Vividcon!!!
Well, I had my laptop with me at Vividcon. I was just too busy using it for other purposes to actually take the time to type up a LiveJournal post while I was there.
So, yes, I arrived safely in Chicago on Thursday without wanting to strangle the airline. The only problem we had was some family who got on in Nashville (dad, mom, and several kids) apparently got permission to change seats so that they could all sit together - except all they were told to do is sit down somewhere together. Meaning that all of the people who were supposed to sit in those seats didn't know where to sit, because they'd already put their boarding passes with their original seat numbers in their bags in the overhead compartment. Which delayed us forever as the people with the airline tried to figure out what the heck was going on and get the people who were supposed to be in those seats situated.
I ended up finally making it through the newest Temeraire book on the plane. I've kept meaning to read it, but then I had other things (like Shoney's) get in the way. Finally, a few hours to simply sit down and do nothing but read. *pause* I'll probably be making a post about the awesomeness of the Temeraire series sometime in the future.
Anyway, Vividcon.
I arrived at the hotel around 1:30 or so on Thursday, at which point I dumped my bags off (the lovely par_avion kept an eye on them, since it wasn't check-in time yet) and headed down to Dominick's by trailing behind deejay, the_shoshanna, tv_elf, and (I think?) pharis. The people at the store were awesome and let us bring the buggy/cart/whatever-it's-called-in-your-region back to the hotel after we promised to bring it back. We stopped at the Golden Elephant (Thai place near the hotel) for some take-out and pretty much scarfed it down once we got back to the hotel.
After I'd eaten, I headed up to my room to drop off my bags and splash some water on my face. Then I went back downstairs to join the group of people waiting for the House 'O Meat to open. There were at least thirty people there when all was said and done, so I'm not even going to try listing them all. I ended up moving to a smaller table with jmtorres, niqaeli, and lierdumoa and actually got some food instead of just a drink, even though I'd only eaten an hour or so earlier.
Two drinks and some chicken later, I headed up to my room to unpack and then take a nap. kitkatbyte wasn't supposed to get to the hotel until at least 8:30 p.m. so I figured it wouldn't hurt if I at least attempted to get some sleep. *sheepish grin* Since, you know, I sorta only got two hours or so the night before thanks to my trying (rather unsuccessfully) to pack.
kitkatbyte arrived in the room around 9:00, along with a guy who worked for the hotel who was helping her drag all of her things up. She unpacked a bit, and then we hooked my laptop into the TV and watched some Doctor Who and Torchwood vids. Then I convinced her that she needed to see the awesome crack that is Blackpool so we watched the first episode of it before turning in for the night.
For the first time in the history of Vividcon, I actually managed to drag myself out of bed in time for breakfast. *pause* It helped that kitkatbyte got up at 8:00 a.m. so I had time to lay in bed while she got ready and become conscious after being woken up, since it only takes me ten minutes or so to get dressed in the mornings.
After breakfast, we went up to register and get out things. Then we grabbed anoel and the three of us went back to the room to put up decorations for our Doctor Who viewing party. kitkatbyte brought her Ninth and Tenth Doctor action figures (somewhere out there are several pictures of me with the Ninth Doctor and fan_eunice with her Tenth Doctor - I can't remember if we ever took a picture of Nine and two Tens), a small Dalek, a sonic screwdriver, a framed picture of the Tenth Doctor standing in front of the TARDIS, a strand of Christmas lights, glow-in-the-dark stars, Jelly babies, bananas, and tea. Add to that my DVDs and hard drive full of Doctor Who goodies, and we were pretty much set.
It was also around this time that I realized "oh crap, apocalyptothon first drafts are due today!" Needless to say, I spent the rest of the free time hurriedly working on said story.
Then the con actually began.
First up was Vidding History, which starts off VVC every year. This year, it focused on 1980-1984: which meant the first vids made with a VCR and not just a slide show. The first vid featured Starsky and Hutch - and it was a picture of Hutch put to music. It was really neat watching the slow progression. They went from pretty much still images to one long scene put to music, to using multiple scenes, to using multiple scenes that transitioned much more smoothly, etc. It was kind of awesome seeing all of these early Starsky and Hutch vids. I was honestly surprised at how many people weren't even remotely familiar with the fandom ("Which one's Starsky and which one's Hutch?" / "Wow, I always thought the fandom was exaggerating on how much they touch each other." / "Holy shit, the series actually ends with them climbing into bed together!?!?"), but I think there are some people who are planning on checking it out now.
