As I listen to the rat-tat-tat of John Coltrane that has just been randomly selected off Winamp, I get a bit nostalgic about my recent experiences at Katsucon. Nostalgia is usually something you feel about memories long past, but my experiences at Katsucon were like some I had back in high school. Although I never once thought about it while I was there, the feeling lingers as something I had forgotten from happier times.

It actually started before that fateful Valentine's Day marking the beginning of three days of love, peace, and anime. I had been arranging with a cohort of mine, (I'll call him Jack because he's a pussy and asked me to remove his name) Jack, lodging at his house which was a short distance from the convention hotel. I was guessing, based on the distance mapquest was kind enough to inform me of, that it would take about 15 minutes travel with traffic. Not a bad arrangement.

Then came Thursday, February 13th, the day before the con. I had packed everything into my car, including my studio sleeper (which was a daunting task), so that I could skip an additional drive and go directly to his house after work. Around 5:30pm, a short time before I planned to leave, Jack called. There was a water leak in his house, and thus the lodging was unavailable. I had to make other plans. This also meant I would be sleeping at home that night, which I truly did not mind, already being an insomniac.

Now, the main reason I had requested my stay at Jack's house was to save money, but now I had no choice and needed hotel lodging. I did a search on Google for hotel discounts, knowing something had to be out there. I found HotelInsider.com, which lists off all hotel discounts and promotions for most hotels. I found the Holiday Inn across the street from the convention had some kind of promotion for $67/night. When I finished booking my room, I noted that, should I decide to cancel, I needed to do so within three minutes, as the last moment you could cancel was 6:00pm, and it was 5:57pm at that moment. This worried me not.

I had originally intended to show up at the hotel before noon. For some reason, I thought that waking up at 10:00am would give me enough time to take a shower, get dressed, finish packing, commute, check in to my hotel room, and walk to the convention hotel. Unfortunately, I ended up leaving my house at 11:45am, which is about when I had intended to arrive. An hour and ten minutes later, I arrived. There was a half-hour line.

I noticed that many of my friends had pre-registered, as I watched them walk up to the non-existent pre-reg line, get their badge, and go, all within a minute, and all while I stood in a room that looked like hotel employees didn't even use. It felt like a basement of a basement. The pile of bricks in the corner was a particularly nice touch. The at-door registration line was marked by some black tape that no one seemed to notice against the gray of the floor. The man with the pimp cane and beard directed us.

Once I received my ordinary-looking badge, I made my way out. People didn't seem to realize that the narrow hallway had been sectioned off into an enter and exit line, as only one of them had a sign. A sign with an arrow pointing left, that read "Enter". Maybe there were just a great many lisdexic people at the con, but I found my exit blocked by people attempting to enter through the wrong side. Fortunately I had my flamethrower on me, and... er, wait, wrong story.

I made my way out into the fray. I was immediately daunted by the line to the deaer's room. Having no desire to shop whatsoever, I ventured out in search of friends as I do every convention. While I saw several in that first hour, I was mostly looking for Jack. It would be his first time at an anime convention, and I didn't want him to get overwhelmed and leave. He also had a digital camcorder.

2:00pm, no sign of Jack. I decided to head back to the hotel room to try and call his cell phone. As I stepped up to the curb, I saw him across the street. He had just arrived, camcorder in the bag slung over his shoulder. I showed him to registration, which he made me wait through a second time since he was nervous. Had I not waited, he probably would have had to go through three times. I also noted how poor his math skills were, when he tried to offload his $1's, when he had two $20's and a $5. He ended up keeping his $1's, as there was no combination of his bills that allowed him to pay the $45 registration fee with all of them. He ended up needing them later.

We didn't make it far before we started taking pictures of cosplayers. Jack was nervous at first, and although the distance was not great, it was probably ten minutes before I convinced him to ask people for pictures. He had this crazy idea that I should ask people and then he should take the picture. I managed to convince him that "Can my friend take your picture?" sounded really stupid. He swallowed his pride and began asking, and getting pictures. After that, it was like crack. He was taking pictures like a madman.

