217 replies to this topic

[Level 99]

My plane got diverted cause of storms over Baltimore. I can't even properly post-con-crash cause they won't let us off the plane and are attempting to refuel. I have no idea what's going on with getting home. I'd ride starlight moonbeam but...NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

That fan club is awesome/creepy/wut? I'm sorry I didn't get to say goodbye to everyone, I'll post more when my ears have popped and I have food in my stomach/sleep.

"Look at my horse, my horse is amazing"

[infractus]

Awww that sux Stevo. I'm not mad - btw. I knew you lot had to haul ass out to catch the flight on time.
I'm sitting at TIA waiting for them to deliver our checked luggage from the plane. It's nasssssty outside.



baaahhh.. unicorn song
I'm not ready to face reality yet.
Sniffled and giggled and sniffled the whole way home.

[TRiPPY]

Omigawd XD I seen some hilarious photos already. You guys are the BEST. I's so proud of you *sniffle* I still wish i could have been there too but hearing all the fun you had just makes up for it. You sold them all? Ahahaha wicked, good work troops! Thanks so much ^^ bit by bit we'll take over the world and make it glow with rainbowy poop.


Now....



PHOTOS
edit// ALSO! Can you lot write up little reports on the con and i'll post them on the site as a con section along with all your photos

[Level 99]

Oh, I'll write up my full report over the coming week, but first...


[Jaws theme]

Duh dunnn........




Duhh dun dun dun dun dun......




REEEEEEEE REEEEEEEE REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

[DiGi Valentine]

.........................my god! XD

[TRiPPY]

*inards explode laughing*

[Jof]

Oh man, that's so epic! Zero! You menace to society!

I want to see your cosplay man.

[Zero-Shift]

That was Stevo. I was a completely different kind of menace. XD

[Level 99]

It's true, I was the total menace in the Will's Dad mask throughout the con. Currently uploading pix and whatnot. Zero, can I upload the one of you, Infractus, and myself?

[andersam]

I had the Time of my Life.







That's really the only thing I can think of to say at the moment. I don't think I have ever laughed so often, Been so happy, or felt so loved as I did when I was with you guys. Never in my wildest dreams had I ever guessed that one could feel so.... in place. I'll never,ever, EVER forget it, no matter what.

So thanks.
Thanks for the laughs,
Thanks for the love,
Thanks for the time of my life

*has to stop typeing before she starts crying all over the keyboard*

.....

It's true, I was the total menace in the Will's Dad mask throughout the con. Currently uploading pix and whatnot. Zero, can I upload the one of you, Infractus, and myself?

Don't forget me 99! I'm pulling back my face ban for NiD too. Why spoil a perfect picture?

I'm in the process of sending all of MY pics to you guys. LOL HEY GUYS SHOW TRiP THE ONE OF ALL OF US IN THE MASK!!! Oh, your gonna love it, TRiPPY....

[Zero-Shift]

It's true, I was the total menace in the Will's Dad mask throughout the con. Currently uploading pix and whatnot. Zero, can I upload the one of you, Infractus, and myself?

Go for it. I don't mind.

[infractus]

One of my personal favorites:






Also, there is this:

[Level 99]

Okay, first the AGHHHHHHHHH at Patrick!

Also, I think I win, hands down:




IT'S SO BAD YOU COULD HAVE NEVER IMAGINED IT

[TRiPPY]

oh. dear. god.

[infractus]

OMG


..Was that after the panel? Or did I just miss the dancing?

Will's dad spies Helen...


If I were you, I'd run.

[Level 99]

See? NOW DON'T YOU WISH EVEN MORE THAN ANYTHING THAT YOU WERE THERE TO PARTAKE IN THIS? I think we started a trend. Must continue at every con we NiGHTS peoples go to.

[infractus]

But we had a Dio to find before setting back up in the artist's alley... D:



OOOOH. And also, that sneak peak on the upcoming NiD-Remix project? WIN.

[TRiPPY]

*ROLLS* IM SUPPOSED TO BE GOING TO BED! ITS 2AM! DAMN YOU ALL FOR BEING SO FUNNY

[Zero-Shift]

Dear god Stevo...

Hey, where's that picture of me beating the crap out of Naruto? Or just a couple pictures of me in general. XD

Okay, a summary of how things went from my perspective. At least to the best of my recollection.

Miscellaneous
-At the con I cosplayed as Dio Brando all Friday and Saturday.
-If I wasn't at the Artist Alley or a panel I was walking around navigating the dealer's room, meeting people and hoping for some photos.
-Infractus and I would swap places to do stuff at the Artist Alley but also were there at the same time often as well.
-At the Artist Alley we managed to sell 19 copies of Engelbaum. I gave away the 20th.
-Tons of people were blown away by TRiP's art. Even if they didn't buy the comic they grabbed a flier or business card. I bought a pack of 100 cards. They were gone before Saturday evening.
-Having a copy of the comic specifically for the people to manhandle is a good idea. Encourage the manhandling.
-Our merry band sometimes splintered off and did other things so I'll mostly keep things relegated to what happened around me including who was with. Others can obviously recount their experience.
-Sheraton's "Free WiFi" can lick me.
-"Jizz in my pants" and "tastes like rainbows" were running gags all weekend.

Thursday
Infractus and I went to the Mall of America around midday and hung out there. Checked out some stores and went on the rides for a while before heading out to Senor Wong's for lunch. Went back to my place to get some last minute stuff taken care of before picking up Stevo and meeting the rest of the OC crew at Senor Wong's again, this time for drinks. It also ended up being Karaoke night. I got soda for free since I asked for it and the waitress thought it was cool I was so stalwart on being the designated driver. Sweet potato fries are the best thing ever and we saw a plastered lady do a dance move I have hereby named "The Seal". Checked into the hotel late and I had to butcher the wig I wore.

