In South Dakota, we made a detour to see Mt. Rushmore. The next day, we took a drive in downtown Chicago. Both days were rainy, so...

( Washington had a nosebleed )


( Chicago's buildings are lovely even in gloomy weather )

...and I had too much fun on the Banff glaciers:



( This kind of bus is also used in Antarctica )

While in Calgary, we stayed with a family who were old friends with my parents. They had an amusing cat named Muffin. <3 We went to the Royal Tyrrell museum since it's one of the most famous dinosaur fossil museums of the world. Today we started going towards Toronto. But the best route to reach there is actually through the US lol. So we spent most of the day going through Montana. Holy crap this state has more cows than people (lots of deers were roaming near the cows too). I could rant about the painstaking extra inspection we went through to re-enter the US through Sweet Grass port... but I was more amused to see a lady having some of her grapes taken away lol.

Also WTF: The whole Canada has less population than California!

Before we even reached Banff, I got large pieces of bruises from tripping and falling down on gravel road in a dramatically stupid way. =_= The glaciers were indeed spectacular and made quiet an experience in the middle of summer. We did see some mountain goats, but they were shedding coats and were therefore as ugly as hell. Banff really is bear country as we easily saw 3 of them lounging around major roads. I'm too tired to upload photos today.

Dear hotel, if you are offering wireless internet, please make sure that all of your rooms CAN RECEIVE the signals. And we were only on the second floor!

Anyways, due to that and the fact that we spent forever getting dinner, I couldn't go online yesterday. After entering Canada, we took the ferry (along with our car) to Victoria, a pretty island town:


Nearby is Butchart Gardens... where I got a nasty sunburn from taking too many flower pictures. XD


We went to Vancouver today. The Capilano Suspension Bridge was fun, albeit stuffed with tourists. We are resting in an *insert sarcasm* amazing slanting hotel room before heading for Banff.

----------------------------------------

P.S. I was able to catch up on some anime while taking the ferry... The fight between Shinpachi and Toshi in Gintama ep163 was surprisingly moving... and finally quality shaded-drawing animation lol.

I jumped into Kinokuniya and came out with a big purchase: Soten Koro art book. Ever since I skimmed through the manga, I’m been impressed by the bold and colorful art style of King Gonta. In a lot of the images, he also conveys a refreshingly odd sense of humor through the use of exaggerated yet detailed expressions. The book is actually published in 2006, so I was thrilled to learn of its existence as I spotted it on the shelf. It didn’t take long before it ended up in my hands.

( detailed loot pics )


Kinokuniya had a sizable collection of manga in Japanese, Chinese, and English. There’s plenty of art books and magazines to drool over. I was slightly worried when my dad decided to check out a Gurren Lagaan art book. o.O There’s stuff like Cosmode and Gothic & Lolita Bible too. I flipped through everything related to clothing and design, but didn’t find a kimono book that I wanted to buy. The Jump issue they had didn’t feature Gintama on the cover, so I didn’t pick that up either.

There’s an Asian grocer connected to Kinokuniya, and I found some Gintama toys in there and even Gundam 00 trading figures!

-----------------------------------------------

GSC's Saber Lily and Arawn nendoroids are up for preorder. I'm still on the fence about them, although the temptation is hard to resist~

We had a crappy day visiting the volcano parks... scenic sections were closed, we got lost due to lack of road signs, dad fell asleep at the wheel and almost hit a tree, no clean food, etc.

So... screw volcanoes, we are hitting Seattle tomorrow and I hope to visit the Kinokuniya branch there.

Tomorrow we start visiting a lot of National Parks, and I still find opportunities to watch anime in the car.


Since I was Emperor Lelouch on Saturday...

( AMA'09 Code Geass cosplayers photos )

No, we are not going to Yellowstone. But we still ended up in this crappy place after going through the middle of nowhere Nebraska. This hotel has crappy internet connection too. *pulls hair out*

We got to the Arch today and almost got ticketed for speeding. =P

Oh, I guess I should say something about Saturday's AMA: Panels and events were blah~ I did see some people from AZ. The only photos I got was of an impromptu Code Geass shoot. It was the first time my parents saw me in a cosplay, luckily they seem to like it. Also the emperor Lelouch costume is official known as the "safety pin outfit"... because despite it being nicely sewn, a gazillion safety pins were needed to hold the shape while I walk. I got the hat anchored on my wig perfectly this time.

I haven't been on the net much at all due to heavy lab work and trip preparation, but we just got to our first spot today and I went to AMA... it was pretty uneventful so far. Lots of Vocaloid cosplayers around though... and as with every con-Fridays, the place is 99.9% teens.

The view of my backyard on Friday morning was spectacular:



So I was taking a shower at 8am when I hear this loud noise. I thought it was just large props falling down and ignored it. Then I looked out the glass screen in my living room and saw this... The only thing I could think of: "Crap, I better put some pants on!"

I feel relatively alive today.

Yeah, that's me preparing yesterday's - and today's dinner at 3am this morning. W00t! I made some basic oinarisan and drowned in the heaven of delicious rice. Starting yesterday, I returned to being a good insomniac since there's loads of cleaning and organizing in my home before my parents come crashing in. Since I have to spend most of my day in the lab, there's not enough time to do everything AND work on costuming. And I spent some 5 hours meticulously folding my precious kimonos once I realized that they are all horribly mis-folded...orz. My back officially broke afterwards.

On a more positive note, I finally asked my boss for the vacation, and everything's finalized on me attending Anime Mid-Atlantic. Since I have to carry all my stuff throughout the 2-week vacation, I'm just going to take it easy and wear Emperor Lelouch (for sure), and either Oichi or Nozomi or kimono set depending on how much space I can find in my parents' car.

