May the 28th: CON REPORT TIME-FRIDAY
Long entry is long (3 pages in Word long) so I've provided a very technological solution called an L.J. C.U.T.
This was probably the one day during the entire trip that we managed to wake up perky and ready to go. Well, we did have to deal with the ticking hat all night long, plus I’d gotten a headache too close to bed to use painkillers so I was kept up by that, but I was still raring to go. Put on some cartoons on the TV as we were getting ready (one bathroom+4 people (the other guy left early)=not good!), and, does anyone remember that French cartoon called Totally Spies? Appreantly there is some spin off now and it’s HORRIBLE. I mean, the first show wasn’t great, but this one was a total trainwreck (and none of us managed to look away either).
I’d had the intention of hanging out with El until I ran into someone I knew but I ran into WOku REALLY quickly (seriously, we weren’t even in the convention center yet!) so I was sorta kinda kidnapped by Mokuba (didn’t realize the irony of that until later, need to watch more YGO Abridged). We wandered around (she yelled “CARD GAMES ON MOTORYCYCLES” a lot, but it was a step up from my roommates yelling “VAGINAS ON MOTORCYCLES”) and ran into the rest of that gang outside the AA (let’s see, in addition to WOku’s brother it consisted of Cross, Cyrnaides, Moran, saw Puppet for a minute or two, and Aderyn). I used to get really jealous of all the cool people online who had cool con friends but I think I have now achieved that goal in life and I’m pretty happy about it.
AZ doesn’t really get going until noon on Friday so we hung around and chilled outside/near the AA for a few hours. Found out who was coming, who wasn’t, saw William and Kawaii-ness at one point (they hadn’t been planning to come but got one day badges after all and seemed to have a good time, but I think they were avoiding a lot of the staff). Bit before noon I went back to the hotel and got my contacts in (which went really easily surprisingly) and my wig on (much less easily, didn’t really know how to do it on my own and should practice). I must say though, okay, I’m someone who idetifies people based on hair color/style. But once I learn a face they hair can be anything and I’ll recognize them. Considering other people don’t need to do that, it was kinda funny that I ran into a few classmates at the Steampunk panel and they didn’t recognize me at all. True none of my college friends have seen me in contacts before but really, think I’ll have to make a post on my FB page so people know what to look out for. XD Steampunk panel was alright, but panel presentors need to rely less on powerpoints. They’re really good for pictures and such, but none of us in the back of the room can read any of the print you have up there! And, well, the presenter was a bit late to start so Gina and another random steampunk-er got up on stage to stall and the way they were going about Steampunk was interesting but the actual presenter, ehhhh, something about it was boring.
After the panel (and after I chased down an Intention of the Abyss cosplayer to make sure she would be at the Pandora Hearts photoshoot Saturday, she was already planning to go thank god) I went outside for the Soul Eater photoshoot. I was kinda in charge of it but that’s because the original creators/major movers of the thread on the AZ forums vanished and I just volunteered to do it. Forgot to take into account that I was dressed as a minor character in a newer outfit so all the kids who’ve only watched the anime wouldn’t realize who I was (although, two of the only other people from the thread there were also in the new outfit so I wasn’t much worse off). Really should’ve styled that wig though, ANYWAY, and the other people were kinda, not unfriendly, but a bit standoffish. Usually for photoshoots people will all gather around and start talking or at least listening to each other but some of them were very pointedly sitting nearby but not talking to the rest of us. Thankfully some one else (think it was the guy in the pink shirt) took charge and the shoot got underway and went alright. Another problem I guess is that, when the thread was founded on AZ (and those who are in the thread make the photoshoot since, well, you’re there, you vote and everyone who doesn’t come by has to deal with it) we were planning this to be a Friday shoot, not a Saturday one because most of us had different outfits for then. But plans started changing after the shoot was made and a second one was set for Saturday, which looks like it was a bit bigger. Not begrudging them but those few things kept the shoot from being as good as it could’ve been. Oh, and before I forget, thank you Zaverix for being the Jackie to my Kim! And there was a Killik cosplayer as well, minor zombie killing characters for the win!
