Official day 2 (not counting Thursday) started late. Set my alarm clock at 10:30, but my friend called me at 9. I tried to sleep some more after that, but just when I was struggling to get out of bed, the plummer came. So... couldn't use the bathroom. It was almost noon that I was finally up and running.
I never timed my trip until now. It took 1.5 hours. And that was without having to wait for the bus or the train. Oops! Forgot to take the parking time into account. (Time spent looking for parking near the Commercial Drive skytrain station.)
Comparing to yesterday, there were much fewer people on the ground when I arrived at 3:30. They were probably in the rooms. I managed to catch two-thirds of the
Full Metal Alchemist movie. Watched it on download, but still wanted to see it on big screen. The sound was definitely better. Air quality was really bad, though. Plus there were no seats left, so I had to stand near the door for an hour. That was only the first thing I went to, but I was tired already. (Also the leftover exhaustion from yesterday, and the cold.)
Then I met up with a friend who had never been to SFU (or AE). Saw the vendor areas that I didn't get to see the previous day. Then we went to the
History of Anime in Vancouver panel. I'm sorry, but the presentation had way too much room for improvement. I felt asleep. (Sorry again, but I was very tired.)
Caught a few
Air Gear episodes afterwards. It was a lot better than I thought. Then I went to the
From Yoi to Slash & Back Again Mature Content panel. It was in 3 segments going from 9:30 PM to 2:30 AM. I was going to attend the first one only, which was until 10:30. Unfortunately I was way too tired and left at 10:20. It was quite full and I sat way back and could hardly hear the professor anyway.
Oh, what's "slash" by the way?
As a record of the day's activities, I've been trying to shoot pictures of whatever's happening in the stage area. Tonight, unaware that there was a professional band playing, I casually pointed my camera at them, from high up the main stairs. A security volunteer stopped me immediately with a tone of voice like a parent scolding a child. "This is copy righted material! No pictures allowed!" I said, "Oh? No Pictures? OK I didn't know that. Thank you!" But he kept on going! "Point your camera away! Put it away!"
You don't have to tell me 3 times!
Hey wait a minute! Why did I get the feeling that he was treating me like a criminal? No smile, no please, no thank you. He actually looked mad. Why was he mad at me? I'm just an ordinary attendee, hoping to shoot a souvenir picture with my pitiful 6-year-old 2 mega pix camera. Flashing spot lights and the back of the band was facing me, and the picture doesn't have audio. From that far away, it's probably gonna be faint tiny silhouettes of unidentifiable figures. What kind of photo did he think I'd get? Did he seriously think I was going to, or able to "infringe their copy right"? If I was holding a video camera, or a 2-foot long telephoto lens, than, that would be a different story.
W H A T A J E R K!! OK, he might be just "doing his job" (which may include exercising
excessive unnecessary aggression), but he's still a jerk by putting me in such a bad mood. Before I left, I had to sneak one in. No apologies, though. Ha!
FMA manga finished today...
Don't have enough energy left to write what I wanted to write. Sigh... Maybe tomorrow. Meanwhile, here's a life size Haruhi Suzumiya doll. 380,000 yen... that's about $3,800. Looks more like a manikin, though.
Some after thoughts...
Day 3 started late again. Arrived at 1:15, hoping to catch the last 15 minutes of the Lady Asheligh's tea party by the fish pond, but nothing was there! Spent 10 minutes searching for it. There was no trace of it anywhere. Nothing could be done so I gave up.
Next, the Yaoi in Mainstream Anime and Manga panel. They were saying the official shows started the yaoi trend themselves. Well, I'd say, it won't work without the fan's imaginations. And oh boy, can they imagine!
Ran into my friends in the cosplayer's hangout area. This was the last chance this year so I was shooting as many photos as I could. Naruto was the most cosplayed theme, but at that time, I only saw one person dressed up as Naruto himself. And I failed to catch him. (Oops it was actually a "her".) The second place had to be Bleach. I was hoping to see more Gothic Lolita, though.
