That's the biggest Butte hole in the world.
Welcome to Seattle. Population: Too fugging many people.
I survived yet another foray into the wild blue wonder, passing mountain and hill in order to get to Seattle. And for what? A half-assed, shittily ran convention. Let me explain further in detail of me and my companion's adventures in a week long excursion.
First day, all was well. Ten hour drive to Spokane where we were staying on the way out. Ok. Let's go! We get out of town about 8:30AM, driving West on I-90. Stop over in Bozeman for breakfast around 10AM, and we're in Missoula around 1PM. All is well still. A pass or two over with, but life is good. About an hour is spent in the Southgate Mall, where I purchase Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga. Great disappointment ensues when I learn it's an art BOX, and not an art BOOK that comes with it. Life is still alright however. We get into Spokane around 5 or 6PM local time (there is a time change over in the pan-handle of Idaho).
That's the biggest Butte hole in the world.
And here is where the crap begins. First of all, the hotel, we stayed at a Comfort Inn just off I-90 near the Spokane mall. Awesome, right? No. It turned out we needed to put down a $50 deposit for the room, despite the fact we paid for said room in cash and this was not mentioned on the website we found the hotel at, nor did they bother to mention this on the phone when we made reservations. A vein started to throb in my forehead, but things were settled. After a phone call home, my friend and I proceeded to spend the remainder of the evening at the mall, where there was much jubilation, food, and Para Para Paradise.
Day two begins after falling asleep to South Park. We get up around 8AM, enjoy Belgian waffles and free cocoa. We had no such breakfasts at the Hilton, mind you, unless you wanted to quote their insane prices. $1.50 for a piece of fruit? Try again, Hilton.
Back to the point, however. I check the oil, then drive over to a gas station to check the tires. Here is where the vein in my forehead REALLY started to throb. First of all, the air hose was WAY too short to reach all of my tires, so I had to keep repositioning the car in the first place. And then... oh god. All the sudden my passenger front tire started to hiss air! I had to dink around with the bastard for 45 minutes before I said screw it and left anyway. So we left Spokane around 10AM regardless, and headed out into the brown shit stain that is mid-Washington. Evergreen state my ass!
About mid-way through this adventure, I was damn tired. Why wouldn't I be? The day before I drove about ten hours, and I was pissed off about that tire. I locked my keys in the car at a gas station. Luckily my companion had a set, but I was damn pissed off. Also, I almost left my gas cap behind. I was damned out of it. And then... Seattle.
Whoever the HELL designed the streets of Seattle should be shot. Repeatedly. What monkey came up with the BRILLIANT idea of having overpasses ontop of overpasses deserves my fist in his jaw. And whoever came up with the idea of TWO exit-only lanes needs a groin kick while we're at it. I took the wrong exit TWICE.
See, thing about Montana is, when we have an exit, there's a re-entry ramp right near it. You may have to go over an overpass to get to it, but this is not hard. In Seattle? Oh no. One chance.
And now, an open letter to the drivers of Seattle:
How's it feel to crowd out out-of-towners?
Thank you for forcing me onto two exits I didn't want to take by trapping me in the turning lane. Really. It was fun.
Does it make you feel like a big man when you jack off at night that you caused some middle-of-nowhere Montanans to be half an hour late and have to go through the Sea-Tac airport parking lot just to get to a fuggin' hotel?
I hope you choke. You can take your shitty traffic and your shitty weather and your shitty roads and shove it.
Ah. I feel so much better. So around 3PM we arrive at the Hilton and park in the garage, then proceed to the reception desk to wait for our other roommates. Fresh Con smell assaults our senses, and all is semi-well. I still had that fricken tire to worry about, but despite what people think about me, I couldn't care less about cars. I know jack shit about them. I can check oil and tire pressure, and I can check transmission fluid and coolant and crap like that. I know jack shit about cars. And I don't care to learn.
