Convenience is being able to use your debit card.
Convenience is the do-it-yourself checkout stands at stores so that I don't have to wait in long lines or price checks.
Convenience is having your favorite beloved Ohio State Buckeyes fly out to your state for their bowl game like 8 out of ten years or something ridiculous like that.
In the words of TMac the wise, though, "There is nothing convenient about a 40% service charge."
I recently purchased tickets to an event through Ticketmaster, a company which I have long dispised for outrageous extra charges and holding close to a monopoly on the events ticketing market space. Unfortunately it was the only way to get them so I had to bite. The price of the tickets was $25 x 2 seats so I figure $50 plus maybe a 10% convenience fee or something.
After I "submit"ed my order Ticketmaster was kind enough to flash the total purchace price on my monitor. Of $78.XX.
W
T
F
The "convenience fee" alone was $8 per ticket. Then there was a $4.50 facilities fee per seat or some nonsense like that, then some other bs tax/charge on top of that. Essentially what it said is that you're gonna pay what we ask and like it. Now I'll agree that getting to see a good, storied NFL franchise (the Steelers, not the Cardinals...are you kidding me?) for less than $40 is cheap no matter where you go so even with all the nonsense it's still a reasonable deal. What's crap is that they tell you it costs one price while conveniently forgetting to fully disclose the additional costs prior to submitting your order.
Yeah yeah fine print. Whatever.
Saturday, July 28, 2007
Thinking outside the box
I don't tend to dive into politics too much on my blog, partly because I hate politics (although I still vote, if for no other reason so that I can complain later), and partly because it causes the kind of bitching in the blogosphere that I'd just as soon avoid. Although I'm a registered independent, I do enjoy Bill Mahr's commentary and comedy. It doesn't matter if I agree with the causes he tends to favor/champion - what I like about him is that his arguments seem to pretty factually based if not somewhat biased (isn't bias a pre-requisite for modern political rhetoric, though?). In any case here's what he said in his latest comedy special that had me clapping my hands heartily...
"Because we did have an election about this, remember? The people said, "No, I think this war is over. We don't like it."...But, George Bush, all by himself, the decider. Just spit-balling, you know, thinking outside the box. You know what? Thinking outside the box is for smart people. The box is for you. You need the box. Stay inside the box."
Freakin' brilliant!!! Even without the political context, his idea is mostly true! If only I could have made this happen during high school...
"Because we did have an election about this, remember? The people said, "No, I think this war is over. We don't like it."...But, George Bush, all by himself, the decider. Just spit-balling, you know, thinking outside the box. You know what? Thinking outside the box is for smart people. The box is for you. You need the box. Stay inside the box."
Freakin' brilliant!!! Even without the political context, his idea is mostly true! If only I could have made this happen during high school...
Catching up
(*Warning* The contents of this email are being written after only about two hours sleep)
It's been nearly a month since the last blog post, and it was an AnimeExpo con post at that. I know I've been rather neglectful of my blogging...uh...duties? I clearly haven't been writing - we're getting back on that horse today - and I've barely been reading, so to my few-but-faithful fans out there I do apologize! What's been keeping me away from you all???
- Post-convention stress syndrome. After I got back from the convention I was simply tired and poor. I'm glad I went to the convention for fun since fun was definitely had! Just the same, what I thought would be less stressful trip since I didn't have to work the con or worry about setting alarms or wake up calls or anything like that turned out to be even more stressful than a con I volunteer at. Turns out that trying to coordinate room arrangements for a small group and meal schedules/dietary needs for a somewhat larger group isn't really all that cool. Oh well. I still may organize the lodging and transportation for a group next year but I don't know that I'll be participating in the group activities.
Prior to leaving I had some brake work done so that we'd have a safe trip. I also noticed that the engine wasn't turning over as quickly and the battery was about due to be replaced. The battery still had some life left, but they recommended I replace the springs and some other hardware on the brake system in addition to the needed parts. I passed.
