Otakon was a blast. I spent about half the time at the con and the other half with friends from Gaia. It was great seeing them again! Plus I managed to run into SoulDreamX and Ramothhe, both of whom I havn't seen in ages <3
Let's see if I can remember everyone who was there... Anlina, Jakobo, Nifi, Morbie, Joker, Noraboo, Dino, Blue, Casrial, TK, Clarion, Cloverina, Elin, Eli's husband, Zero, Shaviv, Lilly, Shockies, Trisk, Terradi, Xya, Lluvia, Kansai, Kava, Amai (I think that's everyone... If I forgot someone, I'm sorry!)
Also got to briefly hang out with Lanzer, CP, and DJ :D

I got there Thursday late afternoon and met up with everyone at the hotel. The light rail from BWI was very convenient, and our hotel was right across the street from the convention center which was awesome. It was much nicer getting in Thurs instead of Friday, since Fri is always taken up a lot by getting registered. Drunken party ensued most of the evenings (though I drank very little, I'm not really big on drinking.) I also randomly ran into Ramothhe in the food court, whee!
I hadn't pre-registered since I wasn't sure I was going, so I jumped in the mega line of doom on Friday morning. At least I got to wait with a couple friends and mock the internetz via cel phone, we waited over 3 hours to finally get registered and were almost late to the Gaia panel. (I also continued my tradition of getting horribly sunburnt while waiting in line XP) Some folks had talked about not going to the panel since they'd already heard most of that info, but I wanted my ??? Ring and I like going. I think everybody ended up going anyway. Highlights from the Gaia panel were more screenshots from the zOMG MMO (which weren't really anything new to me since I'm in the Beta testing, its super fun though!) and some new merchandise. They'll be making the fluff and garlic plushies, as well as some new hats- Nom Nom Nom and one of the other newer ones, I forget the name, maybe WTF? They also announced the MCs for this month a bit early (they were to be posted to the site a bit later in the day anyway.) Upon getting back and seeing them, they weren't that exciting though.

Saturday I got up early to see the Peter S. Beagle panel! Whoo! If you havn't seen or read The Last Unicorn, you need to stop reading this now and go do so. You should pick up a couple of his other books too while you're at it. I'm not much of a person for meeting 'famous' people, while there are many talented people out there, there's only a few I'd like to see in person. He is one of them. Anyhow the panel was a lot of fun, its always nice to know the folks who create beautiful things are wonderful folks :D (there are sadly some artists, writers, etc who aren't very good people.) I already knew though since I'd been following their ML since before the new TLU DVD release. There was some fun general chat about TLU and such, some about his ongoing legal battle regarding TLU movie, and some great announcements of new books and a TLU manga release (yay! So long as its better illustrated than the Dark Crystal and Labyrinth, I'll be very happy :D) I really want to get I'm Afraid You Have Dragons too. Some of his other works will be reprinted as well, including a complete re-writing of the Unicorn Sonata (so it will be completely different from the current limited edition, so scoop a copy now if you want it.) There will also be a new edition of the Last Unicorn coming out with a lovely cover so I'll be getting that when it comes out. Plus there is a full sequel to The Last Unicorn coming (not just Two Hearts.)
http://www.conlanpress.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_S._Beagle

After the panel I went to the dealer room, and spent a bit waiting in line but finally got in. I ended up spending several hours in there just because it was so MASSIVE. There were several things I was trying to find specifically which can be quite a quest. One of the first things I did, when I was able to locate it, was go to Peter Beagle's table to get my copy of the Unicorn Sonata I'd brought signed. I would have liked to bring the Last Unicorn, but my copy is missing again since I probably havn't gotten it back from loaning to whoever again, but I'll just buy another one later (I honestly don't like the cover art for most of the older editions. The current one isn't bad, but I usually buy it used. My friend had one that was pretty old with a cover I liked but I havn't been able to find that one again.) I actually ended up ordering The Fantasy Worlds of Peter S. Beagle from Amazon though I knew it wouldn't arrive in time, because it had both the Last Unicorn and Lila the Werewolf, a story I've been wanting to read for a while and has been out of print. I also picked up The Line Between from their table because I'd been meaning to for a while so it was good to give them the money directly for that ;D I was really tempted to pick up one of the prints, but I was trying not to spend too much money. My favorite ones are already sold out I think :(
The guy in charge of Colan Press (I'm afraid I forgot his name) was great to chat with, and he even remembered commenting on my journal back when I was gushing on the new TLU DVD release which was really cool <3. As much as I love his work, I really couldn't think of anything to say to Beagle himself when I made it up to have my books signed, I got rather shy and embarassed and didn't want to gibber out the same 'OMG I love your work thank you for making TLU which I watched and read 8 million times' that he probably gets from everyone else. I did get his picture though, he does a great quirky eyebrow expression XD

I also caught up with SoulDreamX in the dealer room, it was great spending some time catching up with her (between photo requests of her awesome costume.) ;D

I tried to catch the Gaia meetup Saturday, but I was too late since I spent so long in the dealer room. I got there just before 3, but I couldn't find anyone :P. After that I went back to finding folks to meet for dinner, which was epic (whee 27 people in a private back room of a nice resteraunt!). After I poked in Artist Alley quick but it was pretty late by then, and then a return to hanging out.

