Metrizzle con

Okay so last post was strictly about my cosplay for Metrocon, so this post is going to be about my entire experience @_@

LOLOMG I HAD SO MUCH FUN.

Friday morning, I wake up, RIPE AND READY 2 GO except I had a few things to do.

First of all, I had a panel to host 6pm. It was a NYAN NEKO SUGAR GIRLS PANEL. Yeap, you read that correctly. If you have no idea what the hell that is, look it up on Youtube. Either you will be enlightened or scarred for life. Whatever the matter, you need to be exposed to this amazing masterpiece. 

Because my laptop's sound is broken (YEP I STILL DON'T HAVE SOUND MY LAPTOP AND IT OFFICIALLY CAN'T BE FIXED T^T) I thought burning a DVD would be a better idea. I downloaded 5 episodes from youtube (yeah I know that's bad and illegal <_<) and then I rode my bike to Walgreens to get blank DVDs and CDs (for my anime idol performance, which will be mentioned later). My mom was surprised I got back in 15 minutes LOL. 

I started to burn the DVD before I took a shower. I used my old laptop, which I gave to my mom, because my own laptop's cd drive ALSO DOESN'T WORK LOL. Since that old laptop is only windows vista, it couldn't read mp4 files or what the hell ever on the dvd burner, so I had to convert the files via adobe premiere and GOSH THAT TOOK 5EVER. Long story short, making this video put my group like 2 hours behind on schedule for leaving. It was okay though because we weren't in a rush. We originally planned on leaving as 10 but ended up getting together at 12.

We went to walmart to buy food for the weekend. My groups always do this at cons because it saves money and it's a lot healthier. I got some ham and bread. I pretty much ate ham sandwiches for lunch and dinner/snacks for two days LOL. I also got some other snacks. I tried out oatmeal poptarts which were my breakfast/snack for the whole weekend LOL THEY WEREN'T THAT BAD.

So by 1pm we were on the road~~~~

I went with two friends. Funny thing is that we all went to the same middle school xD how cute is that LOL.

Arriving in Tampa was confusing. However, it was less confusing than last year. Last year it was everyone's first time in that city. Since I go to school there now, I was more familiar with the roads. It's confusing because there are a lot of one way streets. After some failed attempts we made it to our hotel YAAAY *plays dora the explorer song*

We stayed at the Hilton and one other friend joined our group. Four people in a room wasn't too bad. We each paid $70. I was hoping for 6 people in our group to make it cheaper, plus the more the merrier u_u~ There wasn't a fridge in the hotel which was stupid. No microwave either D: We had a cooler though. To save money, we parked my car at my school. We unloaded our stuff onto a cart and two people in the group took the stuff upstairs. We went to my school, I said my friend was "visiting," we parked the car there and walked back to the hotel xD It wasn't super close, but the walk wasn't bad and THANK GAWD there was a nice breeze. We surprisingly didn't need a parking pass too o_O whatever the matter, my friend's car was safe and sound afterwards and we saved paying 16 dollars a day.

Once we got into the hotel I unpacked my cosplay, ironed it, put it on, and felt awesome xD

Once we were all ready, it was time to go to the con center and host the nyan neko sugar girls panel!

Since it was Friday, there weren't too many people on the streets in cosplay so of course I felt funny walking to the con center xD I wonder what some regular people thought. I can't remember what day it was, but while I was walking I saw this old guy in his car, at a red light was looking and smiling at me so I waved back all excitedly at him xD Now, instead of trying to ignore people who stare, it's more fun to wave back and give them a good laugh haha.

IT WAS SO HOT OUTSIDE.

Walking into the con center felt amazings ;_; 

First objective was to find the panel room where my panel was going to be held xD After obtaining a schedule and asking people, we found the panel room! I saw two friends of mine from high school waiting outside :'D I didn't know they were going to metrocon this year so it was a nice surprise. They go like every year though so idk why I didn't think I'd see them lmfao. 

I didn't have a con pass for the day, so I thought someone standing outside the door would tell me I couldn't host it, but nope that wasn't the case PHEW. I went inside and saw the people from the panel before mine were cleaning up. I then went up there, when they were done, and THANKFULLY saw a dvd player LOL. I was starting to get worried that there wouldn't be one o_O although it was stated that in that room there would be a dvd player. 

As I was trying to set my shiz together, a lady came in, who was part of the metrocon staff and tried to help me out. There wasn't a remote for the tv o_O which was weird. The volume was just stuck at the same level. It wasn't too bad. We did have some technical difficulties at first setting the dvd player up because the tv kept saying there wasn't a signal, but eventually it did get set up, and my dvd played! There was a pretty big crowd! I was so happy xD A lot of people were new to the series/current fans. I loved seeing the audiences reaction, and I still laughed incredibly hard at certain scenes. I didn't record anything o-o idk why I didn't record anything in the panel. idk. IDK. Afterwards, people told me how happy they were that I hosted this panel xD One person even drew a picture of the characters during the panel as a tribute to the series lmfaoo. hosting this panel was a great kick off to my weekend.