One last picture at the bus stop. Some cosplayers left in their costumes. I still can't forget the Shinji Ikari cosplayer I saw on the skytrain last year, who was bragging about not going home for 3 days, and a certain body spray let him skip shower during that 3 days. Gross!
Official day 2 (not counting Thursday) started late. Set my alarm clock at 10:30, but my friend called me at 9. I tried to sleep some more after that, but just when I was struggling to get out of bed, the plummer came. So... couldn't use the bathroom. It was almost noon that I was finally up and running.
Comparing to yesterday, there were much fewer people on the ground when I arrived at 3:30. They were probably in the rooms. I managed to catch two-thirds of the Full Metal Alchemist movie. Watched it on download, but still wanted to see it on big screen. The sound was definitely better. Air quality was really bad, though. Plus there were no seats left, so I had to stand near the door for an hour. That was only the first thing I went to, but I was tired already. (Also the leftover exhaustion from yesterday, and the cold.)
As a record of the day's activities, I've been trying to shoot pictures of whatever's happening in the stage area. Tonight, unaware that there was a professional band playing, I casually pointed my camera at them, from high up the main stairs. A security volunteer stopped me immediately with a tone of voice like a parent scolding a child. "This is copy righted material! No pictures allowed!" I said, "Oh? No Pictures? OK I didn't know that. Thank you!" But he kept on going! "Point your camera away! Put it away!"
Aaaaargh! After getting the flea market stuff ready, I only had one hour to sleep. (Going to bed at almost 8 AM but too tense to sleep.) It avalanched disastrously onto the schedule and I was totally not looking forward to dragging the heavy suite case onto transit. Luckily a family friend who lives near SFU was visiting and she offered me a round-trip ride. (Thanks so much!!)
Adrenaline was the only thing that kept me going. Can't remember too much. Had to yell because the table was behind the audience seating. The lack of sleep overpowered the cold. Sales was OK I guess. The big items which I want to get rid of didn't sell at all. The small stuff were almost all gone. At least 4 items weren't accounted for. A big dust ball, a small one, a tiny FMA tin can, and an Ed capsule toy. That's $20, stolen. The price of a whole set. (T_T) It was very hard to manage a table alone. That was exactly what I didn't want, but ended up with thanks to a twist of faith. Grrr...
The day wouldn't be completed without a Pinky picture. Hehehe... That's left over pizza from the group on my left, 2 tables away. Geeze... they shouldn't have left garbage lying around like that.
There was a dance party again....
Went up to SFU to meet the flea market table owner, plus register. Ended up not registering because... well, it's a little complicated. We... can't communicate too well. Plus, I want to make sure I'm well enough to go before paying the $40.
Argh!! Didn't know they have a dance party tonight! Guess I miss it on the web site. So the activities started before the opening ceremony? Then what's the meaning of an opening ceremony? Hmm...
1st: France, 2nd: Japan, 3rd: Mexico.
The initial plan of putting all the swords together in a bundle for strength failed. (Because they aren't all flat. Some are curved, some have pegs sticking out, and some are attached to the hand.) So just in case, I'm bringing out my reserved secret weapon. An Oyumaru box from Daiso. The spear is still way too long. So it's taped to a pair of disposable chopsticks. Hope this works...
Thanks Adrian for bringing the toys back to Hong Kong. Time to pack it up! Breakage might be a problem. Kanbe's sword is broken already. This sculpt totally doesn't make sense. The blade itself is detachable, but not the hands, which is one piece with the sword handle. The tassel of course is the continuation of that. It's just waiting to be broken. Sigh... I wonder if there's any PVC shell like Kikucho, that the store didn't give me. (This is the display set and was out of the packaging and all assembled when I bought them.) Oh well...
Got a set for a friend in Hong Kong. It's all sold out over there. Can't believe she's willing to pay extra. This set went around half the world twice!
Made by a company called Organic. Hmm... never hear of it. Quality is very good! Here's the review at my toy site.
MC
