I drove up to Baltimore, Marlyand to attend Otakon 2004 during the weekend of July30th through August 1st. Otakon is one of the largest conventions on the east coast, and I had a blast when I attended last year, so I had been really looking forward to going this year. One of the biggest reasons is because Otakon is the only time I get to hang out with Madsen (and this year I got to chill with Christian as well).
Thursday:
Left my apartment around noon to drive into Baltimore, arriving at about 2pm. By the time I had found the hotel and parked, I already had a couple of messages from Mookie on my cell phone, letting me know he had already gotten into the city. I called him as I was checking in, and we headed up to the hotel room, a two room suite I had reserved for the weekend. We hung out and relaxed for a short while, then walked over to the Hard Rock Cafe to get some food, because my tummy was grumbling. Ate a quick lunch, and went back to the hotel.
Mookie decided to head out early to get into the enormous pre-registration line that snaked around the Baltimore Convention center. I walked over with him to see if I could pick up my panelist badge a little early, but no one had any idea where they were, and I was told to come back Friday morning. No big deal. About this time, Madsen called my cell phone, so I headed over to meet them in the lobby of their hotel. They were going to get food, and I agreed to tag along.
Ten minutes later or so I met up with them in the lobby, and met Christian and Naku for the first time. Naku was very sweet, and Christian turned out to be an awesome guy, but I'll get more into that later, when I discuss the Sunday night party. Naku had never had sushi before, so Madsen set us off on a journey to find some incredible sushi restaurant that had been reccommended to him. I had originally blamed Madsen for getting us lost, but in the end we found out he had just been given poor directions. We never found the place we were looking for, but we did happen across another Japanese restaurant, so we settled for that.
I wasn't terribly hungry, so I was just hanging out, but Christian went ahead and ordered an $80 boat of sushi. I'm not fucking with you. I could have climbed into this thing and paddled to Japan. It was a fucking boat. Filled with raw fish. We hung out for a while, had a good time. It was great to hang out with Madsen again.
Christian has spent some time in Japan, so he acted as sort of the sushi connoisseur, but immediately lost all credentials with Madsen when he reccommended the squid. Madsen had this piece of squid in his mouth for perhaps two seconds before his eyes shot open, as if he had just been introduced to the pinnacle of taste bud torture. Any description by me of his reaction would only do injustice to a purely golden moment. His description of the event, immediately after discarding the squid into a napkin, described the taste as akin to that of "old chewing gum... with tentacles". Good stuff.
Pontus Madsen, about five minutes before he tried squid, and displayed the most amusing series of facial expressions I have ever seen on a human being. I was laughing too hard to catch shots of them.
Dinner wasn't quite over yet when my cell phone rang again, and it was Emily and Ananth. I was letting the Applegeeks crew crash with us Thursday night, and Ananth and Emily had just arrived at the hotel. So I promised the Little Gamers that I'd catch up with them later, and set off to meet up with Ananth and Emily.
When I got back to the hotel and brought Emily and Ananth up to the room, I found that Mookie was already back from waiting in line. We hung out for a bit, talking and joking, and then Hawk showed up, about five minutes before I got a call from Briana that her, Matt and Britanny had just arrived in the city.
Hanging out with Emily and Ananth in the hotel room.
Matt, Briana and her sister Britanny arrived not too long afterwards. We all hung out for a bit, chatted and whatnot, and then I had to take off to pick up Brian Carroll from the aiport. His plane was right on time, so it went pretty smoothly. Back at the hotel we ended up playing some Halo until we were all tired enough to go to bed.
Friday:
I got a really nice wake-up call in the form of Britanny tickling me into consciousness, and then stealing one of my socks. Right off of my foot. She then took it with her to the convention. As I heard it later, she was getting offers from nearby fans to buy it, after they overheard who it belonged to. C'mon guys... it's my sock. Are you serious?
Since I was up bright and early, I headed over to the convention center and grabbed my panelist badge. I then went back to the hotel, and got my stuff ready, then Brian and Mookie and I all walked over together. I had brought a whole bunch of shirts with me, and three boxes of books, as well as the new CAD poster. To make things easier on myself, I had picked up one of those fold-out two-wheelers, but let me tell you- those city streets are not kind to small wheels. I figured I'd just bring one box of books over. After all, it was the first day of the con. How busy could it be? God, I'm stupid.
