#bronycon14

[darkflame7]

Here's a recording of the panel I was on at Bronycon!

I'll probably post the official panel recording from Bronycon themselves later too, but there's this for now.

[exotahu]

Bronycon

I went to Bronycon last weekend and it was pretty much the nuts. Prepare for much words. (Also if shit seems wonky I wrote this over the course of three days at varying degrees of tired)

Thursday:

Me and my friend left out early in the morning, Got on the road about 8:30ish probably. Encountered a couple thunderstorms but nothing too terrible. The Pennsylvania road-buttfuck wasn't even that bad this year.  We stopped at the usual exits (Duchnik's right off the East Benton exit, it's really something) and the Hess right off the Fishing Creek exit. (And you bet you're ass I made the same wrong turn I do every year and had to turn around at the middle school.) This one has good hotdogs. Also I got a couple donuts. Got back on the road and headed directly into Baltimore, Got there about 230-3. Got into the hotel parking garage pretty easily and found a good spot. It was connected right to the hotel and not two blocks away underground. When we checked in the hotel gave us special keys (reference my instagram post a couple days ago) and a pony-themed note that explained stuff like how to get into the Internet and that they were playing the show all weekend on their TV. We met up with the other two guys that were staying with us and all dropped our things in the room. They stayed back to meet up with some others, as me and Andrew went to the other hotel to meet with Jade and Rachel to all go get out badges. We got there and there was NO LINE for registration. None. Whatsoever. I have never been to a major convention without a line lasting at least a half hour to forty minutes. This took less than 30 seconds. Way to step up the registration game Bronycon Staff. Went back to the hotel and chilled with everyone, then we went to Jimmy Johns forever. Ate there pretty much exclusively. Ham and cheese slim with just ham and cheese but extra ham and cheese. Then we hung out at the inner harbor pavilion until we went back to the hotel. Jumped over to Jade's hotel to play some Pony TCG which was pretty cool. Then I went back to the hotel to turn in early, or so I thought. Decide to hit the hotel bar for some screwdrivers. Meet up with Billy and his friends near the end of the first screw driver. Acquire second. Billy then has to go watch his friends car for an hour so I pound the second screwdriver. So now I (Feeling significantly more drunk)  go find Billy sitting in his friends car, we hang out and just shoot the shit until they all have to go do whatever parking shenanigans they had to. I went back up to the room and find everyone asleep except for Ben, who texted me that he met up with these people and somehow got in on their podcast. Shortly after a hotel guy knocks on the door saying that he had sheets and blankets written down for our room. In my very confused state I just kind of accepted them and stood there awkwardly until Ben showed up. Then we decided to go look for people. So we walked to the Hilton and the Badge registration (which was closed as it was early Friday morning now). We didn't really but when going back to the hotel we found this one room with a huge projection of Applejack. We found this guy in there that we hung out with for a little while. Turns out he was a cab driver here for the convention. He was pretty cool. Then we went back to the hotel for sleeping.

Friday:

Woke up relatively early. Decided to wear my Fluttershy cosplay on this day. We got there early to just kind of hang about. Decided to go to the dealer's room. Found the aurora Luna plushie right off the bat. Purchased. Wandered for a bit, until I got to the Cutie Corral booth. They still had Flufflepuff plushies. Bought one. Was walking away and realized a Flufflepuff without a Chrysalis was a sad Flufflepuff so I walked right back and bought a Chrysalis from them too. After realizing I had just spent an astronomical amount of money we went back to the hotel to drop off the stuff we bought. On the way back to the con we saw Andrea Libman on the skybridge. Didn't say anything cause she looked like she was on the way to something, but it was still pretty cool. We tried to get into the sew a parasprite thing but that capped out pretty quick unfortunately. However because of that we were able to get in line super early for the Apples to Apples thing. That was friggin' hilarious. Like, Shining Armor's Crystal Balls and Alicorn Princess Mike Tyson level hilarious. (Also someone has the best apples to apples set now as modifying cards with sharpie was allowed. And boy did they). Then leaving that we saw Peter New and exchanged a quick hello. Also cool. Watched some folks play the card game for a bit then we went back to the dealer's room where I got a Sonic Screwdriver,  a neat perler necklace and some car stickers. Also a print. Saw Claire Corlette wandering around the vendor hall as well. This is about the time I switched lenses on my camera. I had been using my 50mm but that was super difficult as I didn't seem to ever have enough space to frame the shot correctly. Also my flash didn't cycle correctly but I think that was the batteries, as it worked fine when I changed them. The vendor I got the perler necklace from also had pachinko machines which were pretty cool (also addicting) to play. Now came the bees. There was a photography panel at the same time as the Flufflepuff panel and I really wanted to go to both. I decided on Flufflepuff, and we got in on the last panel to claim seats. But then they cleared the room so we got kind boned and thrown back into a huge huge line. So not only did this cause our seats to suck, they had all sorts of technical problems. We couldn't hear or see anything. I really wish I had gone to the Photography panel. Oh well. Then we dropped our stuff off at the hotel and went to Bronypalooza. It was really good. Pretty much just stood and watched, saving my energy for until the electronic ("The Wubs") started. I think djtetsuo's set was my favorite of the night. We were able to jump this time as it was held in the basement. We stayed for the entire thing.  I jumped so much my legs were dead. I don't really get to be part of this sort of thing usually so being able to was awesome. Definitely one of my favorite things about the convention. Went back to the hotel and crashed.

