A-kon 11. My biggest longshot, out of the blue, no way id ever grace it con!

The miracle was made possible by my great friend Peter (WackoTTL) and his girl Gab-Sama. The timing of the con couldnt have been more flawless. The day after i graduated from TechSchool.

So there it is, Thursday afternoon and we're already arriving at the hotel. Peter had volunteered to be ConSuite staff for the weekend, which got a free con badge as well as spare room for the weekend. It couldnt have been better. I signed up as well (after some pointless convincing) which got me my own badge and room in the suite. Thanx Sara! Thursday was slow, but still had a good lot of people attending the con having little room parties here and there.

That night was cool. Since I had just gotten out of tech school, ALL my stuff was with me. i had my Playstation Dance Pads, all my import games, and Pocketstation. The con suite had a riot playing with the dance pads although Nobody knew how to dance on them. I showed them beatmania, which was really cool because they enjoyed just watching as i played. Shawn The Touched was lounging here too which was cool. Its always a pleasure to see my idol at cons! I didn't sleep much at all that night (i usually dont sleep at all at cons, but it was Thursday!) because my space consisted of a place right by the door. So every so often i'd wake up, apologize for being in the way, then go back to sleep. Ugh

Friday morning i got up and headed to the dealers room. On the way I saw Strag0 with AngylBaybee who was complaining about ConSlugs checking her out in her costume. Heh, Strag0 had a new alias "3-Day" due to the name he put on his convention badge. He was also wearing his Pocketstation (the sign of a true Import Gamer!). We headed to the dealer's room to see what was up. Woah! Lots of room! i can actually SEE the CDs this time instead of fighting crowds to get even a glimpse. And who just happened to be there but the whole J-List team and Peter Payne! It was such a great honor to see him there, and tell him how greatfull I am of all of his works and updates concerning the J-List. Next 3-Day and I met Rachael Lillis and i told her how great it was to meet one of my favorite voice actors. Shes soo cool. I mean she actually took the time to talk with us about how she had gone out of her way for this con, about how she was doing in the voice acting lifestyle, and all kinds of stuff (ok, ok, i forgot what else we discussed). Just when I thought the celebrity magnet had worn off, Kevin Lillard and Lloyd Carter show up and start chatting with Rachael. Amazing! We were swamped with Con Celebs! ^_^ Kevin seemed pretty happy to see Rachael as well, because he just began talking away with her the minute he got there. Lloyd was talking about how humble the little AWA con is and how having Rachael there would be such a blessing. The time was passing now, and 3-Day and I headed off to go look around some more.

3-Day was there with the Otaku Radio crowd (which i didn't even KNOW was OR until after the con =P) where they were amazingly still sleeping (it was umm Noon). 3-Day had brought all of his PSX and Saturn games and had the computer there to make CoPiEs, so I picked out several i wanted which he gratefully made copies of.

Akemi Takada was signing autographs. Since there was quite a long line, you took a number (im 22!) and waited until your turn came up. This is where i met Royce and C-chan. C-chan was costuming as Kid from ChronoCross. I was one of the few people who actually recognized her costume and i asked her if she had played the game. Surprisingly she said she hadn't so i offered her a copy. She was thrilled and i had hoped i would later bump into her so i can get her the game. Royce and i just began talking about all kinds of Anime in general. There was another red-haired guy who was totally obsessed with Akemi Takada and had a load of stuff he wanted autographed. I was in line because a friend of mine Loves Urusei Yatsura and i saw that Akemi made some UY art. I left my Weiss kreuZ wall scroll somewhere in line, and never found it, so if you have it, tell me! (ok, weak attempt huh?)

3-Day earlier let me know that they were playing my recent Most Sought-After anime "Initial D", and Yes! It was playing right then. So i went and watched about 4 episodes. Simply amazing. and the quality was Perfect. Fansubbed theme song and great music. This is truly a great year for new releases. I asked the guy running the video room where i could obtain the fansub, but he only wrote down A-kons site (*Note at the time i have 1-13 fansubbed. Thank You Soyakaze! ^_^). The video people could have been more help (theres my Rant. Cute little thing huh?)