By that time I was dying of the heat, got back to the hotel and got my wig off and my Christie cosplay on. And spent a bit of time wrangling my hair into Christie’s hairstyle (seriously, what is up with it?!?). And discovered that the outfit made me look closer to 14/15 than 19 (which is also Christie’s age), I do believe it is a universally acknowledged fact that hair ribbons make you look younger. I didn’t know if people were going to recognize me or not but WOku made an observation on Saturday that, if you cosplay from a well-known series, people only get your picture if you do the outfit well. But, if you do a less-well known series, the people who recognize it are prone to flipping out. I had three or four people ask me what I was cosplaying from and then be pretty happy after I explained. And at one point I was walking down a hall and hear someone clomping after me and it really was someone who guessed and had chased me down. XD So bringing this cosplay back, and converting more people to DramaCon in the meantime.
Hmm, what happened next. Got to the AA and Dealer’s Room at that point, the Dealer’s Room had plenty of room to walk around this year which was great but I did see a number of empty tables in the AA. It seems like the staff wasn’t on the ball as they should’ve been since most people tell them ASAP when they have to cancel and I saw some tables empty all weekend, tables which would’ve been snatched up by tons of other people. And as usual I didn’t bid on anything in the Artist Auction but that’s because I never stay late enough on Sunday just in case. Maybe next I will, there were some cute pictures that I was sad didn’t have any bids on.
Went to the AMV contest in the evening (and not just because WOku was bugging all of us, she had an AMV in the contest, I honestly really wanted to go as well). But the panel before was running late so someone, heck I think it was another con goer, suggested that we line up and I cornered about six pokemon for the pokemon scavenger hunt at that point. Lawl, oh, and the scavenger hunt is about what it sounds like, you track down the pokemon cosplayers, see if they’re in it, and get their signatures in a pokedex that you printed out before hand. I found MewSakura as Parichu, her friend as Skitty, another girl as Rapidash, Zaverix again as Blaizken, her boyfriend as Skarmony (they joke with them was that Skarmony used flash on everyone as soon as he stepped outside), and one more person. And, since the line was pretty long by that point, they were nice and let me scoot in with them.
As for the AMVs themselves, apparently the staff in charge were tense about how we were already running behind and had the AMVs blasting as we came in (I was pretty darn close to the front and missed part of an AMV). And the speakers were up wwwaayyyyyy too loud, spent the first five AMVs or so covering one or both ears and WOku was unhappy that, while her AMV was shown, the stereo wasn’t being utilized right so the song didn’t come out right (and had heard the same of a few other songs she recognized). It was also unsettling that there wasn’t a staff member in charge, it was get in while the AMVs are already playing, watch, and then you’re done. Blank screen, no announcement, nothing. Very unfriendly feeling, miss when William ran it.
After that, pretty sure I had dinner and a bit later I ran into El and we were chatting about plans for the evening (just wanted an idea of when everyone else was planning to hit the sack). And as I was talking Brea came by and chatted with us. She was planning to go to Spike Spencer’s What goes on at the con stays at the con panel and I had been thinking of that as well. So of course I was kidnapped for it and, since it sounded like no one else was going back to the room before midnight anyway, it was fine by me. And oh my god, I seriously recommend checking out that panel. Just, dude, the stories he has about the con, acting, and his own personal experiences (like, how to avoid hookers in Barcelona), it was pretty funny. I recommend going, just don’t be offended if he’s drinking “juice.” But when they mentioned it was a mature panel (16 and up I think) I got worried Brea and I would be carded since both of us looked about 16. I did have my ID with me actually (just in case I found something in the dealers room….) but they just told everyone if they were under 16 to please leave since carding an entire room would be a pain. Brea had to leave a little early because of a storm in the area and she wasn’t staying at a hotel (some staff member came in to tell us if we lost power to all go to one area, I took that mean the rave would start early) and I love the underground tunnel since I didn’t need to bother with the rain at all to get to my hotel room.
