the better part of me

Rickrolls, Portal, and The Game

AB2008 was... full of problems ^^;; but fortunately none of them affected me. :D I didn't get around to writing any con reports during the con, so I'm going to attempt it all in one go.

( Wednesday/Thursday )

( Friday )

I've been working on this con report for three hours. @_@ I'll finish it later.

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday! Last day of the con!

Got up at the time I'd planned, loaded up my car, checked out of the hotel, and hurried over to the convention center... only to discover that the bento box event was at 1:30, and not noon like I thought. There was some interesting stuff I'd missed at 10 AM, too. Should've looked at the schedule. -_-

So I spent an hour wandering around the dealer's room... big mistake. I spent waaaay too much in there, especially for a small con like this. I forgot to snap a picture of my loot, so I might post that tonight. I also checked out what passed for an Artist's Alley... except for one of the girls out in the hallway... who I'd promised on Saturday when I was waiting in the cosplay line that I'd check out her stuff Sunday when I wasn't burdened by my staff etc. And I didn't have time to stop by before the bento event. And when the event ended, she had packed up and gone. I felt really bad. ;_;

But I wanted to get to the bento event early as suggested so I could get a cute bento box. The previous panel was still clearing out when I got there, but I'm pretty sure I was the first person there for the bento thing. The staffer running it was a bit frazzled, since it was Sunday and all, and the convention people weren't showing up to set up tables... but I pointed out the tables were already in the room, just stacked up against the wall, and then helped set up the tables and get chairs around them. About a third of the people coming in for the event helped, but the rest of them just hung out in the back of the room chatting and, as it turned out, probably lining up to get good bento boxes. So when we finished and they started handing out the boxes, I joined half of the guys in cutting to the front of the line, something I would normally never do but there was no way I was going to get stuck at the end when I'd been there first and helped set up while everyone else was being lazy and greedy. No way. So I cut in line and didn't feel bad about it at all. >3

Then I did a selfish thing. It turned out the girl who had put up the money for the con to buy the bento supplies in advance really wanted one of the blue boxes that came with its own bag, which was the kind that I'd picked, and they'd forgotten to save one for her. So the staffer running the event had to make someone trade theirs for a pink one with no bag. She let the first person she spotted keep their blue one because it was a guy ( >( ) and then she was looking at me, but I hung on to mine for dear life. I'd paid my money like everyone else, and shown up early, and helped set up and everything, and I really really wanted that blue bento. ^^;; She got someone behind me to trade theirs instead. I did feel kind of bad about that, since the girl who lent the money for the event deserved the box of her choice, but... I really wanted it. ;_;

So anyway. The staffer told us the basics of bento lunches and went through assembling one with the ingredients on a table at the front. Then we got to go up and fill our own boxes. They were the two-layer kind, so we filled the bottom part with white rice, and the top with the basic snack things they provided like carrots and fruit slices and nuts. There were also little bottles for soy sauce, and cute plastic toothpicks and dividers. ^^ Then it was eating time! The guys at my table were admiring my apparent skill with chopsticks that I didn't know I possessed. o_O;; It was fun, I may try to make lunches with this sometimes. I friended the bentolunch comm here on LJ. ^^

After the bento thingy I took all my purchases and stuff out to my car, took some more pictures, and went to the con feedback session to listen in. Apparently they've somehow convinced the convention center to let them allow outside food next year, which is a miracle in itself. o.o The food restrictions is one of the major downfalls to having an event in a convention center. Their discussion of the downsides to providing a consuite gave me an idea for Detour, which I plan to suggest to our consuite department.

After that was Closing Ceremonies, with the usual fond farewells from the guests, and that was the end of Sogen. (BTW, turns out that new Kakkoi Con thing here in the Twin Cities is run by Sogen's parent organization. Didn't know that.) All in all, not a bad little con, but I think it's a bit too little for me. There were some creative events I haven't seen anywhere else, and it seemed to be good for meeting new people, but since I'm not social and didn't have any friends with me it was a bit lonely and had a lot of dead time. I don't think I'll be going again unless I'm with a group, or really have nothing else to do that weekend.

So that's my last con until spring. I still didn't meet serria :( And I didn't see Craig (Oklahoma) all weekend, I thought he was going to be there?

