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Top Ten Moments of The NorthWest Science Fiction Convention

10. Dancing with Wren and Jenboy.
~So this was the first CON I went to where I felt like an adult. Apparently that was picked up on by the nice strangers and the downright creepers. I had a lot of people come up to me in a much more forward manner than I'm usually accustomed to, and 87% of the time, that was no problem. For example, Jenboy, a very nice individual who I THINK is a trangender (like...she's a girl who's a boy? I'm not sure, I did not presume to attribute it to her since she easily could go either way. She was definitely female, but I think she self-identifies as...both?) who had already introduced herself to me. She came over and danced to "Barbie Girl" with Jen and I, which was really fun because she was very nice and respectful of space, while still obviously having a good time. She hugged us and thanked us for the dance. I bring this up because that was one of the NICE times. We were also invited to be Fairies by a very drunk pirate. There was also someone who invited us to back to a hotel room to go to a different party and invited Wren to play a "game" with them. I pretty much blame Wren being so pretty for us being so popular. That was creepy. But dancing with two pretty girls is still fun.

9. The Masquerade
~ Oh the Masquerade. If not for you, this con would be without stress for the most part. It would be basically smooth sailing. But no. We get...to be Aztecs which involves being painted with bronzer for a few hours, putting our male friends in not a lot (or in Cortez's case, making him very pretty) and then try not to run over reach other's dresses. But the best part?
The "altar" which was a folding table was not set up right so when we literally threw Cortez on top of it, the table broke and now I think he tweaked his back.








8. Panels
My panels this year included:
Deconstructing Life Lessons in Fairy Tales: I didn't particularly like this one because no one really agreed on what we were talking about, and there were a lot of other panelists, so I don't think I ever said anything but my name.
Sci/Fi Fantasy and Gender Roles: This one had a lot of people on it as well, including one guy, but I actually said one or two sentences and people seemed to really enjoy it. That was where I first met Jenboy.
Dr.Horrible and the Triumph of the Online Geeks: I LOVED this panel. the people I was with on it were so nice and the crowd was really enthusiastic. The other three panelists all worked in "the Biz", they made indie films, fanfilms and so on. I represented the Consumer, the NetGen who resonated with Dr.Horrible as a sociological phenomena. I'm sure you can all imagine how that went, but it was definitely a lot of fun. I especially liked that unlike some other panels, there was a lot of respect between all of us panelists, they asked me specific questions and we filled in each other's gaps quite well I thought.
Bad Science in Science Fiction: There were only two of us on this panel so it was kept pretty light hearted, lots of groans as we remember the worst of films (*coughTheCorecough*) and books. The only downside of this panel was a certain gentleman who talked very very quietly and was not really a group player.
Comparative Study of Elves: So...three people who all have differing ideas on what this panel is about. One guy is a Lorist, one is a Tolkein Essayist...and me, who I counted as a Generalized Nerd. Surprisingly, the panel went well, it mostly ended up discussing morality and how it is assigned.
Growing up in Convention Fandom: so many cute babies or Level 1 Humans as we referred to them. I talked about how being in the SciFi community made you more open-minded and tolerant, you made less assumptions about people, gender roles and so on, and how it made you feel more able to express yourself which helped you find who you were and made you a more confident individual. A younger crowd generally, but still had some fun stories.

7."Hey, nice outfit"
~I heard this a lot, or people who had seen me before commented on how I always had something interesting on. This was especially fun considering I just pulled stuff out of my closet. Special props to Wren for the Holy Chain Mail though.

6. Wandering around with friends
~ There's always stuff and people to see at the CON. Cosplayers, lolitas...fat people in corsets....the fun never stops. I especially enjoyed wandering around with Mexidrew at like 2 in the morning. We had a lot of fun seeing who was still up even if we did have to swim through pot smoke to get out.

