*squee*. It came out sooner than I thought~ I thought the release date was the 19, but it was the 16th instead. This game is so... cute, is the word that first comes to mind. The voice acting isn't too bad either, even if Lloyd gets on my nerves on occasion, and Colette sounds a little too much like a brainless teenager or something. I find myself attached to Kratos, strangely enough. He's cute, in a kind of "I'm older and wiser than you so don't get in my way", kind of way. And he has a good voice actor too (I think he also plays Solid Snake in the Metal Gear series...). I'll have to wait a while until I team up with Zelos, since I remember reading somewhere that you only meet him around 1/3 to 1/2 of the way through the game.

The mini-skits are so cute though X3 *squees and giggles and makes generaly fangirlish noises*. I find myself laughing quite a lot at them... I was wanding around the desert looking for where to go next, and it prompted a skit between Kratos and Lloyd where he questioned my sense of direction ;P (I knew were I was going! It just... took a little while to find it...). There's actually a surprising amount of spoken and written dialogue in the game, which is good in a way. It lets you identify better with the characters, and the voice work is good enough to make them pleasantly watchable. I've found a few references to Tales of Phantasia in the game as well *feels nostalgic*. You get the sorcerers ring early on, and later it gets turned into a spark ring like the one you find in Phantasia. And it has the same healing gummi's too, and the Tiger Fang attack (along with many others)~ *Sigh* Too bad I only get to play it for a few days before we go away.

~Kimi

I've been planning to reply to your rant on this for a little while, and the thought of shoving it behind some fangirlish spout about a comic seemed sacrilicious to me. (Mmmmmm, sacrilicious...)

I will start by saying: I congradulate the Halo team on making a Convanent Elite so damn sexy.
No wait, let me rephrase that (because simply by typing it I have managed to freak myself out)

When I was playing Halo with my brothers, it seemed to me that while the story was really well fleshed out (although the backgrounds are most repetitive) it was really biased. You had... the Covanent and then you had the Flood. Everyone hates the Flood because those goddamn parasites are just gross, and while the Covanent aliens are, most definatly, an enemy of some reckoning, I've always wondered why they didn't just momentarily put the whole war thing on a halt, like Athens and Sparta (heh, get it? Get it?), blow up the common foe and then get back to beating the shit out of one another with earnest.
So when the advent of Halo 2, I was most curious. For one thing, I seemed to recall that Master Chief blew up the damn thing - there was that big escape scene and everything - and all of a sudden there's a sequel? How many of these bloody rings are there?!

What's probably the best thing about Halo 2 is that sometimes you get to play as a Covenant and there's stuff from their point of view and why there could never really be a truce among the races (thanks largely, ironically, to the events in Halo 1), there's even a whole deeper level of muck with the whole Flood deal and the Forerunners and OMG, I think I'm hyperventilating.

So you can get two points of view, one as the Master Chief, planet/weapon annihilator who's sole mission in life is to protect the human race... or as the Arbitor, the Covenant equivalent of MC: you are loyal, faithful and utterly selfless. Of course, you also happen to have four jaws and a head shaped like a steam-rolled rugby ball, but what does that matter?
*sniffs* It's just so... you know. Because you can feel his conviction in the acts of his race ebb away as the story progresses, and he clings so desperately to the threads of his faith - even when betrayed by those he serves! *glomps and is devoured*

Anyway, sure, you can come over. But our Xbox is acting like sulky he-whore that it is and refuses to play much of the scenes. We spent half the time confused as to what was going on, only to piece everything hapzardly together at the end. You could come now and miss a whole bunch of crap or you could wait until we've upgraded it and watch the full thing with us.

Personally, I'd wait. (I wish we saw the full opening, damnit)

Oh yeah, don't forget to read that crap below. (As in, as you coming tomorrow?)

[edit: it suddenly occured to me that Homer's "sacrilicious" actually has a "c" in it somewhere. Have adjusted it accordingly. Baka... -_-]

Kam

OMG!!!111oneoneone IT'S IN!!!!1!!!

Me want! Me want! Me want!

If I go really early in the morning and grab it... At, say, 11am and come home asap, then I should be alright. Alison's party on Monday. School early Wednesday and dentist in the afternoon. When is the formal? Is it this Thursday or what? I dunno. Anne told me but I forgot :P
I'd be free on Tuesday but that's waaaay too long for me to wait.

