Onslaught of emotion: bored, annoyed, lethargic
Listening to music: SHURA - DOES
Browsing through: Sugar Shine, Parade - a fanlisting collective
ALT+TAB: Mozilla Firefox, Mabinogi

I don't know if this is karma or not, but I think all the bad things in my life are coming back at me and biting me in the ass. Excuse the illogical wall of wank that I'm about to put up now, but I just can't stand being in this house of mine anymore. Just for a quick summary, 95% of what is written below has to do with Girl A and Guy A in my real life drama, and 5% concerns my website and fanlistings. Now on to the wank!

Two days ago when I was helping Kristina move out of her old apartment to her new studio, Hanna and I had a little chat about a certain relationship that we all knew (or at least I believed) would never work out. She told me that the friends of Guy A in said relationship threatened to "take care" of Noel because he walked in on Guy A and Girl A in said relationship. Of course I thought this was completely absurd because firstly... what the heck? What gives anyone the right to beat up someone else for their presence? Or if I wanted to be blunt about the whole ordeal... "if they even make a threatening blink at Noel I'll rip off their balls and tube feed it into their eye sockets!" But honestly, I will blather GTFO and DIAF at them if I ever see them again. (GTFO = get the fuck off. DIAF = die in a fire.) When Noel told me that Guy A told them NOT to hurt Noel, all I could think of is Malfoy bossing around his two stupid lackeys (I don't even remember their names right now, but I keep thinking Grimmjaw and Ukelala *sigh*)... wow, Guy A has some "major authority" in the situation right now. Hanna basically told me what she heard from Eric, that the two lackeys threatened to hurt Noel for walking in on Girl A and Guy A. By the way this all took place at the last night of AX when I went over to the Miyako Hotel to hang out with Steph and Eric. I found out that Guy A, the two dumb lackeys, Steph, Eric, and Noel were all having a discussion about drama that I've over with now but it's all coming back to me now! Anyway, Steph was kicked out of the conversation, so Noel says, and Eric was backing up Noel while Guy A and the two lackeys were verbally attacking Noel (note: I don't know what when on in the conversation but I did know that apparently the threesome kept saying, "Shut up! You're not a part of this!" at Eric... I thank Eric for his dedication to stick by Noel while Noel was being verbally attacked, as well as his maturity to make the conversation between all of them a physically non-violent one). In the meanwhile, from what Noel said Girl A wasn't doing anything at this point except sitting there silently. Apparently she didn't say anything throughout the whole conversation. Noel told me that she did not have to be there and she did not have to hear what they were saying (I guess there was some pretty crazy stuff said in the conversation) but the threesome wouldn't let her leave the room (who knows if she cared enough to leave anyway). Apparently one of the lackeys or whoever treated Girl A like a little girl, saying something along the lines of "Are you okay? Do you want some candy?" while she just sat there listening to the verbal attacks between the threesome versus Noel and Eric. At this point (Noel is telling me all of this after Hanna and Kristina went off to get Hanna's car from the street over from Kristina's apartment) I felt REALLY sad for a bunch of reasons... like I couldn't believe Girl A just accepted being treated like that... or maybe they didn't let her talk. Maybe she just didn't care about the whole ordeal. "Yeah, she was probably just taking it all in and seething, because she seems like the kind of girl who would just sit there and think to herself how the whole situation is stupid and they should all just mind their own business and let her do whatever she wants... because she's so smart, and knows it all," commented a friend of mine in an EXTENSIVE chat I had with him yesterday. Of course, I'll never know how she was thinking then because she's never going to tell me in a straight out manner if I ever asked her. That's just how it is. That reminds me, what happened yesterday....

