All posts for the month May, 2014

Convention Impossible: Omni Expo Year 1!

Hello everyone and welcome back! It is time for another segment of Convention Impossible! Yes, another convention has passed and it has been the one that I wrote about and it is known as Omni Expo and it was fun, especially for its first year! I didn’t know about that tidbit but still it was fun!

 

For those of you who don’t know what it is, it is basically a convention that deals with anime, gaming, live-action stuff, and many other things under one roof! Plus, it gives other conventions a chance to promote themselves in order to get new attendees interested in what else is there in town and other parts of Florida in the con scene! It even gives attendees that are directors a chance to put their talents to the stage in something called the “Director’s Showcase.” So, yeah a lot under one roof!

 

Before I start reviewing this thing, I want to say this! Whatever I talk about is based on opinion and observation as in I am giving what I think based what I heard and seen at this event! If you don’t like this review, you can just go to my interviews which I will start posting after this!

 

Let’s get started!

 

This convention is not only a first for Best Buy to hold here but I did go through a lot of firsts myself, and one second!

 

1. First time to promote this blog with business cards! After graduating, I knew I have to spread word about me and a good way is of course passing word through the con about Nerdy Shique Universe itself and so went to get business cards made! I did forget my name but at least I know I can go back and get the design edited since it’s saved. May have to do that before Metro!

 

2.My first time traveling alone to a convention and taking on press alone! This was the first convention without Gondras, especially helping in taking pictures, so I relied on volunteers. On top of that, had to rely on the ride service I have been a client with for years since 2002! I almost did get stranded Sunday due to my stomach wanting food, but at least I got to the con and back home safely with success! Will be bringing Gondras next year because he needs to be at this thing and see what I see!

3. Second time to have a cold! Yeah, I ended up with another cold for this convention, but it was due to after getting a sore throat while visiting my career advisor back at my alma mater and man it sucked! I did go through it as major dedication and determinationh for you guys since this is another work experience that would look good on my resume, which I will be writing again when I finish with the post!

 

So, this convention was held at the World Center Marriot near Disney, which happens to be the largest Marriot in the country and the site wasn’t kidding! Where it was held it was in the Crystal Ballroom Area and it was actually perfect since it was pretty easy to navigate if I asked volunteers and found it easier travel by tile floor. What I hate is that the bathrooms were hard to find for me since it is hard for me to see. At least now I can use the cane more often to navigate when I return next year! I bet you are wondering, why come alone? Well, as said above, I had to consider how work will be when I use the transportation service and of course I need to at least know how to navigate around places and be able to ask for help when need be!

 

 

I came early as usual to the convention on day 1, Friday so I can get the badge in case there is a big crowd. Well….not so much! At the same time as Omni, Florida Anime Experience was taking place at the International Palms Resort in the International Drive area, which I missed for this since their guest list was okay! I did want to meet Melissa Fon but didn’t want to go for one day because of it, so when I saw Omni’s guest list, it was way better in my opinion since they brought back people that haven’t been back to Orlando before or never been, kind of like what Mythic did for Grant George, who was one of the Onmni guests with his wife, Jessica, and what really got me was Elnn McLain since she played Gypsy Danger from Pacific Rim, which I named “Best Movie of 2013!” You can read why in the review for it and the “Bests and Worsts of 2013.” I K now I like supporting small conventions, but this convention did get me! I did hear from people who did go to FAE that it it was empty! I can kind of see why! Someone did try to get Ian Sinclair, the voice of Space Dandy, to come by since Chris Sabat was at this thing but didn’t since he is a shy guy according to this attendee Saturday!

 

Opening ceremonies was an interesting thing for this convention! Instead of it being in the evening at a lot of other conventions, this one had it at noon and in three parts, which part 1 introduced the guests, part 2 the conventions, and part 3 the technology sponsors! I only attended parts 1 and 2 since I wanted to see what conventions were brought and what new people I haven’t met before were brought! I did like the introduction for Team Four Star and Ellyn McLain and her husband. Plus, Carrie Savage did make her’s funny by saying she was Grant George’s wife and then both Grant George and Jessica G. got onstage to introduce themselves. What brought on major nostalgia was Robert Axelrod since he did his Lord Zed voice as a part of his intro and man it brought memories back since I enjoyed watching Power Rangers since I was seven! I was worried for a moment that Kyle Hebert cancelled since he didn’t show himself, but he did appear for Saturday and Sunday since he is an awesome guest from meeting him at KnightroKon and AFO during 2012! I did interview some of the guests so you will see what I asked the ones I talked to and that will start next post!

 

With part 2, it brought on conventions from across Florida to hold events and promote their conventions for this year and next year and they include Anime Apex and Evil Con from Tampa, Sands of Anime from Cocoa Beach, and MythiCon from here in Orlando! Anime Apex was the convention that brought on the major gaming tournament that I talked about in my first Omni Post and of course a Pokemon Tournie, which I wished I brought my 3DS XL in order to get some street passes! Always next time! They will be in June at the Sheraton East for anyone who is interested! Evil Con, who holds their con in January, was interesting in how they introduced themselves! They brought an example of their theme to promote their “Bump in the Night” show for next year since it deals with monsters and they had girls dressed as monsters and well….brought a bit of a dance and shown it on the atrium stage all weekend and was done to Christina Aguilera’s “Berlesque!” Then Sands of Anime, which had its first year, was a group of nice people from the Cocoa Beach area and did enjoy hanging out with them, may have to check out their website and will provide links at the end of this review for you guys for all these cons so you can see what they are all about! And of course, MythiCon even had their staff appear to promote their convention and hold the Attack On Titan party, which I wanted to go but was a little late in getting my ticket and found their room closed! I did hang out with them all weekend to check out more things about them and still happy that Eric Stuart is appearing this year!

