#Anyway go to TrotCon

[izzyizzyizzyizzyizzyizzyizzyizzy]

OK so today I was a Trotcon and I had so much fun and I got to meet so many cool ponies and people in creachurs and Things and I did the cosplay contest but I didn't win but it was OK because the guy that one had a really cool cosplay and I felt weird about saying that I was proud of him but I wanted to tell him I was proud of him so if you ever see this I'm proud of you because your cosplay was really cool and you deserved to win

Also the judges really liked my cosplay and that made me really happy because that's literally me im izzy I was just me being me and they said I could definitely just go out and about wearing the outfit because it was really cute and looked really good on me and I'm still happy about that

Oh and also in the morning I went to the bathroom and when I got out of security guard called me over because he was wondering what I was doing in the women's bathroom and I unknowingly rested my tits on the counter as I leaned over to talk to him and I showed him my badge which has Summer's name on it so he was still a little bit skeptical but he called me ma'am so I guess that was fine

I also got to wear my platform sneakerboots all day long and that was awesome and I had a lot of fun and I really should do things in public one and I wish my close friends (& significant others) were able to join me but they will next year so I'm really looking forward to that

There was literally only one bad thing about today and that was when I got back to my hotel room and I was making mac & cheese and I snagged one of my kandi bracelets on something and it broke and spewed little rock stuff all over the floor but I guess that's OK because yesterday Garnett found one so I came here with two and I still have two so I guess that's okay

There were so many cool ponies and so many cool people and so much cool stuff and I was really glad I was able to go

Anyway I'm almost all the way out of breath so I'm going to go to bed soon goodnight

[thedenofravenpuff]

Have a quick look at my BronyCon19 loot!

Finally got my filthy paws on the Twilight’s Secret Shipfic Folder card game, with lots of expansion sets! Not all of the sets I wanted, but still plenty. Dang everything sold out fast at the Market Place!

Goods, arts, comics, gifts from friends, signed prints, so much good stuff to bring home!

The stickers not shown had been stuffed in my sketch book right away. Still need to scan the content to share all the sketch swaps done with peeps I can into!

[outofworkderpy]

Hey I’m going to be vending at Trotcon’s Online Convention  Dec 4-6.  If you want to attended you should join their Discord Chat and check out their Website and twitter.   If you want to buy some merch or comics from me you can always beat the rush and get over to the store early, too~  I’m gonna try to make my latest Applejack and Apple Bloom Thanksgiving image into a print and maybe a few of my Kobold drawings if there is interest and time, but those won’t go on sale till the start of the Convention.   If I do I’ll make an announcement for those.  

Anyway it should be a lot of fun & I hope to see you there!  

[thenewgraymare]

Well, that's been a bit of a long hiatus for new posts on this blog! Once Covid hit and I realized I would have no shows this year, I just sat back and decided to work on other things and enjoy a break. But, come on. Let's be real here. Who can go a full year without Pony or the awesome camaraderie of conventions? Many conventions have moved to an online format this year and TrotCon is no different! Today is the final day, but there is still plenty of time to chat up new friends in Discord, catch a panel (they're all recorded, so you can watch ones you might have missed!), and shop the vendor hall to help support us artists who have lost sooooo much of our income this year. Anyway. Come to TrotCon.

[shinxx403]

Luna best princess don't even @ me. Oh look! ShinxX is posting a pony art! What a world! Well yeah, with the announcement of Tabitha St. Germain being a guest at the only pony con I go to, I felt the urge to draw best princess rise within me. Anyway, come to Trotcon

[snowy-charm]

A Treatise on Charm, Snowy

(TL;DR warning: This post is kinda long. The quick version is that I’m gonna make music now! Next post will be one of said musics. The rest of this post goes over the story of why I’m doing it. Also I use a meme twice and link some rad music three times.)

The year: 2017. October. I was given the name “Snowy Charm” as a fun pony name to facilitate a secret santa exchange online. Even though I’d been a fan of these little horses since ~2012 I’d never delved into the world of having one to call my own. I was more than satisfied bearing witness to the growing cast of canon characters - and of course my hot and heavy courting with the cast of Fallout: Equestria. (Side note to anyone who may be reading this: FoE is pretty dope, but it is also the essence of grimdark. Read at your own risk!)

Suddenly at odds with this new OC acquisition, I quickly came up with a fast and loose backstory! He was a crystal pony from the wintery crystal kingdom (”Snowy”) and was probably an artificer or craftsman of some kind (”Charm”). I joked that the reason behind my name is that I live in a snowy climate (read: the tropics) and I was quite charming (the jury is still out on that one). 

The following year was my first ever convention: BronyCon 2018! An artist friend of mine graciously designed my OC with little to no input on my part and came up with a design that I instantly fell in love with.

(Pictured here subtly in front of a rack-mounted EQ I have never used, but is appropriate for an upcoming revelation.)

Isn’t he ADORABLE?! I will forever wear that badge because it is awesome. The cutie mark has been redone a little since then, and no other artist has remembered his beard yet, but I digress; this story isn’t actually about him.

Of course, BronyCon was a blast! This became my impetus to be more than simply an observer in the fandom, but to be present and belonging with others through our communal enjoyment of My Little Pony. My friends, in general, had a disinterest of the show - which, you know what? That’s fair. I don’t particularly care for Game of Thrones, Desperate Housewives, or the DCU, and it would be hard for me to feign a genuine interest in the developments thereof - but as of BronyCon I was able to play on an even field with others who shared my same passion for these candy colored equines!

