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***UPDATED AUGUST 19, 2008***

SoyCon 2009
June (Dates TBA), 2009

SoyCon is the premiere outdoor convention/gathering/photoshoot of the midwestern United States. SoyCon demonstrates the respresentation of cosplayers and fans uniting to celebrate the fandom that exists within anime, videogames, manga, and more. It shows the freedom of speech of showing for who we are and what we love to do. It brings together people from many different areas to see their old friends and meet new ones. Even though it lacks in major factors such as a convention center, hotel, and dealers room, it can still provide the fulfillment of fun, photo opportunities, and meeting alot of people. SoyCon will hopefully someday become an official convention, but for now, it will start from the basics. Soy Sauce's vision is to create a conference that's innovative and different with also keeping the fans' interest from old to new.

SoyCon Forums
SoyCon Meetup ACen Thread

SoyCon Social Network
SoyCon Meetup ACen Thread
SoyCon MySpace Group
SoyCon Facebook Group (Coming Soon)

Day 1 - Friday June ??, 2009 at 11am - The Photoshoot in Chicago, IL
Day 2 - Saturday June ??, 2009 at 11am - The Beach in Chicago, IL
Day 3 - Sunday June ??, 2009 at 11am - The Picnic in Schaumburg, IL
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The Photoshoot
The photoshoot is a walk around the city event where cosplayers walk around the parks of Chicago and get many photo opportunities. It's a very open space for everyone to mingle and congregate with each other as well as enough room to run around to have fun. There will be a set route to take the group to many locations for plenty of photo opportunities. Stops include Millenium Park, Navy Pier, Buckingham Fountain, and more.

Meeting Time: 11:00am

(Locations and Route Schedule TBA)
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The Beach
A brand new event added to this year's SoyCon as we take a break from cosplay and have fun under the sun at the beach. Get a tan, splash water around, or even build a sand castle for Gaara!!! Be careful, don't get a sunburn...

Meeting Time: 11:00am

(Beach Location TBA)
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The Picnic
The picnic is another cosplay full of events and fun for everyone. There will be a cosplay contest for those who love to compete with their costumes. Awards will be given. If you love to do costume contests or even want to try to feel what a cosplay contest feels like, this is your chance to be in one. There will be a special guest panel and interactive events. An artist alley section may be added so artists be prepared to sell your work. Also, with the high success of The Roast: Soy Sauce in 2008. A new candidate will be chosen to be roasted. Who will it be? Stay tuned for a list of candidates to be roasted.

Location: Bussie Woods - Higgans Rd., Schaumburg, IL 60173 (East of I-290 Exit)

11:00am - Opening Ceremonies
- Introduction
- Staff Credits
- A Performance By Mary Kukla
- Official Start of The Picnic

12:00pm - Cosplayer Inside: Kale/Sora-sama

1:00pm - The Battlefield

3:00pm - SoyCon Cosplay Masquerade

5:00pm - The SoyCon Roast: (Candidate N/A)

7:00pm Closing Ceremonies
- Closing Comments
- SoyCon Cosplay Masquerade Award Ceremony
- SoyCon Group Photo Op
- Closing of SoyCon 2009

8:00pm Clean-up and Goodbyes
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For any other questions, suggestions or comments, please email at SoyCon@SoyCon.com

Tags: SoyCon 2009 Cosplay Convention Event Gathering Photoshoot Picnic Beach Soy

Alot of things has been going on with me when it comes to cosplay. I feel I have lack of resources and have nothing really to push me forward to become a better cosplayer. I feel very lost now since the cosplays I'm trying to do is not going well at all. I have dreams on walking-on stage and winning an award for a costume I've done. But everytime I look at my work, I realize that I'm too far below than a novice standard in a masquerade show. I know that conventions look at your costumes inside and out. The details on my costumes are not accurate at all. I see loose threads, poorly cut patterns, uneven stitching, and even sizing being either too big or too small. I constantly see how many mistakes I've done and always try to repair them probably 6 or 7 times. My recent costume (MakubeX) took me 3 tries to do and it's only a simple sweatshirt. It feels so depressing to realize that. I've been working on cosplays since 2006 and 2 years later, I'm still stuck with 5 costumes. I'm supposed to be at number 10. I'm sick of recycling the same costumes over and over again for the same conventions from the previous. I want something new, fresh. I don't know if I want to continue after Anime Central this year because what's been going on right now. I wish there's someone out there who can let me go over to their house or to my house over the weekend and help me on these costumes I've been trying so hard to make. My confidence has dropped and my motivation to cosplay has been decreasing more and more. I love to cosplay and it's my passion. But it's heartbreaking to realize I don't know how to make it to the top. It hurts. After this convention, I will be in a crossroads of continuing to cosplay or walk away.

