EVENT: DONE


I got the final copy of Madara already!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
idk what to say; I was possessed by a level of focus and determination hitherto unknown I guess???? I just locked in and played enstars for two days straight XD Seriously, I got the last copy at around 5 am, which was 52 hours after the event started. I did sleep some on Saturday night, but yeah, I was just on the nonstop grind.

Also, while I still don't love the event song (or outfit), the song started to grow on me after I'd played it nearly 50 times XD Which is good, since, you know, I had to play it so many times. Overall, I think I wouldn't have minded as much if this was a """regular""" event, but since the Fan ThanX events are meant to be more important, it was a bigger letdown. Like. It's a phone game, I'll live, but I'm still somewhat bummed.

KOHAKU REFERENCED IN ONE OF THE MINI TALKS THO SO LIKE. I'LL TAKE MY CRUMBS!!!!!!!!!!!!! And the office item also included Double Face decorations, not just MaM ;w; I was soooo afraid the event was gonna pretend like DF had never existed or some shit, so like....I was slightly healed by all that.


someone on twitter broke down all the references but I just wanted to share Mama's shooting range~
So, there's a Pop'n Music collab going on in enstars right now, which means that I played....a lot of the temporary collab songs during this event XD Sayonara Heaven, you are so important to me.

uhhhhhhhh my brain is still a little fried from how much enstars I played in such a short time....

OH, RIGHT. Since it's 2x fans for White Day (3x for Madara), I'm gonna spend the rest of the event fan grinding. Like...I have the card maxed already, I'm pretty much set on event points, you know? So I'm hoping I can make a big push towards Rank A+/120k fans for Madara and Kohaku~ I did the push for Rank A during the Bridal Campaign last summer, so now seems like a good time for it :D

( other various accomplishments from the grind )

Liz and I ran to the grocery store this evening because I was d y i n g for a vegetable. Like, yes, I was technically only grinding for two days, but it felt waaaaay longer, since I basically shoved the whole week of playing into that time, while subsisting mostly on instant food. Though on Saturday morning, Liz did make me eggs, bacon, and corn muffins from scratch for breakfast, which was very sweet ;w; They've been super supportive of my enstars-based insanity for the event, and I really appreciate it.

Spouses who game together stay together, you know? ♥

I do have to play a little bit more today, since it's Arashi's birthday, but like. It's sooooo much more manageable now XD

IN A WONDERFUL BIT OF GOOD LUCK, MIKA ALSO CAME HOME FROM THE GACHA AND I AM FEELING BELOVED BY THE GOD OF LUCK!!!!! I'm going into this event with 150% rate up, so I'm gonna call that a win~


he looks so happy!!!! thank you for coming home, Mika ♥


also this Mika is so beautiful....I want to make icons of his bloomed *w*
The only downside is that now I have 3 different blue Mika 5 stars and zero green ones......maybe someday his first feature scout will come home....

Anyway, I did not end up liking the full MV for the MaM event and ended up so upset I slept most of yesterday D: Like I also hadn't slept much the night before, but like......I had a huge crash out and couldn't stay awake any longer. I don't wanna rehash everything I don't like again, because I'm trying to be more positive ;w; I just. Bluh. I'd been trying not to build it up in my mind and I know I still did, but it's not even like sorta not what I like, it's just.......boring.

The song is sooooooooooo boring. Maybe I'll like it more once I play it, but that's hit or miss. Good beatmaps can save things, I guess. But I'm not trying not to get my hopes up, since every part of this event has disappointed me.

except the scout boxes lmao

But honestly getting the beautiful Mika improved my mood XD I also bought enough dia to carry me through the event, so like...I'm ready!!! I just have to lock the fuck in and grind for 8 days straight~

When Pat and Liz get home from work, Liz is gonna take a nap so they can stay up all night with me and Pat is gonna go to Micro Center with me. We're 3D printing some of the stars that are in Madara's card because I'm making some decorations for the event and I need to get some yellow filament. Right now we're printing a glow-in-the-dark one because that's what Pat had on hand, but I also want some in the yellow like the card. Also, I need to swing by Michael's to get more ribbon so I can make my Madara nui a bow inspired by his terrible pastel outfit.

