Eventually

So, it's been barely a week since I turned twenty and HOLYFREAKINGCRAP so much has happened since. I... can't even begin to describe. So much drama, so much chaos... I can't wrap my mind around it all.

But...

Some of the most memorable and amazing moments of my LIFE have happened this past week. Most of which I'm not even go into BUT...

My friends threw me a surprise party, I'd never felt so loved before.

I rode the bus for the first time after taking an epic face plant onto the street.

I feel... lighter now. No, things aren't any easier, in fact, I'm pretty sure they've just gotten more complicated, but... I'm more confident that everything is going to be okay now. Eventually.

It's OVER

Sooooo, I'm twenty now. Yup. I'm old.

When I first woke up this morning, I was not excited for my birthday. This week has been one of the worst in a long, LONG time - for a lot of people, not just myself. But you know what? It's the weekend. Week end. The worst is OVER.

No, I'm not being positive, I'm remembering how AWESOME I am, and celebrating it justly.

The Epic Cosplay Checklist

So, I needed to make a list, but somewhere I wouldn't lose it. Yay for the internet!

Holly and Nigel's list of what we still need for our Anime Expo Cosplay:

Cloud/Tifa:
[X] Tifa/Rinoa Wig
[X] Borrow Tifa Cosplay from Xion
[] Repairs for both costumes

Squall/Rinoa:
[] Squall Wig
[] Squall Jacket
[] White V Neck
[] Squall Necklace
[] Belts
[] Pleather pants
[] Black Gloves
[] Black Boots
[] Rinoa/Tifa Wig
[] Rinoa Sweater/armbands
[] Black V neck tank top
[] Black Shorts
[] Denim Skirt
[] Rinoa Necklace
[] Black Boots

Liz/Patty
[] Denim Pants
[] Denim Shorts
[] Two red turtlenecks
[] Two ties
[] Two weird ass hats
[] Liz Wig
[] Patty Wig

Sasuke/Naruto
[] Naruto Pants

Sleep Is For The Weak

Okay, so I've managed to put off blogging for over a week now, and I have no real excuse. The end of December/beginning of January were so busy, that the past couple weeks have just been an uneventful blur. The only two times I really got out of the house were last weekend, at the cosplay gathering and today, at the Gantz movie premiere.

This weekend, what with filming and all, should get me back into the routine of life. Maybe I'll even get more than three hours sleep one night. (Here's to hoping~)

ALA 2011

Anime Los Angeles was amazing. I'd love to talk about the crazy day of preparation, the sleepless nights, the fangirls, the karaoke, the friends, the love, the insanity, the laughs, and most of all the cosplay. But.... I'm just not up to it. Not to self advertise, but I'd suggest you check out http://www.youtube.com/user/OtakuClanDiaries for all the fun.

Right now, I'm sitting here trying not to think. And I gotta say, it's pretty hard to do when there are WAY too many things to think about and not enough things to distract myself with.

...

Guild Wars it is.

Onward To 2011

I feel as though I should be typing up my goals for the upcoming year - I don't like using the term "resolutions" - sooo... here we go~

1. I need to draw more. I'm not going to set a specific number, as life is unpredictable and I can't make any guarantees, BUT I would like to draw more than I did in 2010.

2. I want to work on my cosplay, a lot. Granted this is something I'm already doing, but I definitely plan on continuing.

3. I want to NOT fail out of community college. It's sad that I have to make this a goal, but I'm incredibly lazy when it comes to school.

4. I want to attempt to find a job that I wouldn't hate with a burning passion. I don't think such a job exists, but it would still be nice to move out within the next couple years.

5. I want to keep blogging on a regular basis, it keeps my writing skills sharp. It's also a lot of fun.

There are soooo many other things I want to accomplish, but I don't like setting more goals than I'm capable of completing. Plus, five is a good number, I think.

On a side note, it would seem my goals get more and more realistic each year. I'm not sure if this is because I'm growing wiser, or just lowering my expectations of myself.

Ah well, onward to 2011~!

2010

It would seem we have entered the final day of 2010. 2010... 2010, man. There's just so much to say about this year, I don't know where to begin. Ahem, I'd best grab some Mountain Dew for this one.

I can say with quite a bit of certainty that 2010 was by far the most eventful year of my entire life thus far. Consequently, it was also the second worst year of my life. (First prize still goes to 2006, which will be spoken of at a different time. Or not at all, that's fine with me.)