Now, another thing to note of me, which will be important in a moment: I’m slightly musical. Not amazingly talented or anything, just.. slightly musical. I was REALLY into marching band (and won the John Philip Sousa award my senior year!!), but stopped refining my craft during college and onwards. Turns out playing a $5000 instrument puts a damper on your ability to own one. (Here’s a second video, and a third; I freakin love marimba.) I picked up the Ukulele for the the occasional “BUT YOU LIKE TO MAKE MUSIC” urges, but more or less ignored actually honing my abilities.

But now that I found myself surrounded by the magic of friendship combined with the magic of ponies, I wanted to CREATE. I suddenly realized that Snowy Charm was to be a MUSIC PONE. I would make FANDOM HITS that nopony had ever HEARD BEFORE (or after - I didn’t/don’t expect to be horse famous [or really even horse known (triple parenthetical asides are super cool, by the way)]).

Aaaaand promptly realized I had the better part of a decade’s worth of rust hanging onto my high-school-level skills. Not to mention that I still didn’t own the only thing I was good at playing.

F

“Okay, okay, it’s fine. Don’t hyperventilate, self. We’ll just make this into a project about growth in music instead.” 

- Me to myself circa the realization I can only really play a single instrument, and not even well.

I decided to make the project about my journey in the music field instead of pumping out dope jams. The goal was to lay out where I was musically and pick a song each week. I’d then practice that song all week and post a recording of my warbly self performing it by week’s end. Pick up a new instrument here, learn a new software there. Maybe I’d do originals now and again, but likely I’d just scream into the void and wait for it to call me back.

Of course, the dope jams would (hopefully) come, but as Jake says:

Long story short on that one: I didn’t.

Be it procrastination or a busy schedule, I can’t really defend my past self’s choice at this point. I made all the social media accounts and sturdied myself to make the first bellow into the abyss --- but then silence rung out. (Of note, I got my twitter anniversary notice today, so it has been exactly a year from my first tentative steps.)

Flash forward a couple months - October once more. My little festive community starts up again! More fun names are given out and lore starts being woven together about these new OCs! The stories start coming quick: There’s a stallion who HATES CRANBERRIES and one who makes bomb smoothies! A diamond dog who wants to celebrate Hearth’s Warming but is the target of seemingly the entire diamond dog population’s scorn! There’s a whole school filled with students, teachers, and a will-they-won’t-they janitor/counselor combo! Snowy now owns a potion shop specializing in musical applications, not to mention somehow he’s now the ambassador to those diamond dogs! But then, unexpectedly, on the day she was supposed to return from the hospital, my mother passed away.

I had recently lost my job and moved into my folk’s home out of town. Unemployed, isolated from friends, and yeeted into the throes of grief; I did all I really could: I picked up my dumb noise stick and sang about life, love, death, and colorful talking horses.

I made my first honest-to-goodness song - Drink In - during that period. It’s about that on-again-off-again pair I introduced earlier, but it was also about my grief and healing. I’ll share some of the lyrics here that, after I wrote them, spoke to me as if I didn’t pen them my damn self:

Take a deep breath Exhale regret Drink in sunsets The best is what’s left

It may not hit you the same way as it did me, music is often subjective, but it was an imperative reminder to let go of the stress I was compounding inside of me. I needed to hear that message badly - and put a pin in that, I’ll loop back to it in a moment.

I started working to better my craft again. I helped mix/master the album that my little festive family put together. I borrowed a bass guitar from a friend and started learning a little. I even got employed to do live mixing at the church I attend! Little by little I was getting better. 

But let’s fast forward again, shall we? This time to August of this year, BronyCon 2019! One of the best times I’ve ever had, but that’s not the point (maybe I’ll go into it in a later post?). I came home invigorated and ready to face the world again after being exhausted for almost five months straight. I felt free from burdens and there was something on my mind that hadn’t been there for a long time: I was ready to CREATE. 

If you were at the con, or if you’ve been on twitter recently, this next refrain may strike you as familiar:

(Patch done by @sew-adorkable)

I knew I had to make a song about it, but I had to make it good enough to be heard by folk. It had to be perfect before I could release it and have guitars and electronic music stuff and all the bells and/or whistles. I have a launchpad, unused, from last year - so I plugged it in with Ableton Live so I could make them funky horse beatz (with a z of course, because that’s 20% cooler).

Aaaaand promptly realized I was way out of my depth. 

I’ve recorded live performances (and myself) with Reaper and Audition before, and I feel like I know at least some of the basics with them. I can put a vocal into compression, mix the instruments okay together, do some EQing, etc. But I was now adrift trying to get the computer to make sounds that I wasn’t able to do myself.

I couldn’t figure out how to put anything other than the default synth into reaper and I opened Ableton because that’s better for electronic music I hear and I want to learn how to do that and they don’t even have a timeline and use clips and what are clips and how do you make them and what are samples and how do you get them and how do I even record a voice in this thing and there’s not a TIMELINE and when you stop the noise the session isn’t stopped and the launchpad won’t work and I went back to reaper and they have a drum sampler and how do you get a sample and how do you install things and is this my personal hell and I understand this is a run on sentence - I was frustrated and I quit.

Remember the pin I told you to put in earlier? Refresh that into memory, here’s where it’s relevant.

About two weeks after this whole debacle I was listening to shuffle all on my phone and Drink In happened to come on. I remembered how the completely unintentional message of my own song really struck me a year prior. This stupid song about a pair of pony OCs with terribly played ukulele and shitty bargain bin percussion recorded with a mic not suited to record anything except vocals... and despite all that, despite all of the technical barriers that were in the way, despite clipping during recording ukulele and hearing the distortion every time I listen to the track, it helped me restore tranquility when my inner world was naught but a maelstrom of grief and tumult. 

