Everfree Northwest Days 2 & 3 · 5:27am May 17th, 2016
I wanted to write up a “Day 2” and “Day 3” blog post, but, frankly, I was too tired to do either. But I took notes, so CLEARLY THIS IS TOTALLY CROMULENT.
Day 2 started with me going to Taco Bell for breakfast and getting some box thing for $5. It was actually fairly decent – I don’t get why people complain about Taco Bell. Sure, it only has like five ingredients, but they’re decent ones.
I realized that Day 2 had few events I was actually all that interested in. Consequently, day 2 became the time for me to go visit the vendor hall.
And what a hall it was! Being a Community Guest meant that I could just walk by the line and get in. Which was good, because I didn’t even realize there was a line to get in. I mean, I saw a line in the hall, but like, why would you have to wait in line for a vendor hall?
I later realized it was meant to avoid overcrowding.
As I had little panel-wise I wanted to do that day, I just spent most of the day bumming around the vendor hall and talking to various artists. I spent a while at Tsitra360’s booth; they were pretty cool, and it was fun meeting them, as they’re a really awesome artist. I ended up buying a Sweetie Belle print from them, and that was pretty sweet.
The version I got is retouched a bit, and has her cutie mark. It is totally adorable.
They also had me do a “guess the button” game, and I ended up winning a Rarity button off of them.
I also spent a while talking to ImDrunkOnTea; they, too, were a cool person who were a lot of fun to chat with. They actually did a panel on Sunday that I ended up attending about drawing and coloring, and it was actually really useful; I’ve watched a lot of artists draw and color, but hearing an explanation of it as he did it was really neat.
I got a commission of Rarity hugging Applejack from him:
I dropped by a number of other artists’ booths. I went by Braeburned’s booth and ended up buying some buttons after spending far too long deliberating over them. I went by a few other booths that ended up with button buys as well. I also visited a booth which had some very nice Twilight Sparkle woodcuts.
And of course I went by Ruirik’s booth (yes, they really wear a fedora) and spent a while there. We actually spent a fair bit of time over the whole con hanging out, and I ended up buying some really nice coasters from him:
Along with a box to hold them in.
I also went by the Hasbro booth, which resulted in me buying this really awesome Coloratura holographic poster:
Sadly, it cannot be properly appreciated without physically being present; the holographic carpet and wall in the background have depth to them, making the poster look 3D even though it is totally flat. It is a really neat effect, doubly so because the carpet looks closer than the wallpaper background.
I spent some time at the booths of numerous other artists as well; a ton of folks were there, and all of them were nice and a lot of them were pretty interesting people.
I ended up spending a while talking to AquaticSun about RariJack, and they made me promise to send them links to my RariJack stories. Sadly, I did not end up buying any pictures of lesbian horse kisses from them. But here are some anyway, just because.
I also spent some time chatting with Viwrastupr (whose name is, apparently, a random string of characters) and Hobbes Maxwell, Questionable Pony Artist (who had one of my favorite business cards of anyone there). I likely spoke to a number of other folks whose names I, alas, didn’t note down in my GRAND NOTEBOOK.
I also got a digital commission from someone else of Celestia and Twilight which is, apparently, going to be 1-2 weeks out. That one is going to be fanfic cover art.
As mentioned previously, Day 2 had relatively few panels which actually interested me. That said, I did in fact take notes!
Interview With A Writer
With MA Larson and GM Berrow
Hosted by ILoveKimPossible
Part of the program schedule actually had me there for this panel, which meant I pretty much had to show up for it; fortunately, I was interested in it (and wasn’t responsible for the panel).
A few interesting things mentioned over the course of the panel:
Both GM Berrow and MA Larson thought that Rarity was easiest to write and Fluttershy was hardest. Why? Conflict. As MA Larson said:
“It’s not fun to throw rocks at Fluttershy.”
I think a lot of folks in the fandom can sort of see where this is coming from. Rarity is a very resilient character and fun to have react to stuff and put through the wringer; she’s strong, tough, and a ton of fun. Fluttershy, conversely, is someone who it is very easy to end up feeling sorry for. Moreover, she just has less interesting built-in conflicts, and they’re well-trodden ground, which is why she ends up with such repetitive plots; you have to really work to do something different with her.
