The Eva Monkey

UMBC Anime Society. http://www.umbc.edu/studentlife/orgs/anime/index.php 10-15 minutes south of the city. Fridays, 6:00-11:00 during regular school semesters.

Being staff and actually living in the city means I pretty much have no excuse not to go. Yes, that's right, I've gotten to the point where I need an excuse NOT to go.

I want to state for the record that the Otaku Studies panel was phenomenal. Lawrence really did a terrific job with it.

Some figures are approximate: Light Rail Thursday: $1.60 Thursday dinner at Panera: $8 Food at Tir na nOg on Saturday: $13 Food at Tir na nOg on Sunday: $11 (YUM!) Useless Eva stuff purchased at Dealers Room: $26 Light Rail Friday: $1.60 In all, it was something between $62-$65. The benefit of having free hotel/food/admission as a staffer. And before you get jealous, just know that MOST STAFFERS DON'T GET TO ENJOY THE CONVENTION.

1 Black UN NERV Business card holder. It's geeky AND functional! 1 May 1996 Antartic Press comic style magazine featuring Neon Genesis Evangelion. Issue 1 & 2 of the issue based Evangelion comic book. Yup. Can't get enough of that useless Eva junk. Fortunately, it was only $26 total.

Otakon in-jokes and Evangelion for the win.

Represent.

Yeah, shame they went and did something juvenile like they did after the fact, they actually did put on a decent panel. Nevertheless, it's unfair to the event to post hoax statements about being arrested, it can reflect poorly on the event. I'm in sheer and utter awe of the obtuseness of this statement.

Everything except Shinji and Asuka being "brother and sister". In that continuity, they presented Shinji and Asuka as childhood friends, and they even licensed a spin-off video game and manga series to flesh out that continuity and cater to the Shinji/Asuka shippers. It's commonly known as Girlfriend of Steel 2, Iron Maiden 2nd, or unfortunately in some cases "Angelic Days". The thing I always suggest people keep in mind with the End of Evangelion is that it's open to a degree of personal interpretation. I like to think that Gendo and Seele have different intentions for how to ini

Sorry Thomas, but I had the room cleared. There was a line of people outside, and I wanted to be fair to those people who were patient and polite enough to wait. And it also made it a lot easier for SpecOps to check wristbands. Those people who were in the previous panel would not have found it too difficult to get back in. The room was nicely filled, but not full. The thing many people fail to understand is how deceptive panels are to host. I've been doing it for four years now, and it's definitely been an uphill process. There are always issues of preparedness, knowledge, and

I didn't go to the Masquerade, but I have been to two UMBC graduation ceremonies at First Mariner, and from those two encounters, I've come to the realization that they expect you to have some sort of psychic seat finding skill. If you don't head straight for a seat in a straight line, remain perfectly seated for the entire event, they can and will jump down your throat. If being polite to attendees is a job requirement, half of those people ought to be fired.