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Alright, so first things first: we did have internet, but I only had sporadic access to my laptop, and by the time things got going on Saturday, I was generally too busy to get any real material written out anyway. Which is also why there aren't many actual photos of the event, or any videos. So here we go:
We got out of town around 6:45 AM, and spent the next 5-5:30 in the car. Google Maps estimated about 6:30 duration, but that can be sped up by going 80MPH...the whole time. And yes, it was pointed out, there are quite a few small towns along the way. No slowing down!
As a side note, what the Hell is wrong with Oklahoma? It's just bonfires, weird smells, and terrible terrible civic planning. You get across the Arkansas state line, and it's just flat horrible plains on Oklahoma. You get over the state line again to Texas, and suddenly all the road noise is gone, because the roads are actually maintained. I never want to go back to Krebs, and I don't want to talk about why...God, what a terrible place...
As a side note, what the Hell is wrong with Oklahoma? It's just bonfires, weird smells, and terrible terrible civic planning. You get across the Arkansas state line, and it's just flat horrible plains on Oklahoma. You get over the state line again to Texas, and suddenly all the road noise is gone, because the roads are actually maintained. I never want to go back to Krebs, and I don't want to talk about why...God, what a terrible place...
Anyway, we got to the convention, set up shop (the whole frame system I worked out didn't quite function the way I wanted, but it was sufficient. And if you aren't at the table, people are surprisingly good about not pawing at your wares.
The convention was really quite small. Most of the attendees were locals either from Fayetteville or who just did the local Arkansas circuit. However, there were quite a number of booth folk who got recruited at Anime Fest in Dallas when we did, particularly our awesome neighbors, also Dallas locals, Badger Tea Company. I gotta say, if we'd been set up next to anyone else in the vendor's room, the convention would not have been as good.
By the way, never refer to yourself as "the bald guy," when you only have a crew-cut and there is an actually shaved-clean bald guy sitting at the next table over.
Here's the banner which will wait on my wall until it's needed again (also check out some of the cool crap I got in the mail from the SE Member's site...a fan).
This one got scrawled after the first day, wherein the most common question was "are they really made of paper?" Which of course prompted the handful of friends I made to just wander by the booth and say things like, "So, I just have on last question...are they really made out of just paper?"
Aha...haha...haaah.
-____-
All of you.
One of the funnier events at the booth, apart from the constant, hilarious exchange of smarm with Lacy (Badger), was when a girl came by and asked for my autograph. Autograph? I responded with confusion as to why she wanted my signature, to which she responded with more confusion as to why I was hesitant. Eventually I just scribbled the blog's URL and she wandered off, confused by my whole deal. A few of the people nearby (folks who would later actually sit through my panels) had a laugh about how ludicrous the entire event was.
I can guarantee my signature will never be worth anything...
Anyhow, we ran three panels, two "make and takes," wherein we supplied (some of) the necessary materials to build the Cactuar and Moogle respectively, then one Sunday afternoon on design. Here's how the panels went, since we didn't get video: they were horrible. Unbelievably horrible. To the six of you who actually stuck it out for all three: I thank you, you brave souls. The final panel was physically painful. My laptop wouldn't work with the projector, we were stuck in a tiny little room, and as anyone who reads regularly will know, this is not the sort of hobby that makes for interesting live action. I was hoping to answer any specific questions there, but really, having a look at this site is so much better than me actually being there to explain. Sorry for how terrible it was folks, if you're reading, and yes, I'm fully aware of how bad it was.
It's worth mentioning, though, that we had a lot of scheduling problems, which contributed (a bit) to the lack of attendees at the panels. Yes, loads of people opted to leave as they went on, mainly because we got severely short-handed on cutting implements and general time restrictions, but we also had some other things to contend with. See the time of that Bishi auction? Yeah...
