Technicon 21 report
The element of Technicon that has stayed with me most this morning is the great pain in my legs from dancing too much too quickly Saturday night. Oh, yes… and I think that next time raininva and I go to India Garden, we’re ordering just bland chicken “tanders” and the garlic “naan” (bread). Our stomachs aren’t international enough for much else.
Friday afternoon we got signed in to the Amerisuites… frankly, it was so much nicer than the Red Lion that we may just do T-Con from there in the future. Nice comfy room, a foldout for crashers, and a good continental breakfast to start the day.
Friday night I got to catch up with friends I hadn’t seen in several years, including tzel. Only had an hour or two to schmooze before I had to climb up the hill to Gaming and run my first WizKids game of the weekend, but that was enough time to chat with kittykatya for a while. My Mechwarrior game ran until 10 or so, so I got back down to the main con in time to hear Keith Brinegar and Thom Gressman jam together for a while. Eventually we ran out of steam and headed back to the suite.
Saturday was packed! After breakfast, we hit the Fest Halle to set up for click-base. I spent a little time catching up with Nick, one of the other high-level Battlemasters for the east coast… we have similar tastes in anime and PS2 games. Back down hill to appear in “Whose Con Is It Anyway?” with Tom Atkinson, Keith, and art guest Heather Bruton; we had a lot of fun doing that one, it’s a shame there weren’t cameras running.
Back up hill to run my Shadowrun demo, which was fun; then back down hill to run the BattleBots game. Three children with high-speed remote-controlled implements of destruction, and laughing parents thinking “Hey, it’s not my furniture getting banged into!”
Finished that, then rehearsed a costume skit with Kate, kittenchan, and rainbowsaber. Though they weren’t part of the skit, at some point during rehearsal I acquired a pair of bunny ears which stayed with me the rest of the night. I’m beginning to think they properly represent my fur side 🙂
Saturday night was a nice White Plectrum performance, costume call, our skit, and the Vile One Skit That Ate Technicon. I played an erring fanboy freaking out costumed fangirls… yes, it was method acting. Afterwards I scored a contact buzz from being in a hotel room with 20 drunk folks, and then hit the dance. Most of my time at the dance was spent catching up with longtime VTSFFC friends, but Denise dragged me out on the floor for a few songs, and thus my painful calves.
Sunday hit too early, as it always does at a con. We got breakfast and checked out, then did a final pass through the Art Show to check bids. Back up the hill, and I finally got to play some .hack//enemy cards with Nick. We cleaned up and packed all the game stuff, then went back down for the Art and White Elephant Auctions.
We got what we wanted in Art… I got a most excellent set of 5 etched Discordian glasses (5 different glass styles and emblems, natch) from tzel. Rain ended up with the FanGOH art original by kittenchan and rainbowsaber. They only managed to get through about 200 of the over 300 W.E. auction items, despite Rockbender and rattrap‘s best efforts. 🙁
Finally, things wrapped up, and we headed over for too-spicy food and good conversation with rubinpdf and Fred Homan. Then we went home, I read my e-mail, and we collapsed.
Thanks to nius for putting on a great con – I had tons of fun! I’m already looking forward to vond‘s Technicon next year!
Tags: conventions, discordia, food, gaming, pain, parties, technicon, travel
I think we got up to the 240’s before they closed it down, but that still left 100+ to go. ;/ If this keeps up they need to either start the auctions earlier, or have Jerry speed-auction all the White Elephant stuff.
Telf has great etched glass stuff. I have a jar she did from a Tcon a few years ago, and I still love it.
Don’t forget that you got to try on a kitty hat!
Glad to know the Amerisuites Breakfast staff didn’t fall apart without me. Maybe they’ll survive this summer.
It was great seeing you and the missus again — since my mom is moving down into the Roanoke area from the wilds of NJ, I’ll be visiting down there a lot more often which hopefully means more opportunity to come and hang with you folkses. And as always, you have the standing invitation to come to Clifton… unless you’re vampires, in which case I will have to stake you both, but I’ll do it with great regret. 😀
Finally, thanks for taking the videos back for me. That was a major life-saver! 😀
. I got a most excellent set of 5 etched Discordian glasses (5 different glass styles and emblems, natch)
No…. I got an excellent set of 5 etched Discordian glasses. You didn’t even know about them till after I bid… so 😛
Very true. I sit corrected 🙂
While we’re doing Rain-related corrections, she’s taking your videos back, since she works very close to that store. Don’t want to steal any more credit 🙂
I look forward to you being down here more often!
I think the top plan is to consolidate items into single lots that can move quicker. Also, I think there may be more powerful computer hardware for databasing next year.
Kitty hat!!
Not everything, of course, but a good start.
Consolidating would be good. I’d also like to see folks have a chance to look over some of the items ahead of time (or list thereof), so they can get “in love” with them and bid more. Y’know, build up some extra interest.
Was it just me, or was bidding really low on stuff this year? I put the art stuff up to the fact that there was just so much in the art show this year, but still. And thank Rain for me for not bidding me up on the Space Case print from Raul Jamirez. I would’ve never been able to beat her, and I love that one to death.
I should see if fishfish would donate a Kitty Hat to benefit the con next year.
Incestuous teddy bears, whee!
Push my obnoxious, self-appointed assistant out the nearest airlock.
If you mean your auction runner, just tell her (that is to say, me) and I won’t run next year, or I’ll tone it down or whatever. I just enjoy doing it and no one ever seems to be lined up for it.
I’m reasonably certain he’s not talking about you 🙂
*whew* Hope not. Lord knows I was obnoxious at times back in the Starfleet days, but I like to think I outgrew it, even I didn’t outgrow my utter social awkwardness and bad comic timing (and, apparently, paranoia). On the off chance he is, these days I’d rather hear it straight out than find out later by accident or something. Much less angst in the end.
Then give your wife a mega-smooch for me. Not having to dash over to Colonial, then all the way back over to Hurst meant that Alex and I made it home by 9:15 last night rather than post-10 PM. 😀
Not you. You asked first, and I was glad to have you. I’m talking about the one who just kind of horned his way in and walked all over me…
I almost did as my ‘personality’ is a Jester and to me thats what that picture looked like. But I wanted some of the other art work more and wasn’t sure how much it would go for in auction.
Eek. If it’s who I think you mean, sorry about that. I thought he was assigned to help you out in general, but I was honestly so busy trying to keep stuff in the air that I didn’t pay much attention when he started doing your stuff.
Let me know if you need me to poke him/anyone offstage next time. Otherwise, I don’t know the history, I like you both, and it ain’t for me to mess with, so I’m just-a gonna keep my nose out of it here.