Keycon 2025 Guests

 Keycon is our local science fiction convention.  It’s never been that big – in the largest years they have claimed attendance of ~500, but many years have been much less than that.   We used to go all the time but don’t go as often lately.  I even ran the gaming room for a few years in the 90s.

 

But Jim Butcher and Jeremy from Black Magic Craft were the guests, so we definitely wanted to go this year.  Jim Butcher is one of our authors and he writes The Dresden Files.  While Black Magic Craft is one of the youtube crafting channels that I follow.

 

In April, our friend Chris called us to see if we would be guest liaisons for Jim Butcher and Jennifer Blackstream.  We would have to get them to and from airport, and make sure that they made it to their panels.  They wanted someone who would not be too starstruck to be responsible for them.  After confirming that we would not have to attend meetings, we accepted. 

 

Chris was also running programming at the convention, and asked me if I would do an interview with Jim on the Saturday.  I agreed, and tried to find some questions that he had not already answered a bunch of times.  Because I was dressing as Captain Hammer on the Saturday, I wrote the questions on cue cards that I could keep in my glove.  I’ve often complained that the people doing the interview don’t seem to ask the obvious follow up questions, so this was my time to see if I would fall into the same mistakes.

 

While we had read the entirety of The Dresden Files, we hadn’t read his other two series, or any of Jennifer Blackstream’s books.  We made an effort to get the six books in the Codex Alera series, as well as the two Cinder Spires books.  We also ordered the first three of the Blood Trails books.  I was able to read the first two of Jim’s Codex Alera books, as well as Deadline, the first book in Jennifer’s Blood Trails series.

 

On the Friday, we picked them up from the airport.  Since the convention started later, we took them to dinner, and then took them to the local grocery so that they could get some supplies for the weekend.  We made sure that they got to their panels on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.. We got invited to the after-con dinner which allows the convention chairs a chance to interact with the guests.  On the Monday after checkout, we took them for lunch, and then back to the airport and made sure that they got on their flight.

 

As guests, they were lovely.  Jim was very engaging, and was quite good about posing for pictures and signing autographs.  A few people had brought a lot of books for him to sign (three at a time), and he was very generous about signing all of them.  He even stayed beyond his allotted time to ensure that he signed everything. 

 

Jennifer Blackstream was adorable.  She was also great about taking photos, and had a great panel with Tanya Huff which gave both perspectives – both from an older writer and from a newer one.  Her shark movie panel with Jim was very fun and engaging.  It sounds like they might try it again at DragonCon so, if you get a chance to see it, I highly recommend it.

 

Canadian author Tanya Huff was also there as a guest.  While we did watch her Blood Ties TV series, we haven’t really read any of her books yet.  She came across as feisty in her panels though, and we definitely will need to check out some of her work.  She had a great panel with Jim where they discussed the tv adaptions of The Dresden Files, and Blood Ties, which both had one season in 2007.

 

Due to scheduling, I wasn’t able to catch any of Jeremy’s panels. They had sounded interesting, but we just couldn’t get to everything.

 

After the convention, we ordered another dozen of the books in Jennifer Blackstream’s Blood Trails series.  She has been pretty prolific, but that gives us the first 15 of the 19 books.

 

Keycon custume recap

 Keycon was fun.  It was good to see old friends again, and the guests were good (more on that later).  We were able to play Circus Imperium on Saturday night.

 

 

I wore my Jack Burton shirt on Friday.  I had let my stubble grow out from Wednesday.   I wasn’t able to wear my ninja tabi.  With the extra weight , my feet must have swollen a bit and I wasn’t able to close the tabs on the side.  So I just wore sneakers.

 

 

On Saturday I switched into my Captain Hammer.  The new shirt had arrived that week.  I had also bought a Captain Hammer groupie shirt for Shann, so we were dressed as a couple.  Since Captain Hammer is clean shaven, I cleared away the stubble as well.  A few friends already noticed this change the next day, so I knew the change for Saturday would have a big impact.

 

 My Kurgan proof-of-concept jacket was completed in time.  It did take a few later nights to get all the final sewing done.  The hot fix skulls I had ordered did not arrive in time, so instead I had to use the skull beads that I had picked up from Michael’s.  They were a bit smaller, but they are much cheaper than the actual skull studs. 

