All Con-ed Out · 6:26am Jul 13th, 2016

So myself and my significant other Stitchwolf finally got home yesterday from our extended vacation to Anthrocon and Bronycon yesterday. It is so nice to have my own bed again!

Protip: whenever you go on vacation, or to a con, or whatever, give your house a full cleaning before you leave. It's such a liberating feeling to be able to come home to a nice, clean house and know you have nothing to worry about except crashing.

As to the cons, I had a good time of it. Saw I bunch of people I've know for ages at Anthrocon, finally met the daughter of one of my very longtime friends, and didn't cook to death while in fursuit. Bronycon was largely putting names to faces for the people around here and finding a pleasant bit of crossover between the fandoms.

Long arse post about... well, the whole experience after the break.

Event wise, I largely stuck to the writing track. For the most part it was well handled, though there were some things that I felt could have been done better. Crossovers covered the use of characters extensively, and talked about points on when to use other franchise's characters vs just making your own OCs, but didn't talk at all about taking a setting or story line from another franchise and imposing it on ponies (which is what I tend to write/favour). The various other panels had decent advice but nothing terribly standout. As with a lot of similar panels I've been to in the past, 1 hour was tight to cover what they wanted to decently, especially with Q&A, and all could have easily run 2 hours. For the most part the panellists were awesome or at the least entertaining. I wish there had been a few more panels or had them a little more spread out over the course of the con. I got to what I wanted to but alas still missed a couple due to conflicts.

Did still do a whole bunch of other stuff.

My Little Tesla: Lightning is Music, being essentially lightning set to music, was neat to watch.

Ponies: The Anthology was... weak. The highlight reel of Anthologies 1-3 wasn't bad, we were reminded of why we try and forget #4 ever existed, and re-watching 5 was ok. I had been expecting to actually see 6, but that wasn't the case. They did show a little of it, and what was there looked cool, but honestly wasn't worth the time. They did highlight that Doors 2 exists and it's now out. Seriously, if you haven't seen that (or its prequel) just stop reading and go see now, it's fantastic stuff!

The Elements of Harmony panel was one of the coolest things we saw. Many years ago, Stitch and I went to the Just for Laughs comedy fest in Montreal and were able to get tickets to The Simpsons: Live, which was the entire cast of the show, on stage, doing a live reading of one of the episodes (Lisa's Date with Density if I remember right). This was the Mane 6 voice actresses doing the same thing, but with a fan script. Like The Simpsons, it was just so amazing to watch them all go through it, especially how Ashleigh Ball and Andrea Libman effortlessly bounced back and forth between their characters. It's just so freaky to watch Andrea go from Pinkie to Fluttershy without missing a beat.

Sorry I missed the Equestria Daily Panel, it sounds like it was fun.

I did end up going to the Grand Galloping Gala at the insistence of Stitchwolf. That was very interesting, and I know virtually no one here went but I know a few who were curious. I really can't say if it's worth it for you or not. What the Gala was this year was essentially dancing-through-the-ages. There was a little stage show setting up the theme of the Gala that came back and played between segments. The story is that Doctor Whooves and Derpy ended up time-traveling the Gala in an effort to fix an invitation messup on the part of Derpy, and due to Discord messing around with the TARDIS, the ponies involved got scattered across time. The Gala is good if you can dance in some fashion, or are comfortable faking it. I am really not one for dancing, especially around other people, but Stitch really wanted to go so we went for a bit. It was also a good excuse to wear my tuxedo, which anyone who has one will understand. If anyone was thinking about going but worried about the dress, don't be; if you have a good suit, or at worst a nice sport coat (optional) with dress shirt and slacks, then you're more than covered as a guy. For the girls; you got a dress or blouse and skit combo? Then you're good. Formal Dress is a wee bit of an overstatement, professional work clothes will get you by in most cases.

Hoof of Argon as hosted by Applejinx was very fun to go to, and I urge anyone who gets the chance to do so. The first story they did, Love on the Acers of Sweet Aplles is a largely readable story, you can get through it if you're careful. The second one, MLP:FIM:CRISIS IN TIMESAPCE is totally designed to just fuking wreck you. Both are amazingly bad. I look forward to seeing them preformed and play havoc with their poor participants again in the future.

After the Fact: LIVE! is totally worth seeing. I love Silver Quill's stuff and seeing it done live was great. Very solid presentation, and I just find it so fascinating to see work like that done live, especially someone as good as him. Again something any fan of his should go to.

The last thing I went to was the Dear Princess: Letter Reading. Stitch submitted a few letters to it (one serious, two very much not) and we wanted to see if they'd get read. The serious one did, followed by the first of the not-so-serious. For anyone who was there, the joke letter in question was the one from Hillary Clinton. It went over very well, suffice it to say Major thanks to Applejinx for bringing the old-timey typewriter to Quills and Sofas, hopefully there'll be more than one next year given how popular it proved.

