Category: Events

Wow, what an appropriate name for something I would post about! Capricon 37 (And The Children Shall Lead) was my first book signing (Yippee!!!), and my first ever panels.

As of the pictures, I should explain those first. Upper left: King of Tokyo, a board game where monsters are fighting over the city of Tokyo. Upper Right: Me at my book signing. Lower Left: A dragon I bought at the Art Auction. I buy a lot of Cheryl Storm’s work, and this is one of her dragons. Lower Right: Tokaido, a board game (see previous post).

My panels were Writing For Kids and And The Children Shall Lead (named after the convention title for this year). I very much enjoyed both, shout out to my fellow panelists, especially in Writing For Kids where I was the only child on the panel. There is so much I could write about, from the food in ConSuite and Green Room to the artists in Dealer’s and Art Show to the activities I participated in. Instead I will simply suggest: Come join us at Cap next year!

I would write about Critter Crunch, but I unfortunately missed it this year due to conflicting panels. Sorry, Critter Crunch!

(By the way, I have been going to Cap every year since I was 6 months old.)

Alas, another Windycon has come and gone. During this convention, I played Munchkin Cthulhu and Machi Koro (to name a few), went to The Melting Pot (mmm…), met a brilliant artist named Juan Carlos Martinez and bought yet another Cheryl Storm dragon (go figure)!

Let’s start with Juan: he makes flowers and others cool trinkets out of coins! One piece he was selling was a dalek! The coolest part was you could actually turn the dalek’s head, thanks to a magnet inside.

The charity this year was Save-a-Vet, where they rescue veteran dogs that can’t be adopted (due to trauma, having been trained to kill, or possibly having killed). Then they buy a house for the dog and hire a disabled veteran to live with the dog. Yes, it’s the dog’s house. If the dog wants to sleep in the sink, it will. In return, the veteran lives there rent-free. I bought a t-shirt to support the cause. (A $20 T-shirt, in camo colors, to be exact.)

I, as usual, did Critter Crunch. I, as usual, drove the Spider. I also drove Army Tank, which has a rotating turret. There are little buttons on the controller that “fire” the two separate guns. (Firing is a little LED light flashing red and making noise.) I, as usual, got lots of cool swag, including a toy dragon!

I spent some time with W9W, a group with a Morse Code set and a teletype machine. I got to try out both!

Most importantly, I had fun and socialized with people. After all, isn’t that what the con is all about?

Last weekend I went to Gamehole Con, a convention hosting our own smaller convention: Dorkstock. Dorkstock is John Kovalic’s convention, one I’m proud to say my mother is occasionally the con chair of.

My mother ran multiple games, including Chez Geek, Camden, and Unspeakable Words. No, no cussing involved. I promise.

I encountered Looney Labs again. With them, I played assorted Pyramid Games, Fluxx, Chrononauts, and Mad Libs! I also got free cake (it was Andy Looney’s birthday), a little plush flower, a Pink Hijinks set (Pink Hijinks is a Pyramid Game), and a special Fluxx card.

Over the weekend I also played Munchkin, and ran a game of Munchkin Oz. One guy brought in prototype games and we played them. I thought it was great and look forward to seeing them published.

Dad and I did Paint N’ Take. Paint N’ Take is an event where you grab a figurine, paint it, leave it to dry, then come back and take it home. It’s really fun!

 

Every year I go to the Bristol Renaissance Faire, which is a great place to meet cool people and get tons of awesome stuff! To add on to that, there are plenty of interesting acts, such as one of the ones we watch annually, Dirk & Guido: The Swordsmen. Their motto runs along the lines of “We are bold and stupid men!”.

It was tremendously funny. We were also introduced to more musicians, The Dread Crew of Oddwood. We saw Adam Crack’s Firewhip show, displayed on the right.

There’s a lot of role-playing and lots of cool things to do. Every year we get sassafras and I go on the pirate ship. They have tubs you can smell. The best one this year was mermaid food, and the worst one was starfish armpit (probably because they have 5). All in all, I enjoyed myself very much.

Last Saturday, I did something phenomenal; something extraordinary; and most importantly: something super geeky! On Saturday, I did something I never thought I would have the pleasure of doing… I went to a live Weird Al concert!

This was also my first concert that wasn’t Cheshire Moon. Unlike the small events they have, the Weird Al concert had rows upon rows upon rows of people attending. It was, I will admit, a tad intimidating. Just to clarify: I have nothing against the small concerts or the big concerts as they both have their pros and cons.

Weird Al sang a handful of the songs through to the end, but a lot of the concert was medleys of different songs. I would have loved it if he had sung more of the Spider-Man parody of Piano Man. My favorite of the songs that night was by far the one about Anakin Skywalker.

