Last week

[astillar]

Getting back to the normal schedule hasn’t been easy. I frittered away Wednesday mostly playing video games. Sure I did some laundry and unpacked and cleaned the pre-con disaster area (my apartment), but it was mostly a lazy day. I went to go see Star for lunch and forced her to eat pizza for the second day in a row, which I’m sure made her suffer terribly. I mostly just skated through work on Thursday and Friday, doing busy work and keeping a low profile so that I could get through the mini-week without any real effort.

Saturday afternoon we went to Inner Space Caverns. I’d drilled a job there about a month ago and the manager had given us free passes, so why not? The place was pretty busy. We had to wait for an hour before our tour started. The tour was okay. The guide was younger than us (I think this was his summer job) so it was difficult to take him seriously, which may be why I kept making wisecracks the whole time. Maybe I was the asshole of the group, I dunno. *shrug* The more extreme tours, the one’s where you actually go spelunking rather than walking on a sidewalk sound pretty interesting but I doubt that’s something that we’ll ever do.

After the caverns we went to Star’s parents’ place. No reason really except that we happened to be in their area. We had dinner and chit-chatted about random stuff. Also, I finally scolded Star’s mom for teaching her daughter to read and talk. Now she won’t stop doing either one. ;)

That evening Star revealed which costume she’s decided to do next. There had been a couple that I’d been secretly rooting for, so when it turned out that she’d picked one of those, I was very pleased. The costume is very armor-heavy so that means I get to be really involved in this cosplay of hers. I kinda want to go to Dallas to see if we can find the right color of vinyl for the vinyl/foam method but we’ll probably just go with reliable fiberglass instead. I’m thinking this costume could be done by the end of the year for not too much money. However, it’s got an assload of detail work, so we may lose our sanity by the time it’s done. Coincidentally, I’ve also chosen to do a long-term costume. For the time being I think we’re both tired of rushing to crank out a new costume for each con; we’d rather take our time crafting an epic cosplay. After building Pucca and Garu and GIR I’m content to ride out the rest of the year without worrying about meeting another con deadline.

I spent Sunday morning getting some cosplay supplies and getting started on my own project. That afternoon we went to go see Wall-E again and this time around I cried a little. That’s why I usually don’t watch anything remotely romantic/tragic more than once because I get more emotional the second time around, like when I took my anime club to go see “Grave of the Fireflies.” I started getting teary-eyed at the very beginning of the film, before any bad stuff had even happened simply because I was thinking, “Oh, they’re so happy now, but they’re all going to die. Even the little girl. It’s so sad, so sad. Waaah.”

This weekend we’ve got some summer fun stuff planned. It’s an extra-ACDF event. Of course I wish we could have an event as big and inclusive as last year, but things just aren’t the same. A lot of members have stepped out or fallen silent and putting together an official event just doesn’t seem worth the effort, considering how anemic everyone’s interest is. So our nugget of people is doing it’s own thing. It may seem clique-y, but I believe for the time being our patience for sponsoring ACDF-wide events has been exhausted. I’d been hoping that Ikki-con would bring in a new crop of members and enthusiasm that would jumpstart the group back to life, but unfortunately that didn’t happen. Since Ikki, the only ACDF events have been a couple semi-official “cosplay-at-the-mall” gatherings, but in my opinion those “events” are a joke. I don’t cosplay just to hang out at a food court and get harassed by mall security. I got my fill of that at A-kon. Some veteran members might gloat to see ACDF stall without their presence, but I would’ve drawn more satisfaction from having seen new members step up and mobilize their friends into productive events or cosplay groups. As a reality check I did wonder if it was just my sense of vanity that fueled my desire to see ACDF prosper. I did name the group after all, so maybe it’s just my pride that drives my interest in the group. Perhaps everyone else is just fine regardless of whether ACDF sticks around or not. But I realized that all the friends I have now, not to mention my girlfriend, are people I’ve met via ACDF. It may be an embarrassing admission, but ACDF is/was my main social network. I don’t go clubbing, I don’t have family here, I didn’t go to college here, I don’t socialize with co-workers. Cosplayers are my people. So yeah, that’s why I want ACDF to persist. I’d like more friends. I’d like to meet more people. I’d like to get better at cosplay. Yeah. So I need to keep trying. I think I’ll plan on offering a workshop later this year; I think that would be the least complicated event to put together. Maybe work my way up to something bigger after that.

Speaking of events, I had been kicking around the idea of a pre-Batman movie get-together, to watch the new animated Gotham Knight DVD (and maybe Batman Begins) before going out to watch The Dark Knight. That was before I remembered we already had something going on this weekend. But regardless, I’m gonna find time to watch that movie this weekend. I’m half tempted to go to the midnight showing on Thursday. Naw, it’s probably a better idea to wait till Sunday. That way I can spend Sunday afternoon in a dark theater, applying aloe vera to my pinkness from the day before. 

Comments

[catspaws.livejournal.com]

It's not for lack of effort, we've tried hosting events and people just haven't been showing up. I mean, even for this float I invited everyone who is on my friends list. There is just no interest.

It makes me sad too.

[j-buns.livejournal.com]

agreed... it's sad... btu more frustrating than sad to me.


like why go to the effort to try and get everyone together..when fights break out in the planning process? but it';ll work out! :)

[uheartcc.livejournal.com]

yeah i agree with everyone. i also think that some workshops would be a great idea! I've actually been throwing around the idea of making a wig making tutorial so maybe i could do a work shop on that as well? maybe we could plan a series of workshops or something? mreh, just an idea.