Sunday, January 25, 2004

Ohayocon Report

Ohayocon 4:
Hyatt Hotel - Columbus Ohio
January 23-25

Friday, January 23-
Planned Departure: 4:30 Actual Departure: 5:15
Passengers: Mike, Yash, Emily
Friday started off slow, as we began our trip to Yash's and my first anime convention. We had prepaid like 2 months before, so there was no freaking way we were going to miss it. We left a little late 'cause we didn't have our stuff together when the time came, Yash was a little late and I had to go to the bank, and...other stuff..heh. The only person ready was Emily. Boy did we let her down. But it was all good. We did have three whole days at this convention, after all. Friday night was basically just a huge blizzard, so we had to drive really slow down I-71, and it ended up taking like 4.5 hours to get there instead of the normal 2.5. Saw some SUV slip on the road and do almost a full 360 before smacking into the road side barrier. It was reeeally slippery. We did the normal "Get lost in Columbus in the middle of a damn snowstorm and almost get stuck" too. But somehow we managed to find the hotel and a parking space and get inside. Showing up at 10pm the first night at a convention doesn't leave much to do. The dealer's room was already closed and it was too late for panels, so we just kinda walked around trying to find people we know. We saw James (former prez., and founder of KSU anime club), Samantha (current prez), and Codex, Trewr, and Julie. Julie was cosplaying as Kei from Dirty Pair Flash or something. Yash was thinking about going home early, so I asked Codex for a ride home and he wanted to charge me $5 for gas. Whatever, it's not like I'm so far out of the way... We checked out the game room and the DDR Craziness! Insane! Well, there was some fun karaoke, but most of it was the suck. At this point, Kyle (from anime club, not kyle pugh) was walking around with us, and we were about ready to leave. We were trying to find our friend Eric, who was in the Hentai Panel (18+ only! We got carded as we entered).. Sigh...so we go in to find him and I see the trewr-codex-julie group and joined them. There was some sick crap they had in there! Like women getting ripped apart, smashed with sledgehammers, etc...and hmm what else. Oh yeah! lots of chicks-with-dicks and poop, i guess. It was so god damn nasty, who draws this crap? who buys this stuff? what would you say as you but it? You read it for the articles? What a way to begin the convention.... Everyone was laughing at it, I don't think anyone actually found it likeable, although Trewr was enjoying it. :D It WAS kinda funny to see how low people could go (its pretty damn low) Yeah, so thank god that ended and we went to Kyle's house to sleep for the night.

Saturday, January 24-
Arrive at Con around 10am-
Well today was the first full day we could spend at Ohayocon (Good Morning Con!). First things first - we entered the dealer's room. It wasn't as big as I thought it would be. That was my first impression. Next, the prices seemed damn high. Like, there wasn't any discounts for coming. Like I paid $35 to go and pay Best Buy prices. I could order online cheaper! Oh well..they had some cool stuff, I will post everything I bought at the bottom. Hmm...Then we watched some anime I think. There were a LOT of people cosplaying, so I decided I wanted an easy costume, so when Yash and I got bored we went off to Target and I bought some cheap clothes to look like Kyou from Fruits Basket. Also bought a cheap beaded bracelet and some Sharpies to make Kyou's bracelet...you gotta watch the series to see why we wears it. Some people recognized who I was cosplaying as, so it made me happy. Saw Dennis Gregory there, some other people. Then I got a call from Rick saying I had to call home Immediately, there might be an emergency. Well, I thought my mom was just going to yell at me for going to Columbus, but actually when I called home my mom was crying because my uncle dave (her brother) had just died in a dirtbike accident.... Uncle Dave was my favorite uncle, one of few members of my family that I actually liked... He raced his dirtbike almost every weekend, with a passion similar to the one I share for flying... I wish I could have shown him my skills, I never got to.. He was always the one to "babysit" us when we were in CA, and I always had a lot of fun with him, even when we went to such crappy places like Disney's California Adventure! ....................... The world truely isn't fair when such evil can exist and my uncle Dave does not.. At least they say it was rather instant and he didn't suffer... Anyways, I just felt really really sick and hid in the back of one of the anime showing rooms in the dark until yash took me to Kyle's house. I guess he could see the pain I was in. It's always good to have someone you can count on. I have to say it... Life is too short, apparently. I'm glad he didn't leave early. Went to bed early, after watching some Naruto with yash and Kyle's little bro.

Sunday, January 25-
Arrive at Convention around 11am
Just came back to the con to go to the Dealer's Room one more time. I spent all the rest of my money today, cause sometime's it's good to just let go and spend some moeny. I was dressed in my Kyou costume again and a guy from Funimation took my picture for http://www.fruits-basket.com which will be up in about 2 weeks.. Just me and Yash driving home.. We left the con pretty much right after, so I could try to get home before my mom left for California, but it was futile, she left before I got there. I just wasn't feeling up to another day at the Con because I wouldn't be able to enjoy it anyways...

So if I seem gloomy lately, this is why.

Stuffs I got:
Gunsmith Cats OVAs (1 DVD)
Oh! My Goddess! OVAs (2 DVDs)
Fruits Basket 1-12 (2 DVDs)
Sailor Moon Volume 2 Manga
Sohma Kyou Pin
Ah! My Goddess Belldandy Poster
Sailor Mercury 5" palstic figure
Sailor Mercury 1" Magnet (already lost)
Uchiha Sasuke 3" Figure
Ayane (from DOA3) 4" Figure

I think that's it...
I can't believe how good the Sailor Moon manga is! God I'm a loser... :D