Thoughts on MarsCon
My favorite cons give me a chance to connect with my tribe, meet some old friends, have a nice dinner out, maybe do a little unwise spending in the dealer’s room.
Unfortunately, that didn’t work out for me this year as well as I’d like, primarily because I was exhausted. I’ve been overstressed to the point of illness lately, and sleeping poorly to boot. So when I got in around 9:30 Friday night, once we unpacked I conked out within minutes of setting up the CPAP.
Saturday morning as a result of all this, I suffered what I called my “hard drive crash”. I couldn’t bear the thought of being around anyone, I just wanted quiet and dark. With the help of my brain meds, I came out of it around noon, donned my Alice costume, and went out into the con. The Alice costume was a hit – it usually has been through all the variations I’ve owned. I posed for pictures and took a few, and bumped into some friends.
At a busy con, though, you can’t sit down and talk to anyone. You generally get about five minutes with them and one or both of you has to move on. So I didn’t really catch up with too many people; and while I did at least get hellos and hugs from many, there were several more people there I never saw.
After 8 hours of wandering the con and checking out a few panels, I had to head back to my room. My current Alice costume is of heavier PVC than my previous ones, and while I wasn’t suffering heat stroke I was extremely warm. Maya and Bert and I managed some dinner and played a card game Jesse Braxton got her for Christmas – Sushi Go, lots of fun – and then I decided to take a rest before the 10:00 and 11:45 shows I wanted to see,
I didn’t fall asleep like one might guess, but I realized I had no energy left. I couldn’t have walked another dozen steps. Rather than heading out to the con again, I had to fill the CPAP and shut down for the night.
Sunday morning was mostly packing and checking out, but I did hit the high point of the con when we attended the musician’s Round Robin. 11 musicians on stage, each in turn performing a song and usually being joined in by the other musicians, finishing with White Plectrum’s rousing rendition of “The Mulder”, a tune everyone on stage knew. It brought down the house.
So, MarsCon 2020: Not a weekend of unending misery, but I sure hope I’m in better shape next year.
Surgery 2: The Wrath of Hip
Two entries within two weeks! This is a record for my recent blog productivity. I would really like to start using this a heck of a lot more, since Facebook is quickly losing its luster. So what’s up with the Borg?
I’ve been to the hospital for a bone scan, and seen my surgeon for a follow-up. My surgery is scheduled for Thursday March 26th. The likely procedure will be to go in and replace the plastic liner between the ball-and-socket of the prosthetic, and the replace the ball because it’s probably abraded. They may also have to replace the metal cup, which might be tricky because of the metal plates that are very close to it in the pelvis. The worst case scenario is that the entire prosthesis may need to be replaced, which could require two surgeries even more serious than expected. That’s supposedly quite unlikely. Let’s hope.
Even with the good news, I am expected to be recovering for at least three months. I will be damned if I will wait that long. You wait and see, I’ll be up and moving around on crutches at worst in two. Maybe less. I’m not putting my life on hold for some damn surgery. I have stuff to do. I set recovery records last time, and I’m just as determined now. Still going to miss Animazement on May 21st unless a miracle happens.
Speaking of cons, MarsCon is this weekend. It will be great to see friends there, including a new friend I’ve recently made, but otherwise I’m not really feeling it. I have no desire to cosplay for the first time in years and years; this will probably surprise people. I’m sure I’ll hit some of the music tracks, but otherwise I’m experiencing a vast MEH. I’m sure it comes from too much stress and money worries, but cons are feeling less and less like a vacation to me and more like a hassle with some fandom in it.
I’m beginning to have ideas for Managlitch again. My goals is to have a new episode written and recorded by the end of the month. That’s another area where it will be interesting to see if I can record episodes from my recovery bed. I have an idea for written erotica that needs worked out – I haven’t done any of that in ages. And I’m meeting models right and left for my bawdy slapstick video shorts! All I need to get started on those is a filming space and a budget!
