Otakon is over. It was an interesting experience, and yes, feel free to interpret "interesting" any way you like. So, here's what my weekend was like:
Thursday: We left the in-laws' house first thing in the morning--Logan spent the weekend with them. We stopped at the Misenheimer house, finished packing up and cleaning up what little was left--mostly stuff for Otakon. We loaded up both our little cars with the last couple of boxes and the four cats and turned over the keys. Good bye house in Misenheimer. From there we went to the Garner house where we unloaded stuff and the 3 older cats. We dropped Kisa off at my aunt's house since she's still a little young to be left for a weekend. With all of that settled, we finally got on the road to head up north. We spent the night with another aunt and uncle who live in northern VA just an hour or so outside of Baltimore.
Friday: Onward to Baltimore. We didn't get too lost finding our hotel, and I only had to circle the block once to catch the entrance to the overpriced parking deck. We checked in, and then left to haul the table stuff to the convention center. If we do this again, we will hike to the convention center, get our badges, then come back and haul the table stuff. XD It was really hot, and the walk to the convention center was miserable with the heavy bags. They had a pre-registration lane just for Artist Alley and Panelist people, so we didn't have to wait too long to get in. Check in at the AA went smoothly as well. The worst part was actually finding the right pre-reg line and then getting to AA. The Baltimore Convention Center was huge and I had to stop and ask directions about a dozen times. I got everything mostly set up just in time for AA to open. I wasn't 100% happy with Friday's display. It was a little rushed and I didn't get everything out. After AA opened the day pretty much flew by. I got some great pictures, but my phone's internet was really spotty down in AA so I didn't get many pics uploaded to Tumblr--I'll be uploading them over the next couple of days.
Saturday: On Saturday, I kind of wanted to go to the Lisa Ortiz autograph session, but I hadn't remembered to bring anything for her to sign, and I was feeling more than a little overwhelmed by the number of people at Otakon. I was generally content to sit and hide in my little spot in AA. Saturday was especially crazy. Usually when I'm in AA, people come in clumps, but there are lulls between them where I can sit back and relax and watch people and check out the nifty costumes and such. Not so this time--not that I'm complaining; I got to talk to some great people. I loved watching people read the text on the "What Would ___ Do?" set and on the backs of the badges. Whether they bought something or not, I really like seeing people enjoy something I made. That is the main reason I do the whole Artist Alley thing. Saturday was long and exhausting, but it was fun. I finished 2 new mini-plushies, and I got some really fun commissions that I'll be finishing this week. I'm very excited about those.
Sunday: AA was supposed to only be open for about 3 hours on Sunday, but it ended up staying open for an extra 2-3 hours. I finished a 3rd new mini-plushie for the weekend--I was being extra productive. =D My husband and I came up with some fun ideas for a new set of stuff to draw while sitting at the table--it had me in stitches, so even though I don't really need anything else on my list of stuff to do... I think there will be another massive set added (massive as in it just might dwarf the Anime Tarot set) to my list. I'm hoping to have part of it finished by AWA. The drive home that afternoon/evening was long and tedious--traffic was horrible almost all the way to the NC border, so what was supposed to be a 4.5 hour drive ended up being almost 8 hours. @_@
Will we be going back to Otakon? Maybe. I think I'll probably just leave it up to chance--I'll send in an AA application next year, and if I make the lottery and get a table then I'll go.
Showing posts with label otakon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label otakon. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
What's up with Wednesday?
This is just a quick post to let everyone know what's been going on since I missed Monday's post. Monday was the big moving day. We got a call from the movers Sunday evening letting us know they would be at our house at 6:30 a.m. Monday morning. Of course we weren't ready. Long story short, we were up way too late trying to finish up. I got up at 5:00 to finish up last minute detailed. 6:30 came and went; no movers. 6:45 we get a call from them... It turns out that someone had mixed up the paperwork and had switched the move-to and move-from addresses. Although I feel bad for the poor movers who had an extra 2.5 hours to drive now both ways (they were starting out close to where we were moving from), we got a couple of extra, much-needed hours of sleep. After that, they came, they moved, and there was much rejoicing. In spite of the mix-up, they did an excellent job moving everything and were very polite.
