I was so excited to be going to Shoujo-con and could barely sleep. I had a big fear that I would over sleep or the alarm wouldn't go off or something and I would miss my flight. I woke up at 3am, and again at 3:40am and at 4am, and at 4:05...I finally decided at 4:12 that I would wake up, even though the plan was to wake up at 4:30 or 4:40 am. I got dressed, and dragged my stuff to the car, and drove away into the dark morning. I drove down to Long Beach and proceeded to get lost going to the airport for about fifteen minutes. I made it to the airport at 5:30am, checked in and went through security with no problems.
I was flying JetBlue and they don't serve meals on the plane. So I had a baggie with some balone slices in it with me. I got on the plane at 6:30am, and we took off at 7am. The Flight was going well. I got some cookies and a can of apple juice. We entered the New York area, and were informed that due to bad weather we would be in a holding pattern. This was about 2pm New York time. We circled and circled. We finally landed at 3:15pm which was are scheduled landing time, however we landed in Buffalo New York. They kept us on the plane because they wanted to allow us to take off as soon as possiable. At 4pm we had not taken off yet, but would be soon. We take off again, and try to get to JFK for a second time, but the bad weather has returned and we are forced to circle. The pilot has an idea to fly us around the bad weather, but we don't have enough fuel so we land in Syracruse New York. They let us off the plane in Syracruse, and have pizza and sodas in the terminal. By the time I make it off the plane the pizza is all gone. I stretch my legs and they want us back on the plane. We get back on, and the plane takes off. By this point, I'm tired and know I have missed the AMV contest. I just want to get to the hotel, so I can meet up with Scott before they leave me behind and I end up having to find a place to stay on my own.
We land in JFK at about 9pm. The last shuttle to New Jersey that I could have taken was at 8pm, so now I'm basically stranded in New York. I ask JetBlue what to do, and get told just to go to the Ground Transportation. I end up taking a Bus from JFK to the Port Authority. On the bus trip I end up using my cell phone to try and let Scott know I'm on my way. I didn't have the phone number, so I call home and get it from my mom. I call the hotel, change my voice message and other such things. While talking to the hotel to get a message to Scott, they send me around to a bunch of different people and during all this my phone dies. I switch to a second bus at the Port Authority in downtown New York, which as a young single white female is a very scary thing to deal with. They had a bus going to Brunswick, but that wasn't for another hour, I also had no clue where they would drop me off at. So I jumped on the bus that went to Newark airport. Oh on the bus trip we drove by Time Square which was neat to just glance at, finally I get to Newark Airport. I check to see if there is a super shuttle that can get me to the hotel, there is but not for another hour and a half. I don't want to wait, as it's already 11:20pm. I decide to spend the money and grab a taxi. All my friday plans were shot at this point.
I arrive at the hotel, and give the taxi driver his money, I am now serverly short on cash. I walk into the hotel, and see everyone waiting in the lobby. I drop my bags and throw my arms around Scott, about in tears. I was so glad to see everyone, expecially Scott who I had become good friends with via chat and e-mail over the last few months.
We all went to dinner together but I was so tired, and frazzeled from my travel experience that I couldn't eat. I ordered a fruit cup and ate it. MeriC had some extra fries which I ate up as well. The conversation was nice. Found out that my video was really well liked at the AMV contest. That the fan girls were shreeking about it. That MeriC and others were guessing that it would most likely win the contest. I just wanted to see my video infront of an audience.
Went to Scott's house, where I was crashing. Scott and Mike played DDR till 3am, I played a little as well. Went to sleep and ready to face a new day, and a convention that I had only stepped into the front lobby of the day before.
The first thing to go to was the AMV panel. I got my registration badge, and I had a little time so I ran through the Dealer's Room. I picked up Level-C (a yaoi title) for a few bucks in the adult section. I also picked up a bunch of Yaoi English language doujinshis.
At the AMV panel I got to meet a bunch of AMV creators that were very nice and cool people. I figured I would put my comments about each person in here.
