North American Discworld Convention - Thursday
In the interest of NOT falling into that hole where I end up not writing my con report for weeks after the event, I'm starting it now.
This trip got off to a rocky start when my plane was delayed at the gate for nearly two hours due to a faulty door sensor. On the plus side, I was able to get through about half of So You Want to Be a Wizard, which I'm rereading because Diane Duane is here at the con. I loved it and its sequel, which was all there was of the series at the time, as a kid but I haven't read them in ages. It's amusing the things that stick with you, though - every now and then the snippet about the growing grass interrupting its song to boo and hiss at an approaching lawnmower pops into my mind, but I had forgotten where it was from.
My last unread Pratchett is Nation, which I saved for this week so I'd have an excuse to carry it around the airport when I got here, haha. Success - it led to a conversation with a guy waiting for the hotel shuttle. My first friendly chat of any reasonable length with a random fellow congoer, believe it or not. I fail so hard.
My first roommate, Tiffany, was waiting for me when I got to the hotel. The other two won't be here until tomorrow. She's from Florida, is about my age, and reminds me a bit of nephthysmoon. We got checked in, picked up our registration stuff, and then headed out to find a CVS and dinner. It's hot here, but it's a dry heat, and I was prepared for it, so it hasn't been too rough thus far. Hoping not to spend extended amounts of time outside the air conditioning, though. I've never been to the southwest before. For some reason I wasn't expecting palm trees, but there are a lot of tall graceful ones here. Seen cacti, and barren hills, and desert sand, which were all new to me.
After dinner we went to the meet & greet mixer thing. I have to admit, now that I'm here it's evident the organizers of this con are a lot more solid than I feared they were. Information was really late getting on to the website, but everything here seems to be well planned out and full of generous goodies. There's a consuite, and on top of that they served hors d'oeurves at the mixer. Our registration bags contained water bottles, pens, and pins, all printed with the convention information. Nice stuff. The mixer really got things rolling with a trivia contest, where each table of random new acquaintances was a team. The trivia was really difficult, and not at all Discworld related aside from the Name That Cover round, but it worked out for the best as everyone knew different bits of each category. My team tied for second place. :D The prize for the first place team was a bag of books to divide amongst themselves. They're really going all-out here. For the record, I hear there are around 800 attendees, and registration was about $90 if I recall correctly. The con runs through Monday afternoon.
A major difference between this convention and anime conventions has already made itself evident. Totally obvious, of course, but the implications of it didn't really hit me until tonight. Everyone here has read and loved the same series. Imagine going to an anime convention where all the attendees have watched your favorite show and love it as much as you do. It's awesome, but weird at the same time, being surrounded by people who know just as much as you about a series and think it's just as great. An entire convention of them, from all corners of the world, all ages and walks of life. I'm trying not to freak out my roommate by being too crazed with excitement, haha, but I'm totally pumped. I think this may be an event to rival Fiddler's Green.
This trip got off to a rocky start when my plane was delayed at the gate for nearly two hours due to a faulty door sensor. On the plus side, I was able to get through about half of So You Want to Be a Wizard, which I'm rereading because Diane Duane is here at the con. I loved it and its sequel, which was all there was of the series at the time, as a kid but I haven't read them in ages. It's amusing the things that stick with you, though - every now and then the snippet about the growing grass interrupting its song to boo and hiss at an approaching lawnmower pops into my mind, but I had forgotten where it was from.
My last unread Pratchett is Nation, which I saved for this week so I'd have an excuse to carry it around the airport when I got here, haha. Success - it led to a conversation with a guy waiting for the hotel shuttle. My first friendly chat of any reasonable length with a random fellow congoer, believe it or not. I fail so hard.
My first roommate, Tiffany, was waiting for me when I got to the hotel. The other two won't be here until tomorrow. She's from Florida, is about my age, and reminds me a bit of nephthysmoon. We got checked in, picked up our registration stuff, and then headed out to find a CVS and dinner. It's hot here, but it's a dry heat, and I was prepared for it, so it hasn't been too rough thus far. Hoping not to spend extended amounts of time outside the air conditioning, though. I've never been to the southwest before. For some reason I wasn't expecting palm trees, but there are a lot of tall graceful ones here. Seen cacti, and barren hills, and desert sand, which were all new to me.
After dinner we went to the meet & greet mixer thing. I have to admit, now that I'm here it's evident the organizers of this con are a lot more solid than I feared they were. Information was really late getting on to the website, but everything here seems to be well planned out and full of generous goodies. There's a consuite, and on top of that they served hors d'oeurves at the mixer. Our registration bags contained water bottles, pens, and pins, all printed with the convention information. Nice stuff. The mixer really got things rolling with a trivia contest, where each table of random new acquaintances was a team. The trivia was really difficult, and not at all Discworld related aside from the Name That Cover round, but it worked out for the best as everyone knew different bits of each category. My team tied for second place. :D The prize for the first place team was a bag of books to divide amongst themselves. They're really going all-out here. For the record, I hear there are around 800 attendees, and registration was about $90 if I recall correctly. The con runs through Monday afternoon.
A major difference between this convention and anime conventions has already made itself evident. Totally obvious, of course, but the implications of it didn't really hit me until tonight. Everyone here has read and loved the same series. Imagine going to an anime convention where all the attendees have watched your favorite show and love it as much as you do. It's awesome, but weird at the same time, being surrounded by people who know just as much as you about a series and think it's just as great. An entire convention of them, from all corners of the world, all ages and walks of life. I'm trying not to freak out my roommate by being too crazed with excitement, haha, but I'm totally pumped. I think this may be an event to rival Fiddler's Green.