NorthReport
Well, another year gone by, another NorthReport to be filed away for posterity!
Thursday:
Okay went to Taylor's at about 9:15, we went to A&W for breakfast while waiting for Ardene to open, where we finally got a good wig for Rhyme. Kristina had been SO NICE in finishing up my cosplay while I'd been sick, and it looked awesome, I was so happy. We found out that the ride from Woodstock to Toronto takes almost the exact amount it takes to play a 20 round game of Mario Party and I didn't feel sick at all. We got to the Doubletree and got to check in right away, though the cookies weren't as good as I remembererd. We lugged our stuff upstairs, christened the bed with a good jumping-upon and went out to Sushi Dragon for an early dinner. We met up with Tyler and Kristina during the Pre-Reg, I think we went that night to get a bite at Harvey's, and then hung out together in our hotel room for a bit, just relaxing. Eventually we went to bed at which point our silliness took over and almost every sentence began to end with Cayonero! We did fall asleep though, it just took time.
Friday:
I was up first and already in my cosplay before Taylor or David woke up, but I personally expected that. We went to Timmies for breakfast and then just spent most of the rest of the day wandering around and waiting for lines to form for the dealer's room and such. We were not in a bad spot for the dealer's room line, so we got in pretty quickly, but it was annoying because of this one group of utter Narutards. There is a difference between a Narutard and just a Naruto fan, and these people trampled all over it by acting like complete idiots. So we did our first tour of the dealer's room, got some good stuff and carted it all back for the first swag-drop at the room. Tay headed over for the Voice Acting Workshop so David and I went back to the dealer's room 'cause Tay and I had snagged a few items he wanted too, then we went back to the hotel room and literally had a ball just opening our packs of trading cards together. Tay got back and we left for the Comedy Cabaret, which sucked ass, so we left early and wound up trying to figure out how to play the KH TCG in the big area with all the tables that's there every year until some guy plopped down beside us to watch and try to put his two cents in every other second. Jeff Nimoy popped up around then and remembered us from two years ago surprisingly enough. Quinton Flynn had finally made it after airport-type difficulties, so my weekend was set to go smoothly. We didn't do much more except grab some food and head back up to the room for the night.
Saturday:
Once again, I'm up and ready frist, apparently my cold had kept Tay and David up, so they resisted awakening. Ashley, Missy and Tim had arrived so I eagerly went to go hang with them in line for bit. I left to help David get into his cosplay wig and then snag front row seats for Q&A with Q&J, which was AWESOME, except for Weird Suit Guy (to be abbreviated from here out as WSG) he kept talkign over the voice actors, trying to get them singing songs he was singing, interjecting his thoughts into everything they said, and just being a fucking pest in general. He leaned on me laughing at one point, creepily enough. The panel was great though, especially the yaoi song which was hilarious. After the panel Tay and I had lunch with Ashley, Missy and Tim. I liked Tim, he was really funny and he fit in easily from the get-go. After another hit of the dealer's room I sat down to wait for the autograph line for Quinton and Jeff, that took a while of waiting, but I was fifth in line, so it was quick. went yet again to snag early seats to Q&A with Q&J part deux, and we stumbled across a panel for a cool magazine (more on that later). So the second panel was just as hilarious, and thankfully my group took up the entire front row on the one side so WSG couldn't sit near me. We all went to dinner at Ginko's after that, my meal was really good, especially the Unagi sushi (eel). There was some...tension after dinner, so I left my hotel room and went back to Ginko's where thankfully everyone still was, and I left with Tyler and Kristina for their hotel room and had a great time just talking with them and getting to know them better. At the hotel room, where they had an EPIC bed for the record, Ashley Tim and Missy came back over and we had a great time chatting and playing Zombie Fluxx, which is just a game full of awesome in general. I left a little late and wound up not making it back in time for the start of Cafe Nocturne, but was thankfully still let in. My throat was killing me by this point, and I was just feeling kinda down, but it was a really great and relaxing way to end my evening, and the tea surprisingly felt good on my throat and I think it helped me to feel nice and drowsy. I shoulda stayed and got my photo set signed, but I was so sleepy at that point I couldn't keep my eyes opened and so I toddled off. I slept sitting up and in the morning Tay and David said I hadn't kept them up this night.
