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!!!!!!!!

So, after nearly two years, I've finally changed my profile in engstars...



BECAUSE I GOT MADARA'S GLOBAL EXCLUSIVE CARD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I'm so excited; he looks so good and I love him and I do not want to talk about how much I spent to max this card XD Very glad to have a supportive wife (who also maxed a global gacha card last year, so we're in it together lmao).

Also, I wanna change the card layout to include Kohaku at some point but I'm not feeling creative enough XD So right now it's just Mr. Ice Cream Thief as a testament to my spending problem devotion ♥

sobs I love them ;w;

I wanna make some new icons with his new outfit but I have to figure out what MV(s) to record him in...it's such a specific look that I feel like I don't quite know where I wanna put him :T

also I have icon challenges I wanna do but my brain is just MAMAMAMAMAMAMAAA soooooo

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!!

IT'S STILL SO DAMN COLD ;w; plz save me from my 100+ year old house...it's so drafty.........

Anyway- we got some more errands done yesterday! Pat's car got a flat, so we went to our favorite 24 hour tire place to get a replacement. They were delightful, as always, and made sure to fill up all his other tires + the spare while we were there. Everyone is always soooo nice and it's fast, which is nice. And the price is good, even for new tires. Here's hoping his car survives the rest of the winter + Baltimore's shitty roads!!!

After that, we went to a laundromat, because our washing machine is unusable in the extreme cold. All the pipes for the first floor bathroom - which is where the laundry is - are completely uninsulated, thanks to whoever owned this house before us. So we haven't been able to do laundry at home for the past few weeks, and it's really been piling up. We got a decent amount done at the laundromat and were able to fairly easily hang stuff up to dry when we got home, thanks to the amount of cleaning we did the day before. There's so much space in our downstairs now *w*

Liz taped up a few more windows downstairs and came up with the brilliant idea to hang a blanket between the living room and the entry, since that's one of the colder areas on the first floor. Between those things, the living room is.....slightly less cold. It's definitely not warm, but it's getting better. I cannot wait for this winter to be over ;w; I can take some cold, but it's going on too long!!

The girls have been sooooo cute and cuddly, which is a big positive. I don't think I've shared the new cats we adopted last year, since everything was kind of a blur after Lumos passed ;w; We adopted a pair of sisters - Willow and Juniper - and an older male cat - Shadow Box - at the end of the summer. They've made our home very lively...partially because they all have beef with each other XD Willow cannot stand Shadow Box to the point of fighting him on sight, so he's mostly been staying in my bedroom. And then Juniper has some sort of personal vendetta against Lily, which has kept her and Dennis confined to Pat's bedroom. Maybe someday everyone will get along...


Juniper is mostly gray with some white (and a scratch on her nose from a recent fight with Lily, sighs)


and then her sister is like twice her size and has more white splotches- but mostly Willow is just really big, okay, she's a large girl ♥


Shadow Box is all black, all eyes, and no brains ♥ I love him sooooo much (even if he keeps stealing my glasses off the bedside table)
I guess I could have shared pics of the girls where they aren't snuggled up with Liz on the couch, but they look so cute like that!!! Juniper has been sleeping right up against Liz for like an hour now; it's so fucking precious *w* I love cats so much...so good.

blurgghhh I have to go out and get groceries today cuz we need food...it's just so cold.........sobs ;w; I don't wanna brave it, but we gotta eat. We just wanted to wait until the Super Bowl started so we didn't run into last minute "big game" shoppers, I guess :T

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~

MADARA'S GLOBAL EXCLUSIVE 5* IS HERE AND THE UNBLOOMED IS HIM AND KOHAKU ON A FESTIVAL DATE I'M GONNA LOSE MY MIND


LOOK AT THEM LOOK AT THEM!!!!!!!!!!!! LOVE IS REAL♥
I'm taking this in a very normal and rational way, as you can tell XD It's Kohaku's birthday and I was gonna make a nice post about that and maybe take some pictures of my nuis but noooooooooooo this hit and I'm losing my mind. I'm so fucking pumped it's everything I could possibly want and then some ;w;


honestly the whole lineup is good; I'm excited that Jun is the 4* too!!!!!
okay okay okay I'm trying to be calm about this but it's not going well XD I'M JUST SO EXCITED AHHHHHHHHHHHH

I mean I'm not excited that he's gonna run during the Eden climax in eng and right before the MaM fanthanx in jp, but what the fuck else was I expecting? Madara's always a pain in the ass ;D

tho nothing is worse than the Kanata experience last year....so much fish

tbh I keep getting so overstimulated (good trick) I have to close my laptop and play Katamari Damacy for awhile...idk it just makes me slow down a bit, and I'm like OFF THE WALLS with excitement. just. when a fictional character makes you go insane, you know???? It's overtaking my whole system ♥

also this starts the day before Liz's birthday so I guess this is some sort of response to Kanata's event running during my birthday last month XD

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

There is an evil within me, and it says: "make another mood theme"

I am debating making an ALKALOID one, but I also have to actually grind the jp event, you know? And it's sooooo time consuming, and the last time I made a mood theme I was basically a man possessed, and I don't wanna miss out on getting a bunch of copies of Mayoi!!

.....so we'll see XD

Finally posted icons to killiansicons because it had been a hot minute. I'd been fighting the feeling of inadequacy for not having "enough" to post, but I managed to convince myself that I was being fucking stupid.

Uhhh it's still fucking cold here and it keeps icing over, which is making digging ourselves out of the snow a real pain. Pat finally managed to find some ice melt at a grocery store, so that should help. And Liz is apparently a fucking beast at shoveling ♥ Which means our driveway may be cleared some time before spring. And then I can hopefully stop feeling so trapped ;w;

Needless to say, I'm kinda over winter at this point...and it's supposed to snow some more throughout the week. plz no more!!!! I'm done!!!!!!

I wanna be able to leave the house with ease!!!!!!!!!!

okay that's all I'm gonna either grind the event or get lost in mood theme hell, and even I don't know which~

I got Mayoi in both events that started today!!!!!!! :D




......even if it meant pulling an all-nighter for the JP event. I had planned that one, but the accidental one I pulled the night before made it hellish. Do not stay up two days in a row...my skin hurts ;w;

Worth it though ♥

I took a nap in the afternoon but I'm still feeling beat, so I don't have a whole lot to say. So I'll leave y'all with the nui brigade that kept me company while grinding JP for 8 hours straight.


Liz brought a button maker home from work and I used it for evil (making Mayoi buttons)