I had to end the panel early because I only had 5 episodes. It ended a little after 6:40, from what I can remember. My group and I then headed towards the meeting spot where we were going to meet the photographer for the photoshoot I booked for my group xD

It was really fun, the guy was really nice, BUT IT WAS SO HOT OUTSIDE LOL. 

After that, I think we walked back to the hotel to eat dinner, which was pretty much whatever we bought from walmart haha. 

Somewhat spontaneously, we decided to got to the rave that night. We got ready and then walked back to the con center. I was glad that you could buy a rave ticket for only ten dollars at the door, even if you didn't have a con pass. WOOHOO. It wasn't too crowded and it was fun LOL. I'm still kinda derp at rave dancing, but I think I've improved this year pffft. 

...

On Saturday I woke up at 7 or 7:30 omfg. I have no idea how I did it, but I was able to get up that early. Our plan was to walk to the con center as early as possible, buy our day tickets, and then go back to the hotel to get ready. The plan was a success LOL. We arrived at 8:30. There was a line, but once registration opened it all went by really smoothly. GAWD IT FELT SO WEIRD WALKING OUTSIDE IN THE HEAT WITH WET HAIR. All caps is necessary to express that thought.

I decided to just wear glasses instead of a mask on Saturday because I actually wanted to see clearly LOL. Wow, I can't fully express how it felt to take off my mask on friday outside after our photoshoot. It was like switching from 240p to 1080p omg. 

Anyways, we arrived in time to do some walking around the dealer's room. I met a friend and then we went to watch the chess match. Last year, we arrived late to the show, and I didn't have  much interest in it at all. This year, we watched the entire show and I thought it was awesome! I wish I was familiar with all of the characters, but I wasn't xD I also didn't fully understand the storyline lmfao. The person who played Finn in the match was wonderful. The fight scenes were entertaining. The actor for Sokkah was also perfect. Overall, I really enjoyed the chess match.

We had an hour to kill until the AMV contest. We just walked around and got pictures with cosplayers and such. 

Gosh, the AMV contest....

Well let's start with how I got into it. As I was in line, I asked this security guard what did I need to do because I entered a video. He told me to follow him, and he told me to bring one of my friends as my "family member." lmfao as if this was some top secret thing. I go in, and NO ONE checks my name or even what video I entered. This bothered me because it showed that, well, anyone could do that o-o. We sat near the very front.

As dumb as it was, I was really thinking my video would win best comedy l 0 l. I mean, idk, I thought it was pretty funny.

First videos that "just didn't quite make it" were shown. I was hoping that my video wouldn't be shown l o l. Well, it wasn't. Then once the "best comedy" winner was announced I felt so defeated haha. I spent an hour and a half in there watching videos on the edge of my seat hoping I would win. A lot of the videos were great, but I would prefer doing that in my room or something, not at a convention when I could be having fun elsewhere .-.  After seeing those videos, I realized why my video wasn't really what the judges were looking for. Everything was anime first of all. Only video I saw that was a video game was Kingdom Hearts l0l. Second, the winner for best comedy has a type of comedy that well wasn't really what my video went for. My video was pretty gross hahaha. 

But oh well. I'm going to try and enter that video somewhere, again. I'm also not going to bother entering again. I don't want to have to sit through another hour and a half wondering if I made it or not. Basically, don't enter a contest if you don't have fun sitting through the actual contest haha.

All right, so after that, there wasn't much time until I had to get in line for anime idol. I walked back to the hotel with my friend to eat and then we hurried back to the con center. I got there at 5:33, when I was supposed to be there at 5:30. The lady running it got all fussy at me but I explained that I was only three minutes behind, and that the cut off time was 5:45 .-. Anyways, everyone was still in line outside the main events room, so there was nothing to worry about. I got in line and then after a minute or two, we all went inside.

Last year, I competed in anime idol and it was a blast. I didn't win anything but I did gain experience.

It pretty much took me one year to get over this performance and realize that it wasn't THAT bad.

However, I still wasn't 100% confident, and I believe that was my downfall. Well, okay maybe not entirely the reasoning behind my downfall. During the weekend, I was coughing sooo much. My voice became really scratchy. I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to sound right or I would start coughing during the performance. Well, during everyone else's (I was luckily #10) I was practicing my song and dance in a corner. It really loosened up my nerves, but once I hit that stage O_O....

