Fanime 2009 - Day One

I woke up this morning to a sharp pain in my stomach.  At first I panicked...I am not ashamed to say I did so.  I mean yeah you would panic too if the convention you really wanted to go to was only hrs away and you had a pain.  And then I told myself to calm down.  Visions of the 2007 Jack London Writer's conference going through my head.

I developed a real bad pain in my stomach and was throwing up. It got so bad that I called a cab and went to the emergency room...thereby missing the writer's convention. 

They ran a whole bunch of tests on me, and my parents even came up.  They could never find anything....but after a few hrs I figured out what it was. It was an anxiety attack.  I am not normally that bad...but I got super excited and made myself sick. to the tune of oh...$2,000.

It was 5 am and I was scheduled to get up at 6:00 so I calmed myself down and went back to sleep.  6:05 am Nancy peeks her head in the door and asks if I am awake.  My alarm didn't go off.

I am glad she was on top of it.

 

I found the eyeshadow...although I am not sure if I'll use it. And packed away some of the last odds and ends. My only happiness is that I know I am not bringing all that stuff back UP with me.  It's so heavy!!!

 

Okay...on the train. Waiting for it to pull out.  I caught the baby bullet 8:59 am.  I got here really early.  You can't always tell with the MUNI. you could leave at 7:00 am and get across town an hr later.

I left at 7:30 or so...and got here around 8:14. I got my ticket and waited for the doors to open. I threw my bags up onto the car and climbed in after them.  And so here I am.

 

I would say I am not as excited as I was last year...but that would be a bit of a lie. I am just not bouncing up and down like I was last year. I feel better.  It's cold right now...cloudy. They say it will be around 70-80's in SJ this weekend. I am looking forward to it.

my excitement is more of a smoldering burn rather than a bright flame.  So looking forward to this!

This con is the one thing I look forward to every year.

I printed out the schedule and brought a blue and an orange highlighter with me to mark it. So I am more prepared than last year.

 

And we are OFF! I'll write more later once I get to the con.

 

Fanime 2009!  Here we come!

 

And we have arrived!!!

*happy sigh.  More than a few people with netbooks.  The St. Claire won't check me in until three which is a normal time but the Fairmont was much more accommodating.  I've seen a couple of people already with netbooks... I want one!!! It would make blogging a lot easier I'll tell you that. I love my little keyboard though.

 

I've kept my backpack so I am not totally without provisions. But I left the rest of the stuff with the hotel staff. This is the nicest program that Fanime has ever produced. 

My phone has like half a charge left >.<

I've been taking a whole bunch of pics for arra... I should go and thin them out.

I'll take a pic of my keyboard and the phone later when I can get my stuff.

You know what would make these badges even nicer? Having lanyards for them.

 

Okay write more later. Off to watch anime!!!!!

 

it's 11:30 pm at night... I just got back from watching Death Fantasy parts 1-6.  IT WAS AWESOME!!!!!!

Oh my God! I have NEVER seen anything like that!! It's a cross over between Death or Alive (I think) and Final Fantasy.  it's really good! I am so happy I got to see it.  They say the creator is going to debut even MORE Footage at Anime-Expo. AWWWW we aren't going.

oh well

 

Anyways before that I went to 3 panels...uhm Manga and Amine for older folk, Jonathan Osborn - Voice Actor, and Awesomely bad j-pop videos. I left that at 10 to catch Dead Fantasy...

 

Got through registration easy peasy and checked out the program...at 3 I came back to the hotel...which was SLOW. I am so staying at the Hilton next year.  I had heard good things about the ST. Claire. Too bad it's not living up to the words that I heard. There is no room service. The room is tiny. If I HAD had two people in here we couldn't both have fit. I am so not pleased.

 

The only "good" thing is that I found a fridge...or wine thing in the cupboard. I put all the juices and cokes in it for now...

 

Tomorrow I think I have panel first thing...or stage zero. They're going to play a recap of the first day. I am going to go check that out. Then I think I have a panel to go to...or a video thing...I'll check the schedule. I want to go see the Ric Myer thing!!! I saw bits and pieces of it last year and it was funny.

