As I contemplated how to end AOD, I felt the not so soft sensation of an attempted boot to my ass. I finally met the first girl to respond to one of my punts with a punt of her own. After responding to her reciprocity with some of my own, I ran off to Kevin McKeever's independent film panel. While not exactly rainbows and lollipops, Kevin gave some pointers for independent filmmakers to get their films across and the right attitude to work in the industry from the bottom up. If Cosette and Eponine and Yo-Joe's Bizarre Adventure are to actually go into the independent film circuit, they're going to need a lot of money.

The main cosplay event of Sunday was Iron Cosplay. Three teams of three would work on a secret costume theme with a secret ingredient on the fly for 2.5 hours with only the provided scrap materials and no sewing machine. I remember doing an Iron Cosplay event a few years ago. It is a true test of imagination, ingenuity, improvisation, and time management. This year the theme was vampires and the secret ingredient were steel washers. Whose vampire costume would reign supreme? I would find out after exploring the other events happening.

After exploring the religious issues of "Dilbert," I hit the Swap Meet to see how one anime fan's junk was another anime fan's treasure. Some Swap tables sold their wares by the pound and had the scale to weigh the contents. The Transformers guy I met during last year's Fanime was back with plenty of wares including the exclusive K-Mart Mini-Con 12 pack. Since there are no K-Marts in my area, so this was my best chance to get it outside of eBay. He also had several Armada Hot Shots on hand, but no JaAm. Why his shoulders hurt? Janelle Ann and Charie had a few DVDs I wanted, but I also wanted to be able to pay for parking and drive home. Perhaps I could try charming and flirting my way towards a discount.

I returned to watch as Iron Cosplay ended. Juan was challenged to make a cardboard Gundam that resulted in one of the most accessible Gundam robots ever. Dom made a good color commentator. But with limited anecdotes, Kevin McKeever came in as relief with his supply of entertainment industry anecdotes and his gratitude of the spectacle as a cosplay outsider. His best story was his experience on "Jackass" as recorded below:






And some highlights of the Iron Cosplay:

After congratulating the winners and cleaning up, the stage was ready for an encore of quiz shows. After learning my lesson last night, I was ready to watch my language this time. The topics covered included Final Fantasy, Haruhi, Ranma, and even Scooby Doo. I eventually played as a pair for a speed game. As Team Intergalactic, we wound up taking first place and we both wound up with a season of the "Dragonball" franchise.





Upon leaving the quiz shows, I ran into the punting girl again. It turned out she was Torch from last night's quiz show, and she wanted another punt to make up for earlier. I was so used to being the punter, not the attempted puntee. It was time to put an end to this and restore the flow of cause and effect.

It felt that AOD lacked a Closing Ceremonies so attendees had no idea when the con ended. People were still hanging out together at the convention and having a good time. Some even brought and distributed pizza to their fellow attendees. The Twister board kept putting participants in compromising positions. There was even a game of Spin the Bottle for people to get to know each other. Open performances of Rock Band kept crowds happy musically, but it closed shortly after I arrived in favor of more Japanese karaoke.

Despite the number of people milling around the main hall, I felt alone and ready to return home. I could not find a familiar face around the main hall. Then I made one last visit to the video game room and found all the familiar faces playing familiar video games. I made one last sweep for goodbye's and thank you's.


As I drove through the pouring rain and flooded streets, I realized I had a lot of photos and video clips to sort at home for AOD. My first reaction to the upcoming work:

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