Weekend Recap - SoCal Gathering/Iron Man 2
Saturday started off a little rough. I went to bed at around midnight and hoped to get an acceptable amount of sleep. I ended up waking up at about 1:30 and couldn't go back to sleep. I don't know if it was because it was a little warmer that night or what. I just couldn't get very comfortable. There were periods where I would doze off for a few minutes, wake up, look at the clock, and notice that only a few minutes had passed. Those periods of dozing off were very few. At 4:30, I gave up and decided that I might as well get up for good.
I had breakfast and packed up the TV and whatever I didn't load on Friday night and left for the park a little after 7AM. After an ATM stop, I managed to arrive at the shelter a little before 8AM. There were three random female cosplayers there listening to music and drawing. They wanted to get there early to get a parking spot. There wasn't even any staff there yet. One of the girls volunteered to help me carry the TV in and that was really sweet of her. Right after I got all of my stuff unloaded from my car, staff started showing up with supplies. It gradually picked up from there. There were quite a few people who arrived before the official start time of the event.
Rock Band took awhile to set up as usual. I don't know why when I set this up at somebody's house, it seems to not take so long. Other than using an in-house TV, I can't imagine what the difference is. I guess it's just a lot more difficult outdoors, where stuff like this isn't meant to be. I was finally satisfied with the calibration a little after 11 AM and opened it up for business. It was nice to see people have so much fun with it. That makes me happy. I guess Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'" got put on the unofficial list of shame. It deserved that after getting played so many times in the first hour. I didn't put 365 songs on that thing so that people can play the same song over and over again. "Bad Romance" was also getting pretty close to list of shame status. Once Rock Band got going, it was full for the whole day and that's good. I had to stop it a few times. Once was to recalibrate. I also had to stop it for Iron Cosplay and the raffle, but people were always ready to go when I re-opened it.
It was nice to see a lot of people yesterday, even if it was just for a few minutes before you go off for a photoshoot or to find shade, etc. I was able to socialize a little bit. So, thanks to all the people who stopped to say hi and talk and tell me how things are going. The SoCal picnic is a pretty awesome event. I like this location a lot better. The park staff pretty much just left us alone other than to empty the garbage cans. People come from out of state and even out of the country. I read coscom and read about other picnics in other areas of the country and those are nothing like the one we have. Over 500 people is pretty impressive.
My day was pretty much what I expected it to be. I kept Rock Band running. I had time to take a few photos of random stuff. I talked to a few folks who had time. I ate a ton of hamburgers and hot dogs. That's all I expected. I put on some sunscreen, but ended up getting a little burned anyway. I guess I should have reapplied some at some point during the day. Next year, I'm leaning towards not bringing Rock Band. This was my third SoCal picnic and I've brought Rock Band to all of those. I've never been to a SoCal picnic where I can just relax and do whatever for the whole time I was there. Bringing all of that stuff is a lot of work. I know it brings a lot of happiness to people that I set this up at SoCal picnic. Some people have even told me that it's the best part of the picnic for them and it's the only thing that makes the picnic somewhat bearable. I'm glad that I can do that for people, but maybe I need a break and I hope people will understand that. I know on coscom, some guy has volunteered to bring another video game system so the picnic will not be without video gaming. Maybe just let him have a chance at it.
After packing up, went to dinner at The Hat with slave_to_anime , talonomega , chase_the_bunny , dust_eden , ravendarkwings , eeveil , Ben, Skye, I dunno who else, but we took 3 tables. I've never eaten at The Hat before but I didn't realize that a small order of fries was about 1/2 of a lunch sack of fries. I wasn't very hungry to begin with and gave some to whoever wanted some. In the end, we still could not finish this bag of fries. I was pretty out of it by 8PM. I was pretty exhausted after the long day and lack of sleep, so I was the first to head home. It was a fun day, but I was exhausted. I set up the television and the xbox and went to bed. It was another rough night. I woke up several times competely drenched in sweat. My shirt was drenched. It was not good, but at least I was able to go back to sleep even with all of this and actually slept most of the time.
Today, I went to see Iron Man 2. It was a 10AM show and the theater was full. That is very uncommon for a morning screening. I thought it was pretty good, but not as good as the first one. I guess it's one of those movies that serves as a lead-in to a bunch of other movies like Captain America, Thor, and The Avengers, which are all coming out in the next year or two. Nick Fury is showing up in all of these Marvel movies and dropping hints. I would have liked to see better fights between Iron Man and Whiplash. Even the final fight was kinda meh. I was entertained though. As usual, sit through all of the credits to find out some interesting information. Nice to have Black Widow in this movie.