Now, Jack has a pretty interesting camcorder. It's got a flip-out screen, which turns around (I think many digital camcorders have these, but I'm new to them). When taking a picture, he would turn the screen around to face the subject of the picture, so they could see themselves, and correct their posture accordingly. He then got the idea to show them the picture after he took it. This was popular. Later, he got another idea. Get people's email addresses, and send them the picture he took of them. After about a hundred pictures, I told him we should just email them all a web address, and put all the pictures up online. At the time, it was really irrelevant.

Inadvertently, Jack got a picture of Steve Bennett and Erika Door, not knowing who either of them were, just that Erika Door is hot and people were talking to Steve Bennett. I think he actually got about nine pictures of Erika. She changed costume at least once. I think I remember her in another costume. He also got several pictures with her. On Friday, she was dressed as Yukino Miyazawa, from Kare Kano. If she was the same Yukino who knocked over the sign later on, she was incredibly hot, and the pictures we got of her did no justice.

I'm not exactly sure of when, but we decided to sit down in the main events room where they were showing Anime Music Videos. There was actually a decent run of them, and I normally don't care for them. Some fool decided to do one to a Bette Midler song. It was slow, and painful, and we found out how many people in the audience had lighters handy. One guy, short of a lighter, waved his illuminated cell phone around instead. Fortunately the trend, however amusing, did not catch on. At the end of the video, a man yelled out "I love you, Bette!" Everyone laughed. At least no one used a Country song.

I had been wanting to check out the video game room all day, but it didn't open until 4:00pm. I should say, it wasn't scheduled to open until 4:00pm. A few minutes past four, we went to check it out, and found a line waiting to get in. We decided to wait in line, as it should be opening soon. You meet people while waiting in line. I met a closet anime fan, who is a professional snowboarder (I think), and a very cute blonde girl who was not in costume at the moment, but we discovered later was also a very cute angel. While waiting in the line, out of pure jealousy of all the people with signs, I made a sign that read "I Have a Sign". It didn't last very long. We finally got in at around 5:00pm. They had Dance With Intensity setup at one table, which is a Dance Dance Revolution emulator for the PC, and can play custom tracks. They had all anime tracks. It was actually quite cool. After I did my thang on the DWI, we quickly browsed what games were around and then left in pursuit of more visual candy.

It was a short time before I declared my absolute hunger. Food had to be consumed for my continued existence. Food that did not come from McDonald's. Jack told me he knew of a restaurant in the area he had been to before, and we began our journey there a moment later. After braving the cold winter winds for about 20 minutes, we arrived at the Crystal City Restaurant. The women dancing on the two stages were not naked, but almost. We positioned ourselves to where one stage was to my immediate left and the other stage was in my normal viewing range. The food was surprisingly good, and economically priced, although the drinks were expensive ($4 for my glass of iced tea... regular, iced tea). I enjoyed the ambience, however, as time progressed, the music kept getting louder, and by the time we left (the waitress forgot to bring us the check for about 30 minutes), I was not in a very good mood. We trudged back to the convention hotel and resumed our quest for pictures of cute girls in outrageous costumes.

By the end of the day, we had approximately 200 pictures. We did little else. We did stop by a panel featuring Kristen Nelson, which she ran by herself. It was about voice acting. Jack used the opportunity to recharge the dying battery of his camcorder. We found the panel interesting and informative, although neither of us have any desire to enter that particular industry.

I had told Jack earlier in the day that we were going to the Duel Jewel concert, even though I knew nothing about the band, other than they were Japanese and played music. We jumped in line after the appointed start time, and after a brief wait, got in to the main events arena. There were no seats, everyone had to stand. The concert hadn't started yet, they were just showing us some videos of the band, who were apparently five guys stuck in the 80's, as far as style is concerned. One thing about the 80's is, at least they were trying. We pulled down some chairs from the stacks of chairs against the wall and sat down. Within two minutes, security told us to put the chairs back. We left the chairs but stood up.

Duel Jewel finally came out on stage about a half hour after the appointed start time. I'm certain that the band had nothing to do with the delay, as nothing else started on time, either. The first song they played sounded almost like death metal, which I was completely cool with. In fact, up until their actual performance, I thought they sucked. The first song was really cool. I left about halfway through, as the decibel level was about to make my head explode. Had it not been for that, I probably would have stayed the entire concert.

