My apologies to those of you who actually use this as your only source of Petting Zoo related news. Much has happened in the past ten months that has made it impossible to maintain any sort of update schedule. I've barely been maintaining what passes for my sanity. However, today I had corndogs and raspberry iced tea from Wienerschnitzel (Look it up...). Although chocolate is my favorite treat, corndogs are my comfort food. So I'm going to push all the selfish and impatient people aside for today, so I can give some attention to those patient enough to wait for me to send up a smoke signal.

Once again, since so much of note has happened over the past ten months, it would be a little overwhelming for most readers to sit through my entire recount. So instead, I've condensed the events down into easy to digest sections.

I gotta warn you, a lot of the things that have happened in the last ten months have been, what I refer to as, "Cosplay Politics". So I'm going to be doing a bit more ranting than normal, because I've had it up to my eyeballs with cosplay politics and drama. It's a hobby, it's supposed to be fun. But, unfortunately, just like with most other things, it's often just viewed as a popularity contest, and people get very bitter and spiteful when they don't think they're getting enough attention. -_-'

But first, something totally random! ^_^

My Curse
Everyone who has spent time with me can attest to it's existence, even those who have only read of my misadventures must begin to suspect that it's not statistically possible to have this kind of bad luck. But it's something that I've lived with since I was 15 years old. Now maybe calling it a "curse" is a bit negative, but I don't know what else to call it. The only reason I've managed to keep my head above water all this time is because:

a) I'm really frikkin' stubborn.
and...
b) I don't give up.

I know exactly when and where I got the curse, not that this helps me in any way, but at least I wasn't there by myself, so others remember the event too. It was January 2nd, 1990, and I was at Epcot Center in Orlando, walking up the steps to the "Land Pavillion". I was there with my family, during winter break my Sophomore year, and so far our "vacation" had already been filled with mishap. Our van's transmission died in Rock Springs, Wyoming (where the wind chill was at -80°F ...) a few days before Christmas, and we had to wait until the day after Christmas to continue our trip to my grandparents' house in Michigan. Then, on the way down to Florida (where the humidity index was 80°F ...), we got into a seven car pile-up, and miraculously escaped with only a few dents in the car and a sliding door that fell off if you slid it too hard.

So there was 15 year old Katie, walking up the steps a little ahead of her family, fiddling with the growing collection of flag pins she had ammassed on the breast pocket of her dark green shirt, proudly wearing her brand new "Figment: The Imagination Dragon" hat backwards on her head, unknowingly headed toward a fateful run-in with what could only be described as an "old gyspy woman". I'm serious. Picture the "old gypsy woman" from any movie set in "Olde Europe", with the babushka scarf over her head and shoulders, slightly hunched over, and looking generally disapprovingly at the whole world. That's who was standing near the top of the steps.

As younger Katie got to the midpoint of the steps, the old woman started decending them, directly towards Katie. Little Katie tried to adjust her path to avoid a collision, but the old woman was intentionally altering her own course, and looking straight at the girl. Once the woman reached Katie she held her hand up in Katie's face, made a "Tssh!" noise, and then hurriedly continued down the steps, never to be seen again. Katie stood there, puzzled, until her parents caught up to her. "What was that all about?" Katie shrugged, unaware of the monkey wrench that had just been thrown into the gearbox of her life.

We speculated later that perhaps the old woman, in a state of slight senility, had mistaken the soft foam horns on my hat as originating from my own head, and cast this hex on me for less manevolent reasons than just to be a nasty old biznatch. However, that is neither here nor there after 15 years of ridiculously screwed up circumstances. (Yes, I'm turning 30 this year.) My life is like a TV show, with "wacky situations" happening every day. Accept that, unlike on those shows, they have real consequences. And they pile up. -_-'

So yes, if any one is related to an "Olde World" anti-cursing gypsy, give me a call. I've had quite enough, thank you, and I don't even OWN that hat anymore. o_o'

Hawaii is very pretty... but it does smell a bit like wet dog in the Summer. o_0'

"The claw! THE CLAW!!" ...sending a picture of my newly finished bodysuit to my friend Justin.

