Otakon 2012 Day 2: Panels, Podcasts and… Pictures

By TheBigN

To start off, I was remiss in not mentioning the random get-together on Friday that was had over a lack of mahjong sets available. In another example of how some of the best things that occur often come unplanned, the hope that someone had an available set for some riichi outside of the Internet was dashed. But a conversation about life, randomness and Tanto Cuore (loved how the way to explain the game went as “Dominion with maids”, given that I’ve never played that card game either) ensued with people such as 7thWraith, Eternal, and others. In terms of importance, there wasn’t that much, but that moment was worth something in measures of enjoyment, and always a good reminder as to why I’ll probably only really enjoy going to conventions where I can meet up with people I know.

Flandre Scarlet Cosplay. Best Touhou cosplay I saw at the con. She even had fangs!

Otakon 2012 Day 1: Felt Good To Get Back

By TheBigN

Compared to last year, when I essentially had to piecemeal any hours I could get from my work hours (since I couldn’t change my schedule at that point), I tried to set things up so that my weekend would be free enough to at least enjoy a full Saturday and Sunday, with whatever I could get from Friday as a bonus. It worked out, and I was in a light enough rotation that I didn’t have to stay longer than necessary there before I headed out. Stepping into Baltimore Convention Center again felt damn good after quickly getting my badge (not even 5 minutes, really) and left my things at the hotel room I roomed at for the next 2 and a half days. It was around 6PM when I came around, so there were some moments that I missed by then, such as SDS and Dave Cabrera‘s mahjong panel, the Gen Urobuchi Q&A, and the Opening Ceremonies, the latter of which included a mimetic surprise, from what I held. But while I missed those, I was at least glad to be in Baltimore for an uninterrupted amount of time, where I did not have to worry about being called to return to work for any specific reasoning. It was refreshing.

Strength from Black Rock Shooter. Impressed with how much effort it took for those arms.

Another badass reason to wear a long white coat, and other things…

Soooooooo…

It’s been a while.

I’m a doctor in name now, and I’m currently plunging into the strenuous world of residency. So much so that it’s a little hard to do things like watch anime (which I do in spurts), or write about it. But I’m starting to get into the pace of hospital work better, so hopefully there shouldn’t be a three-month writing layoff again as there has been here.  After getting a long white coat, you sort of get an idea of what it takes to keep one, which I hope Hakase and Hououin Okabe Rintarou learn throughout their goals as scientists.

The dynamic duo. Picture by shinako (laeseperanza): http://www.pixiv.net/member_illust.php?mode=medium&illust_id=18866656

Otakon 2010 Days 2 and 3: This One Might Hurt More Than Expected

Right, time to finish this one up. Picture and text spam incoming.

Chise from Saikano.

Almost forgot to mention…

…that I (TheBigN) will be at Otakon 2010 this weekend. At first, I had assumed that there wouldn’t be much running around this con compared to most, since the guest list for the most part doesn’t have anyone that really grabs my interest (save for those people who worked on those things some years ago – which as a side note also I guess really shows where my sad interests lie), and there wouldn’t be wall-to-wall industry panels (but then, are there ever). But based on the schedule, there will be enough panels that sound interesting that I’m a little worried that I won’t have enough time to meet and hang out with people, or join in on helping omo and co. sing the Working!! OP if he can’t find enough people to do it with. And I think that’s a good thing.

I really lucked out this year in terms of timing, since this year’s convention fell in the small bit of break time (thurs-sun this weekend yay) between my third and fourth years of medical school, and I’m grateful to have the opportunity to enjoy everything to the fullest. I’m not sure if I’ll have many opportunities to visit conventions fully again, so I’m hoping to try and make the most of what I have now. Or at least have fun winging it this year like I did last year. As for the future? We’ll see.

Otakon 2009 Day 1: (Ful)Filling

I find that it’s been hard for me to write up my thoughts on things like going to conventions (or just writing in general recently). Part of it is me worrying if I got everything down that I remembered or wanted to remember (but that’s what other people fact checking are for! \o). Part of it is that I feel like there’s a lot that I want to say, but it’s going to be tedious as it’s long as the pre-reg line was on Friday (took about an hour 45 minutes to get in); i.e., me being a lazy bum. And part of it is that other people have done it beforehand. But I did achieve a lot more in this con than I was expecting to; getting autographs and pictures with some guests (more like one guest :3), meeting up with Internet friends I’ve met with before and meeting plenty of new ones in the process (so many that I’m not sure if I can name them all), spending all of my spending money in one hour on the first day at the dealer’s room (still not sure how I did that), taking pictures of cosplay with my recently acquired camera (pics up soon I thinks), doing more karaoke than last year (and how) and so on. For not really having a definite plan for this year’s Otakon, I still had a blast.

First Alice I saw at the con the pre-reg line. The best one out of all I saw too.

Otakon Ho! Part 2!

By TheBigN

So yeah, I’m heading to Otakon on Friday barring any unforseen holdups, hangups, and inconviniences to that end. Looking at the schedule, I have an idea of what I want to do for each day, but nothing too certain yet. I hope to meet up with a lot of people that I met last year, and hope to make some new acquaintances/friends/people I know as well during thesse three days. Maybe do some more karaoke (not as epic as last year’s though. Probably.) every once in a while. Winging things might not be the best way to enjoy the con, but it’s worked before, and I think it can work out again. We’ll see what happens.

Taking a well-needed break.

Money and Art

By Nomad(TWIST AWAY THE GATES OF STEEL)Otto

There’s art, and then there’s the buisness of art. Art is about truth, beauty and associated Bull. Buisness is about making as much money as possible. There’s a fundamental tension between the two ends, and it’s this tension, which exists in the commercial arts, like hollywood film or romance novels, which causes many people to consider them to be a step below the fine arts, like painting. In fact, some people feel that commericial arts aren’t really art at all, but this group of people probably aren’t going to read this blog. A lot of people feel that the commercial aspect of art is in competition with the creative aspect, and that until art is free from commercial concerns, we’ll never have the quality of art that we could have otherwise. I don’t know if that’s true or not, but what I do know is that if there’s an art form which is not commercially successful, it doesn’t tend to get a lot of exposure. Therefore, it’s in everyone’s interest (or, at least, everyone who wants more folks to know about some artform) to ensure that art is successful. Today, I’m going to talk about visual novels, which have a sizable market overseas, and no market here in the states. After that, Otakon!

Get to the Goddamn Point already!