Taking off both sleeves, and cutting them into strips to sew together for his arm guard took a while.  I also stitched up a bunch of the parts on the jacket where the vinyl was peeling apart. This actually helped add to the look. 

The chain mail went fine.  I had a spool of fencing wire that I had bought over two decades ago for making mail.  I coiled it around a bar we had in order to adjust the teleposts, and cut the coils with a Dremel cut off wheel.  The sleeve, pocket square, and partial glove took over 500 rings.  If I find a more accurate jacket, I can easily move the mail over.

I wore the same black cargo pants and work boots for both Captain Hammer and the Kurgan.  On the night, I combed my hair back and tied it in the back. 

 

I wore the same costume on Sunday morning.  But I buzzed my hair down that morning to 1/8 inch.  I also had cut a strip of nylons and put a bunch of safety pins in it to simulate the ‘in disguise’ look.  The hair cut definitely caught a few people by surprise.  People who hadn’t seen me Saturday night didn’t recognize me right away.

 

 

I didn’t get around to making the “bullet-proof” vest for Richard Castle.  I really should continue and put it together so that I have it for when I need it next.  This is another one I can make two of to use as a couple costume.

Costume plans for Keycon

 So we are going to Keycon this year.  We used to go fairly regularly but haven’t really gone in the last decade or so.  But they have Jim Butcher of the Dresden Files as the author guest, and Jeremy from Black Magic Craft as a gaming guest, so we are going this year.

 

I plan on doing some costuming for it.  I have My Jack Burton shirt from Big Trouble in Little China.  I still haven’t gotten around to making/buying the mucklucks so I will wear my ninja Tabi instead – they are as comfortable and I can justify them as after the events of BTLC.

 

I picked up new cargo pants and gloves to upgrade my Captain Hammer outfit.  I also ordered an official t-shirt but we will have to see if it makes it here in time.  If not, I still have the one JP made from before – the logo is a bit dark though.

 

I have the supplies to make a “bullet-proof” vest for Richard Castle.  It remains to see if I have time to cut and sew it in time.  I’m hoping to use landscape fabric for the material.  We will see how easy it is to sew.  If it goes well and I have time, I will try to make a second one for Shan.

 

But my big project is my Kurgan jacket.  I don’t have a proper leather biker jacket to use, unless I find one in the next two weeks.  My faux leather jacket that had the sleeves tearing will do as a stand in. I have to remove the sleeves and hood.  I’m hoping to use the sleeves to make the vambrace for the left arm.   I am working on the chain mail for the right sleeve and left pocket.  I finally found and ordered some skulls to add to the collar.  That will mean another rush finish depending on when they get here.  I have to see if I can find some black gloves to use.

I’ve been growing my hair out since November of last year for the pre-disguise look.  This way I can avoid the safety pins-in-the-neck look.

Diplomacy – plastic – wood – metal

Back in the day, I remember watching some friends at a drop-in center playing with a risk board but not using any dice. They were playing using a variation of the Diplomacy rules. This was my first exposure to the elegance of Diplomacy.

In the back of Computer Science class, they played Diplomacy in spare time with the teacher. It often got to the point where David Fyfe would have so many units that he didn’t have to write down his moves like the rest of the players so would have an advantage in that he wouldn’t forget to schedule orders for units. This was the first place that I got to play Diplomacy with wooden pieces.

I played it at GenCon a few times and had some great experiences there. I picked up a set that contained plastic pieces and was later able to find an older version that had the wooden pieces. Having two sets actually made it easier to discuss strategy on some of the games.

At Keycon this year, the Dandy Lion con suite was holding a raffle. Some of the items were dvds, cds, and games. When I saw that they had a copy of the Hasbro/Wizards of the Coast/Avalon Hill version of Diplomacy with the metal pieces, I was quite excited. I didn’t get it when it came out due to the cost plus the fact that, even though I love the game, I really don’t get to play it all that much. I bought 20 tickets for $10 and put 1 in for a cd set, 5 in for a set of 3 CheapAss games, and 15 in for this. I would have bought another 20 tickets for it but there didn’t seem to be more than a handful in already.

