Otakon 2004

Okay, here's my con report. Concert (Angela and L'arc~en~Ciel) report will be in a separate post. If you read my posts on the MT or Otakon forums then you've probably already read some of this, as I'm taking parts out of previous posts to piece together this long ass entry. Beware, as this is rather detailed, VERY long, and more for my personal benefit to help me remember stuff than it is for other people to read about Otakon and the like. I'm long-winded in general, actually... but meh.

Anyways, let's get started!




-Shoutouts:

Gyu: thanks for putting up with me and waiting for me while I walked half the convention center trying to find a way to get to the Artist Alley XD You still owe me a ouce kweam! Come visit me and Angel again soon! ^^

PzP, Go, whoever else was in the Days Inn hotel with Gyu: was fun hanging out in your room and whatnot, and Go, you really are an attention whore X3 but we still love you.

Alex: Hey, thanks for letting me hang out and tag along with you, it was a lot of fun meeting you! ^^ Sorry we couldn't work out a lunch get-together, I really wish I didn't have to leave early. We ended up driving around Baltimore and DC for like, 4 or 5 hours, and like I said... there was NOTHING TO SEE. =_=;; Sorry I forgot to give you my raffle ticket things X3 I completely forgot when I saw you, and when I remembered we were already in DC. @.@;; Huu.... oh well.

The rest of the forumites and irc people: ^________^ Nice seeing you at the meetup!

I had a lot of fun meeting the forumites that went, even though half of them didn't remember me and I didn't know half of the newer people... but they were all really cool.

Alright, now on to the actual report, separated by days.




-Thursday, July 29th:

Last minute packing job and we're off to the airport. I've got my vidcam and pixxie styx, and all that good stuff, and my excitement is a bit quashed by the presence of my parents, who insisted on driving us to the airport. After much bickering and great restraint on my part not to say anything scathing, we reach the airport. The three of us, my sister Julia, my cousin Paul, and myself, drag our shit out of the back of the car and wave g'bye. Yay, time to really get rolling!

We lug our stuff in through the sliding glass doors and line up with the queue in front of the JetBlue ticket-thingummy. We call Jeremy to make sure we'll have service on my and my sister's cellphones while we're over in MD, and then pull out our IDs and paperwork to get our boarding passes. The hotel is pretty empty, and my sister bitched a LOT, which put a bit of a damper on the whole night. Oh yes, this is about 11:30 PM. Anyways, we kept everything to carry-ons so things would go faster, but I was a bit of a hassle at the part where they scan all your shit. I'm dressed normally, which means I'm wearing knee-high black leather boots, a collar, a watch, and other metal accessories. Obviously I didn't think about this part while I was getting ready to leave earlier that evening. I have to take off my boots and collar and all that other stuff. Paul took my laptop out of the case and all that stuff for me, which helped. I also didn't realize that you need to keep any video cameras out when you go through the thingummy. I had packed mine in my bag, so there was a bit of fuss, and the guy standing next to the thing you walk through gave me a hard time because I guess he was bored and thought it was amusing. Jackass. Whatever, we grab the rest of our shit and I pull my boots back on and we continue to the gate. Julia bitches more because Starbucks isn't open, and we sit down and wait.

-Friday, July 30th:

12:30 finally rolls around and since we're in the back few rows, we get to board first. We lug all our stuff onboard and stow it, and settle in for the ride. JetBlue planes are quite small, and I got the window seat with Paul in the middle and Julia on the isle. Cellphones go off and we rift through the channels on the little TV screens in the back of the chairs. The flight attendants do their thing, and we finally get off the ground.

The scene outside of the window is very inspiring, I tell you. I wish I could have gotten a recording on my vidcam, because it was beautiful. Once you get in the air, the city lights make these little patterns, and the blue lights on the runway and the little clusters of yellow ones from the nearby housing areas make for very interesting views. Plus, the river looks eerie from up above, with the lights against the water and a wandering searchlight scanning over it every few seconds. Once you break through the clouds it's even more breathtaking. I haven't been on a plane in a few years, and then I was on the isle, so it had quite the impact on me. I really wanted to blog about the wayt he clouds looked from the different levels, but they charge insane amounts of money for net access up there, and they didn't give the okay to turn on electric equipment yet. The clouds are really gorgeous, and reminded me of sheets of clear ice or perfect glass, with the wind moving drifting clumps of frost along them. It was very surreal, and I know it's really cheesy and all, but it was really calming and I sort of wish I could get on a plane again, just to see the clouds like that again.