It wasn't all Starsky and Hutch. There was a Dark Shadows vid that reminded me why my mom made sure that I grew up loving the show as much as she did, not to mention a surprisingly brilliant Kirk/Spock vid to "Wind beneath my Wings" that everyone adored. Oh, and there was a brilliant multi-fandom vid that featured all sorts of shows from the 60s and 70s that I love.
After that, I headed to the Joy vidshow. And it was joyous. :-P
In all seriousness, it was an awesome show. People were walking around the con all weekend randomly saying "joy!" and I kept walking in on people who had checked out the DVD of it and were watching it again. Plus it had Another Sunday (the Stargate Atlantis vid with sparkles!), which made it even more terrific.
Next, it was time for Nearly New. As always, there were tons of brilliant vids - some of which I'd seen already and others that I hadn't. The first half ended with Papa Don't Preach (i.e., the one where Jack gets pregnant by the Master and then tells the Doctor that he's marrying Ianto - uh, I'll post a link as soon as I track it down again), which made pretty much everyone in the room fall in love with fan_eunice and greensilver. Well, even more so that we already were.
It was at this point that I noticed there was a lot of Dark Angel vids this year, which I adored even though I was a bit surprised by it. Anyway, the second half of the show ended with the brilliant Destiny Calling (Vids = JOY!).
Then it was time for Also Premiering (the Non-Attending Premieres show, in other words), which had some wonderful vids. I'm planning on going through and making some recs later, so that's why I'm not really putting links or that many vid names right now. There were some brilliant ones, though, which everyone should see as soon as possible.
Once that show ended, it was time for the dinner break.
kitkatbyte and I headed to Outback, where we decided to split some ribs. While we were waiting for our food, two more people wandered by and joined us (lierdumoa and wistful_fever, I think?) for a little while. jmtorres and niqaeli were at the bar having a drink or two, and I told them that they could come up to my room for some glitter if they wanted some. Then it was time to go back to the room and get ready for Club Vivid.
Well, sorta. Remember that apocalyptothon story? I kinda hadn't finished it, so I frantically got it done. Then I went to send it - and found out that the due date had been pushed back until Sunday just a few hours earlier. I went ahead and sent it in, though, figuring at least then I didn't have to worry about it. (By the way, I will be looking for a beta soon. Details coming in another post.) Then I frantically got dressed.
I went for all-out sparkliness (shut up, it's a word) this year. Black skirt, sprayed with glitter. Red shirt covered in beads. Glitter all over my face. And my arms. And my legs. And my bare back. And, well, everything. I kind of sprayed the glitter all over me before actually getting into my outfit, so I sparkled quite a bit.
Just as I was leaving, jmtorres and niqaeli showed up to get glitter for themselves. That meant I missed the Joxer Dance, but I wasn't completely heartbroken. Certain people who know who they are had been threatening to drag me out there with them, so this way I had an excuse.
Anyway, Club Vivid was awesome. Lots of terrific vids, plenty of food and drinks (someone please explain to me how I had eight drinks - three with tequila, two with vodka, and three with rum - and was still pretty much completely sober?), some great costumes, and many drunken hijinks on the parts of jmtorres, niqaeli, and queenzulu. Mostly the last two, though jmtorres did volunteer to kiss me several times. I don't think she was too heartbroken when I told her "no thanks," considering that she then grabbed the next available person.
Oh, I can't forget to mention that certain events that took place in the bathroom would make a good set-up for a wonderful femslash fic! I must admit, it was a nice show. :-P
(Please don't hurt me.)
After the last vid finished, I headed straight up to the room to get into something more comfortable before people started arriving for the Doctor Who party. jmtorres and niqaeli stopped by for a second before heading back to their room, and - since jmtorres wouldn't leave until I let her kiss me - I finally gave in and let her give me a peck on the lips before shoving her out the door.
Then it was time for Doctor Who.
We started out watching a few vids while we waited for everyone to show up, and then we started on The Five Doctors. I think we made it about 3/4 of the way through before we realized that the people who had really been watching it had already left, so we ended up turning it off and watching more vids. And talking. A lot.
Oh gods, I don't remember everyone who was there for the room party. taraljc, kuwdora, anoel, butterfly, hafital... my mind's going blank. There were at least five or six more who were there at various times throughout the night. If you were there, please feel free to raise your hand.
