Ok, gonna try and get this done as soon as possible before I get distracted and put it off indefinitely.
And yes, the world name is different, a while ago I was gonna like, change the look of things, update my info, actually post n'stuff...but the wallpaper I was working on crashed at near completion and I didn't save it. So.
ANYWAY. YOUMACON 2010, AKA SUPER BIG JUMP-UP FROM LAST YEAR, AKA ONE OF THE BEST CONS EVER.
Like, I'm not sure I can even put down all the awesome sauce that happened 'cause I won't be able to remember every little epic thing in one go. It was just so great, and I've yet to stop thinking about it.
Kay, so I left on Thursday with my friends Ryan and Jacob, both from anime club, and we were gonna be meeting our other two roomies at the con when they came in on Friday. They were two complete strangers from the Roomshare forums. Hooray for chaos factor! Anyway, we had a great trip, didn't get hopelessly lost like we did last time, and parked in a lot within spitting distance of Canada (If Sarah Palin was there, she would have claimed that her foreign policy revolved around being able to see Canada from a parking meter). Got into our room, and Ryan and I changed into our outfits (he was Ohgi from Code Geass, I was Dr. Insano) Ryan was the only one who preordered his badge, so he got his on Thursday while we had to wait till Friday. Had some fun shenanigans, encountered TWO Dr. Insanos (the only other two there, but it was funny that I met them both within hours).
We then proceeded to the late night PJ Party, since it was really the only thing to do on Thursday. That was pretty fun, met some cool people, played Smash Bros. on N64 (OLD SCHOOL) and played EPIC APPLES TO APPLES. This game went on for HOURS, and it included special convention/anime cards that made things so much more interesting. And when I judged, I did it in a Dr. Insano voice, which seemed to entertain people so much that I ended up judging for well over an hour. My throat hated me with a passion after the con.
We wandered over to a corner that had a piano in it, which was occupied by some Yugioh Abridged folk. There was Dom on the piano playing every video game song request thrown at him (I even shouted out Mario in ragtime and Kingdom Hearts with Latin Passion, although he had a bit of trouble with the latter), who was a forum admin on the site that was also a kickass musician, and much more famous yet much less amazing, KROOOOZZEE. Kroze wandered off, we stayed and hanged with Dom for a few hours until he decided to go bed at like, 3 in the morning. The few of us watching started messing with the piano, then Kroze came back while I was doing some sort of improvisation in G. This was the following conversation:
Kroze: "That was pretty good"
Me: "I wish Dom was still awake, he's better"
"Where'd you get that ramen?"
"My stash. I can get you some."
"REALLY? I mean...you don't have to..."
"NO. I GOT DIS."
So I went back to my room and made ramen for Kroze (btw, if you're in a hotel room with ramen and no microwave, the coffemaker works great). Brought it back down("OMG THIS RAMEN IS AMAZING THANKS"), and we ended up talking for over an hour. Then some people shooed us away from the piano, and he followed me to where I was going to wait in line all night/morning. He walked away when I started talking to other people, and I got in line for badges at about 4:30ish in the morning. I met EVEN MORE AWESOME PEOPLE, and was well entertained while waiting until noon for my badge.
Napped for two hours after getting the badge, then got into my Dr. Insano outfit again (this time with my steam iron) then hit up the dealers room. I brought a buttload of money so I can update my large manga collection (I wait for cons nowadays to buy manga so I can get it at discount) but as it turns out, there was only one real manga dealer and he had shit for selection. NOTHING I wanted. So I ended up buying a 'Majestic Space Duck' shirt from the Yugioh Abridged/TFS booth (manned by Dom, so that purchase ended up taking longer than normal lol) as well as...don't shun me for this...cat ears and tail and a black rave mask.
(;>.>)
I WANTED TO LOOK PRETTY FOR THE RAVE.
