Back From the Con
Mar. 23rd, 2009 09:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
aethwolfCon report now, pictures later/tomorrow.
Thursday:
I ended up getting a Pontiac G5 as my rental. It looked nice, and I got about 40mpg out of it. The only issue with it was that it was small. My old Mustang probably gave me more head room than that car. It was also nice having a car with a trip computer in it so I could monitor my fuel useage and such on the fly.
The trip down was pretty uneventful until I hit Atlanta. I managed to hit it right about 1700 again, dammit. Rush hour in Atlanta = no. Between the maze of 1-way streets and the traffic, I ended up pretty much just circling the hotel for like an hour because I'd miss the turn (largely due to being in the wrong lane), get lost, find the place again, and repeat. I had to pay for the hotel in cash up front, but it went smoothly.
Thursday night was pretty relaxed. Met![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
mooglepower and snapcat (sorry about being like I was, Snap. I was pretty wiped from the drive). aragornwolf showed up like 2000-ish and was pleasantly surprised that I snagged an accessible room. After getting him up in the room and all that, mooglepower and I went food questing only to find the damn mall closed (it was 2030 for pete's sake!). We ended up eating at the Hard Rock Cafe. I don't remember much else about that night, so it must've just been wandering around and hanging out.
Friday:
Crawled outta bed and kinda putzed around until opening ceremonies. Ran intohyperwolf5150 and crssafox before opening ceremonies. The opening ceremonies themselves were short, like 30 minutes. Ran into moose_bmd in the Dealer's Den and picked up my awesome con badge from him. Said hi to blaireau_bougon and greeneyedsprite.
The "Meet the Guests of Honor" panel was interesting. They just kinda dumped LizardBeth and Matthew Ebel in the room and didn't give them any sort of directions or anything, so it was pretty much a long impromptu Q&A session with the two of them. Giving the GoH some direction in that sort of thing would be a good idea for next year.
I also hit up the "Setting Up Your Home Recording Studio" panel. That was pretty good, but I already knew most of the stuff discussed. Some of it was still funny, anyway. I definitely wanna dedicate a room to audio recording whenever I get myself my own place.
I had the cowbell on me pretty much all day, but I never really did anything with it except for beat on it with my fingers while I wandered around the con. I think it was Friday that I ran intoyukonwolf and Podamy, but Friday and Saturday have largely ran together in my memory. I think I might have also ran into yakeo and xaviervonrottie that evening, but it might have been Saturday. Gah, stupid con-riddled brain. kittybj showed up that evening. I ended up going to the Frozen Oasis party that night, but not much was going on, probably 'cause it was only like 2045 when I went in. I was proud of myself for stopping after only 1 margerita. Yay for not overdoing it again.
Saturday:
Watched the fursuit parade and all that jazz. I think this was the day I got my newcrssafox badge. I also caught the last bit of the CCI animal presentation. I felt bad about cutting out before the charity auction, but my funds were limited due to the credit card drama Wednesday night. Science, Pseudoscience, and Outright Crap was amusing, if a bit rambly. Furries Got Talent didn't have much that really wowed, but Scape the Goat did rickroll everyone with his bagpipes.
The Matthew Ebel concert was outstanding. The audience could've been better, though. I didn't hear or see any of them singing along with him. I was hoping it'd be a lively audience since the show is gonna be this month's live recording over on matthewebel.net (go subscribe, totally worth it). But, yeah, I sang along the entire show and all that. I wish I hadn't left my cowbell back in the room. That would've been fun to use while everyone was chanting for an encore.
Towards the end of the concert, I got an idea. A wonderful idea. I skipped 2's Rant in favor of playing guitar while riding the elevator. I kept that up for 45 minutes or so before hotel security asked me to stop, which I did immediately. After wandering around con space for a bit trying to find a new venue for my playing, a small group began forming as we all sat around showing off guitar stuff. One guy had even been playing for 20 years and made everyone's jaw drop. He was finger picking everything, getting these awesome tones out of my guitar (it's all in the fingers), and showing the others that you don't need much to sound awesome. I was kinda surprised that most of those present were handicapped by only using high gain amp settings and not really being able to create their own music. In that regard, I pretty much out-classed them by far. That awesome guy (forgot his name, d'oh!) and I kinda blew the others' minds just by using delays and doing stupid stuff like arpeggiating a chord or doing a simple run up and down a pentatonic scale. That went on for several hours before everyone finally wandered off.
