ACen Adventures | Your ACen Adventures

Here is where you can submit any experience you had at the convention, big or small! Tell us what you did, how you enjoyed it, or how some guy kept stalking you because he had a cat girl fetish and how you got so creeped out by him you choked him to death with your tail and now your wanted for murder! Also if you so wish, you may send us a few pictures we will post up along with it. Nudity and violence prefered! So type it up and send it here!

2003 | 2004 | 2005 |2006

Julie - Submitted April 25, 2007

My outfit was something totally last minute on Sunday and it was a little small, so it didn't fit right......and I'm a girl with big 'talents' if you know what I mean. I was wearing a red dress and my chest was pretty much spilling out...very embarrassing. Anyways, I was looking a movies, but I was short on cash. This guy running the stand comes over and asks if I needed anything. I just wanted to look at a movie, but he pulls it out and gives it to me. I asked how much and he said '$20.' I only had about $16 on me, but he says 'it's ok, just give me what you have.' I was bright red because I didn't think my 'talents' would be [i]that[/i] noticeable. But hey, I got a discount!

Miri - Submitted June 15, 2006

This year at ACen, there was Otaku Idol (Well duh, you know about it, since it's on your site). I was really nervious about entering it, but I did anyway. It took me a while to locate where to go to audition, but I finally did, and come Saturday afternoon, I was quite jittery. When they called my name, I was like "Oh God, please kill me now."

Well, good thing he didn't, because I ended up actually winning Otaku Idol. Needless to say I was surprised, but also very excited. For winning, I got an ACen style trophy and free registration for next year's ACen. So That made me all like, Yay! :D

Matt W. - Submitted June 10, 2006

I arrived at Anime Central at about 9:30 a.m. on Friday. Soon after I got to the front of the pre-registration line, I spotted Smiles and Berganator (Andrea and Jamie) and called them over. After picking up my badge, Smiles and I (Berganator had already ran off somewhere ) walked to the Hyatt to meet up with Wolverine (Mike). We soon also met Excel Excel, Kahad, Mystique Angel, Ryu-chan, mmy-sama and some other people whose names I can't remember. At around 10:30, me, Smiles and Wolverine walked over to the Grand Ballroom for Opening Ceremonies. After Opening Ceremonies, I left Smiles and walked over to the Forum room to watch Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. It was okay; I'm sure it made a lot more sense and was more exciting to people who had played the video game. Still, I liked the special effects, some of the voice acting and some of the story ideas. After the movie, I checked into my hotel room and ate lunch. Soon after that, I checked my cell phone messages and discovered that my roommate had called me, so I called him back and he soon arrived at my room. After I had got him a key and he dropped his stuff off in my room, I walked over to Amunet's (Kris') room to pick up my Glomp Team badge for the meetup the next afternoon. My badge in hand, I headed over to a couple of Japanese guest panels, for Junko Mizuno and Tomoko Taniguchi. I learned a lot about each artist, and I also asked a question of each. To Mizuno, I asked whether or not she would ever create a boys manga, and she replied that she never considered writing/drawing for a specific audience. To Taniguchi, I asked if she was under contract with My Birthday Comics in Japan when she created manga for th em, and she replied that no, she created those manga because the publisher liked her work and it sold well, so they asked her to create more for them. After those panels, I ate dinner at McDonald's, then headed back to the Hyatt for Speed Dating. That went okay. I had almost nothing in common with the first girl, but the second girl seemed pretty cool (and she was rather cute). Unfortunately, I felt a bit rushed due to the speed-dating format, and wasn't able to charm her as much as I would have liked. So, there was no connection, and we went our separate ways. After that second date, I watched the second half of Anime Hell (some of which was very funny, some of which was mildly funny) and then stayed for Midnight Madness. "S.T.E.A.M."--the new fandub parody--was funny in parts, but it was also dull in other parts and dragged on for a bit too long (but at least it wasn't nearly as bad as "City Hu nter on Fire" ).

After brunch at the Expoteria on Saturday, I watched the Naruto panel and Fullmetal Alchemist Dub panel, both of which were pretty good. I then called saeko (Jessica), and we briefly met up so I could return her Millenium Actress DVD to her. After that, I walked over to the Dealer's Room, where I spotted Smiles and Wolverine. So, instead of shopping I called her over and we headed back to the Hyatt (but, unfortunately, not before she informed me that she lost my copy of the Fray TPB ). But soon after that, Smiles, Wolverine and I went to the Glomp Team meetup, where we met up with Amunet, sango-chick, Kitsu-kun, mistymixwolf and several other people. And I gr oped Amunet at the very end of the meetup; surprisingly, she was not offended. After a quick stop at Smiles' hotel room, she, myself, and Wolverine headed to the Grand Ballroom for the Masquerade. She didn't bring playing cards this time around, so we looked at pictures and I cuddled with her for a while . The Masquerade--as others have said--was the best of the three that I've seen, and the Best in Show in each category (Walk-on and Skit) definitely deserved the titles. After the Masquerade, I ate dinner, then went back to Smiles' room at the Hyatt for Bunny-Palooza (basically, a viewing of Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit within a bunny-themed room). That was fun, even though not many people showed up. And Smiles gave me a free bunny plushie.

