EdKitten

Ooops -- meant to say "ask if they can recommend a cheaper place to park that's safe."

Also, I've found the people at TripAdvisor.com to be really helpful with trip questions (almost all the time). You might want to tell them the dates of your travel, hotel name, cost of parking, and ask if they can recommend a cheaper place that's safe. https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowForum-g28969-i39-District_of_Columbia.html If the url doesn't work, you can get there by: www.tripadvisor.com click: More (near the top) click: Forums click: US click: District of Columbia

Back in the 90's I had bosses who traveled a lot. They'd park their cars and leave them at Reagan National Airport during their whole trip. A google search said the airport's economy lot is $19 per day. The daily parking rate at the Terminal Garages is $29 per day. National Airport has a metro stop right there at the airport, so you could hop onto the metro. Dulles Airport also has a metro stop now, but I don't know if it's right next to the airport or farther away. The down side is that your car would be at the airport during your trip, so you wouldn't have the car near you

What an incredibly huge loss! I never got into his works, but know that so many people must be feeling his passing. Saw a minute or so video about him on Youtube, titled "15 famous celebrities who died today 17th March 2024" by the Youtube channel: Hollywood Culture. (I don't know why they put "died today" and "March 17th"). The timestamp for Akira is around 8:56. In the same video, at around timestamp 8:02, they had a short video about Tarako, a Japanese voice actress for Inuyasha, Castle in the Sky and other things.

Just another reminder -- clocks should be turned forward one hour on Sunday. Hey, just looked through some of the programming -- Crunchyroll is going to be there and will have some screenings and other things. And looks like Awesome Con will have a small section for anime stuff. I hope it's good. So great that anime is getting a bigger presence at a comic con!

Yeah, sorry about that. I was running out of time on the computer. But, I just went through their whole guest list today: 😃 Star Wars: Hayden Christensen Rosario Dawson Natasha Liu Bordizzo Daredevil, Echo: Alaqua Cox Charlie Cox Wilson Bethel Josie And The Pussycats: Rachael Leigh Cook Rosario Dawson Tara Reid Breaking Bad: Daniel Moncada Luis Moncada Dean Norris Raymond Cruz RJ Mitte Steven Michael Quezada Smallville: Michael Rosenbaum Tom Welling

Just a reminder -- the WEWCC will have Awesome Con this weekend March 8-10, 2024. url: awesome-con.com If you're going via Metrorail, you might want to make sure the stations you're using are open, to schedule your travel time. (Some that I'll be using will be closed, but they'll have free shuttle buses to the next available station.) Metrorail's url for trackwork is: wmata.com/service/track-work.cfm A color map of the Metrorail system is at: wmata.com/schedules/maps/wmata-system-map.cfm Some movie/tv stars scheduled to attend (g

Great info -- many thanks! Hey, they did take cash to register at the Travel and Adventure show recently (along with cards, of course)! And believe it or not, they had actual people there at the booths to register (instead of iPads)! Of course though, they only took cards to buy food and drinks inside the convention center. My guess is, each show can pick and choose what type of money they want to accept for registration.

The url: https://travelshows.com/shows/washingtondc/ Last year, Andrew had to cancel because of testing positive for covid, so I hope everything's A-OK for his talk tomorrow. I think he's given autographs in the past (he's been giving talks at the show for a few years), and there's a book vendor which sells his books (and other books of course).

This post may be too late, but WEWCC is having a "Travel and Adventure" show this weekend Feb 24-25, 2024. Andrew's going to be talking on Saturday around 12pm or 12:15pm.

