Renny ren ness.
Nov. 19th, 2006 10:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
astillarI feel like crap right now so I'll keep this short so that I can take some Tylenol and go to bed.
So, I had to work on Saturday and didn't get to go camping at the Ren Faire (Camp Bob Saget), which was probably for the best. Better safe than sorry. I had my Plan B all ready to go for the weekend when I found out that JB and her guy were going to go to the faire on Sunday. Even though it'd be the last day of the last weekend of the faire, it was worth a shot, I figured. So I worked on my costume all night Saturday to get it wearable. Even though I didn't have much left to do on the costume, it was far from complete by the time I headed out Sunday morning.
Everybody looked pretty good in their gypsy/musketeer/etc outfits. I thought they'd be half-assing their costumes since it was just a ren faire and they'd been here all weekend, but no, they had solid costumes. I kinda felt like the ugly duckling with my last-minute costume, but I didn't let that bug me; I'd told myself this was just a field test to work the bugs out of the costume before con-time. Though I wish I'd brought a girdle or duct tape or something. The whole day I kept thinking, "You're a super villain. You can't have chubble. Suck it in!"
We split into smaller groups since we couldn't reach a consensus on what to do. I stuck with JB's group since they were gonna go shoot stuff and I wanted to see how good/bad I could shoot with just my left eye. We did archery, crossbows, throwing knives and axes. Of course I couldn't hit any of the targets (except with the throwing knives, somehow), but I showed that ground who was boss. Planted a lot of arrows in the dirt, yessiree.
Then we rejoined the main group at the falconry show (that african vulture was pretty dang scary). I got a bottle of mead at that point and that's when things picked up (running on no sleep and an empty stomach, it got to work quick). We happened to be sitting in the raptors' main flightpath, that was pretty cool. One time, I thought for sure the bird was gonna snatch PF's feathered beret right off her head.
Then we went and took some photos at a fountain. By then I was mainly concerned with enjoying my mead, so I didn't really try to take any pics. We went to some shows after that, blah blah. Dead Bob was fun. He has a real eye for "talent" After that we split up for the last time, then did a little shopping, and that was it.
I was surprised how much attention my cosplay got. Considering that it's from an american cartoon and I changed the colors of the costume to make it more like a generic armored costume and that it wasn't finished, I figured no one would recognize it. Yes, some people thought I was from Star Wars or a Power Ranger (what the hell?), but many knew who I was. It was about half older comic book nerds and half little kids. One little girl made my day. We were waiting while JB was shopping and I was standing perfectly still somewhere (when you're tired and in armor, that's the most restful thing to do; stand still). I was watching the crowd go by, giving me these sidelong glances that said, "What the hell is that?" Then I feel, *poke poke poke*. I turn and look down at this six-year-old girl with a disposable camera. "Can I take your picture?" she asks. All day I'd been giving pictures freely, but for some reason I challenged her. "Do you know who I am?" I asked. Without missing a beat, she answers, "Yes. You're Slade from Teen Titans." I was so happy that she recognized me. Even though my costume was only half-done and it was the wrong color, she knew who I was. And even though I was a scary-looking masked man wearing black armor and I was a bad guy, she'd borrowed her mom's camera to come take my picture. She wasn't afraid of me. Ah, I loved that kid!
Things got kinda weird for me after I took my helmet off. After only being able to see out of one eye all day, when I had two of them again, my eyes would not cooperate. It was as if my brain was still ignoring what had been my blind eye, even though it could see now. I was like, "Oh crap, did I break my eyes?" Eventually they sorted themselves out. Phew. And even though I made my helmet two weeks ago, once I started wearing it in the warm sun it started exuding fumes. So all day I was sucking down that crap and when I took the helmet off, I guess I went into withdrawal or something 'cause a weird headache came on and and hasn't left since. Hopefully I'll shake this funk and fatigue in time for work tomorrow. But even if I don't, the trip was fun. Thanks to everyone involved.
Click for pics
So, I had to work on Saturday and didn't get to go camping at the Ren Faire (Camp Bob Saget), which was probably for the best. Better safe than sorry. I had my Plan B all ready to go for the weekend when I found out that JB and her guy were going to go to the faire on Sunday. Even though it'd be the last day of the last weekend of the faire, it was worth a shot, I figured. So I worked on my costume all night Saturday to get it wearable. Even though I didn't have much left to do on the costume, it was far from complete by the time I headed out Sunday morning.
Everybody looked pretty good in their gypsy/musketeer/etc outfits. I thought they'd be half-assing their costumes since it was just a ren faire and they'd been here all weekend, but no, they had solid costumes. I kinda felt like the ugly duckling with my last-minute costume, but I didn't let that bug me; I'd told myself this was just a field test to work the bugs out of the costume before con-time. Though I wish I'd brought a girdle or duct tape or something. The whole day I kept thinking, "You're a super villain. You can't have chubble. Suck it in!"
We split into smaller groups since we couldn't reach a consensus on what to do. I stuck with JB's group since they were gonna go shoot stuff and I wanted to see how good/bad I could shoot with just my left eye. We did archery, crossbows, throwing knives and axes. Of course I couldn't hit any of the targets (except with the throwing knives, somehow), but I showed that ground who was boss. Planted a lot of arrows in the dirt, yessiree.
Then we rejoined the main group at the falconry show (that african vulture was pretty dang scary). I got a bottle of mead at that point and that's when things picked up (running on no sleep and an empty stomach, it got to work quick). We happened to be sitting in the raptors' main flightpath, that was pretty cool. One time, I thought for sure the bird was gonna snatch PF's feathered beret right off her head.
Then we went and took some photos at a fountain. By then I was mainly concerned with enjoying my mead, so I didn't really try to take any pics. We went to some shows after that, blah blah. Dead Bob was fun. He has a real eye for "talent" After that we split up for the last time, then did a little shopping, and that was it.
I was surprised how much attention my cosplay got. Considering that it's from an american cartoon and I changed the colors of the costume to make it more like a generic armored costume and that it wasn't finished, I figured no one would recognize it. Yes, some people thought I was from Star Wars or a Power Ranger (what the hell?), but many knew who I was. It was about half older comic book nerds and half little kids. One little girl made my day. We were waiting while JB was shopping and I was standing perfectly still somewhere (when you're tired and in armor, that's the most restful thing to do; stand still). I was watching the crowd go by, giving me these sidelong glances that said, "What the hell is that?" Then I feel, *poke poke poke*. I turn and look down at this six-year-old girl with a disposable camera. "Can I take your picture?" she asks. All day I'd been giving pictures freely, but for some reason I challenged her. "Do you know who I am?" I asked. Without missing a beat, she answers, "Yes. You're Slade from Teen Titans." I was so happy that she recognized me. Even though my costume was only half-done and it was the wrong color, she knew who I was. And even though I was a scary-looking masked man wearing black armor and I was a bad guy, she'd borrowed her mom's camera to come take my picture. She wasn't afraid of me. Ah, I loved that kid!
Things got kinda weird for me after I took my helmet off. After only being able to see out of one eye all day, when I had two of them again, my eyes would not cooperate. It was as if my brain was still ignoring what had been my blind eye, even though it could see now. I was like, "Oh crap, did I break my eyes?" Eventually they sorted themselves out. Phew. And even though I made my helmet two weeks ago, once I started wearing it in the warm sun it started exuding fumes. So all day I was sucking down that crap and when I took the helmet off, I guess I went into withdrawal or something 'cause a weird headache came on and and hasn't left since. Hopefully I'll shake this funk and fatigue in time for work tomorrow. But even if I don't, the trip was fun. Thanks to everyone involved.
Click for pics
