As soon as I arrived at the entrance, Emuko was there waiting. the cab ride turned out to be a staggering $39.00 so I had to hit the ATM right away. Some kid there desperately needed $40 so he wrote me a check and I paid him. Yellow shirt asian kid! Emuko let me up into the Ironcat room to change (Greyhoudn always leaves a fowl odor on ya). the Ironcat room(s) were enormous!! Well... normal bedroom but they had a deluxe suite in the next room over that was HUGE. almost like a living room!
We went back downstairs to find Dave, Hex!, and then the Fujikoma guys. We couldn't check into the room yet because the girls went "Shopping". Why?? Pixie & McKayla showed up next which was cool. So we had most of the gang together chatting by the restaurant. Every one else eventually showed up and we checked in. Plan of attack on Room # 2 "Hell Room": Clear the beds and H4x0r the TV to play videogames and movies. Easily done. Beds were tossed into Room #1, the frames to the side of room #2. TV took a little work and what I thought was a poltergeist ended up being Sushi who was flipping channels and turning the TV off and on. The TV worked fine, but unfortunately the volume refused to go past a certain point.
It was about 3pm and the Web Comic panel had already started. I was really exited about seeing 8-Bit theatre's creator, Brian Clevinger in person. the panel had him and Life Of Riley's creators. the panel was very funny and both creators were good speakers who took everyone's questions. Right next to the panel was the art room where we thought we could find AFO's Main Man, Dade Bell. buuut -Before Even Saying Anything- Katie saw us and prolly knew exactly who we were and why we came to the room. "Dade just left, sorry". Shes psychic! We went around the con, stopping at the lobby to get Giant Fujikoma group pics and meet up with everyone. McKayla was in her totally hot Fujikoma Mascot Girl costume which was getting major attention. Cool2burn was here too, and even though we saw him earlier selling cels, this time he actually said something. Dade and Fred were here too, so I asked them to join in some of the group pics.
Game Rom- 0wnage!!! Never before had I seen SOOO many large screen TVs in the same room. Although really packed, the game room had more than enough to offer. Plenty of variety, mostly imports, and cleverly placed Bemani games like DDR, ParaPara and IIDX in the back so it wouldn't interfere and nobody would get stepped on or slapped while trying to get around.
Dealers Room- Very very Very (note: VERY) impressive! Plenty of space this year to move around, loads of SonMay, EverAnime, HK CDs & DVDs. I practically attacked this one booth seeing they had...INITIAL D WATCHES!!! I bought one in such a rushing fury that I forgot my $1 change ^^;. Picking out CDs was great too because now I could grab an entire handful and not even break the $100 mark. San-X booth had Beer-chan plushes and lots more. One booth was even selling Pocky and Japanese drinks. So cool! the guests of the con were here too. CutePet.org's Jared Hodges had a few impressive galleries with portfolios up. Studio Ironcat with their booth of comics and CDs. Wendee Lee was here, meeting up with her fans. Robert DeJesus was still doing custom badges and selling some art books, and last but not least, Chynna Clugston-Major was here selling shirts, pins, and talking about plans for her future comics.
Back to Room #2. Something very important was missing. BOOZE! we went in two cars. One for of-age, the other for underage who just went to get soda and snacks. Liquor store was just down the street but we loaded up for a full night. They didn't have Mike's Hard Cranberry or Root Beer that we had looked forward to seeing though. Returning to the hotel we needed to keep the drinks cool so using massive teamwork and a couple of plastic grocery bags (and a hotel drawer) we managed to fill the bathtub up with ice. Enough to keep -most- of the drinks cool.
Spent most of the day talking with everyone, playing videogames, and getting pics of cosplayers Name That Tune had started and we found Shin was doing real well. The theme at the moment was Video Game songs so we were a shoe-in! the titles were getting really difficult and obscure now but I was able to name of two: Shining Force CD (Saturn Game!) and Valkyrie Profile. Shin ended up winning an Ultima Weapon figure from Final Fantasy X. It was so damned ugly I told him to just keep it. We not only won that category, but dominated it with two points ahead of the 2nd highest guesser. Name That Anime Tune was now divided by anime categories like Mecha, Bishonen, Shojo and some others. The only one I really might have gotten would have been Mysterious Cities Of Gold, but it was the Japanese version of the song so I wasn't really sure.
Once everyone returned back to the room we all went to Denny's to eat. Katie brought her two fanboys, Kneedrawp, Alex, Cool2Burn & his bro went with. The entire Fuji gang, groupies, and friends were all here. We filled up almost a quarter of the restaurant! Dennys was nice to us for the most part considering how loud most *See Katie Quote* of us were being. The place was already pretty full already so service was was a bit slow. the "normal" table left early (Sushi, Knee, Alex, Pixie) for videogame tournaments, but we stayed the whole time. A few of us (umm...chris, cool2burn) went back to Hell Room to watch parodies like Computer Boy (Matrix Parody) and other stuff. We began the night simple with Vodka + Gatoraide. I figured id go look around and gather people.
I made it down to Karaoke which had been going on since we got back from eating. it was AWESOME! I have to admit, when I first head of the idea "Karaoke by the pool", I I kind of expected an indoor pool with no room and only a few people singing. this.... was a full-fledged LUAU! the pool not only was outside, but it was spacious, had great lighting, and hell; there was even a deck where the sound system and karaoke mic were. Lots of cute girls in bathing suits and some pretty radical Karaoke made this event totally awesome. Hex! even sang MC Chris's "Fett's Vette. Great Job!
Back in the room it was just Shin, Chris, Cool2, Mel and I having pillow fights for awhile but then came a STORM of cool people. Dade, Clover, Katie, and even ... Chynna Clugston-Major [and her boi] came!!! Dade! This was like Christmas, haha! So amazing to have everyone gather up in our little room party. See? Aren't you glad we moved the beds? Otherwise we'd only fit half as much people. for awhile we all stood around BSing. Talking about cons, art work, our lives, how we all got to the con, etc. We got group pics then put in ChronoTriggerAnime and one of our favorite anime parodies "This Is Otakudom". Everyone loved it! That night's get together and everyone, just being there is probably one of the greatest moments I've ever had at any con. Thanks so much Dade!

-=Quotes=-

Katie:
"BRITISH!!!"

Shin: "Guys! Guys! Shhhhh! GUYS!"
Mappy: "Nah, dude... its just Katie"

Emuko: "Tit! My Dudes!"

Tequila2Burn

Mappy: "Shaaaaannon Honeycut!"
Shannon: "Thaaaats Me!"

Sushi: "Uh, are you from Britian?"
Lufia: "No! I'm Retarded."

(Written on Emukos Tits) "Wow! Theres a lot of space here!"

Mappy needs an sandwich

(Written on award for Pete's MGS2 Contest) "FOXDIE"

(T-shirt) "Shut The F*CK UP!"
Chris: "Who ME???!!!"

The Ball Scatcher Incident at the Mermaid Store

Polystation!

Pixie/Cool2Burn: "Room #2 has a 2 Drink Minimal"

Flashin people on the see-through elevators

Middlefinger Kodama

Josh: "Yo...yo, yo. Yo yo, yo, yo yo..."
Mappy: "Yo, yo, yo yo. Yo, yo.."

Bahama Mama