There was this girl cosplaying as Ed there. I'll be completely honest: I fell madly in love with her in a little less than 15 seconds. However, that Bishi auction was far more intriguing, considering it was the papercraft panel or that. But yeah, every other guy there seemed to be as keen on her as I was, so it's not like there was any sort of loss. But you see what I mean about scheduling issues. Bishi auction to compete with for the first, early morning for the second (early for gamers anyway), and afternoon (when everyone is getting ready to get out of town) for the last. I'm not saying they were worth attending in the least, but yeah, in future I'll probably avoid the panels in favor of just some booth space.
By the way, that schedule's taken out of context, have a look at the full page for Sunday:
A schedule full of one-liners, then a big ol' paragraph about nothing. One guess as to who actually wrote the summaries for the papercraft panels...
I had this whole plan worked out to dress as "professor Kaizo" for the panels, but by the time you actually get around to it, realize how small the group is, and how boring it's going to be on its own, the prospect of doing it all in character as a lecturing old geezer seems a bit unattractive. Just the same though, finding a jacket with actual elbow patches for $10 at Goodwill was kind of awesome. Now I just need some survival patches. The wool is quite nice when it's chilly, as I just discovered, walking back from class.
Even got an awesome beard from the Party Store.
(My mom made the Moogle cap a while back, that just happened to be on the desk fan I felt would be a good place to hang the beard.)
Had a lot of materials left over after the booth and the panels. Not sure what I'm going to do with them. I could potentially remake a few models. Maybe have a look around on Craigslist to see if I can unload them on locals. Maybe save them for a potential convention in the future.
So here's a funny question: you've got a bunch of models to transport. How do you move them about 400 miles? Do you get a bunch of boxes, fill them with packing peanuts, and give every model plenty of padding? OR do you throw them loose into your trunk and hope for the best?
That's right! In the trunk they go! This method worked hilariously well. Loaded them like this in my apartment parking lot, opened the trunk again in the hotel parking garage, and not a one had shifted even slightly. It was fantastic. Honestly, the models suffered more causalities out of the trunk (like when Ian rolled over my Blitzball on his bed). But that's to be expected. Really, minimal repair work necessary. I was kind of upset by everything getting rained on in the initial load, but for the most part everything worked out fine.
So here's the thing, the convention was overall a great success. It gave me the chance to see how running a booth and panels works out, but on a small scale, and as such, set me up with an immediate safety net of people I saw regularly throughout the day.
Remember that Bishi auction for the "Masquerade Ball?" Well, while wandering around killing time beforehand (knowing inevitably that I'd only have a look then go back to my room rather than dance), we ran into some of the folks who actually stuck it out through all of the panels and showed real interest in the hobby. One of the guys (Krüz) was actually working on the Cactuar at the time, so I ended up sitting around with them while Ian wandered off to check out the ball. Eventually a few decks of Munchkin made their way on to the table, and a few hours later, with a few more people joining the fray, we had reached complete decoherence, and were basically just sitting around laughing our asses off.
(We were playing by Epic rules with all but a few of the expansion packs, and I dropped the effect pretty early that required you play to 22, not 20. I actually won, despite it being my second attempt at the game, in the most anti-climactic way possible: against a level 1 armchair. In my defense, I tried to take it back to keep the game going longer, but everyone was ready to call it after like 3 hours. I think my hands are the ones in the top right, doing something unnatural.)
So, the funny thing is, on the way home, Ian and I were both recalling how the whole event had been sort of a confidence boost. He hung out with some lovely ladies (even though the combination of Captain Morgan, a rave the first night, and some big ol' pirate boots basically sapped all his strength), and had a good time. I, however, found confidence in a different place. You'd expect having real people tell me my stuff is "amazing," and that I was "unbelievably epic" for doing it all, would be the good stuff. You'd be wrong. I'm numb to all that now. Heard it too many times. What boosted my confidence was when someone asked if I was an improv comedian by trade, because I'd been getting so many laughs in the panels and hanging out with people after events of the day died down.