Pinkie Pie falling apart at the end of The One Where Pinkie Pie Knows was unintentional. GM Berrow had written in the script “Pinkie Pie completely falls apart”, as in, you know, emotionally collapses. Someone decided to take it literally, and made it into “Pinkie Pie completely falls apart.”
“Where are my memes?” – GM Berrow
This clearly needs to be a meme. I’d really love to get a drawing of her ponysona (if she has one) asking this while surrounded by all the other memes for the other writers.
“No shipping.” – MA Larson
“Shipping is for the fans.” – MA Larson
He basically said that shipping was, well, for the fans, and both Berrow and Larson seemed to agree on that.
The Fifth Element is GM Berrow’s favorite film.
Larson based the scenes in Slice of Life with Lyra and Bon Bon on True Lies.
Larson gets blamed for a lot of pandering that other people stick into scripts.
Also, while I didn’t mention this about the day 1 stuff, he mentioned that he wasn’t very happy with the first Pennyroyal Academy book in retrospect; he felt like he could have written it a lot better. So apparently that book will now forever be his awkward first fic, full of clunky descriptions and exposition.
He knows our pain.
The other panel I went to was the “How To Write Cute” panel, which was not quite what I was hoping for. I actually ended up taking notes on that, too, but as I actually have a blog post I’m going to write about that topic Soon™, I won’t reproduce them here.
After sneaking off to eat for the first time ever at a Jack in the Box (a disappointing and rather overpriced experience), I managed to make it back in time to do a reading of My Fluttering Heart’s first draft in the open read and critique session. I got some pretty great feedback from the group, which included Xepher, Bookish Delight (who looks exactly like his avatar. The resemblance is uncanny!), Mudpony, and several other folks whose names escape me at the moment. I then gave feedback on a couple other folks’ stories, which was cool.
I spent the rest of the night hanging out with folks and grading Iron Pony writing entries, as well as writing a last-minute writeoff entry about an hour before it was due.
After that point, I totally crashed and slept in through the first panel on day 3.
Dawn of the Third Day
Day 3 started with me waking up at 10:20 and missing the first panel of the day – a panel that I actually really had wanted to go to, with MA Larson present. 
Fortunately, I wasn't on that panel. Still. Wanted to see it.
However, more problematically, I realized something terrible – I was totally peopled out. It had actually started the previous evening, with me having trouble focusing on folks, but day 3 had me pretty much falling inwards and struggling to actually pay attention to folks. I was just Done with a capital D. I’m not sure if it was just hanging out with people continuously for three days, lack of sleep, or what, but I was ead.
Still, I was there, and as long as I was there, I might as well try. Sorry if I seemed a bit off that last day.
I ended up going to a few panels. As mentioned before, I went to ImDrunkOnTea’s panel on drawing. I went to the Iron Author awards briefly, but I was kind of falling apart at that point and so ended up sneaking off to the Agents of MLP panel, which was actually quite interesting. I didn’t know much about talent agents before, but now I understand what exactly they do (and don’t do!), as well as who they work for. It is a weird industry, but I guess it sort of makes sense. Really, I’m not convinced what they do is universally necessary, but it also seems like there’s a lot of folks who probably genuinely do need their services, and unfortunately, the way the industry is structured, they sort of have built-in job security to some extent.
That said, I now know that many very important people will sign contracts without reading them. Including con contracts. This knowledge will definitely never be used for evil.
After that, I went to Pony Pictionary, which was pretty funny; Larson was hilarious, but so was Sweetie Belle’s VA, who was on his team and SUPER COMPETITIVE with Scootaloo’s VA (who wore an ugly yellow dress that was way too short to be standing on an elevated stage with). Team Scootaloo beat out Team Larson and Team IDW.
And then… I packed up, managed to speak to a few people to say goodbye, was unable to find a bunch of other people who I wanted to say goodbye to (sorry if I missed you; I did go looking ), and then… went home.
