San Japan
Hey hey! I'm back! I think I only told a few people that I was heading out to an anime convention, but I thought I made a public mention. Guess I didn't...!
So yeah, I went to San Japan, an anime convention run by a few people I went to school with. It was set up downtown at the Holiday Inn and the auditorium across the street. So I left thursday night after work for my friend Travis's house so we could head out early since he lives about 40 minutes away from my house.
Let me explain saftey before I get into the next paragraph. Pretty much you work for the head of 'security' for the con and you get in free, you get crash space, and you get free food. I was planning on doing this from the start but Travis got a room through his dad so I just stayed with him instead. If I wanted to though, Sven would have hooked me up with a room to sleep in, he was cool like that. The fellers really made an impression on Sven during the time we worked so I'm sure next con he works on he'll ask for us by name.
So we get there, go in the back and head around to get our badges since we're working safety (security) and meet Sven, head of Safety and all around awesome guy. We talk a bit, he tells us to come back at noon and go eat. After we walk 15 minutes, eat, and walk 15 minutes back Sven just has us patrol the dealer's room for 30 miuntes before having us take care of the line for autographs. They had Chris Ayers, Josh Greele, Carli Mosier, Tiffany Grant and a couple of other voice actors. After everyone was gone from the line, I went through and chatted em up, joke about keeping them safe from assassins and all the fun stuff. We were free for a few hours so I hit up the dealer's room before heading to the hotel. I nabbed a small statue of Tidus, a comic called Meta Docs on discount from the dealer. Upon reaching the hotel ballroom we were turned around by Sven's wife, Christine, and told we needed to head back and help out with the line for Vic Mignogna. Vic has a line that has to be capped at 75 and it just snakes around a good portion of the area. He does his signing and junk and near the end I pull the same thing with the other fellows earlier in the day, I get him to sign the cds I got from him, one was a music cd for 10 bucks and two free cds. We wrap up there, head back to the concert where Knuckle Sandwich and Meyja are playing. They weren't too bad but the vocals were hard to hear since the instruments and other junk were higher up than the mics. Sven lets us go after a while and we walk down to the River Center Mall and get some eats. It occurs to me as I am lying down to sleep that I forgot my bag with all my stuff in it. I lament my fate and bury myself in a book for 3 or 4 hours until midnight and finally sleep.
The next day we wake up and walk to the mall, check lost and found. Nobody turned in anything. Needless to say I was crushed further. I couldn't do anything about it so we headed to the con, found out our shift was pushed back to two and kind of went our own ways. I missed the fighting game shoot after running back to the hotel, getting dressed, and running back. So instead I attented a stage fighting workshop with Chris Ayers and Carli Mosier who do a decent amount of fight directing for plays and the like. Following that I bought a huge chunk of stuff and I would have got Prof and or Boo something but there was no way to contact them at that time since my phone has been dead since Thursday. So I head back to the hotel feeling kind of shitty since I missed the shoot and it WAS SO HOT GOD. I hang there for a bit with my roommates, drop by the mall, get some food, hit the hotel and head back to the convention. They pushed our shifts back even later to 6 to 12 am. We end up covering seating for the cosplay contest, watch that, get people to leave so the staff can prepare for the concert with Smile D.K., head up to the con suite and eat and rest for 30 minutes. I went down, helped keep the 1000 people long line in check which meant 'HEY! SINGLE FILE! OFF OF THE CARS!' Pretty much after that I got to sit near the back fire door in case Sven blew his police whistle and had to get everyone out if there was an emergency, which, thank God there wasn't. I did however get to enjoy Smile D.K. and their music. They were pretty good and I can see why they got their music in to DDR. After Smile D.K. were done Sven cut us loose and we went back to our hotel and encountered only one homeless man who stepped out of the shadows (lolll I typed shower) and scared the piss out of me. Travis and I watched the end of Tommy Boy, all of Black Sheep, and went to bed.
