We were just outside of Frederick, on the edge of the mountains, when the caffeine began to take hold...
So far, I've been to most of the Katsucons, except the first, and only
because I didn't know it was there. I've seen them move out of the Virginia
Beach area, and into the DC area. The years have passed; the conventions
keep getting bigger.
6:30: Eric stops by to pick me up. Other than a stop for gas and DC traffic jams, it's non-stop. We get to the hotel, and find Corey.
9:00: Took care of registration, and... no program book. Cute. There's a video and events schedule, and a map of the convention area and the Crystal City area. But no program book. Big improvement on the badges, though.
12:00 pm: After getting a feel for the convention layout and stuffing some munchies down my gullet, we try to secure the 2nd room. No luck; it's still occupied. There's no way I'm staying in a room of five again.
1:00: Kevin and Sean arrived, and we still haven't figured out who'll be in which room. To be determined.
2:00: Dealers room line starts moving, but it doesn't really matter to me; I'm not in a hurry to buy stuff yet. Ah, the sun's finally coming out. Shifted my stuff over to the 2nd room since Kevin and Sean brought better food with them. Sorry Eric, but I don't think I can subsist on cereal bars and beef jerky all weekend.
4:00: Hit the dealer's room anyway, since the massive line had subsided. Awhile later, my fingers ache from carrying bags of goodies. The room was big, using the same room Otakon '98 used. It was almost overwhelming, but I didn't stray from my objectives. Looked over the schedule; nothing currently grabbed me. So stuffed a sandwich in me, after Eric introduced me to Pucker Mountain Dew. Sweet, and it didn't knock me down.
5:15: Hmm, I came to this con for a reason... Welp, I'll just head out and see what I find.
7:00: Wandered around, took care of Otakon pre-reg and t-shirts.
9:40: After a sushi dinner with Eric and Dave that wiped out the last of my cash, and a very potent bottle of beer, (so I have a low tolerance...) I wander around and look mostly at the costumes and artist's works. I have been at this con for over 12 hours, and have not yet watched any anime in the theaters. At least the program books came in. Perhaps I should be out there, camcorder in hand, soaking up the views. Instead, my eyelids grow heavy, and I conk out.
About Friday: The Katsucon crew has their act together a bit more this
year. They tried to get the video rooms going as early as 9 in the morning,
but a Bell Atlantic convention from earlier in the week pushed it back
to noonish. Perhaps the Katsu staff should be more aggressive in dealing
with the hotel and suppliers. As to whether anything's running on time,
well I honestly don't know yet.
Somewhere around noon: Finally got to see some music videos. Some of them I could have lived without, but there were a couple that rocked. The dealers room line returns with a vengeance. Found Aeris in her Daicon Bunny outfit. Wow... She was to give me a Rei Ayanami picture for an Xmas gift, but she left it at home. Oh well. Ish, Lost Universe is on, and I'm sitting here guzzling Dew! And it's snowing!? Not much snow, but worthy of concern.
1:00: Well, Lost Universe is a fun show, but I'm saving my miniscule attention span for later this evening. Eep, I need to make an ATM run... and get more Dew, of course! Bob isn't here right now. The Psionic Psychotic remains. My bowels are telling me that last night's sushi might not have been a good idea.
2:45: Managed to take care of the ATM and the Dew run. There's an ATM in the hotel, but they charge probably 2 or 3 dollars per transaction. The dealers room opened almost 5 hours ago, and there's still a line for it. Not to say it's a 5 hour wait; if I got in line now, it would likely be a wait of a half hour or so. Still, there shouldn't be a line this late in the convention. Hoping an English muffin will calm my intestines. I'd listen to my new Megumi Hayashibara CD, but Eric bummed my CD player.
As Dave mentioned, Katsucon is turning out to be the "because-it's-there con". Why go? Well, why not? Good way to leave reality, good excuse for me to imbibe enough caffeinated soda to make my heart valves tap, and spend cash on anime goodies. But, while I'm at an anime con, I'm still aware of the reality I'm not in. As fun as it is, there's no way I can keep this up. The feasibility for me to go to Animazement seems lower. Perhaps next weekend, Bob (me) can figure out if it can still happen.
