EVO 2024

   Been wanting to write all week and now that I finally am, I'm drawing a blank. It's the lack of Disneyland trips, I'm almost sure of it. Jk. I do miss those cheesy pretzel stick things though, ngl. Maybe I'll go during the week real quick. Lol, no I won't.

Lets poke at my (not as much as before) current insecurity! Trapezius muscles! YAY!
I want to cut them out. Many muscle groups get crazy activated throughout my work days. But that group has been developing the most noticeably aside from my arms. It's not like, huge, but it's definitely not... concave-ish like it once was. So I whined to Mr. Chicken.

He made me cry.
TLDR: he thinks it's more attractive when a woman has some noticeable form and muscle definition. He used the example of someone wearing a dress with an open back and I instantly understood. Because I've seen that and it's glorious. Also he's proud of my strength. So I cried. Lol.

Not gonna lie. I like how strong I've gotten. I just wish... my shoulders, traps and biceps would chill. Just a bit. However... I did notice one time after work, my coworker who had changed into a tshirt, and who is also petite, lifted her arms to tie her hair back... and her biceps were like BOOM. And I was like 0_0 waoo.

ANYWAY, I'm gushing. They all inspire me. I just don't like my traps, but since Mr. Chicken does, I'm more okay with it now. :B

Look at these bozos.

They wanted to go fishing. I wasn't originally gonna go, but Mr. Chicken had plans afterwards that he wanted my opinion on.

It wasn't as bad as I had envisioned it. My concern was them actually catching a fish, lol.
I just have this weird thing where...
like, I imagine what a hook would feel like going under my jaw into my mouth and through the roof of my palate, anchoring in there, and me being hoisted up while my body weight pulls the hook further into my skull, probably scraping behind my maxilla, and then having the hook ripped out of my jaw.
A part of me doesn't want to see that being done. Because, I think, it would suck really bad to endure?

Totally weird.
So, I was glad nothing was caught. It's also why I prefer to avoid certain activities that involve injury on unsuspecting targets.

That's not to say I'm against fishing, farming or hunting. I just cannot be around suffering. I will throw up. I see it, I feel it, I will throw up and probably go into shock if the animal endures any kind of suffering. So, my advice is respect your catch, and give it dignity and mercy by not making it suffer, and be gracious for it. Pretty simple. Kinda common sense. No big deal.

The most disturbing thing though was that the group of people who were in that area before us did catch a fish, and they fucking LEFT IT on the stone slab you see in the photo, behind Homdray. They just LEFT IT there. It was missing its tail fin. Like, they cut it off, and then just left the fish there.

What a horrible way to fucking die, first of all. Secondly, WHO DOES THAT? FOR WHAT REASON? Yeah. It was upsetting. I'm trying to do this thing where I don't think thinks following occurrences I find cruel and unjust, so while typing this, I'm just looking around at things on my desk that make me happy. Aww, happy photos :)

We agreed that the best thing to do was to send it back to the water, so Lifa did the honors.

You don't understand, my heart broke. I can't wrap my head around how thoughtless and cruel people choose to be. Stupid, yes absolutely. But to do that to an animal... like, for what? They probably recorded it. They literally looked lik-

Alright I'm done thinking about it. I'm too judgemental and I need to reel it back lol.

Hawaii taught me a valuable lesson. No sunburn edema for me THIS time! Ahaaa.


So, what were Mr. Chicken's plans? Well. He wanted to test drive a Land Cruiser.

Dealerships are wild. So is being outside willingly during the summer, but I love him. So. There I was.

Was it comfortable? Yeah. Did I feel safer? Sure. Is it overkill? Yeah. But he wants it. So we're gonna plan for it. At least it has analog controls and dials and stuff. The Honda Pilot we tested right after has weird button gear shifts... Wasn't feeling that.

Cold noodles and tsukemen for lunch to end our outing ^_^


There was a morning last week where I was like, I need ube pancakes.

Manifest.
We didn't have pancake mix so I used a recipe from Lifa's sister and instead of all vanilla, I did half vanilla, half ube extract. Topped it with some maple syrup and fruit. Came out yum. Which reminds me... I need to make ube creme brulee.