Anyway, the last few trickled out a little after 3:00 a.m. at which point kitkatbyte and I pretty much passed out for a few hours. Surprisingly, we managed to drag ourselves out of bed at the same time as Friday so that we could go up and get some breakfast.
Once again, I pretty much just hit the vidshows. First up was Vids That Push the Envelope, which was awesome. I'd seen some of the vids before, but there were others that I'd never seen. And there were some really unique ideas found in it. I had planned on going to the Action vidshow after that ended, but I was starting to get a headache (that's the one problem I have at VVC - sitting in a dark room for hours on end watching vids tends to hurt my eyes) so I headed up to the room. kitkatbyte apparently had a similar idea, because she was there too.
We hung out for a little while, talking and such. Then we decided to walk down to Spuntino's and get some lunch, in order to beat the rush when the vidshow/panel let out. The food was awesome, as usual, and it never got super crowded so it was enjoyable.
After the lunch break ended, I headed to the Sense of Play show. Lots and lots of vids that were just plain fun. The Ensemble show was next, which I adored as well. I'd seen most of the vids for it before, but I loved them just as much as the first (and second, and third, and hundredth) time that I'd seen them. absolutedestiny's vidshow was next (Pre-Digital Anime Music Videos), but my head was bothering me again so I had to slip back up to the room. As much as I would have loved to see some of the vids, there was no way that I was going to risk having a major headache during Premieres. hafital brought her external hard drive up to the room while I was in there, and I started copying Doctor Who, Blackpool, Life on Mars, and Keen Eddie for her.
I made it back down for the Second Bananas vidshow, which had several great vids in it. And it ended with the Ianto vids that fan_eunice and greensilver made during their sadly brief vidding war.
The dinner break was after that, so I headed up to jmtorres's and niqaeli's room for free homemade food. amireal was there, as were two other people though I can't remember who they were for the life of me. (seperis, maybe? I know that I met her at some point. . . jmtorres, a little help here?) seperis and svmadelyn. I watched Kiss Kiss Bang Bang with them awhile and tried to copy Slings and Arrows over to my external hard drive, but it refused to cooperate so I headed back up to my room after awhile to drop it off. Then I went down to Outback to get a drink before Premieres. I ended up getting a strawberry margarita, and poor kitkatbyte decided to get one too because it looked good. She didn't realize how sweet they are, though, so she ended up having to get a large glass of water with it so that she could manage drinking most of it.
Then the two of us headed to the overflow room (they have bubbles! the main room doesn't have bubbles!) for Premieres. Which were awesome. And will get their own post soon. Though I do have to take a moment to go "Eee! klia made a Peacemakers vid!"
After Premieres was karaoke, and nothing could convince me to go there. kitkatbyte and I headed back up to the room to watch more Blackpool, and - after she made me replay the "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'" scene a few dozen times - we started on the second episode.
I had planned on going to the Slings and Arrows room party that jmtorres and niqaeli were hosting after Karaoke, but I still had a headache so I decided to skip out. kitkatbyte and I finished two episodes of Blackpool, and then we passed out for the night.
It was the next morning that we discovered our room was apparently possessed. kitkatbyte set our alarm clock for 8:00 a.m. as usual - except it never went off. At 8:15, though, our phone rang. Except that there was nobody on it when we picked up. So we still managed to get up in time to get dressed, get breakfast (in my case, scarf down a banana left over from the DW room party), and get packed. I took my bags downstairs to leave with the front desk before running up in time to make it to Vid Review.
We actually made it through all of the vids! It was awesome. And surprising.
For lunch, kitkatbyte and I headed to Spuntino's again. It was a lot more crowded, though, so we got our food to-go (the guy working there gave us free drinks since we'd been there the day before) and headed back to the hotel to eat. I don't remember who all we ate with. sockkpuppett, taraljc, the_shoshanna... faces are all blurring together, so I can't remember who was where/when/etc.
After that, kitkatbyte and I went to the Hip-Hop show and grabbed seats near the front. She had to run the door at the next show (End of the World), but once it finished she came back to the seat that we'd claimed. That's something I learned a long time again - if you want decent seats for the Challenge/Auction shows, then it's a good idea to get a seat during the shows that take place beforehand (while the room's mostly empty with everyone being at In-Depth Review) and cling desperately to it.