So, most of the day was spent moving. We followed the movers up in the large van I was borrowing with a load of stuff (some for the house we were moving to, a lot for storage). Once the movers were finished and gone, we moved in the stuff from the van and attempted to unpack some and make things look somewhat decent. We called it quits earlier than we'd have liked primarily from lack of sleep. We made it back to Misenheimer, and pretty much fell asleep the moment we walked in the door. Proof as to how exhausted I was: we were sleeping on an air mattress since, of course, all of our furniture was now at the other house; I slept for 10 hours straight.
Tuesday, we spent cleaning the Misenheimer house--well mostly my husband cleaned the house. I spent a large chunk of the day sorting and trying to finish up some of what I had left to work on for Otakon. That continued today. Needless to say, I didn't get a fraction of what I'd originally planned to get done for this convention. I'd amended the original plan to maybe just get a bunch of charms done. That didn't get completely finished either. I did manage to get badges and bookmarks I had left to laminate from the end of the Anime Tarot set finished, and I did get a decent number of charms finished. So, there will be some new stuff for people who saw my table at other conventions last year--not as much as I wanted, but all things considered, I'm just happy to have something new prepared.
I'm really excited, and I can't wait for the convention. I haven't been to Otakon since 2002; I'm sure there's a lot that's changed. I'm a little nervous because I've never tried running a table in AA at a convention even close to this size. I'm determined to have fun though. Right now, I'm borrowing my in-law's computer--we're staying here for the night and dropping off Logan for the weekend. Tomorrow, we'll be heading back to Misenheimer briefly to pick up our bags for Otakon and our cats. We'll be dropping the cats off at the "new" house (Kisa will be going to a kitten-sitter). Then, we'll be driving up to northern Virginia where we'll spend the night at my aunt's house--I think by the time we reach that point we're going to be ready to pass out. Friday morning we'll go on to Baltimore. I have my doubts about posting a blog from my phone on Friday. I will be posting photos on my Tumblr once I get to the convention: http://gothic-panda.tumblr.com/. No promises about Friday, but I'll definitely be posting on the Otakon experience on Monday.
So, most of the day was spent moving. We followed the movers up in the large van I was borrowing with a load of stuff (some for the house we were moving to, a lot for storage). Once the movers were finished and gone, we moved in the stuff from the van and attempted to unpack some and make things look somewhat decent. We called it quits earlier than we'd have liked primarily from lack of sleep. We made it back to Misenheimer, and pretty much fell asleep the moment we walked in the door. Proof as to how exhausted I was: we were sleeping on an air mattress since, of course, all of our furniture was now at the other house; I slept for 10 hours straight.
Tuesday, we spent cleaning the Misenheimer house--well mostly my husband cleaned the house. I spent a large chunk of the day sorting and trying to finish up some of what I had left to work on for Otakon. That continued today. Needless to say, I didn't get a fraction of what I'd originally planned to get done for this convention. I'd amended the original plan to maybe just get a bunch of charms done. That didn't get completely finished either. I did manage to get badges and bookmarks I had left to laminate from the end of the Anime Tarot set finished, and I did get a decent number of charms finished. So, there will be some new stuff for people who saw my table at other conventions last year--not as much as I wanted, but all things considered, I'm just happy to have something new prepared.
I'm really excited, and I can't wait for the convention. I haven't been to Otakon since 2002; I'm sure there's a lot that's changed. I'm a little nervous because I've never tried running a table in AA at a convention even close to this size. I'm determined to have fun though. Right now, I'm borrowing my in-law's computer--we're staying here for the night and dropping off Logan for the weekend. Tomorrow, we'll be heading back to Misenheimer briefly to pick up our bags for Otakon and our cats. We'll be dropping the cats off at the "new" house (Kisa will be going to a kitten-sitter). Then, we'll be driving up to northern Virginia where we'll spend the night at my aunt's house--I think by the time we reach that point we're going to be ready to pass out. Friday morning we'll go on to Baltimore. I have my doubts about posting a blog from my phone on Friday. I will be posting photos on my Tumblr once I get to the convention: http://gothic-panda.tumblr.com/. No promises about Friday, but I'll definitely be posting on the Otakon experience on Monday.