Friday
Woke up to loud music and people talking a lot. We moved to out new room and set up shop in the alley after getting our badges squared away. We left the alley early and watched a panel with Nabeshin. Really cool guy. The Afro Crash and Super Sentai Nabeshin were epic. I checked out the opening ceremonies. I killed time with friends until 8:30 when we went to the WTF contest. A bit small this year but there were a couple good entries and I was introduced to "Always", a super freakin' awesome song. I'm sure hearing it has somehow been a major life event. We also went to the revamped "Horrors of Anime" panel. Hilarious as always. I was worried when Mark said he wasn't showing Apocalypse Zero but we had the "pleasure" of watching something worse, Mad Bull 34. Lulz were had. XD

Saturday
Oh wow what a day. Went to an Anime Audition panel at 9. Didn't learn anything new really but it was still fun and any panel with Kyle Hebert is cool. This was shortly followed by me checking out the AMV contest. Some good stuff. There was a really cool Gurren Lagann entry I hope won. Anyway, Infractus an I chilled while I had a banana split for lunch and we eventually left for a bit to catch the OC Remix panel. Ran into Sierra and Andersam there. It was really cool having all of us in one place. Stevo and his minions put on a good panel. Nothing super exciting happened really except WE HEARD A TEASER OF THE LUCID DREAMING ALBUM!!! Bwahahahaha!

After the panel was a long stretch of all of us goofing around, talking, walking places, and doing other random assorted stuff for fun. It was great. I had no real interest in the cosplay competition so there was quite a bit of free time for me and anyone who took off. There was another Dio cosplayer We tried to find but had no luck. We were going to do Za Warudo with his group as some big display but no luck. At around 9 Mary and I went to the Otaku Dating panel. Hilarious but there were two things to mention. First, it was so crude I was actually mentally drained by the end of it. Second, two transsexuals got all pissy with with the panelists at the end about them saying "It's a trap!". It was obviously just joking and it was an 18+ panel so what were they expecting. Anyway, one of them said a line to the effect of "I hate to be a downer (...) but that sh!t has got to stop". Infractus and I were irritated at how they were just being assholes acting all victimized, but eventually the line became a joke in the same vein as Kanye West's thing.

After that we went back to the room and chilled a bit before going to the midnight dance where I basically went crazy. Too bad it was shorter than most years. Doing body waves against a ninja was pretty cool though. Anyway, the thing ended about 2 am and I hung out with Kyle Hebert and a few others for about an hour before going back to the room and calling it a night.

Sunday
We sold the last of the comics and closed shop for the rest of the con early in the morning before heading to a Team Four Star panel. Infractus had her Popo signed by Popo's VA. We also saw the newest YuYu Abridged as well as a teaser for the newest DBZ Abridged. Great stuff. Met with Stevo and the OC crew afterwards We messed around, made our last minute buys at the dealer's room and checked out some choice AMVs. This one was my favorite by a long shot. After that we went to a Q&A with Nabeshin which again was great. But Stevo and the rest had to split unfortunately. So sad. I wanted some more hugs. After that we had to leave to make Infactus' flight. Besides, all that was really left was closing ceremonies. Dropped her off at the airport, gave her a big hug and said goodbyes. Drove home in a daze and promptly started wallowing in post con depression afterward. Feeling better today though.

And that's it. One of the best weekends of my life. Detour is always one of my yearly highlight but this year was something else. This is really a rough descriptor so please, I encourage you to ask for me to mention specifics. Words can't do justice to how much awesome stuff happened.

[infractus]

We also went to the revamped "Horrors of Anime" panel. Hilarious as always. I was worried when Mark said he wasn't showing Apocalypse Zero but we had the "pleasure" of watching something worse, Mad Bull 34.

NO!! I'd manage to push the title of it out of my head so I wouldn't be inclined to ever look for it for whatever godforsaken reason again ... although what has been seen cannot be unseen.
*shudder*



Oh! I'll get a few pictures up here in a minute.
The Naruto ones were win. XD

[Level 99]

Damnit, now I have to write my retrospective tonight, don't I? TRiPPY's never gonna get to bed at this rate!

[infractus]

We spent a bit of quality time hunting down the perfect Naruto to beat up. We found this guy in the lounge, approached him with the request.. and the rest is history:


It's almost a bit *too* convincing:


*giggles* It was seriously cute in real-time. I'm sorry my camera does less justice.


A VERY drunken Jesus and not so drunk Dio:

[Level 99]

I left Thursday right after my home inspection, which went pretty well! A few things need to be fixed but it didn't damper my mood for the trip. Got to BWI nice and early, hung out, got on my two flights and was greeted by two strange hobos at the baggage claim...OH WAIT, NO, IT WAS ZERO-SHIFT AND INFRACTUS! After giving hugs and handshakes and all that, we got in the car and proceeded to get repeatedly almost-lost by a GPS with bipolar disorder. The car ride was just a taste of things to come: we couldn't stop laughing most of the time.

We arrived at Senor Wongs and met up with Brushfire and OA there. All said their hello's and we got a table not far from the karaoke table. I had forgotten that I shouldn't be drinking anything alcoholic since I hadn't eaten anything after I got on my first flight. Drinking after 7-ish hours of travel without eating would be bad. So, of course, I ordered sake and a huge mixed drink before eating anything. IM A SMART. Delicious drinks/sodas and sweet potato fries which were seasoned to perfection and breaded just right helped break the ice between everyone as we perused the list of karaoke songs. OA went up and did two after I had finished my drinks. There was a woman there who was really really really REALLY really drunk. She danced kinda funny too. Zero-Shift and Infractus ended up leaving before we did cause Zero needed to get his wig ready for the following day. After they left, as we were leaving, the crazy lady ended up (as random and disturbing as it sounds) asking us for "CRAAAAAAACK". Scared of this woman and worried for our safety, we proceeded to leave with most haste (we assumed she didn't mean butt-crack). Got to OA's quite late and went immediately to bed.

The next morning, we all started to wake up and OA made us breakfast.



This made me happy.



