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Arisia was a bit of a blur. Not because I did a lot of things, or that I got drunk a lot, because I don't drink. I still had a cold and I tried to take it easy. But somehow I don't feel like my memory was working quite up to speed. At any rate, I did do things!

Saw some great costumes. The TARDIS dress that's going around, I saw that. I actually attended the Masquerade, but I caught that one in passing before that. I also saw the creepy weeping angel stalking the con. That was seriously freaky. The moon jelly at the Masquerade was absolutely gorgeous. And it glowed in the dark! It was awesome. Saw lots of Doctors, mostly 11. There was a toddler 11 who was, of course, adorable.

Because I've mostly going to WisCon and Readercon in the last 5 years, with 1 Boskone thrown in, Arisia was definitely a different sort of con. Not just the costumes, of course. The dealer's room was actually overwhelming to me. Lots of costuming stuff, or knickknacks and things for your home. If I had had a plan or a house, I would've totally bought stuff. (I think maybe I'm repeating my earlier lj post..) Well, anyway, it was cool. The art show was also interesting, though I couldn't really say better or worse than WisCon or Boskone. Managed to sneak into that about half an hour before it closed.

I attended 3/4s of the bellydancing. That was cool and was eye-opening to me. It wasn't exactly what I was expecting, and was so totally geeky. I encourage people attending Arisia to go see it.

I watched the unaired pilot of Big Bang Theory. That was interesting. Sheldon was _very_ sexual, which I didn't like. But there was an actual female geek. (Who was also a sort of love interest, but.. I suppose we can't have _everything_, can we?) I sort of feel like we need a Friends of Hilda. Gilda? Drat, what was her name?

I also attended the Lightning Talks. That was interesting. Even if the first one was all about meat. I like the format, since you can sort of sample all sorts of stuff in 10 minute chunks. It appeals to the knowledge grazer in me.

I was on a panel as a pinch-hitter. The panel would've only had 2 people without me. Which probably wouldn't have sunk it, since we only had 1 audience member. But that's all right -- we had a good discussion -- on the future of disabilities and what sf shows us, etc. We touched on technology, society, laws, etc.

I attended a bunch of panels, including several of the queer panels.

Now, some things I did miss, because I decided sleeping or being a slug in the hotel room was a better plan. And once because the Thai delivery person, mentioned in the previous post, wanted me to come to the lobby to pick it up. There wasn't any good place to sit down there and eat that wasn't already taken, so I went back to my room. And then inertia, and an optic migraine out of nowhere, kept me there.

I got to see a 3D printer in action at the maker showcase. I didn't stick around and ask questions or anything. But I did learn they smelled. :)

Well, all in all, a successful Arisia experience. I'd go back. I wish it wasn't in January, when I'm likely to be recovering from Christmas and likely to be sick or risk getting sick by going... and of course the hotel is a bit expensive. But the con had free wifi (tho the hotel didn't. Hear that Readercon?!?!) and offered a few cheap/er/ alternatives to the hotel restaurants. But still overpriced, of course.

I feel a little more prepared for Boskone. Maybe I'll order from the Mexican restaurant this time.

UPDATE: Oh yea! And I went to an OA meetup. That was cool. I really need to make more of an effort to do that sort of thing and socialize, rather than just be audience or panelist or shopper throughout a con. :)

This was my first Boskone. Also, since I've never attended an Arisia, it was my first time in this con hotel as well. I was waffling all over the place, so I missed the room block at the con hotel. I called to see the price of a non-block room and it was $260. Yea.. no. So I stayed at the Marriott Renaissance a block or so away. Both hotels only had free wifi in the lobby, so no on-the-spot con reports.

I got a ride down with two fellow NH Broads *waves*. Thank you! I'd been prepared to take the bus, but this was faster, involved less schlepping, and more conversation.

I'd intended to attend the discussion group on Harrassment in fandom, but was too new to the con to actually find it before it was half over with. And at that point, I didn't want to interrupt. See, what threw me was that there's this huuuuuge room with eeeeeverything in it! That the dealer's room and artshow should share the same space made sense to me. That it was also the consuite, and a gaming space, and demo space, and discussion group and kaffeeklatsch space.. wow, that's a lot. I did eventually start to appreciate how it brought everyone together in interesting ways, but it does have its downsides.

The freebie table was packed! Overflowing with old sf/f magazines mostly. I did snag a Cecilia Tan antho (to say which would make me blush more than just saying 'Cecilia Tan antho') and I did see some Arietty posters that tempted. I was trying to travel light though and thought they'd get smushed.

I'd been expecting a Dunkin Donuts and CVS every five feet, but there were neither! Well, my phone insisted there was a DD, but it was down on a pier and I didn't see any signs, and there was a gate across the road.. so I gave up that search. Later, I found the con restaurant guide which guided me to the Italian deli/market right near my hotel! Yay! I'm doing this out of order, but.. there were 3 Starbuckses between the two hotels and the only other building you pass between them! And did you know they sell bagels, but they don't toast them?!

At the Italian deli/market thing, I got a cheese sub for a very reasonable price of I think $3.50 and some potato salad. It was not good potato salad. It was giant chunks of potato and a little bit of mayo and other stuff. Seriously, it was like eating a bunch of red bliss potatoes, without butter or salt. The sub was good though. They also do breakfast, so if I go to Arisia or Boskone next year, I'll be going there again.

Consuite food was interesting/different. Nobody is beating Wiscon's consuite in my mind, not with the popcorn and the veggie hot dogs. But they did have a constant supply of interesting breads and there was fruit. The thing I most appreciated were the hard-boiled eggs. It's a good dose of vegetarian protein. And portable!

The artshow was very impressive to me, who knows very little about art. I saw some artists I recognized from Wiscon. Mostly it was the sheer _amount_ of art, almost all of it really good and also coooool. One of these days I'll have a place with a lot of wall space and need to buy some of this cool art I keep seeing. Dragons! Space! They also had displays up of authors/artists who'd passed away in the last year, and those were nice.

The only thing I bought in the dealer's room was _Machine_ by Jennifer Pelland, from the Broad Universe table. Got it signed! And got two other awesome Broads to sign my copy of UnCONvential (which you should totally buy/read). I was trying to travel light, as I said, so I didn't browse the dealer's room much beyond one wander around. Didn't want to be tempted!

I guess I'll do the panel reports, such as they might be, in another post. And at another time, when I have my notes in fr... actually, it just occurred to me I do have the schedule (on my phone) and the notes in a notebook right in front of me. Well, later in any case!

But a final shoutout to that phone app! Awesome! I think the app itself is Guidebook, so other cons, you should definitely use that!! They released an update on Friday that wiped out my schedule and screwed up the descriptions so they didn't match the panels, but they eventually fixed it. I was worried about installing the further updates, because I thought it might wipe out my schedule each time. Learning curves. But srsly, I want this for Wiscon!