Fanime 2015: Day 1

Welcome to the next part of my Fanime blog, Day 1.

We woke up later than we wanted to and of course I had the brilliant idea the night before to put together a last minute cosplay. Which I didn't actually wear today. But I needed to buy things, so I dragged H4773r out after pulling together a Pokemon inspired look. I picked up a couple of skirts, one of which I incorporated into the look I was already wearing  and the second skirt I decided to use for the upcoming cosplay, Tina Belcher from "Bob's Burger."

My Pokemon inspired look.

We managed to find a decent parking lot although by the end of day it was a bit pricier than we expected ($25 as opposed to $20). The new place we're taking to is under the Morton's Steakhouse on Park Ave and Market St. We knew that with the panels happening today we wouldn't have much time to get food. So even though we both had a light breakfast we make a quick stop at Specialty's Bakery for a light lunch. Specialty's doesn't appear to offer vegan food right off the menu, but they do have a great vegetarian selection. I went the "PB and Stuff" sandwich, which has peanut butter, bananas, apple slice, and a cranberry sauce on whole wheat. So good. (Note: I don't want to say the sandwich was vegan, because I didn't get a list of all the ingredients, but I'm sure this might qualify.)

We realized as soon as we got to the convention that had run into our first big problem of the day, we forgot the laptop charger at home and wouldn't have enough time before the first panel to pick it up. We made a round of phone calls and we were able to secure a back up laptop if needed. Once that was taken care of we headed over to meet our fellow panelists for our fist panel of the day, "Is It Real?: Blade Basics." H4773r was joined by his former co-worker and blade hobbyist CJ, as well as current store employee from Ace of Knives, Tom Anderson. We had a decent sized group attending and the laptop held up throughout the panel. That wasn't without us having technical issues to get going. Luckily IT services were pretty prompt this year. (Note: if you're running a panel you'll need to provide your own laptop and we don't recommend using an HDMI connector for the projector, like we did. You just run into more issues trying to get it working.)

We had a couple of hours to get our stuff together and find a new laptop, load our program, and get the to next panel we were hosting. We met up with EpyonAvenger in Artist Alley, who was kind enough to lend us his laptop, and while Tony grabbed the laptop I hung out at WindoftheStar's table chatting with Steph Von Schweetz for a bit.

Our last panel of the day also went pretty well, "Game Master Round Table." It was a bit long winded at times, but I think we managed to answer some questions and give some insight. We had our friends Aaron, Brendan, Pablo Yale, and Jonathan Bernier. We definitely spent more time than we planned on talking to people after the panel and answering more questions. (Note: If you attended the panel and still have some questions for H4773r, you can reach him on his twitter.)

I forgot to mention that all of our panels were held at the Fairmont. So if you plan on attending a panel and/or are hosting one be prepared for a small trek back and forth to the main convention.

We opted for a late night dinner at Pizza My Heart, and then enjoyed some special Fanime Psycho Donuts. So, I've never tried to order a vegan pizza from Pizza My Heart. You can buy either by the slice or by the pie and I'm pretty I'd have to order a whole pie to get something close to a vegan version. I decided to just stick with being vegetarian for the weekend. Maybe next year I'll try going as a vegan. Also, I love the special donuts that Psycho Donuts puts out every year for Fanime. We enjoyed a vanilla cream Totoro donut, a red bean paste filled Doraemon donut, and Takoyaki donut balls (no squid in the donut). All were delicious and I hope they bring them back next year. Psycho Donuts does offer vegan donuts, but none of the Fanime specialties were included.

Psycho Donuts Fanime specials.

EpyonAvenger was able to get us a hotel room for the night at the Marriott. This worked out pretty well because our earliest panel was scheduled for Saturday morning. So spent a great night at the hotel attempting to vlog, drinking hard cider and watching YouTube videos.

Mmmm...cider.

Fanime 2015: Day 0

Hel-lo! Welcome to the superduperlongfuntime Fanime blog! This is a long overview of my weekend, what we did, what we saw, etc. I'm hoping to have the corresponding vlog up soon, keep an eye out for updates.

In order to make this blog more manageable I decided to split it up day-by-day. Also, I didn't include very many photos in the following blogs for Fanime because I was too busy taking video. (Note: Once I get around to video editing I'm going to try and screenshot some scenes and add them here.)

And lastly, the roundup is just a quick rundown of my recommendations on where to eat, what to see, costs of badges, parking, and hotels. So if you just want the quickie version click here.


DAY 0

I was lucky enough to have most of Thursday off. This gave me some time to catch up on sleep and mentally prep for the upcoming weekend. I had to wait until H4773r was done with work before we could leave, but as soon as he was ready we booked it over to the convention center. We made it there just after 7pm and what do you know? No line ride! Again! Now that the convention center has finished it's remodeling and Fanime has it's shit together that 6 hour line ride is dead! (Note: there wasn't a single long line for badges all weekend long.)

H4773r and I just after badge pick up

So we quickly picked up our badges and then met up with some friends. After a small discussion we decided to head out and away from the con to buy some necessities and get dinner. We settled at the Coleman Plaza. This plaza is a short driving distance from the con and has quite a few shops and restaurants. I chose to eat at Smashburger and everyone else enjoyed some L and L Hawaiian BBQ. We finished our errands and then headed back to the con.

I wanted to check out the swap meet, mostly to find a friend I hadn't seen for awhile. And success! We found a CJ! We caught on life and ran into a few other friends as well.

And finally to round out the night, we headed to the game room. Not much was happening, but H4773r and Epyon Avenger did have a nostalgic moment with DDR.