Con report and pictures
So, the con, right.
I had a great time, as always. I'd been planning on doing a day-by-day synopsis of the con, but honestly I'm too tired and roasting to bother (I find I'm having to acclimate myself to my room once again, after five days spent in hotel rooms kept at a constant, lovely 60 degrees). So, instead, I present highlights, in absolutely no coherent order whatsoever:
I roomed with alem and maubast, as usual, and we had a completely awesome time (despite some of my grouchier moments, for which I do apologize). I also spent a great deal of time with katyabaturinsky, khylara, obelix, and graculus, it was really nice getting to catch up with everybody again. Once a year doesn't seem to be nearly enough.
On Thursday night, maubast, jersey_lion, nycshelly, katyabaturinsky and I all went out to see the new Star Trek flick on the IMAX. And let me just say, that flick is even more amazing on IMAX. Plus it was nice getting to giggle over it and be completely in the gutter about it with some like-minded people ;)
The con itself was really rather slow this year, but I think we were all expecting that to some degree. In fact, if I'm honest, there was more going on than I had really expected there to be what with all the delays and the economy and so forth. It was a fun year though, if somewhat more laid back than I've come to expect from the con. I spent most of my time hanging out down in the dealers room, as usual, helping obelix out at her table, selling t-shirts, prints, mousepads and bookmarks. I love working down there, but I felt like I spent a little less time there this year. I don't know if my schedule just got out of hand, or it was a slow year, or if I'm just imagining things. In any case, I had a blast doing it, and hope to be down there pimping t-shirts for her again next year.
I managed to drag myself away from things long enough to attend one panel this year. For me, that's a miracle in and of itself. I went to the Ghost Hunters panel, and remembered why I don't bother with panels anymore. I'm sure some of the other people there had a blast with it, but I was bored to tears and don't think I said more than two words during the entire discussion, and both of those were probably pretty snarky. Still, it was interesting to sit through a panel again, if nothing else, and I might do it again next year if I can find anything that catches my attention.
I walked through the art show several times over the course of the weekend, and managed to refrain from spending an insane amount of money. The show was rather lacking compared to previous years, and I find myself rather tempted to put some things together for next year and enter them. We'll see. I did buy a few pieces there. A couple of fairy boxes that jersey_lion made, and a beautiful necklace made by khylara. The art auction on Sunday night was again, a little slower than I'm used to, but it was fun nonetheless. I lost a few pieces that I'd liked that went up to amounts out of my meager reach, but I managed to get the second fairy box and contented myself with the pretty I had acquired. I left the auction a little early so that I could go pick up the pieces I won, and stood in line for about a million years to get them. When I finally got into the pick up room, I got to witness the spilling of a glass of water and several art show gofers losing their minds over it. Not that I blame them for being upset, but we're talking heads doing 360's and the spitting of pea-soup levels of crazy here. It was both amusing and terrifying to witness. I'd explain the whole scenario here, but I think it rather loses something in translation.
For the first year EVER, I completely missed the songvids. Though, I was informed later that I really didn't miss much, as the gen and slash vids combined ran less than an hour. I'm mildly saddened by that, as the songvids have always been one of the highlights of the con for me. Hopefully there will be more next year (and I will remember to attend *headdesk*).
I bought a grand total of three zines this year. And really, those three were more because I didn't want to come home with none than anything else. One of them (a CSI slash zine) I was holding out hopes for, but I have to say, I was once again disappointed by that fandom *sigh*. The other two were SG1, because I miss that fandom something terrible, and there's more quality stuff for it in zine format than there is for SGA. I haven't checked either of those zines out yet, but I've yet to be let down by the group that does them, so I'm not at all worried about them as I'm sure they're quality stuff.
