Thursday, December 31, 2009

Last Blog of 2009

2009 was a wonderful year for me, filled with change and transition. I find myself thinking over all that has come to pass and I'm a little overwhelmed. Not only for just 1 year, but thinking of the past ten years I've come a long way since that troubled 16 year old girl... Uncertain and worried about how my life would change... the divorce of my parents, the alienation from my mother, troubles within school, my creative years of my life, writing, drawing... gaining friends and losing them.

I've come to think of the past ten years as a blur, something that I've lost so much track of. It's hard to believe that my main story character Drayne Xaphon is 10 years old... The stories that I have written with this character sometimes reflects my own troubles, sometimes extended past what I've suffered. Roleplay has had a great place in my life... Ironically if I had never roleplayed I would have never met my boyfriend.

The internet has come a long way. I remember when thinking dialup was the best thing since sliced bread, and now here I am ten years later saying "I can never go back to that piece of shit". Technology in general has changed and sometimes I wonder for the better or for the worst? Skynet anyone? Haha... Just kidding, but seriously. Just this past year California has banned cellphone use (without handsfree) while driving. Good move, and I applaud our 'govenator' for it. (Need I say I love Arnold?)

That aside; not only has technology has changed, but it's changed me, and us all. Truly without it I would have never met the person I love. Funny thing roleplaying has done for me. It's also brought me pain, with the situation with my ex Than and the near loss of my best friend Gwen... I count my blessings that I still have her so close. It was she who brought me to roleplay and my newest love; cosplay.

I have only been cosplaying for less than a year and yet it's brought me so much enjoyment... It's brought me new friends and new confidence within myself... And all of this within less than a year! Cosplaying and moving in with my significant other truly has been a life changing experience... 2009 will always live within my memory and I will always cherish it.

So... here's a list of things that changed my life within 2009~!

1. Graduated from my 2year college; South Side Virginia Community College
2. Visited California for the first time.
3. Flown in a plane for the first time.
4. Been in various states that I've never been in before (granted in the airport).
5. Moved in with my boyfriend.
6. Started cosplaying.
7. Moved away from my home of 25 years.
8. Got majorly hung over for the first time. XD 7 double-shot shooters in an hour... Not a lot of fun.
9. Been to 5 different anime conventions.
10. Lost friends and gained friends.

Amongst many other things, I just can't remember all of it... it's just the first ten that I can remember and has stuck out at me.

Now the top things for the decade.Some happy, others not.

1.) Graduated Highschool
2.) Graduated College
3.) Parents divorced
4.) Found my heart shattered
5.) Having it mended again (finding my soul mate)
6.) Moving away from my home of 25 years
7.) Being a rape survivor and becoming a stronger person
8.) Roleplaying
9.) Cosplaying
10.) And again; found and lost friends.

8 and 9 have brought me so many friends people who I see as family, I have also lost friends because of them as well... But I'd never change anything, even the bad things... For they have made me stronger.

So without further adiu; I wish you all...

A Happy New Years!

-苔桃 (Foxberry)

Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Nearly out of time

...Yet again. XD

So yeah just a quick update since I really don't have much to talk about and it's getting late.

Nothing really went on today for me, just went out to eat at Gerry's and got Chicken Honey again; was delish. Um on the cosplay front;

Sadly I have to hold off on cosplaying Haku Yowane for AOD, will probably cosplay Leeloo, but I need to order the wig really soon... I have someone I'm planning on ordering from. Probably will do that in a few actually.

Um one last thing Fanime's paypal is down so... -_- yeah... Jon has to wait to order his Fanime tickets hopefully they will extend the deadline since paypal is a pos.

Also; Arizona, near Yuma had an earthquake my friend was telling me about that... So yeah wondering when the next one will be, they had 50 aftershocks.

Oh yeah and someone caught my deviantArt 4000k kiriban... Just waiting on their response to see who they want cosplayed.

Anyway- I'm out. =^. .^=

-苔桃 (Foxberry)

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Sherlock Holmes: Result + Aquarium Pictures & Other things

Just got back from seeing Sherlock Holmes.