We have an amusing time flipping through the movies playing, I vaguely remember some odd cartoon, and I know they had Sound of Music, Moulin Rouge, the Princess Bride, and a few others playing. I ended up watching half of the Princess Bride, and then half of Moulin Rouge (which I hadn't seen before... not too bad, I must say), and I did some homework in between, but that didn't work out very well. I was working on my laptop and I got one brush made in Illustrator before I said fuckit since I couldn't concentrate and the plane kept running into turbulence. JetBlue planes are small and easily bumped, which is probably why they're so cheap. But I won't complain, you get what you pay for, after all. ^^; I also watched Rocky Horror (whooooo!) when they played it for their "Late Night" showing (warding off the younger kids) and they gave me a coke, a plastic cup with ice in it, and a bag of chips. Whoo. Love the service. XD I had just started playing my X-Japan Final Live DVD on my laptop when they announced we were going to be landing, and that all electronics should be turned off. Phooey. But the decent through the clouds was just as beautiful as the ascent, and I was just as mesmerized. I really can't explain how wondering and amazingly at peace it made me feel.

We grab our stuff and head off the plane, and follow the signs to the weird bus/trolley-thingummies that the DC Dulles airport has. Then we get to the main area with the baggage pickup and such, and we follow the signs to find out where to go to get our car rental. I'm pretty much clueless on all this stuff, so I just follow Julia and Paul. We walk out through these swooshy glass doors and the outside air is like a punch. I grimace and stick out my tongue when it hits my skin, which leaves me with a mouthful of the humidity, and the sudden wondering of how I had just bitten into some nasty warm spongecake, and why it was invisible and hanging right outside a pair of airport doors. Bleh. We follow the line of bus-stop thingers and get to the one we want, can't recall the name, and the bus pulls up right when we get there. We go on and stow our bags and the bus takes us to the company car lot. We go through the paperwork and info-punching and credit card-charging and phone number-exchanging and we get our car. We also get some vague directions on how to get to the convention center. I forgot what it was, because I'm horrible with cars, but it was pretty nice and fairly big. Some non-remarkable beige/off-white color. Shove our bags in the trunk, and I make them listen to Smile on the way. We almost got lost, but luckily after much driving and traipsing through the slums of Baltimore, we found our way to the convention center. We parked across the street and went in to get our badges.

The PreReg line was LONG! o.o;; It went pretty quickly, though. I felt oddly irked at my sister because she kept asking me if so-an-so cosplayer was supposed to be this, and did you see what that girl was wearing? scandalous! and other things that just ticked me off for some reason. I blame my bad mood on the icky weather. X3 But yeah. Anyhow, we got our badges (Gravi! X3) and headed over to get stickered. I kept calling Gyu because I had nothing else to do in the PreReg line, but he didn't pick up. Poo. Oh well.

We walked through the convention center and oohed and aahed and walked out across the skywalk. It was around lunchtime so we decided to go to Hard Rock (I collect hurricane glasses, my sister collects pilsners, and my cousin collects the martini glasses). We walked through a mall of sorts and past the aquarium to get there, and we stopped at the bookstore to check it out before we hit Hard Rock. I was pretty much dying from the heat and the weight of my backpack by then (I thought we were only going to get our badges and stickers, and then go back to the car, so I didn't bother taking out my GIGANTIC CD/DVD case). We had lunch, and I got a call from Gyu, and we bought our Hard Rock stuff and headed back to the convention center.

