Nekocon 3 - I don't think I've ever had such a rollercoaster convention trip.  A con of personal fun and alot of personal fustration, Nekocon struck me as a very strange con experience. 

Three weeks after the convention, I find myself still unable to write about it untainted by the negative experiences that intruded themselves on the convention.  In all honesty, if you were to ask me whether or not Nekocon 3 was a good convention, I would be forced to say that they came up lacking.

That isn't to say I didn't have a good time.  Despite problems, intrepid con-goers still managed to party and have a good time.  However, this was really done under adverse conditions.

I'm still trying to decide how to do convention coverage, so I'll try something a little different for this report..  For each day, Bold items are negatives, and Italics are positive points.  There are a few Mixed points.

Thursday - Early arrivals and adventures..

Sleep Deprivation Sucks - Per usual habit, I didn't sleep at all the night before the con..  Unfortunately, the usual tactic backfired since I was too tired to do anything for the first half of Thursday..

Friendly Hotel Staff rocks - Every hotel should take example from the front desk staff.  They dealt with my early arrival, remained cordial, and helped wonderfully when I had to tell them they'd given me the wrong room.  They stayed up to date on my room change, and even pointed me out to one of my roommates when I was in a comatose state on the lobby sofa.

Dodging cars for exercise  - The location of Nekocon put it nicely within walking distance of a mall.  However, it was a heart-racing adventure dodging traffic on the major highway that had no walkways, and running across entrance ramps that had a blind curve..   I and my fellow adventurer vowed never to do that again....  But its little adventures like these that lend a con flavor.

Thursday night Prereg - A definite point in Nekocon's favor here.  Being able to register for the con and thus not have to wake up early on Friday is a good thing..

Die Airlines, Die! - I went out with someone to pick up a friend at the airport...  My room was left with another roommate setting up for a party - which people started filtering in and out of... And we were stuck at the airport waiting for a delayed plane.  For an extra hour.  We came back to find the first wave of people had already come and gone.  Wahh!

Thursday Con Slugs - We sent a small foray out into the lobby around 1AM, and found a healthy con personality presence already forming.  AHA!  There's Steve, the place was starting to feel a little wierd without seeing his Civil war cap.

Dinner..  Never had any.  Wait, what happened to lunch? 

Thursday Night Endless DDR - The DDR players started filtering in, I notice especially after I open up the fridge drink stock to people.. Met a few new people, watched some of the more exprienced DDR players make me sick..

Bolted Windows - 2nd floor, windows that can't open, a total room count of over 15 people filtering out with at least four people playing DDR actively at all times.. I'm ashamed to say that for the first time, one of my Con room suffered from massive uncontrollable FANBOY FUNK.  (ugh.) 

Friday - Let the rollercoaster begin!

Sears Allen Wrenches - My Best Friends - Sometime during Friday we had a convoy to the mall..  Allen Wrenches.  Universal set.  $25 dollar well spent.  We "fixed" the window - and the room was nicely aired out and remained so for the weekend. :)

What do you mean, Kinshin? - Okay, I'm going to say it straight.  The video schedule for Nekocon 3 was HORRIBLE.  It was the prefect example of what NOT to do at a convention.  First of all, proofread your schedules, its sad to see Kenshin (A fairly popular show, right..?) mis-spelled twice in the same schedule.  Also, please put a little effort into your programming, its fairly insane to run episodes 21-24 of a series on FRIDAY.  And that's it..  The schedule smacked of people gathering their tapes last minute and praying they had enough to show. 

Hallway Cosplay Hijinxs - More and more, the best part of any convention is seeing what the people do.  This con was no exception, with the highlight of the hallway cosplays being "Ikuhara & co." and the molestation of bystanders.  Close seconds would be the removable FRO karaoke.  This con also marked the first time I got into any kind of odd clothing for hallway wandering.

DAMNED @$(@*%&^ CAMERA! - Probably the worst moment of the con for me was discovering that the portable hard drive for my camera was non-functional.  This prevented me from downloading images off of the camera to free up space.  Being told by tech support that I was effectively screwed for the weekend didn't help, and put me in a deep funk and in no mood to shoot photos or to party.  This lasted for alot of Friday.  Eventually, I gave up, deleted half of my photos, and dropped resolutions so I could cover at least some of the con.

