Sogen Con: Welcome to the Wild Wild West
The biggest thing I can say about my trip to Sioux Falls is WOW. And not World of Warcraft WoW, though sometimes I felt like an orc in a blood elf party. (I hope that was funny somehow!) Sioux Falls is the ghetto Las Vegas... without the strip clubs.
Thursday Wednesday
Sioux Falls is a 10-hour drive, and with Thursday's setup time running 4 p.m. through 9 p.m. (which is odd - we usually see it run through midnight or so).... I had to drive halfway on Wednesday. Anybody remember last year's waypoint trip to La Crosse featuring the encounter with State Trooper Pancake? LOL, yeahhhh...
The insanity began nice and early when I had to pick up my trailer... Interestingly, I was fully packed and ready early (and not going crazy until the wire, though my muscles were a bit stressed out from the lifting and hauling). Following the map I made using the address from the reservation notice, I went down to a storage place in Joliet right off I-55... except it wasn't there. Well, to be honest, there were some small storage rooms, but no rental trucks or trailers. Calling up the place, they tell me I just went to their old address. Way to update the system with the new addy, arses. At least I wasn't in a MAJOR time crunch. It was down the other direction off I-55. That was cool until I ran into construction, merging two lanes into one... and costing me a solid 10 minutes. I swear, their old location right off the interstate, with the half-paven street, was more convenient than their new one. Their new one is in the very BACK of an industrial park that is off a tiny side street. (You turn left at a hardware store or something. Tiny street.) It was in the middle of nowhere kinda like how Marshall, MN is away from the interstate.
Eventually, I picked up my trailer from the friendly yet overly talkative guy at the REAL storage place. Apparently in the not-too-distant future, all bars will replace their TVs for visual novel monitors to display porn for credit card cash. That's, I guess, the new direction that arcades are going. Bye bye Space Invaders and Street Fighter, it's time for Street Corner Invaders. Oh, and then the trailer's entire left side lights didn't work. The guy on-site didn't know what was wrong, even when I pointed out the clump of wires hanging out the front left corner of the trailer. He just shoved the cables back into the corner.
By this point, I just needed not to go chasing trailers across Chicago and took this one. There are a few places on the way back that could possibly fix the problem for me, so I started to go. The guy tells me to stick around a minute and runs into the office. He's printing something... Is it some kind of certificate for repair? Nope! It's a map for the place I was just describing to the guy.
I drove back and stopped by the place I preferred to pick the trailer up, since the location is maybe 7 minutes away and is REALLY easy to work with. (In and out and done. Great place.) Turns out they just fired their trailer experts the week before... and their last small trailer rented out no more than 30 minutes before. That was shorter than the first DRIVE to the place in Joliet! But what's done is done and I wasn't in a terrible rush... The guy on site here didn't know what was wrong, though he banded the clump of wires together so they don't drag on the ground. And seeing how I wouldn't find any help here, he called around to other local places and didn't find anyone around until the time I had to leave. We looked at my travel schedule, and found a place in La Crosse. "Hi, this is ___ in Illinois. There's a trailer here where the left side lights don't work and we can't find anyone locally." (That's what the guy on site said on the phone to this place on the border of Wisconsin and Minneasota! LOL They had someone on duty in the morning, so I was set as long as I wasn't pulled over on the way to La Crosse... again.
Loading in went much more smoothly than usual, particularly because the convention center was not allowing snack sales this year. I dropped off the viewing DVDs for the Eola anime club, which would have its meeting on Monday while I'm driving back, and started my drive. Interestingly, the drive to La Crosse takes the same time as Eau Claire for No Brand Con. So it's like I'm going there twice in one trip. Now, if the sales did twice No Brand Con, that'd be nice! lol.
The drive itself was smooth and mostly uneventful. It got dark and I turned on the headlights, running the gauntlet of the cops along the way. Passed one that had someone pulled over... then another like that... then a tall bush that looked like a cop... Then I came up to the point where we encountered Trooper Pancake last year... And like last year, I waved... And it was an empty space. I made it past the point of "Alllmost made it" and got all the way safely without police folly!
Thursday
The place to fix the trailer was conveniently just up the interstate and was easy to get to. There's a LARGE statue of native Americans essentially playing King of the Mountain with tomahawks standing at the entrance of the town, which is REALLY cool. The trailer expert Carol was extremely helpful and smoothly fixed the light problem. Turns out that those cables that were hanging OUT of the trailer were the problem like I thought. They needed to be reconnected to a group of wires inside the corner. So for my trip in daylight, I was finally up to code for road travel.
The rest of the trip was fairly dull, like driving through Iowa... although this smelled like fertilizer week. Not exactly the fun week to drive through farm country. But I took the script for Otaku Antics with me and killed any boredom by reading through it. I also found, just inside the Wisconsin side of the Minneasota border at the BP gas station at I-90 exit 2, GREAT bratwurst! Maybe it's a special just for October, but the connected supermarket offered hot lunches and sandwiches. Passing the fried chicken that looked a little dry and the cold sandwiches, I opted for the local specialty of brats covered in sauerkraut and onions. And wow those were GOOD. Huge brats, wheat buns, and CHEAP. I got 2 for $3.
It's odd how driving through Illinois to Wisconsin is fairly dull, though busy. Then Wisconsin is scenic while generally flat. And when you hit the Minneasota side of the border, it immediately changes to majestic vistas from the mountains. It's amazing. Then shortly after that, Minneasota somehow turns back into the dull Illinois / Iowa style of flatlands. And now I know that South Dakota's like that, too.
The South Dakota Department of Transportation SUCKS! They ripped up the entirety of the westbound lanes on I-90 for a 20-mile stretch or so. No exiting to I-29 to get to Sioux Falls, unless you follow poorly marked detours. I-229, going south, is somehow the northbound I-29 detour. After calling Rob over at Sogen Con, he advises me to ignore the signs. Southbound I-29 is fine. Cool! I can deal with my minor goof. I must have misread and misinterpereted that southern detours are actually for northbound roads. That's fine. I get back on I-90 and ignore all the detour signs I come across. Then I see eastbound lanes exiting for I-29... and the westbound lanes are still non-existant... Then I'm back at the corn and cow fields. Then another exit for a smaller road, without any westbound exit again... with a sign reading, "Next exit 8 miles"!! 15-20 minutes later, after a unceremonious U-turn, I exited normally on I-29.
