Friday, October 4, 2013

(NOTE : This year’s convention theme was “pirates”.

2 PM : Jolly Joe DeVoy, Ruthless Julian Castle, and I depart from our home port of Seafair on the isle of Lulu for the nearby port of Sea Island, to partake of a three day grapple with fellow buccaneers. Our hold is laden with provisions for the trip, and we look forward to this break from the open seas, and chance to trade our doubloons for luxuries important from distant lands.

3 PM : The trip was short and uneventful. We arrived early but the harbormasters were kind enough to let us weigh anchor in slip 522 regardless. We stowed our gear, made ready for the grapple, and after a brief pause to catch the wind in our sails once more, proceeded to the main event.

(————Piratey talk ends HERE———————–)

(Felicity, feel free to format the above demarcation however you like when you put in in BCSFAzine. You get the basic idea. I leave the exact form it takes up to you. )

While waiting for our room, we had the pleasure of meeting Ryan Hawe, his lovely wife Jen, and their little bundle of sweetness and joy, baby Evelyn. Ryan and Jen are former roommates of ours and it was great to catch up with them and see little Evelyn.

Our room is pleasant in that detached way that the hotel industry has down to a science. I am disappointed at the lack of a microwave in the room. Seems I brought my Orville Redenbacher micro-pop for no reason.

4 PM : Having managed to locate Registration (and a lovely lady who knew where I got my nickname from), I am now a full fledged congoer, and after a brief search and some basic detective work, I manage to locate the panel about how to make your own eBook.

However, after settling down and chatting with some very nice people in the room, I discover that this is not, in fact, the room for the panel eBook making, but the one on the subject of that miracle ingredient of all those awful tasting energy drinks, taurine.

It is at this point that I get my first hint that the program book (ha!) is a pack of lies and only the pocket program guide is to be trusted.

However, by that point I am comfortable and enjoying the company, so I decide what the hell, I will do this panel about taurine instead.

And it was very fun! Turns out taurine is a basic amino acid, but not one of the ones used to code proteins. Instead, it seems to enable other processes to do their jobs. Fun fact : nobody is sure that putting taurine in an energy drink even does anything. It’s the caffeine and sugar that does the trick! All those people, drinking awful tasting overpriced drinks when they could go to Starbucks and get the same thing in a much tastier form, and for around the same price.

5 PM : The only programming on right now is the opening ceremonies, and I am really not a “ceremonies” kind of guy, so instead I ascend to the 8th floor and the Hospitality Suite. I enjoy an hour of hanging with my fellow nerds and grazing on the munchies. But only after dutifully dropping $3 in the alien’s head. Hospitality runs on donations, after all!

6 PM : Went to a panel about how to make your own audio kit on the cheap. Most of it was way over my head and hence not all that useful for a non-techie like me. I mean, they expected me to learn to solder! Not gonna happen. I would have been better off going to the panel after this one that tells you how to use the darn stuff. Still, I enjoy anything hosted by Dara Korra’ti.

7 PM : Up to our room to regroup with La Gange (Joe, Julian, Felicity, and I) and formulate a strategy for getting dinner done. Our usual urge to chat with one another gets in the way, but eventually we formulate a plan and get our rear ends moving.

7:45 PM : We investigate the hotel restaurant and discover that it is both extremely pretentious and extremely expensive. Why do those always coincide? Thank goodness they post a menu outside the restaurant so we didn’t have to find all this out after we were already seated. Time for Plan B!

8 PM : Plan B is the local Denny’s, a popular hangout with La Gange and pretty much the exact opposite of the hotel restaurant in all ways. It’s relaxed, unpretentious, reasonable priced, and the people there already know us and give us a warm welcome when we show up. It pays to be not just regulars, but NICE regulars.

Also, somewhere along the way, we pick up Chris, AKA RainRat, a local furry whom I had not seen in ages, and our friend Amos, freshly back from a long trip traveling across the USA to fly the BDSM flag everywhere he can.

10 PM : Back to the hotel room to relax with La Gange, hang out, snack, and watch TV, which is more or less what we always do on Friday nights. There are room parties going on, but despite how I sometimes come across, I am an introvert, and my social batteries are totally dead. So we just hang out till we get sleepy and then drift off to bed. It’s sort of neat to watch television with friends in what is, for the weekend, your bedroom. I wouldn’t want to do it all the time, but it’s nice for a change to not even have to get up and go to the bedroom when the night’s festivities are over.

1:30 AM : Time to sleep! Thank goodness I brought my sleeping pills. Surely this time, unlike my VancouFur experience when I forget said pills, I will fall asleep easily and sleep soundly!

4 AM : Despite my sleeping pills, it takes this long for me to finally fall asleep. I guess the excitement of the day is still keeping my mind all wired up. Oh well, conventions aren’t for sleeping anyway!