 

I did go to a few panels at this convention and that included the Attack on Titan Q&A with Matthew Mercer and Kyle Hebert and man it was funny! I did record the thing on my digital recorder and I think my laughter shown up since hearing about things from recording at home and scaring all your neighbors while doing it was hilarious! Even Kyle did “Benny Hill” when I mentioned that should played with the girl with the microphone running across the room to people! I may do a transcript of that for you guys since there are very good questions people asked, in case if you want to read! I also went to Chris Sabat’s dubbing panel which is a popular one due to how he gives audiences at conventions a chance to record themselves! I remembered AFO 2007 and 2009 had this panel and he brought it here to Omni with Dragonball Z by the looks of it! I should’ve went to that panel later on with him, Kyle, and Cara Edwards but didn’t realize it, guessing the Monster Java was wearing off and my stomach was wanting food! I even went to the Best of Robert Axelrod which brings on the best moments of Mr. Axelrod’s career as the voice of Lord Zed, Armadillomon, and Wizardmon! After watching the scenes from Power Rangers with Rita, I did see how Barbara Goodson did get picked to be Leharl in Disgaea including the screams and laughter she had to do. I also learned so many things about him that I didn’t know, such as that he was also the Monster Maker known as Finster, if you seen the Mighty Morphen, he was the light and nice sounding henchman that provided monsters! He also did monsters like Goo Fish, Eye Guy, and a few others down the line in other seasons! It still brought on more nostalgia when the clips of Digimon with Wizardmon were shown since he did an amazing job of the character! And the final panel I went to was one that was supposed to be a One Piece panel but it was a Q&A with Chris Patton… “”record screech:: I know, you are thinking, wait a minute, didn’t he cancel!? Yeah, I thought so too and had to ask one of the owners and was told that he came back as a guest since he wanted to come so badly! Hey! You get to read my interview with him! Anyways, the panel was with him, Cara, and Kyle and I was a bit late but did get to learn things about the three such as that Chris Patton has or had a cat, not sure if it’s still around, and that it came up to the door and meowed while he auditioned in the closet to make a booth for himself and thought it talked to it while recording. And the most touching moment for Cara was that she met her Japanese counterpart as Videl in DBZ and meeting the other Japanese actors on the cast and then listening to a girl talk to her and the Japanese actress for Videl about how she was bullied and looked up to Videl as a role model in getting her through the day to where she is now! Besides all that, was funny to see Chris Sabat having one of his panel crashing moments in asking where is the Team Four Star panel!

 

Dealer Room: The dealer room was small and understand how and why since it is a first year con, most dealer rooms are small and of course some of the vendors are at Florida Anime Experience trying to sell items! I did like some of the dealers such as Dragon Alley which was a jewelry seller who had items made by artists and did get a nice trinket of a necklace of a dragon holding an opal that reflects blue, gold, and I believe purple! I may go back and get a ring that was made out of stainless steel of a dragon and it was in my size, but it fit my pinky though! It looks nice for a ring! At least I have their card and hope they come back! Another dealer I did get items, I didn’t buy much due to how small this room was, happened to be a birthday gift for Tobi! I don’t want to get into detail in case he reads this but this dealer sells handmade items that showcases Funimation related stuff and it is cut into boards or wood with lasers! I am glad he will show up at Metro because I want something made now! I wonder if he can do something of Frosh from Fairy Tail? I can ask! I also got a few small figures and a necklace of a rock wrapped with metal from the dealer next to him! The guy running the stand used to own an anime shop which was interesting and I did get two small anime figures of Sasuke and Deidara! I will be contacting him for Team Kid since Sunday was when I wore my Death the Kid shirt of him taking on his dad’s appearance and will see if he can get me Jo from Burst Angel since she is still missing from my three statues of Meg, Amy, and Sae. There were other dealers were cool like a shirt making stand that brought their materials, I almost thought about having a shirt made but didn’t know what to put! I could’ve gotten my fave Dresden quote of all! Oh well, I have their card and so do they with mine! I did find an all anime stand but…they only brought items that were Attack on Titan as bento boxes, and Halo, but not much of other anime related items that I usually ask for like Fairy Tail, which they had a figure of Wendy in her swimsuit but it was $79 and didn’t have enough cash and didn’t want to use the card on it when I already used it for a lot this month along with my necklace and of course my sonic screwdriver pen from Books A Million’s stand when they built the Tartus! Anyways, I do have the card but it is disappointing that they didn’t carry anything I tend to ask for, well more of the items I would like, for instance I want an actual keychain of the Leo key that Lucy has and wasn’t there! Glad I can contact them. I did find a nifty decal stand and got the Fairy Tail logo in black and a free Soul Eater one for helping them in getting that “What the Fox Says” song changed at the Nerd Fest booth since they didn’t like the song. I thought I lost the Fairy Tail one but found it in my $20 slot in my wallet, which I apologize to the decal people for the inconvenience! I almost did buy Thor: Dark World from Best Buy but their card machine was broken, there is always going to their stores and getting it or online! Still, hoping next year the dealer room does get more vendors especially Aardvark Tees would be nice to do some business! I did get impressed by Artists Alley though since it was bigger than any of the ones I seen at past cons I went to! Well, it felt close to the size of Metro’s Artists Alley since that took over the upper floors of the Tampa Convention Center! I saw so many people going through there all weekend buying items from all the artists and I did buy two items from a button dealer I found out he hosted panels at Mythic last year, hoping he will return and do the same and sell buttons!