So, that was all of Friday I think and Saturday’s post is going to be at least as long I think (and this is already three pages in a word document). But don’t expect that one for another few days at least, need to recharge.
This was probably the one day during the entire trip that we managed to wake up perky and ready to go. Well, we did have to deal with the ticking hat all night long, plus I’d gotten a headache too close to bed to use painkillers so I was kept up by that, but I was still raring to go. Put on some cartoons on the TV as we were getting ready (one bathroom+4 people (the other guy left early)=not good!), and, does anyone remember that French cartoon called Totally Spies? Appreantly there is some spin off now and it’s HORRIBLE. I mean, the first show wasn’t great, but this one was a total trainwreck (and none of us managed to look away either).
I’d had the intention of hanging out with El until I ran into someone I knew but I ran into WOku REALLY quickly (seriously, we weren’t even in the convention center yet!) so I was sorta kinda kidnapped by Mokuba (didn’t realize the irony of that until later, need to watch more YGO Abridged). We wandered around (she yelled “CARD GAMES ON MOTORYCYCLES” a lot, but it was a step up from my roommates yelling “VAGINAS ON MOTORCYCLES”) and ran into the rest of that gang outside the AA (let’s see, in addition to WOku’s brother it consisted of Cross, Cyrnaides, Moran, saw Puppet for a minute or two, and Aderyn). I used to get really jealous of all the cool people online who had cool con friends but I think I have now achieved that goal in life and I’m pretty happy about it.
AZ doesn’t really get going until noon on Friday so we hung around and chilled outside/near the AA for a few hours. Found out who was coming, who wasn’t, saw William and Kawaii-ness at one point (they hadn’t been planning to come but got one day badges after all and seemed to have a good time, but I think they were avoiding a lot of the staff). Bit before noon I went back to the hotel and got my contacts in (which went really easily surprisingly) and my wig on (much less easily, didn’t really know how to do it on my own and should practice). I must say though, okay, I’m someone who idetifies people based on hair color/style. But once I learn a face they hair can be anything and I’ll recognize them. Considering other people don’t need to do that, it was kinda funny that I ran into a few classmates at the Steampunk panel and they didn’t recognize me at all. True none of my college friends have seen me in contacts before but really, think I’ll have to make a post on my FB page so people know what to look out for. XD Steampunk panel was alright, but panel presentors need to rely less on powerpoints. They’re really good for pictures and such, but none of us in the back of the room can read any of the print you have up there! And, well, the presenter was a bit late to start so Gina and another random steampunk-er got up on stage to stall and the way they were going about Steampunk was interesting but the actual presenter, ehhhh, something about it was boring.
After the panel (and after I chased down an Intention of the Abyss cosplayer to make sure she would be at the Pandora Hearts photoshoot Saturday, she was already planning to go thank god) I went outside for the Soul Eater photoshoot. I was kinda in charge of it but that’s because the original creators/major movers of the thread on the AZ forums vanished and I just volunteered to do it. Forgot to take into account that I was dressed as a minor character in a newer outfit so all the kids who’ve only watched the anime wouldn’t realize who I was (although, two of the only other people from the thread there were also in the new outfit so I wasn’t much worse off). Really should’ve styled that wig though, ANYWAY, and the other people were kinda, not unfriendly, but a bit standoffish. Usually for photoshoots people will all gather around and start talking or at least listening to each other but some of them were very pointedly sitting nearby but not talking to the rest of us. Thankfully some one else (think it was the guy in the pink shirt) took charge and the shoot got underway and went alright. Another problem I guess is that, when the thread was founded on AZ (and those who are in the thread make the photoshoot since, well, you’re there, you vote and everyone who doesn’t come by has to deal with it) we were planning this to be a Friday shoot, not a Saturday one because most of us had different outfits for then. But plans started changing after the shoot was made and a second one was set for Saturday, which looks like it was a bit bigger. Not begrudging them but those few things kept the shoot from being as good as it could’ve been. Oh, and before I forget, thank you Zaverix for being the Jackie to my Kim! And there was a Killik cosplayer as well, minor zombie killing characters for the win!
