Super long post. Thank me for the cut, and don't say I didn't warn ya!
So, I'm back...
This journal entry is pretty much all about Otakon..
First.. the week. It appears that my last real entry was a week ago today. It appears that Mondays are some of the best days for getting a few minutes to myself and reminiscing on the week, and heck, it keeps me from flooding friends lists. So that works out.
Clearing the yard was indeed quite a bit of work. It took four full truck loads to the dump to clear it all, and there are still some things out there small enough to go into trash bags for further removal. That was horrid. Both Chad and I reacted to something or another we cleared. However, since he was on one side picking it up and hoisting it over his head, he got the worst of it. Well, that and the universe's natural hatred of him. I just got some hives on my arms. He ended up with a swollen head (snicker) and an epinephrine shot. Tuesday night was spent cleaning my room, which ended up involving mostly sorting Magic cards, and then some of us went over to Jack's place and played Magic. Wednesday night I spent the evening cleaning more, and getting clothes washed and set aside for Otakon. Thursday was more of the same, because I hate coming home from a vacation to a trashed room/house.
Since Becky didn't get back to me for so long about giving her a ride, at Martin's suggestion, I bought an Amtrak ticket to Baltimore. Within twenty minutes of buying the ticket, Becky IMed me and said she wanted a ride. Luckily, canceling costs nothing, so I checked all the fluids in the truck and drove out to her place to pick her up in Poquoson.
Otakon 2007!
Becky kept me excellent company on the drive up, and the directions I got were surprisingly good. So we parked the truck in the Long Term Airport parking at BWI 30 minutes south of Baltimore Inner Harbor, and hoofed the Light Rail up to the hotel. Sadly, the machine that sells tickets ate my $20 bill for a $1.60 ticket. More on that later. The ride was neat, and I spent the entire time talking to two guys that work at BWI driving buses for less than $15 an hour. Made me feel a lot better about my job, trust me. I gotta quit hanging out with people making well more than me. :)
Settled in and didn't do much that first night. We were too late to help set up, and too late to get our badges that evening. So we inflated some air mattresses, and I bedded down with Jerry, Martin, and Moose. Becky, Steph, Dizzy, and Marlene got the other room. Neat how evenly that all worked out. That night, I was reminded that Moose and Martin snore... Loudly.
Friday we set up the booth the rest of the way, got our badges squared, and opened late with the Dealer's Room. I spent most of that day at the booth, really using that day to get my time in. I did pretty good at selling pre-registrations in my own opinion. I only steped out once around 2:45 pm to see about getting an autograph for Anne at the 3:30 pm to 4:30 pm autograph panel for Steve Blum After waiting until 4:25 pm they finally told us that we didn't stand a chance, and that all the autographs were given out to people who attended his panel beforehand. I wandered the dealer's room for the first of several times, and bought the second soundtrack for Hellsing. Once the dealer's room closed at 8:00 pm, Martin, Jerry, Moose, Becky, and I went over to Uno's for dinner. After some horrid service, the manager comped the meal. People were tired and everyone crashed in short order.
Saturday was the same start, and I dipped out for another shot at the autograph, this time by attending the Steve Blum Q&A Panel from 1:00 pm to 2:00 pm to see if I could get one of those tickets. I arrived in line at 11:45 am and waited for an hour and a quarter to get in, then another hour of the panel, which was mildly entertaining, only for them to say at the end that they did not have any tickets to give out. Arg! So I went back to the dealer's room table, only to find that we were heavily overstaffed, and after wandering again, this time buying the Master Arms Cerberus gun of Vincent's from FFVII, I went to go see “Kill!” at the 35mm room, only to find that it was eaten, and they showed Spirited Away instead. Since I had actually managed to get this far in life without seeing it, I stayed and enjoyed it very much. By the time I returned to the table, it was 30 minutes until closing, and once it closed at 6:00 pm we all discussed doing another dinner. This time Steph and Dizzy came out with Martin, Jerry, and I, while Moose took Marlene and Becky to another dinner for the Anime Convention Leaders or some-such. After failed attempts at multiple food places with long lines, Steph and Dizzy peeled off, and the rest of us ended up in a place called La Toscas (I think). We got this huge shared dish that was absolutely excellent, with yellowed rice, chicken cubes, spanish sausage, asparagus, green beans, string beans, and red peppers. Magnificent! We also got some Sangrias to drink, and to top it all off, Martin paid! After all the people came back from their respective dinners, we sat around in the girl's room for quite a while jaw-jagging, discussing whether people wanted to go to various panels, and a few of us decided to head back to the convention for some late-night wanderings. We ended up in the Fan Parody Panel, and got quite a few laughs. The sound was horrid, and the high notes beat into my brain to the point where I was scared I was going to be deaf the next day, but most of it was funny, and it ended with a showing of the Otakumentary. Seen it a few times, but it was worth some chuckles. They started another running of older ones, but I couldn't take the noise, and I had some phone calls to return, so I poofed. Gave me extra time to get my bags all pre-sorted and ready to pack quickly for Sunday so I could be ready to leave the hotel room early.
