Aa-chan

Diary of a Deranged Fangirl
2006-08-07 21:01:36 (UTC)

Otakon Weekend: Act One Panel Madness

Okay just a warning, this is a super long entry. When I was
running the spell check it was up to 5 full pages, with this
warning it's up to 5 and 1/4 pages. So just prepare to sit
and read cause it is really long.

Ready... Okay...

Friday morning starts off with waking up in that train wreck
of a hotel. I get up look outside across the street and see
that the drug store across the street is open 24 hours.
Which is good considering I need a few supplies for the
convention? I needed hair conditioner but ended up getting
some extra crap like a curling iron (which is actually a
really good ceramic curling iron too) and razor and some
other crap. After that we went back to the hotel and got
ready to pick up Scarbie at the airport. Also during this
time I heard from Hunty and Allie too.

So while I'm getting ready and I'm ironing my Eve costume,
the very same Eve costume that I remade the bodice for THREE
times, I realize the setting on the iron is too high and it
burn a hole in my bodice that I remade three times. I'm
screaming and cursing to the heavens, then J'aime calms me
down and says just sew the hole together, which is what I
did. Thankfully both the pinafore apron and the wig I use
for Eve covers up where the hole is. And the thing about
that is, when I checked the iron before I started using it
the setting was on low. Ugh that hotel was a damn mess.
Never ever again!

So J'aime and I get dressed and check out of Chez Sleazy
Boudoir and we leave to pick Scarbie up at BWI. Now neither
J'aime nor myself have ever been to BWI, so getting there
was really new. Thankfully we didn't get lost. If you ever
need to know for any reason, you get onto 195 and that will
take you to BWI. Another good thing is the signs leading
you to BWI are really good, so you can't get lost as long as
you read and follow the signs.

After getting the call, finally meet up with Scarbie. We
help her with her bags and we take off for the Inner Harbor
and the Holiday Inn because Hunty and Allie have finished
getting their badges and are waiting for us in the hotel
lobby. Actually the drive to the hotel wasn't too bad. The
signs for the inner harbor area are better heading towards
the north then they are heading downwards from. When you go
north the signs still say "Camden Yards", when you're on 95
going south, the sign says something about "Downtown" and
M.L.K Boulevard, no more Camden Yard sign. That's how we
accidentally missed our turn off the night before.

So we get to the hotel, unload the car, and meet up with
Hunty and Allie. While J'aime's finding a parking lot and
everyone is getting acquainted, I go to check us into the
hotel room. Now, at first the girl at the counter is giving
me crap about how our room isn't available and if I could
come back after 2 PM. I said I couldn't because I have an
obligation at which requires me to be at the convention at 2
PM and if she could find something for us now. So after a
little mini-whine she manages to give us a room, so I get
two keys, and we all wait for J'aime to come back, then we
head up to the room. Room 323! A handicap room, which is
better because usually the handicap rooms are slightly
larger then the average room. Plus it was really good
because we weren't in that second tower of doom.

Well, after getting the room and getting everyone situated
J'aime and I went to the BCC to get Scarbie her badge...

Oh side note:

Wah! No Associate Badges this year?! I think someone last
year must have seriously abused their badge to the point
where they didn't do that this year. Wah! I loved having
that badge last year it was great! But wah not Associate
badge this year. That really reeked.

But we got Scarbie her badge, which thankfully didn't take
too long. By the time she got there the line was pretty
short, compared... Thankfully she didn't have to stand in
the line of hell. So she got her badge, I think we all met
up, and then we took off for the video game room because the
line to the dealer’s room was just too long and annoying to
wait in. So we got down there just before the started
letting people in the video game hall.

Once we were in, we walked around for a bit and then J'aime
and I started playing some weird (barf) X-box game. I have
no idea what it was, but it was kinda fun although the
Bosses on that game were ridiculously difficult. I think we
played for something like two boards before getting bored
and going off to wonder around. While we were wondering I
get a phone call from Brendan and then we re-met up with
Hunty and Allie. I told Brendan that I would meet up with
him in the Dealers room because that's where we were all
heading.

But I didn't make it to the dealer’s room then. I looked at
my watch and realized it was about 1:15 or so, so I had to
go back to the hotel room and get the panel outline for
Gathering of the Cosplay Elders panel, while J'aime went to
go report in at Panel Ops. So braving the monster heat I
ran back to the hotel room and got the outline and ran back
to the BCC to report to Panel Ops, only to find out that in
the schedule the time for the panel was still listed at 7 PM
and also on the room bulletin board it was listed as 7:00 PM
too. I knew it was going to be low attendance, and pretty
much it was.