Do you want to come again? It's short notice though.

(Hmmm, twenty three days til... bwaaaaaaahhh)

Kingdom Hearts update. It's official. Riku is a dorkus. What the hell is the deal with the full lycra body suit and the butt cape made of grass? I like Sora much more. But the speech about the heart (or something, my eyes sort of glazed over at the point where he said "friends") was way too overblown for my liking. And as for Donald and Goofy... fucking traitors. I know what I'm gonna have for dinner tonight! Pe-king duck, you son of a bitch!
Have momentarily been defeated by a bloody dragon. Sora, my dear, being brave is all very well and everything, but I think cowardice is also a worthy trait to cultivate. When one is face with an angry dragon, one should run, I say. What's that? Do not meddle in the affairs of giant reptilian beasts because they are physco and will find you crunchy to eat?
On the good side, I beat up Squall and Yuffie at the same time and then went head on with Cloud (which I also won). W00t! Go little boy with the gigantic key! You show those uptight FF angst heroes what it really takes to be a man! (Despite being half their age and that one of them, "is in fact, a woman"). But why is Cloud four ranks lower than Disney!Hercules? Oh, I know. Because Cloud would never stoop so low as to chuck barrels at a man kissing his own muscles.

Kam

*giggles wildly*

[edit:]

Kam

Even the SMH agree that Aragorn swooning isn't just a fangirl thing. Or, at least, Viggo Mortisen swooning isn't. My attention span invariably seems to stray to such articles...

I put Sekishoku on hiatus so there's about 35 meg left now. The collective e-mail is still taking up about 45 meg though. Hrmmm... Yay! I may be buying clothes tomorrow. I might actually own a shirt that isn't borrowed off my mum or came from school. How novel.

~Kimi

Cute~ Haha... I like the last one. Poor Lujan.

We saw a movie yesterday~ Me and Jess and Bec decided to see Hero instead of Bridget Jones. I was hoping to see a Star Wars Episode 2 trailer, but no luck. Saw one for Team America and Alexander instead. There was a girl in the latter... blasphemy! I suppose they had to have done it for a mainstream audience, but oh well. They also had an ad for Killzone for PS2. I laughed at the screen. Ha! 'Halo-killer' my ass. I thought the movie itself was quite cool though. Really great cinematography, although I'm not really a fan of the Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon style of fight scenes. I like a little more gravity, thank ye. Otherwise it just looks a little too dramatiic and funny. I didn't realise it had subtitiles before they told us though. And I totally didn't realise that was Jet Li until the very end, when the credits started.

[And because this has been bugging me since I wrote it; I hope I didn't sound too presumtuous about the Halo thing. I just thought it could be fun to get together some time and spend an evening fragging eachother. But after I wrote it the wording just seemed horribly bad, like I was about to storm over to your house and steal your Xbox or something. So, er, yeah... I didn't mean it like that!]

And now I shall clean up the directory~

~Kimi

Hmm, ok.

I dunno why it's not working, and why my photoshop seems to be screwing me over.
I'll just leave it for the time being

Links are down.

[Ugh. The links work now, but thanks to my brother. I'm hosting the images on his server.]

Kam

Was reading the SMH's Column 8 and cracked up:

Last Sunday John Pollard, of Surry Hills, overheard two boys, aged about 8 or 9, waiting at the Sydney Aquarium wharf for the ferry to Circular Quay. Younger boy: "Why is this boat called Sirius?" The older boy paused. "Of course, it's named after [the Harry Potter character] Sirius Black". Younger boy: "Gee."

...I need to stop playing Oceanian Ragnarok into the early hours of the morning... Too bad the Beta ends in 20 days.

~Kimi

Hwah? I have no idea what XMB is, but I didn't upload it. I've just been uploading some stuff in the blog directory. That's wierd. Dang, but we're really running out of space. I'll clean out some junk tomorrow. I feel like nagging that person who's using up 10mb of e-mail space. They have too much spam! I don't understand how someone can get so much spam in one day.

The first comic works but the rest don't, sadly ;(.

