OHAYOCON 3

A new year, a new 14 hour drive to a con.

The adventure began at Inubitos house when his mom gave us a healthy supply of chocolate chip cookies and we packed up to head to Schus. after going back and fourth forgetting things we were on our way. then we hit the Tennessee border: BAMMO, super trooper got us 119 in a 70 zone. we were going about 135 a minuite before. thank goodness we didnt get caught with that. the rest of the drive went fine and once w starting seeing flurries of snow we knew we must be close.

The con hotel was indeed a great sight. the location was perfect. Walking distance from a johnny rockets, chinese food and one of Ohio's biggest indoor/outdoor mall. not to mention a GameWorks which we found out shortly after arriving. They still had plenty of parking left so we were totally all set.

Canasian had to be the first person we saw that we knew. Most everyone was either just waking up or still on their way to the con. The registration line was already forming and the dealers room was setting everything up. thats when I called and met up with Eddie/DJ Paranoia of bemanistyle.com and his girl P-chan of paraparastage.com. We got backdoor access to the gameroom where we had full access to DDRMax2. nobody else was allowed in, and . Somehow even though he wasnt staff Eddie got by security to the dealers room too so i followed. bought a Suikoden II poster and looked around without having to push through crowds. it was Empty! i saw a one Piece flag i really wanted but the price on it was a hefty $75. ouch. all other CDs there were retail price and there wasnt anything else that caught my eye.

Unpacked my stuff and got to see my room. Before the con, Mel almost bailed because of money problems but i told her that i needed a room and would be willing to help so the room was all set up. Only now instead of just Mel, Lindsay, and myself, it would also be Scott, Darla, SPAM, Kristinas two friends and Erika Door. Mel was still sleeping when i got in but since i was an "OG" roomie, i got a room key (yes!!) of my own 

Saw Erika Door in the elevator and she said that now her and a few other people were rooming with mel, her friend and i. Luckily she told me the room number so I was off to unload my stuff.Before the con, Mel almost bailed because of money problems but i told her that i needed a room and would be willing to help so the room was all set up. Only now instead of just Mel, Lindsay, and myself, it would also be Scott, Darla, SPAM, Kristinas two friends and Erika Door. Mel was still sleeping when i got in but since i was an "OG" roomie, i got a room key (yes!!) of my own

First things first; find dj p. well I called him on his phone but he wasn’t at the con yet. Found canasian in the lobby and talked about killing time at gameworks. Him and chuck needed to get changed first but they took forever! Steph and her friend waited with us but while we waited people started coming in that we knew. Cybele and nicole, albert, kev and g-chan, hex, christi, surge, but no johnny. His roommate zack wasn’t much help for some reason.

Eddie showed up finally with patty. We got to scope out the videogame room which was completely bolt locked. This meant total freedom for us. The ddrmax2 machine was all hooked up and ready to play and there was just the 5 of us there. since Eddie had the keys to the machine, we had all songs unlocked as well as getting to see the game settings. Doubles mode, freestyle, anything goes. But we got tired eventually and wandered some more. Eddie somehow talked his way into the dealers room before it opened and without a badge, so I followed him in. nothing overly impressive this year. I went for the rares before the otaku could snatch them. A Suikoden II poster I bought right off the bat. It was the Only one too. Saw a really cool Luffy Pirate flag off one piece but unfortunately it was $70 which I didn’t have on me. Maybe it’d go down in price? Cave was my only hope in getting a badge at this con and I wasn’t about to pay $40 for a weekend pass (like ahem Some people!). the only rumor going around was that cave stayed up all night with no sleep playing ddr and he would look like a zombie if I saw him. No rush really, its just the staff was starting to actually check these things. Heh. Tania arrived midday. She was with a whole bunch of college friends so that was cool, for sure parties later I had hoped. Consuite was cool again this year, with the same guy running it. Our room was only 3 doors down from it which was very very convienient for the whole 3 meals a day deal. Everyone was super friendly here too and there was more than enough to eat. Even ramen! My cousin kevin called to say he couldn’t make it when man, oh, man he had pleeeenty of prior notice. Next year buddy, next year =P