Then I checked into the cheap, offsite hotel room... which had a door that didn't close all the way. It locks and closes, but the bottom 8-inches of the door leaned into the room, as if it were kicked and bent, but never fixed. Wonderfully ghetto. And there was a fly that wouldn't leave me alone. I had to close the door when I washed my hands in order to keep the thing out of my face.
The convention center was HUGE for a convention of this size. The dock was a decent size for everyone, too. Although the room area was about the size of the basketball court of the first year, the room was completely filled with booths. After the caution bulb of the result of NebrasKon '05, ACen '07 and AnimeIowa '07 died down, I settled into my booth and started loading in. Load-in and setup went smoothly and fun... outside the annoying-ass flies that harrassed us throughout the night. It was great seeing everyone after so long.
Friday
Sleeping in a bit, I was relaxed and ready to rock it out. Setup finished easily and I had time to find lunch. Not wanting to drive and potentially lose my parking space, I found the guys at Animazed and talked them into being hungry. We headed to the Sioux Falls Strip and quickly noted the sheer number of casinos in town. Here's a gas station and a casino inside. Here's a bank with a casino inside. Whoa, there's a Subway with a casino inside. Hey, a casino with a casino inside! Anyone driving through Iowa is familiar with the gas station chain, Kum 'n' Go... Sioux Falls has all the off-brand places. Git 'n' Go... Gun 'n' Pawn... U-Haul... Ghetto!
The first hour's sales kicked amazing amounts. Then it died. Hard. Half our day's sales were made in that first hour. The NebrasKon guys had the booth right next to mine, which worked great as we took down the curtain divider between us and I effectively annexed their space. ;-P LOL (just kidding - it just afforded space to exit the booth easily) When we closed, it was time to party and kick it South Dakota style. So I hooked up with the NebrasKon guys and we went to Pizza Hut.
We drove the Sioux Falls Strip on the way to the Hut, passing the flurry of casinos. Right before entering the Hut, I joked that it would be hliarious if instead of the typical arcade area, this Pizza Hut had video poker. (Especially entertaining since Pizza Hut is a family place.) I couldn't see any arcade area unfortunately, but we joked that perhaps it's in the restrooms. Then the seating girl came up and informed us that they were running out of dough. All that was available was thin crust. And I generally dislike thin crust - I was talking up the whole stuffed-crust pepperoni thing for the past hour or so. Ghetto!
We sat down and ordered 2 pies, and I cajoled 1 stuffed crust out of the kitchen. (Success!) Then the waitress told us they put the stuffed crust on the damn veggie lovers pizza, so the GOOD pepperoni pizza had the retarded f-ing thin crust. (Failure!) Disappointed and generally peeved that my food has been disrupted, I went and washed my hands. What's the best cure for frustration? A humorous practical joke! After leaving the entirely too ghetto restroom (imagine a dank room with a tiny sink and a lone tiny framed picture... with what I hope are cheese smears on both the picture and mirror), I walked back to the table and sat down chuckling to myself.
"You guys would NOT believe what that was like... I... I can only describe it as... Golden Tee golf combined with porn."
Yes, I channeled super-friendly trailer guy that was all about the pay-for-porn-at-the-bar. And I juxtaposed that onto a family joint in Sioux Falls. And how exactly would the trackball be used in a game like that..? hmmmm.... This got all the guys thinking and laughing. Then Dylan had to run and check this thing out. He came back, laughing his ass off and embellishing my story! The next guy of our group of 5 went and corroborated the awesomeness of it. Finally we got to the guy that was legitimately excited by the prospect of this game and enthusiastically went to see for himself. He returned to a table full of laughter. That really was hilarious to trick everyone into systematically using the restroom from this table of guys. By the end of the run, there was a sliding window with a stripper behind it and a condom roulette machine.
Our pies came and we demolished them in a pretty good hurry... amidst an army of flies determined to infect our cheesey goodness. I swear, I have not seen so many flies in so many disparate places in one town on the same weekend. Ghetto!!
When I am at a convention, I try to have all the awesome fun on Friday night, after an easier day in the dealer room and no dance to work. So I hunt for parties and panels and other fun then... but no one else works that way. Kinda lame and disappointing, but that's my own deal, heh. I headed out to Crispin Freeman's mythology in anime panel. It was very interesting and informative. It's a little dry like any college symposium, but that's kinda what you get with anything intellectual. It works very well in conjunction with my previous experiences in the "Religion in Japanese Culture" class I took at Valpo. Crispin was also really cool to meet. We spoke for a little bit applying his findings, based on giant robot shows ranging from Astro Boy to Gundam to Evangelion, to less robot-reliant shows (that I like better) like Bubblegum Crisis, Ghost in the Shell and Serial Experiments Lain. His theory is that I am picking up more on the ethics and philosophy presented by shows like that where he finds a deeper interest in the mythology. While the philosophy could provide lessons for a larger sociological picture, the mythology gives more of a micro-sociological blueprint for individuals to follow toward enlightenment. I see his point, though I believe that the philosphy can still teach in a similar way to the mythology-in-action. Perhaps instead of showing examples in action, philosophy is just more detached in its style, preferring to lecture more. Who is to say that the point made in Lain, "What is not remembered does not exist" could not mean that living in the current moment without letting the past determine who we are is not a path to enlightenment? I would like to evaluate these philosophical points further and show that the findings can indeed parallel Crispin's mythological ones.
LOL, that was a much longer description than I inteded to type, but that kind of thing is interesting to think about... Probably because it's rare to find anyone that's actually interesting in analyzing their entertainment in more depth. The depth is there in anime, though not so much in the Narutos that make the otaku squeal (though InuYasha has interesting mythological elements). Oddly, I never really got into philosophy as a subject in school, and was never rarely inspired by it.
It was also interesting to learn that Crispin is a Chicago native. From the downtown area, it's a drive away from the Aurora / Naperville area, but that was still really awesome to have a hometown connection to a prolific anime dub actor. It was also great to find agreement on several industry things from a fan capacity... from dub choices to slimpack DVD sets. Shelf space is good! How can an industry encourage a more collective spirit in its consumers? Give their product smaller packaging so it takes up less shelf space. With more open shelf space, we buy more stuff to fill it. [shrug] Maybe.
After the mythology panel and discussion, I found the NebrasKon crew again and we revived the Trailer Party from Omaha, South Dakota style! (Yeah, ghetto-riffic.) Like every night we were there, it started raining. So after climbing into the trailer for a bit, we determined that sitting inside a metal trailer next to a tall light pole during a lightning-heavy thunderstorm was a bad idea. The guys ran back inside paratrooper-style, and I zoomed into the car and headed out for the night.