Logically speaking, I should start with January. Oh my God, was that only a year ago? It seems like an eternity. I actually have to look back at my old blog posts to remember, how sad is that?

The year started with Winter intersession, an optional 6 week long session at my college in which students can take classes in half the amount of time they normally would. I was foolish enough to enroll for it. My memory of those first couple months is pretty hazy, as I got minimal sleep, loads of stress, and a good ol' fashioned cold.

Life progressed, I turned 19, I had a few laughs with friends, I failed some classes, I took a trip to Boston, etc. It sounds like my spring was pretty eventful, doesn't it? But looking back I barely remember it. No, the true highlight of this year was the summer.

Perhaps I should correct myself, the insanity started sometime in May or so. I suddenly had commitments. Granted these commitments were playing Dungeons & Dragons and meetings for a cosplay group, but still, it was the first time I'd had any weekly commitments since... since... EVER. Things were moving along smoothly, I had a nice balance of things to do and time in which to do it... for about a month.

When my group of friends - half of whom were attending college out of state - reassembled for the summer, they wanted to hang out all the time. Okay. As did the other group of friends I had managed to attain. Uh oh. Oh, and did I mention I had three online classes for the summer? Uhhhhh, this isn't looking good. And on top of the many excursions, the friend drama, the family drama, and - OHMYGODICAN'THANDLETHIS!!!

Yeaaaaah. It was an amazing summer, with some unforgettable memories, but GEEZ, I've never been so exhausted in my life.

Things slowed down a bit for the latter part of the year, but not by much. There was the good: I made quite a few more friends, entered my first relationship, started another cosplay group, made a lot of good memories, and even started hanging out more often on campus... because it was fun. And there was the bad: family issues - some concerning my mothers health, some concerning strained relationships - became even more stressful, my grades got progressively worse, and I found out that one of my best friends is moving across the country in January.

So much happened... I still have a hard time wrapping my mind around the thought that... it's over. 2010 is finally over. Well, almost.

By the way, I completed one out of my five goals for the year - to post on this blog on a regular basis. Go me.

I Just Don't Get It

This year I made it a point not to say "Merry Christmas" or anything of the sort to anyone unless I meant it, and as you can guess, I've yet to say it.

I just don't understand Christmas. I mean, from a Christian perspective, I do, but outside of that, what's the point? When I was a kid I only had the "Christmas spirit" because I got gifts. But what is there to it now?

I know there's the gift of giving and all that Lifetime channel nonsense, and I do enjoy giving gifts but... is it really THAT big of a deal?

Maybe I'm just jaded because one of my best friends is moving in a few weeks. Or perhaps it's the fact that I'm growing up and all the magic in life is fading away. Or it could be that I associate Christmas with the actual Christmas day, which is when I go spend unnecessary time with family.

Or maybe I'm just another Charlie Brown.

My History With Cosplay

A hobby of mine? Cosplay. No thinking required to figure out what to write about. Somehow, in just the past year, this one little hobby has become my life.

I first started cosplaying the Halloween of my freshman year of high school - over 5 years ago now. I was Edward Elric from Fullmetal Alchemist, my favorite character of all time both then and now. I admit it wasn't the best made cosplay, but it was fun and I loved it. I could BE Edward??? A novel concept to a 14 year old.

The following Halloween, I decided to be Tifa Lockhart from Final Fantasy VII. (The game, not the movie.) The costume was pretty well made, but the hair kind of failed. The Halloween after that, when I was Roxas, was the same. Great outfit, but the hair. (Later on I bought a really nice wig that puts the coat to shame.)

Somewhere along the line I went to my second con, Anime Expo, and made the cosplay that I would wear many, many years to come, Winry Rockbell. She was my first really good cosplay. Following that I made another outfit for her, two for Misa Amane, Yamada from B Gata H Kei, and redid my Edward cosplay. I also bought Haruhi Suzumiya (or Mikuru Asahina, depending on the hair), and more recently Rin Kagamine and Cloud Strife.

Seven or eight months ago - I don't know - I joined a cosplay group that a couple of my friends had started, Otaku Clan Diaries. That was what truly set my cosplay filled fate in stone. After that group's show, Not Quite Friends, had been up and running for awhile, I helped to form another cosplay group, now known as Dust Bunnies Productions. On top of all that, I'm running my own mini-show, Not Quite Somebody, and working on some of my own videos as well.

