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I would really like to see the whole "glomping" thing taken out completely.

I'm not asking for "ZOMG TEH NAZIS,"

...

Glomping and maid cafes are officially serious business. -.-;;;

I know you did not just invoke Godwin's Law on this.

Listen. There are people.. people who are not sad and lonely, who are sick and tired of getting tackled by fat, smelly anime fans who have absolutely no idea how to act in public, or their mommies never loved them or whatever.

And anime conventions == Public.

Stop trying to defend it. The people who want it curbed are not on the same level as a mass murderer. We just want to be able to walk about without risking our health and the people who do this are exactly that: health risks.

Anecdotal proof: After being "glomped" by some fan girl, Miss Shelby's foot was injured and swelled to the point where we had to go back to the hotel room and soak it in hot water for an hour. Please, do defend this.

Glomping.
Oh dear, glomping. This year seemed to have an ESPECIALLY bad problem with it. I was the mudkip walking around during the con, and I was glomped from BEHIND without PERMISSION or warning. I was almost knocked down, and by the time I was able to recover from it, the people were gone. The Beelzeneff I attended with had the same problem. They were glomped twice from behind, and also almost knocked over. We were able to tell off the people, seeing as there were two of us, but it was rather ridiculous. We both also managed to avoid it a few times, but had there not been two of us, we wouldn't have been able to. The mudkip costume is top-heavy, and had someone knocked me down, I wouldn't be surprised if they had broken my teeth or nose, because it was a wire-frame mascot head. The beelzeneff cosplayer isn't as strong as I am, and has back-problems, glomping could have caused serious injury.
I was told after the fact when inquiring at Con-Ops that we could have taken down badge numbers and reported them to Rovers. But this shouldn't be happening in the first place. I, personally, feel that next year there should be a rule in place about glomping, and should it be broken, there be a potential for badge revokation.
I'd love to hear from staff members on why or why-not this would be something that can be put into action, and I'd think that others who have had this problem should also bring it to light.

Uhg. This is exactly what I'm talking about. The worst of them? The ones really worth complaining about? They're the ones who take zero consideration into the persons costume. Whether it's delicate or whether it's (like in your case) huge and already difficult to just walk around in, they just don't care and launch themselves at people.

Sorry to hear about it. I saw you walking around in your costume and yeah, getting "glomped" from behind in that thing had to be scary as hell.

Hay, I saw a White Ranger from our original Power Rangers  :D

Old School 8)

Definitely the only one of him. How about the Cutey Honey cosplayer with the White Ranger? I think that was the only one I saw too.

I was the only Jet (Avatar) and I know my girlfriend and I were the only ones cosplaying Pop'n Music anything.

There was one WT Snacks, too!

Given the amount of people wanting hugs, you could probably have those huggers prone to assault figure everyone is fair game.

Read: The rules they normally have to go by do not apply.

Last time I checked, Fanime wasn't Lord of the fucking Flies and it still took place in California.

Seeing as how the San Jose PD love to patrol just outside the convention center, I'm sure they'd agree with me. Maybe we'll find out next year. Until then, stop trying to justify assaulting someone by saying it's a "hug." That's like me stabbing someone and saying "I only poked them!"

[were]

I'm not banned anymore \o/(No reason to explain that)

Well I can see why you were banned. Sure people should ask for hugs instead of just taking them but do you really feel that it's necessary to push someone down to the floor because they wanted to hug you? Perhaps next time you could just tell them it's unwanted instead of being violent?

So when someone forces themselves on me, I'd be the bad guy when I force them OFF of me, all because they wanted a "Hug?" Yeah, that doesn't fly. There are some serious freak shows around cons and I had to practically elbow one in the throat until he got the message to get his hands off me.

How about next time they attempt to tackle me I just take them to con ops,  call the cops, press assault charges and ruin it for everyone? Because that's all it would take and trust me, I'd be very happy to do it.

Though it had never been a problem in the past, the huggers and the "glompers" have SERIOUSLY got to go. It's practically assault and it's even worse when you're wearing a really sensitive outfit and some tard tries to tackle you.

Here's a whacky suggestion: You know how you can get a organ donor sticker on your license? Why not have a "huggable" sticker or something like that. That way, when you freak shows go to hug some random stranger, you'll know that they're cool with you even asking with it.

That way, those of us who don't want random people trying to grope us can go about the con in peace.

[Update #7 -]

Update #7 - Yawn. Getting over the Monday morning Fanime hump is hard.. Gotta leave the hotel in an hour and I'm still in my pajammas. That and the second night of Damn You Internets was so awesome that it ended up running for almost 2 hours!

We'll have a more official post mortem over the next day or so, but for now you can view the panels in all their unedited glory. I'm going to assume that these were done by the folks over at Otaku Hunter, but if I'm wrong, let me know-

Saturday Night: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=7C36LF9Q
Sunday Night: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=2XWH6USE

So thanks to them for filming, Jason Ebner for not only sticking up for us but actually coming on stage as well. Jason Green for putting up with my terrible jokes and everyone who showed up. Even "the Heckler." Oh! And Fanime Tech for being there on time (even well before it!) and being extremely helpful. It definitely helped squash some of my lingering doubts.

See you next match!

Maybe you should ask for permission first.

