![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dolariDAY SEVEN - Durham
I woke up rather gently and spent some time just enjoying Emily's company. I had no plans for the weekend, except maybe to see a movie sometime in the weekend, and go to the webcomics dinner that evening. We both got dressed and decided to eat something light because we had the dinner coming up that evening. Emily had already walked around the area (she woke up before me) and found a McDonalds. Not exactly something LOCAL, but it would work for the time being.
We worked our way down to the lobby of the hotel, where the con was starting up. I suddenly had the strange idea to try and crash the party a bit. They knew Jenn Dolari had quit, but not Jenn Reallastname. And maybe even Emily had her badge still waiting for her as well. No sooner were we in line for a day pass than we were completely surrounded by the main Convention Runners. At first I thought "Oh, shit, they're on to me" but it turned out that they wanted to let me know that I was welcomed at the con, and gave Emily and me guest badges. We were guests again.
Huh, wha?! :D
Anyways, we moved onto McDonalds for some quick food and really bad service. The woman kept forgetting our lunch, forgetting our order, and forgetting how much she charged me. I did manage to introduce Emily to southern Sweet Tea. I sometimes forget that Canadian culture isn't American, it's English. So Iced Tea is rare to begin with, but SWEET Iced Tea is very rare (it's rare even in parts of the US that arent' the deep south, I know of only two places locally in Austin that serve sweet tea).
After a few quick talks with the Con President and an Con Runners, bygones were made bygones, and I "absorbed" half of Sherri's fullsized table. I even considered running a few quick prints to sell, but after realizing that the con was not going to be as attended as last year, I just decided to chill with the trans webcomic artists. Before the Big dinner, we stepped back to our room, along side Mike Moon, a good friend from last year's con. He gave me some Japanese Star Trek books as an early birthday present - Most cool! Thank you, Mike!
The webcomics dinner was Kurama's, the same place the entire staff ran off to last year when we were searching for Chinese food. We are very well, and I gained a taste for Crab Egg Sushi. A good time was had by all, and I did a quck toast to the webcomics folks and Sherri. On heading back, we did the Meet the Guests function, and that was the first sign that something at this con was seriously wrong. Last year, the Meet the Guests function was HUGE. And was more than just guests and staff, but a LOT of attendies. This time, no attendies. In fact, the con was very sparse, but last year, Friday was sparse, too.
After that, we had the LGBT panel...supposedly (it was also the first time I saw and met up with Jade Gordon). Many of the guest badges had the event listed on it, for Friday Night, but there was no mention of it in the program book, or the large room scehdules. Ten minutes before the panel, #9 asked one of the con runners what was going on, and they quickly wrote on the schedule about the LGBT panel...but the damage was already done. Two people who were not guests showed up, the same tireless two people who showed up at nearly every webcomic con (Hi, y'all! Hope you had a fun time). Sherri chimed in as an excellent moderator...but in the end it was mostly the webcomic artists chatting with themselves.
In fact, that was one of the major issues with the con this year. The lack of attendance and lack of a good schedule. Even the website STILL says "TBA" for most of our events. I hate to say it, but Erin and Kittyhawk (and to a lesser extent, I) are major draws...the fact they left, they took most of the reason for people to go. And for those who went, no one knew what was going on for the most part. Not a schedule to be found anywhere, and even the gust badges with their schedules on them had conflicting information.
However, after all that, we went back to our rooms, and snuggled up for a good night's sleep....
I woke up rather gently and spent some time just enjoying Emily's company. I had no plans for the weekend, except maybe to see a movie sometime in the weekend, and go to the webcomics dinner that evening. We both got dressed and decided to eat something light because we had the dinner coming up that evening. Emily had already walked around the area (she woke up before me) and found a McDonalds. Not exactly something LOCAL, but it would work for the time being.
We worked our way down to the lobby of the hotel, where the con was starting up. I suddenly had the strange idea to try and crash the party a bit. They knew Jenn Dolari had quit, but not Jenn Reallastname. And maybe even Emily had her badge still waiting for her as well. No sooner were we in line for a day pass than we were completely surrounded by the main Convention Runners. At first I thought "Oh, shit, they're on to me" but it turned out that they wanted to let me know that I was welcomed at the con, and gave Emily and me guest badges. We were guests again.
Huh, wha?! :D
Anyways, we moved onto McDonalds for some quick food and really bad service. The woman kept forgetting our lunch, forgetting our order, and forgetting how much she charged me. I did manage to introduce Emily to southern Sweet Tea. I sometimes forget that Canadian culture isn't American, it's English. So Iced Tea is rare to begin with, but SWEET Iced Tea is very rare (it's rare even in parts of the US that arent' the deep south, I know of only two places locally in Austin that serve sweet tea).
After a few quick talks with the Con President and an Con Runners, bygones were made bygones, and I "absorbed" half of Sherri's fullsized table. I even considered running a few quick prints to sell, but after realizing that the con was not going to be as attended as last year, I just decided to chill with the trans webcomic artists. Before the Big dinner, we stepped back to our room, along side Mike Moon, a good friend from last year's con. He gave me some Japanese Star Trek books as an early birthday present - Most cool! Thank you, Mike!
The webcomics dinner was Kurama's, the same place the entire staff ran off to last year when we were searching for Chinese food. We are very well, and I gained a taste for Crab Egg Sushi. A good time was had by all, and I did a quck toast to the webcomics folks and Sherri. On heading back, we did the Meet the Guests function, and that was the first sign that something at this con was seriously wrong. Last year, the Meet the Guests function was HUGE. And was more than just guests and staff, but a LOT of attendies. This time, no attendies. In fact, the con was very sparse, but last year, Friday was sparse, too.
After that, we had the LGBT panel...supposedly (it was also the first time I saw and met up with Jade Gordon). Many of the guest badges had the event listed on it, for Friday Night, but there was no mention of it in the program book, or the large room scehdules. Ten minutes before the panel, #9 asked one of the con runners what was going on, and they quickly wrote on the schedule about the LGBT panel...but the damage was already done. Two people who were not guests showed up, the same tireless two people who showed up at nearly every webcomic con (Hi, y'all! Hope you had a fun time). Sherri chimed in as an excellent moderator...but in the end it was mostly the webcomic artists chatting with themselves.
In fact, that was one of the major issues with the con this year. The lack of attendance and lack of a good schedule. Even the website STILL says "TBA" for most of our events. I hate to say it, but Erin and Kittyhawk (and to a lesser extent, I) are major draws...the fact they left, they took most of the reason for people to go. And for those who went, no one knew what was going on for the most part. Not a schedule to be found anywhere, and even the gust badges with their schedules on them had conflicting information.
However, after all that, we went back to our rooms, and snuggled up for a good night's sleep....