On Sunday, I got up early and went to t he Grand Ballroom for "Whose Line Is It Anime?", an anime-themed version of "Whose Line Is It Anyway?". It was moderately funny, but on the plus side, one of the performers used my quote ("Happosai loves panties") during the "Whose Line?" game . After checking out of my hotel room, I went to the Dealer's Room, where I bought a Kagome plushie for Smiles (for her birthday) and a Faye Valentine figurine and Acen "Glomp Me" panda stress toy for myself. I then watched the Anime Music Videos award ceremony (which was pretty good) I ate lunch after that, then, following a quick check with Lost and Found for my book and a quick goodbye to Smiles, went home.

Mel - Submitted June 8, 2006

Here's a few pix of my crew and I. We finished a LOT of booze over the 4 days of our weekend. I lost a pillow fight, got drunk in my Kasumi costume and in a prom dress, gave away a whole bunch of CDs to promote a band under the guise they were yaoi, assisted in the game show, partied with Doug Smith, drank my party-mate under the table until he was shivering in a fetal position, danced until 3 AM and never suffered a hangover....Oh yeah and in a drunken rage I deleted half my the phone numbers in my Sidekick...whoops. I also attended at least 3 panels while blitzed beyond belief.

Calvin - Submitted June 8, 2006

Hey.

This is Zaoron Tengu of cosplay.com. I have some pictures that you might be interested in. They're from the Zelda photoshoot.

This year was fun. I hope to see you guys in the future.

Emanuel - Submitted June 8, 2006

Okay, so there isn't that much. One of the most exciting things was the break dancing compotition on Friday. You guys have a pic of it on your site. The guy Breaking, his name is Dex, a good friend of mine. Anywho, The two great parts of it was breaking off my friends back(cody) and inventing the move "The Broke Back." And the greatest part was when some guy called me out and i did one move and he just walked away! it was so funny! ANYWHO! The funniest moment of ACen was definatly, wait! keep in mind, I was with a group of 6 or so. And we all were dressed as Umbrella UBCS members. And we had alot of guns! On saterday. moving tacticly in search of Mustang and his army of girls in mini skirts! When we found them WE RAN FOR THEM!!!!! It was so funny. The looks we got! anouther funny thing that happend was when We sold a broken 35-40 airsoft M-4 to some idiot for 50 bucks! and running from him when he found it was broken! it was funny!

Tony - Submitted May 26, 2006

Sort of adventure, I just labeled all the pictures randomly. More extensively than the usual, and I tried to edit out as little as possible. I think all I edited out was repeat pics and uh... special pics of the girlfriend >_>. I still need to comment on a batch of 100-200 or so in there.

http://www.promyvion.net/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=31

Christina L. - Submitted May 26, 2006

ok well my sister and her husband were nice enough to take me and my friends to acen this year not, surprising because they were planning to go. Anyways when were in the dealers room we saw many cool and "interesting" costumes. thats when we met who we now refer to as the creepy crosplayer. We had seen him earlyer he was wearing a long dess with a corsit over it and i guess he saw us looking at him so he decideds to come over and say hi while we were talking to my sisters husband (andy). so he comes over inbetween me and him rests one arm on each or our shoulders. He then turns to me and says "Hey I saw you eyeing my nipple boob earlyer" then he turns to andy, rubs any's beard with his thumb and says "Hate to break it to ya hun but its real" then he smiles and walks away. the four of us stood in creeped out silcence for a moment when i turn to andy and ask "Did you know him?" thinking that it might have been one of his friends jsut messing around. he replies witha quick no and starts wiping his face with his shirt. well there you go the thing my friends and i will forever remember fomr out first acen. Can't wait untill next year!

Sam - Submitted May 22, 2006

One of the best days of my life started the day before, actually, when Steph Zieman and I went out to buy pants. I found the perfect pair of jeans for the occasion, and well, wore them the next day. Which was ACEN.

