Down Time For a Bit

Kozumi's Quote of the Week:
Like I'm fucking Winnie the Pooh or somethin o.O "Fucking Winnie the Pooh" as in I AM him, not the action. Cause yeah...THAT would be extremely awkward o.O
--Choco, when describing how relaxing karate was for him

Dio: Welcome back, worms. How was the con?
Dea: Lovely. I think Lex's still recovering.
Lex: O_O GOD MY LEGS HURT.
Diz: Wimp. -_-
Dio: Anything of import?
Diz: There's some seriously good Brawl players out there.
Lex: Hot chick population fucking boomed. I mean, shit, every three steps was like "shwing!"
Dea: We missed the cosplay contest. Ah well. ^^
Dio: Dynamite. Today we're posting from Random Lunacy HQ today. This place is a mess and I'm Dio "This Shit is Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" Maxwelle.
Dea: I'm Dea "Cosplay Retiree since 2004" Maxwelle.
Diz: I'm Diz "Your Ike is a Cheating Whore" Maxwelle.
(all three) TOTAL relation.
Lex: And I'm Lex "I'd Climb Her for a Dollar" McCloud.
Dio: We need to clean this place up. There are costumes everywhere. Its like a freakin' orgy happened last night.
Dea: .......Is that a Lucas costume over there?
Dio: ........Ok, an orgy in one room and Lucas just happened to sleep over WELL AWAY FROM THE NOISE.
Lex: And you call me the pedo.
Diz: Says the guy who laments not getting that Ness cosplayer's contact info.
Lex: She was cute!!

Con fallout isn't pretty. Right after the con, I slunk my way back out to Manteca, and watched my precious little sister KP graduate middle school. *SNIFF* I'M SO PROUD. Therefore, my room looks like a closet exploded on my floor and my desk. I'd show pictures but there's clean laundry i haven't put away since Friday.
Lex: Dio, is this your thong?
Dio: ?? Nope. That's Raz's.
Lex: I just threw up a little in my mouth. ><
Overall: of the $55 I paid as entrance fee for the whole weekend, I'd say it was worth $40.

The Pros
-Costumes. They were pretty good this year. Some bad, but a lot of real gems.

-Hot chicks. God-dayum. O_O They were out in full force. And I mean, you couldn't go 3 yards before you saw another hottie dressed as Electra go by.

-Artists' Alley. It was amazing this year. So many artists, so much talent, and even cool things like those adorable Earthbound plushies I'd been eyeing for about a month. ^^ Yes. I have a Lucas and Ness plushie. I am so happy I could die, but I at least wanna get married before that so the dying in happiness will hafta wait.

-Relaxed atmosphere. Very little drama, thank god. Only a few snafus, but nothing on the huge range as previous cons.

-Dante, Vergil, and Wesker were there. Yeah, I mean the voices, but it was fucking awesome. ^^

-PA Music. The overhead music gave my ears something pretty to hear, like the Brawl soundtrack, various Final Fantasies that included even Crystal Chronicles, and even RickRoll Friday morning. Hell, anything's better than Nami Tamaki's ONE ALBUM on rotation for 4 FUCKING DAYS. ahem.

-Quiet Maid Cafe. It was in the back, they had more real estate, and the maid were cute (mostly Skuld, cuz she's fucking adorable). No clamoring fanboys.

The Cons
-Asshat con ops. On the whole, w/ the exception of very few volunteers (1st years of course), and the video room guys, the con staff were buncha assholes.
---EXAMPLE: Peacebonding and Con Safety.
The rovers for peacebonding were ridiculous. I completely understand banning arisofts and actual blades for weapons. That's fine. I was down w/ getting my league baseball bat peacebonded for Ness (even had Lucas' stick and the plastic bat peacebonded). I understand getting most large sticks and waterguns peacebonded. I understand common sense.