The Challenge vids were pretty much all absolutely amazing, and I'll definitely go into more detail on them later. And the ones for the Auction were great too. kitkatbyte slipped out after they were finished, so I said "goodbye" to her then. Then it was time for Calls from the Public, which ended up lasting until close to 6:00 p.m. - mainly because there had been so many challenge vids this year.
I ran around saying my goodbyes, and then I grabbed my luggage from the front desk. The 6:00 shuttle to the airport had just left, so I had to wait for the 6:30. And wait I did. There were four of us waiting, but I was so dead at that point that I can't for the life of me remember who they were. By the time that the 6:30 shuttle actually arrived (at 6:50, and it was closer to 7:00 by the time we actually left for the airport), I was practically comatose.
The line at the airport luckily wasn't too long, and I got my bag dropped off and my boarding pass without any trouble. Then I went through security, where I thought the cute guy running the x-ray machine was going to kiss me for actually putting my laptop in its own separate case instead of dropping other things on top of it. I grabbed a quick bite to eat from a Cinnabon near my gate, and then - after about fifteen minutes - it was time to load the plane.
Here's the kicker. Remember on my trip to Chicago, how there was a family who'd moved so they could sit together so there was a little bit of confusion about where people needed to sit? The exact same thing happened on the flight back to Nashville. And, once again, my seat was one of the ones they were sitting in.
Still, it wasn't quite as confusing this time. The family didn't speak much English, but they held up their tickets so that those of us whose seats they were in could see which ones to head toward. I ended up getting an aisle seat at the very back of the plane (as in, the last row) which wasn't my favorite place to be (since I prefer window seats on short flights) but I was too tired to care. I settled down to read the newest Dresden File book, and then - like magic - we were in Nashville. *grin* Well, maybe not magic, but it seemed like it. The flight back normally takes about 80 minutes or so, but this time it ended up only taking an hour. I don't know what the pilot did to make it so much shorter, but I approve.
I got my luggage, found my car, and then headed home. I stopped for a quick bite to eat on the way home, grabbed some supplies at Wal-Mart, and then arrived home right before midnight. Then came the fun part - packing for school.
And so ended Vividcon 2008.
Now, I'm sure you're all wondering just what potential new fandoms I walked away with this year. ;-)
All of the Dexter and Heroes vids convinced me that I definitely need to get caught up on those fandoms. I've already picked up where I left off on the latter, and - as soon as I finish it - I'll start S2 of the other. I want to get caught up on Supernatural as well, based on some of the vids for it, but I'm not bouncing about it like I am the other two so I think it will probably hold a month or so before I pick up the rest of S3.
Let's see... I didn't walk away with an "holy shit, I must get caught up now!" urge about Battlestar Galactica, so I think I'm going to put it over to the side with Lost for awhile. It's been long enough since I watched either of them that I really need to start from the beginning and rewatch before I watch the episodes I haven't seen yet, and I just don't have the time to do that right.
As for actual new fandoms, I actually think that I might be interested in Friday Night Lights. I've been kind of hesitant about it, mainly because I'm from the South - I know from firsthand experience what it's like in a small Southern town on Friday nights during football season. Everything shuts down, most of the residents are at the game, the entire school revolves around football - academics and/or other sports are barely worth mentioning in the eyes of the principal and the school board, if one player ever makes it to the NFL then the town will forever be convinced that football is the most important thing in the world (and God help you if there are multiple people who make it to the NFL over the years), the football players can literally get away with murder if they want... < /rant> But, yeah, considering it sometime in the future.
There was a Big Love vid that at least made me want to look into the series at some point. I was already planning on watching Bones sometime in the near future, but that was reconfirmed. The Sarah Connor Chronicles looks like it might be something I'll like, but - since I've never seen any of the Terminator films I'd kind of like to watch them before starting the series.
Let me think for a moment. Really, there weren't that many fandoms this year that I wasn't familiar with. Which is kind of sad, all things considering. It's not like there wasn't a variety of fandoms represented! It's just that I have way too many fandoms.
Oh, Six Feet Under! I'd almost forgotten, but there was a vid featuring it that definitely made me want to watch it at some point. So, yeah, that's most of it. There were a couple of movies that I thought seemed kind of neat that I might check out, but not that much in the TV show division this year.
