FFR Convention: An Epic.

[flipsta_lombax]

(Warning: Potential tl;dr)

No, seriously. Having me briefly summarize what had happen over this weekend wouldn't be worth it; it has been one of the greatest experience of my life. If you are someone reading this thread who unfortunately couldn't make it to the convention, I advise you to try your hardest to get up here. No, don't say you can't find any transportation. We had folks hitch-hiking to get to the convention, I kid you not. Got no money? Jesus Chris folks, do something to make something. If you are dedicated and willing to meet the folks who make FFR what it is today, it's really worth it. Trust me, regrets never existed for me.

So I have come to share with you guys the plot of this event coming from my perspective, from when I left Philly, driving up with folks, and back. If any of the other people who made it to this, feel free to add.

For a long while, I decided to hitch a ride with DarkManticoreX2 and the two others that decided to go with us, lumphoboextreme and thunderstrike687. Thunder was really cool, and Lumpho was a bit quiet during the trip, haha. When I was at the Philly Station -- 30th Street:



..the place was huge and had awesome stuff all over the walls: Scultures, artwork, etc. Awesome.

Okay, going from there to Exton, PA, where Manti picked me up, we drove a good 275+ miles west to Pittsburgh, to pick up the other two. Just when we entered in the city.. BAM! Traffic jam. We got stuck in traffic for a good 45 minutes, moving 5 effin' feet per hour, until the we got to a bridge and tunnel called Squirrel Hill Tunnel (we had a quick laugh over that, haha. I think you'd know why).

Anyway, getting out of Pittsburgh around 4:00 PM that Friday night, we drove another good 300 miles going towards Ohio, then a bit through Michigan to go to Pinball Pete's. The only reason why we took so long to get there was because of epic confusion. Thanks to Yahoo! maps and sh*t, we wasted another good 30 minutes trying to find that one fork that separated the right way towards the place into another road that sent us into a street that had a different name every 4 street light... I swear we were getting impatient, LOL.

But yeah, we made it, we parked, we went to some restaurant where the group was at, had tapioca ball drinks at Bubble Island, and near that was Pinball Pete's. Oh yeah, glow-in-the-dark air hockey tables, DDR, ITG, ParaParaParadise, pool, and alot of other things you'd find at your nearest arcade. I have no pictures, but I have a video for the place. I got Synthlight on vid (he was playing air hockey with Sprite-), but I dare not post it. =P I'll just save that in my memory card for safe keeping and to know his mysteriousness is void.

But yeah, after a very awesome night at the arcade, the admins all had a hotel to stay in, while almost the rest of the group (besides Sir_Thomas and his gang, who also stayed in a hotel) stayed at Red Roof 'Ricki's' (DrugstoreCowboy, durrrr. =D). Lol! We still a blast there, especially since the hotel was awesome, clean and neat, and that it was free of charge, haha! We had Sprite- and Manti's laptops up for some after-midnight rounds of SM, FFR and just a couple of lol's thrown in here and there. Awesome night there. I'd actually like to thank Ricki for letting us stay there for the night. Seriously... I feel like an ass now knowing that I didn't even get to thank him. We love ya Ricki! <3 No pics of his house because I didn't get a chance. =(

Next day: Convention Time.

We all woke up at about 8:00 AM (well, All_That_Chaz, Ricki, and I did, but I dunno about the rest of the group, haha ;D). Funny how my alarm clock was my cell phone, playing Sympathizer as loud as it can get, waking everyone up to the tune. Lol, t'was funny.

We went out to eat at this awesome breakfast house Ricki led us to, and damn, the breakfast was cheap, but very very tasty. =D If you guys only saw the flaming cheese show, you guys would have been in awe like the rest of the gang was lol! Ricki ordered something that involved cheese, a pan, alcohol and a lighter. The thing was set to flames, haha! We all were laughing when we found out what the hell it was in the pan to begin with. xD



There is Ricki and Sprite_, respectively. Lol.



From right to left: Lumphoboextreme, Thunderstrike687, and just barely making it in this pic is the epic-awesome HammyMcSquirrel. =D



Left to right: DarkManticoreX2, jellygod, and All_that_Chaz. =D



Petey. <333333333



Jellygod, with a kyooool stack of jelly cases in front of him. Respect, lol.


Breakfast was great, yup. =D Props for Ricki for knowing his stuffff!


NOOOOWWW... we make it to the convention. And seriously.. you'd never know weeaboo until you see the real sh*t. Too bad I didn't take a picture of any of them, but I think the "Venus flytrap" took first place in my weird book. Jesus.

