It was one hell of a weekend, so I'll try my best to recall every bit of detail, despite my lack of sleep while I was there.
Oh yea. Get a snack. This is a long one.
Friday: The Arrival.
So, I left the house at 2:45, and headed to the rendezvous point. When I finally arrived, I met one of my fellow staff member/friend there. We chatted until the rest of the party came. Once they finally did, as well as our ride to the train station, we made our to station. There, we just talked, listened to music, and played Tetris, while taking the occasional pic. Around 5, our train finally arrived and boarded. It was so cramped. We were forced to stand in the aisle with your luggages. Fortunately, we didn't stay standing for too long, and we all eventually got a seat.
6:30 PM: We finally got off at the San Jose train station. We were all ecstatic, looking forward whats in store for all of us. We made our way to the parking lot and found a free shuttle that leads to the convention center. On the way, oh God the jokes. Every single joke revolved around how the guys have a Wii and how the girl's don't.
After we arrive to the Con, the group split and headed to our hotel, the Hilton (ugh). After we checked in, left our stuff, we went for the registration area. Now, it was time to work. After we picked up our badges, we were briefed on what to do. So group of us just to bag stuffing. I got folding detail. All pretty much did was fold, grab some pieces of paper and put them in the lime green bag. And thats what we pretty much did for the next two hours.
8:00 PM: We're off for the night and decided to roam. Me, Ernest, and Jon went straight to the arcades to see whats up, while Ha-anh went somewhere else to have her own fun. After we had arrived, I went straight to the magic tables. With my Bird Bounce in hand and my Kill it with Fire and Water in the other, I sat down and joined some random people. It was a 5 way free for all. Sadly I was the second person to get killed off. I stayed with this group until 9:30, when my friend and I went up to the hotel room.
10:00 PM: Got a call from a friend, inviting us to go play Mafia and Various PS2 games at his hotel room. So all 3 of us went. About a half a block away, Holly came up running to us and hugged us all. She lead us to the room on the 11th floor and damn, it was messy. After we got the introductions out of the way, we started playing. I must say, playing Mafia was a fun experience. After a few games, several Uno and bullshit games, and countless match ups on King of Fighters, we decided to head on out. One of the people who was in that room decided to walk with us back to the con.
1:30 AM: We're back at the arcades. So now, it was me, Sessa, and Ernest. The other friend who was with went back to the room to sleep. We went around to check out the games, and Ernest went a little crazy. We ended up finding Melty Blood, one of his favorite games. So now he has found his game to play, Sessa and I went to play DDR. After a few rounds, we got bored. Sessa came up with the bright idea of having a small sword fight, and I was up for it. After retrieving my friend's sticks, we went outside. Wielding the two sticks and Sessa wielding his Boken, we had a few rounds. Since he had more combat experience with swords, rapiers, and the like, and with me... absolutely none, he won. Being completely exhausted from the sword play and DDR, he went back to his hotel room. I went back to the arcades to pick up my friend and headed back to the hotel room to sleep at 3:30, 4 in the morning..
I got the floor...
Saturday: The rush comes
Woke up at 6:30, despite still being tired and sleeping on the floor. After everyone was all ready and awake, we all made our way down to registration, and got briefed on what to expect today. So me and a friend again, went back to bag stuffing. Yea, fun and exciting! rolleyes
8:00 AM: And we're open! There is already a line outside, but how big it is, I'm not sure. But knowing how big Fanime is, I'm pretty sure the line out there is pretty big at the moment. All I'm doing at this point and bag stuffing and sending them out the booths that are running low.
Noon: Whoo, break time for me. So, I went straight to the Gaia booth. And oh look, they're doing a quick draw contest. The people were doing some interesting poses, a little hard to describe, so your imagination children. About after two more quick draw contest, it was time for trivia. Right off the bat, the announcer already chose two people. I decided to go for it. But there are two others who rose their hands as well. So it was time for the ieeny miney moe and I got chosen. Yay.
So, it was me and 2 others. First question, forgot what it was, but everybody got a point. Second question, I didn't get, but the person next to me did, so its 1, 2, 1. Third and fourth question everyone missed. 5th question, everyone but one got it, making it into a 3 way tie. Final question time. He asked what were the 3 degrees you can get on Word Bump. I didn't quite hear him the first time and he said it again. Three seconds remain. Lol, whoops. With the answers already in my mind, I started to write them down. Time ended, I barely got the last one in. The other two just got one, however I managed to get all three, and won. Yay. So I picked up my shirt and got my chance to spin the wheel. Sadly, it was just a crappy fly mask. Heart breaking really.
