The main result of all this was arrival in Atlanta at around midnight. Ow.
You see, there was an anime con in Atlanta this weekend, and as a general principle, I find that going to any anime con within driving distance is a good and happy thing. AWA '99. The last southern Con before the world ends this New Years'. Your last chance to see grown men who ought to know better dressed up as Tuxedo Mask, or nubile young women prancing around in DarkStalkers costumes. Hup.
The next day was much better, with an overpriced hotel buffet breakfast starting things off, and then a trip to the Con. You see, thanks to the slack planning of our group (about 25 of the hardy souls of the local anime club) we hadn't actually gotten a room in the convention hotel itself. No, no, we were... elsewhere. In fact, we were across the interstate and down the road a bit, on a long row of scrub hotels. Unfortunately, I did not think things like "Hey! It's going to be really hard getting BACK!" and so I got a ride with someone else.
Sign-in, and a trip to the Dealer's Room followed, where good money was exchanged for foreign imports, as all did their best to increase the trade deficit, one plushie Chibi-Totoro at a time. More money was also cycled back into the American economy at the Artists' Alley, where good money was exchanged for things like a VCD of amateur anime (hey, anyone who can produce their own anime is worth supporting as far as I'm concerned) and assorted comics (such as the virtual reality wackiness of 'Reality Check!' and the shameless Dirty Pair riff of 'Danger Girls' (motto: "There's never been a pair like thi... okay, wait, so maybe there HAS...")).
Which then left me with a Big Bag o' Stuff to tote around, since getting back to the hotel room would be an... interesting... quest. So, the Bag was toted to the video rooms, where assorted anime was consumed, generally involving people being beaten up. 'Beast Wars II'? The first Transformers show that involves cute mascots? No! Nooooo! Say it ain't so! Also, a boxing thing (yes, anime about boxing. it was precisely as bad as you probably think it is.) and something involving Harlock. (Disco Captain Harlock! Whakka-chikka whakka-chikka...)
Also taking place in this period of time was an encounter with a girl I went to college with (named Samantha, who also reads this journal. Hi, Samantha) who had some sort of geas to return a lab notebook I'd loaned her years ago and never reclaimed. Wow. Pure wackiness abounds, doesn't it. Providing the amusement during this period was her increasingly surly automatic camera, which was determinedly trying to prove, all by itself, that technology was still capable of being extremely surly, despite, or perhaps because of, all it's Amazing Automatic Circuitry.
And then... and then... the quest to get back to the hotel room so that stuff could be dropped. Oh, what legendary horror, this, facing the menace of crossing vast lanes of surly traffic, a highway bridge, more surly traffic, the evil of the Perpetual Green Light and other such menaces. Well, or so I hear. I just thought it was a really long walk. Afterwards, of course, there was nap.
Which was interrupted by the return of everyone else, carrying their bags of loot and already complaining about when dinner was going to be, namely, not soon enough. What wonder of wonders, to see other people introducing themselves to the wonder of Eat-Man. What joy, to see the plushie, hopping Chibi-Totoro. What terror, to see the Ultimate Dragonball Z Poster.
It is a fearsome thing, this. It's a big poster, with EVERY SINGLE CHARACTER WHO EVER APPEARED IN ANY DRAGONBALL ANIMATION on it. All of them. Even the frog. Even Dr. Briefs' cat. Even all of Frieza's transformations. All of them. It's fearsome terror would haunt us until the end of time. Dragonball Z was discussed, and I was horrified to discover that there was much more pummeling of Frieza to come. Make... it... stop! Make... the hurting... stop!
Then, for nearly an hour, we managed to entertain ourselves with a single copy of the Eat-Man graphic novel #1. Far, far too easily entertained, we are. Then again, how can anyone fail to be entertained by someone who eats anything?
After much lazily around and amusement at the wackiness of it all (as well as waiting for all the female members of the group to finish preening), eventually there was a quest to find the site of the group dinner (at every Con the local anime club attends, we always go out to dinner as a group Saturday night. It's tradition ("Traditioooonnnnnn!").) With directions like "Go east on..." it was interesting. Since we weren't ENTIRELY sure what direction east was, and had to guess based on the nearby Interstate. (ie: "Well, we came north, and it was THAT way, and east would be to the right...) Even more amusement came when it was discovered by some members of the group that you couldn't TURN east from Scrub Hotel Row. You had to go west, then make a U-turn as soon as you could to go east. Darn wacky lane dividers. Some people kept going west and disappeared into the sunset, only to be seen again, in surlier form, much later. I, however, made it with my portion of the group in short order, and only risking death once or twice. I'd ended up having to drive to dinner due to one of the group members having had his car die on him. Whoops. I wonder how he got it home... oh well.