One word for the convention: Awesome. Rockband was set up, laptops (connection sucked, but that's fine), a live-feed with a mic, the good stuff. DDR didn't work, but it was there too. One thing that really made me look forward towards this convention was meeting the staff and the handful of regulars on FFR. You know who ya are. ;P I'd hate to list the people and miss some of you guys. But yeah the group of folks there, some almost didn't looked the same way I thought they would, lol! I played SM and FFR most of the time. Oh, and messing around with the live feed, haha! Although Rockband got a bit repetitive the whole day, geez. "Creep" seems like a favorite to the people at the Animarathon, some saying how it relates to them or whatever. I laughed. xD

When it was all said and done, Manti brought the gang, bringing Pete along with us. We stayed in Quality Inn - Findlay (you don't know how many times I forget that word), and slept for the night.

Next day (today):
We we're striving to wake up at 5:30 AM. We woke up at 7:37 AM. Not good. -.- Pete almost missed his flight, but thank goodness Ricki was there actually waiting for him. Pete almost left his iPod and wallet in the hotel, and I had to pull a 'an hero' moment. xP

So yeah, we left, Manti and the gang, at 8:30 AM, an hour and a half behind expected travel. We got to drop off Thunder and Lumpho around 12:30 PM back to Pittsburgh and we set off for Exton on the way back. We had a really really cool scenery going, so I decided to take pics here:



Windmills. Woo.




The Appalachian Mountainssss. (Well, one of the many chains anyway).



WHITE CASTLE TRUCK! Manti's awesome driving and my angling made this pic look smecksy delicious.

And this was the funniest part of the road trip back. We saw this car that had an epic license plate number:



HAHAHA! We had a good laugh on that for a long while.

I didn't make it to first train on my way back. -.-; We missed the train by 10 minutes, thanks to multiple stops for gas and a long line at Sbarro a while back in the Turnpike. Manti and I panic a bit, but thought of a plan. We raced the train to Philly Station before I missed my only chance of getting home, but luckily we made it. Manti got stuck in a serious accident 2 minutes later though. I swear we effin' lucked out on that. Well... I did... Manti got back okay and stuff.


And there you have it. I really, really needed this event because getting out the house was not only well-worth it, but it was great as well. Not only that, I got to meet the most awesome people in FFR, the awesome admins, and got one of the most thrill rides back home (thanks to Manti being a beastly beast, haha! 90+ MPH overall average).

I'd like to give a shout out to all the people who made it that night, and to the staff/admins who dedicated their time and effort to set up an event I'd never forget. Thanks Tass, Nestleqwik, MalDON, JasonKey and Synthlight! We love you guys! <33 Mods: Ricki, Sprite-, Rebirth. You guys were hella cool. Can't wait to meet you guys again.


Well, I'm out now, lol. tl;dr FTW. I gotta get some goodnight rest now. Talk to you guys later and can't wait for next year's convention.


Flipsta_Lombax, one of the few elite FFR devotes. Flipsta out.

[Phynx]

*initiate shameful crying sequence* WHY DO PLANE TICKETS HAVE TO COST SO F*CKING MUCH?!?!?! WAHHH!!!

[Windscarredfaith]

I'm so jealous. ;_;

[Bynary Fission]

I wish I coulda been there, seems like tons of fun.



~Bynary Fission

[flipsta_lombax]

Last picture:


Starting from left, clockwise direction:

HammyMcSquirrel, All_That_chaz, DarkManticoreX2, thunderstrike687, lumpho (he is 'hiding', lol), jellygod, Lonevvolf, and Ricki (lol, faic.)

[irishknight]

Originally Posted by flipsta_lombax

Last picture:
HammyMcSquirrel, All_That_chaz, DarkManticoreX2, thunderstrike687, lumpho (he is 'hiding', lol), jellygod, Lonevvolf, and Ricki (lol, faic.)

If that's the mcdonalds in Philly train station, I've been there before.

Looks too much familar! ftw.

[flipsta_lombax]

Originally Posted by irishknight

If that's the mcdonalds in Philly train station, I've been there before.

Looks too much familar! ftw.

The McDonald's in Philly Station was sexy, but I didn't take a pic. Damnitttt.

Nah, this was the McDonald's not too far from BGSU. We decided to go there during the convention because our mysterious pizzas that were suppose to come became non-existent. Lol, that's fine though, we had fun here too!

