"Throbbing squirm, gurgling bloody mess."

Awake at 7:00AM on a Saturday. The last time I did something like that, I made myself a bowl of cereal for breakfast while watching Smurfs or some other cartoon of the 1980's. But I needed to do so today because I lacked a nearby crash space for a multi-day con. With an increased threat of rain today, a premonition of me buying a lot of items and having to carry them for the day, and lacking a suitable onsite HQ near the Moscone Center to hold equipment, I decided to leave the video camera at home. I also chose not to wear any finished costumes. But to combat the cold weather while making an effort to look like a cosplayer, I wore my trusty gakuran (school uniform coat) and black cap. I drove my half-asleep body to BART, stopping for granola bars and breakfast. This time, I remembered to bring the cash specifically intended for the con.

The BART ride was smooth and this time I knew which route to take thanks to remembering Victoria's instructions from yesterday. The Powell station departure was a little chaotic as not only were groups heading to WonderCon, others were I guess heading to the Chinese New Year parade. I found a group of kids with chaperones and figured they were headed to one of these crowd destinations. Luckily, the manga club from the Black Diamond Middle School of Antioch were heading to WonderCon. We helped each other towards the Moscone Center. I bumped into Nando, who was heading in the opposite direction.

I could either wait in line at registration or charge through the doors with my weekend badge from yesterday. I chose the latter and immediately felt the difference from yesterday's attendance. The spacious aisles of the Dealers Room were crammed with attendees aching to buy stuff. People lined the halls and stood in line trying to gain entrance into panels. This con was alive.

As soon as I entered the Dealers Room, I ran into Eurobeat King, who was shooting an impromptu Star Wars gathering at the front entrance. With cash in hand, I stormed the dealers I scouted yesterday I purchased Transformers toys and Fujiko figures. At the last second I changed my mind about buying equipment for Yo-Joe. He has a closet full of gear already.

Costumes were more plentiful today. In between shooting costumes, I was looking at booths to spend more money on. In hindsight I probably should have closed the purse strings since I would have to carry every purchase by hand since I had no car in which to place them. I ran into the Masquerade registration area. One group tried to enter and were denied. WonderCon had a rule of costumes being about 70% constructed or altered. I had no idea how they determine percentage, though I admit it is a good rule to help ensure costume construction. Then I bumped into the Star Wars gathering for some organized chaos. My favorite prop was the moving R2D2s.

After that initial bombing run, I ducked to the Hollywood movie panel room to rest and reload camera batteries. The Get Smart panel caught my interest. And like all the Hollywood movie panels, today's were placed in the respective panel section. I returned to the Dealers Room and ran smack into a Cobra Commander and Baroness costume pair. I showed Cobra Commander my Starscream figure I just bought, and had a brief hurrah for Chris Latta, voice actor for both roles (rest in peace). And as soon as I left the pair of Cobra high brass, I ran into several troops. I told and led them towards their commanding officers.

Then the "shoot first, ask questions later" run and gun of costumes continued until I got a call from Claudine. Plowing through the aisles to rendezvous with Claudine was difficult as usual, but upon finding the cafe, spotting her was easy. Claudine just donated blood in the con's blood drive. I haven't donated blood since high school and was swayed to give a pint today. After snacking on lunch while talking with Claudine, Richie, and RyuHayabusaDOA2. While waiting for BART Boy and other friends to come about, we played the one game I actually like playing at a con: "Catch Up."

Waiting for BART Boy wasn't as fun as it sounded, so I marched over to the Blood Drive to make my contribution (I'm type B+). Though when I arrived, it looks like a lot of people heeded the call before me and were donating blood. I'd have to wait an hour before I could be screened. Eh, another time. As I left, I stopped off at the video rooms to get a feel for the submitted films around. Hmm, a children's category... perhaps with a little less salty language, perhaps Cosette and Eponine can make an appearance next year.

I wandered back to check out the Iron Man panel. Seating would have been difficult if I hadn't spotted OniCourseMusha and Vincent. OniCourseMusha was very easy to spot given his costume choice.

With OniCourseMusha as the Brainage title screen, he was getting a lot of attention. Wandering the convention was slowed due to him stopping for pictures. We finally found BART Boy for some exploring before trying to figure out how to cover Masquerade.

A short clip of the Mouse Droid in action is viewable by clicking on this sentence.

I was starving and Masquerade was nearing. As we headed towards the exit, we ran into HikaruClaire. BART Boy and company split off to arrange dinner and Masquerade plans while I tried to do the same for myself. With no ideas where to eat or how to do Press for Masquerade, I switched over to my default style of planning: Pull something out of thin air and hope for the best. The closest "restaurant" within walking distance was a chain called Jollibee's. Victoria told me about it and despite her warnings, I gave it a shot. I had too much junk to carry and time restraints prevented looking for a more reliable restaurant. So OniCourseMusha, HikaruClaire, and I ordered a quick dinner there and talked about the con while stomaching the most mediocre food I've ever tasted.

After dinner, we returned to the Moscone Center and departed for our respective waiting areas for Masquerade. BART Boy alerted me of the Press photography area backstage. Pity, I can't watch the show this year. A lot of people waited in line for the show.

The Press Backstage photos of Masquerade are located in its respective section. I left immediately after shooting the last act in order to reach my BART train back to Fremont before the rain got really bad. Again, I ran into some fellow attendees in the train who had just left WonderCon as well.

Of course, the rain I that was expecting throughout the entire con didn't really begin until after I started the drive home.

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