Another Disasterous Katsucon
As many people who attended this year's Katsucon have already said many places before, it sucked. I haven't been to a con that poorly run in a long time, and NEVER to one run that badly after its second year. Unlike last year, where we were running damage control the whole time, this year we streamlined our supplies and set up to dolphin-like sleekness. Everything we were responsible for, or had control over, ran like finely oiled clockwork. Everything the con was in charge of was run like a broken Rockem' Sockem' Robots toy... with melted gum stuck in the buttons.

We had a horrible time there. So bad, in fact, that the guest coordinator (Barb Fischer) asked me to give her a full report of everything that went wrong (that was the direct result of the con staff and volunteers...), so she could take it to the post-con meeting.

From what I saw, Barb was the only con staff member there who was making any effort to try to fix things on the fly. Every other staffer I talked to had the "yeah, it's messed up but *insert excuse here* and *blame the hotel here* and the *mention that the con chair was sick here*, and it'll be better next year" attitude.

The really messed up part, was that our "liason" to the con, didn't even WORK for the con. It was our friend Dave Lister who made sure that the con remembered to send me my guest info, and got ahold of the artist alley confirmations. So thank you very much to Barb and Dave.

You can go ahead and say "Oh yeah?! Well why don't you try running a con? It's hard work!" Yes, I know it's hard work. I run my own fast-paced business, have organized large groups, and run booths at conventions, trade shows, and raves. You know what I've learned? If your staff isn't doing their job, replace them with someone who will. Don't hire someone because they like anime, hire someone who knows how to work under pressure, and is accountable. And if you are the boss, and you realize you're in over head, delegate or step down.

These dudes had their ducks in a row! And the crazy thing is, not only was it their first year running it, but for many of them, it was also their first time attending an anime convention. We learned from the con chair, that they worked very closely with the local SciFi con planners, so the convention was run like a SciFi con, but with Anime related content. The typical chaos of anime cons was nowhere to be found, but everyone was still having a great time. ^_^v

Opening Ceremonies started on time, the AMVs started on time, EVERYTHING started on time except the cosplay. (Due to the hotel not setting up the stage or bringing the chairs to the pavillion until only about an hour before we were supposed to start...) When Anthony (the con chair) heard that the cosplay started late, he was livid. We assured him that it was pretty normal for the cosplay to start late, and he said "Not at MY con!". So yes, a bit of a perfectionist, that one.

I didn't spend as much time with the other guests, despite many an invitation, because I literally had to finish the last issue of NHS at the con. This meant that all my time sitting in the dealer's room was spent drawing pages, with Jodon sitting next to me scanning and toning. I did get to talk more with with Yaya Han and Randall Whitlock, since we were the judges for the cosplay.

Yaya is, from what I could gather from our brief conversations, kind of in the same boat I am as far as the cosplay drama. It seems as though she is very worried about people thinking bad things about her, and with good reason. I've seen my share of Yaya bashing posts, mostly from other girls, calling her a slut or asian trash, or any number of other nasty things. People say she's a "fake" because she didn't make all of her costumes by herself. But honestly, there are very few cosplayers out there who actually build the entirety of their costumes, from the ground up, all by themselves.