We reached the convention center, and the soothing kiss of air conditioning (I can not stress how humid and muggy it was in the city at times. It was gross). We found our tables and started to set up. Brian was sitting with me at my table, so we just hung out for a while until the doors opened at noon.
Picture of Brian (he's cleaning off a brush pen to do some inking). Coincidentally, in the back you can see Jes from Mac Hall with the pink hair. She is such a sweetie.
If I were to tell you that I got slammed on Friday, I would be lying only in comparison to how badly I got slammed on Saturday. Literally not five minutes after they had opened the doors, I had people at my tables, and within the very first hour, I had sold through the entire box of books I had brought. I had to spend the rest of the day telling hundreds of fans that I had already sold out, and they would have to come back Saturday morning when I had more books with me.
Most of Friday afternoon was spent at my table, signing posters, books, shirts, taking pictures, and just talking with fans. So many people came by to say hello, and they were all incredibly awesome people. I love meeting and talking with fans so much. I had a whole lot of fun. A fan came by dressed as Scott, and I was in such a daze I didn't even realize it until someone pointed it out to me. He was very cool, and I grabbed pictures of him.
The first CAD Cosplayer of the weekend, dressed up as Scott. Even made his own power symbol shirt. I love CAD cosplayers.
I also had a fun little rivalry going on with Hawk of Applegeeks. Whenever someone bought one of the new CAD posters, I informed people that Hawk had done the colors, and should get their poster signed by him as well. Eventually it turned into a little back and forth, when he started signing all of his stuff "get a mac". So I started signing all of mine "macs suck". At one point, we even signed some girl's thighs, his with "get a mac" and mine with "macs suck".
Me signing some girl's thigh. On her other leg Hawk had signed "Get a Mac".
However, the high point for me was when I had taped a giant "MACS SUCK!" sign to Hawk's back without him noticing. I got pictures, but we were all moving, so they're a little blurry.
Hawk, self-proclaimed mac user, finally advertises The Truth.
Obviously angry with me because he's been living a lie.
I also got hang out with Scott and Nix, talk with Ian and Jes (poor Jes... she woke up with an ear infection Friday morning that plagued her the entire convention). Mookie was just about as swamped as I was.
By around 5pm or so Friday evening, I was already long sold out of books, and just about sold out of t-shirts, so I decided to call it a night, convention-wise. We packed up, and I put up a sign that I'd be back in the morning. Brian and I then headed off to join Matt in a game of Munchkin. It was our first time playing, and it was awesome. I won, but everyone else was right on my heels. Nothing was more satisfying than having Brian thing he had me beat, only to play a denial card and take the win.
Matt, playing Munchkin.
It was approaching midnight, just about time for our traditional Otakon dinner at Sabatino's. Brian and I went back to the hotel ahead of everyone else so I could change and freshen up a bit, and relax. When we had everyone together, we set off for dinner. Not much to be said. Good food, good conversation. I think I'm the only one who had a drink.
Dinner at Sabatino's. Cheers to you as well, Brian, you sexy beast...
Good friends.
After dinner, everyone was pretty tired, but there was a nice cool breeze, and I wasn't quite ready to head back yet. I decided I'd take the long way back to the hotel, and wander the city a bit. Came across a pretty happening bar district, and made it in right before last call. Did a couple of shots with people I've never seen before in my life, and then walked back to the hotel. Everyone was getting ready for bed, and it was almost 3am, so I was pretty tired myself. Hung out and talked for a bit, then fell asleep. I gave the bed to Matt, Briana and Britanny, and I curled up on the floor right next to them. In the middle of the night I woke up absolutely freezing. I don't know how she knew, but Britanny swiped the blanket from Matt and covered me up. Thanks Britanny!
Saturday:
Go figure, I oversleep. I woke up around 10am, and I had a panel at 10:30am. Fuck. So I jump up and take a quick shower and get ready, and Brian and I head over to the convention center. Mookie had already gotten up early to head down to the artist's alley, so I went down to make a sign for my table so people knew I was at a panel. Brian went ahead to the panel room to set up the camera. The camera you ask? That's right. After my panel at ConnectiCon went so well, I found myself wishing someone had taped it. So I got this idea to start taping all of my convention experiences for the next year or so, and then edit them all together onto a DVD. And who better to run this little project than my friend and film student/movie buff Brian Carroll? I made it to the panel just in time.