I was almost out of time to finish my cosplay. Hooray, procrastination! Thing is... I don't like making cosplays. But I dislike buying them moreso. At least, it feels good wearing something you put together? It's just... there's less time for enjoying myself elsewhere T_T.


So, I had to do a lot of painting. I was cosplaying Faust, from Guilty Gear. Specifically, GG Strive.

The fact that he wears scrubs was the cherry on top. His scrub top, his sneakers, and the props Mr. Chicken 3D printed out for me, all needed to be painted. So I bought plain, white sneakers that kinda had a similar shape to his, and plain scrubs that kinda were the same color as his default, and went from there.

Man, painting these gave me such a hard time. I didn't think about the rubber soles and how resistant they would be to acrylic paint. So the paint kept chipping off. Not to mention how annoying it was to paint on mesh fabric. So I repainted the soles after testing them out, and Mr. Chicken gave them 3 layers of spray sealant coats in hopes that it would help hold.

The logo on the shirt was easier, I just did it on a slant at first and it was driving me crazy so I had to go in and do it again. It would've been so much easier to buy like, one of those iron on things off etsy but uggggghhh. It's my own fault.

And for the props, I got his belt, but forgot that there are like, these weird connector things that attach to the syringe, and I only had the yellow belt. So I cut up the belt to make extra pieces, painted them, and glued them on so that it all sits correctly. And I almost forgot the gloves.

His head... I don't wanna talk about it. Rush job. Worst helmet ever. I could do so much better, but we were leaving the next morning and I was exhausted. I left work early to rush home, finish, pack, and leave the next day. I used a paper bag and black mesh for the eyehole, but I'm gonna get some felt and put in an LED for the next iteration of it.
AND I completely forgot about the straps on his arms! I was out of time.

So. This is why buying cosplays is just... nicer. But... I also like looking back at stuff and seeing how I can improve. Even though... I'm the only holding myself back. :)

The only real bummer is I can't actually use the scrubs for work.

EVO 2024

Day -1 | Wednesday

Wednesday morning, we were off. Made really good time.
Had to stop by sushi and boozies. Side quest tradition!

Mmmmm, salmon. I actually like yellowtail and toro, but the occasion called for salmon.

And across the way, the guys were beckoned by spirits.

There was a dude there at the sampling booth who was pitching tequila. It's a specially made tequila. I, like any other self-respecting booze fearing person, respect tequila. And fear it. For it has humbled me (the hardest at Fanime lol). However, this gent demo'd his libations with such poise and knowledge that I was like, huh. The guys sampled all three. I just smelled it lol. But I'm not gonna lie, they smelled fantastic. I wish I could go into the intricacies of each one the way he did, but I'll just say they were smooth. He even made an Old Fashioned there on the spot to sample. Agave instead of sugar, while using the darkest one. Color me impressed.

So Mr. Chicken bought a bottle lol.
Aaaaand Kettle One espresso martini came along as well.

Day... -1? led us to our first stop, Resorts World.

I like that Resorts World has a cool cafeteria with lots of eateries to choose from. We dropped off our stuff, got comfy, some din din, and chilled.

Then Mr. Chicken and Lifa went off on a cigar + whiskey date. I made my way back to the room and indulged in doing absolutely nothing in full blast air conditioning while watching Sex and the City reruns.

With my boba drink. It was the perfect evening.

When they got back, Mr. Chicken brought out his sport drink blender to make drinks, lol.

T'was a good first day. We knocked out!

Slept like a bebeh.

DAY 0 | Thursday

We woke up early-ish. Lifa had to go do work stuff, while Mr. Chicken and I went to go grab our badges.

Nasa peepo

Badge pick-up was weird. So... you get in a long line to go through this longer, snaking line... that ends at a check point right before reaching several booths at the end along the length of the hall, all distributing badges by first name.

They could've just avoided the long line and had people walk up to the booths and get in line there, instead of making us all stand in a single file line for so long. Does that make sense? It was just weird the way it was set up. Either way, we got our badges and headed back to our other hotel. We booked a suite in another hotel that could accommodate more people. Unfortunately, this hotel didn't have the best options for food.