I feel like saying something about Yasser Arafats death, seeing as we did study the Arab Israeli conflict, but I'm not sure what to say. I won't exalt him beyond his worth, as it's true the man was no saint, but it seems a tragedy that a man who did so much for his people during troubled times did not live to see out its peaceful resolution. All I can hope is that somehow it will herald an end to the conflict, but it's impossible to say. The cynical part of me thinks that the Israeli government will use this destabalised period for their own gain, but then again they did see Arafat as an obstacle to peace negotiations. Maybe now that he's gone they try harder to resolve the issues, although I have doubts. I would have ranted about the derogatory a biased right-wing trash of such posts as found on the Two Cents blog about Arafat's death, but it appears the site is password protected now (Hmm, couldn't handle the heat from less like-minded commenters, ey?). That and I don't really feel like brining in such hateful comments, because they just make me really angry.

So instead I shall end with this. I've had this poem I found on Darp's website on my desktop for a while, and I thought it was fitting for this occasion. It's written by a Palestinian poet whose name I will have to track down.

Defiance.

Tighten my fetters.
Confiscate my papers
and cigarettes.
Fill my mouth with dust.
Poetry is blood in the heart,
salt in bread,
moisture in eyes.
It is written with fingernails,
with eyes,
with daggers.
I shall proclaim in my detention cell,
in the bathroom,
in the stable,
under the lash,
manacled,
in the violence of chains,
that a million birds
on the branches of my heart,
are singing fighting songs.

My solidarity rests with the Palestinian people and those who support peace, that they may see better times than these.

~Kimi

Finally. Here's the comic to celebrate the end of the HSC. I dedicate this mini arc to Kimiko, the annoying girl that she can be. But without her anecdotes, I think, life and this blog would be very boring.

01 02 03 04

[edit: if the images don't show, then I'll try uploading them again later - Right now I have three people all trying to hog the bandwidth using three alternative online games thingies.]

Kam

Hmmm, uh. Did you upload half the stuff in the A-B directory? What's XMB? Just be careful when installing certain programs, as Cyberpixels have bans on some.
I've done my bit, but you should probably clear out anything you're not using/anymore.

Kam

For the last two days I have not had any sleep. Well, I've had micro-sleeps, because exhaustion has often simply over taken my awareness, but these periods of blessed blackness are often interrupted by screaming sessions, occasionally with whimper or two thrown in for the hell of it.

I knew there was a reason why I don't touch soft drinks anymore, but in a moment of frenzy I quaffed down a 360ml bottle of coke... only to pay for it greatly in the successive days after.

I haven't seen my dentist since she pulled out my last baby tooth without my consent. That would be... hmmm, about five years ago. I wasn't looking forward to it because, honestly, who does? The woman is scary. And it seems, with the onslaught of increased traffic and the extra letters to the back of her name, she's become even more short tempered and cranky. Although it might simply be that I'm not a child anymore, so when I look extremely worried about the 19mm metal probe she's sticking into my gum she's only tempted to whack me over the head with said implement.

Her assistant was alright. She asked me if I was ok, to which I didn't reply as there was five tubes sucking blood out of my mouth and the half litre of anesthetic she pumped into my jaw prior had effectively numbed the bottom left corner of my mouth. I do believe that during the process of drilling out my tooth my dentist stuck another half litre in, because now the numbness has spread to the rest of my bottom lip.

The tingly feeling of nerve cells dying is a wonderful relief from the delirious pain of before. But now I dread the time when the drug wears off and I'm left with the piled up agony from the horrors of root canal.

That'll teach me to pour liquid sugar down my throat.

Kam

Craptastic launch parties aside, how is Halo 2 faring up? You know, maybe I could organise to come over some time after exams and actually play the game (It's like a LAN party~! But not...). Hoping that I can get a hang of the controls, maybe I won't get my ass handed to me by you and your brothers... (Playing a FPS on a controller just makes me think "wtf?"). I used to be pretty good at Unreal, ages ago when people actually played it...