5. "Hey, I bought some more Magic Cards"
I heart the Dealer's room. There's just so much cool stuff there. I got my brother a pair of leather bracers that he chose himself and looked awesome on him. I got myself a t-shirt with a modified version of the Bene Gesserit Mantra (if you don't know what that is, it's okay, though I suggest you go read "Dune") about caffeine. Decaf is the mindkiller!
I also bought some new Magic Cards which is filling out decks nicely and has been a lot of fun messing with. Finally, I got another copy of "At the Mountains of Madness" by HP Lovecraft because I could not find my other copy (I think my sister has it) and just can't live without it. There were so many awesome weapons though, some fun nerd patches and of course, lovely jewelry that I could never hope to afford but were pleasant to drool over. Wren tried a corset on (they wouldn't do anything for me, so I didn't bother) and looked fantastic, which surprised no one.

4. Eating all da foodz. Denny's, Jack in the Box and IHOP. Mexidrew putting butter on sausage, wrapping it in bacon, putting butter on that, wrapping it in ham and dipping that in syrup...and then EATING IT. /shudder

3. Interviewing RA Salvatore
~ For those who don't know, Salvatore is responsible for much of the development of the Forgotten Realms, and his character Drizzt Do'urden is one of the best known in the fantasy community. The interview was suppose to go an hour and ended up going for over two. We talked about everything from his books, to selling out to "If you ever messed with one of my kids there wouldn't be enough left of you to identify", and so on and so forth. He was very funny and the crowd reaction was amazing. If you have any specific questions about what we talked about, let me know, trying to put all of it on here would take half of forever, but man, I have stories now.
At the end of the interview I told him that he was called "God" by some of my friends, to which he responded "You need more friends". I'm looking at you, Kupo.

For a sample, check out this Youtube video, which blessedly doesn't show my face :P



2. Hugging Bob.
I'm not kidding, he told us to call him Bob. See, now, there's Mr.Salvatore, the author, and there's Bob. And the cool thing is, he really is all one person, he wasn't arrogant or rude or anything like that, he struck me as someone very sure of who he is. After the Interview with him and his son, we went outside and I kid you not, he talked to Swissdrew for over an hour. I had to go because I had a panel, but before I went, I said "Mr.Salvatore, can I hug you?" and he said "Absolutely, but only if you call me Bob". So I freaking hugged R.A. Salvatore. ^.^ He also signed my sketchbook and liked the Spider Queen Dress my dad put me in.



Me and Bob. ^.^

But the number one top moment...

1. Mrs.Salvatore THANKING ME for chastising her son in front of almost twenty people on stage.
~So, I was voluntold to interview Geno Salvatore, who recently wrote a FR book of his own. We were given a copy so I will get to read it, but at the time, I had zippo information on him. His dad actually liked talking about Geno than about himself, and there was so much pride in his voice. This guy is 24, and has written a novel which has gotten nothing but good reviews so far. But at least three times during the interview he put himself down, and the only thing I'd found online was an interview on youtube, where he was also very self-deprecating. So I kid you not, I leaned over to him and said, on stage: "You know this self-deprepecating thing you're doing? You should stop. {Crickets chirp, he looks at me blankly, obviously surprised} You're doing a disservice to your fans--and you WILL have fans, because they are going to be thinking "Wow, this guy is great" and then hear you say you think you're crap and they will think "Oh, I guess I don't know anything about anything".
This was a TERRIBLE breach in professionalism, and if I hadn't been so...just frustrated at his lack of self-confidence, I would have kept my big mouth shut. Then I see his mom come up to me and I'm freaking out, I'm CERTAIN she is going to lay into me. Instead she takes my hand and she says "THANK you for what you said to Geno. I'm always telling him not to put himself down, but having someone else do it was just so great, I really appreciate it." This was such a huge relief and it really warmed my heart because she was an awesome woman, she actually was a history teacher!

All together, it was a really great experience, though certainly had it's negatives. This is just the slimmest glimpse into my weekend, but hopefully, it conveys the w00tness.