Alight everyone, I want to start an unofficial event called SoyCon. It's going to be a 2-day event where one portion will be a picnic and the other will be a photoshoot. Chances are that the location will be in downtown Chicago around the same location as the ACen Aftermath Photoshoot for the past 2 years. For those who want to spend the night will get hotel rooms. (Sorry guys, this is not an official con so no discount rates.) Things are still to be planned out this event, but hopefully it will grow into something new. Hopefully become an official con in the future. I am open for suggestions and if anyone has any hookups, that would be great too. Networking is one of the keys to success. So let's do this for summer 2008.
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***Updated 6/26/2008***

SoyCon 2008
July 12-13

SoyCon's Website - www.soycon.com

SoyCon Forums
Cosplay.com Forums (Meetup & Gatherings Section)
ACen Forums (Meetup Section)
ACen Forums (Other Conventions Section)

Also...

Want To Know What Happened In 2007?
ACen Aftermath Photoshoot 2007 Videos - Video By SoulCrash
ACen Aftermath Photoshoot 2007 Pictures - Pictures By Y0sh1m1tsu

SoyCon is now accepting donations! To send donations, Log-on to Paypal and send money to

DgtlDrmStation@yahoo.com

or you can go onto the SoyCon Forums and click "Donate" at the top of the forums. (Just below the title)
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On 12: Downtown Chicago Photoshoot
On 13: Picnic

Photoshoot Time: Meeting Time - 8am

Locations For Photoshoot:

Meeting Area - 9th St. and Wabash (Pay For Parking)

8:00am Meeting @ Parking Lot
9:00am The Statue Field

10:00am Museum Campus

11:00am Grant Park Gardens

12:00pm The Art Institute

1:00pm Lunch @ Panda Express

2:00pm The Mini Fountain

3:00pm Parking Lot - Discussion

3:30pm Driving To Navy Pier

*4:30pm Navy Pier

6:00pm Dinner @ Navy Pier

7:00pm End of Photoshoot

*We will be all walking there as a group together. This may be a lengthy walk, but its the best way to get there since we may not have enough cars to drive everyone there and back. For those who choose to drive, you will end up paying for parking once you leave the area. Make sure you have cash or credit card with you to pay for the parking.

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Picnic Time: Meeting Time - 11am

Location For Picnic:

Deer Grove East
E Dundee Rd & N Peppertree Dr.
Palatine, IL 60067

The Park - Above View

Events During Picnic:

The World of Con & Cosplay: Advice & Stories
- This will be a discussion about convention & cosplay stories as well as giving out advice. Feel free to share your stories or advice to everyone.

Cosplay Guess Who?
- Just like the hit board game Guess Who?, can you guess the cosplayer that you're oppenent is thinking about?

Learn The Haruhi Dance:
- Want to learn how to do the Haruhi dance? Here's your chance!

SoyCon Cosplay
- Awards will be given.
- Costumes Judged By Cosplay Who Won Major & Minor Awards from other conventions.
- 3 Cosplay Levels: Novice, Journeyman, & Master

Special Guest Panelist
- Joey aka Blondewolf2

A Roast With Soy Sauce
- Soy Sauce will be the one roasted, but that doesn't mean Soy will be the only one roasted.
- Anyone can voluntary come up and do their roasting. Anything Goes? O.o

The Soy Awards
- These are certificate awards for acknowledgement throughout SoyCon.
- Some of these awards will have some "interesting" honors.
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SoyCon Staff

Owner/Head
- Soy Sauce

Co-Vice-Captains
- Xenida
- TekoMuko

Picnic Organizers
- Jam-Kiske
- ai_no_kaku
- HotaruTenshi

Group Leaders
- Slouty Strawberry
- Sora-Sama
- Green Dragon
- Walladreyn
- HEDGESMFG

"The Roast" Host
- Sora-Sama

Timekeeper
- KnitChick

Cosplay Contest Judges
- Ononoke
- mens_pocky06
- R1KKu

Medical Nurse(s)
- Millions Knives
- Slouty Strawberry

Con & Cosplay Panelists
- Soy Sauce
- Millions Knives
- Kale/Sora-sama
- Ononoke
- This_Chick25

"Guess Who?" Hosts
- Slouty Strawberry
- Xenida

Tags: SoyCon Soy Sauce Convention Summer Meetup Gathering Photoshoot Picnic Midwe

Changes, something that everyone has to go through in life. Some even change for the better. I believe my change from my normal life to the interest of cosplay and anime. I've experienced so many things, alot would be things I never expected at this early of age. It's kind of funny reflecting back on how people in those conventions are weird and awkward, but now I realize people are just like everyone else. They're all unique. The only thing different from this crowd from the normal crowd is that they all have the same common interest. A fandom. And when you put many people's fandom in one area, it becomes one happy family. Well, not all the time, but it feels that way.