I found michelle in the lobby with her friend holly. She wasn’t busy at all so I asked if she would want to go check out gameworks. So I grabbed james and we all went. The place was definitely impressive. Two stories of arcades and everything was divided into sections by genre of game. Music sims right in the center. We played DDRMax2 which had the difficulty way up, some guitar freaks which is just…..hard, especially since ive never played the arcade version, and the lovely ddr usa. Gameworks cards go really fast since everything seems to be a $1 per play so we decided to just go eat then. Johnny rockets seemed to be just what we needed so we ate there. Michelle and holyl were making such a racket too! Haha! She lost a nickel in the mini jukebox thing and went crazy trying to ge it out. I only ordered a plate of fries. Cons once again negating my hunger factor. I was the only one to order a strawberry shake for dessert too, bleh. Right before we left jenny, danny, kristina, johnny and chuck showed up to eat there which was cool. There was some event michelle had to get to so we went back to the con. She was rooming with caveman so I finally got ahold of him…and a badge then. Yes!

What went on that night? Absolutely nothing! I tried getting hold of johnny several times but kept loosing him through the evening. We need to plan ahead to party damnit! Ah but open mike was pretty funny. Less karaoke and more skits. Y2kjohn was hosting it again and once more he ended up getting hoarse voice the next day. Got to see Ren again since otakon and she was doing jrock skits. Another group was doing something with poocari sweat vending machine. Hex’s mike tyson’s LittleMac punchout skit was pretty cool from what I heard. I noticed a severe lack of Cybele and Nicole most of the day so I went up to visit them to see costume mess all over the floor. Luckily they had just ordered pizza so I got my fill of dinner for the night!

The gameroom was flooded now. Full of people going hardcore on SuperSmashBros on the gigantic projected screen. Same old, same old. The ddr machine was now caution taped off to avoid any accidents. Haw. Tania was out in the lobby now with albert and her two college friends. We were listing to nonstop intial d eurobeat soundtracks and talking to everyone. It was nice to actually get to talk to Tania instead of those quick pass-bys we have when shes in costume. Costume less Tania!! We all went back to her room and watched some comedy central. They just happened to play the most offensive ending south park ever too. The one where cartman feeds his worst enemy his parents and a dog barfs up someones grandma. Albert fell asleep though it and crank yankers was on next so I headed off too.

Not suprisingly, back in my room they were watching the exact same thing. Mel was still out and about in her usual insomnia. One creepy stalker guy came up to her trying to put a leash and collar on her. James pushed him back and then johnny and I backed him up. The guy was just freakin creepy and later on you could see him with other victums wearing his leash. Ugh. But this sort of ended the night as absolutely no parties were going on and everything had shut down.

Good sleep? Sure! Since I was one of the original roomies Mel let me get a bed of my own so I slept really comfotably….until 4am. Knocking at the door? Who was it…. Two guys who looked like they were on a late-night party-hunt. They had a carosel with them full of computer stuff and costume goods. I tried finding out who they were but all they could say was they were with Christina. Erika vouched for them even though christina was staying elseware and they setup their stuff on the floor…all over the floor.

For a late dunch the bemanistyle crew, james and I all went out to eat at gameworks. While we waited for a table that would seat 8 people, we dropped $20 on a gameworks card and played to the last cent. House of the dead 3 was cool with malcolm and I on shotguns. Some ddr action which of course eddie totally owned. Time crisis 2 was funny since I was playing solo. "2p got hit in the Face with a MISSILE!" heheh. I had a single credit left which was just enough to play an oldschool arcade shooter. Galatica time! Our table was nice and rounded with me getting the "extra" seat. We got to talk about running a website, message boards, and the bemani community. We also talked about what we had planned for later on with DDRExtreme. There was a bowling alley that had just got it and was almost always empty so we’d all get to play. (Keep in mind this was RIGHT when Extreme came out. Like not even a week after AI got their machines)

We went back to the hotel to organize carpools to the place and eventually came up with enough transportation. Our car was full and everyones breathing in the cold weather made the windows fog up so we had to contantly wipe the windows off to see. The bowling alley was just like any other… but sure enough it had DDRExtreme. Only about 5 kids were playing it but we got our turns and played ONLY the new exclusive songs. James and I were worn out after only a single round (chalk it up to lack of reent practice, or care to practice =P) so we just watched. Grabbed an icee or two and come back to find the audience has now doubled and theres a line of eager otaku wanting to play. Ugh. Howd they know? Well the pads werent all that great and the bowling alley manager got pissed at us for not letting some 5 year olf girl play (which we DID, dork!) so we just left.