We went to the hotel



and proceeded to get in line for walk-ins, since two of the four of us didn't prereg.




Then this happened.



STAY TUNED FOR PART 2 TOMORROW!

[andersam]

Lessee... I was only here on

Saturday

After a somewhat sleep-deprived night and confuddled directions, I met up with a friend of mine at the hotel. First stop was the Artist Alley, Where I met Infractus, and soon later, met Zero-shift. After spending countless hours Killing time, I reported to the OCR panel, where I immediatly gave "Uncle Stevo" a hug and met Sierra. The panal was continually awesome, as I noticed none of the guys could ever keep a straight face, and neither could I. The preview for lucid dreaming was EPiC. After that we broke out the Will's Dad masks and had a ball the rest of the day.
In the words of spongebob: THE BEST DAY EVER~

[Leonhart]

You guys look like you had an awesome time! ^__^ lovin' the Will's Dad masks and Zero's Dio Cosplay<3

This gets me even more excited for Auchi! XD


Also, STARLIGHT MOONBEAM FC FOREVARZ, EVERYONE MUST JOIN LEIK NOW!!! >_____>
http://starlightmoon...deviantart.com/

[DiGi Valentine]

We went to the hotel

Badass!

Lol, seriously. Reading your reports puts a nice big smile on my face. I'm glad these forums allowed you to meet each other online and then meet up for this, all NiGHTSy and Will'sFather-y.
I agree, Will's Father needs to become a major thing. I wanna take it to Summer of Sonic, though i'm not sure how many NiGHTS fans will be there. Probably not a lot, actually. But it's certainly something to start doing, ha ha. The last Summer of Sonic, it seemed Pingas was a major joke XD

So far, i'm happy to see major fun and good times were had. I think me and TRiP will have to attend DeTour one day. I don't know when or how but it would be nice.

Keep the reports coming in, you crazy bunch.

[Level 99]

I forgot to mention that Flik ended up showing up Friday morning as we were making breakfast. He's done some stuff on OCR, and on thasauce, but mostly he does compo's. Very funny and crazy dude. He brought his ridiculously awesome camera to get pictures, so most of the stuff I'll post picture-wise is from him.

Getting back to where I was, there were a few pictures taken of random cosplays as we waited in the long line for walk up passes.







Oh and I of course had to stop by the Engelbaum table at artist alley to get my Will's Father mask.




Took us about two hours to get them and, by the end, they were counting to make sure they had enough room for all those in line (we should have taken this as a sign of things to come). While waiting in line, Brushfire broke out the AHnold impersonations, which resulted in one of the best ideas we had over the weekend. We also talked with some random folks about OCR and they ended up coming to our panel the next day. Lots of people came the next day because of us just talking about it in-passing, I guess.



So we got the passes,



wandered around a little bit more, and took some pictures. We walked past all the rooms showing different Anime, and stopped in the modestly sized game room.



The game room was "family friendly" territory, which apparently meant no cursing, however there were a number of fighting games there so in the end, we payed no heed to that rule.



But I DID try. For a while.



Next we went to a panel on The Rise and Fall of Retail Anime.



It was a pretty good one. Brushfire did a lot of talking (he always does a lot of talking, that's one of the reasons I keep him around ). It was nice to just relax for a while. I'm not terribly into Anime, which is why there was so much that I didn't know or get, but that didn't stop me from enjoying any of it. I'm much more used to MAGFest, where I'm constantly running around doing at least one thing at any given second, so this was a pleasant change to the norm.







After the panel, I checked out the room for the OCR stuff the next day. HUGE room, and I was definitely worried we wouldn't fill a quarter of it. We wandered a bit more and then decided to pack it up for the day and head back to OA's. We had already made plans before the con to hang out with some other peoples from the OCR-niverse. BBQ and adult beverages were in store for us.



I got to see a few people I hadn't seen for a while, plus I got to finally meet Moonlapse (whom I collaborated with, along with OA, on the Waves of Stone track).

Now is where things started to get very unpredictably fun. Anyone familiar with ANY kind of fanfic is also familiar with just how horrendously BAD fanfic can be. The one that has been tossed around a lot lately on OCAD and in chat is the classic abomination My Immortal. It started as a random topic on OCAD, which evolved into proposing the idea for dramatic readings being recorded, and finally hit a peak last Friday evening. We decided to record each of us taking turns reading chapters round robin style. However, if you had to stop reading for any reason (it started just with cringing, but eventually became if you stopped for any reason, like laughing), you had to take a drink. If entire room all stopped together, everyone had to take a drink. We made it round the rotation twice (8 people, 16 chapters read). After that there was Rock Band playing and then everyone went to bed or left around 2 AM. I have a feeling we will be playing that fanfic game more often now.




We woke up the next day and, considering what happened just a few hours before then, slowly got ourselves prepped and ready for the day. This was going to be our long day, where we showed up around lunch and stayed through the dance. Things didn't go quite as planned in the end...

PART 3 COMING SOON!

[infractus]

While at my second job today, I started writing down my writeup in my journal from my little jottings that I took down along the way. It's somewhere near 5 pages so far, and I haven't even gotten to convention-related stuff. I've got a nasty tendency to be wordy, but I like to remember things in as much detail as possible. And, my luck is such that anything that could possibly go wrong has a fairly high success rate of going wrong. I got a bit lucky this time around, and anything I thought that was going to drag me down managed to avoid me with some slickness.

Day 0 - "Of Hangovers and Layovers."
(there was no presence of either, though you'll have to admit it's catchy. I came up with it all on my own :B )

My adventure 'begins' at 4:30 in the afternoon of Wednesday, April 21st. I've arranged to be off of work at this time, so that I could leave early enough to catch my flight that was due to leave somewhere around 7pm. I had no idea what airport security was going to be like nowadays, as it's been somewhere over 5 years since I've flown.

