BABSCon Recap · 5:40am Apr 23rd, 2014
Okay, last BABSCon post, I promise, then I'll get back to writing! But I'd be remiss if I didn't record all the awesome times that were had this past weekend.
So I got in late Thursday night, and didn't know anyone really. Just had a couple beers and a burger at the (overpriced) hotel bar. Next morning, went across the street and had an omlette by myself before heading to opening ceremonies. Opening was actually much better than I expected, and the "skit" was actually kind of amusing.
After that, ended up in the Brony Aerospace panel. This was an entire weekend of talking magic horses, yet somehow THIS was the WTF moment for me. These guys apparently have five full-time employees and a working jetpack already. After an hour panel, they'd explained goals for sending stuff to the moon and further within the next few years, and are completely serious about their goals. Sounded pretty pie-in-the-sky to me, yet at the same time, they seemed to actually understand the challenges involved. I mean, I take it all with a grain of salt, but... the optimist in me likes to think just what if... what if the first private moon landing really was run by a bunch of bronies? Wouldn't that be just awesome? Surely stranger things have happened, too.
Following that, got in line for the "How to Draw Ponies" panel. Standing in line, I met a guy and we started talking. He knew more about art than I did, and was giving me tips and the like. Other random people kept coming up to him and saying hi, so I figured he was local or something. Ended up hanging out with him the rest of the day, and he insisted on trying to give me some tips and practice on sketching stuff. I've got a long ways to go, but it was definitely helpful to practice. Finally asked him why everyone knew him... turns out, yeah, horse famous, but not for art (which he's also good at) but for music, as DrSentenial so go check out his channel!
Both of us were too exhausted to really enjoy the music that night, but we ducked in and out a few times, and I got introduced to way more people than I can remember, and having sketch supplies thrust into my hands, was given more art instruction as well. Good times all around!
Saturday started way too early, but I went to the writer panel and the VA panel. While pretty much all the VIPs up there seemed cool, I didn't get much out of either. Mostly both were big QA sessions, and the few good questions were ones that couldn't be answered for reasons of spoilers or the like. The bad questions... *cringe* Well, you know how it can be in this fandom. Thankfully I was here for the fandom, and not the actual show people, so no real loss there.
After the VA panel, finally managed to meet up with my fellow EFNW staffer, Horizon and went to lunch with him, Bradel, Benman, and Jesse T. Lunch quickly turned to organizing a last-minute fanfic writer/reader meetup. Lacking proper con space, we went with my room for location, and before I knew it, we had the best event (IMHO) of the con in my hotel room!
Over the course of about four hours, we had nearly every fanfic author at the con there. We took a picture at one point too.
From left to right (by center of face): Super Trampoline, Pen Stroke, xjuggernaughtx, totallynotabrony, electreXcessive, horizon, Andrew Joshua Talon, Xepher (Me), Ebon Mane, Leonzilla. Others who missed the picture but not the party include: ocalhoun, Bradel, BronyWriter, Law Abiding Pony, Statoose, Benman, DustyPwny, and Regidar.
If you stopped by and I forgot you, let me know!
The party/meetup was awesome. Seriously, I think it was perhaps the highlight of the whole weekend for me. First off, we had booze! (Thanks, Horizon!) More importantly though, it was just really cool to be able to sit around with a lot of other authors and talk honestly about writing ponyfic. There were a ton of good conversations, and it was really, really cool to have such discussions in person and as a group. There were a lot of smart people in that room.
The room party ended 9-ish, and Horizon and I wandered down to the open party Further Confusion was throwing in their suite. More free booze (suggested donations to charity.) They had a DJ, a bar with a menu, and a great set up for a party. Met more people there and enjoyed talking with all sorts. It's been a while since I've been around other furries, and to be honest, I was slightly worried it'd be a more "creepy" sort of party. My fears were completely unfounded though, and it was just a great time overall.
Sufficently drunk at this point, I returned to my room to drink some water and chill for a minute. Saw that bottles of alcohol were still there, and decided to pour one more drink, and took it with me to the dance floor (probably a bad idea.) Met Horizon downstairs and went in to enjoy some music. Now, I'm not normally much for dancing, especially not EDM or anything, but... well, alcohol is magic, so I was bouncing around like a fool. Loved it! Kept spilling my drink though, so Horizon grabbed it and finished it off for me, which helped.
Took a few breaks from the music, and outside someone had a laptop setup with Fighting is Magic going, so played a few rounds of that too. Shame it got canned, as even that early build was pretty solid.
Sunday... ugh. Good thing I didn't manage to finish that last drink, because I had too much. Got up and hit the fanfic as literature panel. Interesting group discussion format, instead of standard panel/QA thing. Ran into Bradel and Horizon afterwards and ended up going to lunch with Bradel. Cool guy, and very interesting to talk to. Later, I ran into xjuggarnaughtx again, and had some more conversation with him. Likewise an interesting guy to talk with. Nearby Statoose was giving out his "Free Hugs" with a sign. Guess he got nearly 200 of them over the course of the con.
