I haven't lived in Lake Charles very long. In fact, I moved about five minutes after I-10 opened back up after the flood, so I've only been here a couple of weeks. During that time, I've learned a lot about how much I didn't know about Lake Charles.

To start with, it's a great town. The food is amazing, the people are friendly, and it seems like there's some kind of awesome festival about every half hour or so. Lake Charles loves a good festival. Or show. Convention. Whatever.

Usually, these sorts of things are centered around music or food, or music and food, or just listening to music while eating food, but shortly after I got here, I started seeing billboards for something called CyPhaCon. It describes itself as Southwest Louisiana's premier anime, sci-fi / fantasy, and gaming convention, which was nice of it to say, since I really had no idea what a CyPha was, or why whatever it was needed a convention.

Is it Spider-Men or Spider-Mans?
Is it Spider-Men or Spider-Mans?
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But since I'm a slightly enormous geek, I packed up the wife and kid Saturday morning, and we headed out to the Con. (That's convention lingo. Don't worry; you'll pick it up as we go.)

Three floors of the convention center are dedicated to this monster celebration of everything geeky - which is to say everything cool - from video games to anime, vampire novels and spaceship dramas, there's a little bit of everything at CyPhaCon. Except maybe for CyPhas, because I still don't know what those are. But for all I know, the place could've been lousy with whatever they are. I dunno.

Anyway, I took a lot of pictures and put together a quick little video to give you an idea of what it's all about. Check it out:

Yes, that was Chief Tyrol from Battlestar Galactica singing our city's praises in very much the same way I do: THE FOOD IS AMAZING AND I CAN ALREADY FEEL MYSELF GETTING FAT(ter).

Cosplayers were everywhere, and there were some great get-ups on display. I saw a couple of Darth Vaders, at least three Super Marios, an Andorian Colonel Sanders, and even a table full of Spider-Men with their masks off in broad daylight, like they didn't even care about their secret identities anymore.

Most of all, the entire building was filled with my people. I'm a geek. A weirdo. A big ol' freak used to swimming in an ocean of normality until I came home to Lake Charles, where everyone is just a little bit tilted to one side. This city is not like anywhere else I've ever been. It's different and weird and wonderful. And I love it.

I'm already excited to go back to CyPhaCon next year. I might even try a little cosplay myself, although if I keep eating as much as I've been since I got here, my options will pretty much be limited to something from the Jabba the Hutt line.

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