Friday, July 8, 2011
Week in Review: Countdown to the end of July
20 days till Otakon.... You've got to be kidding me. That's less than 3 weeks away. *insert panic* Combine this with the fact that our lease ends July 31, the last day of Otakon. I won't go into details but there's an approximately 50/50 chance we'll be expected to be moved out of the house we're in by that day, and we won't know for sure for another 2 weeks whether we're leaving or staying. *insert more panic*
So yeah... I'm more than a little stressed right now. That said, this is going to be a fairly short blog post for now--I can't even remember what I'd planned to post today. XD Since we might be moving, my husband and are going ahead and going through things and "packing". We're cleaning out and getting rid of--throwing away or donating--anything we don't need or can't use. While we're doing that, we're boxing up stuff in a nice organized way, at least as organized as I can manage. This is really a good thing whether we move or not because I've really been needing to go through all the junk we've collected over the years--I confess to being a packrat, and there's a lot there we really could do without. Also, since we don't own this house, there is a lot of stuff that has to stay boxed up because I don't have any place to put it at the moment--it's worth noting that we had an option to purchase this house in our rental contract so that when our old house sold (it hasn't yet), we could turn around and buy this house, and then I could "remodel" the extra room in this house to be a proper workspace for me where all those boxed up supplies would have a home. So, in this case, just because it doesn't have a home, doesn't mean I don't need it--in fact, it's been a royal pain because there's a lot of stuff I do need but can't find because of the mess of boxes in that extra room. Anyways, sorting through everything and re-packing is a good thing whether we move or not.
On top of all that, we're still preparing stuff for Otakon; it's definitely turning into something awkward given the lease situation. I'm still going though; I paid for the convention and the table, plus I have baby-sitters arranged for the weekend. I'm not sure how much of what I planned I'll actually be able to get finished before the convention. I still want to work on stuff; it'll help keep me sane with all the stressful house stuff going on. =) However, July is probably going to be a lite month for blog posts. I'll still try and post every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday; I should be able to keep up with the WIP posts at least, but the other posts might be a little on the short side, and if I disappear for a day or two, you'll know why. ^_^
So yeah... I'm more than a little stressed right now. That said, this is going to be a fairly short blog post for now--I can't even remember what I'd planned to post today. XD Since we might be moving, my husband and are going ahead and going through things and "packing". We're cleaning out and getting rid of--throwing away or donating--anything we don't need or can't use. While we're doing that, we're boxing up stuff in a nice organized way, at least as organized as I can manage. This is really a good thing whether we move or not because I've really been needing to go through all the junk we've collected over the years--I confess to being a packrat, and there's a lot there we really could do without. Also, since we don't own this house, there is a lot of stuff that has to stay boxed up because I don't have any place to put it at the moment--it's worth noting that we had an option to purchase this house in our rental contract so that when our old house sold (it hasn't yet), we could turn around and buy this house, and then I could "remodel" the extra room in this house to be a proper workspace for me where all those boxed up supplies would have a home. So, in this case, just because it doesn't have a home, doesn't mean I don't need it--in fact, it's been a royal pain because there's a lot of stuff I do need but can't find because of the mess of boxes in that extra room. Anyways, sorting through everything and re-packing is a good thing whether we move or not.
On top of all that, we're still preparing stuff for Otakon; it's definitely turning into something awkward given the lease situation. I'm still going though; I paid for the convention and the table, plus I have baby-sitters arranged for the weekend. I'm not sure how much of what I planned I'll actually be able to get finished before the convention. I still want to work on stuff; it'll help keep me sane with all the stressful house stuff going on. =) However, July is probably going to be a lite month for blog posts. I'll still try and post every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday; I should be able to keep up with the WIP posts at least, but the other posts might be a little on the short side, and if I disappear for a day or two, you'll know why. ^_^
Friday, June 10, 2011
It's Summer: I'm on Break Right?
