Anthrocon

I'm back home. Anthrocon 2006 is a happy memory. From the outside, things look good for continued success in its latest location. Though I don't know the financial figures, I do know there were over 1,500 pre-registered guests and nearly 2,500 total. The con itself was split between a convention center and an adjoining hotel. I'm not sure why, for the center was easily large enough to hold everything, but walking between the two wasn't hard.

It's been a while since I've been to any conventions, so I had a good time despite engaging myself in fewer activities than I usually do. No room parties since shaterri and I stayed off-site and had to drive out every night. No gaming since the consoles were always occupied and the RPG & board game room was dead.

High points:

• The venue. The David Lawrence Convention Center is a spacious, artistic, and technologically nifty building located right on the riverside. (Actually, make that right on a riverside. It is Pittsburgh, after all.)

• The food. With one exception, every place I ate downtown was at least as good as I expected and often better, including the corner hot dog vendor and the place we ended up by default on Thursday night because everything else we tried had closed by 9:00.

• The dealer room. Lots and lots of talent there, including Stan Sakai.

• Running into pathia and stormydragon and chipotle and hbruton and terrycloth terrymouse and lots of other folks.

• Staying with old friends in the area, which included being a special guest at a completely non-con-related birthday party on Friday night.

• The weather. It didn't rain at all, and didn't verge on “too warm” until the last day.

Low points:

• Being able to buy practically nothing, and even then only with the help of borrowing, due entirely to mismanaging my personal financial situation.

• Accidentally letting my hostess's cat out of the house. She was eventually re-secured about a day later, though not before she had snuck in and out just to puke up a bird in the upstairs hall. She wasn't in any great danger, as she'd been a neighborhood stray for years and knew the area, but there's always the chance something could happen, plus I felt terrible about it.

• The Second Life panel. The few actual newbie questions that were asked often got misleading answers. (The presentation itself could have been a bit more polished and focused, but that's normal for volunteer panels.)

• The non-electronic gaming room was scarcely attended.

Fear the bunny.

http://media.kadath.org/images/BUNNY.jpg