When I stopped at an Arby’s a few hours south of Seattle, the person there said I had a thousand yard stare.
But I have to say, despite my total crash on day 3, I still had fun for the con as a whole.
It was a blast getting to meet all you folks, and if I met you but didn’t mention it here, it isn’t because I didn’t think it wasn’t cool meeting you, because it was.
I’d like to thank Xepher for bringing me on as a community guest; it was really cool being on all those panels, and I loved doing them.
And I’d like to thank Thornwing, who I saw for all of five seconds all weekend, who apparently pushed for me to be a community guest there.
And really… thanks to everyone else who spoke to me, or came up to me and talked to me, or shook my hand, or asked a question at a panel, or whatever else.
And now I have to decide if I’m going to go to Bronycon in July. 
Have you been getting high and going to Taco Belle without me ? Naughty destroying wyrm!
No worries, TD. By day three of most any con, nearly everyone is running on fumes and/or on a caffeine drip to stay alert and active.
Still, I'll agree that it was a heck of a fun time, and it was great to finally meet you and talk some shop! I'm glad you got home safely, and I hope we'll meet again.
Heh, sounds like an a-typical con experience to me. Glad you had a good time, and nice haul of stuff you got there. The Sweetie poster is just too adorable.
3950142
Yeah, it was cool hanging out with you and Stephanie. You are good people.
3950135
No. Though there was at least one con-goer who shall remain nameless who decided it would be a good idea to eat a pot brownie.
3950159
I think you should try it. It'll be awesome and majestic to see a stoned dragon.
Hehe, I am peer pressuring you like that shady character in cheesy 80's anti Drug PSAs.
Hey, dragon, wanna buy some Majick? [Opens trenchcoat full of drugs]
I got BAGS full OF MAGIC.
3950186
I don't even drink.
3950189
Good, keep it that way. Alcohol is the shittiest drug.
I started drinking alcohol when I turned 18; been ridiculously drunk and regret my decision, mostly because I'm getting alcohol cravings when I get high now.
I prefer doing fun drugs, like shrooms and Mdma and weed. You should try those. They are splendiferous.
I am sorely tempted to go to Bronycon again this year. I've been telling myself I shouldn't cuz if I do, I will financially annihilate myself. Between the Canadian economy being turned to jank and life goals like buying a vehicle, I would set myself back quite a few anguishing steps and there would be much bitching coming from me. Oh so very much bitching.
But I really wanna meet people again in my awkwardly dorky way ie. stalking (cuz stalking sounds way cooler than simply following a person who you've actually gotten consent to hang around :3) Like a plecostamus adhering to aquarium glass, I would stick onto people like Bad Horse and hang on with all my sucking prowess. It was fun. Dorky, but fun. Man, I really want to do it again. Especially if new people like you are showing up. But fuuuuuuuuuuuuuck... life choices and shit. I mean, I could try next year where I ain't as financially screwed (maybe).
Well Titty D, if you end up going, here's some people you should definitely hang out with. Bad Horse and TheJediMasterEd. Like, I didn't speak too much cuz it was way more fun to observe them. They play off each other so well, talking about old school need stuff. Like, I didn't understand even half of what they were talking about or referencing, but you don't really have to get the mood and feel of it. It was happy. Ed breaks out into song a lot irl, kinda like he does on his blogs and comments. Randomly, I got invited to their hotel room to have a gander at an impressive present Ed gave BH. And I was totally not murdered in some dark ritual. I think that says a lot about BH.
Thornwing treated a bunch of people to a Brazillian meat restaurant at the end of Bronycon. People like Bradel, Skywriter, Skeeter the Lurker, and Gary Oak were there. Me and Axis of Rotation somehow managed to sneak in. It was my first time eating rare meat (my parents practically forbid me from partaking in it when I was growing up) and it was euphoric, more so than the one occasion I tried weed :P Like, I see why people like it so much. It makes for a nice treat on rare occasions. Also Gary Oak is disgusting and terrible and made me laugh so hard. His brand of humour is vulgar. I love it. Skeeter spent most of the time face palming cuz of Gary.
And Ferret. If she knows you, she will latch on. There is that.
