I was actually a bit concerned as to the quality/size of SugoiCon 2005 when we first arrived at the convention center around 11:45 AM on Friday. The Artist’s Alley was more or less barren, and the registration line, though slow-moving was rather slow. I entertained myself during the seemingly neverending reg line by casually staring at an Ed cosplayer. Among the people working the registration desk were an old woman, a perky teenage girl (whom both me and Danny found reminiscent of Chisa, the cat copy store girl from Comic Party.)

At about noon, we finally looked at the schedule in the program, and found out where the opening ceremonies were taking place. Fortunately for us, the con was running a smidge late, and though we arrived in Ballroom E after the supposed noon start time, we didn’t miss a thing and still sat around for several minutes twiddling our thumbs. Though there were funny moments, the opening ceremony was a all in all a bit sad. Thus, my concerns.

The vendor’s hall wasn’t scheduled to open for another hour, so we set out for overpriced sustenance. Behle Street Café is directly next door to the motel, so it seemed to be the obvious choice. I ate an 8 dollar club sandwich that was so large I had to gut it of toppings just to get my mouth around it. Really, lunch was just “filler”. I didn’t find the food especially, good, especially not for the prices. I’m cheeeeeeaap. -.-

We checked into the motel, and then me and Danny-aniki went back to the scene of the funk, and my worries were proved to be incorrect. I have very little frame of reference f or convention vendor halls, I’ve only been to one other convention. While the vendor’s room was only half the size of the one at Ohayocon, it was tightly packed and filled with energy, as it should be. I determined that it met my approval.

Weeks earlier, I had determined that finding an Ed plush was my prime objective in this venture. Sure, I could eBay one, but that just wouldn’t be the same. First I found the movie edition Ed plush, but that would not do. After looking several minutes at a booth, I looked directly to my side and found the object of my longing directly in front of me, on the top shelf. Learning the cost for an 11 inch plush toy was 25 dollars, I temporarily shied away from it while still just knowing I would end up getting it. I discovered another booth with him, but the price was just as absurd no matter where you went, so now 25 dollars worth of LOVE is sitting on the bed. I think it’s worth it. Cute things usually are.

Danny-aniki seemed to feel as though he was responsible for the now-infamous Nunchuck Incident of ohayocon, apparently because at the time he was a year too young to buy a “weapon” for me (nevermind the fact that they’re made of foam and can’t hurt anyone), so he wanted to get them for me. I think he wanted me to have them more than I did, but regardless of such, they were procured – this time, of course, they didn’t even ask for an age. The rules aren’t as strict here.

A fan was also procured, and parasols were available, though only in hacky designs. They didn’t meet my standards for quality. I’m not that much of a sucker.

Danny-aniki purchased a Spike Spiegel t-shirt he had been wanting since he saw it on the adultswim website, as well as the first volume of R.O.D the TV on discount. I’ve never seen any form of R.O.D, but my, how he does go on about it. Can it be assumed that it has to be the best series ever if even he, Cynical Man, adores it so much? I’ll find out soon enough. He’ll kill me if I don’t watch it.

That’s really it for day 1. Later tonight we’ll attend part of Anime Hell (it goes 3 hours. O.o), and then hang around the motel room and then get our beauty sleep. Tomorrow I’ll be cosplaying, but maybe the most exciting thing is going to Robert DeJesus’s How To Draw workshop, starting at 8 PM and going for two hours. I see this as the perfect opportunity to meet like-minded nerds, people on the exact same wavelength as me. In addition, I might pick up useful tips. I can see how this could end up being some kind of religious experience-type thing for me. I’m suddenly very glad I brought portfolios and pencils. It’s also a good opportunity to publicise my disorganized pet-project webcomic. But mainly I just want to talk to other people like me, have wisdom imparted on me, maybe be praised, and perhaps impart some wisdom of my own.

We aren’t done buying yet. We still have to get presents for friends and get more things for ourselves. I’ve got a list. More schwag will be procured. Big time.

Quote of the Day: “I’m afraid that thing is going to cone to life in the middle of the night and kill me.” ~My brother, about the Ed plushie. He’s going all “Chucky” on us.

(7:43 PM, Friday, hotel)

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I just escaped from Anime Hell. Simply put, Anime Hell was a bunch of disorganized people and over-caffinated con-goers sitting around in Ballroom E looking at a projector screen playing the camoiest, cheesiest, disgusting, and downright silly pieces of film known to man.

