Yay for pixel art.

Very frustrated recently. I've been blaming my "Male Period"

Animé Evolution: Day 3

Better costume picture

Up early for the beginning of the final day, I had promised Saksuke (aka Derek) a hat not dissimilar to my own because he/she had asked to nicely. I also had decided to mod my own hat, clean up the cat ears somewhat and put a chain to go under my chin and stop it from blowing off. I made it to the Convention just before the "King of the Bishounen" walk off finals; which where awesome. A far cry from the very disgracefully behaviour on Day 1. Highlights included:- First Class Solider Zack limboing under his buster sword, Shaun of the Dead dancing with a Mannequin, Takeishi (the Lonely prince) changing from Schoolboy to Cowboy to Surfurer dude in one round, Awesome fan dancing from Rob, The return of Man Faye, First Class Solider Zack dying on stage and getting the "Continue Yes/No" screen. Then of course the finally, where about 50 people got up on stage grouped around the victor (Zack) as he was crowned King of the Bishounen, AE 06.

I was hugged a few more times and then later decided to give my sign away to someone as a gesture of goodwill. I regretted it a little later when I discovered I could have put it in the charity auction. Somehow I think things where better this way. Eventually, Riku got around to ringing me, whilst I was in the middle of having pictures taken (This is cell phones revenge against me ranting about how much I hate 'mobile' technology). I spent the afternoon hanging out with her, getting repeat demands to say "more stuff" with my British accent from her friends. Riku gave me a CD with the first four episodes Animé episodes of a Manga I had been reading with her the previous night. We shared a farewell in the afternoon, I pretty much told her she was going out on a date with me. I'm so bossy for a cute boy :p.

I still felt pumped after that, even though all the events had finished (It was about 7pm by then, AE supposedly finished at 6.30) and headed up to the Academic Quadrangle, where the last four or five dozen reluctant con-goers where still hanging around chatting. The atmosphere was mellow and relaxed, the Saxophone playing man (now backed by guitar and drums) had returned to serenade the evening with renditions of Animé theme tunes. We traded emails, chatted, had big group hugs and generally enjoyed the last of the feel good atmosphere. I had myself another moment of quiet reflection on the past few days. I certainly felt...differant, but the one thing was still concrete in my mind about animé convention goers.

One day these people will save the world.

You will not find same positive energy, atmosphere and well, love as you do at an Animé Con anywhere else. If the world had more people meeting like this, then it would be a better place. If this world is going to be saved, the teenagers who spent their youth hanging out at Animé Conventions, hugging others, complimenting each other on how awesome their costumes looked and generally being "excellent unto each other" are going to be the ones to do it. I'm proud to be part of that.

Total kittens saved: 263 (Not including the ones credited to Riku) and 2 Dolphins. Next year there will be a new campaign, and I'm determined that Lexly El Torian will be back at Animé Evolution 2007 to tell everyone about it. It will involve more glomping.

Animé Evolution: Con Day 2

I went in "Cosplaying" today. I put that in quotes not because I don't consider it anything other than a legitimate term, but that cosplay refers specifically to a famous character within animé/geek culture; Which is not what I was dressed as.

I went as Lexly el Torian the 1st; Catboy, Descendent of the Dreamfell, Security officer of the Starship Arcadium and a true and blue (well his fur is purple...) gentleman. In short, Anime's first EVER British catguy. By augmenting my power with a sign that read "FACT: Glomping (Tackle/Hug at high speed, although broadly can refer to any kind of affection anime converntion hug) British animé fans saves starving kittens" it turned out to be damn fun. Looked pretty cool too.

At a rate of one kitten for each glomp at each encounter. Two for a kiss. Half a kitten for people too lazy to get up (thus, glomping my legs). I managed to save a grand total of 143 kittens and 2 dolphins from starving. 223 if I count the girl who said that her hug had "better saved like, eighty kittens". Whilst doing this:-
-My cloak clasp on my costume broke 4 times on account of the fact I had underestimated "glomp proof".
-I was glomped by 7 men, one of which was Baron Von Humpldinkfrom "The Cat Returns", who rubbed my back in a slightly sexy fashion.
-I met a whole slew of awesome people including some girls who would become my very own group of fangirls. I failed to get a picture of them because of my stupid camera
-Two people drew pictures of Lexly without request, one of them spent a great deal of time hugging me :)
-One of my Glompee's was a naked plushie...
-Ed clocked in the fastest glomp, having taken 4 meters run up. She got spun as a reward.
-Two people borrowed my sign "without permission".
-I was glomped by Chi (Chobits), Yuffie, Tifa, Aries and Cloud (Final Fantasy VII, Yuffie gave me an "I was got tagged by Yuffie" sticker, Aries gave me a flower), Kira (Jak and Daxter) , Domo (Don't know), A bunch of Naruto Characters, Edward Elric (Full Metal Alchemist), Riku Axel Larexene Sora and Roxas (Kingdom Hearts), Black Mage and White Mage (8-bit Theater) among many many others I don't remember.

