Vividcon Con Report 2016
I haven't done a con report for vividcon for a couple of eyars, but I really wanted to do one this time. I read anoel's from last year and there's a part where I left a group to go somewhere and I cannot remember where I went. I have fun every year, but it'll be nice to be able to read later and recall what I did instead of just remembering a general fun with a couple of specifics. I'm probably leaving out names because as I'm sitting down to write this, I can't remember exactly who I did what with and, to be honest, I hang out with less than a dozen people and did everything with them, so who was at which dinner melts together. I'm sad I didn't take many photos this year.
On the drive I listened to a couple podcasts and some music. Mostly Jen Kirkman (I Seem Fun: The Diary of Jen Kirkman Podcast), Eddie Pepitone (Pep Talks with the Bitter Buddha), and CAPS LOCK and Crey. Upon arrival at the hotel I had to pee so bad I vaguely remember running by someone saying hi, but at that point I'd been in traffic with the need to pee for at least an hour and a conversation wasn't happening. The weirdest part was that there was a section of Eddie Pepitone's podcast where he narrated being stuck in Chicago traffic with a desperate urge to pee and no options. I settled in the lobby for a bit to relax after a 5 hour drive and was surprised at how many people were coming in. Met up with
elipie (Eli),
hollywoodgrrl (Vera),
ohvienna (Katie), and
anoel to get lunch. Went to grocery store for fruits, Triscuits, and alcohol. Chilled in room with Katie and Vera to watch gymnastics. Got pizza at the Thursday evening social, registered, tried to be social (probably failed), then chilled more with Eli, Katie, Vera,
bradcpu (Brad),
millylicious (Milly), and then
anoel joined us in our room. Had so much fun joking around. Hilariously, we had a noise complaint the first night even though it was just, like, 6 of us on the couch. I guess we must have laughed loudly a few times, oops. The front desk was probably super cool about it because I was so confused.
I downloaded a new podcast to try as I tried to fall asleep, My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark. It took a while to fall asleep because I was interested in the podcast, so I switched to watch some youtube planner videos and fell right to sleep because they work better for me than Ambien.
I like waking up early and talking with people at breakfast, I kinda failed at that because I barely talked at breakfast, then went to training, the welcome thing, and the Auction vidshow. I really liked how they moved Auction to the beginning of weekend. It really spotlights the vidder and bidder efforts more than putting it at the end when some people are usually dashing out to catch planes. The One Hour Vid panel was interesting. It made me even more want to see how other people vid. The most interesting part for me was seeing how someone actually vids in their program. I would totally be interested in watching how someone vids. I've watched lengthy youtube vids where people captured their desktop on video as they edit. I find it endlessly fascinating.
Had lunch with my roommates (Eli, Katie, Vera). Went to Merin panel, which made me really want to start on a vid idea I've had and ignored for a while. The vids were really great. I can't wait to rewatch some and do some recs. I stopped watching Merlin after season one and only know what happened through fannish osmosis and tumblr gifsets and some supercuts. I've already started watching the series again in vid preparations. We'll see how it goes. Went to The Writing Is on the Wall panel too and got some interesting knowledge.
Dinner with Eli, Katie, Vera, Milly, Brad, and Jackie before Premieres. I always love Premieres. I had watched the vids at home, at least twice, before the con, so it was interesting to gauge other people's reactions. I kept seeing rainbow prisms from the projectors, which was weird. Or maybe my eyes just got even gayer. Either way, I enjoyed the vidshow. I always go to panels over vidshows unless I have to VJ them or they're whole convention ones (like Premieres, Auction, Challenges). I had a lot of fun at trivia too. I like that we were randomly put into groups because I got to hang out with people I'd never met or don't know well. I think my team was
jarrow, seekingferret, isweedan, and Katie joined in too. I go into trivia assuming I will know nothing, so I'm glad when I know anything. I go mainly to interact with people outside of my usual circle and have fun, which I totally did and still laugh at all the ways isweedan origami folded our answer sheets. After trivia I ended up hanging out with a random collection of people, which was super fun and interesting. Then back to room where I talked to Eli until she made me laugh so much I had to try to smother myself to keep from waking the other bed to the point where I fell off the bed. Thankfully Katie and Vera had a white noise machine that masked most of it... I think.
