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Friday Left Ann Arbor around 12:50 pm, ill prepared for the trip. Entered the Ambassador Bridge region (read: the area of affected traffic) at around 2:30. As everyone in the entire fucking state was leaving for Memorial Day weekend - in fact, leaving at that very hour - I spent over an hour traveling around a mile. Yes. Less than 1 mile an hour. I can crawl faster than that. Anyway, I departed the Bridge "area" at around 3:45, and reached the convention center a little after 7. I then parked and proceeded to the registration desk. The line was split into two parts - those who had pre-regged and were waiting to get their passes (also known as "the line") and those who hadn't pre-regged and were just now paying the money (also know as, "me"). This is why I don't pre-reg for cons anymore. The $5 discount for pre-reg is well worth avoiding both the longer lines and the hassle of doing it early. At this point I caught up with the Avalon fan group, which was eventually joined by Josh himself, and the friends he'd arrived with. I managed to beg a place to sleep off of Kelly (aka Washu), who was also housing Josh, at his grandmother's house. This was a Good Thing (TM). Anyway, after going to get food with the grou (sans Josh and the Ottawa people), we rejoined them in the line for the Anime Music Video Contest. The thing was supposed to start at 9. We joined the line at around 9:30, and we were not seated until 10:15. However, we did manage to amuse ourselves with renditions of several Weird Al and Monty Python songs - some of the people we didn't even know joined in at one point. The AMV Contest itself sucked specious amounts of ass. Most of the videos were anime clips mistimed with overplayed songs. The "alternative" section included one video of anime I'd never seen with some random music, and two live-action videos - one with this bizarre music that made half the theatre walk out. After this horrible travesty of anime, we went to Perkins for breakfast food and radioactive scorpions. I drew the picture linked above and we bitched about the AMVs some more. Then, to bed. Saturday After arriving at the con at around noon, I signed up for a Weakest-Link-style anime trivia game, then proceeded to the Dealer's Room, where I bought a wallscroll of Cowboy Bebop. I then waited in front of the trivia room for half an hour while they were setting up equipment. The volunteers knew little about what was going on - they couldn't even tell me the format of the contest. After finally getting in, I found out that I was not in fact going to play the game - they'd chosen eight random people. The game was run by a computer program, though, so once they got things going it worked rather well. Fun to watch, too, so it wasn't a total waste of time - though the half-hour lateness was an annoyance. Out of a possible $100, the winner won $5.25. They knew nothing of the strategy of the game - though they weren't that knowledgeable with the trivia, either. Following that, I went over to the gaming room for the DDR preliminary competition. The eight players in this prelim were organized into a bracket, and I of course got matched against one of the organizers in the first round. After playing two 7-steps and an 8-step, in which he beat me overall (barely), I was so damned tired. Had to rest for 15 minutes after that. It's been a while. I made my way over to the line waiting for the Masquerade, where Kelly and I networked out laptops and set up Unreal Tournament... just in time for the line to start moving. After getting into the room where the Masquerade was, many of us (Daryl, Glyn, Sandie, and someone else whose name entirely escapes me right now, and I) decided not to wait the extra half-hour they were expected to take, and we left. We went to Daryl's apartment and watched some anime, then Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, then the edited-out scenes from the movie, and generally had a good time with pizza and pop and all that. Then, again, to bed. Sunday We headed back to the con for a little while. I bought a book from the How To Draw Manga series, Bodies and Anatomy, which I think will help greatly in my comicry. I also picked up some pins from the Anime North merchandise table. I noticed DDR being played in the trivia room, and went to investigate. This turned out to be the finals for the Battle Royale, a competition held every year at AN, and the finals this year took the form of DDR... with a difference. Each contestant was armed with an inflatable bat to be used in beating one's opponent to disrupt them from dancing. It was very amusing to watch. After that, I decided to leave. On the way out, I met Coota, another friend of mine from #avalon, who recognized me on sight due to my top hat. This is the reason I wear it... Drive home was uneventful, and the border crossing was the quickest I've ever had: "What are you doing?" "Heading home from an anime convention." "Ok." And that was it. | |
