Month: August 2012

Olympic ping-pong is funny

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

First off, I think the Olympics are as irrelevant as ever these days, and I can’t say that I’ve watched anything beyond the 25 minutes a day that I’m running on the hamster wheel.  But I have noticed that there is a whole lot of television coverage focused on a whole lot of volleyball, soccer and shit like rowing.  I guess the marquee stuff like basketball point shaving and women’s gymnastics is saved for times when people are actually capable of watching it.

But today, I caught a glimpse of Olympic ping-pong.  Doubles, no less.  With great amusement, I kept the television on the event, so I could see what ping-pong at the highest level looked like.  For about 35 seconds, the players on both side of the table would position themselves intricately, bob up and down and Hulk themselves up, preparing for the serve.  The serve would come, and the point would be decided in less than five seconds.  There would be fist pumps, roars of victory and high fives for every single point.  And then it would repeat itself, the preparation that takes longer than the payoff.

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It currently looks like the gayest gun in the world, sure

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

But I hope to soon promise that in the end, it won’t.

I’m actually playing the dress-up game again for a night at this year’s Dragon-Con.  Okay, yeah I did Safari Chris last year, but that was something I already had.  I’m actually putting forth some effort this year in making something, so I can join my friends this year instead of standing on the sidelines.  This is the current status of the gun I’m making for a Graves costume, to take part in a League of Legends grouping.  Like every character I’ve ever dressed up as, I do in fact have an attachment to the character, as he’s my primary choice when I play LoL.

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Best dream ever

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Huzzard and I are at an arcade, playing on a broken NBA Jam machine.  Along comes former NBA player/great white hope Bryant Reeves and some unknown person, and they challenge Huzzard and I to a game.  We choose the Spurs and he chooses the Knicks, and in no time, we’re dominating the shit out of him like 41-11.  The game freezes on us, and before we can get bewildered and upset, these two kids show up, wanting to get Bryant Reeves’ autographs.  One of them was fat and one of them was small.  The fat one was the alpha amongst them.

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Yes, there was a stripper pole in the dealers’ room

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

I mean, there’s really not a whole lot I can really add to that.  There was in fact, a stripper pole inside the dealers’ room at Otakon.

Looking at the writing on the base of the pole stand, it’s marked something about “pole fitness,” and I don’t deny for a second that it takes a tremendous amount of physical exertion and training to be able to work a stripper pole like well, a stripper, but I’m not sure who this dealer thinks they’re kidding when they’re displaying a stripper pole in a merchants’ exhibitor hall.

When I saw this, my jaw kind of lowered half an inch.  I know Otakon has grown to massive proportions and being so big, they’re exposed to a ton more merchants who want to peddle and market their goods at the convention.  The presence of obvious booth babes was no surprise, given how big the convention has grown and the cheap tactics some dealers will employ to get customers to them instead their competitors, but when I saw a place marketing stripper poles, complete with hired Panty & Stocking cosplayers to parade around the display model, I was kind like “wow.”

Honestly, I don’t really know what to think.  Not that I’m some authority on decency or anything, but I can’t help but think the whole thing is tacky and kind of inappropriate.  It’s minutely amusing, but I kind of wonder what goes on through the heads of the numerous parents who were roped into being at Otakon with their kids; I’m sure the dads were thrilled, but conservative parents probably had aneurisms when they saw a stripper pole in the dealers’ room.

I guess in the end, this is another one of those “I guess I done got too old” moments.  I remember Otakons, and conventions in general of the past, having dealers’ rooms where people banked on having the rare items, the things they couldn’t find anywhere online from the 13 official dealers listed on Anipike or had ads in Animerica.  The advent of the internet has easily changed that landscape, turning today’s dealers’ rooms into glorified show rooms for people to look for what they want, and then hunt for it online at a better price.

And now we got stripper poles and booth babes all over the fuckin’ place.  Ahh, how the times have changed.

Photos: Meeting Hacksaw Jim Duggan in Frederick

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Without much question, the highlight of my weekend was getting the opportunity to meet WWF legend, Hacksaw Jim Duggan at a minor league game in Frederick.  What made it better was getting to share the experience in the company of good friends who like me, grew up watching Hacksaw punch and clothesline bad guy wrestlers, mostly, before unfortunately jobbing, and pretty often, in the most memorable ways (getting sat on and “injured” by fat guys like the late greats, Earthquake and Yokozuna).  Regardless, the overly patriotic super face has always remained a lifelong favorite amongst us, and a very easy choice to make the trip up to see him, regardless of the baseball game involved.

Prior to going to Frederick, I couldn’t help but wonder of what the meeting was going to be like.  After a great experience meeting Sgt. Slaughter, who was gracious, friendly and great with all the fans, I was sorely disappointed when I met Jerry “the King” Lawler, when he turned out to be a pretty apathetic and obviously money-seeking prick who didn’t so much care about the fans that wanted to see him as much as his head was already wondering when the meet and greet was going to be over.  Honestly, I was just kind of hoping for something in the middle, and hovering more towards Slaughter than Lawler.

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I’m glad T-SPLOST failed

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Long story short, T-SPLOST is some convoluted acronym for some government proposed program that would raise taxes by one percent in several counties surrounding Metro Atlanta, with all those funds supposedly going to a variety of transportation projects that would in theory “un-handcuff” Atlanta from the traffic apocalypse everyone seems to think Atlanta is.  The voting for whether or not it would pass was on the 31st.

Well, it failed.  Apparently it failed pretty miserably.  I am glad it failed.

Now before I get accused for being a Jew and/or a racist, let me explain: I don’t trust government.  It has nothing to do with the fact that I don’t want to spend 1% more on everything, not at all.  I just don’t believe for a second that the already-suspect government officials of the state, and city of Atlanta won’t be pocketing some of this money somewhere down the line, and it’s on principle that I don’t want them to even have that opportunity.  Furthermore, I think I’m smarter than Atlanta traffic; I can work around it, and I don’t want to pay for those who can’t.  Apparently, I’m not the only one who feels that way.  So I’m glad the program failed.

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Photos: Otakon, sort of

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The last time I went to Otakon prior to this past weekend was literally ten years ago.  In 2002.  I decided to go this year after such a gigantic hiatus, because I was already going to be up there for Hacksaw Jim Duggan night, I had decent fun delving back into some conventions, at Neko-con and Animazement in prior months, and pretty much everyone I would have wanted to see pretty much runs Otakon now.

I guess looking back at the weekend, if I could have done it all over again, I probably wouldn’t have bothered going if I knew what it was going to be like nowadays.  Not to say the convention is bad, on the contrary, it’s run better than it’s ever been run nowadays, it’s just I realize how much of a cup of tea Otakon is not for me today.

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