Saturday
After a little shopping early on, I joined in the game that Dylan over at the NebrasKon table bought. This board game starts with a T and has a dragon motif... I forget the actual name. It was a lot of fun once we got the hang of it, and it was a great way to pass the time during breaks in the action. Great times were had.
After we closed, we found the parking lots and area roads were JAMMED packed with people and cars. Somehow Sioux Falls became an exciting town during the day! The football fields were hosting the largest marching band competition in the state, so there were bandies all over the place. And we passed one trailer from Lincoln High School from Sioux Falls. The guys from Lincoln, Nebraska got a kick out of that one. Flash the "L"s! Pride up! The only eatery in walking distance turned out to be Buffalo Wild Wings.
With a half-new group this time, we played the Golden Porn 2K7 gag again. This time there were windows on the ceiling (which I unfortunately missed due to other insanity that I'll describe in a second), and the graphics were in 3D this time with an updated game engine. Wind resistance on the tee-off? Mayyybe... This even got the lone girl in the group wishing she was a guy so she could see it! Even more hilarity than in the dough-less Ghetto Hut.
This time when I went to wash my hands n' all, I was greeted at the door. Yes, this is the sport bar Buffalo Wild Wings. And it wasn't by Batman's butler. It was a drunk that was letting his Batman catch the evening breeze. I walked into the room and saw the sinks and stalls directly in front of me. From the far-right side of the room, I hear a voice.
"My brotha from anotha mutha!!"
I look to my right and see three stand-up urinals... with a WHITE guy staggering around in the MIDDLE one. After verifying that there weren't any nearby puddles, I settled for the far-corner one.
"My brotha from anotha mutha!! This place is great, ain't it!"
Yep, I nod and try my best to ignore him. He leaves without washing his hands and an older peach-shaped man of mildly short stature walks in. He takes position and the much more logical near-side station, leaving the appropriate buffer zone, to my relief. HOWEVER, he proceeds to unbuckle his belt and fully drop his pants... to the floor... negating the buffer zone and ratcheting up the discomfort of the experience. At least this place had a nicer facility than the Ghetto Hut, but I can't say my experience was any better. That's when I decided we needed to reprise the Golden Porn 2K7 gag.
It was very busy in the place, wich so many bands in town and being a Saturday night. I see this all the time in Chicago, though in Sioux Falls there wasn't any wait for a table. However, somehow, we had to wait something like 60-80 minutes for our food. It was ridiculous. THEN, my burger didn't come with any fries. When I asked about that, I was told it would take another 30 minutes to get those done. WTF, is there only one cook that has to harvest potatoes before tossing them in a fryer?? GHETTO!!
The funniest part of the meal happened to one of the new guys we had around tonight. The booths have backings, but are open for a few inches along the bottom. And with all the insanity of people (perhaps to watch the Cubs game that was on - who knows), there was a family behind that side of the table. (I had a wall behind my side thankfully.) And the little kid on the other side at one point had reached under and touched homeboy's butt. Yes, our new guy was molested by a little boy. Happy Birthday, Pedo Bear!
Besides the marching band-a-thon, the arena / convention center was hosting a minor league hockey game between the Sioux Falls Stampede and the Lincoln whatever-they-are (Cow-huskers maybe?). The line for that game was almost as long as for the cosplay contest when we left for food. And at one point the lines were mingling together somewhat comically (from an outside perspective). When we got back from the Reverse-Pedo-Fest, the Eyeshine concert was already underway. Not bad for a cosplay contest that started late. I quickly set up the glow sticks and we were ready to roll. The speakers and acoustics weren't nearly as nice as last year's Sogen Con, but it was still a very good concert. As the set ended, a guy walks in wearing a Stampede fan jersey. He asks me what's going on and I mention the upcoming rave. Stampede Guy wants to get in... but isn't registered for the con. I find Rob and find a price for Stampede Guy, who promptly gets a "Dance Only" pass for $10. Before he heads off to get the pass, he asks me if I would speak to his mom on the phone. Why?, I have NO idea, but I guess I'm an authority figure of some sort that won't pass X to him or anything...??
After a while, Greg gets all his gear set up for the rave and starts. Stampede Guy is back in the room and dances..... I wish I had a picture of this, because words can't do it the lame justice. He holds his right foot up behind him, puts his left hand on the back of his head with his elbow out... and seizures, cranking himself around. He legitimately believes this is the most stellar dance move in the world and does it all over the place. Raise the roof, cracka!!
And he left with a girl, hand-in-hand.
... Yep.
The rest of the dance was... interesting. A piece of a light fixture from the ceiling fell to the ground. It was the part that focused the light like a megaphone, so I wore it as a hat. Later, I found a rabbit fur sitting on the table, which I wore as a barbarian-style shoulder guard. I wasn't drunk, but I could sure pretend! I tried to teach a girl how to do the DDR, but she oddly couldn't even keep up with that. Maybe her experience at Buffalo Wild Wings was too much. After all, her boyfriend got groped by a little boy.
That's it for Saturday, but backtracking a little bit to the cosplay line... I was talking to Dave n' friend as they waited for cosplay, and noticed an artist alley table with my dealer room neighbors from Reactor '06. The girl had her artwork and mom had a half-table for tarot readings. I noted that her tarot sign had a card-of-the-day reading. Like the reading I saw deomonstrated by Jan Scott-Frazier, I was curious how a single card reading worked. She offered a demo and I picked the card Depression. Weird, since I'm not depressed, just busy with business stuff. Finding that unsatisfactory because it doesn't make any sense, I pulled again, netting Blindness. Weird, but you could draw that from my glasses I guess. Still nonsensical, I draw a third, this time Love. Yeah, okay. Three really random cards. What does she read into it? The girls I like don't see it, and I don't see the girls that like me, and that makes me depressed. Hmm, interesting rationalization. Generic enough to fit, though it was interesting to think about as I see Stampede Guy walk out with a girl. LOL, seizure time - break it down!
Sunday
The original dealer room hours were pretty nonsensical like the previous night's tarot card draw. Actually, the room hours on all the days didn't make sense according to industry standard. Saturday was originally scheduled to end at 4 p.m., for a 6-hour day. Sunday was scheduled for an 11 a.m. opening. Saturday night was extended to 6 p.m., and Sunday was pulled to 10 a.m. But no one opened the room at 10, so several were grumbling about losing that extra hour of sleep. (Ironic that I was the only one that I knew was out late... but still got a sensible 6-7 hours, lol.)