After we left the concert, we continued taking pictures. I think I abandoned Jack for a short time to hang out with some of my friends, but I don't remember which ones. After the concert, the rest of the night, up until Jack left for home, is a blur. Jack left shortly before midnight, whining about how his mother was going to kill him for getting home so late. He's such a wuss. I made another round, looking for friends, but soon was reminded by my legs that it was late, so I went back to the hotel and collapsed. I may or may not have had two McDonald's apple pies on the way. I remember they were selling two for a dollar, so I probably did. I remember having a salad there before then, but I don't know when. Yes, when I bought the pies, for some reason, the manager locked the doors so no one could get out. Well, until they figured out the locking mechanism, anyway. I don't remember if it had started snowing yet or not.

When I got back to my room, before collapsing, I discovered the family next door to me was Mexican. I know this because they were listening to Mexican music. BAD Mexican music. And they did so until about 1:30am. I must admit, the Mexican family was otherwise quiet, unlike the average American family I normally get stuck to who scream from 7:00am till somewhere between 9:00am and 10:30am. I don't know why they scream, they just do. I must remember to book rooms that have no door connecting them to another room. I hate that. Not intending to sidetrack further, but I stayed at the Harbor Court Inn for Otakon last year, and those doors went one-way. I opened my door just to see the other door (I was bored), only to find there wasn't one, and I had, in fact, entered the neighboring room. There was only a lock on my side. I hope that was just a fluke. Back to me in my room. I copied all the email addresses we had collected on my program (the paper schedule) into my spiral notebook. When I was done, the music had stopped, and then I collapsed.

Saturday, it started snowing. I'm not sure when, I hadn't woken up yet, but it was snowing when I woke up, and had collected a bit. Never having let that get me down before, I trudged out into the world, and made my way to the convention hotel, but not before ironing my dark-blue shirt, a feat never before attempted by me. Upon arriving, I immediately noticed that Katsucon has outgrown this particular hotel. It was very crowded. Fortunately, I have developed some keen ninja get-through-moving-crowds skills, and was able to traverse the crowd with molasses-like speed.

The line for the dealer's room was enormous. To describe the enormity would be like subjecting one's self to the Total Perspective Vortex. The video gaming room, the only other attraction on that same floor, was closed. It was supposed to open at 10:00am, and it was around 1:00pm. I don't remember exactly what happened during the following half-hour, but I remember it involved telling someone that I knew I was going to the Megatokyo panel, which began at 1:30pm.

Then I went to the Megatokyo panel. Devon(sp) had told me previously, although I don't know when, that he had gotten his Megatokyo TP book signed by both Piro and Seraphim. This meant Seraphim was present. I was always curious as to what she actually looked like. At the panel, Seraphim sat at the left-end of the table. My left, not her left. Dom was not present, so Fred (Piro) had to go around with the microphone, which gave the panel a nice touch, actually. Piro complimented the girl dressed as broken Miho for the costume. It was a nice costume. There were few questions for anyone other than Piro. I think only two questions were asked of Seraphim, one by some random person as to how she felt being a character in Megatokyo, and the second was...

After the first person asked Seraphim his question, a cute girl with a bouquet of flowers entered the room. Piro began explaining that, this was Seraphim's first anime convention, and that they spent eight hours of Valentine's Day driving to the convention hotel (they live far away), and all he had gotten her for Valentine's Day was his old laptop. So, the girl handed the bouquet of flowers off to Piro, who turned and gave it to Seraphim with a "Happy Valentine's Day" (it had been planned that way, see). Piro then said to her, "Now I've got a question for you. Will you marry me?"

...and there was much rejoicing.

After the Megatokyo Panel, I wandered around for a bit. I found several of my friends from NVAA, Jason, David, and the tall guy, and we wandered a bit. David decided he wanted to see Ai Yori Aoshi, and abandoned us. I don't remember where the tall guy went. One day I'll remember his name (update: it's Shawn). So, Jason and I wandered around taking pictures. I'd point to a cute girl and ask, "Did you get her picture?" I was surprised how often he said yes.

At some point we went to the Anime Music Videos Awards, where we were exposed to Cowboy Bebop 007 not once, not twice, but three times. They played it every time it won an award, and it won three awards. Sappy Self-Indulgence won two awards, including Viewer's Choice (or whatever they called it). Upon exiting the awards ceremony, the crowd clashed with those viewing the Artist's Alley just outside, along with those already in line for the Cosplay.