Speaking of kimono kitsuke, I practiced a few hours of andon hakama dressing and wore a black/red outfit to last Saturday's neighborhood library mini-con as a volunteer (which consists of swapping DVDs and keeping an eye on the anime room). They had some really good series but the stinking DVD player lacked a remote control, so we were stuck to dubs most of the time. The only ones with default subs are Gurren Lagann and Aria. And watching dubbed D.Gray-man reminded me of how corny the English dialogues can be. Oh and, School Rumble dub is known to induce severe ear pain. XDDDDDD


( Large kimono kitsuke photos ahead )

As usual, I took pictures of these books and then forgot to post them for a few months.

( 3 doujinshi and 2 artbooks )

PREVIEW:

It's not until my parents have decided on the dates for our annual road trip before I realized that I can utilize this opportunity to attend more conventions. Now that their dates are set in stone, we would be coming back right BEFORE Otakon! To think that I COULD have easily made it to there again just like in 2003... I'm really a piece of failure. orz Otakon was my very first con experience, so I vow to return there some day...

Alas, I'm trying for Anime Mid-Atlantic now. After much scheming and arguing, we agreed on me going Friday and Saturday only. While I'm at the con, they can go refresh themselves in Chesapeake Bay or something. Truthfully, I'd rather go to any con than their original boring plan of visiting multiple science centers. Even though I'm in the science field, I perfer going to national parks and historical museums and such.

Now I'm waiting to talk to my boss (P.I.). If everything goes smoothly, he'll invent multiple ways to ridicule me -_- before letting me loose. lol After all, I'm vacationing under the valid excuse of annual visit to my parents. XD

Gahhh~ I say the cold is over but I'm still coughing my guts out. Actually, I've been stalking YJA for cute goldfish obi, but since it's summer, their prices went through the roof. I just don't have enough funds to beat the demand. =_= I also tried to get a nagoya obi with amazing squirrel embroidery the other day but it also went too high. Now I kinda want to learn embroidery.

------------------------------------------------

Gintama is on the Otsu-fanclub battle arc, and Hijikata became super charismatic otaku "Toshi" again. The sengoku analogy that was used here made me crack up, especially since I watched Sangoku Basara right before Gintama (and Masamune/Hijikata sharing the same seiyuu).

  

Gintama continues to prove that THERE IS NO 4TH WALL! The manga narration part was hilarious, so was the Ginpachi-sensei part in episode 159 where Gin-san mentions his seiyuu Tomokazu Sugita's name and that the manga editor contributes nothing but drink with the anime staff. lol I've always thought that the Sunrise staff have waaaaaay too much fun animating Gintama.

Animazement is over, and my home looks like a dumpster. orz

This year, my focus was to wear complex costumes, so I ended up not going to many panels or events. The new convention center is clean and big, and everything seems to run smoothly. There definitely needs to be more chairs and less stairs. What's with the cosplay chess having only a few chairs? Such a letdown for an interesting event - that's my only complaint.

As for myself, I tortured my body by running around with a cold and eating recordly low amounts of food for 3 days. Luckily the cold passed by really quickly, but I had duck voice all throughout the con. *facepalm*

As for cosplayers, the sheer number of Soul Eater ones cannot be ignored. Bleach also had a great turnout. My most complete outfit was Emperor Lelouch on Friday. The sword eventually broke, but the 5-minute-styled wig worked nicely. Oh yeah, and I kept on tripping over the half cape thing.

Saturday's Saber was a challenge. I dropped most of my leg/foot armor parts because they were annoying to walk with. The side armor made me happy~ I can even sit down with those on! XD The whole thing was easy to walk around in, albeit unbreathable. I was going to put on a kimono later but passed out on the bed.

Sunday was the long waited con debut of Inahime ever since 2 failed attempts to bring it for Metrocon. A lot more people recognized me as opposed to Metrocon. The gigantic bow was mostly satisfactory, I was slightly annoyed that one side was not exactly straight... I didn't remember it being crooked when I first made it! Anyways, a few places came apart as I trekked through the halls multiple times. Finally, two very awesome hardcore cosplayers gwiffen and a19riku shared their superglue and saved my day. XD Also, they have food!!!

Lastly, I'm very glad that I shelled out the money to get contacts. Even though they don't work perfectly with my eyes, I didn't have to bother with glasses when I have complex costume/props. I just wish it didn't take me a hour to put them on every time. lol

Cosplay plans for next Animazement will tentatively be revamped Oichi from Sengoku Basara, Saber again (once I make Caliburn), and queen Chihiro. A lot of my other projects like Yue Ying and Shuurei are still in limbo, so I'll try finishing them before starting anything new.

I only took a few pictures, the good ones are on my coscom gallery.

Crap~ I finally got my contacts after 3 appointments of practice: just in time. I can't say the same for my costume rush through:

- new Excalibur: still not ready for paint but can be done quickly
- Avalon: damn, this thing is annoying, I'm not sure I can finish it in time...
- Saber's side armor: still needs a lot of tacky glue but looking good so far
- Saber's gauntlets: also needs glue work  but don't need to be painted
- Saber's other pieces: low priority right now but will be done orz
- Lelouche's costume/wig: low priority but can be done quickly
- Lelouche's fugly sword: almost ready for paint

There's some kind of weird trouble with my billing so my domain may not be back for a while. Oh well, I was planning to redesign my crappy homepage anyhow. But for now, I took the opportunity to move into Flickr.

Now there's only 2 of my kimono on my account, but I'll add my loots and costume progress photos later.

I renewed my hosting but forgot about the domain. So no images from plumvs.com is showing until I fix the problem.