The Goldfish's Logbook

I did my first nightshift up here the other day. It was . . . surreal. Yes, the sleep-deprivation had something to do with that. But also the fact that the sun only went down for 3 hours also added to my dis-orientation. And then I think I saw a moose standing in the middle of the road as I drove back to camp, but by that point I could've been hallucinating. (Which reminds me, I'll have to try that Valerian root that my boss told me about when I switch back to days. Vivid waking dreams, yeah let's do that!)
The cool thing about the night work is that I'm totally on my own; I can work at my own pace and have almost no one to bother me. So I don't even have to wear pants if I don't want to! But this is Canada, so . . . yeah. Even though I'm scheduled and get paid for a 12-hour shift, the work only takes 6-8 hours. Once I email our results to Houston, I'm free to leave and go back to camp. Easy peasy work, baby!
Oh, but in slightly less awesome news, my boss seems to have forgotten the vacation request I made over a month ago for AX. He's still willing to help me out, but my AX trip will come at the expense of the river float I'd been planning for the 12th. Lame. And the best I could do would be to fly in directly from Canada on Day 0 of AX; no time to go to Austin to get costumes. I don't mind (too much) forfeiting my river float so that I can go to AX. But now it's gotten especially difficult to figure out how to get my costumes (if any) to AX. K'nuckles is automatically out unless someone's driving, which I doubt. The smaller costumes may be do-able but I've got to figure out a way to get them there by mail or . . . I don't know. This kinda jacks with my costume plans. I don't even know which ones I should attempt to finish at this point.
So yeah, I've got some thinking to do.

This is the last weekend before AX! AGGGH!

And what sucks is that I have to go in to work tomorrow! AGGGH!

I guess that just means next week I'll be leaving for my vacation one day earlier; that's fair.
Time to get serious busy!

Sheesh. I've been editing and uploading AX pics all evening. It's already 1 am, well past my bedtime, and I haven't even started my con report yet. Heh. I guess that's what I get for farting around all day. Right now all I've got for you are pics and one of the random videos I took.
I swear I'll get that report out tomorrow. (Oye, it sounds like I forgot to bring my homework to class or something.)

Pics: AX Pics

It's 5 o'clock and I've run out of stuff to do. This morning while my truck was getting and oil change and stuff I walked to Salvation Army and then to Goodwill to get bits for my Texan cosplay. There were these two hobos that kept showing up. First at the SA and then when I was at Goodwill, they were there again. Well, they weren't hobos, but they were deeply tanned and obviously wearing clothing that came from Goodwill, so my brain kept calling them "hobos." Then when I was walking back to the mechanic's, I stopped at an Arby's for lunch . . . and the hobos were there too! I was like, "Quit shadowing me, you hobos!" Why can't I run into the same hot wimmens time after time? No, I gotta have Hobo-magnetism.
So I got that stuff done and came home where I whipped together that wig rack in half an hour. I was proud of myself. I've been packing since then and I've simultaneously reached the points where I'm out of stuff to pack and I'm out of room to pack. Not really out of room to pack, but looking at the truck I'm thinking, "Whoa, I've still got three women's stuff to put in here," so I'm kinda nervous. I'm leaving my Spartan cosplay here; there's no room for the shield. I'll probably have to leave the cart here too. Even though it's super-helpful carting costumes and luggage around, there ain't room for it either. I believe this evening will put my Tetris skills to the test!

P.S. If the whole thing looks really impossible, heck, I'll just go get that U-Haul after all. $120 ain't so bad. Hmm. We'll just have to wait and see.

To all Texan cosplayers: I remind you that you're required to bring your government-issued 10-gallon hat to AX (big-ass belt buckle is optional). Remember, we are representatives of our fine state and we need to live up to their stereotypes expectations. I think it'd be fun to do a little Texan gathering complete with cowboy boots and six-shooters, just as an excuse to be dorky for a few minutes. Seriously though, I'd just like to meet all the other Texans that make it out there for some smiles and hugs and back-slapping. Hmmm. Maybe I'll put together a super-Texan costume to wear when I'm "out" of cosplay.

( Just for the people traveling with me )

And I've got a lot to do to get ready for it. Of course there's the cosplay, which may or may not happen; we lost a whole week being sick. I need to take my truck in this weekend to get a blinker fixed and it's inspection renewed. But once that's done, it'll be ready to go. I know some people are hoping to find a vehicle we can all pile into for the road trip, but I don't know if that's a realistic hope. So I'm getting ready for my back-up plan in the meanwhile. I already got the trailer hitch and a U-Haul reservation, just in case.
I kinda want to get a new camera too, before AX. I'm tired of all the noise that shows up in the pictures from my current camera. But I could only allow myself to buy a new camera if I lost or broke my current one. Unfortunately, the one I have is a tank. It's shock-proof, crush-proof, and water-proof, so unless I have a total dee-dee-dee moment, the two of us will be stuck with each other for awhile yet.
Whereas I simply _want_ a new camera for AX, I know I'll _need_ a new mp3 player for the long-ass roadtrip out there. That is definitely vital. I don't want an iPod though; does anyone know of a good alternative? The Zune maybe? I dunno, that's from Microsoft (i.e., Windows) and I was pissed at how over-complicated my last mp3 player was. I don't want more of that.
I like to think I'm now at the tail end of this infection. Star's symptoms are worse, but she went to the doctor yesterday and got some meds so she should be getting better soon. This experience has educated me. I'm not gonna go through this again. From now till AX, I'm going on a healthy, immune-boosting regimen. Vitamins, Vitamin-C supplements, etc. My immune system is gonna be super saiyan by the time I get to LA. Just you watch!

Saturday we met up with some people for what was essentially JB’s sending-off. She’s achieving what every otaku says they’re going to do, she’s going to the motherland (Japan). We had fun eating at Olive Garden until they closed and then we went to Star’s apartment to hang out. I was a bit surprised she nominated it, since she’s been so firm about getting it just right for the housewarming party. While we were there we were actually productive and hashed out our AX trip plans. And we wore down Cat’s resistance until she buckled and agreed to go too. I think we’ve got a good, strong group of cosplayers going; it should be cool.
I was glad to get a better idea of what’s going on and to link up my plans with everyone else’s. It appears that we’ll be renting a U-Haul trailer (which my truck will be pulling). Our group of cosplayers has some mega-awesome, super-sized costumes planned, so we’ll need the extra space to get everything there. Hearing about everybody’s plans has gotten me all fired up and convinced that I need to bring my A-game to AX. Then after we’d taken care of the bulk of the AX planning we watched some MXC (Most Extreme Elimination Challenge) on dvd to show some people the silly costumes Star and I are considering for later in the year. After all, the next couples’ cosplay we do is my choice and I think MXC would be fun to do.
( more cosplay chatter )