And now, ( pictures! )

And that was that!

Well, I forgot the anti-ego gear. Oh well, it doesn't go over as well at small cons anyway.

I got a late start, surprise surprise, but the con didn't start until around 4:00 so it wasn't that big of a deal. The trip was happily uneventful. The southwest corner of Minnesota seems to be entirely made up of farms powered by wind. o.O

The hotel here (Sioux Falls, SD) is amazingly awesome. There's a gorgeous fountain/garden area in the lobby, I wish I had someone with me to take pictures of me there in my costume tomorrow. Oh well. :\

After checking in and moving in my stuff (nice room in a great location in the building, too!) I quickly put some paint on the new shoulder pieces I made for my cosplay, and then tried to make it to Opening Ceremonies. Unfortunately, the convention center wasn't quite the hop skip and jump away that I thought it was, and the prereg pickup line, while short, was extremely slow. And then I had to run to the ATM and get some cash to register for the bento box workshop. The line for that was also very short and painfully slow, with some drunk attendees (already drunk!) and a chatty staff member. The staff here seems friendly and welcoming so far... but they really need to learn some SPEED. Holy crap. I'm glad it wasn't the size of line I'm used to at other cons, I would've been there all night.

So I missed Opening Ceremonies, but just for the heck of it I decided to go to the Mecha Combat panel. Not really my thing, but it was pretty interesting, they talked a lot about the realistic possibilities of mecha and the chances that we might start seeing these things in the real world. Smart guys, interesting thoughts. One of the panelists reminded me a hell of a lot of a guy I knew in a summer program during high school, though, and it was kind of freaking me out.

After that I breezed through the dealer's room, which is small but has some good stuff. I wasn't quite sure where the Artist's Alley stands, there seemed to be some of it in the dealer's room and some outside in the hallway. Maybe it'll be clearer tomorrow. There's someone there doing tarot readings, that's new. o_O I saw a guy from Detour in the dealer's room but he didn't recognize me. So it goes. Sogen's kind of weird in the social sense, too... it seems like half the people are really friendly, and the other half are looking at me kind of funny, like it's a private party I'm wandering into. Of course, the crowd's small, so individuals stick out more. (Speaking of the crowd, it seems to be largely populated by shrieking fangirls, and the convention center is uncarpeted. Ouch. x_x)

Then it was time for another coat of paint on the cosplay stuff, and The Great Errand Adventure. I needed food and some minor supplies, so I headed out and tried to follow the directions in the con newsletter thingy. Ended up in the middle of nowhere. Tried the other way with more success, and eventually found a Walgreens where I could pick up the stuff I needed, plus Subway for dinner.

When I got back I sewed for a while to fix a major mistake I made on my cosplay yesterday (GRR) and then went to "Whose VA Is It Anyway?" which was improv like the TV show with the guests as the players. That was pretty darn hilarious, which is easy to guess being that Greg and Chris and Monica are here. Plus it was an 18+ event, so there was all sorts of amusement going on. :3 Four words: Well-endowed space vampires. (or is that three words?)

After that it was back to the room to finish the sewing, which I did. Now I just have to fix the choker and then it's off to bed. There's a MST3K event I want to go to tomorrow, so I have to get up early enough to get my cosplay on in time to make it there. Ugh. x_x

No pics thus far, cosplay here is pretty lacking. Hopefully tomorrow will be better.

And the second half of my con report.

( Babble )

( Pics )

No pics of my own cosplay today, I need to take some better ones of the finished components first.

(wow, I can't believe how many comments that got. ^^;;)

Yes, this is really old and stale, but there were some important post-con moments I want to remember, so I'm still gonna write up and post this. So nyah. :P

( But I'll cut it, so you don't have to see it if you don't care. )

Now, of course, I'm focused on Anime Iowa. I have a room in the hotel and my registration went through, so I'm all set as far as the essentials go. Lots of work to be done, though... I'm still planning to enter the AMV contest, and I'm hoping to finish my first cosplay as well. Yay cons! :D

Before I get to Saturday, there's an important bit of Friday I forgot to add. On our way over to the dealer's room with Chaos and Mel, we ran into some of the Fanboys crowd in the parking lot. csi_tokyo3 was there, and he had the Sailormoon S DVD boxset he'd picked up for me ZOMGYAY. I handed over the cash and he handed over the discs and now I finally have a season S set that (hopefully) will play all the way through! (I haven't had a chance to test it yet.) Nightbreak, you're a lifesaver. Thanks again. ^_____^

Hysteria (Ysabet, nominated for three UFO Awards on .moon), was also there and did a double take when she saw the name on my con badge. xD Not only had she been getting several emails from me recently regarding the UFOs, she also uses the "Chaos on PuD" icon I made on her journal. Yay recognition! :D

Now for Saturday...

