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Aug. 5th, 2020 03:04 pmConventions what I have been to, according to the badges I have managed to re-find (which given that they SHOULD all be in the same place, SHOULD be close to all of them.)
(Chronologically would be VERY FUNNY but also really dumb since there's gonna be huge chunks missing between Philcon 1990 and Balticon 2006. Instead I will do it by number of times attended!)
TempleCon: 2008, and it just says "assistant Asmadi Games" and I'd love to actually go to TempleCon sometime as an attendee, but it suuuuuuuucked sooooooooo muuuuuuuuch as a board game vendor at this mostly steampunk con. I think Chris and I sold like...one game total and did not go back the second day.
Otakon: 2009 - again working for Asmadi, but actually accomplishy! Also it was neat to see a couple of my college friends in the summer!
Dance Flurry: 2009, worked sound
PAX East: Fri and Sat of 2010. I went with a then-boyfriend and his friends, and spent like the _entire time_ in the arcade game room playing SiniStar, which was conveniently next to Dragon's Lair (which had a projector to play the game on the ceiling above the machine), and no line.
Webcomics Weekend: 2010. Went with college friends!
NonCon: 2011, I only ever went the one year as an assistant to Dirk Tiede when he was the webcomic guest of honor.
Fig 2012. It was small and cute and jere7my and I wandered around and played games!
Sasquan: Which is to say the WorldCon 2015. Worked tech.
LooneyCon: 2016 - I was in MD for a weekend or so with a wedding attached (and Veronica's BABY SHOWER AWWW!)
Anime Boston: 2008, 2010 - More Asmadiwork. Genuinely unsure if I went to 2009 and lost the badge or skipped it. (I could look up the date -if AB was after I went home for the semester I would've skipped it for sure).
DianeCon: 52 and 53 --I think this was the two years in which Moon and Veronica got married and therefore I was in MD for a weekend.
Bound in Boston: March 2013, March 2014. First as an attendee, the second year as a presenter, because one of the perks of casually cometing with rope tops is sometimes they get invited places and bring you along.
Vericon: Is apparently not arsed to put *any* timekeeping on their badges, I have two. I'm pretty sure that's at least one too few, but I don't even begin to know how to easily verify that. Ah, bless hypersmall conventions.
Philcon: 1989, 1990, 2008. '89 says "Snert" on it because that was my name *before* I was called Katarina, and there were a great many people there who had only known or heard of me as Snert and not yet met me as Kat.
Frolicon: 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014. The second two years I worked for my badge -- dungeonmaster and native guide respectively.
Dragon*Con: 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, which is honestly more years than I expected! I was not permitted to go to D*C until I was 21, and doing it fully independent of mom (since it was "her" con) so those first couple years were me totally on my own. The later years I sorta joined in on mom's cosplay group and did a lot of hanging out with her, because sure why not. I've never properly worked D*C which makes me feel weird about it.
Splash: 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 (always as a teacher, didn't know about it in time to be a student)
GenCon: 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 which is surprising to me because I thought the last year was my fifth Ridiculympics and I think that means there just...wasn't a ridiculympics the first year and what a tragedy. Anyways, this is another con I've never paid to go to and boy howdy do I sing for my supper!
LARPs: Vortex 1 as "Game Baby" (presumably in the '89-'91 range); Arabian Nights as myself (ie, "my parents are running the thing, I'll try not to be too obnoxious")(~'95-'97? I don't remember exactly); Arabian Nights 1999 as myself (ditto, but I was actually old enough to sorta participate a little this time); Oscars 2000 as Mallory Tyrone; Bottlerocket, 2001 as Gina "Greasegun" Gamelli (my favourite character alltime); Anger of the Gods, 2002, as Discord; Once Upon a Frog, 2003, as Gretchen Hesse1. I also did Tales of Pendragon in 2004, but I don't seem to have a badge for it.
Origins: 2002, 2003, 2004, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011. This is not an error - 2005 and 2006 I was otherwise busy2 and did not get to go to Origins, and after 2011 Origins moved to be much earlier in the year which made it pretty impossible to get to. The last two years at least I "paid" for my badge by volunteering for Werewolf and Looney Labs.
Balticon: 40-50, which means 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016. Balticon was "my first con" which if you've looked at the other numbers in this post is blatantly untrue. But I attended Balticon 2006 by myself (read: under the eye of a tech who was a friend of my parents) which was my first time ever doing _that_ and I made a strong point of going up until it was finally...too much. 2017 and 2018 I did Pinewoods work weekends, 2019 I went to go hear MY MOTHER SING AT CARNAGIE HALL! I'd still like to go back, but it will probably be a long time and I feel very mixed about that. Anyways, I worked tech for each and every one of those.