I woke up at 5:00 AM for the event. I got breakfast, changed, brushed my teeth, and then got picked up by Female Sam. I had a bag with 8 cans of Duo and a lot of food. That was all gone by 10:00 in the morning, basically. So Sam and I left my house, and we went to go pick up Karen. Who never opened her door. Or answered her phone. So we left her house to go pick up Sara (Who was looking fantastic in her ACEN clothes), Madeline (Who was amazing looking as Sailor Saturn [Cosplay]), Lissa (Who looked cute as ever, but wasnt in Cosplay), and JT (Who was in an amazing cosplay as well...though nobody ever explained to me who he was (note from Female Sam: it was some guy from Naruto)). So we went back to try Karen again, and she still didnt come to the door. So we were like "Fuck it" and left for ACEN 2006!

We arrived and parked. And then walked in this long friggin hall. It's one of those halls that lead from building to building, except this thing was over a mile long. And it curved. And it was just fucking amazing, overall. We probably spent over 3 hours in the halls just going from place to place throughout the day. And we were walking in the empty hall, and then lo and behold a huge group of people turned the corner and started walking towards us. They were heading to registration. So we tagged onto the back of the crowd, and eventually reached a hall that was actually inside of a building. We were halfway to registration.

Here's the thing about the conference: It is in the convention center, and it is also in the hotel. And the two are like, fucking far apart. And connected by this quarter mile long tube above the buildings and streets. And in the middle of that tube is another building, which we were in at that moment. Rosemont is confusing.

So we waited for like, half an hour in that room, and then Sam Lissa and I had to pee. So we walked an eighth of a mile and entered the hotel through the tube. And it was fucking surreal. The Hyatt Regency is one of those hotels with the fucking huge ass indoor courtyard as the lobby, but this was one of the biggest I've seen in a while. And there was ivy and abstract art and cool lighting and tube elevators and COSPLAYERS! People were just relaxing in there, waiting for the day to start, and it was fucking SURREAL. And amazing.

Alright, so we got back to the hall and NOBODY WAS THERE. EVERYONE HAD LEFT FOR REGISTRATION. So we ran, and ran, and ran some more and eventually caught up to them inside of the convention center. Sara, Lissa and I had AT-CON registration, and so we took a long (but still super short for ACEN) time to register for the conference. I picked my conference name to be Susan. It was fun.

Alright, so we waited for like, twenty minutes, and then the DEALERS ROOM OPENED. YES. HUGE ASS FUCKING CONVENTION HALL WITH ANIME EVERYTHING! AND YES!

We spent over two hours just playing around in there. It was there that we ran into Melinda and Kendra, but we didnt hang out with them for long. Oh, and Julie and her friend too. I only had twenty dollars spending cash for the day, which was sad, but whatever. I got a kickass shirt.

And JT and I were actually getting along for most of the day! It was sooo weird being there without him like, glaring at me the whole time.

So we hung out there, and did a bunch of other stuff (Not enough time to go into detail on that) and eventually we were going to go to a concert. But I was kind of like "Urg...People..?" and Sara was like "Urg...Shit..." so she and I just went to the McDonalds a mile down the road. Right as we were leaving though, KIM AND KAREN PULLED UP! YAY! I LOVE KIM!

So while they were registering, Sara and I went to McDonalds. And we didnt order anything. We got lazy. But we met the nicest people ever, and this one girl wanted to give us ten dollars for us to buy food, but we were like "NOOO! You're too nice! We cant do this!" Well, actually, apparently only I was just like that. Sara was like "Why did he say no? Whatever." But whatever.

So Kim called, and we walked the mile back, and hung out in the dealers room some more. Everyone got back from the concert and we hung out a long while. I dont even remember what happened from like 1 to 4. Well, eventually we lost JT and Karen, and didnt see JT for 2 hours and Karen for 4. Sara, Lissa, Kim, Madeline, Sam (Female) and I went to McDonalds again (This time Sam (F) drove) and I got two huge fucking things of fries, which tided me over for the day.

Then Sara got bored and went back to Elmhurst around 4 with Sam (F). Sthilly goosthe.

I hope that decision wont haunt her the rest of her life though.

----- Continues at this point -----

So Madeline and Kim ran around the dealers room while Lissa and I watched a DDR tournament. It was fucking amazing! These guys were like, "FWOOSH! FEET!"

That's about all I can say about it.

She was looking amazingly gorgeous in her hat and the gay sweater, so she and I pretty much hung out super close for the rest of the night. We go upstairs to find people, and as Madeline Kim Lissa and I were walking away, JT shows up! So we found him, which was good. And bad, because he was kind of on his own for like, two hours. Which is fourteen hours in ACEN time. So yeah.