Getting back, the dance had started. Usual Ohayocon goodness with a REAL dj and actually pretty good music. I got in my fujikoma shirt (Thanks Sam) and tried getting Cybele and Nicole to come to some room parties with me. Nicole had to leave for some reason but Cybele went with me to one of the parties. Much like all of the other cons, this was at a hotel, and of course the party room was warned about noise so everytime someone laughed or shouted you heard the running water sound of "SSSSHHHHHH!!!". Drank a nicely mixed BahamaMama and talked to a few people. The adjointed room next to this one was The Chill Room where ollie, kat, doug smith, and a few others were just relax talking. I only came in here for a minute but the party was waiting so I went back. Met christina, this girl who seemed to know a lot of people and we played this evil card game where the rules change as you go along (Note: This was the Christina who’s friends showed up the previous night. I didn’t make this connection until way after this con). I think Cybele won the card game by doing some "You pick who wins" rule. Christina was telling us all about her new navy fiancé and stuff but the party began to settle down. Cybele was getting kinda tired so I walked her back to her room and we chatted a little bit. We were whispering as to not wake anyone up in the room, but we heard Nicole still awake watching TV so we went ahead and went inside. I met Diana here too and Cybele fell asleep in my lap shortly after we got there. Diana, Nicole, and I were wiiiide awake though and we watched CartoonNetwork and reminiced about seeing PiratesOfDarkWater as kids and all kinds of other old cartoons. They too got tired eventually but I was still awake so I headed back to what was left of the party to see if anyone else was tstill there. Only about 5 people left now, playing with a really nifty iMac. I began dozing off mid-speech but I got a tshirt for staying late as a staffer showed up with the leftovers for the con. I walked Lindsay back to the room then absolutely Crashed.

Woke up Sunday at a decent hour. Decent enough to get the rest of the Bama crew together for another grueling drive home. Schu and her moogle boi Francis were still packing but James was ready to go with his one suitcase. We parked the car in valet parking and loaded up. The price for valet parking is near close to $1 per minute but we somehow escaped that. jAmes and I went on a goodbye tour to everyone we knew but only half those people were awake at the time. A final sweep though the dealers room didn’t change the prices of anything, and they ran out of MegaTokyo Paco hats! Arrgh! Krissy, make sure they have more than 50 at the next con!. I had forgot my huge suikoden II poster so I ran back to get it while everyone else went to the nearby chinese restaurant. I caught steph and her friend in the lobby so I brought them with me for a group pic at the restaurant. We got on the road at a good time and the trip back was a breeze. No speeding tickets and alternating drivers got us back in no time.

+GOOD+ great great location. Everything withing walking distance. A gameworks right around the corner. Friendly hotel staff (wow! A first!). ddrmax2 arcade. Bigger dealers room.

-BAD- price is getting steep for what little you get at the con. Not much to do for most of the day.

"The sky is falling and I cant reattach it." -Diana barely awake

"Biiiiiiiiirdman!" -Cartoon Network at 4am giving all of us the wakeup call

"Crack-a-dile" - Super Friends misheard quote

"Scaley pink giant ape"- Super Friends ACTUAL quote

"Cobra PSAs"- Concept by SPAM

"Hard Anal"

"Waffle Horse"- Schu's late-night mispronunciation

'"This bacon doesn't have one bit of grease in it." - Borderline Tennessee results

"Tiffany Grant: The return of the chin!"- Comment on the fansview pictures being sold at MTAC

"Six-Pack, case, DISTILLERY"- Stong person

"Big Bone Lick" - Actual exit just south of Ohio

"Stinking Creek"- Another exit just a little more south