Ohayocon
Had a great time at Ohayocon, which really came as no surprise to me. I did have a couple little snags along the way, though.
First, I was getting to Columbus by way of Cincinatti. My initial flight to Cincinatti had a mechanical problem and didn't leave until 40 minutes after its scheduled departure time. This made me miss my initial connection in Cincinatti to Columbus. Suck. I had to take a later flight, and didn't actually arrive at the hotel until around 4:45pm on Friday. Sort of late, but not awful. My bag also didn't arrive with me, so Delta had to deliver it to the hotel later that evening. Not the smoothest trip to a convention I've ever had, but I can think of a lot of ways in which it could have been worse.
Bards were set up, and I sang what I could on Friday, having fun. But even on Thursday I was beginning to feel a little trickle in the back of my throat. And on Friday night, this had blown out into a stuffed nose. Trying to sleep on Friday night was absolutely awful, and I was in agony. My head was completely stuffed up, and my throat was beginning to feel very sore and raw. Natalie and her boyfriend Alex ended up making a super late run to a CVS near the hotel and picked me up some medicine. I love those two, and that helped me sleep a little better into Saturday.
When I woke up on Saturday, though, my throat was 10 times worse, and I was very scared that I wasn't going to be able to perform like I wanted to. I flailed around the hotel room rather pitifully for most of the morning, and Jer was also awesome enough to go down to CVS and buy some more medicine: Luden's Drops, Extra Strength Tylenol, and Sudafed. They carried me through the day well enough. I've got to admit that any musical success I had on Saturday was completely thanks to the wonders of drugs. Legal ones. Hee.
Saturday involved singing of all different kinds, massive crowds, Ben Folds rounds, being videotaped performing "The Saga Begins", Chris reading from The Alphabet of Manliness, 20+ people singing "Bohemian Rhapsody", and (possibly the most insane activity of all), Whose Line is it Anime.
Much like the name suggests, this is a panel based off of Whose Line is it Anyway, but based in Anime/Gaming/Japanese culture. I got roped into it on accident at Sugoicon when I went and attended the panel. The guy running it was also the guy leading something called the Random Battle Group, which is basically a big association of fans who break out and have random RPG battles in a setup. It's very silly. The Bards have run in and provided live battle music for them a couple of times, so we were familiar with them for a while before I got hauled in at Sugoicon. At that convention, I got called into doing Newscasters, where I was the Weather Person, but Pedo Bear from 4chan. Don't ask; I had no idea what the fuck it was when I did it. However, it left an impression, and I very quickly became a cast member.
Same guy ran into me again at Ohayocon this year and invited me back to be on the panel. I actually forgot about it until about an hour and a half into the NC-17 rated panel on Saturday night, but I showed up nonetheless. Turns out the guy actually had a chair reserved for me on the panel. I was... way flattered. Seriously.
So, on Saturday night, I went absolutely apeshit at Whose Line is it Anime, and was put into situations that I simply cannot talk about on LiveJournal without seriously incriminating myself. If you ever get the chance to talk to me about it in person, I'll be glad to tell you. All I have to say is I hope photos of me don't appear on the internet. *sigh* I'm apparently welcome in the cast at any point now...
So, this weekend I unwittingly became a member of a mini-comedy team. Badass. Me on a comedy team? Figure that shit out.
Went to bed around 5:30 this morning and woke up 5 hours later. Wandered around the convention, and left around 2:30 for the airport. Flew to Washington D.C. and am now at my Dad's house in Virginia, spending the week here with him.
Had Christmas with him tonight, which was cool. Got a sketchbook, some Japanese woodblock print cards, a guitar chord dictionary (with over 900 possible chords, wtf), and other assorted goodies. I also got some really good Sony earbuds that insert into the ear. They're way better than my iPod's original earbuds. The bass on these is absolutely awesome, and they're very comfortable. They sound nearly as good as my Bose headphones, which is badass. I love my portable music, and they'll be great for my iPod. But more on that in a second, because I'm in a bit of a dilemma.
See, for Christmas, I told Dad that all I wanted was a Wii. And he's been looking around everywhere for one, but can't find one. So, he's said that he'll just give me the money for it and I can buy one whenever I can find one. That's pretty acceptable and cool, but getting the earbuds reminded me of something tonight: my iPod is kinda old.
