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A-Kon 13

by Tim

Friday, May 31, 2002

I wake up around 9:30 due to a wonderful wake up call (thanks Sarah!!!) and take a shower and get ready for the day ahead.  I head down to the pre-registration line to get my badge for the con, and an HOUR later, return to the room, waiting for the dealer’s room to open.  While waiting, I get a call from Jon Allen, saying he has arrived and is down stairs.  I head down there and meet up with him and again wait in line for him to get his badge.  The retarded security guards say I can’t wait with him so I leave him in line and head to the dealer’s room.  I made my first purchase in the smaller dealer room, a plush Kodama from Princess Mononoke.  I got it fairly cheap too, seeing how it goes for $50 on ebay.  Afterwards I head back upstairs to wait for Jon. 

He gets to the room around 11:30, and the group head back downstairs to promote Kyle’s discussion panel.  Sarah, Megan, and Jessie are wearing billboards for Kyle’s panel as well as his site T-shirt.  The get dubbed the “Kyle’s Angels” and were pretty much the talk of the convention by all the celebrities on hand.  Kyle’s panel started at 1 PM so we all located his panel room and got him set up.  Steve handed me his video camera and I set up in the back of the room.  If any of you reading this were there, I was standing on the chairs with a white Texas hat on.  Kyle began talking about how he got into voice acting and Steve talked about how the site started, and then opened the floor to questions.  Guess who Kyle’s Angels bring in?  Voice actor Stephanie Nadolny, young Goku and young Gohan.  Kyle brings her aboard the panel and the two trade off lines from the show and begin taking more questions.  Even Jon Allen got to do his infamous Pink Hat Guy line for the audience.  Questions started to wander, so I raised my hand from the back, and Kyle gives my site a shameless plug.  During the panel, I see someone walk in with a DBZGT Legacy.com 0wnzJ00!!!111 shirt on, and realize it’s Mandrew from the site.  When the panel ends, I introduce myself to him and he meets Jon Allen for the first time as well.  As I was standing at the front of the room, a fan comes to me and asks what happened to PlanetNamek.com and I tell him what’s up with the web.  He then asks, Jon, Mandrew, and I to sign his shirt (my first autograph).  Even better than that, DBZ Beckett approached me and we had a brief chat.  They took my information and I may update on that at a later date. 

After the panel we all disperse and I go stand in line to try and get Scott McNeil’s autograph (Duo Maxwell and the original Piccolo).  Not gonna happen, the line was way too long.  I did however get Stephanie’s so that adds another signature to my poster.  Scott McNeil’s panel was next, featuring him, Stephanie, Tiffany Grant, Jonathon Osbourne, and Taliesin Jaffe.  Scott stole the show, but a great highlight was Kyle, Stephanie and Scott doing a triple Kamehameha yell!  Very cool indeed.  I did some more shopping with my roommates before standing in line again for Scott McNeil’s autograph.  An hour and a half later… I head back to my room and hook up the Sega Saturn to play the DBZ game Jon brought.

After Jon and John thoroughly destroy Mandrew, Jack, and myself, we decide to watch some anime.  I popped in Ah My Goddess, but unfortunately while Jon, Andrew and his friend were watching, I fell asleep.  When I woke up ten minutes later, Andrew had left and it was just Jon talking to himself (he didn’t know I was out cold).  We all started moving again.  Watched some TV then began wondering around the con. 

Jon, Megan, Jessie, John, and I formed our own little group and with John’s video camera, started exploring the hotel.  We stopped first in the J-Pop karaoke room and heard some girl sing a horribly long song before we moved on.  Boy did I see some sites I didn’t want to see, like a 6’3” guy in a dress making out with a short girl, EWWWW!  There was a rave going on in the main ballroom so we all head in there.  I see some friends I hadn’t seen in months and catch up while everyone chills and dances.  Next we hit the arcade and John recorded Jon Allen and I play Dance Dance Revolution, and we did rather crappy.  The people in that room was TOO into that game, especially this older guy that was attempting to break dance on the pad.  The funny thing was, he was missing the arrows.  Too funny.  Next we stumbled up and down the stairs of the hotel looking to crash some parties, but alas, there was nothing (I later learned all parties were busted).  Not much happened after that so we pretty much just hung out in the room until the rest of the group returned around 4:30 AM, and then went to sleep.

On to Day Three