AWA Day 0: Every day is a day to do a good deed.

Ok, while technically not part of the convention's festivities, the Thursday of Anime Weekend Atlanta's erm... weekend is dedicated to waiting in a long line and picking up your badge and bag of goodies. The AWA staff does this due to one major problem, one I shall explain through a complex series of visual aids known as photographs.

Notice the Pre-Registration and Walk-in Registration sign?  Well on an average AWA Friday and Saturday, both those lines are filled to the gills for hours on end.  So full, in fact that it takes up what USED to be the Artist's Alley.  Now I'm not sure if they moved the Artist's Alley because the lines got too big, or if they moved the Artist's Alley because the Artist's Alley got too big, but I digress.

Solution? Add an extra day of registration to the front-end of the event.  Now to be clear, they also have Early-Start and other methods of getting your badge and convention kit together before the actual con, but not everyone takes advantage of them (myself included).  It's not a perfect solution, but with only 3 or so windows to dedicate to registration, you have to work with what you've got.

Now hold on for a moment.  Look back up at that picture, now back at me, now back to the picture, then back to this sentence. This is a Con and Cosplay photoblog, right?  Well guess what, even before the official start of AWA's festivities, we've got at least two people in Cosplay in this picture alone.

That's a dude in a Top-Hat and a 'V' Mask. If you don't know what this means, for your own safety, don't ask.

It doesn't matter what, and it doesn't matter where, if there's a Con, there's a Cosplay.  No one is parading around and no one is being a shutter-bug about it (hey, I only took a couple of shots), but it's fun to get a little dressed up even if the only thing you're doing is picking up a piece of plastic on a clip that says 'I belong here'.

But as for the serious cosplay, that will have to wait till the real Con starts up.

H-hey! I said wait till the real Con starts up, not start up the Con!  Oh, wait this isn't the Con, my apologies, this is the SuperHappyFunSellDynamicCookingTimeBallZAlpha: TheRevengeOfTheLongTitleWithoutSpacesBetweenTheWords. Or SuperHappyFunSell for short, or SHFS for shorter.

What is SHFS? Well by the time you're reading this, it's over.  Dang, Maybe I should have created a survival guide of what to expect at AWA.  But SHFS is an event where the average Con attendee can set up a one-day shop of all that junk you've collected over your years as an otaku.  Yes yes, I called it junk.  When you have a full box with the price of 'free' by the end of the SHFS day, you know it's junk.  But you know what they say, one man's junk is another man's treasure.

Holy Crap! is that a Scrapped Princess Box Set for only $20?!?!

Why yes, yes it is a Scrapped Princess Box Set for only $20.  And that's probably one of the more expensive items.  Some tables function on the 'make me an offer' style of salesmanship.  So it isn't fair to call this stuff junk.  I mean, I looked around and saw people selling rare model kits from decades ago.  I saw people selling assorted art-books and Japanese imports in mint condition.  Heck, I even saw a pair of those pokeballs that have the gold cards inside (specifically Charizard and MewTwo), and I hate myself for not buying the pair for 5 dollars. I mean, I already own the Pikachu one, I gotta 'Catch Them All - Pokemon!'

Well, It's midnight, and I've still not gone through my little bag of goodies or look at what events I need to go to this year.  And just for future reference, I'm not going to come home each day after the Con just to post the 'highlights' of each day.  I'm going to be too busy for that.  Just look at what one hour gave me to work with.  So expect a week-or-so long re-cap of Anime Weekend Atlanta coming up either Sunday night or Monday.

Until then, Andrew, I will always help out a person in need.  And even though I doubt you will ever read these words, Drive safe (and stop leaving your car-lights on!)

This has been That Wolfwood Guy, Signing off.