Travis had to be back around noon so we left at 11, ate at Taco Cabana, he dropped me off and we went our seperate ways. Then I wrote this a few hours after I got home. Then I added the paragraph about safety and it post to clickoutmets
So yeah, I went to San Japan, an anime convention run by a few people I went to school with. It was set up downtown at the Holiday Inn and the auditorium across the street. So I left thursday night after work for my friend Travis's house so we could head out early since he lives about 40 minutes away from my house.
Let me explain saftey before I get into the next paragraph. Pretty much you work for the head of 'security' for the con and you get in free, you get crash space, and you get free food. I was planning on doing this from the start but Travis got a room through his dad so I just stayed with him instead. If I wanted to though, Sven would have hooked me up with a room to sleep in, he was cool like that. The fellers really made an impression on Sven during the time we worked so I'm sure next con he works on he'll ask for us by name.
So we get there, go in the back and head around to get our badges since we're working safety (security) and meet Sven, head of Safety and all around awesome guy. We talk a bit, he tells us to come back at noon and go eat. After we walk 15 minutes, eat, and walk 15 minutes back Sven just has us patrol the dealer's room for 30 miuntes before having us take care of the line for autographs. They had Chris Ayers, Josh Greele, Carli Mosier, Tiffany Grant and a couple of other voice actors. After everyone was gone from the line, I went through and chatted em up, joke about keeping them safe from assassins and all the fun stuff. We were free for a few hours so I hit up the dealer's room before heading to the hotel. I nabbed a small statue of Tidus, a comic called Meta Docs on discount from the dealer. Upon reaching the hotel ballroom we were turned around by Sven's wife, Christine, and told we needed to head back and help out with the line for Vic Mignogna. Vic has a line that has to be capped at 75 and it just snakes around a good portion of the area. He does his signing and junk and near the end I pull the same thing with the other fellows earlier in the day, I get him to sign the cds I got from him, one was a music cd for 10 bucks and two free cds. We wrap up there, head back to the concert where Knuckle Sandwich and Meyja are playing. They weren't too bad but the vocals were hard to hear since the instruments and other junk were higher up than the mics. Sven lets us go after a while and we walk down to the River Center Mall and get some eats. It occurs to me as I am lying down to sleep that I forgot my bag with all my stuff in it. I lament my fate and bury myself in a book for 3 or 4 hours until midnight and finally sleep.
The next day we wake up and walk to the mall, check lost and found. Nobody turned in anything. Needless to say I was crushed further. I couldn't do anything about it so we headed to the con, found out our shift was pushed back to two and kind of went our own ways. I missed the fighting game shoot after running back to the hotel, getting dressed, and running back. So instead I attented a stage fighting workshop with Chris Ayers and Carli Mosier who do a decent amount of fight directing for plays and the like. Following that I bought a huge chunk of stuff and I would have got Prof and or Boo something but there was no way to contact them at that time since my phone has been dead since Thursday. So I head back to the hotel feeling kind of shitty since I missed the shoot and it WAS SO HOT GOD. I hang there for a bit with my roommates, drop by the mall, get some food, hit the hotel and head back to the convention. They pushed our shifts back even later to 6 to 12 am. We end up covering seating for the cosplay contest, watch that, get people to leave so the staff can prepare for the concert with Smile D.K., head up to the con suite and eat and rest for 30 minutes. I went down, helped keep the 1000 people long line in check which meant 'HEY! SINGLE FILE! OFF OF THE CARS!' Pretty much after that I got to sit near the back fire door in case Sven blew his police whistle and had to get everyone out if there was an emergency, which, thank God there wasn't. I did however get to enjoy Smile D.K. and their music. They were pretty good and I can see why they got their music in to DDR. After Smile D.K. were done Sven cut us loose and we went back to our hotel and encountered only one homeless man who stepped out of the shadows (lolll I typed shower) and scared the piss out of me. Travis and I watched the end of Tommy Boy, all of Black Sheep, and went to bed.
Travis had to be back around noon so we left at 11, ate at Taco Cabana, he dropped me off and we went our seperate ways. Then I wrote this a few hours after I got home. Then I added the paragraph about safety and it post to clickoutmets