Which part of Illinois? I believe most Land of Lincoln fourmers are located in Chicagoland, like me.

I'm in California....sucks to be me. =(

Eh, I'm in eastern Tennessee(Knoxville to be exact), and I would love to have an American MoFo meet up but the problem is America is so much bigger than the British Isles that it's hard for any of us to make a complete American MoFo meet up and instead would have to do it by regions, which just plains stinks!

Northern Kentucky here. Um...seems a trend that we all seem to meet up at comic or anime cons.

I'm in Southern Illinois, an hour away from Cape Girardeau in Missouri...yup I'm about as far away from Chicago as you can get without leaving the state XP

The Jinman reporting from Rockford, IL!!!

I'm practically half hour from the north stateline 😛

B-stone lives about 30min from the heart of the beautiful Twin Cities of Minnesota!...5-6hrs away from Chicago...

Yay! I have finally witnessed the announcement of a meet-up!

...Unfortunately, though, it's not something I would be able to attend...:-(
(Sorry, I can't post a me location yet...I'm going to discuss that issue with my family soon...)

I'll just have to wait to see what meet-ups pop up in the future...^^;

**raises hand** In the Chicagoland area, myself 😀 I'd be interested in meeting up with some of you guys, but like Terg, I don't know when and where, or how my parents would take it. (though they didn't seem to mind Craig....)

I know there's a convention called "A-Cen" that my friends rave about going to, I don't know where or when that is, but that could be a possibility if it's nearby?

~Shadowed Spirit Sage

Depending on nature of the convention, cost, and who's going I might go. It's around a 10 hour drive though depending on where in Illinois this is.

~Rico

If you hold it, they will come.

And let's face it. I'm Craig. I'll take any excuse to go to Illinois as often and as long as possible.

Thats fine, but we're putting Jin between you and Sagey.

~Rico

Why would you give us gin? Neither of us drink... and even if we did...

Ew! You nasty old man!

Shame on thou, Rico! You wonder why most parents would object to a meeting like this ;p

And here's me having to save up to make sure that I get to Bristol in May.

*shakes fist at Craig*

Curse you people with jobs and gross amounts of disposable income!

Ditto Sam...for me, it goes like this...

College...or traveling...College (boring profs...) or traveling (interesting locations...)...damn...you know the answer...sigh...

I think that hair going to your head. You confused the J with an G.

~Rico

What's that, Sarah?

Sure, if you want to come, I'll pay for you!

Half the reason I'm so care free about just saying "sure I'll go" is that my manager told me before I went to Illinois in Janurary that he'd have liked me to train up the US photographers in Chicago, I said it'd probably not be my only visit, so he's offering that the next time I fly in I do a week or so work for the company in the other office and take my holiday time while I'm already there, thusly giving me more time and some help towards my air-fare.

So you get the offer, and it's always there

*Already knows the responce will be

SUBJECT: *Blush*

Don't. You. Dare.

*insert light bap on the head about how I deal with my money and how you don't need/like charity, despite the fact I don't consider it so*

-

^_^

Plus, it's always nice to feel the envy being aimed at me for a change :3

Wahh... Illinois is too far away for me. I live in New Jersey. 🙁

If there's ever a meetup in the middle of the Atlantic ocean, I might show up.

Until then, you'll all just have to live outside the presence of my immeasurable awesomeness.

Quote:

---

And here's me having to save up to make sure that I get to Bristol in May.

---

You ain't alone there, y'know.
(being a law student, has no time to make money)

*ponders if she has the time and money for the bristol meetup, as she spend a tad too much on her little trip this christmas* >>;

I wonder how many New England Mofoers there are.

I live in New York, so that's a nono. And my parents would blow up if I ever met people I talk to online. =O!

I dunno acrio is an american, and I wouldn't even want to close enough that he could hear me. or even be told that i am within the hundred miles. plus many of you arrrre...you.

That hurts my feelings, Rick. I never agreed to a sandwich. >.>

*shot*

XD

But hey, I'm willing to go, if the time and place is right! I'll even drag along Stacy (Zingy to those who have been lucky enough to spot her like... 5 posts here), just for shniz and giggles!

More than likely it'll be Chicago. Cuz there's nothing fun 'bout Rockford. Maybe Shaumberg/Woodfield? Yay Gameworks? I'unno.

We could find some really cool middle ground.....

....perhaps a Six Flags/Gurnee Mills trip? o.o Okay, so it's not really a "middle ground", but it's out near Chicago, it includes funtimes and shopping at a freaking HUGE mall....

Though I agree, Chicago might be the best idea. Maybe not until it's a bit warmer, like maybe in the spring or early summer. For those in school, spring break anyone? 😀

~Shadowed Spirit Sage

I'll probably be able to meet up for one/two days, deepending on when the meetup comes around. Yay fulltime job. Yay two days off a week.

Hopefully I don't have my manager position by then, though. Cuz then these plans are out the window. XP

Acrio lives ten minutes from me. :p

We need a New York meet up because there's plenty of New Yorkers here on this board! :p

Very good...seeing a fairly large mixed response here, what with some of us having parents to worry about and others not so much, and some not at all. As well as those with more open schedules than others.

