Holidays and absences [3]

Norc wrote:hell yeah! give me a fucking date guys! it's beginning to get rather late....

If you read back a page, you'll see it's around June 25th.

Norc wrote:hell yeah! give me a fucking date guys! it's beginning to get rather late....

I'm flying down on June the 24th and back again the 30th, all I've got planned so far are two concerts the 24th and 25th. Thought of seeing that Harry Potter park thing while I'm there, and my plan as of now is to go somewhere quiet and picturesque to relax A meet-up would be cool, though, but I'm guessing 6-7 weeks is a bit on the short side for planning such a thing? Tickets aren't cheap this close, and it's high season as well.

yeah.. fuck me.. i gotta work around that time.. poor as a rat (student...)... should've paid more attention :/ but i wanna see south korea, seol, so i am kinda saving up for that. but, like.. if anyone is near me, let me know

I vaguely remember you mentioning something about South Korea. Why again where you going there?

i dunno, it just is really cool, and they have great food. i am going for the food.

Flew into O'Hare this afternoon for Anime Central, which starts tomorrow. Both my hotel and the convention center are just a couple blocks from the airport (longer by car because of twisty roads), and about a 10 minute walk from each other. I was a little late registering (didn't really start considering attending until September and didn't see a hotel block rate that I liked until November) so I wasn't able to get one of the really close hotels, but there are still a lot of people in lanyards and anime t-shirts and cosplay up here. Since it's my first time at this con and at this convention center I figured I'd try to take more photos than I have at the past couple Otakons. I have a lot of you guys on Facebook but for anyone who I don't or who doesn't do FB, this link should work:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10207479066453739.1073741838.1800793391&type=1&l=b33c011c97

Last year I set a new personal record for consecutive time spent in the convention center/connected hotel/adjacent sandwich shops with just over 17 hours (previous record was 14 hours). Breaking that record this year is a distinct possibility because, unlike Otakon, Anime Central has continous, around-the-clock programming from 9 AM on Friday morning until 4 PM on Sunday afternoon. Granted, most of the stuff between 3 AM and 9 AM on Saturday and Sunday mornings consists of video screenings and open availability time in the various tabletop and video game rooms. If I do break my record, though, it probably won't be by much since I'll still need to shower and sleep.

A couple years ago I was in New Orleans for a meteorology conference when a comic con was in session. The costumes were fabulous! And fit right in with New Orleans.

Norc wrote:i dunno, it just is really cool, and they have great food. i am going for the food.

I know your secret .... you want to learn to dance Gangnam style.

halfwise wrote:A couple years ago I was in New Orleans for a meteorology conference when a comic con was in session.  The costumes were fabulous!  And fit right in with New Orleans.

I can imagine. I'm a little disappointed that the convention center isn't actually in Chicago proper. It was neat that the Baltimore Convention Center is so close to other downtown Baltimore things like the Inner Harbor, Camden Yards (I used to watch bits of O's games from the second floor of the Hilton which had a bunch of the ballrooms used for Otakon), and Lexington Market if you're willing to stretch your legs a little bit. And the DC Convention Center is right in the thick of things too. But I suppose it doesn't make that much of a difference since I don't really spend much time on non-con things.

I really think you owe it to yourself, once you've made the journey, to explore where you are. One late afternoon into evening at least!

When I drove through Chicago on my way to Minnesota last year I was able to spend about half a day in the city, mostly in the Loop area. I took the L train south hoping to visit the Museum of Science and Industry which I went to once when I was nine and have fond memories of, but I didn't have enough time left before having to get back on the road to justify the price of admission, so I just walked around Washington Park for a bit instead.

Well, I broke my record again by arriving at the convention center at 8:45 AM on Friday morning and not leaving until 2:45 AM Saturday morning (18 hours). I took a nap in one of the video rooms in the mid-afternoon, though. Also, I had a head cold all weekend, so I paid for my endurance stunt over the following two days, much more than I did at Otakon last year. Though I was coughing all day even on Friday. Was a fun convention all in all, though! This was my first time going to a con without someone else (my sister goes to Otakon with me every year), but I hung out with and chatted with a few random people I ran into. Cons seem to make me marginally more outgoing/willing to talk to strangers. Looking forward to sleeping in my own bed tonight though and hopefully catching up on sleep/beating this damn cold.