After the music video awards, I decided that I was famished beyond suppression, and required food. I had been smelling steak all day long from the hotel restaurant and decided that I must have some. We attempted vainly to try to figure out how the lobby-level restaurant worked, but eventually gave up and went to the Japanese Steakhouse down the street. Nothing very interesting happened there, but I had fun. Too bad you weren't there. Or... were you? The sidewalk was a bit slick because of the snow, which was still coming down, and we were able to slide for a few feet at a time at some parts.

Then there was more photography. At some point, after seeing several cute catgirls, and many more signs, I decided I needed a sign. I went to a table, grabbed a flier with a blank back (which was unfortunately not the Yuricon flier), and wrote, in large, friendly letters, "CATGIRLNIP". Through some manner of improvised origami, I managed to attach it to my badge in such a way that it would not move or come off. It was always very obvious who did not get it, because they would make sure that you knew that they could read it by overpronouncing every syllable of the word: "Cat... Girl... Nip..." Had I a camera, I would've taken pictures of their expressions. Those who did get it had a tendency to laugh and tell me how awesome it was, or glomp me. One particular girl ran up, rubbed her face on the sign, and then took the sedated kitty pose on the floor. I don't think anyone took video of it, but if they did, I'd love to have it, although I was too stunned to not look like an idiot.

Friday, the hotel had rigged up this spotlight with a valentine filter on it, projecting the image of a bunch of hearts onto the wall across the ravine (opening, whatever). Well, Saturday, no longer being Valentine's Day, they shut it off. However, some guys from Magfest where there, with a projector, and some video games. Previously they were just using the wall behind their table, but today, they used that wall. It was quite cool to see a 30-foot (guess) DDR screen, particularly in a place there normally wouldn't be any screen whatsoever. It was quite viewable from any of the convention floors.

Somehow Jack managed to catch up with me, and it was then off to the Cosplay. I'm not sure of the details between the creation of the sign and ending up at the Cosplay with Jack, but I'm sure they're unimportant. The Cosplay wasn't anything great this year, which is atypical of Katsucon Cosplay. I couldn't even hear most of the dialogue. I think they only had one microphone up there. Jack was trying to videotape it, even though I told him it was quite pointless. He kept opening up the LCD screen on the side... the very bright LCD screen on the side, and using that as his view port. I kept making him close it because it's distracting and especially rude to the people behind him. I don't think a hammer could have bludgeoned that concept into his head.

We didn't stick around for "Whose Katsu is it Anyway?", nor the awards for the Cosplay skits. The awards ceremonies always take much longer than they should. We jumped out into the fray before the rest of the fray did. Somehow I lost Jack in said fray, so I wandered off. I met up with an old friend of mine who was sitting on the floor with two of his female friends and joined in on their conversation, which didn't seem to be about anything in particular. It was a few short quarter-hours before the female friends departed, and Slag and I were left on our own to wander.

We didn't wander far, or at least we didn't have to, before finding Silent Bob (cosplay) doing Jay Tryouts. On camera. By the time we got to it, it had already started its downhill descent, but we got there in time to notice it was going down. After a while, no one was volunteering anymore, and I finally convinced Slag to go up there and do this number he had told me about previously. He took his spot next to Silent Bob, and then I walked up.

"Hey, man. Got a nickel bag?" I asked.

"Fifteen dollars, little man,
Put that shit in my hand,
‘cause if that money doesn’t show..."
...and members of the audience joined in for the one line they knew...
"...then owe me owe me owe."

He got silent props from Silent Bob for that one, and applause from the surrounding onlookers. He doesn't remember any of that, though. He was too nervous. It didn't show until after we had walked away, though. We did stay long enough to see Pac-Man try out. But then the skit got too silly, and we moved on... to the video game room.

I had never played Capcom vs Snk 2 before. I had played the first one in the arcade, and was justly owned as my Chun-li skills failed me. This time, however, I was on the familiarity of the Playstation controller, and people witnessed the pain that can be dealt by an old-school Guile master. Having not played a Street Fighter game in a while, let alone against a human opponent, I consider this one of the highlights of the con. Especially since I won so often. I went undefeated until that Asian guy showed up and tore me a new one. I finally beat him our fourth and final match, though. It was shortly before midnight. I had a room party to attend, and thus parted for my room, where the party was not, but my bedsheet was. It was a pajama party.