I got lots of presents this year too =) maubast bought me a pretty picture of David Hewlett making a very David Hewlett face. khylara gave me two wonderful Stargate magazines, and a handmade bracelet that's red, white and blue with a little yellow ribbon on it for me to wear for Bob (seriously, it's an awesome bracelet, I've worn it everyday since she gave it to me =) and alem made me the most AMAZING framed poster of various Clint Bowyer snapshots. It's the coolest freaking thing I've ever seen, and I've been drooling over the awesome since she gave it to me. I really need to get off my ass and start figuring out presents for all of them, because I totally suck at present buying, but they're all so good to me ;)
Among others, people I ran into and got to catch up with this year include: amothea (who I'd never met before, but I've watched her recs for ages, and we giggled and chatted for a few minutes when I realized who she was), chevron17 (who I never seem to get to chat with for very long at the con, because I swear, every time I've run into her in the last 2 years, I've always been on the run between one place and another =( sad story), mrlnpndrgn, silver_cyanne, wookiee71, and realmjit. If I missed anyone, I apologize, I actually had to go through my flist to try and remember who all I had seen or spoken to during the con. Fail on my part.
As for the hotel construction, yeah, I have to agree with everybody else on this one, it sucked royally. What had already been "finished" didn't appear to have really changed anything (the furniture in our room was falling apart and other than maybe a fresh coat of paint on the walls, nothing had really changed at all). But, I liked the old hotel, so I guess I don't really mind so much. I'd been expecting more, but I'm not horrifically disappointed that it was the same old hotel. What DID get on my nerves was the remodeling in and of itself. The inner courtyard was tore up, and the doors kept locked so that we couldn't go out there. As I've spent the last few years smoking on that patio, I was incredibly irked by the whole situation. The only place left to smoke was the small side patio. Thank god it didn't rain all weekend, because there wasn't nearly enough room out there. Plus there was the added bonus of it being right off of Cedar Street, which is fine during the day, but a little creepy at night. And the doors were locked at 11pm, which meant that if I wanted to smoke after that, I either had to find a way to prop one of the doors, or walk all the way around to the front of the hotel to get back in. It was... annoying. I missed the courtyard something terrible. Also, the entire fifth floor was out of bounds, and as far as I was aware we weren't even allowed up there. That wasn't so bad, but it crammed us all into the lower four levels, and it's a good thing this con was as small as it was this year, or it would have been a freaking disaster having one less floor. My only other renovation complain has to do with the cutting of the cement in the courtyard at freakishly early hours of the morning on Thursday (apparently it happened on Friday as well, but I had moved rooms by then and we had managed to get one that didn't overlook the national disaster area that was the old courtyard). Really, I suppose it could have been worse, but I sincerely hope that nothing like this is going on next year. I also hope the hotel staff gets their collective asses in gear and they don't fuck up as much next year as they did this time around (a whole 'nother story in and of itself =P)
Quotes from this year:
"Bad touch, I need an adult!"
"Where's my knife?"
"It's the angle"
"How did it come to this?" or alternately "How did my life come to this?"
Also, the song Come On Eileen was stalking me for the last day and a half or so.
If I missed any, feel free to let me know ;)
And now, random pictures. As promised, I've cropped pictures so that if anyone else was in the frame, they no longer are. Mostly I have some neat door decoration pictures and a few pictures that have been cropped to show only myself. If anybody sees their door decoration or whatnot and wants a large-sized copy of the original, just comment here and I will email the original to you =) I resized them all for LJ so that it wasn't quite so OMFGPICTURES! ;)
The Cat's Meow table in the dealers room, pre-feeding frenzy:
A door decoration of actors/media people born in 1969:
A completely awesome Star Trek door decoration, complete with music and sound bytes:
A Doctor Who door decoration where you could regenerate the Doctor into whoever you wanted via poster putty, and then become his companion:
An Alan & Denny Boston Legal door that won Best Slash
A Hardy Boys/Supernatural crossover door that I think got Best in Show:
Like I said, if you want the full size of any of these, just ask. Also, I have pictures of every door that won an award, so if you got an award (I don't know who got what), let me know which door you had and I will send you the full size picture.