The panel went alright, I guess. I've been at better. There were a couple of people there whom I would have liked to have bludgeoned with the mic, who just thought they were terribly funny or interesting (I'm looking at you, ponytail-chunk). There weren't enough mics to go around or chairs, so I gave up my seat to some girl and sat on the edge of the stage. Whatever, I didn't care. I ended up spending the entire panel making silly faces at Brian and the camera, and cracking short jokes on Hawk.
After the panel was over, I grabbed Brian and Nix to head back to the hotel and help me carry books from my car. I knew I was going to get rushed, since I had spent all of Friday afternoon telling people that I was sold out of books, and to show up Saturday. We grabbed the last two boxes of books and the last of the shirts that I had with me, and huffed it back to the convention center. Sure enough, by the time I got to my table, there was already a crowd of people around it. I didn't even get a chance to set up. I just put everything down, opened up a box and started signing and selling books. Brian and I attempted to organize lines, one for people that wanted books, and one line for people that wanted shirts. Brian just went right to work selling shirts for me, while I signed book after book after book. We blew through the first box in about twenty minutes, and the second box was gone not too long after that, as well as both display copies of the book.. We sold out of most of the shirts pretty quickly too.
I spent the entire afternoon talking with fans, taking pictures, signing stuff, talking with other artists. One fan came by dressed up as Chef Brian, with his carrot and everything. It totally made my day.
Awesome Chef Brian.
Me hanging out with one of my twisted creations. Weird.
Another cool cosplay was a really great Raziel. The guy approached me at Connecticon, telling me that he was dressing up as Raziel for Otakon. I told him to make sure he came by my table to show me, because Raziel is one of my favorite video game characters. Sure enough, he showed up on Friday, complete with balloon Soul Reaver.
Raziel!
By early evening, I was totally tired, and totally sold out of everything I had brought with me. I had some posters left and that was it. I put up a sign calling it a night, and hung out in the Artist's Alley for a bit. Madsen called me a few times, and I agreed to try and meet up with him and the gang for dinner at some place I was unfamiliar with. I rounded up Brian, Scott and Nix, to head out and find some grub. None of us had any idea how to meet up with Madsen and Christian (turns out later it was way far away anyhow) so we decided to just grab some food ourselves. First place we tried said the kitchen was closed. At 9pm. On a Saturday night. In Baltimore. What the fuck? So I finally convinced Brian, Scott and Nix to follow me to the Cheesecake Factory (I love the food there, but they'd never even heard of it). When we got there, there was a wait just to find out how long of a wait there was. Fuck that. So we kept trucking. We eventually came across the only place with no wait, a big sports bar called the EPSN Zone. And it was air conditioned. Good enough for me. We had a nice relaxing dinner, and I grabbed some food to go to bring back to the artist's alley to Risa who was starving away behind her table.
Wandered back to the hotel around 3:30-4am, and crashed on the floor next to Britanny. I didn't even care if I was cold or not. I was out like a light.
Sunday:
I slept in. I was tired. Took my time getting ready, walked over to the convention center and settled in. I really had nothing left to sell, so I didn't even set up. I just hung around the Artist's Alley for the afternoon. They closed at 2pm, and a lot of people would be heading home, so I spent the time talking with friends I wouldn't see for a while, friends that I honestly don't get to see enough, like Scott and Nix, and Brian. I did sign some posters and chat with some fans as they found me, regrettably telling them that I was all out of swag for the weekend. Mookie was heading out exactly at 2pm, so I made sure to spend a moment with him before he left.
As 2pm rolled around, everyone began to pack up. Goodbyes were said, hugs were shared, pictures were taken. I helped Jes from Mac Hall carry the MH shirts back to their hotel room. Brian and I then headed back to our own hotel to meet up with Matt, Briana and Britanny. They had to start the drive back up to Connecticut, but we played a quick game of Munchkin (Brian won) and all went out for dinner together before they left.