Great stuff Eldo  Sounds like it was a good weekend even if the head cold made you feel groggy. Every time you just say hello to someone & it puts a smile on your face is another link in your armour For the head ?  Honey & paracetamol, a warm bed & soft feather pillow

{{Looks like you had a lot of fun Eldo -pictures to follow I assume! }}}

halfwise wrote:

Norc wrote:i dunno, it just is really cool, and they have great food. i am going for the food.

I know your secret .... you want to learn to dance Gangnam style.

i already know...

Looks easy, but there's a trick to it. Each leg lifts twice, but the first one you bounce off the toes, the second one you firmly plant your heel or you can't transition to the other foot. Too me a while to work that out.

If I recall you once posted a video.....

Is that a prompt? I didn't get the leg bounces to even height in that vid, so am a bit reluctant to repost.

But, I'll repost it if Norc will post one of hers doing Gangnam style.

azriel wrote:Great stuff Eldo  Sounds like it was a good weekend even if the head cold made you feel groggy. Every time you just say hello to someone & it puts a smile on your face is another link in your armour   For the head ?   Honey & paracetamol, a warm bed & soft feather pillow

Thanks, az! I slept for most of the day today and am feeling a bit better on the cold front.

Pettytyrant101 wrote:{{Looks like you had a lot of fun Eldo -pictures to follow I assume! }}}

Thanks, Petty! I didn't take too many pictures and I already put all the good ones on Facebook I'm afraid, but I can repost a few of them here.



I recently watched RWBY for the first time and I saw a fair number of cosplayers for that series, though this is the only photo I got. (I saw a lot of cool cosplays walking past people on the really long skywalk, but it was too narrow to ask people to stop and pose without completely blocking traffic.) In the actual show the weapon (combined scythe/sniper rifle kinda thing) is a fair bit longer when fully unfolded, but ACen has a rule that props can not be longer than the person carrying them is tall.



One of the (relatively few) Miyazaki character cosplayers I saw. There was a Howl too but I only saw him from a distance so I didn't have a chance to ask for a picture.



Kuragehime (Princess Jellyfish) is another recent favorite. While there were quite a few Rule 63 cosplayers (deliberately changing the gender of the character they are portraying), this was not an example of that, as the character whom the person on the left was cosplaying as dresses in drag in the show itself (and it's actually a pretty respectful portrayal in the show, plus it's a really fun watch).



Official con t-shirt. I don't do a lot of souvenir shopping but I like to collect t-shirts from places I've been and cons are no exception. I still have the t-shirts from every Otakon I've attended, though I didn't wear any of them this past weekend. Did wear my Evangelion NERV logo shirt on Friday though.

NB While I didn't bring my razor, I did shower daily. Fortunately it got really chilly starting on Friday (was in the low 50s when I left the hotel at like 8:30 AM) and stayed relatively cool all weekend so I didn't sweat as much as I expected.



I won this Death Note minifigure in an anime soundtrack "name that tune" contest for correctly identifying the below track as coming from the 1995 Ghost in the Shell movie.





There's this guy who makes giant pieces of chalk art as a form of performance art at various conventions. He's done Otakon every year that I've been there (and several years before I started going too). Was cool to see him again. This is the finished piece after ~30 hours of working on it. I took a picture of it in progress on Saturday too which is on FB.



I saw the person in the T-rex costume several times throughout the weekend (though it might not have always been the same person, IDK), but it was mostly on the skywalk and this is the only picture I took with them in it. This was from Sunday morning; that lobby was completely packed on Friday and Saturday and it was sort of sad to see it looking so empty as the con was winding down. I'm not sure what the exact attendance was, but the past two years ACen has had slightly over 31,000 attendees over the course of the weekend (most of whom show up for all three days, although unlike Otakon they do sell one-day passes).

looks like you had a really good time at that convention!

I notice you kept a safe distance from that T-rex.

{{I always admire cosplayers- I could never do that I'd just feel a tit- nope I think I'll stick to my kilt, my plaid and my bunnet thank you very much. Nothing silly there! }}

I love dressing up, its fun, puts you in a good mood & that radiates out & that helps the day go well Great Pictures Eldo, that chalk art was very impressive indeed. I'm already getting excited for the only "display" we have in my home town & that's Lammas at the end of July. I dress up for that, wings, flowers in my hair, Home made faery dress etc & this year I have Simi & he will be dressed in tiedye & jingle bells

It's been a few years since I went to a con in costume now. I'm too self-conscious to be get as into it as some people I know, but it was a lot of fun.

Looked like a lot of fun