Homan, Capi posted some photos from Animecon and now I'm drowning in nostalgia looking at them. :'3 Darn it, it really was such a fun weekend.

That aside, I'm slowly trying to get back to normal day routines and thought to answer the memes I got tagged to do a while back, namely the "I'll give you five words that remind me of you and you tell about them" that I also answered a while back. It's a good way to kill time.

muha gave me: Russia (Ivan), sauna, cosplay, Japan, military uniforms.
suometar_87 gave me: drawing, chibi, cap, Russia, tiny.

( Answers. )

Current Mood: sleepy

It seems like this summer my journal has only been pre-thiscon and post-thatcon entries, but now that Animecon is over I'm done with cons for a bit and I can go back to... studying my ass off for the big Swedish test. Wohoo.

That said, I've been to Animecon and come back a winner. >:D Had tremendous amounts of fun, though that's mostly for spending time with awesome people doing awesome stuff than actually participating in the con, I actually didn't even go to any lectures or panels or contests or even roam the whole con area. After the dealer's room area I just wasn't much interested in trying to find my way everywhere in Kaapelitehdas and there wasn't really anything I absolutely wanted to see either, and my lovely companions Tika, Capi and Juhani (who were cosplaying Ukraine, Belarus and Russia) were so much fun and we had some fun photoshoots that were much more interesting. Also, I participated in the Artist Alley on both days so that took most of the con time from me, but I didn't really mind as I like sitting behind the Alley table and having that kind of headquarters among the confusion of the con. (Oh, and as I mentioned them I must say my darlings were the most wonderful cosplayers, I had so much fun taking photos of them and just hanging around with them ♥ Thanks for the con peeps~)

What comes to the Artist Alley business, the Alley could have been placed a bit better (though as that one year proved, also way worse) but I still got plenty stuff sold and am very pleased with the result. :) Some stuff even sold out, namely keychains of this England, both prints and stickers of this Russia and even stickers of this Hitsugaya (good riddance that one, ugh). Hetalia was a big thing at the con this year so that stuff was very popular, looks like I'll need to draw at least Germany for future cons as a couple people kept asking specifically for him. Anyway, my goal at the Alley was to sell enough to get back the table fee (12 €, though that reduced to 8 € as I shared the table with Tika and Capi the first day and we split the fee) and at least that much I got, so I shall call it a success. Have yet to count how much I made, will get to that when I'm a bit more awake.

Oh, and the train back to Oulu was full of contards and the girl sitting next to me had bought a Konata keychain from me and put it to her phone and showed it to all her friends going "hey, check out what I bought from the Artist Alley! ♥" and I was all "wehehee~ x3" next to her. x'3 Didn't bust my cover by letting her know I was the artist though.

Let's see, what else... Well, I was in the Gakuen Hetalia cosplay and loved it to bits despite showing my panties every now and then (I can't help it I'm just not used to skirts XDD Will need to see how many panty flashing photos make their way to the net...), though to my great shock I think a couple people actually got who I was, I had been pretty darn sure no one would recognize it and didn't mind that at all as I really wanted to wear it just for my own fun so that was quite a surprise.

Oh right, and sorry to those certain peeps waiting for photos, next to the cosplay photoshoot photos I took with Capi's camera I have no photos to share. I don't know, when you've been to so many cons they just start to resemble each other so much you don't feel like taking photos of everything and then can't be bothered to rummage through your bag for the camera for those random bits that could be immortalized, especially if you see several people already taking photos of it. So yeah, I don't know if I'll be making much photoful con reports anymore unless it's something seriously different like Comiket, sorry about that.

Iiii think that's all for now, now to wake up a bit and maybe catch up on some stuff, was so busy those two weeks before the con that missed on a lot of stuff (and had trouble sleeping thanks to the stress, now I can finally sleep~). Let's see when I get back to normal day routines, til then kittens. o/

Current Mood: awesome

As the subject line says, on 26th I went and got another year to my name, all hail me now!* \o/ Escaped the faithful day like I've had a habit of doing these past couple years and left for the cottage, and much enjoyed the day was. Had a weather like in paradise and I spent the day in peace and silence (though also by eating cake because let's face it, why would I want to avoid an excuse to eat cake).
* Don't worry, I don't care if the hailing is a bit late, a birthday hailing is always a birthday hailing.

I must say, I've got terribly comfortable with not making a huge fuss of days like this, over the past few years I've somehow fallen out of habit of celebrating or mentioning days that meant so much when I was a kid like Valentine's Day or Easter or even Christmas which I've come to prefer as a silent holiday without present-exchanging and stuff. So just quietly enjoying the day was more than enough.