After they were gone, Brian and I sat around in the hotel room for an hour, watching an episode of Six Feet Under and relaxing after a long weekend. When it was over, we got ready and headed out. I had promised Madsen that I would show up to some large, end of convention party that was going on. So Brian and I walked a few blocks to the hotel, took the elevator up to the 27th floor, and sure enough there was a party going on. Thirty seconds after I walked in, I had a beer in my hand. So far so good. I'm not going to go into detail about this party, though I could. Instead, I'll summarize. There was a lot of drinking. There was a lot of groping. There was some nakedness and some pantslessness going on. We played a team drinking game called "Tip cup" for those of you that know it, and team Ctrl+Alt+Del won 2 out of three, the last one by crushing victory. If you watch the Little Gamers Happy Place Tour 2004 DVD trailer, you'll see a clip where I smack Madsen's ass, and I shudder to think what other incriminating evidence will show up on that DVD from that party. I'm fairly certain that at some point, I was wearing someone else's pants. I'm not fucking joking. By the end of the night, the Little Gamers and I were not only partying in an entirely different room, but in an entirely different hotel. I had totally misplaced Brian by this point.
Madsen and I. A night to live in infamy.
A bunch of us on the bed, group-bed-style.
Around 3am the night died down, and I said my farewells to the swedes. I only get to see them once a year, which is a serious shame, but perhaps I'll make it over to Swedishland for some drinking and women one of these days. I stumbled back to my hotel room, and arrived to find Brian already there, having arrived ten minutes before me. I could hardly keep my eyes open, or stand up straight, so we called in a night.
Monday:
End of it all. Woke up, drove Brian to the airport, then drove myself a couple hours home. I was completely drained, so I crashed for a while. And that's about it for Otakon 2004. The short and simple version, anyway.
Let's see, where to begin...
Mookie: What can I say dude? You're one of my best friends, and easily one of the nicest guys I know. A convention wouldn't be a convention without you. Looking forward to moving to Connecticut so we'll be able to hang out more easily.
Brian Carroll: Dude, you rock. Aside from the fact that you're running the CAD: DVD documentary project with me, you're a good friend, and a hell of a Halo player. One of these days I'll kick your ass at Rockets/Hang 'em high. Get back on the horse with IC!
Matt and Briana: I love you guys. Looking forward to the end of the year. Matt, thanks for teaching me Munchkin this time around, and relieving me of my Samurai addiction.
Britanny: Thanks for stealing my sock, and for making sure I didn't freeze at night!
Jes: You are such a sweetheart! I felt absolutely awful that you had to deal with an ear infection for the whole convention. You're one tough cookie. Next convention, when you're feeling better, we'll hang out a bit, ok?
Ian McConville: Good seeing you again Ian. I'll catch up with you in World of Warcraft sometime!
Hawk: Man, face it. Macs suck. Buy a PC. You'll be happier. See? Look at me over here playing Doom 3. Oooo Dooooom 3! Oooo!
Ananth and Emily: Was great seeing you two again. Call me sometime, we'll go catch a movie.
Per Bengt Christian Fundin: Ha! Didn't think I'd remember, did you? Glad you made it to Otakon this year bro. Looking forward to getting drunk with you again next time.
Pontus Madsen: I see your pantslessness, and I raise you nakedness. Catch you next year, Gustaf.
Nix: You said it right... you and Scott are like old friends to me. It was great seeing you at Otakon, and going out to dinner with you guys. Next year we'll plan our conventions better and hang out more often.
Scott: Thanks for coming out to dinner Scott. I swear I wasn't trying to get you run over by cars. Remember what I told you- any help you need with stuff, don't hesitate to ask.
Trish and Damien You guys rock. 'Nuff said. See you at Nekocon in the fall!
Biggest thank you goes to my fans. You guys continually surprise me, and Otakon was no exception. Every single one of you were absolutely awesome, those of you I've met before, and those of you I met for the first time. Thank you, thank you, thank you so much for coming out to see me! You make conventions such an enjoyable experience for me. I owe everything to you. Thank you for your support!
By reading this fine print your soul is now the exclusive property of Ctrl+Alt+Del and subsidiaries. Unauthorized use of Ctrl+Alt+Del characters, images, materials, souls, odors, and oxygen is strongly discouraged. We know where you sleep.