...I guess it didn’t have to be perfect to reach folks. Who knew?

And that right there is the moral I’m learning today. I struggle with it a lot, but there’s a problem with perfection: allow yourself only to produce perfection and you’ll produce nothing. I mean it’s a well known quote, right? Nobody’s perfect. 

So, I apologize in advance to all people with ears, but it is now my intention to bring (hopefully) pleasant noises to the grandiose cacophony that is the internet. They won’t be perfect, but I’ll work on it.

Anyway, come to TrotCon.

(Art by Witchtaunter, Flitterfel, and Mentita Kirby)

P.S. Holy bananas you actually read this monster of a post? Give yourself a pat on the back! Future posts likely won’t be as herculean of a read, but no promises. Next time I’ll actually upload “Drink In” so you can hear this song I’ve referenced so much - and then I’ll talk about where I’m at mechanically and the goals I have by doing this whole thing. Oh, and don’t expect all the neat art to happen every post! I went a little YCH/commission crazy after I got back from BronyCon, but I’m also not made out money so it won’t last forever. I don’t expect really anybody to read a huge post ostensibly about someone’s OC, and even the lifetime of this project I expect less or equal to about 10 people, but I hope you find a sense of belonging and participation here! Hello to all 10 of you!

See y’all next time!

[bronyinabottle]

Trotcon 2018 Experience

(Sorry for taking a bit longer to get to then I wanted but kept focusing on different things throughout the days. But finally here it is)

Another Trotcon under the books. Though first I want to say I may have to retract my statement on this possibly being the last one I go to since there may still be room to go again next year or so.

But anyway, this time was pretty mellow. It of course wasn’t quite as great as the short and sweet moment the first time I went was. But I definitely had a better overall time then I did last year where there were quite a few things that didn’t quite meet expectations or just went kinda wrong at times.

I didn’t quite get as much souvenirs and merchandise as I did the past two times. But that was a combination of the vendor hall not having as much as I was interested in, stuff being too expensive for my budget, and/or I wanted to save money for other things such as some Nintendo Switch/3DS purchases. But here’s the pic of all I got anyway:

Basically a comic, coloring book, brochures, and a few commissions (One from Teej (Genie Rainbow and her Twilight) and one from the mod of Out of Work Derpy (Genie Derpy), Also have another commission on the way from the Trotcon artist which I’ll share here later when it’s finished.) Here’s some close up pics of some of the stuff too.

(From Teej)

(From Out of Work Derpy Mod)

One thing I certainly liked about this Trotcon was of course the theme. Pretty noticeable already from the earlier pics but it was underwater themed with seaponies and all that. You should all know already that stuff like mermaids are 2nd only to genies in terms of favorite fantasy stuff. So at least theme wise this will probably be my favorite unless they decide to have some sort of Arabian theme that could include genies one year. Here’s pictures I took of the many sea pony themed stuff there.

Also of course I did get to meet up with at least a few people I’ve interacted with in the fandom. Mainly Teej/Pirate Dash’s mod once again, SoulDewLatios (mod of . WARNING: Sometimes NSFW. Also didn’t quite get a picture with him since we only saw each other in the hall for a short time), and (I had trouble finding him at first and didn’t know I actually did find him earlier. He just didn’t know if he would have his Johnny from Ed, Edd, and Eddy cosplay done by then. But we at least got to meet briefly in the Vendor Hall sunday morning). Here’s all the pics I got with people I met (Or saw again in the case of Teej)OceanbirdTwobitswithtomas

And that’s all I got. A pretty good time going again, I can’t promise I’ll be there next year. But unlike what I said earlier it might not be completely out the question yet. Depends what goes on in the coming months.

P.S. Almost forgot to mention I got to see a virtual boy there. Only played it for a little bit but kinda neat. Though yeah I could definitely see how long play sessions could of led to eye straining.

[bobdude0]

“My Little Pony: Bobdude Remix”

Oh shit it’s a new blanket design for Bronycon. I wanted to get big mac, maud, and shining armor/cadence/flurry on this thing (because I should have them as stickers for bronycon), but the order has to go in now if I’m gonna get them in time. If I stick to this horse convention thing another summer I’ll add a whole bunch more of the other horses I’ve drawn to it, quite like my Sweetie collage. I’m hoping to turn it into something really cool but it’ll be a few hundred hours before that can happen. I uh, may or may not be trying to draw every vaguely important pony from the show. We’ll see. In the meantime though I think this looks pretty neat, got a little bit of something for everyone on it. This one will also be on wallscrolls, which will be a bobdude first for bronycon.

Anyways, enjoy a little collage of horses. Expect those new stickers I mentioned real soon

OH, one last thing, I won’t be taking preorders for blankets at bronycon this year. Due to this post-trotcon rush, I just couldn’t make them happen. However there is some good news, I found a new blanket printer so I’m printing more of them and they’ll sell for even cheaper. I’ll have ten of my Sweetie Collage and ten of this new design here. Hopefully they take off as well at bronycon as they did at everfree, those blanket sales take my mood from good to infallible every time one goes haha

[askscribbly]