ALSO I WAS RIGHT ABOUT THE PASTEL PRINCE BULLSHIT since this week's megaphoto battle theme is "Fairytale Prince" and like. They're usually tied into the current event. But he barely looks like one; he looks more like an easter egg merged with a children's theater performer. And not a good one. Like, an annoying one XD And I'm married to a former children's theater performer, so I would know.

I'm trying to listen to the new song a few more times...maybe if I hear it enough I can trick myself into liking it....................

I only went to one day of Katsucon, but omg it was fantastic this year!!!!! Alex was house/catsitting for her sister for the weekend, and since her sister lives near DC, it was closer than our place. Sooooo Liz and I headed there Friday night, grabbed a very late dinner at McDonald's with Alex, and then watched a bunch of enstars videos on youtube so Alex was ready to be excited for Absolute uwu

Also, she gifted me an adorable new friend, who goes absolutely perfectly with my CNstars cat nuis ;w; I also made them ice cream cones to match Madara's global exclusive card, and I think they came out really good ♥


if anything happens to my tutulong I'll just fucking die lmao
.....and then I stayed up waaaaaay too late because I'm fucking nocturnal D: Even though we had to wake up at 7 am to drive down early enough to get parking....I'm not smart :T

Liz and I didn't cosplay this year, cuz I didn't feel up to it, so I wore...a wig, a corset, and a floor length skirt XD wig is my Mayoi wig that I haven't styled yet - I pulled it out of the bag on Friday night and was delighted to discover that it's a lacefront - and the skirt is one I made for the Vampire Ball Liz and I went to in 2017. This did end up biting me in the ass because the corset ended up not sitting super well by the end of the night D: But we'll get to that later~

First thoughts on this year's katsu: holy shit I didn't realize how bad lobbyconning had gotten. I could actually move through the halls without be crushed by crowds????? Like, I was there on Saturday and I didn't feel cramped every second of the day. They did move registration to its own building, which freed up space to give Artist Alley a larger location, but still. It was really nice to be able to breathe during the con.

After getting our badges, we ran into some friends of Alex and Liz that they hadn't seen in over a decade, so everyone had a good time catching up. Which is, tbh, a classic Katsucon experience, since so damn many people go.

The first programming we went to was an absolutely delightful performance by Special for Princess!- or should I say Nice? XD Nice Arneb Thunder was MCing and they did a fucking incredible job. like. not to spoil it or anything, but this was such a highlight of my day, idk if anything topped it :0

Also, the esupuri group was just really sweet!!! They seemed so excited and a little surprised that so many people had come out to see them ;w; But seriously, they were quite good and did a good combination of songs and games. The trivia was great for me and Liz, since we actually keep current with the JP stories~ Liz won a tiara for answering some 4piece trivia correctly!

We hit up the Artist Alley for a bit after that, got lost in conversation with a Nagisa cosplayer who usually cosplays Double Face Kohaku, and I was blown away by their gorgeous ita bag. They had so many can badges from the DF TRIP album *w*

....and then we remembered we woke up balls early and Liz & I hadn't eaten :T So after debating a few options, we made our way to our tried and true katsu food: Mezeh. They opened sometime between katsu 2017 and 2018, and we've gone basically every year since. It's affordable and actually filling, especially since they have fresh veggies. Sometimes you gotta get some greens in you- especially at a con!!!

not me sounding like an ad read for my favorite fast casual restaurant lmao

The dealers room is a bit of a blur to me because it's soooooo big and there's so much to see, but I remember it being.....fun? Busy? It was probably one of the more cramped places at the con, but that was partially because some people are just rude. Many people shoving their way through...I didn't come with much money cuz it was a last minute decision to even go, so I wasn't sure about buying anything besides maybe something small from the idol goods booth. But since the idol goods booth wasn't there this year (?????), I ended up getting a new ita bag~


I'd seen it around on insta and lusted over it, so now it is mine!! I'm planning something around Double Face's TRIP album for it OwO
And then we had to hustle to finish artist alley before it closed, cuz we weren't coming back on Sunday D: Liz and I weren't planning on spending any more money, but 1) Alex wanted to buy more stuff and 2) we still wanted to see all of it. And in the end we did buy more XD We got a few more Trigun charms from magpiesoddities, because we've been collecting their super chibi ones since Stampede came out~ They also gave us a free plantcest sticker for being men of culture (perverts).

uhhhhhh what did we do after that..............