Sunday was a lot like Friday, where sales were condensed into a smaller timeframe. Packup went very smoothly, and we were done in relatively short work. Ready to grab food and relax with the staff as I had the previous two years, I looked for Rob n' crew... only to find out they already left! No food for me! Frustrated that I can't leave my parking space because I'll never get another due to the Elton John concert crowd that swarmed the place, I hung out with my weekend's helper. We talked about stuff and I rambled on about Otaku Antics, and offered to help the really nice Keith and Rose of Splash Page Comics load out their stuff. AFter maybe an hour of loading out their stuff, we noticed that there wasn't anyone left in the whole con center, and all the convention T-shirts were still sprawled out over a whole display. Seeing the smoothness in action and being nice and responsible guys, we packed those up and took them to con ops... who had no one guarding the publicly-available room.
Now grumbling both internally and externally about the lack of nourishment, I headed to the bar area of the hotel to see what they had, if anything. There, finding people I actually know (yeah, not Elton John fans... ugh, wait that's coming up), I sat at the bar and got a simple beer... which was rediculously priced. But whatever, it's hang-out time. Being hungry, I get the crazy idea to test the Pizza Hut again. This time, I'll try the delivery station that was down the street. Surely, the whole town of Sioux Falls can't be out of dough, can it?
I got the number from the helpful front desk clerks and made the call for 2 calzones. I could eat one tonight with some tasty beverages from the bar, and save one for the drive home as lunch. I'm at the bar, watching the Bears hang in with the Packers as a local Packer fan cheers and jeers enthusiastically at every Packer move. The pizza guy shows up and I pay for my 'zones. I walk back to enjoy them with my beer and get ready to order another, when I am CONVENIENTLY told that I wouldn't be able to eat it there. Fine, fine, I'll sit as far away as I can, watching the game and drinking paid drinks from the bar. An evil stare projects from the bitch of a bartender. F-ing bitch doesn't want my business in any respect. They'll make more money off my drinks anyway. So she makes me eat the shiz outside, where the temperature had dropped to 60 and was threatening to rain at any moment. So I storm out and find a tiny metal table outside (which was cold as HELL). From behind me as I plop the pizza down I hear, "Are you leaving already?" Angrily I respond that I'm not. Turns out that I just snapped back at Chris Ayres, lol, OOPS! Sorry man, I was damn hungry and the bitch inside was being, well, a bitch.
So I sat there, all by myself, eating a calzone shivering in the chill without even any water. It f-in' sucked. That place was NOT getting another CENT from me, and never will. I'm VERY thankful and happy that Greg came by and chatted with me. That really lifted a sizeable portion of the frustration that was building up over the course of the evening. I finished my first calzone, it started drizzling, and we went back inside. Having stood all weekend long, I parked myself back at the bar, took my tip back that I had left by my drink, and chilled. The Packers Fan from earlier yelled in dismay when they lost, which turned out to be because he bet $1000 on what should have been an easy win, and on his birthday. With the game over, the anime people filtered away from the bar and the Elton John crowd filled the place up. I was quickly and uncomfortably surrounded by a group of Sir Elton fans. With the hurt of the feet keeping me from standing for an extended period of time, all I could do is sit at a bar I wasn't buying from and sit in the middle of uncomforable conversations. That was it, time to leave... except the concert crowd had all the roads choked up. Trapped!
Stuck around and was eventually waved down by Chris, which was awesome (more people should actively include others, in my opinion). Things quickly broke down from there so I didn't get to hang out much at all with anybody, though Dave n' friend (sorry, I don't remember the dude's name) sat around a bit. Then it was time to finally leave and get some rest for the 10-hour drive back to Aurora.
Monday
Left and 100% could NOT wait to get the hell out of Sioux Falls and South Dakota. My experience of the town... sucked. While the people are mostly friendly, this place is less advanced than Eau Claire where the street lights turn off a 8 p.m. Lincoln, Nebraska is easier to traverse. Chicago construction makes more sense!!
Shortly after entering Minneasota, who should pass me but Dave! That was COOL. It's not quite sharing a ride, but it's more fun to drive in a pack than by oneself on a long drive. I hesitated a little to kick up the speed to match his, since I drive a little slower to maximize my mileage on the smaller vehicle tank. But I did and we flew down the highway. I eventually needed to refill the gas tank and looked for a station. After passing one that looked like it only had some off-brand place, I noticed large signs behind trees for Shell AND BP. Frustrating! Well, since it's Minneasota and not South Dakota, there are a good amount of stations througout the state. Even in Iowa, I don't have much of an issue... except this ONE time, there aren't any gas stations for another 20-40 miles! I have to slow down from 75 to 65 to conserve gas... then 60... then 55... eventually 45. I'm really starting to panic that I may get stranded on the road because of stupid gas issues... until I see Dave's car slowly creep back. THANK GOD he slowed down. If I were to run out of gas, at least I'd have a way to get to civilization. Then the gas light turns on... and still no exit in the forseeable distance. We're cruising along slowly, being passed consistently... until I see a big BP sign in the distance! I confirm that with a sign that it is gas coming up and it's only a mile away. I speed up a bit and hit the exit. Dave and I fill up and then arrange to drive the rest of the way as a caravan, and at my comfortable speed, LOL.
The rest of the trip was smooth and easy. Gas stop chats were had and a defective credit reader frustrated me though I had to go inside for food anyway. It got dark as we entered Illinois, and in all the lane shifting, I lost Dave in the mix. I don't remember him passing me, but am really unsure where he went. I hope you got back alright!
As I neared Aurora, I noticed that I could make it to the last few minutes of the anime club meeting that I was missing. So I did, I stopped in for the last 5 minutes or so. They actually missed me! It was weird yet super-cool, and I of course got lamblasted for the lack of Pocky and ramune. There were 9 kids this time! A group of 5 girls, 3 boys, and 1 loner that drank all our ramune last month. I walked in during the final credits of the last episode they showed, and talked about the cool parts of Sogen Con, ranging from the mythology panel to the fact that Kiba's voice actor was on hand.
For all the bumps this weekend had, it was an entertaining weekend that was fun to experience. And it capped off awesomely. Now, it's time for some lunch because I've been typing this for... damn, three and a half hours. Told ya it was gonna be a long one.