I suppose that's the problem with the mainstream hype of games like Halo 2. It also attracts people who either know nothing about the subject matter, or attempt to pose as if they're really 'with it' and 'cool'. Like, ya dig? ....part of me felt like going to one of those midnight things just to see the hype. I wonder if Half-Life2 will be as big? Every time I see those PS2 Killzone ads in EB I can't help but laugh though, nowing that it's nowhere near the 'Halo-killer' it was suppose to be. A 6.9 from Gamespot. Ouch! That's what I like about EB chatswwod though. It's a pleasant mix of casual and hardcore, and the manager is a gamecube fan to boot (Unlike crappy Harvy Norman which doesn't even stock it *cough*). He always points-out/tries to convince me about the latest GC/Nintendo offering, although I think I'll have to succumb to Pikin 2 some time in the future. It's just too wierd and cute~

Good lord, people on the Gamespot forums have been whining about the Halo 2 review, despite the fact that the game hadn't even come out yet, and they somehow managed to have precognetive skills about it perfection. Get a grip you fanboys. It got a 9.4! I don't see that as anything to complain about. But now its threatening to topple Ocarina of Time from its No. 1 spot at gamerankings.com. I know that a site doesn't mean anything about the lasting memory of a game, but damn it, I don't want to see Zelda knocked off by Halo! The nostalgic part of me covets that game like a religious devotee, I admit. But it was just so great ;o;

To be honest I never really liked the PS controllers. In comparison with the ergonomic qualities of Nitendo's controllers (NES bricks aside), they always felt and played like and old man's arthritic hand or something. All square-ish with bony edges. The analog stick swivels too much and makes me think I'm going to break it. Gimme a Gamecube controller any day!

Halo has become some kind of wierd gaming phenomenon, although unfortunately my initial exposure came through Xbox fanboys on the System Wars forum. Like some deep level of hell, I don't even think the mods dare to touch that subforum very often, although it's so whacked up with caps and subtitled 0wn3d images that you can't help crack up laughing. I can't remember if I told you, but when I was at EB I saw they had a whole shelf of Halo 2 boxes, and asked them how many preorders they had for it. 510. 510!! That's insane. I remember getting there early for the launch of Zelda: Wind Waker, and there must have been fewer than ten people there *laments the Gamecube*. Damn you Xbox for being populist and having a marketing strategy that works. Yes, I'm a Nintendo fangirl, but damn it they need to do something about their image. I cry everytime I see it shafted there in EB's corner next to the GBA's and that... wierd other-console aimed at under-10's.

Although now I feel really poor, and there's now 4 games I really want to get but have no money. I hope they give me a job at EB... So far I have Tales of Symphonia and Warrior Within pre-ordered, but I'm also hankering for Pikmin 2 and the new GBA Zelda. And Resident Evil 4 is now coming to the PS2 as well, although around a year later... Screw you Capcom for pandering to market analists and neglecting your exclusivity agreement! Shinji Mikami will not be happy about this. There's already rumours that some developers are going to leave after the final GC build of RE4 is finished.

And now, in one day the HSC will be over. Hurrah! I'll be going to Chatswood afterwards to check out random things. When were you planning for that Spirited Away movie thing anyway?

~Kimi

Hmm, as most of you are aware; tonight was the big release of Halo 2. As loyal and loving fans of the game, my brothers and I (with Lina, of course) went out to that big launch celebration thing they had in the city. And there, under the looming backdrop of the Centerpoint Tower, I had one too many bottles of free coke and decided that whoever organised the whole thing was a stupid money-grubbing SOB who's probably never touched a game in his silly little life, let alone played Halo.

Let me begin again.