While sitting around Saturday morning before heading down to the table, Ian and I came across the following infomercial, surfing through the hotel's TV selection:
We brought this thing up whilst playing Munchkin to great amusement of our companions. The kilted fellow (whose name I believe is Chris, apologies if you're reading, but real names weren't tossed around much, apart from when we discovered that I'm plagued with the banter gene, and babbled a bit about my second-hand name {which is what prompted the question about being a comic}) actually got a video of me doing the "Ninja whisper," so that may surface eventually. I found the Youtube clip Sunday morning, so he brought it up on his Blackberry during the 11AM panel. All good fun.
Ancient Asian metalworking secrets...
(You can stop scrolling now)
Gabranth's Helmet
http://www.mediafire.com/?23idy2dhyag
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=CKN6W54G
It should be noted about the scale: It fits me like a glove. So much so that it stays stable on my face. Now, I've got a fairly large head, but I shave it, so as usual, I think I'm a decent representative of a generic size. Good luck with it.
.jpg)
Lulu's Cactuar and Moogle
Cactuar: http://www.mediafire.com/?zrcndkgn4g0
Moogle: http://www.mediafire.com/?hkm4nmotzoe
The moogle is a revisit of Lulu's Moogle, and the Cactuar is just the equivalent. I did these layouts looking for models simple enough for beginners, but interesting enough to be worth building. I don't have full instructions for them because I was speed building in an attempt to time myself. Wanted something buildable within the panel time limit. They weren't, but I'm still happy with the finished products. I'll have the PDOs for now, as minimal instructions for the brave panelists trying to finish on their own. Remember to download my standard fonts from Dafont to use the PDO effectively.
Hoo...
With all that said, I'll go ahead and note that I won't be working on any new releases for about two weeks. This weekend's Thanksgiving, but I've got two research papers due next week, so I'm opting to stay in Denton rather than head down to my Mom's in League City, and basically live at the library for the long weekend. Rousseau and Democritus, bring it on!
Chenille and I are still looking for some more competition for our Final Fantasy IX party build contest, so shoot me a message if you're interested. We're going to be dueling it out on Ustream with the multi-webcam option. At the moment, it looks like it will be taking place over Christmas break, when everyone's got free time. The more the merrier, et cetera.
You know the usual drill. Stay tuned...
The convention was really quite small. Most of the attendees were locals either from Fayetteville or who just did the local Arkansas circuit. However, there were quite a number of booth folk who got recruited at Anime Fest in Dallas when we did, particularly our awesome neighbors, also Dallas locals, Badger Tea Company. I gotta say, if we'd been set up next to anyone else in the vendor's room, the convention would not have been as good.
By the way, never refer to yourself as "the bald guy," when you only have a crew-cut and there is an actually shaved-clean bald guy sitting at the next table over.
Here's the banner which will wait on my wall until it's needed again (also check out some of the cool crap I got in the mail from the SE Member's site...a fan).
This one got scrawled after the first day, wherein the most common question was "are they really made of paper?" Which of course prompted the handful of friends I made to just wander by the booth and say things like, "So, I just have on last question...are they really made out of just paper?"
Aha...haha...haaah.
-____-
All of you.
One of the funnier events at the booth, apart from the constant, hilarious exchange of smarm with Lacy (Badger), was when a girl came by and asked for my autograph. Autograph? I responded with confusion as to why she wanted my signature, to which she responded with more confusion as to why I was hesitant. Eventually I just scribbled the blog's URL and she wandered off, confused by my whole deal. A few of the people nearby (folks who would later actually sit through my panels) had a laugh about how ludicrous the entire event was.
I can guarantee my signature will never be worth anything...
Anyhow, we ran three panels, two "make and takes," wherein we supplied (some of) the necessary materials to build the Cactuar and Moogle respectively, then one Sunday afternoon on design. Here's how the panels went, since we didn't get video: they were horrible. Unbelievably horrible. To the six of you who actually stuck it out for all three: I thank you, you brave souls. The final panel was physically painful. My laptop wouldn't work with the projector, we were stuck in a tiny little room, and as anyone who reads regularly will know, this is not the sort of hobby that makes for interesting live action. I was hoping to answer any specific questions there, but really, having a look at this site is so much better than me actually being there to explain. Sorry for how terrible it was folks, if you're reading, and yes, I'm fully aware of how bad it was.
