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Last weekend I went to Arisia with ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
caitlin_sd. It was a great if exhausting weekend, and I'm still recovering, but seriously - this has to go down as one of the most enjoyable cons I've ever attended.
A few highlights -
- The Westin figured out the proper balance for the temperature, so people were no longer half frozen in most of the public areas.
- The panels I attended were largely excellent, especially one on the Ig Nobel prizes (who knew that someone had written a paper on blowing up dead animals, complete with diagrams on dynamite placement?).
- I found several books I actually wanted in the Dealers' Room, plus I won a book in a door prize at the Circlet Press party. Now I'm at least starting to rebuild my collection of Books That Went With WingDing all those years ago.
- The Harry Party Alumni Partyravenna_c_tan hosted was a blast. Good food, good conversation, old friends like gatewaygirl, Saturday Night Live hosted by Dan Radcliffe - I stayed way later than I should have, but man, I had a great time!
- Had coffee and caught up withgn_baz on Sunday afternoon. We miss her!
- Saw lots of friends, got tons of compliments on my Professor McGonagall costume, and generally enjoyed myself.
Alas, there were a couple of lowlights:
-caitlin_sd got stuck in a really, really shitty corner for the Artists & Authors Alley thing. No foot traffic, no publicity, wrong time on the sign, generally no consideration. She was furious, and I don't blame her. The planning was bad, and the person who was in charge should have at least stuck around to make sure that the people who'd paid good money for a table weren't shunted aside like an afterthought.
- There was an obnoxious older guy who hates, hates, HATES anything but free code and traditional books wandering around the con. He hijacked a panel my friend Walter was on (the "parable" he read was incoherent, and evidently written while someone else was reading a book chapter aloud), spammed the freebie table with flyers, and then walked up to me,hotspurre and hotspurre's girlfriend, and interrupted a conversation to try to get us to take yet more copies of a flyer claiming that e-books are slavery. It took me saying, "No thank you, I already have one," twice before he would leave, and believe me, I'm going to do my best to avoid him at future cons.
All in all, a great time.
caitlin_sd. It was a great if exhausting weekend, and I'm still recovering, but seriously - this has to go down as one of the most enjoyable cons I've ever attended.A few highlights -
- The Westin figured out the proper balance for the temperature, so people were no longer half frozen in most of the public areas.
- The panels I attended were largely excellent, especially one on the Ig Nobel prizes (who knew that someone had written a paper on blowing up dead animals, complete with diagrams on dynamite placement?).
- I found several books I actually wanted in the Dealers' Room, plus I won a book in a door prize at the Circlet Press party. Now I'm at least starting to rebuild my collection of Books That Went With WingDing all those years ago.
- The Harry Party Alumni Party
ravenna_c_tan hosted was a blast. Good food, good conversation, old friends like gatewaygirl, Saturday Night Live hosted by Dan Radcliffe - I stayed way later than I should have, but man, I had a great time!- Had coffee and caught up with
gn_baz on Sunday afternoon. We miss her!- Saw lots of friends, got tons of compliments on my Professor McGonagall costume, and generally enjoyed myself.
Alas, there were a couple of lowlights:
-
caitlin_sd got stuck in a really, really shitty corner for the Artists & Authors Alley thing. No foot traffic, no publicity, wrong time on the sign, generally no consideration. She was furious, and I don't blame her. The planning was bad, and the person who was in charge should have at least stuck around to make sure that the people who'd paid good money for a table weren't shunted aside like an afterthought.- There was an obnoxious older guy who hates, hates, HATES anything but free code and traditional books wandering around the con. He hijacked a panel my friend Walter was on (the "parable" he read was incoherent, and evidently written while someone else was reading a book chapter aloud), spammed the freebie table with flyers, and then walked up to me,
hotspurre and hotspurre's girlfriend, and interrupted a conversation to try to get us to take yet more copies of a flyer claiming that e-books are slavery. It took me saying, "No thank you, I already have one," twice before he would leave, and believe me, I'm going to do my best to avoid him at future cons.All in all, a great time.
