argurotoxos: Midnighter holding balloons, waiting for his husband (Default)
First, PortCon's photo gallery.

The text below is approximately 3200 words.

Daily recaps. )

Overall thoughts on PortCon 2010. )
argurotoxos: Midnighter holding balloons, waiting for his husband (Default)
This is so highly belated by this point that I debated over simply linking to the photos without any written commentary, but decided that I didn't want to gloss over PortCon 2009. It meant a great deal to me that I was able to go and even more that I was able to spend time with friends. The most significant sentiment that came out of PortCon was that I am still connected to people. For reasons that aren't entirely clear to me, I've become even shyer over the past year and it was wonderful to be with others that I felt very comfortable around. Paradoxically, I think not being invested in any particular anime or manga series helped me to enjoy the convention more and further soak in the general atmosphere. I doubt I'll be able to do it justice, but suffice it to say that I'm very grateful for the people whose company I was able to enjoy.

PortCon photos are here, but there aren't too many; the majority of them were taken at the Masquerade.

A somewhat more detailed account. )

A few short words about the books I brought with me. )

'Your eye looks very exciting. It's more colorful every time I see it.' )

Lastly, Kun, are you missing a wig cap? I found an extra one when I cleaned out my bags; it must have fallen in when we were pulling things off the bed at one point.
argurotoxos: Midnighter holding balloons, waiting for his husband (Default)
PortCon was amazing. I think I enjoyed it even more this year than I have the past few years.

My mom and I left Maine on Tuesday and arrived in Quincy, Massachusetts, later that day. The next morning, we visited the three John Adams houses in the area. Unfortunately, I must have picked up a cold somewhere along the way and was feeling so badly by the end of the house tours that we drove home right after. (At least it didn't happen during PortCon.)
argurotoxos: Midnighter holding balloons, waiting for his husband (Default)
Written at last. Since there's roughly a month to cover, it's not as detailed as it might otherwise have been and there's not much emotion or reflection in this write-up since I primarily wanted to document the happenings. For PortCon and New Hampshire, I've based my descriptions on a combination of my memory and a set of quick notes I kept in a notepad for the purpose of remembering what happened on what day.

Everything is under cuts based on location and further sub-divided by date. Photo links are within the text.

PortConMaine 2008 [3 - 6 July]. )

New Hampshire [7 July - 28 July]. )

Sarah's visit [28 July - 6 August]. )
argurotoxos: Midnighter holding balloons, waiting for his husband (Default)
After everything, I am completely satisfied with the outcome. It seems that through the downfalls, everything has fallen into its ideal place.

It would have been very difficult to have fit Sarah comfortably into our PortCon hotel room.

We made it to PortCon for three days, and I was happier to have been able to stay for part of Sunday than if we had left Saturday night, even though we missed Thursday.

Just being with Kun makes a significant difference. Yesterday, Tomo came over and the three of us talked and played. It was like old times. I want things to stay like that, the familiarity we have with each other and our close friendship.

PortCon 2008 was amazing. I have such fond memories of PortCon 2004 [my first convention] and PortCon 2005 [the year I staffed] that I don't think anything can surpass those two conventions in my mind, but this year came very close. Certainly my favourite convention since PortCon 2005. Surprisingly, I didn't take very many photos -- perhaps seventy? My average is around 150.

I still need to type up a convention report for PortCon 2008, so I shall refrain from adding additional detail here.

Monday was a down day for Kun and me. We reminisced about old cartoons and watched openings on YouTube. Mighty Max, Ronin Warriors, Batman, Batman Beyond, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, X-Men, Doug, Recess . . .

On Tuesday, Kun and I went around to various stores with two of Kun's other friends (who I'd list if I knew how to spell their names). I spent more money than I did throughout all of PortCon. Dark Knight merchandise was tempting me, but all I bought for it was a coin tin with the Joker on one side and Batman on the other. I also bought the Crüxshadows' new single - which was officially released on this day, although the only place I could find it was Hot Topic; I don't like the main song ("Immortal") as much as I did "Birthday" (although "Birthday" had to have time to grow on me), but it's still good and I like the remix of "Araidne" better than the original version from Dreamcypher. Finally, I bought a Kashimashi figure at Newbury Comics (Yasuna) and volume nine of Pet Shop of Horrors.