Now I'm gonna be busy for the next two weeks: Animecon's attacking on July 10 aaand I've once again signed up for the Artist's Alley. 83 This time I have a bit more stuff to sell (unless I run out of time) and at least some experience, but as the table cost so much more than last year I'm just hoping I sell enough to cover it up and keep my fingers crossed that the Alley won't be as hidden as it was that one year as in that case I'll be pretty much screwed. :D But all that aside, ish quite fun~

What else what else... Well, the flu is gone except for random sneezes or coughs now and then, but I think it's over enough for me to have to accept the fact that my voice really sounds like this and it's not just flu messing with it. ō_ō That came as a bit of a shock, I was hoping for it to change at least a bit.

That's enough for now, now to catch up with stuff and work for the Alley. o/

[Edit] Oh right, and:
If there is one person or more on your friends list who makes your world a better place just because they exist and who you would not have met (in real life or not) without the internet, then post this same sentence in your journal.

Current Mood: peaceful

Looks like I've taken some sort of a habit of keeping all kinds of sicknesses away with pure willpower before a con and then having them all attack me the second I get home. >_> At the moment I have a very sore throat and general feverishness, hope it won't get much worse than that, but at least I'll get to suffer in the peace of the nature at the cottage tomorrow~ Been much too long since I last was there~

And hey, does someone want to fill me in on something? Just what the hell is this FFFight business that takes over a con every time? I mean, I know that there are cosplayers fighting, but I've never actually been to one and don't know how it works and how the winner of each row is determined. Someone willing to clear this up?

Current Mood: sick

Desucon is now officially over, and as I've managed to get at least a bit of rest I'll write a few lines about it. Not surprisingly much fun was had, and special thanks for that goes to Suvi for hanging out with me, looking after me like a good mom/wife, and allowing me to stay over at Hotel Suvi (which gets 4½ stars out of 5*) and Vilina for deciding to join us for Saturday despite being a wrong kind of geek ("You come to an animecon and just surf on your laptop in a corner?!" "I don't just surf on my laptop! I have a book too!"). I'm all kinds of exhausted like always after a con, and I regret to announce that I don't really have any photos to share as I left that part to Suvi and noticed anyway that whenever I'm in a cosplay myself I can't quite get to photographing all the other cosplayers, not to mention that it was quite weird to come back to Finnish cosplay scene when my last anime event was Comiket with all its über cosplay so that took something away from cosplay photographing too. >_>
* The reviewer would like to especially thank Hotel Suvi for its utter cleanness, the book shelf full of awesome books, the guest's cards tactically put on display, many wonderful hints of the owner's artistic side and waffles made on Saturday evening. It would have been full 5 stars had the place had a cat, but lacking that 4 and a half stars is quite a good result.

Ooh, but talking about cosplay, I cosplayed Liechtenstein (in Switzerland's uniform from vol 2) from Hetalia and had ~fun~. x3 For Suvi, Vilina and anyone else not familiar with the character, this character in this outfit. My pro-con nervousness about my cosplay quickly faded when I got there and went to that "whee, I'm in a cosplay~" mode, and people took lots of photos of me and someone said my wig was real good and that warmed my (Finnish) heart muchly~ ♥
(Also, as there were some other Hetalia cosplayers too we had a little fun group photoshoot that will probably appear on the net at some point, but God knows if I dare link that as I know I must have looked like a complete idiot XDD Still, was cool to hang out with them 'n found Switzerland and dress!Liechtenstein to take a couple photos with too. Thinking back now I can only imagine how horrendous photos of me will appear on the net, oh joy XD;)

Oh, and one photo person that especially stuck to my mind: there was this older Japanese (? at least a foreigner) guy working at one booth, and he was all business-like and whatnot til he suddenly saw a group of Hetalia cosplayers and spazzed and ran to the other side of the booth with his two Japanese Hetalia volumes and took photos of all of them while two of them held the manga, and was generally just all kinds of excited. Somehow I couldn't help but find it all so cute, and not least because it was quite weird to see not only a man but an older man so excited about Hetalia, most fans seem to be young girls after all. Next day he took a photo of me too. x3

What else, participated all in all in four lectures/panel discussions about yakuza (which made me quite interested in them), cosplay and sex, the guest of honor Ryuusuke Imai, and cosplay culture in Finland, USA and Japan. And something I'm quite devastated at: I only bought one manga at the con, the end. D8 Even Suvi bought more stuff than me, but I can't help it, I really wanted to buy some otaku crap but everything's so expensive at cons especially after Japan's prices and as I was in Hetalia cosplay I really wanted some stuff from that fandom and there was none (those two figures don't count, that aforementioned Hetalia group fought to death to get them) and and and~ Sure, I did decide not to spend too much money these months after wasting so much money on doujinshi and figures a while back, but it's still pretty sad to come back from a con so empty-handed.

