2007 Fanime Con Day One

Fanime Con'07 Day One: *Looks at calendar* Is today Friday?

Amelia and I woke up at 7:30am. As we were getting ready, we experienced difficulty what to eat for breakfast. After thinking and talking, we choose to buy breakfast at Safeway. There is a Safeway approximately 10 minutes away from Downtown San Jose. At 8;15am, we arrived at Safeway. I purchased a box of donuts from Entenmann’s and cinnamon rolls from Swethards (sp). Amelia purchased an energy drink.

We arrived back at the convention center at 8:51am. Chloe called me. She arrived at the con at 8:00am. Chloe's boyfriend Oshu was arriving at 10am. Amelia and I welcomed Chloe to hang out with us. We met Chloe at the Marriott lobby and headed back to the room.

In the room, Amelia and I ate breakfast while Chloe relaxed. We talked about random stuff and watched Madagascar on TV. After I ate breakfast, I changed into my Toshiro Hitsugaya from Bleach cosplay. We left the room at 10am.

The first stop was to peace bond my Toshio sword in Rovers in one of the second floor conference rooms in the Marriott. The sword was made by Hellangel's Dad. We headed to the convention center after Rovers. At the doors between the Marriott and the convention center, I saw Silver_Unicorn, Edward Elric, and their group. I took cosplay pics of Chloe, Silver_Unicorn, and Edward Elric. We walked around the con and saw more people. We saw TravelinValentin's girlfriend. I think her name is Victoria :) We also saw h-chan and Phoebie. We also met up with Mordyan and mDuo13. I believe there was a few more. I forgot :< Lots of people wanted to take Chloe's pic. The convention was dead. It was like a Monday, yet today was Friday. We arrived at the other end of the convention center. I checked-in for my 6pm panel at the Live Programming room in the Hilton. Then we circled back to the Marriott side of the convention center. Back at the Marriott side, I saw Audioventchick, a popular cosplayer. Five minutes later, I saw Jennifer and her friends. I met Jennifer and her friends in Fanime '05. They graduated from Prospect High School in 2005. Amelia, Mordyan, mDuo13, and a few others joined us. I forgot who you guys are *sniff, sniff* Gmontem, I think you joined us a little later. We continued to hang out at the con. There was just nothing to do. And where are the cosplayers? I took very few pics. Around 11:45am, I got tackled glomped. Fortunately, I wasn't hurt. It was my first tackle glomp. A glomp is a person giving you a hug. Add the word tackle and a tackle clomp means a person running to you to give you a hug. Only girls can give glomps. Usually the girls are fangirls give out glomps. Any girl can glomp anyone. Boys can't glomp even though very few actually glomp, and yes, I got glomp by boys. After the tackle glomp, we found Jun-Watarase at the info booth near Stage Zero. Something To Do

The arcade opened at 12pm which was good news. Bad news was most of the arcade games were being installed and activated. Some of the PC games and a few console games were on. Tabletop Gaming was completely open. I saw Jyun who was on duty for Tabletop. He was ready to go for Texas Hold'Em and I was ready to volunteer. We discussed I give him the chips before 7:00PM for his tutorial.

Ryu, Mistakim33, Loktera, and a few others arrived. Sorry, I forgot who you were :(( We stayed at the arcade for 30 minutes. Some of us wanted to eat lunch. I suggested Hydration on North Second Street. A group of us went to Hydration for lunch. Hydration was 10-15 minute walk from the convention center. Gmontem was one of us who went to Hydration. He gave me the battery he charged last night. Thanks, Gmontem XD

After lunch, we separated. I went back to the hotel to get some water and make minor adjustments to my cosplay. At 1:50pm, I saw KarismaBlack who stayed in a suite on the same floor as me. I helped with the luggage and saw the suite. The suite was so awesome I think about getting for Fanime '08 *__*

I headed back to the convention center. The dealers room opened on time at 2pm. I entered the dealers room where I purchased a Toshiro Hitsugaya figure from Anime Palace. I got a great deal I couldn’t share the price $-\ Everyone of my friends who were present were in the dealers room; in particular, I saw AbsolutelyCursed, Tsubasa, Sunara Ishi, SuperKawaiiNeko, Felicity, and the Full Metal Alchemist family I met at Fanime '05. Gmontem purchased an Optimus Prime for $105 which was a great deal and Ryu purchased a Suigintou from Rozen Maiden figurine.

At 4pm, I headed back to the hotel room to secure my Toshiro figure, cool down, and drink water. My next stop was the Artist Alley. On my way to the Artist Alley, I saw Audioventchick cosplaying as Toshiro. I surprised her by walking behind her. She noticed me and she was scared. We took pics together. We separated and I headed to the Artist Alley.

