Bulletin Board: San Japan

If you are in Texas and you are a cosplayer, you should seriously consider attending San Japan. It's not a large convention, I'll give it that, and for walking the halls, you'd be better off limiting yourself to only the most breathable of your costumes because you do spent a great deal of time outside and the dealer's room/artist's alley areas are quite stuffy.

I just returned from this convention. Many of the panels are cosplay-related, geared towards construction and presentation. If you really wanted to, you could practically spend the entire convention doing nothing but cosplay activities.

(And who can resist a photoshoot on the non-commercial section of the Riverwalk?)

Hall Meeting: Guest Lecturer!

Watch as Sea Lion-sensee demonstrates improper convention behavior:

1) no inappropriate glomping

2) no disturbing others with random shouting

3) no pushing and shoving!

(This movie belongs to me.)

Hall Meeting: My Real Name

Let’s flash back to Anime Matsuri 2. I’m working the game room, making sure everyone is being nice and civil when beating each other to a pulp in SSBM. And I’m wearing Duo Lon from King of Fighters, because I needed another costume last minute and it had to fit both the gaming theme and my tastes in cosplay.

You are doing the game room thing. And you ask for my name. How nice. So I tell you: greyrondo. You have a creepy kind of look in your eye and you sound really sleazy when you ask for my real name.

I fork it over, wondering if possibly you’re new to this whole thing and you’re uncomfortable with the concept of a cosplay name. When in reality, no. You’re just a creeper.

Unless I have struck up a long conversation with you and I intend to speak with you after this convention, if you ask for my name in costume, I will tell you greyrondo. If you ask me outside of costume, I will likely tell you my birth name.

What’s the difference? Giving you my cosplay name will give you a way to find me on the forums and is much easier than printing ‘business’ cards. When I’m in costume, telling you my real name is ridiculous. No one recognizes me out of costume. Ever. I have stared people in the face. I have embarrassingly waved at people in packed restaurants and made a fool out of myself.

And they still didn’t recognize me.

Quick Doodles: Don’t Glomp Me

Please. Don’t look at me like that. Can’t you see all the hand-beading on my sleeves, or for that matter, the fact that I have more skin than fabric going on, especially in an essential area below my waist?

No, I thought I said—

Okay. Ohhh-kay. Um… uh, yeah. I’m glad that Kuja’s your favorite character too.

Don’t glomp me. The fact that you made me feel violated really puts a damper on conversation.

Quick Doodles: Emergency Wig Maintenance

Don’t do it. I see you there, sitting on the floor in front of panel room #2: your wig’s all tangled and your out-of-costume friend has one of those awful hairbrushes with the plastic bubbles on each bristle. Just once, you think. Just once can’t hurt it too bad.

Please, just use your fingers. If you really feel like some combing apparatus is necessary, go steal a plastic fork from the food set-up. Use a pair of chopsticks for all I care. Just don’t—

*sigh*