Wednesday 14 November 2007

• CopperCon XXVII Recap

  Just in case humanity couldn’t disappoint you any further:  German Politician Proposes Seven Year-long Marriages

  When Mike passed on, I took it upon myself to keep Shadowfist demos and tournements running at some of the local conventions while Travis took it upon himself to keep the Shadowfist Arizona Proving Ground running.  The first convention I ran Shadowfist at was CopperCon XXV, where the Shadowfist events were more popular than the official WotC demos (including Hecatomb and Robo Rally).  However, a co-worker beat me to the PTO the past two years.  CopperCon XXVI was in Tempe, so it wasn’t even worth riding there after work on Saturday.  I had family and parish obligations on Sunday, and it wasn’t worth riding over there after the evening mass on Sunday.  So I showed up on Monday and played some Shadowfist with Ken. 

  OK, that’s enough backstory to my tale of CopperCon XXVII.  This year Bob, the convention chair, asked me to run Gaming.  I had to turn him down, what with my inability to get the whole weekend off.  I don’t know who ended up running Gaming.  When I showed up Saturday evening after work I discovered that they had Arcade Gaming in Salon E and Console Gaming in Room 2005.  They didn’t have any place set aside for pickup card or board games.  Program scheduled a Great Dalmuti game in Lower Pre-Convene on Saturday afternoon, so when I showed up the Shadowfist crew wanted to play there.  When I arrived there was a Vampire:  The Masquerade LARP running outside and a Masquerade Fashion Show running in Suite ABCD.  First I chatted with a few of the convention regulars in the lobby during happy hour, then played several games of Shadowfist in Lower Pre-Convene, including a seven player game.

  Sunday I went to mass before arriving at the hotel.  There were several good things on Program for the day, but I knew that I would have to miss them.  We took over a small part of Lower Pre-Convene and played more games of Shadowfist.  Rockets for Kids was also scheduled down there, so we eventually left for lunch at Chino Bandito.  We returned, played more games, and eventually called it a night late in the evening.  Somewhere in there we also played High School Drama and Torches and Pitchforks, plus possibly some other games I no longer recall, visited the Dealer’s Room, perused the Art Show, and raided ConSuite (hospitality suite).

  In the dealer’s room I ran into Shane again.  He’s become a major player in CASFS, WesternSFA, and AniZona since we last met (at the Frys’ D&D campaign).  He began simply enough staffing the Anime Room at CopperCons with the various anime fan clubs he’s been a member of for years.  His whole demenor smacked of someone who actually wanted to become a SMoF, the way he bragged about his fannish accomplishments and badmouthed his fellow committee members from various conventions. 

  At one point (or possibly twice?) I visited the ConSuite.  There I was accused of being the Program director for CopperCon XXVIII.  I quickly denied such a thing.  Several times throughout the con I ran into Catherine, who was definately pressuring me to agree to Program both CopperCon XXVIII and CopperCon XXIX so she could back out of her commitments.  I certainly couldn’t blame her.  No one should have to Program that many years in a row.  She’s already done two years in a row (something insane that I promised myself I would never do again), that would make five conventions in four years if she kept those commitments, plus her commitment to FiestaCon.  I have agreed to be her staff for FiestaCon, but I’m not really interested in being the committee member again.  It’s too much work, even with the friendships and aquaintances I’ve made because of it. 

  Kyla also approached me in person about her continuing offer to join the committee forming for a new convention.  She allayed my fears about inappropriate content, so I agreed to be banker/treasurer.  I’m just not interested in assisting anything which isn’t fully family friendly, and luckily she is of a similar mind.  Kyla’s been successful with AniZona (which she has been asking me to help with for years), so this should be an interesting process I’ve never been a part of before:  starting from the ground up.

  So, over all, despite attending the convention only from late evening Saturday until late evening Sunday, I enjoyed myself.  I was able to get in as much gaming, visits to the ConSuite, touring of the Art Show, and browsing of the Dealer’s Room as I usually get at a CopperCon or LepreCon, about a third as much socializing as I usually get at such conventions, and completely missed out on my usual amounts of Filk and Program.  At least I was able to keep the Shadowfist faithful appeased, rather than letting the momentum falter.  That makes the sacrifice worthwhile. 

  Thanks to hai-kah-uhk for the quiz:
  Here is the personalDNA map that uniquely represents my personality. Mouse over any part of the box or strip to learn more about the traits that the colors represent.

  Benevolent Inventor

  “To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best day and night to make you like everybody else means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight and never stop fighting.”  ~ E. E. Cummings

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