A Much Belated Bronycon Report · 12:03am Aug 21st, 2013
Long after most people have already shared their Bronycon experiences, and I kept forgetting to do so because I need to get more control of my life. Alright, let's see if I can't break it down.
MEETING NEW PEOPLE
First of all, the drive to Baltimore was a grind and a half. The GPS in my phone said it would take two and a half hours to get from Richmond to Baltimore, but in practice it was closer to four. I got in traffic jams, lost a little, getting on and off of the highway, until I finally got close and my bad feelings evaporated, replaced with excitement about meeting Stonershy and company.
I also got excited about seeing Baltimore, which I felt was a gorgeous-looking, huge place. Stonershy's view of the city is sour because he has New York to compare it to, but I live in Richmond, which is not a metropolis by any stretch, and I haven't seen such a big, majestic city since my 2011 trip to Toronto. While I'm well aware of the seedier aspects of Baltimore, from murder to the drug trade, mostly from watching The Wire, I was lucky enough to spend my time in the upscale hotel district.
But I digress. I finally met Stonershy, Baron, Pacce, and all the other folks who showed up in the room. There were about ten of us all told. Stonershy and his girlfriend were nice and cool, definitely looking a step above the social awkwardness I've come to expect from bronies like us, Baron was cantankerous but still fun to listen to, and Pacce, surprisingly, has no facial hair at all. I'm glad I got to meet these folks I've talked to on Skype in person, since they're some of the few people I know who I feel I don't have to keep secrets from.
As for people I met at the con, probably the most important networking got done with other writers and artists. I met Brony2893 (I think that's the number after his name) and Whiter Penmanship, got in a conversation with Applejinx at Quills and Sofas (Thank you for setting up an area for us creative types, con organizers!), got to compliment Katie Cook and Jitterbug Jive, and exchanged an awkward word or two with Present Perfect. Sometimes when I see people who can give frank criticism, I get to thinking that they're unapproachable in real life, when it turns out he's perfectly nice to people who haven't given him a reason to piss him off.
I don't know if he and Stonershy ever met like they wanted to or if they kept missing each other. A lot of times I've heard of people who I like who attended Bronycon and I end up thinking how I could have missed them. Still a bummer I never ran into Seraphem, probably the one guy I wanted to see the most.
PANELS AND COSPLAY
Given that this is the first time I've ever been to a con where I had passionate interest in all of the subject matter, with good friends to boot, I wanted to make the most of it, and for that I decided to attend as many panels as possible. Checking the schedule, I saw that there was indeed a whole shitload of panels about writing and drawing. A lot of them ended up blending together, though I remember some good advice on pacing and structure from them, as well as some decent drawing tips I probably could have found online anyway. Oh, and I got referred to a drawing place on Reddit. I literally just remembered that as I'm writing this. I'll have to check it out after I'm done.
I ended up attending the most panels on the first day, staying at the convention center until 1 AM on Saturday. I'm glad I left myself some periods of a few hours where I could just do anything else, which mostly meant hanging out at Madmax's boot with Pacce and Stonershy (Pacce was kind enough to get me a vendor badge so I could skip the line. Thanks again, dude!), browsing the vendor's booth for swag, and just generally beholding the spectacle. Sure, I may have missed panels, but I heard that they're all on Youtube somewhere and I can hopefully catch them there.
There were quite a few neat cosplays on display, my favorite of which being someone with a Luna bodysuit. I'd upload pictures, but I get the feeling it's going to be more of a hassle getting them from my phone than it's worth, especially since I took so many. I'll think of editing them in a later blog post. I was also pleasantly surprised by the quality of the bulkier pony suits on display. They may have looked like mascot costumes, but the designs were charming and the facial expressions, static as they were, had personality to them, for the most part. And of course in the halls there were impromptu photo shoots, costume posing, and most bizarrely of all, a conga line with the ponies in it repeatedly chanting "FUN!" like in Too Many Pinkie Pies. It was a convention meme that I probably should have found annoying, but didn't. This whole thing isn't going to convince me to don my own cumbersome, muggy, sweat-inducing fursuit anytime soon, but I'm glad other folks decided to go through with it!
FOOD AND DRINK
For context, most of my diet consists of frozen/microwave dinners, fast food, and sandwiches. I live on a budget and I'm looking for ways to trim down my food budget even more than I already have. So I didn't go on any of those dinners between friends at local restaurants that you may have read about in reports from folks like Skipsy, both because I thought it would be me spending money I couldn't afford and because I didn't want to leave the center for fear of missing out on more of the con experience than I wanted to. Also, I don't think anyone in my party was planning on doing a dinner thing with them, and without company, why would I bother doing it at all?
Well, I suppose sampling authentic Baltimore cuisine might be a good option. I only had one occasion on which I could do so, and that was when the complimentary meals at the Sheraton included crab dip. I've never had it before, and I can't really describe the taste, except that it was good and rich and I felt disinclined to have too much of it... but did anyway. You know what would have made it taste better? Having something besides potato chips to dip it in!
That was the closest I came to getting pissed at the Sheraton service, but Stonershy had more opportunity to since he was in charge of paying for the hotel room. Basically it was smaller than expected and the staff weren't too keen on there being that many of us in at once, or rather, they didn't want us swarming the lounge area's food like locusts all at once.
I also had a couple of food items on the con, at least one of which was a couple of pastry items and a smoothie at Starbucks. It was alright.
WHAT I SPENT MY MONEY ON
I set myself a hundred dollars to spend on swag, but I only ended up getting fourteen pins and two commissions, one A.A. Milne-style card drawing from Katie Cook and one inked sketch from Low Key. I entertained fancies of getting a t-shirt or a plushie, but thanks to an embarrassing brain fart on my part, it was not to be. You see, I carry with me an incredibly useful smart phone, which I also used to surf the internet at the con. It was the only way I could get internet since it can do so through cell phone services and bypass the expensive con wifi. Problem is, I thought I lost my phone charger at the con on Friday night. So the solution I came up with was to go to the nearest Radio Shack and buy a new one. What's more, since it was so far away and I didn't want to spend any time further away from the con than I had to, I ended up taking a taxi. The end result? I spent $25 on the ride there and back and another $27 on the charger. The punchline to this whole outing is that, after I got back from the con, I emptied out my backpack and there was my original charger. Thank heaven the Richmond Radio Shack gave me a refund.
I have learned several lessons from that, including the importance of saving money, keeping track of my stuff, more thoroughly searching my bags, and not being so pathologically attached to the convention center. In the event that my friends and I attend the con again, I'll be better prepared this time.
Despite all of the annoyances, I had a ton of fun and a memorable experience, even if some of my fellows thought it fell short of previous years. 10/10 would go again.
STATE OF THE WRITER
Those of you who have followed me because of that one chapter of Once More with Feeling may have grown tired of waiting for the next one. It's coming, but I've never been a fast writer, not yet. The rough draft is nearly finished, and then I'll be showing it to friends for editing purposes. Hopefully that'll be soon enough.
yay I'm nice :D
You sir are correct
Here's to next year's con
*raises goblet*
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Goblet? Pfft, you wish you were that fancy.
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Thems some fancy words uh-huh
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you too buddy
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If the two of you are going to, um, cuddle, I recommend you do it in PMs.
I love reading ponies' reports on cons. They're always so fascinating, and it lets me imagine I was there for a minute as well, which I totally wasn't because I'm poorer than dirt.