It's funny what a 720 mile round trip through Death Valley during the hottest week of the year will do to a car. And my bank account. There were no problems during the trip, but by the time we got back the battery was shot (we accidently left the dome light on for a few hours when the car wasn't running - brilliant!) and the springs had warped rendering the rear brakes basically useless. Anywho, all worked well enough to get us home and get me to the car place to take care of the rest of the brake hardware. Then I still had to get back to the office and catch up on the backlog of...
- Work. July is my second least-favorite work month of the year due to employee appraisals being due and the annual budgeting process. On top of those normal duties, we also had to interview for three expansion positions and work towards completing a major volume expansion for my department. That last project will be a labor of love for the next two calendar months, and depending on how everything goes October could be a relative nightmare.
Seriously. Any thoughts, prayers, juju, and positive vibes you can send my way during that time will really be appreciated. There's a pretty significant amount at stake for myself, my boss, my VP, and the credit union with this expansion project. So with the increased stress I need a stress-releiver which has been taking the form of ...
- Games. The Ragnarok Online anniversary event was going on during June/July so much leveling was going on. I'm not the power-leveler like some of my friends are but I still did as much as my schedule, my fatigue, and my sanity would allow for. Who knows...one day I might even finish a character! I've also been developing/implimenting a guild event for our game that will run the course of ten weeks. Multiple updates are necessary each week so that's definitely taking up some time. Nothing outrageous, but time nonetheless. It hasn't been as successful as I'd hoped but I've still got a few participants and if nothing else folks from other guilds have taken notice and asked to join our guild or have me do a similar event for them. I thought I might have the time to do so since my evenings/weekends were mostly free until I stumbled upon...
- Girlfriend 2007. Or rather she stumbled upon me. On July 1st I received an email from an old acquaintance from the high school youth group at church. We didn't really talk all that much back then but I still remembered who she was. Turns out she had a crush on me since that time, but when she saw me with my now-ex-wife she reasonably figured that I wasn't exactly available any more. 'Course now that's different and as "circumstance" would have it our paths crossed yet again. We talked for a while, went out a few times, and we've hit it off smashingly well so far. It's rather hard to believe that it's basically been a month already since that first contact but it's been all kinds of fun! Her name is Abby, she's a graphics designer, loves to read, enjoys action/sci-fi movies, and has a PS2. She even challenged me to a game of Tetris the first time I was over there! And she really enjoyed the new Die Hard movie. I give her two thumbs up. :-D
So that's been life for the past month or so. I don't know if I'll be posting as much as I used to over the next few months but I'll do my best to throw some thoughts up here as they come up. I still enjoy blogging and sharing my random idiocracies!
Until next time...
It's been nearly a month since the last blog post, and it was an AnimeExpo con post at that. I know I've been rather neglectful of my blogging...uh...duties? I clearly haven't been writing - we're getting back on that horse today - and I've barely been reading, so to my few-but-faithful fans out there I do apologize! What's been keeping me away from you all???
- Post-convention stress syndrome. After I got back from the convention I was simply tired and poor. I'm glad I went to the convention for fun since fun was definitely had! Just the same, what I thought would be less stressful trip since I didn't have to work the con or worry about setting alarms or wake up calls or anything like that turned out to be even more stressful than a con I volunteer at. Turns out that trying to coordinate room arrangements for a small group and meal schedules/dietary needs for a somewhat larger group isn't really all that cool. Oh well. I still may organize the lodging and transportation for a group next year but I don't know that I'll be participating in the group activities.
Prior to leaving I had some brake work done so that we'd have a safe trip. I also noticed that the engine wasn't turning over as quickly and the battery was about due to be replaced. The battery still had some life left, but they recommended I replace the springs and some other hardware on the brake system in addition to the needed parts. I passed.