I wasn't at the draw - having confirmed that I didn't need to be - but popped in on Sunday to find out that my tickets had won two prizes - both of the game packs. The Diplomacy game had been opened but when I checked it out, it was unpunched. I could not see any metal figures at first but, checking under the insert, found all of them still individually sealed in the plastic.

I'm very excited to cross this grail version off of my list. I'm just torn about opening it to play, or keeping it sealed. Unfortunately, it's a choice I will probably have to wait quite a while to have to decide.

Costuming

Cosplayers tend to dress up in costume and act as that character. Costumers tend to dress up in costume but still act normally. While I might throw out some quotes from movies, I remain mostly a costumer.
That said, I need to speak out about costume contests at conventions. I’ve been in a few, my children have been in a few, we’ve both won some contests, and been in contests without winning. Granted, we’ve only been at the small-to-middle-sized conventions so they may have vast differences at the big conventions.

Prizes
The prizes for the contests have been mostly improving over the years. The top prize can usually be a membership to next year’s convention but most of the time it is merchandise. Sometimes, if the convention truly values the costume contest, the prizes make sense – like gift certificates to a local fabric place or the convention dealer’s room, or even theme-related prizes but they are usually random items donated by the dealers in the dealer’s room.
Sometimes they will also give certificates, ribbons, or medals. I know the kids like the ribbons and medals. For me, we’re really not in the contests for the prizes. (Especially with most prizes being what they are). The recognition is more what we are after.

Often they will have some categories in mind – workmanship, junior, group, but a lot of times we have found that they decide on winners and then pick a category to assign them. This helps to cover if there are no costumes in a category and allows them to recognize extra costumes that might miss out by being the second or third in a category. This allowed our friend Sean to win as Best Female Hormonal Response.

Time
While some costumes can be pulled together in short time, a lot of costumers will spend a lot of time working on their costumes. This is not to say that we haven’t been working on the final touches of a costume the night before or even final modifications just before the contest. Any extra time allows for extra touches or tweaking up until the last minute. The bad part about some judging is the amount of time it eats up of the convention. A lot of contests will want you to show up for a walkthrough to show you the contest space and where they will often do some prejudging. Even with this, you have to be there before the contest itself, the entire length of the contest, and then wait around while the judges take their time to decide on the winners. At one convention we were at, that ate up over four hours in a row on a Saturday for the kids’ part of the costume contest. Judges
Often the judges will include the guest, who may or may not know anything about costumes. Sometimes you will also have at least one judge who does know about costuming and will look for details like stitching, materials, and techniques. Hopefully this knowledgeable judge will be at the prejudging and can check for all this at that time. The other judges will often be committee members who have been rounded up to judge without haven been given much instruction.
At the smaller conventions the judging may even be done by crowd response – which can allow a store-bought costume of a popular character to beat a fabulous costume of an obscure character. Sometime the MC will be the judge although it often works quicker if they aren’t.

Prejudging
During the walkthrough the judges will sometimes take the time to inspect the costumes up close and ask questions. This allows them to take their time and helps to speed up the actual contest. This should allow them to have those portions already scored and only require them to note presentation and crowd response during the actual contest and then add them to the totals, but it still seems to take an hour for the judging to finish.

MCs
A good MC can help explain a costume or help to bridge those who don’t have a good write-up or music. A bad MC can distract from a good presentation. We’ve seen an MC treat the costume contest as her own personal stand up routine. They can definitely lead an audience if the judging is by audience response.

So, of the three conventions we go to, while some of us will costume (to varying degrees) at all of them, my daughter only really enters the costume contest at Keycon now. Although, if we get a great costume idea done, we might try again at Valleycon.

Link / Dark Link

My daughter finally came up with a costume idea about a month in advance of Keycon. She and her friend wanted to be Link and Dark Link. I had played the original Zelda on the Nintendo but I’m not a super huge Zelda fan. I much preferred the gameplay of Dragon Warriors – which is what Dragon Quest was called over here.
Due to my unfamiliarity with the character, and wanting her to be sure about what she wanted, I asked her to provide me with pictures of what she wanted.

