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Been going since it started in Hayward, CA.

I am a bit excited but not as much as I used to be when I started attending FanimeCon. I have to admit, I am not a fan of anime (I don't dislike it). But I found that there are many non-anime related things to do at FanimeCon or in San Jose during that weekend. One of the most important reasons for me to be there is that (including myself) my friends, all of them, actually have the entire weekend off. It's the only time we have a coordinated weekend off for us to hang out. Since some of my friends live close to San Jose, we've chosen to use FanimeCon as a hang out spot for us. Despite having full weekend passes and a hotel room for 3 nights, we often go to other places in San Jose. Movie theaters, night clubs, etc. Sometimes we remain in the hotel room to play some X360 or watch DVDs, use laptops for Youtube or just get drunk.

So I am excited about being with my friends all in one spot.

What has changed the past few years is that my friends and I started doing the cosplay thing. Ever since we stormed in as Pirates back in 2007, we've felt it was now necessary to attend being part of the event rather than being a spectator. In turn it added the stress of building the costumes or spending a lot of money to get the quality you want. This year we're doing what we did last year (Metal), only we've just upgraded what we have now. I spent like $600 last year on pieces which I built into a costume. This year, spent maybe $200 just to upgrade it. Not fun having to spend a lot, but it was needed otherwise I'd go to the con as an unhappy camper.

So I am not too excited in the last minute cosplay work I need to do.

And of course there is the girlfriend difference. Normally we'd (the guys) go by ourselves. Everyone would ditch their wives or girlfriends for the weekend while they hang out with the guys. I never actually had a GF during a FanimeCon weekend which made me the only single guy of our group. So it was a bit exciting going to scope out the fangirls. ;) I've had many-many post-con encounters with girls and some which I've even dated, so why wouldn't that be exciting for a single guy? Well now, I have a GF (and happily so) and she and her girl-friends are coming to the con with us, and are going to dress the part matching our own costumes (for more impressive group shots). So in a way one aspect of excitement is gone. However it may create a new one with her being there. This time, I'm the only one in the group who ISN'T single while all my friends are and I think it'll be somewhat interesting to see how the guys and the girls I'm going with (all of which are strangers to each other) will interact with each other.

THAT could be an exciting Fanime. =p

I've been attending FanimeCon since the very beginning. I've walked around with and without (what may be considered weapons). I've never been searched or stopped for any reason.

I always left when my hangover became tolerable. (Word of advice, don't Drink and Con -- you'll miss the entire event as I did, when I started my booz'ing on Friday morning).

Any way... I had no idea there was a closing ceremony to this. Where does it happen, and what takes place?

I did this all-mouse-work in Adobe Illustrator of a friend of mine.



Ultra Hi-Res click here.

^^ Are you sure those that you mentioned were Safety staff?

Also, you should always get their departments and name. Easiest way to track down a rude person.

If staff is being rude, you are suppose to complain! They are not allowed to be rude to you. You can flag down any Safety personnel and they will handle rude staffers for you. If they are safety personnel, going up the chain is a good idea. They can/will get chewed out =).

It's usually not my kind of thing to tattle on people individually, nor do I feel I have the time to take a name and then hunt down a Fanime Overseer and have them belittle the evil doer staffer to satisfy my jollies.

I just think when the Fanime staff get together again before the next convention, the topic of person-to-person interaction should come up as a bullet point on a PowerPoint document (because PPT docs rock). I am not in any way hurt by evil staffers, but I think it's something that should be talked about.

I don't think everyone working for FanimeCon is bad, but I just happen to run into those few bad ones every year. :p

I was a bit disappointed in the lack of J-pop video'ing going on. The little bits that I did see was great (and the ladies running it were great too). But the limited time slot for this wasn't appealing. From 12am - Noon? Not exactly a great schedule and no fair to the people who put in time and effort to make this a part of FanimeCon.

I would have (and I am sure others) would have filled the room more had it played during a more available time frame. Hopefully next year it would be more of a 24-hour video room and not some 12-hour thing during odd hours. For the first time since I started going to Fanime (back when it started in Hayward), I actually watched some J-pop for more than 2 hours straight. These ladies musta done something right.