I must say that I was completely blown away. It was superb. Overall I was very pleased with the movie and enjoyed how well they kept to the Sherlock Holmes feel. Robert Downy Jr. and Jude Law made the perfect "coupling" in a story such as this and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

The witty humor and downright silly antics did not turn me off; but instead enhanced the charm of the movie. I will say that this is a must see for 2009 and I urge others to seek this movie out even if they do not care for murder mysteries. The atmosphere was perfect and just the overall feel of the movie, again, screams the era for when Sherlock "existed". Further the musical score was epic; Hans Zimmer, but that is to be expected.

I think I'll have to visit the library and borrow a few of good ol' Holmes stories. I miss reading them and this movie was complete nostalgia, in a good way.

Sherlock Holmes fans or not; go watch!

On another note I submitted my aquarium photos and some personal videos to my facebook and youtube. If you're interested check me out on facebook and youtube.

http://www.facebook.com/#/dana.weise?ref=profile
http://www.youtube.com/user/FoxberryChan

One last thing. New Years is just around the corner, remember to drink responsibly and bring in the New Year in a rock'n way!

-苔桃 (Foxberry)

Monday, December 28, 2009

Cosplay Event; Vocaloid, & Driver License

Okay; I'm a horrible procrastinator. I really am.

Anyway on the 25th I was invited to go to another cosplay meetup; by photographer Kristopher Ling, this one the last one of this year... After talking with my boyfriend about it he thought it was a good idea.

Jon and I decided to cosplay as Soul Eater characters, overall it was a very fun and entertaining cosplay event. I'll post my review on my con-review blog; so I'm not going to go into huge detail here. I'll post a link for it in my next blog tomorrow.

I'll also have pics up soon and the small portion of the video I recorded from the event... It doesn't have yous guys singing (you know who I am talking about) my camera died. It just has Vivi's cute little intro that I died laughing through.

Speaking of the cosplayers that attended; they were so sweet and nice and yeah~! I hope to hang with you guys again~

On another note; Vocaloids!

Sadly AOD I will NOT be attending as Haku Yowane, money is an issue right now so... I can't get all the stuff I need before the convention in a month. I did get the diva set, the pants I need and the tie. Maybe I'll closet cosplay her to show a wip... Meh who knows.

With that in mind; I will probably cosplay Stein again and if I can get the cosplay done in time; Leeloo from the Fifth Element, I have what I need for the most part, but I just need probably sticky velcro or snaps for the back of the costume. I'm in the process of talking to a girl who has a wig that will work for me I think.

Back to Vocaloids though. I got Meiko the actual Vocaloid program and I attempted my first song. It's not entirely finished but... At least it's a good first try! Feel free to listen here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcbMvKOzr4U

Oh, and one last thing before I go! I got my California Driver's License. Awesomeness, yes? I'll get my physical license in about two weeks or so. Test wasn't that fun ._. 34 questions and a lot of them were trick questions. Blarrrr~

Anyway---

I'm out!

(Photos from the event will be up pretty soon!)

-苔桃 (Foxberry)

Sunday, December 27, 2009

Dec 26th: Meetup & Other Stuff, Briefing

I'll have more detailed cosplay stuff up tomorrow (rather later today... I realized the time and went 'well crap' yet again). I'm a little tired so I'll just blog on the surprise-last-minute-meetup that was yesterday. Um did a bit of cosplay shopping too, it rained as well... Not fun... Also had taiyaki... Um, yeah more details later... Sumimasen~!

-苔桃 (Foxberry)

Friday, December 25, 2009

Merry Christmas!!

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday! Merry Christmas! メリークリスマス!

-苔桃 (Foxberry)

Thursday, December 24, 2009

Snuggies, Drama, & Holiday Wishes

So I forgot~!

To post yesterday, I apologize for that. I was really busy and I didn't get around to posting before I went to my boyfriend's parents house.

So my early Christmas turned out wonderful.

We went over my boyfriend's brother's house where I got to meet the immediate family. They were really nice and I enjoyed my time there. Jon's nephews are adorable and I can't wait to be an aunt for them. X3

My boyfriend's sister had a game called Scribblenauts- awesome game very cute. Look it up. Hehe.

We had dinner over there; I had medium steak, rice and salad. I'm not too fond of crabs so I didn't really eat any but I did have cheesecake and it was yummy.

OH and the BRIE!! The BRIE is the god of cheeses besides mozerella and colby jack. X3

For Christmas I got three books I was looking for; Kite Runner, Magic's Pawn and Killer Angels.

Also got a sweater, hoodie, p.j's, a 25$ borders gift card and godiva candy, sucker and a stocking.