Sunday was a final dealer room and Artist Alley trip and trying to get as much time in together before we had to go our separate ways. I'm afraid I didn't get to look through AA as much as I wanted, but I did take several pictures for it for when I get to working more on my Artist Alley Resource site.

Most of the time I got little sleeps and eats but it was all around an awesome time XD I miss everybody already! Even though we largely just cross paths online, we were all pretty comfortable together and it felt like we'd known each other much longer. Some folks I've met in years past, and some were new this year.

I'm working on getting my pictures posted. I didn't take that many con pics, most of it is just friends goofing around.


Das Loot!!!:
Adorablue fluffy ram pillow thing. I have no idea what its from but its super soft and cuddly. I couldn't pass it up. It was a soft blue color with a cream face. They also had a white one with a black face but I figured that'd be more prone to looking dirty.

Fox Hat from Boshi Basiik. I couldn't pass it up, they had a new design with a cute face and they only had two left. They're one of my favorite hat makers :D My fox hat collection continues to grow out of control! XD I wore it home and got several looks while at the airport. I just smile at people if they look at me oddly. A small group of state troopers did stop me to ask what all the ears were about though O.O

http://basiik.bigcartel.com/product/happy-fox
(Pawstar was there too but I didn't see anything new I wanted, though they did have some nice new hats. I havn't seen Genki Gang in a while though, wonder what happened to them. I consider those three the top hat sellers though I know there are several other good ones too.)

Adorable fox face cel phone charm from Cute Plush. I saw them on DA and really wanted one so I was glad they were there. I put it on my camera since my cel phone is full.

http://queenofdorks.deviantart.com/art/Cute-Plush-phone-charms-3-70131031
http://www.cute-plush.com/foxcharm.htm

Adorable dancing cat shirt from Be Kyoot. I needed a new shirt and I'd been eyeing theirs for a couple cons but couldn't decide on one until now. :D

http://shop.bekyoot.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PDRP&Store_Code=ABO&Product_Code=10140&Category_Code=ap-shirt

A pretty postcard size fox print from Artist Alley by Yuko 'Aido' Ota. Its all lovely art noveau-ish. Plus based on a folk story!
http://aidosaur.livejournal.com/171165.html

A bunch of Chocobo Tales keychain figures (they're randomized in boxes, 2 per box. I'm not sure if they always pair the same 2). I like 95% of the set so I couldn't pass them up, half the random sets I only want a couple of them and end up not getting the ones I want. The crystal clear versions also look very nice, in some sets they're meh but I love several of the ones in this set. I kept my favorites and gave the rest to my roomies since they're collecting too. I think collectively we're just missing White Mage and crystal Chocobo, and crystal Black Chocobo. Yay Dungeon Hero X! XD

http://www.wizzywig.com/xcart/product.php?productid=46247&cat=0&page=1
http://www.strapya-world.com/products/24581.html

For friends:
A bunch of sound drops for my roomie, mostly from Mario Galaxy and a couple old games. They're those little keychains that are drop-shaped with a big button to make sound effects. Some of them were things like the going down the pipe sound, the white star noises from Mario Galaxy, and the shooting noise from Galaxian.

http://mugentoys.stores.yahoo.net/54311252275.html

http://mugentoys.stores.yahoo.net/54311245434.html
www.mugentoys.com

Tako Taco t-shirts x2 (an octopus with a taco, since the Japanese word for octopus is Tako. We find it funny)

Kingdom Hearts 2 keyblade necklace, I think its the Halloween Town one. I think its a bootleg but it looked good.

~~~~~~~

The huge soft plushies from squishable.com were awesomely adorable but too expensive and large for me to get one. I'll still drool over them though. I'm not sure which I like most... they don't have a fox :< I guess the hedgehog, octopus, panda, turtle, and rooster.

I was very much looking for the 3-tier metal pencil boxes (mine was stolen when I was in China, I was so upset ;_; I had a couple pins and things which were gifts from other artists, not to mention my favorite pens and pencils and my lucky old dime), but I only found one dealer with them and they were ugly yellow and polka dotty blue. I need to check two places online though. I really want my black one again. I don't really like the Rilakkuma ones, just the Monokuro I think I got the one last year from Wizzywig. I think I still want the black one most though my roomie wants one too and is still deciding.
wizzywig.com

http://www.wizzywig.com/xcart/product.php?productid=43221&cat=0&page=1

http://www.wizzywig.com/xcart/product.php?productid=43220&cat=0&page=1

http://www.wizzywig.com/xcart/product.php?productid=44627&cat=0&page=2
shopkawaii.com