The Goldfish's Logbook

Ooo, it’s been a fun, busy holiday break. It’s so difficult going back to being responsible again.
Christmas-y poos
We finished up our work in Denton on the 22nd. I stuck around for an additional day when I found out that my mom was visiting my brother. I didn’t want to make separate return trip to pay my respects on Christmas, so this was a fortunate coincidence. We spent the day entirely at their place; my mom ooh-ing and aah-ing over baby Lilly, Kat and Cameron playing video games, while I fiddled with cosplay. It was a low-key but still pleasant visit.
Before I left DFW I also visited David and Kelly’s place, where I’ll be staying this year. They’ve got a nice house with plenty of space and better yet, they’re remodeling the place. I’ll be able to make use of my dormant carpentry skills and lends them a hand (and my power tools). I’m excited about staying there.
Back in Austin I jumped straight into building the Man Cave version 4.0. It’s not the highest priority project on my list, but it’s such a big project that I need to get it done while I still have my spacious house to work in. I like to think this will be the final version of this party tent.
Jenny, Beauty, and Mel came by for the remnants of my Krampusnacht celebration. Having just arrived back in Austin the day before, I only had enough time to get the basic party refreshments; honestly, this was just an excuse to do some drinking without eggnog or ugly sweaters. We chilled at my place for an hour before relocating to a karaoke bar down the road. There were a lot of black people there, for some sort of Xmas gathering, it seemed. The one young goth couple was amusingly out-of-place. On our way out we met a cute faux-hawked girl by the name Maybelline. Yeah, seriously.
Between Krampus and Karaoke, I was too worn out to join Jenny and Beauty for their LudaCristmas bar crawl the next night. The highlight of my Christmas was going to see “Django Unchained.” It was pretty cool. When I returned from the theater, I was surprised to find my mom at my house. Apparently she’d left Dallas a day early, to avoid the ice and snow forecasted for the 26th. I only had to endure the motherly inquisition for that evening; she left early the next morning.

Ikkicon
Between finishing up the Man Cave and starting to move my furniture into my new storage unit, I also fixed up Ice King and made a new Dolan head to wear for Ikkicon on Saturday. I hadn’t found anyone to room with so I had half a mind not to go but I knew this would be my last chance to see my cosplay buddies for a few months.
It definitely wasn’t easy handling/putting on Ice King without a handler. It took me two hours to get it from my truck and put it on in the hotel lobby bathroom. When I realized I’d forgotten a key piece of the costume I was really tempted to say “Fuck it,” but I improvised a fix. I knew it wouldn’t look good.
( Ice King photo under the cut because I can't look at, and notes to myself on how to fix it )

Despite the problems, Ice King got a lot of praise, being hailed as both the “best” and “creepiest” Ice King ever. I knew that was a possibility when I made the costume. Sightless eyes often tend to unsettle people. Heh heh.
I changed out of Ice King quickly so that I could go assist Jenny and Beauty with their own over-sized costumes at the cosplay contest. While at the truck I poured myself a big, stiff drink. Without a room (and room party) to call my own, I figured this was my best chance to get into the ‘con spirit’. In hindsight, this was a poor decision. I’d been so busy with my costumes that I hadn’t eaten that day and wearing Ice Kin had dehydrated me, so the rum packed a much faster, stronger punch than normal.
I was fairly buzzing by the time I got back to the con. I had no badge to get into main programming with, so I ninja-ed my way in behind a group of photographers. We still had an hour to wait for the contest to start. I sat with Jenny, Beauty, and Cat for awhile before noticing Crystal’s TTGL group sitting a row behind us. I went to go chat with them. I got a little too handsy during Crystal’s show-and-tell about her costume. Or maybe I had been stroking my own thigh; I’m not 100% what exactly happened. Either way, I regret that blunder.
When the cosplayers went backstage I sat with Amanda, Juby, and new-friend Anne. Juby lent me one of her sizable camera lenses. It was so big that at first I thought it must’ve been her boyfriend’s; since when do women focus on the size of their equipment? If I’d been sober I would’ve been more excited about playing with a new toy. As it was though, I was more like, “How do I camera?” We were soon asked to vacate the first 3 rows to make room for the “VIPs”. No problem. But rather than see industry guests and cosplay pros come in, it was just normal weaboo shlubs. Apparently they paid an extra fee to get the good seats. I don’t know if I approve of that.
Overall, the cosplay participants had some solid, well-done costumes. I was surprised at the level of quality, given the relatively small size of Ikkicon’s attendance. After the contest we went to dinner at a delicious Thai restaurant. The sobering walk there and back helped buy me some time but my memory gets spotty after that. From what I remember, it was a fun night.