About this time the opening ceremonies had begun. I attended some of it and talked to some guy who told me about some lady making a fully-functional BubblegumCrisis hardsuit. Is that true? Well anyway as i was heading back to the con suite I saw C-chan again, who was waiting on her friend Krissy to get back. We chilled in the lobby then she agreed to go up to where 3-Day was to get her game Chrono Cross. Actually, there was a little H-Party going on in the room, and they were watching Elven Bride when i had left. She didn't mind ^_^.

Searching for room parties, C-Chan and I managed to bump into a few. The main one was Anime Heretics. their party had everything from the little vodka bottles to Supa-Proof Scotch! I had found the place with C-chan but at that time it was boring. Later on that night it got cooler. Mexican Eva PSX kid and I were trying to find the All-Holy Whiskey party going on, but i guess it was just a myth. We knocked on about 4 rooms trying to find it but no luck. We settled for the Heretics party, which caused me to sorta lose my Mexican friend to the Crown, but in turn got me great shot of Drunken Asian Guy kissing mine and C-Chans forehead. It was just too cool. You had to be there. I only saw Mexican Eva PSX kid again once in the game room where he took some more pics of me. Oh, I really whopped down some people on DBZ2, but the kids who played DanceDanceRevolution3rd Mix were pros! We even got the dance pads out (2 of them!) and played with them. But after awhile we got some complaints that we were too loud and had to put the dance pads away. Its the game room! its supposed to be loud!

It was late/early now and no more parties were still happening so i went off to sleep in the consuite again. And yes; again i had my head knocked on about 10 times that night. once again; wake up, apologise, wake up, apologise... oi!

Saturday! The big day for all conventions. Peter was cool enough to let me wear his Nerv 2nd Branch uniform. The beret didn't fit me so i spiked up my hair instead. "Im gonna get it looking super sayian!" i said "You just got out of the military! How can you do super sayin with a quarter-inch haircut?!" What was funny is that in 10 minutes of wearing his costume, I had gotten twice the number of people getting pictures of ME wearing the costume than him. His girl, Gab-sama described it as "Mappy looks Cuter, but Peter looks manly-er". that about wrapped things up. But i must say, the costume rocked! Working in the Con Suite consisted of a 2 hour shift each day of the weekend that you'll be attending. For instance, my shift was right before a big Sailor Moon party, so i had to make Punch enough for everyone. Well there wasn't enough so we mixed Fruit Punch and Kool-Aide (hey, either that or TANG!) together to create "FruitNAide" it tasted quite nice actually. Also my job was to refill the veggie tray and to make several peanut butter (wheres the Peanut Butter?!) sandwiches. Its a very easy job especially when you don't have to deal with people coming in asking for more food. Those poor babies, aww. And if you are the type to mooch off the Suite for food (we called them "grazers") be kind enough to put some money in the tip jar. Because if you feed the kitty, then the kitty feeds you! ^_^ While working my shift in the ConSuite i met Vivian aka Vivi. She was a cute little asian girl who had never been to a con before. and She could Draw! she had some of her works in the artist show which were really nice. I would have bought it from her to be nice, but one of them that i wanted, she actually Didn't wat to sell. gah hah hah! Most drawings in the show were really good. Especially AngelLain's OhMyGoddess Belldandy drawing, which later sold for $200! wow, and it wasn't even in colour.

C-Chan and Krissy were in the dealers room. They cosplayed as ShadowLady and Maetel from Galaxy Express 999. C-chan's Shadow Lady costume kind of dragged on the floor so i walked behind her so it wouldn't get stepped on (because if it did, well Bad things would have happened ok?). there was also a really good Queen Emereldas costumer there, so the 999 scene worked out great.

Cosplay was really well done. I somehow managed to get a good view with the camera. Although i'd like to have gotten C-chan & Krissy's seats, but they were Hospitality so they had to sit close. Cosplay was done on stage with cool lights, nice sound system, and the coolest host; Brad DeMoss! He made the cosplay so awesome by making jokes and other little things that just gave it a nice touch. About half way through i ran out of film, so i had to miss part of it, but I got the majority on tape including the Final Fantasy 6 meets Final Fantasy 8 cosplay which was everyones favorite. not only were the costumes simply jaw-dropping (Kefka, you Rule!), but the cosplay was really well acted and very funny. *