I talked to Gyu again and we agreed to meet outside of the artist alley, and I was utterly confused as to where the hell I had just agreed to meet him. At first I thought it would be easy to get to the place, but the damn center is confusing as hell. I look on the map thing in the little mini-guide, and it's all laid out simply, and I go down to the right floor, but the wrong damn side. I'm looking around wondering where I am, and several phone calls, flagging down two staffers, and twenty minutes later I finally find my way around to the Artist Alley. I actually went inside and looked around, and when I came out finally spotted Gyu. @.@;; Then I realized that my trip would have been so much easier had they unblocked the damn place next to the dealer's room, since they had it roped off. Blah.

Met up with PzP and was introduced up on the fourth (?) floor, and wandered over the the Days Inn and their hotel room to hang out. That was pretty interesting, and we ended up chatting about random things. A group of people from across the hall came in for a while, they were pretty amusing to listen to, and then Go came back and there was some strange conversations about anime series and the people froma cross the hall left. Then there was some odd talk about H-games, and the crazy collection of figures in Go's place, and other such things. We left, Gyu, PzP, Go, and I, to head back to the con. PzP wanted to meet Jose, but he forgot his badge and when he got back to the center Jose had left, I guess. Things get jumbled up in my memory, but I do recall going to Artist Alley with Gyu and Go, and then going to the dealers room with Gyu when he bought the ROD boxset and running into PzP. I think. I know I bought the Hellsing clearposter for Raye at the same place I found the Mahoro poster that PzP bought, and I know Gyu bought a bokken and we ran into Omo... hmmm... I got about half of the Dealer's Room before I ended up leaving Gyu and heading up back to the 4th floor to go to the Angela concert.

It was wonderful, I got a less-than-stellar seat, and there's a whole bunch more I have to say about it, but you'll have to read the concert report to find out about it. I met up with Julia and Paul after the concert and we hit up the Dealer's Room and I bought stuff. Yeah. Sorry, I waited too long to write this so it's not all as fresh in my mind. Damn my procrastination. Anyways, I'll update this later when I can get to my program guide and have it refresh my memory. We drove to the hotel eventually, and by the time we got there I felt so icky and tired from walking around all day with that heavy ass backpack and in pants and a black t-shirt. I dragged my bags intot he bathroom and proceeded to have an extremely satisfying shower, and when I got out my sister told me that Paul had gone to Popeye's to get dinner. Mmmm.... greasy fat-loaded chicken. She went to take a shower and Paul came back with Popeye's, bottled water, and cokes (yay!). We ate, Paul took a shower, we stowed the drinks in the fridge, and I crashed.

-Saturday, July 31st:

Got up late (I blame it on jetlag!) and got ready. Lalala, put on chains and collar and earrings and all that good stuff, and decided to go for my slacks/skirt/tank/overshirt. Yay for black & white. Get off our asses and head out to the grocery store so I can pickup a sandwich and pretzels, since I thought it might actually be a "picnic" when we meet up. Ah well. We park in a parking garage this time, get there around 10, and are a bit unnerved that there are people lined up outside the Arena already even though they said not to line up before 3:30. It's 10:00 people, W-T-F???!?! Ugh. We go to the convention center and hit up the last half of the jpop panel (redappleproductions rocked, I loved the subbed PVs) and the first half of the VK panel (err... yeah. Not too pleased with that panel, suffice to say that I think panelists should do more than talk about personal likes/dislikes/trips or just say 'we're the experts, ask us questions', and spend more time explaining and giving tips/hints/information. It's pretty easy to tell who the seasoned panelists are, because I should hope after a couple years of panel hosting you would learn that doing such things just wastes an hour of peoples' time.). I think we hit the dealer's room again after that. I got a PKO shirt (^_______^) and an Aquarian Age: Juvenile Orion clearposter (<3<3<3<3) but the one place in the dealer's room that was selling the Aquarian Age: JO CCG sets was already sold out, and the Broccoli table didn't bring any to sell. ;_; The boxes were EVERYWHERE last year at Fanime, but I didn't have neough money to buy it then, DAMNIT. Giiirrrrrr.....

I also attempt to go to the Koge Donbo signing, and fail horribly because the line is so fucking long. ;_; Oh well.