Sunday I got sorted and took my two bags to the dealer's room to drop them off. After meandering the dealer's room again, and falling in love with a Wizzywig character called Gloomy, I bought a solar-powered head-bobbing figurine of his. Very wonderfully creepy. Then Becky and I ran off for the seating at the Eminence concert. We ended up with some great seats off to the side where it seems no one realized there were tons of empty seats. I was on the end of the row, and Becky started off in the next seat, and ended up a seat over after tons of shifting around and climbing around on the chairs. Very funny to watch. It was a part of the orchestra they've nicknamed “Destiny” to differentiate it from the full orchestra called Eminence. They were flabbergastingly excellent, and the real high point of the entire convention for me. I an so incredibly happy that Becky suggested it, and will be in her debt. We thought about waiting around to buy their CD and get signatures, but it looked like it was going to take a really long time and the dealer's room closed super early Sunday. I did get a few of their songs recorded using my Bond watch, if anyone wants to hear them. Not the world's best recordings, but you can get the idea, and I've listened to them a few times and will continue to do so to relive the memory. We ended up at the booth talking about the concert for a while, but we were again pretty heavily staffed, so I wandered. This time I took my time, looked for wall scrolls for Frank, and any other figurines I might like. I stumbled across an art book from Kim Hyung Tae, who is best known for his work on Magna Carta. Oxide 2, which was let go for a measly $40. A great deal!
Once we packed up the booth at 4:00 pm we didn't get everything in the van until nearly 5:30 pm, and Moose and Steph took off to go do their own things. We ate at Uno's again, and had great service this time. We talked to the manager again to let him know that Angel, our server, was excellent. Martin was kind enough to pay yet again. Talk about generous! Afterward, Becky and I piled back into the Light Rail after a short delay that held us up before getting aboard. Once that was cleared, it was a fun ride back to BWI, talking to some locals about Otakon. In the truck, we got some gas, waters to drink, and took off. Right around Ashland, just past the half-way mark we stopped for ice cream, Becky's treat. Yummy McDonald's Ice Cream Sundae! Man, I think it's been a good three years since I had one of those. After dropping her off, I turned down some late-night offers for hanging out to crash after unpacking my clean un-used clothes, and throwing my dirties in the wash.
Monday was spent recovering, with some anime watching from demo disks I picked up from the industry tables, and some phone calls regarding that machine swallowing my $20. They said they can return the change difference if I send them the ticket. Then that night I went to the poker tourney. I did well enough, and I'm in the final inter-bar game against everyone else who succeeded in making it to the end. That's the final game for $5,000! Wish me luck! So now it's past midnight, so officially Tuesday. I dread returning to work, miss Otakon and the people we had there, and want to remember every moment of it. I smiled so much my jaw is a hair sore. That's why this has been so insanely long. Heck, just thinking about it is threatening to make me go all mushy. I need to go check out Gloomy and imagine him killing "Meatie" the human to get back into the spirit.
Aftermarket:
So far, I have Tuesday night set to hang out with Frank, watch some anime, and if that falls through, I'll be watching Guyver with Scott. Wednesday I'll be hanging out with Steve over at his place, Thursday or Friday I'll be over at mom's house telling her all of this stuff, and Saturday night is game night. Sunday is Crysta's birthday party... and something else that I know I'm forgetting, but I can't recall. Monday is more poker. If anyone wants to hang out sometime, just let me know! I do so love hanging out after work! Peace!