I just kinda wandered around after that. I think that was when I ran intomottenfest in the artists' alley. Hung out with Kyo Foxtrot for a bit and met mahoumikekun in person. I didn't get to bed until like 0500.
Sunday:
Grabbed my new badge fromgreeneyedsprite and spent some time in artists' alley chatting with Podamy. Podamy got a call from a friend of a friend asking about crash space during that, so I offered to let those needing space crash space. I ask aragornwolf about it, and things should've been good. I ended up hitting up Kage's Story Hour and the Clawcast recording. I kinda puttered around and hit up closing ceremonies. Over 1300 attended FWA this year.
I headed back up to the room and ended up resolving a bit of room drama. Resulted in me buying Aragorn dinner at the Hard Rock and sleeping in the bathroom to help block out my snoring. It's actually harder to push a wheelchair downhill than uphill.
Rest of the night was just wandering and trying to socialize. Sat down withblaireau_bougon and some others for a bit. Kinda half-way danced with yakeo a bit. Ended up crashing at a relatively early time (I'm thinking like 0130) 'cause I couldn't find anyone to do anything with.
Monday:
After a sluggish leave (checked out at like 1000 and got on the road at like 1130), I stop just outside Atlanta to get gas. Since I'm used to access to the gas tank being on the driver's side, I pulled up to a pump on that side and go pre-pay for the gas (I hate prepay). After realizing the tank is on the other side, I hop in the car and decide the best course of action is to turn around and back into it. Bad idea. Stupid shitty rear window and all results in me hitting one of those cement cylinder things that prevent people from hitting the pumps. 1 smashed taillight, 1 scratched bumper, and $20 worth of gas later, I'm out on the road and end up stopping a few times to stretch and try to wake up a bit more.
I brought the car back tonight instead of tomorrow morning. Luckily, I had opted for the damage waiver thing, which added nearly $100 to the total, but it did get me off the hook as far as having to pay for the damages. That was a nice relief after having spent about 5 hours thinking "Crap, crap, crap. I can't afford to pay for all these repairs."
Overall:
It was fun, but there were a few things unrelated to the con that made it not as awesome as last year.
Thursday:
I ended up getting a Pontiac G5 as my rental. It looked nice, and I got about 40mpg out of it. The only issue with it was that it was small. My old Mustang probably gave me more head room than that car. It was also nice having a car with a trip computer in it so I could monitor my fuel useage and such on the fly.
The trip down was pretty uneventful until I hit Atlanta. I managed to hit it right about 1700 again, dammit. Rush hour in Atlanta = no. Between the maze of 1-way streets and the traffic, I ended up pretty much just circling the hotel for like an hour because I'd miss the turn (largely due to being in the wrong lane), get lost, find the place again, and repeat. I had to pay for the hotel in cash up front, but it went smoothly.
Thursday night was pretty relaxed. Met
mooglepower and snapcat (sorry about being like I was, Snap. I was pretty wiped from the drive). aragornwolf showed up like 2000-ish and was pleasantly surprised that I snagged an accessible room. After getting him up in the room and all that, mooglepower and I went food questing only to find the damn mall closed (it was 2030 for pete's sake!). We ended up eating at the Hard Rock Cafe. I don't remember much else about that night, so it must've just been wandering around and hanging out.Friday:
Crawled outta bed and kinda putzed around until opening ceremonies. Ran into
hyperwolf5150 and crssafox before opening ceremonies. The opening ceremonies themselves were short, like 30 minutes. Ran into moose_bmd in the Dealer's Den and picked up my awesome con badge from him. Said hi to blaireau_bougon and greeneyedsprite.The "Meet the Guests of Honor" panel was interesting. They just kinda dumped LizardBeth and Matthew Ebel in the room and didn't give them any sort of directions or anything, so it was pretty much a long impromptu Q&A session with the two of them. Giving the GoH some direction in that sort of thing would be a good idea for next year.
I also hit up the "Setting Up Your Home Recording Studio" panel. That was pretty good, but I already knew most of the stuff discussed. Some of it was still funny, anyway. I definitely wanna dedicate a room to audio recording whenever I get myself my own place.