And that brings us to today, where I have 18 future cosplays on my list, and am cutting my hair in order to better affix wigs to myself. (And so I can be Roxas ALL the time :D.) My one little hobby grew into a huge obsession. And I'm loving every minute of it.

Happy

"Apparently day six of the 30 day blogging challenge has no prompt. That is, it's one of those days where you're free to discuss whatever you please. Um... that's not helpful.

I"

That was as far as I got with my blog post yesterday before spontaneously passing out. Apparently getting 4 hours of sleep or less for several days in a row isn't a good idea. Huh. Surprise, surprise.

Anyway, today is "A photo that makes you happy." After digging through my Facebook photos, this is what I came up with:


It's a photo of me and three of the people who meant everything to me in high school/middle school. There weren't many times when we took pictures really, but for some reason that day, my parents pulled out the camera. We were playing Rock Band, of course :)

This was taken our senior year of high school, so a little less than two years ago. It feels like an eternity ago though...
I miss hanging out with this group all the time.

Routine

So, I stopped blogging for awhile because the inevitable happened... I started a routine. Life is becoming predictable, yet again, and it's depressing.

Mondays through Fridays I sit in the school cafeteria all day, come home, sit on the internet, and then go to sleep. Fridays/Saturdays have some variation, but I'm usually filming at least one of those days, and doing something else cosplay related on the other. Then Sundays are either my days of recovery from an otherwise sleepless weekend, or more cosplay stuff, before I have D&D that night.

Now don't get me wrong, I love what I do, but dear GOD does it get dull sometimes - the weekdays in particular. I feel the need to find something to occupy myself with soon, otherwise I may start taking out this annoyance on others... if I haven't already, that is.

October

Man, was October one INSANE month. Between filming the Halloween episode of Not Quite Friends - which is now uploaded: http://www.youtube.com/user/OtakuClanDiaries - to hanging out with friends, to meeting with the OTHER cosplay group, to getting ready for Halloween, to dealing with all my family problems, to relationships... *takes a deep breath* yeah. It was busy.

To say it was a roller coaster of a month would be an understatement, it was more like a tilt-a-whirl. And you know what? I'm still spinning.

Halloween is tomorrow, and it's going to be just as crazy. I'm still on the fence about NaNoWriMo. I know it starts in less than 24 hours, and that this is usually how I doom myself to failure, but... what can I say, I'm only me.

The Epic Tale Of Epicness

This weekend was insane exhausting ridiculous fun. It was, as usual, filled to the brim with anime, involving events with both of the cosplay groups I am a part of.

The most epic part of the weekend would probably be the beach trip that Friday with The Other Cosplay Group. (Uh, the not-OCD-one.) The beach itself was mediocre, really. It was too old to go in the water, and we ended up being really late, due to the fact that ten minutes from the destination, my GPS decided to direct us halfway back to Riverside. It's what we did there that made the day for me. We played Red Rover. That was my shining moment of glory in life, because I am the Michael Jordan of that game.

After persuading the group to play, I was made a team captain. (This was probably a mistake on the groups part.) My team proceeded to tear the other to shreds - in some cases, almost literally. My catchphrase for when people would bounce backward after running into the wall that was my arm was "YOU CAN'T BREAK ME" and whenever I would tear my way through the other teams linked arms I would chant "I AM KING". Unfortunately, every great ruler has their downfall, and toward the end of the game, I met mine.

For those who don't know, when a person successfully breaks through the team that called them over, they are allowed to take back a person with them. At this point, the opposing team was down to only two people, and when one of the people had managed to identify and break through one of our weaker links, she thought it best to bring ME over to their team. Soon enough, I was faced with the daunting task of breaking my own empire. For a moment, I thought I could do it.

But the team knew me, they knew my method of running full force, and knew that the way to defeat me was strategy. I threw myself at the link of arms, as usual, and pulled a good half of the line to the ground, but they didn't break....? Why? Because they hadn't resisted falling, they decided instead to fall with me and watch me breathlessly crawl on my hands and knees screaming "YOU... CAN'T... BREAK... ME..." pulling them with me, their chain still not breaking. When they realized I wasn't giving up, they began running forward - forward for them, that is -sending me hurtling backward, the taste of defeat - and sand - poisoning my mouth. Needless to say, they had stopped me, and I was once again, a part of that team.

In the end, it was my team - my original team - that won, but that one bit of failure disappointed my overly competitive self. And this, dear friends, is why I should never be allowed to play games that I am actually good at.