I was SUPER SWEATY. I hope no one could tell agh. I also am still not used to microphones. I either felt too quiet or too loud .-. Nobody told me they couldn't hear me though, so I think it turned out all right. I'M DYING TO SEE VIDEO FOOTAGE OF MYSELF. The instrumental was a little low. It would have been nicer if they made the instrumentals louder this year, but I guess they kept it low for fear of drowning out people's voices in case they were too quiet. That, or they had no idea lol. 

I made some embarrassing mistakes though. During the first "teen titans...GO!" part, I FORGOT TO SAY MY LINE at first. Oh yeah, my song was the Japanese version of the Teen Titans theme song haha. Thankfully, the crowd was singing with me during the song during the "teen titans!" parts xD So during that part when the crowd was like "teen--" I was like FAK in my mind and I was literally like "..O_Oteentitans...GO!" and continued on xD During the last verse I felt like my mind was going blank with the lyrics so I just spit out whatever came to mind. I didn't mess up though haha.  I feel like my voice was shaky during some "long note" parts .-.

Choreography wise, I did all of my dance moves as planned LOL. I practiced more on my choreography than my singing pffft. Because of that, my moves just came automatically came to me without thinking so that was good. I also gave off some embarrassed smiles during the performance like "lol look at me being such a derp up here lol at me hahha self" kinda thing. 

I ran off stage with one arm forward like superman or something but I feel so stupid because ROBIN CAN'T FREAKIN FLY. idk why I did that and now I feel like people were judging me because of that oh my gosh. I felt like I jumped out of a swimming pool though. man, I was sweaty. It went away though because this girl lent me some paper to fan myself with xD I talked to a lot of the other contestants during the show and it was really fun. Everyone was really nice!

When it was time to announce the winners, I was really hoping I would get an award, but I didn't get anything :( I was hoping I would get a judges award, but nope. This is why I REALLY want to see my performance so I can see what I did wrong. I know I had the potential to be best in show, but I got all nervous and my voice got messed up because of my cough so that made me feel less confident u_u. Also, I was REALLY REALLY hoping on getting a costume award! I swear last year there was a costume award for someone who had the best cosplay during their performance. That actually kind pissed me off :/ 

Anime idol is a great experience though, and I really hope I can be a part of it next year because it's really really fun. Gosh, I love being on stage! I definitely wasn't as nervous as last year. I thought I was going to die and I was shaking LOL. So, that's a sign that I'm getting better at this lol. 

Even though I didn't win, a lot of people told me they loved my performance and they will never understand how much that meant to me! As I left back stage I was like, "great, this is so awkward now. People are going to see me and feel weird because I didn't win anything," but lo and behold two girls dressed as vocaloids told me they thought I was amazing and were all fangirly and I felt all fangirly for them and it was just so nice T^T and then as I was talking to them some more girls came up to me and I think one person asked me to hug them or something IDK but it was so nice to hear! As I got outside I saw some friends and they told me I did awesome xD Then throughout the day three different groups of people told me they enjoyed my performance. Knowing that, and also hearing the crowd sing with me, I was so happy that I chose the Teen Titans theme song because it got everyone all excited. WHO DOESN'T LOVE TEEN TITANS?! 

The last thing to watch was the cosplay skit contest. It was pretty entertaining and most of the acts were pretty good and worth my time. While the judges deliberated a slide show played of people who entered the "Picture this!" contest. I of course entered three pictures for the fun of it. This was a contest I didn't think I would win, so it wasn't too disappointing knowing I didn't win hahaha. 

After that it was just time to eat dinner and then go to the rave yadda yadda yadda.

...

Sunday was actually my favorite day LOL.

Because I didn't have to spend so much time in contests, I was so relaxed. We didn't buy a pass for that day, so my group and I sat around, explored artist alley, bought stuff, and sat around some more.

Checking out of the hotel was kind of a hassle. We had to walk back to my school to get my friend's car, get our stuff, and then find a place to park. Okay, well the checking out part wasn't a hassle, but more of the what-do-we-do-with-this-car thing was the problem LOL. We did find a parking lot that only charged 5 dollars a day pretty much. It was kind of far from the con center, but not too bad. On the way back though, we did find a closer lot -_-. 

We also brought food from subway into the con center even though outside food was not allowed HEHEHEHE.

I was really happy to be able to buy stuff from Artist Alley because I had extra money that was supposed to be for more food and parking. wealp, I was able to survive with just my groceries, and we were able to park at my school, so I could treat myself <_<

The stuff I bought can be found in this video:

overall vlog video is here:

Metrocon was practically everything I imagined it to be haha. Basically, I expected to have a lot of fun, and I did. My con group was great. I never had any problems with any of my friends. I laughed SO hard. I did a lot of screaming. I did a lot of slapping too, because I'm the type that claps and hits things while they laugh LOL. I become such an extrovert during conventions. It's a great escape. I hope next year will be even better :D

until next time! (n____n)v