Unrelated to the above, but I would like to comment on the irony that one person's generosity can be another person's cruelty.

Again unrelated to the above, but Kun and I were on the PortCon forums and one of the threads asked people to list their top five manga. I've decided that my current top five are: Hunter x Hunter, Pet Shop of Horrors, Earthian, Yami no Matsuei, and Level E.

Lastly, and loosely related to the above, volume 21 of Hunter x Hunter is now officially out in English. The Killua scenes in this volume are some of my favourite in the series and I was curious about Viz's translation, so I took a look when we were in one of many bookstores.

I was disappointed. There is a reason why I generally prefer fan translations over Viz's.
argurotoxos: Midnighter holding balloons, waiting for his husband (Default)
There were about five of us in the hotel lobby who were idly waiting around for our respective friends to arrive. At first, we maintained our isolation, but there is a certain connection that comes with being placed in similar circumstances and I soon found myself talking to several other people about Star Trek, Dungeons and Dragons, and video games.

Shampoo came out to say 'hello' to me about an hour after I arrived and let me temporarily stash my luggage under a staff table while I picked up my badge, which turned out to be more difficult than expected -- neither my name nor my email were on the pre-registration list. Fortunately, Julie happened to be in the vicinity and when the staff called her over for help, she said that it might have gotten accidentally removed from the list somehow and told the staff to give me a badge anyway. "At the worst, we'll be short $20." (Later, I went back through my email and did find my pre-registration receipt. I also checked my Paypal account and the money did go through.)

I had told Tomo I would be waiting in the hotel lobby for everyone and I didn't want to wander too far from my luggage, so after obtaining my badge, I headed back to my corner perch near the entrance.

The rest of Friday. )

Saturday. )

Sunday. )

General comments. )

Photo links. )


Next: 03 - New Hampshire . . .

Edit: This post has now been edited and photo links have been added to the narrative. [Completed Tuesday, 10 July at 9:45 PM.]
argurotoxos: Midnighter holding balloons, waiting for his husband (Default)
The drive up to Maine on Thursday, 21 June, went smoothly enough, at least traffic-wise. It was the first time we'd been in Maine since my Aunt moved to a new apartment and the first thing we did was stop at was her new place. It's only a few minutes' drive from her old apartment and her new one has more room, but it's also on a fairly busy street and lacks some of the quite and privacy of the old one.

My grandparents were coming over on the ferry to meet us for dinner in about an hour, so until then we mostly talked and caught up with each other. My Aunt also gave me a surprise gift I'd completely forgotten about -- a belated birthday present. It was a pirate hat, the closest she could find to the type of hats they wear in Horatio Hornblower.

For dinner, we ended up going to a rather upper-class restaurant in the Old Port, the kind where the presentation of the food is just as important as the taste and one meal can easily cost $30. Apparently, one of my uncles had given my grandparents a gift certificate there several years ago that they'd never used. It was an interesting experience, even if I felt rather out of place; besides the fact that we almost never eat at restaurants like that, if I had know beforehand that we'd be going to that kind of place, I would have worn something besides my Yuugiou T-shirt, an old grey jacket decorated with worn blue dragons, and a baggy pair of black pants.

The food was mostly good, though I wasn't very impressed with their fish. The dessert my Aunt and I split at the end was very sweet and rich, so much so that I ended up with an upset stomach afterward. I'd had one the day before from a different food, too, so I was somewhat worried going into PortCon that I'd get sick again there. Fortunately, that didn't happen.

I didn't know whether I'd be spending the night at my Aunt's or my grandparents' before arriving, so we figured out plans for that night and Friday during dinner. Since I didn't have to be at the hotel Friday until after noon, it was decided that staying at my grandparents and then taking the ferry over to the mainland in the morning was best. Staying at my grandparents' house also gave me a chance to spend some time along the ocean.

