Friday:
Jenn had a test she wanted to study for, so her alarm went off at 5am. I was too excited to go back to sleep, so I stayed up, took a long shower, and looked at the Demonbane artbook which had finished dl'ing. At about 8, I went downstairs to wake up Thy (who had been staying the night so we could leave early) and played some Baten Kaitos until electricgriffon came. We drove over to bluestraggler's place and picked her up. Then we were on our way to Fanime!

I had a great time on the car ride, even if we did get a little lost when we got into San Jose. We had all brought so much stuff, we were all loaded to the teeth with it. But we made it from the parking garage to the hotel room in one trip! Arg, my shoulders hurt so bad. Do any of you guys know that scene in Blade of the Immortal volume 1 where that girl's dad gets his shoulders sliced open? Yeah, mine felt kinda like that looked. Anywho, got all that put away and picked up my badge. I had to take the Ruler of Badassity to get peace bonded, and that took a while. I got a lot of comments later about how stupid it was to make me peace bond a staff, but I think they had just reason. I did nearly poke my own eye out a few times!

I met up with samiamwork and we headed to the dealer's room to spend way too much money. A lot of people asked me for pictures. <3 Our other group members arrived slowly but surely and we got all the last-minute hotel stuff figured out. We wandered around until 8, when the swap meet opened. I got a lot of good deals there too. ^_^ I was pretty tired from all that spending, so I headed back to the room and fell asleep pretty early.



sygmus as the coolest Kaidoh ever!


I was so tempted to jump on this guy... GO JYUU-CHAN COSPLAYERS!


These guys were awesome. Yay DGM!


Saturday:
Woke up at about 6am (*_*) and chatted with the rest of the people in our room until about 10. We grabbed all of the 5pkbc stuff and set up our table in the Artist Alley. Business was fairly slow, but we did sell a few things. I was really happy to sell one of my marker pictures to a young boy with what looked like his sister. They were walking by and saw my Naruto and Kyuubi picture, and after one of the cutest conversations ever, they bought it. Oh, I was so happy, I didn't care if I sold another one. But I did end up selling four more that day. Yay! We took turns at the booth until 4, when we packed up and put everything back in the room.

The Funimation panel was at 4:30, and I found out about the release dates of some of the shows I've been waiting for (mainly Speed Grapher). Arg, way to take my money, Funi! Lance ran it instead of the awesome girls we usually have, but he was cool too. I asked about getting the same bonuses as the R2s, but he didn't know if they would be able to get them (although they wanted to!). He gave me a DVD for asking a question. Oh, I love you, industry panels! The panel ended and a portion of our group went to Kinokuniya and then to Mistuwa for dinner. Then... that's right, back to the room for chilling and sleeping. I actually fell asleep at about 11:30! AMAZING!



ladygrizelda and Holly in Galaxy Express 999 costumes! ...well... don't the costumes cover the entire Harlock universe?


heavenly_spin, electricgriffon, and tsurara_mai as members of the J-Rock group Gazette.


bluestraggler and I being stupid. ^_^


Sunday:
And if going to bed so early wasn't amazing enough, I slept until 8! Incredible! ...well, I hadn't slept well in a long time, so it felt really good. We dragged everything to the Artist Alley and left tsurara_mai in charge as the rest of us went to see Studio Sokodei's Nescaflowne, my favorite fan parody ever. Then back to the table to work until the Clamp gathering at 1!

The Clamp gathering time had actually changed and was supposed to be at noon, but they waited around until a few more of us arrived. We were pretty small, less than ten people, so we decided to make rounds in the convention center and dig up some others. It was a lot of fun! I got to use the Ruler of Badassity as a tour guide's flag. It's really tall when I lift it up by my head. We eventually picked up a Yuko, a Tomoyo, a few more Syaorans, a few Sakuras, and another Fai. I made feathers to give to all the Sakuras I saw, and they were all really cute when they got them. We took tons of pictures and tried to recreate a number of scenes.

We slashed prices at our table and sold a couple things, then packed up and headed to the Masquerade. The skits were so-so, but a few were real gems. We got to see TeniMyUSA perform (<3 <3 Pikminlink) and we saw some really neat AMVs (Go Princess Tutu!). Then it was bed time for me.



There is a picture of our Tsubasa group in my last post. ^_^


Yuko, White Mokona, and Black Mokona. xxxHolic power!


Fai and Kurogane love... well, it looks pretty one-sided...


Our Kurogane was awesome. Here he is with Tomoyo.


Mmm, and without the cloak.

</a>
Me with Sakura. I was so happy to finally find a Sakura, I almost knocked her down at one point!


Presenting one of her feathers to her with Yuko watching.


...from that first scene... We were trying to hard to look serious, but we kept cracking up.


The arrival at Yuko's, without the cool effects in the manga. ^_^


kiraqueen as Rabi from DGM!