Finding Vash's Glasses - I purchased one major item, and only one in the Dealers room.   In the first 15 minutes, I found the Vash glasses from Trigun, and stared at it for all of 3 minutes deciding...  Even the insane price of 107 dollars didn't dissuade me, since these were collector's items and auctioned on Ebay for twice the price..   I promptly wore these glasses all weekend.

Location, Location, Location - Look.  The hotel layout of the convention is very important.  Nekocon organizers, I am VERY glad you're getting out of there..  Having the convention split was horrible - people spent time wandering around looking for people, it was guesswork to find things to do, WHEN there were things to do, and the con had a very disjointed feel in general..  One of the biggest nails in the coffin had to be the location..

Friday night Endless DDR - The DDR room party continues into the night as we wait for friends to arrive from up north and watch friends filter in all night long.

Lamers - At the same time, opening the room up lets the occasional lamer wander into the room..  Look, I have no problem with people coming by and joining the festivities.  However, if you're going to come in, introduce yourself and be social.  Do NOT park your ass on the floor and stare at everyone, drooling.  Look, most otaku have a hard time being social, but at least put some effort into it. And damnit, don't come in uninvited!!!  Or at least, talk to SOMEONE!  <GROWL!>

Parties are registered - I'm somewhat mixed on this.. On the one hand, I was happy to see con staff going around, talking to party rooms, registering them and basically making the congoers free to run parties..  At the same time, its almost invasive, doesn't a congoer in a hotel have the right to privacy if they are quiet and do their own thing?  More on this in the Saturday thoughts..

Sleep - Nooooo.. I don't want to go to bed..  Sleep is good tho, so....

I'll just get interrupted just as I get in bed - At 5AM, more friends show up suddenly and call..   Oh well, time for a trip to the lobby to hang out..  Sleep comes eventually..  Especially once I faint on the lobby sofa. 

Saturday - Cosplaying for fun and angst!

The Layout of this con is a major @$@)(*%! - Okay, I know I said it, but I have to say it again...  The layout was the major problem with Nekocon.  Main events couldn't get attention cus half the congoers were in another building, one wasted time wandering between buildings trying to figure out where the action was, etc etc etc....  <sigh>  Major bummer.

There's a first tme for everything- And I was finally photographed in costume by several people...   Course, being dressed as "Secret Asian Man" isn't much of a challenge.. :)

Missing Music Videos - I really do love to watch music videos, but I missed them again this con.. This is turning into a bad habit, but there's always too many things going on at the same time at a con..  In this case, getting ready for cosplay, and also dealing with the different locations of everything made seeing the video contest an impossibility.  <sigh>  Next year, I promise!

Endless DDR - Endless DDR, I mean, ENDLESS DDR - I'm happy to say that I successfully addicted several people to this game.  Pretty much all of saturday, from about 1PM to oh... well, all night - the game was played.  :)

Where oh where is that bum? - Finding people at the con. People had a habit of disappearing and being totally impossible to find at this con..  This was particularly bad when there was, oh, a cosplay to get ready for, or food to be eaten, etc etc..  Ahh well, not much to be done about this..

Cosplay?  You mean I get to cosplay? - Another con first for me, I got to help plan and participate in Cosplay.. Of course, this lead to much...

Nervous practice - Our main speaker for our skit probably had several dozen butterflies all doing the mambo in his stomach..  I admit a little nervousness during the actual wait to go on stage... ;)

Surviving Cosplay - and enjoying it! - Okay, I forgot how much fun it is to get on a stage - even if its a silent physical role.  Making people laugh is a great joy - and ultimately, our skit managed to do that. "Nekocon Suck-Up-Skit #1" was a fun skit, and everyone enjoyed it.   The rest of Cosplay was mostly of high quality as well - and much fun was had by all..

However, post-cosplay drama @$#(* SUCKS - Suffice it to say I'm not too happy with what I heard after cosplay about cosplay judging.  My viewpoint, I admit, is very biased, and thusly I've seperated the rant.  If you want to read it, click here.

Pizza, PSX, and good spirits - Make for a decent Saturday party.  Friends continued to casually filter in and out of the room, both old and new faces. 

Disappointing Dance, Drunks, and Intrusive Staff - The dance was nothing to dance about, although there were at least more dancers than Otakon's rave.. ^_^;; I'll be nice and I'll avoid ranting about alcohol and drunks at cons - I personally don't like alcohol...  I will say this tho..  If we're going to talk about setting examples, the more public genertation of congoers need to think about the image they set when they're too liquored up to even be coherent.  As for intrusive staff...  Remember that comment about staffers keeping track of parties?  Friday night they got points for knocking on doors politely and inquiring.  Saturday night they nearly got thrown out the window.  I don't look kindly upon three staffers walking into my room uninvited, and not saying a thing.  Their excuse was that they were screening parties "undercover".  No.  I don't think so.  Bad excuse, bad practice, bad mojo.  Don't let your security staffers pull stunts like that.  They're not professional law enforcement.

