Finally a moment to breath.
I've been so busy with my new job starting on the rotating shift work (alternating day and night shifts... example: two days shifts, then 1.5days off then two night shifts, then 3 days off, then 3 days shifts, etc...) as well as with Otakon this last weekend. I'm surprised I got any sleep at all!
Otakon this time around was a blast. The highlight of it was the
Eminence concert which I recorded the last hour of (file link is 60mb large). If you want to know who Eminence is, go
here.
Thursday night, as I'm a TCG (somewhere between a volunteer and a staffer), I was working the pre-reg tables. Almost 9000 people picked up their pre-registrations that night. Got to see alot of neat costumes and talked to a bunch of cool people. Also met up with
jl_toshee and met her friend Aaron. Two people that are made of win and awesome. XD
Friday rolls around and yet again I'm working registration in the morning. The lines are quite wild to see as they wrap around the building. The funny part was when this family came wandering in and thought the convention was free. That was lol worthy, although not in their faces. They claim that "The Internet" told them it was free. Ahh the Internet - remember folks, whatever you find on the Internet is always true. *nodnods*
Friday afternoon, I was working the video room for Hellsing Ultimate which was packed to the gills! After the first OVA was shown, we had to kick out the people who were sitting on the floor as the cops had shown up and it was a fire hazard. Hellsing Ultimate, btw, rocks greatly.
That afternoon I hit up the dealer's room first. It was busy as always with too much stuff I wanted to buy and too little money I had to buy with. I bought some random DVDs for $5 apiece for the cheezy anime fun I'd probably get out of them. Also, I spotted Peter S. Beagle, the writer of The Last Unicorn, and got him to sign a copy of a book for
dragonfare.
After that, I wandered over to the Little Gamer's panel. As always, Christian and Madsen were hilarious - I really loved that slide show of theirs! Sometimes I think I ask them too many stupid questions, but it seems the crowd always loves their responses, so I suppose it's all good. XD
That evening, I went to another webcomic panel; this time being Megatokyo. Megatokyo is one of the most popular web comics and as such, the largest panel room that holds like 750 people was filled. One of the first things that Fred asks the crowd is that isn't there anything else better we could be doing? This was at about 9pm. I pipe up quite loudly: "The hentai doesn't start until after 11!" That got alot of cheers and a giggle out of Fred. Mission accomplished.
After that and some more roaming about the convention centre, I finally head back to the room I'm sharing with 3 other TCGs. Two of them were there and we were quite hungry so we ordered up some pizza. Mmmm that was some good pizza! There were two slices left after the first helping, so we paper/rock/scissored to see which two would get the last two slices. I proved unvictorious, but they had to clean up afterwards. Finally, I passed out on my queen sized inflatable bed. I definitely didn't want to be spooning with some stranger as there was us 4 guys with only 2 beds in the room!
Saturday morning was easy as I had to baby sit a video room until before noon. They were showing Cutey Honey (campy fun) and Nodame Cantabile (yeyz!). After that, I wandered in the Artists Alley and bought myself a sketch. Also, I found this one manga creator that I bought a book from back at Ohayocon in 2005 before I went to New Zealand. I chatted it up with him for a bit and bought his second book. He does really good work! Also, I managed to procure a copy of the Cowboy Bebop movie in the Dealer's Room.
That afternoon, I did registration once more. It was rather slow as most people had arrived, although there were a few last minute people arriving especially for the Masquerade and the Rave.
Once I was done that, and getting a bite to eat, I wandered over to the place where the Steve Blum autograph line was supposed to be. It was huge already! About 500 people I think it was estimated. I despaired of being able to get his autograph for
dragonfare as I had promised I'd try to do. The autograph session is supposed to start at about 5pm and is scheduled for only an hour. So I go back to my hotel room and take a shower. By the time I'm done that and get back, it's already past 6pm, and the line is still huge! I swear he only got through like 50 people in that hour. So I start chatting with the staffer who's manning the door. He gets me to stand at the back of the line to make sure no one else joins it. After a while, the same staffer has to go do something and gets me to be the door guy! By this time, it's like 7pm and Steve is still signing autographs. Basically, the policy is the guest dictates how long they want to stay for the signings. So another hour goes by and Steve is signing a bit faster. By the time 8pm rolls around, he's signed about 400 autographs. However, they need to clear the area soon for the Rave. So they usher all the rest of the people into the room where Steve is doing the autographs (they usually let in 20 people at a time). I manage to sneak into the room when a staffer asks me to man the door from the inside so no one exits out that way into the Rave preparations (the other exit was through the back hallways of the convention centre). So it's getting closer to 9pm and Steve has to go then to do an interview for an Anime Magazine or something like that. With only 20 people in line, I manage to sneak into the back of the line and was the last person to get his autograph! I also shook his hand, but I did wash my hands since then, so no, I won't cut it off and mail it to you, Kat!
That evening, energetic from my success, I managed to get myself a bit more work at a panel I wanted to attend: Dub Actors After Dark. Basically, it's a no holds barred Q&A and whatever else with alot of the Dub Actors that are attending the convention. I ended up being the Mic Monkey - the guy who runs around, handing the wireless microphone to the people who wanted to ask questions. This was definitely an 18+ panel what with all the swearing and dirty jokes the Dub Actors were saying.
Finally, I managed to stumble back to the hotel room and pass out.
The next day was rather slow in the morning. One last run through the Dealer's Room and also the checkout at Gofer Ops (where we get our swag and reimbursements for working the con). Then it was on to the Eminence Concert with
jl_toshee and Aaron. It was an amazing concert! There was alot of great music from things like My Neighbour Totoro and Laputa. Also, from the new anime Romeo + Juliet. I accidentally misrecorded the first 40minutes, so I only got the last hour. ~weep~
After that, it was pretty much over. I found out someone posted on the info desk the poem I wrote (Twas the Morning Before Otakon - will edit link to it later) which was rather cool. Before getting to the airport, I had dinner with
jl_toshee and Aaron across the road at DSX and had a nice crabcake sammich.
Finally, I got home to Toronto at about 10pm, weary and having to get ready for the night shifts that were starting the next day!
Otakon 2007 pics