This journal entry is pretty much all about Otakon..
First.. the week. It appears that my last real entry was a week ago today. It appears that Mondays are some of the best days for getting a few minutes to myself and reminiscing on the week, and heck, it keeps me from flooding friends lists. So that works out.
Clearing the yard was indeed quite a bit of work. It took four full truck loads to the dump to clear it all, and there are still some things out there small enough to go into trash bags for further removal. That was horrid. Both Chad and I reacted to something or another we cleared. However, since he was on one side picking it up and hoisting it over his head, he got the worst of it. Well, that and the universe's natural hatred of him. I just got some hives on my arms. He ended up with a swollen head (snicker) and an epinephrine shot. Tuesday night was spent cleaning my room, which ended up involving mostly sorting Magic cards, and then some of us went over to Jack's place and played Magic. Wednesday night I spent the evening cleaning more, and getting clothes washed and set aside for Otakon. Thursday was more of the same, because I hate coming home from a vacation to a trashed room/house.
Since Becky didn't get back to me for so long about giving her a ride, at Martin's suggestion, I bought an Amtrak ticket to Baltimore. Within twenty minutes of buying the ticket, Becky IMed me and said she wanted a ride. Luckily, canceling costs nothing, so I checked all the fluids in the truck and drove out to her place to pick her up in Poquoson.
Otakon 2007!
Becky kept me excellent company on the drive up, and the directions I got were surprisingly good. So we parked the truck in the Long Term Airport parking at BWI 30 minutes south of Baltimore Inner Harbor, and hoofed the Light Rail up to the hotel. Sadly, the machine that sells tickets ate my $20 bill for a $1.60 ticket. More on that later. The ride was neat, and I spent the entire time talking to two guys that work at BWI driving buses for less than $15 an hour. Made me feel a lot better about my job, trust me. I gotta quit hanging out with people making well more than me. :)
Settled in and didn't do much that first night. We were too late to help set up, and too late to get our badges that evening. So we inflated some air mattresses, and I bedded down with Jerry, Martin, and Moose. Becky, Steph, Dizzy, and Marlene got the other room. Neat how evenly that all worked out. That night, I was reminded that Moose and Martin snore... Loudly.
Friday we set up the booth the rest of the way, got our badges squared, and opened late with the Dealer's Room. I spent most of that day at the booth, really using that day to get my time in. I did pretty good at selling pre-registrations in my own opinion. I only steped out once around 2:45 pm to see about getting an autograph for Anne at the 3:30 pm to 4:30 pm autograph panel for Steve Blum After waiting until 4:25 pm they finally told us that we didn't stand a chance, and that all the autographs were given out to people who attended his panel beforehand. I wandered the dealer's room for the first of several times, and bought the second soundtrack for Hellsing. Once the dealer's room closed at 8:00 pm, Martin, Jerry, Moose, Becky, and I went over to Uno's for dinner. After some horrid service, the manager comped the meal. People were tired and everyone crashed in short order.
Saturday was the same start, and I dipped out for another shot at the autograph, this time by attending the Steve Blum Q&A Panel from 1:00 pm to 2:00 pm to see if I could get one of those tickets. I arrived in line at 11:45 am and waited for an hour and a quarter to get in, then another hour of the panel, which was mildly entertaining, only for them to say at the end that they did not have any tickets to give out. Arg! So I went back to the dealer's room table, only to find that we were heavily overstaffed, and after wandering again, this time buying the Master Arms Cerberus gun of Vincent's from FFVII, I went to go see “Kill!” at the 35mm room, only to find that it was eaten, and they showed Spirited Away instead. Since I had actually managed to get this far in life without seeing it, I stayed and enjoyed it very much. By the time I returned to the table, it was 30 minutes until closing, and once it closed at 6:00 pm we all discussed doing another dinner. This time Steph and Dizzy came out with Martin, Jerry, and I, while Moose took Marlene and Becky to another dinner for the Anime Convention Leaders or some-such. After failed attempts at multiple food places with long lines, Steph and Dizzy peeled off, and the rest of us ended up in a place called La Toscas (I think). We got this huge shared dish that was absolutely excellent, with yellowed rice, chicken cubes, spanish sausage, asparagus, green beans, string beans, and red peppers. Magnificent! We also got some Sangrias to drink, and to top it all off, Martin paid! After all the people came back from their respective dinners, we sat around in the girl's room for quite a while jaw-jagging, discussing whether people wanted to go to various panels, and a few of us decided to head back to the convention for some late-night wanderings. We ended up in the Fan Parody Panel, and got quite a few laughs. The sound was horrid, and the high notes beat into my brain to the point where I was scared I was going to be deaf the next day, but most of it was funny, and it ended with a showing of the Otakumentary. Seen it a few times, but it was worth some chuckles. They started another running of older ones, but I couldn't take the noise, and I had some phone calls to return, so I poofed. Gave me extra time to get my bags all pre-sorted and ready to pack quickly for Sunday so I could be ready to leave the hotel room early.
