(I’m going to try like hell to be positive. I really am. I’ll save my negative comments for another post.)

Picked up HellZiggy at around 1 and we had lunch and headed home to rest up for the night.

Thursday night was good. Staff was surprised at how many people showed up. The numbers were huge even though there wasn’t much going on.

Friday morning started slow for me. CJ and I reported for duty and there wasn’t much for us to do until we both moderated a panel in our last hour. Mine was anime voice actors from Texas, which out of all anime choices most matched where I figure I’m qualified so that worked. At that point we thought it was packed. HellZiggy and I met up with Jack and Oden and had lunch at Coach and Willie’s. I puttered around the vendor hall but didn’t buy anything, then wandered over to the Hyatt to stand in line for Wil Wheaton’s Rock Band. After being informed the event would start at least 90 minutes late we bagged on that and went to Kirk’s for dinner.

Saturday started about the same. Nothing to do until a panel during my last hour of volunteer time and it was one of the same voice actors, so that was easy. This is when I learned what packed really was. I stepped outside at around 11:15 and the line to buy tickets snaked around the side of the building. By the time I went to buy my Geek Prom ticket they were sold out so I angsted over that all afternoon, so I bought myself a present.

steampunk necklaceI’m not really into steampunk (it gets pretty expensive) but these are beautifully made (trust me there was a few booths with tacky crappy steampunk stuff) and gorgeous! The hands actually move. Or rather, you can move/adjust them as you wish. Go here to check out her stuff.

Turns out knowing one of the people in charge (yay being social) got me a last minute Geek Prom entry. That started out great with an okay cover band and then recordings of geeks’ favorite songs. The high point was Felicia Day jumping up on the catwalk to sing “Do You Want To Date My Avatar” alongside a young cosplay girl in a great Codex costume. After the costume competition the “prom” tanked when the next band was crappy metal screaming and electric feedback guitars. People left in droves… it was time to go home.

This morning was a drag. I was tired and achy and had to force myself to go in. I monitored an early panel and then we were released. We trudged over to the Hyatt to meet Jack’s kids and after that CJ and I gave up and left. Too tired. Too hot. Too crowded.

If you want to listen to recordings of some of the more popular panels, go to VTW Productions.

Good time, but the new venue and new staff created problems where there didn’t need to be. Hopefully next year stuff will be better organized. And Ryan will have moved to Bora Bora.  Ooops, I said I’d be nice. Sorry.

Couple of quick notes:

  • Hank at Coach and Willie’s was a fantastic fun server.
  • Getting a 3-day pass for the light rail was a great idea.
  • Got to see lots of old friends.
  • I still hate anime kids. The most annoying teenagers on the planet.
  • Tea Party people are very cliquey. People who don’t know what that means (like small children who want to go to said Tea Party) are treated like crap.
  • Metal is not appropriate for a geek prom.
  • I scored another Steamcrow book for Kira. She loves her After Halloween book so I bought her Caught Creatures.