Aaaand... I'm back.

[silveradept]

The party that was Anime Central was a blast. The convention itself had high points and low points (one of which was the four hours of on-site registration line) but the somewhat lackluster programming was made up for by the companionship. I participated in a game of 1000 Blank White Cards on Saturday night that was the greatest. I got to hang out, on Sunday, with Sprite Monkey of Secret of Mana Theater fame and Caroline from 9th Elsewhere, who drew me a very neat-o sketch of myself and Dorian. I asked whether or not she needed practice drawing anyone, and that's the sketch that resulted. I like her rendering of me - it makes me look more attractive than I am in person. Unfortunately, even though I put up a ticket for her raffle, I didn't manage to get myself into 9E as a guest character. It would have been cool, of course, but that's the way things fall. Sprite Monkey hasn't put up his winners yet, but even if I don't get the sprite-ification, it was still cool just to contribute. Oh yeah, I bought some buttons from them, too, and put them on my messenger bag. I played a little Morton's List, but the energy wasn't there like it was last year, so I stopped after I found the 1kBwC game. The guests were awesome, I garnered more than a few scribbles, and unlike many, I'm not a Pillows fanboy, so no concert for me. Ask neoboy3000 instead. Oh, and just so you know, man, there were other people playing Anime Bingo with the cosplayers - they were just spelling the word out though. We need to make some Convention Bingo cards for next year, okay?

The truth, though, is the tagline from this con is "ACen 2005 - What a party! Wait... there was a con?" The Freaking Suite did well, although there were some objects left in it and some objects lifted from it. Managed a camera and a half of pictures, mostly of cosplayers. There were many excellent cosplayers there that I did see and snap pictures of (many thanks to all who permitted this) and a couple that I didn't get pictures of. I also helped out in the Scavenger Hunt. The party was on for the most part because the programming might not have been the best. Anime Hell and Midnight Madness were up to standard, with one very long exception in MM. There was ReDeath, and thus, all was good.

There was also a slightly more... authoritarian feel to the convention this year. Might have been that the Security personages were far more visible in vests and not necessarily as cosplayers like many used to be. Might have been that they stopped by the Suite just to make sure that everyone was on the level and that nobody under age was consuming alcohol. Might have been just the generally more aggressive feel that I got from them. So, to my fellow con-goers, hats off! You've made the highlight reel of the convention.

Of course, going to a convention also means that I have had five days (or so) of catching up on the wired world as well. What follows is of course, random. But it might be that random is reality. Even more, you may be an anarchist and simply not know it. Strangely enough, this article helps me in framing the relative positions of anarchism and socialism and how they do have slight but meaningful differences.

So I missed the news bulletins that proudly proclaimed people trying to shut down the 'Net, olive oil is definitely not Viagra, robots can clone themselves, someone can get run over four times and nobody will notice. Of course, with the new Google Content Blocker, we won't have to worry about any of that. And if the kids get uppity wondering where their Web went to, you can just use the Brat Zapper on them and they'll quiet down. If that fails, maybe it's because they're studying the best ways to resist torture.

Got an old hard drive around? Convert it into a lockpick. the device there looks pretty clunky, but it works, at least, on simple locks, from the looks of things.

And finally, someone has caught on to the possibility that "nice" guys can be evil. So I suppose my nice guy personality isn't going to be quite so effective now. Drat. Ah, well. Patience.

Speaking of the fairer sex, someone's trying awfully damn hard to make sure women in the Army don't see ground combat. Insert your own phallic objects of war reference.

And in a time where being labeled an "activist judge" will bring fire from all sides, Judge Joseph Batallion decides to kick out Nebraska's anti-gay amendment anyway. Maybe not for the reasons that LGBT champions would like, but even in the more limited sense, we need more people like him who recognize the discriminatory nature of such amendments.

And now it's time to ask a silly question. If you could, would you comment as to why you would read my journal? For some people, I read theirs to keep up on their lives. For others, they use their blogs as tools of philosophy and thought, and I like to read their thinking to help my own progress. Some are combinations of life and thought, like my own. Even having listed my reasons for reading other people's blogs, I find it somewhat inconceivable (negative programming at work - apply frying pan liberally) that anyone would have the same interests in my material. Cognitively speaking, I know that's not true. It's just not internalized yet, that's all. So this is both an ego-boost and a curious question. Why do you read my journal?

Comments

[neoboy3000.livejournal.com]

your musings on the bits of life are always worth the read, and i've gotten to know you better through this journal, for which i am grateful since it has strengthened a good friendship. besides, you're al, and if we don't know where al's at, then what're we supposed to do?!! ^_^

[silveradept]

Find someone else.

[neoboy3000.livejournal.com]

O_O oh, right ^_^ haha! oh, btw, did you get the e-mail i sent about brigadoon?

[silveradept]

Yeah. Got it cleanly, found it, deciding that I'm going to wait until next paycheck before I make a decision about it.