Bronycon Summary~

So, holy moly, this was the best Bronycon I've ever been to! I mean I thought my second year was fun, but this? This was incredible!! I flew out of LAX at about 5:50 AM, and though I didn't get to eat until about 1 PM in Baltimore I got to meet up with some of my best pals @tambelon and @piratedashmod for hellos and one delicious sandwich~. Sadly we did have a room change due to some issues, but because of that I got to meet a new friend: @princessmuse! She's an absolute sweetheart with tons of cute ponies and you should check her out sometime, since she's getting back into the community again ;w; Anyways the con overall was super fun! We got to hang out with people like @ask-wiggles, @whatsapokemon, @darnelg, @phoenixswift, @askstarfrost, and so many more ahhhh, with art jams every night and nothing but laughter! And of course I got to meet up with art heroes like @earthsong9405, who I gave some fanart and she surprisingly loved kabskshs--so good ;7; But besides lots of merch and good times, I'm really proud because I branched out and I sttted talking to people more. I wasn't hiding behind my other friends, I was putting myself out there and saying what my blog was and everything. I got a great response in return and I made some great friends that I hope to keep in contact with after the con. Hell, I even met some secret fans out there, so maybe there's hope for my little Dolly just yet, heehee~ Hope you all had a great time too if you went! I'm considering going Trotcon and Bronycon next year, though I'm gonna have to save up way more hhh... but worth a try to meet more friends! Gonna fly home today so tomorrow I'll just post all the goods and sketches I got. Save travels home everyone, love you!

[autisticfaerie]

Dentist and General Life Update

Yesterday I finally went to the dentist to have my wisdom teeth removed. When I set up the appointment, I thought I was only going to be getting x-rays done and to talk about when we wanted to remove them as well as how we wanted to handle my broken front teeth.

I went to my childhood dentist in Columbus, so I stayed a few days at my grandparent’s house. It also meant that ,since I was in town on a weekday, I got to go visit friends I haven’t seen in awhile. It was nice to get out and hang with them before the anxiety-inducing dentist appointment. We talked dolls, autism stuff, memories from when we were kids, and a ton of other random things. It was all around a good time and I can’t wait to see them again.

Anyway, on to how the dentist appointment went! I got there and got checked in quickly. They called me back to have my teeth cleaned. All the staff there were very nice and let me do what I needed to keep calm, like when my gag reflex kicked in and I had to sit up for a moment so I didn’t cough to death while lying down. Also my 80% purple tinted glasses did an amazing job at making the bright light they usually have in your face seem like nothing.

After the cleaning was done I went into a 2nd room where I sat down and talked to my dentist (I have known him since 1994, so pretty much all of my life) and discussed if I wanted those teeth out right then or not. I messaged my husband to let him know what was going on, as well as my grandparents (since they were my ride). After a bit of freaking out in my head I decided that yeah, I will get the teeth removed while I am here.

We then proceeded to get me ready for the tooth extraction procedure. I asked if I could have the lead apron they have for weight to help keep me calm. The one dental assistant was a bit confused at first, but then I explained why I asked for it and she actually thought it was cool. I also got my tangle out of my purse so I could have that to help focus my anxiety out of my head.

During the procedure my dentist talked me through what all he was doing, what I should be feeling, and if I felt something different to let him know so he could add more numbing. I ended up barely feeling anything and didn’t even realize that they had got the first tooth out. The second one I felt a bit more – for whatever reason it wasn’t taking the numbing stuff as well as the other side. But I didn’t feel it too much, just a couple tiny jolts of pain. Which in comparison to the pain the tooth normally gave me was nothing.

After the procedure was done they had to put gauze in my mouth for a half-hour. The tinier pieces kept causing my gag reflex to kick in. So my dentist got larger pieces that had to hang out of my mouth, so in case I needed to pull them out it was easier. Also, since they went the whole length of my mouth on both sides, biting down on them ended up being better and no gag issues. I got to take them out once I was back at my grandparent’s house.

And now I am home. Yesterday evening my grandparents and my husband met halfway between Columbus and Cleveland so neither would have to drive the full trip. It’s good to be back home, though I have a lot of stuff to work on.

Also, back in July was TrotCon, which is the convention I run. It was our 6th year. We had a few last minute changes thanks to a misunderstanding with our venue. But I was able to magic the schedule in a way to where no panels or events had to be cut. The con went pretty well despite the changes. The attendees loved it as usual and loved the new events we added.

I also hosted my autism panel, though this year only around 10-ish people ended up attending. Last year I had a full room. The panel went well though, and a few of my friends joined as panelists. We mostly went over various subjects from my blog and how they affected us as a varied group of Autistic people. And we answered questions from the audience.

For the kids’ room at the con this year I made sensory bins with sand and slime. They were a hit with the kids who attended. We also had cartoons playing the whole time in the room. For the quiet room which was across the hall I put out coloring sheets and quiet stim/fidget stuff. Every time I visited the room over the weekend it was really great to see that the toys had been played with. So I will def be bringing back both sensory bins and quiet stim stuff for those rooms next year.

In November I will have a table at OCALIcon to sell stim/fidget items. So I am excited about that. My store will be under the name Neurogeekery. I already have a printed fabric banner for the booth, I just need to tie dye it rainbow. And I need to figure out how I want to do the booth layout since its a 10×10 space. So far I have one of my friends coming with to be my booth helper. Will post another update on my OCALIcon booth once I have some more information from the event.

Lastly, I have been getting back into dolls again. I have a bunch of ideas for doll clothing and carrier bags. So I have been working on making stuff. But that’s for a later post!