Uhh... so yeah. Bronycon is worth it for the whole social experience thing. The biggest sinkhole is the vendors depending how good you are with funds. I was so bad, mostly cuz there's so many things Americans have that're sooooooo cool. Like one booth was this had metal works with ponies etched onto metal rings, lighters, flasks, and money clips. Randomly this guy was selling Magic and I was super tempted to buy an Underground Sea or two from him. Think they were $250 or $300? But fuck I never see them at the big hobby shop in Calgary. They get snapped up so fast. There is so much cool shit at the vendors ranging from printed T Shirts, messenger bags with prints, and the infamous Twilight's Secret Shipping Folder, where you are a terrible person just by playing it. So many wares it makes me drool. Like, I haven't attended any of the recent local conventions simply because of the amount I would spend at the vendors, and they don't have nearly as much cool shit as Bronycon.
Yeah, if you go, I'll strongly consider going. Then you, too, can say yamgoth stalked you. At least until Bad Horse showed up.
3950154 You too!
Fillies with glasses, pigtails, freckles and missing teeth for lisps' sake. Have them do stuff. It'll be great.
3950159 I'll have you know those were three 10mg pot candies. Comparing and contrasting my Saturday night experiences at BABSCon and EFNW, in the future I will definitely be seeking out Molly as my con drug of choice rather than marajuana.
On that note, thank you for weathering my high explanation of why most of my writing is so mediocre.
3950933
Hyou ahre hweedohr?!?! :O
Ok, that explains way too much. Especially the couple or so Writeoff entries of yours I recall reading.
I am actually wondering what the hell would happen if I got my stoner friends to read your fics, none of whom are Bronies. Like, what would they see?
I am questioning Foamy's sanity immensely if he reads pretty much everything you churn out.
3951014 don't understand that first line.
3951028
"You are weedohr?"
Cultist-Chan accent is most adorable and most mind gratingly annoying.
The weedohr part comes from one of my best friends, who likes making up words cuz lol random. I shouldn't have let him watch that Sizzlohr episode of Invader Zim on the planet of Food Courtia. Such words are now seared into my head
3950279
That he doesn't need powdered moth wings for his dark rituals?
Huh, I never knew he was a cannibal. It's always the quiet ones.
The entire duration of the How To Write Cute panel I was holding back the irrepressible urge to just go, "you guys need any help? I can come up there. Cause you are floundering up there. And this is my exact specialty and cute is literally all I write. Also, this is also just turning into the Pony Psychology panel all over again no seriously why do you have the guy known for serial killer ponyfic hosting this thing sure he's good at what he does but it's like contracting Platinum Games to develop a point-and-click adventure--
Ah well. Fun times meeting each other at the con, dude.
I get what you mean about being peopled out. That always happens to me after Day 2, sometimes sooner! Especially with Everfree's atmosphere (which is great, it's just there's a lot of... mental stimuli, more than an anime con or something). I've found it's best to just do a balance of panels you can veg out in and not have to socialize too much, recharge at those, then do the people thing again.
Finally, I wish I'd been at the Girl Writing panel/Spikemageddon. I heard the legends after the fact--it sounded morbidly spectacular.
Think you'll be around next year?
3951204
Yeah...
To be fair, I think it actually started out fairly decently, and then after they outlined a handful of points, it just went completely off the rails.
One of the things I actually tried to avoid doing on my panels, ironically, was using my own stories as examples. The reason why was that I felt like every time someone else did that, I winced a little. It just felt so... self-centered, I guess? I dunno. I get talking about stuff you do in your own stories, but a lot of it ended up coming off as "I did this awesome thing" rather than as a really good example.
The cute panel seemed to be the one which suffered the most from that.
I actually didn't even go to the pony psychology panel because I kind of guessed it might end up going weirdly.
Did you read my summary of the panel?
It was beautiful, man.
Poor Heartshine. She had all these really... big questions she asked, but she struggled to really articulate them as questions, and really, in the end, the whole thing sort of... got answered within the first three minutes, and there wasn't really anywhere to go from there on the actual original topic of "how to write girls".
