"Don't ask us to attend 'cos we're not all there."

WonderCon began after the shortest "job interview" I've ever experienced. I drove to the Fremont BART station and dumped the car to take the BART. As the BART whisked away from the station en route to San Francisco, I too could see myself being whisked away from the cash I forgot to take out of the car specifically for the convention. A fool and his money were literally parted. This tiny oversight would haunt me later. To save time and due to the forecast predicting chances of rain, I decided to ditch the costume for Friday and bring a hat.

After nearly oversleeping through my stop, I exited BART and headed straight to the Moscone Center South where WonderCon was held. I passed by the Game Developers' Conference (GDC) on the way and made a quick attempt to locate my cousin who was attending. It turned out that looking for an Asian male who in the combined crowds of WonderCon and GDC was not as easy or as fun as finding a needle in a haystack.

Usually at this point of the con, Victoria and I would be scouring the premises seeking "cosplayers;" or if the person in costume was not an anime fan, "costumer." But I decided to give myself a sabbatical from that task. I preferred to scout the location for quick ways to avoid people and find deals at the Dealers Room before taking on the costumes.

The first costume I noticed, outside of the random person in cat ears or Naruto headband, were the top hat wearing, Segway-steering mobile displays for the Nintendo DS game Professor Layton and the Curious Village. I miss riding Segways. It's been a dream of mine to navigate the con on a Segway ever since I test drove one at The Office. If they had more power to push through crowds of con attendees, they'd be perfect. Throughout the con, I'd run into various displays of this game including floor ads, screens on the floor, and even a large truck circling the area with video footage of the game.

Whether they were here just for WonderCon or they were stragglers from GDC, WonderCon was pretty crowded for its first day. What the con was pretty vacant of costumes for the first day. Nevertheless, costumes were not too hard to spot.

Going back to my original plans, I scouted every row and each booth of the Dealers Room, taking photographic notes to remember to visit them Saturday when I remember to bring the money with me. The Dealers Room was stocked with dealers and promo booths specializing in all sorts of tastes from anime, comics, sci-fi, items for devoted fans, items to attract new fans, pop-culture memorabilia, and the occasional porn.

I love Legos.

These booths contained items I wanted.

A subtle hint on my current #1 fandom. If you haven't figured it out by now, make use of a nearby clue-by-four.

And then I saw him standing there.

Unfortunately, the cash I left in the car was still in the car so I couldn't buy anything I liked. Chalk this up to live and learn.

After much wandering and looking for familiar faces, I ran into BART Boy discussing details for his upcoming Nor-Cal Cosplay Picnic. Think of it as a So-Cal Cosplay Picnic, only in Nor-Cal. This looks to be a fun event with food, cosplayers, and a heck of a location. So please attend if you can. While BART Boy was milling out details, I looked about the Artist Alley and Fan Clubs. Great to see Neo Dave and his props. I miss my guns.

After rendezvousing with BART Boy as he finished his detail meeting and finding OniCourseMusha Craig and Evelyn, we made one last hurrah through the Dealers Room. I located Fat Momma from Who Wants To Be A Superhero? and Mr. Lobo from Cinema Insomnia. I picked up one of Fat Momma's doughnuts for a souvenir. I hope to see new episodes of Cinema Insomnia soon. It's one of the best ways to tackle my Saturday night insomnia.

After much maneuvering through the gradually increasing crowds of WonderCon, BART Boy figured we had killed enough time before the panel with Hollywood actor Brendan Fraser. We plowed through the forming line into the main panel room. Details of the panels are located in its respective section.

Upon departing the panels, we eventually located Eurobeat King and headed off to dinner at Chevy's. The food and company were great, but the service was slow even for Chevy's. Could this be the usual case of Friday night crowds or the usual case of slowed service for con attendees? I'll let others discuss because I wanted to go home and prepare for tomorrow. I had an interesting conversation with a fellow attendee during the BART ride home. I guess we con attendees have a way of recognizing each other.

Pictures are copyright by Traveling Valentine. If we took your picture, feel free to use it on your site or cosplay gallery. If you want us to remove something, kindly email us. While you're here, do sign the guestbook. This site was brought to you by the font Angelica.