I had the cowbell on me pretty much all day, but I never really did anything with it except for beat on it with my fingers while I wandered around the con. I think it was Friday that I ran into
yukonwolf and Podamy, but Friday and Saturday have largely ran together in my memory. I think I might have also ran into yakeo and xaviervonrottie that evening, but it might have been Saturday. Gah, stupid con-riddled brain. kittybj showed up that evening. I ended up going to the Frozen Oasis party that night, but not much was going on, probably 'cause it was only like 2045 when I went in. I was proud of myself for stopping after only 1 margerita. Yay for not overdoing it again.Saturday:
Watched the fursuit parade and all that jazz. I think this was the day I got my new
crssafox badge. I also caught the last bit of the CCI animal presentation. I felt bad about cutting out before the charity auction, but my funds were limited due to the credit card drama Wednesday night. Science, Pseudoscience, and Outright Crap was amusing, if a bit rambly. Furries Got Talent didn't have much that really wowed, but Scape the Goat did rickroll everyone with his bagpipes.The Matthew Ebel concert was outstanding. The audience could've been better, though. I didn't hear or see any of them singing along with him. I was hoping it'd be a lively audience since the show is gonna be this month's live recording over on matthewebel.net (go subscribe, totally worth it). But, yeah, I sang along the entire show and all that. I wish I hadn't left my cowbell back in the room. That would've been fun to use while everyone was chanting for an encore.
Towards the end of the concert, I got an idea. A wonderful idea. I skipped 2's Rant in favor of playing guitar while riding the elevator. I kept that up for 45 minutes or so before hotel security asked me to stop, which I did immediately. After wandering around con space for a bit trying to find a new venue for my playing, a small group began forming as we all sat around showing off guitar stuff. One guy had even been playing for 20 years and made everyone's jaw drop. He was finger picking everything, getting these awesome tones out of my guitar (it's all in the fingers), and showing the others that you don't need much to sound awesome. I was kinda surprised that most of those present were handicapped by only using high gain amp settings and not really being able to create their own music. In that regard, I pretty much out-classed them by far. That awesome guy (forgot his name, d'oh!) and I kinda blew the others' minds just by using delays and doing stupid stuff like arpeggiating a chord or doing a simple run up and down a pentatonic scale. That went on for several hours before everyone finally wandered off.
I just kinda wandered around after that. I think that was when I ran into
mottenfest in the artists' alley. Hung out with Kyo Foxtrot for a bit and met mahoumikekun in person. I didn't get to bed until like 0500.Sunday:
Grabbed my new badge from
greeneyedsprite and spent some time in artists' alley chatting with Podamy. Podamy got a call from a friend of a friend asking about crash space during that, so I offered to let those needing space crash space. I ask aragornwolf about it, and things should've been good. I ended up hitting up Kage's Story Hour and the Clawcast recording. I kinda puttered around and hit up closing ceremonies. Over 1300 attended FWA this year.I headed back up to the room and ended up resolving a bit of room drama. Resulted in me buying Aragorn dinner at the Hard Rock and sleeping in the bathroom to help block out my snoring. It's actually harder to push a wheelchair downhill than uphill.
Rest of the night was just wandering and trying to socialize. Sat down with
blaireau_bougon and some others for a bit. Kinda half-way danced with yakeo a bit. Ended up crashing at a relatively early time (I'm thinking like 0130) 'cause I couldn't find anyone to do anything with.Monday:
After a sluggish leave (checked out at like 1000 and got on the road at like 1130), I stop just outside Atlanta to get gas. Since I'm used to access to the gas tank being on the driver's side, I pulled up to a pump on that side and go pre-pay for the gas (I hate prepay). After realizing the tank is on the other side, I hop in the car and decide the best course of action is to turn around and back into it. Bad idea. Stupid shitty rear window and all results in me hitting one of those cement cylinder things that prevent people from hitting the pumps. 1 smashed taillight, 1 scratched bumper, and $20 worth of gas later, I'm out on the road and end up stopping a few times to stretch and try to wake up a bit more.
I brought the car back tonight instead of tomorrow morning. Luckily, I had opted for the damage waiver thing, which added nearly $100 to the total, but it did get me off the hook as far as having to pay for the damages. That was a nice relief after having spent about 5 hours thinking "Crap, crap, crap. I can't afford to pay for all these repairs."
Overall:
It was fun, but there were a few things unrelated to the con that made it not as awesome as last year.