Bookplayer had some interesting thoughts on writing girls in her response to that blog post, and I think it really illustrated the core issue with the panel.
On the upside, I actually did shout some questions from the crowd which got the ball rolling again, and eventually lead into a Q&A panel.
There was some interesting stuff there, but it was buried between a whole mess of awkward, and very little of it was actually about helping people write female characters.
I think so! I did have fun, after all, and Seattle isn't so far away (I actually drove there and back on a single tank of gas).
Incidentally, what do you think is your best cute story? I haven't read a whole lot of your stuff.
3951276
Yeah, BP's kind of absolutely not wrong there. With any of that. That post is great.
Speaking as someone who's been going there since Year One, the writing/meta panels this year tackled much higher concepts than in previous years. I was surprised to see the con schedule. Some of them hit (i loved the writer interview panel, and the programming panel, and for my cash the LGBTQ panel was probably the secret highlight of the con), some of them missed (two. hours. of serial killer ponies at 10 in the morning. >_< at least it was hosted by professionals who knew their stuff?), but I'm glad they did what they did and none of them sounded like complete busts. Next time out I'm sure they'll go even better.
Probably the cutest thing I've written in a long time is this thing. I tend to do more heartwarming and character study, and just weave cute into it, than things that are expressly cute.
Believe you answered that yourself
1. "I realized that Day 2 had few events I was actually all that interested in. Consequently, day 2 became the time for me to go visit the vendor hall."
2. "And what a hall it was!" - so much cool stuff.
Though my reasons were different than those two. The fine people from The Paper Pony Place had shown me how to pop open my best pony shadowbox so I could get it signed, so I went back to show the results to them (there's a picture of it on their twitter), and one of the vendors had also asked me to get a signature for one of their friends, which I did, so I needed to drop that off. Which I did.
Anyway, I got in without any line when I first arrived on Saturday. But after I got some stuff signed , then I had to wait in line to get back in. Wasn't that bad though, as the line moved at a decent enough clip and you had people to talk to.
Yup. Fire code.
Chatted with him as well. Those coasters were pretty cool, but sadly, he hasn't made any DT or Silver Spoon ones. Else I'd have picked up a set as well, though a CMC and terrible twosome one. Hopefully he'll have the terrible twosome as an option next time around and I too can have nifty coasters.
By the way, the Head to Headcanon panel was a lot of fun, so if they have that again the next time and you're looking for something to do, it was a good way to kill two hours. Some people struggled a bit with their questions, going a bit too much into the details, and one of the panelists wasn't really into it, but overall, lots of silliness and fun.
Good times. And I suppose I should probably follow another person or two now, what with having met them in person.
3951276
I wonder if it is because you don't really think about it too much when you're doing it? I mean, for me, it is mostly just "I get an idea for a cute scene in my head, then I try to put it into words." Sometimes that idea is there right away; other times it comes on a second pass. And beyond that, well, obviously, with cute you're trying to get an emotional reaction, so my nemesis "show, don't tell" plays a big part.
But to try to teach others? God, you would have to put in some prep time. Go looking through your favs for cute stories/moments and analyze them, figure out what makes them cute. And you would probably want examples of what didn't quite work, as seeing why it didn't would most likely provide some illumination on why other cases do work. And for that sort of thing, you'd probably want to use your own stuff, or at least that of people you know well enough to okay it before hand...
Mudpony: "And now, I will demonstrate what doesn't work as far as cuteness goes, by showing how Titanium Dragon screwed the pooch. Repeatedly. He can't really help it... he ships RariJack." *ducks for cover*
Or else the moderator/leader of the panel would need to really steer the panel. Have a few ideas for scenes jotted down ahead of time, different types that would seem to require different methods to accomplish the goal, and then ask the panel how to make them cute.
Although, I guess, for any sort of teaching panel, you would need to invest time before hand.
3951437
What did they end up discussing at the LGBTQ panel? I'm curious now, seeing as you felt it was totally awesome.
3952911
Yeah, I agree about the cute stuff. Honestly, I've actually been doing some research into cuteness, and how to write cute (drawing cute is something we figured out how to do in like, the 1940s), so I was keenly interested in the panel.