Sunday I got sorted and took my two bags to the dealer's room to drop them off. After meandering the dealer's room again, and falling in love with a Wizzywig character called Gloomy, I bought a solar-powered head-bobbing figurine of his. Very wonderfully creepy. Then Becky and I ran off for the seating at the Eminence concert. We ended up with some great seats off to the side where it seems no one realized there were tons of empty seats. I was on the end of the row, and Becky started off in the next seat, and ended up a seat over after tons of shifting around and climbing around on the chairs. Very funny to watch. It was a part of the orchestra they've nicknamed “Destiny” to differentiate it from the full orchestra called Eminence. They were flabbergastingly excellent, and the real high point of the entire convention for me. I an so incredibly happy that Becky suggested it, and will be in her debt. We thought about waiting around to buy their CD and get signatures, but it looked like it was going to take a really long time and the dealer's room closed super early Sunday. I did get a few of their songs recorded using my Bond watch, if anyone wants to hear them. Not the world's best recordings, but you can get the idea, and I've listened to them a few times and will continue to do so to relive the memory. We ended up at the booth talking about the concert for a while, but we were again pretty heavily staffed, so I wandered. This time I took my time, looked for wall scrolls for Frank, and any other figurines I might like. I stumbled across an art book from Kim Hyung Tae, who is best known for his work on Magna Carta. Oxide 2, which was let go for a measly $40. A great deal!
Once we packed up the booth at 4:00 pm we didn't get everything in the van until nearly 5:30 pm, and Moose and Steph took off to go do their own things. We ate at Uno's again, and had great service this time. We talked to the manager again to let him know that Angel, our server, was excellent. Martin was kind enough to pay yet again. Talk about generous! Afterward, Becky and I piled back into the Light Rail after a short delay that held us up before getting aboard. Once that was cleared, it was a fun ride back to BWI, talking to some locals about Otakon. In the truck, we got some gas, waters to drink, and took off. Right around Ashland, just past the half-way mark we stopped for ice cream, Becky's treat. Yummy McDonald's Ice Cream Sundae! Man, I think it's been a good three years since I had one of those. After dropping her off, I turned down some late-night offers for hanging out to crash after unpacking my clean un-used clothes, and throwing my dirties in the wash.
Monday was spent recovering, with some anime watching from demo disks I picked up from the industry tables, and some phone calls regarding that machine swallowing my $20. They said they can return the change difference if I send them the ticket. Then that night I went to the poker tourney. I did well enough, and I'm in the final inter-bar game against everyone else who succeeded in making it to the end. That's the final game for $5,000! Wish me luck! So now it's past midnight, so officially Tuesday. I dread returning to work, miss Otakon and the people we had there, and want to remember every moment of it. I smiled so much my jaw is a hair sore. That's why this has been so insanely long. Heck, just thinking about it is threatening to make me go all mushy. I need to go check out Gloomy and imagine him killing "Meatie" the human to get back into the spirit.
Aftermarket:
So far, I have Tuesday night set to hang out with Frank, watch some anime, and if that falls through, I'll be watching Guyver with Scott. Wednesday I'll be hanging out with Steve over at his place, Thursday or Friday I'll be over at mom's house telling her all of this stuff, and Saturday night is game night. Sunday is Crysta's birthday party... and something else that I know I'm forgetting, but I can't recall. Monday is more poker. If anyone wants to hang out sometime, just let me know! I do so love hanging out after work! Peace!