May
24th
2019
Somewhat Mopey Everfree Northwest Retrospective · 1:39am May 24th, 2019
"For you, the day Bison graced your village was the most important day of your life. For me, it was Tuesday." ~M. Bison, Street Fighter (1994)
I had a good time at Everfree Northwest. I did not have a great time.
Let's start with some good things:
- I got to go this year, although my finances are now a mess.
- I made it onto the bus in LA, and all subsequent connections and transfers, including Monday back into Long Beach Airport so I could go directly to a Long Beach ska party my band was playing that evening.
- I got to give my friend her bass guitar back in Portland, and hang out with her and her fiance for a bit.
- I got to see my aunt in Portland and stay the night at her place (Where I did more procrastinating on finishing horn parts for a ska show my band played on Monday in Long Beach, thus continuing the sleep deprivation)
- I successfully "snuck" onto staff for the second time and as of the end of the con, am no longer on the staffing blacklist (I was there for bullshit reasons anyway, which I'm too lazy type out another whole 200 words about, but which you are welcome to ask me about the next time you see me in person.). This also meant I'm going to get my badge comped, and I got free food from the staff lounge, although Everfree's Staff Lounge had a "no meals, only snacks" policy, so it wasn't quite as swell as BABSCon's. Knowing I might not make it onto staff, I bought a bunch of food with my EBT card in Weed California on the way up.
- My "job" for staffing this year was mostly just patrolling the second floor halls as sort-of-security, which let me carry my ukulele while I walked and work with Ponytones on stuff while patrolling, something that wouldn't have been possible in my usual A/V side panel operator position I do at most cons.
- A friend let me sleep on the couch in his hotel room for free Friday and Saturday night. I plan to throw some money his way once my finances are better. Thank you deeply to all those who signal boosted my quest for a room.
- I was able to sleep on a couch in a hallway Sunday night, and no hotel staff accosted me.
- I was able to practice for my ska gig on the hotel piano Monday morning.
- For the first time, I utilized Twitter to recruit people to sing with the SoCal Ponytones, which was good because lots of regular Ponytones couldn't make it for various reasons this year. A lot of Brony musicians were down to sing with us, although not all of them were able to for various reasons.
- An expansion of that is that I now have an inroad into working my way into the Brony musicians community.
- The SoCal Ponytones didn't suck any more than usual despite a variety of mishaps and mistimings. Props especially to 4EverfreeBrony for learning so many different parts on the fly.
- I saw lots of fanfiction and general friends.
- I finally got to compete in the Iron Author writing competition.
- I got to hear Scootaloo and Luna are on Fire (E-Rated Edition so Andre Can Read It At His Everfree Northwest Bad Fanfiction Panel) read at a bad fanfiction panel.
- I started a silly story collab idea with Georg and Czar_Yoshi. More details on that soon.
- I had a good heart to heart with Xepher, EFNW writing track head.
- I sold the [REDACTED] I bought specifically to sell at the con.
- Unlike at many cons, the vendors were allowed to sell stickers, so I bought some stickers.
- I met new cool people, including Waffles on the shuttle to the airport.
On the other hoof:
- I was sick the week before the con, making my finances worse.
- I procrastinated heavily on packing and finishing Ponytones parts in the days leading up to the con, going on multi-hour Wikipedia binges and masturbating incessantly. I was so sleep deprived from this that not only did I miss work on Wednesday, but...
- I missed my bus from Orange County to LA. I fell asleep while packing and woke up 20 minutes before it was supposed to depart, having done hardly any packing. Thank Celestia there was a 3.5 hour layer in LA, so I was able to finish packing and have my friend drive me to Union Station. There went $40 out the window. (I later learned, in time, that I was actually supposed to be at the nearby Greyhound Station.)
- I was already super sleep deprived by the time the con came around, and I never get enough sleep at cons.
- The SoCal Ponytones kind of sucked as usual. I got parts out too late, people weren't able to practice before the con as much as they wanted too, it was hard as always to coordinate practices and rehearsals, and of the four performances I hoped we would give, we gave one, and of the nine people I expected would be singing with us this weekend (myself included), only five sang Sunday afternoon. Of the other four, one (Our only true alto/soprano) decided the day before the con she couldn't afford it, one left the con early to explore Seattle with friends, one had an earlier flight than she realized, and one was stuck in a poorly-run Super Smash Bros. tournament.
- I only made it to the second round of Selfie Pony's karaoke contest. :(
- The [REDACTED] I took Friday night felt good and definitely hit, but only lasted about 2 hours, not the typical 4 hours most people experience. I think my body probably just processes the substance faster than most people's.
- Speaking of [REDACTED], I was popping my (legally-prescribed) ADHD meds on the regular to stay awake, to counter and resulting in ever more sleep deprivation.
- And one of the main side affects of those are increased libido and the ability to hyperfocus, so instead of experiencing the con, or sleeping, I kept masturbating Friday and Saturday nights. I told people I fell asleep in the shower from sleep deprivation. I didn't. I was just masturbating for the entire time.
- Between staffing and Ponytones, I didn't get to hang out in the writer's room that much or attend many panels or workshops. I'm especially upset I missed the voice actor's reading of Aquaman's script.
- I couldn't think of any good ideas for the Iron Author Competition, so I wrote a shitty shitfic instead. This annoyed Xepher. I think I'm still on his shit-list despite our heart to heart.
- I realized most fellow authors merely tolerate me; they don't actually like me. I mean, I knew that already, but this con further confirmed this. And I can't blame them. I write shit.
- Beyond forming that idea with Georg and Czar_Yoshi, no in-person collabs happened.
- A good friend on this site and on Facebook came to Everfree for the first time, and I was really looking forward to hanging out with them and maybe doing some writing together. That was going to be one of the highlights of the con for me. Alas, they had panels to attend and many other friends to see and convention to explore and sleep to get, and to be fair, as I said, I had staffing and Ponytoning to do as well. I tried to be flexible and communicate well, to schedule a time to hang out, but to no avail. That's what inspired me to write this blog in the first place, and what inspired me to start it with the quote from M. Bison, because I think it really sums things up.
- My plans to visit my friend and former drummer in Everett, Washington on Monday fell through.
- I left my phone charger in the SeaTac airport. >_>
So yeah. Next stop: BronyCon.
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Super Trampoline · 207 views
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well hecc
At least the disappointments were personal? :/ Nothing catastrophic?
5063442
Yeah. Just a bunch of first world problems. I do want to try to make it to TrotCon because I hear it's a blast and I want to meet you.
I'm sorry you had a rough time at Everfree, man :(
Were you part of the group that got up and sang at the Gala? I think it was during 4EverfreeBrony's concert. That sounded amazing!
Sorry I never followed up with you on the possible IRL collab. Still, glad the good outweighed the bad.
5063448
Well, chances are I'll get dragged there again this year, so it's possible.
I swear we've met face-to-face before, though...
5063494
It wasn’t that rough, just a few disappointments. And yes, I was. About 2/5 of that choir was made up of people also singing in the SoCal Ponytones.
5063571
As far as I know, you only go to cons I don’t go to. Now, if you want to make it out to the last BronyCon...
5063632
Yeah, that's never gonna happen. :B
5063786
Wynaught?
5063838
It's just too hard to get there, nevermind the money issues.
dude glad you found a place to crash!!!
5064744
Thank you!