Take it easy, my brothas n' sistas from otha muthas!
- John
Thursday Wednesday
Sioux Falls is a 10-hour drive, and with Thursday's setup time running 4 p.m. through 9 p.m. (which is odd - we usually see it run through midnight or so).... I had to drive halfway on Wednesday. Anybody remember last year's waypoint trip to La Crosse featuring the encounter with State Trooper Pancake? LOL, yeahhhh...
The insanity began nice and early when I had to pick up my trailer... Interestingly, I was fully packed and ready early (and not going crazy until the wire, though my muscles were a bit stressed out from the lifting and hauling). Following the map I made using the address from the reservation notice, I went down to a storage place in Joliet right off I-55... except it wasn't there. Well, to be honest, there were some small storage rooms, but no rental trucks or trailers. Calling up the place, they tell me I just went to their old address. Way to update the system with the new addy, arses. At least I wasn't in a MAJOR time crunch. It was down the other direction off I-55. That was cool until I ran into construction, merging two lanes into one... and costing me a solid 10 minutes. I swear, their old location right off the interstate, with the half-paven street, was more convenient than their new one. Their new one is in the very BACK of an industrial park that is off a tiny side street. (You turn left at a hardware store or something. Tiny street.) It was in the middle of nowhere kinda like how Marshall, MN is away from the interstate.
Eventually, I picked up my trailer from the friendly yet overly talkative guy at the REAL storage place. Apparently in the not-too-distant future, all bars will replace their TVs for visual novel monitors to display porn for credit card cash. That's, I guess, the new direction that arcades are going. Bye bye Space Invaders and Street Fighter, it's time for Street Corner Invaders. Oh, and then the trailer's entire left side lights didn't work. The guy on-site didn't know what was wrong, even when I pointed out the clump of wires hanging out the front left corner of the trailer. He just shoved the cables back into the corner.
By this point, I just needed not to go chasing trailers across Chicago and took this one. There are a few places on the way back that could possibly fix the problem for me, so I started to go. The guy tells me to stick around a minute and runs into the office. He's printing something... Is it some kind of certificate for repair? Nope! It's a map for the place I was just describing to the guy.
I drove back and stopped by the place I preferred to pick the trailer up, since the location is maybe 7 minutes away and is REALLY easy to work with. (In and out and done. Great place.) Turns out they just fired their trailer experts the week before... and their last small trailer rented out no more than 30 minutes before. That was shorter than the first DRIVE to the place in Joliet! But what's done is done and I wasn't in a terrible rush... The guy on site here didn't know what was wrong, though he banded the clump of wires together so they don't drag on the ground. And seeing how I wouldn't find any help here, he called around to other local places and didn't find anyone around until the time I had to leave. We looked at my travel schedule, and found a place in La Crosse. "Hi, this is ___ in Illinois. There's a trailer here where the left side lights don't work and we can't find anyone locally." (That's what the guy on site said on the phone to this place on the border of Wisconsin and Minneasota! LOL They had someone on duty in the morning, so I was set as long as I wasn't pulled over on the way to La Crosse... again.
Loading in went much more smoothly than usual, particularly because the convention center was not allowing snack sales this year. I dropped off the viewing DVDs for the Eola anime club, which would have its meeting on Monday while I'm driving back, and started my drive. Interestingly, the drive to La Crosse takes the same time as Eau Claire for No Brand Con. So it's like I'm going there twice in one trip. Now, if the sales did twice No Brand Con, that'd be nice! lol.
The drive itself was smooth and mostly uneventful. It got dark and I turned on the headlights, running the gauntlet of the cops along the way. Passed one that had someone pulled over... then another like that... then a tall bush that looked like a cop... Then I came up to the point where we encountered Trooper Pancake last year... And like last year, I waved... And it was an empty space. I made it past the point of "Alllmost made it" and got all the way safely without police folly!
Thursday
The place to fix the trailer was conveniently just up the interstate and was easy to get to. There's a LARGE statue of native Americans essentially playing King of the Mountain with tomahawks standing at the entrance of the town, which is REALLY cool. The trailer expert Carol was extremely helpful and smoothly fixed the light problem. Turns out that those cables that were hanging OUT of the trailer were the problem like I thought. They needed to be reconnected to a group of wires inside the corner. So for my trip in daylight, I was finally up to code for road travel.
The rest of the trip was fairly dull, like driving through Iowa... although this smelled like fertilizer week. Not exactly the fun week to drive through farm country. But I took the script for Otaku Antics with me and killed any boredom by reading through it. I also found, just inside the Wisconsin side of the Minneasota border at the BP gas station at I-90 exit 2, GREAT bratwurst! Maybe it's a special just for October, but the connected supermarket offered hot lunches and sandwiches. Passing the fried chicken that looked a little dry and the cold sandwiches, I opted for the local specialty of brats covered in sauerkraut and onions. And wow those were GOOD. Huge brats, wheat buns, and CHEAP. I got 2 for $3.
It's odd how driving through Illinois to Wisconsin is fairly dull, though busy. Then Wisconsin is scenic while generally flat. And when you hit the Minneasota side of the border, it immediately changes to majestic vistas from the mountains. It's amazing. Then shortly after that, Minneasota somehow turns back into the dull Illinois / Iowa style of flatlands. And now I know that South Dakota's like that, too.
The South Dakota Department of Transportation SUCKS! They ripped up the entirety of the westbound lanes on I-90 for a 20-mile stretch or so. No exiting to I-29 to get to Sioux Falls, unless you follow poorly marked detours. I-229, going south, is somehow the northbound I-29 detour. After calling Rob over at Sogen Con, he advises me to ignore the signs. Southbound I-29 is fine. Cool! I can deal with my minor goof. I must have misread and misinterpereted that southern detours are actually for northbound roads. That's fine. I get back on I-90 and ignore all the detour signs I come across. Then I see eastbound lanes exiting for I-29... and the westbound lanes are still non-existant... Then I'm back at the corn and cow fields. Then another exit for a smaller road, without any westbound exit again... with a sign reading, "Next exit 8 miles"!! 15-20 minutes later, after a unceremonious U-turn, I exited normally on I-29.
Then I checked into the cheap, offsite hotel room... which had a door that didn't close all the way. It locks and closes, but the bottom 8-inches of the door leaned into the room, as if it were kicked and bent, but never fixed. Wonderfully ghetto. And there was a fly that wouldn't leave me alone. I had to close the door when I washed my hands in order to keep the thing out of my face.