Amusingly, Xepher wouldn't let me know the questions for the first panel with Larson and Rogers ahead of time so I wouldn't have an unfair advantage over them, as they weren't required to prep for the panel.
3952965 Seems to be people think it is mostly just about finding the right mix of certain traits. Of the ones that go beyond looks:
Emotional vulnerability
Clumsiness
Eagerness
Naivete/innocence
But even what I read is pretty vague in terms of how to utilize it, though I guess you can probably wing it when you need it. Want to cute up a touch of romance scene, add some emotional vulnerability/innocence with a blush/look away move, or perhaps a bit of eagerness/verbal clumsiness with some say the wrong things speech. Want an assistant to be cute? Go all Runt to the helpee's Rita or Pinky to the Brain... a nice mix of eagerness and clumsiness/innocent-stupidity.
Maybe just mod prep would be the best way to handle that sort of panel. Describe a scene, then ask a panel member what they'd do to make it cute, and then analyze it and make suggestions with the panel as a whole. Perhaps asks the audience for scenes a bit later. But even then, I wonder how long it would be before it got a bit repetitious. Might actually not be a bad way to write a blog entry on it... Get together with another person, toss scenarios at each other and make with the cuteness, then discuss what was done, and what the thought process was behind it.
3952956
Bullet list because I am still the most tired person in existence right now:
- Hosted by a really fun lesbian couple (Magpiepony and TheLostNarrator--I've checked out their stuff since and I really like it!). They shared their adventures in videomaking, how they got together amidst said videomaking, and what their family and personal lives were throughout the whole thing. Really heartwarming stuff with a lot of sympathetic moments too.
- Lots of audience participation
- The high acceptance of LGBTQ people and mindsets in the fandom
-Ponies are really good at turning people gay (hilariously tongue-in-cheek, trust me)
- Nah seriously tho, it's totally cool to be a guy and into the pink stuff, and we get how you might be scared to share this fact with others
- The rampant amount of lesbian subtext between the characters (i.e. wanna be a shameless shipper? this was your panel). Gay dude ponies happened too--hell, there was a couple in the audience dressed as their ship of Caramel and... one of the B-list Wonderbolts whose name I don't remember. They were nothing but fun.
- Shippin' fanfic and stuff
- Life stories shared about growing up/coming out/living as gay/lesbian/etc.
- Lots of stories shared by people all over the US (the Hawaiian dude was a total boss)
- No one shunned (were you straight/cis? no one cares it's all good)
- Lots and lots of love, support and encouragement from everyone present
- Panel ran almost a half-hour past end time cause nobody wanted to leave
Perfect way to end the night--a near-overdose of the positivity I come to pony for in the first place.
3950142
The trick is to enjoy lots of alchohol and have an infinite supply of Pinkie Pie Party Power.
And really the alcohol is optional. I do wonder hypothetically how many days of congoing I could do before I burned out. As long as I had friends to hang with I think it'd take at least 3 weeks, though ever 3-4 days I'd probably take a 3 hour afternoon nap to recharge.
That's the other secret. If you feel beat? Just go nap in the hotel room for a couple hours.
Oh also thanks for being a chill roommate! Always glad to be calm and drama-free in Ye Olde Rooming Sphere and you were great in that respect!
3955614
Really, the rooming situation worked out pretty well all-told. Though I hardly interacted with the musician at all; I don't even remember his name. And I only barely interacted with Mr. Guard with an Alicorn OC.
It all worked out pretty well. We were a drama-free environment. But I think that 90% of the time there were multiple people in the room, they were asleep, so as long as no one snored too loudly, it wasn't too much of a problem.
3955616
SOMEONE was a heavy snore-er, but I couldn't tell if it was you or Mr. Guard. And I have no idea if I do or not for the obvious reason of 'I am unconscious at the time'
3955624
Well, I know he snored, but I'm not sure if I'd define it as "heavy snoring", so I can't really resolve that mystery, I'm afraid.
What, really? BronyCon?
I'll be there, please go. XD
3994437
That's the plan~