It's funny what a 720 mile round trip through Death Valley during the hottest week of the year will do to a car. And my bank account. There were no problems during the trip, but by the time we got back the battery was shot (we accidently left the dome light on for a few hours when the car wasn't running - brilliant!) and the springs had warped rendering the rear brakes basically useless. Anywho, all worked well enough to get us home and get me to the car place to take care of the rest of the brake hardware. Then I still had to get back to the office and catch up on the backlog of...
- Work. July is my second least-favorite work month of the year due to employee appraisals being due and the annual budgeting process. On top of those normal duties, we also had to interview for three expansion positions and work towards completing a major volume expansion for my department. That last project will be a labor of love for the next two calendar months, and depending on how everything goes October could be a relative nightmare.
Seriously. Any thoughts, prayers, juju, and positive vibes you can send my way during that time will really be appreciated. There's a pretty significant amount at stake for myself, my boss, my VP, and the credit union with this expansion project. So with the increased stress I need a stress-releiver which has been taking the form of ...
- Games. The Ragnarok Online anniversary event was going on during June/July so much leveling was going on. I'm not the power-leveler like some of my friends are but I still did as much as my schedule, my fatigue, and my sanity would allow for. Who knows...one day I might even finish a character! I've also been developing/implimenting a guild event for our game that will run the course of ten weeks. Multiple updates are necessary each week so that's definitely taking up some time. Nothing outrageous, but time nonetheless. It hasn't been as successful as I'd hoped but I've still got a few participants and if nothing else folks from other guilds have taken notice and asked to join our guild or have me do a similar event for them. I thought I might have the time to do so since my evenings/weekends were mostly free until I stumbled upon...
- Girlfriend 2007. Or rather she stumbled upon me. On July 1st I received an email from an old acquaintance from the high school youth group at church. We didn't really talk all that much back then but I still remembered who she was. Turns out she had a crush on me since that time, but when she saw me with my now-ex-wife she reasonably figured that I wasn't exactly available any more. 'Course now that's different and as "circumstance" would have it our paths crossed yet again. We talked for a while, went out a few times, and we've hit it off smashingly well so far. It's rather hard to believe that it's basically been a month already since that first contact but it's been all kinds of fun! Her name is Abby, she's a graphics designer, loves to read, enjoys action/sci-fi movies, and has a PS2. She even challenged me to a game of Tetris the first time I was over there! And she really enjoyed the new Die Hard movie. I give her two thumbs up. :-D
So that's been life for the past month or so. I don't know if I'll be posting as much as I used to over the next few months but I'll do my best to throw some thoughts up here as they come up. I still enjoy blogging and sharing my random idiocracies!
Until next time...
Thursday, July 05, 2007
LineCon - Day 4
Day 4 began with Ganon leaving early (that is, before 11) for the convention hall to sign up for the Super Smash Brothers Melee tournament.
"Hey, what character do you normally play?"
"Ganon."
Hmm...go figure. Anywho, we all took our time, then shoved off for the con at some later point. G, Telly and I went shopping for a bit, then we noticed that it was pretty near the starting time for the Transformers movie (yes, the new one). Telly had some more shopping to to do G and I went to find the end of the line.
We never found it, though. By the time we got out there the line was about a half mile long, in the sun. Freakin' LineCon. We were so sick of long lines in the sun that we didn't feel like another, especially on the last day, so we went to eat. Telly joined us shortly afterwards, then it was back to the convention to watch Ganon tear it up in the tourney.
And tear it up he did. He was a bit nervous because another of the tournament players is the guy he lost to in the finals previously. Other than that foe, though, he was very confident. People were pretty surprised by him at first because the character Ganon in the game is something of a 2nd tier character - the pro's usually use different people - but he handled his business very well and garnered compliments from the entire crowd - he was basically coronated as the "best Ganon I've ever seen." In the end his nemesis was defeated and he had to go up against a Jigglypuff. The match was neck and neck for a good while until Jiggly snuck in wicked, unexpected blow that knocked Ganon flying off the screen for the win. Still, 2nd place out of 128 is pretty damn good and he got a nice little truckload of stuff, including .hack//G.U. Special Edition. I <3 .hack!!!