I'll make some posts related to the specific vidshows in the near future, once a few more vids have made their way online. If I'm going to mention them, I'd like to be able to link to them.
So, yes, I arrived safely in Chicago on Thursday without wanting to strangle the airline. The only problem we had was some family who got on in Nashville (dad, mom, and several kids) apparently got permission to change seats so that they could all sit together - except all they were told to do is sit down somewhere together. Meaning that all of the people who were supposed to sit in those seats didn't know where to sit, because they'd already put their boarding passes with their original seat numbers in their bags in the overhead compartment. Which delayed us forever as the people with the airline tried to figure out what the heck was going on and get the people who were supposed to be in those seats situated.
I ended up finally making it through the newest Temeraire book on the plane. I've kept meaning to read it, but then I had other things (like Shoney's) get in the way. Finally, a few hours to simply sit down and do nothing but read. *pause* I'll probably be making a post about the awesomeness of the Temeraire series sometime in the future.
Anyway, Vividcon.
I arrived at the hotel around 1:30 or so on Thursday, at which point I dumped my bags off (the lovely par_avion kept an eye on them, since it wasn't check-in time yet) and headed down to Dominick's by trailing behind deejay, the_shoshanna, tv_elf, and (I think?) pharis. The people at the store were awesome and let us bring the buggy/cart/whatever-it's-called-in-your-region back to the hotel after we promised to bring it back. We stopped at the Golden Elephant (Thai place near the hotel) for some take-out and pretty much scarfed it down once we got back to the hotel.
After I'd eaten, I headed up to my room to drop off my bags and splash some water on my face. Then I went back downstairs to join the group of people waiting for the House 'O Meat to open. There were at least thirty people there when all was said and done, so I'm not even going to try listing them all. I ended up moving to a smaller table with jmtorres, niqaeli, and lierdumoa and actually got some food instead of just a drink, even though I'd only eaten an hour or so earlier.
Two drinks and some chicken later, I headed up to my room to unpack and then take a nap. kitkatbyte wasn't supposed to get to the hotel until at least 8:30 p.m. so I figured it wouldn't hurt if I at least attempted to get some sleep. *sheepish grin* Since, you know, I sorta only got two hours or so the night before thanks to my trying (rather unsuccessfully) to pack.
kitkatbyte arrived in the room around 9:00, along with a guy who worked for the hotel who was helping her drag all of her things up. She unpacked a bit, and then we hooked my laptop into the TV and watched some Doctor Who and Torchwood vids. Then I convinced her that she needed to see the awesome crack that is Blackpool so we watched the first episode of it before turning in for the night.
For the first time in the history of Vividcon, I actually managed to drag myself out of bed in time for breakfast. *pause* It helped that kitkatbyte got up at 8:00 a.m. so I had time to lay in bed while she got ready and become conscious after being woken up, since it only takes me ten minutes or so to get dressed in the mornings.
After breakfast, we went up to register and get out things. Then we grabbed anoel and the three of us went back to the room to put up decorations for our Doctor Who viewing party. kitkatbyte brought her Ninth and Tenth Doctor action figures (somewhere out there are several pictures of me with the Ninth Doctor and fan_eunice with her Tenth Doctor - I can't remember if we ever took a picture of Nine and two Tens), a small Dalek, a sonic screwdriver, a framed picture of the Tenth Doctor standing in front of the TARDIS, a strand of Christmas lights, glow-in-the-dark stars, Jelly babies, bananas, and tea. Add to that my DVDs and hard drive full of Doctor Who goodies, and we were pretty much set.
It was also around this time that I realized "oh crap, apocalyptothon first drafts are due today!" Needless to say, I spent the rest of the free time hurriedly working on said story.
Then the con actually began.
First up was Vidding History, which starts off VVC every year. This year, it focused on 1980-1984: which meant the first vids made with a VCR and not just a slide show. The first vid featured Starsky and Hutch - and it was a picture of Hutch put to music. It was really neat watching the slow progression. They went from pretty much still images to one long scene put to music, to using multiple scenes, to using multiple scenes that transitioned much more smoothly, etc. It was kind of awesome seeing all of these early Starsky and Hutch vids. I was honestly surprised at how many people weren't even remotely familiar with the fandom ("Which one's Starsky and which one's Hutch?" / "Wow, I always thought the fandom was exaggerating on how much they touch each other." / "Holy shit, the series actually ends with them climbing into bed together!?!?"), but I think there are some people who are planning on checking it out now.