I show up at the forum meeting at about 12:15-12:20, and introductions are made. We joke around, I meet all these amusing people and people who just stand there and say nothing (don't worry, we still love you! X3), and Go parades around in his Robin outfit with his pole and plushies and meeting sign. I tape random stuff, and we take group pictures (me holding up the Dejiko plushie that was 'Link' since he couldn't come), and animal gets raped by Mosh and SG, and all is well. Or something. Well, it was pretty damn funny, okay?! XD So then we're standing there figuring out what to do, and I'm bored, and Alex and PzP want to hit up the Geneon panel, and I tag along since I want to see Angela again~ ^_^

We're kinda late and it's packed, so we stand up against a wall and cheer and all that good stuff as they announce licensed stuffies. Then they play the Kyou Kara Maou opening, and me and half the room are singing along. Mmm... I love that show, and the op/ed. They announce Le Portrait de Petit Cossette, and I cheer because I really want to watch that series~ Yay! Hopefully it will be done soon. Then Angela comes in and the crowd shifts and PzP left (I think..?) after they handed out those odd Tenchi coin thingers. I got one to give to April. Angela shows up and there is much cheering and me and Alex find seats. Yay! I get out my vidcam and start recording the Atsuko and Katsu goodness. I may elaborate more on the Q&A session after I get a chance to rewatch the footage I got of it. It was cute and informative, and Katsu is adorable when he says "Oh, she is babe!" X3 Plus, LoaE was the translator (which Alex pointed out to me), and he was actually a really good translator. :) I got footage of him in the taping, but it's not going to be circulated or anything, so I hope it'll be okay with his 'no pictures of me' thing. I figure I already know what he looks like now, and since I'm the only one who will be seeing the video, there's no problems there. But yeah, it was a great panel and I was really surprised that the company panels would be so interesting. Never been to one before that, you see. ^^;; Anyhow, the panel ended and Alex stayed on to sit through the next panel (another company, don't recall which one) and I got his phone number to hopefully arrange some sort of lunch meetup for Sunday. He was really easy to get along with, actually, and I was surprised how at ease I was talking to him.

I wandered off to the Dealer's Room again and ran into Julia and Paul. We shopped and Paul got more of his Lupin chess figures, and blahblahblah, and I really wanted a Yaoi paddle, but 35 was a bit too steep for my budget on something like that. Le Sigh.

Then it was time to stow our stuff in the car. We drop off everything and walk over to the Arena. I must say I was kind of expecting people to start lining up before 3:30 anyways, since most of the time if they say, "You can line up at X:XX" then people start showing up an hour or half hour before that time. When my sister, cousin, and I walked by to see if anyone was lining up yet around 2:45, lo and behold, there was already a line halfway down the side of the arena. We promptly got in line, but I kept waiting for some staffers to show up and kick us all off the sidewalk. This, of course, never happened. I felt bad for the people who showed up when they were supposed to, becuase it's just not fair that at 3:30 the line was already across the street, and they were stuck there because they actually paid attention to the rules. It would have been a lot fairer if they dissmissed the whole front portion of the line... but that would have been too much trouble to organize and keep under control. I don't know how they managed to keep track and control of the whole line, as I saw it wrap down one street and around a whole building, not to mention the other line at the other entrance to the arena... but it seems to me like they weren't ready or capable of handling such a big crowd. The line itself was probably a big safety hazard seeing as I think it crossed the street twice at traffic lights... can't imagine how hard that must have been to organize a way to move the line across the street... :/

We get in finally and the concert is lovely and amazing and wonderful and everything I had hoped for and more, and I'm just dissappointed that there was no concert/tour merchandise. ;_; As I said for the Angela concert, you'll have to read the concert report to find out more. It was truly an unforgettable experience, though. <3

After the concert we headed back to the car and I was all hyper and shit and they refuse to let me listen to Smile any more. ;_; Bastards. We decide to walk over and get dinner somewhere, and my legs and feet hurt like hell so we finally decide on some seafood place right near the water. It was okay, and they had good cornbread, and I was still uber-happy about the concert. Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! Much giggling and joking around and threatening to puch one another into the dirty water ensued on the way back to the convention center, and we walked around for a bit to check out the showings.

