MetroCon is so close, I can almost taste it.  I can't wait.  This'll be my first anime con after going to so many comic cons over the years (and lets face it, after two years of San Diego ComiCon, why bother with other cons?  they all fail to compair to the mecca of comic cons) and Dragon*Con.

For a while, I thouht i'd lost my chance at Metro.  Recently in the last week or so, i've had to buy a new battery and alternator for my car and have them installed.  That was around $500 all together.  Even if i saved every last bit, there was no way I'd be able to afford to go with the group I was going with.  I felt bad because I gave my word that i'd go and then I ended up backing out.

I talked to Kristine about it, and she saved my trip.  If i go with her on Thursday, she'll ride with me and help in the gas and parking costs.  And she also got me a spot in her anime club's room, which is a good bit cheaper then i was going to pay before.  She really saved me here, and I owe her a lot.

So about Metro.  I've got two cosplay costumes i'll be doing.  Matsuda from Death Note for the Death Note group Kristine's in, and also Reno from Final Fantasy VII.  Reno's outfit is nearly done.  I still need to find red eyeliner for the tattoos on his face.  The main thing is to color the wig.  The wig was a bitch to do, and thank god that Misachan was able to style it.  It kicks ass, and i'd be proud to wear it!  Thank you Misachan!  I still need to find the right shade of blue pants for Matsuda.  That, and I saw a good screen cap of Matsuda's gun that he uses, and it's an old fashion revolver instead of a pistol.  I'm sure I can find a cheap toy revolver, so that's no problem, just the pants.

Kristine asked me to be her date to the formal masquerade so i'll be going to that.  Havn't decided if i'll bring Matsuda or Reno to the event.  Not sure what she'll be wearing, depending if her seamstress gets her Chibiusa dress made in time.  My advice was to just shake her fist at her, but who knows.  Hopefully it'll be done by then, and i'm sure she'll look great in it.  I'm sure she's gonna try to get me to go to the Rave too.  I keep telling her I'll probally not go, but we'll see.  *sweat drop*.  Yeah, we'll see.

Other then the Formal, what i'll be mainly going to are the top shows of the con.  The Anime Chess, Cosplay Contest, Costume Contest, and Anime Idol.  Don't know what panels to attend.

I think this is such a crock what's happening to Genarlow Wilson!  Free Wilson!  Wilson is in jail 10 years, 1 year probation, and must for life have the title of sex offender to his name.  And all he did was something we would have all done, and some of us have.

At a party one night, Wilson, 17 at the time, was "caught" on video tape having sex with a 17 year old, and oral from a 15 year old.  They found him not guilty of rape for the 17 year old, but guilty of "aggravated child molestation" against the 15-year-old.  Because age of consent in Georgia is 16.  Here's the kicker that makes it worse.  Had he had sex with the 15 year old instead, he would have just faced a 5 year prison term instead with chance of parole at 2.  Why does sex count for 5 year, but a blowjob count at 10?  PLUS, after his conviction, the Georgia Legislators have changed the law so that oral sex now only counts to 2 years in prison.  BUT they won't retroactive that to his sentence.  So anyone now doing what he did will only get 1 year, not to mention WONT have to register as a sex offender, while Wilson sits in jail for the next 8 years.

On the appeal, they voted not to appeal on a count of 4-3.  The Georgia Supreme Court also voted against the apeal, 6-1.

On June 11th, a Superior Court Judge overturned the conviction.  He said since he's already served 2 years that he could be free.  BUT, a Georgia's Attorney General is appeal it, saying that the judge can not overturn this.  All this, and the guy wants Wilson to accept a plea bargain.  But Wilson wont.  Mainly because if he does and he's set free, he can't return home.  He'll still ahve the sex offender to his name for 15 years, so he can't live at home because of his 8 year old sister.  He wouldn't technically be aloud to stay there.

This is all bogus!  The kid wasn't even legally an adult yet.  Like this doesn't happen every day in highschool with senior guys and freshmen girls?  It happens all the freakin time.  AND IT WASN"T EVEN SEX! 

re http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070513/ap_on_hi_te/music_pirates;_ylt=AqXoYuhmvxi2XyvTFR7SN3kjtBAF

I guess I just can't beleive the stupidity of some poeple.  Cry me a river.  It's not like it's a brand new thing that the RIAA will sue you.  How many years ago was the Napster lawsuit?  I think I was still in highschool, and I graduated 7 years ago.  That's at least seven years for people to figure things out. 

"Legally, it probably makes sense, because we don't have the money to fight."  They don't care if you can afford to fight or not, thats not why they are "targetting" you.  Hell, they'd rather you fight them, because they'll win and get MORE money.  Trust me, you won't win if you take them to court.

"Johnson compares what he did to people driving 5 miles per hour over the speed limit."  That's one of the dumbest analogys i've heard in a LONG time.  What they are doing is NOTHING like driving 5 over.  You sir are a moron.  Oh wait, you're getting sued by the RIAA, of couse you're a moron.