[whirlwindflux]

Looking back at TrotCon 2017

For me, deciding which conventions to attend each year is always a challenge. Many times, my decisions are based on distance from home, when I can take my vacation time at work and a combination of community guests, musicians and VIPs. I’ve never been to TrotCon before, and ironically, it’s not the typical things that sold me on this event. Living in Southern Ontario doesn’t give me any local options, but TrotCon happens to be the closest event to where I live. I’m not sure who came up with the witty comment on the website about changing your license plate to TROT-CON, but as soon as I read that, I was sold. With every region of Bronies being a little different, reading that was when I figured of all the Bronies I have met these ones are my kind of people! I purchased an Earth tier sponsor badge, booked my hotel room and waited patiently for the weekend of the event.

Initial Thoughts

Let’s just say this wait wouldn’t be the easiest in the world. Being a new attendee, having only the website to base my decision, I wasn’t sure how things would go or what type of atmosphere to expect. I followed along with the convention on Social Media, the sponsor online streams and group chats like the one on Discord, and I almost had second guessed my decision to go. While funny and entertaining, the TrotCon Twitter account can be somewhat daunting to someone who wasn’t familiar with the event. I thought, well… if nothing else, after the weekend I’d be an expert and I could turn the experience into a meme?

Let’s get this out of way right now. If you attended or followed along online you know what’s coming next. Yes, the schedule changed, and access to spaces at the convention didn’t go as planned. When I first read the post about this, my reaction was of somewhat disappointment. As I thought about it more, and let it sink in, I realized something refreshing! TrotCon was honest and upfront with their attendees. I’ve been to other Brony conventions who kept big changes like this a secret until attendees stumbled upon the changes, didn’t see guests, VIPs or didn’t have promised sponsor rewards ready. This catastrophe was handled properly, tactfully, and actually reassured me that the con staff had this under control and knew how to respect their attendees.

Pre-Con Thoughts

After braving torrential downpour, flash flooding and learning that my car makes a decent boat, I made it to TrotCon only 9 hours after I left home! Travel was more challenging and time consuming than I had anticipated, but, I made it! I was there and ready for everything to begin. As I entered the hotel I was surprised with how many other attendees were already there, just hanging out in the lobby as if this was a normal occurrence. I could already tell this was going to be a great weekend! Sometimes it’s about getting the big things right, other times it’s about getting the little things right. Put a check beside check-in, I totally loved the inclusion of custom room key cards.

It didn’t take long for it to be time for pre-reg badge pickup to begin. As I waited in line, I saw people walking away with tiny boxes. I didn’t know why, but thought it was cool. As it became my turn to pick-up, they handed me a tiny box too! Branded Stable Dweller and with my name on it, I took the box back to my room to look at my loot. If you were a sponsor, you know it was filled with all sorts of cool stuff, including the expected sponsor perks! It also included bonus items like a toaster pin! Oh so clever!

Taking care of your sponsors

Sponsors and Pre-registration are what make a convention possible. They offer funds upfront to the event organizers which allows them to have more community guests and VIPs. As a personal note, I will generally purchase a sponsor badge to any Brony convention I go to. I end up buying most of the things they include at the convention anyway, so why not give them the money upfront? I haven’t always had great experiences with being a sponsor as some perks just don’t get delivered or happen. TrotCon delivered and then some! Not only were the perks unique, like a Nerf blaster, and the t-shirt design stellar, but the presentation to the sponsors, in the tiny box (which fit with the theme), made collecting our perks easy! Honestly, all cons should be doing something like this - not handing over a bunch of stuff with no way to carry it. Just know you knocked it out of the park. Other cons should be taking notes!

Standard Convention Activities

Every convention has panels run by different members of the community, staff and VIPs. TrotCon was no exception here. What I will say is this, I enjoyed the depth, variety and insight of many of the options on the schedule. Many of these things I have never seen before and quite enjoyed. I am not sure if an un-moderated voice actors panel was intended, but it let Peter New and Lee Tockar fly off the rails. I’ve never had so much fun at one these panels before!

The VIP autograph process was fairly standard. Like most conventions, it required attendees to purchase a voucher from the convention to get an autograph. I am not entirely sure why this is the practice (and VIP’s don’t just take cash) but not knowing where to get additional autograph vouchers was a bit of a miss. I did eventually find them at the info desk, of all places.

One of my favourite places at a convention is the Vendor Hall. Many of my favourite vendors were in attendance and I had a great time catching up with many of them since the last time I saw them. I loved the variety of primarily pony-centric items for sale, but the inclusion of many other fandoms was positive and didn’t detract from the experience. Further to that point, as it seems to be a strongly contested one online right now, it didn’t overtake the pony experience, but allowed the artists and vendors to show off some of their other interests. Booths were large enough for most vendors to show off their goods and there was still plenty of room for people to walk around without creating too much congestion. I happened to be in the vendor hall during the fire drill. It was handled in an orderly fashion and as an attendee it wasn’t a huge disruption.

Every great Brony convention has a concert and this one didn’t disappoint! With tons of space to dance and enough seating to take a break, the concert area was well setup. A thank you to all the performers who put on an awesome evening of music! A shout-out to the AV team who put it all together, made sure it worked before the performers got on stage and made transitioning between musicians painless and quick. Not every convention gets the sound or audio balances right - but TrotCon did! Also, not sure who was responsible for this, but, the collection of different animations that evolved through the night was a cool addition!

Unique Events

Conventions have been working hard to create experiences that set them apart from the others.  It’s exciting to have this competition because at the end of the day, you need to attract attendees to make the event happen! With the Fallout Equestria theme, let’s talk about the two most unique events I have ever seen at a convention - Battle for Bottlecap Canyon and Little Pip’s Minefield.