So when I came back from Kristina's house two days ago, my mom told me that Girl A was out to go see a friend at Irvine Spectrum. Being me, of course I'd be suspicious. Girl A has friends? I'm not even joking about this... at school Girl A only hung out with my friends and even towards my friends she was super apathetic to them... she wouldn't talk to any of them unless they talked to her first, and she even said "it was nice meeting you" to Mindy (a very, very good friend of mine) at the end of the year... after hanging out for TWO YEARS under the same tree with her. Anyway, Girl A was to go out with a friend the next day at Irvine Spectrum. It was so obvious that she was going to go see Guy A at the Spectrum but just in case I played a little bit of a game with her.... See, Girl A had to go to the DMV to make an appointment for her driving test, so when she came up to me to say that her "friend" was going to be here to pick her up, I told Girl A that we had to go to the DMV to make her appointment. The facial expression was priceless, I tell you! She had to call her "friend" back, but she went into her room to do that. Immediately I knew that it had to be Guy A, because she doesn't talk to him unless she's in her room. (That reminds me, my mom told me to drive Girl A to the Spectrum because her "friend" was 17 so my mom didn't feel safe having someone with "only their permit" to take Girl A around... immediately I have become an accomplice to Girl A's stupid whims.) Anyway, at the DMV I asked who she was going to hang out with. Girl A told me it was friend named Karly from school and that another friend was going to the Spectrum as well, and the two/three of them were going to go shopping and watch Hancock. Afterwards, I asked to look up a number of one of our friends on the pretense that I had to call him for something. She handed me the phone... and I looked at her recent call list. Of course... all the latest calls were from Guy A!

On the way to the Spectrum I wanted to be all sarcastic and say "I didn't know Guy A had a sex change" or "have fun with Guy A... oh, unless he wants to be called Karly from now on, if he's more comfortable with that." But enough with the crack jokes (although I'm really tempted to say "Hey Karly!" the next time I see Guy A).... Maybe I'm a little mad at myself for letting it all go like this. Since I knew of their stupid outing, I was technically an accomplice in the ordeal. Technically I could've stopped it right then and there. Too bad that, even though I'm the only one (at least to my knowledge) making a big deal of all of this, "that kind of person never understands that these people care about them and maybe they should be more thoughtful." Another quote by Richard in our extensive conversation, hehe. It would make sense for my reaction to not care about any of it anymore, which also applies to the fact that I don't want in on ANY of it anymore. "Don't make me drive YOU to YOUR goddamn fag of a boyfriend!" Technically I could've let her get picked up by her "friend" but I was curious to see how she'd try that with me standing outside the house wanting to meet this "Karly." If I treat it all as amusement (because I know exactly how everything will play out, predictable blobs as Guy A and Girl A are), then I won't be so emotionally involved, just involved because I'm curious as to see how this damned relationship will work. I regret that I shed tears over Girl A for her being treated as a little girl, because with these turns of events and with her passivity I can't see her as anything else besides as a little girl. She's too emotionally draining to be around anymore. The two of them are an eyesore to me and just listening to them singularly or together makes me cringe. But no matter... as stupid and naive as she is, the only thing I can do for her is give her advice and be there for her (whatever the hell she's doing with her life isn't up to me but she better take responsibility for any slip-ups she makes with her life, and I'll simply be there to support her if she needs it). The only thing she needs to do now for the two of us to get along is to grow up. And that's the end of my ranting. Yay for semi-organized ranting~ As for all of those who know me well enough, you should know who Girl A is... and Guy A is just an obnoxiously immature dickweed of a man who is also her boyfriend. Yucky.

But enough of that, I just realized I'm very behind on my website. Ugh... so far I need to severely update my site's affiliates as well as add a link to the Naraku no Hana fanlisting to my current fanlistings' page. I can't believe I forgot to add it in there... I also want to update the content and layouts of my busier fanlistings, such as the Haruhi Suzumiya, Gintama, and Hot Gimmick fanlistings. I also deserve a special recognition for the Shuffle and Priest Seto/Pharaoh Atemu fanlistings since my love for Yuugiou has been rekindled thanks to Kristina. *dry laugh....*

Onslaught of emotion: eager, hungry, interested
Listening to music: Maps - Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Browsing through: Team Medical Dragon, Desire Climax 42
ALT+TAB: Mozilla Firefox, AOL Instant Messenger

My inconsistency with this blog is getting a little out of hand now. I should honestly get going with how the rest of my month went, but right now I'm chatting with Kristen, tired from work, and feeling the urge to play more Mabinogi. Oh, I curse my other "obligations."

I'll go in chronological order first. So... Avatar: the Last Airbender is really over. With the two hour finale that happened a few Saturdays ago I still can't believe the series is over. All those great times are done with. I wasn't sure how exactly the creators were going to end the entire series in just two hours but they sure executed it very well. A few notes to go with this finale.... I'm SO RELIEVED Katara and Aang ended up together. I mean, I don't ship either Zutara or Kataang but I think the latter makes much more sense in terms of personality compatibility than Zutara (it doesn't help also that most of the Zutara fans I encounter were illogically supporting the pair probably on the pretense they inserted their own ideals into Katara and thus "supported" her relationship with the ever-angsty, ever-emo Zuko). On the downside I was sad that Toph didn't end up with Sokka (not that I don't like Suki, but Sokka and Toph would've been really cute! ). It was super epic when Ozai took off his clothes though. Ah, although there won't be a book four coming out, I was glad that the creators managed to tie up all the loose ends (but where IS Ursa?).