After that was done the convention was basically done as well. We met up w/Drax's crew and grubbed for a while, then went back to our rooms for a bit to relax. Watched some anime, had some pizza. After a few hours we went back to Drax's room to meet up with them again, then mobbed over to Outback. The strange thing is that when I saw Drax again I nearly didn't recognize her and Hom as this was the first time since Friday afternoon I didn't see them cosplaying.
After dinner we started walking back and I randomly interjected my honking sound. It's kinda like a tricycle horn, but without the horn. Apparently, this is one of the funniest sounds known to mankind - so much so that they saw fit to conclude their convention video with it. I'm told that the two girls nearly spontaneously combusted from laughing so hard after I left.
I still suspect that little sound byte is gonna end up on YouTube somewhere. If it really is that funny then girls all across the world could be walking around with beet-red faces and laughing hysterically. Not sure if that's good or bad to be laughed at like that, but it was definitely fun at the time
A couple of thoughts/bits of funniness...
- AX is fun, but good lord to they need to get their shiz together. The registration line was completely fouled up within two hours of it opening, and they had a "critical network failure" to boot.
- Communication from AX in general needs to be dramatically improved. Many times the vol's were left to fend for themselves, make decisions on how to handle crowds, route traffic, give explanations to people on why things were sucking at that moment, PR/spin control, etc. It's a *really* bad idea to leave that to volunteers or cheaply-paid staff. Yes, staff costs more. I guarantee, though, that those 44,000+ attendees would pay ten more dollars each for their badges. Given that next year's con will likely top 50k people, that's over $500k more in revenue just from the registration alone. Even if half of that goes to the extra expenses that's still $250k more to pay for extra staff. That's at least 5 more f/t staff, each of which could handle a team of 15 vols. And that's just from a simple increase in badge cost.
- The Long Beach CC area was not prepared for us at all. They've handled bigger cons and they've handled fan/otaku cons before, but they've never held an otaku con of this magnitude before. By the end of the con I heard the staff of multiple establishments saying they don't want us back.
- What kind of hotel kicks people out of their lobby?
- On the phone - "Why don't you come over to my room? I want to show you something." All the people who were listening on the phone raised their eyebrows.
- Overheard: "I was supposed to get sex with that last piece of candy!"
"That can still be arranged!"
To my knowledge, no sex was had from that piece of candy.
- Two of the times I went to ride the trolley/bus back to our hotel, the drivers were talking to one of the passengers who was also standing in front of the line that they are supposedly legally required to stand behind. I don't like my drivers talking to passengers. I prefer them to...oh, I don't know...focus on driving?
- Butt Seks will get you laughed at by everyone in line, as well as thrown out of the con.
- You don't have to have a beer belly to know your beer.
- Said our server at the Yard House - "I was just standing there and I was really hot!" Yes, honey...yes you were. And are. Hot.
- Outback has someone on staff in the back to carefully grow, peel, roast, and grind your coffee beans whenever someone orders coffee. Very carefully. And if you're lucky, they'll even brew it for you!
Next year's AX will be in the Los Angeles Convention Center. This is great news as far as the sun is concerned - all lines should be inside. It's terrible news from a logistics perspective - there aren't really any hotels close to the con (the closest one is about a quarter mile away and that's fairly small...the big ones are about a half-mile away or more) which makes cosplay a wee bit more difficult, and it really hurts the nightlife as the area around the con isn't conducive to just hanging out. Dodging bullets, maybe, but not hanging out.
"Hey, what character do you normally play?"
"Ganon."