However I'm not dejected by the experience. It would have
probably had a better attendance if they hadn't changed the
times around, but oddly enough J'aime and I still had a fun
time. And the handful of people that were in the room had a
good time too. Because it just turned into the Talking
Trash with J'aime and Adrienne anyway. But I do still want
to do a proper Gathering of the Cosplay Elders Panel next
year. I will re-suggest it and hopefully it will be
re-accepted and they won't screw around with the time so
people can actually attend it.

Well after that we headed down with everyone to the Dealers
Room and wondered around in there for a bit. Ah the
dealers/ "Industry" room. A thing of beauty. Well sorta.
This year the only things I was after was my Chrome Plated
Tokyo Marui Military Issue M9 replica. Which much to my
surprise Digital Dicks actually had and for relatively cheap
too. It was $169 and the place where I got my original
AirSoft Gun from had it for now, $300, so you tell me where
I was going to get it from?! But anyway, I decided not to
get my M9 on Friday, but to wait until Saturday because they
had a bunch of them and it could wait (remember these last
famous words when you read about Saturday).

So we all wondered around the dealer’s room; J'aime and I
got our pictures taken for that Lolita contest, which pretty
much was how I thought it was going to be, a sham. As I
suspected they were going for a certain look, which was
whatever that J-pop chick's look was. And as-per the usual
Japanese way, they didn't tell anyone they had a "certain
look" they were going for in mind, so it made the whole
thing redundant and rather pointless (have we truly learned
nothing from the great World Cosplay Summit debacle of
2005). I don't know if anyone won, or if the idea was
scrapped because they were looking for someone with their
per-intended look, or what the deal was. But I do know one
thing, if Japan wants to do these little fun things they
have to post in black and white what they are looking for,
what they want to see, and what their expectations are,
because all too often they post these little contests or
whatever and people go to them, but then they get upset when
it's not what they want. And its like look y'all you have
to say what you want cause we're American, we can't read
your culturally different minds.

But anyway, after wondering the dealer’s room, J'aime went
back to the room and got out of her EGL outfit. I changed
into Shortcake (And I STILL don't have a picture of me in
that!) and I called Brendan to find out where he was
lurking. He said he was in the Artist Alley, so that's
where J'aime and I went off to next. But not before
stopping back into the Dealers room to see if I could enter
Shortcake into the EGL contest. By then it was over and
J'aime tried hard to ask them to let me participate, but no
dice. It was okay. I still wasn't what they wanted anyway.
So then after that we went to the Artist Alley and I found
Brendan hanging out at the X-Strike table.

I asked them if Project Snake was going to come out, and the
guy (who actually played Liquid in the Project Snake Movie)
said it wasn't ready yet. So tired of their crap, I decided
to just bite the bullet and pre-order it. In a vain hope
that maybe if I pre-order it, it will actually come out when
they say it will. But I'm not going to hold my breath. I'm
hoping it will be out at least by the time Usa rolls around.
I know they're not going to Usa, but still... Maybe I will
come out... Hopefully... While I'm still young......

So J'aime heads back to the room and I hang around the
X-Strike table with Brendan and he announces that I'm the
one that will be running the Metal Gear panel in a few
hours. Because I'm wearing a mega fruity EGL outfit they
look kinda like, Huh? But they don't look like they doubt
my varsity as a knowledgeable Metal Gear fan. So after
hanging out at the X-Strike table we wonder around the
artist alley for a bit and then he comes back to the hotel
room with me to show me what to do to hook Teveru up to the
monitor.

It takes us awhile to get back to the room because he's
dressed as a gigantic NES controller, so everyone is
stopping him to get his picture. But finally we make it
back to the room and everyone is there and I introduce him
to all my friends. Much to my surprise he stays in our room
for awhile to hangout. He shows Scarbie his super amazing
Sidekick. He showed me how to hook Teveru up and we all
have a good time and a really good dinner thanks to J'aime.

After dinner, everyone goes to attend "The Otaku Clause"
game. I stay behind and talk to Brendan for a bit and work
on the index cards for the MGS panel. At about 9 Brendan
leaves to go to a concert at a local club and I decide that
I was going to catch a nap before the big MGS panel. So I
set my phone to ring at 10:00 PM, so I can wake up, catch a
quick shower, put on my Fortune costume, and then head down
to Panel Ops.

It took a bit for me to fall asleep, but finally I closed my
eyes and took a nice nap. Suddenly I get a text message
from Brendan saying that he had gotten to the club okay and
I close my phone back, but then I realized something. I
look at his message again and its saying the text was sent
at 10:26 PM? 10:26?! What the shit?! I look at my clock
on my phone and it's 10:26!!!! Panicking, I get up, take a
quick wash off, throw on my Fortune costume grab everything
I need for the panel (thankfully I had set-up to go before I
took my nap) and I dash out the door.

