Brain Flotsam V2.007

I actually went out and bought this green nightmare fantasia pseudo-medievalish pre-packaged costume for the Masquerade at Portus. It may need some emergency re-tooling, but at least it was relatively cheap and I didn't have to sew that stretch velveteen. Eek. We hates the stretch fabrics, we does. (Although the Magical Mystery Sewing Machine may make that hate disappear, we'll have to try it sometime and see. It sewed a button on my dad's shirt like magic, yo! A button. Fwee!)

Anyhow.
You know what else is annoying? Going to a masquerade wearing glasses. Most masks are right out.

Otherwise, I think I'll be wearing street clothes under my (home-made!) cloak for most of it, and carrying a tote bag of art supplies.

And wearing a bright green snake plushie. Maybe if I drape myself in black some Death Eater cosplayers will mistake me for the Dark Lord and do my bidding. Muahahahaha. Mostly, I expect I will be finding art-related activities or squeeing in mad fangirl glee over Wizard Rockers. (Ministry of Magic is playing! Eeeeee!)

I'll be at the hotel Thursday morning. See some of you lot there.

The only two decent photos from ApolloCon:
Demonic Robot Toasters in the ConSuite:

The one on the left is a Cylon with a moving LED light and sound effects that say "frakkin' toaster".
The one on the right is a Demonic toaster and I forget what its sound effects were.


My new hat for Portus.

Ooogh, this morning was rough, but yay! for the Con Suite and breakfast. Kaffeeklatsch with Rosemary Clement-Moore first thing, then various volunteering and things then panels and fun stuff. Got to see GoH Allen Steele on a panel, finally, plus some other fine guests. And everybody admired my hat. The panels were great! I had an awesome time.

Tear-down took a wee bit, then Dead Dog, then homeward bound in the rain. And now I'm home.
And totally exhausted.  Whew.

So... just got back to the room after downing two beef Ramen cups, a crapload of cheese and pita, and some chocolate with bacon in it at the ConSuite. (This year's ApolloCon ConSuite is da bomb, by the way. Fantastic.)
I ate all that stuff to stop myself from weaving slightly after the Scotch Tasting, which this year was themed, "All Glenfiddich, All the Time".  We sampled several varieties and ages, including one Limited Edition Toasted Oak 12-year Old that was only sold in the UK and France. Nice, smooth, but not terribly exciting compared to the others. Still, a great time just to see a special non-American edition.
I really enjoyed the 18-year-old, although the 21-year-old was quite smooth and flavorful. Something about the warm finish of the 18-year-old just hit me exactly right. 

So I hung out with folks in the ConSuite for a while after that and it was fun and great and I finally felt like I was getting a little slice of the real ApolloCon instead of being on my own with the work (setting up/taking down/running errands, which I am totally happy to do but it does take me away from active activities. Plus I haven't gone to any parties and I wonder if I'm really missing a third of the Con by not going to any. Next time, or next con, perhaps).

Now, I sleep. Fun kaffeeklatsches and panels to go to tomorrow, plus I may actually stick around long enough for Dead Dog Party this year.

Whee-ha.

I'm wearing my "I'm blogging this" t-shirt so I suppose I actually should.

Friday was set-up and I spent several hours being a loyal minion. Also got to meet some cool people, played the Audience Plant and then the Voice of the Zombie Horde during the opening ceremonies, went to the Artists' Reception, and sat in on some kaffeeklatches and panels.

Today has been busy. Went to the Arists' Workshop with Brad Foster this morning. Awesome. Really great time, although there were your usual conversation-hijackers in the group. Seems you can't really escape those at any con.
Went to a few panels, then of course I had to do my own. Fun times. The board room actually filled up, and several people stayed until the very end of the hour to talk tarot and storytelling. It was great.
The other workshop I did was a costume DIY activity that was poorly attended, so we closed up early and I went down to wait with the hordes for the masquerade.
Great music, fun costumes, funny MCs... it was a good time.
Now I've been doing various running-around and some sitting in my room decompressing before Scotch Tasting.
Speaking of which, I should get going to that.

More to come.

Oh, and I acquired a *rockin' awesome* witch's hat for Portus, guys.

Who's going?
What are you doing there?

I'm thinking of getting a Saturday day pass and going to the Sunday Post-Portus concert. But maybe I'd take Friday off and go to that, too. Thoughts?
I think some Snarry people were getting together sometime, too.

Is hanging out in the Lobby / Bar / Common Area still happening?  Have laptop and tablet, will draw for fun.

So I'm leaving for San Diego in the morning and will be incommunicado at a (work-related) conference until Saturday night. 
While I'm gone, I shall be sketching and scribbling some of my new ideas for sequential art stories, exchange assignments, etc.  I shall also be pondering the question:

Should I try to get anything in the various upcoming con art shows? 

Portus has one, so does Terminus, I believe.  So do mixed-fandom cons including my local ApolloCon.  At the moment most of my finished work is not done at a resolution conducive to prints, but I had the idea of editing a few of the easier-to-fix ones (obviously low-rated), or printing a couple of tarot cards, as well as adjusting some of my future work with print in mind.  I could run them in limited editions with a stamp and a number.

I have never entered a con art show before, so I have no idea what I would be getting into, and I'm not certain I'd want to sell things, although wouldn't it be hilarious if somebody wanted to buy something? 

Anybody out there have experience with con shows, or pros/cons to share about the experience of fan artists at shows?

I will not be attending any of the HP cons in person, although I am planning to be in Dallas (possibly at the same hotel) the weekend of Portus, for dinner and socializing when con-goers are outside of scheduled programming. I hope that hanging out at the bar/in the lobby will happen. 

Anybody going to Dallas? (I've already heard from a few, of course, or I wouldn't be trekking my butt (and my tablet!) up there.)