But it did give us shelter from the heat by having a very short outdoor walk to the convention center, and that was enough for me.

The only downside was that even though Mr. Chicken called ahead 2 days ago to ensure the room would be ready for us, they were 2 hours late. We got there early, around 11am to see if early check-in was an option. Already figured it wasn't, but also giving them a heads up that we're here. They said return at 1PM, should be good to go!

We return at 1:18PM after lunch. Still not ready. Alright, np. We talk to someone and she puts in a "rush order" for our room, says she'll call us as soon as the room is ready. Aight, cool. We stick around for a bit and watch as the check-in line grows monstrously long. The other guys arrived around 2:30ish. We go meet them and tell them the room isn't ready yet. No problem. We wait around. 3PM gets closer and closer, no call yet. It's 2:58. I tell Mr. Chicken I'm walking back over there.

We go straight into the check-in room area from before. She greets us saying she just got back from her lunch break. Mr. Chicken approaches the desk while I move out of aggro range because I'm a little spicy. She says she's gonna check on the room for us. :] ok. Comes back, still not ready. I'm spicier, but keep my mouth shut. She briefly steps out, then returns with an offer for another room on a lower floor, but it's the same suite with same accommodations and layout. Whatever. At this point, we were tired and just wanted to get settled in. So someone else got our suite at a later time. You're welcome.

We head out and tell the guys. Onward!

Yes, this is fine. I like it.

Homdray brought an extra monitor lol

This was home for the next several days. Haw yiss

Sister Chicken now lives in Nevada, close enough to where we are so she and her man invited us out for din din that Thursday evening.

She said I'd really like it because it's all old-timey style and stuff. Which... yeah. I did. and it is lol.

The place is called Herb & Rye. It's a prohibition themed steakhouse that specializes in drinks. Atmosphere inside was dim and classy with a dignified, aged roughness. Fucking divine.

The menu had a huge assortment of cocktails categorized by era;

{ Gothic Age (1776-1865) } { Old School (1865-1900) }
{ Golden Age (1900-1919) }{ Prohibition (1900-1933) }

{ Years of Reform (1934-1949) }
{ Rat Pack Era (1950-1968) }{ Tiki Boom (1969-1989) }

Was pretty frickin neat.

lol.

I don't know what I was expecting, but this place far surpassed that.

YOM.

Sans the cramped business and loud patrons, I would rate this place 7/10, would recommend. You're not really getting a discounted price on stuff, it's just a goofy tactic places use to make you think you are, but the prices are normal market prices that are better than prices on the strip.

The creme brulee and banana pudding were mmpf!

Am really glad they brought us. It was so, so lovely and yummy. Defo a nice place to enjoy a drink and dinno. I can see why they're so busy!

We got back to the hotel where I tested out my cosplay.

I hate that head piece LOL. God I hate it so much. And the shirt was big but whatever. I had to cut the pants more because they were too long. You do what you can!

DAY 1 | Friday

The next morning, while the others split off, we headed to the convention center with no mission in particular.

The Renaissance Malenia Painting Guy was there. I'm glad he's blown up. His artwork is gorgeous. I'm hoping that one day Fia will be in his line up. She has so much potential to be an awesome addition to his style and roster. Until then, I will look on in awe and continue to hope. I'll give it 2 years before settling to buy Malenia.

Saw this and was pleasantly surprised. I mean, I know she's like, old and not super popular, but $25 for a pin set was kinda whack.

There was a Fallout booth. They had cool stuff.

Last year, there were free demos for a Guilty Gear board game being given out. This year it was out and being demo'd by the designer. Pretty cool stuff. I like how the in-game stuff was implemented. I'm too stupid to grasp it all in the short time we had there, but perhaps one day I'll buy it. He said it characters and abilities up to Testament and with Arcsys' approval would move forward with updates.

I was so tempted to buy that Motaro perler art. Back in my day, Motaro was a playable character. I get that he's probably a whole bonk and a half to animate and code and whatnot, but he can't be worse than the insane anime outfits and monsters in other fighting games.