I've got classes of my own to worry about, though I do want to try to travel at either spring break or during the summer to go up to New York in the near future...those of you keeping track of recent events will know why

But certainly, if we could try to arrange something during either of those two times and it was someplace where a bunch of MoFoers could go in a reasonable range of time, that sounds like the best opportunity we've got. I mean, schooltime for most of us means we can't go around as we like, so we'd have to wait for spring break at least.

Some kind of middle ground would be good, but we'd have to define what "middle ground" is - if it's just us folks in Illinois, strictly speaking, then it's sounding like I'm one of the few Southern Illinoisans here and I should just go up there to meetcha'all Northerners! But if we're including other states (which is implied in "Midwest" rather than "Illinois" Meetup), then Illinois might not even be the middle. Though I kinda think it is in the middle of the Midwest, but that's just my egocentric self thinking there.

Think your best option, Tergy-Pants, is to find a list of events such as anime conventions and the sort which are taking place during those allotted times. Spring/Summer break is definately the best plan, those of us in work need only request holiday, schoolgoers have to wait.

Find a worthwhile event in a place (preferrably one which has at least one resident forummer) and you're sorted.

I'm sure people can suggest events which they think will be worth going to, just be aware of time, distance and money, something the younger forummers will have in limited quantities. Reason us fricken Brits can pull this sort of thing off with ease is that cons are few and far between, we're small enough to be 6 hours maximum (though about 60+ in travel) from eachother and spread out enough to have residents in the area.

Don't give up on this though, Tergy. If you have a nice enough thing going on and Sagey can go, I'll be following along for sure.

Woot @ a possible New York Meetup.

Also, I wish all you midwesterners good luck with trying to sort the whole thing out. Hope it comes out good.

maybe something like another Otakon meetup. I know that in the late fall/early winter there's a con here in Covington (where I live) called SugoiCon, but there's a bigger one in Cincinnati, which is right across the river from me, that meets in July, called Ikasucon.

To throw some potential dates out there, my spring break happens from March 25th till April 2nd.... Other than a couple Fridays near the end of the school year, I'm not really free until school lets out in June.

EDIT: As for conventions, I got the details for "A-Cen (Anime Central)": May 5th-7th at the Hyatt Regency O'Hare and the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center. It's gotten good reviews from friends of mine.

Any thoughts, ideas, dates of your own?

~Shadowed Spirit Sage

I'm in northern Minnesota. Minneapolis or Duluth are really the only options for large get togethers on the scale you're thinking. =3

I'm in Michigan, Detroit. I think I might be able to make something like it. But I'm not sure when. Chicago is like a days drive. Heh.

My Spring Break will be posted tommorow. Yeah.

Damn. Problem with me is that it stems further away from me than Chicago (a one to one half hour drive, depending on traffic), then I'll probably be a no-go. I've got plans for my vacation time (when given to me), and this wouldn't be one of them. Which again is why I would love it around here. Then I could use my normal days off from work to go. Yay roadtrip.

*imagines the whole MoFo gang at the Mall of America...going around the indoor park on the roller coaster...getting soaked on the log chute*

I have a low death perception and extreme fear of Roller-Coasters.

It's not much of a roller coaster...30 mph...no loops or anything like that...They actually added a new one that spins while going down the track...

Seems Terg, SSS, and Jinsoku arn't the ones in Illinois, I am as well over near St Louis in a little town called Belleville.

^__^

**Stares at Cy, Sak, Troophead, Cooki... anyone else whose been to it before**

Otakon is this massive anime convention in Baltimore MD. I had bundles of joy the last time back in 2004. (Paper ezchat, anyone?)

I wanna do it again. o.o

Well in a few months I could end up existing in any place in between the two small ponds on our eastern and western borders, so I may actually be elligible for a mid-west meet-up soon.

TRANSLATION: I'm about to graduate from college and the only places hiring reporters right now are small Mid-western papers so goodbye East Coast.

You people all stink. And I just bought a car so no travel for me until summer. Colorado is a wee bit of a ways from where most of you are.

Well, glad to see some level of interest here! My spring break is in March as well, and would be the best time before summer to try to meet up. Problem is, depending on how things go I may be going up to New York, so I may just have to arrange things with the NY forumers or something XP

But if anyone else has any information on conventions or other things happening in their area(s), please go ahead and post it here. I know we have some kind of gaming convention of sorts at Southern Illinois University's campus (gaming as in pen-and-paper roleplaying, miniatures gaming, etc.), but I don't know that it's a particularly big event and I'm a little out of the way for most of y'all folks way up there in Chi-ca-go. Works both ways, though if I worked it out right maybe I'd be able to stop by Chicago area on my way up to NY...

Keep the ideas and locations coming folks, I'm afraid I'm not good at this coordinating stuff unless I know more of what everyone can do! And I don't want this idea to die just because we haven't made any hard and fast decisions, though we'll probably need to settle on a date sometime to give people enough time to prepare for it.

On a side note, I've never gone to a convention before; what kinds of things can you expect to do at such places, and do they charge you for entrance or can you just walk in?

You people will never see me in person. NEVER!

IF I go to Otakon this year...and my funds say ROFLNO at the moment, I'm flying. NOT DRIVING. EVER AGAIN.