Saturday:

Woke up a bit slow due to the night's activity but we did it in time to get decent seats at the Voice Actor Q&A panel. I actually got in line to ask a question rather than just sitting and watching like I usually did. They had anyone asking questions on the huge monitors. Since I am pretty much incredibly shy when it became my turn I couldn't even look at the monitors. I managed to ask my question without exploding, which was neat. Plus I got a pretty solid answer. Was very nice. Then I immediately got in line for the autograph signing. My idea was to get my Rarity and Fluttershy cards signed. Plus I really wanted to meet Tabitha St. Germain. Unfortunately she had to leave, and Andrea sold out of vouchers so I couldn't, but figured I'd try another session. I went back to the dealer's room. Wandered around for a while, Purchased a kindness harmony key, some prints, and a large Derpy backpack from WLF because usually it's 50 but I got it for 35. I also got it because it seems like a majority of the shirts in my size were picked through. Then I met up with Jade and went to the Cardapalooza panel. Pulled my first ultra out of my free pack. Would have been cool to have that be part of the games they were running, but alas it wasn't. Still cool for a UR though. Then they did this thing where they shot foam balls everywhere and depending on what they got you could redeem them for stuff at the booth(How this didn't end in disaster, I don't know). I got a ball for a free pack. It was kind of hard to tell what was going on though as the room was pretty full and I was in the back for most of it. Also, I was able to snag an extra promo card for Jade who had to leave early, that was neat. Decided to go to the vendor hall to redeem my chaos ball for my pack in which I pulled a neato foil Fluttershy. Then I went to the booth selling masks and swords and stuff. I contemplated buying a mask cause they're cool but my glasses don't work well with masks at all, so I decided against it. They did have a small Fluttershy plushie for 8$. I go to buy one but the store's change exploded. So I had to wait a few minutes. That's when the coolest possible thing happened. Tabitha St. Germain showed up to the vendor hall, and I was able to get a picture with her. She is super nice and it totally made up for not being able to get an autograph. I couldn't stop smiling for hours, probably my favorite moment of the con. Went back to the hotel to once again deposit my things and eat some food. Then I went and caught the tail end of the photoshoot. So glad my camera has a vari-angle screen. I held it up over the crowd, and could still see what I was doing. After helping Jade with an errand she had to run, I went back and hung out in the game room with some other friends of mine and played the CCG for a little while. Got absolutely destroyed, but it was cool to see how a Fluttershy deck is supposed to work. Then someone noticed my pony mat was built for Vanguard, so I played a game of that using my Amon R deck. (I was carrying it around because my Fluttershy cosplay the day before.) It was actually a pretty close game, I just guarded wrong at the end when he became able to Raging Form me. Also, bought some poker chips from a guy who was selling them. Got Fluttershy and Luna, 10 of each. Then I decided to drop my stuff at the hotel and head to Bronypalooza. This is when I realized one of the rings on my perler necklace had broken. When I got to Bronypalooza I was pretty much just sitting on the side listening to music. Then I hung out with Jade in the lit area for a little while when Eurobeat went on. Originally I had just intended to listen and then go back so I could sleep before driving home the next night, but after hearing Eurobeat and the bass drops and the crowd I knew I wanted to stay there and go nuts again. So I figured I would for a set and then leave but I knew I'd be mad if I left so I didn't. Then they announced a mind-blowing secret show for the last act so I had to stay for the whole thing. Garnika was really good, As were F3nning, djtetsuo and Garnika when they were all going at the same time. That's when the secret final act came on and it was ALEX S. Everybody went nuts. It was really cool. My legs were absolutely destroyed again though, also I got a massive bruise from the deckbox I keep in one of my pockets repeatedly slamming into my leg from all the jumping. Didn't care though, still awesome. Got back to the hotel to find Ben who had a hilarious story about him trying to order food but I couldn't tell it the same way he could. Ate the cookie I had been saving and went to sleep shortly after that.