Hmm...go figure. Anywho, we all took our time, then shoved off for the con at some later point. G, Telly and I went shopping for a bit, then we noticed that it was pretty near the starting time for the Transformers movie (yes, the new one). Telly had some more shopping to to do G and I went to find the end of the line.
We never found it, though. By the time we got out there the line was about a half mile long, in the sun. Freakin' LineCon. We were so sick of long lines in the sun that we didn't feel like another, especially on the last day, so we went to eat. Telly joined us shortly afterwards, then it was back to the convention to watch Ganon tear it up in the tourney.
And tear it up he did. He was a bit nervous because another of the tournament players is the guy he lost to in the finals previously. Other than that foe, though, he was very confident. People were pretty surprised by him at first because the character Ganon in the game is something of a 2nd tier character - the pro's usually use different people - but he handled his business very well and garnered compliments from the entire crowd - he was basically coronated as the "best Ganon I've ever seen." In the end his nemesis was defeated and he had to go up against a Jigglypuff. The match was neck and neck for a good while until Jiggly snuck in wicked, unexpected blow that knocked Ganon flying off the screen for the win. Still, 2nd place out of 128 is pretty damn good and he got a nice little truckload of stuff, including .hack//G.U. Special Edition. I <3 .hack!!!
After that was done the convention was basically done as well. We met up w/Drax's crew and grubbed for a while, then went back to our rooms for a bit to relax. Watched some anime, had some pizza. After a few hours we went back to Drax's room to meet up with them again, then mobbed over to Outback. The strange thing is that when I saw Drax again I nearly didn't recognize her and Hom as this was the first time since Friday afternoon I didn't see them cosplaying.
After dinner we started walking back and I randomly interjected my honking sound. It's kinda like a tricycle horn, but without the horn. Apparently, this is one of the funniest sounds known to mankind - so much so that they saw fit to conclude their convention video with it. I'm told that the two girls nearly spontaneously combusted from laughing so hard after I left.
I still suspect that little sound byte is gonna end up on YouTube somewhere. If it really is that funny then girls all across the world could be walking around with beet-red faces and laughing hysterically. Not sure if that's good or bad to be laughed at like that, but it was definitely fun at the time
A couple of thoughts/bits of funniness...
- AX is fun, but good lord to they need to get their shiz together. The registration line was completely fouled up within two hours of it opening, and they had a "critical network failure" to boot.
- Communication from AX in general needs to be dramatically improved. Many times the vol's were left to fend for themselves, make decisions on how to handle crowds, route traffic, give explanations to people on why things were sucking at that moment, PR/spin control, etc. It's a *really* bad idea to leave that to volunteers or cheaply-paid staff. Yes, staff costs more. I guarantee, though, that those 44,000+ attendees would pay ten more dollars each for their badges. Given that next year's con will likely top 50k people, that's over $500k more in revenue just from the registration alone. Even if half of that goes to the extra expenses that's still $250k more to pay for extra staff. That's at least 5 more f/t staff, each of which could handle a team of 15 vols. And that's just from a simple increase in badge cost.
- The Long Beach CC area was not prepared for us at all. They've handled bigger cons and they've handled fan/otaku cons before, but they've never held an otaku con of this magnitude before. By the end of the con I heard the staff of multiple establishments saying they don't want us back.
- What kind of hotel kicks people out of their lobby?
- On the phone - "Why don't you come over to my room? I want to show you something." All the people who were listening on the phone raised their eyebrows.
- Overheard: "I was supposed to get sex with that last piece of candy!"
"That can still be arranged!"
To my knowledge, no sex was had from that piece of candy.
- Two of the times I went to ride the trolley/bus back to our hotel, the drivers were talking to one of the passengers who was also standing in front of the line that they are supposedly legally required to stand behind. I don't like my drivers talking to passengers. I prefer them to...oh, I don't know...focus on driving?
- Butt Seks will get you laughed at by everyone in line, as well as thrown out of the con.
- You don't have to have a beer belly to know your beer.
