Fate/Stay in the Kitchen…. err… with the mop.

I ordered this figure on a whim a while back. The pictures that were floating around the internet led me to search for it high and far. Any of the cons in recent weeks didn’t show any sign of having one in stock; and if they did, they would be dramatically overpriced. A nice few hours on Google led me to snag one for almost at cost from a site here in the US. Everyone knows about Saber already, and if you don’t you should either get out more or spend more time at cons, you’re bound to run into a cosplayer or two.

Continue reading Fate/Stay in the Kitchen…. err… with the mop….

Etching on a Speck Case

Sometimes when you’re in college, you do some of the dumbest things. Most of the time it’s risking your investments, kinda like when a couple of friends and I decided to take a truck through a car wash with camera equipment in the back to see if a case would hold up to water.

This time I decided to be creative. There are many articles how people laser engraved their MacBook Pros to make it look good. I mean unless I was that person who got a free MacBook Pro through laser engraving ads on the notebook, I don’t think I could risk that much of an investment.

I, however, wanted to do something to the dull looking MacBook Pro, the other option was to get an overpriced Speck Case, and engrave it. I was also too lazy, too tired, or too poor (from buying the case) to find a laser engraver or etcher.

To do this project, I bought a few things:

-Speck Case from the local Apple Store or where ever you can find it. The actual Speck Case doesn’t have any designs on it.

Continue reading Etching on a Speck Case…

Sakuracon 2008

One of the few cons to kick off for the spring season started off cold. Even though it was cold, the warmth atmosphere of the convention brought out the joy of many convention attendees. Sakuracon this year estimated to have well over ten-thousand people; however, this year there seemed to be more because of the crowded halls through out the entire convention center.

Sakuracon’s location is a lot different from the many east coast conventions. The convention followed the architecture of the surrounding buildings by having normal stores on the bottom floor and office space on top of the stores. This was the same way for the convention center; because, to enter the convention center, there was about two to six floors every attendee had to climb to attend the events. This almost made Sakuracon look like the “Wayside School” stores by stacking rooms on top of each other than expanding out the layout. It was no doubt interesting to see the layout made this way.

The registration process looked it took a page from the Otakon layout, but better. Like Otakon, atendees would have to climb escalators or stairs to the fourth floor of the convention center and wait in line. Unlike Otakon; however, everything was enclosed. None of the humid and hot weather the atendees had to kill themselves in to get their badge, but rather it was housed in a large room inside the convention center. With Friday thru Sunday’s registration process, the system only took a small section of the room. The convention could’ve held a drift competition with the unused space on the fourth floor.

Even with the floor layout, Sakuracon somehow handled all lines quite well. All the main events had organized lines that wrapped around the walls of panel rooms. For the Ali Project, Cosplay, and Cosplay Chess, there wasn’t much of a hassle to get into the events.
Some of the biggest events for Sakuracon are the concerts that were held at the convention. Ali Project made her first out of Japan concert for the first time at Sakuracon, playing many music openings of different animes. Some of intros were Rozen Maiden, Shigofumi, and a lot of the older animes she has sang the intros for. Before the Ali Project, Ketchup Mania also gave their performances for Sakuracon. It looked like Tokyo Pop sponsored the group to come over because of the winners of a raffle won a prize of appearing in a picture with the group to be published in a magazine.

A game room is always present at an anime convention and Sakuracon had one. Well not necessarily one, but they had about four small rooms with each categorized by, classic consoles, arcade, music simulations, and a Microsoft Market Research room filled with XBOX360s. If that wasn’t enough to fill your needs and wanted some real arcade action, across the street was a GameWorks for your entertainment. Sure it’s not free; however, it is an arcade.

Sakurcaon also brings a lot of cosplayers to the convention. There was no secret about Sakuracon having crossplayers. Everywhere you go, you will notice at least one crossplayer of some sort. The amount o the crossplayers kills any east coast convention with the attendance. For those who are straight (like us), the distraction of many cute female cosplayers will fill your joy.

For the cosplay chess, there wasn’t a shortage of audience. The audience surrounds the giant board fill with different cosplayers and of course Jesus that made it through most if not all the game.

The fans created other impromptu events during the convention. You could see or hear it happening, like the Saturday night Caramelldansen dancing by random people and Sumomo’s whistle sound to start an impromptu exercise sessions.

What many people go for the anime convention is the Dealer’s Room or the Exhibitor’s hall. The room was quite large to accommodate the autograph sessions and the vendors at the convetion. At least thirty vendors were at Sakuracon this year doing what they do best.

The Cosplay was a lot different from the east coast masquerades. Same concept, but the skits are quite different. In the skits, the content seemed to have amused the crowd for enjoyment, especially the ones with a hand load of Internet memes.

Even though Sakuracon is a large convention in terms of attendance, the convention gives everyone the small con environment, which is a good thing. Nothing like Katsucon 2007’s anal staff brigade running around the convention yelling at everyone or Anime USA 2007’s volunteers yelling at people who have cameras that were accidently turned on. One thing for sure is the amount of drama, there was literally none being whined about during the entire convention.