(no subject)

[yendi]

So, no long DragonCon summary. Folks like shadesong, morenasangre, and dslartoo are all doing great jobs. I lack the discipline to do one. I'll just go over highlights and lowlights:

Highlights:

Getting to finally meet auryn29e, astrophysicat, tikimama, melintur, catalyxt, chrisv, gwynraven (who Elayna bonded with faster than I've seen her take to any other adult, ever), adellyna, and probably others whom I'm forgetting because I'm too addled right now.

Finding the 8-disc Studio Ghibli boxed set containing just about everything other than Spirited Away.

Completing our Dork Tower and Nodwick collections.

Finding two On the Fastrack collections in the Plan9 $4.95 bargain bin.

Peter David's reading from Knight Life 2 (sorry, can't remember the actual title).

Elayna showing major Monty Python knowledge, as detailed here.

Having an awesome dinner at Edo on Friday.

Hanging out with bob_dot_com, of course.

As usual, seeing the B5 cast reunion panel.

Iron Artist (even though I only caught half of it). Once they get their act in gear, this could be the best recurring panel at the show.

The Forensic Pathology panel

All of us wearing shayara shirts, and shadesong getting interest in the concept from Judd Winick and Peter David, and getting information about the title to Chris Starros at Top Shelf (not to mention Paul Jenkins's fiance). And mousegrrl got some interest from NeNe Thomas, too!

Lowlights:

The usual bad design -- the dealer and exhibitor room setup was just as bad this year as last. They need one bigger room, with more open spaces. It's what they had a few years ago in the Merchandise Mart, and it worked nicely.

Not getting to see almost everyone named in the section above for any period of time. We did get to hang out with tikimama and melintur a bit last night, finally, and we hung with auryn29e and chrisv a bit on Friday, but we barely saw astrophysicat, not to mention podling and tanaise. And we only really saw darkmattr, adellyna, and edie22 at the beginning and ends of the con. And we spent no time with morenasangre and Farren, which really pisses me off, as they are two folks I dearly love, and was really hoping to see (no, I'm not pissed at anyone, just pissed that I didn't have the chance).

And a tangent off of that last one. Realizing that cons are really not Elayna's thing. Frankly, cons are tough for anyone with a kid. But we really can't try to bring Elayna again next year. Much of the stress we dealt with was a result of having her around, and it's not fair to her. We either need to arrange for someone like shadesong's sister to fly up for a weekend, or we need to forego the con. Period. Elayna was as well-behaved as could be expected, but with almost nothing to interest her, it was a long weekend, nonetheless (and not in the good way).

Running into the asshole who had attempted to take advantage of shadesong a couple of weekends ago, and having to play nice. Worse, said asshole was all busy promoting his big conference, which is proving to be every bit as elitist and exclusive as the conferences he claims to be challenging. Since he was with some mutual friends who don't know any better, I took the high road when dealing with him. Which I guess is something to be proud of.

Accidentally dissing voltbang and rloveking on Monday morning. I'm sorry, guys! I was so busy trying to chat for a moment or two with melintur and Tikimama, I didn't realize you guys were leaving until you had left!

Missing the Atlanta Radio Theatre Company show for the first time in five years. More frustrating, since I actually now know someone (dslartoo) in the show.

Frankly, just being shitty company all weekend. I wasn't too happy or fun going into the weekend, and I don't doubt that various stress and other stuff from Friday onwards just made me less desirable to hang out with. Personally, I wasn't enjoying hanging out with myself, so I can't imagine anyone else would have, either. A big apology to everyone named above (and anyone I missed) if my grumpiness or taciturnity rained on anyone else's parade.


Looking over that, it probably seems like there was more bad than good this weekend. There wasn't. It's just easier to go off on things that suck than it is to rave about stuff. I mean, I could write a paragraph gushing about Peter David or the B5 folks, but it's just wouldn't be the most interesting writing. But when something sucks, it's easy to rant. Overall, there was lots of good stuff this weekend, and much of the bad had to do with having too many good things conflicting with each other (too many friends at dinner on Friday to talk to anyone, too much time with Elayna to spend on adult tracks, etc). Such is life.

Anyway, I need to lie down for a bit. And I'm sure I'll update this when I realize the stuff I left out. I need to take notes at these cons!

Comments

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Cons are definitely not Elayna's cup of tea... but I have to say, I think she did as well as could be expected this year. Much better than last year. But yeah, we need a babysitter for next year.

[tarpo.livejournal.com]

If you want Spirited Away.. I have a great subbed rip of it here that I would gladly send your way.. Drop me a msg on ICQ/AIM/Yahoo anytime if you see me and even if you are on a 14.4 dialup i'll be more than happy to spread the love that is Miyazaki

[yendi]

Oh, we could have bought this one, too. But we want to see in in the theatres, if only to send Disney the message that there is an audience for this stuff.

[voltbang.livejournal.com]

We're cool. Just respond eagerly when I send my game night e-mail :)

Next year maybe we can figure out a collective babysitting soloution? I don't think Maddie had a lot of fun either. She likes looking at people, but she hates being confined to stroller and arms for that long, and we stressed about her too. I wanted to do some games, and Becky wanted to do more panels and we both didn't do a thing after dark, and a lot of that was Maddie related.

I've been down on DC for years, I think that compared to an actual convention it's a huge disappointment. There is a point at which bigger is not better and DC passed it long ago.

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

Collective babysitting's a great idea. We've already established that Maddie and Elayna like each other... :)

[dslartoo.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry you missed the show, too. We kicked ass, if I do say so myself. :) But don't beat yourself up over it.