Half way, I meet up with Hunty, J'aime, and Scarbie. Allie
is supposed to be with them, but ended up getting lost in
the massive crowd of people walking around. Not having the
time to look for him, since it's now 10:40 and we all still
have to report to panel ops, J'aime, Scarbie, and I take off
to the BCC and Hunty stays behind to look for Allie. So we
dash to panel ops. They don't have Scarbie down as the 3rd
panelist, just why they don't I have no bloody clue, they
make us re-fill out waiver forms, and then we run all the
way down to panel room one.

By the time we get there, there's already a big huge line
for the MGS panel. So Busting through the crowd, I go up to
the door and I hear some dude say to me, "You can't go in
yet." And I tell him in, "Yes I can." So I go in, J'aime
and Scarbie are behind me and we sit up front and wait for
the other panel to end. Once again, the panel before us
goes over. They're still talking at like, 10:55 and we have
a lot to set up. So they end, Finally, and then the Metal
Gear kids start filtering in. Again we have a very packed
room. Again its standing room only.

So we're setting up, and the guy who was the official
staffer of the room, who started out as a big help got
everything ready for us. Thankfully I didn't have to use my
DVD player because the DVD player Otakon had actually could
play Japanese DVD's. So we got the DVD all set up.
Chocochick, (who I never ever got a chance to thank publicly
for making the t-shirts either and I'm really really,
really, really, really, really, really sorry about that
too), brought up the shirts for the prizes. And we started
the game. Which was fun. That Where's Waldo guy popped up
when I said the game was like Metal Gear's version of
Where's Waldo. That was cool.

The game however, ran a little too long. I hadn't expected
people to actually deliberate so hard on where they thought
Papa was hiding. And actually I meant to test run how long
it would take when I was in the pre-stages of working on
this panel. However, its all pie in the sky now. But
because the set-up and game ran so long, but the time I
showed the clip of the MGS3 fun stuff ended it was 11:30.
So like 90% of what I had for the panel outline was
scrapped. But when I think about it, some of it I did
manage to touch on. Like the Uwe Boll thing, and how people
felt about playing the old MSX game, and my gripe about the
MSX vs. the NES version. We even got to discuss some of the
theories about why Ocelot is now "Liquid Ocelot" and some
other stuff.

The only thing about this year was the crowd for the MGS
panel this year was really rowdy. I had to shush them
several times and even then they wouldn't shut up. Some
dude tried to over take my panel and thankfully some guys in
the front said to him, "Dude it's their panel, sit down and
let them run it." Whoever you guys are I love you with all
my heart and soul cause I was about to seriously clobber him
with the microphone. And then Teveru blitzed out on me.

I finally figured out what happened there. While in
transport or whatever one of the two locks that keeps her
battery inside her became unlocked and the battery was a
tiny bit out. There was just enough power to turn her on,
but not enough to run her. So that's why I couldn't show
the 15 minute trailer, but that turned out to be a good
thing because by the time we got on the subject of MGS4, it
was about quarter of midnight and time was seriously running
out. In fact that same "helpful" Otakon staffer kept
reminding us every six seconds about our time limit.

But I couldn't show the trailer for MGS4, but the stuff for
MGS3 made up for it. I think everyone really enjoyed that.
We managed to talk briefly about MGS4 and the Metal Gear
movie prospects. I tried to explain Project Snake to
everyone, but I love that movie so much that it's hard for
me to explain in a few sentences. I just said go buy it and
you won't regret getting it. After all it is Queen of Metal
Gear approved.

Overall, I had fun at the Metal Gear panel, but last year
was better (and it's okay if you all feel the same way I did
about it). It was at a better time and the crowd was far
less annoying. And just so you know, The Queen of Metal
Gear is officially RETIERING the Metal Gear panel. I will
not be bringing it back. I have one more Metal Gear related
idea, but as for an actual panel discussion, nope, it's
officially retired as of Otakon 2006! If someone else wants
to run it help yourselves, but I'm done.

But after the panel ended that now very, very annoying
staffer practically threw us out the room, barely giving us
time to get our stuff packed up. In our mad dash to get out
of the room one of my decorative wallscrolls was stolen.
Thankfully it wasn't the one Maureen gave me for a Christmas
present, but still. It's the idea that someone actually
stole it knowing it didn't belong to them. Some people have
no integrity I swear.

After that, we all went to the room and went to bed. Friday
was just overwhelming and exhausting...




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