NEFFA: 2008, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2013 as a volunteer (also definitely 2011, I don't know where my badge is for that beyond "they are really very flimsy paper badges), 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 as a performer.
Arisia: 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020. The only con badge I will have for 2020. By sheer dint of "been there the most" I think this is my current "hometown con", but I feel weird about that. I've worked for most of those badges, bought a few. It's...complicated.
So saying I've been to "around 100 conventions" is probably a reasonable estimation (it's 92, you don't have to count). There's a handful of things I've been to that didn't give me badges but would otherwise count --the two years of NYFaerieFestival, the year I went to the Flea-- and since I'm being smug about including my pre-2006 badges, there are a LOT more of those that I (and maybe not even mom) simply don't have the badges for anymore. The best of those, of course, is that I was present at Disclave '97, yes the wet one, and old enough to actually have memories from it.
And of course Scottish dance events are measured in buttons not badges, and so are kept in a completely different location. Sometimes I spread those out all over the bed and roll around on them.
I've still never been to a professional conference, which is...neat and weird. I mean, I went with Da when he had a conference in Germany the year I was 16, and I nanny'd for the RBeast when ElusiveAT took the train out to NY for a small work conference, and I've worked SO many cons, both by myself and for Asmadi (and occasionally Looney Labs). I have been a professional attendee of a con, but I have not yet attended a convention/conference dedicated to my profession. Maybe next time the NCTM gets close, I suppose.
Okay, now I should return to actually semi-useful cleaning the room tasks.
~Sor
MOOP!
1: Greasegun is by far my favourite, but Gretchen remains incredibly important to me and my history, because if you turn the card over, it says "Eric" on it, and that was the name that became Erik became several years in college and stuff where I was a girl except sometimes I was a boy named Erik.
I intermittently still sign my initials as KRED. What my "boy name" is these days is incredibly complicated and not to be discussed here. Kat and Sor are both fine.
2: 2005 - shitty enough grades that I lost the privilege to go to the fun convention with my parents yyyep. 2006 - was off to LONDON with my girl scout troop instead!
(Chronologically would be VERY FUNNY but also really dumb since there's gonna be huge chunks missing between Philcon 1990 and Balticon 2006. Instead I will do it by number of times attended!)
TempleCon: 2008, and it just says "assistant Asmadi Games" and I'd love to actually go to TempleCon sometime as an attendee, but it suuuuuuuucked sooooooooo muuuuuuuuch as a board game vendor at this mostly steampunk con. I think Chris and I sold like...one game total and did not go back the second day.
Otakon: 2009 - again working for Asmadi, but actually accomplishy! Also it was neat to see a couple of my college friends in the summer!
Dance Flurry: 2009, worked sound
PAX East: Fri and Sat of 2010. I went with a then-boyfriend and his friends, and spent like the _entire time_ in the arcade game room playing SiniStar, which was conveniently next to Dragon's Lair (which had a projector to play the game on the ceiling above the machine), and no line.
Webcomics Weekend: 2010. Went with college friends!
NonCon: 2011, I only ever went the one year as an assistant to Dirk Tiede when he was the webcomic guest of honor.
Fig 2012. It was small and cute and jere7my and I wandered around and played games!
Sasquan: Which is to say the WorldCon 2015. Worked tech.
LooneyCon: 2016 - I was in MD for a weekend or so with a wedding attached (and Veronica's BABY SHOWER AWWW!)
Anime Boston: 2008, 2010 - More Asmadiwork. Genuinely unsure if I went to 2009 and lost the badge or skipped it. (I could look up the date -if AB was after I went home for the semester I would've skipped it for sure).
DianeCon: 52 and 53 --I think this was the two years in which Moon and Veronica got married and therefore I was in MD for a weekend.
Bound in Boston: March 2013, March 2014. First as an attendee, the second year as a presenter, because one of the perks of casually cometing with rope tops is sometimes they get invited places and bring you along.
Vericon: Is apparently not arsed to put *any* timekeeping on their badges, I have two. I'm pretty sure that's at least one too few, but I don't even begin to know how to easily verify that. Ah, bless hypersmall conventions.
