First and foremost, a big mucho thank you to

for renewing my Deviant-subscription-thingie. Thanks!!
Well, I've been home since Tuesday night, and I'm still pretty wiped out from it all. Which, you know, is impressive when considering I actually skipped out on alotta' the con, too. But anyway, I'm still pretty zombified from the weekend, but the run-down in a nutshell starts last Thursday.
Thursday (Pre-Con) The larger chunk of the drive to Orlando. Yes, drive. As it happened, there aren't nearly as many trains going to and from as there used to be. (Repairs due to the hurricanes still). And going by plane was a bit
high-priced.

So I did the larger part of the 10 hour drive to Orlando Thursday. Was pretty out of it that night. (By the by, if I seemed unresponsive on AIM or in the Ken Penders chat, which I think I actually nodded off during

- that's why.

)
Friday (Day 1)Finished up the last leg of the trek that morning, checking into the hotel. Ricky, an old high school pal, picked me up there and we went to the Orange County Convention Center. And
It was fucking AWESOME. I mean
I dunno, I pretty much geeked out to the point of stunned silence which combined with exhaustion and an unyielding sinus headache made the rest of the day a blast in that "This is so cool I'm gonna' fall over" sorta' way. I mean, when giant robots with crotch-batteries come out of the men's restroom all in a line while you're sitting by eating lunch
I tell you, it's pretty trippy. But cool trippy.
Went to a couple of panels that day one which was on publishing. As it turned out it wasn't on comics, actually something neither Rick nor I realized until about five minutes in. Having gone in late and then having interrupted the panel with a phone call after being in there just a minute, though we were both too embarrassed to just get up and leave. So I busted out the book they gave us and started doodling on the pages. One thing I noticed about many of the panels, btw particularly these "break in" panels is that it's pretty much the same old shit. Seriously. Chances are if you're at all serious about getting into whatever industry is there, you all ready know everything they're gonna' talk about if not more. So yeah, panels were boring.
Incidentally. I didn't realize it until Day 3, but I actually made a rather notorious "first-timer" mistake. Anime Sushi is a big-ass anime club in Orlando, and they host some of the cooler events going on at the convention. But none of these are actually listed in the Events list for the con but rather are in a small part of the book, tucked between some Yu-Gi-Oh card tournament shit and the celebrity guest list. As a result, I missed some pretty awesome happenings the Artist Jam on Day 1 (which woulda' fucking ROCKED, as it went into the wee hours of the morning

) and a dance party on Day 2. (DANCE PARTY-Y-Y-Y!!)
Not aware that any of that was happening, though, Rick and I went back to his apartment, meeting up with an old friend of his and his roommate Griff, a dude I've known since we were li'l kids. Halo 2 ensued, and I learned that I suck more ass at Halo 2 than I did Halo. Then I crashed on their couch.
Saturday (Day 2)The combined exhaustion of the trip down to Orlando, the first day of the Con, and a late night of alien exploding gun-fighting meant waking up late. Real late, actually. All four of us went to the Con for about two/three hours. And it was fucking PACKED. So much so that it was near impossible to stand still for a moment, or else you'd get trampled. So the four of us packed up early (nothing was happening that WE knew of again going back to the fact that I missed a good chunk of Anime Sushi's stuff), and I slept off the day at the hotel.
Sunday (Day 3)I hauled ass into the con late again on the final day, though I'd actually woken up early enough
It just happened that it took a couple hours to find an ATM machine. Which, for a tourist trap like Orlando, is pretty uncanny. But after throwing a good $100 away on bootleg DVDs and some new art boards (I out), that was it for the day. I hanged around for awhile, doing a li'l business ala cell-phone and calling some friends in Gainesville (who all happened to be on an uber-early Spring break, so they're all back up here in the panhandle

). Oscar-watching that night, then the drive back up the next day.
---
And that was pretty much it. It was fun as hell, despite the fact that I pretty much missed out on a huge chunk of it. But you learn from your mistakes and all that, so I'll be better prepared next time. Speaking of which, I'll be back down there in Daytona Beach actually for Anime Express 8 on the 17th to 19th, then I'll be in Houston for Kami Kaze Con on the. And I should have tables at these. You know, so that I can sit and draw and pretend to be important. But maybe turn enough of a profit that I can actually afford to keep going to these things.

So if any of you guys are gonna' be in the area or are going to the conventions, lemme' know!

So see ya' guys later. I'm gonna' go back to sleeping off my desperate need for sleep again.
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