In my experience, it took me into greater heights and it actually made me find some inner talent. One would be is sewing. Man, I didn't expect to see myself to do all of those fabrics and handcrafting stuff. After attending Anime Central 2005, I just wanted to have my own costumes and have fun with it. So I started to make my own stuff. At first, it was difficult since I knew nothing about sewing, but I did take the time to lookup some basics. Then my mom showed me how to use the sewing machine and everything when up from there. I made InuYasha and Dartz. Those were my first costumes, even though they were not exactly the tip top shape compared to a really good cosplayer, but it was something special to me because I made it. As I work on new costumes, it looks better and better as I learn more things on every new costume I make. I can see a little on how my talent of cosplay making is changing.

Another change is my social status. I'm not talking about me being rich or anything, not at all. I'm just a standard poor college student. XD But what I'm really talking about is how many people I knew then and now. To be honest, there are probably 10 people at max that know me before the anime convention. Now the numbers jump upto over 300. Amazing isn't it? And this is over the course of 2.5 years. The reason I have so many friends is because I respect them and I open myself to others. I don't treat them because they have some kind of disadvantage. I don't really care at all. What matters is that becoming a friend with someone. Doesn't everyone love to have a friend? Especially gaining a new one? I've made so many friends, it became a huge network where I'm connecting others to my friends and then I get more friends from other friends. It's almost an endless cycle. Year after year, I'll gain at least 10 friends. It's kinda awkward having some people refer to me as a local celebrity to the anime/cosplay community. To be honest, I'm just here to have fun with you all and expand the friendship between me, you, and everyone out there. Not just only I have friends here in IL. I have friends on opposite sides of the States. California, Ohio, Florida, Kentucky, Michigan, and Wisconsin. It's so amazing.

I think what triggered everyone would be my Shippuuden Naruto cosplay. It seems like my Naruto stands out from most cosplayers and up to this very day I have no clue why, but I'm sticking with it. It led me to new friends, new skills, and even made me travel. I took this cosplay everywhere I go because so many people requested it. I'm very proud of my Naruto cosplay, but I can't just rely on this, I have other costumes too to wear. Naruto is one of the most popular animes shown in Japan and the fanbase it huge. Everytime I go to a convention, there is a naruto cosplayer. And usually people talk to me about Naruto, either when it's in character or just talking about the show in general. It's great to see new people and talk about the same interest as you do. My most memorable experience in my Naruto cosplay would probably be at Anime Expo 2007. Over 400 Naruto cosplayers gathered in one area. The whole crowd was so amazing. I would never see the day when like half of the convention would be in one spot. During that gathering, I had to help some of the people running it. They're okay with that since we establish a friendship from the forums. So I ran a huge group that's closeby to me and kept them in order while the others leading the group settle with theirs closeby. Hence why I gained some leadership skills and understand how things are run from that photoshoot. After that, I ran my own gathering back in IL called the ACen Aftermath Photoshoot which I adopted from Chicagoland Cosplay Club. The whole thing ran very smoothly and everyone had a great time there. So good, I'm making it an annual gathering held every summer, which will become SoyCon this year.

I have so many things to say on how my life changed after attending ACen 2005 and cosplaying in 2006. I just want to say thank you to everyone who supported me for all this time. I may have lost some friends, but gain so many. I hope that we all have great memories together from now and more in the future. I have changed for the better.

Well, Youmacon is here and I'm now sitting at work anticipating to get there. Whoo!!! 5 hours of driving!!! I still need to run some errands before I go, so I'll be there in the evening. Around 8-9ish? I might be in my Prince of Tennis outfit so look out for me if you see that costume.

I went to Wisconsin's Geek.kon last weekend and I found a clip of myself looking at the camera for like 2 seconds. BTW, this was on CNN's news site.

Geek.kon 2007 on CNN

Tags: Geek.kon CNN Soy Sauce Uzumaki Naruto

Well, decided to do another one. XD

 

This what happens when I get bored at home...

After giving alot of thought into it, I'm deciding to return to California for another round of the west coast con experience. This time, I'll be heading towards Pacific Media Expo. I don't know what to expect there except fun and probably see the friends I've made there when I went to Anime Expo. PMX, here I come!

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