Philcon: 1989, 1990, 2008. '89 says "Snert" on it because that was my name *before* I was called Katarina, and there were a great many people there who had only known or heard of me as Snert and not yet met me as Kat.
Frolicon: 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014. The second two years I worked for my badge -- dungeonmaster and native guide respectively.
Dragon*Con: 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, which is honestly more years than I expected! I was not permitted to go to D*C until I was 21, and doing it fully independent of mom (since it was "her" con) so those first couple years were me totally on my own. The later years I sorta joined in on mom's cosplay group and did a lot of hanging out with her, because sure why not. I've never properly worked D*C which makes me feel weird about it.
Splash: 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 (always as a teacher, didn't know about it in time to be a student)
GenCon: 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 which is surprising to me because I thought the last year was my fifth Ridiculympics and I think that means there just...wasn't a ridiculympics the first year and what a tragedy. Anyways, this is another con I've never paid to go to and boy howdy do I sing for my supper!
LARPs: Vortex 1 as "Game Baby" (presumably in the '89-'91 range); Arabian Nights as myself (ie, "my parents are running the thing, I'll try not to be too obnoxious")(~'95-'97? I don't remember exactly); Arabian Nights 1999 as myself (ditto, but I was actually old enough to sorta participate a little this time); Oscars 2000 as Mallory Tyrone; Bottlerocket, 2001 as Gina "Greasegun" Gamelli (my favourite character alltime); Anger of the Gods, 2002, as Discord; Once Upon a Frog, 2003, as Gretchen Hesse1. I also did Tales of Pendragon in 2004, but I don't seem to have a badge for it.
Origins: 2002, 2003, 2004, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011. This is not an error - 2005 and 2006 I was otherwise busy2 and did not get to go to Origins, and after 2011 Origins moved to be much earlier in the year which made it pretty impossible to get to. The last two years at least I "paid" for my badge by volunteering for Werewolf and Looney Labs.
Balticon: 40-50, which means 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016. Balticon was "my first con" which if you've looked at the other numbers in this post is blatantly untrue. But I attended Balticon 2006 by myself (read: under the eye of a tech who was a friend of my parents) which was my first time ever doing _that_ and I made a strong point of going up until it was finally...too much. 2017 and 2018 I did Pinewoods work weekends, 2019 I went to go hear MY MOTHER SING AT CARNAGIE HALL! I'd still like to go back, but it will probably be a long time and I feel very mixed about that. Anyways, I worked tech for each and every one of those.
NEFFA: 2008, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2013 as a volunteer (also definitely 2011, I don't know where my badge is for that beyond "they are really very flimsy paper badges), 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 as a performer.
Arisia: 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020. The only con badge I will have for 2020. By sheer dint of "been there the most" I think this is my current "hometown con", but I feel weird about that. I've worked for most of those badges, bought a few. It's...complicated.
So saying I've been to "around 100 conventions" is probably a reasonable estimation (it's 92, you don't have to count). There's a handful of things I've been to that didn't give me badges but would otherwise count --the two years of NYFaerieFestival, the year I went to the Flea-- and since I'm being smug about including my pre-2006 badges, there are a LOT more of those that I (and maybe not even mom) simply don't have the badges for anymore. The best of those, of course, is that I was present at Disclave '97, yes the wet one, and old enough to actually have memories from it.
And of course Scottish dance events are measured in buttons not badges, and so are kept in a completely different location. Sometimes I spread those out all over the bed and roll around on them.
I've still never been to a professional conference, which is...neat and weird. I mean, I went with Da when he had a conference in Germany the year I was 16, and I nanny'd for the RBeast when ElusiveAT took the train out to NY for a small work conference, and I've worked SO many cons, both by myself and for Asmadi (and occasionally Looney Labs). I have been a professional attendee of a con, but I have not yet attended a convention/conference dedicated to my profession. Maybe next time the NCTM gets close, I suppose.
Okay, now I should return to actually semi-useful cleaning the room tasks.
~Sor
MOOP!
1: Greasegun is by far my favourite, but Gretchen remains incredibly important to me and my history, because if you turn the card over, it says "Eric" on it, and that was the name that became Erik became several years in college and stuff where I was a girl except sometimes I was a boy named Erik.
I intermittently still sign my initials as KRED. What my "boy name" is these days is incredibly complicated and not to be discussed here. Kat and Sor are both fine.
2: 2005 - shitty enough grades that I lost the privilege to go to the fun convention with my parents yyyep. 2006 - was off to LONDON with my girl scout troop instead!