I first arrived at 12:15am. Jason was there at the end of the hallway, trying to use the wireless network connectivity of his Palm Pilot. We knocked at the door, but no one was home. I think I had tried earlier with similar results. Tom came up, and again we knocked, but no reply. Thus, we departed. Tom went back to his hotel room for sleep, and I think Jason went to fetch his brother so they could depart. 15 minutes later, I came back up to the room, to find a man I didn't know sitting outside the door. Apparently the girls were changing, and they had kicked out all the guys. Well, I think Duo was still in there. My memory isn't what it used to be... not that it was ever much. Within the minute, they let us in.

So then took place the Psycho Stalker Chicks' Anime Pajama Party.

After the party, I headed back to my hotel room, noticing that the snow was still coming down, and had actually managed to pile up a bit. It was 3:00am, there was no traffic, I just walked in the street. In my hotel room, I watched the snow as it drifted in almost horizontally, blanketing the town surrounding the pocket of hotels. I don't know why, but the thought of souls of the dead roaming the frozen town at night entered my head. Perhaps it's the repressed poet inside. Perhaps I've watched too many Ghibli films. I watched for a while, taking in the view.

After a few minutes, I noticed the silhouettes of a man and his two dogs in one of the backyards, playing in the snow. Here it is, after 3:00am, and the man's in his backyard playing with his dogs. He was out there, after I noticed, for about a half hour. How cool is that? I know it was a man from the way he moved. Men and women move differently. I can usually tell the difference. I stood there watching the three of them until they finally went back inside. It was 3:30. I went to bed.

I probably got about 2 hours of sleep total that night. The Holiday Inn I stayed in has an air conditioner in every room. In every room. Right next to the bed. And it's very loud. Every time I started to doze off it would kick on for a couple minutes. The lack of sleep didn't seem to faze me the following day.

Sunday morning there was probably a foot of snow on the ground, and it was still coming down. I was not alone when I trudged through it to get to the convention hotel. I saw more pedestrians that morning than drivers. That was almost expected.

When I arrived at the convention hotel, I noticed there weren't many people around. My immediate thought was that the snow had kept people away. Then I realized it was 10:00am. I was surprised at how many people were around. The Video Game room was closed again.

The AnimeUSA table was staffed. I don't remember by whom, I think I saw everyone within the course of an hour. I hung out there for a while. At some point, Duette (Duet?) came around with some kind of plushie doll of some guy I didn't recognize, and a sign that read something like: "Punch the Plushie 50˘, Hugs 75˘". I had either seen her with it earlier, or she came back later, because she had made a little money off the punching of the plushie, but no money from hugs. I offered her a hug for free and she accepted, which was odd since she was the one selling them. I think all the free glomp clinics walking around were putting down that end of the business. They're like the mafia.

Marc's promotion method is kind of strange. I recall once him scaring off a potential AnimeUSA con-goer with his stories of having three boyfriends. Somehow this indirectly led to Christian tricking me into joining the AnimeUSA staff. Well, at least I get free registration. I'll only take up the free hotel room offer if I can sleep in the girl's room... It's not for any perverted reasons, I swear. Girls are just quieter when they sleep. And so cute... Not perverted reasons! Really!

Marc and I went to the Anime Clubs 101 panel whenever that was. I think everyone at the panel was already running, in part, some sort of club. Except Marc, who has retired from that particular profession. Marc actually proved to be of some help during the panel, occasionally spouting out wise advice. I guess I don't really run a club, either.

I don't remember what happened between then and me ending up at the Art Auction, except that Cliff had told me he was going to the Art Auction, and I got hungry. I had wandered around a bit looking for someone to have lunch with, but finding no one, went to the Art Auction to find Cliff. While looking for Cliff, I found the people from the Pajama party the previous night. I took a seat with them, as Cliff was sitting in the front row, a place far too conspicuous for my taste. I was also hoping at least one person from that group would have lunch with me. Duo was the only one who expressed interest in eating, but he was bound to the group. I was hoping he would be able to convince the rest of them that we should all go eat, but he just went to sleep instead. Out of desperate hope, I stuck with the group. They even won some of the pieces. I wouldn't really call it "winning", though, as you have to pay for it.

