Hello everyone and welcome back to Nerdy Shique Universe! August is about to close up and that is time for my bi-monthly favorites!

 

I have a lot of favorites this time around because since MetroCon was in July I have a few faves from there!

 

Convention Favorites:

 

Fave Panel By Fans: Hellsing Happy Hour! Yes, this is a favorite because I enjoyed the panel so much and it was very hilarious! As you read the review back in July and remembered how I said this was a good example of a fan hosted panel based on anime? Well it is still well hosted! The people were all in cosplay and were acting like the characters but more of their abridged counterparts since Team FourStar did the abridged version of Hellsing Ultimate and I still get a good laugh from that, I even recently watched episode 4 since one of the guests at Omni Expo 2015 is in it, which I will be doing my Omni Spotlight in the coming months! It would be awesome if they bring the panel to the Orlando cons since it was very entertaining! If you see this in your convention guides, I highly recommend checking it out! You can also find the intro video for the panel on YouTube!

 

Fave Guest Event: Troy Baker Acoustic Concert! If you guys weren’t at MetroCon, you missed a pretty awesome performance by Troy Baker along with Mary Elizabeth McGlynn who joined in for songs from Silent Hill since she sang the songs in the games and man this was an amazing performance done and it was my first time hearing Troy sing live since I know he had to sing as Excalibur in Soul Eater and as one of the voices in Saints Row 3 and 4 since Gondras did have him “Just a Friend” when he got his copy of 4 signed by him after the show. I know it was a VIP signing but all thanks to being press, still got to go for it and did get my badge signed since I didn’t have my stuff for him at the time. You guys should also check out his new album that is coming out soon, not sure if it will be on ITunes, but look out for it! I know I will once I get back to it! If he is at a convention near you and performing, see it! You must! Highly recommend!

 

Favorite Interview(s): Troy Baker and Mary Elizabeth McGlynn! When I heard that these two were guests at Metro, I had to jump on the interview wagon since they are two of the biggest names in anime, I know Troy has been rising since he is in a lot of video games especially with Far Cry 4 and was glad that I asked him about his role as Vas in that! I know I learned a lot during Chris Patton’s interview but with Troy, you just have to listen to what he says, it’s so mazing! Even though my fingers did hurt with the transcription but hey it was worth it and I did keep it under fifteen minutes with him and Mary! Mary on the other hand was a huge honor since I have been into series she has worked on like Fushigi Yugi, Digimon, and of course the ever going, Naruto! It’s great that I got to meet her and got to talk to her one on one in person since she was one of the other anime actors I wanted to meet in forever but I took it a major step farther in doing this! Now can’t wait for more things to come for these two! Just read my interviews with them, Dante Basco, and Richard Epcar if you get a chance!

 

Best Props for a Prop: Nolen North with My Twin Blades! I was happy to meet Nolen even though I did get my friend Curly Fro’s pass signed by him but it made it awesome that Nolen complimented on my twin blade props I was wearing with my .hack cosplay that day! It made sense since he was the voice of Dead Pool and I did get a pic with him and my friends, I wonder if Vivi posted it so I can print it out! This has to be my fave guest…wait a moment!

 

Fave Guest Moment: Giving Brittney Karbowski my extra Carla plushie! There we go! Had to mention this! Well, if you remembered how I told this story and if not will be re-telling it anyways! So back in January, I bought a Carla plushie on EBay from a Hong Kong seller along with a Panther Lily one since she also had it relisted when I went back to contact her that I didn’t get Carla in the mail yet. Apparently the post office called me before I went back to her and told me that the tracking got lost and can’t locate it, so the seller shipped a new one and was glad that Panther Lily came safely in the mail. So, Carla arrives and it’s all good despite her plushie looked different from Lily and Happy! Don’t know why or how, hey at least I have the three main Echseeds right now and hoping to find Funimation ones. Funny thing is that later the second one comes in the mail and was like “Oh crap!” Then I noticed Brittney was coming back to Metro this year and thought it would be nice to give it to her since she voices Wendy the Sky Dragon Slayer! When me and Nerdy Shirts shown up, this was before I found out my badge was counted as VIP, I brought the Fairy Tail part 5 insert because of Wendy and was happy to get it signed by her since I didn’t get it before Metro last year and had to go back for it since I had a bit of money left after Metro for it and then we hand her Carla! I told her it was a gift and since she is Wendy, fair that she would have a Carla too! She came around the table and hugged me, more like a glomp! At least it wasn’t to the floor, that would’ve been bad and I would be turtling it! (I was glomped to the floor once years ago, that’s why) At least now Brittney can record with Carla by her side for future Fairy Tail seasons since the series is still going! Also, take it with her to conventions!

