So, the anime con that I have been waiting for all semester finally occurred today. I have a lot of pictures, so once I have time to gather them all; I will post some for anyone who wants to see them. The con went extremely well. The art students who were selling their work were all pleased with the opportunity and were also glad to make some extra money and to get their name a little better known. We had four different art students who sold some of their work, on top of various other vendors. It was a great chance for them to meet other vendors as well as to show their own work and what they have to offer.

The panels of the convention also went extremely well. The morning few were a little slow as a result of people trickling in late, but every panel had a decent number of guests and they all seemed to really enjoy themselves and the various giveaways that occurred throughout the panels during the day. We had panels on fanfiction, heckling, retro anime, history of anime, and more. All of the guests that I talked to had really good reviews for the panelists and for the event as a whole, so I was very happy as the event coordinator.

We also had various more active events during the day. The day started off with a game of cosplay chess in Red Square. My team won, which was lovely, and it was a lot of fun. We also had a ninja game, a cosplay contest, the anime dating game, and a lot more. All of the different people at the events were interesting and that made even the very classic con games fun. We also had four musicians perform throughout the day and all of them had decent size audiences and made okay sales of their work. The rave performer and DJ was also our on call tech person for the day, and I was very grateful for all of his help. I would definitely be interested in inviting each of the performers back next year, but I know I will have to make a choice.

Overall, the event was a wonderful success. It made the anime club more money than we expected and a lot of the guests, both on campus and off, expressed interest in attending the event next year. I loved the marketplace being near Glar because it allowed everyone to browse easily and I would definitely do it again. I am hoping next year to allow someone else to be the chair, but I don’t know yet. I love planning the event but I had such a great staff this year and I want one of them to have the wonderful experiences I had planning and running the con as well. I got to meet a lot of really interesting people and just overall had a lot of fun!

It is amazing the feats that people accomplish here on campus. I am constantly surprised by what events people manage to pull off. This morning I came across one such surprise. I was walking to the library and stumbled upon a group of tables outside of the dining hall.

It is not rare to see tables outside of the dining hall. Usually on week days there are people selling things or promoting activities. This, however, was a Saturday. Because of that reason I did a double take. Especially because usually during the week there are a few tables, today there were ten crowded into a small space.

What was going on? A campus group had organized an anime convention. People were wandering around buying from different venders selling arts and crafts. Some were dressed in wild costumes, with rainbow colored hair and face paint. Overall it was a very startling sight to see while walking bleary eyed towards the library. It was also impressive. I was proud of my fellow students for being able to plan and put on such a large event, and I was able to stop and browse on my way to do homework.

There is nothing like spring for getting people out and about. Today I went on a beautiful walk around Westminster. It is easy to forget what a nice town it is when holed up for the winter. I also was able to see some parts of Westminster for the first time.

Not only did I see Westminster for the first time, I had another first. I talked to a stranger. Usually I don’t approach people, but while walking I came across a trunk. It was an average beat up trunk, but being a junk lover, I wanted to take it home immediately.

Instead of walking by and passing up the opportunity I actually walked to the door and knocked. Upon asking I discovered that:

1) Strangers can be friendly

and

2) I could, indeed, take possession of said trunk

Now I am a happy, tired, and expert Westminster walker. I am so glad that I took the opportunity to have an adventure, and a side adventure, and now I plan to decorate my trunk with bumper stickers and paint.

This Thursday was our spring club fair as Amber has previously posted about. I have a slightly different story to tell however…

Having my own club to run on campus, Advocacy Team, we too had a table at the club fair to let others know about our organization and sign up for emails about it. In order for you to fully understand the following events, a brief description of the lay of the land is need: the space where the club fair was held is called the Forum, essentially a really big room. Tables lined the perimeter of room and also made a inside long rectangle in the center of the room. Every campus organization from SGA to the Free Press to fraternities, sororities, religious clubs and ones just for fun had signs and banners and general goodies to give away. Have an image in your head? Now, our table unfortunately happened to be at the farthest possible place away from the entrance… We were in the far back corner, but diligently set up our colorful table cover and display board with some pictures from our events and facts about some of the amazing things we’ve done on campus (acting out against malaria, human trafficking, hunger, HIV/AIDS and more!).