My ride doesn't show up until about 5pm to pick me up ~ which, honestly, irked me a little. It'd been feeling as though the small forces were working against me the few weeks building up to my departure for the convention. Unexpected bills showed their ugly faces (which rendered me unable to get prints made), a few partially crippling incidents with my coworkers happened within the few days before I was to leave, and the possibility of having to pay $30 BOTH ways (up and back from my flight) to have my luggage back stowed in the cargo bay, as opposed to the cargo hold above the seats in the cabin. C'mon, I'm not made of money!

I'm doing my best to push all of this out of my head as we're driving down the interstate (finally.. it's sometime after 5 now, and my pessimism is eating away at my stomach lining). Traffic is moving quite nicely until I look up ahead at the bridge. It's at a complete stand-still. My heart sinks. I've seen traffic get stopped for miles and miles and miles on this bridge before.

It took some patience, but we eventually get passed a 5-car accident in time enough to hop onto the wrong exit (which I'd later be the catalyst in performing yet another time throughout the weekend). Righting the wrong turn was no biggie, or in this case - lefting.

I got dropped off while my party parked, got my tickets, gate number, had a quick farewell beverage (a sprite for him, a martini for myself) before scampering off to the tram to get through airport security on the way to the gate.

I've flown many times before, so I'm mostly prepared by the time I get to the metal detectors. I've got my boots off, my laptop out, my pockets emptied and I've taken to wearing pants without any metal fasteners to keep them from having to use the body-wands.
Once its my turn, I put everything onto the conveyor belt, walk through the metal detector ~ it beeps. I realize I've got my two necklaces on. D'oh! So, I hurry up and throw them into a plastic dish in between a bunch of other passengers' stuff. I get through the detector without any other beeps, snag my bags and my boots and my laptop, and head to the gate.

They force me to check my rolling luggage bag. It was within proper size of being able to stow in the overhead compartments, but the flight was booked completely and my zone was boarded very last. No room for me.. so I sigh heavily as I agree to have it checked. Sigh of relief comes when they say there's no charge to do so. Ok, just don't lose the bag and we'll be cool.

Onward and upward!

The flight is unremarkable. Quiet, quick, efficient. We start nearing Charlotte airport, I shut off my iPod, and think for a brief second... then pat my neck... and then my stomach flips upside down a little and I get a pang of anxiety. My necklaces. I've left them at the airport security.
FUUUUUUUUU--- !!

Once we land, I see where my next gate is, stop in at a cute little restaurant for another drink, hop on the airport wireless and look up TIA's security info. Left a voicemail and a detailed message. They're closed for the night, of course, so I've got to wait for my response.
I try to shake the thought as best I can as to not let it drag down the rest of my adventure. I eat the olives from my cocktail, pack up the laptop and move closer to my gate. Almost time to board...

My heart skips a beat as the thought, "Getting closer.." runs through my mind.

I manage to catch a whole 30 minutes of a nap between Charlotte and MSP airport. Crudely awakened myself by a sudden influx of drool.. awoke from my choking napping state to hear "Living in the City" from the Sonic R soundtrack, which amazingly enough, was when we were closer into the MSP airport. The twinkling lights below served as indicators as the signs of life grew more and more dense, indicating that we were coming up rather quickly to a big city.

We touch town, taxi to the gate, deplane.
The airport is quiet, mostly empty, but I'm recharged and hauling ass down moving sidewalks (which are like powerup chargers from Sonic the Hedgehog games, swear). Getting closer to the baggage claim, and it dawns on me. I don't necessarily know who I'm looking for. The only picture I've got an idea of is Zero wearing a gas mask. So, I figured I'd take a good guess and look for the person in the crowd who's most excited to see/recognize me.
Sure enough, there's that someone. My heart skips another beat as we exchange greetings. I go for the handshake, but am given a warm and welcoming hug instead.

We snag my baggage and head out into the cool Minnesota night.

(this is where the "Bipolar GPS device" Stevo mentions comes into play. It's not so much Bipolar as it is demanding. I took the role as copilot as Zero and I navigate the highways of the big city back to the house)

Stayed up well beyond any normal state of time chitchatting and getting settled in. I dozed off at around 4 in the morning my time, which would be about 3 in the morning their time. Slept soundly for a few hours, found myself half-awake and half-asleep, the distant sound of a train whistle and a stray goose flying by. Other than that... sheer peace and quiet. Keep in mind, I come from a house of a partially ill-tempered adult, 6 loud birds, and about 30 chiming clocks. It almost felt awkward.


Day 1 - "Of Socks and Sacs."

So, I'm up bright and early, despite trying to get back to sleep.. despite the deliciously comfortable memory foam pillow, excellently decorated guestroom, charmingly soft and fluffy bedding.. I walk downstairs to get a cup of water, sit at a chair overlooking a huge backyard to watch a dozen robins bounding through the grass eating bugs, the hugest mourning doves hovering around, and a bunch of blackbirds unhappy with each other. There's a dog in the chair that I pass by on my way to the kitchen who seems UTTERLY confused as to how I managed to randomly appear.

Eventually, Zero and I get going to the Mall of America, and Senor Wong's. Both of which I've been looking forward to ever since my first initial invite to come up for Anime Detour. I've never been to Minnesota before, so this is borderline life-changing.

The mall is HUGE. The stores are mostly the same fare as any mall ~ of course, there is a Hot Topic and a few major Department stores, etc. .. but the two most life-changing stores in there we happened upon were the Sox Appeal store (yes, I made a few crude jokes involving terrible puns) and ~omg~ LOVESAC. They have the cushiest beanbag chairs EVER. When I get rich, my house is going to be full of their products. We'll have beanbag parties.

While we're at the mall, I get a call from TIA security. They've confirmed that they've found my abandoned necklaces and they shall be ready to pick up once I return. HUUUUGE SIGH OF RELIEF.

Stopped and got a cup of coffee on our trek through the mall and learned that the oldest goldfish lived to be something like 30+ years old. It makes little sense to me...