 

Best Dealer Room Find: Both .hack//G. U. Vol 1 and Mini Raichu Plush! I felt as though I didn’t spend much since we may have to buy food for the room or have take out, trust me the grill place in the dealer room was tempting! Still, I had money left over to save for MythiCon this year and did ask for birthday money as a bonus. Anyways, I did find two awesome finds in the dealer room, I will be mentioning one of the others in the bag favorites, still the fave finds is the first one which is the first volume of the  G. U. games! I did mention in my .hack In Transmedia post about how I had a hard time finding these games and remembered how Nerdy Shirts found Legend of Legaya at Holidy Matsuri from a rare games seller that came from our school and they were at Metro and they had all three G. U. games and managed to get the first since it was the cheapest but knowing us if we find them again, hoping Mythic, we get volume 2 despite it being $70 from what I remembered, we did go to a game store near Waterford that sold vol 2 new and sealed for $129. Still, we got it for pretty good price, volume 1 I mean! I was so glad that I was able to get this since I loved the first round of games despite it being sad at some points but I can’t help how funny Piros is when he is in your party! He is funnier as Piros III in G. U. and I do love the voice acting in this more than Roots because it sound more natural and the characters interacted better than Roots in my opinion. Also, the music FITS better in this game! If you saw the prequel anime to the games, the music was all over the place for me, especially during touching moments between Haseo and Shino, but with the games it was fitting with everything! I can’t wait to get volume 2 since the first one ended on a cliff hanger like how Mutation and Outbreak sort of did. And I did get it signed by Mary Elizabeth McGlynn! And now I have something for DC Douglas to sign if he comes back! Second fave find was a mini Raichu plushie! There was a stand that had a lot of plushies and a good portion of them were Pokemon! I am a sucker when it comes to Pokemon and Hello Kitty stuff, but even though I did find Glaceon, what made me happy was finding a Raichu plushie! Even though I have the massive one, I can use this tinier one for MetroCon if I bring my Pokemon Ranger costume, which I might do next year depending on what’s going on! Still, glad I found this since on EBay, this is a hard to find plushie as well and I can see why since Raichu may be the evolved form of Pikachu but you don’t see many plushies of him! Unless you saw my massive one that I will have for MythiCon!

 

Non-Beauty Faves:

 

Shirt: Whotalia! Shirt from Aardvark Tees! I was happy that I found Aardvark Tees at Metro this year! The guy told me they were there last year but we couldn’t find them, but all thanks to Tobi and Vivi, they guided me to them! I did get Gondras the newer twelve doctors shirt but what got me happiest is that I finally got my Whotalia shirt of England being chased by the Daliks! I wanted this one since I saw it on their Etsie shop and was coming back for it and I did and they had it at their stand! I love how it’s grey and comfy! I even worn it on Sunday since I didn’t want to cosplay after the weekend I had and my feet were pretty much dead, so I went Floridian Nerd! I also worn this on my birthday, which was two weeks ago and the guy at Hot Topic gave me props for it and I didn’t know it! It is a fitting shirt since I was picking up my Tenth Doctor dress and Gondras’ 4^th Doctor Sonic Screwdriver. Anyone going to MythiCon, I will be wearing the dress that Sunday since I planned on doing my Pokemon Ranger and Lucy cosplays. I am hoping by December that Aardvark still have the “Keep Calm! Have a Jelly Baby!” shirt so I can get that for Gondras for his birthday or Christmas, depending on what Dr. Who items I will be getting him!