When I wasn't busy glomping for the kittens and the good of my country, I found time to stop by the Cosplay contest and watch Link fight a Coucou and Fighter give a talk about how much he loved swords. I also slipped in to check out the King of the Bishounen walk off, Round 2. Even though the display the previous days competition had put on scarred me for LIFE, I gained this morbid curiosity about it. It was less racy for the most part, thankfully. Captain Blue, Viewtiful Joe and Zack where all particulerly impresive, I grabbed a photo of them all together after There was a very interesting Pirates Vs Ninja match up. Pirates won...this round. AHA!

I checked out the artists alley, and very very nearly bought some really awesome art in the form of Spike (Cowboy Bebop) drawn in a super realistic style. In addition to not wasting my money on that, I also managed to restrain myself and not buy a really awesome Kingdom Hearts Keychain (to go with my Stand Alone Complex laughing man Keyring). Speaking of which, I didn't see the Laughing Man himself, my eyes got hacked.

Later there was the traditional Animé Con dance. After spending some time getting crazy on the dancefloor, showing off how awesome my cloak looked when I did spins. I decided to be daring and go and ask one of my favourite glompee's for a dance, like a true gentleman.

Now for the record, I would like to state, I HATE the dancing ritual. It's stupid, even though it seems dashing and gentlemanly on the surface, it's weighed against people who don't/can't dance. How ability to dance reflects on your datability, seeing as even an ass hole can learn to hold a rose in his mouth and tango, is entirely beyond me. Of course, I'm just bitter because I can't dance, My dyslexia messes with my sense of left and right, which in turn ruins my sense of balance. It's entirely thanks to this that I nearly missed out on the most huggable person at the con (not that all the other hug/glomps I got weren't wonderfully) if it hadn't been for the help of her friend. We danced (badly) for about 5 minutes, until I said something disgustingly cute and we spent the rest of the time hugging. As was said by a forum friend a while back "Pretty girls make everything better" ...even if they are dressed up like Riku from Kingdom Hearts.

I left the dance early. I wanted to bliss out in some peace and quiet. More dance floor craziness might have dislodged my brain from it's happy place. I don't care how awesome it was. MY night couldn't have gotten any better.

The rest of Anime Evolution rocked. Will post a full con report soon. When people stop mocking me for making short posts because I have better things to do than listen to talk about how they can't understand my 'Duncanease'.

That joke stops here, ok?

First day of Anime Evolution. Got there around 2pm after messing around shopping in vancouver in a bid to finish my cosplay costume before I left (I failed). Con has been fun so far, I went and saw the 404's (live improv comedy) Duello (Swordplay demo) the 06' Bishounen Sex...I mean...Walk off, A couple of episodes of Samuri 7, LOT's of AMV's (I watched the contest and AMV Hell 3).

Glomp counter is sitting at a nice steady 7 right now. Tommorow will see more.

Well, M, because this is Vancouver, there people who believe that living off the street and stealing to pay for your crack habit is a lifestyle choice. They like to take people to court who say otherwise. I'm sure they would consider the $170 worth of bikes, locks and replacement parts that I've lost to Vancouvers needle culture a fair price to pay for these peoples right to choose to sponge off society.