So, there's also a Nickelodeon-based theme park in the center of the mall. Zero asks if I'd go on the rides. HELLS TO THE YES!!

We snagged up some wristbands that have barcodes that a machine reads that have unlimited riding ability for the day your purchase the pass. It's the better deal over all, considering we went on every ride there.. and the log flume twice. We learned on our first ride, that the barcode, when read on the machines, emits a Spongebob laughter clip. I thought maybe each scanner for each individual ride might've had a sound clip related to the show/theme, but no. The employees who manage the rides have a certain shot-out look on their faces that read, "I hate my life..."

OOOH.... along the way, Zero takes me to point out a small children's carousel.
Whose face is staring back at me?






(i get the feeling that this post is becoming too long for Forum-purposes, so I shall continue later as I continue to write more about the actual convention... XD )

[TRiPPY]

Keep wriiiiting! I'm reading! And full of mirth.

THAT BLOODY NiGHTS RIDE *lol*

[andersam]

Got my full report done, while I'll admit its not as fun as the others GOD I WISH I HAD BEEN THERE D:


Andersams Anime detour log:

My very first convention expericence started at 2 in the morning from insomnia (or excitement) I lay in bed playing Final Fantasy 3 until about 4. I don’t recall when mother woke me up, but I quickly jumped outta bed and put on the undershirt for my Helen cosplay. I proceeded to the bathroom where mother did my “Helen Hair” and I jumped into the rest of my costume. After hastily downing a glass of milk, brushing my teeth, and packing my side bag, I dashed through the morning rain to dad’s truck. First we went to the Radisson by the airport, but that was wrong. I called my friend, who couldn’t give directions to save her life, and we eventually found the hotel. After rendezvousing and getting my badge, our first stop was the artist alley. It was in the artist alley that I met infractus. after a small chat and a firm handshake, I happily purchasing my copy of TRiPPY’s comic. I had about 4 or 5 hours to kill before the OCremix panel, after buying a small carton of milk, I spent the next few hours wandering from place to place, checking out the dealers room, wandering the pool area, sampling the free rice, and downing a soda or two. I also met Zero-Shift when he returned to the Engelbaum table. After killing hour upon hour of time, it was finally almost 3:00, and time for the OCremix panel. I entered the Edina room, butterflies in my stomach, as I headed down the aisle and sat down about halfway. Three guys in OCremix shirts bustled around up at the head of the room, and I wondered which one was Stevo. (I don’t recall if I met Stevo or Sierra first, I think it was Stevo). Then the guy with the beard walked up to me, “Hey are you-““UNCLE STEVO!” I exclaimed, jumping up and giving him a huge hug. Soon I met Sierra, and I followed her suggestion to sit closer to the front. Infractus and Zero –Shift soon came too. I couldn’t help but giggle throughout the entire panel as the boys could never keep a straight face and sierra and I hummed along to the beautiful sounding NiGHTS lucid Dreaming Teaser. After the panel Ended, I finally had the chance to talk to stevo and the rest of us as a group. I playfully reminded stevo of our starlight moonbeam in-joke, and laughed so hard my ribs hurt as he fell to his knees shouting “NOOOO!!” Stevo also pulled out his Will’s dad mask and we all had another big laugh. After that, we left the OCremix team as they went to pack the stuff back in the car, and sierra and I followed infractus and Zero-Shift around. Sierra and I later broke off from the others and wandered around some more. We hooked back up with Stevo at the Engelbaum table, took some more Will’s Dad pictures, which got the attention of the artists at the table next to us. After explaining the joke to them, one of them asked for a copy of the mask just because they thought it was so funny. Sierra and I ran around with Stevo for the longest time. After not making the Cosplay contest, we decided to all go play Apples to Apples instead, which was Amazing fun. We then went to the game room and watched the boys play DDR. I started to feel sick. Without saying any real sentimental goodbyes, I tottered off, calling my dad.
And THAT, My friends, was quite possibly the best day of my life.

[Level 99]

Saturday:

Before we left the house to go to the hotel, we had breakfast again. OA had put some bacon in the fridge to thaw for that morning, while Brushfire protested that the breakfast wasn't unhealthy enough. Flik, Brushfire, and myself then proceeded to the closest grocery store to get some tasty things. We got a LOT of donuts/assorted pastry-things, and some bagels, and were about to head back when we got a call. SHOCK AND HORROR: OA HAD BURNT THE BACON! Now, we didn't know how burnt it was at the time, only that it was burnt. We urged him not to throw it away, as one man's definition of burnt is another's definition for delicious. Got some more bacon, and then we headed back. Oh, if only we knew how burnt it was. One batch was only slightly charred, but the other one...it was charred darker than blacktop pavement. Seriously. We put some more bacon on to be made for that morning while unpacking the delicious treats from the store. Brilliantly, Flik tried a piece of the midnight-color bacon. "It's like eating charcoal briquettes", he said. It wasn't long until Brushfire and I tried some as well. Then I got a donut and put the ultra-crisp'd bacon on top of it. Like I said before, IM A SMART. Got video of it all, of course. After some final preparations for the OCR powerpoint, we hustled to the hotel.



The panel room where our panel was supposed to be was going to be inhabited by the panel before us for roughly an hour to an hour and a half. This panel, called "The Art of Fangirling", was one that we had no idea what to expect from it.



There wasn't really anything else we wanted to see or do before our panel so we decided to stick around, possibly drumming up some more interest in the OCR panel. There were definitely more guys there than I had expected, but still plenty more girls than guys.



The panel was headed by two very nice ladies who ran through an assortment of activities and AMVS, the activities being used in order to determine who would be "Fangirl Queen 2010". The first activity was a glomping contest (yes, you heard me right).



