per aspera ad astra

Otakon 2008 was a great success. It raked in 26,500+ people [I can't remember the specific figure]. Otakon 2009 has been scheduled for July 17-19th and will be held, of course, in Baltimore, Maryland, at the illustrious B(altimore)C(onvention)C(center).

There was lots of Caramelldansen-ing. Lots. In the car on the way there, in the snazzy hotel room, in the damn shower, at the con, in the streets, at restaurants…you name it, it happened there. Yay!

I have discovered that I enjoy, as does Phixious, working/staffing the convention versus just attending. In spite of the drama blizzard, I had more fun working than last year just being there. Lending a hand in the understaffed Cosplay department [without being staff or a Gofer (which is like...junior staff)] made me see that…while simultaneously wanting nothing more than to wring the neck of the twit in charge of it.
[But I refuse to have this be a big rant about incompetence, so I will just say that she Department Head was chosen for her status AS a cosplayer, not as someone who could handle the job itself, and things were screwy because of it. Phix, however, managed to get things under control. Which is good. So yay.]
Howeverrr, in helping as I did, the president of the con–who is a lovely and sweet lady who should get endless huggles for being so–personally invited me to staff. So I am officially staff of Otakorp, despite the fact that staffers are supposed to be at least eighteen. Yay for bending rules over my sheer, unadulterated AWESOME.

Speaking of awesome…

Some really smart kid climbed onto the roof and duct taped this to the damn high-vaulted windows. It’s funny and annoying at the same time.

There were some really great Cosplays, although I didn’t have the sense to get the camera out in time to snap them, and I didn’t want to bug the people registering for the contest–that, and I was working, so the chance didn’t always present itself when it ought. Phixious has more pictures from his cam which I hope to snag. Someone cosplayed Washu from Tenchi, which made me happy. <3Washu. There were some other good ones, there was a fantastic Ryuk from Death Note [and I don't even like Death Note].

For now, just enjoy this most epic King Dedede cosplay:

Absolutely amazing. Sadly, she didn’t win anything although she TOTALLY SHOULD HAVE [because the judges were catty morons who did everything based on opinion, with no scoring system]. Later, I heard, she broke her hammer… poor thing.

Phix and I decided that we’re going to pull of an Excel x Il Palazzo cosplay. For great justice, of course. It’ll be amazing. x]

I didn’t really get to enjoy as much of the rave as I would have liked [which sucked because I had glowsticks and glitter galore]…between broken ribs and irresponsible, untrustworthy teenagers anyway. The latter has been taken care of, supposedly…I’m still highly pissed over it, but whatever.
But yeah, my ribs got broken again! HOORAY. Minds out of the gutter, please, it wasn’t even via fun means, damn it. I has’d a cuddle with phix, and all the sudden his friend Tony, who is rather large, tackles him. And then their friend Blake tackles them. So, on top of Jer’s 180lbs on me–which I can comfortably sustain without issue or discomfort–there was very suddenly an additional 550+, totaling 700+ pounds on top of me, and my ribs that were broken in the accident in September found themselves apart again.
Lemme tell you, I was. not. fucking. happy. That was a hugely unnecessary pain in the ass[/back/torso] because some morons can’t think before they act.
“Hm, Jeremy’s laying down with his girlfriend. She’s small. LET’S TACKLE JEREMY, LOL.”
I forgave them, though. Just because I’m not going to kill them doesn’t mean I’m not annoyed, though.

I didn’t get any pocky though. Murr.

I’ll add to this in a while, but reading the same stuff over and over brings to me a lack of ideas re: what to write about. But it was a good weekend in spite of all the negatives. :]