 

Favorite Backpack: Happy backpack from Fairy Tail! From the vendor next to Aardvark I picked up something and that is the Happy backpack from Fairy Tail since I do love cats and of course the Echseeds from Fairy Tail are my favorite creatures next to Plu since he is a Rave Master element, still I love Happy! He is cute as a backpack since he is a big bag and very detailed. Even the ears are done in the exact shape of his ears and the tail is connected to his head so they can fit it in. Of course they have his tiny back pouch like in the series and the zipper for the bag part runs from close to the top of his head to a little underneath the pouch! The only thing that I don’t like about the backpack which is a pet peeve of as well with Gir, which I would understand since it is the dog hood, but I don’t get why the little bag compartment is so small when the entire pouch can be the entire head! I know both of my Mokona backpacks have big pouches that take up their entire body area but they didn’t do that with Happy, I may take up the tip to expand it by cutting holes but may ask for a professional to do that since I don’t want to ruin it and have to go searching for a Happy backpack and if they made Carla, that would be a hard decision until Gondras says get them both! Knowing he would do tha. But I may just use it on outtings that don’t require much stuff, just carry my coin purse, phone, and a lip gloss and I am good to go. I may be searching for Carla if they ever make one of her!

 

Favorite Messenger Bags: Hello Kitty Huge Bag and Soul Eater Bag! This July and August I have been using two messenger bags. My Hello Kitty one I got off of EBay was the one I used at MetroCon and then at Metro I got another Soul Eater bag and it had Maka, Soul, and Blair on it! Reason why I love the Hello Kitty one is that since I got Kuromi as one, I knew it wouldn’t be big enough since I not only had to carry my usual items such as my wallet, money pouch, and so on but my Braille Sense and all of Gondras’ water bottles and also my water just in case, and maybe either of our 3DSes in case of Street Passes, not sure if I got any from Saturday, need to get that checked, still I needed something spacious! I found one of the Hello Kitty messenger bags in an 18 inch size and it is pretty much close to the same size I saw at Sanrio back in May and I love it! It fit everything and I did get help from a volunteer since it had to be on my back since I didn’t think through with my .hack cosplay with my twin blades, but it worked! Even Tobi had fun in finding my Zuko lanyard I made for Dante Basco. I will be using this bag for cons since it also has a nice safe zipper for the main compartment. It didn’t cost that much either, I think at Sanrio it might be around in the $30+ range but thanks to EBay got it pretty cheap! And now onto the Soul Eater one which I spotted it on Friday and didn’t want to go spend happy so quickly, decided to look around first for a bit before I met up with everyone else and glad I spread out my spendings with all the stuff I had to do. Back to the bag, it is the same kind of model as my Erza bag, which I should use that one again since I miss it so, as in it’s big and pretty handy as a purse than a convention bag because when I used Erza stuff almost fell out since it doesn’t have the zipper and after almost losing FullMetal Autograph I had to be extra careful! I like how everything fits and it has the handy dandy net pocket so I can also fit my phone charger if need be. I am so glad I went back to the stand where I found this and picked it up! I may want to see if I can find them or another vendor that might have the Tiger and Bunny one because it has a cool comic book like design on it. I realized I should’ve asked a friend who was at AFO about that bag but didn’t want to ask about too many things! At least MythiCon is getting more vendors this year and I may be lucky and luckier in that dealer room!

 

Favorite Foot Wear: Leopard Sequin Flip Flops! I pI got these while in Tampa since I forgot to think of getting flip flops and glad I got these at WalMart because my feet were crap by the end of MetroCon. They are kind of like pumps but not to the point of heels or platforms, they are just one slanted board and have nice comfy padding and the band has the leopard print and nice and shiny. They saved my feet and so glad I found my size in these since shoe sizes at WalMart can be tricky in some pairs.