Sunday:
Was first up and ready again. Made the dealer's room my first priority. Got a bunch of stuff, including candy. Tay and I then went to get our seats for the Charity Auction, at which point WSG popped back up but Tay pretend we were saving a seat for someone, and I pretended I had a hangover, so he thankfully didn't bother us. We stayed for most of it and had a good time, except that the way flights had been scheduled meant most voice actors couldn't really stay for the auction, so I was unlucky in that sense. But I did snag a set of copic fineliners and a nice sketch book which Sonny Strait signed for me (yay!) Tay got a metric SHITLOAD of stuff, but for reasonable prices, so it was cool. We both snagged subscriptions to the magazine from the panel we had happened to walk in upon, so that turned out to be really cool. After that we made one more hit of the dealer room with Kristina and Tyler, then we went to the room to relax with them for a bit before dinner at Ginko's in the Tatami mat room, which was supercool. For the frst bit I didn't realize that when Kristina said there was a hole under the table, she really meant a big place where you can wind up sitting just like you were in a chair, just sunk into the floor. It was cool all in all though, but Lisa and Theresa wound up having to leave early to catch their ride. Tyler and Kristina came back up to the room for a bit before leaving, and after they left for Woodstock we began watching this moive called Mosaic (featuring the vocal talents of Kirby Morrow) which was so fucking HORRIBLE. It was lame to the nth degree, so we mocked it outrageously until I fell asleep.
Monday:
I'm up first. Huge surprise there, right? We packed up a bit, went to get a last meal at Harvey's before leaving, then back to the room to pack again and make sure we got everything. I left the pig hat Tay got in the auction clipped to a hanger and hanging in the closet full of petty change. I don't know why, it just made me giggle madly at the time. We went downstairs with our swag and just sat on the floor awhile until another group vacated the couch space and we took over. I napped for an hour, then Tay and I grabbed some doughnuts while David guarded the stuff and then we embarked upon the epic 5 hour long Kingdom Hearts discussion, which was just awesome to be able to geek out about my favourtie fandom for such a long period of time. Tay's dad showed up and we managed to stuff everything in the car and took off. I felt incredibly car sick for the first part of the ride 'cause traffic was very start-stop style, but after we got going I felt a bit better. It didn't matter though since we were all feeling very quiet. I got dropped off and got in my house and read some pretty devestating news. My niece needs hearing aids in both ears, she'll likely have them for the rest of her life and since her problem is most likely the same type nerve damage my mom has her hearing will fade continually through the rest of her life. Then I got online and had another Deep Talk with Ashley, and a lighter talk on the side with Bones (sorry Bones!) and finally went to bed around 10:30pm.
So that all in all is the account of my NorthReport 2008. Good times had by all I hope, I know I enjoyed myself. I look forward to other people's accounts to see the things that most stood out for them, the things that they remembered best and wrote down, since even if I was with a person, the things that stand out in their mind might be different from what's in my mind.
We're likely going to get together (those of us who can) and see Indiana Jones today, so I look forward to seeing you all again later! Bye!
Thursday:
Okay went to Taylor's at about 9:15, we went to A&W for breakfast while waiting for Ardene to open, where we finally got a good wig for Rhyme. Kristina had been SO NICE in finishing up my cosplay while I'd been sick, and it looked awesome, I was so happy. We found out that the ride from Woodstock to Toronto takes almost the exact amount it takes to play a 20 round game of Mario Party and I didn't feel sick at all. We got to the Doubletree and got to check in right away, though the cookies weren't as good as I remembererd. We lugged our stuff upstairs, christened the bed with a good jumping-upon and went out to Sushi Dragon for an early dinner. We met up with Tyler and Kristina during the Pre-Reg, I think we went that night to get a bite at Harvey's, and then hung out together in our hotel room for a bit, just relaxing. Eventually we went to bed at which point our silliness took over and almost every sentence began to end with Cayonero! We did fall asleep though, it just took time.
Friday:
I was up first and already in my cosplay before Taylor or David woke up, but I personally expected that. We went to Timmies for breakfast and then just spent most of the rest of the day wandering around and waiting for lines to form for the dealer's room and such. We were not in a bad spot for the dealer's room line, so we got in pretty quickly, but it was annoying because of this one group of utter Narutards. There is a difference between a Narutard and just a Naruto fan, and these people trampled all over it by acting like complete idiots. So we did our first tour of the dealer's room, got some good stuff and carted it all back for the first swag-drop at the room. Tay headed over for the Voice Acting Workshop so David and I went back to the dealer's room 'cause Tay and I had snagged a few items he wanted too, then we went back to the hotel room and literally had a ball just opening our packs of trading cards together. Tay got back and we left for the Comedy Cabaret, which sucked ass, so we left early and wound up trying to figure out how to play the KH TCG in the big area with all the tables that's there every year until some guy plopped down beside us to watch and try to put his two cents in every other second. Jeff Nimoy popped up around then and remembered us from two years ago surprisingly enough. Quinton Flynn had finally made it after airport-type difficulties, so my weekend was set to go smoothly. We didn't do much more except grab some food and head back up to the room for the night.