The two that one were this one guy dressed somewhat normally and this one girl dressed as pikachu. Their embrace was quite adorable. The second contest was a "fangirl moment" one. Seeing as I had had one just the day before (screaming a thnikkaman line since I saw someone dressed as the thnikkaman at the con) and that a guy was already in the running for fangirl queen, I decided to give it a shot. I actually got enough screams to be tied with the one other for winning that activity. When it came time to vote, I didn't win queen (the one who I thought absolutely deserved it ended up winning, which made me very happy, her fangirl moment story was adorable). I was still a fangirl princess, and definitely looked the part. I really do love being silly.






After that panel ended, we did end up drumming up additional attendance to the panel. I got to finally meet Sierra and Andersam right before our panel started. Andersam was dressed as a near-perfect Helen. She made all us NiGHTS-ies proud. Zero and Infractus came in and got seats, Zero still dressed as Dio. A couple of unexpected guests made their awesome appearance - THE CHEETAHMEN!



If you don't know who the cheetamen are, do a google search and read up on them. Terribad game with catchy music. This was definitely another one of those "too awesome" moments. The room got about half-filed and we decided to go on with the show.



The OCR panel went pretty awesome. The audience was very easygoing, as they laughed with us a lot. None of us could keep straight faces at all, but we still went over a lot of good points and played a lot of good music. There were teaser trailers from five projects, and we went over all that OCR has to offer and where it is going, focusing heavily on what those interested in Anime would find interest in. The best part of the panel was the last section: the trivia contest. We had a bunch of stuff to give away (OCR-TF2 clan patches, a flag, and 13 FFIV album physical copies) and the audience really got into it, cheering and aww-ing as people tried guessing things. Afterwards we had a little q&a and then met up with anyone who wanted to come up. Surprisingly, people wanted us to sign their physical copies of the FFIV album. It was thrilling!




We got some more pictures of creepy Will Sr. and proceeded to pack up.

So after that we wandered around a little and decided that, with no real panels that interested us until the cosplay were going on, we would go and get some food. OA did a good deed even then as he, while at dinner, he picked up a contact lens kit for a random cosplayer who's eyes were getting irritated and dry. OA is the man. We came back and got in line for the cosplay. However, we did NOT make it in. The room filled up before we could even enter, and the line was still a good 200-300 people strong when they filled. Annoyed groans of disappointment as we broke through the caution tape that made up the line and proceeded to leave. "YOU CAN WATCH IT ON ANY HOTEL TV ON CHANNEL 39" they shouted. We didn't care. We had other things we could be doing anyway. So the bunch of us (myself, OA, Brushfire, Flik, Andersam, Sierra) went on down to play apples-to-apples. Brushfire got the entire room singing the Spongebob Squarepants theme song. It was definitely some crazy fun stuff.




We decided to go back for another rousing round or two of pump it up in the game room. All of us went up there and hung out. Saw some cool stuff go on and got some great pictures. I played pump it up for the first time ever with a random person, and I didn't do that horrendously. I need to loosen up though, I'm too used to ballroom dancing. Brushfire went up and put on a show, and then proceeded to injure his wrist.



Andersam and Sierra both said goodbye as Andersam had to leave and Sierra had other stuff she wanted to do. We soon left ourselves to, originally, go get dinner. It ended up being that we were going to go home because of how bad Brushfire's wrist hurt. We didn't get to go to the dance, but we did get one of the most badass pictures I've ever seen myself in.



We went home, ate a little bit, and then recorded an expansion on the great idea we had when first in line at the con: AHnold sings the classics (there will be an MP3 of this as soon as it is ready, and it is ultra-mega-funny stuff). A much slower night than we expected, and much shorter than I had planned on, but in the end there was nothing that could be really complained about besides the cosplay room filling up.

Part 4 coming...SOON!

[TRiPPY]

OvO that IS an epic photo!

[Level 99]

And now, the final part of the write-up.

We woke up slowly again, unfortunately. Brush was feeling considerably better, and we had breakfast. Got ourselves all packed because we had to go to the airport directly from the hotel (and in the middle of Nabeshim's panel, no-less). Showed up at around noon and met up with Infractus and Zero-Shift right after the team four star panel. We didn't have much to do before Nabeshim so we went in the dealer room a bit. Then, we went to watch some more AMV's. It was a slow wind-down kind of day.

We went in early for Nabeshim's panel and got right up front. He was hilarious. He bought a foam toy axe from Toys R' Us and had it up there. He has a great sense of humor. The translator was a little iffy, though. We had to get up in the middle of it so we couldn't say proper goodbyes to Zero or Infractus, but they understood. I got to the airport right on time, and all went well until my second flight home got diverted due to storms. I got back 4 hours later than I expected, but at least I got home safe. I had to take a sick day the next day because I felt completely battered by the delay and overexhaustion.

All in all, it was a great con, an amazing weekend, and an unforgettable experience.

[Zero-Shift]

Quick Infractus, Stevo is beating us. We need more photos of our shenanigans. And where in god's name are the Will's Dad group images? XD

[infractus]

Auuuughhh! *workworkworks*
Hey, in my defense, his photographer had an elite camera that put my non-working-flash-bulb to shame D:
I gained like +5 to photography skill having to utilize the hell out of my resources to get decent pictures with as little blur as possible.

(Also, the forum ate my last lengthy writeup. Now I've got to start over from scratch. boooo.)

Right to left: Zero, Stevo, me-


Top right to left: Andersam, Sierra
Bottom right to left: Zero, Stevo, me-



I woke up to this just about every morning, save for the first night - where he greeted me in the bathroom in the first room we stayed in.
(also, he needs a name.. XD)



You'd better watch out for the tables in the artists alley. They've been seen to eat small children at will:



All of us NiDers again, the end of the OCR panel-



From the Nabeshin "Let's make a new anime" panel (hilarious, btw).
Nabeshin spots a twin.


An afro-duel. Only one can win...

[infractus]

Alright - more of my convention writeup. I'll get more pictures up tomorrow... I'm running out of energy.

(Day 1 continued)

We spent a good portion of the afternoon walking around the Mall. Rode some more rides, did some funny photo-ops where the cameras are on the rides, and we invented the new sport of FLUME LUGE. It must be done.