With two weeks to go, we asked her again at the beginning of May and finally got her to sit down and print out some pictures to use. Shan found some a good site about making the costume. We picked up some fabric and tights at Walmart, and some boots and turtlenecks at Value Village.

We found large t-shirts to use as a guide and got the girls to lie down on the fabric and traced out the measurements for the tunics, and they cut out the rough pattern pieces for the tunics and hats. We tried using Gee’s sewing machine but ended up hand sewing the outfits. Gee sewed her hat while Shan did most of the sewing on the tunics. The girls also made some Navis and pouches.

We took some brown gardening gloves at Dollarama and cut off the fingers to get close-enough gloves. Gee wanted to get a blonde wig but we told her she didn’t need one. She pushed for it, so we made a trip to The Party Store to get wigs, and I have to admit it really does help to complete the look. We also picked up pointed ear tips that we ended up not using due to the fit.

She had foam swords from Keycon last year that she was going to use so we picked up some poster tubes at Dollarama to use as scabbards. These worked out very well as a quick substitute. I also made up some shields out of foam floor tiles and the kids painted them the day before the convention. I’ll post up a more detailed tutorial on the shields.

They were very well received at the convention. Most people overlooked the rough seams and the navis were a big hit for those who knew the character. For the two weeks of shopping and work I believe they did pretty well. We can revisit the costumes to hem the edges and add a proper collar. The girls ended up winning first place in the junior category.

Tabletop - on the list

I’ve been following Wil Wheaton’s blog for quite some time now.  It turns out that he is also a big-time gamer in addition to being an actor and author.  He recently started a youtube channel Tabletop where he plays a board game with people – actors and others.

They are running through some of the Eurogames Like Settlers of Catan, and Ticket to Ride as well as games like ZombieDice.

Two of the games that he has shown on Tabletop - Tsuro and Get Bit! I was able to try out at Keycon over the weekend.

I’ve seen Tsuro advertised before from WizKids but it never hooked me.  The theme of dragons flying on pathways in the air just didn’t make we want to pursue it.  Seeing it on Tabletop got me interested enough to play it at Keycon and it definitely makes the list.  Besides being visually elegant it also plays very well up to 8 people.  It’s simple to explain and easy to pick up.  Even though I worked out the permutations for the tiles, I’ll look to pick up a copy.

Get Bit! was also shown on Tabletop and we managed to play a bunch of games at Keycon.  You play robots swimming away from a hungry shark.  As the shark catches the last robot in line, you actually pull the limbs off the robot.  It plays up to 6 people and is also quick and easy to learn.  I’ve added it to my list even though you can no longer get the variant that allows you to play as the shark.  Also, they played it slightly wrong on Tabletop so be aware when you play it – after the shark bites off a limb, that robot is flung to the front of the line.

While they showed Ticket to Ride on Tabletop, I didn’t catch the episode until after Keycon so never had enough interest to play during the convention.  It seems interesting enough to give it a try but not enough to actually put on the list.

At the convention, I finally saw Power Grid being played.  It seems a bit too fiddly for my crowd so it doesn’t make the list.  I may change if I play it but it didn’t inspire me enough to rush out and try it yet.

In the Great Canadian Board Game Blitz I saw a bunch of other games being played that caught my eye – notably Lascaux and Acquire.

I’ve known about Acquire for decades but never played it or knew anyone who had.  I’ve heard a lot of good things about it and in seeing it played and reading the rules it seems like it might be worth trying.  I’m not putting it on the list unless I can find a deal on a copy though.

I also got to see Lascaux being played.  Besides the pretty stones, the game seems quite simple to play and devious enough to keep interesting.  It quickly made the list as well.

On Wednesday, I finally was able to get to Game Knight.  Since they moved to Osborne, I haven’t been able to find their store while driving by but with their updated website showing the actual storefront, I finally did.  They have a good selection of games but were between shipments of Tsuro and Get Bit!  They did have a copy of Lascaux left though so I snapped it up right away.

Keycon 29 - successful gaming

I first came to Keycon to play Car Wars back at Keycon 3 and used to come year after year.  I had run a local game convention called Wincon and had even run the gaming room at Keycon for a few years but haven’t attended Keycon in about a decade (kids will do that to you).  We still popped by every year to check out the dealers’ room but didn’t attend the convention.