Although I did get my picture taken with Lanzer surprised
12:30 PM: Break time is over. After getting a small snack after spinning the wheel, I went back to my post. Again, it just stuffing bags. But it got a little interesting. We ran low on schedules, and we completely exhausted the schedule supply in the store room. So I ran back out, looking for any spare schedules that was left on the tables by other people. I didn't find much, but going to the info booth got me quite a few, so it was enough for a while.
1:00 PM: Ok... Maybe not. Again, we ran out of schedules. And we just got told just stuff the bags without the schedules. So we kept that up for a while.
1:30 PM: The manager needed me for reason. So I followed. Turned out, I'm working registration. Great, contact with some of the Fanime go-ers. Fun. After learning what needs to be done, I got to work. Quite a few... Colorful people came up. And just pretty much kept that up. around 2:30, talked to one of them. Turns out, he was waiting in line for 3 hours just to get in. Yea, I feel sorry for the people. I just walked up to the manager and got my staff badge and got to work in the same minute.
3:00 PM: And I'm off! Yay. I finally get to check out the swap and the artists alley. A lot of interesting stuff being sold. Pretty much anything Anime related stuff. Although I am disappointed they didn't have any Touhou stuff. I wanted a Marisa and Alice figurine emo I kept on browsing and I saw some kick a** swords being sold. Spotted a beautiful Scimitar. I wanted one. But knowing my parents, they would flip. So, no didn't get it. Oh well.
4:00 PM: On to Artist's Alley! Lot of pretty artwork. Although I don't really quite approve of the selling of Naruto's outfit there. Oh well. There was a lot of great artists. All of them oh so quite creative, and some of the hats they made amused me as well.
5:00 PM: Went to the hotel room with my friend. We both took a bed and watched TV. From there, we both passed out.
9:30 PM: What a great nap. Feeling a hell of a lot better, I noticed my other friends were there as well. Ernest, Jon, and Ha-anh were on the beds resting and talking to each other softly, as so they were not to disturb me and Sessa. Jon ended up telling around 6, the servers for registration crashed, and everything had to be rebooted. I kinda wish I was there to see it happened, haha. After a few minutes, we both got up. With a good stretch and a bit of talking, we made our way back down to the con, so we can enjoy our 13 hour marathon of Higurashi no Naku Koro ni. On the way there, we noticed a couple of guys talking playing a game. It was Melty Blood. Ernest, being a huge fan of the game, looked. We all stayed for a few minutes and looked at the ongoing match. After introducing ourselves we talked about the game. We told them We'll back during one of the arcs. So onward we went to the anime viewing!
10:00 PM: We got there, but it turns out, they started a hour early! So were started on episode 3, half way through already. So we just sat, and enjoyed.
12:00 AM: Time for a break. Started one of the more boring arcs of the anime, So we went back to the hotel lobby to meet up with the guys. At that time they're taking a break and reading their own mangas. We chatted about various things for a bit and we got to playing. We ended up playing Melty blood for about a hour (tossing trees that spin and drill trees amuse me greatly!), We played Immaterial and Missing Power for a bit, then Party Breakers. It was rather fun a lot a** kicking in those games too.
2:00 AM: We went back to our marathon. It was just small filler though. Now, The bloodiest arc begins!
3:00 AM: We are well on our way of watching this show. Episode 19 I think. 10 minutes in. Everyone in the room is into the anime. And then, it happens. The dreaded Blue Screen of Death! With a loud groan from everyone who was watching, we all were sad. A few minutes pass and no one from tech support came. During that time, Ernest came up with the bright idea to take a picture of the BSoD, and I did. Soon after, everyone else who was in there did the same. Copycats... After that, me and Ernest went to solve the problem on our own. After we fully re-booted the computer, and got it to the menu of WMP, the videos won't show. So we used another, we decided to use VLC player, (I think?) to get the anime back up and running. after we did, 5 minutes passed. Again, it died. But this time it was because of the processes. So we went up there again, and killed the processes. We checked WMP again and yay, the videos show up. We got it back up and running, back to the same place, and resumed our favorite anime.
