The heavily lj part of the con

[mrissa]

The bars are entirely gone, so I must have had a good lj party. (Next time, I'm taking one myself before I put them out for people to snarf. I had the mistaken belief that parties start slow and I'd still be able to get a chocolate-peanut butter bar after Pamela's reading. Not so. Sigh. I will console myself with a square of Ghirardelli dark. But not at this hour of the morning.) I didn't actually meet the person who made the nifty lj badges (mplscorwin, I am told), but they were definitely very cool. They don't say what con they're for, either, so they can ride along to other cons in the future. And I'm glad cakmpls and sraun hosted, because I had a good time peering at people's badges and going, "Oh! You're you!" (I also threatened to get out a book so I would match my default icon, but this proved unnecessary.)

I'm not sure when my life got to the point where I was thinking, "At the next con..." instead of, "If I go to a con again...." Awhile ago, I guess, but it wasn't obvious at the time. As magical as my first major contact with fandom was (ICFA '99), I didn't make the leap to, "I will be doing this indefinitely," not right away. It kind of crept up on me. Bashed me on the head. Dragged me off to its lair. I think that metaphor is done now. I'd blame it on lack of sleep, but most of you know I'm generally like that. I am, however, still a tiredy bunny, even though I've had a good night's sleep.

Here is who I saw from the friendslist this weekend: 1crowdedhour, cakmpls, carbonel, careswen, ckd, dd_b, dlandon, dragonsden, dreamshark, dsgood, eileenlufkin, elisem, fgherman, jenett, joel_rosenberg/joelrosenberg, kalmn, laurel, lydy, magentamn, minnehaha of both varieties, mmerriam, naomikritzer, pameladean, pegkerr, and sraun. (And also markgritter and timprov, but not at the con.) I'm pretty sure I saw other lj people who aren't on the friendslist, but I don't remember most of their lj names (especially if they're not immediately apparent from the people's real names), so if it's you, comment and say hi again. I also didn't meet a few people from the friendslist I think were there. I've resigned myself that I can never do absolutely everything and see absolutely everyone I want to at a con, and I can never spend all the time I would want with everyone I do see; and if I can, it's probably not a very good con anyway. So I try not to fuss too horribly much about it.

Okay, more on things like panels and music and stuff later. If I put some of it in novel_gazing (which I probably will), I'll mention it here, since I don't know if any of you are reading the feed or wouldn't usually but care about con reports.

Comments

[cadithial.livejournal.com]

If Minicon had had a listing of events up on their website, I may have gone. I refuse to pay $50 for an event that I can go to for less than half the time if I don't know what's going to be there. Hopefully they resolve that for next year.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

They did have the programming listed before the con, in both list and schedule form. They also had badges for less than $50 if it was only for one day. I mean, I hate to be flatly contradictory here, but those are the facts as I know them.

[cadithial.livejournal.com]

I searched their entire website for a listing of events the week before, with no luck. On their site, the only pricing they had was for the entire weekend for $50.

[sraun]

We never have the schedule portion of the programming available until very shortly before the convention. We have the list of panels several weeks out, but are always juggling panelists and times until the last minute. That's why the Program Book only has the descriptions, and the Pocket Program has the titles and times.

The schedule was available about Tuesday or Wednesday before the con - I forget exactly where it was, and I could easily believe that it was difficult to impossible to find unless you were handed a pointer to it.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

It was listed under "programming."

[joelrosenberg.livejournal.com]

http://gloriosa.net/Minicon/M40-Programming.htm -- it was up well before the convention, although it only became finalized shortly before the convention.

[skylarker.livejournal.com]

Hi, again! I guess we established having set eyes on each other without having established actual contact. :)

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Yep, we do know that now. I said at least two words to everyone I listed, I think.

My mom said, "How many people show up for this sort of shindig?" I said, "560 this year, but I couldn't have talked to more than 500 of them." "Why bother going, then?" she said.