After having lunch at the Hawaiian BBQ I came home and put the drum kit back together and cleaned the mats up. I spent most of the afternoon watching basketball and doing laundry. I just wanted to relax for bit. I think I'm still recovering though.
I had breakfast and packed up the TV and whatever I didn't load on Friday night and left for the park a little after 7AM. After an ATM stop, I managed to arrive at the shelter a little before 8AM. There were three random female cosplayers there listening to music and drawing. They wanted to get there early to get a parking spot. There wasn't even any staff there yet. One of the girls volunteered to help me carry the TV in and that was really sweet of her. Right after I got all of my stuff unloaded from my car, staff started showing up with supplies. It gradually picked up from there. There were quite a few people who arrived before the official start time of the event.
Rock Band took awhile to set up as usual. I don't know why when I set this up at somebody's house, it seems to not take so long. Other than using an in-house TV, I can't imagine what the difference is. I guess it's just a lot more difficult outdoors, where stuff like this isn't meant to be. I was finally satisfied with the calibration a little after 11 AM and opened it up for business. It was nice to see people have so much fun with it. That makes me happy. I guess Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'" got put on the unofficial list of shame. It deserved that after getting played so many times in the first hour. I didn't put 365 songs on that thing so that people can play the same song over and over again. "Bad Romance" was also getting pretty close to list of shame status. Once Rock Band got going, it was full for the whole day and that's good. I had to stop it a few times. Once was to recalibrate. I also had to stop it for Iron Cosplay and the raffle, but people were always ready to go when I re-opened it.
It was nice to see a lot of people yesterday, even if it was just for a few minutes before you go off for a photoshoot or to find shade, etc. I was able to socialize a little bit. So, thanks to all the people who stopped to say hi and talk and tell me how things are going. The SoCal picnic is a pretty awesome event. I like this location a lot better. The park staff pretty much just left us alone other than to empty the garbage cans. People come from out of state and even out of the country. I read coscom and read about other picnics in other areas of the country and those are nothing like the one we have. Over 500 people is pretty impressive.
My day was pretty much what I expected it to be. I kept Rock Band running. I had time to take a few photos of random stuff. I talked to a few folks who had time. I ate a ton of hamburgers and hot dogs. That's all I expected. I put on some sunscreen, but ended up getting a little burned anyway. I guess I should have reapplied some at some point during the day. Next year, I'm leaning towards not bringing Rock Band. This was my third SoCal picnic and I've brought Rock Band to all of those. I've never been to a SoCal picnic where I can just relax and do whatever for the whole time I was there. Bringing all of that stuff is a lot of work. I know it brings a lot of happiness to people that I set this up at SoCal picnic. Some people have even told me that it's the best part of the picnic for them and it's the only thing that makes the picnic somewhat bearable. I'm glad that I can do that for people, but maybe I need a break and I hope people will understand that. I know on coscom, some guy has volunteered to bring another video game system so the picnic will not be without video gaming. Maybe just let him have a chance at it.
After packing up, went to dinner at The Hat with slave_to_anime , talonomega , chase_the_bunny , dust_eden , ravendarkwings , eeveil , Ben, Skye, I dunno who else, but we took 3 tables. I've never eaten at The Hat before but I didn't realize that a small order of fries was about 1/2 of a lunch sack of fries. I wasn't very hungry to begin with and gave some to whoever wanted some. In the end, we still could not finish this bag of fries. I was pretty out of it by 8PM. I was pretty exhausted after the long day and lack of sleep, so I was the first to head home. It was a fun day, but I was exhausted. I set up the television and the xbox and went to bed. It was another rough night. I woke up several times competely drenched in sweat. My shirt was drenched. It was not good, but at least I was able to go back to sleep even with all of this and actually slept most of the time.
Today, I went to see Iron Man 2. It was a 10AM show and the theater was full. That is very uncommon for a morning screening. I thought it was pretty good, but not as good as the first one. I guess it's one of those movies that serves as a lead-in to a bunch of other movies like Captain America, Thor, and The Avengers, which are all coming out in the next year or two. Nick Fury is showing up in all of these Marvel movies and dropping hints. I would have liked to see better fights between Iron Man and Whiplash. Even the final fight was kinda meh. I was entertained though. As usual, sit through all of the credits to find out some interesting information. Nice to have Black Widow in this movie.
After having lunch at the Hawaiian BBQ I came home and put the drum kit back together and cleaned the mats up. I spent most of the afternoon watching basketball and doing laundry. I just wanted to relax for bit. I think I'm still recovering though.