But when Tim asked me to help by running gaming, I couldn’t say no to him.  He had always been very helpful to us and had never really asked for anything in return.  He had a specific list of games that he wanted to see so I had to comply and was glad to do so.

Just prior to the convention, Tim had to drop out of being the con chair.  Which meant that I didn’t have to run everything Tim had wanted but I still felt compelled to follow through on my commitment to run gaming.

Overall, the gaming went well.  

We had Scott from the Manitoba Pathfinder Lodge running Pathfinder Society organized play scenarios all weekend. 

Jim from Jimcon was there with a bunch of his own games and a bunch of games from Game Knight that people could borrow and play.  Together we ran the Great Canadian Board Game Blitz on Saturday starting at noon.  We weren’t sure what kind of a turn out we would have but we got eighteen players signed up.  Twelve players played in at least 3 of the 5 rounds and five players played in all 5 rounds. 

I didn’t get to see much of the rest of the convention but I was able to run my Grid Games – Disc Battles and Lightcycles on Friday night.  I finished making the grid that day using black foamcore and pin striping. 

The Disc Battles went well.  The rules held up fine until we got down to just two players when it became more of a matter of waiting for the right run of cards. 

I didn’t manage to finish the 3D trails for the Lightcycles but was able to trim down some post-it notes to use instead.  The rules still need a bit more clarifications but the basic structure seemed to work fine.

I also ran Circus Imperium on the Saturday night.  We had a great turnout with nine players and were down to a single player by the third lap due to players in HTH both knocking each other out - twice.

I was able to try out a few games and check out some rules for others.  Between this and Tabletop, I’ve added Tsuro, Lascaux, and Get Bit! to my list of games to get and I’m close to finally moving Acquire on to the list as well.

Robert Pasternak - Visual Chew

Our friend Michelle pushed us to go see Robert Pasternak’s Visual Chew exhibit at Martha Street Studio Gallery before it closed. It was pretty neat to see. We took the kids as well. He had some pop-type art as well as other type – a lot of which was at a pretty reasonable price.


He had a lot of small works that were very reasonably priced. We ended up picking up some Micro Dot Monsters for $5. As well, he had two gumball machines – one with Secrets of the Universe for $0.25 each and another for $2 that had a mix of items in it. We really wanted to get some of the Fun Gum so we gave it a try. We only had two twoonies and we got Booklets and Love. The folks at the gallery didn’t have twoonies to make change and didn’t seem super keen to help.



I popped in the next day on the way home, which was the last day of the exhibit to give it another try. I’ve seen Robert before and recognized him in the gallery when I got there. I picked up two more Secrets (I really like the container they came in) and gave the other machine another try. Six tries later, I had War to go with my Love, and five more Booklets. Robert and another patron had come around to see who was using the machine. I mentioned that I had been trying to get some Fun Gum and he took one of my Booklets and swapped it out for the Fun Gum. He asked if that was fine and even offered to buy back some of the others. I said they were great but did switch a second Booklet for some more Fun Gum. We also chatted a bit about his Palettes – he uses an ice cream tub lid for a palette and saved his dried paints for several years.


I first came across Pasternak art with Andrew who used to have a large Nightcrawler painting done by him hanging in his hallway. I’ve seen him a few times at Keycon as well. He also seems quiet and like a nice chap.
Checking him out online, you can get some of his art at his store – most quite reasonably.

Holiday recap

Holidays were nice. I didn’t get a lot actually finished on my list but did move a few chores further along. It was nice and relaxing.

The sift on the room is coming along quite nicely. For those who don’t know, it still looks over-packed but it is more organized and I’ve actually cleared about 5 boxes worth of stuff. Not that I’ve gotten rid of 5 boxes of stuff – just condensed and reorganized with a bit actually being removed.

I had gotten the computer working relatively well again. At least up until Sunday, when it refused to achieve startup again. That’s too bad as it looked like we could delay an upgrade for a bit longer.

We popped by Keycon and visited the dealer’s room. We actually ran into most of the people that we would have attended to see anyways. I ran into Brian (not TSR Brian) - who is running the gaming at the ComicCon this fall. He asked me if I wanted to run some games. He wanted to see Circus Imperium and I also suggested I might be able to upsize RoboRally by then – so now I have to bump that up on my list of things to do.

