Final Con Report: Friday

FanimeCon 2008 started real early for me in the morning - about 6:45am. By 7:30 I'm already out the house, fully packed and on my way. I do make a gas stop in Dixon, just south of Davis, where I find gas prices lower than Sacramento.

My first stop is San Rafael, to pick up my friend Tom. That has got to be the steepest, narrowest driveway I've ever driven on! By then, it's about 9am-ish. Once I picked him up, it was time to make that journey all the way down the East Bay to San Jose, site of Fanime.

We get there about 10:30am, when the Reg lines where about 20 minutes or so. Here's what I was planning: since Shira couldn't make it, I was hoping to get Tom to use her badge; but the people up in Reg wouldn't, and Tom had to go to the At-Con Reg line, which suprisingly didn't take long for him. For the time being, I hit the arcade to pass the time, despite later that I would complain that WMMT3 was $1.50 each play. I also hit the video room for some AMV Hell 4...oh yeah!

Noon time hits, and I decide to see if the Marriott is checking people in. In fact, they were and I was able to get a room on the 4th floor. I call up Vallet, which I used over the weekend, loaded the carts, and went up to a very nice room. I prepare my Gatorade mix drink, which I will do often that weekend, get cozy for a bit, then go downstairs again.

By then, Dealers Room is about to open up, and I stand in line. Some people thought that we weren't the end of the line mostly because there was a gap to allow a walkway, so when they did most of line where I was kindly - if you wanted to call it that - told the others where the line is. 2pm hits, and Dealers Room is open. I didn't find the figure that I was hoping to look for - Misato from Evangelion - but I did find a very nice Belldandy figure, and for a good price! I make that purchase, and walk back to the room to drop off my merchandise.

Soon, Opening Ceremonies is about to start, featuring Taiko Drummers; I got some video of that (which I hope to upload soon). But to find out that 47 GAINAX employees who worked on TTGL are here, and that they look as excited as we are is a sight to behold. They're holding digital and video cameras taking pictures and video of all of us. And we were doing the same thing!

Man, I'm hungry, especially when all I had this morning was a hot pocket and OJ. I decide to take a walk to a local Quiznos to find some discounted large sandwiches. I find out that they're only doing the $5 Deli Favorite subs, and not the $7 and $9 subs that my workplace does. So I buy a large Roast Beef and a bowl of soup. I take that back to the room, where I eat and prepare for my first photoshoot with Darkain in my FMA uniform.

That photoshoot was scheduled for 8pm, and since I was really his only shoot of the day, we took our time on it. I also took the opportunity to sign up for the Hold'em Tournament on my way back to the hotel room to grab some water. He got some really nice shots, and I'm waiting to see how they come out.

9pm rolls around, and the Texas Hold'em Tournament is about to begin. But, we have a problem - someone stole the host's chipset, meaning we were going to play a 27-man tournament with one chipset. It was a stretch, but we did it. I did make Final Table, surviving two all-ins - catching a Queen on the river to win it, and catching two 5s on the flop when I went all in with a 5-2 offsuit. But with big chipstacks in front of me, my muscle flattened, and I finished in 7th place. Not too bad for that kind of tourament. I also find out that someone else was getting another chipset to make things easier for the Saturday and Sunday tourament - I couldn't make the Saturday tournament due to the Masquerade, so I hoped to make the Sunday tournament. I thanked the coordinator for rolling with us, and to continue talks about helping him out next year.

I change out of my cosplay to go check out what's going on at the dancefloor. I stay for a couple of minutes, enjoy the heart-thumping music, then move on. I round out the night at the arcade again.

By midnight, I was ready to crash early - I knew I had a long day ahead of me on Saturday...

Part 2: Saturday - up next!