It's worth mentioning, though, that we had a lot of scheduling problems, which contributed (a bit) to the lack of attendees at the panels. Yes, loads of people opted to leave as they went on, mainly because we got severely short-handed on cutting implements and general time restrictions, but we also had some other things to contend with. See the time of that Bishi auction? Yeah...
There was this girl cosplaying as Ed there. I'll be completely honest: I fell madly in love with her in a little less than 15 seconds. However, that Bishi auction was far more intriguing, considering it was the papercraft panel or that. But yeah, every other guy there seemed to be as keen on her as I was, so it's not like there was any sort of loss. But you see what I mean about scheduling issues. Bishi auction to compete with for the first, early morning for the second (early for gamers anyway), and afternoon (when everyone is getting ready to get out of town) for the last. I'm not saying they were worth attending in the least, but yeah, in future I'll probably avoid the panels in favor of just some booth space.
By the way, that schedule's taken out of context, have a look at the full page for Sunday:
A schedule full of one-liners, then a big ol' paragraph about nothing. One guess as to who actually wrote the summaries for the papercraft panels...
I had this whole plan worked out to dress as "professor Kaizo" for the panels, but by the time you actually get around to it, realize how small the group is, and how boring it's going to be on its own, the prospect of doing it all in character as a lecturing old geezer seems a bit unattractive. Just the same though, finding a jacket with actual elbow patches for $10 at Goodwill was kind of awesome. Now I just need some survival patches. The wool is quite nice when it's chilly, as I just discovered, walking back from class.
Even got an awesome beard from the Party Store.
(My mom made the Moogle cap a while back, that just happened to be on the desk fan I felt would be a good place to hang the beard.)
Had a lot of materials left over after the booth and the panels. Not sure what I'm going to do with them. I could potentially remake a few models. Maybe have a look around on Craigslist to see if I can unload them on locals. Maybe save them for a potential convention in the future.
So here's a funny question: you've got a bunch of models to transport. How do you move them about 400 miles? Do you get a bunch of boxes, fill them with packing peanuts, and give every model plenty of padding? OR do you throw them loose into your trunk and hope for the best?
That's right! In the trunk they go! This method worked hilariously well. Loaded them like this in my apartment parking lot, opened the trunk again in the hotel parking garage, and not a one had shifted even slightly. It was fantastic. Honestly, the models suffered more causalities out of the trunk (like when Ian rolled over my Blitzball on his bed). But that's to be expected. Really, minimal repair work necessary. I was kind of upset by everything getting rained on in the initial load, but for the most part everything worked out fine.
So here's the thing, the convention was overall a great success. It gave me the chance to see how running a booth and panels works out, but on a small scale, and as such, set me up with an immediate safety net of people I saw regularly throughout the day.
Remember that Bishi auction for the "Masquerade Ball?" Well, while wandering around killing time beforehand (knowing inevitably that I'd only have a look then go back to my room rather than dance), we ran into some of the folks who actually stuck it out through all of the panels and showed real interest in the hobby. One of the guys (Krüz) was actually working on the Cactuar at the time, so I ended up sitting around with them while Ian wandered off to check out the ball. Eventually a few decks of Munchkin made their way on to the table, and a few hours later, with a few more people joining the fray, we had reached complete decoherence, and were basically just sitting around laughing our asses off.
(We were playing by Epic rules with all but a few of the expansion packs, and I dropped the effect pretty early that required you play to 22, not 20. I actually won, despite it being my second attempt at the game, in the most anti-climactic way possible: against a level 1 armchair. In my defense, I tried to take it back to keep the game going longer, but everyone was ready to call it after like 3 hours. I think my hands are the ones in the top right, doing something unnatural.)
