06/14/07

Otaku Omaha — The Masquerade (permalink)

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As anyone who has read much of this blog will know, one of my favorite features of anime and science fiction conventions is the masquerade. Something about watching a bunch of nerds get up on stage in costume, sometimes acting out a short skit, is very entertaining.

Otaku Omaha's masquerade, though small, was interesting. There were several original and creative costumes which I had not seen attempted before, and a couple very detailed costumes that were better than any version I had seen before. The few people who attempted skits did not do anything particularly memorable. However, I had a great time, the event was run well without any problems, and all of the contestants seemed to have a great time.

06/13/07

Back from Otaku Omaha (permalink)

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Last weekend I attended my third Anime convention this year, Otaku Omaha. While it was the smallest of the conventions I have attended, and there were some serious problems with the hotel (see the previous post about the horrible, horrible Carlisle hotel), there were some definite highlights to the experience.

To begin with, the dealer's room was one of the best I have seen this year. Though not quite as extensive as the Naka-Kon dealers' room, the Otaku Omaha version made up for it's size by hosting a much wider variety of merchandise as other cons as well as offering some tremendous deals. I took advantage of the con discounts and purchased several manga, a DVD collector's box set of FLCL, a gunslinger girl hat and a couple boxes of Pretz (much better than pocky).

Besides the dealers' room, the con offered several interesting events and panels. Personally, I attended the Masquerade, a AMV best of showing, AMV-Hell (adult oriented AMVs), the dance, a video-game gameshow (I won Pocky), and a panel teaching how to sew a plushy keychain. I found the plushy keychain panel to be especially interesting, since I had not sewn anything at all in over 10 years and because the hands-on style of the panel allowed me to walk away with something to keep. I may post a bit more about that panel later.

I very much enjoyed my trip to Otaku Omaha and may return in the future, at least if the organizers can find a new hotel.

06/11/07

The Funk of Forty Thousand Years (permalink)

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I just got back from my trip to Otaku Omaha last night, and while I will be posting photos and information about the con later, I thought I would make a quick post about the hotel the con was at.

Without a doubt the Carlisle Hotel (a Days Inn) is the worst hotel I have stayed at in a long time. The hotel is obviously old judging from the architecture and decor and the state of repair and neatness of the hotel suggests that there has been no maintenance or cleaning done to the premises since it first opened. The EPA should categorize the place as a Superfund site and seal it off for the betterment of all mankind.

Because I am tired and lists are easy, here are some fun facts about the hotel:

• The whole place smelled like a mix of the chlorine leaking into the building from their chemically hazardous pool, disease, mildew, and the fumes of noxious cleaning chemicals (not that I ever saw any evidence of cleaners being used).
• One of the big selling features of the rooms on their site is the inclusion of a clock radio. It didn't work.
• The carpets had so many stains it was impossible to discern the original pattern.
• The rooms featured hung ceiling tiles, many of which were broken, sagging, heavily stained or un-matching.
• The wallpaper was peeling at almost every seam, missing in several places and was covered with an array of stains that I did not care to investigate.
• The beds were horribly old and would sag almost to the floor under normal weight making the springs creak.
• The view from our room was facing someone's driveway and an old beaten down car.
• The entire place was kept at about 85 degrees, causing the smell of a few hundred sweaty nerds to add to the general funk and greatly increasing the discomfort.
• There was no weather or sound sealing on the room doors, and there was about a once inch gap between the door and the floor where you could see out (or in).
• None of the staff seemed to give a shit about their customers, and were extremely unhelpful.

Click here for some shitty reviews of the carlisle hotel in Omaha, NE.

(as an aside, one of the only good reviews on that site contained this sage wisdom in response to the negative reviews: "donot aspect more crispy without oil.")

In short, DO NOT STAY AT THE CARLISLE HOTEL. If you must attend a convention or event at the Carlisle hotel, I recommend staying at one of the several hotels right next door, including:

• The Best Western Kelly Inn, Omaha
• The Hawthorn Suites Omaha
• Super 8 Motel Omaha West

Photos (these would be much more illustrative with smell):

The shitty smelly floor of the carlisle:

The crappy view from our room:

The door to go outside passed through a service room filled with trash and an even stronger odor:

Don't let this photo fool you, this cleaning cart never moved the two days we were here. I think it is a prop to fool future customers into thinking that they actually clean the place once in a while. Oh, and the lighting in this photo is very representative of the gloomy lighting in the hotel and not a camera defect.

A sign outside the carlisle hotel bar. I took the first half of the hotel sign's advice, and it did make the stay more bearable, but not by much.

06/08/07

This Weekend: Otaku Omaha (permalink)

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This coming weekend I will be attending my fourth nerd convention of the year, Otaku Omaha, an Anime convention held in South-Eastern Nebraska. From what I can tell, it is a fairly small Anime con, but nonetheless looks to have some very interesting events in the lineup. Because Omaha is only a 2 and a half hour drive from Kansas City, and it is a smaller con, we will only be attending for Saturday and Sunday. Expect a report sometime after I return about the events.