Here's my biggest complant of stupidity.  "Obviously I knew it was illegal, but no one got in trouble for it." o_O  So because you don't get caught it's ok?  Just drop out of school, because I don't want someone like you to be my future.

Look people, at one time the RIAA gave us a clean slate and overlooked anything we downloaded in the past.  Anything after that point in 2003 was fair game for lawsuits.

Well it's true, i'm now in the small community known as a "Wii60 owner".  Its basically means I own both a Nintendo Wii and an XBox 360.

I got the Wii in January using xmas money from my dad.  When I bought it, I bought it knowing full well my intentions of the machine would be.  I didn't get it to play every game that I enjoyed playing previously on this new machine.  I'm not going to play NCAA Football or Madden on it, nor a fighting game like SOul Calibur.  I mainly bought it for it's emulator capabilities.  And also how much it would kick ass in a FPS.  I own a few VC games already (Ice Climber once again rules!) and Red Steel proves how much fun a FPS can be on the Wii.  I plan to pick up Medal of Honor: Vangaurd soon, because I hear it's the best FPS for the Wii, and it has multi player capabilitis that are far greater then Red Steel's.  Wii Sports is fun too, my fav game being Tennis and Bowling.  For what I use it for, I get my enjoyment out of it.

I finally broke down and bought a 360 the other day.  I noticed that John finally bought one, and Dain seems to enjoy his (and Jason in playing Dain's).  In July, this year's NCAA Football will come out.  I honestly don't see next year's version coming out for the regular XBox, but the 360 only.  Since I still had a majority of my tax return left, I figured I might as well go ahead and buy it now.  Plus with John finally getting his orders to Japan, it would be nice to do voice chat over the 360.

I wanted to get a 360 from Rent-A-Center, I did.  I didn't have the full $400, so I figured i'd get it from them and just pay it off.  They said if you pay it off in 90 days, it's just the regular price, no intrests.  What they didn't tell me at first was that they wanted $800 for it.  "Because we're a rental agency sir, thats why we have ot charge more then it's actually worth."  Scratch that idea off.  I thought about just waiting a while, and save up a bit.

Then I browsed eBay for a bit.  Now i'm not someone who wants to buy an actual gaming machine over eBay.  Cause what if it breaks in shipping or "breaks" in shipping?  Or if it just doesn't even show up and gets "lost in shipping"?  I noticed an Advanced Search button that i'd never seen before, and gave it a whirl.  Hell, would you look at that you can now search by distance.  So I threw in 250 miles and crossed my fingers.  I found a guy in Pensacola who was selling his, and the auction had a bit to go.  So I placed my bid down, and waited.  I decided to just stay awake until the auction ended incase someone wanted to eSnipe me.  By 7am I was still in the clear.  8am hit, and I had 17 minutes to go.  With a minute left, someone was bidding.  And bidding.  20 seconds to go, I just constantly hit the refresh button, getting ready to rebid if need be.  5 seconds to go, nothing yet.  Now or never.  Thankfully, it was never.  I went to sleep to get a couple hours before work.

I was off from work the next day, on Monday, so I went to pick up the item.  He let me pick it up in person for free.  Nice guy.  He's an Escambia County sherrif, and his wife made him sell his 360 so he would spend more time at home.  Sucker ;)  One man's misfortune is another gain I guess.  For $345.02 (yeah, some fool raised it by a penny twice), I got the 360 Premium with all it's bells and whistles (20gb hard drive, wireless controller, head set, and all the cables), as well as an extra wireless controller and the plug-and-charge kit.  Also in the set was the DVD remote, and 6 total games, 4 360 and 2 xbox (Fully Auto, Madden 06, NHL 2k6, Call of Duty 2 for the 360, Ultra Bust-A-Move and Black for the xbox).

Overall a great A+ deal.  I'm rather satisfied with my 360 and already love it.  It's hooked up to my network so it's sharing my MP3 harddrive.  It's a great machine.  Once I get a wireless adapter for it (retails $100, I know I can find it cheaper.  It's a shame it has to be the actual Microsoft version), i'll hook it up to the big screen TV downstairs.  But until then, it's sitting confy in my room.

PS.  My Live Gamertag is Lord2TUM.  I only have Silver right now (I can't play online games, just message and voice chat)

MegaCon was actually pretty fun. This was my first MegaCon, sixth overall convention (San Diego Comic-Con x2, Dragon*Con x2, DreamCon…which I wish I could forget). It defenently rocked the show. If it wasn't for the dates, I'd go back next year.

Wed got there early on Friday. I got my badge like it was nothing. Press Pass' were easy as hell to get. All I had to do was say my name and show my ID. Comi-Con and Dragon*Con, you've got to fill out some other paper work on top of what you've already filled. Such a shame. Even Jason had no trouble buying a pass on site. Instead of having to go through the tickets booth, he was able to buy one from the lady at the press booth.

