Conreport

You may be asking yourself "Zechs isn't making a webpage con report just a cop-out so you don't have to spend time explaining and sending each picture over and over to everyone you talk to?

Yes....yes it is.

Friday, March 5th 2004 Opening Day of Megacon 2004....I wasn't there ^_^;; But Saturday and Sunday I was so this'll be the story of those two awesome days! Now that we have that out of the way, on with the rantage!

Day 0

For those of you who don't know Megacon is an annual convention that takes place at the Ginormous Orange County Convention Center. Megacon isn't a con about any one thing, having representatives from all forms of geekdom present. To name everyone represented there would take half the page, but you can narrow it down to an anime/comic/gaming con. This is the largest con in the Southwest US and some say maybe even the entire east coast. Last year was the first time I had attended and it was also my first con period. Learning from my mistakes I was able to go this year with new confidence, including a fatter wallet. Though actually getting there was a problem in itself.

About mid-January I remembered that Megacon was right around the corner so I started a little jar to save up. Maybe a month or so and figured it was time to arrange a ride. Asking around school proved fruitless. Anyone who could go didn't have a car and anyone who had a car couldn't go. Finally I had to resort to getting my mom to drive me up. Problem was our car was messed up and there was no way it could survive a trip that far. Mom asked around and finally found a friend of hers and her son would take me up. Two weeks before the con I get a notice that the FWCYS concert was on the Same Damn Day I Was Going Up! Now, this wasn't a huge issue for me because I could easily skip it without being missed, problem was the lady's son who was going to drive up is also in the symphony and wouldn't you know he couldn't. There I was, two weeks before, two-hundred dollars saved away, and no ride. Again, I asked around, nothing had changed and everyone was either unwilling or busy. As an absolute last resort I tried asking my neighbor, a 50-year-old geriatric nurse; she agreed after we had a talk (begged on hand and knees) and I had myself a ride.

Day 1

Saturday had arrived. Took 15mins for a shower and ditching my idea to cosplay (I know it scared me too) I grabbed a cowboy bebop shirt and hit the road. After 3 hours of wadding through I-4 traffic we finally made it. After circling the center like a buzzard trying to find an entrance I got tossed out the back door of the car with nothing but my money, an empty backpack, my camera, and a cell phone. This place is freaking huge, an enormous dealer's room on the first floor, gaming rooms and recreation rooms on the second floor and two viewing rooms on the third floor. There was even more than last year so the first thing I do is rush....straight to the bathroom.

Hey, it was a long ride up.

Back to business, second thing I do is pick up my tickets and rush to the dealer's room. Now this is where I made my biggest mistake last year and that was impulse buying on Saturday. Big no no, for one reason. These are not dept. stores it's just a bunch of people selling their crap that they'd like not to have to carry home with them at the end of this shindig. So it's best to buy at the end of the day on Sunday. Only reason that this isn't as good is if you're looking for a hot item, because chances are it'll be gone long before then. I decide to just look around and get a feel for the place, for the most part all I felt were thousands of sweaty geeks pushing up against me as I tried to get through the crowded aisles. Eventually there was a lessening in the crowd and I was able to find a quiet place to rest and take some good cosplay photos. Earlier in the week I had agreed to go on an errand run for some of the people at my school for the con. With my list and a load of other people's money I went to work stocking up on magic cards and books. Once that was done it was time for a little "me" shopping so I went around to the various anime dealers, of which there were a lot more than the previous year. You had shops the like of Anime Pavilion, Animenation, Anime Palace, and Juan and Marco's Comics and Anime....that last one was just weird. If you wanted any piece of anime merchandise domestic or import, rare or popular, graphic or family-friendly it was there. And just about everything non anime-related too. Before the shopping was over there was a quick stop at the MT/Wizzywig booth to see if Piro was there. There was no massive crowd there and that surprised me until I noticed the lone, pasty guy, behind the booth had a little flashing sign that read "I'm not Fred" and worked for the Wizzywig people.

After the shopping I go for a walk and grab a bit to eat at the Chinese place. With a belly full of sweet an sour chicken, fried rice and egg roll I move on to the viewing rooms to see what's playing. I come in at the very end of an episode of Kare Kano or something followed by a commercial break of amvs and settled in for an ep. of Peacekeeper. From what I saw it seemed pretty decent, sort of a cross between the kid from Naruto and the samurai elements of Kenshin. Except that there was this one person who I could never figure out if it was a girl or a guy.

Then back downstairs to the dealer's room to purchase a few things I had been eyeing then run back upstairs for the costume contest. I get there a little late and have to settle for a seat at the far end. The contest starts off with the youth cosplayers, which mean babies in strollers dressed up as Gohan and five and six-year-olds in sailor moon costumes. Well, turns out Sailor Jupiter won because she was able to recite about four more lines of the theme song than her rival. Throughout, the announcer was trying desperately to be funny, but succeeded only when someone finally told him we couldn't understand a word he was saying and then brought out a megaphone that made it even worse. Now, while not at the level that JACON is used to this contest still had a lot of very well done costumes; from the likes of Sango, the Cast of Witch Hunter Robin, Kakachi from Naruto, Menchi from Excel Saga, Kakashi from Naruto, Seele Box, Cassandra from SC2, Kakashi from Naruto (noticing a trend yet?), Utena, your daily required value of Vash's and Wolfwoods, and the fan favorite MARIO!