Saturday morning I talked to more people at breakfast, but then I got a headache and popped back up to the room to take something. I packed make up too, like I was going to actually use it. Yeah, right. My face does not like travel and I broke out like usual, so I didn't bother trying to put make up on that day. Went to vid review, which I loved as always. In thinking about it now I wish there was also critical and critique style vid talks. I'm thinking of something closer a critique like in my art classes. I guess I wish we talked more about the philosophy of vidding or something.
Then I had lunch and great conversation with morgandawn, xlorp, Brad, Milly, and Eli. I went to the first hour of the Star Trek panel and it was nice to see people enjoy a thing. It's not really my fandom, but I really liked hearing people still be excited by their fandom love. It was almost enough for me to try getting back into Star Trek, but it was something I watched with my dad, so it's kinda ruined for me and I was indifferent to the fandom.
I VJ-ed my vidshow, Spoken Audio in Vids, which not a lot of people came to see, lol. It was up against Star Trek and the buy in for the vidshow was greater than most because so many people openly admit to hating youtube/tumblr/etc vids or flat out don't understand them. Hopefully people will give it a chance on streaming. I think the playlist itself is really solid. It could have used more humor in hindsight, but I still think it's good. What other vidshow at VVC is going to have a vine edit? Then I went to the What's That Noise!? and I Ship It panels.
For lunch I went with a cool group of people to the Thai place. Got to talk to Eva and Lee for the first time and thought they were both awesome. I'll never forget Lee explaining why she loves slash. Perfection. By the time we got back to the hotel I didn't feel like putting on the makeup look for Club Vivid like I had planned, so I gave up on trying. I think this year was the most fun I had at Club Vivid. I did my usual alcohol, water, alcohol, 7-Up, alcohol, water... pattern and didn't have a hang over the next morning. And I remember everything, lol. I only regret turning to talk to Katie and breaking my cup on the wall in the bathroom. I cleaned it up as best I could, but felt awful about it. Mostly because people helped me clean it up. I'm clumsy in general and alcohol only emphasizes it. I also remember standing in front of the fan and pretending I was in a shampoo commercial by saying "Sauve, for men" about 50 times while whipping my hair around. I should have gotten my hair cut before VVC because it was so hot in Chicago. OMG, I also remember eating a ton of cherries and having to sit down to stab one in my drink to eat. I lost my shit and couldn't stop laughing when I saw the clip of Blackjack in Raspberry Swirl. OH THE MEMORIES. I don't think I sat down for longer than moment to free my hair when it was tangled in my fitbit. My feet and legs hurt the next morning like whoa. Afterwards I hung out in the room with Katie and Vera until those sleepy bitches went to bed. I was tired, but it felt wrong to not go hang out in a room party before going to sleep, so I texted Eli to see where she was and I ended up awkwardly crashing a room party, trying not to say or do something weird like fall asleep on someone.
Woke up Sunday feeling great, covered my whole eye socket with the Moonchild Glow Kit because I want my highlight to be seen from Canada, went to breakfast, went to Hamilton and the Let It Go panels. Who is actually still reading this con report?! I love reading them all, but writing one is intense. I feel like I'm forgetting everything and don't want to put too much in. Had lunch in the room with Katie and Vera and got a bit nervous about ten minutes before In Depth started because what if I did it wrong and giant centipedes came down from the ceiling to eat me alive? That didn't happen, but you never know how awful it could end up. There were some technical things that needed fixed at the beginning of In Depth, so we started a couple minutes late and I was flustered, but I think it turned out ok and nothing murdered me. People brought up a lot of interesting points and thoughts. Hilariously, the vids were voted on, but there were not nearly as many hands up with comments as I thought there would have been. I ended up calling on people multiple times when there wasn't a new person raising their hand with something to say, but I think the conversation went well. In hindsight I was doing the In Depth on my roommate's vid, so I should have jumped on Vera's bed until she told me all her secrets, then I could have sounded super smart.
Went to the Challenge vidshow and discussion, then Instant Reply, which was super cool. I always enjoy a lot of the challenge vids and even having seen Basket Case at home, I still cried a bit. It's such a beautiful and meaningful vidder portrait and I think it's amazing how vidders can use vids as self-portrait and therapy.