 

Guests: I think I had the most fun at the guests area! Not only I got to interview them but I did get recognized by Grant George! How did that happen? Last year at Mythic, I decided to tell him that mine and Gondras’ wedding will be Disgaea themed since he plays the Prinis, Mid Boss aka Vires, and Axel the Dark Hero! He did ask if we will have a Prini ring bearer during his Meet Grant panel which I would love! But planning to have Prinis on top of our cake as a bride and groom! Then he recognized me despite being out of cosplay and wearing kitty ears, I wore my blue ones with the purple bows due to my collar being purple and he told Jessica, his wife, about it and man we talked for a while! They are the nicest couple along with Ellyn and her husband! Which was great meeting those two, since I had Pacific Rimfor Ellyn and her husband was promoting a new book he wrote, which I will be finding on IBooks when it comes out since I just got that app not too long ago! Curious little kitten loves her reading! I did get my copy of Gravion, Air Gear, and both seasons of Kiba signed by Chris Patton since he has been missing on all of that. It did surprise him with Gravion since he hasn’t seen the old style thin-packs that ADV released so long ago, I did end up winning it on EBay since no one else bidded on it and it was one of the series I wanted to get! I did kind of kick myself for Carrie Savage though because I did recognize her as Lisana in Fairy Tail but didn’t bring any of the parts we had since I moved them in with Gondras and he was working that weekend! I should’ve asked for part 8 since Lisana returns to the guild! (Sorry! Spoiler for people!) But always next time! I did get Gondras’ copies of Disgaea D2 and 4 signed by her since she is Artina and Grant! I also brought Vampire Knight Saturday to get signed since Carrie was in that! So, yeah, the guests were fun! And of course, you get to read my interviews!

 

Needs for Improvement: Now that I mentioned what I liked, there are some needs for improvement! First is dealer room! I understand it was a small space and a first year thing, on top of that Florida Anime Experience taking place, but should have more anime dealers since anime was a big part of Omni! Would’ve worked if some of the vendors from other parts of Florida shown up like at Metro or even that big anime dealer from Maryland should’ve came down! Still, there should be more dealers from that kind of media! I feel that Artists Alley kind of beat it since there were more items made for the fans and should at least blend more anime dealers as said! I did like the Tartus being there along with the Battlestar Galactica ship and the Delorian as well! Then the convention rooms should get an easier place to find in the hall! I know they had to work with space and there was a beauty pageant going on in one of the rooms deeper in the hallway, be glad it wasn’t a cheerleading competition like during MegaCon for a few years at the convention center! Still, it would be easier to have them be in rooms closer to the convention area than farther down since a lot more people could know the conventions more if they were easier to find! Plus, it will help fill the room during the weekend! There is always next year! And of course, interview schedule! I understand it was the first year, but I did meet the other owner and they said they will have schedules for next year. I am hoping so because I was worried that I wouldn’t get to do any interviews during the weekend until I sat down and did them, I did have to wait for the final day to do Chris Sabat since he had a full schedule! I know I should’ve done it Friday, but he left before I got the chance and I did get it done! Hoping next year when I ask for press again there will be a schedule since I won’t have to run around so much and wait on my chance! Even though as a press person, Chances have to be jumped on!

 

Verdict: CONVENTION ACCOMPLISHED! Why? Well, despite the hiccups of it being a first year convention, but I did enjoy this one! I did get to meet new guests and reunite with old ones! I did enjoy the entire thing! I also had fun in the Attack On Titan panel with Matthew Mercer and Kyle Hebert! I did wish I was around for Matt’s performance at karaoke Friday Night with doing “Tribute Song” by Tenacious D but with Gondras with me next year, hopefully, it will be more awesome to stay for night events!

 

What is up for Omni 2015? The cast of Attack on Titan will be joining the guests, which was announced during Closing Ceremonies!

 

What is next on my convention schedule? I am heading West to Tampa for MetroCon 2014 to do press again for our second year! I will be doing better since will be interviewing more guests and attending more events! Which reminds me! They just added Troy Baker, Nolen North, and the voice of Starfire from Teen Titans, Hynden Walsh! I am happy about this, especially Gondras with Nolen since he has Saints Row 4 and the Deadpool game! I am glad about Hynden and Troy since Troy is missing on the Fullmetal Autograph and I do have Gurren Lagan with Sam Riegal and Kyle Hebert on it and now with Hynden on it will make it awesome since she is younger Nia!

 

That’s about it! Stay tuned for my first interview on here with Team Four Star! In the meantime, here are the links to all the conventions that appeared at Omni!

 

Evil Con: www.evilconventions.com

Anime Apex: www.animeapex.com

Sands of Anime: www.sandsofanime.com

MythiCon: http://www.mythiconventions.com

1 Comment
by moonleopard85 on May 28, 2014  •  Permalink
Posted in anime, conventions, Gaming

Posted by moonleopard85 on May 28, 2014

https://nerdyshiqueuniverse.com/2014/05/28/convention-impossible-omni-expo-year-1/

Review: Agents of SHIELD Season 1

Hello and welcome back! I am holding off the Original Character Cosplay post until the next post, why you may ask> Time for another review and it is on Agents of S. H. I.E. L. D. and warning there may be spoilers!

 

So, last night was the season finale of the first season of Agents and man it was a great start to a great series! I have been a Marvel fan since the first Iron Man movie and now that this show came to be, was on board for it! This show continues what happened after Avengers 1 when Agent Philip Colson comes back after recovery from his very bad wound that Loki gave him. Even though healed in some ways, Agent Colson has to face a group that has been giving people with strange abilities little centipedes that enhance powers or just give them certain abilities due to the way these bugs were made! They even have one special technology that was given to Colson’s protégé in one of the early episodes to help her as well. Anyways, among the mess with Centipede, which the group was named, Colson meets a woman by the name of Sky who doesn’t know about her past but is known for her hacking talents and joins him and his group of Agents Grant Ward, May, Fitz, and Simmons to solve the mystery behind Centipede and what is up with his own head and why does he have an obsession with Tahiti! Along the way, he finds out that S. H. I. E. L. D. is not the organization that is supposed to be all thanks to Hydra!