OH RIGHT!!! Liz and I chilled on a bench sorta new the dealers room/artist alley area while Alex went to the MXTX photoshoot, and basically just took in the sights. I love people watching at cons :D We also got to help some youths (late teens/early 20s maybe?) learn the ways of Caramelldansen. They knew the dance and song, and it sounded like they'd heard people used to dance to it at cons? So they were trying to figure out how to bring it back. So while it was a conversation that made me feel very old, it was quite wholesome.

After debating back and forth a bunch, we ended up eating dinner at the grab and go place in the Gaylord. It wasn't necessarily "cheap" but like...nothing in National Harbor is, you know? And we didn't have to leave the building, which was a big plus. I'd never grabbed anything from there before, so now I know that it's not half bad.

We wanted to go to the video game room next, but my corset was fucking killing me and I needed to find a family bathroom so Liz could help me loosen it (since all the handicapped stalls in the Gaylord are barely wider than regular ones). So that was quite the fucking adventure. BUT WE EVENTUALLY DID IT. And I've learned I'm never wearing a floor length anything to Katsucon again.....idk how I forgot this lesson from 2017 lmao.

Next up: video game room! And..............it kinda fucking sucked??????? Lie, the games were brought from the same people who supply them for a video game bar I go to here in Baltimore, and usually it's a much better selection?? Like how did Anime USA, a significantly smaller con than Katsucon, have such a better video game room? idk man like......it was kinda disappointing. They didn't even have Chunithm ;w; And it closed at midnight, which is baffling. Katsu used to run sooooo late into the night, I swear it was originally a 24 hour con. Maybe I'm wrong? But I've been going for 17 years now, so I'm pretty sure I'm right :T

Whatever! Alex is gonna come down so we can go to the much better video game bar here~

After we watch cookie monster and godzilla have a cage match in the hall, we were all wiped and ready to head home. So lemme share all the pics I didn't include throughout the entry, cuz it would have ended up even longer :T

( welcome to the party (many katsu pics inside) )

Happy Valentines and goodnight from the boys!!!! I carried many nuis around all day but tbh it was such a rush that I barely took the time to sit, let alone take pics of them D: I will say that the cat kigu nuis with their ice cream cones were a hit with the many Double Face fans and cosplayers I ran into~
All in all, a successful day at the con!!!!! Hopefully finances will be better and I can go for the full weekend next year, but I can now say I've been going to katsu for 17 fucking years.....which is wild. Here's hoping the next 17 are even better!!!!!!

MOVIE NIGHT!!!! Liz, Pat, and I went to see Iron Lung, since Pat expressed interest and I love any excuse to get out of the house to do stuff. We had a great dinner of Costco Hot Dogs™ before going to my favorite movie theater of all time: the Ancient Egypt themed one~


and of course I brought Double Face along!!! I needed them to meet Anubis (clearly)


also Madara's kigu has a big enough tail that I could pose him standing up on the sphinx and I love that for him~
The movie itself was really good! It's not the type of horror that I usually go for - I dislike post-apocalyptic settings, space, and "trapped in a ship" horror - but since I didn't read up on it at all that's on me XD Plus, I'm always down to go to a thing a friend wants to do. And I'm glad I saw it despite it not being a thing I would have sought out, if that makes sense? The cinematography was fucking gorgeous; I kept getting lost in how incredible the lighting was.

ALSO THE BLOOD WAS SO RED IT WAS GREAT!!!!! I don't wanna spoil anything for anyone interested in seeing it, but it was just *mwah* The special effects were honestly stellar and I really like a lot of the choices made (like having some of the blood coagulate into things that looked like barnacles growing into the ship).

Downside is that it's the kind of horror that made me stressed for like 2 hours and then...I'm still lowkey stressed D: It didn't give me the release horror usually does, but it did for Pat so I think it's a personal preference. He absolutely loved it and is gonna be chewing on it for awhile.