Getting hungry, we decide it’s a good time to head over to the ever-legendary Senor Wong’s. If it’s one thing I’ve been telling everyone who kept on asking me why I was going to Minnesota, it was, “I’m going to the Mall of America, and I’m eating dinner at Senor Wong’s.” Boy, am I ever so glad I did.

We hustle through the city with the Bipolar GPS device leading the way, she’s more demanding than anything at this point, trying to tell us to turn a direction that doesn’t even make any sense… but we make it in one piece and everything is good. We get parked and head inside.
The wacky thing about this part of the adventure? I’ve seen this place before in a dream. No lie. *dundundunnnn*

Turns out they don’t start dinner until half an hour. So, we sit and chat, waiting for our opportunity. The ambiance of the place is delicious. Turns out the food is even more delicious. They have these sweet potato fries which, by themselves, are out of this world. Now, it’s hard to imagine something getting better when it’s already delicious, but when dipped in this badass dipping sauce they come with? OH MY GOODNESS, you have no idea whatsoever. It makes me drool just thinking about them.
Also got pad thai, spicy-spicy. Equally as delicious.

We head back to the house to get our bags, followed by a quick stop at the Kinko’s to print out some promotional giveaways, then ask the Bipolar GPS to lead us to the terminal in which Stevo was arriving.
Not much heartache there. We sit by the baggage claim, looking for a guy “wearing a fedora” in the words of the text Zero received. A few minutes transpire after the flight lands, and I see a guy in a trilby walking around, looking partially lost. I tell Zero, “I see a guy in a trilby. No fedora..” we both agree that it’s probably Stevo anyway.
Yup.

We all exchange our hellos and welcomes, he gathers up his luggage and we head back to the car. I don’t think we stopped laughing until we got to Senor Wong’s. Stevo deduced that the GPS was bipolar (seriously, though, she’s just demanding), I made us take a wrong turn because the road looked like a different road that fouled me and Zero up earlier in the day, turns out it wasn’t… but the GPS started scolding us, dammit, I said I was sorry! But, yes, non-stop lollercoaster in the car all the way back to Senor Wong’s, where OA and Brushfire are waiting for us.

Turns out Senor Wong’s was hosting a karaoke night. This gets interesting…
There’s a woman who is clearly smashed off her ass. She proceeded to do a dance which has been forever named “The Seal” …it’s almost as bad as the video from the Horrors of Anime panel.
I order a Concubine, one – because I’ve heard from a reliable source that they are tasty, two – because the name is awesome.
Oooh, and yes, they are tasty.
(also, Stevo, I owe you a few drinks next time we meet up, dude)

We watch the karaoke, OA gets up and does a song, hung out for a little bit more before we’re reminded that we’ve got to check into the hotel, and that Zero still needs to prep his wig for his Dio cosplay sometime before the convention kicks off in full swing.
He and I take off, while the others are left to deal with the clapping seal woman.. buhhh..

Got checked into our room without much heartache. It’s a decent room with luxuriously soft pillows on the bed, a flat screen LCD TV, and NON-FREE HIGH SPEED ACCESS AND WIFI. They wanted to charge for it… bah. Oh well, so I dozed off sometime around 2 while Zero procrastinated some more about trimming his wig.

End Day 1.


Day 2 – “System Upgrade”

I’m awakened fairly early by the sound of voices and the onset of people trying to get their sound systems started up. There were a few brief techno songs blaring through the hotel sometime before 8. I got up, got showered, sought out a few forks for our leftovers from Senor Wong’s (which the leftovers kept amazingly well for not being refrigerated… not that I recommend eating food that sits out, but there’s enough spice in it to be too hostile of an environment for bacteria to cultivate), saw that there were huge lines everywhere. I figured that was a decent enough cue to wake Zero up so we could get our badges before the madness got too thick.

We’ve got to check out of the room at any rate, anyhow. So, we formulate our plan, go get in line to snag our badges. The line moves rather quickly along the halls of the hotel, save for the one parallel to us. It’s not moving at all, and it’s backed up quite a ways. Doesn’t look like a good prospect, although I’m not sure what it’s for just yet.

We get sorted into lines based on the letters of our last names, I get my number from the number guy who checks the ID’s to make sure we are who we are, then I go to the badge guy to give him the number so I can get my badge. He thumbs through, looks up and says, “Sorry, could you have the number guy re-check your number?” So I do just that. Badge guy says, “Sorry. I don’t have you here. We must’ve lost it. You’ll have to go stand in the non-pre-registered line.” I glare at him sharply with a look that says, “WTF do you mean?” I start to pull out my order receipt for my pre-registration, start to get a little upset with the fact that I’d registered and paid almost an entire year ago.
There’s no way in hell I want to go stand in the non-moving line with a slight possibility of me NOT getting in the convention if they run out of non-pre-reg tickets.
Zero and I manage to flag down the attention of the people working at the non-pre-reg counter, manage to get everything sorted out. Huge sigh of relief #2 for the weekend.

We go to scope out the Artist’s Alley, I drop off a print in the little sleeve they gave us to show on our table. Run back to the room for Zero to get his Dio on. He looked fabulous in his getup. Lots of good pictures of that, and his wig even came out pretty good, too.

We gather up our belongings, drag them to the car only to drag them back out once again. We checked out, then checked in to our second room (which was a relief that we got out of the first one. It turned out to be a party room. There would’ve been no sleep for any of us), then had to run back out to the car to retrieve our belongings once again. Hey, it was good exercise.

The second room was on a special floor that required a key card for access, hoho. Had a huge bed with those same fluffy soft pillows as the first one. Got settled in and headed back out into convention-land.

I don’t know why Friday is so blurry in my recollection. I know we spent time in the Artist’s Alley (where I met the lovely Andersam), ran into Stevo and the OCR Boys, packed up and tried to go to Opening Ceremonies – which only Zero made it in. His friend (who caught up with us somewhere within the time frame of the alley and other stuff) and I went back to the room to watch it on the TV because all the lines we had to stand in were a lie. After they were over, we spent some time putzing around hoping to run back into our Dio. Kept yelling out “Diiiiiooooo…!” but it wasn’t effective. Eventually I get a phone call and our party is reunited.

