Geared Up For Anime Central 2010
I just finished printing stuff up for livingdeadcrizl's booth at Anime Central's Artist Alley, and I'm almost done with all my preparations at work. Yeah, me missing one day is apparently a HUGE deal, with my main client, since I'm their entire mail room, fulfillment room, customer support, technical support, and only one of three sales managers. Luckily, I had planned way ahead, and had all sorts of stuff ready for my day out. Once I'm done here, I just have to finish packing a few more odds-and-ends. Here's a quick sample of what's coming with me...
- 2 changes of daytime clothes.
- Nighttime attire (sweats & tee-shirt)
- 4 days worth of socks (any good prepper knows it's important to have spares).
- 3 person first-aid kit, with extra bandages, pain reliever, and antacid.
- 1 personal first-aid kit, for my day-pack.
- 1 roll of duct tape.
- 2 button-cell keychain flashlights, for navigating the hotel room at night.
- 1 tactical light, for emergencies.
- Extra towels, toiletries and TONS of safety pins.
- Spare knife - of course.
- Wholesome nutrient-dense portable foods, and a bunch of vitamin and nutritional supplements.
- My trusty canteen, since a bottle of water is probably $15 at the convention center.
- Two short lengths of nylon rope, and 25' of paracord.
- Maps of the area, my GPS and a compass.
...and it ALL fits in a single overnight bag, and a light single-shoulder day pack. And, of course, my car will still be well supplied with first aid and other survival amenities. Heck, I didn't even have to do much. It was mostly packed, already, except for the changes of clothes and some of the food (which I rotate out, with fresh rations).
Hey, Anime Central can be a grind. Of all the conventions, it's one of the most physically, mentally and financially taxing conventions I've been to. Everything in Chicagoland is designed to screw you out of your money, or haphazardly laid out to practically guarantee traffic jams and long walks through traffic. I couldn't design a more dysfunctional convention center layout - with the convoluted maze of connecting walkways, busy crossroad without an automated crosswalk, anemic parking lots, inaccessible loading area, lack of restaurants, weird twisting corridors with nonsensical bottlenecks, narrow walkways, low-capacity trouble-prone elevators & escalators, and unionized-dysfunctional convention center staff - if I wanted to (unless I was allowed to copy Chicago's McCormick Convention Center). I've seen demolition piles that were more functional than the Donald E. Stevens Convention Center area. And, let's not forget Anime Central's history of technical and administrative issues, especially at check-in. Even when everything goes well, it's a rough con, and demands serious preparation. Every Acen weekend, since the very first one in 1998, has made any of my week long backwoods survival excursions seem like a walk in the park.