Bring him back.

T-1000 being added was a pretty cool announcement for MK1 though. Would I pick up MK1 just for him? Mmmm... maybe.

Our friend entered in pools on Friday, so we went for emotional support.

Miraculously, I found a baby Faust pillow in Artist Alley. Threw my money at it, no hesitation.
I didn't enter pools this year. Admittedly, my focus was on other titles releasing throughout the year instead of consistent practice and training. I may enter next year though. Just for the Chipotle gift card, if anything.

That evening we said screw it and went to Benihana, lmao.

I know. I haven't been in one since my high school bf's parents took me there as a graduation gift. In Pensylvania. But we walked by this one and peeped inside, it was reeeeeal purdy.

At first some of our friends were like, lol forreal?

And then they were like, ahh. Mhm. I see.

Yay, wee cheers!

Was pretty cool. Gimmicky, but cool. Would I revisit? Not necessarily, but would encourage to at least go once. It's pretty.

Was pretty yommy, ngl.

Homdray was so full, so he ate dessert

Tummies warm and full. Cosplay launched with minimal backfire. Artist Alley peeping successful. Lifa didn't explode with work. Day 1 of EVO complete.

DAY 2 | Saturday

GOOB MORNING

Woke up earlier for some reason and decided that a half-assed "casual" cosplay is better than no cosplay. I rushed through this project just for this event and I'm going to wear it, damnit.

Mr. Chicken gravitated towards the simulators. Naturally.

TKoos was in the market for a cozy but functional accent. He found it.

I don't know anything about hololive, I just know Homdray likes the dog one.

Homdray wanted to watch the MK1 finals, so we were off to the arena.

The moment I stepped inside, I knew shit was going to be flying everywhere on Sunday for finals. It was TINY compared to the arena at Mandalay Bay. It felt like walking into a Blizzcon hall with a stage from back in 2013. There was no way in hell that this hall was going to accommodate the volume of attendees who would want to be there.

The frustrating part is that badge prices went up this year. I'm guessing that it's because instead of 2 days of the entertainment hall, this year the hall remained open on the 3rd day, which traditionally was left only for finals - a separate event with a separate badge purchase. This year, attendees could go to the arena and watch finals, or watch from the entertainment hall as they did their shopping / played at the stations. Or just wanted to chill. This option is nice.
I also liked how large the entertainment hall was compared to MB. This allowed for better navigation throughout. Comfortable. Not as cramped feeling. But from an outsider's perspective, it was like they had to offer something else to attendees for the woeful downgrade of the arena. The grandeur was gone. But at least they can watch the twitch live-stream (that wasn't completely live) from the entertainment hall!

So... in reality, was the badge price increase fair? I'm not convinced. I wasn't upset about not being in the arena for finals. After having been in there, the seats weren't comfortable, and it just didn't feel good. But badge prices going up for a chance to watch finals, when finals day used to be a separate badge purchase altogether-now included regardless, doesn't seem right.

Anyway, Sonic Fox was cute.

We left and wandered around. A buddy startled the crap out of me and gave us a heads up that he'd be at the museum. So after we wandered some more for cute stuff (we were antsy for new goodies), we paid him a visit.

I can't with this guy. So spicy lol.

He and his team did an incredible job with the museum though. It really was something to behold. There's a lot of say about the trajectory of games over the last, what, 4-5 decades? Where fighting games in particular were a simple get-away with friends at the arcade, and games in general weren't really considered anything remarkable outside of a waste of time. Now, they create infinite pathways for people from all walks of life to come together and genuinely, wholeheartedly enjoy them. It's incredible. The museum was an homage to fighting games' contributions to that passion and community growth. Really cool stuff. Can you believe how far this hobby has come?
Kinda made me spicy that Blizzcon didn't have something similar (like they did with the Arcade floor that one year that was effing gorgeous).

We hung out at the museum for a good while before hunger kicked in. When Jryu and Mr. Chicken delegated back and forth about the Land Cruiser, I just. Smiled. Sigh. lol. :)

Was really hoping to see his other half, we keep talking about it lol but she was preoccupied with work.

