What does it to win in Masquerade or a game? It takes courage to actually participate. It takes skill to complete the task. And for me, it takes a little bit of luck to succeed despite carelessly screwing things up.

First, let's talk games. AOD had two game rooms: One for tabletop and one video game room. Tabletop games included Pokemon, the ever popular Apples to Apples and some collectible card games. It was a great way to socialize with people while learning a new game.

For the more trigger happy and easily amused by whiz bang visual stimulation, the video game room offered attendees a variety of consoles and video game selection. With help from Play N Trade, games like "Dance Dance Revolution," "Resident Evil 5," "Left 4 Dead", and "SSBB" kept attendees glued to the screen. Classic consoles with old school games were there for nostalgia fans. I even tried my hand at Para Para again. I thought Para Para died after some traffic director practiced the Tora Tora Tora routine on the job and caused a 20 car pile up. There is simply nothing more manly about a guy dancing like a girl while wearing pink and not caring.

Armed cosplayers were on hand to make a spectacle of themselves. I always had a thing for guns. One female cosplayer allowed me to check out her package. I always like the opportunity to inspect and thoroughly grope a gun.

AOD Masquerade still had openings for performers. I caught OniCourseMusha signing up and looked forward to the show later. AOD also had hall cosplay. Judges wandered the halls looking for cosplayers willing to participate. They caught me and I entered in my pink goodness. The Guests of Honors held an autograph session near the Volunteer Center and the line for it was long. It was there that I noticed Richard Epcar was the voice actor of Jigen from the "Lupin the 3rd" series. I knew what I was bringing tomorrow.

People found a variety of ways to kill time before Masquerade. The Twister board became popular. The Nintendo DS is still the portable gaming device of choice. Those with laptops filled with anime and the video rooms kept the animation flowing. I began getting into "Ninja Nonsense." It's brainless comedy, but at least it's funny fish out of water comedy. Cosplayers still posed for photos.

Being Press, I got to enter the Masquerade room early to get a good position. I wish I brought my tripod since my cough would make my hands unsteady for the 21 acts appearing on the stage. MC Dom proved to be an excellent MC who kept things funny and moving along during the show. Although short and sweet, I enjoyed each act... even the unexpected Rickroll.

And the Traveling Valentine playlist of the 21 acts of AOD Masquerade:

Or you can click here for a separate window.

For Masquerade halftime, AOD held an anime trivia show. They picked me to participate and was up against three others. My knowledge of old school anime combined with the speediness of my button mashing gleaned from my Zero Punctuation icon gave me enough of an advantage to take second place. And then I threw my position away with one little F word. All of those videos of stupid game show answers make sense now. Nevertheless, I lucked out and won a nice starter set of inks. It was a fun game. Shall we play again?

After the end of the game, the judges returned to announce the winners. I'm usually too confused to distinguish who won what and the tradition continues. Nevertheless, congratulations to all the winners.

After the end of Masquerade, people dispersed to their favorite activities. Karaoke was popular, though I could not find any English songs. Others enjoyed the Para Para or the performance from the Sailor Moon troupe.

Raider 3, Patrick, and I visited the game room for some "House of the Dead: Overkill" goodness. This game may very well get me to buy a Wii finally.

While the three of us shot zombies and took names, I practiced my dual wield by shooting zombies with one hand and shooting the Platinum Stars with the other:

And outside the game room, Jonas introduced me to "I Wanna Be the Guy," an exercise of frustration and violent backlash.

Before I could actually kill Jonas, Patrick reminded me of the outtakes panel Richard Epcar hosted. He showed the audience a bunch of "Lupin the 3rd" and "Bo-Bo-Bo Bo Bo Bo-Bo" flubs and script readings deemed too raunchy or wrong for the final cut. He also requested that we didn't post these on the Internet, so you simply had to be there to appreciate it. After we stopped rolling on the floor laughing at the outtakes, Patrick led me and Raider 3 to Tommy's for some late night munchies. It's no Mel's, which at this near midnight hour was a good thing since Mel's would be closed. The food is cheap and they would still be open after midnight. The corned beef was excellent as Patrick stated.

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