The convention center was HUGE for a convention of this size. The dock was a decent size for everyone, too. Although the room area was about the size of the basketball court of the first year, the room was completely filled with booths. After the caution bulb of the result of NebrasKon '05, ACen '07 and AnimeIowa '07 died down, I settled into my booth and started loading in. Load-in and setup went smoothly and fun... outside the annoying-ass flies that harrassed us throughout the night. It was great seeing everyone after so long.
Friday
Sleeping in a bit, I was relaxed and ready to rock it out. Setup finished easily and I had time to find lunch. Not wanting to drive and potentially lose my parking space, I found the guys at Animazed and talked them into being hungry. We headed to the Sioux Falls Strip and quickly noted the sheer number of casinos in town. Here's a gas station and a casino inside. Here's a bank with a casino inside. Whoa, there's a Subway with a casino inside. Hey, a casino with a casino inside! Anyone driving through Iowa is familiar with the gas station chain, Kum 'n' Go... Sioux Falls has all the off-brand places. Git 'n' Go... Gun 'n' Pawn... U-Haul... Ghetto!
The first hour's sales kicked amazing amounts. Then it died. Hard. Half our day's sales were made in that first hour. The NebrasKon guys had the booth right next to mine, which worked great as we took down the curtain divider between us and I effectively annexed their space. ;-P LOL (just kidding - it just afforded space to exit the booth easily) When we closed, it was time to party and kick it South Dakota style. So I hooked up with the NebrasKon guys and we went to Pizza Hut.
We drove the Sioux Falls Strip on the way to the Hut, passing the flurry of casinos. Right before entering the Hut, I joked that it would be hliarious if instead of the typical arcade area, this Pizza Hut had video poker. (Especially entertaining since Pizza Hut is a family place.) I couldn't see any arcade area unfortunately, but we joked that perhaps it's in the restrooms. Then the seating girl came up and informed us that they were running out of dough. All that was available was thin crust. And I generally dislike thin crust - I was talking up the whole stuffed-crust pepperoni thing for the past hour or so. Ghetto!
We sat down and ordered 2 pies, and I cajoled 1 stuffed crust out of the kitchen. (Success!) Then the waitress told us they put the stuffed crust on the damn veggie lovers pizza, so the GOOD pepperoni pizza had the retarded f-ing thin crust. (Failure!) Disappointed and generally peeved that my food has been disrupted, I went and washed my hands. What's the best cure for frustration? A humorous practical joke! After leaving the entirely too ghetto restroom (imagine a dank room with a tiny sink and a lone tiny framed picture... with what I hope are cheese smears on both the picture and mirror), I walked back to the table and sat down chuckling to myself.
"You guys would NOT believe what that was like... I... I can only describe it as... Golden Tee golf combined with porn."
Yes, I channeled super-friendly trailer guy that was all about the pay-for-porn-at-the-bar. And I juxtaposed that onto a family joint in Sioux Falls. And how exactly would the trackball be used in a game like that..? hmmmm.... This got all the guys thinking and laughing. Then Dylan had to run and check this thing out. He came back, laughing his ass off and embellishing my story! The next guy of our group of 5 went and corroborated the awesomeness of it. Finally we got to the guy that was legitimately excited by the prospect of this game and enthusiastically went to see for himself. He returned to a table full of laughter. That really was hilarious to trick everyone into systematically using the restroom from this table of guys. By the end of the run, there was a sliding window with a stripper behind it and a condom roulette machine.
Our pies came and we demolished them in a pretty good hurry... amidst an army of flies determined to infect our cheesey goodness. I swear, I have not seen so many flies in so many disparate places in one town on the same weekend. Ghetto!!
When I am at a convention, I try to have all the awesome fun on Friday night, after an easier day in the dealer room and no dance to work. So I hunt for parties and panels and other fun then... but no one else works that way. Kinda lame and disappointing, but that's my own deal, heh. I headed out to Crispin Freeman's mythology in anime panel. It was very interesting and informative. It's a little dry like any college symposium, but that's kinda what you get with anything intellectual. It works very well in conjunction with my previous experiences in the "Religion in Japanese Culture" class I took at Valpo. Crispin was also really cool to meet. We spoke for a little bit applying his findings, based on giant robot shows ranging from Astro Boy to Gundam to Evangelion, to less robot-reliant shows (that I like better) like Bubblegum Crisis, Ghost in the Shell and Serial Experiments Lain. His theory is that I am picking up more on the ethics and philosophy presented by shows like that where he finds a deeper interest in the mythology. While the philosophy could provide lessons for a larger sociological picture, the mythology gives more of a micro-sociological blueprint for individuals to follow toward enlightenment. I see his point, though I believe that the philosphy can still teach in a similar way to the mythology-in-action. Perhaps instead of showing examples in action, philosophy is just more detached in its style, preferring to lecture more. Who is to say that the point made in Lain, "What is not remembered does not exist" could not mean that living in the current moment without letting the past determine who we are is not a path to enlightenment? I would like to evaluate these philosophical points further and show that the findings can indeed parallel Crispin's mythological ones.
LOL, that was a much longer description than I inteded to type, but that kind of thing is interesting to think about... Probably because it's rare to find anyone that's actually interesting in analyzing their entertainment in more depth. The depth is there in anime, though not so much in the Narutos that make the otaku squeal (though InuYasha has interesting mythological elements). Oddly, I never really got into philosophy as a subject in school, and was never rarely inspired by it.
It was also interesting to learn that Crispin is a Chicago native. From the downtown area, it's a drive away from the Aurora / Naperville area, but that was still really awesome to have a hometown connection to a prolific anime dub actor. It was also great to find agreement on several industry things from a fan capacity... from dub choices to slimpack DVD sets. Shelf space is good! How can an industry encourage a more collective spirit in its consumers? Give their product smaller packaging so it takes up less shelf space. With more open shelf space, we buy more stuff to fill it. [shrug] Maybe.
After the mythology panel and discussion, I found the NebrasKon crew again and we revived the Trailer Party from Omaha, South Dakota style! (Yeah, ghetto-riffic.) Like every night we were there, it started raining. So after climbing into the trailer for a bit, we determined that sitting inside a metal trailer next to a tall light pole during a lightning-heavy thunderstorm was a bad idea. The guys ran back inside paratrooper-style, and I zoomed into the car and headed out for the night.