And that was pretty much what I did at the con. Oh, I also want to throw out a huge thank you to SweetMemory and Envirotech for handling the Baltimore Aquarium meetup on Thursday, the day before the con itself started. That was one of the best aquariums that Stitch or I had been to, real pleasure seeing.

Unlike some other people here, there's not going to be a huge gallery of con swag shown off as I really didn't get anything. I've bought a number of prints of stuff from other fandoms throughout the years and have a ton, so didn't really need any. The plushies, while absolutely gorgeous in almost all cases were also way outside my price range, especially when you factor in the +30% conversion rate when switching my Canadian money to US. I grabbed a few small items from The Marketplace for Wave Blaster as a thank you for keeping me writing this past year on Actually, I'm Dead since attendance for him would be near impossible (and there are no pony cons in south america at all). We can probably expect a blog post about that whenever they manage to finally arrive.

Being the fan of Werewolf/Lupus in Tabula that I am, I did have to get a copy of the pony version, Are You a Changeling, from Equestria Inspired. Played a few games of it while there, of course and had a good time, even though I was stuck as a regular town pony both times. Of course I was stuck as a villager during the games of Lupus I played at AC, so that was pretty par for the course it seems . Either way, it was a fun game and the deck they had put together for sale there was good quality with nice art work, so was worth having a few bucks thrown at it.

But, as I said at the beginning, this was a con that I went to primarily for the people. There were certainly a good number that I'm glad to have seen!

By far the biggest thanks for the con has to go out to SR Foxley, an old friend whom I had recently met up here again, and whom without my attendance at Bronycon 2016 would not have been possible. After not having seen him for probably 10 years, it was wonderful to do again and to meet his delightful girlfriend. You sir, are a far, far better friend than I deserve, I cannot thank you enough. You are absolutely awesome. Keep that up! My best to you and your girlfriend!

Author wise, being able to hang out at Quills and Sofas was great to meet many of the rest of you from here. And for the various games played there such as Cards Against Humanity (oddly enough, Bronies seem to be less raunchy than furries, or so the game seemed) and Twilight's Secret Shipfic Folder were nice to help feel more at ease.

Biggest shoutout, easily to GaPJaxie. Absolutely standout guy, great conversations. Was readily willing to talk about his work, particularly the Actingverse stories and the... uh, kerfluffle (aka comment clusterfk) that happened with the last few of them that was posted. My thanks again for answering my question as to what would have happened in Girl's Night Out, and I really hope that he's able to convince himself to write that. Actingverse has really gone to some dark places, and the hope and light that that story could offer could really help with the final impression the reader is left with of it. That, and (as I mentioned to him) unfinished stories are a huge pet peeve of mine. Given how many of us write here, we all know that authors generally have a pretty good idea of what they want to do with a story, so getting at least that outline from him gave me the partial satisfaction of a proper ending.

Next would be Horizon. Again, great guy, very friendly and approachable. Was a pleasure gaming with you and having dinner. I did discuss (kinda last min) a story idea with him that I had been fermenting in my head ever since reading The Lotus Eaters that he was receptive to, so you might be getting some more direct work from me soon-ish if all works out.

Edit: Oh, and speaking of, here we all are! (Well, most of us)

Plus GM Berrow who photobombed us.

This was courtesy of Horizon's own blog post. I'm second to the left of the sign.

One of the writers I was most looking forward to meeting was Skywriter. Stitch and I were first involved in a writing community he was also involved in way, way back in 1998, and this was the first opportunity we had to meet him in person. Truly a wonderful guy. Very gregarious in panels, a little more reticent at meals, but still good to talk to when you get the chance. I am so glad to have finally met him and put a person to the name I've been reading and admiring for so many years.

Running into Seether00 was a pleasant if unexpected surprise. Cool guy, agrees griffons are awesome, what's not to appreciate. Hopefully will be able to do more work of his own, as he said.

djthomp was another unexpected surprise. I was rather amused to recognize someone first by their user icon (he has it as a pin work on his con lanyard) rather than their name. At least I got to say hi and put another face to a name of someone whom I keep running into in the comments.

I did manage to say hello to Titanium Dragon, but really that was all. Awkward as fk, all my fault. Hopefully next time will be better.

Bradel was another author I dined with at one point. Quiet guy, seemed nice, alas didn't get the chance for any real conversation. Again, maybe next time.

And last but certainly not least, meeting Themaskedferret and realizing who she was was a very pleasant surprise. Turned out I had met her a while back at Furnal Equinox and just didn't realize it. Great to talk with, game with, and just an overall bundle of positive energy. Really, really great.

That brings us, finally, to the close of this post. Overall, I enjoyed myself at the con. There are certainly things I would do differently next time. More than one box of moon pies for the writer's room would be one of them I should have realized what a ravenous lot we are. Being more social on my own as well. By the same token, I do hope to still meet awesome bronies and continue to put faces to the names of those whose paths I continue to cross online here.