It's like our little sexy version of "The Last Supper", without Judas and some other disciple. I guess Ricki can be Jesus, lol. (Pete and I were there, of course, but we had no place in the pic.)

Like I said... epic.

I might go to Otakon held in Baltimore on my birthday, August 10. I heard FFR is going there? Rides will no longer be a problem here since there would be a groupie.

Convention in L.A. would be sick!

[Kairon]

Originally Posted by flipsta_lombax

Convention in L.A. would be sick!

Yeah... if only L.A. wasn't 2,266 miles away...

[DarkManticoreX2]

Needs more Hyperbole.

Flip, Didn't you get pics of a bunch of us on a couch outside the ffr room too? You also missed the hacky sack section where we hacked a mario coin box.

To be completely honest I had the most fun hanging out with people and talking to everyone.

I shoulda brought my camera, I would've taken a bunch of pictures.

Anyway........... Same story from the manticore POV. basically because I'm bored and I don't have another class for like 2 hours. So you guys can read more convention coolness

I woke up Friday morning at 9ish A.M. Showered, Brushed teeth, the usual morning ritual. I even got out the hose and Vaccum. Did a little car wash/clean-out and Windexed all the glass. Needless to say my car was looking sexy.

Flip called me around 10:00 saying he was leaving from philly and would be in Exton soon. But I hadn't packed yet (I'ma lazy **** rofl). So I was all rushing around throwing jeans and shorts and tops into this yellow clamp box thing, Grabbed my sleeping bag and packed up my laptop. I threw it all into the back of the car and sped out to the train station.

Ride there (10-15 minutes) was uneventful. I got to the amtrack station around 10:35 and didn't see any trains. I was worried Flip had already gotten off the train and was wandering around somewhere. But I grabbed the cardboard sign I made from the trunk of the car and sat on the bench waiting the train. I think the train was about 12 minutes late (remember this). When I saw it comming in, I propped up my homemade cardboard & Sharpee Flipsta sign. What a waste of 3 minutes that sign was =( Flip was the only person to get off at the stop. We said sup and hopped in the car off to Pitt.

Coming out of the train station around the mall, Some Idiot on a cell phone thought it would be a great idea to make a left hand turn during a red light over 3+ lanes of traffic -.- retard almost got nailed twice merging into 100 south. 2 gas stops, 4 tunnels through the Appalachians (Blue mountian, Kittany mountain, and two others I don't remember) and we were in proximity to pittsburg. We got off the turnpike onto some road Yahoo! maps told us to go on, and we beheld the great middle of pittsburg with all the gridlock traffic we could handle for about 45 minutes. We might have gone 1 or 2 miles in that whole 45 minutes, While we made it to pittsburg in about 3 hours. Infuriating. Once we finally got through Pitt, We got lost on some stupid fork and probably lost another 5 minutes in this neighborhood we weren't supposed to be in. After we turned around we got back on the road and took the fork the other way and a few minutes later, we picked up Thunderstrike687.

Thunder's pretty cool. He was all set when we pulled up, and kicked Flip out of shotgun xD. Thunder called shotty in the animatathon thread like 2 weeks ago. From thunder's house, we drove over to lumphoboextreme's. Lumpho was supposed to get over to Thunder's somehow, but It didn't happen, so we went over to pick him up.

15-20 minutes later we picked up lumpho. and Wow. There is only one word to explain Lumpho. Quiet. I tought the guy with the most gameplays on FFR would be like ADD or OCD or something like that. I think he said hi or something and then didn't say a word the entire trip unless he was directly spoken to. Everyone else packed some type of suitcase/backpack, Lumpho had a plastic bag you would get from Home Depo or something with all his stuff in it. Anyway, I took the best piss ever at lumpho's house (seriously though it was like a glorious minute of fluid release after holding it for about an hour). We hopped back into the car (Which by now had white stripes up the front of the hood from trucks throwing salt at it in the Appalachians). and headed off again

Not long after picking up Lumpho, we crossed states into Ohio. We saw some of the flooding that they've been having up here around Youngtown? or something. There was about 3 feet of water around every tree. The welcome center is 40 miles into Ohio, Which doesn't really seem that welcoming "Hi welcome to Ohio! thanks for visiting. Our welcome center is 40 miles that way. Yes, we know it should be like 5-10 miles from the boarder to make it seem more welcoming". It's basically a trap. You see, Ohio wants you to think that it has trees and some type of scenery, and for like the first 40 miles it does. (we stopped at the welcome center here for gas and food. Me thunder and lumpo got McDonalds, Flip got Sbarro [pizza]). and we got back in the car, gassed up and headed off.