Got up relatively early on Saturday to go to the fanfiction awards. I'd bought some rope at a convenience store (why do we not have those in the states?? So handy), so I used that to tie the anti-ego sword to my hip and brought it and the shield along. I got some semi-cosplay-type attention at a con for the first time with those. It was a pretty weird experience after being just another face in the crowd for half a dozen cons but... I think I could get used to it. :3

Ry came with me to the awards, and after making an idiot of myself by speeding down to the far end of the hotel before checking the map and finding out the event was way back at the other end, we got there partway through Steve Savage's opening speech. Pretty soon he started announcing the winners and handing out the award certificates. And I won something. ^^; He'd notified me in advance that I was a winner, but the category was a surprise. And it was... Best Use of Setting. o_O I'd submitted "Full Circle." Setting. Oooookay. Both Ry and I were pretty floored by that. Savage (wtf do I call him anyway? That? Steve?) said it was a tough category to choose a winner for, and there is sort of a setting contrast in the story between the soldiers' retreat and Crystal Tokyo, but yeah. Pretty odd. I finally win something and it's a weird category like this. ^^;; He did say I came close to winning for Characterization, though. There was one winner who'd only been writing for six months and hadn't used a beta. I hope the contest entries actually make it onto the con website this year, I'd like to read hers.

After the awards were handed out he invited the winners to form an impromptu panel on stage, which I joined, because, well, why not. There was some Q&A but I don't really remember any of the discussion from that part of the event. Afterwards the remaining people in the room formed a roundtable and we had more of a general casual discussion about fanfic, and trends and practices in fanfic. Very nice. We talked about the decline in fic writers wanting to become published fiction writers, and the crackdown on original characters, and I won some brownie points by suggesting interest in moving on to original work may be waning since any attempt to practice by creating non-canon elements gets stomped on.

While we were talking about original works, one of the people there mentioned his original story, and when Savage asked where it was hosted he said it was on .moon. Squee! A member! I was so surprised and excited by that I just about jumped out of my chair. xD It was Dustinus, author of "Subject 13." *makes another mental note to make time to read that story* (omg, I just went to .moon to verify the title of the story and I totally forgot he's also the author of "Sailor Canoehead," who I mentioned meeting last year. Wow, I'm a forgetful idiot. -_-;;) For an additional squee, Savage actually knew of the site! .moon is getting some recognition! YAYS! Of course even after all that I was too chicken to properly pimp the site to the other people there. -_-

jelynne and csi_tokyo3 were there, so we all had a chance to chat after the roundtable was finished, and then Ry and I went to lunch I believe. At 1:00 there was a PGSM panel, which was okay, but it largely turned into a regular Sailormoon panel. It was a bit disappointing being that this was the first time I'd seen a con host both a BSSM panel AND a PGSM panel. But oh well. I guess it's kind of hard to discuss just the live-action without getting into the general fandom, and from there the anime and manga.

After that we went to the Gender in Anime/Manga panel, expecting it to be about gender roles and how men and women are portrayed, but it turned out to be mainly about yaoi and yuri. Like a lot of things, really. The Anime North crowd really loves its slash. Which is fine in itself, but that's not what we were there for, so we left before too long. I can't remember exactly what we did for the next hour after that... maybe that's when we hit the Artist's Alley for the first time? And then at 4:00 there was the general fanfiction panel, with Chaos and Steve Savage and some girl who sounded really familiar but I couldn't place why, and a couple of Ouran cosplayers who came in late. Unfortunately I can't remember exactly what was said at that panel either. ^^;; Some serious discussion, and some goofy talk about crazy crossovers of doom.