So shut up, haters. Spend more time making your own work better before you go criticizing others. I've seen enough "Hot Topic Cosplay" and "Ebay Lolitas" to know better. And don't tell a judge you made your own costume when you didn't. We know when you're lying! >.<

Randall is a lovable scamp, but I think he was trying to kill me with puns and old TV and movie references. The sad thing was, I got all of them, which really betrays my age and dorkiness level. He was there representing the local costuming guild, and really knew his stuff. He was dressed as Doctor Evil on Saturday, and a Jedi on Sunday. Not anime costumes, but very nicely made anyway. ^_^'

That had to have been the shortest cosplay masquerade I've ever seen, much to our dismay. Many of the contestants had never been on stage before, and practically ran across. The walk-ons were allotted 60 seconds a piece, but I actually got to the point that I was giving credit to anyone who stayed up there for more than THREE. o_0'

After we tallied up the scores, we gave out the awards. Along with the trophies, Yaya passed out gift-certificate prizes from Cosplay.com, Randall gave away a subscription to his guild's newsletter, and I gave away a $100 gift certificate toward any service or products from my wig shop. It was a really hard decision for the top craftsmanship awards, because there were some very well made costumes there.

Overall, it was a very enjoyable con experience, and I hope they'd like me to come judge again next year. (Hint, hint!) ^_^

Here I am, drawing the last page of the last issue of NHS. Note how my shirt coordinates perfectly with the carefully rationed Starburst candies. (I only like the pink ones.)

Cosplay Drama at Katsuon
Katsucon's cosplay competition was the first (and last) time I've ever entered a costume for Craftsmanship judging. Honestly, I didn't want to do it at all. After all the negativity I've recieved on message boards from people saying I'm some sort of cosplay elitist, and an egomaniac and bunch of other BS, I didn't want to give them any more to pick at. Also, there's a "no professionals" rule in some costume craftsmanship competitions, and although I don't take costume commissions, I am a professional commissioner.

However, Thea, who has entered and won many, many craftsmanship contests, assured me that it would be ok, and begged me to join her cosplay group. It was kind of a willy-nilly, last minute skit idea, and she even let me re-tool the script to make it funnier, so I said ok.

Putting on the make-up for my costume, of course, took quite a bit of time (prosthetics are fun!), and Thea had to be my handler for the night since I didn't want to crack the make-up by talking and moving too much while we waited our turn. She and I got down to the green room early.

I can't fly like Shiva, so I had to settle for standing on a table. ^,^'

Keeping true to the poorly executed nature of the rest of the con, it quickly became a chaotic mess of screaming cosplayers, and a coordinator with no microphone (or presence of mind to stand on a CHAIR!!) trying to direct people. To make matters worse, nearly everyone was standing up (despite the ample seating...), so even if you could hear what the coordinator was saying, you couldn't see where he was pointing. Our group remained seated and silent in hopes that it could somehow make the guy louder and taller. Nearly every other person in the room (except for two younger Final Fantasy girls, who looked rather intimidated by the noise...) was talking loudly, or yelling, or jumping around like an idiot.

The beadwork on their costumes was incredible! And the one in blue is another Shiva! ^_^

When he called out our number, we were supposed to somehow shout back to him, and raise our hands to show him where we were. (Yes, another fine example of "not compensating for change" on the part of the event staff.) We did manage to get across "We're here!" through the noise, and he pointed in a vague "rightish" direction and shouted back "Your group is right there!" We moved to where it looked like he pointed, and sat back down. He continued to shout off numbers until he got to the end of the list, then started from the top again. Apparently, the first set of shouting was to make sure the groups to be judged were in the room, and the second time was to line everyone up for their order of appearance on stage.

While he was yelling, I was looking around the room to see how many people I recognized from pictures. Many of the cosplayers in the room had emailed me with questions, or complemented my wigs or such in the past, and quite a few were people I regularly corresponded with via email who had never met me in real life. Of course, I knew that wasn't the best time to walk over and introduce myself (a large part of that due to the fact that I couldn't really talk much because of the make-up...), but I made a note of who I saw so I could find them after the cosplay or email them later.

One cosplayer in particular, who we'll call "Girly X", has a pretty bad reputation of being a "Narcisistic Bitch", but I had spoken to her on message boards and in email a couple of times, and she didn't seem that bad to me. So I figured people were just judging her unfairly because she's very attractive, and makes great costumes. I'm not the type of person who puts much weight on rumor, I instead like to base my judgements on their behavior in person. So, based on what I had seen sitting in that room so far, "Hyperactive Loudmouth", would have seemed a better description for her. I estimate that about 70% of the noise coming in my right ear was a direct product of her non-stop speech.