I actually ended up wearing this for two nights, since it was a lot of fun. Truly, I never thought I'd say I enjoyed being Neko!Ryu, but it was really pretty funny. Have you guys ever watched Wallace and Gromit? Well, I was basically Gromit. I didn't say anything, and every bit of communication was made with hand gestures and eye expressions. This was especially a fun thing because at the VAT Dance, it made being a goofy raver that much easier. What I did at the VAT dance was just try to go around and increase everybody's fun level. Do goofy stuff around the dancers, get the 'I-wanna-dance-but-I-suck-and-will-look-stupid-so-I-just-bob-my-head' people to really get into it and start dancing, and just make people laugh. I was getting a lot of hugs before the dance as Neko!Ryu, but after, people were like "OMG THAT ONE GUY". That made me happy.
Oh yeah, before the dance, I was briefly in the Team Four Star +18 panel. I meant to stay for the whole thing, but the other roomies called in and I had to show them to the room. I was able to stay long enough to see this, which was about 10 minute or so in. Right after I had to leave. Poop.
The roomies pretty much just got drunk the entire time, but they were otherwise pretty fun. One of them ended up kinda trashing the bathroom, but it turned out ok.
I also met a friend I made at Acen, so that was great. I told her about Kollision con, which is in less than two weeks, and she immediately went into 'TAKE ME WITH YOU GUYS' mode. More cons, more happy!
Saturday was more Dr. Insano shenanigans, hung out in the game room a bit (played the keys AND sang at the SAME TIME, WHAT a beast) and went to the TFS panel (not so +18 version). This was actually split up into two panels since there were so many people, so it was only an hour long. However, I did get one question in.
LK: Yes, the Dr. Insano.
Me: Hi, I know that-
Takahata101/Lani/Kaiser/LK: No, you gotta do it in Dr. Insano's voice.
Me: *sigh*
I'd been doing that damn voice for the past three days. On top of singing. It hurt so. Also, now I was obligated to entertain people. Originally, my question was "I know that most of you are working towards making voice acting into a career: do any of you have any current/future plans/deals outside of TFS or YGOAS?". If I find a video of what actually transpired, I'll put it up. The only vids I found of the panel are from the other group of people. After the panel, somebody came up to me and said I did a good job, and wanted me to be in a video that will be sent to Linkara to try and bring him to Youmacon next year. So I did that, and I'll try to find that when it comes out.
Rest of Saturday was pretty much just Neko!Ryu again, which was STILL fun. I went to the rave, but I was so tired that I left early somewhere in between 1 and 2. I was sad I couldn't stay for the whole thing, but after much sleep deprivement and lack of proper nourishment (over the course of the four days, I had three real meals. A McDonalds burger on the way to the con, Subway Sub on Saturday, and McDonalds again on the way back) I just couldn't keep moving like that. So I went to the game room for a bit, then to bed.
Sunday was the come-down day. Didn't cosplay, elevators were worse than usual, our room was a mess, etc. I tried to find all the cool people that I met over the weekend, but managed only to get contact for two people I met in the reg line. We went home after the Yugioh Abridged panel, which ended kinda sentimentally. OH SHIT. I FORGOT. I had this 'Whip It' by Devo vinyl 45 that I was gonna give LittleKuriboh. Fuck. Now I gotta wait. >:(
That's a lot of writing, but that doesn't even properly cover much. Just take my word for it, this con was epic. The registration line was long as balls, the elevators were the worst I've ever seen, and the dealers room was small as ever, but somehow someway, I think this matched my first ACen, if not surpassed it in many elements. I've been looking through pictures and videos nonstop, and my only regret is not bringing a piece of paper and pen for people to write contacts on.
Wow, that really was a lot...if you read it all, type 'FOR SCIENCE!!' in the comment box.
MORE. PEOPLE. MUST. COME. NEXT. YEAR. NO EXCUSES.
And yeah, I'll try to post more. There's just a lot in my life that's going on right now, some good, some bad. This site has just been kinda low priority, but finally sharing something with everyone again feels good.
And this world will change. FOR THE BETTER. WITH SCIENCE!!
-Ryu