Heard there were lots of food options in the hotel next door.

CORRECT.

Look. Pizza is just okay. I don't care about it. Sometimes it's fine when you're really craving it. Outside of that - meh.
This place blew my mind lol. What was I expecting? Honestly, meh. I got bodied. We both did. Dang near the most delicious pizza I've ever had. I forget the name of the place- one sec.

MIAMI SLICE at FONTAINE BLEU. SECOND FLOOR. THE MARGHARITA PIZZA. GET IT.

God, it was... divine. The crust was crunchy but chewy, the sauce was perfectly seasoned, the cheese wasn't fighting with the sauce or negating it, and the basil added an extra layer of robust flavor. It didn't need a ton of toppings or extra crap. It was the perfect symphony of simplicity and flavor. Ugh. We each ate 3 slices and saved the last 2 for later. That's it, that's my takeaway from EVO 2024. The pizza at Miami Slice. God tier.

After meandering and picking up dinner and snacks and coffee and yummy stuff, we headed back to the hotel to unwind. After the salty suite shenanigans the night before, Mr. Chicken and I potato'd the remainder of the evening.

DAY 3 | FINALS Day

Man, I felt so bad for the amount of people waiting in line to get into the Arena on Sunday. I wondered if they had visited the arena at any other point throughout the weekend. Perhaps they'd feel differently.

We headed over determined to study the booths and commit to something.

Even though the booth I was most looking forward to camping at all weekend wasn't able to be there this year, their stuff was on display. It was a bittersweet moment.

Since finals were going on, we figured it'd be a good time to check out 2XKO. Lifa had been sacrificing himself all weekend, the least we could do is visit his booth lol.

Was more fun than I remembered it. And the lines were separated by controller/hit box/fight stick. Pretty cool.

Baby was sad she couldn't demo the SWORL on Elden Ring again this year, so she bought herself a fight stick. It's older, but it's perfect for me and my little-ness. I prefer my widdle Snackbox Micro because it's the closest thing to a keyboard. But got a widdle Qanba Drone 2, and it's cuter now. But my god, I am not used to sticks LOL.

Saw this and screamed.
Play nice, play fair guys.

I talk a lot of crap about them, but look. I LOVED them. Ok? lol. It takes a lot of resentment to get this much consistent spice out of me. THEY MADE THE BEST RTS THAT WAS MY FIRST and FAVORITE EVER, AND THEN THEY SHAT ON IT IN MORE WAYS THAN ONE THAT I CAN'T EVEN TALK ABOUT. What do I do with all those emotions? Imma be spicy. Lemme be spicy. Ya'll have no idea.

We passed this booth several times over the weekend. Upon looking into it more, it's actually a wonderful organization that made me really, really happy sad. More happy. They bring these units to childrens hospitals and childrens wards for them to play on. My heart. Mr. Chicken's heart, too. Both our hearts. Ahhh. So glad they were there.

Sooo, here you can kinda see how spread out everything was. We liked this very much.

Granted it was less crowded that day because of finals. But still, generous amount of walking room.

Yiddiiiieees

I had to get cute stuff for my stick, as did Mr. Chicken. Sooooooo we did.

The line to get into the arena extended into the entertainment hall. A tragedy for the ages.

I wanted to tell them to run. Save yourselves and the hours you've left of the last day of the event. You're not getting in. The line didn't even begin in the entertainment hall. It went all the way out the exit doors, down the length of the lobby of the convention center to the other end where the arena entrance was.

TKoos woke up early to get seats. He succeeded, but was bound there for the entire day. Leaving the arena meant forfeiting everything. And the lines inside for the bathroom were another layer of hell. But he stuck it out. He had saved seats, and thankfully Homdray and Dylan were able to join him before the lines got crazy. They stayed there the entirety of the day.

We spent the day shopping, lol. And I periodically peeped at the livestream during Guilty Gear finals, but meh. The MK booth was pretty.

I avoided this booth while in cosplay. I saw a group of Guilty Gear cosplayers hovering around there both days and ran the other direction LOL.