Did my volunteer time pulling up blue tape, ineffectually wrapping cords, talking to cool people, and putting things in boxes. After trying to find
tencel, Katie, Vera and I met up at Outback for dinner (which actually made me sick at 3:30am) with
serrico and another person whose name I never caught. Then I hung out with Eli, Katie, Vera, Brad, Milly, and
anoel for the rest of the night joking around and decompressing. I loved the discussion and disagreements. I could disagree with Brad for hours, lol. Side note, BREADLEY YOU BETTER MAKE THAT VID I CHALLENGED YOU TO, YOU LIL PUNK, YOU ASKED FOR AN IDEA AND I LAID IT DOWN. :) Vividcon would be so boring if we all agreed and thought the same thoughts and vidded the same kind of vids. Also, I got to play with the happiest baby in the world and he tried to get at my boobs even though they don't work the way his mommy's do. Silly baby.
Monday morning I went to breakfast, packed, hung out with Katie and Vera, and left earlier than I had planned. The weather app on my phone kept changing and I did not want to drive in a storm, so I left about two hours earlier to stay ahead of a tornado. I got sick again on the way home, but only had to drive in the rain for less than an hour and the black storm clouds stayed behind me. Listened to about 8 episodes of the My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark podcast. I came up with some vidshow and panel ideas on the drive home because what else am I going to do while driving home? In the end I only said one thing I regret because I think it might have been taken in a way I hadn't meant. Oops.
I was so tired when I came home, unpacked everything, and tried to sleep. Couldn't sleep until I put on Vera and Katie's white noise app, but then I slept for 18 hours without waking and felt like a new person when I got up. And then kept getting sick until my aunt called to say I should check my new vitamins in case they were making me sick. And yep, I'm allergic to coconut and I didn't think to check my vitamins. They had coconut oil in them. Duh. Felt way better after I stopped taking them.
It's taken so long to write this con report that I've already watched half of the DVDs with my aunt at her place over the weekend. I'm totally jazzed and hyped for more vids and vidding. I haven't started the streaming stuff, but I always have a bunch of recs after the con to make. And I started two vids I'm super into right now and deleted 23 vid timelines I'm never going to finish and they needed to go away.
In closing, I had a great time. There were people I didn't get to talk to as much as I wanted, but that happens every year and I might try to make plans ahead of time next year. I'm so sad I didn't order sushi with
lola. There were at least 2 more people I can think of that I wanted to hang out with, but didn't get a chance to this year. One of them is a cool person that I basically want to be my friend, lol, but I didn't want to be weird about it. There'll be next year though and maybe I'll woman down and ask them to hang out and talk nerdy with me about vids.
OMG, this con report is done. Lastly, I forget when, but at some point at Outback Vera asked for a box and I laughed because she sounded exactly like this:
Stay sexy and don't get murdered. Bye!
On the drive I listened to a couple podcasts and some music. Mostly Jen Kirkman (I Seem Fun: The Diary of Jen Kirkman Podcast), Eddie Pepitone (Pep Talks with the Bitter Buddha), and CAPS LOCK and Crey. Upon arrival at the hotel I had to pee so bad I vaguely remember running by someone saying hi, but at that point I'd been in traffic with the need to pee for at least an hour and a conversation wasn't happening. The weirdest part was that there was a section of Eddie Pepitone's podcast where he narrated being stuck in Chicago traffic with a desperate urge to pee and no options. I settled in the lobby for a bit to relax after a 5 hour drive and was surprised at how many people were coming in. Met up with
elipie (Eli),
hollywoodgrrl (Vera),
ohvienna (Katie), and
anoel to get lunch. Went to grocery store for fruits, Triscuits, and alcohol. Chilled in room with Katie and Vera to watch gymnastics. Got pizza at the Thursday evening social, registered, tried to be social (probably failed), then chilled more with Eli, Katie, Vera,
bradcpu (Brad),
millylicious (Milly), and then
anoel joined us in our room. Had so much fun joking around. Hilariously, we had a noise complaint the first night even though it was just, like, 6 of us on the couch. I guess we must have laughed loudly a few times, oops. The front desk was probably super cool about it because I was so confused.
I downloaded a new podcast to try as I tried to fall asleep, My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark. It took a while to fall asleep because I was interested in the podcast, so I switched to watch some youtube planner videos and fell right to sleep because they work better for me than Ambien.
I like waking up early and talking with people at breakfast, I kinda failed at that because I barely talked at breakfast, then went to training, the welcome thing, and the Auction vidshow. I really liked how they moved Auction to the beginning of weekend. It really spotlights the vidder and bidder efforts more than putting it at the end when some people are usually dashing out to catch planes. The One Hour Vid panel was interesting. It made me even more want to see how other people vid. The most interesting part for me was seeing how someone actually vids in their program. I would totally be interested in watching how someone vids. I've watched lengthy youtube vids where people captured their desktop on video as they edit. I find it endlessly fascinating.