Battle for Bottlecap Canyon was a very cool concept. At it’s basic level it was a Nerf blaster war. Everyone came in, picked up a blaster, was assigned a side and went to war. The backstory to the event which tied it to the theme was well done. The original concept, which was to leave your home base (decided by your faction at registration), enter the middle ground (also known as the wasteland) and attempt to collect things (bags of caps and ammunition) which were hoarded at your base until the end of the round. Sadly, the schedule crunch and high popularity caused this concept to be cast aside for full on war. Getting hit meant you returned to your base, waited for a predetermined amount of time and then continued playing. Although changes were made on the fly, and it was different than advertised, I feel the event was still a success and will hopefully return next year, tweaked and improved!

Little Pip’s Minefield was a real life rendition of the classic computer game Minesweeper. With Minesweeper being one of my personal favourites (sad, I know, but true!) I knew I had to make time for it! In this real life version of the game, a grid of tiles was placed on the ground. Flip a tile to find out how many adjacent tiles had a mine. The twist that tied it to the Fallout Equestria theme was multiple people started at different places. As you progressed, you collected bottle caps, and if you found a mine, you dropped the caps and let the next person carry on solving the grid. The one with the most caps at the end won. I guess I spent far too much time as a kid playing minesweeper - I didn’t hit any mines! However, I think I may have played it too safe - I didn’t recover the most caps either.  Attendance to this event felt light to me, however, I feel this was due to nobody knowing exactly what it was. Ironically the only reason I knew was because I followed the TrotCon Twitter. I enjoyed this event too! Hopefully it will reappear next year bigger and better with the new theme!

Not that I expect or would imagine that anyone who runs TrotCon to ever read this in it’s entirety or beyond the first few lines, I do have ideas with regards to these special events for streamlining the attendee experience and enhancing them in the future! If you want to discuss any of these ideas, come find me on Discord (I am on the TrotCon server) since I have no idea how to find you. I am registered as WhirlwindFlux.

Post-Con Thoughts

When a convention concludes, generally there is sadness and the dreaded post-con depression starts to set in. As I wandered out of closing ceremonies and back to my room I was saddened that the event was over, but as the night progressed, the sadness dissipated leaving a positive happiness in it’s place. Maybe it was the fact that, for my first visit to TrotCon, it was exceptionally positive. Maybe it’s the fact that they just did things right from start to finish. Maybe it was the upfront honesty and integrity. I’m not entirely sure what differentiated this con. I’ve traveled farther distances and met with many different groups of Bronies who have put on their own conventions over the past 4 and half years. Coming back to a comment I made at the very beginning of this review; although I live in Ontario I would, without a doubt, say the Bronies of Ohio and the attendees of TrotCon are my kind of people! If I was only able to go to one convention a year, it would be TrotCon!

TrotCon has a very dedicated staff - they go out of their way to put on a fantastic event! So, to each staff member, organizer and the con-chair, thank you for all of your hard work, dedication, and continued belief in the Brony community! TrotCon was the convention I didn’t know I needed until now. So, if reading this hasn’t convinced you, and not that I wrote this to convince anyone of anything, come to TrotCon - you will not regret it! It surprised me in all the right ways, and with that said, I can’t wait for the next evolution of the event in 2018.

[bitgamer-nexus]

Convention Plans! So I thought I would put out in my Tumblr about my plans this Summer just in case there was any friends of mine or followers that would be interested in meeting! First up at bat is Anthrocon. Not brony convention I know, but my friends are going and if they are there then I will look forward to having an awesome time! Next one is Trotcon! Was planning to go last year but plans fell through, preventing me from going but not this year and I will have friends with me. As well another thing to be excited about is that they have it Fallout Themed! The cosplay ideas are racing in my head for this one! Rounding off the season will be Bronycon, that comes without much surprise but it will be great to see so many of my friends from cons gone by. Oh and most of these will be road trips! Much fun and less expensive. Now if there was a way to make the hotel stays cheaper. Anyways there you have it, if you are coming out and wanna meet drop me a message and we can chill with my group.

[willtingle]

Trotcon: A post reflection

Last nights post was kinda lame. I realized how tired I was. Today I hope to do my full, detailed post. It will be broken up by day.

Friday:

I have a class from 12 noon until 7pm M, W, F this summer. The drive to Columbus is about 3 and a half to 4 hours. I figured I could leave early, so I told people I would likely be there around like 10-10:30. We got out of class early on Friday, though. I left about 2:30 and got there about 6:30. I had texted one of my friends asking where to go when I got there. She said text her and to go to our (as in, a large chunk of the game room staff) hotel room. I took the elevator up to the 3rd floor and started to walk to the room when she saw me and stopped me, asking for help. They had not yet set up the room because of contract confusion i.e. they didn’t have access to the room until about the time I arrived. So, I briefly helped set up the room then went to find my friend, CSquared08. We went to dinner at a Chinese place with 2 of his friends, including Present Perfect. Csquared and Present are both decently known on FimFiction, Present more so. I think his blog post on his experience, specifically the part about meeting me, was a perfect description of CSquared and me. Then I went back to the game room and hung out for a while. I had gotten I think 2 buttons when I met up with C. But back in the game room we finished setting up more or less and then did an 18+ event that didn’t really need to be 18+. This transitions us to the next day

Saturday:

I started off as the person doing ID check for the 18+ event. I think I did it for like 45 minutes then other people took over. The event, as I said, did not need to be 18+, so as I wheeled my friend up to our room (she over exhausted and overexerted herself) she told me to go ahead and get rid of the 18+ requirement when I got back down to the room. I walked in and Cap’n, the game room leader (and one of the mane people responsible for Trotcon) was playing a very strange and very NSFW dating sim thing on the main screen with another friend. 

