FUN! (Or, how our Lunatic spent her first con...)

( Prepared for the con. )

Waited absurdly long for bus.

Waited absurdly long for bus schedule (bus was running early and stayed stopped at the stop).

Got off a stop later than I should have (the one on the other side of the freeway) and walked to the con hotel.

Got directions from the concierge to the con area.

Wandered around looking bewildered for a bit. Sadly, this was not immediately pounced upon, because of the hour of the morning and my dress (before noon, when all respectable filkers are still in bed or pursuing breakfast with great enthusiasm or wandering around looking bewildered, and black skirt, black tank top, green and blue patterned velvet shirt, black hat reading "White Hat").

Found the right place and became one with the con. Name badge? Azure Lunatic, of course. That's really becoming my name name, at least for dealings with most of the people in public that I want to deal with. Really, it's like a War Mage name (reference: "The Mirror of Maybe", WIP) in that

Saw the GM from work. Yay!

Spent some time wandering around with no set course.

Saw the Mars table. Got into a discussion with the spaceheads and rocket scientists about Mars, and whether or not it was the place that I most wanted to go in the solar system today. Yes, if I could go to Mars immediately for vacation, I would. I would also move to Mars permanently, were that an option. I was ambivalent on the thought of going to Mars and immediately dying. If it would make the space race that much better/faster/more determined, to honor my memory, then yes. If it would deter others from going into space, then no. ( Read more... )

The GM from work shared her artwork with me, and we had a good old-fashioned gossip over what might have passed as lunch had I not been too distracted to actually rummage in my capacious purse for the actual things to eat I had.

One of the rooms had a warning tape draped above the room, that this was an Imperial area. Vader! Maul! Too many replica lightsabers to shake a stick at! I was thrilled. Briefly. Then I wandered off.

I was eventually pulled into the filk concert (guest artist Maya Brener) and had fun listening for a while.

I wandered off.

There was a Darth Vader around. I find Darth Vader very attractive, so I giggled when this one walked up to me and said, "Boo."

There was a panel with Michael Stackpole on it, in the Star Wars room, naturally. Some people who reminded me strongly of Darth T-Rex and his family were around, but turned out not to be (I think). I sat down partway through Stackpole's holding forth on how he came to be doing this line of work anyway...

( Read more... )

There was a mild Vader-based disturbance of the panel, but that only added to atmosphere.

The panel ended. I wandered off.

( Shiny books! )

I had opted out of the Masquerade, as both contestant or observer, and thereby wound up in the filk room early. I settled into a corner with book and snacks, finally getting something approximating an actual meal, bit by bit.

Other people filtered in.

I had, sadly, neglected to think that I should bring "George Lucas's Ghost is Haunting My Playstation Three" or "The High-Speed Connection". I was chided for same by one of the people on the con committee. I did sing "DHCP's Down", however.

The filk sing was hysterical and brilliant, with the GoH filker having fun, us having fun, some random kids having fun, and me getting song bunnies like mad. It was evidently not apparent that this was my first con. I came up with a song to commemorate the little Darth Vader disruption.

As I do have to get up tomorrow to work, and then I'll be working and having class on Monday, I had to depart early (before midnight). The same con committee guy who chided me for not bringing my filk told me that I needed to come back to all the conventions. And filk circles.

I guess I made an impression.

And that was my first con.

Lessons Learned from First Con

You will see schoolmates at the con. (There was the guy with the squared-off longish hair who often wears the Dropkick Murphys tee, and then there was the big guy who usually wears black, with his wife and their daughter.)

You should wear comfy shoes. (Thank the gods, I already knew this.)

You should sleep well the night before, even if that means going to bed at four and not coming conscious again until noon.

Cons do not start really happening until after 'dane lunch.

Remember to eat.

Do not go for "cool" and bring only your capacious purse and the three-handle-contact tote bag with you. Bring a backpack. They're easier to lug.

Do not go for "cool" and wear a skirt that looks only marginally better than the pants and is also just a touch too tight. Wear the pants instead.

...unless you're cosplaying.

...unless you're cosplaying Faye Valentine, and you're the infamous Man-Faye, in which case please warn the rest of us.

When your roommates don't know jack about cons, it is wise to do some explicit explaining before you head merrily off, so they won't worry if you don't show up until shortly before midnight.

You should also explain that showing up shortly before midnight is in fact showing up early.

Room at con yourself or friend with room at con is preferable to not. Car, also, would be good.

Small cons are good for meeting the guests, but not so great for meeting friends CTY-style.

Vader left his cellphone in the con room

New filk, written by yours truly, somewhat vaguely to the tune of "Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer".

This was an actual incident at LepreCon 30 during Michael Stackpole's panel on the Star Wars books, though slightly embroidered for the sake of scansion (which still needs a bit of a tweak here and there), rhyme, and closure. Scribbled out as instafilk at the filksing later when I was short on material to sing. Polished up a bit.

Vader left his cellphone in the con room
Set aside for all the Star Wars stuff
He left it there through the panel later
Finding space at cons like this is rough

Vader left behind his bloody cellphone
While Stackpole held forth on writing craft
If Vader hadn't had his big black helm off
We would have wet ourselves before we laughed.

His phone had polyphonic speakers
that jingled out his merry ringing tone
The panel conversation halted
John Williams march song chilled us to the bone

Vader stomped in in a hurry
Knocking cups and papers to the floor
When the call got grabbed by voicemail
Vader glared and swished out through the door.

Michael dragged us back upon the topic
And we thought the incident was through
He started going on to world-building when
Vader's cellphone rang with phonecall number two.

This time our friendly Sith Lord had his saber
And made to slice and dice the bloody phone
But alas --- the costume was all plastic
So Vader checked his voicemail ... then phoned home.

Walking Saturday

( Read more... )

Mothers' Day! Whee!

Called Mama on my way to work. Told her about the con. Con was fun! I'm following in Gamer Aunt's footsteps. Yay family tradition.

I need to get the thing and the thing (parents read this, so no spoilers) ready for when I come home. Required materials: binder, printer, the correct font, and contact paper.

Walking Sunday

( Read more... )

Work

Showed up, said bye-bye to Mama, put cellphone away, got water and ice and clocked in. Attempted to evade Mr. Bitter in the break room while talking with Mama and getting the ice, but was not entirely successful.

I was on BTS as usual, o joy me. But I was on the panel, not on the recruitment, so the work flew by and I barely had time to grab a breath in between.

We got sent on break at five. I was on a long survey, so I got out twenty minutes late. There were muffins (Sam's, blueberry, chocolate-chocolate chip, and banana walnut) and lots of interesting conversation (as it was me, Motley, RC, trystan_laryssa, their GM, some random other lady, and me at the table). Motley was there as late as I was, and much fun was had.

We went home at seven. Short day. Mother's Day.

Ads that make my brain hurt

So, $BUSINESS has changed it's name to the spiffy and shorter $BUS_NAME?

It's???!?

I looked twice, thrice, four times. Yahoo Mail ads did not trick the eyes. Clicky ad, hit parent website, dig around for contact information, call 800 number, tell them how very very wrong they are, and to please fix it, because every time I see it, it makes my eyes hurt.

I blame Dagger and/or Marah, who are also planning to march into Jack-in-the-Crack tomorrow and inquire of a manager why the hell the place is closed up after nine when the posted hours say open until ten.