KRONA rides again?

On the weekend, we watched the new pilot for Knight Rider. The characters seem okay, the car technology is a bit much – with the morphing car. The biggest change is that Val Kilmer not William Daniels is now doing the voice of KITT. It brought back a fair amount of good memories.

The first Keycon I went to was Keycon 3. Since this year would be Keycon 25, that means Keycon 3 would have been in 1986 – back when I was 17. I would have been in grade 12. (I hadn’t thought I was that old when I went to my first Keycon but the math holds out.) It was at the Ramada out by the University of Manitoba. I was only able to make it out there for the Saturday due to the bus schedules.

I had been into Car Wars and had been told by the nice people at Pendragon that they would be playing it out there. I mainly kept to myself, and did notice the signs posting the various suites and rules. The one that left an impression was that no vehicular weapons were allowed – except at the KRONA suite on the second floor where they were okay.

KRONA was an acronym for the Knight Riders of North America. They had a VCR going with episodes of Knight Rider running all day. That was where I first saw KARR – I wasn’t following the series that close back then.

Projects 2008

We’re two months into this year and I haven’t set any projects yet. I’m still torn on what to start. Shan’s birthday is Keycon weekend so I’m not sure what we’re doing or if we’ll be able to go.

Without a Keycon deadline, costuming will be a bit delayed until the crunch in the fall. Right now, both of my kids want to go as zombies, so that should be fairly simple to achieve. With Jeremy Bulloch scheduled to come for the Comiccon, I’ll probably do some more work on D3’s Boba Fett. If I can get some of the guns, I’ll do a Jango Fett as well. I want to fix my Ghostbuster backpack and make some traps and meters. I’m still toying with making some space marine armor. Depending on who I can rope in to a new color project, there are always Arc Troopers / Rebel Commandos / Snowtroopers on the to-do list as well.

Upsizing-wise, I can still do more planes for Canvas Eagles. I can finish the ships for Man o’ War. I can upsize the RoboRally figures. I can do a Titan and tanks for 40K. I can start upsizing Star Wars Miniature Battles, or even make some Mechwarriors for Solaris VII. I also have a bunch of cars for Car Wars in 3” scale or even 1:32 or 1:25. I can also do 3D maps for Horrorclix or Crimson Skies. I still haven’t locked down what we’re planning for Wincon 2008.

I’m probably going to try to finish the Aliens egg I’ve had on my worktable since before we moved to clear up the space. I’ll also probably do a K-9 (shell anyways) and start a static R5-D4 or even a R2-D2. I might even try the Pulse rifle, Space 1999 communicator, Jack Sparrow compass, or Terminator memory chips – I have papercraft files for all of these and might try making them in styrene or wood.

For now, I’m working through reading some more books from the library and finishing getting caught up on the taped shows. We're almost there.

filking

It was at Keycon that I first encountered Filking. They had done some at the costume contest as a way to pass the time while the judges voted. The songs were similar in tune to regular songs but had different lyrics – usually with a sci-fi, fantasy, or gaming theme. The most common of this would be Wierd Al’s version of ‘Yoda’ based on the Kink’s tune ‘Lola’.

I met him in a swamp down in Dagobah
where it bubbles at the time
like a giant carbonated soda.
S – O – D – A, soda.
Saw the little runt sitting there on a log
I asked him his name
and in a raspy voice he said Yoda.
Y – O – D – A, Yoda, Yo – Yo – Yo – Yo – Yoda

Two of the songs sung were ‘Banned from Argo’ and ‘I want a beer.’ The Argo song is pretty easy to find but I can’t find the other on the web. I do recall part of the chorus though.

I want a beer.
It’s a mundane drink but give it here.
No, I don’t want a pan-galactic gargle blaster,
I want a beer.

After the interlude, they mentioned that people could join them afterwards in the Filking room. They were pretty open to people of different vocal abilities, as long as the enthusiasm was high. There were a few people playing guitars and a bunch of people singing the songs. You could join in on the chorus if you could pick it up. I found out later that in the states, they usually have song sheets while up here we didn’t.