5:00 was the writer's meetup I had organized. It was pretty small and Fanboy-heavy, but not bad for a first try; hopefully next time around we can get some more diversity in there. (Dustinus perhaps, for example, now that I'll be sure not to forget him.) We had Ry and Chaos and csi_tokyo3 and jelynne and me. We went down to what I guess was the consuite, a bunch of tables in a side area that was being used off and on for various events. We picked up some additional random Fanboys, too, since that tends to happen when you're with any of them. ^^;; Sadly I can't remember now exactly who they were.

We chatted for a while about the various things we're working on and the kind of stuff we like to write. It's nice to be able to do that in person once in a while. The anti-ego sword was put to use, although not by me.

( Mr. Oblivious )

When it seemed like things were wrapping up... I just couldn't help myself. I saw all these writer people sitting in front of me and I just had to ask for a little input on an original novel idea I've been keeping to myself for a long time. A novel about fandom. So I asked everyone what they thought, hoping for just a bit of input, a yay/nay on some ideas that had been lurking in the back of my head. And I got some, people seemed interested enough. And then Steve Savage walked by. And since it's a novel about fandom, and he's nuts about fandom, they called him over. And Chaos had to go and Savage took his place, and then it turned into THE MOST AWESOMELY AMAZING BRAINSTORMING SESSION I'VE EVER BEEN IN THE PRESENCE OF. Ideas were flying all over the place. I wish I'd started taking notes earlier. Savage wasn't too crazy about my plot idea at first, but once we'd all worked on it a bit he warmed up to it, and by the time we wrapped it up he was so interested that he gave me his email address so I can keep him posted on how it goes. ^^! Wow, man. Now I really gotta wrap up AAO etc so I can get started on this thing. xD

Someone who was there recommended a book to me about a similar concept. I ordered it over the weekend, it arrived the day after I got back from the con, and I just finished it this afternoon. And I think I can do better. >)

After that... Ry and I probably went to dinner and then... I can't remember if we went to the Fanthropology panel or not. I remember we were interested in going, but I can't remember if we actually went. My memory's mixing it up with the plot panel on Sunday. I think we did go, and that was the panel where they were passing around books about fandom, including the one misscheeveeuss had used in one of her classes with the "Fierce Flesh" chapter about Sailormoon that still makes me really angry. ^^;; My memory's telling me that was the plot panel, though, which doesn't make sense... Ry, if you're reading this, jog my memory?

As I recall we packed it in pretty early that night since there wasn't much of anything going on, and went back to the hotel room and watched the first volume of Mai-HiME, which I had brought with me. Yay, Mai-HiME! I got Ry hooked. :D

I did manage to get a couple of pictures Saturday night.

( pics )

Sunday up next, hopefully tomorrow.

Okay, now that I'm somewhat recovered and the massive LJ fiasco appears to have blown over, I'm ready to start my con reports. Couple notes up front:

• I started to catch up on my flist but with Strikethrough and everything there's just no way. If you've posted anything in the last two weeks that you'd like me to read, please give me a link.
  
• I misplaced my camera's memory card during the con, so these reports are going to be sadly lacking in the pictures department. (Camera's internal memory could only hold 17.) And of course, when I got home, I discovered the memory card had been with me the entire time. I am a moron. -_-

Now on to the adventure.

I left town on Wednesday the 23rd. Continuing my fine road trip tradition, I got a late start, surprise surprise. I'd been hoping to head out early so I wouldn't still be driving late at night, but I'd only had a day and a half to get everything ready, so I needed some more time Wednesday morning. I finally got on the road around noon, same as last year. -_- At least it wasn't any later.

Driving was pretty uneventful. I was taking the same route as last year, through Chicago etc, same old same old, so nothing new there. Wisconsin is FOREVER. And it really is full of cheese. Once you finally escape the eternal state of doom, however, the rest of the trip seems short. I ended up stopping for the night in Benton Harbor MI again, but I decided to spring for a nicer hotel this year and went to a Holiday Inn Express. Really nice place, and free internet. :D I was able to get a few things done online that I hadn't had time to before leaving.

The next day it was off to the middle of Michigan to meet up with Ry (maryho). I actually got going on time on Thursday, yays. :D Michigan is a lot like Minnesota. Driving through there reminds me a lot of my trips north at home. Ry was off doing last-minute preparation errands when I got to her house, so I had to wait a bit, but not too long. When she arrived I moved my stuff to her car and we were off.