TeniMyUSA! Can you tell who I love? ^_~


Monday:
I woke up about about 5:30, so I took a shower, got dressed, and headed down to the con. Not much was going on, but I caught an episode of Samurai Deeper Kyo and had a nice chat about video games with a guy working in the gaming room. I headed back to the room, chatted for a bit, then went back down to watch the first two episodes of NaruTaru. When I got back, everyone was packing up. We got all of our stuff together really quickly and loaded the cars. When Steebu and I were coming back from the car, I happened to see Pikminlink in her Link hat and ears and a random jacket. She's so good-looking in anything she wears. I nervously asked her for a picture and she allowed me to take it. I think she was confused... But I got a picture of Pikminlink! I shall treaure it forever! samiamwork, tsurara_mai, sygmus, heavenly_spin, Steebu, and I went to get pizza for lunch, then spent the rest of the time wandering through the dealer's room. I got a couple nice deals (I think they liked my staff), and managed to get out without spending all of my money, unlike I do almost every year. At three, redstar918, ladygrizelda, Steebu, and I drove back down to SLO. The rest of the night was playing catch-up... With homework and stuff? PSH! Jenn and I made the incredibly difficult dinner of rice and beef, which we ate while watching the first episode of Princess Tutu and Angelic Layer. I watched Kiba 9 and collapsed into bed.

Swag!



Mm, swag. I got:
~A sexy Kino poster for the second PS2 game. It's taken the place of my FMA movie poster over my desk, next to my other Kino poster. I need to find a new spot for Ed now...
~ A sexy Shin Angyou Onshi poster. I never thought I'd see something for that movie! Nur found it, I needed to get it.
~A Speed Grapher pencil board. It was a little pricey, but it's got sexy art.
~An Ichigo figure. At $15, it's a damn sexy figure. I think it may be my favorite purchase from the con.
~Genshiken figures: Swimsuit Ohno, Kugayama, and Madarame. I want to get them all to make the scene!
~A WWII plane-girl figure... girls based on WWII planes, I guess. It's really sweet.
~Naruto wristbands. I'm not one to jump on the Narutard bandwagon, but I saw these and was missing my old wristband, so I got them. The guy sold them both to be at a really good price.
~888... had no clue what it was, but it looked amusing and it was only $3. It's a pretty good manga for being $3.
~Kazan 2-7. Picked them up at the swap meet for $10 total. A girl wanted the first volume (I guess she had everyone but the first), but they guy kind of wanted to sell it as a set, so I got the others so she could get the first one. I'm really happy I did, the series is cool. Now I'm going to be looking for volume 1 forever!
~Eatman 1 and 2-I've been wanting them for a while, but since Viz doesn't print them anymore...
~Canidate for Goddess-I picked this one up because it was a dollar.
~Bleach doujin collection 6-I need my Bleach smut,
~Ichigo plushie-I hadn't gotten a plushie in a while, and he was pretty cute. I want an AntiIchi one too so I can do horrible things with them.
~InuYasha doujin-the cover had a really cute Sesshie on it. It's really a nice doujin with a story about Inu-Papa and Inu-Mama, and a story about Sesshie and Rin. It's nice and clean too. ^_^
~Brain Stew-by Dogmatic and Jo Chen. I've been wanting this for a while, so I was excited to see Dogmatic and it at the con! Jenn got a gorgeous print from her.
~Bloody boy print-A girl was giving away her prints, so I decided to just trade her one of my marker cards for this one. I hope she liked the one she chose!
~Bakuretsu Tenshi vol1-This was the DVD I got from the Funimation panel.
~Ragnarok v1 and 2-Ragnarok 1 and 2? for $1 each? I am SO there.
~Black God v1- Nur has this one, and I liked it, so I picked it up for $2.
~Heaven's Prisoner-Another nice find at the swap meet.
~Houshin Engi v1 and 2-Reeeeaaaallly cheap, and I figured I should start to buy the series, seeing as I only have v14.
~Majin Devil-Cheap Oh Great volumes rock my world.
~Asuka issue 5 and 6-Just my monthly magazine purchase.
~Bleach v22-The series I've been keeping up with longest!
~Kurozakuro v5- Did I ever tell you how much of a pimp Zakuro is? Hot damn, a bit of his past is in this volume... mmmm... horns.
~Code Age Archives v2-Nur has v1 and bought v3, so I got v2.
~Soul Eater v6-It's really sad that so few people like this series. It's got awesome art and a wicked style.
~Sailor Fuku ni Onegai!- I had wanted this one after reading the first chapter in a Lala months and months ago. It's pretty cute.
~Gatapishi v2-I had been putting off getting this for too long. Now I have the whole series! Was that so hard? Noooo....
~Mieru Hito v3-Another underappreciated series. This artist got so good so fast...
~Linebarrels of Iron v1- A random buy, but a winner. I can't wait to get volume 2!



I had a great time at Fanime! It was a little challenging trying to take turns manning the booth and trying to sell stuff, but I think we did alright for our first time. A ton of people took my picture and complimented me on my staff, and it really boosted my ego. My head was so big it could barely fit through doors! ...really, I couldn't believe the number of people who said they liked my staff. It just goes to show that my dad is a genius with woodworking! ...and maybe I'm good at the little jobs associated with it. ^_^

Arg, the Princess Tutu AMV ("Hold Me Now") has made me want to see the series all over again. We got a sampler with the first two episodes back in November, and I've been keeping my eyes open for a good deal on the DVDs since, but no luck. Now I'm almost desperate for them! The only other AMV that has been this powerful on me was Koop's Euphoria with RahXephon. Yes, I went out an bought the first DVD after watching that AMV, it was so good. ^_^