Eventually our roomates arrive and we check in. Kudos on getting staff rates, since two of my roommates were on staff. We ended up paying about a hundred dollars each, counting parking, or saving about $25-30 each. This about the only thing you'll see me compliment about the staff benefits this year, by the way.
It was clean when we got there. This is about Saturday/Sunday's filth.
After settling into our SUITE room next to the POOL COURTYARD with Sakuracon security right next door, we went out to pre-register. Well, I did anyway. The person I'd drove up with didn't have her staff badge printed out yet because she joined up about a month and a half before the convention. But my reason for being pissed with registry goes deeper than this mention. There will be more venting, assuredly.
This was the view from our room. Hell yes!
I stood in line about an hour to get my pre-reg badge. It wasn't too bad. A few people liked my Alphonse Elric cap, so it wasn't too bad. Compared to other lines, it went pretty quick. Friday morning registry was incredibly freakin' long. And I laughed all the way to the dealers' rooms.
But back to Thursday. So I call my dad about the tire, because as I have mentioned before, I know shit about cars. He tells me the tire stem valve is loose and it'll be flat by morning. In a panic, I gather up my companion and we proceed to go to SIX different gas stations at 10PM at night to find a small part to tighten the valve. No one has it. After the sixth station, we say "screw it" and go back to the hotel. Because hell, I'll shell out the $50 dollars for a new tire, I don't care at that point. I just wanted to do two things: take a shower, and sleep. Two things.
Luckily, a very, VERY nice girl on the security team came over after the staff Karaoke and talked to me, telling me the tire just had too much air, and everything was well. I never got to properly thank her, but if you're reading this, thank you very much. I realize I was a fuggin' wreck and I'm sorry I couldn't find you to give you your Pocky.
My friend FINALLY got her staff badge I believe either late night Thursday or early morning Friday. I went up with her on Thursday to the pre-registry line... What pissed me off was this: there was a woman signing up for a badge AS we got up there, but the registry girl we talked to was DAMN rude. Basically, she told us "Uh, not my fault. Go talk to your supervisor. We don't want to deal with you" in Bitch-ese. From what I heard a lot of the registry people were damn rude like that, too, though many of them were actually nice and tried to help people. The peace-bonding people were bitchy too. My friend got her duel-disk off Yu-gi-oh! peace-bonded. Twice. The second time because you "couldn't see the first one". Whatever. Their reasoning for having to peace-bond it? "You could bring your arm back and smack someone with it." Yeah. I could also bring back my arm and smack someone with my bare fist too. Dumbasses. It wouldn't have been so bad if they hadn't basically ignored her on the forums on the website. She asked at least twice, three months ahead then one month ahead if she'd have to have her duel-disk peace-bonded. No one answered.
Everything outlined in red is what they gave in their grab bags. The Fullmetal Alchemist pencil board (top left under the programming booklet) was about the best thing. The posters I found they were giving away in the dealers' rooms.
Oh, and let's not forget. Their grab-bags this year sucked verily. They did the bag-stuffing party HOURS before the pre-reg line opened, while normally they do it a month or so ahead. Inside? We got a booklet stuffed with advertisements and some convention info, a little pocket booklet of events, a pencil board of Fullmetal Alchemist, and a postcard for the movie "Madagascar". I know Dreamworks was at last year's convention (I didn't even see their table this year if they had one), but good god! The bag I got my crap in had an advertisement for Shark's Tale on it! This movie is already out on DVD! What the hell! Talk about shitty! Last year at least we got crap that would be useful, like ADV giving out bags for carrying wallscrolls and posters. I also heard a lot of pre-reg people didn't get bags at all, or that normal registry people got BETTER bags than pre-reg people. Whatever, Trainwreck That Is Sakuracon.
End day 2 of Hell Week.
Friday morning, I awaken briskly and go down to the dealers' rooms. After waiting two and a half hours, I am one of the first people to rush in in order to purchase swag. Outright I blew about three hundred dollars on worthless crap, but man... I love my worthless crap. It's the best kind of crap! Anime crap!