So, the funny thing is, on the way home, Ian and I were both recalling how the whole event had been sort of a confidence boost. He hung out with some lovely ladies (even though the combination of Captain Morgan, a rave the first night, and some big ol' pirate boots basically sapped all his strength), and had a good time. I, however, found confidence in a different place. You'd expect having real people tell me my stuff is "amazing," and that I was "unbelievably epic" for doing it all, would be the good stuff. You'd be wrong. I'm numb to all that now. Heard it too many times. What boosted my confidence was when someone asked if I was an improv comedian by trade, because I'd been getting so many laughs in the panels and hanging out with people after events of the day died down.
While sitting around Saturday morning before heading down to the table, Ian and I came across the following infomercial, surfing through the hotel's TV selection:
We brought this thing up whilst playing Munchkin to great amusement of our companions. The kilted fellow (whose name I believe is Chris, apologies if you're reading, but real names weren't tossed around much, apart from when we discovered that I'm plagued with the banter gene, and babbled a bit about my second-hand name {which is what prompted the question about being a comic}) actually got a video of me doing the "Ninja whisper," so that may surface eventually. I found the Youtube clip Sunday morning, so he brought it up on his Blackberry during the 11AM panel. All good fun.
Ancient Asian metalworking secrets...
(You can stop scrolling now)
Gabranth's Helmet
http://www.mediafire.com/?23idy2dhyag
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=CKN6W54G
It should be noted about the scale: It fits me like a glove. So much so that it stays stable on my face. Now, I've got a fairly large head, but I shave it, so as usual, I think I'm a decent representative of a generic size. Good luck with it.
.jpg)
Lulu's Cactuar and Moogle
Cactuar: http://www.mediafire.com/?zrcndkgn4g0
Moogle: http://www.mediafire.com/?hkm4nmotzoe
The moogle is a revisit of Lulu's Moogle, and the Cactuar is just the equivalent. I did these layouts looking for models simple enough for beginners, but interesting enough to be worth building. I don't have full instructions for them because I was speed building in an attempt to time myself. Wanted something buildable within the panel time limit. They weren't, but I'm still happy with the finished products. I'll have the PDOs for now, as minimal instructions for the brave panelists trying to finish on their own. Remember to download my standard fonts from Dafont to use the PDO effectively.
Hoo...
With all that said, I'll go ahead and note that I won't be working on any new releases for about two weeks. This weekend's Thanksgiving, but I've got two research papers due next week, so I'm opting to stay in Denton rather than head down to my Mom's in League City, and basically live at the library for the long weekend. Rousseau and Democritus, bring it on!
Chenille and I are still looking for some more competition for our Final Fantasy IX party build contest, so shoot me a message if you're interested. We're going to be dueling it out on Ustream with the multi-webcam option. At the moment, it looks like it will be taking place over Christmas break, when everyone's got free time. The more the merrier, et cetera.
You know the usual drill. Stay tuned...
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8 comments:
lol.. if I didn't know any better I'd say your pal Ian looks like he's part of your display at the booth, haha.
Awesome work man, you definitely deserve all that praise with the models you've been dishing out.
You'll definitely get invited to another con, maybe to an even bigger event!
Really nice article about the Con.
"Yes, they're all made of paper" ...lol.
even though nice new releases!
Please tell me more about that papercraft competition you are talking about.
-jouzu-
I was part of the display at the booth. I was bringing all the ladies in.
Yes...ladies...
I WILL KINDLY ASK YOU NOT TO BRING UP HOW RIDICULOUSLY UNDERAGE THAT GIRL WAS. I DIDN'T KNOW.
Aye, it's a fine line one walks, picking up women at a convention. Are you wearing that costume because you're young enough that playing dress-up is okay? Or are you simply mad?
Though, I suppose it expresses an interesting notion about the spirit of the subculture, that we're willing to throw off the rigors of "adulthood" in favor of a childlike approach to the overall theme of hanging on to your soul by means of having fun. And of course as the so-called "nerd culture" experiences the boom that it has in recent years, we find that....(and then it just trails off into philosophical mumblings)
...
Seriously though, that Ed chick was crazy hot.
She totally was. I would go to jail for that.
I didn't see this post and it's kindof late, but I just read it and I just want to say I think it's a great thing that you're putting the papercraft hobby out there. It takes a lot of guts to do what you did!
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