 

Ipsy August 2014 Make Up Bag: I had to mention this as a favorite since I finally got an Ipsy bag and so glad that I got to try out new make up while I was at it! The make up bag is a pencil case type bag to fit with the “Beauty Schooled” theme and it fits all the stuff I tend to carry in my make up bag. Maybe I should do what’s in my bag post since I seen a lot of people do them and why not since this blog mentions a lot of things. Still, a nice item and it helps me locate my make up  easily since it doesn’t take up so much room and the material doesn’t feel like it blends in so much since it’s plastic! I am hoping to get other bags like this since September is right around the corner and excited what will be next! Way to go Ipsy!

 

Music

 

Favorite Album: Black Market by Rise Against! As you know in my last favorites I mentioned “Don’t Wanna Be Here Anymore” was my fave song by Rise Against and how they were releasing a new album in July and guess what? It’s on my phone with all my Rise Against music! I will try and get an actual copy for my PC as a back up and my IPod. The album is an amazing one! It’s as good as their Sufferer and the Witness album and better than The Unraveling album with the sound of what they had on Siren Songs of the Counterculture with a hint of End Game, slight hint! It is an awesome album! It was weird though that I had to redownload “Don’t Want to Be Here Anymore” to recomplete the album because when I downloaded everything else it went from track one to track three, I think that was fixed after a month of buying it, I know it will be appearing twice in the list of Rise Against music I have but hey! I love the song! I did hear that Rise Against is touring this fall, I think Orlando is on the list again if I heard it briefly that it is in October or November I think! You guys should see them live they are amazing! I got Gondras tickets to see them as his birthday/Christmas gift since they were in Orlando at the start of 2012 and they performed a lot of songs from their albums, since this newest one you should see them since I give this album a….PAW PRINT OF APPROVAL!

 

Favorite Movie:

 

The Fluffy Movie: I know I loved Guardians of the Galaxy but I loved Gabriel Iglesias’ movie the most because it was hilarious! This movie was supposed to open during MetroCon weekend and we would go to the theater nearby where we stayed to see it but we got news it got pushed back by two weeks and Comedy Central shown his comedy specials as an apology, which was fine by us since we got to spend the rest of the evening on that Sunday watching TV before we had to head home. The wait was worth it though since I also got to use my Regal Gift Card from my brother from my college graduation and was enjoying each minute of it! I couldn’t breathe after certain moments since it was hilarious! I felt the same during Aloha Fluffy as well. I would say see the movie whenever it comes out on Blue Ray and DVD!

 

Books

 

Crave the Night by Lara Adrian: Yes, I read the latest Midnight Breed Series book and I didn’t want to close up Kindel at all! I had to get it for my Kindel app since ITunes didn’t like me very much, at least I got to read it and enjoy every minute of it! This story has to deal with Nathan, who is Corin’s son, and how he gets mated with Jordana Gates who kissed  (sorry spoilers) him during the end of Edge of Dawn and she is always on his mind but never wants to get close to how he was brought up as a lethal, vampiric hunter like Corin’s mate, Hunter (I know it sounds cheesy but the name is given to him all thanks to Mira when she was a kid) and it is pretty touching. You may be like “Holy crap!” because they reveal a secret that deals with Jordana and don’t want to reveal it right here, just read the book if you’re the over 21 like me! I highly recommend this series! I can’t wait for the next short story Tempted by Midnight since that deals one of the vamps you see towards the end of the first ten books, which speaking of Midnight novellas….

