ConJose

[nolly]

Overall, it was a marvelous time. I think I managed to actually do at least 80% of what I wanted to do, and I wasn't stressed out by the fear-of-missing-something factor. Pretty good percentage for a Worldcon, IMO.


There are people, both authors and fans, I'd've liked to see but didn't get to, but there are more people I did get to hang out with, including the most important-to-me people.

I wish I could have hit more parties, but the things I was doing instead were better things for me to be doing, and I'm happy with my time-use choices.

One part of me feels like I wasn't pulling my weight on the fan table, but I gave it what I could without losing sanity points, and I've been putting in a lot of hours at the rest of the conventions we've done this year (especially Westercon), so I don't feel very guilty about it.

There are many panels and events I know I would have enjoyed, which were scheduled opposite other events I enjoyed as much or more, or which I couldn't attend without missing meals or other necessary things.

I never made it to the art show or any dances, and I didn't spend as much time seriously looking at the dealers' room as I would have liked to. I actually came in well under budget because of this -- I only got one book (Illegal Aliens, Nick Pollotta/Phil Foglio), two pins (insignia for the ST:TNG Pooh I made), and two stuffed animals (quite possibly the world's cutest stuffed kitty and a lovely squirrel). I'll try to get pictures posted of the toys later. I saw many wonderful t-shirts, but I just have Way Too Many t-shirts already, so I wasn't strongly tempted by them.


The newest incarnation of the Fairy Gothmother costume went over extremely well; the mask I got at Westercon really added a lot to it. I was getting doubletakes everywhere -- people who knew me slightly didn't recognize me at all, while people who knew me better often didn't recognize me until I spoke. Plus, not having to do makeup made getting in and out of the costume much, much simpler. Pictures of this will likely be forthcoming as well.
I also did a schoolgirl outfit, carrrying Elmo part of the day, and Pooh later. I was told I looked no more than 14. Heh.



Convention glitches were, IME, relatively few. Pre-reg badges had real names rather than badge names, which was somewhat annoying; I'd've tried to get a reprint, but since I remembered to pack my LJ badge, I decided that would be sufficient to ID me to people who don't know my real name (quite a lot of my fannish acquaintances, really), and thus, less hassle for both me and the reg staff.
Scheduling seemed like it could have been better -- the only time it caused a real problem was when I misread both the pocket program and the door sign and went to Religion and Fantasy instead of Religion and Fandom. Scheduling two panels with extremely similar titles, likely to appeal to many of the same people, in the same timeslot just seems like a Bad Idea to me. There were a few other slots with very similar panels; I don't know if this was poor scheduling or an attempt at crowd control.
Water stations needed to be more common.
There was the usual party hotel elevator shortage, but that's really inevitable for a large con -- a bit more on this below.
Not really a glitch, but it would have been nice to have maps available other than in the pocket program, especially during the time pocket programs weren't available.



I loved the badge holders. They were especially useful when I was wearing costumes without pockets, but were good for things I wanted quick access to even when I had pockets.
The elevator shortage was handled pretty well, though I had a mixed experience with elevator drivers -- one I encountered was cheerful and friendly to everyone, another was short with people and cranky, and second-guessing whether people should be using the elevator for that trip. (Just because someone looks able bodied to you doesn't mean they aren't asthmatic or epileptic or any number of other things which mean they shouldn't be taking the stairs even if it would be an easy trip for you.)



The biggest other glitch was that my luggage did not arrive on the same flight I did. This is the first time I've had a problem with luggage. Mostly, I'm glad it wasn't worse -- the bags weren't lost, they just didn't make it on to the plane, and since it was a short flight, I had them by dinnertime. The reason the bags didn't make it on the plane is probably because I'd gotten flagged as a Suspicious Individual and had both my checked and carry-on bags searched, which created enough delay to make me one of the last people on the plane, maybe the last person.
Another glitch was my LDR having to leave the con early because he was feeling ill. patgund was also battling the dregs of a bug and, later, an allergic reaction to some food.


Sufficient acceptable food was found near the con -- the chicken stuffed garlic bread at Ravioli's is wonderful; it was a great to-go lunch. The pasta I had for dinner there on Friday was also quite good. Either the Restaurant Guide authors were on crack when they reviewed this place ("Uninspired corpporate Italian for those who can't face Old Spaghetti Factory.") or they were trying to keep the crowds away so they could enjoy it themselves. Peggy Sue's was predictable but quite edible diner-style food -- if you think you're in the mood for Johnny Rockets, go here instead; the menu is more extensive and the food and service were better. Plus, garlic fries! The Chinese place we went to after the poly SIG was OK -- they handled the crowd reasonably well, but the lemon chicken was apricot, and most of the dishes were acceptable but not great -- the ginger chicken and garlic pork stood out.


The programming I did attend was mostly good. The one panel that did not live up to expectations was the one on building community libraries. Hint: Don't put four serious academic librarians on a panel about fan-run libraries. Or, don't bill a panel about serious academic collection-building as being relevant to fan-run libraries.
The Improv Storytelling panel (Phil Foglio, Tad Williams, Terry Pratchett, and Allison Lonsdale) was great, and I quite enjoyed the Sapientizing Animals panel. I know someone was transcribing the former; hopefully it will be made available at some point. The latter panel was Vernor Vinge, Lary Niven, Terry Bisson, Terry Pratchett, and David Brin. They wandered off into human genetic engineering and other topics, but it was fun just to watch them interact.
The yoga SIG was small, but interesting discussion, and I met several new people. The LJ SIG was well attended; lots of familiar faces, lots of new faces. The poly SIG surprised me -- a huge crowd showed up, far more than I'd expected. We had easily twice as many people as the original room could support; luckily, we were able to move to a larger, cooler room partway through the timeslot.


Parties were overly crowded and overly warm, for the most part, but still fun. I missed a lot of them, especially Friday and Saturday nights, but I don't regret that.

My priority going into this con was people -- spending time with friends, connecting with people who are more than friends, or potentially so. I think I managed this fairly well over all, though perhaps not perfectly. Five days is still not enough. Lots of cuddle time and conversation, and some very fun dinners. Lunch tended to be eaten on the run, during or between panels, or at the fan table. Making people a mental priority ahead of time helped alot with figuring out what to do when. I still didn't manage to meet everyone I wanted to, or to spend as much time as I wanted to with those I did meet, but I feel relaxed and recharged emotionally, not stressed and drained like I sometime have after conventions, even ones I had fun at. I had also come to terms in advance with the fact that I would not be able to do and see everything and everyone I wanted to, so I shouldn't even try. This helped me remember to balance downtime of various forms with con time.
This may seem dreadfully obvious to some of you, but this was only my second Worldcon, and my first con of any size was less than three years ago, so it's been a bit of a learning process.

I'm sure there's more I want to say, but that's got most of it, and I'll put more up in seperate entries when it occurs to me. I'll be posting this to alt.poly when I get home tonight.

Comments

[firecat]

Either the Restaurant Guide authors were on crack when they reviewed this place ("Uninspired corpporate Italian for those who can't face Old Spaghetti Factory.") or they were trying to keep the crowds away so they could enjoy it themselves.

Or there are different chefs with different recipes at lunch and dinner? My pasta lunch was just barely edible.

[nolly.livejournal.com]

Maybe it depends on the dish. I had the pesto tortellini. A couple of my local friends had recommended it (and wwe ran into some of them when we had the SD Fandom dinner there), but patgund said he'd gotten mixed reviews from his local friends. At lunch, I only had the chicken stuffed garlic bread, but I had that twice.