Saturday Nights Dance was so amazing. Well not at first because they were playing "Traditional Con Music" (like Rocky Horror, and all kinds of music thats played all most cons to start things off). Zoicite was there saying that if we complain and bring our own music they should realize that the majority wants the hardcore stuff rather than traditional. Then, yay! They started playing OUR music. Sharon Apple, Orgy, Megumi, TwoMix, all the greats! There were all sorts of people there. Not so much cosplayers as just hardcore ravers. A few glow stix going around. Especially mine! I really took the floor with the Stix! Then a breakdancing crowd began and people got in the typical circle to watch the true breakers do their thing. Lots of Asians totally WOW'd the crowd, while theres people like me who just play around breaking. I actually got dizzy from my Windmill and stepped in Krissy a few times (Gomen! ^_^;) Shawn The Touched was here too! The poor guy didn't know how to Rave so i sorta taught him. Once he got the glow stix he sorta began his own rhythm which was cool. Yay! I taught Shawn to rave! hahah

Saturday night i couldn't go back to the suite. I would have stayed up all night but i got bored evtually and needed another room badly. 3-Days room was packed so i asked if i could room with C-chan. She had about 6 other people as well, but i offered to pay the guy who bought the room so it was okay. We went back to the room to find that the guy had fallen aslepp and there was no other way in. Pounding on the door for an hour didn't sem to work. Randy was Dead Asleep! So we went to the neighbors room to call him. Big Mistake. apparently the neighbors were well "busy" and umm, i think we interrupted them. the guy was wearing some keen silver vinyl pants and there was massive booze in the room. Anyway, after attempting to call him and wake him up...and failing, we went back down to the dance. We somehow eventually got a keycard and got in the room. I slept well that night, hoorah...

Sunday morning, bleh. The con begins winding down. i sort of went off on my own Sunday. wandering aimlessly into different panels. The fandub panel was great. C-ko's Parodies were playing (all of them!) and new parodies played as well. No Lyfe Productions (www.anime.at/nolyfe) had a parody of PanzerDragoon Saga, which was pretty good. I later met up with C-ko who was talking with Royce. Yes! He's distributing again, and i want to get a copy so badly! I also stopped over in the J Pop room which was pretty lively. All weekend long it was constant J Pop. And then some days they'd be playing J pop music videos. They had a drawing that would get you $20 any jpop CD in the dealers room. I have no idea if i won because i didn't stick around that long. Another panel was on Anime Clubs. As soon as i entered they asked me "Do you have a club?" Yes, Fujikoma! "Well then get on up here!" So yay.... i was up there with the other club leaders hosting a panel. I feel so special ^_-. Anime Heretics and a few other small clubs mainly just chatted about how to manage a long-running anime circle and how to improve it and whatnot. Nothin too special, but humorous no less.

Sunday night, ugh. The Dead Dog parties. There were actually more than one of these too. One wasn't much of a party. more of a get-together downstairs in the art room of the sleepy people just chilling out, ranting about the con and life in general. Then there was the ConSuite. oooohhh no. Once again i can't sleep in there. I even tried to get a can of cola from the party: "Hey, who said you could have that" said some big burly bearded guy "I'm on the Staff man, ish cool" says I "Look at the badge!" ::points to badge reading "OGRE":: "Umm ok?" Apparently Ogre is the guardian of the brew. Nobody gets Ogre's brew unless Ogre say so. Scary guy. I left...thirsty....and tired. There was no way i'd get any sleep in the same room as the Dead Dog party. no way. So i once again sleep over at C-chans. This time it was a full house! Doc Fragga and Amy, Eric, Krissy, and Randy were all here. Randy is so cool! he can talk forever about dumb people and just random stories from cons hes been at. We listened to him talk awhile then just sorta called it a night.

Yawn... Monday morning. Probably my longest time staying at a con. 5 days at a 3 day con. Sundays are amazingly still well packed with Otakus. and even though No Events are happening and no video rooms are playing, people still seem to dress up and just kind of chill out everywhere. I left the hotel around 10am. What a ride. Now another 6 hours back to Bama.

Overall i'm pleased to say this was probably my best con. Its nicely organized, the movies they show are the Best! I mean Initial D baby, yeah! The video room people could use a little knowledge as far as what theyre showing (well that goes for ALL cons) and the Con Staff should get free program books. The place never got too crowded and people were very friendly. The price was nice (heheh especially when youre staff) and the Guests were spectacular. I will definitely come back to this con again! Laterz~