 

My Thoughts: I thought the show was awesome! Even though I had to miss NCIS to watch this but it was worth the miss, even though they do post episodes on Julu by what I heard and USA does show the newer seasons, so I can catch up there! There were pretty good twists and turns as each episode went every week until the winter break and somewhat mid-season break for Uprising!

 

And if you were wondering, yes I did catch Winter Soldier before the episode to reveal that Hydra was running as S. H. I. E. L. D. all this time! I liked how each other went hand in hand, if you haven’t seen the second movie, it basically gives you the forerunner of what happened to Nick Fury and how Cap and Black Widow learn about the death and have to look into how Hydra was behind it and how long it has been around after the Red Skull’s fall in the first one and leading to Cap’s sleep for seventy plus years since the second World War! On top of that reunite with Bucky in the fights! So, the episode in the following week of the movie’s release, it shows the side of the story of what is going on with S. H. I. E. L. D. and how Colson is trying to find who betrayed him and that it is Hydra running everything, especially after the events at the facility where the alien serum was found that helped Sky and Colson heal from their wounds!

 

Did Centipede return? Yes! It seems that they will be back for season two since now that what happened in the end of season one shows that Rayna is not done yet! On top of that, Ward is still a bad guy and won’t be forgiven for betraying Colson, May, Fitz, and Simmons! Now they also have a new agent with them to replace Ward and that is Agent Triplet!

 

Favorite Moments: I do have favorite moments of the first season and the first is finding out that Patton Oswald is in the series as both Canning brothers! I love Oswald’s work as Remy the Rat inRatatoullie and his comedy works as stand up and what I saw of the show that is on the block after Agents. Still, he can play that isolated nerd very well! Makes us happy that his character or shall I say characters will keep living and he stays and can go to have Schwarma with the rest of the Avengers!

 

Another favorite moment is how Sky fooled Ward in the episode where she figured out Ward at the diner! She knew that Ward was a part of Hydra and at the same time having him toy with her until the police came to their table before Ward got close and revealed his true feelings. Now I can see why I like Sky and after this season, will be more important to Colson as an agent as well!

 

And finally, May and Sky taking Ward down during the season finale! This shows how two love interests towards Ward work back to back in order to take him out for his betrayal! Normally, they would fight it out against each other in a cat fight but this time they know they were fooled by one big idiot and used workshop tools in order to make the fight more interesting! Trust me, we were waiting for him to be killed by a table saw or buzz saw, but what made it better was the nail gun to the foot! Beat that Rock with the stapler!

 

I did want to quote Abridged Tristan from Yu-Gi-Oh! Abridged towards Fitz and Simmons during the beginning of the season finale, “JUST #$%@ ALREADY!” Seriously, they looked like they would despite they had to escape from certain death!

 

HOLY CRAP MOMENT: The revelation of Tahiti! I had to put this in there and that is how Colson found out who was running Tahiti! As you know throughout the first half of the season, he kept on saying “It’s a magical place!” Then he found out that it wasn’t and that is how he was healed all thanks to be messed with along with the serum! What was the Tahiti Project anyways? Well, it was supposed to revive dead avengers by using that alien serum used on Colson to heal and why he said all those things about Tahiti is because they didn’t want him to know the entire thing until May found Colson’s empty grave with a flashdrive and revealed he was the one running it! It was shut down due to psychological problems but at least it didn’t effect Colson except for his will to live! Gondras and I had the same reaction of “Holy @#$%!” at that moment since it surprised us and now we know what was going on as an audience, we hope we get more ideas of the serum along the way!

 

What is next for Marvel? Of course we have Guardians of the Galaxy opening August 1st! I know I want to wait til my birthday which is eight days later, haha on zombie flics, still I can’t wait for this movie since we already started seeing trailers and know who is playing who and the movie is looking good! Think of it as Avengers in space but with creatures of a different dimension! Plus, you get to see Rocket Raccoon from Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 in action in this flick! Then you have not only the second season of Agents but Agent Carter in the fall as well, which will show the formation of S. H. I. E. L. D. in this series with Peggy Carter after Steve Rogers vanishing and you get to see Howard Starke more in this! And of course, can’t wait for Avengers 2 next year!

 

Well, that is it for this review! I can’t wait for the next season of this series, especially itknowing that Colson is still alive! It would be funny if Captain America shows up and finds Colson alive, even though they almost had him see Tony! Anyways, what is next for this blog? Of course, the original character cosplay post, and after next week, my press coverage of Omni Expo! As in, not only I will be covering cosplay, the events, dealers, but interviewing the guests as well! Stay tuned!

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by moonleopard85 on May 14, 2014  •  Permalink
Posted in comics, Television

Posted by moonleopard85 on May 14, 2014

https://nerdyshiqueuniverse.com/2014/05/14/review-agents-of-shield-season-1/

Ulta and CVS Haul!

Hello everyone and welcome back! Guess what I got from the Mail Fairy today! My packages from Ulta! Yes! I went there twice once after my graduation last Thursday to get me some grad gifts and had a $3.50 off a $10 purchase and then two days later, they did a double beauty steal and got one and then got more products because they were doing a shipping special until Tuesday by spending $25 and you get free shipping! So, did that! What did I get? Let’s see!

 

Thursday’s Package:

 

As said, I graduated last Thursday from college! I am so happy that I am done! So, as said, used my $3.50 off a $10 purchase coupon to get some NYX items! I have been on a major NYX craze and love their items! You may have read my last favorites post for March and April and saw that most of it was NYX items because I really have fallen in love with them, especially my Dream Catcher pallets! So, for Thursday’s package, it is pretty good, but I want to start off with the samples!