Saturday
After a little shopping early on, I joined in the game that Dylan over at the NebrasKon table bought. This board game starts with a T and has a dragon motif... I forget the actual name. It was a lot of fun once we got the hang of it, and it was a great way to pass the time during breaks in the action. Great times were had.
After we closed, we found the parking lots and area roads were JAMMED packed with people and cars. Somehow Sioux Falls became an exciting town during the day! The football fields were hosting the largest marching band competition in the state, so there were bandies all over the place. And we passed one trailer from Lincoln High School from Sioux Falls. The guys from Lincoln, Nebraska got a kick out of that one. Flash the "L"s! Pride up! The only eatery in walking distance turned out to be Buffalo Wild Wings.
With a half-new group this time, we played the Golden Porn 2K7 gag again. This time there were windows on the ceiling (which I unfortunately missed due to other insanity that I'll describe in a second), and the graphics were in 3D this time with an updated game engine. Wind resistance on the tee-off? Mayyybe... This even got the lone girl in the group wishing she was a guy so she could see it! Even more hilarity than in the dough-less Ghetto Hut.
This time when I went to wash my hands n' all, I was greeted at the door. Yes, this is the sport bar Buffalo Wild Wings. And it wasn't by Batman's butler. It was a drunk that was letting his Batman catch the evening breeze. I walked into the room and saw the sinks and stalls directly in front of me. From the far-right side of the room, I hear a voice.
"My brotha from anotha mutha!!"
I look to my right and see three stand-up urinals... with a WHITE guy staggering around in the MIDDLE one. After verifying that there weren't any nearby puddles, I settled for the far-corner one.
"My brotha from anotha mutha!! This place is great, ain't it!"
Yep, I nod and try my best to ignore him. He leaves without washing his hands and an older peach-shaped man of mildly short stature walks in. He takes position and the much more logical near-side station, leaving the appropriate buffer zone, to my relief. HOWEVER, he proceeds to unbuckle his belt and fully drop his pants... to the floor... negating the buffer zone and ratcheting up the discomfort of the experience. At least this place had a nicer facility than the Ghetto Hut, but I can't say my experience was any better. That's when I decided we needed to reprise the Golden Porn 2K7 gag.
It was very busy in the place, wich so many bands in town and being a Saturday night. I see this all the time in Chicago, though in Sioux Falls there wasn't any wait for a table. However, somehow, we had to wait something like 60-80 minutes for our food. It was ridiculous. THEN, my burger didn't come with any fries. When I asked about that, I was told it would take another 30 minutes to get those done. WTF, is there only one cook that has to harvest potatoes before tossing them in a fryer?? GHETTO!!
The funniest part of the meal happened to one of the new guys we had around tonight. The booths have backings, but are open for a few inches along the bottom. And with all the insanity of people (perhaps to watch the Cubs game that was on - who knows), there was a family behind that side of the table. (I had a wall behind my side thankfully.) And the little kid on the other side at one point had reached under and touched homeboy's butt. Yes, our new guy was molested by a little boy. Happy Birthday, Pedo Bear!
Besides the marching band-a-thon, the arena / convention center was hosting a minor league hockey game between the Sioux Falls Stampede and the Lincoln whatever-they-are (Cow-huskers maybe?). The line for that game was almost as long as for the cosplay contest when we left for food. And at one point the lines were mingling together somewhat comically (from an outside perspective). When we got back from the Reverse-Pedo-Fest, the Eyeshine concert was already underway. Not bad for a cosplay contest that started late. I quickly set up the glow sticks and we were ready to roll. The speakers and acoustics weren't nearly as nice as last year's Sogen Con, but it was still a very good concert. As the set ended, a guy walks in wearing a Stampede fan jersey. He asks me what's going on and I mention the upcoming rave. Stampede Guy wants to get in... but isn't registered for the con. I find Rob and find a price for Stampede Guy, who promptly gets a "Dance Only" pass for $10. Before he heads off to get the pass, he asks me if I would speak to his mom on the phone. Why?, I have NO idea, but I guess I'm an authority figure of some sort that won't pass X to him or anything...??
After a while, Greg gets all his gear set up for the rave and starts. Stampede Guy is back in the room and dances..... I wish I had a picture of this, because words can't do it the lame justice. He holds his right foot up behind him, puts his left hand on the back of his head with his elbow out... and seizures, cranking himself around. He legitimately believes this is the most stellar dance move in the world and does it all over the place. Raise the roof, cracka!!
And he left with a girl, hand-in-hand.
... Yep.
The rest of the dance was... interesting. A piece of a light fixture from the ceiling fell to the ground. It was the part that focused the light like a megaphone, so I wore it as a hat. Later, I found a rabbit fur sitting on the table, which I wore as a barbarian-style shoulder guard. I wasn't drunk, but I could sure pretend! I tried to teach a girl how to do the DDR, but she oddly couldn't even keep up with that. Maybe her experience at Buffalo Wild Wings was too much. After all, her boyfriend got groped by a little boy.
That's it for Saturday, but backtracking a little bit to the cosplay line... I was talking to Dave n' friend as they waited for cosplay, and noticed an artist alley table with my dealer room neighbors from Reactor '06. The girl had her artwork and mom had a half-table for tarot readings. I noted that her tarot sign had a card-of-the-day reading. Like the reading I saw deomonstrated by Jan Scott-Frazier, I was curious how a single card reading worked. She offered a demo and I picked the card Depression. Weird, since I'm not depressed, just busy with business stuff. Finding that unsatisfactory because it doesn't make any sense, I pulled again, netting Blindness. Weird, but you could draw that from my glasses I guess. Still nonsensical, I draw a third, this time Love. Yeah, okay. Three really random cards. What does she read into it? The girls I like don't see it, and I don't see the girls that like me, and that makes me depressed. Hmm, interesting rationalization. Generic enough to fit, though it was interesting to think about as I see Stampede Guy walk out with a girl. LOL, seizure time - break it down!
Sunday
The original dealer room hours were pretty nonsensical like the previous night's tarot card draw. Actually, the room hours on all the days didn't make sense according to industry standard. Saturday was originally scheduled to end at 4 p.m., for a 6-hour day. Sunday was scheduled for an 11 a.m. opening. Saturday night was extended to 6 p.m., and Sunday was pulled to 10 a.m. But no one opened the room at 10, so several were grumbling about losing that extra hour of sleep. (Ironic that I was the only one that I knew was out late... but still got a sensible 6-7 hours, lol.)