5:00 AM: Sleepy... at this point, it was still the 3 of us, and Holly has came to join us sometime between 3 and 3:30. We finished our favorite arc, and the final one has started. Since we were all sleepy and dead tired, we all just decided to go sleep in our hotel rooms, and sleep, we did.
Sunday: Slow day
10:00 AM. Ok... We overslept. Noticing the time Ernest and I got ready in a hurry and got out the door. Again, we were just bag stuffing. Around 12, we decided to mix it up, so we just did other things, badge running, crowd control, etc... and pretty much kept that up. Nothing really interesting happened.
2:00 PM: Break time! Remembering about Gaia meet, I went straight to the Hilton (ugh) lobby. There already a few Gaians there. But they were all confused. I joined them and found out the meet isn't going to be in the lobby. So the group of us made our way to the meet. And oh look the rest of the group is there. As well as Admin team. So we all took a seat on the floor and listen in on what they had to say. After they got that all out of the way, it was time for an autograph session. Yea, didn't need to say I got one as well. After that, I sat down. I ended up talking to a someone and became fast friends with him. We talked about various things. And a girl came up holding up a sign, asking for cans. She joined in on our conversation and we all became friends. It was fun. A lot of colorful people there, and they all are so amusing. Although... One of the guys I saw there kinda creeped me out *shudders*. After we traded off names, we all went our separate ways. After the rush died off, I asked if I got get a pic with them, and I did with 4 of them. Yay.
3:00 PM: Went back to work. Again, nothing interesting has happened during this time.
3:30 PM: Got off and met up with my friend Sessa. We roamed the con for a bit, to see whats up. After a bit, we went straight to the arcade room. We both ended up playing at the games. After a bit, we went for the LAN party that was going on. The game at the moment is UT2k4, which is good, because we would rather play that then Warcraft 3.
5:00 PM: After a few rounds and after some serious pwnage (and getting pwn'd), we went right back to the hotel for a break and took a quick nap.
7:30 PM: We head on downstairs and go to the arcades. Less people there, so that left an opportunity to hog play DDR. Again, it was me and Sessa. So our little DDR marathon began.
8:30 PM: Tired, we headed back to the hotel room. Along the way we ran into Ernest. As we made our way, we ran into the same guys the night before. So, we just lingered around there, playing yet more Melty blood. That was a fun gaming session.
12:00 AM: I go up to the hotel room to shower. There I see Ha-ahn already sleeping quietly. But I don't see Jon. Odd of him, since he's usually sleeping by that time. After my shower, I go back down to meet up with the same people. We stayed there playing Melty Blood and Party Breakers for a while longer.
2:30 AM: it was time for those guys to go to bed and Ernest left to sleep as well. So, now it was just Me and Sessa. We leave the hotel and decided to hit the arcades, yet again. As soon as we enter, we run into Jon, rocking out on Guitar Hero II. Shouldn't really be surprised, since he was playing for a bit. There we also ran into two other staff members. So now we become a group of 5 people, lingering around the console area. While Jon and Ernest play Guitar Hero, I go and find a partner for SSBM. Just in time, it was our turn to fight. Sadly, we got beat... badly. I stayed just long enough to play one more game and left to rejoin the group. After a while, they told me and one of the girls to try out the game. So we did, but we were doing pretty bad, and the game was on medium too. Oh well, we were inexperienced, so it was bound to happen. We hand off the guitars to the pros and just watch them
3:30 AM: We were bored. Seeing how empty the DDR area was, we made our way there. And just ended up hogging the machine. We all took turns playing DDR. and we stayed there and literally danced the rest of the night away.
Monday: Final Day.
6:00 AM: Tired. Exhausted. Thirsty. Yea, thats the entire group right there. We all decided to go back to our hotel rooms for a break. After I arrived I took a quick shower and let Jon take his turn. Ha-anh was already up by the time we got there, asking where the hell we have been all night. And Ernest was sleeping quietly in the bed.
6:30 AM: Well Me, Jon, and Sessa are now ready and gearing to go, we left and made our way to the lobby. Unfortunately, the girls where nowhere to be seen. So we just made our way back to the hotel room and just relaxed.
7:00 AM: With nothing to do, Me and Ha-anh decided to gather our stuff and make our way to the lobby so we can register our stuff. With that out of the way, we just decided to walk into the con and browse for a bit. after all that,
8:00 AM: Not many people are coming in. So I just sat in the back doing what has to be done. After all that, I just pretty much sat next to a couple of friends just played Ouendan 2 with him. There wasn't many people coming in, so all we pretty much did was just sit back and relax until we're needed.