Searching and finding little pockets of life - Many of the complaints I heard regarded the lack of spirit at Nekocon..  Thankfully, there were small pockets of enjoyment and fun going on here and there..  Finding them was a small quest of its own, but they were there.

But its nothing like Nekocon R's Saturday night - Still...  This con was very much missing its small con relaxed feel, people weren't social with each other, but to their own groups.  There was simply something missing this time around..  Saturday night last year, I refused to go to bed.  This year it was easy.

Sunday - At the end of the ride, you're still sad..

Early birds flew the coop - You immediately know the con's coming to a close when you have to make your first goodbyes, but its particularly hard when its at 8 in the morning, and you haven't slept more than a couple of restless hours..  Nonetheless, its a bittersweet parting when you're hanging out of the window, waving goodbye to people leaving in a VERY loud voice and making a fool of yourself in good spirits..  BYEEEEEEE!

Its even better when a roommate has wierd dreams - Oddly enough, my yelling out the window woke up my roommate - he'd had dreams that I'd fallen out the window from the way I was yelling goodbye...

Waiting for chinese food - waiting over an hour for food to be delivered to the hotel lobby..  Why the lobby?  Cus we 'd already checked out of our rooms, silly!

Seeing old and new friends leave one by one - <sniff> So depressing!!  Goodbye everyone!  Some old friend leaving, then seeing new friends who I just met also leaving, and oh.. well.. I'm feeling very emotional now..  Its always a very wierd moment to wrap up a con, even ones that were as mixed as this one.  :)

Hotel Shuttel FUBAR! - Turns out the shuttle that was guaranteed for 4:30 wasn't so guaranteed...   Partially because some dealers, or whatever, held up the shuttle for MUCH too long.... and partially due to bad planning by the hotel..  In either case, we nearly got in a very bad situtation because of this, but ultimately the hotel, after a very clear complaint, made good and called us an independant shuttle, and covered the cost.

Last minute goodbyes - The goodbyes kept coming, as even at the airport we had to say goodbye to some people who were taking a similar plane.  Thankfully, they got on THEIR plane without incident...

High winds and turbulence, and nausea.. -  Of course, what s a con weekend without a 2.5 hour delay, high winds in the landing airport, nervous armrest gripping, nausea, planes bouncing more than Gainax fanervice, and a nice cold to fight?  But that's another story. ^_^;;

Getting Home -  It never matters what convention it is, dropping your bags and flopping on your bed feels good no matter what..

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I wrap up this convention, and this convention year with a few thoughts...

1.  As much as I may have felt Nekocon was quite lacking this year, I still enjoyed myself.  I believe that any con is only what the congoers make of it.  If you decide you WILL enjoy yourself, then you will enjoy yourself.  When there is no con, one must make one.   When there is no event, you MAKE an event.

2.  People and fans are an odd bunch.  Everyone enjoys themselves in different ways and different styles.  I'm guilty of it too, but I must say, who are we to judge what people do?  Perhaps if we remained open to other ideas, and didn't get a overrated sense of our own value and power - we wouldn't have some of the hurt feelings that cons seem to generate at times.
We can suggest, but maybe we shouldnt be so fast to mandate that people behave in a certain way or do certain things.

3.  2000 was a very strange convention year for me personally - there was a good number of changes in my congoing style.  With getting to know more and more people, taking a photographic view of the convention, doing video and becoming a con slug, my view and approach towards cons has definitely changed.  Into what, I'm not sure..  Perhaps cons are a good thing, in allowing us people of like minds to socialize and enjoy a gathering...  Perhaps they can be dangerous, since the cons also encourage aspects of fandom that aren't healthy in society.  Needless to say, it will be interesting to see how the face of anime fandom develops.

4.  When in doubt, we're still here to have fun.  Mayhap it needs to be responsible fun, but fun nonetheless.  Each con is different in how it approaches these things.  My hope is that congoers, con "personalities", and con staffers work together openly to keep things safe, fun, and enjoyable.

With that, my 2000 convention circuit comes to a close.  Go and enjoy your lives. :)