We played like, an hours worth of Egyptian Ratslap. In that time, we got kicked out of the phone room we were in because the cops strip searched this kid with explosives. It was pretty badass. Also, JT ditched the cosplay for street clothes, which was disappointing.

Okay, my memory is super blurry for a bit.

Some time in there we were hanging out at this one place with a ton of people and Lissa JT and I improv speed dated. I felt "Witty", and "Clever". Muwaha, finally I felt like a real drama kid. JT was out of his cosplay by that point, so I think I have this somewhat in order.

Blurry, blurry, blurry until we were running around searching for Karen. And we found her. She had been working for three hours at a booth. Go figures.

So once again, super blurry. Lissa and I went for a walk, while everybody else went to play Ms. PacMan. We came back, and hung out with Madeline while JT Karen and Kim SPEED DATED! It sounded so cool! So Madeline Lissa and I met random fucking people and hung out with them for like, an hour. They were pretty cool, one of them had wanted to go to Elmhurst College.

JT got out of speed dating (The moderators kidnapped the girls) so we moved to the chairs and hung out with a kid who apparently went to York...? He was drinking Gatorade and...something...and well yeah, we had no clue who he was. And then people started walking past. With very little clothing on. Very, VERY little clothing. It was amazing.

Sam was happy.

The girls got released, and then we dropped off Karen and JT. They had to go home. *Sad* It was pretty kickass that JT and I got along for what seemed like the whole day. I dunno if he had random pissy moments, but whatever. *Happy*

Kim, Madeline, Lissa and I went to the FUCKING RAVE! YES!

HUGE FUCKING BANQUET HALLS! FOUR BANQUET HALLS TURNED INTO ONE ROOM! IT WAS...FUCK!

YES!

THE ENTIRE WALL WAS A BIG FUCKING BASS SYSTEM!

AND THERE WERE TWO THOUSAND PEOPLE IN THAT ROOM!

AND IT WAS FUCK!

IT WAS ONE BIG FUCKING TECHNO RAVE!

Alright, there were two movie theater sized screens flanking the stage that played what was happening on the dance floor, except in trippy colors. It was FUCK! And there were people dancing on platforms and FUCK! YES!

It was amazing.

Here's a picture towards the end of rave, around 4:30 in the morning. No, we werent there. It was emptying out by then, so here is what it was like without a lot of people there. Please note that the screens were HUGE! Thats how big this crowd was.

And there were people on Ecstasy (Also know as E, fantasy, doves, mitsubishis, dolphins, rolexes). And they were fucking funny to watch. These two people took several pills and then literally fucked eachother with their eyes. They clasped their hands in the air and fucked eachother with EYES. It was the single most intense thing I have ever seen. And this other kid was dancing like, super slow to fast paced techno music, and he was twirling and walking around everywhere yet had his eyes closed and this creepy raver goth guy in a mesh shirt kept trying to dance with me but I was a little weirded out and he basically tried to whore himself off to everyone else but everyone was like "No" so he left. Which was good, because he totally inhaled something from a ziplock bag.

The first group that played was fucking AMAZING. They're called "PLID". I recommend you check them out. There were two singers, both incredibly gay and hilarious. And they would hold up signs during the "instrument" parts of the songs, communicating to the audience.

(This all happened in the fucking middle of a song)
Sign Guy 1: Check out out at www.myspace.com/PLID
Sign Guy 2: There are naked pictures of us.
Sign Guy 1: He's lying.
Sign Guy 2: No I'm not.

They totally did that by holding up signs at the right time. It was fucking amazing. And Sign Guy 2 (The blond one) was singing the fast middle part of the song, and he didnt breath for like two minutes straight, he just sang, and then he finished that part, held up a camera in like, the cool way and then took a picture of the crowd and walked to the back of the stage while the other singer (The asian) took his place at the mike. FUCK! It was amazing! Sexiest thing anyone has ever done in like, the history of man.

And the wall of Bass kept going the whole time, and you couldnt even hear yourself scream, and your heart hurt from the Bass, and it was all just fucking amazing. It was like being punched in the chest with a bass system. And then the Movie Theater screens and the lights and the people everywhere were punching your eyes and it was just like you were fucking in a movie. Yes.

PLID was fucking amazing. They're awesome. Then the next group amp'd the bass up more, but they were nowhere near as entertaining as PLID. They were good though. Techno rocks. Sam FUCKING LOVES ACEN.

Sam is going to go to more raves.

And the whole time we were all dancing like nuts. Madeline didnt seem like she was having a good time though, which was sad. We called it a night at about 1:00 in the morning, ending our fucking amazing 18 hour day of ACEN.