The Dark Knight was AMAZING. I watched it the Monday after its initial release with Noel and Kristina, and the theater was so packed with people that there was a 15 minute delay because some people were sitting in the aisles and creating a fire hazard. Heath Ledger's Joker is my favorite character in the movie, I must say, and I can't help myself when I say that his version of the Joker is super hot. The movie was even better than I expected and I got to see it for a second time yesterday~ This time I paid a lot more attention to the visuals than the first time, and admired the Joker on the big screen in his disgusting glory. *drool*

Comic Con was... HUGE. On the first day it took Kristina, Julie, and I two hours to find parking (and we were circling all over downtown San Diego on at least 6 different parallel streets)... the parking situation discouraged me a lot and even made me consider not going to Comic Con next year. Eventually we found parking at the Horton Plaza which was a few blocks away and once we entered the convention center, we literally went through about a third of the exhibit hall in the hours we were there. Imagine 54 grand aisles worth of stuff! All the big name companies were there like Fox, ABC, Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, Square Enix, Marvel Comics and DC Comics... we only had a chance to look at the entire exhibit hall on Sunday. The Avatar panel was the best part of Comic Con not only because we got to see the last two episodes again in front of a lot of people (I laughed at all the Zutarian cheering), but the Q&A from Mike and Bryan revealed a lot about what's up for Avatar (original soundtrack FTW?). I am SO going next year...!! Samurai Shodown for cosplay, anyone?

Onslaught of emotion: fulgent, empowered, invincible
Listening to music: Won't Get Fooled Again - The Who
Browsing through: hakuku on deviantART, Anime Fanlistings Network
ALT+TAB: Mozilla Firefox

As an anal cosplayer, it's literally my job to make sure I do an accurate and well-executed job of the character I plan to cosplay. To do this many reference pictures from the show and from official pictures are needed at every possible angle to ensure complete accuracy. However...

Ergh, someone has to explain to me what in the work the animators were thinking with Toph's... back slit thing. Why include it if you're just gonna mess up on the coloring of it anyway? Now I'm not too sure what I'll do for that back slit, but I'll check up on what other cosplayers did. I'll either do that or look for an official picture of her back....

... for the belt, shoe, and wrist things I decided to go with a dirty dark green that is somewhere in between the two images you see here (what is with the color discrepancies?!). Fabric-wise I didn't care much about the type of fabric but it was difficult to find the color; I had to settle with this fabric that is commonly used for beach/summer dresses... I think it's cotton? Ah, well I'm not planning too much out of this outfit, but as Tim Gunn would say: MAKE IT WORK!

On a topic separate from cosplay, did anyone get to see Jupitor tonight? I'm bummed because it's misty in the sky where I'm at (dammit and I thought it was suppose to be summer CLEAR nights), but supposedly Noel can see it over at his house. I bet Jess and everyone in the RSM/Trabuco Canyon area can see it too... I curse Irvine Spectrum for giving me intense light pollution. Agh.

Onslaught of emotion: satisfied, sick, a little groggy
Listening to music: Map of the Problematique - Muse
Browsing through: Gmail, Facebook, A Cosplay Paradise, Cosplay.com
ALT+TAB: Mozilla Firefox

For the first order of business, I just wanted to say that Anime Expo was a blast! Even though I went for three days, I felt as though I did a lot in my time there from going to Arist Alley and Exhibit Hall to walking around the convention center trying to milk photographs out of people so I could find my pictures online somewhere. I think this will be my first anime convention review that I'll be making up along the way, so I hope you enjoy it!

Advantages:I loved how the convention center was ENORMOUS. Even though I felt as though not as many people came to AX this year, I had to take into account the sheer size of the convention center; there were probably a bunch of people elsewhere besides where I was at the time (and I would make mental notes of the population every time I was in the front of South Hall). I had no real probably of being squished against someone in the hallways or making frequent checks to not bump into people (I only seriously hindered two people and that's because one person had a trailing dress and the other had a full body suit, aha). Another huge plus was that the entire place was air conditioned. That was a huge relief as compared to last year's AX when LBCC was practically outside 70% of the time in the scorching sun. I didn't sweat nearly as much as I did last year, so yay for that. This year I didn't stalk around Exhibit Hall as much because of my lack of money to spend on myself (plus it seemed to me there wasn't enough Gintama stuff in the first place ). I didn't buy much this convention except for the COSMODE USA hardcover book and the Code Geass Illustration Artbook (it's a double win for me!)... I also bought a gift for a friend of mine that couldn't make it to AX (you better like what I got you, Kyson!) as well as something for one of my guy cousins (Is it Domo-kun related? Who knows...).

