hazelchaz | Nov. 6th, 2008

Photos online: Filling up Saltine (07-Oct-2008)
Anime Los Angeles 5 meetings part 30: Postcards and Pizza (08-Oct-2008)
Jerry's Picture Gallery: Cosplay Picnic in Fountain Valley at Mile Square Park part 1 (11-Oct-2008) et seq.
Cosplay Picnic at Mile Square Park, Fountain Valley (11-Oct-2008) Part 50 et seq.
Maria visits us for a bit (13-Oct-2008)
Deathnote Dinner (16-Oct-2008)
Autumn Dream (fka Ani-Magic) part 1: Saturday (18-Oct-2008) et seq.
File under "C" for Chocolate (22-Oct-2008)
LASFS/Aftermeetings part 321: Coral Cafe (23-Oct-2008)
Lunch with Little Lindsey (26-Oct-2008)
WTLC meeting (29-Oct-2008)
Hilton LAX part 1: Third Floor Rooms (01-Nov-2008)
Marriott LAX part 1: Pool Deck, Bridges area (01-Nov-2008)
Something*Positive Meet-up at Griffith Park, Los Angeles (01-Nov-2008) Part 1
Evening at The Abbey, West Hollywood (02-Nov-2008)
My picture of fairegoddess is from the picnic.

In October, we organized a cosplay panic sponsored by animelosangeles. Why? Well, why not? We're trying to get people involved in the convention. If you want to volunteer, if you want to be on the staff, we want to make it easy to get involved. Pizza party, pool party, picnics in the park: it all goes to that end. I had organized a cosplay picnic in August; while a few departments were represented (and some Minions got in some minion-practice), it didn't officially have the convention name. This was going to be another public everybody-come-and-have-fun picnic.

( The problem with having a convention-sponsored picnic, though, is getting the word out in time! )

October weather in SoCal is fickle. In general, we're so laid-back that our seasons lag a month behind everyone else's, so October is really late summer, right? Well... maybe. I was hoping for a warm sunny day at the park. Maybe a bit of a breeze, but generally a mild day.

It was chilly in the morning. As with the August picnic, we met at a county regional park (Mile Square Park in Fountain Valley) and rather than reserving a shelter we got there first thing in the morning to stake our claim.

I say "we" because Allie Boone actually got there before me (left). I had to make a detour to pick up something at the office. He had some of the equipment. ( We had more picnic equipment than I could comfortably fit in my own car. )

So, was it cool? Oh yes. Cold, actually. I kept my jacket on all day. Of course, I was sitting at a table under the tree. One of the picnic tables was covered with the coolers and the prep area for the burgers, another two or three tables were set up for food, and the rest of the tables were claimed by various convention departments.

( For example, vice chair/hotel liaison Christian brought a big map of the hotel's ballroom level and taped it down to a card table (left)... )

We had a group photo at 4 o'clock (left). We should have scheduled it for 2 o'clock!

89 people signed our sign-up sheet, but a lot of them left as the day got colder.

Having a few Minions around was handy. Willow and Melissa were a great help (right). We also saw a new Proto-minion, who helped a bit during tear-down. (We'll have some more minion-training at pmx and loscon, and proto-minions that don't get checked out on the Nextels then will be put to some other useful work at the convention.)