It's a quarter of an hour into 2008 (well, in my time zone, anyways. deviantART seems to think otherwise) and all is right with the world. This past year has been absolutely terrible for me in my family. Wrought with tears and pain that I've not seen before in my entire life.

And it all started, quite literally, on January 1, 2007. I wake up at 6 in the morning to find out my only Grandpa is dead. A couple months later, and my not-even-thirty cousin was no longer among us. Shortly thereafter, my mother narrowly avoided some ovarian disease, only to almost immediately be slapped in the face with breast cancer. Aside from my mother's treatment, all went well for a couple more months. Then what happens? Both of my Grandmothers are in the hospital for various reasons. And one of them very nearly died, from what I can tell. I know I consided it a miracle she's still around.

Feh, all I've learned from this year is that seven isn't lucky if it's preceded by a two and two zeroes. I've never been so glad for a year to be over and done with.

Here's to better times in 2008!

Well, Sugoicon was pretty fun. I spent nigh on two hundred bucks and took a dozen or so pictures (probably should have taken more). I actually came across a (apparently out of print, and therefore probably rare) Nadesico artbook (not the one I've been wanting, unfortunately). Other than that, I got some figures, including some Escaflowne "blind box" figures (got two villains, of course).

I had a little bit of embarassment in the Artist's Alley when I saw a picture of a character and was trying to guess who he was (my friend just wouldn't help there). Eventually I called him a crazy guy as I was remembering who he was (guy from Trigun who made Vash kill him), at which point the artist, a girl cosplaying as the same character, jokingly (or I hope so) acted offended at being called crazy. I need to pay more attention to my surroundings...

Speaking of cosplay, there were a lot of really good ones. Two guys were dressed up as Roman soldiers, and their outfits were great, simply incredible. Then there was a Dark Link, very detailed, splendidly crafted fiberglass sword, and even red contact lenses for his eyes.

As for myself, I was constantly bombarded with exclamations of "I found Waldo!" and the like, dressed up as the famous red and white ninja-man.

My friends, on the other hand, had more appropriate cosplay, one being Shaoran from Tsubasa and one as Allen Walker from D. Grey-Man. Unfortunately, none of us got pictures of ourselves while we were there, but at least one of us has found a picture online of us in costume (not me, it's harder than it normally is to find Waldo...).

Yeah... I really need to get off my lazy rear and draw something worthwhile. All I've been doing lately are little doodles in the margins of my Calculus notes, and even those are only half decent most of the time. Meh... I just don't know what to draw most of the time... And it doesn't help that until recently everything was cracking down really hard...

In the mean time, I'm going to SugoiCon this weekend. I'll most likely be cosplaying as an... unorthodox character as far as anime go, thanks to my friends' idea. Here's a hint for anyone attending: Can you find me?

So, I wake up this morning (about 5:30), and I hear my cat playing with something on the floor next to my bed. I know it's probably something she shouldn't have, so I reach over the edge and feel around for it. I find it, and I think, "Not a-freaking-gain..." She's just nibbled apart about the dozenth pair of my good earphones. I REALLY like this one kind of earphones, and my cat is predisposed to elminate every pair in existence, apparently. I've spent about a hundred dollars over the last year or two just replacing these things, and it's really annoying me. I starting to consider calling an animal psychologist or something...

However, this does give me a good idea for a drawing... he he he...

Yesterday, I found out something very depressing for me. Robert Jordan, author of the acclaimed Wheel of Time series of novels, died this past Sunday. At the time he was working on the FINAL volume of the series! This is the equivalent, to me, of Rowling kicking the bucket halfway through writing Deathly Hallows. It stinks.

There is some good news, though (sort of). Apparently, the author, who had been suffering from a disease for some time, told his family all the important plot points for the final volume, so it is CONCEIVABLE that the book may be released eventually post mortem, like a Tolkein book that just came out a few months ago. Hopefully he already had the vast majority of the book written with extremely detailed notes to support the rest of the story. A skilled writer, of course, would need to wrap everything up, but even then, who knows what the final result would be. May be good, may not.

At any rate, I'm annoyed as all get out (if you'll excuse the colloquial phrase) and I was really looking forward to the end of the series, though I've still got to finish two more books to be ready for it.

If only he could pull a Kenobi move off in real life...