About 8 hours later (many rest stops and traffic on the way) we arrived. One good thing: our hotel room was incredible. Two large beds and an alcove with a hide-a-bed sofa. The room also had a coffee machine, so Mike was happy with it. *smile* I called my host from the last few years, Ron Kasman. We were too far away from his home to stay there this time, and I wanted to touch base. Ron has had a bad year from what Gaby told me, so I wanted to cheer him up a bit. Another bad sign at the con: registration was waaaaay late. By 3pm they weren't ready. We started on an unofficial tradition from past years, Lobby Con: we sat in the lobby with a few people we knew to talk while we waited for reg to open. At 3:30, volunteer Cat (a frequent con-goer between Toronto and Montreal) came to change the reg-opening to 4… then to 4:30. By 5, we went to grab a bite at McDonalds across the street. Around 5:30, registration was open for business. Mike and I were programming participants, but they'd lost the badges and panel listings for guests. We had to write our names on blanks. Later, we got our program listings. Here was an example of the 'skills' of the programming person: 2 days before the con, she gave me a list of 4 panels. I emailed her a reminder that I needed 5 to get a complimentary pass (I'd given 12 choices). Suddenly, a 5th was found. At the con itself, I suddenly had 6. (BTW: many items were missing from the programming list.) 8pm: Opening Ceremonies Very small attendance, and the Guests of Honor weren't there (in fact, the main GoH wouldn't be there until late Saturday - I'll get to that later). At the least Cindy Huckle finally mentioned me as a guest. :) (Considering that I had no bio in the program book - Cindy had emailed us for any updates to past bios… I didn't have anything to update, so she just left me out - I took what I could get.) 9pm: Fan Fiction: The Art of Zines. Mike and I were in this panel with two other ladies whose names escape me. It didn't go quite as well as our zine panel at Con*Cept. It quickly turned into a discussion of fan fiction and its growth on the Internet. I'm not into that (I don't think Mike is either) so I didn't get to speak as much as I'd hoped. There was also a guy in the audience who all through the weekend tried to change the discussion by diving into semi- or un-related topics. 10pm: I went to the gaming room. Dream Pod 9 (a company I do occasional writing for, and who never wanted to attend Con*Cept as dealers) were supposed to be there. They weren't. In fact, outside of the guy in charge, no one was. Then, I went to the Greet the Guests snack-down. A few of the literary guests, not many - but you can't pass up free food. *grin* 11pm: Iconic Characters and Their Longevity What a brutal hour for a panel… the panelists were me, Mike, and Janet Hetherington. We had 3 or 4 listeners. We tried to define what an iconic character was, and why they lasted. It felt like a good panel, at least to me. Interesting discussions, even though we were all a bit tired. Bedtime was an old Primedia tradition: the loud giggle fits. It took us awhile to get to sleep; all anyone had to do was to imitate Rom's "Moo-gie!" line from DS9, or give a "Meep!" (a joke I'll explain some day) and we'd all lose it. Day's Summary: The convention seemed to be poorly attended, but conventions tend to be so on the Friday. We'll see how the next day turns out. |