Anyway, I also had to grab a few shots of the nuis in the mini arcade in the theater lobby. I got these kigus off aliexpress because labubu clothes (mostly) fit on the pattythree enstars nuis, and I got them like right before it got super icy cold out. So obviously I have to fix that~


aren't they precious???? I'm extra jazzed about getting them with claw machines because of Kohaku's card from Spring Night and the current top-up theming in globalstars *w*
Also, Liz managed to dig the car most of the way out!!! We have suuuuuch a long driveway that it's taken quite awhile, but now that it's been slightly warmer for a couple days, it's finally doable. And I apparently have a doctor's appointment on Friday, so I need to be able to get there.

I'M DONE WITH SNOW. It was nice for awhile but oh my god. I'm over it!!!!!!!!

I made them a beautiful cake in honor of Absolute starting this weekend, aka the Eden climax, aka one of the best enstars events~ Liz asked for chocolate cake and gave no other specifics, so this is what I came up with: dense chocolate cake with raspberry filling and cream cheese icing. It's incredibly rich, so we all nearly passed out after eating just a little bit XD

Oops?

Anyway, I'm actually super pleased with how it came out!!! I had a vision and actually managed to bring it to life- with some help from Pat. He made the stencil for the lotus flower and helped place a the beads for the lower border. I think I leveled up making large smooth sections of color (for the bits I wrote on) and just...wrangling this cake in general.....I love this cake but I do not love how delicate and crumbly it is. Even with a crumb coat, I was afraid it would still be a mess. And it WAS hard to work with, but not impossible.


I'm also really happy with both the gradient and these tassels~
My wife loved it, and honestly that's what matters the most!!!!

We also had szechuan delivered from one of Liz's favorite places, since they're not feeling great and didn't wanna go out ;w; Hopefully they'll be feeling better soon, since it's very unfair that they felt crummy on their birthday.

Also, Katsucon is this weekend XD So I'm sure they wanna feel better for that!!

I was so excited about Madara that I forgot to share that I actually finished another mood theme: Ensemble Stars! Cards ;D I have no idea where all this inspiration is coming from, but I'll take it. I think this is the one I'm most proud of, since it required a bit more editing and going through soooooo many more images to pick moods.

Today, Liz stayed home for a much needed mental health day. We ended up playing some more Katamari Damacy - technically Once Upon A KATAMARI but I just kinda think of them as all one big fun thing - and did some light cleaning in the living room & dining room before napping on the couch. All in all, very restful (for me at least, and I think Liz as well) :D

And then after Pat got home from work, Liz made a very tasty dinner of pork loin and roasted baby red potatoes. It was so good *w* We used to get pre-marinated pork loins from just the regular grocery store, but Lidl has them now for way less, and they're easily just as good. So that's good to know!!

Since we'd gotten started earlier, Liz, Pat, and I did some more cleaning after dinner. We got the Christmas tree taken down, took a bunch of crafting supplies back up to the third floor, and organized the stuff we're keeping down here. The basement still needs to be fully sanitized after the waste pipe burst last month, so all the Christmas stuff is still upstairs, but at least it's now condensed down into boxes.

BUT IT'S LOOKING SOOOOOO GOOD DOWNSTAIRS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Pat's also gonna help me go through all my clothes and put them away, since laundry is where I stall out a lot. And we got a cat tree to put in our bedroom like two months ago, but Liz and I haven't been able to make the space for it so it's just.....still in a box in the kitchen..........

Anyway. I'm gonna think on the positive side and be proud of all that I did get done today!! :D


some great recent pictures of Pat: a sign he found on the side of the road that got knocked down by a snowplow and posing with part of the Christmas tree like it's a fish XD


the new Katamari is honestly soooo good and I've taken a decent amount of screenshots so far, but I think this T-rex might be my fave. the way the dinos are rendered is just delightful ;D


this steggy is a close second, tho ♥
I gotta go finish up the JP event tonight so I can be prepared for everything that's coming OwO And probably play more Katamari, since I am like a man possessed with it~

I FINISHED MY SECOND MOOD THEME!!!!!!!!
I mean I'm now kinda behind on grinding the jp event, but I accomplished the very cool thing of mood theme creation~ I've now made two separate themes, so I'm feeling pretty badass ;D

Unfortunately, enstars isn't super popular on dreamwidth, so I doubt it's what people are looking for...but I don't really care cuz I make things that I like, first and foremost XD Though I'm not actively using it here, I did post it at killiansicons for anyone interested!