Scheduled to begin at 9 PM, me and aniki arrived as early birds about 8:45 (thus catching the end of Name That Tune), we wound up sitting there for an hour doing nothing, watching music equipment go to where bad bunnies go and the slide projector and screen and all the necessary torture apparatuses moving in. This, we determined, was Limbo.

When it all finally began, we were overwhelmed by bad asian game show clips, old American cartoons, movie trailers, fake movie trailers, and, most precious of all, a German forklift instructional tape that my brother now believes to be the best thing ever recorded. Words cannot describe the sheer, horrifying bliss of these clips. Horror movie trailers highlighting a phone that kills people. Repeated, insane forklift-related casualties, in the style of a Tom and Jerry cartoon gone horribly, horribly, violently wrong, with an air of School House Rock. Game shows in which people were flung away on bungie cords when family members answered trivia questions incorrectly – Private Snafu milking a land mine. Violence. Violence. Violence.

About the same time that this block of Cinema of Hades began, you could hear people asking, “why is the floor bending?”. And indeed it was, for elsewhere in the building, D’espairsRay were boogying down. This got old fairly fast, so I kept my feet off the ground.

All in all, nothing was lost except 2 hours of our lives and the little notebook I had in my back pocket. Fortunately there was nothing of any importance in it. I don’t know when I lost it, it’s probably sitting on the floor of the ballroom. It’s easy for things to slide out of your pockets when you are slumping in your seat waiting for something to finally, finally, FINALLY happen.

Tomorrow is going to be more significant, because I’ll be going from panel to event to panel to panel pretty much all day, with further adventures in the Vendor’s Hall in between. Overall, today was a success. Overall, I’d say everyone did a little dance…. Made a little love…. Got down tonight.

Now, I laze around the motel room trying to unwind, and eventually getting to sleep. Unfortunately, there’s nothing but crackers and half-consumed fast food beverages to eat in the motel room. For some reason, me and my brother always get the munchies when we’re out of town.

I can’t know this for sure, because I’ve never gotten high, but I can say with fair confidence that conventions are a better high than drugs. (12:00 midnight, the absolute beginning of Saturday, hotel room)

Saturday was busy…. Very busy, and hard to recall very well now on post-con Monday. The three days of bliss have combined into a beautiful blur. But I’ll do my best.

We woke up about 9:30, quickly collected ourselves, and went down seven stories to get a motel breakfast. I managed to find home fries and frosted flakes. When we finished eating, the vendor hall wouldn’t have been open, so we sat around doing nothing at the table. I ventured to the “business center” to answer e-mail, but quickly surrendered the computer to a stranger who probably had something much more important to do. By then it was time to head back to the con, this time in my cosplay outfit- we barely made it across the street alive. A hoard of teenage girls waiting for the light to change ran over, took pictures, glomped me, and declared me to be “so cute” half a dozen times. It continued on like this from time to time the entire time I had it on- the downside was a creepy fanboy. He took pictures, and kept telling me to do lame poses, and eventually poses that would make my underwear show. I refused to comply to this is silence, and managed to escape with the excuse of getting to Whose Line is it Anime. He was weird at best and a pervert at worst.

Various things were procured that day – firstly I traded some old manga I didn’t want to Fast Food Anime, and in exchange I got one pack of Yan Yan, one box of Caplico, one box of Men’s Pocky, and a small gift for a friend. Caplico is my new vice, but I can’t find a good place to get it online. I also got another small gift for my friend, and a grab bag which was sound and fury signifying nothing, for the most part.

After doing a sort-of lunch, me and Danny returned yet again, like moths to a porchlight so very, very bright, to the convention center and went our separate ways. Whilst he was at a mock combat seminar, I was at an incredibly dull panel on webcomic design. Afterwards I escaped next door to the second half on the How to Use Markers workshop- as I didn’t hear or see any of the instructional parts, this was basically like being part of a kindergarten glass- lots of people at a table coloring in a picture of a cat and a pumpkin. It seemed that at least half of the numerous markers available were horribly dilapidated, rendering it impossible for me to do a good job.

After this I roamed. I had finally gained permission from my parental unit to glomp cosplayers, so I kept my eyes peeled for anyone worthy. I rejected anyone who didn’t make any attempt at doing hair properly, I rejected girls cosplaying as guys…. But with such high standards, I was getting nowhere slowly. It seemed that all the decent Ed cosplayers were girls (hmm). I targeted one, and tailed her for ten minutes through the vendor’s hall, trying to work up my nerve. I felt my heart beating faster as I was about to ask the question that would probably change my con life forevermore (“Hey, can I glomp you?”).