Uh, I suppose that's all I can come up with right now, will post some photos of my cosplay at some point, probably after Suvi's sent me hers hinthint Suvi hinthint. The next stop is Animecon in July 10th, need to start making cosplay there asap (and, uh, decide a character too XD).

...Oh, and suometar_87, guess who checked my train ticket on my way back to Oulu? Keijo Kyyhkynen!! 8D

[Edit] No wait, I did take a photo from the con with my cellphone after all!

( Outside Dealer's Room )

Current Mood: tired

Desucon this weekend, leaving early tomorrow and packing stuff and adding finishing touches to my cosplay today. I've been all excited as it's my first con in quite a while where I don't go sit behind a selling table for the whole con but am just a normal visitor, but today I tried my cosplay on and somehow felt like it didn't quite live up to my expectations, all the different parts I'm pleased with but somehow all of them together didn't quite satisfy me, and as I remembered I didn't have Tika to cosplay with this time (even though I'll look for that Hetalia cosplay group and see if they'd let me hang out with them) I'm feeling kinda bummed. I know I'm probably PMSing and that may be causing it too, so I hope it will pass. Yeah.

That said, don't know if I'll take much photos at the con but I'd at least have time this time, however that goes the next post you get from me will probably be the post-con post. Til then my babies~ o/

Current Mood: indescribable

My figures are stuck at the customs! That's why they took so long and now I need to figure out how to get them as it's difficult to get there by bus and the place closes so early I can't have mom drive me there and I need to pay a lot of extra money to get them in the first place and I'm real broke anyway and agggh why did it have to get so difficult? D'8

Current Mood: angst! oh all the angst!

Figured I could write a bit about real life stuff instead of just talking about fandoms every time. So, May Day is over, and as I don't know if non-Finns celebrate the day the same way we do I'll mention that May Day is the only carnival-style festivity in Finland and pretty much dedicated to partying and massive drinking here. I myself spent it completely soberly (fun fact: I happen to be a total teetotaler), but with such good company it was easy to be light-headed even without alcohol. ♥

Today I got home, and right away downloaded and read a certain awesome manga (so much for no fandom talk): Saint Oniisan, where Jesus and Buddha become roommates in Tokyo and go through normal everyday stuff like sales, rush hour on the train, Disneyland and boxers in the freezer. ♥ I may belong to a certain religion (AAAGH I CAN HEAR THOSE UNFRIENDING BUTTONS CLICKING) but I happen to utterly love it when religion isn't taken seriously as I don't do that either and thus the plot of this manga makes me much too happy.
Also, have a random Death Note reference.

Now, a little meme to end the entry happily. Top commenters on my journal!

( Where will you be~? )

Current Mood: accomplished

I decided not to buy any more otaku stuff I decided not to buy any more otaku stuff I decided not to buy any more otaku stuff I decided...

Ball kickers needed, thanks. 8D I lasted what, three days?

Current Mood: greedy like only otaku can be

Oh Lord, I'm officially SO EFFING BROKE now, though that's just because I have plenty awesome stuff coming my way (lots of doujinshi and pre-ordered figures). It's good to be broke when it's for stuff like this, but that Tatsumi inside my head won't stop crying over our budget report and that takes a bit of the excitement away. >_< And to think that I need to go fabric shopping real soon too...

That said, if you hear me otakuing after something cool like doujinshi or figures in the next two months, you have my permission to kick me in my imaginary balls. XD I'll officially keep from buying anything fancy for a while now, just a bit of manga if I really need that but even that I try not to go crazy over for a while. (What commitment!)

That's really all, just wanted to whine about money and yay about awesome otaku stuff I'll soon have, do proceed now. x3

Current Mood: geeky

Just came back from visiting a friend in Turku and there's one thing I need to say before I collapse to bed:

I'm a cat. I'm a kitty cat. And I dance dance dance and I dance dance dance...

Current Mood: sleepy
Current Music: And I meow meow meow and I meow meow meow

Well thank you Tika, I can't get enough of this silly ending now. x3


Also, because I'm not used to only posting a random video I'll give a random update on my life too: 6 days til the big Religion exam, see me study like crazy (and strangely enough I'm almost having fun learning so many new things when I'm not angsting over the exam's degree of difficulty, what the hell?).

Current Mood: normal

...I'm sorry, I just woke up so this entry may not make much sense, but... uniforms?

"Yes that's right baby get your new uniform designs right here ♥" Bigger images can be seen here.

I'm sorry, but I like unf-iforms uniforms. I should really get my own Book of Badassery, aka Ella's "20th Century Military Uniforms" book that I'm borrowing at the moment.