We went to see the OtaRave, and if my sister and cousin weren't there I probably would have stayed and just danced, but it kind of reeked and it just seems wrong to start dancing like a raver and asking someone for a glowstick when you're with people who seem like your parents, you know? It's too bad, though. I love dancing. :( I was looking forward to going to the 'rave' but in the end I'm a bit too chicken to just go out there and start dancing with all these strangers when my sister is around. I can do it in San Jose by myself, but I dunno, Baltimore has a whole different feel to it that I'm not used to, and it's a bit frightening to be honest. ^^;; We wandered into the Gameshow and watched idiots stampede over a stupid box of .75 cent Pocky, and my sister got a Pokeball with a little plastic Pig in it from Matt the Minion. Whee. Uhh... yeah. It was interesting, and I thought the questions were really hard, and we ended up leaving to go watch the Globe showing. We end up sitting n this room with some odd anime about wolves playing... and the anime kinda sucked from what I saw. I couldn't take much of it, so I got up and wandered around again. The hentai line was gone and I ended up walking abck to the rave, but the long line of jackasses with signs blocking the hallway and bitching out people who wouldn't read their pathetic signs were a bit of a turnoff, so I left. I have along large rant about the sign-holders in general, and those group were some of the worst. Fucking jackasses.

I went back and the wolf thing was over and Globe, wonderful Globe, was playing. Yay! TK is so cool, and hot, and I can't believe he can play so many instruments so well. He rocks. Yoshiki is still better, but TK is fucking awesome. I was actually really wiped out so I fell asleep through part of the thing, and Paul and Julia woke me up to go to the PV showings on the first (?) floor, the ones subbed my RedApple. Those guys are GREAT, I LOVED the subbed PVs, and their selection was actually quite good. There can never be enough Hide!!! <3<3<3 Plus, there was that one girl with the 'Curry Rice Woman' song that I recognized as Beniko from the Kou Kou Kyoushi JDrama. Meh. Not surprising, I suppose... rather mediocre and relying on lots of sex appeal. :/ She was pretty good in Kou Kou Kyoushi (but not as good as Ue-pon! XD).

We went back to the car after the videos and passed by lots of creepy bums sleeping on benches, and drove back to the hotel. I showered last and Julia and Paul passed out early after watching some odd shows on TV, and I was wide awake for a couple hours after they went to sleep. I unpacked more shit and ate half my lunch that I never got to eat and snacked on my pretzels and a bottle of water while watching some other odd wolf thing on CN/AdultSwim. Lots of Lupin commercials that rather sucked. Hooked up my camera and cellphone to charge in the bathroom since there were no other outlets. Also watched an ep of Bebop, which was pretty cool. The one about Jet's friend and the guy's daughter with the stuff about chi and yin-yang and blahblahblah. Set my alarm on my cellphone and took it off the charger. Then I passed out, too.

-Sunday, August 1st:

Dragged my ass out of bed and packed up all my shit. Five gazillion plastic bags turned out useful for stuffing dirty clothes in, and I was a bit dissappointed that I had only managed to finish off one of my giant pixxie styx. Huu....

Once everything was packed up we took everything in one trip and hauled it to the car, loaded it in the trunk, and checked out. Back to the convention!

We parked in the same parking structure again, the one right across from the arena. I called up Alex, it was around 9:30-45 or so, and he told me that he had heard rumours about a supplementary signing for Koge Donbo in the Dealer's Room at 10:30. He asked if I would get there early and save a spot in line, since he wasn't going to get there until about 10:30 himself. I agreed to meet him there, and sat in for the first 10 minutes or so of the Tofu Records panel before heading over to the Dealer's Room. The line was very very long, and I think I actually got in LATER than he did. @.@;; I was waiting for the damn thing to end, which it didn't until about 10:25, and I just remember this really cute crossplayer chatting with the staffers gaurding the line because he was too cute to forget. I wish I had gotten a picture.. he was so adorable in his black lolita dress with the little coffin backpack. I got to the booth right after 10:30, and found out the signing was only for people who bought the artbook... and I didn't have $70 to spend on that. ;_; I did pick up the two DiGi Charat manga with the slipcovers, and resolved to send in for my Aquarian age slipcovers, and I was told that unfortunately, they didn't bring any of the CCGs with them to sell... damnit all. Ah well.

