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| WED-THURS Wednesday afternoon I got picked up by Dan, Schu's friend after work. It was cool how we clicked well because we began the trip to hsv by him asking "tell me…a story" and it went from there. Opeth and haggard are now some of my fav bands. Getting there just as schu, karissa, and shiela were leaving to wally world. We went there, played with live crickets, and fueled up. Then came the humungous wolfwood cross. I want there when they did the initial tying-to-the-roof but it seemed to hold pretty well. By about 9pm we were off to Baltimore. Trip was long and luckily this time a lot less rainy for the most part. Since I had to work this day I was dog tired and fell asleep through the majority of the trip. The only times I woke up were for gas (need coffee!) and traffic. Around northern Virginia we got twisted around lost. Somehow we stumbled on a college campus which lead the map directions to nowhere. We just wanna find the main road! But after many loops we were out of the trap. We arrived an amazing 2 hours early to meet up with djfraggy (john). So its 8:15 and we were to meet up with him at 9 at Gargoyle’s Coffee. 9 rolls around, no sign. 10 rolls around; no call, no john. I tried Iming him from my new phone but he wasn’t on. So its about 11:30 and we decide that hes ditched us and to head off anyway. Though there was absolutely no rush at all (the con not beginning for another day), we got impatient. 2-3 hours later, we arrived in the hurriedly busy Baltimore. The hotel was pretty obvious and easy to find… parking wasn’t. we dropped everything off and got situated while schu tried to look for a parking spot. As soon as we entered the hotel a group of fangirls sitting down screamed WOLFWOOD when they saw our giant cross. As a sidenote, having the cross on our roof lead it to pick up a lot of stray bugs so the thing was covered in splattered insects. Schu found a parking spot at our hotel but for some reason the people still charged us $17 a day… even when we were staying at the hotel. More on that later. The room was nice with a great view of the harbor. Adequate room for one or two cosplayers but most definitely not the amount we had. There -was- a fridge but it was completely full of forbidden food that if you even touched it would mean paying for the entire fridge, a hidden fee. We all went to go eat down at the harbor and had chinese food. While waiting in line, some 4 year old little asian girl tried to pickpocket me and he dad grabbed her and apologized profusely. Man! Not even twenty minutes in this city and im nearly robbed, geez! We swung by the convention center earlier to see early bird line waiters but now that we came back it was fully surrounding the con center and then down the street some. They were handing out water to some people since they would be waiting so long. All of us hunted for people we knew to skip line with them. I caught Anna and Hayley waiting in their giant pajama-like costumes and they let me cut. Unfortunately the line was for pre-reg ONLY and walk in was not allowed. We waited in line anyway to at least get a program book to plan things out with. After this we went back to the room to see Kevin "Monster",Molly, and Joe there. Joe putting on his Dejiko costume. They were getting a group together of people to walk around with. We all met up at the convention center entrance and went on a hunt for a place that was still open to go to eat. Everything seemed closed and the bums were coming out at us from all sides. Deaf bums too. HardRock was open but wouldn’t seat us. Cheesecake factory let us eat though. I had some caramel dessert alcohol which was great and we all shared a pizza. Food took forever and the service was pretty lacking. As we left the entire mall was closed up so we were caged in! Aiie! We ran down to another entrance to find it was luckily still open but some of our party had gone upstairs looking for an exit so they were trapped. We all got out and headed back to the room. Of all the people staying in our room only 3 of us stayed that night; Me, Karissa, and Sheila. So they shared a bed and I had one all to myself. Sometime in the night I woke up to about 7 guys sitting around our room laughing and talking. Maybe it was a bad dream or something but it caught me totally offguard. FRiThe next morning we got up fairly early as the con "began" at 9am. Max slapped me awake a few times which was cool because I couldn’t wait until they got there. Everyone else was in their costumes so I figured id get in mine too. The cosplay.com and One Piece group pictures were today anyway so why not get into my neeeewwww costume: Rolanoa Zoro, a 3-Sword Style pirate from TV Animation One Piece. Schu and Karissa did a kickass job on all of the props and Holly did a kickass job on the green hair dye. We had a guaranteed spot saved right at the very front of the line but there was still a good half-hour until they would let people in to get their badges. So Karissa and I walked around taking pictures of people and finding other friends in line. for a good while I was the only Zoro at the