Had lunch with my roommates (Eli, Katie, Vera). Went to Merin panel, which made me really want to start on a vid idea I've had and ignored for a while. The vids were really great. I can't wait to rewatch some and do some recs. I stopped watching Merlin after season one and only know what happened through fannish osmosis and tumblr gifsets and some supercuts. I've already started watching the series again in vid preparations. We'll see how it goes. Went to The Writing Is on the Wall panel too and got some interesting knowledge.
Dinner with Eli, Katie, Vera, Milly, Brad, and Jackie before Premieres. I always love Premieres. I had watched the vids at home, at least twice, before the con, so it was interesting to gauge other people's reactions. I kept seeing rainbow prisms from the projectors, which was weird. Or maybe my eyes just got even gayer. Either way, I enjoyed the vidshow. I always go to panels over vidshows unless I have to VJ them or they're whole convention ones (like Premieres, Auction, Challenges). I had a lot of fun at trivia too. I like that we were randomly put into groups because I got to hang out with people I'd never met or don't know well. I think my team was
jarrow, seekingferret, isweedan, and Katie joined in too. I go into trivia assuming I will know nothing, so I'm glad when I know anything. I go mainly to interact with people outside of my usual circle and have fun, which I totally did and still laugh at all the ways isweedan origami folded our answer sheets. After trivia I ended up hanging out with a random collection of people, which was super fun and interesting. Then back to room where I talked to Eli until she made me laugh so much I had to try to smother myself to keep from waking the other bed to the point where I fell off the bed. Thankfully Katie and Vera had a white noise machine that masked most of it... I think.
Saturday morning I talked to more people at breakfast, but then I got a headache and popped back up to the room to take something. I packed make up too, like I was going to actually use it. Yeah, right. My face does not like travel and I broke out like usual, so I didn't bother trying to put make up on that day. Went to vid review, which I loved as always. In thinking about it now I wish there was also critical and critique style vid talks. I'm thinking of something closer a critique like in my art classes. I guess I wish we talked more about the philosophy of vidding or something.
Then I had lunch and great conversation with morgandawn, xlorp, Brad, Milly, and Eli. I went to the first hour of the Star Trek panel and it was nice to see people enjoy a thing. It's not really my fandom, but I really liked hearing people still be excited by their fandom love. It was almost enough for me to try getting back into Star Trek, but it was something I watched with my dad, so it's kinda ruined for me and I was indifferent to the fandom.
I VJ-ed my vidshow, Spoken Audio in Vids, which not a lot of people came to see, lol. It was up against Star Trek and the buy in for the vidshow was greater than most because so many people openly admit to hating youtube/tumblr/etc vids or flat out don't understand them. Hopefully people will give it a chance on streaming. I think the playlist itself is really solid. It could have used more humor in hindsight, but I still think it's good. What other vidshow at VVC is going to have a vine edit? Then I went to the What's That Noise!? and I Ship It panels.
For lunch I went with a cool group of people to the Thai place. Got to talk to Eva and Lee for the first time and thought they were both awesome. I'll never forget Lee explaining why she loves slash. Perfection. By the time we got back to the hotel I didn't feel like putting on the makeup look for Club Vivid like I had planned, so I gave up on trying. I think this year was the most fun I had at Club Vivid. I did my usual alcohol, water, alcohol, 7-Up, alcohol, water... pattern and didn't have a hang over the next morning. And I remember everything, lol. I only regret turning to talk to Katie and breaking my cup on the wall in the bathroom. I cleaned it up as best I could, but felt awful about it. Mostly because people helped me clean it up. I'm clumsy in general and alcohol only emphasizes it. I also remember standing in front of the fan and pretending I was in a shampoo commercial by saying "Sauve, for men" about 50 times while whipping my hair around. I should have gotten my hair cut before VVC because it was so hot in Chicago. OMG, I also remember eating a ton of cherries and having to sit down to stab one in my drink to eat. I lost my shit and couldn't stop laughing when I saw the clip of Blackjack in Raspberry Swirl. OH THE MEMORIES. I don't think I sat down for longer than moment to free my hair when it was tangled in my fitbit. My feet and legs hurt the next morning like whoa. Afterwards I hung out in the room with Katie and Vera until those sleepy bitches went to bed. I was tired, but it felt wrong to not go hang out in a room party before going to sleep, so I texted Eli to see where she was and I ended up awkwardly crashing a room party, trying not to say or do something weird like fall asleep on someone.