Chatted with Alex after checking a couple raffle tickets and we agreed to call each other and arrange soemthing for lunch, hopefully with the rest of the forumites we could track down. He went off to the Funimation (I think?) panel, and I wandered around the Dealer's Room s'more. I picked up a Naruto shitajiki, a FMA stationary set, and some other stuff.

Then I ran into Julia and Paul, and I lined up at the Geneon booth for the Angela autographs. I wish I had asked for a picture when they offered to take them, I don't know why I didn't.... ;_; Oh well. They signed my concert program thinger, and Katsu is just too cute. Atsuko's very pretty, but Katsu up close, arm's length away, it just absolutely ADORABLE. He has those little dimples when he smiles, and the way he laughs and has that almost embarrassed looking grin... <3 Plus, he has this aura of adorable awkwardness, like he's not sure of what to do, but he's so cute in this puppy dog kind of way and it's downright endearing. His hair looks even sexier up close, and he has these KICK ASS BOOTS, oh man, I *wish* I had taken a picture of them, they were so awesome looking!!!!!! Brown leather and buckles and just way cool. Hahaha, sorry, I have a thing for cute asian men with pretty hair and nice voices. Hearing him say, "Oh, she is babe!" is just too cute.

I wandered around the Dealer's Room some more, and ended up getting an Aucifer pin and Sugizo poster from the JRock booth. Picked up a DNAngel stationary set, the matching set of DNAngel cellphone charms with Dark and Daisuke on them, and the DNAngel choker-the one with the two little wings. There was so much Weiss stuff I wanted to buy, but I didn't have enough money. I still REALLY wanted to pick up those cool Weiss shotglasses, but 30 for a tiny little pair of glasses seemed too steep. Damn anime merchandise and the inflated US prices! ::shakes fist:: The Ed washtowel was really cute too, and I had trouble stopping myself from buying it.

Noon rolls around and my sister and cousin decide they're sick of the Dealer's Room and still want to go sightseeing, even though there's nothing THERE. I get dragged out of the Dealer's Room and I call up Alex to tell him I'm leaving and won't be able to make lunch. Turns out he called me back just as I left a message on his phone, and he left me a message, so we both got off our phones and had voicemail waiting for us. XD Anyhow, I called Gyu and let him know I was leaving, and actually ran into Alex, so we chatted and I really wish we could have gone to lunch as a group again instead of me leaving. Puu. Anyways, we said g'bye and my sister and cousin looked at maps and tourist guides, and we drove around Baltimore for a while and were dissappointed by the Poe House and other such 'sights to see' in the city. I knew we wouldn't find anything to do. We didn't have to be at the airport until like, 8. =_=; I wish I could have stayed for lunch, goddamnit. We ended up in DC and I had fallen asleep in the car because it was so boring, and when I woke up we walked to Borders. We sat there for a couple hours and I changed out of my black velvet into something lighter for the rest of the day. We walked around DC and Julia took pictures of some building that I guess is in Law and Order or one of those shows a lot, and went into the Hard Rock there. We just left without buying anything and drove to the airport.

At the airport we get through much faster now that I know what the hell I'm doing somewhat, and there's no fuss. We have dinner at the California Pizza Kitchen in the airport and I bought a copy of The Long Patrol, one of the Redwall books (that I've read many times, but don't own) to keep me occupied. I saw Jasper Fforde's newest book in hardback there, and also the paperback version of The Well of Lost Plots that I had preordered at my local Borders. I wanted to buy it, but I already had it on preorder, so I bought the Redwall one instead. I can't afford hardbacks. The pizza was good, and the book was nice to reread.

We sat at the gate area for a while and Paul and Julia watched some asian flick on the laptop while we were waiting, and I finished a good half of the book before they called us to board. Then we went on from the back entrance of the plane and stowed our stuff and I had the windowseat again. Paul was on the isle this time, with Julia in the center. I loved watching our takeoff, but I hated the trip back. I was miserable, for some reason. I couldn't get comfortable and I didn't even bother looking at what they had playing on the video screens. I half-dozed through most of the trip, and Julia had to keep waking me up when the people came by with food/drinks. Chips again, and another Coke, and I finished NOTHING because I kept dozing off.

