Flying Scotsman

My wife is participating. I'd ask her, but I haven't really seen her since the beginning of the month, thanks to a certain writing obsession.......

Okay, let's look at this a minute, objectively and philosophically. The theoretical rationale behind the outlawing of child pornography of the photo/video type is that minors are used in sexual situations in which they are presumed by law not able to give willing consent. If you draw or write a depiction of a minor in a sexual situation without actually involving a living, breathing minor, no minor/child has been harmed. Therefore, if the art/literature is pure fiction, other than being in bad taste, violating societal norms and taboos, etc.--exactly what crime has occurred?

First, for reference: http://www.brunching.com/images/geekchartbig.gif Anime fans are on there. Let's make an Otaku Hierarchy version of this! Let's see. At the top would be creators/producers of the great anime: Miyazaki, Takahashi, etc. Under this would be publishers, studios, and other "industry" folks. Then we have Otaku in general--we assume everyone below this level is an amateur--and under that we'd divide it several ways. I'm making a wild stab here for how we'd divide the categories: *Artists *Cosplayers *J-Pop music fans/players *Video gam

Coincidentally, the following showed up at.......... Well, I think I had better use some discretion here. Just do an Internet search for "Kochi the Anime Doll." (I found it on the page at Cracked.com, linked from a page with a link posted at Geekpress.com.) Definitely NOT safe for work, shared/public computers, etc. -- but good for a laugh, anyway. No, I DON'T actually WANT one of these. I'm married to a wonderful lass, thank you.

Methinks my wife and I were in line just behind you for "Bad, Anime, Bad!" and suffered the same fate as you............. grrrrrrrrrrrr.......

We would like to thank the Otakon members who are so excruciatingly honest that they have, at least in the past, attempted to hand in a $5 bill and even a $1 bill to Lost and Found--thus reducing the Otakon staffers involved with L&F to beating their heads softly but firmly upon the table, and hollering at the poor innocent members to "Put that dang thing in yer dang pocket and enjoy the dang con, dang it!"

Just as long as we're not subjected (and we've been spared so far) to that balderdash a few years ago (2000 or 2004) where the network felt compelled to give us all "background features" on the toils, travails, and hardships each athlete they chose to feature in this fashion had to go through to get to the Olympics. We were talking break out the damned violins, play funereal dirges, selling their damned pets/siblings/blood to get enough money for training, their relatives who inspired them dying of cancer, selling their kidneys to get better running shoes, bicycles being stolen, you name

Just a general reminder to all: When a major downtown location of a major hotel chain (Marriott, Hilton, Holiday Inn, etc.), as opposed to an independent hotel somewhere out along the highway, says "sold out" a year in advance of a major event like Otakon, they DO NOT mean "every last room is spoken for". What they mean instead is "we are sold out of every room that we are willing to sell at this time/rate". The exception to this is if, say, a major corporation were to walk up and basically "buy" the entire hotel. This happens for things like the Olympics or major political convent

The basic issue, I believe, is explained somewhere in the program book. The BCC staff basically doesn't turn on the escalators at the highest traffic points/times (such as the Pratt Street Lobby) because they WILL shut down within minutes. As explained to me by the head of the BCC a couple years ago, a safety feature shuts down the escalators if the handrail starts moving faster/slower than the steps, and a multitude of otaku simply leaning on the rails as they go up/down will make that happen. This year, more than ever, I saw the BCC staff playing a delicate juggling game of seeing how

At 8:05 PM Wednesday: Six people officially "in line". The one at the front said he'd been there since Midnight Tues/Wed. He was also first in line in 2007, and departed directly after gofer Orientation.............. FOR IRAQ. The military fatigues are NOT cosplay. He's in the service. And had his leave for Otakon canceled last year.

As of 8:05 PM on Wednesday night, there were six people in line. I wish I were kidding. I have time-stamped photos as proof. In addition, I should point out that the first person in line is none other than Chris Forner of Glen Burnie, the U.S. Army soldier that, last year, was first in line, got his registration and went through gofer Orientation............ ...... then promptly left to board a plane for Iraq, which took off about the moment Otakon officially opened last year. He was in line at midnight last night--in uniform, complete with Army-is

Two updates: A correction on retail sales: They WILL sell individual bottles to go, but they charge "bar" prices, ain't cheap. They ALSO have a VERY limited supply of three beers jointly brewed by Rogue of Oregon and a Japanese brewery, with bottles silk-painted in Japanese and some English (mostly Japanese). There's the Buckwheat Ale, the Red Fox Ale, and another one whose name escapes me. These beers are no longer available through normal distribution or the brewery, and are thus collectible. I'll post a photo on my blog: www.beerinbaltimore.blogspot.com

It's now 7:35 PM. Doors open for Advance Reg pick-up in 21.5 hours. I'm now going to go down and drive by the BCC. Anyone wanna place bets as to whether anyone's in line yet?

Quoted for truth. Quoted for lols! (Natty? What are you? Poor college student?)