The rest of the weekend was not nearly as amazing. Oh sure, there was filming, a movie night, more filming, and other fun, but nothing quite like Red Rover.

I also managed to hurt myself quite a bit amongst all this. Aside from my bruises/scrapes from playground games, I also got a battle scar from the first day of filming with the OCD. While attempting to zip up Patrick's too-small-for-him boots, a chunk of my finger was ripped away - along with his dignity - leaving me with a hole the size of a pencil eraser in my flesh.

Fun stuff.

I'll let you in on the not-so-fun stuff in another post.

Carry On, Carry On

My cosplay consumed life continues to press on. Though I suppose I should be thankful for the distraction. Aside from the filming for the cosplay group(s) I'm in - http://www.youtube.com/user/OtakuClanDiaries - I've also been posting a few videos of my own - http://www.youtube.com/user/MeahowX. Nothing too interesting, but, y'know, it's a start.

Anyway, other than that, there isn't really anything interesting going on in life right now. Not to say all the drama died down, it's still there, but this is what you'd call a period of waiting. Waiting to see what happens, both on the family and friend front. (Though the former is far more significant.)

While there's the potential for some major life changes to be going on, I doubt such things will actually happen. We'll see, I suppose. Until then, I'm going to carry on as usual.

Back in Blonde

Who said blondes have more fun? Thanks to temporary hair dye, I was a redhead (this is a rarity, for those who don't know I'm a natural blonde) for the past two days - for a cosplay, of course - and I had tons of fun.

All joking aside, I'm more pumped up than ever for future cosplay. Not, mind you, motivated enough to get a job.

I'm not really sure what this blog post is about anymore, I'm just trying to figure out what to do with the extra time I'll have since I was dropped from one of my classes. Work on my art? My music? My writing? My room?

Ugh, an additional three hours a day is NOT enough to accomplish all that.

I need to learn how to budget time. Or something like that. I dunno.

Wing It

As if to redeem itself from the two previous days, life was kind today. I hung out with/talked to a lot of different friends without really intending to. It was also relatively stress free, something I needed.

So, yes, I was dropped from a class, I got a parking citation, probably won't graduate college, and have just been having a really crappy week.... BUT.... I don't really care anymore.

Seriously. I'm so done with caring about things not going as planned. I never used to plan ahead, why start now? I'm gonna wing it.

Hmmm...

This past weekend... it was epic yet insanely stressful at the same time. I'm not really sure what to think.

One last week before Fall semester begins. I'll probably cram as much as possible into the remaining time, rather than get the rest I need. Oh well, at list I'm consistent.

Busy Busy Busy

It's been awhile, hasn't it?

I've been keeping busy, more or less, with all my friends and what not. It seems like they all want to hang out lately. I swear, I saw one of my friends 4 different times within 2 days.

Lately I prefer sitting at home on the internet. I mean, when we're actually doing stuff I don't mind, but sitting around "enjoying each others company" doesn't always work for me. I'm a restless person, I can't help it.

This coming week is going to be pretty busy too, I'm not sure what to think of it. I suppose I'll just have to wait and see.

ZOMG

(I posted this on a diff blog too, so my apologies if it sounds different than other posts.)

Oh my gosh, Anime Expo was awesome. Maybe even more awesome than previous years. I can still smell the epicness. (This is a metaphorical smell of course. Rooming with four guys in a hotel room half the size of the average bedroom, I can't imagine I smell too great.) OKAY, so, I'm not going to go into major details about the event, seeing as it was five - technically four, but I went to day zero - days long, I shall summarize.

This year I was with one of my friend who lives in a different city than I, Ethan, and all of his friends. Despite the fact that the hotel was jank, the registration line was eternal, all the food was insanely expensive, I got hit in the face with a sword, and Ethan and I somehow ended up wandering around LA at 9pm looking for my car... the weekend was still amazing.

The bad things were easily outweighed by the good: an epic card game of crazy 8's in which two people fought for third place - first and second were determined within ten minutes - for almost an hour, "shank the cleavage", screwing with idiots via text messages, and some of the most ridiculous conversations I've ever participated in.

And none of that was even at the convention.

The con was amazing too, just adding on to my already great weekend <3

It's The Few And Far Between

Today made up for all the crappiness that was this week. I don't care how well I did in school, I really don't. I had so much fun hanging out with friends tonight. I've said it before and I'll say it again, it's nights like this that make life worth living.