Also...
There was a con! It was largely fun. Though there were a few growing pains, the much *much* larger space of the Raleigh Convention Center was certainly a boon for Animazement. You could get around without running into people! Awesome.
It was pretty much the usual AZ schedule for me at this point - spend some time manning the video room, help out with Hell, troll the dealer's room and artist alley, generally hang out. About the only panels I've gone to in years are ones for a few of the more interesting Japanese guests, and since they mostly stayed home this year due to fear of quarantine, there wasn't much of that going on. But at least there was a fairly mediocre J-Rock visual kei band? Eh, whatevs.
Notable acquisitions included a plush Porco Rosso, a diorama with an Acguy from original Gundam, a 50th anniversary Shonen Sunday Lum figure, and a framed fanart print of Hugo from Suikoden III. Other than that, I mostly got gachapon figures which are small and cheap the better to accommodate somewhat limited budgets and shelf space. Man, I need to reorganize my room. Meanwhile akiko actually produced in addition to consuming, and sold several Haros and some other merchandise, which was cool. Next year - more crotched Kirby.
Also went out to a bar (twice) with lots of awesome friends, some of whom I hadn't seen in a while, so that was great. Other things at the bar that were great included the float made of double-chocolate stout, and the drink made from a combination of the same stout and Lindeman's raspberry lambic. Yummy.
Oh, and to tack on a followup to an earlier post, I spent $1100 on my car, which was a bit painful but evidently worthwhile. The electrical weirdness was chalked up to a combination of a failing alternator and a crappy job AutoZone did of installing my last battery, and evidently my water pump was in fact not far from dying a horrible death as well (which certainly would have been no fun on, say, the way to Atlanta or something). So hopefully I should be good for a while now.
It was pretty much the usual AZ schedule for me at this point - spend some time manning the video room, help out with Hell, troll the dealer's room and artist alley, generally hang out. About the only panels I've gone to in years are ones for a few of the more interesting Japanese guests, and since they mostly stayed home this year due to fear of quarantine, there wasn't much of that going on. But at least there was a fairly mediocre J-Rock visual kei band? Eh, whatevs.
Notable acquisitions included a plush Porco Rosso, a diorama with an Acguy from original Gundam, a 50th anniversary Shonen Sunday Lum figure, and a framed fanart print of Hugo from Suikoden III. Other than that, I mostly got gachapon figures which are small and cheap the better to accommodate somewhat limited budgets and shelf space. Man, I need to reorganize my room. Meanwhile akiko actually produced in addition to consuming, and sold several Haros and some other merchandise, which was cool. Next year - more crotched Kirby.
Also went out to a bar (twice) with lots of awesome friends, some of whom I hadn't seen in a while, so that was great. Other things at the bar that were great included the float made of double-chocolate stout, and the drink made from a combination of the same stout and Lindeman's raspberry lambic. Yummy.
Oh, and to tack on a followup to an earlier post, I spent $1100 on my car, which was a bit painful but evidently worthwhile. The electrical weirdness was chalked up to a combination of a failing alternator and a crappy job AutoZone did of installing my last battery, and evidently my water pump was in fact not far from dying a horrible death as well (which certainly would have been no fun on, say, the way to Atlanta or something). So hopefully I should be good for a while now.