I am currently engaged in a heated battle against a condition which is affectionately known as "con crud."
We were lucky; of the four of us who attended Zenkaikon this past Saturday, only I got sick. Con crud is a common affliction following a convention. When you have that many people in an enclosed area, it's only natural that germs are going to be flying. In shortest form, I have a bad cold; that's really all it is.
In light of that fact, I thought I'd devote today's blog post to some convention advice. I attempted this once in the past and was criticized for my tone, but I'm going to be upbeat and cheerful here.
Join me Mondays and Thursdays to laugh, to think, and to maybe change the world a little bit.
Showing posts with label zenkaikon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label zenkaikon. Show all posts
Thursday, May 17, 2012
Monday, May 14, 2012
Return of the Zenkaikonventionists
Once again, hello to those of you who found your way here on account of my recent attendance at Zenkaikon. Either you were accosted by a camera-wielding shrimp in a pink dress who then pushed a business card into your hand, or you noticed my blatherings on Tumblr and came here as a result of that, or you followed the link from my profile on the Zenkaikon forums. Regardless, welcome - I hope you'll stick around.
I don't honestly have a whole lot to say about this year's con. We attended a pair of great panels. The first was about cartoons based on video games, including the so-bad-it's-good Legend of Zelda cartoon that I like to refer to as 'my childhood on DVD.' (I was actually a young teenager when it was on, but let's not split hairs.) I got to enter their video game trivia contest, and I did pretty well on the whole but got smoked out in the very end. I did take second place, though, and from the prize bag I drew a Game Boy copy of Ultimate Fighting Championship...whatever that is. The other panel was "Iron Artist: Zenkaikon," in which people competed at drawing specific things within a seven-minute time frame. That was excellent and I hope they repeat it next year.
From my beloved Fullmetal Alchemist I got to meet Mr. Sonny Strait, the voice of Maes Hughes. He's done other voices in other anime but I'm not familiar with any of them so to me, he's Hughes. He was the first cast member to sign the FMA poster I purchased in the dealer's room, and his inscription was...well, it was rather on the off-color side, and this is a family-friendly blog, so I'm not going to share it here.
Of course, what most of you came here to see are the pictures. If you spot yourself or someone you know, feel free to leave a comment here; or, if you came from Tumblr, find me over there and say hello. Thing is, though, this year there are so many pictures - and I don't know who all is what. So I put everything into my Photobucket, and I'm just going to send you over there. I hope you like what you find! If you have questions, let me know; I might be able to find the answer if I don't know it myself.
I don't honestly have a whole lot to say about this year's con. We attended a pair of great panels. The first was about cartoons based on video games, including the so-bad-it's-good Legend of Zelda cartoon that I like to refer to as 'my childhood on DVD.' (I was actually a young teenager when it was on, but let's not split hairs.) I got to enter their video game trivia contest, and I did pretty well on the whole but got smoked out in the very end. I did take second place, though, and from the prize bag I drew a Game Boy copy of Ultimate Fighting Championship...whatever that is. The other panel was "Iron Artist: Zenkaikon," in which people competed at drawing specific things within a seven-minute time frame. That was excellent and I hope they repeat it next year.
From my beloved Fullmetal Alchemist I got to meet Mr. Sonny Strait, the voice of Maes Hughes. He's done other voices in other anime but I'm not familiar with any of them so to me, he's Hughes. He was the first cast member to sign the FMA poster I purchased in the dealer's room, and his inscription was...well, it was rather on the off-color side, and this is a family-friendly blog, so I'm not going to share it here.
Of course, what most of you came here to see are the pictures. If you spot yourself or someone you know, feel free to leave a comment here; or, if you came from Tumblr, find me over there and say hello. Thing is, though, this year there are so many pictures - and I don't know who all is what. So I put everything into my Photobucket, and I'm just going to send you over there. I hope you like what you find! If you have questions, let me know; I might be able to find the answer if I don't know it myself.
