"An intelligence test sometimes shows a man how smart he would have been not to have taken it."
Hey all.
Quite a while since last post...not entirely sure of all that has happened since.
-Paddling season ended. The last race was two weekends ago in southern Illinois, down by St. Louis. It was a two race deal, one C-1 race on Saturday and a C-2 race on Sunday. I came 12 seconds behind first on the first day, and did rather crappily the second. I raced really hard the first; I was able to be a fast paddler from Missouri that I never beat before, and came really close to another very fast paddler from Iowa. So that was a nice way to end the season. I have already started making plans for next year: if I get a job, I'll go do the General Clinton Regatta in New York again with Gareth. My mom had been planning to vacation during spring break to Massatuchets to visit some people that will be at the Clinton anyway, so I talked her into thinking about coming with me and paying for travel and hotels and such for the race. She was really floored when she saw us race in Canada, so I think she kinda likes it anyway. It's also the weekend right after Acen. Fun. And the Sunday of Acen, is the Des Plaines Marathon. :D Des Plaines is like, right next door to Rosemont, so it'll all be good. And I won't mind missing Sunday anyway, it was so slow.
-Been trying to squirrel as much money as I can for Youmacon. Right now, I have 80 bucks total, and I hope to increase it by at least 120-160 before we set off. But in this regard, I'm similar to the GetBackers and Cowboy Bebop: I have terrible luck when it comes to money. So I can only hope all goes according to plan...
-My aunt came in yesterday and we started on the Rock!Ryu costume, namely, the pants, which will be the most difficult. She used to be a costume lady for high school and college theatre, so she is really, really good at sewing. If anybody in the family needs something sewed, it goes to her. She also sewed me a paddle bag, which is fleecey and warm. So we did a lot of that, and then she had to leave and took the pants with her, which is good. I plan to figure out the top portion by myself, and it'll all look awesome.
-In prepartion for creating a totally awesome look for Youmacon, I set my guitar on fire. Trust me, it's not as crazy as it sounds, though the guitar itself totally sounds crazy now. The pickups got burned, so the sound is a bit different from what it used to be, and I love it. It doesn't sound broken or anything, still sounds like a guitar, it just has a little extra buzz, crack, and distortion to it...which kinda sounds like the notes are on fire, which is in some way true. This was all done to create a really beat-up used look to it. It's already a piece of shit guitar that I got for free from a bandmate way back, so I had no second thoughts about it. I also sanded and steel wooled the crap out of it, so it's not all shiny anymore. And as it turns out, steel wooling the back of the neck really isn't a bad idea; it makes it smoother, and gets rid of any roughness, which means a nicer feel to the hand while playing.
-Today, I was astounded by the VP of the anime club. I had to go in today for a quick briefing on a costume presentation that she's gonna do for whoever in the school wants to see it, and she wants me to be a model. The two costumes she's having me do are a ninja and John Lennon when he was in his "White Phase". So I was requested to bring in black pants and a black dress shirt for the ninja, and nothing else; she was to bring the costume she wanted me to wear. For the ninja outfit, to her, "The only thing missing is a black scarf around your neck and mouth, and if you want, you can make cardboard shurikan."
........
For John Lennon, she said, "I couldn't find any white jackets, so if you have a black shirt or turtleneck, you can wear it under this white dress shirt and people might think it's a jacket. And of course, I couldn't find any white Go-Go boots for a guy. As for the white pants, I have two choices: these sweatpants, or my karate pants."
...
......not that I was expecting much from this person, but wow, I don't think I even saw that bad at Acen. Sweatpants? YOUR KARATE PANTS? I went into brainfreeze for a whole two minutes, before I said, "Um, I have this thing against doing things half-assed, so I'll just get my own pants and jacket and stuff. Is that all we needed to discuss? Can I go now?"
My frustration comes from this. This is an anime club. We do not have any prestige, make activites to benefit society or strive to improve the school. We don't interact with other schools, and we don't try to make a name for ourselves. We just want to have a good time, and go to Acen every year, and that is totally fine. That is a perfectly fine club purpose. So when we DO go out of the club room and expose others about the wonders of anime and all of it's sub-cultures, shouldn't we do a really, really good job? We are presenting ourselves to the public in a subject (cosplaying) that we are supposed to be educated, resourceful, and good at. This is either our time to shine, or be laughed at for failing at what we enjoy. Unfortunately, she is in charge of the WHOLE thing, and is preparing just about all the costumes to be modeled, so what I can change will be very minute. I've looked at her facebook pictures of previous costumes, and confirmed that yes, they are quite bad.
Do you ever see an anime fan, and think, "God, I hope other people don't see that person as an example to what we love."? This is one of them.
Well, sorry to end on a sour note. After that mishap, I ran over to Hobby Lobby to pick up some things that I thought would make my Youma cosplay better, because I am so motivated for this to not suck right now.
May I distract you with dancing Korean boys? I think Kimmeh drooled a bit when I first linked her this....they're really good.
Oh, and also, a new lordgenomeshead.com update is up.
-Ryu