It wasn't all Starsky and Hutch. There was a Dark Shadows vid that reminded me why my mom made sure that I grew up loving the show as much as she did, not to mention a surprisingly brilliant Kirk/Spock vid to "Wind beneath my Wings" that everyone adored. Oh, and there was a brilliant multi-fandom vid that featured all sorts of shows from the 60s and 70s that I love.
After that, I headed to the Joy vidshow. And it was joyous. :-P
In all seriousness, it was an awesome show. People were walking around the con all weekend randomly saying "joy!" and I kept walking in on people who had checked out the DVD of it and were watching it again. Plus it had Another Sunday (the Stargate Atlantis vid with sparkles!), which made it even more terrific.
Next, it was time for Nearly New. As always, there were tons of brilliant vids - some of which I'd seen already and others that I hadn't. The first half ended with Papa Don't Preach (i.e., the one where Jack gets pregnant by the Master and then tells the Doctor that he's marrying Ianto - uh, I'll post a link as soon as I track it down again), which made pretty much everyone in the room fall in love with fan_eunice and greensilver. Well, even more so that we already were.
It was at this point that I noticed there was a lot of Dark Angel vids this year, which I adored even though I was a bit surprised by it. Anyway, the second half of the show ended with the brilliant Destiny Calling (Vids = JOY!).
Then it was time for Also Premiering (the Non-Attending Premieres show, in other words), which had some wonderful vids. I'm planning on going through and making some recs later, so that's why I'm not really putting links or that many vid names right now. There were some brilliant ones, though, which everyone should see as soon as possible.
Once that show ended, it was time for the dinner break.
kitkatbyte and I headed to Outback, where we decided to split some ribs. While we were waiting for our food, two more people wandered by and joined us (lierdumoa and wistful_fever, I think?) for a little while. jmtorres and niqaeli were at the bar having a drink or two, and I told them that they could come up to my room for some glitter if they wanted some. Then it was time to go back to the room and get ready for Club Vivid.
Well, sorta. Remember that apocalyptothon story? I kinda hadn't finished it, so I frantically got it done. Then I went to send it - and found out that the due date had been pushed back until Sunday just a few hours earlier. I went ahead and sent it in, though, figuring at least then I didn't have to worry about it. (By the way, I will be looking for a beta soon. Details coming in another post.) Then I frantically got dressed.
I went for all-out sparkliness (shut up, it's a word) this year. Black skirt, sprayed with glitter. Red shirt covered in beads. Glitter all over my face. And my arms. And my legs. And my bare back. And, well, everything. I kind of sprayed the glitter all over me before actually getting into my outfit, so I sparkled quite a bit.
Just as I was leaving, jmtorres and niqaeli showed up to get glitter for themselves. That meant I missed the Joxer Dance, but I wasn't completely heartbroken. Certain people who know who they are had been threatening to drag me out there with them, so this way I had an excuse.
Anyway, Club Vivid was awesome. Lots of terrific vids, plenty of food and drinks (someone please explain to me how I had eight drinks - three with tequila, two with vodka, and three with rum - and was still pretty much completely sober?), some great costumes, and many drunken hijinks on the parts of jmtorres, niqaeli, and queenzulu. Mostly the last two, though jmtorres did volunteer to kiss me several times. I don't think she was too heartbroken when I told her "no thanks," considering that she then grabbed the next available person.
Oh, I can't forget to mention that certain events that took place in the bathroom would make a good set-up for a wonderful femslash fic! I must admit, it was a nice show. :-P
(Please don't hurt me.)
After the last vid finished, I headed straight up to the room to get into something more comfortable before people started arriving for the Doctor Who party. jmtorres and niqaeli stopped by for a second before heading back to their room, and - since jmtorres wouldn't leave until I let her kiss me - I finally gave in and let her give me a peck on the lips before shoving her out the door.
Then it was time for Doctor Who.
We started out watching a few vids while we waited for everyone to show up, and then we started on The Five Doctors. I think we made it about 3/4 of the way through before we realized that the people who had really been watching it had already left, so we ended up turning it off and watching more vids. And talking. A lot.
Oh gods, I don't remember everyone who was there for the room party. taraljc, kuwdora, anoel, butterfly, hafital... my mind's going blank. There were at least five or six more who were there at various times throughout the night. If you were there, please feel free to raise your hand.