Thursday, May 10, 2012
Zenkaikon again
It's that time again - time for me to pack up my camera and wander vaguely southward to the Philadelphia area, where Zenkaikon will be in full swing as of tomorrow. If you read this blog last year, you might recall my post full of pictures of my fellow nerds decked out as their favorite characters from anime, fantasy, and science fiction.
This year I'll be accompanied by my husband and both of my 'partners in crime.' Andrea went with Kevin and me last year, but this is Jess's inaugural convention and we've struggled in vain to prepare her for the wonders that await her. It must be experienced to be understood. Hopefully she'll enjoy it.
As last year, next Monday's blog post will be full of pictures of costumed characters, celebrity guests, and whatever else tickles my fancy. See you then!
This year I'll be accompanied by my husband and both of my 'partners in crime.' Andrea went with Kevin and me last year, but this is Jess's inaugural convention and we've struggled in vain to prepare her for the wonders that await her. It must be experienced to be understood. Hopefully she'll enjoy it.
As last year, next Monday's blog post will be full of pictures of costumed characters, celebrity guests, and whatever else tickles my fancy. See you then!
Monday, March 21, 2011
Zenkaikonventionists
Hello to all of my new friends and readers from Zenkaikon! My husband, Andrea and I were there this past Saturday and we had a lot of fun.
I half want to describe everything we did, but on the other hand, I know that most of the people who came in search of this post are really just here for the pictures. So I'm going to try to do a little of both. My standard photo disclaimer: I took and own the copyright on all of the pictures contained in this post. If you're in any of them and you want to take them for your own private use, feel free. If you want to share them on your Facebook or wherever, that's okay too; all I ask is that you credit me and, if possible, toss up a link back to this blog. That's not asking much, right? Enjoy!
For me, the big draw of Zenkaikon - besides how close it is to where I live - is that Vic Mignogna was going to be there. You might remember I geeked out about meeting him up at Genericon last month, and I was excited at the chance to see him again, especially since I've gotten into some of his anime (specifically, Fullmetal Alchemist) since then and all three of us have joined his official fan club, the Risembool Rangers. In fact, the Rangers had something up our collective sleeves, but I'll get to that in time.
Vic and his pal/FMA costar Todd Haberkorn participated in "Anime Password," which was the first event we went to see once we registered for the con. Along with playing with people from the audience, they had a final round in which they attempted to score 5,000 points; if they did, the host would donate $75 to Japan earthquake relief, and Vic promised to match it. (They did, of course!) They also circulated collection buckets for those of us in the audience.
Our second event was Vic's Q&A, at which he sang for us, answered questions, and showed us the con-viewable-only fan movie Fullmetal Fantasy. He and some of his FMA costars dressed up as the characters they voice and ran around acting crazy, and it was hysterically awesome.
The only other panel we attended was the "Abuse the Author" presentation by C. J. Henderson, which was both funny and - to a writer like me - very informative. Mr. Henderson somehow reminded me of my drama teacher from high school.
For the rest, we chiefly wandered around Artists' Alley and the dealer room, both of which were larger than the ones at Genericon. Andrea gifted me with a Roy Mustang plushie. I took many, many pictures of people in costume, not all of whom I can identify, unfortunately. But here goes.
I wasn't in the line for Vic's autograph because we were scheduled to have dinner with him after the con. That's right; the local Risembool Rangers were all meeting at the Cheesecake Factory in the King of Prussia Mall for dinner with Vic and Todd! Unfortunately, they screwed up with our reservation situation, and then Vic and Todd couldn't stay for the meal anyway - but they did come and spend some time with us before they headed off to do what they needed to do! They are lovely, lovely gentlemen, both of them.
(Also, thanks to everyone who has helped to clear up some of the mystery characters!)
I half want to describe everything we did, but on the other hand, I know that most of the people who came in search of this post are really just here for the pictures. So I'm going to try to do a little of both. My standard photo disclaimer: I took and own the copyright on all of the pictures contained in this post. If you're in any of them and you want to take them for your own private use, feel free. If you want to share them on your Facebook or wherever, that's okay too; all I ask is that you credit me and, if possible, toss up a link back to this blog. That's not asking much, right? Enjoy!