I had to take notes myself, in order to keep my thoughts in order. You might have noticed that my report from Friday was a lot shorter than my reports for Saturday and Sunday. That could be because I did less on those days, or because I didn't take proper notes and forgot some of the stuff I did. :)

cheers,
Phil

[technomom]

I take it there wasn't a Children's Track at all this year? That sucks. But isn't surprising.

Our kids love the con, and this is the first time in many years that Katie has missed it. But because of the general con atmosphere, we thought it for the best. If we'd had money and childcare, we might have attended. Actually, we could have arranged for childcare, since we do have in-town grandparents. So I guess it was largely the money. And the kids would have resented it if we'd gone without them.

[voltbang.livejournal.com]

Maybe it was the new parent thing, but I found this year to be much less kid friendly than the past. I just got a bad vibe off the 8 guys following the teenage girl in miniskirt-anime outfit with camcorders. It was creepy, and it was the general tone for the event this year.

[yendi]

That sounds like a great idea (and probably a hell of a lot more feasible than getting Ali up to Atlanta)!

Yeah, DC has definitely gone downhill, although size isn't nearly as much of an issue as focus. They've been plenty big in the past, but still managed to retain a literary focus. The lack of any Baen or Del Rey presence was a big sign of the state of things.

[yendi]

Yup. No children's track. And with the exception of one panel on children's cartooning (which we missed), nothing that kids might be interested in. Although Elayna enjoyed what she saw of Iron Artist (and it sounds like we left before things got too raunchy). Elayna definitely wouldn't have resented missing the con, if she'd had grandparents or someone to be with, but I suspect the kids in your house would have felt differently, as they're already familiar with Con Life. :-)

[yendi]

I felt the same way. One of the most annoying things was sitting in the B5 panel (at 10 in the morning), and watching a D*C staffer walk up on stage to take care of some tech stuff while she was wearing a shirt that said "SHIT" in letters big enough to be read thirty feet away. Elayna wasn't looking, but it still annoyed me. And yes, I know there's nothing I can do to prevent encountering shirts like that on non-staffers, but when the staff does that, it sets the tone. And I still remember a few years back, when they made folks turn attendees with cursewords inside out, or just change shirts.

Re:

[technomom]

Yeah, and our kids (being older) are already reading SF&F, are gamers in their own right and really enjoy some of the relevant TV shows and movies. And the girls absolutely adore the costuming, too. Katie is more and more enamored of filk (she's sitting here singing "It Was a Dark and Stormy Night" at the moment). While they understand the reasons we didn't go, we'd like to find a con (or cons) we could attend with them.

[yendi]

Well, Fantasm is right out. :-) Are they into comics enough that they might like Atlanta Comicon?

[voltbang.livejournal.com]

Their goal is to be big and make money, and they've lost sight of the purpose. Authors and books don't support mega growth. TV stars and porn babes and rock and roll bands and porn babes and webcam girls draw in the hordes of cash carrying goths, so that's what we get. I'm about to post something about why I just got crankier abotu D*C....

Re:

[technomom]

G likes them a lot, but she doesn't seem to focus on anything that much yet. Katie and R have read some, but they're not really huge fans.

[rollick.livejournal.com]

September 20 release. I'm so psyched.

Finding the 8-disc Studio Ghibli boxed set containing just about everything other than Spirited Away.

Huzzah. Can I ask what you paid for yours? I'm really curious how arbitrary these dealers are, and how many of those things are circulating around. Course, I got mine a month ago at a con, so for all I know, we actually bought from the same dealer.

[rollick.livejournal.com]

That reminds me very much of this cartoon (http://mataglap.com/Art/spookyfruit/badman.html), assembled by welcomerain to show something that her husband actually did at a Chicago Fire soccer game.

[yendi]

$80. I didn't feel like haggling on it, as $10 a disc seemed pretty good. How much was yours?

[yendi]

Yeah, this is one of the reasons that the only pro sport I've taken Elayna to is hockey -- with a last-place team in a city that doesn't care, all fans just come out for the fun, and the team makes it a real family event. Even if I liked the Braves, I wouldn't subject her to the language around the park.

[rollick.livejournal.com]

$100. I didn't haggle, either… it was their last copy, and we were in the last minutes of the last day I was going to be there. Hmm. Wonder if I could have bargained them down. Oh well, I don't mind… I've got the money, and I really really wanted good digital copies of those movies.

[chelona.livejournal.com]

I totally agree. And it is amazing to find someone else who feels that way about hockey. I have been trying to figure out how to explain my interest in hockey these last few years, but I think a big part of it has been just HOW family friendly the games are. Eventhough our team totally blows, it is just so much fun to go, and children seem alot safer there then even at noon at D*C or at other sporting events.

[skylion.livejournal.com]

sorry to hear you had a bad weekend, hope the lot in life improves for you, man.
and it may be crap, but I think that con's deliberatly don't cater to kids or thier parents. i work for a pub, at a family aligned destination area, and the pub barely gives much thought to kids. sometimes we just need to get away from them. but I understand totally as a father myself. sometimes you want to have fun with your kids with something you enjoy. comics, games, scifi, cool stuff. who wouldn't want thier kids to be interested in that?

[yendi]

I'd have paid $100 with no problem, either. Hell, given an average price of about $15 a disc in the US, it's still a bargain (especially when you take importing it into account).

[tarpo.livejournal.com]

Oh if Spirited Away shows here ONCE I am THERE.. hell i'll buy a ticket and not go... just to show support.. Someday I want to sit and watch Laputa in a REAL theater.. Where is should already be..

Damn sluggish Disney

[gwynraven.livejournal.com]

wow, any adult *ever*? I'm so flattered. She's a *great* kid, really, and I had a lot of fun spending time with her. So, when can I come play with her again?! *busy planning next Atlanta trip*