After today's area review, I think it's safe to say my week is full.

I've canceled out on Archon (the local Missouri sf/f con) because I think my October is going to be full, too. I'm a terrible, ingracious person and no one should ever buy me drinks again.

I just got dragged over to look at the latest and greatest over in the programmer pit, a request for animated textures; a need that's always been present, but recently came to the fore with the advent of the Lowlands.

There have been a lot of late nights again recently. Tomorrow I am going to try and run my VtR game, but with all the mad hopping and jumping about that's been going on here lately, I think it's a 50/50 shot as to whether I'll get to actually do anything.

Gen Con's attempt to kill me has failed. I live on not only in the flesh, but in the hearts and minds of wicked children everywhere.

As I sit here with a throat raw from vodka and shrieking, I find myself suffused with a deep lassitude that can only come from having to haul my hungover ass out of a hotel before 1 PM and drive it and the Roommate of Eld four and a half hours across Indiana and Illinois to get home.

There were a few firsts. My first Gen Con, for instance. And, for the first time in fifteen years of con-going, my first oh-crap-I-forgot-my-badge experience. Unable to convince the grumpy staff that I am not a crook, I had to pony up for another one, which did not exactly thrill me.

Other firsts? Well, cage dancing comes to mind. Seeing Indianapolis as more than just a place to pass on the way to Columbus. Getting a good look at the Neverwinter Nights 2 toolset, which held me entranced for a solid hour or two. Getting to stand up on the top of the two-story EVE Online booth and look out over the convention floor while chatting about community management with a very nice man who remembered me for a) cage dancing and b) rubbing people's shoulders the night before.

I fear this time around when the alcohol hit I became the Great Sage and Eminent Drunkie. I am terribly sorry to anyone who I doled out annoying and useless advice upon.

We're going to be back next year, and next time around I'm hoping to marshal the Simulitia and get more of them to go. Mike wanted to this year, but the bastard decided to go to a family reunion instead. Chris and Josh had other factors keep them away. Next year we may even be able to sway the company into doing a booth. I very much so doubt 2007 will be our year to host any lovely fullscale parties, but I wouldn't mind doing something afterhours with all our fans. Heck, bring the haters along, too! You people can be fun when wifflebats get involved.

I'm off to see what TiVo harvested in my absence. Probably soak my feet. Poke the laundry with a stick. Ciao.

Hm.

Dragon*Con.

Hm.

Welp, I've thrown the postcard in the mail, so I guess that means I'm going to be at Archon 30. It helps that the GoH wrote a series directly responsible for me nearly failing my high school French class.

I may also be attending Anime Expo, but if so only for a day, and only to meet up with moi collaborator.

Despite the desire to go to WorldCon and AnimeBoston, it ain't happening with my current finances. C'est la vie.

I got a minifridge last weekend for my work office, and I'm starting to think that I may buy one for the basement office. If I were a working writer, there'd be no question -- I'd get one, and possibly a microwave and a hotpot. Even if all those conveniences are just a short trip upstairs away, it's a break in concentration. And I am, as friends are quick to point out, easily distracted.

So, ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...collecting my thoughts here...writing protagonists dumb. Is it vanity to say I don't do that, or sheer ignorance on my part, or am I just awesome? Or do I just not know what people are talking about, like that time I was on a panel at Dragon*Con (or was it WesterCon?) about magical realism and thought I was supposed to talk about how to make your magical systems more realistic? Whoo. Boy, did I feel stupid. I assuage my wounded pride by reminding it that I was only 19 at the time.

But still. This is why teenagers should be locked in dank basements and fed only watered milk and bread until they're old enough to know that Cocoa Puffs and Baileys Irish Creme does not a breakfast make.


Mmmmm.

Cocoa Puffs.

I'm also noodling the WFC because I've never gone. But it seems they're limited to 850 guests, and that's a con I would definitely know just about no one at.

Glen Cook is GoH, and though he's at just about every Missouri con I go to, it would still be awesome to see him as a GoH somewhere. And have I ever mentioned he's one of my favorite contemporary fantasy authors? I probably have. If I could write like the bastard child of Patricia McKillip and Glen Cook, I would. Oh, I would.

But first, I need their BRAAAAINS.

I should be asleep, but instead I'm awake and recovering from perhaps one of the most horrific headaches of my life. Damn the weather.

( babble about funerals and aikido whiplash. )

Re: the Con question of my last post. I love ComicCon, and someday I will go again, but professionally it's not where I need to be in 2006. I don't remember what year I went, it was at least a decade ago. I just remember Jeff Smith was handing out Bone t-shirts with Fone Bone and the dragon on them, and I could kick myself for having lost that shirt. Also? Cinnamon almonds. [Rachael Rae voice:] "YUM."

Dragon*Con can be stupenderific, but it's sort of in the same direction as ComicCon. Sort of. And there are personal reasons I'm leery of it. I've had some fantastic D*C experiences, and I've had some amazingly crappy ones. Gotta noodle that one. There ARE lots of people I know who go to it, so...hm.