 

uhmmm...what else?  Check out the Dealer's room I guess...OH! Go to the bank and get some money and take a stroll through the Dealer's room or Artist's alley and pick up a t-shirt.

I am a little wired...I drank a jolt before I left but I am also sleepy so I am going to try and go to sleep.

 

Signing off!

Fanime Day Two!!! SATURDAY

Day Two!

It's 7:08 am. I woke up about an hr ago.  These beds are HOT.  Should I make tea and take it with me?

I am going to the Stage Zero First day recap and then at 8:30 am I am going to go watch AMV Hell 3. And then I dunno go to the bank? And then take a stroll through the dealer's room? Or I could go to the bank now...So I am gonna go. Leave this keyboard here cause I'll be back after a little bit because there's nothing to do this early.

 

BBL

okay! SO I went to the Kung Fu showing...which was like the only thing I really had on the schedule today.  And it was really good!  He didn't show the same stuff as he did last year this was "new" stuff and gave a little perspective on what's going on in the theater in Asia right now.  And it was good.

And then I "missed a call" from home >.<

They harshed my happy. 

 

They were calling to tell me that I was now 1k in debt! That the hotel was charging $600 and some change for the room.

And I was like...Nuh-Uh!! 

And they were like WAY.

 

So I went down stairs to go talk to the staff.  And while tripping down the stairs I tore off a 1/4 of my big toes nail. OUCH And BLOOD! EVERYWHERE! This is the worst nail tear I've ever had. it hurts but not so bad that I am limping; I am not. And I am stilling going to the Masque! 

 

Anyways I get downstairs and the girl is all like...well the room is under Marlyin Brown...and I am like...she couldn't make it. I am the only one in the room. So she asked me if I wanted to move over to a King sized room. Yesterday during check-in there was a lady who was hoping for a double because her daughter sleeps like an octopus and flails about everywhere!  So I told the girl: Sure I am willing to move. So I told her I had to go to do something but on my way down I would drop off the keys.

So that's what I'll do after I take a bath and change for the Masque.

 

I'm so staying at the Hilton next year!!!!

 

See you either later tonight...or tomorrow morning.

 

There was a very pronounced police presence this year….

I don't know how that makes me feel. A little jumpy.  Because cops don't show up unless there's trouble.  And I don't like to be places where there is trouble. Anyways while waiting in line at for the Masque I noticed at least 6 patrol cars, and strolling paired patrol men walking up and down the line.

There was a guy in front of me who had just bought a sword and a rover came by and told him that he was going to either have to put it in his room, or in his car because they wouldn't allow him into the Civic Center if he had it. And if he unsheathed it, the Cops could charge him with having a deadly weapon.

So he had to call his grandparents to come down and pick it up and take it home for him.

 

There was a slight disturbance in the line like 20 feet in front of us. The cops yanked some kid out of line…but I dunno what happened to him or anything. I never heard anything. There might be something on the boards though.

 

So the Masque was okay in starts and stops.  They had some walk ons in the beginning. and two martial arts groups before the show. Then the show itself started out really slow. And then there was a pokemon skit!

This was SO EPIC!!! EVERYONE sang along and it got a standing ovation. It was great. There were a couple after that...but for the most part it was Pokemon the winner all the way as it came to comedy and what not.  I kind of felt sorry for the groups after it because how do you beat this?!
With Stagecraft!!!!! And that's kinda what happened. But the judges had to give them something because it was clearly the crowd favorite.

 

 

It's kind of strange. It seems that with the masque, that we'll have great skits all the way through one year, and the next year it's: Meh. And then the next year it's really good! And then the next..meh.

So this year was kind of a meh year.  I had heard that this year the committee screened the skits before they went on. So we didn't get so many lucky star skits like we did last year.

If they did: THANK YOU!

 

Now it's off to Stage Zero to see Dead Fantasy again...IF they can get it to play. They're having technical difficulties right now.  But meh.  They'll probably get it going and I have no other place to be so I'll stick around. Other people aren't so patient and left.