Do you really think I'd be so shallow? Of course not! I know full well that Kurt's Brother is named Alan and that "other guy" is probably named Chuck (or Charles or Charlie). I did pay attention at some point, but only one introduction in the course of a sensory overload like Otakon isn't enough. Heck, I was calling Gary (the cool guy from the line) "Greg" for like an hour... luckily I had another hour and a half on line to correct that mistake. As far as knowing Alan's name... well, it was written on Kurt's PS memory cards... It'd be a shame if I didn't know it by now seeing as how often I was in Kurt & Bill's room.
     I would be so shallow as to so blatantly objectify women in my strip. Hey, a lot of these cosplayers wear tight/revealing clothing to show off their bodies. Guess what? I noticed, and I was resonably impressed. This year there seemed to be a sharp increase in the amount of cute girls cosplaying in tight or revealing clothes. This can be attributed to: A) the 1000 attendee increase from last year, and B) the significant decrease in Kenshin / Shinsengumi cosplayers (freeing up many cute girls from wearing loose form-concealing clothes).
     Does this make me a pervert? Meh. Like I care if it does. I mean, I find I do better with girls if I make constant (though joking) chauvanist remarks. Tip to guys: many girls find it funny as long as your sarcasm is clear. Or at least, all girls I've met who find that funny were also fun to talk to. Maybe those are two personality indicators that have correlation. Seriously, follow me on this one. Maybe the thought processes involved that make a girl more likely to find sarcastic chauvanist remarks funny are also involved in making them more, shall we say... "geek-friendly?"
     I know what you're thinking... "If we're talking about girls at Otakon, doesn't that make them all geek-friendly by default?" The answer my friend is a resounding "maybe." See, anime and manga are becoming more mainstream by the year. And Otakon is becoming a larger and larger convention by the year. I ran into plenty of snotty people (male and female) who had severe anti-geek chips on their shoulders. These people were pretty much there for the anime, and were just willing to put up with the geeks. Thankfully, we still out-number them, like 100 to 1.
     On a side note, I found a couple of people in Baltimore who were geek-friendly, but not at the con. For example, a worker at Subway asked me what all the people were dressed up for and I told her about the con. She said that she didn't know anything about anime, but she liked the costumes and treated everyone with a sunny disposition. Okay... maybe she's not geek-friendly, but just friendly all around.
     So, my advice for people on how to be more geek-friendly. Actually, let's group these into 3 easy to remeber overly-simplified steps. 1) If you have no geek interests and still wanna make polite chit-chat, talk about the weather or current events or your location. Geeks may have specific interests, but they are not oblivious to the world. 2) Many geeks are nice, but jaded sarcastic people. What may sound like cutting insults is only met to be a demonstration of rapier wit. 3) When in doubt, smile and nod. If a geek is scaring you, just smile and nod until they stop talking and then mention that you have to go somewhere to do something. If you are really scared, mention also that you will be doing something with someone (who is tall and menacing).
     And there you have it. Remember that geeks are people too... just with a little bit of social imparment to boot. :)