No. I meant it literally. I'm going to go up to someone and smack them in the face with it.

:roll:

Hay, Melty Blood players.

Don't be surprised if I come to shove a camera in your face sometime this Friday or Saturday. I wanna do a video on the game and players and whatnot for Joystiq this weekend :D

I'm practicing my Akiha as we speak!

HEY!

Are you a girl?

Do you cosplay?

Are you planning on going to Damn You Internets?

Would you like to help us put together a quick video on Saturday night?

Shoot me a message here on the Fanime forum or on AIM. We may be in need of someone to play role! All things will be explained and don't worry, we're not in it to be like "llulz cosplay" because, duh, some of us are cosplayers too!

So.. parking this year?

I've parked at the same lot every year for three years and it's been about $5 bucks a night, but I get really sick of having to go back and forth every night to renew it.

Does anyone know how much the convention center parking will cost this year? The convenience of not having to shove money into a machine at midnight every night seems worth the extra money this year.

Hey is anyone down for practicing the dance Friday and/or Saturday night?

Yeah, if a horde of cosplayers want to do the dance on Sunday, I'd be down to practice it sometime during the week.

We'd just have to make sure someone showed up with a stereo ;o

Ahg. Time to put my PS2 copy of Melty Blood to good use.

Want to see what eight pounds worth of cosplay in a box looks like?

http://jaredr.vox.com/library/post/fanime07---countdown.html

[Update #6 -]

Update #6 - What better time for a panel update than 3AM on a Sunday morning?

But I wouldn't be updating if I weren't working on the panel, right? I finally got a chance to sit down and chat with our expert of all things Japanese, James, and figure out what he'll be bringing to the panel. I always forget how seriously hardcore he is about Japanese web culture that, after tossing ideas back and forth, we decided to get him his own portion of the panel.

It's one thing to browse 2ch and think you're hardcore, but James? Good lord. I have no idea what it is that I've been watching all night, but I do know this: hilarity shall ensue.

I'll be working with him throughout the week to get him setup, but what about right now? Aside from presentation quirks, I've starting getting together what should amount to a game show being held during the panel. I can't say what the subject is, but that's because it would be no fun if any of you could research it before hand. And yes! There will be prizes!

From the way things are looking, if the game show will be on the second night (Sunday, 9PM), as the first night is looking packed. Actually, they both are. But of course I would say that, right?

Still, if anyone has any ideas or suggestions, throw them our way. Or you could always stop by our Brainstorm Rodeo thread here on the Fanime forums.

See you next match!

I'm almost considering learning it in the event of a flash mob. That way, I can blend right in.

[Update #5 -]

Update #5 - With 2 weeks to go until Fanime, I've gotten early press access to the Halo 3 Beta and suddenly, I can't get any work done!

There are still a few things left to do until the panel and so I caught our favorite host, Mikey, on AIM and had a little Q&A session to see how he's doing. He's a man of few words which naturally makes him the perfect candidate to host!

---

Jared: As host of Damn You Internets, what are you doing to prepare for the panel?

Mikey: Living on the internet... and making you do a bunch of shit for me.

Jared: I'm editing Halo 3 footage in the background. Does this make you nervous?

Mikey: Hell no, because we did all of (well, all that I thought of) the shit we need to do already. (Editors note: lulz)

Jared: Why are you such a freaking jerk? Why can't you just stfu and let people have their own damned opinions, you jerk!

Mikey: People can have opinions, but if someone presents a stupid opinion, I'll tell them how fucking stupid their opinion is.

Jared:  Jerk. So what is it that you're most excited to talk about this year?

Mikey: How I was banned from the Fanime forums simply because the Fanime staff "didn't like me" and believes that is grounds to ban a contributing attendee (Hey, look. I run panels.), under the claim of "we don't like him." (ed note: I'm just the messenger!)


Every picture of Mikey we have is more frightening than the last.

Jared: Christ that's controversial! Anything else?

Mikey: Nothing else in specific, though, the intro for the first night is something I'm looking forward to.

Jared: Yeah, without spoiling anything, what can you say about the more planned events?

Mikey: There's REAL ACTUAL PLANNED EVENTS THIS TIME! We'll be having special guests, slide shows, and audience participation filled games.

Jared: What can you say to persuade folks who don't have plans to be at the panel?

Mikey: Hmmm... Seeing that these are pretty late at night, seriously what else are you going to be doing? Nothing is going on at these times. You better be getting drunk, or laid or something.

Your other options are, staring at that Goku cosplayer that brings his desktop PC and sleeps in the convention center area, or talking about what you could be doing. Why not go to something that's actually entertaining, fun, and allows for participation. Hell, it'll probably be better than the masquerade.

---

See you next match!

This isn't a real update but~

Good news! There is nothing overtly huge competing with Damn You Internets! Saturday at 10PM!

Bad news! It competes with Masq on Sunday at 9PM!

So if you don't play on attending masq, come visit us. I mean, really. Sunday at 9PM? What are you going to be doing other than drinking? And if you are? Bring us something, plz.

Real update to come. It's down to the wire and seriously, I haven't been able to focus on anything other than work. And by work, I mean playing Halo 3. LULZ.

o rly? So you want me to show up in meh party van? :3

This would be more than acceptable. Yes :)