Cornfield


Cornfield



Cornfield


Cornfield

Cornfield!!!

Ohio is nothing but infernal cornfields. 200 solid miles of Cornfield. It's the most boring landscape anyone ever wants to see. Mile after mile after mile of cornfields. Needless to say, we couldn't get through Ohio fast enough. Anytime someone blocked the fast lane, we did the finger waggle (basically, the finger waggle is taking your pointer finger, pointing at the guy in front of you, and then pointing to the slow lane). In most cases it worked, and the people moved out of my way. We probably averaged 95 MPH through Ohio

A solid 2 and a half hours of cornfields later, we crossed over into Michigan and got to Ann Arbour. We screwed up another fork in the road, and drove for probably ten minutes before realizing we took the wrong fork, (Passed Michigan Stadium holy crap that thing is huge up close). Anyway we drove back, took the fork in the correct direction the second time, and Parked in a parking garage near Pinball Pete's and Bubble Island. We spotted the crew eating dinner at a local Pizza place, so we stopped in and introduced everyone, Then the group kinda split up, Ricky took a bunch of people to Bubble Island and Me and the other half of the group went into Pete's.

Pete's was your normal arcade, shooters, classic games like pac man, DDR, ITG (The ITG machine was on a DDR machine's base), Air hockey. Fun stuff. I played air hocky with synth, Synth beat me 2 games to 1, but it's alright, because I got to beat flip later In largly lopsided games. Me and thunder were lossless in several air hockey double's matches. I played a shooter (confidential mission) with Tass, and beat his score by 5000 or something. After this, thunder and I got bored, and we went over to bubble Island for drinks.

Bubble Island is hard to expliain. They have a bunch of drinks, and they put these jelly-bean like bubbles in your drink. (The bubbles are softer than jelly beans, maybe equivelent to a really soft gummy bear). Needless to say the drinks were outstanding. Everyone needs a bubble Island near them. We headed back to pinball pete's with our Bubbles and played a realistic shooter game Ricky challenged me to. I failed the first 2-3 times, finally passed it on the 4th game, and then top 5'ed it 5th game. Thunder Highscored it 3 times. Needless to say, FFR took over the leaderboard of that game.

Somewhere in this I played Skiball with flip, and won a bunch of tickets. We had like 60 tickets, and we won a lolipop and a superball. Shortly after this, we headed over to Ricky's (11:30 ish) The drive there was pretty cool, I harrassed Chaz and Ricky by driving next to them on the freeway and wiggling my car, putting on the 4-way flashers, putting on my turnsignal in one direction and turning the other. Fun stuff. Thunder brought some V-snare CD's and we listened to some ****ed up song about killing childeren and mutilated bodies floating in the water. We also listened to the full version of Smarzar, which was cool.

After this, we got to Ricky's and upacked for the night. Ten people stayed at ricky's. Myself, Hammy, Chaz, Flip, Pete, Jellygod, Sprite, Drugstore, Thunder and lumpho. My comp couldn't connect to ricky's wireless, so we played stepmania on it. sprite's had ffr or SM going and Drugstore's usual computer had ffr going. We probably played till 2:30 or 3:00. Lumpho was the first to crash "Hey Ricky! What's this lump on the floor under the red blanket? Oh, know what. Nevermind" I'm pretty sure everyone was asleep by 4 A.M.

We woke up the next morning to Sympathizer being blasted by Flip's phone. I think I went back to sleep after waking up. 10 people took turns using the shower. (I totally got up and saw Jelly leave the shower, and I hopped in). Cut in front of Hammy and someone else =P my bad. and we packed back up and follwed Ricky to this resturaunt called Mom's. Ricky got Saginyaki or something, which noone knew wtf that was untill the waiter came over with a plate of cheese and lit it on fire. We were all like !!!!WTF!!!! and Somehow Ricky told us they light salads on fire here too. That gave a laugh. Everyone else got eggs or some type of platter, and we got the checks.

Now FFR user, when you enter the resturaunt, what is the one thing, really the only thing you need to bring?

Jepordy music

dooo dooo doo doo du do du do duu du doo doo duu dut dododododododo du du du du doo doot doo doo dut dododododo doo du dut BING time up lets see your answer.

FFR user did you answer this------>(Highlight) MONEY!!!

If so you are right! Please tell Lumphoboextreme this. He seriously came into the resuraunt without money. It was hilarious.