After that, started saying goodbye to people. Horizon and Bradel took off, and I luckily ran into DrSentenial and got to say adios to him as well. After that, killed an hour waiting around for closing cermonies. Way less interesting than opening ones, and of course a little melancholly as well, after such a fun weekend. From there, headed to the airport to wait the four more hours until my flight. Got lucky there too though, and ran into someone else with a late flight. Turned out to be BronyWriter, but with a hat, so I almost didn't recognize him from the party the night before. We got to chat a while and kill time in the airport, and got some really mediocre burgers there as well before finally saying goodbye to San Franciso.
Last off, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention loot! The vendor and artist halls were impressive, with some really cool art on display, as well as some surprising things like an actual, permanant tattoo place, another doing custom 3D printing, some really cool etched pints, mugs, and shot glasses, really cool papercut shadowboxes, and some awesome plush designs, including some "life size" ponies. Sadly, I don't have a place (or budget) for most of those.
That said, I picked up a couple of small original paintings for Dusk Watch (who couldn't make the con) from sophiecabra
$40 and $35 respectively. High in my opinion, but they are original paintings, not prints, and Dusk really wanted them!
For myself, I picked up three awesome posters. One was the "Neighhem 2014" music poster for the con, by SouthParkTaoist for $5, and so worth it. The version I got doesn't have the artist names though, so actually looks a bit cleaner, IMHO.
Second one was this Toothless, from How to Train Your Dragon. $15 from Tsitra360
And my favorite find was this CMC Propaganda-style poster. It was printed on super thick, textured paper as a one-off. And it was only $10 too! I lost the card I got with the URL for the artist, but google image search came to the rescue and I found 'em, sofas-and-quills
All in all, the weekend was amazing. I showed up not really knowing anyone or having any friends to even get breakfast with. I'm also very introverted normally, and it's hard for me to really just talk to strangers, especially in big groups and stuff. Yet I managed to break through that, and by the end of the weekend, I felt like I'd spent near every waking moment with people I'd be glad to call friend. Yes, I'm going to say the cliche, "Friendship is Magic" but it's never quite as evident as when you really make new friends at something like this. Just being able to socialize with so many people that share similar interests was great. I honestly could have skipped every panel, and never so much as glimpsed a VIP guest, and it would still have been one of the most enjoyable weekends ever. The fans are what make this fandom so great. The artists, musicians, writers, etc. that are all just people like me, living in a creative world of magic talking horses for some reason I may never fully understand, but I love it all the same!
And yes, now I'll get back to writing the next chapter!
It was very nice getting to meet you!
...damn, I feel like I should be able to say something more interesting than that. This bodes ill for my own ability to get some decent writing done tonight.
So I take it you're the guy in the blue shirt? That's what I'm getting from your left to right directional instruction...
2037604 Heh... yeah. Don't you love it when you call yourself a writer, then can't come up with words? BronyWriter and I were laughing about that at the airport when he couldn't remember the word "vendor" when talking about "that place where I bought all this cool stuff."
2037635 Yup, short hair, blue shirt, glasses. That's me!
2037661
So exactly how many people were wearing glasses? seems like there's a lot of 'em in the pic, and I happen to know BronyWriter wears them too.
Those ten minutes I spent in the room were what I needed for that day. Thank you.
I've got to say I'm a little surprised at the introvert thing. I didn't get that from you at all.
Oh, and he's Statoose, though he's really too nice to probably mind.
Definitely the best party of the weekend. Such horse words.
Gah! I'm so used to these avatars that I expected you to be an actual snow leopard!
2038808 2037706 Thanks, and you're welcome! Starting to actually understand why Pinkie likes to throw parties.
2039276 Heh, yeah... that was one of the odd things about the weekend. I could walk right past people I might know, by their pseudonym and/or avatar, and have no idea. You can't visually recognize people in this fandom until you've actually been to a few of these things I think.
2038657 Did I misspell his name? Or are you saying the italics are what I missed?
As for being introverted... A lot of people tell me they'd never have suspected. But I really am. However, I've somehow managed to compensate with the logical parts of my brain. Probably helps that I write of course, but in my head, I know what a non-introverted, "normal" person would do and say in various situations, and I just make myself do that instead of running away and hiding in the corner like all my instincts are telling me. That said, once I get through this sort of mental barrier with people/situations, my r-cortex finally shuts up, then I can relax, stop acting and legitimately enjoy socializing. One of the reasons I really enjoyed this weekend (and fandom) was that it was all "strangers" yet everyone was friendly, so getting past the mental block and actually breaking the ice with people was relatively easy, and rewarding too.
2039746 Yeah, you've got him up there as "Tatoose."
I went through a similar change in my life, though it seems to be permanent. Up until about the age of thirteen, I was pretty timid and shy. When I got to high school, I decided I'd had enough of that and I just decided to be forward. I've been that way ever since, and it has made me a lot happier. I'm still kind of asocial at heart, but I'm good at just diving in there and being social when the time come.
It really has to do with subject matter. I hate small talk, so if I don't know anyone and I have nothing to talk about, then I'm pretty quiet. If I do have something to talk about, as was evident at BABScon, you can't shut me up.
2039772 Doh! Totally missed the second reference to him. Fixed now.
And yeah, I used to be way worse as a kid, and especially before high school. Now it's mostly just breaking the ice to start conversations that I have trouble with, and even then, only at time. Charge ahead, plow through, and it usually works out shortly afterwards. But it's things like six hour drives to pony conventions that really give my brain way too much time to over think and try to revert to being a ten-year-old again.