After driving around the block for a little while, we finally found a parking spot, not far from the square. We had already scouted out the area prior, detecting a large-ish throng that was showing promise. As we parked, we noted a car pull up ahead and upon seeing three asian guys climb out, we recognised the mark of our own kind. Any asian male, between the ages of twenty-thirty, wearing glasses and a shaggy, in the lame sort of sense, haircut is a gamer. No doubt.
As we walked back to the square, I was overcome by a foul stench in the air, another trait of the common gamer. It is the smell of unwashed hair, sweat and bad breath that comes from sitting up to late hours for days furiously scanning the internet for like-minded gamers hyped up on hype. After a while my nasal capabilities shut down, so I was left in blissful oblivion. (Although I did hear passer-bys complaining...)
The main purpose of any lauching party is the freebies. We were not dissappointed in this factor: free donuts and coke, Halo 2 name tags, and a Xbox glow necklace. Cheap stuff made from the reject plastics of bottles but freebies, nonetheless.
There were two cars to one side, and two plasma screens set up with games for the people to play. There was a group of representatives from Nova, trying to stir the crowd into some frenzy, but by encouraging gamers to break dance. There were girls in tight bras and skirts that could have very well have been tube tops in a past life. There were people eating fire.
If I didn't know better, I would swear that it was just another stupid street party sponsered by a big-arsed corporate company and an obscure radio station.
The only games they had provided for play was a racing car thing and some 3D pong game. Encouraging gamers to dance in front of a crowd and cameras is as bad as asking dogs to magically fly off a ten storey building. Gamers are, by nature, quiet, retiring sort of people who enjoy nothing more than sitting a dark room watching a digital figurine run around in circles. Does that sound like a fucking break-dancer to you? That's why they're fucking gamers!
And for crying out loud, those cheerleaders didn't even have anything to do with Halo, unless Cortana was mysteriously transfigured into a D-cup model. So you can take your fucking boobtastic girls and shove 'em where the sun don't shine.
Having a DJ shout "Halo" repeatedly into a microphone and expecting people to yell "two" back is not cool. It's not even hip. It's lame and, from the response they were getting, I'm sure everyone else thought so too.
The party was dead around ten o-clock, and considering that they had another two hours left atleast, I'm surprised it didn't lurch out of its grave and wander off to somewhere more dignified.
So you can take your so-called launch party, with it's suspicious lack of any Halo content, and you can fuck it.

Because I'm going to EB Chatswood, where the riffraff have been weeded out and where a silent crowd gathers in solemn virgil, awaiting midnight. Just dedicated fans willing to sacrifice twelve hours of sleep in order to finish a game.

[P.S. Oh yeah. Kingdom Hearts is fantastic. But PS has really crappy controllers. I know they're smaller and sleeker than Xbox's but they last about 1/10th of Xbox's duration. Can't run left. I have to run in a clockwise cirle, which makes completing certain puzzles a most frustrating and challenging task. We brought a Logitec PS controller, which I love already. It's bigger but the feel of it... it's like holding cotten balls in your hand after scrubbing them with cactus needles.]

Kam

I always feel like I don't know anything before a history exam... Prove me wrong, brain! It's only history. It can't be that bad, really. I know stuff! (Um, yeah...)

~Kimi

"Dear [Kimiko]

This letter is to notify you that your 2004 HSC Visual Art body of work has been retained at the marking center for the exhibitions selection process

Approximately 800 HSC bodies of work are set aside each year after marking to form a selection of highly ranked works from which a range of exhibitions are developed. Selections will not be completed until late Nivember, 2004 and you and your school will be notified of the selection results during December 2004"

All I can say to this right now is... booya~! Although... that means that my Sasuke plushy and bag will have to stay for a little longer. Imagine that... A Sasuke plushy hanging in an exhibition. Part of me finds that hillarious. And teh other part of me wonders what it would have been like if I'd worked on that artwork for longer. Hmm... retrospect is a pain in the ass. At least I know I did well in art. Lets hope Modern and Ancient don't suck. Speaking of which, I need to get back to study.

Although, someone on Devart told me that someone on teh SUanime forums was talking about me, and I stumbled on this;

"Anyways, there was one artist who had one VERY nice Sasuke doujinshi, I wasn't able to purchase it on the day cos they ran out (!!). I remember the artist listed some website on the board behind her, she's webmaster of one of the yaoi/yuri art sites if I'm not wrong."

My brain instantly replied to this with; "I make doujinshi now?" and "snerk! *falls off chair while sniggering insanely...*". That was like someone at the con told me a rumour that I had been banned from Devart for drawing Yaoi e_e. Ha! Oh, such priceless quotes *sheds a tear*. That really made my day... I'm not sure where these people get this stuff from, but it's amusing nonetheless >:3

~Kimi

More violent than you thought.

OK. No more procrastination.

Kam

That lifelong plan sounds pretty darn cool actually. We pay around US$100 a year, I think, but that other deal has more space and stuff :o. We're seriously running out of space at the moment, and I can't see our domain getting any smaller. Haha! So that's why you wanted Alex's e-mail. That's such a priceless quote... Yeah, I'll be fine to go shopping on the 4th. It's after my major exams, so...

Anyway, this is kind of late but I may as well make my account of Animania 2004. This is just copied from my Devart journal entry, but oh well... I shall have pictures later~!

DAY ONE

Whoah, I feel so knackered right now. I had to go straight from the con to a family dinner, which was kind of good since I hadn't had anything to eat all day...

