Otakon 2008

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I'm taking a break at the moment, but it's been alright so far.
I've only spent the morning taking pics and went to the Metal Gear panel. Did a little shopping in the dealers room.
Still got the concert tonight to go to.

Metal Gear!

Well the concert was a blast. I think it was the highlight of my time here.
Saturday, I got my entry into the model contest. First time doing that. I was runner up and got... deathnote figure. (not really my thing, so I don't know what I'll do with it).
Got to meet Jkid for a bit. Did more shopping and had dinner at hard rock.
Unfortunately I didn't get to do any more panels. My schedule kept changing so I never got around to anything else.
Meh, my legs are pretty sore so I'm quitting for the day and chilling at the hotel.

I got to go! And I'll be there again tomorrow

I'm the only one there with a large nose ring and lip stud, and stretched earlobes too. I have shoulder length brown hair... so I guess if you see me, say hi

Well shucks, I missed ya.
I'm already back home recovering now.
Next time...

Next year is July 17-19.

Okay I feel a bit rested now so I can go into more detail.
Thursday: I got to my hotel around 3. I stayed at the Mount Vernon hotel. It worked out pretty well I think. It was like $149 a night and about 8 blocks to the BCC. The pre-register line went pretty quick this year. It was a 40 minute wait from getting in line to picking up my pass.

Friday: That morning I went to the Metal Gear. It was neat. They mostly only had time to cover Kojima's early life and early game works. There wasn't much else for me to do that morning except take some pics. I got lunch and looked at the Trade Center tower. I did some shopping that afternoon, went back to the hotel, had dinner, rested, then went to the concert.
Concert line wasn't bad either. I got in line around 5:30 which put me pretty close to the door. Some beggar woman was about to pick a fight with a otakon staff member at the line and they called for back-up. They let people in at 7. Oh, and the one part that sucked... They had to make everyone throw away their food and drink to get in. I always carry stuff with me so i don't drop dead at these conventions. Needless to say i was peeved at loosing my drinks and snacks. (It wasn't like I was going to eat and drink during the concert) I decided to sit up on the balcony area so i see the entire stage. Most people wanted to be up right next to the stage(where the screamos hang out).
JAM Project came out at 8 and put on a great show. It was the highlight of my time there.

Saturday: I went to con early to try and register for the model contest(since I forgot to do so on Friday), but I couldn't register until 10 when the artist alley opened up. So I played in the videogame room for a bit to pass time. So at 10 I got registered and set-up for the contest. I browsed around the alley and did more shopping after that.
Met up with Jkid at the alley after that and we chatted for a bit. After that... I think I went back to the dealer's room again.
The model contest ended around 3. Besides my entry, there was, a Char's Zaku, a Hilodfer Tank diorama, a HGUC Gelgoog Cannon, 2 HGUC Nu Gundams(one shiny, and one battle scared), a 1/144 Wing Zero Custom, a Warcraft Elf girl(?) figure kit, a Haruhi figure, a pair of... I forgot what show they are from, but the pair robots that look like wooden barrels(they were scratch built)... I think that was it.
Anyway the Elf girl got Best in Show and the Char's Zaku beat out my Destiny for the large scale Gundam.
I won a... this Ryuk figurine from Deathnote... but that's because none of the other winners before me took it. I got a dvd for Ergo Proxy... I'll certainly take a look at it later.
But anyway, there were a lot of good comments about my entry. I ghosted around a bit and overheard people's comments and people did seem to like it overall. The judges admitted that they had to take extra time deciding between my Destiny and the Zaku, but the Zaku won out. (Admittedly I would have picked him too, simply cause I know the work that went into that Zaku ) But I enjoyed having my model displayed. It was the first time I showed off my work at a con and was pleased at the comments.

Moving on... After I had to wrap up quickly and get my stuff back to the hotel and then get back to the inner harbor again. I was going to try and look at the Aquarium to end the day... but I couldn't get in. So I met my parents at the Hard Rock and had dinner there. I went back to the con after... but then I think I was... conned-out and went back to the hotel.

Sunday: Packed up, came home.


I'm not a big picture taker at cons, but I took some. Mostly from Friday morning when I had nothing to do.
I tried taking a few pictures of the concert but they didn't turn out well. I took a pic of my swag at the end.

http://s10.photobucket.com/albums/a149/ ... /otakon08/

My entry for the contest, in roughly the same pose I had for it.(from an earlier photo shoot)
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a149/ ... VX054m.jpg

... and... This was my competition!
http://www.gamerabaenre.com/char_zaku2_0.htm

See I knew I had seen that Zaku somewhere before. Anyway this guy came all the way from California and is a pro model builder and I've browsed his site several times before. I did not expect I was going up against him. Anyway he does detail on his site how he built that Zaku, which is how I know the work he put into it.
He also did the Elf figure that got best in show; http://www.gamerabaenre.com/cerberus_dark_elf.htm
And the HGUC Nu Gundams were his also; http://www.gamerabaenre.com/hguc_nu_prog.htm

Well, from shopping swag, I got a Musha Gundam(which I've been wanting to get for a while now) and ... one of these newfangled Gundam 2.0s. The Musha I'll definity do some work on. The Gundam... don't know what I'll do with that yet. That Ryuk figure is probably looking at Ebay.