The recovery is going to heavily limit my VR time – I will have to see what I can do from a seated position. I know I can play Borderlands 2 VR, but Beat Saber will probably be right out. My cosplay Beat Saber channel will probably have to wait for launch until after my recovery. The good news is that I’ll probably have lost a lot of weight. Surgery recovery tends to do that. At least I will have a lot of time to catch up on TV and regular games I’ve missed.
Speaking of VR, I tried playing one of the new 360º Beat Saber levels. Had to use an avatar instead of mixed reality, and the camera position probably could have been better, but this are a lot more fun than I thought! I want to try some more of those.
Until next time…
Giant LEGO D.Va Mech at BlizzCon
Clearly, this is to prepare us for a sanity-sized LEGO kit of D.Va and her mech. But dang, I wish i could have this one 😀 (YouTube video below the cut…)
No NekoCon For Me
Once again, I cancelled my hotel room like a responsible person since we can’t really afford this con; it’s too big for Maya’s comfort anyway; and geez, cancer.
I have to be honest, though: this is beginning to get on my nerves. 75% of the cons I used to love are off the table right now, and aside from being personally fun and relaxing to me, I miss my friends at them. If I have to attend next year without Maya, that will suck rocks, but at least I’ll see my friends. If our finances don’t shape up, though – and with Maya’s cancer bills, they probably won’t soon – then I get to sit at home. Doing chores all weekend because there are always chores to do. Yay.
No Cosplay America For Me
This con is nice and local, so we could commute if we wanted to. But it’s a big enough con, to be a turn-off for Maya and if I’m going to be realistic, we just can’t go.
This really sucks. I’d like to show off Princess Peach, and I still have three new outfits no one’s seen yet. I miss costuming. I don’t know when I’ll hit a convention again but I expect it’s going to be a while.
No Anime Mid-Atlantic For Me
I had to cancel the hotel room for AMA 2018. We really can’t afford it with the financial pressures of a single paycheck. Kara wasn’t going anyway, but I’ll miss Angel and the other Hampton Roads con-goers I’d normally see there. Not to mention I’ve got some great outfits I want to show off in.
Damn, I hope our finances get sorted out soon.
Regeneration? Fourth.
Back from ReGeneration Who 4. Exhausting. It’s that simple.
My job as Merchandise head wasn’t bad, but there were a lot of logistics to deal with preparation-wise and with tear-down. Maya, on the other hand, worked her butt off. The con was a major attendance success, and that means that as Registration head, she worked her catgirl tail off.
On the other hand, I got a picture I never expected to get: me dressed a Waitress Clara from the Season 9 Doctor Who finale, posing next to Twelfth Doctor Peter Capaldi! He loved the outfit… what a sweet gentleman. I got to pose with some other Claras as well… oh, and by executive Con Chair Order, I bought Princess Peach for pictures in Sunday.
Great con, proud to be part of it… but I think we are dropping out of staff duties for a while and going to a few cons as simple attendees. Maya and I need to recharge.
A Real Peach
I brought my Princess Peach costume to Mysticon this year. Sadly, Maya didn’t wear her Mario as it needs quite a bit of work. But wow did Peach go over well! People were asking for pictures all day, and I even made the local TV news for about 7 seconds. I wore it for NekoCon and Halloween last year and for the con we attended with my niece Kennedy, but these are some of the best pictures of it yet. I was dubbed “Princess Peachfuzz” by one attendee, which was hilarious.
There is nothing like a stranger telling you how beautiful you look in your dress to put the “pride” in queer pride.
I decided to dress up Sunday as well, even if it meant I’d have to find somewhere at the con to slip back into mundane disguise on the way out. So I’m wearing my Sailor Moon quasi-costume dress while loading the car, and a 65-year-old or so couple get on the elevator with me.
He looks at me and asks, “Is it okay to say something about your outfit?” and I give him a huge sincere smile and say, “As long as it’s a compliment!” He laughs and asks where I got it (Hot Topic Halloween) and for what event (the nearby con) and we chat for a moment. As I’m walking off to the car, I hear his wife say behind me, “He’s got better legs than I do!”
