#i haven't had a cold or anything literally since 2019?? maybe???

[stillcominback]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME! 💖 🎀 🎊 🥳

[artikgato]

Life update

Ooooohkay well, obviously, I haven't been updating on here, nor have I been going out for exercise daily. Honestly, that lasted a little longer than I thought it would. Maybe once my fall convention gauntlet has slowed down, and if I can convince myself to go out jogging in the cold, I'll get back into it. As it stands now, though, I'm either too busy or too tired to go out jogging, sadly.

Last Wednesday, I went to go see the Ghost Files live show down in Atlanta. I drove down earlier in the day so I could make my pilgrimage to Sweet Hut, a chain of restaurants in Atlanta that primarily sell these very cheap, very delicious bread buns. Like the name suggests most of them are sweet, but they have a fairly good selection of savory buns, too (think like bbq pork, ham and cheese, green onions, cheese filled, etc.). I stocked up on a bunch of those to eat all weekend for lunch and dinner and just as snacks.

Ghost Files live was a wonderful experience. The venue it was at was an old several stories tall church called The Tabernacle. I had a pretty good seat, all things considered. The episode they screened was the season finale (still not actually out on Youtube as I'm writing this!) which was of course absolutely hilarious, they had to pull out all the stops for the finale naturally. Watching it with a room full of strangers was a next level experience. There were parts where I was laughing so hard I was crying. And then after the show, of course, the Ghoul Boys themselves came on stage to tell jokes, have witty banter, and answer audience questions. And they did an estes spirit box session on stage, resulting in a ghost having "liquid beef" with Shane Medej.

10/10 experience, will absolutely go again if they tour next year and come anywhere near where I'm living. It was great. And that was only the start of the weekend!

Thursday morning I got up bright and early to get my badge for Anime Weekend Atlanta. I had a few hours to kill until I had anything to do, so I wandered around the Cumberland Mall, attached to the Cobb Galleria via a sky bridge. I hadn't been since 2019 (to the mall or AWA), and in the intervening years they ADDED A WHOLE ASS ARCADE WITH JAPANESE RHYTHM GAMES? So I might have spent over $20 on credits to play said Japanese rhythm games. And y'all, I have a couple of litmus test DDR songs that I try to play every time I get the chance, to test where my level of stamina, coordination and general health is at. Not only did I pass them, I actually did better at them here than at Dragoncon! What the heck! I got a high B on Daikenkai on Standard mode!! I also got to dick around with some taiko drum master, a couple of new rhythm games I've never played nor seen in any con's video game room, and get my ass kicked at Time Crisis 5. It was fun! A great way to kill a few hours!

Then I did the Super Happy Fun Sell, AWA's Thursday night flea market. Once I got set up I literally didn't have time to leave the table or even look at my phone for more than a minute or two. I was swamped. I sold a lot. I bought Lucina and Robin Amiibos from the table next to mine. It was very packed.

AWA, in general, was pretty packed. All weekend, but on Saturday afternoon in particular, I found myself having to employ Dealer's Room crowd tactics in most of the Galleria. It's definitely time for them to move to a new, bigger venue. I just hate that they are, because I have such fondness for the Cobb Galleria and the Renaissance Waverly. I have over a decade of memories at that location. It's sad to see them move, even if it's for the best. Also they'll be in December next year?! What the fu-

I decided on a whim to enter the costume contest, because one of my hotel roommates was entering and I went along with her for solidarity, realized in line I could enter Izou, filled out the application, and got a judging time. Spoiler alert: I didn't win anything, but it was still a lot of fun to be in the contest itself! I got to cheer on the other contestants, I got to see some cool ass cosplays, and I got to show off my (fake) man tits on stage to a crowd of adoring fans. Or at least a crowd of indifferent fans and some people cheering.

On Friday I also got to meet Michelle Ruff (the voice of Yoko from Gurren Lagann), tell her how much Gurren Lagann means to me (a whole lot) and get her to sign my box set! I went to the Type-Moon photoshoot as Izou and there was another Izou there!! He was in the second ascension form (with the big hat and the red hair) and we got many pictures together. It was great! There was a great turn out, lots of characters, including ones I haven't seen often at cons!

Saturday morning I got up early and got into my Xellos cosplay to meet another voice actor. This time it was Veronica Taylor, the voice of Amelia from Slayers! She called me Zelgadis, which I'm attributing to muscle memory because she probably said the name Zelgadis 2000% more times than the name Xellos. I got to tell her how much Slayers means to me (a whole fuckin lot), got a picture with her, and she is just one of the kindest, coolest people out there.

I then proceeded to make a full loop of the entire dealer's room and artist alley, spend way too much money, and come away from the experience so ready to get changed out of Xellos. Unfortunately I was changing back into Izou for the costume contest, so I didn't get much respite from the heat, but oh well. In the dealer's room I found something I've been searching for for a while - the nendroid of Izou! And also Okita Souji, which I got a discount on. I also spent far too much money at the only booth I've seen selling CDs, but I found the Fire Emblem Awakening OST, Slayers NEXT and TRY, the Digimon Adventure 02 character song CDs, and the effing Gurren Lagann soundtrack. Like I wasn't going to just throw my money at them?? I also found some cool stuff in the artist alley. All in all, not too bad.

As mentioned earlier, the costume contest was pretty fun. Afterwards I peeled myself out of my fake chest and put on normal clothes, because I had to repack the car for the journey ahead.

Sunday I got up super duper early and got on the road headed to Greenville for SC Comicon Jr, where I had an artist alley table! I did pretty decently and managed not to spend all of my earnings on dumb shit. Just some of them. I found a vendor selling the 151 Erika full art cards and blacked out and I have two copies of one and one copy of the other one. Leave me alone. The same vendor also had that tin with Hop and Wooloo on it which I've been looking for for ages so, y'know, it all worked out.

After SC Comicon Jr I had dinner with some friends at the local Menkoi branch and then got on the road to finally go back home. And after being stuck in traffic for an hour and a half more than necessary because of construction and wrecks, I finally made it back at like 10pm.

And then I had to work solo the next day. And the next. And now we're at today, where I called out sick for a very deserved day of rest and packing for Nekocon, because I am insane. I just did 1.5 cons and a live show last weekend, next weekend is a convention volunteering with the manga library, the next weekend is an artist alley con here in Charlotte, then a one-day con down in Charleston on the 19th, and by the end of this gauntlet I just hope I have the money to buy a license for Hatch Embroidery and/or a PS5 so I can finally play Baldur's Gate 3 and Fate/Samurai Remnant, and eventually FF7 Rebirth in February.

Whew.

OH AND I'M ALSO TRYING TO DO NANOWRIMO

DID I MENTION I'M INSANE