But anyway~ About the con.... I'd planned to wake up at 6:30 although for some reason I slept in even though I was sure I'd turned my alarm-clock on. So I met up with Caleyndar on the steps, but no-one was telling us anything so we just wandered around until we found the loading dock and then got our neato artist passes and stuff. They were still setting stuff up when we got there and saw that it wasn't actually a shared table between two, but between three. But we got to pick which table we sat at which was good. Much easier working together. We saw Annie there too, as well as Caleyndar's friend :3. So we spent the two hours setting up and bitching about the lack of backing boards and pins/blue-tack/etc... We only had one backing board until about half an hour before the con started or something, but it worked out good in the end. Riyuki came and joined us later, so we were a whole table of Devart people ;). Some of the volunteers kept asking to buy my Itachi bookmarks though, so I sold a few before the con started. I only had 9 copies to begin with, but they sold so bloody quickly :o. They were all gone within half an hour of the convention starting. I should have made more copies~! :cries:. Anyway....

There really isn't a lot of space behind those tables, you know. I had to lug up my A3 folder every time someone wanted to buy something. I realised quite quickly that I really should have made some copies of Anbu Sasuke, because everyone kept on asking after him. But I had no copies to give~ ;(. So I took down some orders instead. We really started to run out of change about an hour or two into the convention, so I knicked off downstairs to the vendors area to see if I could get some, but they didn't have any either! Dude... I got a Predator 2 trading figure while I was there though. I was hoping it wouldn't be a clear/cloaked version, but it was.. but it looks quite cool anyway~ So I went back up and we managed to survive on the change we had. By lunchtime it began to become apparent that I really didn't have enough prints. I don't think I was pessimistic about what I would sell, but I really didn't expect some stuff to sell as quickly as it did. First Wolfwood ran out, so I started to take down some orders. Caleyndar was starting to run out of her Yu-Gi-Oh prints as well, but since I had my disk with me I decided to go up during lunck to Kinko's and see if I could get some extra copies done, and print off Anbu Sasuke as well. By this time the only thing I'd had to eat or drink was a couple of mouthfulls of coke, so by the time I found a Kinko's that was working I was completely hot and buggered. But the 24-hour Kinko's on Liverpool street was able to get some copies done for me, so I got 5 extra Wolfwoods and 7 of Anbu Sasuke. And then when I got back, the other Sasuke pic had started to run out of copies, so I had to go back up again to get more printed off. On top of the 9 copies of Sasuke, plus the 5+5 for Wolfwood, I got an extra 5 of Anbu Sasuke, 5 of Wolfwood and another 7 of Sasuke. Crap, that's another 30 prints! And right now I only have 4 or 5 of Wolfwood left, one of Sasuke and two of Anbu. And that's only after one day o_O.

We took the time during the cosplay to go down to the Vendor's area, where I bought the cutest badge of X's Nataku ever. He/she/it just looks so cute >_>. I mean, it was ten bucks, but I couldn't help myself. I also got another Tales of Symphonia pin, wich ended up being a double of one I already had. But Collet is cute~ I also played some Naruto: Gekitou Ninja Taisen 2 over at the gaming area. I think I'm a little rusty, or else 4-way battles really confuse me. I didn't know Sharingan Sasuke had his other uniform in the second one. I suppose we haven't unlocked him yet though.... We saw a little of the cosplay when we went back up, but for the most part we just went back to our tables and did nothing. It's really stagnant while the cosplay is on, and I think I only sold one or two things in an hour. I was surprised that the original bookmarks were selling better than my FMA ones :o. The D.N.Angel postcards were moving quite slowly, and I hadn't sold a single original print. Probably a good thing I only made 3 A3 copies plus the 4 postcards. After the cosplay ended there was a rush where we all sold quite a few things. I envy Caleyndar's ability to sell her originals~ 'snif' ;(. Ha, my poor characters are unloved~ Or something... But I sold lots of fanart, which was good. You can always count on the fans. But even then, nothing beats having your own characters and artwork apreciated...

