Swancon 2018: everything else
Apr. 3rd, 2018 09:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alias_sqbrOverall the con was pretty good, as far as I can tell based on what I saw around naps.
The opening ceremony was short and practical, just how I like them.
Sadly the 2019 launch was...not. The idea was that the committee would play the aspects of the con (guests, venue, theme etc) as if introducing themselves at a speed dating event. This is a bit silly but what bugged me was that they divided everyone into groups and had the "daters" speak simultaneously, making it incredibly hard to understand what was being said.
I didn't recognise the names of international guests, but apparently they're the people who run io9 which should be interesting! Launch issues aside next years con looks like it'll be fun.
The Pan Pacific hotel is showing it's age, it's a weird mix of fancy and literally held together with duct tape. Something like 1/5 of the taps in the (gender neutral, thanks committee!) toilets I used actually worked. Some of the lift buttons are clearly other numbers turned upside down. This sort of thing wouldn't bother me if it lowered it's prices to match, but alas no.
I went to the gender diverse afternoon tea again which was absolutely lovely.
The family room was fun to visit. I helped out at the "artist draws with kids" panel with the younger kids, offering advice on the anatomy of the giant spider eating Earth, finding them the red texta to make the blood of devoured humans really pop etc. Ah, kids.
The art show was on a different floor so I only remembered to visit once and forgot to vote. The art was very good though, and I loved seeing so many entries by kids. I enjoyed doing a colouring in though I didn't submit it to the competition, since I won last time I entered and it feels a bit unfair as a semi professional artist.
As I mentioned earlier, I started feeling the effects of Pristiq (anti depressant/anxiety) withdrawal on Sunday afternoon. At first I thought I must have just missed that day, but I thought to check my pill box on Monday morning and realised there was no Pristiq in any of the remaining days. I'm still not sure how I managed to only miss those days, since I didn't have any withdrawal symptoms before Sunday. Anyway, not wanting to have 2 days worth of withdrawal I packed up quickly, asked Cam to handle checkout, and left to go home on my wheelchair.
And then I realised I still had my hotel key. "Oh well," I thought, "I can deal with that later. As long as I have my...OH NO MUM HAS MY HOUSE KEY". Because she'd been looking after the cat. So I tried contacting her and when she didn't reply went to the local chemist to try for an emergency prescription. Which they were happy to give me, but while that was being organised Mum rang from my house. So with the stress and continuing withdrawal I was quite discombobulated by the time I got home! But it all turned out fine. Mum and Kira got along quite well, during the con Mum kept sending detailed updates with photos. She sat and knitted and Kira decided she was acceptable company.
Anyway, this mess meant I missed all of Monday's programming, but also didn't tire myself out trying to get to it.
I didn't get to talk to as many people as I would have if I hadn't been so tired, but had some nice conversations. *waves to everyone*
The opening ceremony was short and practical, just how I like them.
Sadly the 2019 launch was...not. The idea was that the committee would play the aspects of the con (guests, venue, theme etc) as if introducing themselves at a speed dating event. This is a bit silly but what bugged me was that they divided everyone into groups and had the "daters" speak simultaneously, making it incredibly hard to understand what was being said.
I didn't recognise the names of international guests, but apparently they're the people who run io9 which should be interesting! Launch issues aside next years con looks like it'll be fun.
The Pan Pacific hotel is showing it's age, it's a weird mix of fancy and literally held together with duct tape. Something like 1/5 of the taps in the (gender neutral, thanks committee!) toilets I used actually worked. Some of the lift buttons are clearly other numbers turned upside down. This sort of thing wouldn't bother me if it lowered it's prices to match, but alas no.
I went to the gender diverse afternoon tea again which was absolutely lovely.
The family room was fun to visit. I helped out at the "artist draws with kids" panel with the younger kids, offering advice on the anatomy of the giant spider eating Earth, finding them the red texta to make the blood of devoured humans really pop etc. Ah, kids.
The art show was on a different floor so I only remembered to visit once and forgot to vote. The art was very good though, and I loved seeing so many entries by kids. I enjoyed doing a colouring in though I didn't submit it to the competition, since I won last time I entered and it feels a bit unfair as a semi professional artist.
As I mentioned earlier, I started feeling the effects of Pristiq (anti depressant/anxiety) withdrawal on Sunday afternoon. At first I thought I must have just missed that day, but I thought to check my pill box on Monday morning and realised there was no Pristiq in any of the remaining days. I'm still not sure how I managed to only miss those days, since I didn't have any withdrawal symptoms before Sunday. Anyway, not wanting to have 2 days worth of withdrawal I packed up quickly, asked Cam to handle checkout, and left to go home on my wheelchair.
And then I realised I still had my hotel key. "Oh well," I thought, "I can deal with that later. As long as I have my...OH NO MUM HAS MY HOUSE KEY". Because she'd been looking after the cat. So I tried contacting her and when she didn't reply went to the local chemist to try for an emergency prescription. Which they were happy to give me, but while that was being organised Mum rang from my house. So with the stress and continuing withdrawal I was quite discombobulated by the time I got home! But it all turned out fine. Mum and Kira got along quite well, during the con Mum kept sending detailed updates with photos. She sat and knitted and Kira decided she was acceptable company.
Anyway, this mess meant I missed all of Monday's programming, but also didn't tire myself out trying to get to it.
I didn't get to talk to as many people as I would have if I hadn't been so tired, but had some nice conversations. *waves to everyone*
no subject
Date: 2018-04-03 01:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-04-05 08:40 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-04-06 12:32 pm (UTC)The one time I had a panel in that section I got lost and couldn't find it, but that may have had more to do with it being the first panel of the day :)