In which sides are changed and head aches are had

[lissa_quon]

As mentioned in earlier posts I was working toward going to a small anime con in Tulsa in August. Well for various reasons that is changing. I wanted to do another con to try out some new stuff, and I've got family in the area that I like having excuses to visit.

Stuff was looking good, started working at my local office supply store again so I have money for supplies. I even got all my junk together and reserved the hotel room and sent off the paper work when I get a call from my sister.

She was going to help me out at the con and she was absolutely ecstatic to go with and is so excited to see the guests at the con. I start getting confused cause I had no idea my sister was such a big fan of anime dub voice actors. Until she starts naming names that I know aren't going to be at this con and I start getting concerned.

At this point I discover that the little anime convention has schduled themselves the same weekend as a fairly good size sci-fi,fantasy,horror,gaming,comics,anime convention. In fact they are only seven blocks away, the big con even suggests you use the same hotel the small con is held at.

After a minute or two to let this sink in I start uttering some words I'm not going to type is case my parents decide to read this.

While unable to get a refund from the small anime con I pointed out the whole situation seemed to not see anything wrong with the situation. They felt that the big con wouldn't affect anything for them. I was a bit baffled at this reaction.

Now I know that this is a different convention, this is not the same type of convention as the anime con. There however is a well know fact that most anime people tend to ignore, there tends to be a bit of overlap in geekery.

I learned this seriously last A-Kon, if one is say a fan of say, fantasy novels, you are inclined to like Last Unicorn, from there you are inclined to like the movie and then other fantasy shows, maybe anime. This train of though can extend endlessly. For example I'm a bit of an anime fan but I also like sci-fi, fantasy, and some horror.

With this though in mind, I as a normal con going person would not go to the small anime con, my money would instead go to bigger convention that had more going on and covered more of my interests. This would be getting more bang for my buck so to speak.

It is with this logic I'm going to eat my table cost at the anime con (too late for refund) and go work a table at Defcon.


So long story short, see you guys at Defcon!

Comments

[cheeseshirecat.livejournal.com]

Me: "DEFCON??? WTF?"
Took me to look it up to learn it has other meanings than military "DEFense [readiness] CONdition" :)

[lissa-quon.livejournal.com]

Heh, I know. But geeks being geeks as they are sometimes come up with names for conventions that are a tad unfortunate. Defcon is actually pretty tame name wise.

For an even more hilarious example; there is an anime convention in my home town calling itself 'KamikazeKon' after the Japanese word for 'divine wind' which was used by japanese suicide pilots in WW2.

[cheeseshirecat.livejournal.com]

Heh. Funny thing is that the word was *not* used by Japanese themselves for those pilots.
They sometimes used "shinpu", also meaning "divine wind", but "kamikaze" they called the two typhoons which in 1274 and 1281 destroyed Mongol (who already conquered all of China by that time) invasion fleets.
Similarly, English in 1588 called the severe storm that weakened or even crippled Spanish Armada enough that much smaller English fleet was able to defeat it "Protestant Wind" or "Divine Wind", and even made a medal with an inscription "Flavit Jehovah et Dissipati Sunt" ("Jehovah blew them apart").

[lissa-quon.livejournal.com]

Hunh, that is interesting.

I wonder where we got the habit of calling them kamizake pilots.