For me, the big draw of Zenkaikon - besides how close it is to where I live - is that Vic Mignogna was going to be there. You might remember I geeked out about meeting him up at Genericon last month, and I was excited at the chance to see him again, especially since I've gotten into some of his anime (specifically, Fullmetal Alchemist) since then and all three of us have joined his official fan club, the Risembool Rangers. In fact, the Rangers had something up our collective sleeves, but I'll get to that in time.
Vic and his pal/FMA costar Todd Haberkorn participated in "Anime Password," which was the first event we went to see once we registered for the con. Along with playing with people from the audience, they had a final round in which they attempted to score 5,000 points; if they did, the host would donate $75 to Japan earthquake relief, and Vic promised to match it. (They did, of course!) They also circulated collection buckets for those of us in the audience.
- Password #1
- Password #2
- Can you guess what the password was?
- Todd calls Vic's mother to report on her son's behavior
- Greeting fans after the game
- Todd with Kevin and Andrea
Our second event was Vic's Q&A, at which he sang for us, answered questions, and showed us the con-viewable-only fan movie Fullmetal Fantasy. He and some of his FMA costars dressed up as the characters they voice and ran around acting crazy, and it was hysterically awesome.
The only other panel we attended was the "Abuse the Author" presentation by C. J. Henderson, which was both funny and - to a writer like me - very informative. Mr. Henderson somehow reminded me of my drama teacher from high school.
For the rest, we chiefly wandered around Artists' Alley and the dealer room, both of which were larger than the ones at Genericon. Andrea gifted me with a Roy Mustang plushie. I took many, many pictures of people in costume, not all of whom I can identify, unfortunately. But here goes.
- Legend of Zelda characters
- Twilight Princess Ganondorf
- Red Link
- Imp Midna
- Wind Waker-timeline Princess Zelda
- Link
- Sheik
- Fullmetal Alchemist characters
- Winry (from a distance and regrettably blurry)
- Envy
- Alphonse and Edward Elric
- Roy Mustang and Riza Hawkeye, with plush Hayate and Envy
- Another Roy Mustang and Riza Hawkeye
- Fuhrer King Bradley
- Assorted Other Characters
- Members of Organization XIII (Kingdom Hearts)
- Marth and Ike (Super Smash Bros. Brawl)
- Squall Leonhart (Final Fantasy)
- Yuna and Sora (Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts)
- Somebody from Princess Tutu
- The Mad Hatter
- Ash and Pikachu (Pokemon)
- Speed Racer
- Altair (Assassin's Creed)
- The Akatsuki (Naruto)
- Somebody I thought was Dr. Manhattan from Watchmen, but apparently not!
- The First Doctor, and my husband (Doctor Who)
- The Eleventh Doctor (Doctor Who)
- Cloud Strife (Final Fantasy)
- Captain Harlock and Pirate Queen Esmereldas (Galaxy Express)
- Two of the vendor room merchants, who like Renaissance faires
I wasn't in the line for Vic's autograph because we were scheduled to have dinner with him after the con. That's right; the local Risembool Rangers were all meeting at the Cheesecake Factory in the King of Prussia Mall for dinner with Vic and Todd! Unfortunately, they screwed up with our reservation situation, and then Vic and Todd couldn't stay for the meal anyway - but they did come and spend some time with us before they headed off to do what they needed to do! They are lovely, lovely gentlemen, both of them.
- A very effective way to make sure everyone found each other
- Our heroes arrive!
- Todd spots Andrea's "Angry Birds" hat and talks to her about the game
- I reunite with Vic, and it feels like reuniting with an old friend
- He opens the gift I brought him from my store
- They sign autographs and tell us they love us before heading out
(Also, thanks to everyone who has helped to clear up some of the mystery characters!)
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