Disadvantages: I didn't like how I couldn't find any of the gatherings... the site stairs thing was a silly mistake that should've been resolved immediately. It was enough of a hassle to find out where the Gundam gathering was for my sister, but then when I found out where the Bleach gathering was (it was in the same location), I thought to myself "no wonder nobody could find the gathering!" It was only a miracle that I found out where the Bleach gathering was because someone told me about it. I also didn't like how the entrance to Exhibit Hall was handled. Although checking the badges at the bottom of the stairs was probably done to organize traffic, I didn't like the aspect of going back downstairs once you were already on the second floor at the actual entrance of the Exhibit Hall. And what was with the downwards escalators? I noticed that the majority of the escalators were either broken or turned off, but either way I didn't understand why that had to happen. The shuttles were a bit of a hassle to go back and forth on only because I had to wait 15 minutes back and forth from my friends' hotel rooms. I could see how they'd be extremely useful if you had a hotel room, but then they became super anal on Saturday two days after Anime Expo had started. You would think they would reinforce their shuttle policies sooner than the second to last day of Anime Expo. I had a bit of drama with one of my friends this convention, but thankfully I didn't let it get to my convention mood. Overall I'd give the convention this year a 8/10, only because I tried not to let the negative factors ruin a perfectly good convention experience.

For my cosplay to-do list I'm signing myself up for what seems to be a doomsday nuclear explosion in terms of quantity of cosplay (I would say quality but I try to make all my cosplay top notch). The cosplay with two stars are what I'm sure I'll be doing this year (by "this year" I mean in the period between Anime Expo conventions), and the one star cosplay are what I have to consult with others just for clarification but I'm more certain about.

** Prince Sakura (Cardcaptor Sakura) - Anime Expo 2009
** Battle Outfit Sakura (Cardcaptor Sakura) - Anime LA 2009
* Shiro (Deadman Wonderland) - Anime LA 2009(?) / Fanime 2009
** Yami Yugi (Yuugiou) Anime Expo 2009
* Suzumiya Haruhi (Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu) - Fanime 2009(?)
Eiko (Final Fantasy IX) - whenever
Sumomo Akihime (Nanatsuiro Drops) - only because I'm crazy for cute
Darry (Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann) - whenever
* Anya (Code Geass R2) - Anime Expo 2009 (?)
Puru II (Gundam) - no idea but I have to ask Julie
Myself (Battle Royale) - Stanford wants to do this for AX 2009...
Lolita Grandma (Mushishi) - won't be for a convention, haha

Just making a final note that I'll be doing Toph from Avatar: the Last Airbender for Comic Con! Be sure to spot me there! That reminds me that I have to start on my Toph outfit soon....

Onslaught of emotion: hot, amused, mushy, intrigued
Listening to music: Driver's High - L'Arc~En~Ciel
Browsing through: NANI, MAI HANI?, Facebook, Gmail
ALT+TAB: Mozilla Firefox

Before I get into the meat and potatoes of my entry, I just want to say that two new fanlistings have been added to the network! Please welcome the Noah family fanlisting if I haven't done so already, and welcome the Road Kamelot fanlisting as well! Hooray for D.Gray-man related fanlistings. I also want to note that the Opaque Network has a completely new layout so please visit the main site! And now onto the big part of my entry....

Who would've though that Photobucket image editing options would be made of so much win and fail at the same time? I just blame that it was a direct flash-at-night picture, thus why my skin looks so dark with the white... I tried to edit it out by adjusting the curves and blurring the picture, but Photobucket image editing is not the same as actual Adobe Photoshop. *dry laugh* BUT I AM DONE WITH C.C. AS OF FRIDAY!! (Are you satisfied with a picture now, Kristen?) Now I just have Rukia to stress about, aha.

Edit: I tinkered around some more with the Photobucket image editing thing and I decided I liked the second version of the picture I did more. It makes me look a little better, I suppose. If you want to see the first version with the blur and whatnot, here you go!