It started to wind down from there, and I had to leave early too. I had a nice conversation with some people as the hours drew on and I started packing up. By the end of the first day I'd sold all 14 of the original bookmarks and the Itachi bookmarks. About 10-12 of the FMA bookmarks (about 5 left). 11 copies of Anbu Sasuke (two left). 14 copies of the other Sasuke (one left). 11 copies of Wolfwood (five left), and half of the D.N.Angel postcards. I spent about 30 bucks on merchandise and some other stuff. I still need to sell more stuff to be able to cover the printing costs though. I'm on a small shortfall but it doesn't really matter. I'm not poor anymore and I managed to sell stuff too!

Holy fark, but I went to the train station and it was delayed. I tried finding a payphone on the platform, but this guy wouldn't get off. I swear he was on the phone for like, 20 minutes >_> . Finally he got off and I rung my dad to tell him the train was running late and that I'd meet him at the restaraunt. So I waited for the train, and after having got to the station at quarter past the train finally came at, like, 7... I think some young teenagers from Animania were looking at me on the train :o. I still had my pass on my and stuff, and I was lugging my folder around too. Oh well~ I totally need a shower and sleep right now. Have to do it all over again tomorrow~ Must remind myself to get masking tape. My prints kept on falling off the backing board...

DAY TWO

Whoo~ We got there kind of early (well, late compared to Saturday) and had to move some screens out of the way to start setting up our stuff. I went to Kinko's before the con started so I could have them ready in time, but they weren't going to be ready until 10:30 so I just stuck up signs whenever something ran out telling people I'd have more copies at noon. Sunday was a bit slow compared to Saturday, and inbetween things going on in the main hall we spent a lot of time doing nothing besides chatting. I went back up to Kinko's and picked up the rest of the prints, 2 extra for Wolfwood, 6 for Sasuke and 5 for Anbu, so I'd have 7 of each.

To be honest a lot of it kind of blurs together so I can't recall the exact turn fo events, except I had some nice conversations with people and I saw and talked to that guy from the SBS Movie Show who does the DVD reviews~ (I can't remember his name ._....). They were interviewing some of the cosplayers in the artists area, and our table was in the backdrop for one of them XD. Their camera man was really nice to us as well, and said that we were underapreciated as artists ;(. I also bought a few things, including a cheap end-of-day print, one of the Panda-Z trading figures (Cute panda in greyscale X3). And another Predator 2 trading figure, this time of the damaged version from the building jump scene. And it was in colour~ Spiffeh. We didn't really go outside of the artists area all that much so I didn't get to see much of the cosplaying or what have you. Although I feel sorry for the guys from Oztaku [link] near us, who were sharing a table with an, um, ultra-enthusiastic group who kept scaring people away by ranting on about free sunflower seeds. I don't know how many times I heard the girl from the table tell people she would sign a seed for free. It was odd.... but oh well. I felt like subscribing to Oztaku, but I wasn't sure at the time about spending 50 bucks on a manga subscription. If I ever get any of my series off the ground I might go to them, or the Generation people Annie mentioned. They seem like really nice people~ On the whole I doubt I'll ever really draw a fully fledged manga until such time as I can draw what I imagine. I wouldn't mind illustrating part of my story though. But for the moment my words shall suffice.

We started lowering our prices towards the end of the con to get rid of stock, and by the end of the con all I had left was two D.N.Angel postcards, three originals, and three Wolfwood prints~ So according to my crappy calculations, I sold:

- 16/16 Fullmetal Alchemist bookmarks
- 9/9 Uchiha bookmarks
- 10/12 D.N.Angel postcards
- 1/4 Darlehm postcard
- 3/3 prints of Mika and that woman
- 21/21 copies of Anbu Sasuke
- 15/19 copies of Wolfwood
- 22/22 copies of Sasuke

I'm so happy people bought my original prints~ :cries:. Although they were all bought by guys :o. In the end, after all the stuff I had bougth and the extra prints I'd made, I pretty much broke even, which is good. I'd say I wasn't in it for the profit, but it's nice to make a little extra money here and there ;). Oh the struggling life of an artist~! I saw an anime there (they moved the screen so we could see~) which looked kind of cool, but I can't remember what it was. 'Battle 31' or something. It looked like a mix between Macross and Ghost In The Shell. Wierdness :o

I had a good time though, and it was fun meeting people and being involved with other artists and stuff~ :D. Thankyou to everyone who dropped in to say 'hi!', and to anyone who took the time to look at my stuff and buy it X3.

And now, back to study ._.