Recovering from AX2004:

I finally got a full 8 hours sleep last night. I still feel vaguely hung-over, but that was not due to any alcoholic beverages consumed during last night or the night before. It had everything to do with basically staying up from Saturday Morning all the way to 10AM Sunday Morning when I was finally home from the con after taking a very early Greyhound back.

What have I learned from this experience?

1.) Don't skimp on transpo by opting for Greyhound over Amtrak. Yes, the train is somewhat more expensive than the bus, but it's more civilized and relaxing and most importantly freeway traffic doesn't affect it. The trip to AX was delayed by freeway traffic, and my LA Backseat Driver instincts made me cringe every time a driver did something stupid in front of the bus. No, I didn't scream obscenities or anything like that...I realized that could get me in very horrible trouble nowadays so I bit my tongue and just thought the insults.

2.) I might want to invest in a pair of handcuffs to handcuff my mobile phone to my wrist. Poor LelioW from Plastic got his mobile phone stolen, so that was the reason why I had a real hard time getting in touch with him when I got to AX. It took me going into the Exhibit Floor with an official to find him and get my badge. Next time I might consider the volunteer route. Chad seemed to have fun with his stint of volunteerage. I'll also investigate the cost of the cheap-ass motels that coexist with the big hotels near the convention center. There is no way to see this con in one day, you have to go for more than one to get anything out of it.

3.)Yes, Virginia, there will be an Anime con nearer than Anaheim next year! Anime LA is just starting up this next year, and it will be held very close to home, at the Van Nuys Airtel Hotel at the Van Nuys Airport. I intend to get very active with them before February 4th-6th when the show happens. I want to also forge alliances between Anime LA and SFVLUG, Anime LA and Toon Magazine, and see if I can convince DSL Extreme to donate Internet bandwidth to the show. A cybercafe running Linux machines so that people can get their webmail and blog from the Con would be a brilliant idea, for example.

I would write more, but as I said, I am still feeling the effects of pulling that all-nighter. I am not sure whether I hallucinated some of the super-new anime series I saw yesterday morning, they were so bizarre. I'll write more when I'm in better shape.