Woke up Sunday feeling great, covered my whole eye socket with the Moonchild Glow Kit because I want my highlight to be seen from Canada, went to breakfast, went to Hamilton and the Let It Go panels. Who is actually still reading this con report?! I love reading them all, but writing one is intense. I feel like I'm forgetting everything and don't want to put too much in. Had lunch in the room with Katie and Vera and got a bit nervous about ten minutes before In Depth started because what if I did it wrong and giant centipedes came down from the ceiling to eat me alive? That didn't happen, but you never know how awful it could end up. There were some technical things that needed fixed at the beginning of In Depth, so we started a couple minutes late and I was flustered, but I think it turned out ok and nothing murdered me. People brought up a lot of interesting points and thoughts. Hilariously, the vids were voted on, but there were not nearly as many hands up with comments as I thought there would have been. I ended up calling on people multiple times when there wasn't a new person raising their hand with something to say, but I think the conversation went well. In hindsight I was doing the In Depth on my roommate's vid, so I should have jumped on Vera's bed until she told me all her secrets, then I could have sounded super smart.
Went to the Challenge vidshow and discussion, then Instant Reply, which was super cool. I always enjoy a lot of the challenge vids and even having seen Basket Case at home, I still cried a bit. It's such a beautiful and meaningful vidder portrait and I think it's amazing how vidders can use vids as self-portrait and therapy.
Did my volunteer time pulling up blue tape, ineffectually wrapping cords, talking to cool people, and putting things in boxes. After trying to find
tencel, Katie, Vera and I met up at Outback for dinner (which actually made me sick at 3:30am) with
serrico and another person whose name I never caught. Then I hung out with Eli, Katie, Vera, Brad, Milly, and
anoel for the rest of the night joking around and decompressing. I loved the discussion and disagreements. I could disagree with Brad for hours, lol. Side note, BREADLEY YOU BETTER MAKE THAT VID I CHALLENGED YOU TO, YOU LIL PUNK, YOU ASKED FOR AN IDEA AND I LAID IT DOWN. :) Vividcon would be so boring if we all agreed and thought the same thoughts and vidded the same kind of vids. Also, I got to play with the happiest baby in the world and he tried to get at my boobs even though they don't work the way his mommy's do. Silly baby.
Monday morning I went to breakfast, packed, hung out with Katie and Vera, and left earlier than I had planned. The weather app on my phone kept changing and I did not want to drive in a storm, so I left about two hours earlier to stay ahead of a tornado. I got sick again on the way home, but only had to drive in the rain for less than an hour and the black storm clouds stayed behind me. Listened to about 8 episodes of the My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark podcast. I came up with some vidshow and panel ideas on the drive home because what else am I going to do while driving home? In the end I only said one thing I regret because I think it might have been taken in a way I hadn't meant. Oops.
I was so tired when I came home, unpacked everything, and tried to sleep. Couldn't sleep until I put on Vera and Katie's white noise app, but then I slept for 18 hours without waking and felt like a new person when I got up. And then kept getting sick until my aunt called to say I should check my new vitamins in case they were making me sick. And yep, I'm allergic to coconut and I didn't think to check my vitamins. They had coconut oil in them. Duh. Felt way better after I stopped taking them.
It's taken so long to write this con report that I've already watched half of the DVDs with my aunt at her place over the weekend. I'm totally jazzed and hyped for more vids and vidding. I haven't started the streaming stuff, but I always have a bunch of recs after the con to make. And I started two vids I'm super into right now and deleted 23 vid timelines I'm never going to finish and they needed to go away.
In closing, I had a great time. There were people I didn't get to talk to as much as I wanted, but that happens every year and I might try to make plans ahead of time next year. I'm so sad I didn't order sushi with
lola. There were at least 2 more people I can think of that I wanted to hang out with, but didn't get a chance to this year. One of them is a cool person that I basically want to be my friend, lol, but I didn't want to be weird about it. There'll be next year though and maybe I'll woman down and ask them to hang out and talk nerdy with me about vids.
OMG, this con report is done. Lastly, I forget when, but at some point at Outback Vera asked for a box and I laughed because she sounded exactly like this:
Click to viewStay sexy and don't get murdered. Bye!