In order to make our table more exciting, I brought some materials from our different events- stories from our World AIDS Day event, postcards we sent in against Human Trafficking, and a bunch of End Malaria coasters. These play a key role in our tale. I brought the coasters to give out to people since we have a bunch of extra. However….since we were so far away from the entrance and the attendance at the event was slowly dwindling and idea came to my mind about how to make my table even better: A Card Tower! Make that a coaster tower.

Sturdier than cards, the coasters held up surprising well, and I soon had quite the impressive tower going (the DJs at the event applauded when I put the final coasters on the top). However, I hadn’t counted on the Alpha Sigs (a fraternity) sitting across from me. I know quite a few guys in their group, some of which were sitting at the table. They spotted the card tower. Now add into this dangerous mix the table behind the Alpha Sigs: Humans vs. Zombies. Why is this important you ask? Nerf guns my friend. And what better target for nerf guns than a convenient card tower? The boys procured a nerf weapon…and failed miserably at actually hitting my magnificent tower! That is until they were within two feet of it.

I seized my opportunity and begged Humans vs. Zombies for some ammo. They kindly obliged. An epic chase sequence followed at the club fair. It was a lot of fun, and for me also showed how all the different groups of people at McDaniel can all have fun together: a fraternity, Humans vs. Zombies and a club to change the world. Why not?

Officially, Spring began on March 20th, 2013.

…I don’t think Maryland got that memo…

While the week before Spring Break had a few randomly gorgeous days, meaning the temperature was in the 50s, the past two weeks have been permanently stuck in the 40s. This is unacceptable. Quite frankly, it’s also been the talk of the campus- students and professors alike are all fed up with Winter and it’s coldness- which is making all of us act a little more frosty. The words, “I’m so ready for it to be warm” or just “It needs to stop being winter already” have frequented nearly every persons lips, and the last few days were no exception. In fact, one of the most bizarre weather days I have experienced was this past Wednesday at a tennis match…

One my Digital Photography assignments was to photograph a sporting event, a general exercise in getting good pictures while your targets are often in motion. This Monday happened to be a unexpected snow day with about four inches on the ground, which promptly all melted on Tuesday when temperatures just dipped their toes into the 50s. But the bipolar weather of Maryland was not done yet. The bad weather early in the week meant that most sports games and practices were cancelled (it’s rather difficult to hit a tennis ball with snow flying in your face and soaking those tennis-shoes). Which meant I was in a bit of a bind for completing my assignment by Thursday morning.

Luckily, I found out there was a Women’s Tennis match on Wednesday from some friends on the team! I knew some of the girls, and figured it wouldn’t be too creepy if I was taking pictures of them from all angles while they played. When I arrived after getting out of class, the clouds were magnificent. Big, somewhat menacing, with deep purples and blues they provided a great backdrop. But the best part was that it was still relative pleasant outside and the sun occasionally peeked out allowing me to snap some good photos while hanging out with the Men’s Team as they supported their female teammates. Then things got crazy. It was sunny, but some snow flurries started coming down…then stopped. Clouds covered the sun as the coach let another photography student and I onto the courts while teh matches were being played. A little more sun lit up the court.

I decided I had taken enough photos, and my fingers were absolutely freezing by this point, so I left the courts to go put my camera away. The wind suddenly picked up, thrashing tree branches and banging signs. The coach looked a bit worried. All of a sudden, it started snowing and sleeting, with wind blowing it in our faces. As I was done with my photos, I took this as my cue to leave, said my goodbyes and fairly sprinted away against the snow and wind to the Computer Graphics Lab to edit my photos. A slightly freaky change in the weather.

By the time I left, about 40mins later, sunshine was everywhere and the wind was nowhere to be found. The last time I experienced such fast-changing weather was in Scotland on the Isle of Skye! Let’s pull it together Maryland.

I’m ready for it to be warm now.