Now, my iPod is a second-generation model, I believe. Still black and white and uses the 4 buttons on top instead of the single click wheel. No support for videos, images, etc. The one I'm on is a replacement from the one I got about 2 and a half years ago. Problem is, it's an exact replacement; I was given another second-gen when my first one's battery died.
I use my iPod a LOT when I'm on campus, and I love taking it with me on all sorts of trips. I get a lot of use out of my iPod, and sort of resent the fact that I can't enjoy all the cool shit that's available for it. A smaller sized iPod is the exact same price as a Wii system. I know I'd get cool shit for it and probably love having some music videos on my iPod.
Then again, the Wii is a Wii. It's fun as hell to play, and I've now done so several times. I like it when I've got it, and the possibility of connecting with other people would be fun as hell. The only sort of obstacle to that is that my TV is, currently, pitifully small. I honestly need a new one to really enjoy it, as well as enjoy my PS2.
So, I'm at an impass. I don't know what I should do. If I get a iPod, I would be up to date on all the awesome iPod stuff I want to do, but I'd not have a Wii for quite a while longer. If I get a Wii, I'd have it, but be restricted by my own dorm environment and still have an aging iPod. Hm.
I should make a disclaimer that I'm thankful I even have such a conflict, by the way, because I am. I'm immensely happy that my dad would buy me a Wii for Christmas nonetheless, or spend the same amount of money to buy an iPod. I know that's not something everyone can do. Sorry. I was just thinking about all I've said, and how ungrateful it sounds, in a way.
But that said, Ohayocon was absolutely fantastic. I also got to meet Amanda Winn Lee and Jason Lee, which was a bit of coolness for me. Ever since I was an Evangelion nut in middle school, I thought it'd be badass to meet her. She's really awesome and funny, and her husband's pretty nice. She has a son now, who's two, and he was tearing apart the Green Room when the Bards were hanging out and the three of them were there. He was throwing stuff off of counters and destroying lamps, all while acting extremely cute. Hah.
Alright. Time to catch up a little on the Internets. Later!
P.S. - Thanks to gift money from my other relatives, I now have my Burning Crusade money. Hot shit.
First, I was getting to Columbus by way of Cincinatti. My initial flight to Cincinatti had a mechanical problem and didn't leave until 40 minutes after its scheduled departure time. This made me miss my initial connection in Cincinatti to Columbus. Suck. I had to take a later flight, and didn't actually arrive at the hotel until around 4:45pm on Friday. Sort of late, but not awful. My bag also didn't arrive with me, so Delta had to deliver it to the hotel later that evening. Not the smoothest trip to a convention I've ever had, but I can think of a lot of ways in which it could have been worse.
Bards were set up, and I sang what I could on Friday, having fun. But even on Thursday I was beginning to feel a little trickle in the back of my throat. And on Friday night, this had blown out into a stuffed nose. Trying to sleep on Friday night was absolutely awful, and I was in agony. My head was completely stuffed up, and my throat was beginning to feel very sore and raw. Natalie and her boyfriend Alex ended up making a super late run to a CVS near the hotel and picked me up some medicine. I love those two, and that helped me sleep a little better into Saturday.
When I woke up on Saturday, though, my throat was 10 times worse, and I was very scared that I wasn't going to be able to perform like I wanted to. I flailed around the hotel room rather pitifully for most of the morning, and Jer was also awesome enough to go down to CVS and buy some more medicine: Luden's Drops, Extra Strength Tylenol, and Sudafed. They carried me through the day well enough. I've got to admit that any musical success I had on Saturday was completely thanks to the wonders of drugs. Legal ones. Hee.
Saturday involved singing of all different kinds, massive crowds, Ben Folds rounds, being videotaped performing "The Saga Begins", Chris reading from The Alphabet of Manliness, 20+ people singing "Bohemian Rhapsody", and (possibly the most insane activity of all), Whose Line is it Anime.