 

Marked By Midnight by Lara Adrian: This story is the story that takes place between Edge of Dawn and Crave the Night which deals with Mathius Rowan, a close friend of Sterling Chase and helped as a member of the Enforcement Squad in Boston before the Breed got revealed. It shows where Mathius ended up and that is in London and he has to solve a murder mystery of finding people dead in the river and have a mark of a scarab on their hand. While he is in town working on the case, he meets a tattoo artist who bears the Breedmate mark on her body and thinks she is connected! It is kind of touchy but at the same time it reminded me of Tess’ story back in book 2 minus a mysterious drug. I do love the fact that in this story that tattoos are seen as art rather than just something bad and you do see Mathius get one. I am hoping that the next one, Tempted, is also good since it is the linking story between Crave and book 13, which I have a feeling it might deal with the Chase twins or Dante and Tess’ son. Can’t wait! If you’re wondering, I did read the other two stories, Touch of Midnight and Taste of Midnight, didn’t like them as much as Marked since Touch is the prequel story where Gideon and Savanna meet each other and become bonded but at the same time they already told how that happened in book 9 except in this one it does reveal why Gidion is not on patrols since I questioned that throughout the first ten books. And Taste, Danika is a pretty cool Breedmate but her short story kind of felt light to me while reading it. Who knows, knowing with the next one will be interesting!

 

Skin Game by Jim Butcher: I can’t leave the books section without mentioning the latest Dresden Files book since it came out in May! I know I should’ve read it back then but it wasn’t available in Daisy format, which I may do the IBooks thing when 16 comes out! Anyways! This book was a long awaited one since the date got pushed back so much, I was happy that it did release when it did in May since Cold Days had so many things happening and this one was the same way. So Harry has to work with his arch nemesis, Nicodimus Archleon, in breaking into Hades’ vault! I know it was like a “Bowaaaa?” when I heard that these two are working with each other since the last two times that Nick and the Nickle Heads (Yeah, I used Harry’s nickname for the Denarians) come to town everything goes crazy and Nicodimus is a cheating jerk when it comes down to it. I would say give it a read when you get a chance and if you haven’t read the other books, do that as well because this series is escalating even more! Butcher bring on 16!

 

Beauty Favorites

 

Maybelline Color Tattoo in Silver Strike: In my “Best Drurgstore Products for Cosplay,” I mentioned how the Maybelline Eye Studio Color Tattoos are best for make up looks since they won’t budge, that is why the one I used, Silver Strike from their Metallics line, is on here! This stayed on all day since I wanted to wear the costume all day and we were staying a bit far away from the downtown area of Tampa and didn’t want to wait to put the entire costume on during the night, so I had to use something that would not come off if I sweat during the day since July is really hot here in Florida and that my skin doesn’t go to crap after cleaning it off. It was hard to clean off, especially when I wear these things normally and have to touch up, but I did get it off at around past midnight! If you want to do .hack or Fairy Tail and need something to do the markings, this thing is your best bet! Plus the silver did go well with my costume since it was a mixture of blue, black, white, and silver due to the chain I had to go with it and silver is the best color to work with for the markings and it matched the wig even. I was satisfied! So get these if you are looking for something to do markings on your body!

 

NYX Jumbo Eye Pencil in Pots and Pans: Another favorite I did mention in that post and used in my .hack cosplay and that is the NYX Jumbo Eye Pencil in Pots and Pans! Not only I used this for that cosplay but also used it to line my eyes time to time with the Extreme Silver liquid liner that NYX also makes! If you seen those pics, you also saw my eyes were also lined to add more effects to the look! I love how it glides on very smoothly and it feels like you’re not wearing anything after you apply, which sometimes with liners I feel that I feel it on my water line and lower line of my eyes but this pencil is one of those you don’t know it’s there! It goes the same with the liquids. I do have an extra of these because I thought I would need one just in case I need to touch up if I went to the masquerade or before the photo shoot if it were to happen since I had it in my make up bag along with the color tattoo for that touch up as well. Great to have extras in the future and for more make up!