On the panel:
Scott - Great guy. I was staying at his house, so even nicer. Very huggable. <grin>
Meri Cantoni (MeriC) - Met her at Katsucon, and was so sweet then and so sweet now. Scott kept noticing that Mike and her kept matching in their outfits.
Mike LaBrie (VegettoEX) - Met him at Katsucon as well. I keep forgetting his name, because I think of him as Meric's boyfriend. He is a cool guy and a good creator.
The moderator Richard Suchenski (ptmd42) - I didn't get to talk with him much, but he was still very cool. He kept things on track and the panel went very well.
Jon Miller (Ravenfire) - He was dressed up as GTO all weekend, but if you don't know GTO he looked like Emenem (However it's spelled...the guy who sings Slim Shady). He won the DDR tournment, limbs flying every which way on the dance pad. Cool guy.
... Those were the panelists, the panel was exceptionally good. One thing they did, at the panel I think should be included in ALL other panels is they had other creators who were in the audience stand up and introduce themselves. This allowed us to reconize each other so we could arrange the party, and it also let us talk to each other during the panel, and be asked questions by those around us.
Lucas - He needs to enter his 'The Chase' video to a Student Film Festival. It was really good, expecially for live action. Yeah it's maybe a sort of thing that's been done before in student films, but it was still very good. He also is a major DDRer and a pretty good Sleep Sleep Revolution player as well.
Fungie - He's young, only 13 or 14. He has blond hair, and big innocent eyes. The though that he has DVDs of Ai No Kusabi (one of the most yaoi titles there is) he will be loaning me is very frightening. He's a cool kid, and I expect with the age he's starting out, provided he sticks with it, he'll be kicking our butts in AMV contests in a few years.
Otaku13 - Cool guy. He also is a cosplayer, which I think is awsome. Talked with him several times through out the weekend. Sorry I filled up your e-mail box.
FuzzyBunny - I didn't meet him till Sunday, and was glad I did. I thought he was a girl for a long time, due to his Yaoi con entry and Daniel is a generic name. A very cool guy, I would have liked to talk with more.
Silvercat - Yeah! She is so sweet and nice. She is in Arizona which isn't that far from California so I'm hoping to see her more often at the West Coast conventions.
Brickwall - He's so quiet! He's really cool, and a very promising DDR player. In two days he was able to go from just starting to play to five feet songs. He was easily beating me, and I've been playing for a year (however I have no hand eye coordination).
Gambit - I think that was his name. Didn't get to talk much or very long with him, but he seemed okay.
That's all the people I can remember off hand. So the panel was great. I was sitting next to Fungie, but with the projector set up where it was, people couldn't get into the room without passing infront of projector. So I had Fungie stand up and we moved our chairs out of the way, so that there was an empty row/area for people to walk behind the projector and into the rest of the room. Fungie and I moved over to new seats, next to Otaku13 actually. Talked with Otaku13 throughout the panel.
After the AMV panel, the AMV creators exchanged CDs. (I can't wait till I get to see them all.) Bahumet God, I gave out all your CDs, and passed out the other CDs I had gotten at AX. I highly recommend 'cross-polination' which is what I'm calling it. When I get CDs from creators at West Coast conventions, I hand them out at the East coast conventions and vice versa. (This is after having save the videos to my AMV archive). Not only are creators stuff getting across the country, but the person delievering them knows a little about the videos, and therefore who may enjoy them more.
The AMV creators then walked over to the Club House room. Where we had a mini-party and AMV creator's gathering. Some videos were shown and talking was done all about. I got to eat some potato chips and drinks some 'blue stuff'. We got kicked out of the Club House at 3pm, so we ran up to the Con Suite for their Ice Cream Social. I had a yummy ice cream bar.
Next stop 4pm was the Fan Dub Workshop. This was ran by Scott, and Lucas and Jon were there with the equipment. It was an excellent workshop, I just wish it had more time and was a little longer. I sort of want to make a parody dub, just because I think the whole 'This is Otakudom' really helped to bring alot of the AMV creators in the area together, not just as creators, but friends.