Sunday

Woke up and started to get the things packed to check out of the hotel. Checking out went pretty smoothly and we loaded the car pretty fast before getting some food. I had checked what time the autograph sessions were, but one had been at 11 am while we were still doing hotel shenanigans and by the time we had gotten to the con itself the line for the second one stretched into "this-isn't-going-to-happen" territory, which kinda sucked, but at the same time I still got to meet Tabitha St Germain anyway so I was considerably less mad. That's when we headed into the vendor hall, generally knowing what stuff was left that I wanted to acquire. I wanted to get an official Bronycon shirt, but the only size they had was 2XL, which is a bit too large for me. I got the set of official plushies, the posters and a pin though. I went to the booth with the perler necklaces and they fixed it for me. Played some more pachinko and won a pin. Pachinko is a pretty fun game even if it really is just fancy pinball slot machines. Despite not having much space on my walls I still bought a shitload of prints, as well as some other small stuff like pins and necklaces and such. I also picked up a scout regiment cloak because it was surprisingly cheap and really cool looking. After that we pretty much wandered around the convention center not really doing anything specific, just enjoying the atmosphere, watching people play the CCG and some game they were selling in the vendor hall. It had been my intention to buy as many of the cinnamon glazed almonds I eat a shitload of down there but the stands all closed super early for some reason. Visited the Traveling Pony Museum which was cool. Lots of very pretty art. We watched a balloon get stuck on an up escalator and a crowd happened watching it. Silly. Decided to watch the closing ceremonies which was cool. I don't think I've ever done that at a con before. I think I'll try to make an effort to do that from now on, as it was pretty cool. They also announced the official people count which I believe was 9607. Not a huge jump from last year but still a pretty impressive number. After we wandered around a little bit more we went reluctantly left the convention and headed to Jimmy John's for some food before we headed out. I think this is the latest I've ever left on a Sunday. It was around 6:30 or so. Tried to use all the pay station in the garage but none of them would take the parking ticket. So I went to the hotel desk to see if they could help, but they told me just to do it as I was driving out. Which once again, machine wouldn't take my ticket. The attendant that showed up was cool though. I explained that the ticket wasn't working and that I needed to pay four days worth of parking (Which came to 104 dollars but with how easy this garage was compared to last year I don't even care.) Missed an exit on the highway home which sent on on a really weird detour. We also hit a few thunderstorms which made the sky look super neat. Unlike going down to Baltimore where I have specific stops I make, It's a little more fuzzy on the way back . Since it was late, now 9:30 or so. The stop I think I usually make seemed way too dark. I know it's a relatively middle of nowhere gas station, which if it was closed and that late might have been really kinda creepy(but also really cool). But I actually wanted to get gas and snacks plus that invites a whole different set of bees I didn't really want to deal with. The first exit we ended up ended up taking turn out to just take us to another highway or at least didn't have any obvious gas visible gas stations. We ended up driving through Hazleton (I think that's where we were anyway) until we found a gas station which was actually really close to the 81N on-ramp. Probably confused the piss out of the folks in the gas station as neither of us un-equiped our pony hats. We actually drove a while before stopping there. It's pretty much halfway. And then we continued on, and didn't stop again until somewhere around Cortland NY. After that we finally made it home at about 2:30 AM. Which is where I spewed down the notes for this post and then crashed.

Afterthoughts:

My new car passed it's first major road trip without exploding or losing pieces, that was neat. I don't know what was going on with the whole #Postitpony thing, but I found it hilarious. This was also the first convention that I didn't buy any shirts. The Hotel we stayed at (The Baltimore Mariott at Camden Yards) was also really cool, it was super close and the parking made sense. I believe I will do my best to stay with them every time I go down from this point forward. The guy that drove down with me had never been to this sort of convention before, he was absolutely beaming and that was cool. I had an outstanding time, this was definitely one of the better cons I've been to. I was planning to try to get to Otakon one more time before they move it to DC, but goddamn I don't know now, Bronycon too strong. I don't think I'd ever pull enough money out of my ass to do both. I'm definitely going to aim to get to one of them though, as I love the atmosphere, and I enjoy the inner harbor (This was the 8th time I've been down there.)

[jakewhyman]

My BarneyCon shenanigans!

[thefluffyreindeer-reblogs]

More pics from the Thursday night baseball game. From left to right in the group pic is Me, paradigmpizza, piratedashmod, darnelg & Carrot Top.

Also a panorama pic from our seats from when the game started as well as one from when it was closer to the end.

Then there are selfies! One with the Geico Gecko outside the stadium and then in front of the field and big screen.

These games are always fun and it's a pleasure to hang with peps both new & old. the game was something like 13 innnings and 4 hours long. probably the longest sporting even ive seen in person.

[darkflame7]

Finally home

[darkflame7]

Well I wrote a Bronycon summary

But it got eaten... I'll probably write another one again but I'm not gonna be bothered to rewrite all that.