If anyone didn't know, I went to Otakon for Saturday (and Saturday only!). So, here's what happened!

6:00 - Woke up, prepared to leave.
7:10 - Went to pick up my friend, Ryan. Headed to Baltimore.
8:30 - Got to Baltimore. Waited in line.
9:30 - Finally got in.

Now here's where times get sketchy, so no more times.

We could choose from 12 different pictures for our badges! I chose the Fullmetal Alchemist one. Ryan chose the Little Gamers one. And... I forgot what the other 10 pictures were... Afterwards, we walked around, got lost, and discussed what we were gonna do. I wanted to go to get stickered for the L'arc~en~Ciel concert immediately; Ryan wanted to see Mac Hall.

We ended up going to the video game room and played video games for, like, two hours. I got my ass handed to me on a silver platter many, many times over in Guilty Gear XX. You wouldn't believe the kind of people who are good at that game! Well, I did win a few games, so it's all good.

Then, Ryan and I went to the artists' showcase. There was this awesome guy who loved stuff. He was all enthusiastic and loved the fact that we loved stuff too! He sold stuff for $1. I bought a "Rock the Fetus" pin for my brother. It's the kind of thing he'd like. We looked at more artists' stuff, and I found Dad Hats (from Azumanga Daioh). I would've bought one, but I thought it was too expensive ($30).

Then we went to the Dealer's Room. I bought Trigun Maximun 1, Gungrave 1 with box, Azumanga Daioh DVD's 1-3, Azumanga Daioh Animini DVD's 1-2, a Menchi (from Excel Saga) plushy, and L'arc~en~Ciel SMILE. I was sad that I couldn't find the Azumanga Daioh mangas. >.< Anyways, lots of cool stuff there. At the Geneon booth, there was this awesome thing on the ground. It was like a projected computer image, but when you walked on it, stuff happened. Like, there were covers of DVD's that turned into other DVD covers when you walked on them. Also, there were the letters in Geneon that you could kick around. At a sword booth, there was this awesome "Double bladed sword staff." It was a staff that had two swords in it! There was also a booth that had airguns and BB guns that were replicas of real guns! Ooh, another booth had an imported Guilty Gear Isuka that I watched some people play. I guess that was to demonstrate this mod chip or something...

Then we went to get stickered for the concert. The stickering place was also next to the cosplay contest place. I wanted to enter, but was too late... Oh well, I definately wouldn't've gotten too high. Then we looked in the program to find a place to eat. We remembered that we passed by a food vendor on our way to the stickering place and went back there. We had pizza.

Then, some guy who had an "I Play Magic" sign walked past. We played a couple'a games of Magic with him.

Then, we were bored and walked around. We passed by several anime showings, but none of them interested us. So, we went back to play more video games. I got owned even more in Guilty Gear XX, then went to play Super Smash Bros Melee. I had to wait a long time, but I finally got to play, in which I lost. Then, I looked for Ryan to go to the concert. We went out, but the line was really, really long. It was, like, 5 blocks long!

So, we decided to go back to the vendors. I searched for the Azumanga Daioh mangas again, but couldn't find them. Then, looking around at some other booths, I bought a Trigun neko plushy. I also wanted to buy this Chiyo's Dad (from Azumanga Daioh) plushy, but it was $200. Yes, two-freakin'-hundred dollars! I seriously would have bought it if I had the money though; it was just that awesome! Then, I saw some guy wearing a Dad Hat, and began to reconsider buying it.

At that time, we heard an announcement that they were beginning to accept non-stickered people into the concert. Meaning, it was about to begin; the line would be shorter now. So we went. Surely enough, it was shorter, but it was still pretty long. Luckily, it was actually moving now, so we didn't have much time to wait.

Then, we got into the concert. It kind of sucked when we went in because we had to throw away all our food and drinks (meaning my snack bars and water, which I drank right then), and the batteries for our camera (or the camera itself if it were disposable) which sucked because my batteries were rechargables. >.< Anyways, the concert was bloody awesome! You've gotta love that Engrish. *In Japanese accent, as I don't feel like trying to type it* "Hello, Americans! We are L'arc~en~Ciel! Are you having fun?! ARE YOU HAVING FUN?! I AM HAVING FUN! You eat crap? (I think it was probably supposed to be crab, but it sounded something like craph... which could only mean crap)" Whole crowd goes silent in a "What the hell...?" way. "YOU EAT CRAP! I EAT CRAP TOO!!!!" Several songs later... "I am Evangelion! I AM EVANGELION! I am going BERSERK! [Something about being in Baltimore] Next song... DRIVER'S HIGH!" Whole crowd goes crazy. Several songs later... "Are you fucking ready?" Ready Steady Go! with scenes from Fullmetal Alchemist behind the band. Everytime before he sang the chorus, he asked, "Are you fucking ready?" Then, the stage goes dark and they leave the stage. Some people leave, but most of us stayed (presumably) wondering what the hell just happened. Every now and then (every few minutes), applause and shouts of "L'arc~en~Ciel!" would be heard, as if they were just coming back on stage. Eventually, like 10 minutes later, they do. Crowd goes crazy. One of 'em was wearing this mask or something that made a kazoo noise. He would make that noise into the microphone several times, then the crowd would go crazy again. Then he'd stop, take off the mask, say, "No!" put the mask back on, and do it again. Finally, he stopped and they started playing again. Several songs later, Ryan and I had to leave; it was about the time our ride home should've been there. We got out, couldn't hear for like 5 minutes, and went back to the convention center. I decided that I did want a Dad Hat after all, but, surely enough, our ride was there. I didn't want to hold anyone up, so I decided not to get one. Then we drove home.

My spendings today:
Admission - $40
Trigun Maximum 1 - $8
Gungrave 1 with Box - $31
Azumanga Daioh 1-3 - $24 each (Would've bought #1 with box, but I couldn't find it under $40)
Azumanga Daioh Animini DVDs 1-2 - $7 each
Menchi plushy - $8
Trigun neko plushy - $10
L'arc~en~Ciel SMILE - $17
Rock the Fetus pin - $1
Lunch - $6
Cotton candy at the concert - $3
Total: $210

Cosplay pics here: [link]

And, just as I knew would happen (though later than I thought, but quicker than I had hoped), I got bored of all this. So... probably no more stuff from me. About time I get back into studying for school, anyways...