Sunday was a lot like Friday, where sales were condensed into a smaller timeframe. Packup went very smoothly, and we were done in relatively short work. Ready to grab food and relax with the staff as I had the previous two years, I looked for Rob n' crew... only to find out they already left! No food for me! Frustrated that I can't leave my parking space because I'll never get another due to the Elton John concert crowd that swarmed the place, I hung out with my weekend's helper. We talked about stuff and I rambled on about Otaku Antics, and offered to help the really nice Keith and Rose of Splash Page Comics load out their stuff. AFter maybe an hour of loading out their stuff, we noticed that there wasn't anyone left in the whole con center, and all the convention T-shirts were still sprawled out over a whole display. Seeing the smoothness in action and being nice and responsible guys, we packed those up and took them to con ops... who had no one guarding the publicly-available room.
Now grumbling both internally and externally about the lack of nourishment, I headed to the bar area of the hotel to see what they had, if anything. There, finding people I actually know (yeah, not Elton John fans... ugh, wait that's coming up), I sat at the bar and got a simple beer... which was rediculously priced. But whatever, it's hang-out time. Being hungry, I get the crazy idea to test the Pizza Hut again. This time, I'll try the delivery station that was down the street. Surely, the whole town of Sioux Falls can't be out of dough, can it?
I got the number from the helpful front desk clerks and made the call for 2 calzones. I could eat one tonight with some tasty beverages from the bar, and save one for the drive home as lunch. I'm at the bar, watching the Bears hang in with the Packers as a local Packer fan cheers and jeers enthusiastically at every Packer move. The pizza guy shows up and I pay for my 'zones. I walk back to enjoy them with my beer and get ready to order another, when I am CONVENIENTLY told that I wouldn't be able to eat it there. Fine, fine, I'll sit as far away as I can, watching the game and drinking paid drinks from the bar. An evil stare projects from the bitch of a bartender. F-ing bitch doesn't want my business in any respect. They'll make more money off my drinks anyway. So she makes me eat the shiz outside, where the temperature had dropped to 60 and was threatening to rain at any moment. So I storm out and find a tiny metal table outside (which was cold as HELL). From behind me as I plop the pizza down I hear, "Are you leaving already?" Angrily I respond that I'm not. Turns out that I just snapped back at Chris Ayres, lol, OOPS! Sorry man, I was damn hungry and the bitch inside was being, well, a bitch.
So I sat there, all by myself, eating a calzone shivering in the chill without even any water. It f-in' sucked. That place was NOT getting another CENT from me, and never will. I'm VERY thankful and happy that Greg came by and chatted with me. That really lifted a sizeable portion of the frustration that was building up over the course of the evening. I finished my first calzone, it started drizzling, and we went back inside. Having stood all weekend long, I parked myself back at the bar, took my tip back that I had left by my drink, and chilled. The Packers Fan from earlier yelled in dismay when they lost, which turned out to be because he bet $1000 on what should have been an easy win, and on his birthday. With the game over, the anime people filtered away from the bar and the Elton John crowd filled the place up. I was quickly and uncomfortably surrounded by a group of Sir Elton fans. With the hurt of the feet keeping me from standing for an extended period of time, all I could do is sit at a bar I wasn't buying from and sit in the middle of uncomforable conversations. That was it, time to leave... except the concert crowd had all the roads choked up. Trapped!
Stuck around and was eventually waved down by Chris, which was awesome (more people should actively include others, in my opinion). Things quickly broke down from there so I didn't get to hang out much at all with anybody, though Dave n' friend (sorry, I don't remember the dude's name) sat around a bit. Then it was time to finally leave and get some rest for the 10-hour drive back to Aurora.
Monday
Left and 100% could NOT wait to get the hell out of Sioux Falls and South Dakota. My experience of the town... sucked. While the people are mostly friendly, this place is less advanced than Eau Claire where the street lights turn off a 8 p.m. Lincoln, Nebraska is easier to traverse. Chicago construction makes more sense!!
Shortly after entering Minneasota, who should pass me but Dave! That was COOL. It's not quite sharing a ride, but it's more fun to drive in a pack than by oneself on a long drive. I hesitated a little to kick up the speed to match his, since I drive a little slower to maximize my mileage on the smaller vehicle tank. But I did and we flew down the highway. I eventually needed to refill the gas tank and looked for a station. After passing one that looked like it only had some off-brand place, I noticed large signs behind trees for Shell AND BP. Frustrating! Well, since it's Minneasota and not South Dakota, there are a good amount of stations througout the state. Even in Iowa, I don't have much of an issue... except this ONE time, there aren't any gas stations for another 20-40 miles! I have to slow down from 75 to 65 to conserve gas... then 60... then 55... eventually 45. I'm really starting to panic that I may get stranded on the road because of stupid gas issues... until I see Dave's car slowly creep back. THANK GOD he slowed down. If I were to run out of gas, at least I'd have a way to get to civilization. Then the gas light turns on... and still no exit in the forseeable distance. We're cruising along slowly, being passed consistently... until I see a big BP sign in the distance! I confirm that with a sign that it is gas coming up and it's only a mile away. I speed up a bit and hit the exit. Dave and I fill up and then arrange to drive the rest of the way as a caravan, and at my comfortable speed, LOL.
The rest of the trip was smooth and easy. Gas stop chats were had and a defective credit reader frustrated me though I had to go inside for food anyway. It got dark as we entered Illinois, and in all the lane shifting, I lost Dave in the mix. I don't remember him passing me, but am really unsure where he went. I hope you got back alright!
As I neared Aurora, I noticed that I could make it to the last few minutes of the anime club meeting that I was missing. So I did, I stopped in for the last 5 minutes or so. They actually missed me! It was weird yet super-cool, and I of course got lamblasted for the lack of Pocky and ramune. There were 9 kids this time! A group of 5 girls, 3 boys, and 1 loner that drank all our ramune last month. I walked in during the final credits of the last episode they showed, and talked about the cool parts of Sogen Con, ranging from the mythology panel to the fact that Kiba's voice actor was on hand.
For all the bumps this weekend had, it was an entertaining weekend that was fun to experience. And it capped off awesomely. Now, it's time for some lunch because I've been typing this for... damn, three and a half hours. Told ya it was gonna be a long one.
Take it easy, my brothas n' sistas from otha muthas!
- John