Everfree Northwest Day 1 · 10:39am May 14th, 2016
7:30 am: Still can't sleep. Get out of bed, take shower.
8:30 am: Check computer.
9:15 am: Go to Denny's.
10 am: Regret going to Denny's.
10:40 am: Finally get back to room and change into real clothes for the day.
11:00 am: Make note of which episodes that Larson and Rogers worked on so I can reference it during panel to maybe ask for questions or elaborations from stuff they worked on.
11:15 am: Get to room for first panel. See Xepher and meet Pen Stroke.
11:20 am: Meet MA Larson and Amy Keating Rogers for the first time.
11:25 am: Listen to MA Larson serenade us with Kenny Rogers' The Gambler. Worry about cutting him off and thus don't join in on singing.
11:30 am: Writing Tips and Tricks starts.
11:35 am: Go through introductions. After Larson reels off all his episodes, Rogers admits she can't. Surreptitious attempt to pass Rogers my list of episodes she wrote fails. Feel mildly embarrassed for trying.
11:45 am: Gradually lose fear of fellow panelists.
12:30 pm: Finished first panel without making a total idiot of myself. Larson, Rogers, and Pen Stroke are all cool people.
12:45 pm: Go to fanfic mixer, meet a bunch of people randomly.
1:40 pm: Go to How to Write Girls panel being run by Heartshine, my lone writing panel as an audience member, to see Larson, Rogers, and...
1:43 pm: Where is GM Berrow?
1:46 pm: Still at the airport. But hey, Larson has her phone number!
1:49 pm: Well, she's going to have to cross the street and get in here. That's going to take a bit. So, might as well start.
1:52 pm: "How To Write Girls" panel ends with Rogers' "Women are people. Just write them like people," and story about how back in college, she wrote a play about a straight couple and turned them into a gay couple (without even changing the names - the former guy was renamed to George).
1:53 pm: Panel comes to sad realization that Spike, Shining Armor, and Discord are best-realized male characters on show. "Make fun of Spike, Worst Pony" panel begins.
2:00 pm: Panel reminds audience that girls are people.
2:05 pm: Deep existential horror as Rogers mentions having to write 12 different characters for show on Disney at the same time. 12! There is the distant sound of wailing and gnashing of teeth.
2:15 pm: GM Berrow arrives during another brief sojurn back on topic.
2:20 pm: Rogers regales us with tales of the days when she was in college and she wrote nothing but girls in plays for a while until she realized she was being silly and got over it, and now just writes mostly girls to try and balance things out a bit more.
2:25 pm: Organized Q&A of How to Write Girls panel.
2:30 pm: Panel scandalously mentions that stereotypes have a basic in reality, but notes that girls are indeed people still, just as they were earlier, and that just because there is a grain of truth to stereotypes doesn't mean they're, you know, universal or such.
2:40 pm: Some idiot asks confusing, poorly-formulated question about dealing with male misconceptions about menstruation and fighting stereotypes of PMS.
2:45 pm: End of panel.
2:48 pm: Realize there is not enough time between panels to eat lunch.
3:00 pm: I meet Razgriz and, I think, Grand Moff Pony around this time. They are cool people. Also meet some other writers as well, including Bronywriter.
3:15 pm: Criticism and Critique panel begins with WHOLE MESS OF PEOPLE.
3:30 pm: Question from audience member derails whole panel into talking about dialogue for 15 minutes.
3:45 pm: Xepher steers group back on topic.
4:15 pm: I feel slightly awkward realizing that a couple of people on the panel have not gotten to talk as much as the rest of us.
4:20 pm: Oh, well.
4:30 pm: Q&A time!
4:45 pm: Panel ends. Next panel is Dragon's Den, where the audience pitches story ideas at us. I meet Super Trampoline for the first time as the colorful fellow sits in the front row.
5:00 pm: Story pitches begin, with myself, Pen Stroke, Bronywriter, Xepher, and... someone else up there. The After's Author is the first one up, and we end up going into the difference between setting, story, arcs, ect.
5:10 pm: Super Trampoline's story pitch immensely improved by suggestion that main character is a Transformer crossbreed.
5:15 pm: Panel makes hopefully helpful suggestions to neat-sounding story pitch by Curse Chapman, the Warrior Scholar.
5:25 pm: Larry in the Coal Mine manages to pitch two stories to us. Tricksy.
5:35 pm: Madness pitches short story collection with interconnected theme between them. Panel chews on how it could be helped.
5:45 pm: Zeal pitches story about exploring west of Equestria (east was already taken). Panel speculates wildly about ideas for story, characters, ect. and makes note of potential ways to improve story's accessibility.
5:55 pm: Memecat101 pitches story about Chrysalis and Princess Cadance. I realize my energy levels are fading quickly. I need food badly.
6:05 pm: Fictatious pitches murder story idea. Feeling like I am about running on empty but try and help offer advice.