(Also, I wouldn't be surprised if Himaruya drew these just so he could draw the guys in shorts (which brings in mind that quote of his: "My first reason to make my homepage was... I want to draw boys in shortpants..."). Italy's and Prussia's pass as random fun, but Germany... oh lordy.
Also, I don't usually pay much attention to supposed-to-be-a-dog-but-looks-like-a-baby-seal Hana-Tamago, but having his uniform designs next to Finland's? That's... kinda really cute. (*>▽<*))

Okay, now I go wake up.

Current Mood: geeky

Ahaha. I'm sorry, this was pretty obvious, but it still amuses me quite a bit.

So when I was in Japan, I took all kinds of advertisements, otaku magazines and whatnot you could take for free from otaku shops, and ended up with quite a pile of stuff I've later gone through and of course I now keep recognizing series I didn't know back then. That was part of the reason I took them really, for the slight change that I might go capslocky over them in the future despite not being familiar with them when collecting them. (Also, pretty pictures.)

Still, it kinda amuses me tremendously to go through them now and find random Hetalia stuff in the mags. (>v<) D'aww.

...That's it, now back to nerding.

Current Mood: geeky

Aaand I'm back, maybe not as good as new but at least breathing. :3 Fever's finally gone and the cough and cold are slowly but steadily leaving as well, now just to catch up with everything I missed and reply to some comments. (Speaking of which, don't know if I'll get to reply to all of you but thanks to all of those who commented or wished me better health when I wrote the last whining entry, truth be told I was so very miserable and out of it that day that I definitely needed something like that to cheer me up a bit. A group-hug! ♥)

Yosh, just updating the situation, now to continue writing about... some Religion things. Got to skip the preliminär exam but need to write two essays and send them to the teacher asap to pass the course. Up up and away~

Current Mood: better

Oh my God, dead dead DEADDDDDD. D8

Caught the killer fever-flu-whatever-thing that's been killing my mom the past few days, and am I miserable or what. Took me two hours to get out of bed without having to fear throwing up. The thing is that I have my Religion preliminär exam tomorrow, if it was the real matriculation exam I might have to take it despite being this dead (because matriculation exams are SRS BIZ), but as the preliminär exam isn't as big a deal I think they might let me off the hook. Will need to see, right now I'm focusing more on the "don't die" part.

Yes. Watch me whine miserably. Whine whine WHINE. D:

Current Mood: sick

AHAHA I FOUND IT I FINALLY FOUND IT. >8D

Okay, so back when I was staying in Akihabara for a week my sleep schedule was a bit messed so I always woke up before any shops were open, and ended up wandering around and wasting time til the first otaku store (Tora no Ana) opened at 9:30. The stores always had all kinds of stuff at their entrance to catch people's eye, and in front of Tora no Ana there was this huge poster and TV with some anime's teaser trailer constantly playing. I ended up standing for at least half an hour in front of the store every day, so I also had time to stare at that video over and over and over again. It was pretty inevitable that the song would get stuck in my head, and as I found myself humming it even in Finland I started wondering what the series was just so I could check out the opening in Finland too. I couldn't remember the name of the series though, only the song and these two vague character designs.

Now 6 months later I accidentally come upon an icon with those character and at long last am able to track it all down: the series is Umineko no Naku Koro ni and the trailer and song is this.

...ALLOW ME TO DROWN IN NOSTALGIA NOW. ;___;

Current Mood: nostalgia
Current Music: Guess twice.

Just finished reading Naoki Urasawa's 20th Century Boys (and 21th Century Boy, obviously).

Damn you Urasawa, I kinda hate how awesome you are. :(

(Am now looking through the 2008 film's website going fafasdfaSfsd at everything and wondering what the hell is wrong with me for always falling for such very random characters, I kinda love Yoshitsune. ♥
Also, as the subject line says. How depressing to wake up from the dream and realize it's not bending.)

[Edit] FINE YOU STUPID SPOON BE THAT WAY. >:(

[Edit 2] Looking kinda cool Kenji~

Current Mood: impressed

Inspired by lots of Hourly Comics about cats and suometar_87's comic updates, I decided to post this thing I doodled while talking to my sis on the phone.

( Meet Nalle. )

Ahaha, got it to work. >:D Some improvising, trying to read the manual and more improvising, and now my phone has Germany yelling "ITALIA~!!" every time I get a text message. Cut it from the drama CD all by myself, it's like I'm a technological genius all of a sudden!

Don't know if anyone else cares for such a thing, but let's throw a .wav file here. Doitsu doitsu~

[Edit] And Ella, you silly goose. <3

Current Mood: accomplished