SNAFU Con
Sierra Nevada Anime Fans Unite!
SNAFU Con is an anime convention in the Reno/Sparks area of Nevada. The 2023 con was November 17 - 19, 2023. The 2024 con has not been announced yet.
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History of SNAFU
The Real SNAFU History
Shadows, 2008-2009.
If you are interested in our origin, it began with Shadows. Shadows has been thrown annually around Halloween by the Anime and Manga Society of UNR for nine years or so. However, the people at large behind SNAFUcon had only been involved with Shadows, UNR, and the local community for three years.
The first event of real note was Shadows '08. It was, to put it simply, a mess. We swore on our pride as otaku that never again would we contribute to the contamination of the community with such a poorly thought out and mismanaged event.
But, from the remnants of that chaotic mess came inspiration. The inspiration was simple. We had always treated Shadows like a party, and that wasn't the right way. We were part of the Anime & Manga Society of UNR, we were otaku. Shadows shouldn't just be a party, but a full con. That is how we started the planning for Shadows in 2009, as a small con.
We rallied together to make Shadows 2009 a truly brilliant event. But as we planned, we realized that Shadows simply wasn't enough. This city needed a real convention with all the bells and whistles. And we decided to bring it.
Shadows 2009 confirmed that we can run events, and that people will attend. Now, we're building a convention that Reno can be proud of. One that will put Reno on the map.
SNAFUcon 2010
Our first year apart from UNR as a true con was a great success. Roughly 700 of you (yes, YOU) came out of the woodwork and proved us right: Reno can handle a great con, and deserves one. WE would like to cordially thank all our guests, staff and volunteers for coming to the GSR and showing us how Reno really rocks out at a Con.
If you are interested in our origin, it began with Shadows. Shadows has been thrown annually around Halloween by the Anime and Manga Society of UNR for nine years or so. However, the people at large behind SNAFUcon had only been involved with Shadows, UNR, and the local community for three years.
The first event of real note was Shadows '08. It was, to put it simply, a mess. We swore on our pride as otaku that never again would we contribute to the contamination of the community with such a poorly thought out and mismanaged event.
But, from the remnants of that chaotic mess came inspiration. The inspiration was simple. We had always treated Shadows like a party, and that wasn't the right way. We were part of the Anime & Manga Society of UNR, we were otaku. Shadows shouldn't just be a party, but a full con. That is how we started the planning for Shadows in 2009, as a small con.
We rallied together to make Shadows 2009 a truly brilliant event. But as we planned, we realized that Shadows simply wasn't enough. This city needed a real convention with all the bells and whistles. And we decided to bring it.
Shadows 2009 confirmed that we can run events, and that people will attend. Now, we're building a convention that Reno can be proud of. One that will put Reno on the map.
SNAFUcon 2010
Our first year apart from UNR as a true con was a great success. Roughly 700 of you (yes, YOU) came out of the woodwork and proved us right: Reno can handle a great con, and deserves one. WE would like to cordially thank all our guests, staff and volunteers for coming to the GSR and showing us how Reno really rocks out at a Con.
The Fake SNAFU History
We have been asked how this started. Unfortunately, none can recall. Just that in the beginning, it tasted rather pink. There were also pianos, but their reports are useless, because they had been drinking heavily at the time.
So, sadly, I was asked to chronicle the history of this organization. Not remembering a single iota of useful information, I've decided to reconstruct the entire history of our illustrious organization from whatever random stories I think are viable.
To be Frank (not that I am Frank, although he's a clever writer himself), the etymology of the word SNAFU does not come from the popular military term. It is actually derived from the ancient texts of the Magen-tar tribe of Eastern San Seriffe, ruled by the Omnipotent, Benevolent, Eternal, and Snappily Dressed Priestess Simia. Within their sacred writings, translated loosely as "The Memoriam of Divine Raiment," the following excerpt has been recovered from translations. Please keep in mind that not all words have found proper translations:
"Oh, what meaning of truth that has been spun as the weaver binds a upon himself! For in the such truths lies that which lies beyond all, that Sacreus, the wisest of the wise. And beyond such things of the Sacreus, the Nystrom, the great mystery, endows our soul and minds with such blessings as a upon the shifting ! Oh, the beauty of the , as it lays upon the heaps upon heaps, the gretest heap being the sacred Arech, and at the foot of the heap we, the Fullach, worship with all truth. And as we lay our prayers upon the , grafted from the skin of young goats, We end our our prayers with the ending, the sacred oath of ending, that is, the Unaekon. And as we pray this prayer, Sacreus Nystrom Arech Falluch Unaekon. And so as we hum this prayer, we write it upon our hearts, as but one gentle word, and this word is SNAFU, the most holy and sacred of words!"
And so, as several members of SCIENCE found this discovery, we bought the rights to entire religion, culture, and ethnic grouping. After the World Bank sued us for paying for said rights in monopoly money, and coupons for free car washes and chicken tenders, we were ordered by international authorities to pay reparations amounting to approximately 23.5 million cows.
Shortly after our failed invasion of Texas, we decided to negotiate a payment plan. In exchange for a small stipend of 1.5 chickens and a bag of chips per half-life of Lineoleum-98, and at least one flock of seagulls every third decade, Frankly (Frank always was one for aphorisms), we were up a creek without a boat, but at least we avoided legal prosecution. And by avoided, I mean dismembered and threw into a mini fridge in Jersey. Oddly enough, Frank was driving the car with the mini fridge...