 

L’Oreal Voluminous Miss Manga Mascara: I know it’s weird to know that I am starting to wear mascara and I have a few under my belt! But the one that is my fave of all of them is the Miss Manga mascara by L’Oreal! The funny thing is that Gondras saw the commercials and thought it would be perfect in getting it because of my Lucy cosplay that I do and she does have the big eyes and this mascara is supposed to give that effect and give you manga style lashes and it does! I used it two or three times already and my lashes feel like they were drawn with a black pen by a manga artist! Some people are kind of meh about this mascara since their lashes don’t come out as well and I think it’s due to the type of lashes they might have and like with skin care, not everything works best on everyone and this does work on me even if my lashes curl up naturally. I will be definitely using this with all the girl cosplays I do and if anyone does cosplay out there, this is one thing you should have! You can get it in regular black or blackest black, I went with just normal black.

 

Ulta 55 Piece Make Up Blockbuster Set: That is a long sentence to say but this was a make up set I picked up when it was about to release at Ulta and that is their 55 piece set! I used this during MetroCon because it is an easy to travel set, as in it’s more of a binder case rather than a big bulky suitcase thing like the 66 set I picked up back in May! What is great about this set is that the eye shadows are in six pan pallets and you get eight of them which gives you 48 shadows! You can remove the pallets and travel with one in your purse which is pretty convenient instead of lugging the entire thing to touch up! Plus in the set you get four dual ended eyeliners, which these are skinnier than the 66 set eyeliners that come with that, four eye shadow applicators, one for the blush which is a small blush brush, two blush pallets which contain two blushes in each, and two shiny glosses and I got this for close to $30 by what I remembered wait it was $24 which was the starting price and then they dropped it for a beauty steal. I know I should’ve waited but they gave away the free make up bag set if you bought it new! As said before, it’s travel friendly since it can fit in your suitcase and the individual pallets can fit into your make up bag and purse! I would suggest getting it now if they still have it! I also tried Ulta make up products and they are pretty good quality and very pigmented!

 

Fave Lip Combo: Revlon’s Butter Balm in Cupcake with NYX’s Butter Gloss in Cupcake! I know it sounds like a double cupcake make up idea but during Metro, I wore this duo together as an experiment to see how it turned out and it turned out pretty well! I had the Revlon Butter Balm in Cupcake which is a frosted pink paired with Cupcake from NYX’s Butter Gloss line and they feel amazing with each other! I will be definitely using these two together during MythiCon since I tend to wear Cupcake with Lucy and would be appropriate to do that since not only I get the comfort from the Butter Balm I also get a nice glossy look with the Butter Gloss! I might do the same thing by getting Red Velvet in the Butter Glosses since I have the Butter Balm of that as well! I would suggest trying out this combo!

 

Fave Nail Combo: Teal For Two and pink glitter polish! I am not sure where these nail polishes came from but I had this one teal nail polish from 2001 called Teal For Two that I found at a dollar store in the flea market and I loved the color and never used it again until recently! It still glides on very well despite it not being touched for thirteen years! I also had a bit of a glitter top coat kick and I used a pink glitter on top of it that I found when I was still at school and they tend to do something called Market Wednesdays and a thrift store came and had this polish and decided to use it finally. It turned out pretty nicely! It’s like if I dusted pink glitter on an eye shadow or if I were to get my Pet Me Please lipstick stuck in nail polish! I should’ve worn that lipstick when I had these nails, they would’ve gone nicely! Still, I may do it again!

 

Pure Ice’s Naughty: I had to mention one more nail polish fave and that is Naughty from Pure Ice, which is a company that is with Sinful Colors! This color is a golden orange and it is pretty nice! My mom even liked the color of it! I hope I can find more bottles of this at WalMart since I like the color a lot, a warning though it does chip off pretty quickly, so I don’t like that but I like it for the color!

 

Man! That was a lot of faves! I know the convention faves was a lot but what do you expect? A lot of things happen at a con! So, what is next for Nerdy Shique Universe? I may do what’s in my bag and also September’s going to be a big one for this blog since going to be doing press at MythiCon! And also can’t wait for my Ipsy bag! Stay tuned!