After this we went to bowling green, I blew past ricky and Chaz after I knew we were on the right road, (lol broken radar trap suck that cops) and arrived at the convention probably 15-20 minutes before them.

The convention was pretty good, Rockband got annoying after about 12 hours of the same 3-4 songs. Personally, I though the camera was worked better last year. there was a lot of rockband on camera this year, and not enough ffr/SM. Also, DDR wasn't hooked up, so there was none of that. I think the convention was actually better as a social event than as a gaming event, but thats just IMO.

Around 9 we went over to Mcdonalds. (everyone was sick of Rockband, so we chilled there for a while, Discussed hackers, ffr users, Lumpho's not talking, and just whoring ffr. I think Gnr61 blackflagged eradication in front of thunder when we got back. The internet there got crappy and kept dropping the webcam after 6 or 7. It honestly took me an hour to load degenerates on Tass's laptop.

Around 11:30 everyone started leaving, and me flip, thunder pete and lumpho headed to our hotel. Once we got there we played a little more FFR, I 4 gooded Famoz again. and then hit the sack.

The morning blew, We were planning on leaving the hotel by 7:00 AM, but no one got up untill about 8:00. Ricky picked Pete up, but Pete almost missed his flight (by a minute). We sped out to Pit, (reached thunder's house by 12:30, and he agreed to take Lumpho home which was a HUUUUGE time saver, Thanks man.), got back on the turnpike by 1:00, Passed K_lolol plate lady somewhere in there and Flip gave her a thumbs up, was at midway PA by 2:22, We passed K_lolol plate lady again and flip gave ner another thumbs up, but from here, traffic blew ass. I couldn't go my standard 105 MPH, and could only average 80-85 most of the way. Flip's train got to the Exton staion at 4:16 on the dot, and we got there at 4:23. It was soooo dumb.

So I had to rush Flip into 30th street station where his exton train connected with his Amtrack. Basically, we were racing his train to Philly. I managed to beat the clock and got him there 10 minutes before his second train left.

On the way back, I got stuck in gridlock traffic, one car had nailed the back of another car, and caused the front car to flip the median, theres 8 lanes in Philly, 4 going in and 4 going out. Going out only one lane was open. Imaging 4 lanes of traffic competeing to get into a single lane. Not fun. It took me and hour and a half to get out of that, and I finally reached my house around 7:00 last night.

I love my car, but next year might buy plane tickets. 1,500 mile round and about 20-23 hours of drive time.

[CR_fLiP_fOaM]

pwn. that looks fun. Too bad ddr didn't work but meeting the staff and ffr reg is cool.

[Sullyman2007]

I'm so jealous right now.
AGNRY FAIC!!1!

[Sprite-]

i wish i could have gone

[Sullyman2007]

By the way, cool pics Flip.
Did I tell you I talked to Steve on the phone?

[CR_fLiP_fOaM]

Originally Posted by Sullyman2007

By the way, cool pics Flip.
Did I tell you I talked to Steve on the phone?

no.

[Tasselfoot]

I won't speak for the rest of my red brothers, but we felt the weekend was worth all the hassle of being there from LA. I can't even go into all of the problems we faced, but it was a lot. It was expensive. And it was extremely tiring. I think when we finally get back to LA (Mon night around 9:30pm PST, then figure another hour to get back to AdminCave and bit longer back to my place).... I'll sleep until Wednesday.

Glad all the regulars who came were able to make it, and we seriously look forward to being able to not only continue doing Animarathon for years to come, but to have more conventions across the country (specifically, we're working to do Anime Expo this summer in LA).

[travman301]

Originally Posted by Tasselfoot

Glad all the regulars who came were able to make it, and we seriously look forward to being able to not only continue doing Animarathon for years to come, but to have more conventions across the country (specifically, we're working to do Anime Expo this summer in LA).

YES! West coast Convention!!!

[Aleste]

Originally Posted by travman301

YES! West coast Convention!!!

make it happen. lol.


in any case.. if i am still active during this time next year, i will definitely go.

[Zageron]

I'm coming next year with Skish. We're both catching a flight from Vancouver to the airport closest to the convention! :3
I'll make sure I get a stick of RAM in my laptop, and a wireless card, and I'll bring it along.

Can't wait. x.x

Edit: If you do a convention in LA, I'm SO there!

[blindreper1179]

awe drugstore, you went. how'd you get there? drive? i would of went maybe.

[Tasselfoot]

drugstore lives about an hour away. he was there last year as well.