 

The sample packs I tend to go for the perfume ones since I don’t want to take chances with the random samples and skin care pack since I have sensitive skin, so the perfume one is pretty nice! This one, was kind of weird! I got a sample with an air refreshner which is odd to me! But it smells pretty good, I think it is from their Body Shop section but hey, I need to refresh my room, especially when Gondras comes over and he has his socks off! You can kind of tell that he has bad foot odor, especially during conventions with the con funk attacking! Anyways, what made me happy is that they included a sample of Calvin Klein scent, Euphoria! I love their CK One scent because it is earthy and it I tend to wear it with my crossplays since it does give off a nice feminine and yet not feminine scent at the same time with the earth tone to it! It kind of smells like if they dubbed down Breath of God by Lush! When I heard about this new one that Calvin Klein released on TV, I was wondering how it would smell and it felt like Ulta read my mind when I chose perfume this time and sent me Euphoria! It smells AMAZING! It has a very nice vanilla scent, it almost had me thinking it was Burberry Brit since it is similar but it kind of has a an earth tone to it, like the ocean for a moment! After smelling it, I want it! Someday you will be mine Euphoria! I did get a Dulce Gabana, it smelled too strong for my liking but now it dubbed down, it smells like peaches, but not wanting me to get it!

 

Now onto what I got from NYX on this shopping package!

 

I got two of the slim eye liner pencils in grey and teal! I did mention in my favorites that I was looking for a smoky eye liner to match with my Hot Topic smoky liner from Black Heart and was able to find one since it is pretty grey and found the grey pencil in their slim liner line! I love the gold one I have from the eye /eyebrow liner line and heard good things about this line since it is popular! So, glad that I finally found one in grey and the reason for the teal one is that I am running low, well starting to run low on my turquoise pencil from Wet N Wild and thought it would be perfect to get the teal one once I finally run out. I tend to buy more of something if I start running low, that’s how I run! Plus, these pencils will fit nicely into my Caboodle since they are small, around the same size as my gold one!

 

Now onto lip products! I have been obsessing with the lip products, especially the butter blosses! Great news is that they are still buy one get one half off and was happy to get two and they are Angel Food Cake and Sugar Cookie! I wanted Sugar Cookie for a while now but unfortunately when I went to Altamonte to their Ulta, they ran out of it! That was when I got Terra Mousseau to try it out! But glad I got Sugar Cookie, which is a purple pink one, I thought it would be more of a neutral but since Eleventh Gorgeous and another reviewer talked about the newer butter glosses, I had to get this one since I tend to go for purples time to time! Angel Food Cake was a major recommendation from that one reviewer, forgot her name but she lives in Florida and she got this one and the nine other new butter glosses when she went to IMats and lucky that she went, want to go, anyways, she mentioned how this is a soft pinky color! So, I picked this one up! I am hoping that CVS may get these newer ones!

 

Now onto the last item I got from NYX and it is one of the soft matte lip creams in Transylvania! I wanted this one for a long time ever since Ms. Grav3yard Girl mentioned it, I had to get it! But the Ulta I went to didn’t have it since everyone picked everything up like crazy since these were also buy one get one half off! Except…one thing weird happened, when I tried getting another, I tried getting Progue, and it didn’t take the discount when it hit my bag! It said “Buy two to get this offer!” which I did and it didn’t take the discount for it, so I deleted it and tried Cupcake from the Butter glosses and it worked! I accidently put two of Cupcake, but took it out and decided to stick with the items I bought with the coupon and decided to go back for Cupcake, I still found it weird that happened on the site! Not sure if you guys ran into that, it is weird and I did follow the description! I may have to go to Ulta again to get Progue unless the CVS locations around me gets more Matte Creams since I want to get Progue since it sounds like a nice berry color!

 

Saturday’s Package:

 

I thought I was done with my purchases at Ulta for one week until they sent me the e-mail for two beauty steals and the whole free shipping special for Mother’s Day! I mostly did it for the steal and plus decided to do free shipping on top of it since it is pretty good that they did this now when in order to get free shipping you have to spend around $50 or $100 normally to do free shipping and I don’t want to do that most of the time so I always buy around $20 or $30 worth of stuff since they do have good deals, especially for members sometimes when they send coupons for our entire purchase! So, what were the steals? It was the Cargo Cream Shadow pallet which I almost thought about getting, it was going to be $20 for that day and you get neutral tones in it, but I read the reviews and they said not to waste your money, especially the original price was $39 and thought maybe I shouldn’t go with it until I saw this steal and it was the Playlful Beauty Set by Ulta itself!

 

First, my perfume samples! This one was less weird since I got sample vials of Simply Pink, which is this very fruity and vanilla scent, don’t know why but I like the sweetness of it! Then I got Clean Rain, which is what it says, smells like after a rain shower! And forgot the last one but I think it’s Last Moment or In The Moment, not sure, but it is pretty spicy and sweat at the same time.

 

Now onto my beauty steal! The second beauty steal which I went with cost me $16. 99 for that Saturday and it is the 66 piece Playful Set by Ulta themselves! What got me to get this is the items and reviews! The reviews said that they highly recommend and I can see why since it has a lot of items! What does it come with? According to the site:

 

This set was originally $24. 99 and you can still can get it for the beauty steal price and you get 36 eye shadow shades, 4 glittery eye top coats, 4 blushes, 1 bronzer, 1 powder, 3 shadow quads, 1 top coat quad for the quads, which this is also a glittery top coat eye shadows, two of the butter balm glosses they made, 2 dual ended eyeliners, and of course applicators in one convenient bag!

 

That is a major steal! Especially with the value for all this would be $170 but you can get it for $16.99 right now which I suggest do it! Plus, you get a travel case out of it, which I may take this with me to Metro for my Lolita dress, since I did forget to mention with the Transylvania matte cream I will be using for that since it is a very vampy, dark plum and my dress is supposed to have dark purple trimming and waiting for it to be made along with Rayne, Tobi’s wife! As said, should get this while supplies last! I know I won’t use the powder, brozer, and not sure about the blushes since I tend to have a natural blush, which I turn into a Peach Girl!

