Josh’s Anime Blog

Unless you’re visiting this blog for the first time in a while, you are probably aware that I’m going to Otakon this upcoming weekend.  As a result, there are several things I should note:

1) I have signed up for week-long wireless access to a wireless provider in Baltimore who at least says they have a router right across the street from the Convention Center.  I hope to be able to post updates to my blog whenever I get a free chance, but I’ll only know how good the connectivity is once I get there.  I will be able to post updates in the evening when I’m back at my hotel.

2) My back-up posting method is by twitter via text message.  If you haven’t noticed by now (largely because it makes my page load take longer), I have the two most recent twitter messages on my sidebar.  I’ll only have this during Otakon, so don’t worry about the slower page loads being anything permanent.  Any hot updates I’ll post there unless I miraculously have a wireless internet connection inside the panel rooms.

3) Don’t expect any episode reviews while I’m there.  I hardly have the time to do what I’m already doing, much less time to do that.  I’ll catch up when I get back.

4) I’ll try to get audio of some of the bigger panels that I attend, though that will depend on the quality of audo I can get.  It’s rather hit or miss.  If you don’t see any audio clips posted, you know why.

5) I’ll try to get a lot more pictures this time.  I was surprised by how few pictures I took last year.  Moar. I want Moar Pictures!

Oh yeah, and even though I may not hand out any, I ordered these cool Moo mini-cards for my blog.  They’re not exactly 100% kosher since the back side has images from various anime shows (with apologies to the people who made those shows), but it’s not exactly like I’m getting rich off this blog.

In any case, I’ll be heading out in the next hour or so, and I’ll make sure to post once I get into Baltimore!

Here it is (pdf).

Huge gaps in the Hall D schedule and all.  Not sure what’s up with that, since I don’t recall such big gaps last year.  One person on the forum suggested that it was rehearsals, though I don’t know for what since Masquerade rehearsals appears to be in the Arena.  However, they don’t have TBAs either, so it’s possible that there is just nothing going on in there, which seems like a waste of space to me.

I’m also curious about the TBA between 12:30 and 2:30 PM in the HD theater on Friday.  Possibly Evangelion?  I’m not sure what else might be there which they wish to keep a secret unless it’s Ponyo.

Also, why have 3 workshop rooms if the vast, vast majority of the time there is nothing going on in there (by my count, there is a total of 46 hours of workshops.  At 38 hours of total convention time…38 hours x 3 rooms = 46 hours or programming?  I’m just sayin’.

Update

Looking back at last year’s schedule (I still have the booklet from last year), there were some gaps in the what was called Main Events room last year as well.  This year there is about 15 hours of dead time in Hall D while last year there was 17.5 hours, so it’s actually basically the same, plus 9 hours were spent on the Masquerade and a concert, which are taking place in the area this year.  So in reality, Otakon went from 13 hours of non-masquerade non-concert programming to 23 hours so it’s actually a significant increase, despite all the dead time.  And this doesn’t even account for 2 hours where the hall was used along with Video 1 for the AMV Contest.

So I guess despite all of the gaps in the Hall D schedule, it’s still a significant increase in programming.  I just think that it’s still a waste to have so much dead time, though, when you could be showing some popular shows (see: Girl Who Leapt Through Time) a 2nd or even 3rd time during those slots, but that’s just me.  I’m not organizing the thing and there are probably good reasons for the gaps.

Of course, the first reason is because of Otakon itself, which has had a paid attendance of over 20,000 for the past four years and will almost certainly will again this year (let’s go for 25,000 this year, since con attendance seems to be increasing generally).

However, that is not the only thing going on that weekend.

First of all, the Baltimore Orioles will be playing home games all three days of the convention at nearby Camden Yards.

Second, The Virgin Mobile Festival is being held at Pimlico race track August 9th and 10th.  Luckily it’s something like 4 or 5 miles from the harbor area, but that still means a lot of people (It had an attendance of 42,000 on it’s biggest day and 74,000 over two days, though many of those are repeats I’d imagine).

To just pile on, they are commissioning the $1.3 billion destroyer USS Sterett on August 9th, and that’s expected to bring 5,000 people - and that’s happening right there in the harbor area next to the USS Constellation.

So all-in-all, August 9th, which is a Saturday, could see something like 100,000 people hovering around Baltimore.

If anything, I’m just interested to see what’ll happen when some navy admiral passes someone cosplaying as Yoko or something.

I’ve once again started to look into my options (or lack thereof) for internet while at Otakon.  The biggest problem appears to be that there is no easy solution.  My choices appear to be:

1) Use Twitter + text messaging to update immeidately, update blog on the web at the hotel at night.  Cost: Free. Convenience: Very Low

2) Take a break every now and then and try to search out free wi-fi spots.  I tried connecting to the harbor free wi-fi last year a couple times, but never had much luck, and I’m not sure whether the Sheraton next door has free wi-fi that I could just pop in and use either.  For instant updates, one is still looking at the twitter option.  Cost: Free. Convenience: Low.

3) See if there are any pay wi-fi services in the area.  I may have more luck connecting, but I’d probably be looking at $20 per day week, and it still doesn’t do me much good unless I actually get a signal in the BCC.  Cost: Probably something like $60 $20 or so total. Convenience: High if I can get a good signal in the BCC.  Low if I can’t.

4) Sign up for a wireless access card rental, such as through here.  I can probably cut off a day of rental by having it delivered to my hotel on Thursday (if the hotel is up for that), but since the rental doesn’t end until “UPS scans [the return packaging],” I’m going to have to wait until Monday to end the rental when I can swing by the UPS store.  This also assumes that I can get it to work.  If not, that would be an expensive $90 wasted.  Cost: $80 to $90.  Convenience: Very High if it works

Someone else can let me know if there is another option, but this just about looks like it to me.