The contest went a little over on the time and I had to leave before all the awards were given out, but I did manage to see the first one and that was given to a good friend of mine who didn't even enter. She won a Judges award from her boyfriend and the prize was an engagement ring. It wasn't as much of a shocker because it'd been hinted that he was planning something of the sort for a while, but still I did rush to the front to get a couple shots of the happy couple before I had to bolt out of there. You can see all the drama unfold here.

I got picked up and went to a dinner at Narcoossees at the Grand Floridian in Disney. I had a Glazed Free-Range Chicken Breast w/ sweet pepper reduction, wild mushroom ravioli, and sautéed spinach. If you're ever in Orlando the Disney restaurants and want to have a nice meal that doesn't cost 50$ a plate go to just about any of the Disney restaurants (I command you to go to Wolfgang Pucks). After the meal we watch the fireworks and then headed back to the hotel.

Day 2

Woke up bright an early at 9am and took another shower. One thing that gets to me is the too-often-true stereotype of smelly con-goers. Once I was freshened up and was looking sharp in my Nerv shirt and my ever-popular faded black jeans it was time to go. Getting there was much easier the second day with the hotel being within walking distance of the convention center. Since today was much less crowded and easy-going I ventured over to the gaming section and got my ass handed to me in a few rounds of SC2. Even my faithful Talim wasn't able to get me out the gutter. To be fair to myself I had never played the PS2 version and hadn't touched the GC in over three months, so even my singular victory with Raphael was impressive. I'm pretty sure the guy we were up against spent the entire day siting there just beating the sh1t out of people and enjoying every minute of it. Instead of getting involved in what looked like an awesome SSMB tourney I decided to do some smart shopping. Lo' and behold, prices on merchandise had in fact been slashed from the previous day. As the day worn down venders had out their black markers trying to get rid of as much crap as they could. Still, I'm glad for the purchases I had made the day before because by the time places like Animenation had gone down to 5-10$ a DVD all that remained were bottom-of-the-barrel titles and an entire box of Pokemon DVDs that they'd have been lucky to give away. In fact, the only time I got ripped off the whole weekend was on a Ranma 1/2 manga volume that was 4$ cheaper at another vender who, incredibly, was selling every domestic manga release there was for only five dollars a piece. Too bad I hadn't even noticed his booth till the second day when most of my series had been grabbed. Even so two more Ranma vols. were mine at half-retail.

Another of my hobbies as some may or may not know is T-shirt collecting. T-shirts are one of the best ways of proclaiming your interests and finding those who share them whether it is a band or a movie or anime. Many of the friends I've met in high school have been because they noticed my Bebop shirt alone. A company called Stylin' sells a lot of great hard to find shirts and they had two large showcases and prices that put places like Hot Topic to shame. They had an entire wall of anime shirts, and I bought one of the Yu Yu Hakusho cast and one of Amazing Nurse Nanako (my new favorite shirt). Finally, it was time for the big stuff and thus began my search for the Gundam models. The first place luckily had the largest selection and still most of the big ones in stock. No GM Sniper to be found, so instead I opt for a 1/100 MG Rick Dom. I double check with the other vendors to see if it's the lowest price and end up getting it at great price; only 40$ for a model that can go as high as 65-85$. Only problem is lugging the dang thing around and putting it at the risk of theft every time you set it down. Holding my precious model for dear life I head upstairs to see what was going on. I pass the JACO viewing room and notice a small line. So naturally I get in it. Turns out it was the line for the amv contest that was begining in ten minutes and within three minutes a hoard of people streamed up the escalators and the "little" line stretches 200 feet behind me...Lucky ^_^

Behind the crowd comes the happy couple from the night before. As they look at the line in disgust, about to head back downstairs, I was able to offer them a spot in front of me. Lucky them. My actions weren't entirely selfless since I had really needed to go back to the lower floor to get a drink Long sleeves aren't smart in con environments. Once that was done back up the two flights I went and got in just as the doors were opening for the amv contest. Like the costume contest the Megacon contest was somewhat less prestigious than its JACON counterpart. Despite that, there were still a lot of great projects including a few that had the crowd in stitches and some in tears. The winners were a great Trigun Trailer for Comedy, Best drama went to an excellent Video Girl Ai tribute , Raxepheon done to one of my favorite Burning Airlines' songs won best action, and SaiKano to an Aerosmith song won best overall. Two more I have to mention are Icycloud's Trogdor parody and We Are Pirates. Once the contest was over and my eyes had adjusted it was back to the downstairs to change my shirt and put some new batts in my camera. Back upstairs I take a few more pics and chill for a while until yet another fun ride down the eskeelators.

Before spending the last bit of my cash I had to catch Piro while there was still a chance. The line was looong, but still better than it would have been if I'd waited till the last minute. Setting in for long wait I end up talking to some interesting people and have good conversation with a guy who works at RPGnet. He was nice enough to get some pics of cosplayers I was too embarrassed (lazy) to ask to stand still. After an hour I get to meet Seraphim and Piro and get my MT Vol.1 signed with a little sketch of Junpei. Seraphim is definitely the more upbeat of the two, but what do you expect from an angsty artist after three days of straight signing and sketching. Having fulfilled my con goals the time had come for rampant spending. Two giant posters, a mini Trigun poster, another DVD and three boxes of pocky for the road pretty much thins out my formally obese wallet.

Burdened by my spoils I phone for my ride and use up the last of my memory in my camera while I wait.
The ride home sucked ass so let's just leave it at that. Only plus was that it wore out my mom enough that there was no way either of us were getting to school the next day so I could play with my stuff, hehehe.

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