Dinner was the traditional hibachi sort of thing, where the chef cooks things in front of you, often singing your eyebrows with flame. But surviving is half the fun, after all. Much wackiness abounded, including one of the club members appearing with three random girls (where did he get them from, I wonder?), plus amazing coincidences involving sushi (one of the waitresses for this group had been working at a sushi bar in Tally a few weeks before, having just moved to Atlanta, and recognized one of the club members as a regular sushi snorker at her former place of employment. It's a small world), and the occasional bit of sake-fueled surl. Unfortunately, there were no food fights. Oh well, you can't have everything, eh?
After that, it was time for the usual club late Saturday night activity, namely getting plastered. For this purpose, some members of the group were sent off to seek the place of booze.
I, however, was one of a select group of elite members who went back to the Con hotel to seek one of our members who had, apparently, gotten lost. Nobody had seen him since some undefined, but much earlier time. While unsuccessful in locating him, we were, at least, not killed by traffic on the drive over and back.
Then, at last, it was time for booze, in this case some kind of vodka, peach and cranberry sort of drink. Mmm. Vodka. It also involved watching television, which is one of the more entertaining things to do while mildly tanked. However, a good measure of when you're a bit too plastered is when Saturday Night Live becomes funny. We were infinitely amused by the 'Best Of SNL 98-99' (it was a very short show). Ah, humor. There's nothing it can't do.
No, there's nothing else particularly interesting after that. Well, except Manhattan Bagel (motto: "You haven't had a bagel until you've had a Manhattan Bagel"). But that's about it. What, you were expecting something cool?
We open with Goku and Frieza staring at each other. The three Johnny Bench impersonators comment on this. Goku and Frieza continue staring at each other for a while.
Finally, Goku gets tired of staring at Frieza and decides it's time to fight. The two agree to land on an island and fight. They land, then stare at each other some more. Frieza finally speaks up, pointing out that he doesn't want Goku to believe he has even the slightest chance of beating Frieza. Frieza states that he'll kill Goku without even using his arms. Goku just shrugs, then attacks. Frieza proves to be too quick for Goku, avoiding the surly Saiyan's attacks. Goku comments that despite the fact that the fate of the universe is at stake here, he's kinda liking it. Frieza tires of dodging and lays the smack down on Goku.
More fighting ensues after Goku recovers, and he grabs Frieza's tail and whirls the villain around like a yo-yo for a bit. Goku taunts Frieza and begins to really torque the villain off.
Meanwhile, back on Earth, Dr. Briefs works on the space-ship, which was damaged by Kamesennin and company to keep Chi-Chi from flying off to Namek. Chi-Chi browbeats Dr. Briefs into hurrying his work along (since she's scarier than the other minor characters). Oolong, Yajirobee and Yamcha's cat all start packing, since they're almost certain to get sent along on the trip. Oolong complains at great length about this, since he's a powerless little scrub. Yajirobee tries to sneak off, but Oolong, despite being a powerless humanoid pig, is the master of cowardice, and sees through such a shameless attempt. Yamcha's cat goes off on a surly tangent about getting revenge on those who'd get in the way of the return of the dead heroes.
We're not sure where the cat with the axe has gotten to in all this.
Meanwhile, back on Namek, Bulma is zipping along on her airbike, talking about how cool she is. Has she lost her mind? Has she started talking to herself? No! She's discovered... the Ginyu Frog! Apparently he's managed to convince her of his intelligence, and she eventually decides to modify a translator so that she can understand what he's saying.
Unfortunately, Ginyu still has his transformation power. It's just that he can't use it without pronouncing the key phrase ("Change Now!"). Well, he couldn't, until Bulma fixed him up a translator, at which point he promptly steals her body and runs off. Egads. More body-swapping antics are clearly in store for our heroes.
Meanwhile, back in the fight, Goku and Frieza pummel each other some more, until Frieza finally gets the upper hand, partially choking Goku by wrapping the Saiyan's head with his tail. Goku barely holds the tail off, and Frieza remarks that as soon as Goku lets go, his head will be popped right off. Goku escapes this trap by biting Frieza's tail, which causes the villain to hop back, clutching his injured appendage. Goku proceeds to lay the smack down on Frieza, and is only barely stopped when Frieza is forced to use his arms. Goku snickers at Frieza, and they... stare at each other some more.
Next time, more staring at each other!
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