con but then a few more here and there were spotted, along with a few Luffys. The line began letting in and the wait was over. Here we were not even ten people back from the front of the line, all geared and ready for the con. I got my badge and book and was off… well… off to the room. See… thought you get your badge at 9am, the rest of the con opens in spurts. The dealers room for instance, wouldn’t be open for another hour and the line to get in was already way long, and the videogame room wouldn’t be open until 3! So since that didn’t work out, I went back to the room and met up with Max and Holly. Max and holly were actually part of an Amerimanga panel on Sunday so they would get associates badges for helping out. We all went up and met with Yur who was the registration information girl at the con once again and she totally helped up by directing to room 311, the staff room. Once we got there we just dropped our names and panel we were for and got associates badges. One for me too since I was helping them out! From that point on we got total respect from the con staff. No more "Wheres your badge" or "What day did you buy your badge for" or even "Hey you! Kid!" it had now become "Right this way sir" or "Go right ahead!". We went to the dealers room to meet up with Steve Bennett, and yes this was before the dealers room even opened. He was there of course and we talked about a few issues before going back to the con. The dealers room seemed even bigger this year but unfortunately a lot more commercial. I could only find two tables selling wallscrolls and they were only selling DBZ and other boring ones. I did see a Rhapsody art book which I wished I had bought because it was gone the next day. We went to the art room to get a table set up for busterkids.com artwork. It was $30 for a table but you got it all weekend. So we got a little booth set up at the very end of the art room, which still looked nice because Max and Holly had plenty of samples and promotional posters to show off. There were some amazing artists this year. Tim Flannigan had his booth all set up and was already doing sketches of some cute girls. Lindze had her Genki Gang hat area all set up too, with Neal’s Harry Potter scarfs right next to the hats. I noticed Ollie taking some pictures and wow, he had two slices of pizza. 7 bucks a slice, eh? It turned out he found a place just across the street selling pizza for only 2 dollars a slice so karissa, Sheila, and I went there. The mcdonalds next to the place was filled with cosplayers and otaku, in fact, the only people eating there were from the convention center. I took a pic but the guy at the place hounded me for taking photos for some reason. The One Piece group pictures were great! We met up at the stairs behind the starbucks just as planned but we all agreed that taking a picture in front of the convention center’s pirate ship looking display would be sooo much cooler. On the way there we picked up a few stray one piece cosplayers which made our group nearly 30 people! The pictures went on for nearly 15 minutes and just when we thought it was over an extra Sanji slid into place which led to more pictures! It was great! We took a few individual pictures afterward which came out funny. I’m so glad I wore this costume Friday for this. The game room was open by now so I headed there next. The room was the same as last year, only organized a bit different. DDR was on 3 screens in the corner, HALO had two 4-player projected screens going on and ParaPara was next to it. Only one controller for parapara though. And while there was IIDX, it was because a guy brought in his own system, game, and controller. There was some keen imports like Viewfull Joe, F-Zero X, and some fighters. Malcolm came in with Justin the Jew and ? and of all games he wanted to see the most it was definitely…. Kirby’s Air Ride. Haha. Around the evening, Max and I went to prepare for parties. We had no idea where the nearest ABC liquor would be or any liquor store would be so we stopped by a bar and they told us a main one was down the street. We found it, and my GOD it was steaming hot inside, even with the fans blowing. We ended up getting Bicardi O, Malibu Coconut Rum, some Doc’s Hard Lemonade (for you Sako!), and Butterschnops. Max obviously talked to the bartender too much because when it came to hand him ID, Max had none and I had mine "How come your friend does all the talking, huh". Heheh. We loaded all the goods back to our room which we initially planned to have the party in but soon discovered that with all of the millions of costumes in here, it would be impossible to fit more than 5 people. Surge and Cristi offered their place for a little bit but they were really tired so that was only a temporary until they got tired and went to sleep. Amy and Andy (Tony?!) said we could come to their place and party. I helped Neil grab the jungle juice from his room, and found out that he was chillin with the UGAAnime kids. David Beach, Michelle, that Fantasm Jrock girl, Connie and Mike. It was kind of off to see the two groups merge but ah well. I invited Anna to come to the party since she was also staying at the Wyndham (note: same place I stayed the year previous) but she brought Hayley and Kari with them and that only helped make things louder. so with Mike’s loud yet extremely funny drunken rambling ("I need scissors! 