 

But to round off the $25 free shipping, which was hard to know what else to get, I did rush right back to the NYX butter glosses! I am so hooked! This time I did get Cupcake like I said I would since I do love Revlon’s Lip Butters in Cupcake, did a repurchase of that not too long ago since I tend to wear that as Lucy! This one according to that one reviewer mentioned this one is a bit corally and I have been stepping out of my comfort zone with these a lot but still I did get Cupcake and then I got Vanilla Cream Pie since that one stuck out like a sore thumb whenever I browse on the site! So, why the heck? I almost got another but decided to check out Ulta’s Butter Balms since I was getting two in this set I mentioned above, why not check them out and now they are doing a special, not sure if it’s still there where you can buy one for $4 and they are normally $8! What I like about these is that the colors are fairy tale princess named glosses! The names include Goldilocks, Belle, Rapunzel, Snow White, but the one I got is Luna. Not sure which princess is that, figuring that they got Ana from Anastacia or Ana from Frozen. Still, decided with Luna and did round up my purchase for free shipping! Not sure how the items will feel from Ulta, but may wear something from it on Saturday to test it out.

 

Now onto a mini CVS haul!

 

CVS:

 

Oh jeez, I went NYX crazy again! The thing is that I heard some beauty bloggers have been spotting NYX at CVS and Target lately, which I did notice that Target’s website is starting to carry NYX and I did find one location of CVS that did carry them! They had a small display thus far but they will get another shipment Monday which I am hoping for liquid eyeliners since I can start with this, I got one of the jumbo eye pencils in Pots and Pans Casserole! I wanted to get a plain silver eyeliner since I got the glitter one and there are times I don’t want to do sparkly lines all the time, especially with silver! So, I heard good things about the jumbo pencils that NYX created and decided to get this one to try out. I am also glad my Revlon sharpener has the bigger point hole! Then I got another Matte Lip Cream but in Milan! I love this color a lot, it is just a nude and I like how it feels, so I decided to keep it in my purse, the one I got first, since I can’t keep my hands off of it! So, if I don’t want to wear the lipstick I carry for a few days, I can put this one and it is a first for me to do this. Can’t help it! So glad I got another. Hoping this location gets Progue in the next shipping! I did get another Butter Gloss and it is in Maple Blondie, which is a coral colors! This one location had only the older stuff, I did almost got Cherry Cheesecake, but when I was told it was orange, I put it back! I may go back for it because when I got home, I was longing for it. NYX, why do you do this to me!? And finally, decided to get one of the High Shine Lip Glosses and got it in Dolly Pink! Wanted to try another product from them and almost got Strawberry Milk in the Cream Lipsticks but they sold out! Nyuuuu! I have to go to Ulta, or another CVS, or Target at one point and try and get this one! I guess people are happy to find NYX at CVS so they don’t have to order from Ulta, or go to one, or have to order from NYX since now they are branching out! Good for you NYX!

 

Well, that is it for this haul! Congrats to me for graduating after four years of brain torture, still I went Ulta crazy but hey got amazing deals on the play set they have! Now I get to try Ulta’s make up brand!

 

What is next? I am thinking of doing a cosplay post since convention summer season is upon us once again! Decide to do one on original characters! Til next time!

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by moonleopard85 on May 8, 2014  •  Permalink
Posted in beauty, haul

Posted by moonleopard85 on May 8, 2014

https://nerdyshiqueuniverse.com/2014/05/08/ulta-and-cvs-haul/

Trans Media Retrospective: .hack

Hello everyone and welcome back! Finals are over and it’s time for me to do another post and I just got a lightbulb and it is based on the project I had to do for one of my classes this spring!

 

So, in the light of the MetroCon theme of Old School vs. New School, I will be a part of a cosplay group with my fiance, Gondras, that deals with both .hack and Sword Art Online due to how Sword Art has been one of the newest online RPG centered series and has been on Toonami for months, why not do a versus group with a long running one called .hack which is still going on for years!

 

.hack is one of those series that has been transformed in many ways from being in text novels, to anime series, video games, and manga adaptations of some of the parts off the story for fans to enjoy! Trust me, when I first saw sign on Toonami back in 2004, I wanted to see more of it and that is how I got into the first round of games, Infection, Mutation, Outbreak, and Quarantine. It didn’t end there of course since it grown and now we have the newer game for the PSP, well new in our eyes, Link, it won’t probably stop there! Even TV Tropes referred to this series as “.hack//GIVE US ALL YOUR MONEY!” Which I will show you why and how it evolved into this idea!

 

Behind THE WORLD

 

The entire franchise of .hack deals with a virtual online MMO known as “The World,” which takes players into an online setting through headsets and using game pads hooked up to their computers so they can go through virtual zones by making keywords. Within the series, this fictional game was created by Herman Hoerwick, which created the first game where “The World” came from known as “Fragment,” and Cyber Connect aka CC Corp.

 

Basically, players go into Root Towns through Chaos Gates of any server that they start playing in or get transferred to since each stage they play in can be played in different servers and in order to log out, they have to be in the Root Town they started off in. In order to get to the areas to play and fight monsters and go through dungeons is based on creating three keywords and once they are made, they get sent to that area. I would warn anyone who wants to find the first set of games, or the second, or even link, be careful when making these words or choosing a random area, you may get levels that may be too hard for you and your companions that you recruited. I would say go with a level below and what level you’re at, trust me, I went through times when I was at level 9 and tried taking on level 11 areas, not easy!

 

What gave premise to the story? Well, it deals with viruses and how the real world in the series got effected, which the firstvirus known as Pluto’s Kiss caused a major malfunction on the internet and caused a switch to a newer system. Later on, a newer virus becomes important in the games, which I will mention later, known as “The Twilight Incident,” aka “Pluto” gives more storytelling especially in the four OVAs that you get in the games. Speaking of anime, shall we started with the video games first? Not yet! I do have to mention, there is a different version of the World that does show up as a portable version within the story! It takes place a thousand years after the original versions of the World, which gets mentioned later on in this post!