The coordinator got back to our number in the shouting match, and kept repeating it and asking where we were, even though we kept saying "We're HERE!!" Of course, other cosplayers were being "helpful" by yelling our number at the top of their lungs as well, just in case we couldn't hear the coordinator before, making it completely impossible to hear him at all. It seems that he was looking at the "rightish" spot where he thought he had directed us to, and asking why were weren't there, but we couldn't hear (or see over the crowd...) that at all. Just then, Girly X decided she would take matters into her own hands by yelling into the room in an impressively louder voice than the other yelling otaku. (Mind you, we were standing about 5 feet from her...)

Girly X: "GROUP THIRTEEN!! WHAT ARE YOU? A BUNCH OF F***ING MORONS?! GET OVER BY THE DOOR!"

Yes. Very classy.

Anyhow, it ended up that our group was sitting right next to Girly X's group, so I then got to have my other ear monopolized by the catty remarks about other people's costumes. The real treat was when Girly X came and sat down on the floor right next to me to talk to another cosplayer, and they started talking about me in the third person. Right next to me. They got onto the topic of how to part a wig for pigtails, and the second cosplayer (who I didn't recognize) said "I saw the tutorial on her site, but there's some parts I don't understand." Girly X said something about it being too expensive to do it "her (Katie's) way", and how she just always goes for the cheapest methods and materials she can find. (It was about then that I noticed the loose threads hanging from various spots on her costume...)

The true irony of this situation, is that about three years ago, Girly X posted a question in the forums on Cosplay.com, asking how to part a wig for pigtails, and I responded with step-by-step instructions. I put up the online tutorial about 6 months later.

The teacher in me got control of the mouth, turned to the cosplayer and said:

"Well, if you have any questions, I'd be happy to answer them."

She looked at me both blankly and uneasily at the same time, and laughed nervously, "No, that's ok." Girly X didn't look me in the face but added, "Your way is ok too." They continued with their conversation again, this time at a lower volume, until the cosplayer suddenly asked, "Are you Katie Bair?"

"Yeah, that's me. I know it's kind of hard to tell with all the make-up."

She then proceded to ask me how I made the wig I was wearing, and asked if it was heavy, etc. I tried to smile, but I felt the makeup cracking, and explained that one of the drawbacks of the costume was that I can't really talk in it. (Insert Awkward Silence)

It's kind of weird, when I'm doing workshops, singing karaoke, or sitting behind a table, I can talk with people very easily, and am IMPOSSIBLE to embarrass. But for some reason, whenever someone says "Are you Katie Bair?", I'm filled with dread, and become very shy. I guess it's because I don't know what type of impression they might already have about me. (Like are they the with the "Katie is greedy" or the "Katie is nice" crowd?)

When it was my turn to be judged, Thea came up with me to do the talking. She knew as much as I did about how I made the costume, since she'd watched me work on it for the past year, and it was her airbrush I borrowed to do the bodysuit. The whole process was relatively painless. In looking around at some of the other costumes in the room, I didn't even entertain the thought that I'd win something, so it was just a formality at that point.

I sat back down, and tried to just zone out so I wouldn't feel inclined to talk or move around too much. I couldn't help but overhear conversations (they were being practically yelled, afterall...), and was saddened to hear that most people were spending all their time doing one (or more) of these three things:

a) Bashing other people costumes.
b) Talking about how great their costume is, and how much time/money was spent on it.
c) Exclaiming the "ghetto-ness" of their costume, and waiting for someone to say, "It's better than mine".