Saturday:
Once again, I'm up and ready frist, apparently my cold had kept Tay and David up, so they resisted awakening. Ashley, Missy and Tim had arrived so I eagerly went to go hang with them in line for bit. I left to help David get into his cosplay wig and then snag front row seats for Q&A with Q&J, which was AWESOME, except for Weird Suit Guy (to be abbreviated from here out as WSG) he kept talkign over the voice actors, trying to get them singing songs he was singing, interjecting his thoughts into everything they said, and just being a fucking pest in general. He leaned on me laughing at one point, creepily enough. The panel was great though, especially the yaoi song which was hilarious. After the panel Tay and I had lunch with Ashley, Missy and Tim. I liked Tim, he was really funny and he fit in easily from the get-go. After another hit of the dealer's room I sat down to wait for the autograph line for Quinton and Jeff, that took a while of waiting, but I was fifth in line, so it was quick. went yet again to snag early seats to Q&A with Q&J part deux, and we stumbled across a panel for a cool magazine (more on that later). So the second panel was just as hilarious, and thankfully my group took up the entire front row on the one side so WSG couldn't sit near me. We all went to dinner at Ginko's after that, my meal was really good, especially the Unagi sushi (eel). There was some...tension after dinner, so I left my hotel room and went back to Ginko's where thankfully everyone still was, and I left with Tyler and Kristina for their hotel room and had a great time just talking with them and getting to know them better. At the hotel room, where they had an EPIC bed for the record, Ashley Tim and Missy came back over and we had a great time chatting and playing Zombie Fluxx, which is just a game full of awesome in general. I left a little late and wound up not making it back in time for the start of Cafe Nocturne, but was thankfully still let in. My throat was killing me by this point, and I was just feeling kinda down, but it was a really great and relaxing way to end my evening, and the tea surprisingly felt good on my throat and I think it helped me to feel nice and drowsy. I shoulda stayed and got my photo set signed, but I was so sleepy at that point I couldn't keep my eyes opened and so I toddled off. I slept sitting up and in the morning Tay and David said I hadn't kept them up this night.
Sunday:
Was first up and ready again. Made the dealer's room my first priority. Got a bunch of stuff, including candy. Tay and I then went to get our seats for the Charity Auction, at which point WSG popped back up but Tay pretend we were saving a seat for someone, and I pretended I had a hangover, so he thankfully didn't bother us. We stayed for most of it and had a good time, except that the way flights had been scheduled meant most voice actors couldn't really stay for the auction, so I was unlucky in that sense. But I did snag a set of copic fineliners and a nice sketch book which Sonny Strait signed for me (yay!) Tay got a metric SHITLOAD of stuff, but for reasonable prices, so it was cool. We both snagged subscriptions to the magazine from the panel we had happened to walk in upon, so that turned out to be really cool. After that we made one more hit of the dealer room with Kristina and Tyler, then we went to the room to relax with them for a bit before dinner at Ginko's in the Tatami mat room, which was supercool. For the frst bit I didn't realize that when Kristina said there was a hole under the table, she really meant a big place where you can wind up sitting just like you were in a chair, just sunk into the floor. It was cool all in all though, but Lisa and Theresa wound up having to leave early to catch their ride. Tyler and Kristina came back up to the room for a bit before leaving, and after they left for Woodstock we began watching this moive called Mosaic (featuring the vocal talents of Kirby Morrow) which was so fucking HORRIBLE. It was lame to the nth degree, so we mocked it outrageously until I fell asleep.
Monday:
I'm up first. Huge surprise there, right? We packed up a bit, went to get a last meal at Harvey's before leaving, then back to the room to pack again and make sure we got everything. I left the pig hat Tay got in the auction clipped to a hanger and hanging in the closet full of petty change. I don't know why, it just made me giggle madly at the time. We went downstairs with our swag and just sat on the floor awhile until another group vacated the couch space and we took over. I napped for an hour, then Tay and I grabbed some doughnuts while David guarded the stuff and then we embarked upon the epic 5 hour long Kingdom Hearts discussion, which was just awesome to be able to geek out about my favourtie fandom for such a long period of time. Tay's dad showed up and we managed to stuff everything in the car and took off. I felt incredibly car sick for the first part of the ride 'cause traffic was very start-stop style, but after we got going I felt a bit better. It didn't matter though since we were all feeling very quiet. I got dropped off and got in my house and read some pretty devestating news. My niece needs hearing aids in both ears, she'll likely have them for the rest of her life and since her problem is most likely the same type nerve damage my mom has her hearing will fade continually through the rest of her life. Then I got online and had another Deep Talk with Ashley, and a lighter talk on the side with Bones (sorry Bones!) and finally went to bed around 10:30pm.
So that all in all is the account of my NorthReport 2008. Good times had by all I hope, I know I enjoyed myself. I look forward to other people's accounts to see the things that most stood out for them, the things that they remembered best and wrote down, since even if I was with a person, the things that stand out in their mind might be different from what's in my mind.
We're likely going to get together (those of us who can) and see Indiana Jones today, so I look forward to seeing you all again later! Bye!