.........anyway I know I just finished this theme and I have an event to run, but I was thinking of doing a differently styled mood theme next!! I have all the card assets because enstars changed how they put cards together in the app, so I can finally do what I had initially envisioned for an enstars mood theme: make them with the card borders!!


something like this, probably!!!
I'd make it of all the characters, and since there are over 50 of them I could even just use 5 star cards for all of them (to match the borders). I'm still torn on if I want to do editing for every single image, because doing too much is why I always stalled out on mood themes in the past. But I'm really proud of this design and definitely wanna do something with it eventually.

Other than that......I gotta get back in the trenches (grinding songs in enstars) so I can get all the Mayois my heart desires ♥

OH RIGHT LIZ BROUGHT HOME THE BUTTON MAKER FROM WORK AND I'VE BEEN MAKING ENSTARS BUTTONS!!!!!!!! It's been fun uwu

I have, and his name is Mayoi Ayase *w* Which is to say, the next event is not MaM, and is instead ALKALOID!!! AND MAYOI IS THE CENTER FOR IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


I just knew he was gonna be the center for the fanthanx, I knew it! I feel so validated ;D
ALSO JUST. HELLO. GOD HE'S SO GORGEOUS EVEN WHEN HE'S WEARING THE MOST QUESTIONABLE OF THE FANTHANX OUTFITS SO FAR. ALL OF THE FANTHANX OUTFITS HAVE BEEN INCREDIBLE; WHY MUST ALKALOID GET A WORSE VERSION OF THE TRICKSTAR ONES??????? IT'S NOT FAIIIRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!! Me and the homies (friends in a discord chat) were crashing out last night because Mayoi is just so beautiful and we couldn't wait for the song to drop. Like, how dare they reveal the event and then make us wait 3 hours for the MV???? It dropped at 4 am my time, which is inconvenient when your wife has to work at 8:30 am.

....we totally didn't mean to stay up for it but oops we did anyway and holy shit it was worth it. The plaid outfits are (mostly) redeemed; the song is so fucking good that it made everything better!!!!! And the outfits honestly look better in motion, so there's that.

Anyway, in my defense, they did use possibly the most boring frame of the whole MV as the thumbnail, so what was I supposed to think?


like look at this shit!!! they're all just standing very still, despite 99% of the MV being incredibly dynamic :T
My other main gripe is that this isn't very Valentines, you know? 'Cause this is running in the usual time slot for that...I guess the Megasphere finale could be our Valentines event, but it's doubtful, especially since the holiday campaign is starting this week.

bluhhhhh

Though apparently Mayoi's first center event ran in this exact time slot despite being sky pirates, so???? What do I fucking know XD I should really stop trying to predict what the hell they're gonna do, because half the time they just do whatever the hell they want.

oh god right---

Speaking of Mayoi events, I cannot fucking believe he's overlapping with an ENG event where he's a 5* but he sure is!!! The Plum Blossoms event also starts on the 31st, though I guess the JP event starts about 12 hours earlier because of time zones. BUT STILL. Plus Blossoms was the first ever event I played in JP and I got two copies of the Mayoi from it, so he kept me company in green songs for the first year or so I played. So I was planning on maxing him in ENG, because I love him, but now his fanthanx is here. sobs.

plz let the SCR of his fanthanx outfit be bad. plz. I can't afford to max two different events at the same time I'll die

I'm determined to get Mayoi in the first 24 hours tho, so I'm probably gonna just stay up all night playing. Maybe gonna hop in the voice chat in the one of the enstars servers I'm in and stream me playing (probably badly esp once it's like 6 am lmao) so I have some company. idk. I'm just excited!!!

OH LOL SO ANYWAY. One of the enstars discord servers I'm in started as the chat for anyone interested in tiering in War Atop the Sugoroku Board event, but as since just turned into a small, chill chat. It's got some people who produce different units than other chats we're in, which means Liz and I finally have someone to talk about Eden with ♥


I did impulse tier in that event, but tiering in Last Mission was 100% on purpose and I'm still so glad I did ;w; Double Face forever!!!! also lol 67 *shot*
.....okay this entry is long enough, I gotta stop because I've kinda run out of things to rant about properly, you know? And Pat is currently trying to dig the car out enough that we can go to Home Depot, since our shovel is actively falling apart while he's using it.