All of these people, who in the anonymity of cyberspace, would sycophantically praise each other to appear to be nice, were proving themselves to be nothing more than catty little attention whores. "Look at me! I'm prettier than so and so! Take my picture!" I know that not everyone cosplays for the challenge of making the costume, and that some do it for popularity, but it was really quite depressing to see just how many of the people in the room were in the latter group. Just for the record, I made note of the people in the room who were NOT acting like this. They were definitely in the minority, but also, many of the same ones I knew had costume or prop tutorials on their websites. (Could there be a connection between being helpful online and in person? Gee, I wonder.)

Anyhow, we eventually went on stage and did our skit. There were many far better done skits there, but we were just there to enter for craftsmanship, not to win for funniest skit. I only regret that I didn't get to see the big Katamari Damacy group go up, coz I had to go to the bathroom. -_-'

I love this game, but the music will drive you insaaaaaane with it's catchiness! @,@'

Once all the groups had performed, they had the break for the judges to tally up their votes. I took this opportunity to get back to Artist Alley before the crowd, since I was worried about how my friends were holding up. I hadn't seen Jodon, Shannon, or Justin since I left with Thea about 7 hours before then, and I didn't have my phone or any way of getting in touch with them. For all I knew, they had already packed up and left. I crossed the cold, cold, cold street to the Sheraton, and found Justin asleep, and Jodon exhausted and delirious at the table. I sat down and drew some badges, while Jodon packed up. Work, work, work.

We took our stuff back to the hotel room, and I kept cracking up because the cold was making my contacts fog over really badly. (On a plus side, wearing a double layered bodysuit kept me quite warm!) Then we got the phone call from Thea. All of our group members had won Craftsmanship awards individually, and I'd won Best of Class.

Arr! We be a motley crew of samurais and ...er, summoned avatars. ¬_¬'

Oh, but there's MORE! Apparently, the fact that I wasn't there to pick up my award, caused more drama among the cosplayers waiting there. "Is she too good to pick up her own award now? She has someone else pick it up for her!" Thea tried to explain that I needed to get back to Artist Alley, but they would have rather just believed that I'm a snob. 9_9'

Recently, I've seen posts on message boards about people making their own wig dye at home using acrylic ink/paint and rubbing alcohol, and calling it "homemade wig dye". Nevermind the fact that rubbing alcohol is too strong to use for a good wig dye, (it degrades the pigment after a short time...) one of the things I found out when cracking the formula in the first place.

Even though I've seen some people post exactly that, there is a larger group who is willing to go through the rather complicated and time-consuming process to make their own single batch of dye in hopes of "Sticking it to The MAN!" (Aka: The Nefarious Katie Bair!) What is really silly about this, is that one of the reasons I made my wig dye available to other cosplayers, was to save them from doing things like using acrylic paints and inks in their wigs in the first place, because it ruins the texture.

I really don't understand cosplayers sometimes. I try to help them make their wigs look better, and they go right back to smearing Jello in them. Why? Because I told them not to.

"The Cult of Katie"
My dad told me a few months ago, when the negativity I was getting in the assorted cosplay forums was making me want to shut down my business, "The more popular you become, the more people will hate you. It's just a statistical fact." If 10 people know you, and one person hates you, that ratio will always stay about the same. I get +150,000 hits to my site everymonth, there are easily several tens of thousands of cosplayers, and a few thousand NHS readers, so a LOT of people have heard of me. That also guarantees that a lot of people, whom I've never even met, hate me.

This is how some people online describe me.

"Tut tut! That wig is absolutely horrid! What a poor wretch you are to be without one of my exclusive designs. You dear, pathetic thing."

But this is the reality.

"All right, Fishie. Don't you give me any lip, or it's to the toilet bowl with you. No, I don't care if you don't have lips."

