So, last weekend I went to Emerald City Comic Con, and I had intended to blog about this sometime last week but that totally didn't happen because I spent the entire rest of the week hanging out at a friends place while waiting for my flight out of Seattle on the 8th. I find it kind of interesting how when I'm within the same vicinity of someone I'm actually comfortable interacting with my online life becomes almost nonexistent.
Anyways, it was definitely an experience. Waited for 2 and a half hours in line to get my badge for the whole weekend on the 1st, immediately after I arrived in Seattle, with my best friend who I hadn't seen in person in over 2 years. When we were finally nearing the front of the line, some guy turned to us and just started chatting. According to him, the key to getting to the front of the line immediately is to have a friend with crutches. Good to know! Nearing the end of the conversation, he suddenly stops and looks at us with a very serious expression. "You guys drink?" he said with the most hilariously shady voice. I shrugged and said that I did occasionally and he pulls out a tiny shot of Jack Daniels out of his pocket, without missing a beat stuffs it in my pocket, then goes back to his previously laid back demeanor with a large smile plastered on his face as if he didn't just sneak me a tiny alcoholic beverage.
Me and my friend laughed about that the entire weekend.
We only spent maybe 30 minutes at the con after getting our badges and meeting up with 2 other people I had intended to have the hang outs with before my friend dragged me out of the convention center on a bus back to his place. Mid bus ride he decided instead of going back to his place he should introduce me to all of his friends he made in school. Even though my friend is only a few months younger than me, he is still in highschool. Hang outs with them went about as well as expected. They were all in the typical American highschooler mindset and just... I felt so fucking out of place around them. On the upside, I got free dinner.
Then Saturday happened, and while waiting for the bus back to the convention center early in the morning, some guy and his kid waiting for the same bus walk up to us. The first things to come out of his mouth? "You guys smoke?" Both of us just shook our heads, and the guy then tells us his life story about how he used to be into pot big time as a kid but he managed to turn his life around and he's surprised that we didn't smoke because "kids these days are always smoking" or some shit. Funny enough, apparently people have never approached my friend like this. I've been approached like that numerous times, so I must come across as someone who actively does drugs. Good to know.
Most of the con this day was spent walking around the dealers rooms, taking pictures of really well done costumes, and watching a few voice acting panels. Usual con business. One panel was exceptionally great because it was a bunch of voice actors reading Star Wars scripts in their different characters' voices. (IE: Billy from The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy as Luke Skywalker, Eeyore as C3PO, and Winnie the Pooh as Darth Vader)
Oh cool someone uploaded the WtP as Darth Vader part with clipping audio and all:
The main thing I noted walking around was how much better ECCC was in comparison to Otakon. Anime cons are not nearly as humble and entertaining as Comic Cons. Fact. Both cons I only went to because friends convinced me to tag along with them, and especially after moving from Vegas, I have no one to interact with outside of my family in person. As much as I dislike interacting with other humans, it's the only way I'll be able to make it pretty much anywhere in this world. Also, it's kind of necessary to stay healthy and junk yadda yadda life
Then we went on a 3 hour quest to find a Taco Time that wasn't even there and ended up eating at Chipotle.
We stayed at someone else's place that night, and they're the person I stayed with for the entire rest of the week.
Sunday was pretty much the best day of the con. We tried to get as much con time in that day and as a result got a lot of free shit, signatures, and other silly con shit. In return for pictures of very well made costumes I would occasionally scribble up a drawing and I had gotten asked a few times if I had a table in the artist alley and a couple people wanted to know where they could find more of my work. It was kind of flattering, really.
We also watched the Invader Zim panel (mainly because Richard Horvitz is my favourite voice actor) and it wasn't as cringe worthy as I was expecting because the VAs actually made it an enjoyable experience. And by that I mean the VAs had no tolerance for stupidity and repetition. Then after the panel we booked it to the dealers room to see if we could take advantage of any sweet deals, and with about 20 minutes left I wanted to see if I could get anything more out of the signing area. My friend said there was no way we'd make it in time so he stayed in the dealers room. There was too enough time because I got there and I got more signatures because I am great. I spent the last 15 minutes of the con talking with Grey Delisle and Richard Horvitz, because there was no way I was going to make it back to the dealers room before they closed. My dad had requested I get signatures from the cast of The Walking Dead that made an appearance, but there's no way in hell I was going to be able to, not only because of the lines, but because they required payment for both pictures and signatures. It was a miracle I was even able to afford plane tickets.
Once the con was done and over with, me and my best friend parted ways and I stayed in the middle of the woods in a house that could almost be classified as a log cabin with one of my other friends. While I was there I got to try out the Wii U and rediscovered the magic that was Vinyl Records. It was pretty cool. Yeah.
