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Another Ohayocon is in the rearview mirror as I reflect on what happened and what it all means. The drive to Columbus was uneventful. I covered the 350 miles in about 5.5 hours and had no trouble finding the hotel. The Hyatt Regency had overbooked due to construction and moved a number of us to the Hyatt on Capitol Square with Saturday night for free. The free night helped my budget, but being remote would prove to be a real pain and a dampener on my fun.
Checkin was fast and after getting to my room, I did a quick turn-around to get to the convention center and pick up my registration badge. I had to ask around about where to catch the shuttle to the center. Feeling that this was going to be trouble for some, I went to the front desk to suggest that they put up signs. I had a pleasant talk with the manager, but in the end, no signs were placed at all. I guess it just wasn’t worth their effort. Lack of adequate signage would also be a problem at the convention center for many of the panel rooms.
On the plus side, the hotel upgraded the shuttle service to 24 hours and I think the drivers did a really good job moving tons of people back and forth. Still, I like being in the middle of the action, so having to figure shuttle time into everything was a headache. At least picking up my badge in the short pre-reg line was fast as usual and I got my first cosplay pic of a Garterbelt cosplayer!
After picking up my badge I headed back to the hotel, picked up a couple of Subway sandwiches and then began the arduous task of ironing my very wrinkled Mahoro costume. I really hate hotel irons! They just never seem to be up to the job. I really need to start packing my own irons!
The first cosplay usually takes me at least 2 extra hours to get ready. This is something else I need to work on. To top it all off, I was still very tired from the drive and in a bit of a fog. But I was determined to make it to the Chris Sabat Roast, the AMV Contest, karaoke, and the Friday dance. I’d already missed opening ceremonies which is why I was wishing for a  couple of extra hours.
I finally got Mahoro to the AMV Contest a little late and dropped off my first set of flyers promoting Anime Aftershocks. Ohayocon wasn’t spread out across the convention center this year, which was great for getting to things, but left a lot fewer places to dump flyers. I love AMVs, but I gotta say that I was a bit disappointed with the contest entries this year. A number of entries had pretty bad visual quality using footage that was clearly either recorded from TV or came from fansubs. Most AMV contests generally reject videos like this, but I guess they were short on entries. The best video in my opinion was Me, Myself, and Me by HalOfBorg. I laughed my ass off! And it reminded me of why I need to get it in gear and make some new AMVs myself!
The Chris Sabat Roast was the number one must see event for Friday. So I lined up early and was able to get a good seat. If you go to Ohayocon, you’ve got to see the guests. They have always been the best part of my Ohayocon experience. Part of it is the sheer talent they have, and the rest is how much fun they have with each other. The roast did not disappoint as not only was the target, err, guest of honor, mercilessly destroyed, but each and every other guest as well! These weapons of mass destruction included anecdotes, video, and an original song which included the term “crotch yogurt”!
I ended Friday hunting around for cosplayers to photograph and some fun hours doing karaoke. If I’d been in the Hyatt Regency, I probably would have gone to the dance, but taking the bus all the way back to Capitol Square to drop off my bags was just too much for me. So I decided to save some energy for Saturday and call it a night.
I’ll finish this up in the next posting.
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Ohayocon is just a few more days away and I’m looking forward to it with the usual mix of excitement and stress. This year’s soup of emotions has the added spice of great uncertainty mixed in. Mmmm, that’s good soup!
The last few months I’ve been busy looking for work and getting my software development business off the ground. I’ve actually been busier than I was at my previous job, having also taken on many childcare and home tasks in order to keep expenses down. Seems kind of crazy to be still making costumes and going to cons, but I’ve tried to keep things relatively normal. Besides, now I’ve got a bonafide business related reason for attending anime cons, promoting my book, Anime Aftershocks. And I’ve got one other convention related project in the works that I hope to complete before Otakon. If all goes well, the ROI should be very good!
Cosplay plans for Ohayocon are pretty much set. Mahoro for Friday, Stocking for Saturday, and Miho for Saturday night or maybe Sunday depending on how things work out. If I can find the materials around the house I need, I’m going to do my best to make a Hone Neko plush for Stocking today along with some business filings and doing more work on the data storage for my current iPhone app project.
Despite the challenges, or perhaps because of them, I’m really excited about Ohayocon and should come away with a lot of new energy to pour into my projects!
Life is too short to get down and depressed about anything. I’m workng hard, playing hard, and things are going to be alright.