61!") we had to shut down this party kind of early. Tim, Neil, and I passed out early during conversation anyway so it was definitely time to call it a night. Max and holly were so freakin lewd that night too! A total riot! We stumbled back to the Hyatt and found a shiny purple balloon on the way back. Sleeping arrangements were kind of odd that night since both beds were occupied. Max & Holly had their little nest in the corner by my stuff but I managed to squeeze in between the two girls pretty much unnoticed. SATThe next morning I woke up to a nice green pillow from my hair dye. Breakfast With Hex! went awkwardly. Max told him the night before to wake him up as soon as he got up and we’d all get breakfast together. I stumbled into Hex right after I got up and we all went back for a pretty funny awakening that late morning (it was about 1:30pm by now) and it took fooorreeevveerrr to get to the place to eat. Max and Holly wanted to drop off their stuff at the art room first and then go off to eat. On the way there anyone we knew we talked to for at least 5 minutes. After about 7 people, Ohmar (who was STARVING) and I just ran off and dropped our things off with Tim in the art room. Now it was my turn to wait. Neil (EP!)’s girlfriend was at Otakon and he had been urging me to meet up with her the whole weekend so now that I had a meal to spare, I could meet up with her. She showed up just as everyone was finally ready to go and we left. Maggie was indeed cute and pretty shy. We cracked our usual jokes and stuff so im not sure if she got offended or scared of us by the time we had made it to the harbor to eat. She was meeting up with her brother anyway so by the time we made it there, she had to leave. We all ate at Johnny Rockets and had some great food. The people there were rude but the food was yummy. We met Darren there too who surprisingly knew Christina. He had all of these hand-made buttons on him and was planning to sell them later at the art room with us as we sold artwork. Most of Saturday was spent in the art room talking with people, looking through artwork, taking requests, watching people’s tables for them. It was like being in an episode of Comic Party with all of the aspiring published and unpublished artists doing what they do best. Duane Johnson swung by during the day so I got to get a picture with him. Shawn The Touched also came by and though he didn’t have his own table this year, he let me know that Fast Food Freedom Fighters was now digital so I could get a good copy of it whenever. Yahoo! TMRevolution concert was today too! Fari informed me that the line had begun before I went to breakfast with Hex and now that I was back, the line was just about to let in. I jumped right in with Michelle (now in TMR’s "Hot Limit" outfit) and Fari and we got great seats in the middle of the concert room. Die was behind us in a full J-Rock costume and I saw Ren in front of us excited as everyone else. They were passing around a giant thank you card to give to TMR after the show which everyone signed. The rom filled up completely. This was pretty amazing since not even the cosplay gauges a completely full crowd. All seats, and all rows were filled and even a handful of people standing along the sides. There were two projected monitors where you could see closer on the stage but the real thrill was watching the action live. The lights went down and "The Voice Of Otakon" announced the opening singer, Kristina Sa. Her show was neat. Nothing amazing, but she got most of the crowd going and clapping along. Her act only went on for about 20 minutes and four songs when the voice of otakon warned everyone about photography and video/audio recording of TMR’s act. Michelle took her "Takanori Makes Otakon" and ran it down the aisles which got everyone cheering. Then it began; the –coolest- J-Rock band concert ive ever been to! The lights were worked in great synch with the drums, and the costume Takanori wore was so cool! He really gave all he had with every song, and in-between would speak in English his thanks to everyone and to Otakon for having him there. During "Invoke" they played Gundam Seed clips on the projected screens and during "Love Blade" they played Kenshin clips. The final songs were older songs of theirs mixed into one continuous nonstop mix. They even included my favorite "Hot Limit" Since Michelle’s costume was from that music video, her and Fari stood on chairs and did the dance to the song. A few times Takanori spotted her and smiled! As the show ended the entire crowd cheered on "TMR!" "TMR!" "TMR!". It was so great. My ears slightly ringing afterward I went down to the dealers room before it closed and picked up a nice Unico plushie. My search for a DNAngel or Wolf’s Rain wallscroll went unaccomplished and there wasn’t really anything else I could afford at this con so that was a bust. Michelle was now in line for TMR’s