I’m kinda proud of myself. That could have been awkward or even upsetting, but everyone left that elevator happy. That’s one of my missions in life.
A Conventional Dry Spell
Lord Bitweaver’s Journal, 4th of Swiftstorm, 716 —
Two months of no journaling… yeah, can’t say I’m too pleased with that. What happened? Many things, but primarily ReGeneration Who. What I’d planned to be a simple administrative job turned out to be many nights of collating, emailing, updating, correcting, and otherwise maintaining the staff listings for the con. On top of that, there was a fair amount of travel promoting the convention, which sucked my energies away. I managed to get 1.5 Managlitch episodes in there, and the first chapter of a novel, but that was all the creative will I could locate.
Besides that, life has stayed pretty steady. Roxy is working practically full time, which means that much of our money woes have become minor concerns. My job continues to chug along, a little dull sometimes now that I have a routine, but comfortable and positive. I’m on new medication now for my depression, and my body’s still dealing with the chemical changes involved. Oddly, my appetite’s decreased and I think I’m losing a little weight.
I worry terribly about Mom. I’m not at all certain how her situation is going to pan out – her mind and body continue to fade, but so very slowly. I hope she doesn’t start a fire with those damn cigarettes, of for no other reason than I don’t want everyone in her apartment building hurt. As usual, she can’t be bothered to do a damn thing that would improve her situation, and is content to watch cable television every waking hour, pet her cat, and slowly sink into a pile of discarded wrappers.
But in happier news, there are many good things ahead. I’m due to have a short piece of writing about Doctor Who novels appear in a charity anthology, I’ve released the 20th completed episode of Managlitch City Underground, I have that first chapter of a novel done, and Roxy has scheduled us twice-monthly appointments with a massage therapist. Soon, I’ll be able to pay off one of the two remaining large debts of mine from the move to North Carolina, which will free up money for other fun pursuits. And, I wake up every morning next to a wonderful woman who loves me. Going without that for five years wasn’t fun at all.
So here’s hoping it’s not two more months until next entry. I don’t want any more of my life to be empty of definite memories.
Life on MarsCon
Lord Bitweaver’s Journal, 18th of Colddark, 716 —
Well, it’s a good thing I decided not to feel guilty if I didn’t journal every day, because Wednesday and Thursday night melted my brain too much to write anything down, and Friday-Sunday was MarsCon, when I was just too busy with stuff. But I can try to catch up.
Really, I can’t remember anything of Wed. and Thurs. I think I put hard hours in at work both days, and thus accomplished little besides con packing on Thursday. I’m sure that when Roxy reads this, she’ll remind me “Oh, we did these cool things!” but they are gone at the moment. Con packing doesn’t take me long at all any more, I’ve had so much practice. I forgot one costume item that wasn’t really all that important, and everything else was packed pretty lightly, all considered.
The convention was amazing. Yes, I worked some of Saturday with Luna-C, but I was a lot less stressed about that than usual, in part because of the brain meds. My energy levels weren’t what I’d have liked them to be, which I will blame on recent stress. Still, I got to go to some great panels, enjoyed a fun Doctor Who tea with so many delicious sweets I almost made myself ill, and most importantly got to see friends from Hampton Roads I missed so badly.
Saw Keith from White Plectrum again for the first time in years, and he wants to work on some new filk material with me. Hell yes! I need to find a lame excuse to put White Plectrum in a Managlitch episode. Maybe he’d perform a MGCU filk if I wrote it. With all the musical folks I know, I’m going to need a special concert episode at this rate.
There’s a new Managlitch episode up, Episode Eighteen “Sunbottom”. This is our New Year’s episode, which is further evidence that time is different there. All this means is that I have to start working on Nineteen ASAP, since I have some fun ideas and want to ask some guest-stars to join in. There’s a David Bowie reference in the episode which is either way over-subtle or way over-obvious. We’ll see which it is. This time I made sure to give the episode a careful listen before posting: no more bad edits like Episode Sixteen “Witchnight”. I’ve learned that lesson.
And I need to go to bed, so that’s all for tonight.