Lazy summer mornings... are temporal anomalies. I honestly believe they're urban legends. My kids are out of school--yesterday was their last day, and since they're returning to homeschool (they have the same opinion of mornings as I do, although for the record that is not the only reason we homeschool) yesterday was supposed to be the last morning we ever had to be up before 7am, or 8am, or 9am, or... you get the idea. Instead, this morning my 4-year old decided we were getting up at 6:30. >_< My 10 year old made a gallant go of sleeping in, but wild craziness involving a 4 year old jumping on his bed ended that by 7:45.
To be fair, my 4-year old, Logan, isn't the only reason we end up getting up earlier than we would like. Sometimes it's the cats. Sometimes it's insomnia. Sometimes it's just plain "I'm awake" for no reason. Now, I could turn this blog into a huge rant as to why I hate mornings, but anyone who watches me on Twitter knows I don't like mornings, so I don't really need to say it again. Besides, as my husband put it, maybe mornings aren't so bad really. We have to get up at some point even if we don't like it. We could lay around in bed all day, but then we'd be cats. =P
So, sleeping in doesn't work so well. I'm, at least, on break right? My next convention isn't until the end of July. It's still June. Except, that's still only about 6-7 weeks away. On top of that, the next convention is Otakon. Otakon draws in more than 20,000 people now. I've never had an Artist Alley table at a convention as large as this one. That means I should probably prepare more stuff for my table. That means I need to make more plushies, and I should maybe draw more bookmarks, and wouldn't be cool if I could get those What Would badges and Archetype badges I had in mind doing finished in time for the convention... *Goes back to Otakon site and re-reads through the artist alley policies.* Oh, they want a 50/50 split between fanart and original art items. *Starts calculating.* If I take the whole tarot card set that's 78 cards, and if they count prints and badges as separate items then that's 156 pieces of fanart right there, and that's not even including the What Would set; that's 24 more fanart pieces. How much original art do I have now? How many more plushies can I make between now and then? I wonder how they will count my husband's chain mail jewelry designs? So maybe I won't be making new bookmarks. Maybe I should leave the ones I have at home; it would free up table space. Oh, that might be good, since my table helpers won't be around to help; I need to pack stuff so my husband and I can haul everything there in one trip. And oh yeah, the kids are coming back to homeschool, I should probably plan some lessons for when school starts in early July. @_@ ........
To be fair, my 4-year old, Logan, isn't the only reason we end up getting up earlier than we would like. Sometimes it's the cats. Sometimes it's insomnia. Sometimes it's just plain "I'm awake" for no reason. Now, I could turn this blog into a huge rant as to why I hate mornings, but anyone who watches me on Twitter knows I don't like mornings, so I don't really need to say it again. Besides, as my husband put it, maybe mornings aren't so bad really. We have to get up at some point even if we don't like it. We could lay around in bed all day, but then we'd be cats. =P
So, sleeping in doesn't work so well. I'm, at least, on break right? My next convention isn't until the end of July. It's still June. Except, that's still only about 6-7 weeks away. On top of that, the next convention is Otakon. Otakon draws in more than 20,000 people now. I've never had an Artist Alley table at a convention as large as this one. That means I should probably prepare more stuff for my table. That means I need to make more plushies, and I should maybe draw more bookmarks, and wouldn't be cool if I could get those What Would badges and Archetype badges I had in mind doing finished in time for the convention... *Goes back to Otakon site and re-reads through the artist alley policies.* Oh, they want a 50/50 split between fanart and original art items. *Starts calculating.* If I take the whole tarot card set that's 78 cards, and if they count prints and badges as separate items then that's 156 pieces of fanart right there, and that's not even including the What Would set; that's 24 more fanart pieces. How much original art do I have now? How many more plushies can I make between now and then? I wonder how they will count my husband's chain mail jewelry designs? So maybe I won't be making new bookmarks. Maybe I should leave the ones I have at home; it would free up table space. Oh, that might be good, since my table helpers won't be around to help; I need to pack stuff so my husband and I can haul everything there in one trip. And oh yeah, the kids are coming back to homeschool, I should probably plan some lessons for when school starts in early July. @_@ ........
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| Conclusion: Summer Break is just an Illusion |
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