After they had won all the pieces they could and were interested in, the group left the Art Auction, and I followed. There was apparently a problem over at the separate room where you have to pay for the art, and processing was very slow. After about an hour, people started wandering off, until only two members of the party remained in the line. Seeing as that I knew not where any of them were going, and that the two remaining people were bound to the line at that point, and that I was about to collapse from famine, I decided to part, myself, and go eat.

I would have vainly attempted to figure out the lobby restaurant again, but I saw no one eating. I tried the upstairs restaurant, but it was closed until 5:30pm. I ended up buying a refrigerated tuna sandwich from the cafe. I also got a cup of hot chocolate, which cost me $3.00 for some reason. I sat next to a window and watched the snow fall as I ate my sandwich and drank hot chocolate. It was all about the atmosphere.

The AnimeUSA group packed up their things and headed out in the early afternoon. They didn't want to deal with the snow. Christian was most not looking forward to initially moving his car, as it was snowed in. Many people spoke of similar circumstances that day. I was fortunate enough to have parked in a parking garage, and thus had no such problems. I think Marc stayed at USA Today or a hotel they had arranged for their employees. I heard something along those lines, but I never validated it. Actually, all the details surrounding that are hazy.

I caught up with the pajama party group once again downstairs. They were just lounging about. I chatted with them momentarily, but having already eaten, I decided to wander a bit more, see who remained at the convention. Somehow this led me to the feedback session. Katsucon has a panel-type arrangement where people can talk to two of the people running the con (and I think they were the main two people), tell them what they liked or didn't like, and what problems they had with the con. I didn't comment on anything, but I thought it was really cool that they had something like that.

After the feedback session, it was on to closing ceremonies. I always attend closing ceremonies. If I don't, I'll feel like I left before the convention was over, and then I'll get depressed. Well, I ended up with that feeling somewhat anyway, as they announced Katsucon 9.1. So many people were staying another night at the hotel because of the snow that the Katsucon staff decided to extend the convention. The artists' alley was still open, they had a video room running, and there were various small things going on. At least, that's what I heard. I left after closing ceremonies.

Driving in that amount of snow was fun. I think there was only one and a half feet of snow on the ground when I set out. The amount on the roads was significantly less, but still enough to cause problems. Getting out of Arlington proved difficult. I started following this one guy in a truck-styled vehicle who seemed to know what he was doing. I stayed in his tracks, and had few problems while I did so. In truth, if it hadn't been for that guy, I would've accidentally taken a wrong exit and gotten lost, which would be incredibly bad under those circumstances.

I could tell when I got to Fairfax. I drive an Oldsmobile Delta 88, which handles pretty well in snow, and even so constantly felt like I was going to get stuck in the snow on the side of the road. That is, until I got to Fairfax. They have plows. I don't know how many times they plowed the roads that day, but I witnessed twice. Once before I got there, and once as I was driving down the road. I actually caught up with the snow plows. There were four of them, lined up diagonally on route 66. While it was nice to see them, I was actually more afraid of getting into an accident as there were now more people around me. You may not know this, but people are idiots when it comes to driving. At some point, one guy decided his lane turned to the left. Well, it didn't, but he did almost run me off the road, and that wasn't fun.

When I arrived home, it was quite evident what parking spots didn't have cars in them recently. I tried forcing my car into one of the spots with 18 inches of snow in them, but only made it a couple feet. I then parked in front of my neighbor's house, grabbed a snow shovel, and started digging out a place. My father traded off the shoveling with me, as my hands and feet were freezing. While my car has comfortable seats, it doesn't have working fans, and thus I have no real heating. It was still snowing, and it was dark. Once he took over, which was about two minutes after I started, I ran hot water over my feet, dried them, put on two pairs of dry socks, got my shoes back on, and went downstairs for some hot cocoa. Then I went back to shoveling. I think we spent a half hour clearing the spot. It was still snowing.

The next two days my office was closed. This made all the shoveling worth it. We ended up with two feet of snow. After a 3-day vacation, I end up getting a weekend anyway. The only regret I have about those two days off is that I didn't write this report then.

I heard over at A Fan's View that they started calling this "Blizzard Con", and were actually selling badges for it. I almost wish I had stayed the extra night, just for the antics. However, sleeping in my own bed is a luxury I often take for granted. You see, I'm an insomniac.