Well that's it.
My great points of the Con were the concert and the contest.
I didn't get to go to many of the panels I had planned to They kept happening at times when I had to do something else. I didn't cosplay even though I was thinking about doing so... another time I suppose.
Sucky points... eh, same thing every year. I wish I had some friends to hang out with at the con.

Well, I think that's all I can report on.
I'm sure Jkid has more photos if he wants to share.

I had a great time at the convention. I actually stayed up until the time they shoo the con-goers out of the hotel on all three days. Also got to the see the opening animation at closing ceremonies.

Full details to come later...if I'm not too busy.

sigh...
The hotel reserving fracus for next year has already begun.
See Otakon has a new online reservation system going on now...

... but I can't reserve a room because my card expires before next years con...

On an interesting side note... somebody is scalping the rooms at the new Hilton so no one can get a Thursday night room. That's great...

Of course I guess I could stick with the hotel I had this year. It was good... I would just rather try staying a little closer so i can do the late night panels without having to walk through downtown after midnight. (A place with a pool would be nice too)

It's kinda nice living so close to the convention center. No extra money to spend on getting a room! Unless I want to be fancy, which is just a bit much. I do have to pay to take the lightrail but that's not bad at all.

Next year I want to actually be there for the AMVs and spend more time in the gaming room!!

And now my convention highlights!

Friday:
1.Got on MARC train (3:08pm) to Penn Station, got on the bus to the Sheraton Baltimore City Hotel.
2.Check into hotel, pack-in, got everything set up and clothes. Head out to convention center
3.Got up to registration
4.Immediately started my photography run. (Since I'm such a photo otaku)
5.Saw the giant Testuro Head!
6.Saw Tokyo Gore Police, the most bloodiest movie you’ll see.
7.Preview the rave scene, when the rave actually begins, I wasn’t able to go because of bag.
8.Went to see touhou panel, what I got was the psychology of cosplay due to a miscommunication error of staff (but stuff happens). As soon as I realize that there will be no touhou, I left.
9.Saw a portion of the bad Japanese music videos
10. Phemnology of Shinji Ikari: Somewhat interesting but left
11.Ate lunch before the touhou panel

Saturday
1. Ate breakfast (corn bread, orange slices, bacon and apple justice)
2. Saw the whole of first and a portion of the 4th episode of pumpkin scissors
3. Went to the dealers room for stuff
4. Went to the artist room for badges and a id card
5. Met Dave in the model contest, and saw his model Gundam. (Looks awesome)
6. Went to the rave for a few hours
7. Did generally photography and videos
8. Saw 15 minutes of the masquerade: (Not another hare hare yukai, monster game show (of slayers series fame), Enchanted -Kingdom Hearts crossover, link flute)
9. Stayed in the video game room from 11:30pm to closing 12:30pm
10. Rest of the night was photography and the rave

Sunday:
1. Stayed in the game room until 11am
2.Went to the D. Grey-man panel, which I entered fashionably late as usual.
3. Did general photography
4. Saw Library Wars 1-4
5. Went to closing ceremonies, and finally saw the sweet opening animation
6. Went back home by light rail, then Amtrak.

Overall, I had a great time, and I already reserved the Hilton for next year.

As for the photos, I'll try to upload them via picasa web albums by the end of the month.

4chan has a /con/ board currently up about otakon...
http://orz.4chan.org/con/

some guy I knew off facebook said he would go, I messaged him and he said his friend bailed out and he couldn't go..

^Yeah, I've been looking at that from time to time. Nothing really interesting on there besides the AA fiasco thread...

Well, I'll be there again next year. Hoping next year will be better than this year.
I've been thinking about visiting some smaller cons, but haven't decided anything yet.

AA fiasco thread.

What's the AA fiasco about?

Well you were there... You might recall that a lot of artists seemed to have the same kind of artwork at many different tables. I noticed that when I went through it. And the strangely pushy asian girls manning such tables.
Well it was all from the same pair of artists, but due to a loophole in AA rules they got their friends to register many more tables than they were technically permitted to have and had said friends push the artwork as their own.
Needless to say this ticked off a lot of the other artists in the alley since they bought up like 14 tables when so many other artists couldn't get into the alley. They even almost even got into legal trouble with Otakon.

Oh, no wonder. I was planning to go to the Artist Alley for more of those buttons that you can pin to your messenger bag strap. But now I realized why I got less buttons than I expected.

I actually noticed the thread at 4chan too.