This Hotel Room: COBbies talk about conventions

"Tales of impressive shenanigans..."

Not so impresive, but anyway...

There was that time about a dozen or so of my friends and acquantences chipped in to rent a hotel room. At one point during the night's festivities, we needed another alcohol run. I volunteered, and asked the 'craziest' of the people there to go with me (as a precautionary measure (note- I'm known among my friends as the "responsible one")). Didnt do any good. Before I left, I asked another person to use the shower to sober himself up, and he agreed. While I was gone, he locked the door, turned on the shower, went to sleep, and slumped over the drain. The idiot at the liquer store had been giving me some problems, so I was an unusually long time getting back (about half an hour). In that time, some other people had become concerned about the guy in the shower, and kicked the door in. This released a flood of water into the room, which had been pooled on the bathroom floor. Apparently, it had also been leaking through the floor, into the room below. When I arrived, everyone was scattering, because front desk had informed them that a section of ceiling had fallen on someone and security was on the way up.

Cant turn your back for one minute...

That is very impressive. Not necessarily in a good way, though...

i. hear. a. sound.

@De Marquis: sounds like the crap the Bellinghamsters used to get into back in the day.

There's a reason that, during The '90s, if you went to a Con in the Pacific Northwest and said you were from Bellingham, they'd either give you the stink-eye or an awestruck "duuuuude."

At my first con, a guy named Ogre*

got roaring drunk and started waving his claymore around. Well, before anyone could stop him, he'd stuck it through the ceiling...which happened to be the floor of the room above.

So, everyone hoofed it upstairs to find some very shocked congoers staring at a 2 inch slit in the floor. Apparently the blade had missed stabbing someone in the groin by about half a foot.

If I were to write some of the strange things that come under my eyes they would not be believed. ~Cora M. Strayer~

That was how we did it in Detroit

I was at one con in Chicago where several rooms had to be evacuated when they flooded because someone broke a sprinkler head in the ceiling. By inadvisedly using it as an anchor point for bondage games.

...if you don’t love you’re dead, and if you do, they’ll kill you for it.

At Dream Con 10, someone was candy-flipping*

, had a freak out and threw herself out of a second-story window...in lingerie. She landed on a police car. That was the point where the Northwest hotels said "Okay, enough's enough. Clean up your act or don't come back."

If I were to write some of the strange things that come under my eyes they would not be believed. ~Cora M. Strayer~

Nuke Con in Iowa, Oz Fest a Local Sci-Fi Con.

Who watches the watchmen?

Teuf is muttering the names of conventions under his breath. Caution, all. There may be outbursts coming.

Goal: Clear, Concise and Witty

ooh and we have Contagion in June. One of the actresses from Fire Fly shall be present :3

Who watches the watchmen?

Yeah, I grew up in fandom, back when fandom was relatively tiny. I was 3 when I attended my first convention, and JFK was still alive at the time. My mom eventually became somewhat of a Big Name Fan, and we normally spent New Years with Robert Silverberg, and always went to Larry Niven's birthday bash. I really had no idea that a lot of these people we hung out with were moderately famous until years later.

Speaking words of fandom: let it squee, let it squee.

You are officially awesome, sir or madam...

If I were to write some of the strange things that come under my eyes they would not be believed. ~Cora M. Strayer~

Never done the Con thing, sorry, folks. Hmmm... I didn't exactly grow up in places where it's a done thing, so... that's my excuse.

About the closest I ever got to the Con as a kid was a major Airwolf rally. In my very swift defence: Airwolf was massive in South Africa. And, they were trying to raise funds to get series 3 off the ground. From anywhere they could. It was bigger than Knight Rider for a time, so hitting South Africa made sense. I still haven't quite worked out why it was so big...

Knight Rider also had one or two rallies. But, Kyalami was too far for us to get to, and they didn't swing by East London.

edited 30th Jun '12 2:49:34 AM by Euodiachloris

I've only been to four cons so far this year. It's a slow one for me. Next one I hit will be Wizard World followed a couple of days later by Gen Con.

Reality is that, which when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. -Philip K. Dick

Wow, I think four or five in a year is probably the most I've ever done, though there have definitely been periods where I regularly attended three each year. I mostly stick to general-purpose SF conventions, and avoid the medium-specific and show-specific ones (though I've been to one Star Trek convention in my life—hated it—and one Anime Con, which was fun, and a few gaming conventions, also fun). For the last decade or so, I've been down to one con a year.

The biggest not-too-far-away convention that I've never attended and don't want to is the San Diego Comiccon. The biggest not-too-far-way convention that I've never attended, but would very much like to is NorWesCon.

Speaking words of fandom: let it squee, let it squee.