But when you make someone peacebond a fucking paper sword but let a titanium golf driver go, that's just RETARDED. Seriously. I took my friend's "sword" (might I remind you its made of cardstock, shiny cardstock) to get it bonded after the rover told him to, and even the girl who did it agreed it was stupid. But we had to anyway.
I had no less that 4 people tell me to peacebond my bat as I walked literally 50 feet to walk my sisters to the at-con reg line, and another one tell me on my way up TO the peacebonding station. That's just ridiculous.
----Example: How NOT to handle an incident
There were a few Team Fortress scouts running about. It was a neat and simple costume. They, like Ness (and to an extent Lucas) carry bats as part of the costume. Cool. Then i hear from my friend that an incident occurred where a scout hurt someone w/ their bat. Suddenly, the con ops panic and start confiscating EVERY bat from any cosplayer, Ness' included (just so you all know, Ness was pretty popular; there were roughly 5 of us this year). Straight up started taking them from random scouts.
Ok, I understand that something happened, and that they were trying (in the dumbest way possible) to ensure not only safety, but to try to identify the weapon that was the culprit (and the owner). But to basically take them from peoples' hands w/ little explanation, that's not cool. The person injured gave a description, and its not the best, since this is based on someone in costume, but I doubt that the victim could pick out the weapon when they were all assembled.
A scout I knew personally was understandably upset; he was not at fault but he, along w/ others like him, were being punished for someone else's mistake. I felt that the panicked confiscation and sudden ban on bats was a bad way of going about the problem. No, i didn't get mine confiscated, since I simply carried it discreetly, but if I was confronted, I would have asked them to escort me out, since I would leave the con. They were unfairly taking other people's property w/o properly explaining the situation, and instead leaving the grapevine network to explain the situation.
If Fanime had, on their signs and in their programs, left a line about how they reserve the right to change their rules as they see fit, then I would have to give in and accept their decision, even if I saw it as unfair. After all, I understand the liability. Only they didn't. No where in any form did I see this right posted. Therefore, since bats were not a banned item going into the con, to others who had nothing to do with the incident, a sudden ban (that really only lasted through Sunday night) was a violation of our right to have it as a prop. I may be muddling my laws here and the such, but I stand by my opinion.
I had a yo-yo ball for Ness, and I spent the whole weekend swinging it around for pics and generally swinging it because my hands don't like to be idle. I never hit anyone but myself w/ it (I got good fast, simply cuz Ness looks like a n00b if he ends up hitting himself 50% of the time XD). I would play w/ it while I walked, even next to people. Did they make me peacebond the yo-yo, even after the Scout Bat Scare? No.
But they could have. They should have. But, like a titanium golf driver, the yo-yo slipped under the radar.
You guys know that yo-yos used to be a weapon right?

-Registration
I don't pre-reg anymore. I should but I generally forget. That's the way the ball bounces. I'm ok w/ waiting in line, a longer line, of course, than the pre-and early reg'ers. Its nice down time, and I rarely have plans that first friday that early (reg usually starts at 8).
Now I see that this year I should.
Why? If you've never been to a convention, usually the line for at-con registration is about an hour to 2 hours long, where in you wait til you get to the booths, and a kind volunteer will take your info and money and print your badge right there. Then you go along your merry way. One line, one-two hours wait, one paper badge and a program bag. Simple right?
This year? You spend an hour or so in line til an available computer opens up. You enter your info into the computer, which will send your info to the booths. Right? Well, after you hit send on the comp, you write down an authorization code, and stand in another line (shorter, usually 15-20 minute wait), where you wait for one of maybe 2-3 booths (down from 6-8 in previous years), hand over your code, and money (they're supposed to check IDs...which they didn't), then they send you over to a table.
This table is the print area, where volunteers rapidly and frantically shove your name into its holder and lanyard, and have people w/ bad vocal projection shout your name like a lottery over an already impatient crowd. This is by far the worst part, since not only do at-cons have to wait, but early-reg does too, and there is no alphabetical, numerical, or indeed an sort of order to help organize. I was told this has "more flow". I saw it as a complete collapse of organization. By Saturday, it was metered out so there wasn't an angry mob by the time you had to go to collect your badge, but this was unacceptable. I'm sorry, but as long as the line was in the past, it was much more straight-forward and logical than it was this year.
In short: registration was a mess.

-Unhappy staff
It happens every year, but this year, the volunteers and staff were understaffed severely. It seems the mistreatment from previous years had caught up with the con. Long hours, bad management, little compensation (i had a friend who paid admission earlier this year, then was roped into staff, and wasn't yet reimbursed for the admission). This is what staffing volunteering at Fanime has become.
And if the staff was unhappy, esp. the rovers, you can bet they took it out on the attendees.

-The Internet
I don't mean the connection speeds (though they sucked). I mean the dumbshits in the Guy Fawkes mask playing Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up" on a boombox the whole con, in an unending rickroll. Its only funny the first day, asshats.

-I lost the game
SHUT THE FUCK UP, I DON'T CARE.