As you see, I had a blast at the Weird Al concert. Did you know Weird Al is weird?

Today, I went to my first LARP (Live Action Role-Playing game). It was with a bunch of my mother’s LARP friends. We were playing Arkham on 5 Sanity Points a Day, a Cthulhu/eldritch-themed game. To go with the theme, I arrived with my Cthulhu schoolbag filled with 2 folders, a notebook, and a giant plush Necronomicon. Everyone loves the Necronomicon. It’s so cute!

When I was given the blurb about what to expect, my brain materialized an assumption: lunch was going to be at Pupusita Express and therefore be yummy; I would recognize some of the people there; and the LARP was going to be fun/weird/creepy/scare-your-pants-off-fandom, so I prepared myself… I wore shorts instead of pants.

When we got there, we were given instructions and a choice between characters. I ended up with Jackie Meadows, the hyperactive ten year old kid. So tough to play, right? Everyone joked it was typecasting.

I read my character sheet. Jackie was so skinny, hitting something wouldn’t do damage, so my special fighting ability was I could curl up on the floor and say, “I’m hiding, you can’t see me,” and they couldn’t see, touch, or harm me. However, in that maneuver, I wasn’t allowed to move or make any noise except childish whimpering. Humph.

My character also couldn’t resist lying. She would add a touch of exaggeration to everything she said. That was fun!

Jackie had a puppy, named Killer. He was so small she carried him everywhere. He was a Doberman, but since Jackie told tall tales, I told everyone he was part werewolf. Ha!

Everywhere we went there were “souvenirs”. Someone handed me a toy gun. I also received a plate. At one point we went somewhere and they confiscated Killer! I walked past the table, then told the people helping with the game what I was going to do. As I walked past I retrieved my dog. My puppy!

I love LARPs.

Today I met Felicia Day who I was first introduced to through TableTop, which I may have mentioned once or twice before. She was signing her new book at a local book store and there were over 400 people in line to get a copy signed. Lucky for us, my mother went ahead and signed up as soon as possible, so we were only number 32.

We met a few people, and because we got there early, we ended up standing around, staring at books. Oh, the horrors, right? It helps that my inevitable interest in books was added to the fact that I am an only child. I love books. It helps that at stuff like this and the recent Brandon Sanderson signing we get meet other geeks.

I am looking forward to reading Felicia’s book You’re Never Weird on the Internet [Almost].

Rating:

Over last weekend I went to Windycon 42, a Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Windycon. On our way there we went to lunch at a wonderful cheese place with my godmother, Marinda, and my cousin, Jesi. I ordered a wonderful cilantro edamame hummus. While we were there, Marinda gave me a Pikachu hat.

Then we went to the actual convention. We had to attend the opening ceremonies because my mother received an honorable mention in the short stories contest. Afterwards, we went to Game Room… for most of the weekend.

At Game Room, I learned how to play Are You A Werewolf. On Saturday, I played a game of Munchkin that took four hours. We were about to play another game of Are You A Werewolf, but we needed more players, so I walked around asking people, “Would you like to play Are You A Werewolf?” Most people were too busy to play. So when I noticed someone standing in the doorway of the Game Room, I walked over and asked him if he would like to play just like I had asked everyone else. It was only after he had accepted the invitation and started walking towards the table where we were setting up when I realized that he was indeed Christopher Moore, the Author Guest of Honor.

After playing a couple rounds of Are You A Werewolf, Chris went off to eat and we went to the Art Auction. I think this is the first time in ages where I haven’t walked out of a convention carrying at least one Cheryl Storm dragon. 🙁

So, to sum up Saturday, I played a four hour game of Munchkin, I accidentally invited the guest author of honor to a game of Are You A Werewolf, and then went to an Art Auction where I failed to buy anything.

On Sunday I went to the Critter Crunch while my mother went to her panel on storytelling. I drove the Spider, the bot I drive every year, and Rat Patrol, which is a tiny little tank that zooms around and is tough to catch. I won one round and got second place in the free for all, both with the Spider. After the Critter Crunch was over, the scorekeeper told me that that was the best she had ever seen the Spider do. I just shrugged and said I had a lot of practice, then asked them to keep the Spider safe until Capricon before leaving the room.

While I waited for my mother to finish her panel, I went to the Looney Labs room and played Color Wheel, Seven Dragons, and Just Desserts. I actually got to play Just Desserts and Seven Dragons with Kristin Looney, one of the creators of Looney Labs.

Overall, I had an unforgettable experience at Windycon 42, a Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Windycon.