While waiting for the ferry after dinner,
two events happened that made me
think of Sarah. First, my grandmother
brought me a map of Portland to look
at while waiting. It was fairly large and
the edges were filled with ads from
various businesses. One of them was
for Tim Horton's (on left):


The second was after we had boarded the ferry.
Standing on the top deck, we watched The CAT
pull out of the bay.


By the time we arrived at my grandparents' house, it was almost bedtime. I stayed up about an hour after my mum, drinking water and listening to the rest of Lestat.

It usually takes me a few nights to get adjusted to sleeping in a new place, with the result that I end up waking up much earlier than usual. I ate a very light breakfast outside and then went down to the ocean.

The waiting is always the worst part. After I had gotten into my Killua cosplay, I couldn't even focus enough to read anything to pass the time.

My Aunt pick my mum, my grandmother, and myself up at the ferry port and then it was over to the hotel. We arrived around 12:15 PM, said our goodbyes, and then I made my way inside the hotel lobby with my three bags and picked a comfortable corner to settle down, watch the various cosplayers wandering through, and wait for Kun and company to arrive . . .


That's all for the pre-PortCon post; the
narrative will be continued in the next entry
along with all of my photos from the convention.
The image on the left is a scan from the map
of Portland mentioned above; as you can see,
PortCon's hotel - the Sheraton - is quite literally
right across from Maine Mall.
argurotoxos: Midnighter holding balloons, waiting for his husband (Default)
Both in the car ride up to Maine and the bus ride back to New York, I considered what song could be the theme song for this journey. It may sound strange, but there usually is one particular song that will become connected with that point in time. PortConMaine 2004 was Gravitation music, PortConMaine 2005 was 'Eden' by TO DESTINATION (the opening of Yami no Matsuei), and AnimeBoston 2006 was 'Memories' by Within Temptation.

A theme song isn't something you can decide on ahead of time, as I've learned; certain events happen to make it stick. On the ride up, I was listening to Ayria, E Nomine, and Lestat. On the bus ride back, I listened to Yuu Yuu Hakusho almost exclusively, plus some .hack//SIGN, Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines, and the point where I had 'Eden' on repeat for almost twenty minutes. (It was only the TV-size version of 'Eden', too.)

'Memories' became identified with AnimeBoston because that's what I was listening to when I broke down in the bus. This year, I was already a mess when I boarded the bus and the first thing I put on was 'Kiki!', Yuusuke's (purposefully) terrible image song. It's so bad it made me laugh. Which, combined with crying, can be rather awkward while in public and trying to be as unnoticeable as possible.

After twenty minutes of Yuu Yuu Hakusho image songs, I managed to compose myself enough to read more of Cry To Heaven until I began to get tired with Yuu Yuu Hakusho still playing quietly through my CD player.

It was Tiamat's 'Cain' of all songs that started the sporadic, short crying stages. 'Cain' isn't a sad song, at least not instrumentally, but the echoing 'If you would be here now' of the chorus was too much.

Over everything, though, the song that carries the memories of this journey the most is 'Hohoemi no Bakudan', the opening of Yuu Yuu Hakusho. We certainly watched enough episodes of it, even if we did usually skip past the opening. But I'm getting ahead of myself . . .

It feels like it's been more than a day and a half. Even in the bus I though that. Weeks that passed by like hours, and then hours that pass by like weeks. Is it already like a dream, hidden away in the deepest crevices of the heart so as to prevent any corruption? I keep expecting to see cats whenever I walk into the kitchen and it's never been as clear to me how different it is to be with loved ones as opposed to being alone.

. . . I'm beginning to think that trying to update at one in the morning was a bad idea; strange thoughts sometimes emerge at night ('window'?) and I'm too tired to properly edit anything.

I was hoping to get a lot more posted today, or at least do a quick entry on Maine pre-PortCon and then start editing photos for uploading. However, there was a special something that had to be added to my LiveJournal first and it took me much longer than expected to get the coding right on my profile page. (On the other hand, I now know how to make tables in HTML.)