Anyway, the last few trickled out a little after 3:00 a.m. at which point kitkatbyte and I pretty much passed out for a few hours. Surprisingly, we managed to drag ourselves out of bed at the same time as Friday so that we could go up and get some breakfast.
Once again, I pretty much just hit the vidshows. First up was Vids That Push the Envelope, which was awesome. I'd seen some of the vids before, but there were others that I'd never seen. And there were some really unique ideas found in it. I had planned on going to the Action vidshow after that ended, but I was starting to get a headache (that's the one problem I have at VVC - sitting in a dark room for hours on end watching vids tends to hurt my eyes) so I headed up to the room. kitkatbyte apparently had a similar idea, because she was there too.
We hung out for a little while, talking and such. Then we decided to walk down to Spuntino's and get some lunch, in order to beat the rush when the vidshow/panel let out. The food was awesome, as usual, and it never got super crowded so it was enjoyable.
After the lunch break ended, I headed to the Sense of Play show. Lots and lots of vids that were just plain fun. The Ensemble show was next, which I adored as well. I'd seen most of the vids for it before, but I loved them just as much as the first (and second, and third, and hundredth) time that I'd seen them. absolutedestiny's vidshow was next (Pre-Digital Anime Music Videos), but my head was bothering me again so I had to slip back up to the room. As much as I would have loved to see some of the vids, there was no way that I was going to risk having a major headache during Premieres. hafital brought her external hard drive up to the room while I was in there, and I started copying Doctor Who, Blackpool, Life on Mars, and Keen Eddie for her.
I made it back down for the Second Bananas vidshow, which had several great vids in it. And it ended with the Ianto vids that fan_eunice and greensilver made during their sadly brief vidding war.
The dinner break was after that, so I headed up to jmtorres's and niqaeli's room for free homemade food. amireal was there, as were two other people though I can't remember who they were for the life of me. (seperis, maybe? I know that I met her at some point. . . jmtorres, a little help here?) seperis and svmadelyn. I watched Kiss Kiss Bang Bang with them awhile and tried to copy Slings and Arrows over to my external hard drive, but it refused to cooperate so I headed back up to my room after awhile to drop it off. Then I went down to Outback to get a drink before Premieres. I ended up getting a strawberry margarita, and poor kitkatbyte decided to get one too because it looked good. She didn't realize how sweet they are, though, so she ended up having to get a large glass of water with it so that she could manage drinking most of it.
Then the two of us headed to the overflow room (they have bubbles! the main room doesn't have bubbles!) for Premieres. Which were awesome. And will get their own post soon. Though I do have to take a moment to go "Eee! klia made a Peacemakers vid!"
After Premieres was karaoke, and nothing could convince me to go there. kitkatbyte and I headed back up to the room to watch more Blackpool, and - after she made me replay the "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'" scene a few dozen times - we started on the second episode.
I had planned on going to the Slings and Arrows room party that jmtorres and niqaeli were hosting after Karaoke, but I still had a headache so I decided to skip out. kitkatbyte and I finished two episodes of Blackpool, and then we passed out for the night.
It was the next morning that we discovered our room was apparently possessed. kitkatbyte set our alarm clock for 8:00 a.m. as usual - except it never went off. At 8:15, though, our phone rang. Except that there was nobody on it when we picked up. So we still managed to get up in time to get dressed, get breakfast (in my case, scarf down a banana left over from the DW room party), and get packed. I took my bags downstairs to leave with the front desk before running up in time to make it to Vid Review.
We actually made it through all of the vids! It was awesome. And surprising.
For lunch, kitkatbyte and I headed to Spuntino's again. It was a lot more crowded, though, so we got our food to-go (the guy working there gave us free drinks since we'd been there the day before) and headed back to the hotel to eat. I don't remember who all we ate with. sockkpuppett, taraljc, the_shoshanna... faces are all blurring together, so I can't remember who was where/when/etc.
After that, kitkatbyte and I went to the Hip-Hop show and grabbed seats near the front. She had to run the door at the next show (End of the World), but once it finished she came back to the seat that we'd claimed. That's something I learned a long time again - if you want decent seats for the Challenge/Auction shows, then it's a good idea to get a seat during the shows that take place beforehand (while the room's mostly empty with everyone being at In-Depth Review) and cling desperately to it.