One particular group of these people, decided to take it upon themselves to "smite the Katie Believers" on the cosplay.com wig forums back in April. It seemed as though every time someone posted my name, or directed a new cosplayer to my site to see my tutorials and supplies, one of these girls would post immediately after them, saying something like "Don't listen to Katie, try to figure it out yourself first", or "Why does everyone go straight to Katie Bair with thier wig problems, my friend and I style wigs too", or "Katie's straightening method doesn't work! Use an iron!" After a short while, one of my apprentices caught on to the trend, and posted the obvious answer: "Because people know that Katie is good with wigs."

The Anti-Katie Coalition had begun their debate on the grounds of inspiring people to "experiment" and "do it themselves". They then started to personally attack other cosplayers, with phrases like (I laughed when I saw this one...) "If Katie Bair said to jump off a bridge, a bunch of people would do it!" I was being labelled as some sort of cult leader, and these cosplayers were being called sheep. o_0'

There was some back and forth for a while with my apprentice and a few of my previous customers, until the more vocal of the AKC showed her true colors, and touted how she and her friend knew a lot about wigs and that people should listen to their methods instead of mine. So this was no longer about telling people to be "free thinkers", this was about trying to discredit me to gain popularity.

That's when I had to step in.

Anyhow, shortly afterwards, I got a letter of apology from Loki-sama. She explained that she was too scared to write before, after that whole "Pet Shop Wigs" fiasco, but wanted to say she was sorry. I wrote her back, thanked her for her honesty, and told her that if she does ever end up taking wig commissions, that she should let me know so I can give her a link on my site.

I'm not an ogre, people. I'm a chronic workaholic and a perfectionist, but I'm also very friendly. So stop wasting your energy on trying to make people hate me for reasons you've made up, because as soon as they meet me in person, they'll just realize that you're full of crap.

To tell you the truth, I'm glad to be done. Not because I'm sick of the characters or didn't enjoy the creative side of the work, but because it was killing me. I've worked in many deadline based production jobs, including video games, corporate design, and journalism. I've worked with clients all over the world, many of whom were on 13-hour time differences, or barely spoke English. And never, in any of those jobs, was I made to feel as...as... BAD, as much as I was working on this book.

The worst part is, I only began to find out towards the end of it that my "liason" had not been entirely honest with me, or the bosses, about quite a few things. So the editor-in-chief doesn't trust a thing that comes out of my mouth, even though I have documented proof to back it all up with. Everytime I'd talk to him, he'd end up kelling and screaming at me, or threatening to fire me for one reason or another.

Then, life stepped in. Thea, who had been looking for work in the Bay Area (where she lives) for months, got a job at Muir Woods. It wasn't full time, but it wasn't scheduled in a way that she could drive out here anymore. Kat, who had been struggling financially since losing her Starbucks job in late December, was offered a full-time position with the county. Keiko, our overachieving girl-genius, got her Summer school schedule, and between that and her promotion at Juice Appeal, left no days off. Lisa, after working with me for 9 months, said she didn't realize how fast paced this was going to be, and ended her apprenticeship. So, the only one left from the original six is Courtney. (And I gave her July off.)

Of course, all of my wig orders are taken 5 months in advance, and five months ago, I assumed I'd still have five people helping me; not only one. So the past few months have been very, very, very overbooked and hectic.

I'm working with three new girls, Alyson, Kaesa (yet another Katie that we had to use a nickname for...), and starting next month, Rachel. Hopefully I can get them up to speed fairly quickly, because the demand is still as high as ever. o_0'

Bye Bye Burbie
My canary, Lil' Burb, had stopped singing in early June. I took him out to trim his talons, and when I put him back in his cage, I noticed that he seemed to be afraid to put weight on his right foot. After a few days of this, he seemed to be ok again, but then resorted to not putting weight on either foot, and just sitting on his belly on the perch or in his food bowl. His breathing was ragged, and I knew what was going on. He was dying.

On the morning of June 20th, I came out to find him curled up in his bowl. It still makes me cry to think about just how light he felt. He was still warm, but he was definitely dead. I took him up to my parents' house, and buried him in their pet cemetary, along with his disco ball. I feel bad that I was never able to get him a female canary, so his songs weren't always in vain, but I hope he considered me good enough company.