We finally reach the Sacramento airport and Mom is there waiting so we lug our stuff to the curb and wait for Dad to drive the car around again. Fifteen minutes later we finally see him, and he's an idiot so he doesn't pull up to the curb so we have to run out there and stash our stuff quickly so we don't block the road for long. Ugh. We drive home and I ignore, or try to ignore, the inane babble around me. It's around midnight when we get home, finally.

-Monday, August 2nd:

I stay up all night surfing the net and catching up of shit and not doing homework. Go me! Ugh... I'm an idiot. Anyways, I was dead tired and skipped work since my boss was sick and I had nothing to do anyways, and I just slept in the Library. Caught up on one of my projects in my Illustrator class, and did another two of my Design projects to have my portfolio ready to turn in when class started at 6 PM. Got through it all somehow, and then went home and mucked around online some more before passing out. Whee.

I still wish I could have stayed for lunch, at least.

-Complaints:

Koge Donbo Stuffiez.

I wished that the Koge Donbo panel wasn't during the L'arc concert, and that the autographs for Koge Donbo weren't so hectic. I couldn't get my stuff signed, and later the supplementary signing was only for people who bought the $70 artbook... but I understand that a lot of that takes into consideration the artist's time and effort, and the work of signing god knows how many things in the span of just one or two hours.

The convention center is INSANE.

I was so utterly lost for the first day and a half, and it took me 20 minutes to figure out how to get to the Artist Alley from the skywalk entrance on Friday. @.@;; It was my first Otakon, so I ended up following friends around until I sort of figured out how to get around but maybe it's just my bad sense of direction. I kept running into blockades of staffers on top of stairs... and I would go all the way around up some floors and down some floors to get to the place beyond the stairs, only to find that when I reached there, the stairs were open again. WTH..? @.@;;;;;;;;; The place is huge, which I appreciate, but it takes ages and five flights of stairs to get anywhere in the damn thing. x.x;;; It was a whole lot of fun once I figured out how to get around the damn maze of a convention center. My legs and feet have bruises from walking so much in my leather boots, though. @.@;;


The VK Panel.

...not much to say that I didn't already say.


Signs Suck.

So much for no signs... although I'm told it was much worse last year.

Standing on the side of a hallway with a 'Hug me! I'm lonely/cute/female/male/uithleuryjrhcusahrlaweh' sign is pushing it. Staking out areas in front of the women's restrooms, at the top/bottom of escalators, or right next to a line is going too far. Twice when I used the restroom I came out only to get bombarded with 'HUG ME/KISS ME/DATE ME' signs waved in front of my face before I even got three steps from the door. Then someone kept waving a cardboard sign in front of the people in line to get to the dealer's room, making them have to duck from running into the guy's arms or sign. There were quite a few times when I got off of escalators and all of a sudden my entire view was comprised of three or four signs asking for hugs, giving hugs, or 'Signs suck!' signs. People... if you think signs suck, don't use signs to say that. @.@;;

Now, I understand the reason for some of them, like the 'I'm so-and-so, looking for so-and-so, because that's sort of like what you do at the airport if you're meeting someone. That's okay. I also don't really mind signs if you're just carrying them around normally. It's when you start soliciting people that it becomes a problem. Come on guys, we know a lot of you are friendly people, and you can advertise that, but don't shove a sign down someone's throat and expect to be warmly received all the time. It's common courtesy, nothing more, nothing less. It really does start to seem like a form of prostitution, then.

( Also, if you're going to make a sign, make a real sign and not just a peice of paper scribbled on with pens/pencils. o.o;;; )

Signs are fine... people just need to realize that not everyone is going to be happy being bombarded with physical advances from a few dozen strangers.

considering that we dont know what kind of people there were, i refrained from hugging anyone.
one thing that really disturbed me was that i saw a girl that couldnt have been older than 14 that had a sign that said, 'I want to be deflowered at this convention'

i wanted to take her sign and tell her to go home. you have no idea who's around and that was just so unsafe and so uncool...

