Anime Central 2009
So I'm three months behind on this... better late than never I suppose.
Like ACENs before it, this year's con was right after my winter semester finals. The train ride to Chicago wasn't terribly exciting, the tracks got backed up with all cargo trains heading to/from Canada so I arrived in the Windy City an hour late.
The con itself was good but I didn't actually do much. moofysue unfortunately had lost her voice on Friday so shinigami_yumi and I helped her record voices for her Odin Sphere skit for Masq the next day. Friday was pretty uneventful, I didn't cosplay and only picked up two doujins in the dealers room. Mostly, I think I just wandered about and enjoyed the atmosphere. (non-GG photos can be seen here.)
Saturday was the GG photoshoot (see pictures here) and I had a good time. I ran into ukyotachibana beforehand and he was nice enough to get pictures with my camera for me for a bit and then kitana_matsuri took over. Immediately after the gathering, she dragged me outside on the balcony and shoved her cigarettes and lighter into my hands for an impromptu solo photoshoot. This was also fun and midway through, kitsoru happened upon us and snapped a few shots. (kitsoru's pictures can be seen here, and what I selected from the huge lot kitana_matsuri gave me can be viewed here)
Tournament wise, I lost to (according to ukyotachibana) the best May player in Chicago. I think ukyotachibana went on to place 4th overall. Unfortunately, he couldn't stick around the con for long so we didn't get to have a few matches against each other.
Sunday was an interesting day. shinigami_yumi had a flight to catch, she was heading back home to Malaysia for the rest of the summer. Since ACEN is pretty close to the O'Hare airport, kitana_matsuri agreed to give her a ride. However, while packing up her car, the keys got locked inside. Cue panic. By the time kitana_matsuri's dad showed up with the spare key and they were on their way, shinigami_yumi had missed her flight. Cue more panic. After speaking with the airlines, she was able to change her ticket, but her new flight wasn't scheduled to fly out until Friday. Since I loaned her the money she needed to change her ticket, I was also stuck until Friday. kitana_matsuri proved awesome though for letting us crash at her place until then. shinigami_yumi made her next flight with no problems, and I was persuaded to change my train ticket again so I could celebrate kitana_matsuri's dad's birthday with them. The party was fine, the guys that showed up were pretty swell fellows but the jello shots her sister brought were another matter (myself and three others ended up really ill from them).
The train ride home the next day was pretty dull, I think I spent most of the 6 hours scribbling out ideas for fics. After three days of resting, unpacking and packing again, I was away for JACON down in Florida.
On a sad note, as much as I enjoy ACEN, right now it doesn't look like I'll be able to attend next year =(
Like ACENs before it, this year's con was right after my winter semester finals. The train ride to Chicago wasn't terribly exciting, the tracks got backed up with all cargo trains heading to/from Canada so I arrived in the Windy City an hour late.
The con itself was good but I didn't actually do much. moofysue unfortunately had lost her voice on Friday so shinigami_yumi and I helped her record voices for her Odin Sphere skit for Masq the next day. Friday was pretty uneventful, I didn't cosplay and only picked up two doujins in the dealers room. Mostly, I think I just wandered about and enjoyed the atmosphere. (non-GG photos can be seen here.)
Saturday was the GG photoshoot (see pictures here) and I had a good time. I ran into ukyotachibana beforehand and he was nice enough to get pictures with my camera for me for a bit and then kitana_matsuri took over. Immediately after the gathering, she dragged me outside on the balcony and shoved her cigarettes and lighter into my hands for an impromptu solo photoshoot. This was also fun and midway through, kitsoru happened upon us and snapped a few shots. (kitsoru's pictures can be seen here, and what I selected from the huge lot kitana_matsuri gave me can be viewed here)
Tournament wise, I lost to (according to ukyotachibana) the best May player in Chicago. I think ukyotachibana went on to place 4th overall. Unfortunately, he couldn't stick around the con for long so we didn't get to have a few matches against each other.
Sunday was an interesting day. shinigami_yumi had a flight to catch, she was heading back home to Malaysia for the rest of the summer. Since ACEN is pretty close to the O'Hare airport, kitana_matsuri agreed to give her a ride. However, while packing up her car, the keys got locked inside. Cue panic. By the time kitana_matsuri's dad showed up with the spare key and they were on their way, shinigami_yumi had missed her flight. Cue more panic. After speaking with the airlines, she was able to change her ticket, but her new flight wasn't scheduled to fly out until Friday. Since I loaned her the money she needed to change her ticket, I was also stuck until Friday. kitana_matsuri proved awesome though for letting us crash at her place until then. shinigami_yumi made her next flight with no problems, and I was persuaded to change my train ticket again so I could celebrate kitana_matsuri's dad's birthday with them. The party was fine, the guys that showed up were pretty swell fellows but the jello shots her sister brought were another matter (myself and three others ended up really ill from them).
The train ride home the next day was pretty dull, I think I spent most of the 6 hours scribbling out ideas for fics. After three days of resting, unpacking and packing again, I was away for JACON down in Florida.
On a sad note, as much as I enjoy ACEN, right now it doesn't look like I'll be able to attend next year =(