Anyhow, due to the whole lack-o'-apprentices situation, I was once again doing a lot of last minute wigs the night before we were supposed to leave, and delivering them at the convention. I stayed up all night Thursday, and packed the car and left Friday morning. Traffic was incredibly bad, and I was so dehydrated and exhausted by the time I got to the con, that I had lost my voice. Jodon delivered the wigs while I signed in for the karaoke contest (which had already begun), and I sat sucking on a Hall's drop, and drinking water, trying to get my voice back.

Now mind you, the only reason I was so dead-set on doing Karaoke, even though I really wanted to do the WYOL contest, and NOT the main contest, was because I haven't been able to do karaoke at a convention since ShoujoCon. It seems that something always goes wrong, or we end up missing it whenever I try to go. So anyhow, I wasn't there to win, or even to sound good, I just wanted to sing, and make people laugh.

I was the absolute last one to go up, and the MC did something I rather he'd not have. Instead of anouncing me as "Karaoke Kate" (everyone was introduced by a stage name...), he introduced me as "Katie Bair". The crowd responded by screaming and cheering, and the obligatory mummur of "Is that the same Katie Bair who does the wigs?"

"Great. I hope they aren't expecting too much."

Let me take this moment to tell you a little about my singing career. First off, I am a very loud singer. I was a soloist with a large choir, and am used to singing along with live musicians and real instruments. When I sing to pre-recorded music a non-convention environment, I'm used to singing with professional quality karaoke tracks and real mixing equipment (not the kind you run on an iMac...) I hate vocal dampening software, because most of it drops out the midrange, which is where most of the music is, and ruins the singability.

Anyhow, I was prepared to not sound my best, after hearing how bad the vocal dampening had been with some of the other songs, but I also figured the audio staff would adjust the levels once I started. Plus, there's only so much a eucalyptys cough drop can do to counteract the raspiness of my voice at that point. So, I apologized to the crowd that I didn't have any quacking props, which quickly turned into a discussion of whether or not my boobs... "oh wait, you said BOOTS?" quacked.

They started the music. Then I opened my mouth, and completely drowned out the music. I was singing the frikkin' thing a cappela, and it was NOT the type of song that sounds good a cappela. Afterall, I had intentionally picked a sing that is meant to be sung in a throaty soul tone, not one that was supposed to be whispered. I tried to quickly tell the audio staff to turn off the dampening, but they didn't hear me. I tried to dampen my own voice by covering the mic with most of my hand, but that just muted me. So yeah, it was really bad, even though I did make a quacking sound with my boots. ^,^'

I had done what I came to do, so I put the mic back in the stand, and climbed off the stage.

And then it got worse...

The MC called out to me, "Was that supposed to be dampened?" I smiled and shook my head, "No, but don't worry about it." I tried to sit down. The MC persisted, "Do you want to try it again?"

"Oh, I don't really think these people want to sit through that again."

Katie (thinks): "Don't do this. Please, don't do this."

MC: "What do you say? Do you want to see her do it again?"

Crowd: *Cheers*

Katie (thinks): "Dammit."

So I went, back onto the stage. Feeling as awkward as an ex-girlfriend who has just got done telling you she never wants to see you again, but then has to knock on the door to get her carkeys. "Um hi, I'm back. This will be the PG-13 version of the song." This time, I tried to make it as clear as possible that I had no interest in winning this contest, but just wanted to entertain people.... so I stripped while I sang the song. ~_^

Yes, I'm a dork, but I as I said before, I'm impossible to embarrass when it comes to being in front of a crowd. ^_^ v

Cosplay Fun
My friends Thea and Diana we doing their normal hectic cosplay switcharoos. Just in the time from when I arrived that night, to when I was done doing Karaoke, they had already gone through at least one costume change. o_o'

"Aww, let me help you with your bangs Sephy!"

