CONvergence
Jul. 5th, 2004 11:36 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
puzzle_meI spent most of this weekend at CONvergence, an annual sci-fi/fantasy convention held in Bloomington, Minnesota. It's a great place to meet, mingle, and hang out with other geeks. Last year I went much at the urging of ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
pants_of_doom and 433. I was a little worried I'd be stepping on my sister's toes, since sci-fi/fantasy conventions are historically more her territory than mine. But, CONvergence is as much a fan convention as a pro convention - and once I got there I found that it was nice to be able to jump back and forth between hanging out at room parties and hanging out with my sister.
Anyhow, this year I decided I would involve myself more by helping out with Dystopia, a theme party run by game night friends of Rogers and I. All of the volunteers helping to run the party dressed as members of the Junior Anti-Sex League, from Nineteen Eighty-Four. A few people got pictures of me, so hopefully I'll be able to link to one soon. We put bar code tattoos (of the temporary kind) on people, had soylent snacks, Dystopia bingo, and so forth. I primarily helped put bar codes on people.
Some of the distinctive memories, positive and negative, about this con:
+ Getting my sister's new book, Freedom's Gate, in the dealer's room and discovering that she'd dedicated it to my brother and I.
+ Connie's Space Lounge. I am so impressed with all of the workspacebug, s4, rahna, vaxjo and everyone else I'm missing put into this room. There were blacklights hung everywhere, a fantastic sound setup, air hockey, and a geodesic dome with lounging chairs and cushions set up inside.
+ Seeing Low Orbit play.
+ Getting hit on by the cute guy dressed as Capt. Jack Sparrow while I was barcoding him. Though, since I'm taken, I had to try not to enjoy that *too* much.
- Getting hit on by a skeevy, old guy who asked if he could "run his barcode through my skin". Ew. Just, Ew.
+/- Getting hit on a lot in general. Sometimes it was fun, sometimes it was gross, sometimes it was just really uncomfortable. I tend to get easily flustered when people are hitting on me, so it was kind of nice to get hit on a lot when none of it is going to go anywhere.
+ The glowy ice cubes that Dystopia was giving out as bingo prizes
+ Getting to seealisgray on her brief hiatus from D.C. Getting to take care of her Armed Forces Institute of Pathology badge when I discovered she'd left it at Vice City.
+ Ice cream at Vice City. And DDR people watching.
- The surprise special movie being Trekkies 2. I was kind of hoping for Sky Captain, or even I, Robot. Oh well,rgeorge and I weren't really into the idea of spending two hours watching it, particularly since we could spend that time acquiring food that wasn't from consuite, so we ceded our seats to people who would enjoy the movie more than us.
+ The panel by433, ethel, birdfigment, and Melissa on geek mating rituals. I think it was the funniest panel I have ever been to at con.
+ Remembering that last year at con was one of my first real conversations withrgeorge. (No, we didn't hook up with each other at con, we just conversed.)
+ Helping take down Dystopia on Sunday. I wasn't around to see the transformation from normal hotel room to dystopic resistance hideout, so it was actually pretty cool to see it go back to being a normal hotel room.
pants_of_doom and 433. I was a little worried I'd be stepping on my sister's toes, since sci-fi/fantasy conventions are historically more her territory than mine. But, CONvergence is as much a fan convention as a pro convention - and once I got there I found that it was nice to be able to jump back and forth between hanging out at room parties and hanging out with my sister.Anyhow, this year I decided I would involve myself more by helping out with Dystopia, a theme party run by game night friends of Rogers and I. All of the volunteers helping to run the party dressed as members of the Junior Anti-Sex League, from Nineteen Eighty-Four. A few people got pictures of me, so hopefully I'll be able to link to one soon. We put bar code tattoos (of the temporary kind) on people, had soylent snacks, Dystopia bingo, and so forth. I primarily helped put bar codes on people.
Some of the distinctive memories, positive and negative, about this con:
+ Getting my sister's new book, Freedom's Gate, in the dealer's room and discovering that she'd dedicated it to my brother and I.
+ Connie's Space Lounge. I am so impressed with all of the work
spacebug, s4, rahna, vaxjo and everyone else I'm missing put into this room. There were blacklights hung everywhere, a fantastic sound setup, air hockey, and a geodesic dome with lounging chairs and cushions set up inside.+ Seeing Low Orbit play.
+ Getting hit on by the cute guy dressed as Capt. Jack Sparrow while I was barcoding him. Though, since I'm taken, I had to try not to enjoy that *too* much.
- Getting hit on by a skeevy, old guy who asked if he could "run his barcode through my skin". Ew. Just, Ew.
+/- Getting hit on a lot in general. Sometimes it was fun, sometimes it was gross, sometimes it was just really uncomfortable. I tend to get easily flustered when people are hitting on me, so it was kind of nice to get hit on a lot when none of it is going to go anywhere.
+ The glowy ice cubes that Dystopia was giving out as bingo prizes
+ Getting to see
alisgray on her brief hiatus from D.C. Getting to take care of her Armed Forces Institute of Pathology badge when I discovered she'd left it at Vice City. + Ice cream at Vice City. And DDR people watching.
- The surprise special movie being Trekkies 2. I was kind of hoping for Sky Captain, or even I, Robot. Oh well,
rgeorge and I weren't really into the idea of spending two hours watching it, particularly since we could spend that time acquiring food that wasn't from consuite, so we ceded our seats to people who would enjoy the movie more than us.+ The panel by
433, ethel, birdfigment, and Melissa on geek mating rituals. I think it was the funniest panel I have ever been to at con.+ Remembering that last year at con was one of my first real conversations with
rgeorge. (No, we didn't hook up with each other at con, we just conversed.)+ Helping take down Dystopia on Sunday. I wasn't around to see the transformation from normal hotel room to dystopic resistance hideout, so it was actually pretty cool to see it go back to being a normal hotel room.