- Said our server at the Yard House - "I was just standing there and I was really hot!" Yes, honey...yes you were. And are. Hot.
- Outback has someone on staff in the back to carefully grow, peel, roast, and grind your coffee beans whenever someone orders coffee. Very carefully. And if you're lucky, they'll even brew it for you!
Next year's AX will be in the Los Angeles Convention Center. This is great news as far as the sun is concerned - all lines should be inside. It's terrible news from a logistics perspective - there aren't really any hotels close to the con (the closest one is about a quarter mile away and that's fairly small...the big ones are about a half-mile away or more) which makes cosplay a wee bit more difficult, and it really hurts the nightlife as the area around the con isn't conducive to just hanging out. Dodging bullets, maybe, but not hanging out.
Anime Expo - Day 3
The day started off slow. We didn't make it out of the hotel room until about 11:15. Telly found a magical burst of speed and got to the bus stop before us, thereby getting to the con before us (us beeing G, Ganon, and myself). Once we all finally met up we rather immediately split up again. They went into the exhibit hall, and I went to fetch Jynx and Claire.
Claire's not really a fan girl - she plays RO with her husband but aparently isn't so much into the anime stuff itself - and she's with child as well, so I very much applaud her for making the trip! It was great to meet up with a couple more folks before the "big meeting."
I introduced those two back to the regular crew, walked around the exhibit hall some, then we slowly started making our way to the lagoon for the big RO meeting. At first Genesis and a few private server newbs were the only folks there. Then more and more started showing up until when you looked around the only thing you could see were RO players and cosplayers. In fact there were so many of us on the small island out there (connected by bridges...no, we didn't have to swim!!!) that three AX access control staffers had to come out just to see what was going on!
Soon afterwards the pictures started by class. Lots of priestly types and magic users. A few sins. A few archer classes. Only two swordie classes. A few monsters, including a really cute Alice holding a myst case and a really cute little Munak as well. While the pictures are going on we're all meeting people from other guilds. Killer Tomatoes, Dragon's Ire, and Sairai were all represented. KT had one of the larger groups there, but Genesis' following was probably the 2nd largest. We also had some server pictures done and that's when we realized that Chaos - who was bragging earlier in the con that they were going to have about 100 people at the meeting - was outnumbered 3:1 by Loki!!! LOKI FOR THE WIN, BISH!!!
We went to some pub/brewery that had - and I'm not kidding - over 100 different beers on tap for lunch, then started making our way back to the con. Half of us went to get tickets for the masquerade. The other half went to get ice cream at Cold Stone. When we saw the Cold Stone line with about 30 total people in it standing out the door in the sun, though, we figured that was a bad idea. Back to the air conditioning and exhibit hall!!! :-D I bought some fine line markers and a sketch book just to doodle around just to prove to myself that I'm not an artist. I'm not terrible, but I don't think I can do originals very well to save my life. I draw a mean kunai, though!!!
Everyone in the group but me went to the masquerade and had a good time. Afterwards G and Ganon headed back to the room. I was watching the new Hellsing Ultimate (which was pretty cool stuff!) and then met up w/Draxie's crew and Telly in her room for wine and hangin' out.
From there we pretty much just hung out in various places until two am when the dance ended. Telly really likes the dances. The rest of us are pretty /eh about them.
A word of note - Draxie's crew kicks ass. They cosplay VERY well and make their own stuff to boot! In fact, Draxie's HP costume was so good that a Gravity representative (not a GM) gave her an ArchAngeling plushie and evil wing ears!!! The most anyone else got was a stuffed poring! Besides all that, they're just fun to hang out with as long as you can handle the occasional yaoi pose that they force you into (ask Telly for details...I think he liked it a little too much).
Okay, off we go for Day 4!
Claire's not really a fan girl - she plays RO with her husband but aparently isn't so much into the anime stuff itself - and she's with child as well, so I very much applaud her for making the trip! It was great to meet up with a couple more folks before the "big meeting."