So, I was supposed to work from 6am to noon Saturday and Sunday. About 3 or 4am I realized I was tired. The person who also had 6am to noon with me was in the room, as were half (maybe more) of the game room staff. After discussing it with him, I decided to go to bed for a bit, as we were worried no one would be up for their shifts and it was really not too busy.  

I got about 4 hours of sleep, waking up about 20 minutes before my alarm at around 8:45. I got down to the room by 9. It was still pretty empty, but there were slightly more people. Guacamole (the guy I was working with) was fine, though he had been there about 17 hours. I kept telling him to go to bed, but he waited until after noon. One of two of our replacements got there a bit before noon. We both stayed in the room until about 12:30 when other people arrived. I went to lunch with CSquared with 2 other friends. This time we went to a Greek restaurant. 

We got back from lunch and I bought some more stuff. I think this was when I bought my AJ bag and Fluttershy wallet. I didn’t know they had wallets, so I was struggling to decide which backpack to get, then they told me about the wallet and the discount if I got both a bag and a wallet. I got more buttons and the ‘best pony’ clip on things. I also got the 2 leather key chain things. The guy who makes those also makes some really cool books that I wanted but couldn’t afford. Later I also got the 2 figures. I spent more time in the game room. During this time I met WeimTime, someone I am a fan of. He was inquiring about he and some friends setting up a donation based bar in the game room for a while. I was a little nervous mentioning being a fan. It felt a bit awkward and I was a bit nervous he would be annoyed. Instead he was happy and very nice. I saw him once or twice later and he continued to be nice, so that was good. 

Then I went to dinner with CSquared but without his friends. We went to Golden Corral. He forced me to go to the room to try to sleep. This was when Solar Flair, the 30minchallenge admin and member of gameroom staff, posted the challenge results on my blog. I only slept about 45 minutes then I got up. I went and spent more time in the game room. Friends were annoyed that I wasn’t sleeping enough.

Sunday:

 At midnight WeimTime and his friend set up the bar. I was the member of staff primarily helping. They made it clear that staff could get drinks first and should not donate. I chose an “AJ” from the list of drinks. 

So, when I drink, I primarily choose either Apple Cider or Bourbon. An AJ is Apple Cider mixed with Jim Beam Apple. It was the best alcoholic drink I have ever had. I had 2 and also was drunk for the second time ever. 

I sobered up a lot before the next highlight. At 4am I was a part of the 30minchallenge panel! I got to meet several artists and it was fun. I also drew a bad drawing. But yeah, overall we were pretty happy with that panel. I went back to the game room and stayed up for my shift at 6. So, I was there while Guac played a game with a name I can’t remember. I kept nodding off, so I moved back to the staff table and allowed myself to take a nap. I think that added like another 2 or 3 hours of inconsistent sleep. I told everyone I would be up until after 4 because 4pm was the time we cleaned up the game room. I went to lunch at like 1 with Csquared and some friends. We went to Waffle House. 

I came back, sat in the game room and got yelled at by friends for not sleeping more. Then at 4 we cleaned up. At like 5 I went upstairs and went to sleep for like 3 hours. I woke up about 2 minutes before Solar came in to tell me they ordered Pizza. I went down for that and hung out with everyone. Later that evening We went swimming briefly until a thunderstorm started to come in. Then some of us went to play Cards against humanity with tons of pony cards. I left that and started to tell everyone goodbye, which was really sad because I knew most of them wouldn’t be up in the morning. I was correct. Solar and Guac were both up in the morning, but no one else. I left about 8am. 

And that was my TrotCon 2017 weekend! It was a lot of fun and I got to meet a lot of friends in person and made several new friends. 

Anyway, good night. 

Oh, and the only other friend who has a link I know is Red, another 30minchallenge mod who was there!

[askpiratedash]

((I don’t even know what to say here, if I’m completely honest.  It might seem like a lot of rambling as I go forward.  I haven’t really had a moment to take it all in yet.  But death is a weird thing for me and it just hasn’t hit me fully until now.  You can ask me on my mod blog about it.

@askrustynail is one hell of a guy.  That must be said.  It cannot go unsaid.  Rusty is one of the very few that have been around as long as I have in this community.  And he is without a doubt deserving of a place on the Mount Rushmore of Tumblrpon.  Not only for his unique blog and his fun character, which is how we were introduced to him.  But for his kindness, his brilliance, his giving spirit.  That is what I and anyone who’s met him in person will take away from him.

I first met him at Trotcon 2013.  It was where I got my first jar of honey vanilla vodka from him.  It wouldn’t be the last jar I would get either.  I will fully admit that it wasn’t my favorite drink.  I did sample it from time to time, but I enjoyed sharing it with friends just as much.  I took the jar I got at Bronycon ‘15 to an Illini tailgate and shared it with my college buddies there.  Daniel said it was one of the best drinks he’s ever had in his life.

I still have the jar he gave me at Trotcon last year.  I plan on sharing it with everyone when we get back together this year, in a toast and tribute to him.

Rusty is a genius at mixing drinks.  He helped Wiggles and I out immensely during King Pirate Power Hour at Trotcon last year, serving as the unofficial bartender for the panel.  He got me to sample a drink that was basically hot sauce with alcohol in it.  It took me by surprise, but it was good.  He made that panel a lot more fun.

Rusty is hilarious too, and is outstanding at dishing out puns.  I know all you guys think I’m really good at it (for some reason), but Rusty was a pro at it.  During Punanel last year with Sam, I invited Rusty to come on it.  He stole the show for that hour and had people roaring with laughter.