-l'arc en dave

o.o;;
Indeed. I remember on the Lucky Hit thread I read about there being a pedo at last year's convention, but when I see people walking around with 'hug me', 'kiss me', and other suggestive signs, it makes me wonder why people ASK for trouble. Think about it. If there's a pedophile or pervert wandering the con, and you're a cute girl or boy who's asking for physical affection, what do you think the pedo/perv is going to do? I understand that the staff, of course, tries thier hardest to keep the environment safe and free of such people... but you can't weed them all out sometimes. If you're carrying a sign that says, 'I like hentai and tentacles, hug me!' or something, you probably shouldn't be too surprised if you end up being groped more than hugged. I know that pedo/pervs are probably going to go about those things regardless of if there are signs about... but there's absolutely NO REASON to draw their attention and invite them to do it to you. Common sense, people. :/

-Loved:

Loved the Company Panels (Geneon, Tofu Records, etc.).

They were a new thing for me since the con I usually go to doesn't have anything like that. Informative, well-run, with lots of freebies and special little quirks/tips. I wish the Angela (Geneon Panel) Q&A could have gone on a little longer, though!


Loved the game show.

It was highly amusing except the rabid hordes of con-goers fighting over boxes of Pocky that were worth less than a dollar. Come on now, i's good but it's not the nectar of the gods. It's just a snack, and if you want it badly enough to fight ten people for it, then maybe you should just go spend a buck and buy a box.


RedAppleProductions.

I liked the fansubbing panel (even though I had to leave early) and I hope they managed to get past the technical problems they were having. It was really informative, and I liked the way they were planning on showing the step-by-step process to do it. Great panel, really friendly panelists and in-depth answers. Not just 'yes' or 'no', but the reasons as well. And I loved when the kid int eh back asked if ripping DVDs was illegal, and the response of dead silence for a few seconds, and then one of the panelists saying, "...uh, yeah, just so you know, fansubbing *is* illegal." Too funny. X3

Okay, that's the end of the con report.

Thanks for reading, and I hope I'll get to go next year and meet more of the forumites and spend more time with such interesting people I get to hang out with~

I expect to see you all there! ;3

<3



.alieu
 
...coffee, republic, and cakes <3 2:17:00 AM

Otakon was amazing. I'm finally getting off my lazy ass to type up my con/concert report tonight, so look forward to it! <3 Thank you Gyu, Alex, Go, PzP, Singleton, Animal, Omo, SG, and everyone else who made the trip so interesting for me, and thanks to my sister and cousin for being willing to fly out with me, becuase they made the trip possible. I had so much fun, and it was something I'll never forget, and I really want to see all of the forumites/irc junkies again. The convention was huge, and I got lost quite a lot, but it was worth every cent to go out there, see L'arc and Angela, and meet everyone I met. I hope I can do it again next year ( although that's not very likely... :/ ) and I hope some of them will think about flying out to meet the rest of us crazy westcoast people. :) Extra thanks to Gyu for helping me figure out how to get around, and to Alex for being so nice. ^^ Plus, Mosh said I was cute. *^-^* Thanks for the ego boost. X3 Okay, off to write the damn report now~ 


In other news:

You are Yohji Kudoh!
You are the epitome of seduction. Every breath,
every blink, every thought that encompasses
your being oozes sex and sensuality. The funny
thing is, you know it, and you use it as you
see fit.
But regardless of your seemingly laid-back, lazy
attitude, you have eyes like a hawk and
reflexes like... a horse. You do know what you
are doing, though other do not always catch on.
You become easily obsessed with the object of your
love, especially if said object was suddenly
snatched from your fingertips. Losing what you
care for throws you into a state of guilt, and
more often than not, that guilt eats at your
conscience whatever you do: You have a hard
time just letting go.
You care very much for the opposite gender, for
they are what has shaped you into you. However,
you are the master of deception and this
obsession is just another part of how you
mislead the world.


Which Weiss Member Are You?
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<3 
...coffee, republic, and cakes <3 11:05:00 PM