Friday was pretty boring. Only panel we attended was the Super Hero costume contest. The Huntress walked away the winner of the contest, but they were all great sports. The one I think got screwed was the Link cosplayer. He not only kicked major ass in his costume, but he actually played the ocarina! Mad props to the guy (it was a shame when I heard his ocarina broke on the last day!) And some dude dressed as an Ent from the Lord of the Rings. Dude actually walked on mini stilts to get the height right. Now that's dedication! We took a few pictures but not too many that day. When we were separated, I eventually found myself trapped watching the LARP/Barbarian Battles. That stuff just sucks you in man. I wanted to just watch for a second, and ended up watching for a couple of HOURS. Tournament after tournament, I just couldn't stop. My favorites were a Cloud cosplayer (he brought his own nerf swords with him and actually did Cloud-like moves) and a Reno cosplayer (who eventually stopped using a polearm because he wanted to prove a point that you could win with just a sword).

Saturday the Con was a booming. Jason cosplayed in his The Grifter outfit (from WildC.A.T.S). I was supposed to go as the Red Hood/Jason Todd but I left some parts of the costume home (I'll go into my Red Hood rant later, trust me). First thing we did was go to the Marvel and DC panels. The only thing that sucked was that they overlapped each other. Marvel ended at 12:50 and DC started at 12:40.

After the panels, Jason and I separated again. He left for some Pizza, and I walked around a bit to eye shop. Once 2:45 hit, I headed to the Troma booth to catch EPP give a guerilla show. They didn't show so I left to relax on the second floor. Jason called me to tell me after 45 minutes he FINALLY got his pizza, and that the gang walked passed him. I ran to the Troma booth to catch the Nerdcore show. It was great. This is my first in person Nerdcore show, and I loved it. They (EPP) performed Punch Out to Lloyd Caufman of Troma. After, they spotted me and interviewed (!) me about Nerdcore in general, how I got onto the scene (via Beefy, which led to Rhyme Torrents), if Nerdcore was going anywhere (after CES, it's now going to blow up!), etc. After he ran out of material ("this isn't even a real mic!"), he asked me about Aquaman, which I jokingly called myself a fan because "no one likes Aquman, so some one has to!" I got to hang out with the gang (MC Wreckshin, Fanatical, Betty Rebel, Sir-Up, and 2/3s of the Krondor Krew) and walk around the dealer room and watch them spontaneously perform. This was my first actual listen to the Krondor Krew, and I've got to say that they kicked ass. I'm instantly a fan! They've got a more darker, louder feel to them, kind of like raprock without the rock band. D&D was my favorite song that they put out. People seemed to really enjoy the Nerdcore show and got into it for the most part.

After EPP and Krondor left, I watched some more Barbarian Battles. Again, I can't stop! The guy won both tournaments yesterday (both Singles and Doubles) won again today. Dude's just that good. It looks like he has some actual weapon's and martial arts training to him, as well as a lot of others who were there. One of my favorite moments was this one little girl. She screamed so loud, that everyone stopped dead in their tracks. She then stabbed at both of her opponents (and her partner, no less) and giggled away the winner. She was a crowd favorite until she was eliminated.

I got tons more pictures taken that day. After the con, we went to the first Annual HEROES Charity Bowl-A-Thon! It was pretty fun. I did my usual bowl crap then good routine (82 to a 109, the only person to bowl triple digits in our team. Eat that, Lucynsi!) I didn't know we'd only bowl two games, or I would have bowl all out right away. Oh well. Anthony came out the winner by three pins over me. IT was cool to be a VIP for a few hours, eating catered foods, etc. Bets of all, we were literally less then five feel away from legendary penciler Adam Kubert, who is my new hero! (When everyone else was bowling their first game, he spent that first game just eating slic of pizza after pizza. Once they stopped bringing out pizza, he was chugging beer. He bowled the second game and just owned his team. It was great.) Twas totally worth the $25 charge to get in.

Sunday was a nothing day, my actual shopping day. I bought a few things for Christen that I hope she'll enjoy. And again, I was stuck watching the Barbarian Battles. After my favs were all eliminated, we left the con. Though some time on Sunday, I did run into a Red Hood cosplayer, and boy did he suck. His "helmet" was just a pull over mask like what Spiderman or Deadpool would wear. For shame! Had my costume been here, I would have so out Red Hooded him, it wouldn't be funny!

This defenently got me into the convention mood. My next stop, hopefully, is Dragon*Con. I think I'll actually take my vacation time for that. So far it's me and Jason going, with Dainon saying he'll go and I'm talking Christen into going. I just know I've got to have a costume bag so that I won't forget anything!

So I thought you know, why not blog on Dragid.  I blog just about everywhere else, why not here too?  So i'll now be importing my blog over to Dragid!