But yes, I glomped.

Yes I did.

This was a personal triumph above all else. A door opened inside of me at this time and I knew that I would not be afraid to glomp people at the next con, or any con. I was free of inhibitions.

I glomped another one later, with much less ado. I merely waited until they stopped walking, and the cosplayers became my second victim just outside of the video rooms.

I then made my way to a seminar on Japanese modern art, which was pretty sad. I counted twelve people in the audience, one of which was asleep through most of the presentation.

I went back to the motel to change into my cosplay outfit yet again, because it was now time for the cosplay competition. I returned, and stood in line…. For a very long time. I was numbered 64, and a staff woman finally came back and said that they were still doing people in the 30’s, about 15 minutes before the workshop I had to be at began. At this point, I ditched, annoyed. I had to prioritize, and I was getting sick of the karaoke around me in the cosplay room anyway.

I went BACK to the motel room, changed into normal clothes, and returned to Robert Dejesus’ art workshop. Basically, it was a lot of people drawing progressively more intricate stick figures and looking at graphs until they had a drawing. Afterwards, people asked a lot of questions, eventually getting into a LONG discussion on ownership partnerships, marketing, etc etc etc etc. You couldn’t get a word in edgewise for 20 minute stretches. I got the impression this might run late, so I got out the cell phone Dad had given me and pressed buttons trying to find Dad’s cell number. I had never used this phone before, so I wound up accidentally calling my uncle. I hit “end” in a panic immediately, so I’m hoping it didn’t even have time to ring.

Previously in the evening, I signed someone’s pants with a Sharpie. Two people had set up shop with jeans lying on the floor between Artist Alley tables and screamed at all passerby to sign their pants as souveneirs. Nothing grabs your attention quite like the phrase “SIGN OUR PANTS!!!”. I determined that I have to do this exact same thing for Ohayocon.

A special form of room service had been set up just for SugoiCon – Otaku Bell. They delivered various snacks ranging from mundane American candy to Japanese soda pops and snacks between 10 and twelve midnight. My order, a six pack of Ramune and a kit-kat bar, had arrived while I was gone.

I got back to the motel and ate much more junk food. I watched Fullmetal Alchemist on the TV with my fallen comrade, i.e my sick brother, and was then forced by him to go to bed.

Danny had recovered by morning, and we woke up at around ten- there was a lot of confusion regarding the time change, because the bedside clock reset automatically- the others in the motel, however, the one on the microwave, for example, did not. We thought it was actually nine after a couple minutes of discussion, and I was quite happy, because this meant we had more time than I thought we did remaining in Kentucky. I was put out to discover my error.

We learned that checkout time was noon. The vendor hall didn’t open until one, but I was assured that we’d go back anyway, with Dad driving aimlessly around Covington while we went on one last hurrah at the convention center.

Due to a shortage of tables, we ate breakfast with a fellow con-goer we had been talking to in line. She complained about people at the con glomping her so hard she fell over backward (she was small). Other topic included:

- Yaoi fanfic writers
- FMA spoilers
- Ohayocon’s “Shoes Required” policy
- The human Katamari at the con the night before
- Other stuff

We returned, and I got a FMA deck of cards and a Blythe doll (I had been feeling the weird impulse to buy one since I saw them the night before). Danny bought a shinai, a bamboo practice sword, and the main, big gift for our friend. I went behind his back and bought a shinai of my own, because I saw little point to it if we had just one. We would think of nothing more to do, and, very reluctantly, said our final goodbyes to SugoiCon 2005, the Northern Kentucky Convention Center, and blessed Covington.

All my goals were met. I talked to people, I got my Ed plush, and I glomped total strangers. I discovered thanks to the motel gift shop that dill pickle potato chips are the best snack food, period, and they are now my new vice. I’ve established a tradition of eating Chinese food after every con, because I did after Ohayocon (technically, it was Japanese, but when you’re talking about the stuff you get at mall food courts, it makes no difference), and I had a wicked craving for it last night. I’ve now decided I must do this on the night of the last day of every con I go to, because traditions are awesome. I’m starting a list of resolutions for Ohayocon, in hopes of it being even better convention experience.

Danny says it was worth the vomiting. I think that really says it all. (5:31 PM Monday, home)