I introduced those two back to the regular crew, walked around the exhibit hall some, then we slowly started making our way to the lagoon for the big RO meeting. At first Genesis and a few private server newbs were the only folks there. Then more and more started showing up until when you looked around the only thing you could see were RO players and cosplayers. In fact there were so many of us on the small island out there (connected by bridges...no, we didn't have to swim!!!) that three AX access control staffers had to come out just to see what was going on!
Soon afterwards the pictures started by class. Lots of priestly types and magic users. A few sins. A few archer classes. Only two swordie classes. A few monsters, including a really cute Alice holding a myst case and a really cute little Munak as well. While the pictures are going on we're all meeting people from other guilds. Killer Tomatoes, Dragon's Ire, and Sairai were all represented. KT had one of the larger groups there, but Genesis' following was probably the 2nd largest. We also had some server pictures done and that's when we realized that Chaos - who was bragging earlier in the con that they were going to have about 100 people at the meeting - was outnumbered 3:1 by Loki!!! LOKI FOR THE WIN, BISH!!!
We went to some pub/brewery that had - and I'm not kidding - over 100 different beers on tap for lunch, then started making our way back to the con. Half of us went to get tickets for the masquerade. The other half went to get ice cream at Cold Stone. When we saw the Cold Stone line with about 30 total people in it standing out the door in the sun, though, we figured that was a bad idea. Back to the air conditioning and exhibit hall!!! :-D I bought some fine line markers and a sketch book just to doodle around just to prove to myself that I'm not an artist. I'm not terrible, but I don't think I can do originals very well to save my life. I draw a mean kunai, though!!!
Everyone in the group but me went to the masquerade and had a good time. Afterwards G and Ganon headed back to the room. I was watching the new Hellsing Ultimate (which was pretty cool stuff!) and then met up w/Draxie's crew and Telly in her room for wine and hangin' out.
From there we pretty much just hung out in various places until two am when the dance ended. Telly really likes the dances. The rest of us are pretty /eh about them.
A word of note - Draxie's crew kicks ass. They cosplay VERY well and make their own stuff to boot! In fact, Draxie's HP costume was so good that a Gravity representative (not a GM) gave her an ArchAngeling plushie and evil wing ears!!! The most anyone else got was a stuffed poring! Besides all that, they're just fun to hang out with as long as you can handle the occasional yaoi pose that they force you into (ask Telly for details...I think he liked it a little too much).
Okay, off we go for Day 4!
Anime Expo - Day 2
It started off with us arriving at the con around 10:30 am or so and...well, I have no idea what Telly and G did at that point. We split up and I got in line to get into the exhibit hall. Which was...about a half mile long. The difference is that this line was constantly moving so it went pretty quickly.
The hall itself is amazing. I've watched it get bigger and bigger each year, and this year's is the biggest by far. Bandai and Copic are right up front, with Geneon and ADV not too far behind them. Geneon is pimping it's Ultimate Hellsing, ADV has some anime set in Russia with a French title that they're promoting heavily, and Bandai is it's own normal jugernaut. Funimation has a large booth, but strangely it's pretty much off to the side and out of the way - very strange for such a large company.
The exhibit hall is absolutely packed with people...so much so that it's not convenient at all to browse people's wares. I push through the masses though, going isle by isle (there's about 20 isles) and systematically check it out. Sort of. I had to stop for an occasional picture or backtrack to check out a few new items. There are basically four types of booths there - large producers, anime/manga sales, gundam/toy sales, and culture sales (clothes, weapons, music, etc). The quantity of booth babes at this convention is significantly reduced over previous years, as is the quality. Eh. Oh well.
