First off, I want to wish everyone a Happy New Year. :) I'll admit, I was nervous about the upcoming year as 2010 had some pretty bad times for me, but considering everything thats happened so far, I say 2011 is turning out to be pretty awesome *knocks on wood*. And one of those moments of awesomeness happened last weekend at the Magfest convention in Virginia.
Normally I wouldn't go to a convention like this as a) its in Virginia which is 4 hours away and b) I'm not that big on gaming. However, when I heard that there would be at least 30 contributors from thatguywiththeglasses.com, I knew I just had to go and thankfully my mom complied by driving us there and buying tickets (thanks mom!)
Even though the convention was 4 days long, we didn't arrive till Friday afternoon which means we ended up missing the Linkara panel. :( Which sucked cause I was really looking forward to seeing the new AT4W episode. (Thankfully Linkara has since posted it on his website).
Speaking of which, we actually got to meet the MAN himself! Linkara was nice enough to pose for pictures and he even remembered the Pollo robot I made for Comic-Con. He loved the updated version, though said we still didn't exactly get the flaps right. Other then that we got to chat and Linkara even played Yu-Gi-Oh cards against my brother at one point. (ps. my brother won :P)
But the best part for me was when he let me hold the Dragon Dagger. To me, it was like being handed Excaliber.Very beautifully made dagger prop and totally awesome in every way. Naturally, I handled myself well and thanked him for the opportunity by being calm and respectable...in which I mean I squealed like a crazy fangirl and glomped the hell out of him lol. Thankfully though, Linkara didn't seem to mind and asked me to send him all the pics and video footage I got of him (which I will do once my computer stops being a bitch). I even managed to get on a first name basis with him which was pretty cool. We ended up running into each other a lot during the convention, more times then I ever dreamed I would. <3 Seemed like the universe was intent on getting us together. And each time was better then the next.
Speaking of running into people, I actually did get to meet everyone from TGWTG.com and then some :) Got a lot of good photos and even got to chat with some of them. I geeked out with Welshy about Doctor Who, discussed Shake Weights with Sean Fausz, and had some brief chats with JewWario, JesuOtaku, LordKat, Paw and Nella. Even got to see Todd play piano (he wore a mask the whole time so I never saw his face). All of them were so friendly and nice and it actually blew my mind that they were walking around conversing with fans like normal people. Was actually quite refreshing. The best part though, aside from the awesome and hilarious panel they did, was that they all signed Pollo for me. So now not only do I have the only Pollo prop in existance (aside form the orignal), but I have the only autographed one as well. I missed a few like Skitch, Snake and Mike Dodd, but I'll add them in eventually, assuming I see them at other cons.
Then of course there's Spoony, who had 2 panels there which I went to. As usual, Spoony was hilarious, both in his stand up and his Q&A. I also got to watch him sing the songs 'Tribute' and 'Chop Suey' on Rock Band. Gotta say, its a good thing Spoonys entertaining cause he definatly cant sing xD lol I only wish I had a chance to hang with him more. At one point I actually met his girfriend Scarlett. Unfortunatly I was rather drunk at the time and ended up asking her out xD.
The last person I had set out to meet was the Angry Video Game Nerd. I actually spotted him at the bar a few times but was either too nervous or too drunk to talk to him. He too was a nice guy and graciously signed my Pollo. Kinda disspointed in myself that I didn't ask him anything but it was still an honor getting to see him in person. His panel was fun to watch, though I couldn't help but cringe at some of the embarassing questions he got (specially the guy who asked why his dad was always pantsless in his videos ><) Poor guy.
The rest of the convention was pretty much okay. Definatly the smallest I've ever been to. It was great seeing and playing all the old arcade games there like Mario, Donkey Kong, PacMan and Tron. I wanted to play DDR and Rock band but seeing as I'm a noob, I didn't want to embarass myself in front of the leet gamers. The shopping and cosplays were slim pickins, but the cosplays I did see were awesome. Got to meet some fellow TGWTG cosplayers, like a Nostalgia Critic, Dr. Insano and even a Nurse. There was also a female AVGN and Critic which was really hawt. At one point I even got to meet the voice of Duke Nukem himself, Jon St.John who as really cool.
If I did have to say something negative about the convention it would be these 2 things.
1) There was no convenient food joints nearby. Your only options to eat would either be at the hotels limited and overpriced resturant or order to out some pizza/chinese which took an over an hour to arrive.
2) The eleavators. Dear god did I hate those things >< I normally wouldn't have used them but I was also visiting my friend who happened to have a room on the 25th floor. 2 of the eleavators broke so we had to wait forever for the other 2 to go all the way up and down and they got stuck quite often. Was really scary @_@ We also got stuck at least twice on a 'party elevator' where a bunch of rowdy nerds jumped up and down screaming said words over and over. Was extremely annoying. And they all smelled. Badly...
But all that aside, that was probably one of the best conventions I've ever been to :) Being able to meet Linkara and all the people from TGWTG.com was like a dream come true. They were all wonderful and funny and friendly and I never wanted it to end. Hopefully there will come a day where I get to hang out with them as an equal and talk on a personal level. Till then, I shall continue to work on my reviews and cosplay to my hearts content.
Next convention, AnimeNext. A good 5 months from now but one I eagerly look forward to nonetheless. There's a chance I might not go to Otakon this year as there's a show going on at my old summer theater group which I'd like to try out for, something I haven't done in a long time. However, I will be attending Comic-Con/Anime Festival, where me and my brother will debut our newest cosplay outfits (shh! its a surprise ;) ) So till then, I hope you all enjoy my pictures which are featured here on my deviantart http://eframtrabbit.deviantart.com/ .
TTFN! Ta-ta for now :) ~efram