 

Main Characters

 

So, like many series that has been transformed, there are many characters that get mentioned throughout the entire series as well! I will mention the most important characters that are really the ones that the stories revolve around!

 

Aura: This character is basically the seed of the entire storyline! She is an AI created by Hoerwick as a dedication to his dead lover and the daughter that was supposed to be his if his lover gave him kids! She is supposed to be the perfect AI but Morgana kept her asleep in order to keep her from doing so, even during the games she gets chased by Morgana’s phases in order to keep the perfect Data Drain, which was given through a book turned into a bracelet to defeat Morgana! Here are the characters that get linked to her!

 

Kite, character from the games: You play as the Twin Blade Kite in the first round of games who has to save people who come under comas by the Phase, Skeith, he gets the Twilight Bracelet from Aura and criptic e-mails from her in order to beat the Eight Phases and Kubia, the Yang to the Bracelet’s Yin, which causes it to be destroyed and a new one gets made, The Dawn Bracelet.

 

Haseo, .hack//roots and g. u. aka Guilty Universe: The main cAlbierio, a. i. buster (not always going to put, .hack): The main character from the novel series, A. I. Buster is played in the game by a system administrator at CC Corp and has to take out any anamolies and the A. I., Lycoris, that may cause problems within the game. He does meet with Lycoris without knowing who she was while collecting the fragments of her and then deleted her when Lycoris realizes she can’t exist there. He does show up in volume 2 and ends while chasing Tsukasa and then ends up in a coma after meeting Macha and had a forced resignation placed on him for causing “The Twilight Incident,” which he was blamed for.

 

Shugo Kunasaki, from Legend of the Twilight: A player who thought he outgrew video games until he won a contest with his twin sister, Rrina and got an avatar version of Kite in chibi form along with his sister who got the chibi version of BlackRose that was arranged by Aura and gets in contact with him by giving him a version of Kite’s bracelet that doesn’t harm humans and becomes a character from the past in order to reunite with her daughter, Xiphi.

 

Tsukasa, sign: the main character of .HACK//SIGN who’s player is in a coma while his consciousness is awake in the world. Morgana keeps him from waking up Aura by placing negative thoughts into him and not reaching out to the other characters of the series until later, Subaru, Mimiru, Bear, and the others and causes Aura to awaken and let him log off.

 

Xiphi from Legend of the Twilight: Aura’s daughter and the A. I. that becomes attached to Shugo by smelling the scent of her mother on Shugo’s bracelet. Even though she starts out as a brat due to her attachment to Shugo and Rina, but she does mature towards the end.

 

Haseo from ROOTS and G.U.: a rogue and a “player killer killer,” just like the original design of him, Sora, was in the game and chased by player killers himself and then joined the Twilight Brigade, headed by Ovan. Ovan disappears while his buddy, Shino, gets placed into a coma by Ovan. He then goes up against Tri-Edge which causes him to get data drained and restored and soon gains the powers of Skeith as an avatar.

 

Aida from G. U.: The A. I. of the newer version of the World from the disappearance of Aura. Unlike helping the players, Aida causes players to go insane or slip into a coma in the real world. But the Eight Epitaph users, who gained avatars of the Phases from the original games, are immune to Aida’s virus and can Data Drain, which was said caused Aida in the first place due to how illegal it was.

 

Tokio Kuryuu from LINK: the main character in the portable game and was transported into the game after meeting the new student, Saika, who gives him a special copy of the game and meets up with Kite. He was forced to work with Saika to find the chrono Core. Tokio is seen as a double ware which is a human can be transported into the game due to a digitized technology.

 

 

 

Anime and Video Games:

 

Since I am done with characters, well the bigtger ones since it took a while, now onto anime and video games! I placed these two together because the both of them go hand in hand due to how the events for each half take on! As you know sign was the first series to start off the story, despite a. i. buster was the forerunner of the entire story and how Lycoris came to be and how it later changed into Aura from there. Anyways, sign was the first tale that tells how Tsukasa,a Wavemaster player, can’t logout due to his player in the real world was placed into a coma due to being used by Morgana in order to keep Aura asleep! He meets characters such as Subaru, Mimiru, Crim, Bear, and many others that help in getting over his predicament to beat Morgana to wake up Aura to free her. This story helped start the next arc of the tail with the first round of Playstation 2 games, Infection, Mutation, Outbreak, and Quarantine, which follows Kite who was given the power of the Twilight Bracelet to Data Drain while his friend Orca was Data Drained by Skeith before getting the power but Aura gave it to Kite after it happened, which had him meet BlackRose in order to solve the mystery of the comas in the real world with players and help Aura out by destroying the Phases that were made to destroy her. An interesting fact about these four games, even though players finished the first three games, Quarantine was the game they didn’t finish due to how events unfolded, even the prologue scenes of the games kind of give you sad tidings to come! I could see why since I was in an EBay bidding war over this game due to GameStop not carrying it since people hardly bought it! Now I can see why it didn’t get traded in!