Gosh, I had no idea other places were making it hard to use cash, or not accepting it at all. Locally, there's two places that don't use cash anymore (I'm near DC now). There might be more, since I don't go to every store, of course. Yeah, a pre-paid card sounds like the way to go. Hopefully, with Otakon's pre-registration, they'll want to use their own computers/ipads, so the registration will be like last year. P.S. Sorry it took a while to respond -- I use public computers, so sometimes it takes a while to get to them. 😵

Forgot to say -- I'd really rather have registration stay the same way that Otakon's done it in the past, if it's at all possible! 🙂

Since the last Otakon in 2023, I've been to a few events at the WEWCC. Like last Otakon, to buy food, they only accept cards for payment. But the last two events I attended wouldn't even accept cash for on-site registration! For registering, they had a bunch of long, rectangular shaped ipads set up and you had to type in some information and pay with a card. One event did accept cash -- but you had to type in the information on the ipad, then have a staff member direct you to a far-away booth, where a staff member looked up your registration on their ipad, and then you paid them with c

If anyone's interested, a lot of the Book Festival's talks are on Youtube already. (I haven't checked the Festival's webpage yet, to see if the videos are on there.) On Youtube, Elliot's talk is at: www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnAmtoEYoVs The video's over 8 hours long, but Elliot's talk is around 6:15:23 -- 7:02:10.

A little before Otakon, I gave up seeing the boards, after many times of waiting 4 minutes each, and it never loaded. A little after Otakon happened, I tried again and it worked great, saw lots of people's comments about attending Otakon, hotels, etc. But after that, the boards sometimes load right away, sometimes not. I hope people don't give up coming here, since loading has been so moody. 🙁

Update: Just saw the map for the Festival -- they've switched locations for the Bookstore and Autographs -- they'll now be in Halls D and E.

Forgot to say the Festival usually sells the speakers' books. The place to buy books is usually in Hall B, or somewhere in that area (they usually have Halls A, B, and C open). Also, on the schedule, I couldn't find an autograph time for Elliot, so I'm not sure if he'll be signing books or not. 🙁 Hopefully, the schedule will be updated and include an autograph time.

Just found out -- Elliot will be talking at the National Book Festival at the WEWCC Saturday, August 12, 2023. It says this event will be livestreamed (the link is on the "Schedule" page). And it says videos of all programs will be available shortly after the festival. url: https://www.loc.gov/events/2023-national-book-festival/about-this-event/

Just remembered -- grocery stores usually sell masks in their first aid sections. But whenever I asked for masks they all said they didn't sell them anymore. Weird. They probably just gave me the wrong advice. Sorry about that.

Thanks! I forgot about CVS. Though I didn't know there was one across from WEWCC. I just go from the metro to the entrance(s) of WEWCC, so am really unfamiliar with that area. The Giants and Safeways around where I am don't sell covid masks anymore. Hopefully, the ones near WEWCC do.

I know covid masks aren't necessary (though Otakon recommends them), but since many places don't sell masks anymore, thought I'd list some places that usually have masks. I'm sure you all will bring your own masks, but just in case the elastic breaks or it gets lost, or something: Hotel front desks sometimes gives out masks for free to their guests. Metro information booths usually have them for free -- just ask the person in the booth for a mask. Union Station gift shops usually sells masks. Walgreens at Union Station -- I'm not sure if they still sell masks. WEWCC -

Excellent points! There are two places where I live that don't accept cash. There's a salad restaurant and a juice shop that don't take cash anymore. At first I thought that was illegal, because right on U.S. bills it says "This note is legal tender for all debts public and private." I called up the county's "Office of Consumer Affairs" (who help people who have trouble dealing with businesses) and a supervisor there said it is legal, and the owners of the stores can decide which forms of payments they'll accept. He said he likes to use cash too and didn't think it was a good idea

I hope they don't ditch the boards. I've learned so much from you all. 😀

A few weeks ago at the WEWCC, all the food places I went to, did not accept cash for buying food. They only accepted cards. I don't know if it'll be the same at Otakon, but it seemed like a WEWCC policy. I'm not staff, so I don't know for sure. Luckily, I had already purchased a gift card at a store, so I used that. There was a machine that changed cash into cards near Ben's Chili Bowl, at the food place, near Otakon's video gaming room. There's probably other machines around the WEWCC, but I don't know where they are. Just thought I'd post this, for your planning and bu

So glad you mentioned this! My little cell phone's screen is way too small for the internet. I use public computers to post here. A few days before Otakon, I'll go through the schedule via the public computer, and write down the things I'd like to see. There's always the chance that the schedule has changed by the time Otakon starts. So, for things I REALLY want to see, I'll check the digital boards at the convention to make sure those things haven't been canceled or moved to another time.