Most of all, Rusty has a kind heart and spirit.  He’s always willing to help people out.  He’s always able to sense when people are in trouble or stressed and give them a calming presence.  And you could talk to him about anything too.  One of the last times we chatted in person, Rusty and I were talking about public radio and what I could try to do to get our station’s name out there more.

It’s going to suck to go to Trotcon or Bronycon this year, and not see him there.  There’s going to be an empty feeling, and everyone is going to wish he was with us for one more round or one more conversation.

I know this is going to sound cliche, but we can’t take life for granted.  Rusty is only one year older than me, and he’s not going to be with us anymore.  That’s just not fair.  He was taken too young from us.  I know I’m going to try and make a better effort to reach out to friends old and new, because I wish I had chatted with him more outside of conventions.  We should all strive to live life like he did.

And my heart goes out to @technomod.  It’s not fair for Rusty and Tech didn’t get to live the rest of their lives together.  We’re all thinking about you and want to help you in anyway possible.

So here’s to a last call with Rusty.  I’ll miss you good sir.  I’ll see you on the other side for drinks and arguments over football.))

[trotcon]

Announcing G.M. Berrow and *many* Community Guests

More news out of the wastes:

Guest announcement time! Try to imagine, like, six siren emojis accompanying this sentence.

“Six of us?!” - The Dazzlings, probably

At last check, we had announced three VIP guests and one community guest for TrotCon 2017, right? Well, get ready to bump up the numbers in both of those columns.

Like, quite a bit. Today’s a doozy, particularly on the community guest side. Let’s waste no more time.

First and foremost: once again, we’re pumped to have G.M. Berrow coming out to TrotCon!

This marks the third straight year we’ve brought Berrow to TrotCon, which is a testament to the amount of high praise we receive about her from you guys at the end of each year. Might as well keep this party going, right?

Berrow, for the uninitiated, first became involved in the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic universe as the author of the chapter books published by Little, Brown and Co., including “Princess Luna and the Festival of the Winter Moon,” Twilight Sparkle and the Crystal Heart Spell” and more. That’s a role she continues to hold today, but in addition, she’s also worked as part of the TV series’ writing staff. Berrow has also worked as part of the crew on TV shows such as Law & Order: SVU and The Good Wife.

Cool stuff, eh?

So, she joins a group of folks we’re already enormously excited about: M.A. Larson, Peter New and Lee Tockar. We’re digging this list, y’all. Hope you are too.

OK, community guests. Deep breath, because there’s a lot of ’em.

That said, like G.M. Berrow, many of these are return guests. Again: we like them, they don’t seem to hate us, you’ve had nothing but great things to say about them AS guest. Git some.

Actually, funny story: we announced TheBronyCritic last year within the same announcement as G.M. Berrow. How about that? Anyway, yes, TheBronyCritic will be returning to TrotCon 2017 after first attaining community guest status with us last year. He’s one of our local boys, a critic and analyst who creates videos reviewing the MLP TV series as well as audioplays, fanfiction readings and more.

We’re also proud to welcome back ChocolatePony, known also as SouthParkTaoist, who’s best known in the fandom for some fantastic artwork, tarot cards and pony card games who also offers some of the coolest MLP-related panels you’ll see on this or any continent. He’s also recently published a book entitled The West Point of the West and hosts a Zootopia-related podcast called Zootopia Minute. You know how we feel about Zootopia here at TrotCon HQ, so we’re sold. Soooold.

In the same returning-guest vein, welcome back TJ Carson to TrotCon 2017! He’s been with us for the last few years as well, as the moderator of multiple ask blogs on Tumblr including Ask Pirate Dash, Ask Mic Boom and more. This is his fourth year as a guest here. FOURTH. That’s crazy, yeah?

We’ve got some new folks to announce, too. Welcome the podcast Pony 411 to TrotCon 2017!

Pony 411 has been helmed by hosts Nemesis Prime and Alca7raz for multiple years now, presenting frequent episodes that tackle the MLP fandom from all sides, from the TV show to its comics and everything in between. They’ve been featured as part of Ponyville Live for a few years as well. Come hear them talk about podcasting — the dos and don’ts, how they got started, the history of a podcast that’s been around for almost five years now.

They join Harmony Studios as our community guests announced so far for 2017, and we’re far from done announcing folks, no worries.

Sound like fun? Cool! Come on out to TrotCon 2017, which will be held July 14-16, 2017, at the Crowne Plaza Columbus North in Columbus, Ohio!

Registration is open until June 25th!

That wraps this one up. Stay safe, wasteland!

[willtingle]

Day 1901

It is another night where I am up way to late. Oh well. I did a lot of relaxing today and some laundry. Most of my days are not too exciting nor do they contain nearly as much reflection as they should. I need to work on that.

I am also currently having that desire to be a video maker again, but it will pass soon as it always does. I think in many ways it is more of wanting to be recognized for something and to have fans, basically. And I don’t want fans for the sake of people liking my work, it is more that I want more people to interact with basically. Like, I want to be able to go to a convention or something and make more friends easier. 

On that note, I should mention (I think I have) that I will be at Trotcon!! That is this weekend!! I will be largely between working in the game room and probably at a sales table helping my friend. But I will probably wander around a lot too. I hope to overcome some social anxiety and talk to a lot of people and make a lot of friends who I will be able to talk to.

If, by some really off chance, you happen to be going to Trotcon look for the person in a plaid shirt and black pants with a staff badge that shows his name as Will and there is a really good chance that’s me. 

Anyway, I might talk more about these topics later. Good night.