After our legal arbitration ended on amicably violent terms, we decided to find a use a for this sacred word, SNAFU. Unfortunately, without any real product, we couldn't just stamp it on coffee mugs and sell it. Well, actually we could, and we did. But we couldn't sell quite as many as we made, not even if you include a rational factor of ten in the merchandise tracking equations.
So we needed a meaning for SNAFU, one without military connotations. So we endeavored to come up with a plan, a brutal, insane, daredevil, mercenary plan that would somehow include intercontinental weaponry and subspatial technology. However, we got lazy and forgot to feed our army of engineering grad students, so we needed a plan B.
We came up with our plan B while analyzing the dead grad students' confinement, err, living quarters. While in their desperation to survive in containment, the first thing they formed from the rudimentary materials in their confines was not a method of food or water production. Rather it was a small piece of computational equipment with basic text recording functions.
Analysis of the data was impressive. It appears they killed each other, not out of hunger or harm, but out of some debate between the superiority of Optimus Prime over Sherlock Holmes in a combat situation. This data brought us to a stunning realization:
Nerds will always be Nerds, period.
And from the assorted madness we brought in experts and came up with a conclusion: the localized area of the Sierra Nevada was without a representative convention for the local nerd population. Armed with this knowledge, we began to plan SNAFUcon, allowing the sacred word, and the powers it has granted us, to permeate the global consciousness.
-Gopher, January 04, 2010
(There is actually a tiny bit of truth in that whole mad thing.)
So, sadly, I was asked to chronicle the history of this organization. Not remembering a single iota of useful information, I've decided to reconstruct the entire history of our illustrious organization from whatever random stories I think are viable.
To be Frank (not that I am Frank, although he's a clever writer himself), the etymology of the word SNAFU does not come from the popular military term. It is actually derived from the ancient texts of the Magen-tar tribe of Eastern San Seriffe, ruled by the Omnipotent, Benevolent, Eternal, and Snappily Dressed Priestess Simia. Within their sacred writings, translated loosely as "The Memoriam of Divine Raiment," the following excerpt has been recovered from translations. Please keep in mind that not all words have found proper translations:
"Oh, what meaning of truth that has been spun as the weaver binds a upon himself! For in the such truths lies that which lies beyond all, that Sacreus, the wisest of the wise. And beyond such things of the Sacreus, the Nystrom, the great mystery, endows our soul and minds with such blessings as a upon the shifting ! Oh, the beauty of the , as it lays upon the heaps upon heaps, the gretest heap being the sacred Arech, and at the foot of the heap we, the Fullach, worship with all truth. And as we lay our prayers upon the , grafted from the skin of young goats, We end our our prayers with the ending, the sacred oath of ending, that is, the Unaekon. And as we pray this prayer, Sacreus Nystrom Arech Falluch Unaekon. And so as we hum this prayer, we write it upon our hearts, as but one gentle word, and this word is SNAFU, the most holy and sacred of words!"
And so, as several members of SCIENCE found this discovery, we bought the rights to entire religion, culture, and ethnic grouping. After the World Bank sued us for paying for said rights in monopoly money, and coupons for free car washes and chicken tenders, we were ordered by international authorities to pay reparations amounting to approximately 23.5 million cows.
Shortly after our failed invasion of Texas, we decided to negotiate a payment plan. In exchange for a small stipend of 1.5 chickens and a bag of chips per half-life of Lineoleum-98, and at least one flock of seagulls every third decade, Frankly (Frank always was one for aphorisms), we were up a creek without a boat, but at least we avoided legal prosecution. And by avoided, I mean dismembered and threw into a mini fridge in Jersey. Oddly enough, Frank was driving the car with the mini fridge...
After our legal arbitration ended on amicably violent terms, we decided to find a use a for this sacred word, SNAFU. Unfortunately, without any real product, we couldn't just stamp it on coffee mugs and sell it. Well, actually we could, and we did. But we couldn't sell quite as many as we made, not even if you include a rational factor of ten in the merchandise tracking equations.
So we needed a meaning for SNAFU, one without military connotations. So we endeavored to come up with a plan, a brutal, insane, daredevil, mercenary plan that would somehow include intercontinental weaponry and subspatial technology. However, we got lazy and forgot to feed our army of engineering grad students, so we needed a plan B.
We came up with our plan B while analyzing the dead grad students' confinement, err, living quarters. While in their desperation to survive in containment, the first thing they formed from the rudimentary materials in their confines was not a method of food or water production. Rather it was a small piece of computational equipment with basic text recording functions.
Analysis of the data was impressive. It appears they killed each other, not out of hunger or harm, but out of some debate between the superiority of Optimus Prime over Sherlock Holmes in a combat situation. This data brought us to a stunning realization:
Nerds will always be Nerds, period.
And from the assorted madness we brought in experts and came up with a conclusion: the localized area of the Sierra Nevada was without a representative convention for the local nerd population. Armed with this knowledge, we began to plan SNAFUcon, allowing the sacred word, and the powers it has granted us, to permeate the global consciousness.
-Gopher, January 04, 2010
(There is actually a tiny bit of truth in that whole mad thing.)