you party until it's light
While pointing at the sky
Wash your hands in the lake of your blood
Just before you die!