Oh and from my boyfriend I got a snuggie! It's awesome.

After hanging out with Stacy; Jon's brother we headed back to Jon's parents house and went to sleep- I finished Bluestar's Prophecy by Erin Hunter before going to bed though.

I got home earlier and I tried everything on and now I'm watching Iron Chef America.

That aside  do have a rant... And it's not just about cosplay it's about issues in general.

Butthurt people who BAWW after they post controverisal issues. Whether it be cosplay or otherwise.

If you're going to post controverisal issues, don't BAWW over the situation that someone criticizes your point of view. Not everyone is going to see eye to eye. So accept it!

If you want to remove me from your list because I don't think like you do; then do so. Bawww all you want and whine to your friends that someone was lulmean to you. If you're going to post controversial issues EXPECT people to not agree with you. I guess one could say that if you don't have anything nice; don't say it.

However, what I said was nice, I was simply pointing out what I thought about a specific situation. I won't go further than that... But if you are going to open yourself up to the world and rant then you should expect other people have different opinions.

If you're not mature enough to accept another's thoughts, then seriously grow up.

I have dealt with a lot of this in cosplay and I feel that the fandom has a lot of this going on and they apply it to other things as well... Not just cosplay. If someone does not agree with you, then you're automatically labled as a black sheep and someone who isn't worth the time of day.

It's even more so apparent in cosplay. This is where I'm dipping into the cosplay portion of this situation.

If you don't agree with others on topics of cosplay it opens a whole new can of worms. Sometimes you're outright shunned from a group of people because you feel differently on a topic. I suppose though drama follows cosplay and it's always a troublesome thing.

I try to stay away from it, but I guess it's more common in cosplay because we are dealing with a younger crowd at times. Especially when it comes to conventions. Granted the majority of people I hang out with aren't like this, I think it's because I hang out with a more mature and older crowd of cosplayers.

I wonder why that is; not the situation that I hang out with older cosplayers but instead why drama=cosplay. Is it because it's a younger crowd hobby sometimes or is it something more? Maybe because we're artists and drama=art? I wonder... What do you guys think?

Well with that said; I'll go ahead and mirror this on deviantArt and LiveJournal because I'm curious about your opinions. Feel free to share them.

And...

I want to wish everyone a Merry CHRISTMAS! And a Happy New Year!!

With love,

-苔桃 (Foxberry)

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Christmas Shopping, Away Time, & CATS Cosplay

Well I did my last minute shopping today; didn't have a lot of money so I could only get my boyfriend something little. I hope he likes it. Anyway Linh(my roommate) and I went through the city along Union Square then to China Town then to the Ferry Building and then Pier 39. It was cold and windy and yeah... So that was done.

That aside; I'm going over my boyfriend's parents house for the 23rd of this month so I'll try to blog before I go over tomorrow. I'll be back on the 24th so I'll blog again then. We're doing Christmas early over there because my boyfriend's sisters are working on Christmas. I'll be spending Christmas here at the apartment most likely.

Now onto cosplay! So I've been reading Warriors by Erin Hunter and I've been thinking how could I cosplay a character from Warriors, after all they're cats. So I got the idea of doing a CATS Broadway Musical style cosplay for one of the characters in the Warriors series. I told a friend who happens to be my cosplay-guru and she thinks the idea is neat. Now I probably won't get the recognition for anything but CATS but you know what; ah well, it's mainly a personal cosplay anyway. Though I do need to start planning that out maybe for Fanime, so if anyone has any suggestions for how to make a CATS cosplay let me know!

-苔桃 (Foxberry)

Monday, December 21, 2009

Injured thumb + Photo issues

So; I nearly broke my thumb today opening the umbrella. I never used it before and I was having issues opening it. Anyway I decided just to go down the street and try to get it to open. By the time I got to the corner of the street the umbrella popped open, jerked up yanked my nail back and nearly broke my thumb. My thumb bleeding all over the place and the wind whipping I decided that going Christmas shopping was not that important. I have to finish tomorrow.