4:00: Agh, the dealers room has a security problem and has thusly been shut down for the day. Re-snagged my CD player, so I'm going to kick back and enjoy my Megumi CD and reflect on stuff.
Sean remarked that Katsucon didn't have the "flow" that Otakon has. Well, he's right. Sure, things have improved, but there's still glitches. I mean, why is Katsucon the only con that has a line for the dealers room all weekend? Why is Video 2 the only theater running all night? Where is the new and obscure anime? The video schedule is mostly commercial releases and high-popularity fansubs. And much of the commercial stuff is dubbed. Well, a clue towards a non-regional DVD player tempts me to get an import DVD, so I'm going to try to go to the dealers room tomorrow.
2:15 am: A dizzying blur of events later, I'm back at the room, sitting on the toilet. Only because I can sit here with decent light and let Sean and Kevin sleep. Hung out with Corey and Eric till about 6, then Corey and I managed to get a good spot for taping the Cosplay, and killed time during setup by plugging in Bad Scottish Dubbing (again) and amused others there for the same purpose. A girl sitting beside me, watching BSD, had only 45 minutes of battery power while mine could go as long as 11 hours, so I offered to copy the whole thing for her. Hey, I'm a nice guy about it. The Cosplay itself doesn't start until 8:30, and ran almost to midnight. So when that was done, I stuffed everything back into the room except for the camcorder itself. Wandered around for awhile looking for good shots, but I was getting rough. Put the camcorder away, and watched a homemade martial arts parody movie put together by a bunch of local fans. Bozak Power: the Movie is based on the half-time shows of previous Katsucons. Hung around, then watched some of the dancing competition. Resembled a live-action version of Bust-A-Move. Aeris was in her third costume for the evening; she's the girl of many disguises. Never stepped foot in the dealers room on Saturday. Now, should I head back out and soak up more of the atmosphere? Or should I do myself a favor and get some sleep? I really, really, haven't taken good care of myself this weekend. Yesterday, it was a sushi dinner that emptied my wallet and intestines, today it was an English muffin, a half-gallon of milk, and many cans of Dew. Kevin informed me there was a fire alarm that went off during the Cosplay, and no one in the main events room noticed. That could have been a real nightmare.
4:00: After another hour or so of walking around with the balance of a drunkard, finally decided to call it a night.
The "because-it's-there con" idea might not be all bad. When we run
out of something to do, we end up socializing in the name of anime fandom,
and in the form of a line to get in the dealers room. Most of the caffeine
in my system has burned off by now, so I have to replenish it.
10:00: Kevin and Sean officially check out and leave for PA. I stuff my belongings into Corey's room since he'll be here another day.
12:00 pm: Figured I'd make a go at the d.r. line, so I do so with Dave and some of his cohorts.
12:45: Right before it's our turn to go in, Dave's ride is about to leave, ending his weekend at Katsucon.
1:45: Left the d.r., bought only a discount tape. Unsure if I'll pre-reg for Animazement. Unsure if I'll go at all, the more I think about it. But that's a ramble in itself. I watched a little bit of Maho Tsukai Tai TV show, but it was untranslated and I didn't have the patience to figure out what they were saying. If I had anything resembling an attention span, I used it up for the Cosplay last night. There's still a couple hours left at the convention. I have more stuff and less money than before the con; more questions and less answers as well. What did I want here and why? Who am I trying to impress? Why am I doing this to myself? Where is my next meal coming from?
3:00: Sat in on the closing ceremonies and feedback panel. No biggie, just a lot of back-patting.
5:00: Corey and I take care of a recording glitch while taping the Cosplay. Then, it was time for us to go.
The drive home was dark, misty, and as Eric was relating his experiences,
depressing. Although I survived the weekend, what about the casualties?
It's a weekend like this that put people like Eric into therapy. He didn't
like the con, mainly because of a personal conflict. Not directly con-related,
but big enough to impact his views.
Highs:
watched Bozak: the Movie
stayed in my budget
eating a sushi dinner
got Cosplay on tape--packin' over 11 hours of Lithium-ion, BAYBEE!!
Lows:
didn't watch much anime at all
didn't take care of myself like I should have
paying for the sushi dinner and blowing my food budget to hell
not as many roomies as there could have been