All the random stuff I got at the con:
And a couple pics of me from the last day of the con when we were all packing up our cars:
Can't wait until next year! I miss everybody so much already, and I hope you all had safe trips home =)
I had a great time, as always. I'd been planning on doing a day-by-day synopsis of the con, but honestly I'm too tired and roasting to bother (I find I'm having to acclimate myself to my room once again, after five days spent in hotel rooms kept at a constant, lovely 60 degrees). So, instead, I present highlights, in absolutely no coherent order whatsoever:
I roomed with alem and maubast, as usual, and we had a completely awesome time (despite some of my grouchier moments, for which I do apologize). I also spent a great deal of time with katyabaturinsky, khylara, obelix, and graculus, it was really nice getting to catch up with everybody again. Once a year doesn't seem to be nearly enough.
On Thursday night, maubast, jersey_lion, nycshelly, katyabaturinsky and I all went out to see the new Star Trek flick on the IMAX. And let me just say, that flick is even more amazing on IMAX. Plus it was nice getting to giggle over it and be completely in the gutter about it with some like-minded people ;)
The con itself was really rather slow this year, but I think we were all expecting that to some degree. In fact, if I'm honest, there was more going on than I had really expected there to be what with all the delays and the economy and so forth. It was a fun year though, if somewhat more laid back than I've come to expect from the con. I spent most of my time hanging out down in the dealers room, as usual, helping obelix out at her table, selling t-shirts, prints, mousepads and bookmarks. I love working down there, but I felt like I spent a little less time there this year. I don't know if my schedule just got out of hand, or it was a slow year, or if I'm just imagining things. In any case, I had a blast doing it, and hope to be down there pimping t-shirts for her again next year.
I managed to drag myself away from things long enough to attend one panel this year. For me, that's a miracle in and of itself. I went to the Ghost Hunters panel, and remembered why I don't bother with panels anymore. I'm sure some of the other people there had a blast with it, but I was bored to tears and don't think I said more than two words during the entire discussion, and both of those were probably pretty snarky. Still, it was interesting to sit through a panel again, if nothing else, and I might do it again next year if I can find anything that catches my attention.
I walked through the art show several times over the course of the weekend, and managed to refrain from spending an insane amount of money. The show was rather lacking compared to previous years, and I find myself rather tempted to put some things together for next year and enter them. We'll see. I did buy a few pieces there. A couple of fairy boxes that jersey_lion made, and a beautiful necklace made by khylara. The art auction on Sunday night was again, a little slower than I'm used to, but it was fun nonetheless. I lost a few pieces that I'd liked that went up to amounts out of my meager reach, but I managed to get the second fairy box and contented myself with the pretty I had acquired. I left the auction a little early so that I could go pick up the pieces I won, and stood in line for about a million years to get them. When I finally got into the pick up room, I got to witness the spilling of a glass of water and several art show gofers losing their minds over it. Not that I blame them for being upset, but we're talking heads doing 360's and the spitting of pea-soup levels of crazy here. It was both amusing and terrifying to witness. I'd explain the whole scenario here, but I think it rather loses something in translation.
For the first year EVER, I completely missed the songvids. Though, I was informed later that I really didn't miss much, as the gen and slash vids combined ran less than an hour. I'm mildly saddened by that, as the songvids have always been one of the highlights of the con for me. Hopefully there will be more next year (and I will remember to attend *headdesk*).
I bought a grand total of three zines this year. And really, those three were more because I didn't want to come home with none than anything else. One of them (a CSI slash zine) I was holding out hopes for, but I have to say, I was once again disappointed by that fandom *sigh*. The other two were SG1, because I miss that fandom something terrible, and there's more quality stuff for it in zine format than there is for SGA. I haven't checked either of those zines out yet, but I've yet to be let down by the group that does them, so I'm not at all worried about them as I'm sure they're quality stuff.