I rarely manage anything other than Dragon*Con, due to budget reasons (DC's a 3 hr drive away, and usually I can scrape enough roomies to split a hotel room enough ways to make it reasonable), though I'd like to make it to at least one Worldcon at some point, if for no other reason than to be able to say "I was there".

edited 1st Jul '12 4:30:47 PM by Nohbody

All your safe space are belong to Trump

I get paid to go to Cons. I don't buy badges. I don't pay for rooms. I don't pay for transport. And I don't pay more for food than I would at home. All in all, I make a profit out of it. That's why I go to so many.

Reality is that, which when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. -Philip K. Dick

@Shima: You are officially lucky. Are you a merchant, or some form of geek celebrity?

@Nohbody: I missed my chance to go to World Con; it was held in Vancouver, but I had to work and was in any event too poor to go. I will forever regret not sticking up a liquor store for the necessary funds.

If I were to write some of the strange things that come under my eyes they would not be believed. ~Cora M. Strayer~

Not necessarily so lucky. I know a lot of people who work cons, and when you're working, it's, well, sorta like work. Depending on what you're doing. :)

ETA: actually, it can be fun, and I've done it, but the cost hasn't really been an issue for me for a long time (except when I'm between gigs), so I mostly just go ahead and pay my way these days.

edited 1st Jul '12 11:37:55 PM by Xtifr

Speaking words of fandom: let it squee, let it squee.

Neither. I work with a group that helps run and organize conventions. Basically I get paid to help run conventions because I've been to a lot of them and I know how to make them run better. I generally end up running events.

Reality is that, which when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. -Philip K. Dick

@shima: sounds like a pretty cool job.

If I were to write some of the strange things that come under my eyes they would not be believed. ~Cora M. Strayer~

Really? Just .. I've known that word since I was, like, five. All thanks to playing Rogue.

So, the first convention I can remember going to was a Star Trek convention, that my dad dragged me to because my mom was working and he couldn't get a babysitter for me. I was bitter and miserable, and then I met James Doohan, who was thoroughly awesome and totally turned the convention around; and also Mirina Sirtis*

who I had trouble understanding.

After that, I attended the massive Comdex computer industry convention for all four years of high school. Massive amounts of free pens, post-its, t-shirts, and other random swag were brought home, including enough buttons to turn a t-shirt into scale mail.*

Also got to threaten the strip-club-pamphlet-pushers with a yardstick, as well as try to extricate my van after someone parked with 2 inches of clearance behind me.

My first real fandom convention I attended was the 2002 World Con in San Francisco, which timing-wise is probably where my eldest kid got conceived. Got many, many artifacts, a nice short conversation with Harry Turtledove, and an even briefer conversation with Terry Brooks, who at the time told me that there wouldn't be another Kingdom Of Landover novel*

.

I attended Further Confusion for several years, putting in a great number of hours volunteering, getting lots of awesome artwork including several custom jobs, and (before it was large enough to completely fill up the San Jose Doubletree) watching an entire Christian high school volleyball team be completely scandalized at three people walking by in fursuits. Also introduced a buddy of mine to The Princess Bride when he left his room due to an all-male orgy.*

I did get to the 2008 Comic Con out of luck and nepotism to get a badge with someone else's name on it. Also totally glorious, amazing costumes. This was where I started getting signatures on the cover of my e-book, starting with Phil Foglio.

Last major one I attended was Nor Wes Con, though somehow I managed not to ever see Drunky, probably because I was there for the panels, not the drunken orgies. Many many awesome panels, and also some hangout time with Kat Richardson, who I've known for longer than she's been a novelist. *

I also participated in a sort of invite-only mini-convention called Guardian Con which started with guys from a gaming group who made a point of flying back to get together once a year for extra gaming, and had since grown out to around 30 people for three days of non-stop gaming sessions. It was glorious, and I really wish the damn Navy hadn't kept me out to sea for the last two of them.

That’s the epitome of privilege right there, not considering armed nazis a threat to your life. - Silasw

The drunken orgies are not what they used to be, sad to say. There was plenty of drinking, but the most orgiastic things I did last Con I attended were slurp Jell-O shots out of some girl's corset and get hit on by a very creepy swinger couple. "That is not my belt buckle, ma'am" still makes DG giggle.

If I were to write some of the strange things that come under my eyes they would not be believed. ~Cora M. Strayer~

Hey, Ninja, you've hung out with many more famous authors than I have. I just kissed one, is all.

...if you don’t love you’re dead, and if you do, they’ll kill you for it.

Only if by "hanging out" you mean "talking to them in the 2 minutes before their panel starts". Except for Kat, we toured the Winchester Mystery House together.

That’s the epitome of privilege right there, not considering armed nazis a threat to your life. - Silasw

I'm going to my frist con later this month, Nappacon. Any tips?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXkI1sTDoEg