The Challenge vids were pretty much all absolutely amazing, and I'll definitely go into more detail on them later. And the ones for the Auction were great too. kitkatbyte slipped out after they were finished, so I said "goodbye" to her then. Then it was time for Calls from the Public, which ended up lasting until close to 6:00 p.m. - mainly because there had been so many challenge vids this year.
I ran around saying my goodbyes, and then I grabbed my luggage from the front desk. The 6:00 shuttle to the airport had just left, so I had to wait for the 6:30. And wait I did. There were four of us waiting, but I was so dead at that point that I can't for the life of me remember who they were. By the time that the 6:30 shuttle actually arrived (at 6:50, and it was closer to 7:00 by the time we actually left for the airport), I was practically comatose.
The line at the airport luckily wasn't too long, and I got my bag dropped off and my boarding pass without any trouble. Then I went through security, where I thought the cute guy running the x-ray machine was going to kiss me for actually putting my laptop in its own separate case instead of dropping other things on top of it. I grabbed a quick bite to eat from a Cinnabon near my gate, and then - after about fifteen minutes - it was time to load the plane.
Here's the kicker. Remember on my trip to Chicago, how there was a family who'd moved so they could sit together so there was a little bit of confusion about where people needed to sit? The exact same thing happened on the flight back to Nashville. And, once again, my seat was one of the ones they were sitting in.
Still, it wasn't quite as confusing this time. The family didn't speak much English, but they held up their tickets so that those of us whose seats they were in could see which ones to head toward. I ended up getting an aisle seat at the very back of the plane (as in, the last row) which wasn't my favorite place to be (since I prefer window seats on short flights) but I was too tired to care. I settled down to read the newest Dresden File book, and then - like magic - we were in Nashville. *grin* Well, maybe not magic, but it seemed like it. The flight back normally takes about 80 minutes or so, but this time it ended up only taking an hour. I don't know what the pilot did to make it so much shorter, but I approve.
I got my luggage, found my car, and then headed home. I stopped for a quick bite to eat on the way home, grabbed some supplies at Wal-Mart, and then arrived home right before midnight. Then came the fun part - packing for school.
And so ended Vividcon 2008.
Now, I'm sure you're all wondering just what potential new fandoms I walked away with this year. ;-)
All of the Dexter and Heroes vids convinced me that I definitely need to get caught up on those fandoms. I've already picked up where I left off on the latter, and - as soon as I finish it - I'll start S2 of the other. I want to get caught up on Supernatural as well, based on some of the vids for it, but I'm not bouncing about it like I am the other two so I think it will probably hold a month or so before I pick up the rest of S3.
Let's see... I didn't walk away with an "holy shit, I must get caught up now!" urge about Battlestar Galactica, so I think I'm going to put it over to the side with Lost for awhile. It's been long enough since I watched either of them that I really need to start from the beginning and rewatch before I watch the episodes I haven't seen yet, and I just don't have the time to do that right.
As for actual new fandoms, I actually think that I might be interested in Friday Night Lights. I've been kind of hesitant about it, mainly because I'm from the South - I know from firsthand experience what it's like in a small Southern town on Friday nights during football season. Everything shuts down, most of the residents are at the game, the entire school revolves around football - academics and/or other sports are barely worth mentioning in the eyes of the principal and the school board, if one player ever makes it to the NFL then the town will forever be convinced that football is the most important thing in the world (and God help you if there are multiple people who make it to the NFL over the years), the football players can literally get away with murder if they want... < /rant> But, yeah, considering it sometime in the future.
There was a Big Love vid that at least made me want to look into the series at some point. I was already planning on watching Bones sometime in the near future, but that was reconfirmed. The Sarah Connor Chronicles looks like it might be something I'll like, but - since I've never seen any of the Terminator films I'd kind of like to watch them before starting the series.
Let me think for a moment. Really, there weren't that many fandoms this year that I wasn't familiar with. Which is kind of sad, all things considering. It's not like there wasn't a variety of fandoms represented! It's just that I have way too many fandoms.
Oh, Six Feet Under! I'd almost forgotten, but there was a vid featuring it that definitely made me want to watch it at some point. So, yeah, that's most of it. There were a couple of movies that I thought seemed kind of neat that I might check out, but not that much in the TV show division this year.
I'll make some posts related to the specific vidshows in the near future, once a few more vids have made their way online. If I'm going to mention them, I'd like to be able to link to them.