You know what a foot of snow needs? Photoshoot in your backyard featuring a skirt you made in 2017 and then promptly forgot about!!! Pat very kindly braved the cold to bring my ~vision~ to life.


the skirt is so warm and the shirt was a poor life choice XD


I like to think I'm cute and funny, and I'm right~
At least now I know what I'm wearing to the ren faire this year ;D I made this skirt to wear to a vampire ball that Liz and I went to as part of our anniversary trip, and then just...never wore it again???? idk man, it looks good actually so I have no idea why I never found another use for it. Definitely wearing it in like, 9 months, when it's ren faire season. I've also just been wearing the skirt around the house because it's floor length, so it's keeping the warmth in. So yes, I'm wandering around with a black lace train like I'm living in the Addams Family, I guess XD

ANYWAY.

I did manage to make a few icons, so that's cool. I don't necessarily love them, but part of that is just...getting back into it...thankfully it's only been like 6 months so I'm not as rusty as I could be, but I still wish I could stay more on top of things and/or skip this stage.

And then the enstars event announcement is tonight and I'm sooooooo fucking anxious, since it's either gonna be MaM or ALKALOID, so my money is gone either way. If it's MaM, no one's gonna hear from me for a week while I grind out 22 mil points. sobs. It's just like.....some of my fave units have ended up last in the rotation and also why couldn't Madara have his event while I had a job and therefore more money to blow on a phone game? Like of course he waited until I had less disposable income. Bitch.

idk I don't have anything else to say, since I've been in the house all weekend. At least the snow is really pretty and we've had a fairly chill time just vibing. Trying to focus on the positives, you know?

So it's been.....a rough couple of months. Going back to work wreaked havoc on my body and it's taken nearly two months to adjust to it. I'm doing better now + I love my job, but it really took it out of me D:

Also...


Lumos passed away last week. She'd been sick on and off over the past couple years (honestly, she was never quite the same after Ethyl passed), but in late July/early August it started getting a lot worse. Our vet was incredibly kind and helpful throughout the whole process, talking us through all the options and helping us decide which ones would actually be beneficial, but eventually there wasn't anything more we could do ;w;

So that's. Yeah. That's been really hard. I felt like I was finally getting into the swing of working and a routine and all that, and then this hit me like a ton of bricks.

We did give her a very good last day though: we all stayed home and sat on the floor so she could get to us (since she couldn't easily jump up on things by that point), watched dumb youtube videos with her (a favorite past time), listened to Knights music so she could hear Leo (aka her favorite person EVER), and just overall spent a relaxing day centered on her needs. Liz managed to get a hold of her previous owner + their roommates, so we did a video a call with one of them and he was so touched to be able to see her again and say goodbye. Which was hard on everyone, but overall really rewarding I think.

idk man. it's been hard. it's been...a lot. I'm still not done processing it and I don't know when I'll ever be????? I'm still processing Ethyl and it hasn't even been two years since she passed, so how am I gonna move on from both of them, you know?

I actually got bereavement pay from work, because they consider pet loss to be valid and honestly that was really good. Like. Things are bad but at least work has been really understanding and supportive. My manager definitely has my back in all of this and has been super empathetic.


we honestly got some very cute pics before taking her to the vet the last time...I love her ♥
BUT YOU KNOW LIFE JUST KEEPS GOING ON!!!! Otakon happened in the middle of all this and it was really good, despite the stress. Josh and Emmy came down to watch the cats and Emmy is fantastic with ailing animals, so she was honestly a godsend with how Lumos was doing. arachat flew in for the con also, which was so exciting, despite all the stress, so like.......yay? Trying to see the good in the bad times.

Also Miryokucon is this weekend, and Alex is coming down for that + her birthday, so in general my schedule has been full. Just. idk. Trying to do things so I don't keep stressing about Lumos.

I wanna share a bunch of pics of her but I just don't have it in me right now. Everything's real rough, you know? So take these cute pics of her + Ethyl that never fail to bring me joy.