More J-pop video please.

I totally agree. Their video room rocked and would of had way more attendees in the room if it was at a different time slot. Not that watching hard gay at 3am wasn't amusing X_X. lol. I swear after seeing a lot of those amvs from the 80's....i swear thats what influenced para para. Hey to the girls who held it. Thanks so much for the flyers at the tables too ^_^. good times good times.

Hey by chance did you make it to the panels held by Panda cubed. They had good music videos too!!!!!

I didn't make it to Panda Cubed. I'd say 50% of the convention I was intoxicated and had limited sense of perception as to where I was at. :p

I had no major problems this year as I did last year.

There were MANY rude staffers, most of which I encountered early on (before I even registered). Like for example, walking out an open door to the lobby and some guy yelling at us (friends and I), chastising us to not exit the door. (There were no other visible doors to exit and there were no signs pointing to an exit). Had the guy mentioned it was not an exit, we would have been ok with it. But to get in our faces about it... yeah well we had to punk him.

Then there were more staff encounters when we were taking pictures with people, one of the staff kept getting in the way and yelled at us about taking his pic without permission. Thing is, we DIDN'T want his pic, he kept getting in the scene, so we repositioned everyone and in some way, some how and for some reason, he had relocated to that position and once again chewed us up about getting his pic taken. Then he wanted to see our camera, so we confronted him and made him look stupid in front of people, he stormed off (we assumed to get more of him) but never saw him again. What was up with that?

But not to be all negative against FanimeCon staff, but there was one cool staffer, she was the short-haired brunette Saftey girl in the Dance room on Sat Night, I appreciate her protecting me and my crew from all the dangerous glow sticks flinging around and busting one of my eyes out. Glow-sticks are FAR more dangerous than spikes. :)

Overall I had less problems with staff as the years gone by (and I'm not a problematic person). I think the problem most fanime staff has is that they are over-confident working in their element and they push the attitude a little too far -- and of course they can get away with it with most FanimeCon attendees, but I am not a push over. To me: You're not real security. You're not law enforcement. You have no real power over anyone or anything. The most you can do is manage convention members within a limited boundary. I think more respect would be given if earned and not demanded.

But for what it's worth, minus the few bad apples, I think overall the convention went well and for the most part, people did their jobs.

I was a bit disappointed in the lack of J-pop video'ing going on. The little bits that I did see was great (and the ladies running it were great too). But the limited time slot for this wasn't appealing. From 12am - Noon? Not exactly a great schedule and no fair to the people who put in time and effort to make this a part of FanimeCon.

I would have (and I am sure others) would have filled the room more had it played during a more available time frame. Hopefully next year it would be more of a 24-hour video room and not some 12-hour thing during odd hours. For the first time since I started going to Fanime (back when it started in Hayward), I actually watched some J-pop for more than 2 hours straight. These ladies musta done something right.

More J-pop video please.

To the girl that dirty danced drunk with me in the rave room that couldn't keep your hands off my millions of metal spikes.

I forgot your name and number. If you're reading this, I still have your B.O. all over my jacket, was kinda hoping I could give it back to you some how.

If you see this, PM me. Danke.

My jacket pocket got picked in the Dance room on Saturday night, I had $72 in cash which has undoubtedly become someone's lunch or dealer's room spending change. It was *possible* that in a drunken situation when I fell 20 times walking (stumbling) around the convention (after someone spiked my drink) that the person who picked me up picked me, or I just dropped it because of the situation.

A friend's badge was stolen too, on Saturday afternoon.

5th floor of Crowne Plaza across the street from the 'con.

During the convention it was ok. I was able to ride it alone most time which allowed me to cut the cheese when I pleased.

However during the last day when people were running for the hills (to check out), the elevators were packed. It was almost impossible to get an elevator to even show UP on the 5th floor. However once one got there 10 minutes later, we (co-con'ers and I) manage to talk the people inside the elevator, OUT of the elevator and finally made it out the hotel.

Sorry to guys and gals who thought room 504 were giving out free anime DVDs and comics. TELLING LIES TO GET ON THE ELEVATOR IS METAL!!  >:(