-Dealer's room
Eh. Kinda sucked this year. i spent more at Artists' Alley than the Dealer's Room. It was small this year, and I heard cuz to get your foot in the door, it took a grand per table. O_O As such, the prices were a lil (sometimes insanely) higher. Good thing I found the Lucas wig at Swap Meet cuz the wig ppl didn't come this year. *shrug* Wizzywig was there tho. ^^

-Protesters and a special appearance w/ Jesus
I have nothing against the guy who dressed up as Jesus for the con. Call me sacriligious, but it was pretty awesome. He was cool. What wasn't cool was the protestors telling us we're all going to hell outside the con. I don't know if it was anime, the con, the cosplayers, the crossplayers, or yaoi, or what he was protesting, I only know that he was telling us we were all going to hell.
Until our pal JC showed up and stole his thunder. That was cool. ^^ I was down w/ that.
Its just that the incident totally took precedence over the Brawl gathering that I missed by mere minutes. T_T Damn protesters.

-Yeah, I still regret not getting the cute Ness' contact info. She was cute. ^^

That was my weekend in a nutshell. All things considered, it was pretty nice. ^^ My cosplay docket was:
Thursday (swap meet): Wii-tan
Friday: Mio Amakura (Fatal Frame 2)
Saturday: Lucas (Mother 3/Super Smash Bros. Brawl)
Sunday: Ness (Mother 2/Earthbound/Super Smash Bros. Brawl)
Monday: Ninten (YES, technically it was Ness, but I wore the red neckerchief and spent my last hours messing w/ ppl)

Highlights:
(Sunday nite)
Random guy: Hey, um, Ness, ca I ask you something?
Me as Ness: Shoot.
RG: How did it feel....when some bug came through time from the future to tell you you had the save the world from aliens?
Me: .....I honestly though i was stripping BALLS. Seriously. I was all "DUDE, Porky, that bug is talking to us....WE ARE SO TRIPPING BALLS RIGHT NOW. We should not have eaten those mushrooms in the forest". ....But in all honesty, it wasn't so bad in the end, cuz I got to hook up w/ a hottie [Paula] in the end. *Thumbs up*
RG: You just seriously made my night.
Me: Just kidding, I'm Ninten. You got the wrong Mother character.
RG: Really?? O_O
Me: No, I'm messing w/ you. I really am Ness. ^_^

I'm a horrible Ness, i know. XD That's why being Ninten on Monday was fun.

(Saturday afternoon)
*Me (as Lucas) and Choco (as pallette swap Mr. Saturn Ness) walk by a artist's booth*
Artist Guy (to Choco Ness): Hey, you know you wanna buy this bookmark. (bookmark in question is a Pokemon Trainer bookmark)
Me: SOLD.
AG: Huh? *looks at me* Really? You wanna see the others? (other bookmarks were Marth and Pit)
Me: Nope. Just PT. *gets wallet* Of all the characters in Brawl, he's the only one I'd bang. PT's sexy.
AG: O_O
Me (Still as Lucas, mind you): Seriously. I mean....Marth's a fag, I don't like Pit, Ness is a little bastard, and Lucas is too cute to think about like that. So, *points to PT* I'd hit that.
Artist Chick next to AG: Yeah. And Pit's Greek, so we know what his preferences are.
Me: oooh. Exactly. How much?
AC: $6.
Me: Sold.
AG: You made my day. I had no idea we'd turn Pokemon Trainer, or any of this, into something sexual.
Me: Yay. ^^ Look, Choco. PT!
Choco: O_O Lucas....
Me: Oh yeah....I'm Lucas today. -_-

I'm an even worse Lucas. T_T

(And just so I can clear this up, I am really serious. If I had to pick which Brawl character [girls excluded cuz I'd pretty much bang them all; only Samus would bang me ^^] to bang, it boils down to PT/Red. I think Marth and Ike are fags [and, as I've mentioned, I hate Fire Emblem charas], Pit's Greek, so we know he's already gay, Snake would never be home, Captain Falcon...just....no, Mario/Luigi/Link are taken [technically], Lucas is too sweet to think of in sexual terms, Toon Link is far too weird, I don't do furries [which counts out Fox, Wolf, and Falco], FUCK Ganondorf I hate him so much, Wario...GOD FUCK NO, and Ness.....well, Ness is a different story. But PT? Hell, I'd hit that and it'd be super-effective. ^__^
Ok....Ness is a close second, but only cuz he's a little punk. He'd Nancy Kerrigan me when I wasn't looking. Yes, I have a shota complex. You should know that by now)

ANYWAY. All in all, good con. I enjoyed myself. If any of you guys are in town/are local to San Jose next May, I heartily recommend coming down. ^^ The only place where you'd see Electra hanging out with Shredder next to the King of the Cosmos.

*Next con--Yaoi Con W00t*