We made good time, since Ry is a serious speed demon (;P). But the border crossing into Canada was the single most unpleasant such experience of my life, even over last year's return to the U.S. (which previously held that title). I've never seen or heard of a Canadian border guard questioning anyone so intensely. Weird questions, too. Seriously, what kind of question is "What are you bringing into Canada?" Um, clothes? And then she didn't even check our paperwork. Weirdness.

Canada is forever, too. For such a seemingly short distance from the border to Toronto it sure takes ages to cross it. There were a few traffic slow spots but we got to the hotel earlier than I made it last year, checked in (free warm cookies yum) and proved what huge geeks we are by immediately taking advantage of the wireless internet when we got to our room. ^^;; Then it was off to the pre-reg line downstairs. kats_kradle came and found us in line, but I refused her offer of line-jumping (:P), so we waited there a while. mechaboydos wandered over at some point and I was able to give him the 4chan button I'd bought for him at Anime Boston.

Once we picked up our prereg stuff, I stopped by the weapons master to get licensed to carry the Project of Doom... which I suppose I might as well show you all now...

( DOOM )

The story is, last year before I met Chaos for the first time he was warning me about his rampaging ego, so I wanted to create these to defend myself. xD Unfortunately I couldn't get the blank sword and shield until the Ren Fest the following fall. So I made them for this year instead, and they'll be part of my standard con gear from now on. (BTW, I've decided to fill the flat of the sword blade with guest signatures - to smite fandom ego with actual deserved ego - but if anyone has suggestions of more anti-ego phrases to add, I have room on the shield.)

After all that we went to dinner with some of the Fanboys crew. Ry is awesome. :D She's such a friendly and cool person, and way better at getting along with strangers than me. ^^;; It was great to see her having a good time. And great to see Kats and Dos again too, and some of the other folks I remembered from last year.

I was with Ry, so after dinner we had to go to a late/early showing of Pirates 3. xD I won't go into that here, but you can read my comments on the movie in the POTC3 thread on .moon: http://www.dotmoon.net/board/index.php?topic=1593.0

When we got back to the hotel it was around 3 AM, so it was bedtime. And that was the end of the pre-con excitement. Actual con stuff will be in later posts.

Okay, on to The Big One. Saturday of the con. We got lots of sleep Friday night, which was nice. :)

The first event of the day was the Anime Dating Game, which I would've passed on had aarana not talked me into it. I'm glad she did, since it was great fun. Extremely popular, too. We barely got in; they cut off the line a couple dozen people after us.

( the Anime Dating Game )

(Throughout the con there was a pirates vs. ninjas theme going on, FYI.)

When that was over we went to the Fanfiction C&C Workshop. (On the way there we passed the growing line for the Masquerade, people had started lining up around NOON. O_O) The guy running the workshop had wanted to be on my fanfic panel, but he had another panel during that time. So we went to check out his, and met up with tmchiba there. The guy did a very formal presentation (turns out he's a teacher) with some good tips on giving and receiving criticism. Speaking of criticism, though, when some people were disappointed to hear they had missed the regular fanfic panel the day before, he commented that if it had been called just plain "Fanfic Panel" instead of "The Writer's Block" more people would've known about it. Well, excuse me for trying to be a little creative. I'll be boring next time. :P (Personally, I think that's no excuse. When I go to a con I check for any events that might be fanfic-related. With "writer" right in the title... c'mon, people, use your brains.) Anyway, it was a workshop, and none of us really need help when it comes to giving concrit, so we left when he got to the group critiquing exercise part.

There was a bit of spare time then, so we went back to the hotel room for a bit, and then headed to the Masquerade. As panelists, we got to skip the line and go right in to a reserved area in the middle, four rows from the front. :3 It was AWESOME. We were right up front and we didn't have to wait in line all afternoon! :DDD With privileges like that, sitting through a long Masquerade is a treat! haha! Plus, we ended up sitting right in the middle of a bunch of the AMV editors whose work had been in the contest. I was reading the DS picto-chat over one guy's shoulder and watching them upload their videos to the org. xD

Okay, honesty time. In terms of costumes:

Boston > Detour

That's to be expected though, since Anime Boston is so much bigger. You're automatically going to get better cosplay there. Detour had some really awesome cosplayers, but Boston had more of them. It's a size ratio thing. (But to be fair, there were a few absolutely amazing costumes at Detour these past two years that nothing I saw at Boston came close to.)