New Year’s Eve
Traditionally we have our NYE party at Jenny’s and Beauty’s. With them moving out this month, that was looking doubtful for awhile. But they held on and hosted another one. This year the theme was ‘the Future!’. I found that it’s hard to make a futuristic costume that isn’t post-apocalyptic (which was last year’s theme). Indeed, only Jenny and Stephanie made costumes of any relevance; I shed my own costume within minutes of arriving. The house was soon filled to bursting with people and booze. The weather outside was too cold and wet for anyone but the most determined smoker to brave. I managed to stay Goldilocks-drunk and Beauty took up my duties/camera as videographer. Midnight came way too soon for my liking. People did start to disappear after that, but a good core of revelers stayed with us till around 4 am. It was good times.
Oh yeah, and this happened. Yup, the ole Dress-and-Shirt-Swap. I thought I'd see some boobs in the process, but somehow I was hoodwinked.



And then this was the . . . most coherent video that Beauty shot with my camera.

It’s been awhile since my last update. Not much has been going on, but here’s a ( quick re-cap )

That brings us up to this week. Mmmm, kinda grumpy ATM, mostly due to work. I’ve just gotten to the point again where I’m fed up with it. Between working these out-of-town jobs, spending my free weekends in Dallas with Courtney, and a few rare days at home in Austin, I’m starting to really feel like none of those places are home. I simply don’t have the patience for this routine anymore. I haven’t made much/any progress on my job change; I’m rather stumped on what I might want to do besides this. I was going to go see a career counselor this weekend, but I’m stuck in Wichita Falls once again. I’ll be going soon.
Hobby-wise, I’ve been very irresponsible about cosplay since A-kon. I was making some serious progress right up to the con but in the month since then I’ve been dragging ass. It’s hard to buckle down and focus when I keep bouncing from place to place. (Or maybe that’s just an excuse.) In any case, I’m ordering myself to get back to work. Tokyo in Tulsa is just a week away and I can finish if I get serious about it. While I may or may not be able to attend due to my fickle work schedule, I’m going to work as if I CAN GO, until I know that I can’t. Even if I can’t go, at least my costumes will be that much more ready for Dragon*Con, which is for damned sure going to happen.
I feel like I’ve been missing out on friendships and other social fun due to my work commitments and personal choices of how I spend my time. That’s why I’m so intent on attending things like TnT and San Japan, conventions that I otherwise wouldn’t be concerned with. They’re rare opportunities of quality time with my peoples.

So, we’ll see how things go . . .

While driving around today I got to thinking about this year's con schedule. There's barely a month remaining between now and the beginning of the summer con season. And I haven't finished a damn costume. The Dead Space costume is turning into an artisan project. With no deadline and no budget cap, it's taking it's sweet (expensive) time getting finished. It doesn't help that it's a linear costume so I can't work on other parts of it while I'm waiting on things to arrive in the mail. I fully intend to finish the Dead Space costume but I think I'm going to shelve it for now and focus on a costume I can finish for the summer season.
I think I'll go back to working on Sechs. I've made his/her costume before so there will be no learning curve. And with less armor than her AR version, it'll be even faster to make. I just dread having to paint another Titan blade. It's so damned time-consuming to paint all of those differently colored crystals. There's gotta be a faster way.
Yeah, it'll be fun to work on a costume that isn't so tempermental and crippled by delays and complications. Time to get back to my roots!

Are most Texas people going to San Japan? I've never really paid attention to that con before, but it happens to be the same weekend I'll be back home. So if that's where everyone's gonna be, then you can bet your grandma's last dollar that I'll be there too. Buuuuut if all the cool kids are staying at home, I should start making other plans.
So I'm just wondering who's doing what. I only have one chance to have a fun weekend; I don't want to choose poorly!