 

Liminality, which are the four OVA episodes that are included with the first round of games, these four episodes are correspondent to each game they came in and takes place in the real world rather than inside The World. Like Kite’s and BlackRose’s adventure of looking into what is causing people to go into comas within the game, the story outside with the characters, Mai Minase, Yuki Ihara, Kyoko Tihono, and Junochiro Tokuoka, who used to work for Cyber Connect, in order to see why people are slipping into comas after playing The World at certain points of the game. I found it interesting since we tend to see what goes on within the games while playing as Kite and BlackRose, we get to see what happens on the outside of the games by seeing other chracters that have loved ones going into comas, for example in the first episode Mai’s boyfriend ends up in a coma and she ends up staying awake after being sent to the hospital with him and wants to know why she wasn’t in a coma as well and wants to help her boyfriend out. Not only that, it takes a deeper look into the Pluto’s Kiss Virus that takes place since in the second episode, Yuki Ihara gets trapped in the mall when the virus hits and while playing the game Mutation, you get a news article in the “News” menu to read about the virus going on and how it cut off so many communication devices and computers in order to continue with the game and read more message board posts for keywords and so on! This is a way of interacting between the games and the anime series since you get both sides of the story, inside The World and outside by seeing these characters solving the mystery behind the computer viruses and comas and see how both worlds change due to how the adventure takes on in beating the Phases and how the characters interact in order to take on the final boss in the end to save everyone who fell victim to the comas. If only most games were like this then we can see two sides of the story!

 

Legend of the Twilight, the next part of the story which takes the Kite and BlackRose story and feels like a spoof by what I saw and remembered and give it a new part of the Aura story! This is a twelve episode series that introduces twins, Rina and Shugo, who end up getting the chibi versions of BlackRose and Kite and Shugo gets the Twilight Bracelet and the both of them have to solve the mystery behind it. This is more of an alternative version of the manga, which I will touch upon later!

 

Roots is the next part of the story and prequel to the G. U. games which you get introduced to Haseo and how he got into the Twilight Brigade and how his character came to be, “The Terror of Death” to many and towards the end it gives you an idea of how G. U. started, which the games takes a look into how Haseo has to rescue Shino from her coma from Roots but meets other characters and finds out that he and seven other players hold a power known as the “Epitaph,” which holds an avatar of the Eight Phases from the original games. I never played these games, even though my copy of the Roots box set came with the demo disc, but I think I was a little too late in getting the video games from GameStop since they stopped carrying PS2 games. An interesting fact though is that you can’t get the Roots anime in stores unless you want to go and find it, you can find it on EBay but for a hundred bucks! How I got mine? Well, I was at AFO 2012 and was at a stand and found all the .hack stuff and came across the boxset for it and saw it was $60 less than the EBay price! So, I snatched it up before someone got it! Yeah, it is rare to find!

 

Finally, Link, is the newest game that is available for the PSP in Japan, not sure if it will ever come to stateside but it takes places years after the G. U. games and takes on the story of Tokio, a fourteen year old, meets an exchange student who gives him a copy of The World and gets transported to the game! He ends up meeting The Twilight Warriors, who are characters from the previous games and try to save Aura from being corrupted!

 

There is a new game for Android and IOS systems in Japan but there will be an American version soon, while there is a new .hack game project announced in Japan but no platform to be announced as of now! Who knows, maybe E3 will get that announcement in the future? I will be waiting!

 

Books and Manga:

 

Like most anime, there is always a manga version, but .hack is one universe that not only has manga but books as well for everyone to enjoy different sides of the story as they travel through each anime and video game adaptation!

 

  1. I. Buster: This story is the prequel to the entire series itself! This two volume story shows how Alberio meets the original A. I. Lycoris and data drains her at first and then meets another girl and finds remnants of her to reconstruct6 Lycoris once again! Plus, it shows the characters Orca and Balmung become Descendants of Fianna as Orca of the Azure Sea and Balmung of the Azure Sky by defeating the One Sin. Even though I didn’t read volume two but I did read the first volume which I couldn’t put down at all!

 

Zero: This novel series takes place after Sora after being trapped due to Morgana and meet a Long Arm class by the name of Carl, and even tells the tale of life of Tsukasa in the real world.

 

Another Birth tells the story of the first video games through BlackRose’s point of view due to how we saw Kite’s point of view. If I could get this through Bookshare, I would so read it since I like the first round of games and see what happened to her during the times you don’t call on her for anything, since while playing you do get e-mails from her in clues that lead you to some of the Phases and Kubia.

 

Legend of the Twilight: This is the manga that I mentioned and pretty much follows through the anime did with the mystery of Aura, except the contest they got their character models was mostly mysterious.

 

Epitaph of the Twilight: novels that shows how Lara Hoerwick, Howard’s niece, gets trapped in The World.

 

Cell: Midori, a Edge Punisher, becomes a victim of PK her and get money for it and have as much money for herself. G. U. had many published stories for it as in manga and novel versions of the story, plus there is one talke that takes a humorous view of the story and another that talks about a former empress of the Demon Palace being obsessed with two of the characters.

 

There are many other manga and books published for this series but it will take a long time to talk about!

 

 

Cosplay:

 

Now that there has been the anime, manga, books, and video games, there is one part of the media world for .hack and that is cosplay! The entire series has many unique characters and many unique designs for them which has a lot of work to do in order to get it done for the convention season! Whether it is picking up parts at a Good Will or Salvation Army or going online for wigs, the cosplay idea is endless, especially with many variations of characters such as Haseo from the start of Roots to his Skeith Epitaph variation and the Shino version of Atollie. Besides doing the characters, there are times when someone can imagine and make their own characters, for example I will be doing a variation of my Soul Eater character by turning him into a Twin Blade like Kite. Waiting on the wig btw! And of course, there are the human characters for their game avatars, such as Mai from Liminality as one good example. Anyway as you look at it, cosplay has its own way of getting into .hack within transmedia.

 

So, that is about it for this retrospective! If you want to see anymore transmedia retrospectives of certain anime and video games, just comment down below!

 

Before I tell you all what’s next, I made a typo with the author of the Midnight Breed Series in my favorites post, her name was Lara Adrian, not Lauren. Sorry!

 

What is next? I have a haul from Ulta! Til next time!

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by moonleopard85 on May 4, 2014  •  Permalink
Posted in anime, Books, cosplay, Manga, Uncategorized, Video Games

Posted by moonleopard85 on May 4, 2014

https://nerdyshiqueuniverse.com/2014/05/04/trans-media-retrospective-hack/