Much like the name suggests, this is a panel based off of Whose Line is it Anyway, but based in Anime/Gaming/Japanese culture. I got roped into it on accident at Sugoicon when I went and attended the panel. The guy running it was also the guy leading something called the Random Battle Group, which is basically a big association of fans who break out and have random RPG battles in a setup. It's very silly. The Bards have run in and provided live battle music for them a couple of times, so we were familiar with them for a while before I got hauled in at Sugoicon. At that convention, I got called into doing Newscasters, where I was the Weather Person, but Pedo Bear from 4chan. Don't ask; I had no idea what the fuck it was when I did it. However, it left an impression, and I very quickly became a cast member.
Same guy ran into me again at Ohayocon this year and invited me back to be on the panel. I actually forgot about it until about an hour and a half into the NC-17 rated panel on Saturday night, but I showed up nonetheless. Turns out the guy actually had a chair reserved for me on the panel. I was... way flattered. Seriously.
So, on Saturday night, I went absolutely apeshit at Whose Line is it Anime, and was put into situations that I simply cannot talk about on LiveJournal without seriously incriminating myself. If you ever get the chance to talk to me about it in person, I'll be glad to tell you. All I have to say is I hope photos of me don't appear on the internet. *sigh* I'm apparently welcome in the cast at any point now...
So, this weekend I unwittingly became a member of a mini-comedy team. Badass. Me on a comedy team? Figure that shit out.
Went to bed around 5:30 this morning and woke up 5 hours later. Wandered around the convention, and left around 2:30 for the airport. Flew to Washington D.C. and am now at my Dad's house in Virginia, spending the week here with him.
Had Christmas with him tonight, which was cool. Got a sketchbook, some Japanese woodblock print cards, a guitar chord dictionary (with over 900 possible chords, wtf), and other assorted goodies. I also got some really good Sony earbuds that insert into the ear. They're way better than my iPod's original earbuds. The bass on these is absolutely awesome, and they're very comfortable. They sound nearly as good as my Bose headphones, which is badass. I love my portable music, and they'll be great for my iPod. But more on that in a second, because I'm in a bit of a dilemma.
See, for Christmas, I told Dad that all I wanted was a Wii. And he's been looking around everywhere for one, but can't find one. So, he's said that he'll just give me the money for it and I can buy one whenever I can find one. That's pretty acceptable and cool, but getting the earbuds reminded me of something tonight: my iPod is kinda old.
Now, my iPod is a second-generation model, I believe. Still black and white and uses the 4 buttons on top instead of the single click wheel. No support for videos, images, etc. The one I'm on is a replacement from the one I got about 2 and a half years ago. Problem is, it's an exact replacement; I was given another second-gen when my first one's battery died.
I use my iPod a LOT when I'm on campus, and I love taking it with me on all sorts of trips. I get a lot of use out of my iPod, and sort of resent the fact that I can't enjoy all the cool shit that's available for it. A smaller sized iPod is the exact same price as a Wii system. I know I'd get cool shit for it and probably love having some music videos on my iPod.
Then again, the Wii is a Wii. It's fun as hell to play, and I've now done so several times. I like it when I've got it, and the possibility of connecting with other people would be fun as hell. The only sort of obstacle to that is that my TV is, currently, pitifully small. I honestly need a new one to really enjoy it, as well as enjoy my PS2.
So, I'm at an impass. I don't know what I should do. If I get a iPod, I would be up to date on all the awesome iPod stuff I want to do, but I'd not have a Wii for quite a while longer. If I get a Wii, I'd have it, but be restricted by my own dorm environment and still have an aging iPod. Hm.
I should make a disclaimer that I'm thankful I even have such a conflict, by the way, because I am. I'm immensely happy that my dad would buy me a Wii for Christmas nonetheless, or spend the same amount of money to buy an iPod. I know that's not something everyone can do. Sorry. I was just thinking about all I've said, and how ungrateful it sounds, in a way.
But that said, Ohayocon was absolutely fantastic. I also got to meet Amanda Winn Lee and Jason Lee, which was a bit of coolness for me. Ever since I was an Evangelion nut in middle school, I thought it'd be badass to meet her. She's really awesome and funny, and her husband's pretty nice. She has a son now, who's two, and he was tearing apart the Green Room when the Bards were hanging out and the three of them were there. He was throwing stuff off of counters and destroying lamps, all while acting extremely cute. Hah.
Alright. Time to catch up a little on the Internets. Later!
P.S. - Thanks to gift money from my other relatives, I now have my Burning Crusade money. Hot shit.