autograph and I asked one of the staffer girls if and when Marou Masuyama (Unico, Vampire Hunter D, etc) would be signing autographs and she said to try tomorrow during the Satoshi Pokémon person’s voice. I was planning to save this for the UGLY section but it warrants for some discussion. Max, Holly, and I as well as a slew of other people are sick and tired of these damn SIGNS. "Hug Me" "Will Yaoi For $$$" "Feed The Neko Neko!", "Glomp A Bishie" and oh so many, many more. Otakon is the WORST! Darren made one though that read "If You Have A Sign, You Are A Cock" but security said it was offensive. But on to my real rant. This girl the age of 11 – 17 crawled up to Holly and said she wanted to have her soul. Holly didn’t even smirk and shoved her off. I threw a Dr. Pepper bottle at her and her group threw it back. Max did the same. She came up again later on and was breathing on Holly’s neck as she crept up to her. Nobody stopped her because they figured Holly knew her and she was just joking around. Holly told her to back off. It didn’t stop there! She went up to other strangers and also knelt down on one knee saying she wanted their souls. Norm stuck security on her and asked her to behave herself or leave the convention center. Eh, well I thought, so what is it with newbie anime fans these days? Is this their way to get attention? Do they hope to spring some friends by badly portraying some soul-stealer thing or by holding a sign the entire con asking for hugs? Money too! Who pays these people money for holding signs? I’ve always been tempted to take a sign from them and eat it then spit it right back at them! Its not as if they’re even making an effort for people to read the stupid things anymore. They’re written in pencil on a scrap sheet of notebook paper for crying out loud! Hex’s Spic-tacular party went well. Everyone found it and met up and though it was supposed to be a surprise, it leaked out and he knew it was going to happen. There was about 20 of us there, from Ecchi Parcheesi, Genki Gang, and other groups. Norm, Derek, and Brandon even showed up. The cake was really nice and Live Wire was so so sweet. When Canasian showed up I gave him an extra SARS mask I had which was funny. The party ended with security shooing us out because the convention center would be closing soon. It was getting late anyway and we had to gear up for 54. Max, Holly, and I left for their car in the parking garage to find that if you remove your car from the garage after 2:00am there would be a $45 fee. It was only about 2:15 and the bitch there just told us "The sign has been there ALL day" like we had even noticed or cared. So we did something even smarter; TAXI! Not only did it lessen the hassle of finding out how to get there but we wouldn’t need to pay the fee or find a new parking spot. Best of all we didn’t need anyone to stay sober because the taxicab would be our DD! So we got in the religious jamaican cab and made it to 54 in less than $10 (though $2.45 was spent "looking" at directions). The party was already hopping as we were fashionably late and there were people on all 3 floors wild with laughter. The party was definitely rockin. We got back late late and were still wide awake so Holly and I pulled some pranks, guzzled lotsa water, then went off to sleep. SUNI got up way early to go meet the Mad House artist. The line wasn’t too long and sure enough he was there with the pokemon voice actress. While waiting in line I listened to how she spoke and it was just like Satoshi. Calm but when she got excited it still sounded like him. Kind of cocky like Satoshi/Ash is too, but that’s not bad really. Two fans even sung to her which she found really amusing. One girl had a sword which she borrowed Packing up the next morning wasn’t so bad as Schu and some others "cleaned" the day before, so it was just a matter of paying the bill and loading up. Bleh. $188 per night Schu couldn’t pay this bill alone so I had to chip in for a pretty large hunk of it. For this price we might as well have emptied out the fridge and had a suite. The Hyatt was definitely not worth all that much. I mean the Tennis Court and Pool closed and there was no complimentary meals. We loaded up everything as best we could and had a devil of a time re-tying up the Wolfwood Cross ("Why don’t we just float it down the river?"). One more sweep through the dealers room and other rooms before we left too. I bought an initial d Keisuke RX-7 cell phone holder (that turns on the headlights when an incoming call comes in!) and said goodbye to a couple of people I had met at this con. The Lupin guy and Majors popped up today too so I got to see them but oddly there was no sign of Max or Holly. Joe ended up tagging along for the long boring drive back to bama so we had extra company to talk with. Unfortunately only Schu and I could drive so back and fourth we traded off on the way home. I became sick and sore about the time we hit S. Carolina so when we arrived back in Gummytown around 6am there was no point at all in trying to sleep. Next year….im flying!
+GOOD+ -BAD- ~UGLY~
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