After several false starts at Katsucon 2004 and 2005, I finally got to wear the Water Diva. This the first in another series of four costumes. The next one I'll do is the Earth Diva, although I don't know when she will be ready to go. She'll be a lot less elaborate than this one, and (thankfully) free of glitter. ^_^

Water Diva 2.1: After getting sick of the wig sliding back on my head, I removed the veil from the back, and tied it down. My hair is much shorter than it was when I originally made this wig, so the hairpins couldn't do their job. o_o'

As always, the wig workshop went well, even though my normally double-sided handouts were oddly repetative... since "Page 1" was printed on both sides. ¬_¬'

I think I may have offended some of the more sensitive types there by saying "caulk" with such zeal, but I'm not sure what exactly they were expecting from a grown woman that wears kitty ears to the grocery store. ^=;=^

Words of Encouragement
After reading about all the drama and complaining people do about me and my work, you might wonder why it is that I bother to keep working at it. Well, another thing I've learned about large groups of people, is that even though the ones who don't like you are always the loudest, they shouldn't stop you from hearing the ones who care. Including ones like this:

I know I'm helping people. Even when it's hard, or tiring, or it seems like nobody appreciates it, I always remember the look on little Ryanne's face when she was watching me draw Lokki, or the squeals of glee from the cosplayer seeing their Inu Yasha wig in person for the first time, or the heartfelt thanks from the folks who attend my workshops and feel confident enough to tackle that wig that they'd thought too intimidating before. I remember all of you that have given me a reason to keep going, no matter how insignificant it may have seemed to you, it means a lot to me. So thank you. Thank you for giving me a chance.

First, a moment of rare peace.

My brother still works in the game industry, and recently moved to a new company in Emeryville, CA. Since the job started before the moving van guys could show up, he just brought down "the essentials" in his car in the meantime. Due to his mutant digestive processes, he seems to be able to survive completely off of console games, systems, and accessories. Oh, and cardboard. Coz you can never get too much fiber.

How many game systems can you find in this picture?

Maggie is a very friendly and patient dog. Despite having Figaro the cat noshing on her head.

In a video interview we did with the former members of Ryuhana Press a few years ago, Shannon was asked what her impression were of the other members of the group. When she got to Justin, she said (quite concernedly, I might add...) "He slouches!"

Shannon also has a Chihuahua. His name is Bonus. Any guesses why?

My mom got into Irises a few years ago, and has turned the front yard of my parents' house into a little Iris farm. Irises are odd flowers, in that there are so many varieties that they have names ranging from things as tame as "Creamsicle", and to the slightly more baudy "Rudy's Red Rocket"... ok I just made that one up, but there are some pretty dirty sounding names.

But seriously, what do you expect from folks who spend all day trying to get their flowers to get funky to make a new variety? There might even be one called "Barry White's Ambition" or "Hot Monkey Love".

I sat down and calculated the equivalent distance for a human, and it came out to journey of 40 miles at a rate of 1MPH. They must really need to use the bathroom!

My family plays the "License Plate" game when driving cross-country. (Which I've done more times than I can count now...) ANYhow, the rarest plate to find is Rhode Island. So I had to document my find, when I happened upon this car in the Meteor Crater parking lot. I win again! V ^___^ V

The wind was blowing SO HARD, yet my trusty Genki Gank kitty hat stayed in place! I took this picture to send to Lindze so she could see how her hats hold up in X-treme conditions.

Here we have a very special treat.

My dad is a very intelligent guy, so when I found this video clip on one of my memory cards, I knew it was a keeper.

Click Here to View Movie Clip
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While fiddling with my new digital camera, my dad shows us that reading the instructions is really a good idea afterall. (Note: Nobody in the room had any idea the camera was recording video footage at the time. Just listen to the dialog, and you'll see why I think this is so funny.)

As always, comments are welcome. ^_^