Tag: old man

Yes, there was a stripper pole in the dealers’ room

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

I mean, there’s really not a whole lot I can really add to that.  There was in fact, a stripper pole inside the dealers’ room at Otakon.

Looking at the writing on the base of the pole stand, it’s marked something about “pole fitness,” and I don’t deny for a second that it takes a tremendous amount of physical exertion and training to be able to work a stripper pole like well, a stripper, but I’m not sure who this dealer thinks they’re kidding when they’re displaying a stripper pole in a merchants’ exhibitor hall.

When I saw this, my jaw kind of lowered half an inch.  I know Otakon has grown to massive proportions and being so big, they’re exposed to a ton more merchants who want to peddle and market their goods at the convention.  The presence of obvious booth babes was no surprise, given how big the convention has grown and the cheap tactics some dealers will employ to get customers to them instead their competitors, but when I saw a place marketing stripper poles, complete with hired Panty & Stocking cosplayers to parade around the display model, I was kind like “wow.”

Honestly, I don’t really know what to think.  Not that I’m some authority on decency or anything, but I can’t help but think the whole thing is tacky and kind of inappropriate.  It’s minutely amusing, but I kind of wonder what goes on through the heads of the numerous parents who were roped into being at Otakon with their kids; I’m sure the dads were thrilled, but conservative parents probably had aneurisms when they saw a stripper pole in the dealers’ room.

I guess in the end, this is another one of those “I guess I done got too old” moments.  I remember Otakons, and conventions in general of the past, having dealers’ rooms where people banked on having the rare items, the things they couldn’t find anywhere online from the 13 official dealers listed on Anipike or had ads in Animerica.  The advent of the internet has easily changed that landscape, turning today’s dealers’ rooms into glorified show rooms for people to look for what they want, and then hunt for it online at a better price.

And now we got stripper poles and booth babes all over the fuckin’ place.  Ahh, how the times have changed.

Photos: Otakon, sort of

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

The last time I went to Otakon prior to this past weekend was literally ten years ago.  In 2002.  I decided to go this year after such a gigantic hiatus, because I was already going to be up there for Hacksaw Jim Duggan night, I had decent fun delving back into some conventions, at Neko-con and Animazement in prior months, and pretty much everyone I would have wanted to see pretty much runs Otakon now.

I guess looking back at the weekend, if I could have done it all over again, I probably wouldn’t have bothered going if I knew what it was going to be like nowadays.  Not to say the convention is bad, on the contrary, it’s run better than it’s ever been run nowadays, it’s just I realize how much of a cup of tea Otakon is not for me today.

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Photos: Pictures from Animazement

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Alrighty, since I know definitively that there are people waiting to see these pictures, I may as well sadistically save them for last.  Or maybe I’m just going in chronological order?  Whichever.

So Saturday was really the only day that I took any pictures at Animazement, and over half of them are after I got drunk and it devolved into typical drunk people antics.  It’s fine, because as I alluded to while brogging from The Flying Saucer, I’m too old for this anime con shit, and there’s very little for me to do there, really.  Nevermind the fact that a miscommunication faux pas led to me actually paying for con admittance; something I haven’t done in like over 12 years, and that I essentially had a free room too, but there’s really nothing for me at anime cons, aside from hanging out with my friends, supporting my friends/acquaintances, and then boozing.

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So I’m thirty years old now

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

And there’s no better way to celebrate my 30th birthday than to go eat horribly unhealthy food and drink a lot of beer.  For months I’ve walked past Cypress Street Pint & Plate, and been curious to try them out.  A birthday gathering seemed like an appropriate enough reason to move forward with it.

I knew when I saw it on the menu that there was no other option – Sublime Burger.  Sublime is an excellent doughnut shop local to Atlanta, and like the namesake implies, this was a half-pound burger with two Sublime doughnuts as the buns.  Some might find the idea of sweet buns off-putting, but I had high hopes.  And were they ever met, because it was an absolutely fantastic burger in the end.  Only slightly sweet, and the burger itself was juicy and flavorful.  It obviously had to be a half-pound pre-cooked, because I made that thing disappear like it was the size of a McDonald’s hamburger.

But anyway, thanks to everyone who took the time to text me, call me, IM me or email me well wishes for my birthday.  It is genuinely appreciated.  And special thanks to those of my friends who came out to Cypress St. with me to partake in beer and unhealthy food with me.  Your company is a better gift than any tangible effects.

Anyway, a few photos were taken.

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Ingenious website

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Through Kotaku, I discovered the site Gourmet Gaming, which I think is a fantastic idea.  Food creations based on the food items utilized in video games, to which there are obviously no shortage of after all these years.  I can’t say that I’m vaguely familiar with many of these creations beyond a just a few here and there, but when they touch on my nostalgia and make creations from them, we’ve got winners.

My favorites are the unknown Golden Axe meat, the Streets of Rage trash-can chicken, and the above pictured Castlevaniabroken-wall turkey.  Clearly, I favor those items that actually do something, as opposed to something in the background, and these are all from very old games, now.  Ugh – they’re OLD, just like me.

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