6:12 pm: Fourths pitches story which quickly devolves into political parody.
6:20 pm: WR3NCH proposes neat sounding-story about two snipers unknowingly sending letters to each other even as they hunt each other.
6:30 pm: Writing track group has been doing panels since 11 am. NEEDS FOOD BADLY.
6:45 pm: Group goes to Dave's Diner. Grand Moff Pony and his wife, Morning Sun, Xepher, Pen Stroke, Winston, Razgriz, and I all go. Several other people somehow vanish on route, possibly due to cannibalism.
7:30 pm: FOOD AT LAST.
8:00 pm: I am slowest eater. Grand Moff Pony and his wife stay behind to chat to me for longer. Had very nice chat.
8:30 pm: Return to middle of fanfic reading panel. I listen to one fanfic, but am feeling really tired and am not the best company.
9:00 pm: Hang out with people. Meet artist dude dressed up like Aladdin and get to read Ruirik's stuff (one of his stories is going to make everyone who reads it question "Why?"), look at his nice art, and read Zootopia comics.
9:45 pm: Go to bar to get drinks with Xepher, Grand Moff Pony and his wife, Ruirik, and Winston. I got a Diamond Tiara mocktail, as I don't drink alcohol. There were pony-themed drinks in the hotel bar, along with foal-themed mocktails for the CMC, Diamond Tiara, and Silver Spoon. The hotel apparently realized that it could sell lots of booze to bronies via renaming drinks. Ironically, Applejack ends up with a cocktail, despite being an alcoholic beverage already.
10:30 pm: Go back to author hangout. Hang out with a bunch of people.
1:30 am: Get in argument about international l trade agreements with people I don't even know.
1:50 am: Vacate author hangout so Xepher can, you know, sleep.
2:00 am: Find random empty place to write.
2:30 am: While writing this post, someone walks up to me and says I did a good job on panels and thanks me for my advice about setting deadlines for writing, making me super happy.
2:35 am: Morning Sun showed up and ranted at me for an hour while drunk about the universe (and made me say it). Also had a "righteous" cheeseburger from Jack in the Box.
3:27 am: Morning Sun wanders up to room to take shower before I do. Cheater. :(
3:37 am: Make blog post. Work on writing story at 3:37 am after having not slept since yesterday.
There is a bunch more - this is a retroactive blow-by-blow which is totally retrospective and not at all live, other than the Dragon's Den stuff, which I actually took notes on. I KNOW ALL YOUR SECRETS. Feel free to correct me or add anything I got wrong.
Being on panels was fun, and was a more enjoyable experience than sitting in the audience (says the guy who only was in the audience once). I still haven't hit the vendor halls.
There were a bunch of other people I met and some folks I hung out with. It was a swirling mass of people and bodies. Everyone so far has been very nice. I am a little hoarse from talking loudly about ponies all day.
Here's to day two!
Were there any scantily clad girl cosplayers there? The public needs to know!
3943597
No.
There was a scantily clad male cosplayer, if that makes you feel any better.
3943599
It does, actually.
I would be that guy, but you're over there in the west and I'm over here east in New York. Boo.
But, hey, if you come to New York and go to OUR con, you can come take pictures of yourself with me in this ill-fitting Elsa costume I got off EBay.
3943599
Only Super Trampoline.
What about
11:21 am: SQUEEE!
Yeah, this sounds like your typical con experience. Now you get your 4 hours of sleep and do it all again!
3943781
I did not squee at them, actually. I managed to be calm, cool, and collected and did not giggle and clap.
I was pretty excited to see them, but it was more the BIG SMILE ON THE OUTSIDE AND INSIDE.
3943809
I got five hours of sleep and am now going to go grab some food and hit the vendor halls, as I still have not bought a single piece of pony merch, and that seems... wrong.
Going to have to get at least like, a plushie or something.
I meet Titanium Dragon for the first time as the intimidating metal wyrm hovers above us puny mortals, offering story suggestions.
3944134
Well, that's good then. A rule I heard during a con orientation panel I went to many, many years ago during my first con was the 4-2-1 rule; each day get at least 4 hours sleep, 2 meals, 1 shower. Do that, you should have a pretty good con all around.
Look forward to seeing what kind of merch you can get. Get a custom picture, throw some money some artist's way as well, always appreciated.
3944146
I managed to avoid eating anyone until after the panels ended. They said I couldn't get any blood on my community guest badge.
3944147
I got 5 hours of sleep, 2 meals, and 2 showers today. Way ahead of the curve!
As for merch... I got some today. I'll have to take a picture, though one thing is a holographic poster that likely won't show up properly.
3944146
So his human guise...was ONLY A CLEVER RUSE?!
Blast it! [Slams fist on table] I've been had!
He played me like a fiddle!!
I don't exactly remember what I said about the universe.
But that burger was righteous!
It was actually I who floundered out the political parody. Woop.
That was my saturday morning.