I'm not quite sure how many posts I'll be making at the moment. Probably one for Maine pre-PortCon, one for PortCon, and between one and four for New Hampshire. What I do know is that, unlike past years, I won't be making entries in my journal with my photos in them. Like this. Or this. Since Yahoo Photos is shutting down, LiveJournal is now my only photo storage place and I don't have to duplicate galleries anymore. As such, I'll just be linking the entries to their corresponding photo galleries. (Another reason why I wasn't able to accomplish as much as planned today was that I realized at Kun's house that a number of photos in scrapbook - including all of the ones from PortCon2005 - hadn't been annotated; I actually just finished going through all of my photo galleries making sure that everything was tagged and titled before starting this entry.)

I have over 200 photos and three videos to upload, plus two weeks of love to type up. Not sure how long it'll take, but I'll try to get all of PortCon done tomorrow.


Many thanks, some tears, the biggest virtual hugs the internet can provide, and much love to Kun and her family, Tomo, Chris, Kelsey, and Shampoo.
argurotoxos: Midnighter holding balloons, waiting for his husband (Default)
I decided to group the photos by category rather than chronologically, but if you'd rather see them in the order I took them, you can look at my [dead link] Yahoo photo album.

[livejournal.com profile] hitokiri_quatre's photos are [dead link] here and there are better photos of the Egyptian Arc Yuugiou group here.

Edit: Someone put up a video clip of the Prince of Tennis Masquerade skit on YouTube; you can watch it here. Sadly, I can't find any clips of the Yuugiou skit.

convention x photos x memories )
argurotoxos: Midnighter holding balloons, waiting for his husband (Default)
This year was my first time at Anime Boston and the sheer number of attendees were a little overwhelming. We went in a group of six with four of us cosplaying from all different series. For the first two days at the convention, we went as Killua Zaoldyeck (myself; Hunter x Hunter), Atsuro ([livejournal.com profile] hitokiri_quatre; Kaikan Phrase), Mutsumi Saburo ([livejournal.com profile] 623_san; Keroro Gunsou), and Kurama (one of [livejournal.com profile] hitokiri_quatre's friends; Yuu Yuu Hakusho). There was an ongoing bet over who would be most recognized and sure enough, Kurama won first place and many fangirls. We kept having girls run up to us and practically squee for a picture of Kurama and never gave the rest of us another look because they had no clue who we were. Killua was second in the recognition tally, with Atsuro in third with about three recognitions, and Mutsumi in fourth with no recognitions; he was very unloved.


The )
argurotoxos: Midnighter holding balloons, waiting for his husband (Default)
So here it is. I'm sure I forgot some things and I'm terrible with names, so feel free to correct me if you find any inaccuracies.

I will be replying to LJ comments, checking the PortConMaine forums, and all that other good stuff tomorrow. Sorry for the wait!


The PortConMaine 2005 Experience )
argurotoxos: Midnighter holding balloons, waiting for his husband (Default)
Image Hosted by ImageShack.us

The pictures have been uploaded! Woo! You can either look at them under the LJ cut (thanks to ImageShack) or at my Yahoo photo album here. Whichever you choose, there are over 150 images, so they'll probably take a while to load. However, if it takes an insanely long time to download them, let me know and I'll split the images into two separate posts.


Photo-y goodness! )
argurotoxos: Midnighter holding balloons, waiting for his husband (Default)
Yup. I'm back and am currently resizing all 180+ pictures before I upload them. I will be posting some kind of write-up later, but not right now. Right now, my brain is dead and I am exhausted. My entire summary would be this: PortCon was fun! The funnest of fun! Wheeeee!! OMGpie!!1!1!! And I don't think anyone wants to read a post of that.

So yeah. Pictures will be posted later tonight. I hope to have them both here and on my Yahoo photo album.

ZOMGPIE! XD

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argurotoxos: Midnighter holding balloons, waiting for his husband (Default)
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