Anyway. Lets talk about something cooler than the amount of stuff I've had stolen by crackheads. Lets talk about Canadian TV. Seeing as I've not got any money (I've been spending it all on REPLACING MY BIKE...*cough*) I spend to much time at home watching the danm thing. In particuler, Teletoon and Space (Sci-fi) because I never really grew up. :)

One of my favourite shows I've seen over here has to be the Boondocks. It's an animated show based on a comic strip of the same name. The cartoon itself is one of those not retarded, second generation Anime/Western blends that are coming around these days, where the over the top elements of japanease animation are used to enhance the show. It follows the life of Huey and Reily, two black brothers landed up living in the Urb's with thier grandpa. Huey (Who is officialy my hero) is a 10 year old, genius IQ, leftist revolutionary; Riley a wannabe "Gangsta" who hangs out with crinminals. The style is reflected in some of the utterly rediculous sequances (Huey and Riley having a Ninja stlye showdown; Uncle Rukus visiting "White Heaven" with Ronald Reagen) but still drives home important poltical and cultural truths. This is satire for our generation.

I will own the DVD siries sometime. When I'm not spending the $60 replacing my bike n_n.

My Bike got stolen again.

Head will roll for this.

*Sigh*

I can't complain too much. It's kinda my fault. I had my bike locked up outside, with the intention of going out later the same evening. When I got in, I felt inexplicanly tired (I had only been up about 10 hours) and decided to take a nap. I woke up from my "nap" at 10am the next morning. Naturaly, my bike was gone.

I set out to find it again this morning. Some dude started bothering me to buy weed. When I told him that my bike had been stolen, he decided it would be fun to follow me and try and get Toonie off me for Pizza. Seemingly missing my contempt for people like him who sold the drugs on the streets, thus helping create the people desperate enough to steal bikes to fund thier habit. When I told him to fuck off, he told me he was going to break my face. So right now is a dangerous time to go back down there.

Bollocks.

And people wonder why I feel like there is some omnipotent force working against me very quietly to stop me from improving my own life. Seven days after getting my new, comfy bike saddle for my birthday my bike is stolen. Conciendence. I THINK NOT. I wish I was in the movie Bruce Almighty, so I could bitchkick Morgan Freemans all powerfull ass.

Again, I'll have to keep this short and sweet (I've noticed a pattern emerging on the "compleat lack of free time" front) since I worked at 5:30am (alone, Greg forgot he had taken the morning shift) with about 4 hours sleep behind me. At some point around 9pm I started suffering from demensia due to the lack of sleep and decided to hide in a box for a while, untill greg tipped me over. Much hilarity ensued.

I had my first true hobo experiance today when I went to the recyling plant . Normaly JJ's recylcing gets taken away by a nice lady, who hasn't appeared for the past 3-4 weeks. It was quite a bit more gross than I had anticipated. I need to take a shower now. It did, however, net me $8.30. Which Greg helpfully reminded me, would be enough to go and see Snake on a Plane. I think I'll spend it on a burger.

It had to be my birthday yesterday. I got a call at 9am asking if I could come into work early because Kim was feeling sick. Heh.

I had fun anyway. I had cake and afterwards went and had some excellent Belguim beer with my soon to be ex-manager, Greg and his girlfriend. After that I stopped by Blakes and got a free piece of birthday lasange (yum!). In the evening I went to see Circus in Flames, as I planned. They where good, but not exactly the sort of gig I was looking for.

Finaly, to round off the evening. I solved two big mysterys (in one fell swoop) when I decided to give Sonar a try. Firstly, I discovered why they get away with the extoritionate $12 cover charge. It's a nice place, big dance floor, cool little lounge area near the entrance. The other, less than wonderfull thing I discovered is where all the Chavs/Homeboys hide out in Vancouver. We're talking like a 75% baseball cap ratio. It wasn't even funny.

It takes more than that to keep me down though :). I'm going to keep on partying at least untill wednesday, when I'll round things off with my self titled "Python fest" Duran confirmed Wednesday around 9pm for me today. Loads of cool people gonna be there, Life of Brian on a big screen and I've been promised a very 'british' special. Life is gooooood.

It's my biiiiirthday tommorow =D

Celebration's kicked off today when Dr.Bob (one of the regulars at my coffee shop, Large Green Tea with Ice >_>) brought me BIRTHDAY CAKE =D. Tonight I'm off to a house party at Ben's (assume I can find the place. Around 10.30pm saturday, I'm taking a break from the partying to go to work for a couple of hours, then it's off to a Cafe on Main to watch Circus in Flames play. Sunday I'm probably going to the Jazz cellar. Then Wednesday it's the MONTY PYTHON FEST WOOO! Life of Brain on a big screen at the Video Monster lounge.

The fun never stops :)

ALSO. I will post entrys of some kind of substance...soon, or something.