Friday was an early morning for me because I wanted to take the train into Oceanside in
order to maximize my time in the San Diego area. I got there at 8:15 and met up with
Austin (Animation Liberation), a friend from the area. We got some convention supplies
at the 99 cent store and then had lunch at Rico's Taco Shop. After a satisfying meal we
headed down to the Town and County Resort.

We showed up shortly after noon and got our hotel rooms settled. Before I could settle
in my room I ran into several friends and helped them move their room. We hung out for
a bit and enjoyed a little catching up. Then I headed out of the hotel tower I wandered a
bit before I found the registration room. After getting my badge I explored the grounds
and tried to find my way around. I took a quick look through the dealer’s hall and artist
alley. It was not looking for anything in particular, but it was nice to see a good amount
of venders for such a small event.

The video game room was upstairs and somewhat difficult to find. However, it was
worth the time it took to find it. The room featured old favorites like "Super Mario World"
to arcade classics like "Metal Slug X" and new favorites like "Marvel vs Capcom 3." I went
through "Metal Slug X" and had a nice feeling of satisfaction while watching the alien
mothership explode Independence Day style.

I was feeling a little hungry and with a panel coming up at 7:30PM I decided to get a quick
meal in my hotel room. I only had a handful of snacks, but it was enough to keep
me going. Before the panel I decided to change into my Jack Harkness ("Torchwood")
cosplay. I headed out and found Austin, who had set up the panel. We got things put
together quickly and were ready well before our start time.

Our first panel was Convention Horror Stories. We told some of our favorite stories and
a few new ones. We also had a special guest in the form of Tadao "Shake Hands Man" Tomomatsu, one of the guests of honor. Our crazy stories had the audience laughing and the panel was an overall success. This was followed up by Austin’s new panel which featured a comedic subtited version of the 1940s anime "Momotaro". There was not as big an audience for this panel, but it was still fun.

With the panels over I ran over to the swap meet. There was a good mix of toys, VHS
tapes, and manga. It was not a large swap meet, but there were some great offers. I took
one more run of the video game room and thankfully I was saved from a major BlazBlue
beatdown by getting a call from Victoria. She had just arrived and wanted me to guide
her to the hotel room.

I quickly helped her across the large resort area to our room in the tower. After she got
settled we headed out to check out the nightlife of Anime Conji. We caught the tail end of Anime Last Comic Standing, which was amusing. We had some laughs and ran into several friends in the hallway afterward. The nightlife was pretty good and the great location worked for photoshoots. We wanted to check out some of the other late night events, but we found out too late that events were going on in the pavilion level of the hotel. By the time we got up there only the dance was still gong on. Despite the greatmusic there was very little to entice us to join the dance.

Anton Georg Heinz placed first in Last Comic Standing with his half white guy on a guitar routine.

We finished up the night with some photos and stopped by our friend’s room to hang out
a bit before heading to bed.

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