However. In terms of the overall production:

Detour > Boston

Hands down. :D Not that the Boston Masq was bad, not at all, but it had some issues reminiscent of Detour '06, while Detour's Masq was incredibly smooth this year.

( the Masquerade )

Of course, the best skit was the Tetris Ninjas I linked to the other day, who weren't eligible for any awards since some of them were on staff. I took some pictures but it's much better to watch the video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZrs8ZCO8xM

( halftime and the AMV winners )

( wrap-up )

There wasn't much going on after the Masq, so we went back to the room, watched some AMVs and some more Azumanga Daioh, and then went to sleep.

( Saturday's misc. cosplay pics )

I'm sure I'm forgetting stuff but my shift's over and I gotta go home and sleep. I'll post about Sunday later.

Watch this. Right now.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZrs8ZCO8xM

And this for fun :3

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXrCXfVLLfw&NR=1

Warning, the cut portions of this entry are extremely long and image-heavy.

So, the past week...

I'd planned on doing running con reports like I normally do, but alas, the internets were denied to me for most of the trip. *weeps*

So now I have to write about the entire trip in one go. *further weeping* This is going to be a lot less detailed than my usual con reports because it's been days since much of this stuff happened and I'm lazy. :P

I didn't even get to make a goodbye-and-how-to-find-me post before I left, because I was too busy to write one the day beforehand and when I got to the airport on Wednesday I found out it was $10 to use the internet and the signal strength was crap. -_- I did write up an entry about miscellaneous things, intending to post it when I got internet access, but obviously that didn't happen.

( So here it is. )

After that I flew out to Philadelphia to meet up with everyone. The Wednesday assembly was me, Kelleh, NOS, Dos, and Nigoki. Yes, the mechaboys. I could title this thing "Adventures with Mechaboys." -_- Of all the weird things I never thought would happen...but anyway. We spent Wednesday and Thursday in Philadelphia before heading to the con.

( Philly Miscellany )

We waited for a while to meet up with another guy who was driving Nigoki and some of the luggage to the con, and then it was off to Baltimore. With faulty air conditioning and some directional mishaps, the trip was long and baking, but we eventually got there. BTW, from now on a roll of paper towels will be a necessary item among my con supplies.

( Otakon! )

( Miscellaneous pictures! )

Dos was dropped off at the airport and then the rest of us headed back to NOS' place. There was barbecue, and Memories, and Robot Carnival, and brief internet access so I could run the .moon update, and sleep. Monday we dropped Nigoki off at the bus station and reunited with Kelleh, and the three of us (NOS being the third) generally hung around until I had to go to the airport. Funny thing, that...we went shopping and looked at manga and anime and games. AFTER the con. Heehee. I actually bought some manga, when I had bought NONE at the con. xD I generally don't bother looking at anime and manga at cons since you can get it anywhere now, and usually cheaper. Then I flew home, arriving late Monday night. And that was the end of that.

( General afterthoughts )

I got home to find my dishes done, my mail brought in, my trash taken out, my A/C running, and my copies of "1776" and RahXephon missing. That's what happens when I leave my keys with my dad. ;)

After the con I was totally exhausted, but unfortunately I didn't get a break right away. Over the weekend I got a call from my sister; there was a death in the family. My grandma's husband passed away on Friday.

( Tuesday )

By the time I got home last night it was late, so I had to go right to sleep and put off anything internet until today. I should've gotten a lot of things done, but I spent today sleeping and relaxing instead. After this whole week of busyness I'm just too wiped out to care about anything else, even if it's important. I'm really glad I took today off even though I really didn't need it.

It's taken me six hours to write this, but it's FINALLY done. Thank God. If I think of anything I've forgotten to add, I'll do a follow-up entry tomorrow. But now it's bedtime, as I have work tomorrow. It's nice to be home, and at the same time sad to be back to the same old grind. This ends the con season for me; from here on it's nothing con-related except AD work through AD itself in March. Good night, all.