I got lots of presents this year too =) maubast bought me a pretty picture of David Hewlett making a very David Hewlett face. khylara gave me two wonderful Stargate magazines, and a handmade bracelet that's red, white and blue with a little yellow ribbon on it for me to wear for Bob (seriously, it's an awesome bracelet, I've worn it everyday since she gave it to me =) and alem made me the most AMAZING framed poster of various Clint Bowyer snapshots. It's the coolest freaking thing I've ever seen, and I've been drooling over the awesome since she gave it to me. I really need to get off my ass and start figuring out presents for all of them, because I totally suck at present buying, but they're all so good to me ;)
Among others, people I ran into and got to catch up with this year include: amothea (who I'd never met before, but I've watched her recs for ages, and we giggled and chatted for a few minutes when I realized who she was), chevron17 (who I never seem to get to chat with for very long at the con, because I swear, every time I've run into her in the last 2 years, I've always been on the run between one place and another =( sad story), mrlnpndrgn, silver_cyanne, wookiee71, and realmjit. If I missed anyone, I apologize, I actually had to go through my flist to try and remember who all I had seen or spoken to during the con. Fail on my part.
As for the hotel construction, yeah, I have to agree with everybody else on this one, it sucked royally. What had already been "finished" didn't appear to have really changed anything (the furniture in our room was falling apart and other than maybe a fresh coat of paint on the walls, nothing had really changed at all). But, I liked the old hotel, so I guess I don't really mind so much. I'd been expecting more, but I'm not horrifically disappointed that it was the same old hotel. What DID get on my nerves was the remodeling in and of itself. The inner courtyard was tore up, and the doors kept locked so that we couldn't go out there. As I've spent the last few years smoking on that patio, I was incredibly irked by the whole situation. The only place left to smoke was the small side patio. Thank god it didn't rain all weekend, because there wasn't nearly enough room out there. Plus there was the added bonus of it being right off of Cedar Street, which is fine during the day, but a little creepy at night. And the doors were locked at 11pm, which meant that if I wanted to smoke after that, I either had to find a way to prop one of the doors, or walk all the way around to the front of the hotel to get back in. It was... annoying. I missed the courtyard something terrible. Also, the entire fifth floor was out of bounds, and as far as I was aware we weren't even allowed up there. That wasn't so bad, but it crammed us all into the lower four levels, and it's a good thing this con was as small as it was this year, or it would have been a freaking disaster having one less floor. My only other renovation complain has to do with the cutting of the cement in the courtyard at freakishly early hours of the morning on Thursday (apparently it happened on Friday as well, but I had moved rooms by then and we had managed to get one that didn't overlook the national disaster area that was the old courtyard). Really, I suppose it could have been worse, but I sincerely hope that nothing like this is going on next year. I also hope the hotel staff gets their collective asses in gear and they don't fuck up as much next year as they did this time around (a whole 'nother story in and of itself =P)
Quotes from this year:
"Bad touch, I need an adult!"
"Where's my knife?"
"It's the angle"
"How did it come to this?" or alternately "How did my life come to this?"
Also, the song Come On Eileen was stalking me for the last day and a half or so.
If I missed any, feel free to let me know ;)
And now, random pictures. As promised, I've cropped pictures so that if anyone else was in the frame, they no longer are. Mostly I have some neat door decoration pictures and a few pictures that have been cropped to show only myself. If anybody sees their door decoration or whatnot and wants a large-sized copy of the original, just comment here and I will email the original to you =) I resized them all for LJ so that it wasn't quite so OMFGPICTURES! ;)
The Cat's Meow table in the dealers room, pre-feeding frenzy:
A door decoration of actors/media people born in 1969:
A completely awesome Star Trek door decoration, complete with music and sound bytes:
A Doctor Who door decoration where you could regenerate the Doctor into whoever you wanted via poster putty, and then become his companion:
An Alan & Denny Boston Legal door that won Best Slash
A Hardy Boys/Supernatural crossover door that I think got Best in Show:
Like I said, if you want the full size of any of these, just ask. Also, I have pictures of every door that won an award, so if you got an award (I don't know who got what), let me know which door you had and I will send you the full size picture.
All the random stuff I got at the con:
And a couple pics of me from the last day of the con when we were all packing up our cars:
Can't wait until next year! I miss everybody so much already, and I hope you all had safe trips home =)