Back from the Discworld...
You can always tell that you've been at a good Con when you wake up on the last day and realise that a) it's almost over and b) it seems like you've only just got there because you've been having such a good time!
Some highights include the trailers of "Troll Bridge" a short film featuring Cohen the Barbarian and "The Watch" an up-coming TV series featuring (as the name suggests) the Ankh Morpork City Watch, both of which look absolutely brilliant.
I had a great time running the sound desk for the Toast and Jam (I even arrived early enough to go to the Teach Yourself Tech item), attending many and varied panels on subjects such as Discworld's Strangely Fascinating (any resemblence to QI is probably down to Quantum).
There was also a quiz called "So You Think You Know Stuff" which was also QI style, but each question had four possible answers (and there could be a Nobody Knows answer too) and you had to stand by the appropriately labelled table. (There were about forty or so people playing and I was somewhat evil in this game, I'd stride confidently towards one table, wait until several people followed me, then quietly sneak off to the one which was the real right answer!) I came equal first with three other people which I was pleased with :-)
My BDSM talk was well received, with about thirty people attending, although now I have to include a section explaining what is wrong with 50 Shades of Drivel (a book that I've not read personally because, having flicked through it, the writing is *really* bad!)
A couple of downsides: The "Games Room" that had virtually no games in! There were a couple of sets of cards and rules to play Cripple Mr Onion (which is, frankly, way too complicated to play well) and (I only found out late in the Con) a Playtest version of Martin Wallace's "The Witches" board game which I might have liked to play had I known it was there before.
There were also quite a lot of complaints about the Con food. The "special Con Rate" for the evening meal was a ridiculously expensive eleven quid with not many options or information about contents. After deciding that a serving spoonful of fish pie and a couple of spoons of veggies wasn't worth the money, I (as well as several others) caught the Air Shuttle train from the NEC up to the Airport to go to the Burger King there. (I also made sure I snaffled some bread, cheese and apples when I'd finished my Breakfast so I had something to snack on during the day!)
I was somewhat disappointed that, even though I'd brought this up in the "So You Think You Can Do Better" item two years ago, there were still "holes" in the programme, eg on Monday if you didn't want to participate in "Bye Bye Bel Shamharoth" or, later, watch the Play of Eric, there was virtually nothing else to do. Just having "something" else eg a workshop or a light talk, would have been nice to give you the option.
However these were minor niggles, all in all it was a lot of fun and I'll be looking forward to the next one.
Some highights include the trailers of "Troll Bridge" a short film featuring Cohen the Barbarian and "The Watch" an up-coming TV series featuring (as the name suggests) the Ankh Morpork City Watch, both of which look absolutely brilliant.
I had a great time running the sound desk for the Toast and Jam (I even arrived early enough to go to the Teach Yourself Tech item), attending many and varied panels on subjects such as Discworld's Strangely Fascinating (any resemblence to QI is probably down to Quantum).
There was also a quiz called "So You Think You Know Stuff" which was also QI style, but each question had four possible answers (and there could be a Nobody Knows answer too) and you had to stand by the appropriately labelled table. (There were about forty or so people playing and I was somewhat evil in this game, I'd stride confidently towards one table, wait until several people followed me, then quietly sneak off to the one which was the real right answer!) I came equal first with three other people which I was pleased with :-)
My BDSM talk was well received, with about thirty people attending, although now I have to include a section explaining what is wrong with 50 Shades of Drivel (a book that I've not read personally because, having flicked through it, the writing is *really* bad!)
A couple of downsides: The "Games Room" that had virtually no games in! There were a couple of sets of cards and rules to play Cripple Mr Onion (which is, frankly, way too complicated to play well) and (I only found out late in the Con) a Playtest version of Martin Wallace's "The Witches" board game which I might have liked to play had I known it was there before.
There were also quite a lot of complaints about the Con food. The "special Con Rate" for the evening meal was a ridiculously expensive eleven quid with not many options or information about contents. After deciding that a serving spoonful of fish pie and a couple of spoons of veggies wasn't worth the money, I (as well as several others) caught the Air Shuttle train from the NEC up to the Airport to go to the Burger King there. (I also made sure I snaffled some bread, cheese and apples when I'd finished my Breakfast so I had something to snack on during the day!)
I was somewhat disappointed that, even though I'd brought this up in the "So You Think You Can Do Better" item two years ago, there were still "holes" in the programme, eg on Monday if you didn't want to participate in "Bye Bye Bel Shamharoth" or, later, watch the Play of Eric, there was virtually nothing else to do. Just having "something" else eg a workshop or a light talk, would have been nice to give you the option.
However these were minor niggles, all in all it was a lot of fun and I'll be looking forward to the next one.