Grab Bag: Me, BronyCon, and even some of that story stuff you really care about · 9:54pm Aug 23rd, 2015
Personal Stuff
No news is good news in my life. The stability I experience from time to time is appreciated. On the good news front, my wife was called back to work as a library aide at an elementary school. That meant getting the Twilight Sparkle Read poster out of storage. My son, BlueBook, finished up his internship with the local historical society. Now he's got to complete a paper on his experience, meaning he's unlikely to finish up a little SoL he's been intermittently working on. I'll keep prodding him, but he's heading back to school in the last weekend of August.
And for me, the fine, fine folks I work for not only keep paying me, but they got me some help. He's a nice young fellow, and I've delighted in appalling him with explanations of the horrors in the twelve-year-old app we are dissecting. Together, we've been doing a great un-writing with much success. The only downside is that he had a bad experience with a Brony at his previous job. Not that I'm obnoxious, but I try to keep that aspect low key in our interactions.
At home, I've got to get back to literal home work. The last two winters I've been neglectful of too many tasks. Summer's over, and it's time to get things done on the weekends and still not neglect my reading and writing. Feel free to remind me of it—I respond well to guilt.
Now, on to things you might actually care about.
BronyCon 2015
Yeah, BlueBook and I went. I only told one person here beforehand, and I've hesitated writing about my experiences there for a while. No, nothing terrible happened. BlueBook had a great time, while I'd say I had an interesting time.
After a shockingly uneventful and speedy trip, we arrived midday on Friday, early enough to make some panels I thought we'd miss. After a contentious check-in at the hotel, we got to our room and Bronied-up, before heading to the nearby convention center, where we breezed through getting our badges. We also got the social interaction tags we'd heard about: BlueBook wore his green card out, while I had yellow showing.
The only new show folks I saw were Charlotte Fullerton and Nicole Oliver. Everyone else I'd seen either at Canterlot Gardens or TrotCon. We made all the writing panels we could, and the only thing we missed—and we'd really wanted to make—was the John de Lancie panel on Saturday. We learned our lesson about queuing early at big cons.
A few things were bought. No autographs, but I would have if Tabitha St. Germain had been there.
An alicorn infestation on our mantel. Luna was given to BlueBook in 2014. Celestia was purchased at BronyCon 2015
Most BronyCon attendees on FimFiction described their experience using the term amazing or some other superlative. My "amazing" experience, despite numerous issues, was CG back in 2012, because it was my first pony con, and I was a newly minted fan. Going to that con and two TrotCons in the years following certainly affected my perception. I'm not really that social, so I either have to deal with a very small group of people or a really big group where I can disappear. If the group's not the right size, I get anxious and end up saying stupid things, so I tend to avoid those situations. For example, I dropped by Quills & Sofas on Sunday and hovered outside the door. It was crowded for me and I didn't recognize anyone there, yet alone knowing what to say to them. I watched for a while and left.
That tends to leave me feeling like an observer at a convention, rather than a participant. Certainly, I was at BronyCon. And it's me, not the venue or the attendees: I saw no rudeness and so many, many people having fun. I need to work on being more social, but given the minute progress I've made, I'll need a miracle to get much better. I'll try anyway, at least as soon as I stop hearing the lyrics to Creep in my head.
But, would I—we—go back? A definite maybe. Cost would be a determinant: I told BlueBook that next time he's paying. And if we did, I think we'd get in Thursday night and do all-day Friday and Saturday, and then head home on Sunday.
Random BronyCon things
- I introduced myself to BP and saw most of the SAs live. Spoiler: They are much larger in life, and TMF is not an actual ferret.
- My wife made us both felt ears. BlueBook wore his. I didn't (please don't tell her).
- To my surprise, I don't think I was the oldest person there.
- As you can see, I bought one of those Aurora Celestia plushies so I could be one of the cool kids. Also, best princess.
- The Enterplay boxes were a steal at $5 each. I got a Luna and a Derpy, I purchased the Rarity box long ago. I needed them to store other pony things. As I only wanted the boxes, the game cards went to my co-worker's daughter who collects but doesn't play. She also got one of those mini-Pinkie plush toys, because that's her best pony.
- Baltimore's waterfront is cool and so alive, even on a Sunday night. Our city wants something like that (we even have a submarine of the same class BlueBook tells me) but we can't seem to get it together, despite trying for a quarter century.
- One should carry water when walking around noontime when it's 80º plus outside. We hiked to the B&O Railroad Museum on Sunday, just barely getting back to the con for closing ceremonies.
- My only regret was not getting a FimFiction hat. I have no idea where I'd wear it, but it would be cool.
Story Progress or Lack of Same
While I'm not entirely happy with my progress, I've made some. I tried to work on my hippogriff story over the family vacation, really I did, but if I said I edited more than a paragraph or two or added three sentences, I might be exaggerating. The last week has seen me actually get some parts of it feeling done-done, and I spent an hour or two on it this morning. It felt good. Really good. The book I've been reading has helped quite a bit in pulling it together. Without me applying some of the tips, the story felt like a jumble of parts.
One morning I was playing around in my head and decided to do some description: Take an object and describe it and its setting. That lead to another story, very short, that is actually in a complete, first draft. It is not appropriate for this time of the year, so I'm tucking it away at the moment. I've added a calendar reminder to pick it up again in November, with an expected release of December.
Lost needs work. I will say no more other than I intend to address it.
For old, old, incredibly old stories, I've still got more changes to Property of West Wind. All the existing chapters got a hose down over the summer. I failed to wrap up Doc and Shorty's story: A short extension to the last chapter, now renamed Promises, should fix that. In addition, I hope to add a new chapter near the head of the story, a letter written by Mr. Tock. Reader's comments indicated I didn't adequately communicate his relationship with his nephew and sister as well as the pressure he was under. The diary entries and the conversation with Main Spring were supposed to have done that, but I botched it. This letter will split the first diary chapter in half which, I hope, will make it the entire story more digestible: I lose 26% of the readers by the third chapter.
The new pieces await proofreading. I hope to return to them after I have a complete draft of Hippogriff.
TL;DR
I'm still alive and still at it.
Best wishes to all of your returning to school. And to all, thanks for reading.
It was great meeting you and Blue Book in person, oldster, though I suspect I was a little awkward. I definitely got a few introvert vibes from you, and I think they reminded me that I'm pretty introverted myself when I'm not around people I've already met in the flesh. Happy to hear that you at least didn't have a negative experience otherwise, even if you weren't as pleasantly overwhelmed as it sounds like you would have liked to have been.
And I hear you about Quills and Sofas. It seems to get more crowded every year—two years back, it was a great place to meet (and even hear the odd impromptu lecture from) other writers, and since then it's seemed to balloon into more of a general social space for creatives. I still find it somewhat enjoyable (and at least convenient) myself, but it's certainly less personal and more loud, sadly.
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The inability to look at people I'm talking to gave it away, didn't it?
Observing can be fun. We stood on the balcony overlooking the escalators on Friday afternoon, watching everyone drift in and get their bearings. Much fun was had watching the cosplayers, and sometimes guessing what they were shooting for. A few even spied us and we waved to them: a comfortable interaction for an introvert.
I think I headed towards Q&S because Applejinx said he'd be there.
Hmmm. Perhaps the latter is an issue affecting me. I've got mild tinnitus: The mosquito that follows me is just ten feet tall. Although I can blame at least a half-dozen life choices for it, I suspect there is a strong genetic component, as my father had similar issues.
When I stopped by Q&S, swarms of people sat around the tables, drawing I think. If I'd known, I'd have practiced my fat pony beforehand.