Now for my second part of my rant. I'm already in a piss-poor mood and overall in pain the midol I took wore off. So I submitted eh about 7-8 photos today on deviantArt four very early today around 2/3pm and then around 7 I submitted four or so. I go out with my boyfriend and come back and a cosplayer I watch posts on my front deviantArt page that I'm spamming her and wants me to stop spamming her with my photos. Needless to say I'm rather pissed off because this individual does NOT like to have grievances posted in the open and yet she posted one on mine. She could have sent me a note nicely mentioning it instead of posting on my front deviantArt page. So I sent her a PM a little snippy, but I'm not feeling too well right now; saying that next time send me a PM if she has an issue with me; after all she doesn't like when people do that to her. I also stated if she wanted to; remove me from her list.

Needless to say if anyone has issues with me do it in privacy don't blab it off to the entire world via the internet. -_-

-苔桃 (Foxberry)

Sunday, December 20, 2009

Day 3: Fanime, Family and Frogs

Well I registered for Fanime yesterday so that's one con down; I have to register for AOD and Wondercon now. Jon will probably cover my AOD ticket since that's got to get in by the end of this month. I still don't know what I'm cosplaying for Fanime. AOD I'm also a little shaky on. I want to cosplay Haku Yowane but things are kind iffy on that sadly. I do know that I have tentative plans for AOD being;

Saturday: Stein
Sunday: Haku Yowane

Backup I really don't know yet.

Wondercon:

Friday: Scout
Saturday: Medic
Sunday: Leeloo

and Fanime; yeah up in the air. I do know I'm bringing Stein and B.J.

Yesterday I also went to Jon's family party... It was a little awkward at first and I was quiet pretty much the entire time. I guess it takes time to get used to people when you're not in cosplay. I felt kind of bad cause of it but I guess I should just not let it bother me too much.

Today I went to Princess and the Frog; but first Jon and I went shopping... I hate Holiday shopping, especially the week before Christmas. As for Princess and the Frog I think that Disney pulled 110% it's now my favorite Disney movie and I absolutely loved it all. I even liked the villain. My second favorite I think is Hercules simply for Hades. But I think that overall Princess and the Frog is my new Disney favorite. All the chars are awesome. Go see it.

-苔桃 (Foxberry)

Saturday, December 19, 2009

Fanime Registration + Holiday Party

Registered for Fanime and went to my boyfriend's family's place for a Holiday party.. More information tomorrow I'm tired it's 11pm. Also going to Stonestown to do Christmas shopping because I'm horrible procrastinator like that. Better up date tomorrow.

Ja'ne

-苔桃 (Foxberry)

Friday, December 18, 2009

Greetings + FAQ

Hello and Greetings~!

I'm Foxberry for those who don't know me and I'd like to thank all of those reading my blog. If it were not for those who enjoy my cosplay and talking with me; I wouldn't have made this blog.

I guess I'll explain a little about who I am and my hobby for those who don't know me. As I've said I'm Foxberry and I've been cosplaying since this past May. My first convention was Animazement 2009 and I cosplayed Reno from FinalFantasy7.

My best friend Gwen got me into cosplaying and I've loved it ever since. I've been to several conventions already this year including; Animazement, Kinyoobi, SacAnime, AnimeDestiny and YaoiCon. I have also attended various other events; Cosplay Dodgeball (Lafayette Community Center), World Hetalia Day (Japan town), Hetalia Holiday Meetup (Westfield Mall) and Japan-Town Holiday Meetup (Originally Golden Gate Park Holiday Meetup).

Outside of cosplaying however I enjoy anime, manga, reading, writing and roleplaying. I also enjoy videogaming and various other hobbies and pasttimes. I am currently looking for work and I live in the Bay Area; California. I graduated from SouthSide Virginia Community College this past May and I have a degree in Administration of Justice which I hope to pursue further.

Some of the upcoming cons I plan to attend are; Animation on Display, WonderCon, Sakura Festival (SF), and Fanime. If you are attending one of these; feel free to stop by and say hello! Previous cosplays I have done are; Reno(FF7), Casual!Germany(Hetalia), Estonia (Hetalia), Christmas!Ukraine (Hetalia), Fem!Scout (TF2), Hojo (FF7), B.J. Black Reaper (TWEWY), Gokudera (KHR), and Dr. Franken Stein (Soul Eater).

My upcoming cosplays are; Yowane Haku(Vocaloids), Fem!Medic(TF2) and Leeloo(5th Element)

If you guys have any questions feel free to comment below and I will answer them! ^_^

I have plans on updating this blog daily dealing with my cosplays and various cosplay topics.

Again thank you for visiting me and taking the time to read my tldr; blogs! X3

- 苔桃 (Foxberry)