A few of my friends had booths in the Artist Alley. I saw and purchased art from Lisu, Gubaba, ip136, and RubyMoonIII, and I purchased a bookmarker from another artist. I also saw artists from past cons. I saw Jerry cosplaying as Roy Mustang and Sucrose cosplaying from Pet Shop of Horrors. I talked to OniCourseMusha and two of his friends including Shinshingumi, and Ryuji. Fanime'07 was a great year in the artist alley. Lots of good stuff. I went back to the hotel to drop off the Artist Alley stuff. At 5:35pm, I walked to Panel Room 2 for my 6:00pm Anime Fans Over 30 Panel. I saw LadyKaren at the elevators and I took her cosplay pic. I took cosplay pics along the way to Panel Room 2.

Anime Fans Over 30 Panel

The panel started at 6pm. Attendance was small which was expected. I thank Live Programming staff for accepting my request for a late start because I wanted to have a dinner gathering afterwards for those who wanted to hang out after the panel. The panel was kinda slow at first . . . just like the con itself o__o Very quiet. I did lots of talking during the first 20 minutes. After the audience got more comfortable, they started to talk among themselves and I watched and listen and learned. I got positive feedback saying they like the format and want to have it again next year. Yay!

Some of the topics discussed were how much time do we watch anime, other hobbies and interests, meeting new people, and people spending their time at the con. There was someone with a different viewpoint on hobbies and why we have hobbies. Someone questioned my reason for having hobbies which was meeting new people. The number one reason we have hobbies, in my opinion, is to meet people and hang out with people.

The panel ended at 7pm. Jyun left a voice mail asking for the poker chips. I gave out my webpage business cards and asked anyone who wanted to go to dinner after the panel. Four people choose to have dinner with me. Cool :-)) I went back to the hotel room to get the poker chips. At 7:30pm, I arrived at Tabletop Gaming to give the poker chips to Jyun. One of the four people, EdofNoName, waited for me at Tabletop Gaming and we headed to Peggy Sue's for dinner. EdofNoName and I saw two more people who were heading to Peggy Sue's. The four of us walked to Peggy Sue's on Park Avenue, a five minute walk.

We arrived at Peggy Sue's and saw the fifth person. All five of us ordered and we ate outside in the cool breeze. Thank you for choosing to eat outside because of my cosplay. We introduced each other and told us our occupations. I told them I was a contractor with Cisco. I remember one of them was a Corporate Researcher, another was an engineer, another was I think a chef, and I forgot the last two :( I remember the names Ed, Dave, Doug, and I think Alex was the fifth guy.

After the introductions, we continued the discussion from the panel on friendships, what people do differently at anime conventions, our first anime series and how we got introduced to anime, and other hobbies. Alex told everyone his experience on friendship which got my attention. He said during high school, many students wanted to know everyone because they wanted to be recognized and be known as knowing a lot of people. When the circle of friendships grew and more circles were created, there was a point a person choose which circle to be with the most. Furthermore, when a circle of friends reached the maximum, the circle closes and nobody new could be part of the circle.

Dave shared a story when he was visiting relatives in the East. He was born in Hawaii and was introduced to anime when he was five years old. The story was he spoke Spanish in a Mexican restaurant because the waitress didn't understand him in English. The waitress went to the kitchen and said the Asian spoke Spanish. Two years later, he returned to the same restaurant and the waitress recognized him. Hilarious story.

Texas Hold'Em

I arrived at 9pm to help Jyun and Texas Hold'Em. Jyun organized two tables and I helped with one of the tables. Quick story here because the game went quick. The game ended near 11:00pm. Quicker than last year. My table where I was permanent dealer was boring. I guess I shuffled terrible, LOL. Everyone played conservatively. One of the players talked about the Optimus Prime Gmontem purchased for $105. The player wanted the Optimus Prime, too. Go, Gmontem! Jyun's table was all action and people were leaving the table every 10 minutes it seems. The top three players choose from a stash of prizes.

The final event for the first day was Capture The Flag. I sent a text message to everyone I knew who was still at Fanime if they wanted to play Capture The Flag. We meet at Stage Zero at midnight. It failed. Not enough people and I failed to get random people to play. Oh, well. Kazuko wanted to play Duck, Duck, Goose. She failed, too. For the next two hours, we hung out and talk. I brought the box of chips from Costco and we had a mini party. mDuo13, LastExile, Amol, Ryu, Gmontem, Tsubasa, Spirit, Chun, ultramangaia, zoupzuop2, Kodoku, Jerry, Mordyan, DLZ, and others I forgot were hanging out. I went back to the hotel room at 2am.