By that time I was dying of the heat, got back to the hotel and got my wig off and my Christie cosplay on. And spent a bit of time wrangling my hair into Christie’s hairstyle (seriously, what is up with it?!?). And discovered that the outfit made me look closer to 14/15 than 19 (which is also Christie’s age), I do believe it is a universally acknowledged fact that hair ribbons make you look younger. I didn’t know if people were going to recognize me or not but WOku made an observation on Saturday that, if you cosplay from a well-known series, people only get your picture if you do the outfit well. But, if you do a less-well known series, the people who recognize it are prone to flipping out. I had three or four people ask me what I was cosplaying from and then be pretty happy after I explained. And at one point I was walking down a hall and hear someone clomping after me and it really was someone who guessed and had chased me down. XD So bringing this cosplay back, and converting more people to DramaCon in the meantime.
Hmm, what happened next. Got to the AA and Dealer’s Room at that point, the Dealer’s Room had plenty of room to walk around this year which was great but I did see a number of empty tables in the AA. It seems like the staff wasn’t on the ball as they should’ve been since most people tell them ASAP when they have to cancel and I saw some tables empty all weekend, tables which would’ve been snatched up by tons of other people. And as usual I didn’t bid on anything in the Artist Auction but that’s because I never stay late enough on Sunday just in case. Maybe next I will, there were some cute pictures that I was sad didn’t have any bids on.
Went to the AMV contest in the evening (and not just because WOku was bugging all of us, she had an AMV in the contest, I honestly really wanted to go as well). But the panel before was running late so someone, heck I think it was another con goer, suggested that we line up and I cornered about six pokemon for the pokemon scavenger hunt at that point. Lawl, oh, and the scavenger hunt is about what it sounds like, you track down the pokemon cosplayers, see if they’re in it, and get their signatures in a pokedex that you printed out before hand. I found MewSakura as Parichu, her friend as Skitty, another girl as Rapidash, Zaverix again as Blaizken, her boyfriend as Skarmony (they joke with them was that Skarmony used flash on everyone as soon as he stepped outside), and one more person. And, since the line was pretty long by that point, they were nice and let me scoot in with them.
As for the AMVs themselves, apparently the staff in charge were tense about how we were already running behind and had the AMVs blasting as we came in (I was pretty darn close to the front and missed part of an AMV). And the speakers were up wwwaayyyyyy too loud, spent the first five AMVs or so covering one or both ears and WOku was unhappy that, while her AMV was shown, the stereo wasn’t being utilized right so the song didn’t come out right (and had heard the same of a few other songs she recognized). It was also unsettling that there wasn’t a staff member in charge, it was get in while the AMVs are already playing, watch, and then you’re done. Blank screen, no announcement, nothing. Very unfriendly feeling, miss when William ran it.
After that, pretty sure I had dinner and a bit later I ran into El and we were chatting about plans for the evening (just wanted an idea of when everyone else was planning to hit the sack). And as I was talking Brea came by and chatted with us. She was planning to go to Spike Spencer’s What goes on at the con stays at the con panel and I had been thinking of that as well. So of course I was kidnapped for it and, since it sounded like no one else was going back to the room before midnight anyway, it was fine by me. And oh my god, I seriously recommend checking out that panel. Just, dude, the stories he has about the con, acting, and his own personal experiences (like, how to avoid hookers in Barcelona), it was pretty funny. I recommend going, just don’t be offended if he’s drinking “juice.” But when they mentioned it was a mature panel (16 and up I think) I got worried Brea and I would be carded since both of us looked about 16. I did have my ID with me actually (just in case I found something in the dealers room….) but they just told everyone if they were under 16 to please leave since carding an entire room would be a pain. Brea had to leave a little early because of a storm in the area and she wasn’t staying at a hotel (some staff member came in to tell us if we lost power to all go to one area, I took that mean the rave would start early) and I love the underground tunnel since I didn’t need to bother with the rain at all to get to my hotel room.
So, that was all of Friday I think and Saturday’s post is going to be at least as long I think (and this is already three pages in a word document). But don’t expect that one for another few days at least, need to recharge.