otakon 2004 con report
So after I said I wasn't going to write a convention report for Otakon, I'm ending up writing one anyway. Weh.
Friday, July 30, 2004
I believe I woke up sometime around 8am. I originally was going to cosplay as Sailorvenus from live action Sailormoon, but in order to finish on time, it would have eaten up all of my spare time, so I decided against it. Instead, I donned my "I'm blogging this" shirt, expecting that I would, in fact, be blogging the day. Rob got here around 9:30am, I think, and then we left for Baltimore. I keep saying that I live a half hour away from Baltimore, but I think the drive actually ended up taking about 45 minutes. We parked in our usual parking garage (the one on Gay St) and made our way to the convention center. It was nice to bypass the huge line since we were pre-registered.
I think we had to wait in the pre-reg line for about 45 minutes. I was disappointed that I didn't recognize any of the series represented on the con badges. I picked the one with a butterfly on it (Risky Safety) because it was pretty. Once we were out of line, I called Rachan, but they were still in Otaku no Video which would be ending at noon. Rob and I checked out Ai Yori Aoshi ~Einshi~ in the meantime. I caught episodes 2 and 3 of that, then I headed down to Otaku no Video to wait outside.
Rachan and her-Rob were already standing outside, though. I wasn't sure if it was them at first, I knew the people I was looking at resembled them, but I wasn't absolutely positive. I finally decided it was them and I started staring at Rob to see if he would recognize me. He just kinda looked at me with this terrified look on his face. ^^; I just waved and put a finger to my mouth, signaling to him to not let Rachan know I was there just yet. So I snuck up on Rachan. ^^ It was them, after all.
We (we being Rachan, her-Rob, Nate, and other people) headed off to the nearby pizza place for lunch. That was the only time we found a place big enough where our entire group could sit down to eat together. I ate one slice of pizza and tried various flavors of Nate's pocky. Afterwards, we headed to Artist's Alley, where the group became huge. Everyone was talking for awhile. I took a few pictures. From there we headed to Jasmine's "Otaku Philosophy" panel, which was actually more like a "Religion in Anime" panel. She pointed out various signs of religion in anime, and then people asked questions for 45 minutes.
From the panel we browsed the dealer's room, but it wasn't in enough detail for me to buy anything. We then headed to dinner in a huge group, but on the way to dinner Rachan ducked out of the group to Taco Bell. I happily followed along with her-Rob, Ashley, and Ashley's two friends. Small groups = the win. We got Taco Bell and took the food up to Rachan's hotel room, sans Ashley's two friends. We hug out there and ate and talked until Rob called, and I headed back to the con. Rob picked me up and we headed home for the night.
Saturday, July 31, 2004
I woke Rob up at 9am (he had stayed at my house) and I think we left the house around 11am. At the con, he went in search of Caleb and Alex, and I went and found Rachan and co in front of the dealer's room entrance. The group of us went to HarborPlace for lunch. I had just eaten breakfast, so I only got a Coke. There were no tables, so when a two-person table opened up we grabbed it. Rachan, Ken, and Rachan's Rob sat at the table and the rest of us sat on the floor. I ate a stick of Nate's Giant Pocky.
We headed to the AMV Contest after lunch, but we only caught the last half of it. Most of the AMVs were pretty good, but I was disappointed that I hadn't seen most of the series. I really liked the Kare Kano vid and AMV Hell, though. From there we went to dinner at a Chinese place. After that, we stopped by Rachan's room to drop stuff off, but the keys had stopped working because the hotel had changed their security system. We sat on the floor while waiting for a new key. During this time, Rob called wanting to do something at the convention with me, so I left. For a couple of reasons, we did not actually go back to the convention. We stopped and I got ice cream, then we headed home.
Friday, July 30, 2004
I believe I woke up sometime around 8am. I originally was going to cosplay as Sailorvenus from live action Sailormoon, but in order to finish on time, it would have eaten up all of my spare time, so I decided against it. Instead, I donned my "I'm blogging this" shirt, expecting that I would, in fact, be blogging the day. Rob got here around 9:30am, I think, and then we left for Baltimore. I keep saying that I live a half hour away from Baltimore, but I think the drive actually ended up taking about 45 minutes. We parked in our usual parking garage (the one on Gay St) and made our way to the convention center. It was nice to bypass the huge line since we were pre-registered.
I think we had to wait in the pre-reg line for about 45 minutes. I was disappointed that I didn't recognize any of the series represented on the con badges. I picked the one with a butterfly on it (Risky Safety) because it was pretty. Once we were out of line, I called Rachan, but they were still in Otaku no Video which would be ending at noon. Rob and I checked out Ai Yori Aoshi ~Einshi~ in the meantime. I caught episodes 2 and 3 of that, then I headed down to Otaku no Video to wait outside.
Rachan and her-Rob were already standing outside, though. I wasn't sure if it was them at first, I knew the people I was looking at resembled them, but I wasn't absolutely positive. I finally decided it was them and I started staring at Rob to see if he would recognize me. He just kinda looked at me with this terrified look on his face. ^^; I just waved and put a finger to my mouth, signaling to him to not let Rachan know I was there just yet. So I snuck up on Rachan. ^^ It was them, after all.
We (we being Rachan, her-Rob, Nate, and other people) headed off to the nearby pizza place for lunch. That was the only time we found a place big enough where our entire group could sit down to eat together. I ate one slice of pizza and tried various flavors of Nate's pocky. Afterwards, we headed to Artist's Alley, where the group became huge. Everyone was talking for awhile. I took a few pictures. From there we headed to Jasmine's "Otaku Philosophy" panel, which was actually more like a "Religion in Anime" panel. She pointed out various signs of religion in anime, and then people asked questions for 45 minutes.
From the panel we browsed the dealer's room, but it wasn't in enough detail for me to buy anything. We then headed to dinner in a huge group, but on the way to dinner Rachan ducked out of the group to Taco Bell. I happily followed along with her-Rob, Ashley, and Ashley's two friends. Small groups = the win. We got Taco Bell and took the food up to Rachan's hotel room, sans Ashley's two friends. We hug out there and ate and talked until Rob called, and I headed back to the con. Rob picked me up and we headed home for the night.
Saturday, July 31, 2004
I woke Rob up at 9am (he had stayed at my house) and I think we left the house around 11am. At the con, he went in search of Caleb and Alex, and I went and found Rachan and co in front of the dealer's room entrance. The group of us went to HarborPlace for lunch. I had just eaten breakfast, so I only got a Coke. There were no tables, so when a two-person table opened up we grabbed it. Rachan, Ken, and Rachan's Rob sat at the table and the rest of us sat on the floor. I ate a stick of Nate's Giant Pocky.
We headed to the AMV Contest after lunch, but we only caught the last half of it. Most of the AMVs were pretty good, but I was disappointed that I hadn't seen most of the series. I really liked the Kare Kano vid and AMV Hell, though. From there we went to dinner at a Chinese place. After that, we stopped by Rachan's room to drop stuff off, but the keys had stopped working because the hotel had changed their security system. We sat on the floor while waiting for a new key. During this time, Rob called wanting to do something at the convention with me, so I left. For a couple of reasons, we did not actually go back to the convention. We stopped and I got ice cream, then we headed home.