teach your parents well....

[amatyultare]

So. Animaritime. Wow.

I was going to post last night but I got back around 11:30 PM and was just exhausted, so I fell into bed. (Work, incidentally, went surprisingly fast today). Anyway, now that I have energy, some of the highlights. And what the heck, for old time's sake I'll use the old bulletted list format.

•I completely did not realize that the eastern part of NB is in a different time zone than Maine (Atlantic time). Not actually that interesting except that I was late to the Thursday meeting because of my scheduling being thrown off.

•Speaking of Thursday night, it was awkward. It wasn't that anyone was unfriendly--actually everyone was REALLY niee--but I felt like an outsider in a big way. In my hotel room afterwards, I started to get really nervous about the rest of the con. This just shows that I should be in more situations where I am unable to flee, because the weekend really was amazing. It was sad to leave on Sunday, actually.

•I like Maine Irvings better than NB Irvings. The Irving in my town is open 24 hrs. The Irving in Sackville closes at 9 PM. Enough said.

•On the other hand, Canadian Twix bars are randomly better than American ones. Hmm...

•Highlight of the AMVs: 'Daioh Fantasy', a Final Fantasy/Azumanga Daioh crossover....thing. Find it online if you can. Lowlight, or comedic highlight if you will: one that combined the most boring parts of Eva (the long stares) with the transformation sequence from Sailor Moon, a little bit of DBZ, and....I swear I am not making this up...Dr. Who. It was somewhere between hilarious and puzzling. I mean, Dr. Who? In an AMV????

•I love the Animaritime staffers. It was especially interesting to meet V and M, who were both in Shin Shirayuki *hides face* I still feel bad about Shin Shira....

•Another note about yubsie, because she's just that cool. Check out her awesome Fire Preater costume. Yay cosplay!

•Badges were personalized. Meaning, when someone registered they gave us their name, we typed the name onto a blank badge form on the reg computer (aka Lindz's computer) and printed it out for them! This was a pretty good idea although it sometimes caused delays. It also made us very reliant on the laser printer--which of course died on Friday night in the middle of making more reg books.

•I managed not to destroy my bank account in the vendor room, partly because I really don't buy manga or DVDs at cons. My feeling is, I can buy them at Borders/Best Buy, AND get them in a logical sequence, instead of, say, randomly purchasing Chobits 9 or something. I was fiendishly tempted by the games (more on this later) but resisted with the thought that I wouldn't have anyone to play them with for months. I ended up with two posters (the common but irresistably sexy 'Bad Luck' poster and a cute Furuba one), the SD keychains of the other two sisters from Read or Die TV (I have a set now!) and, because I don't have enough Furuba merchandise, the Fruits Basket card game. It actually looks kind of cute.

•Played some fun board games. Anyone else ever played Apples to Apples? Good game. Also played a demonstration game of Settlers of Catan (and won! go me!) The games in the dealers' room were definitely even more alluring after that....but I was strong.

•Panels=awesome. The anime club panel that Lindz ran was really interesting and raised some good points I think K and I should incorporate into *our* panel (I'll email you about them soon, K!). She also ran a panel about sushi and other Japanese foods that turned into an inpromptu field trip to the computer lab where we found out about the origins of Pocky! Oh, and apparently it's supposed to be pronounced Poke-y. As in, *pokepoke*. Yeah, I'm sticking with the American way too. And I can't forget the panel about l337 5p34k, which you wouldn't think would be that informative but actually was, and fun too!

•Relating a few moments of randomness: frantically folding many, many pieces of paper in half at midnight Friday to make more registration booklets; a break from the crazy reg book making while Lindz starting playing jump rope with someone's scarf; 'mech meltdown' where some kids made a 'mecha' from hot glue and popsicle sticks--the theme of the con was mecha--and then threw it down three flights of stairs.

•And finally, apparently started by Patrick D. but adopted by everyone at the con, something that really sums it up for the staffers:

Badges, badges, badges, badges, badges, badges, badges, badges, badges, badges, badges, badges
Reg books, reg books!
Badges, badges, badges, badges, badges, badges, badges, badges, badges, badges, badges, badges
Reg books, reg books!
Badges, badges, badges, badges, badges, badges, badges, badges, badges, badges, badges, badges
Reg books, reg books!
Badges, badges, badges, badges, badges, badges, badges, badges, badges, badges, badges, badges--
Con! it's a con! Ooooooh, it's a CON!

Oh God, it's 12:30. And I'm supposed to go in early to work tomorrow to help decorate; my manager Sarah is turning 27 tomorrow and we're having a surprise mini-party. Bed now. Later, all!

Comments

[lacontessa11.livejournal.com]

Ooo, sounds fun!! Especially the gaming ^_^

[lacontessa11.livejournal.com]

Oh, almost forgot - I sent in my panel idea for the Japanese 101 panel. I'll school those amateur fanfic authors right good!

[tarimanveri.livejournal.com]

Wow, that sounds like so much fun! I'm glad you had a good time, met lots of cool people, ate quality Canadian twix bars, etc. I never thought to warn you about the time difference, though... all of Atlantic Canada (ie. New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, PEI, and parts of Labrador) is on Atlantic time (except Newfoundland which is another half-hour ahead and on Newfoundland time). But yay, you had fun!