Sgt. Frog is being sold all over the place, as is Mario stuff. Other big sellers are Final Fantasy, Deathnote, Naruto, and Bleach. DragonBall Z isn't nearly as well merchandised this year as in past years (thankfully). .hack//Roots is pretty well cosplayed this day and .hack//G.U. looks pretty damn cool. Player Killers FTW!!!
It took me about three hours to work through only three quarters of the exhibit hall before I got a call from Telly saying we were all meeting up for grub at the California Pizza Kitchen. There were fifteen of us, including Draxie, Chong, Hom, Tessa, RK, Vodon, Amy, G, Ganon, Myself, and some other folks that we really didn't know but were friends of Vodon. And Telly paid for us all!!!! /slur /slur /omg /slur /slur
I went back to finish the exhibit hall and bought all four of the Final Fantasy Master Weapon works statues that just came out this week; Telly and the rest of the crew did...I have no idea. After I was done in the hall and it closed we met up to watch a Ramen eating contest, proceeded to grub at Rock Bottom, had some drinks, headed back to the convention hall to discuss more Deathnote philosophy and theory (damn those shinigami!!!), and then headed back to the room.
Before we got to the room, though, we tried to catch a free shuttle back to our hotel. We couldn't because it was too full and was the last shuttle of the evening, but the last guy on the bus had the door shut on his arm and the driver just took off like that, arm stuck outside, waving away. It looked like he was giving turn signals with his hand. About ten seconds later she finally realized what happend and let him get his arm inside.
We laughed. A LOT!
K, that's all for now. On to day 3!!!
The hall itself is amazing. I've watched it get bigger and bigger each year, and this year's is the biggest by far. Bandai and Copic are right up front, with Geneon and ADV not too far behind them. Geneon is pimping it's Ultimate Hellsing, ADV has some anime set in Russia with a French title that they're promoting heavily, and Bandai is it's own normal jugernaut. Funimation has a large booth, but strangely it's pretty much off to the side and out of the way - very strange for such a large company.
The exhibit hall is absolutely packed with people...so much so that it's not convenient at all to browse people's wares. I push through the masses though, going isle by isle (there's about 20 isles) and systematically check it out. Sort of. I had to stop for an occasional picture or backtrack to check out a few new items. There are basically four types of booths there - large producers, anime/manga sales, gundam/toy sales, and culture sales (clothes, weapons, music, etc). The quantity of booth babes at this convention is significantly reduced over previous years, as is the quality. Eh. Oh well.
Sgt. Frog is being sold all over the place, as is Mario stuff. Other big sellers are Final Fantasy, Deathnote, Naruto, and Bleach. DragonBall Z isn't nearly as well merchandised this year as in past years (thankfully). .hack//Roots is pretty well cosplayed this day and .hack//G.U. looks pretty damn cool. Player Killers FTW!!!
It took me about three hours to work through only three quarters of the exhibit hall before I got a call from Telly saying we were all meeting up for grub at the California Pizza Kitchen. There were fifteen of us, including Draxie, Chong, Hom, Tessa, RK, Vodon, Amy, G, Ganon, Myself, and some other folks that we really didn't know but were friends of Vodon. And Telly paid for us all!!!! /slur /slur /omg /slur /slur
I went back to finish the exhibit hall and bought all four of the Final Fantasy Master Weapon works statues that just came out this week; Telly and the rest of the crew did...I have no idea. After I was done in the hall and it closed we met up to watch a Ramen eating contest, proceeded to grub at Rock Bottom, had some drinks, headed back to the convention hall to discuss more Deathnote philosophy and theory (damn those shinigami!!!), and then headed back to the room.
Before we got to the room, though, we tried to catch a free shuttle back to our hotel. We couldn't because it was too full and was the last shuttle of the evening, but the last guy on the bus had the door shut on his arm and the driver just took off like that, arm stuck outside, waving away. It looked like he was giving turn signals with his hand. About ten seconds later she finally realized what happend and let him get his arm inside.
We laughed. A LOT!
K, that's all for now. On to day 3!!!
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