The Professional Gamer - September 21, 2015

After 60+ hours of work this week, I haven't had a lot of time to myself.  I did manage to get out for my lunch time running on Monday - Thursday.  As of Friday night while I'm writing this, the only other thing that it feels like I've done this week is watch a few more episodes of Good Eats.  I will be heading over to the Denver Small Press Fest tomorrow, and will report back what I find later.  Hopefully, I can find some more time next week to have fun.  Check back here again next week.

NDK Costume Contest!

This took longer then I wanted it to, but I finally when through the pictures that I took for the NDK Costume Contest. Now these are not all the pictures I had, just the ones I liked best, so if you see something you like please feel free to ask my "rejects" and I can get them to you. Enjoy!

You can all see these at THIS PAGE as well.

Don't forget, Small Press Fest Denver is tomorrow.  Go check it out and support your local artists/authors/creatives.

The Professional Gamer - September 14, 2015

I'm back now from NDK, and, as you may have read here, I had a great time.  That being sad, what did I find to do with the time that I had for the remainder of the week.  I did manage to spend Labor Day at home, and therefore, got to enjoy my free time a lot.

Reading: In the whole week, I read about 5 pages of Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon.  I only have a few weeks left of my intense running program (training for a half-marathon), and then I should have my lunch time free for reading again.

Playing: Almost all of my video game time this week was spent going through my StreetPass on Nintendo 3DS.  Nan Desu Kan is a great place to meet people because there is a huge crossover between anime fans and Nintendo fans.

Watching: On Monday, I binge watched all of the episodes of My Love Story!! that were available on Hulu (which is a few weeks behind the CrunchyRoll release schedule).  I love the show so much, primarily because Takeo and Yamato are such huge dorks and don't know what to do with themselves.  This is another case of "not your typical shoujo" and I strongly recommend it.  I also found out the Food Network changed out the collection of Good Eats episodes that area available on Netflix streaming, and have been watching those too.

That's all that I've got for this week

NDK Attendance Reaches New Record

NDK has let me know the estimated attendance for 2015, and it is a dozy. The registration department's best guess is 9,200 people. That is 1,700 more then the previous years attendance cap! Here is to the continued growth of our favorite anime convention.

NDK 2015 - Photos from the Floor

One thing that you can always count on from NDK is lots of great costumes, and this year is no different. Here are the shots I took from the floor, including some posted by Jim earlier. There is more to come though as I still need to go through the Costume Contest. Look forward to that coming soon.

You can find the full gallery here as well.

NDK 2015 - Day 3

The Nan Desu Kan organizers have certainly done a great job in their first year at this new hotel.  Generally speaking, lines seemed to be more manageable, walking around was easier, and the hotel facilities were well laid out and well maintained.  We would all like to thank the NDK Staff and Board of Directors for putting on another great convention.  As usual, Sunday is the slowest day for me at Nan Desu Kan.  I had an opportunity to interview Taliesin Jaffe, so you can look forward to that audio in the next few days.

So you want to run an Anime Convention? with Kevin McKeever

I attended Kevin's panel about how to start an anime convention.  He started out the panel with a big reality check.  "So you want to run an anime convention?  Why?"  Kevin went on to discuss some bad reasons for trying to run your own convention: 1) revenge, 2) hopes for easy money, 3) wanting to run the masquerade.  Basically, if any three of those are your primary reason for starting a convention, it is not likely to work out and you should probably give up before you lose a lot of money.  He then discussed some of the realities of starting a convention.  There is a lot of work that has to happen before a convention can start.  It is like taking on a second, full-time, un-paid job.  Eighteen months is the bare minimum to put together a small convention, at an out of the way chain hotel, with only a couple of invited guests.  The cost for this small convention would be about $50,000 and the convention would not likely be able to make that back in the first year.  And the convention is only likely to take off if there is a demand in the market for it.  It is also necessary to for some type of corporation (either for-profit or non-profit) to run the convention.  In order to best decide which type of incorporation, the prospective convention head needs legal advice.  On top of all this, many cities have at least one anime convention, and many also have a Comic-Con.  So it can be hard for a small, new convention to get a foothold in many markets.

That's all that I have for the weekend.  For those of you who were able to attend NDK, I hope that you were able to have as much fun as I did.  And for those who weren't able to go the convention, I hope you have enjoyed my photos and reporting.  Goodbye Nan Desu Kan, we'll see you again next year.