The Filking room was usually set up after hours, often starting after 10pm and running through until early morning. When I was younger, the lack of sleep didn’t affect me as much and I used to stay up all night in the filk room. Between that, running Circus Imperium, and living on a steady diet of caffeine, I often found myself losing most of my voice by the Sunday.

For a lot of songs, including a few I recall, see:
http://www.sccs.swarthmore.edu/org/swil/FILKS/

ConAdian memories - scavenger hunt

With all the surpluses we all had, after a few days we were making some odd trades. “Okay, we will take a box of oranges, but then you have to take two cases of pop.” We ended up finding out what everyone had as surpluses, and put together a scavenger hunt list that included many of those items. We also included a lot of the guests – we figured that if we weren’t able to see them at the con, maybe someone would bring them by to see us. When we went to get copies of the list printed off, we ran into grief from the publications department – who were being all proprietary about the photocopiers. This is how we met Shannon and Kim who were with the publications department.

Eventually we were able to sort out our differences and had a small stack printed up. It went pretty well, and led to us running scavenger hunts at the next few Keycons – again, mostly for our amusement. Kim helped out by being a co-judge for the Keycon hunts. We always had bribes for the judges built in for bonus points and usually included the guests as well.

Since he was being overly precious, we also had Carey on the list as ‘Victor’s evil son’ and later gave bonus point for having him gagged. He really enjoyed the notoriety and even headed up a team at one of the last ones we ran. Eventually, we had kids and stopped going to Keycon nearly as much.

Manitoba Comiccon update

Okay, I’ll give my thoughts on the Comiccon compared to the other conventions I’ve been to – Gencon, Keycon, and Valleycon. There was a good crowd – it seemed like several hundred people in the main room. I have tremendous trouble believing the 11,000 attendees that they have reported but could easily believe 1100 over the weekend. That would make it bigger than Keycon and Valleycon but tiny compared to Gencon. I’ll rant later about the way conventions count attendees.

The dealer's room was easily as big as Valleycon but nowhere near the Gencons that I recall. There was a good mix of comics, games, collectibles, and a few clothing dealers. There was a good mix of prices from crazy expensive to super reasonable.

They had an Anime room that was always dark and seemed busy; a programming room that was decently attended; a gaming room that was quite busy with a good mix of card gamers, miniature tables, and open tables.

As mentioned earlier, I didn’t get to much of the programs. I did attend the costume contest. This could have been handled much better. There was a delay in starting as they hadn’t thought to get proper information when signing up the costumers. The prizes were also the minimal, near-insulting prizes that we who do costumes have come to expect from most conventions. There were quite a few costumers about in the dealer hall both on the Saturday and the Sunday and many of the costumes were of respectable quality with a few stunning costumes - like the guy who made Halo armor.

The guests were very visible and easy to get to. They charged for autographs, which is pretty standard, but were pretty good about posing for pictures. There were a lot of comic book artists in attendance as well who were also good about chatting with the fans.

Originally, there was some talk of them losing the contract for the hotel for next year, but it sounds like they are fine after all. It was a good time and, with the low cost, we were able to bring the entire family and stay in the convention hotel. There were none of the party rooms that Keycon or Valleycon have, but since the cost was only a fraction of Keycon’s admission, they weren’t missed all that much.

Keycon

I was off Thursday as I had worked the previous Saturday - my job's like that. I'm off this week, so I'm not sure how much I'll be able to get in here.

I've already crossed off two chores from my list for holidays. I finished turning over the garden for the wife, and I finished getting the pool ready. When we moved into the house a few years ago, there was a 16'x30' aboveground pool in the back yard. It was old when we moved in - I had to patch it every year. Last year it finally gave up. I had to dig it out (that was a fun couple of weeks) and we put in an inflatable 18' round pool. We've been filling it for the year and I finally finished hooking up the filter again. Now we just need the weather to warm up again.

We popped into Keycon this afternoon. Keycon is the local Science Fiction convention. I'll muse more about it at a later date. We saw JP and Jamie, as well as the Barnsons. We also ran into a few old faces. We didn't get memberships again this year but the dealer's room is open to all. We narrowly avoided picking up some games, but picked up some books.

David