Noon: Break time. Went to the gaia booths and noticed they were spinning. I saw a couple of the staff workers there, wished them luck, and moved on. During that time, I bought a few things. I just bought 3 figurines, Rena from Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, and Archer and another character (forgot the name) from Fate/Stay Night. After all this, I just went back to work.
12:30? PM: Went back to my post. Again, very slow, nothing going on really. Took a quick nap (by accident) and just played EBA/Ouendan
2:30 PM: Yay, we're off! But we're still cleaning up. But its really not that much so I took off to the swap meet. I browsed around, especially near the gaia booth, looking for a fellow gaian. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to spot her. For the sake of giving her a name, we'll just call her "N." After looking around, I just went to registration to help out a bit more.
3:30 PM: We're done cleaning up. Went back to the gaia booth for any hint. Nope, nothing. So I just went to the arcades and went for the PC area. There was a game of UT2k4 going on and jumped in. For the next several games, I was the dominator. Either I was on a roll or everyone just plain sucked. I got 25 kills quickly and usually died once or twice per round. Damn that was fun.
4:30 PM: Got a call. It was from "N." Excited, I finished up the last game as fast as I can and left. I made my way to where she was. After arriving at the Gaia booth, I looked around. I spotted her, but I wasn't sure. After about a moment, I made my way and introduced myself. Yep. It was her. Once we got the introductions out of the way, we just talked for a bit. After taking a pic with her, we said our good-byes and parted. From there in the same place, I ran into my room mates. After we went, browsing around for a bite to eat. Sadly there wasn't much. So we just went to registration for the raffle contest
5:00 PM: Raffle time, yay rolleyes . Nothing really spectacular. Just a .hack figure, some posters, and ramen. Lots and lots of ramen. I didn't win anything, but seeing how crappy the prizes were, thank God. Afterwards, we all went to the Hilton (ugh) for a the staff appreciation dinner hosted by the Hilton. Let me say this: The food sucked. Stale chips, bad salsa, mediocre cookies. If thats the best the hilton can offer... Well... I know I'm sure as hell I don't want to give them my money. Besides. That Paris whore is rich enough. talk2hand Anyways! After all that "food," which I did not eat, one of the staffers had something special for us. So all of us who wanted to go, went. So... about 16 people decided to go.
6:00 PM: We arrived to the place to eat. Pizza time! We went it and took the biggest room that they had. While waiting for our pizzas, we told jokes, stories, puns, sung songs, anything. It was one hell of a dinner. So many laughs, so many jokes. It was truly one dinner I will never forget. Here's one you guys will enjoy. The manager of the Registration team has decided to come on by. While talking into the camera, one of the jokers ran outside and stood on one of the seats in a booth. He took off his jacket and pressed himself against the window pane, just like a crazed fan girl. As soon as he does that, everyone just starts laughing hard. We couldn't stop laughing. The manager turned around to see why we were laughing and saw the guy standing behind the window, waving like nothing happened. When he turned back to the camera, he did it again. It was wonderful. After we had our fill, and the constant telling of jokes, we made our leave
7:00 PM: Time to head on out. All my roommates gathered up in the lobby, checked out our bags and made our way to the front of the convention center. There, we met up with the same people we arrived with, and walked to the nearest train station. 7 blocks away. Ugh... As if my feet didn't hurt enough.
7:30 PM: We made it! And I ended up running into my new friend there, waved and parted. After we bought our tickets, we waited. Once the train arrived, which, didn't take long, we boarded. On our way home now.
7:45 PM: The train started moving, and one of my friends gave me a soda so I can stay awake. Didn't work. I ended up napping the entire ride. Once we arrived at the station around, 8:30 9:00, we all said our good byes and parted.
And thats how Fanime went for me. It was one hell of an experience, thats for sure. But I know I want to do this again next year. God if you managed to read all that, good job.
~Cosplay pics coming soon~
Due to a major disaster on my computer, there will be no cosplay pictures. Its a shame really. I had a lot of great ones from Suiseiseiki from Rozen Maiden, To Meekins from Phoenix Wright, to Agent Jay from EBA. Damn thing.
Arcarius Tesfa Community Member 
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