Went over to the Nabashin panel, hilarity ensued.
Stuck around for the WTF Contest, where we all were exposed to the song “Always” (which followed us all weekend long throughout the convention and the artist’s alley). There was some pretty funny stuff, and from what I’ve gathered, Hercule always wins. I’ll have to go back next year to find that out for sure.
After the contest was over, they played some of AMV Hell, which always is good for a laugh.

I puttered off for a bit on my own while the other members of the party did the same. Nothing remarkable, I touched base with home, wrote some in my journal, daydreamed, went outside to look at the sky, and made my way to the Horrors of Anime panel where I found my party.
It was delightfully horrible, and what I’ve seen I cannot unsee.

Called it a night after exposing Zero and Trey to this:
XD

End Day 2.

Day 3 – “It Tastes Like Rainbows…”

So, I’m up at ungodly hours of the morning. It’s gently storming outside, and I’m wide awake. I get my shower, brew a cup of coffee, and head downstairs for a little bit to check messages and whatnot on the public access computers.

Zero heads off for a panel while I head over to the Alley to get set up for a bit. He relieves me for a moment so I can run and grab a bite of breakfast, then we trade off again so he can check out another panel.
Sold a bunch of comics, gave a bunch of flyers, business cards, and postcards away. At least we got people interested. They were all amazed at TRiPPY’s lovely artwork.

Stuff goes pretty well in the alley, and we pack up a little before the OCR panel starts up so we have enough time to get to the room and back downstairs, etc.

We show up and there’s Sierra and Andersam, and Stevo and his OCR Boys, and a bunch of other people. ‘Twas all pretty cool.
The panel itself was pretty good. The secret teasers for their upcoming projects were awesome. I’ve never played Super Dodge Ball, but now I kinda wanna. But, of course, half the reason we were there was for the upcoming NiGHTS project.
It sounds amazing. I wish I could’ve listened to just a little bit more of a few of the songs to see what directions they were going, but it was impressively good – and definitely something to be looked forward to.
The boys had a "name that song's source" giveaway at the end of the panel, which was pretty good. I really wanted to win one of those TF2 flags, which I think would've resulted in me and Zero fighting over... probably for the best someone else won that. But, I won one of the Final Fantasy albums they were giving away. Hells to the yes, I know my Megaman 3 stage songs.

We later learned that Stevo was crowned runner up as the fangirl queen. He looked so happy in his pink crown… bahahaha!
We got some silly shots of everyone, including Will’s dad stalking Helen.

Dio and I set out to find Dio #2 (yes, there were two Dio’s running around Detour this year) to try and get some photos before we went back to the Alley. About 5-7 laps around the hotel, we admitted defeat and gave up… but not before convincing a Naruto cosplayer to let Dio beat him up. XD

But, once we got back in the Alley, the NiDers found us and we all had our Will’s dad masks and got a bunch of pictures and laughed our butts off for a bit.

Some point throughout the day, I stumbled through the cramped dealer room and found a Guts action figure which made me jizz a little in my pants. I’ve been wanting a Guts figure for ever and ever and ever. Moments in win.

Closed up shop around 8, at which point we only had 1 comic book left to sell. GO TEAM IMPENDING SEXY!

Attended the Kid Dynamite on Otaku Dating and You, which started of a wee bit slow, but picked up as the hour went on. We got to a point where this Transsexual steps up with their hand raised. I don’t think anything of it at first, figured that it was just going to be something simple, but oh no, of course not.
S/he starts off with, “I don’t mean to be a downer…” DURR YOU JUST MADE YOURSELF ONE, CONGRATS! “This ‘It’s a trap!’ needs to stop, because it’s hurtful. Transsexuals need love too, you know.” So, the panelists apologize, but it won’t be let go. Finally, it came to a point where the guy says to the transsexual, “I apologized. We were doing this in jest. What else do you want me to do?”

We got up and left, found some rice to eat, and watched Hard Gay, Red Power Ranger, and Harley Quinn dance in the middle of the courtyard.

Puttered around some more, prepared to go to the rave. I’m not much of a dancer, usually takes a little bit of liquid encouragement to get me to let completely loose.. but I managed to have a good time without. I find that if you’re not very much into dancing on your own, hopping onto a conga line is funfunfun. Really.
The music was kind of quiet, considering we were at a ‘rave’ …I don’t know if they have some restriction for noise, but I think they bumped up the volume a little bit over time. I’ve never heard a techno mix of Bohemian Rhapsody before, either.
What made the rave win? Wanna know? A wild Snorlax appeared on stage and started rocking the hell out to the music while the crowd chanted “Snorlax! Snorlax! Snorlax!”

Epic.

I gave up trying to stay awake around 1:30, returned to the room for a shower and some rest… long day, it was.

End Day 3.

[Zero-Shift]

Hey Infractus, any chance after finishing your report you could post a bunch of those Dio pictures here so I could save them to my computer?

[Leonhart]

TSUKASA PLUSHIE! ^_____^

*glomp's Sierra*

[Level 99]

D'aww, reading everyone's reactions is making me feel all warm and gooey inside. Especially the feedback on the Lucid Dreaming teaser track hit smack-dab in my heart (Infractus: It's a TEASER, it's supposed to leave you wanting more :3, it looks like the tease worked well then).

Upon reading Andersam's line:
"And THAT, My friends, was quite possibly the best day of my life."

I got this big smile on my face and still haven't been able to shake it.

CAN'T WAIT TO SEE YOU ALL AGAIN, but before then I have things to prepare. Yes. Evil things...

[Penelopi]

Wow, all this looks/sounds like so much fun! Wish I could've gone. XD I'm glad you all had a good time.