About the dealers' rooms though. Was it me or were prices really fricken jacked up from last year? A two-pack of choco-Pocky was like, $1, $1.50 last year. This year: $2.75. And it was STALE Pocky at that! It is impossible to believe how very pissed off I am. That, and all the Fullmetal Alchemist crap was WAY overpriced for the most part. I bought gashapon figures, but I wasn't going to shell out $40 for a fuggin' Edward doll. My friend, lucky bastard, found both Edward and Alphonse for $30 each. Considering their rarity and the fact they don't make them any more, that's actually a damn good price. I probably should have bought the Edward doll too, but good god. I could get three regular plushies for that much and have enough leftover for Ramune. Also, a lot of action figures were overpriced. All the Inu Yasha figures were expensive as hell. At LEAST $15-25. I know I got my Inu Yasha and Sesshoumaru figures for about 12 each (keep in mind, Montana has no sales tax either). ASS RAPE. PURE UNADULTERATED ASS RAPE WITHOUT LUBRICATION.
Oh, but it gets worse. On my way back to my hotel room with my bags of swag, I notice a man towards the back of the Hilton where a stairwell is. He hands me a little pamphlet. Thinking these may well be coupons, I jokingly ask "What's this?" His answer I will never forget, and I will never cease to be pissed off at. "Try it. You'll like it." He said it really condescendingly too, or like it was drugs. I look on the cover and it says "This is your life" in white against an 'ominous' black background of a desert with bleached cow bones and cacti and crap like that. I swiftly flip through, and it's fuggin' bible quotes! BIBLE QUOTES! Telling me how sinful I am and crap like that.
Ok. Let it be known: I have nothing against God or people who worship god. But when it comes to "uber Christians", as I call them, who have the sheer balls to judge me on first sight, I can't contain my rage. I should have kept that booklet to scan for you all. It was damn insulting.
Let me just get something clear, bible-quotes guy. You're saying I'm leading a sinful life and I should change, right? Who are you to say I'm being sinful? Last I checked, that's called judgement. Or rather, prejudice based solely on the fact you know I like anime. And last I checked, only God could judge mankind. "Let he without sin cast the first stone", bitch. Of course, my friend told security about this (as they were next door). Their answer? "We can't do anything about him as long as he's off hotel property." He's harrassing people! And for the record, he was INSIDE hotel property, hiding in back trying to push his religion off on otaku like it was a fricken drug. Ugh. I hate God's uber Christian fanclub SO damn much. They're worse than the Inu-Yasha people, Naruto people and the Sailor Moon folk COMBINED. But like I said: I don't have a vendetta against God or Christians, but good lord. How can I NOT be pissed off about this?
That aside, I went to the Fullmetal Alchemist and Inu Yasha meetings, both on the same day. There were so many Edwards! Travis Willingham (English Roy Mustang) even showed up and posed with everyone! We had some very funny/cool poses and good cosplayers too.
That fellow with the Rizas about to shoot him happens to be Travis Willingham, the dub actor of Roy Mustang. Is it me or does he LOOK a little like Roy?
Stampede of Edwards! I think we actually had more Edwards than we did Military dogs.
And they're all girls, too, except one lucky fellow.
The Inu-Yasha meeting was decidedly a little more low-key.
We had about three Inu-Yashas, four Kagomes, four Sangos, four Mirokus, two Sesshoumarus, and me. The only Shippo. Apparently there was another Shippo running around the convention (I know this, because I was volunteering at the runway fashion show and she was in it). I couldn't believe she was shorter than me! Either way, my Shippo costume was the better of the two (I think), and I couldn't leave my room without three or four people stopping me for pictures or hugs. I wore that costume for most of the rest of the convention. Mostly because it wasn't too hot, and I got a lot of compliments on it. I worked pretty damn hard on the yukata that made the top part, so I should hope it would go over so well.
Most of the rest of Friday I spent in the room, either recovering energy from the day before or watching anime. But I'll cover the aspect of Tokyopop on our next installment.