I should update my social drivers but also I don't care.
:)

This Faust kitty was cute.

We did one more lap through artist alley, just to make sure I can leave satisfied.

RUN. SAVE YOURSELVES.
IT WAS AT CAPACITY THE DAY IT GOT GREEN LIT.
RUUUUNNN

:(

One last thing before calling it a day.

Gran Turismo simulator! We got in line and were up next after this guy. But... wait. Hold on a second..

Wtf is that on the ground next to him

Bro

?!?!?!?!?

This is where the difference between Mr. Chicken and I shines. He knew I spotted it and locked on. He could feel my judgement radiating, pulsing furiously through my veins. Each heart beat pumped blood and a trillion questions throughout my very being. Mr. Chicken and I met glances, and he smirked softly at me, then shifted his gaze back at the simulator, almost as if to give me the acknowledgment I yearned for and telepathically patting me on the head as if to say "calm down, it's okay, lol."

My glares were beyond me. Absolutely judgement was in full force. I just kept staring at it, wondering why. Why would that be the place to leave a can of red bull? For what reasons? There are waste receptacles all over the place. A luxury that not even Japan gives its public streets. So what in hell was that man thinking?

Finally, his turn ended. He bends down, grabs the can and walks away. I calmed down instantly and that was that. Mr. Chicken smiled. He is so very patient.

Satisfied, we decided that once we got to the hotel, we weren't leaving again. So we decided to stock up on food beforehand.

This meant walking down the length of the lobby to the other side to get to Fontaine Bleu. It was pizza time. But man, that line was nasty. It went on forever.

We got pizza and sandwiches for later. The determination for uninterrupted comfort while watching the finals in bed was stone solid.

Pewp

Look at this bullet top Mr. Chicken spotted. It's perfect for him omg T_T
And I got cute ones. The ball top is lined with black velvet :D

We wrecked that pizza so fast. Street Fighter and Tekken Finals were intense. So, so good. Good chill session.

Our final night. So we put the hot tub to use. We got off brand bath bombs from some shop downstairs. Learned our lesson. Get Lush. Always just get Lush. I'll come prepared next time.

Good night!


We left Monday morning. It was good to be home again. Ophelia greeting us with extra cuddles. So much to unpack and put away. We were exhausted, but happy.

EVO was a ton of fun. We didn't really have anything planned for ourselves, which I think was the best part. Just showed up to shop, watch stuff, be there with friends and potato. And we achieved that! Yay!

Things quickly went back to normal. As in Mr. Chicken's radar went off when he learned that a Land Cruiser with his desired configurations finally arrived at one of the dealerships.

It's nicer than the other one. I'll admit.

Still not sold on the leather seats though. On hot days during the summer, those suck. His Audi has velour seats - way more comfortable. My Nissan has leather seats, but I tinted the crap out of the windows, so it's not as crappy to sit in. But he says that he'd have the windows tinted with ceramic that blocks out some ridiculous amount of UV. Which... I guess is fine. I just... I don't know. The feeling of leather seats isn't my favorite. Still a nice color palette though. Underground Grey with Java brown interior.

After the dealership comes tsukemen and cold noodles! And errands. We went kinda crazy yesterday with stuff. Redoing the kitchen, repainting some rooms, and planting stuff. Busy day, but good.

It's almost August. We're due for a Disney visit in August. School resumes which means the crowds shouldn't be as terrible. And Fall decorations come out! I got the pumpkin spice latte syrup just waiting to be opened. We went to Michael's to get artificial plant garlands, and left there with way too much stuff. It wasn't even my fault. It just happened. Mr. Chicken didn't stop me. It was a massacre lol. Ugh.

Anywhoooo, Fall gets closer and closer. All I want is for this heat to go away. There's more fun stuff coming up and I'm so excited for.

In the mean time, thanks for reading and I hope you're staying cool and cozy. Take this moment to get up and grab a drink. Play a game that relaxes you or put on something fun to watch. I'm gonna go make myself an iced drink and play Against the Storm to turn off my brain. Happy Monday, have good poops, take care, and stay hydrated ^-^

pbft!