After the Fan Dub workshop we went to the video room where 'This is Otakudom' was shown at 6pm. I watched most of it, before heading over to another video room at 7pm to watch the AMV contest. I had missed it the night before due to the weather so I really wanted to see it.
Video #1. Mercury
This video was okay. It's like Scott said...Sailor Mercury is hot, and the video would show three of her at once. More is better, right? Lots of effects, I felt the computer version of Mercury was abit jaring.
Video #2. Bed Of Roses
I don't like video game AMVs, so I really didn't pay attention to this video at all.
Video #3. Future Girls
I liked this video, and the song gets in your head. However the song was really long and I think may have done better if it was shorterned. I still think it was a well done video. Sailor Moon is actually hard footage to work with and make it look good.
Video #4. My Name Is Arima
I felt this video was a little long as well. Maybe I was just impatient waiting for my video. I did like what the story of this video was telling. I really want to see it again.
Video #5. Paranoia Rebirth
This was another strong video by MeriC. I enjoy her work. The editing on this video was very good, however it took seeing it a second time to really understand it for me. I haven't seen most of the series as well, which was also a problem for me, and I was losts and confused abit.
Video #6. Where I Want To Be
I watched this one, but don't remember it. Again it used a series I wasn't familuar with, so it was lost on me abit. I still enjoyed this video.
Video #7. Beliver
I had heard alot about Fruit Baskets so was waiting to see this video and find out about it. I didn't get much out of the story of what the show was. I want to see this video again, after watching the series.
Video #8. Toy Soldiers
Oh my... This was a very powerful video. I was so wrapped up into the music and the story line that I didn't notice the cartoon network logo in the corner till half way through the video. I was really impressed with this video and it was so sad as well. I would have voted for this video.
Video #9. ...To Hell, or Wherever!
Fungie, the video wasn't made from a camcorder. The video was made from fansubs that were made from VHS that were recorded off the TV in Japan. Where the numbers you saw was the time display on the TV when the episode was originally aired in Japan. (I have the fansub and there on mine as well). Hana Yori Dango is a hard series to work with because it's only really available in fansubs. I enjoyed the video, wasn't impressed by it, but still found it very good.
Video #10. Utena In A Cocoon of Love
Fungie, I was impressed by this video, expecially at your age. It was very good. I've seen alot of other Utena videos, but yours was still very nice. Your going to be a very good AMV creator some day.
Video #11. Yui's Choice
I am trying to remember this video. Oh yeah... One would need to know the series to enjoy this video, but I still didn't understand what was going on with having watched the series. It was well done, but I lost the story at some point.
Video #12. Suichi's Question
I got to see my video infront of an audience, I was soooooooo happy about that. Expecially after the flight out problems. I now know what scenes I have to change for the Yaoi-con version I'm working on. It's filled with eye candy, but it also actually has a story to it for those who can pay attention beyond all the screaming the video got <cringe>. It starts rather mild and just builds more and more and Suichi decends into the smut that is Yaoi.
I was at the AMV contest, so I wasn't able to join everyone else for dinner.
After the contest, they showed exhibition videos. I was even more happy to see my video 'December, 1864' infront of an audience. I found Scott and the others outside the video room. They didn't bring me anything back to eat.
I went to the con suite, and they had some more chips. I love the con suite. I was able to sleep by 3am.I woke the next morning, and we headed to the convention. This was to be my last day. I didn't do much but I did have breakfast with Scott in the morning. Yeah I finally was able to eat. Ofcourse my stomach had shrank so I couldn't eat much, but it was good.
I wandered about with Scott for basically the rest of the day, hanging out and talking with the other AMV creators. I was so sad, by 3pm when I had to leave. I don't know when I'll make it out to my next East coast convention, and between Katsucon and Shoujo-con I've really become friends with them all out there.
Maybe they can all make plans to come to Anime Expo or Fanime next year. I recommend Fanime.
Anneke
I'm just kidding.