...we'll say "no man, but you can do the job when you're in town." Later on we'll conspire...

[hazelchaz]

Caught up to where I started this winter recap. Winter's almost over now, but I'm almost up to current events. ConDor 15. Or ConDor XV, if you prefer. (ConDor the Fifteenth.) ConDor 5 is where I started taking pictures with my first digital camera. Actually, I took a few during the week before, when I went to the enhanced Star Wars release, and snapped a few images of the screen to see if it would work. Well, those pictures were terrible even by my low, low standards, and I discarded them, which is why I count that following weekend as when the collection really started.

There's a slight trace of that, known only to me (but I'll share it with you now). When I got back from ConDor 5, I put all of the photos I had so far on my computer, numbered sequentially. Pictures 1-10 were from the movie, pictures 11 and up were from ConDor. I realized I needed to rename them uniquely, so the ConDor photos got the names dor5_11.jpg and up. I kept the original numbers and just put a prefix on the front. This photo here is named dor5_16. (At that, I think it was renamed somewhere over the last ten years -- it was probably just called dor16 at the beginning.) My first HTML page had a file name something like pix01-10.htm, then pix11-20.htm for the first of the ConDor photos. That was quickly truncated to pix01.htm, pix11.htm, pix21.htm.

When I started automating the process of gathering photos from my camera, I realized that numbering the web page filenames that way was pretty silly. I switched to a three-digit page number, then later a four-digit number, assigning them sequentially, and at some point I made an attempt to go back and fill in the unused page numbers, such as 12 through 20 in the above example.

So there's still a trace of that visible. Go to ConDor 5's photos and check out the links down the left-hand side. You'll see that parts 1, 2, 3, etc. are pages pix0011.htm, pix0021, 0031, 0041, etc.

Once I assign numbers, I really don't like to renumber them again! For a while, I would read in the camera-assigned filenames, and just rename the first portion. So if I had a photo with a filename of DSCF0032 I might rename it to figmo032 like this one here.

Eventually I dropped that, too, because it was too much trouble to rename every single file to reflect the subject. My automatic photo gathering tools (that is, programs) rename them to reference the event with a prefix I give it, and a sequence number starting with 001. One of the next photos I have of figmo is from Loscon 28 (four years later, we don't see her very often), so this filename is L28_089.

ConDor 15 is ten ConDors after ConDor 5, which was in 1997. ConDor skipped a year. For a while there was a running joke that the reason ConDor skipped 2001 is because most of ConDor fandom was at Anastasia Hunter's wedding (19-May-2001) but this became less funny when Anastasia and Charles split up.

So ConDor 5 is essentially the birthdate of Hazel's Picture Gallery. There are some photos older than 1997, because I've added some other photos taken with other cameras to the collection, but that's where the collection started.

Last year, as ConDor 14 approached, I realized that Hazel's Picture Gallery had been around for ten years old. We really ought to have a birthday party for it... but the logical place for that would have been at ConDor, and I didn't think about it early enough. So I decided that if ConDor was the site's birthdate, then ConDor 14 was only the 9th birthday although the tenth anniversary. This meant that this year, eleven years after the beginning of my digital photos, we could celebrate the tenth birthday in style. And as an added bonus, the convention was on Leap Weekend! It could only have been more perfect if the 29th of February had been on a Saturday instead of Friday. (People born on Leap Day get a year older every year, but their birthday only comes around every four years. In school I knew identical twins born on that date -- talk about winning the random event jackpot!)

Well, even with a year to think about it, the party was kind of slapped together at the last minute. But I've got a complete party kit, now, so I can throw a party on a moment's notice just by one or two food shopping trips. As long as you don't care about the decorations.

I had thought about decorating the party room with highlights from ten years of photos from the website. But how do you pick from that range? The idea just was overwhelming, and because it seemed unfinishable it remained unstarted.

As the deadline rolled up, the week before the convention, and other tasks needed to be done, I decided to just make a bunch of room party signs using photos taken from that first batch from ConDor 5. I picked photos that I hadn't lost in the great crash, and that were of people that I thought long-time ConDor attendees would recognize, such as James Hay as "Dr. Kjon A. Boom" (shown above right). I ended up with ten posters. That's not too many.

The photo at left shows Ben Massoglia and Shannah Linker, with Dianna Hildreth in the background. Shannah's a full-sized teenager now, and she and her sister Rachael (shown at right) are still convention regulars. They're standing in front of another of the signs, which shows Rachael with a balloon hat. Dianna, chair of the 1998 Westercon, hasn't been around much lately, but she's still remembered, and Ben's grown up and moved away. His folks have had dealers' spaces before, so I put the sign with Ben and Shannah across from the entrance to the dealers room.

So we had those posters scattered around the convention, with two or three posted at the party room itself. The parties were all blocked on the hall where they opened out onto the pool deck. We were in room 123. The next two rooms, 121 and 119, were the Conjecture and Loscon parties. That's it... well, there was an unexpected Arizona party in Building 3. They didn't let the con know they'd be partying. Oh well.

For this party, I violated some of my usual party rules. Partly because I knew the other room parties would be there, and because I wanted to have food that more or less fit the theme of a birthday party. A tenth-birthday party would tend towards the junk food -- fill 'em up with sugar. Macaroni and cheese, a favorite with fans young and old. No vegetables, not because veg-loving kids are rare but mostly because I forgot to pick up the mini carrots. We would have had strawberries if library_lynn had been available, but since they don't do much for me I didn't seek them out. Loscon had the fruit (well, grapes, anyway) so you could get some there. Also they had the cheese and crackers and pita and hummus, so you wouldn't starve.

Loscon's theme this year is "A funny thing happened on the way to the Loscon..." which is a reference to a musical I've never seen. Oh well. But that's why you see nitroace and Joyce here, with "The Doctor" (Patrick Beckstead) on the patio. Joyce and Cathy are running their parties with a Roman theme, or at least a toga-party one, and they've divided their co-chair duties fairly well. One of them likes setting up the party room, the other likes to be the host, both share cleaning up... It seems to be a remarkably effective partnership. And Patrick is a costumer, but just hall costumes. Anything that can be built around a suit is fair game, such as "The Joker" from Batman.

Eleven years is about three generations in internet terms. In fact I can easily point to three strata on the website, in directory levels -- that first batch of pictures out started out in the Pix directory, then moved to Pix/1997, and the new picture I showed you of Shannah and Rachael lives in Pix/2008/d. I don't want to stretch the analogy too far, but there have been at least three completely different systems having to do with how the photo data are stored -- no database, dbm database, and now using MySQL. That is to say, I had an easy excuse for grown-up refreshments that wouldn't be at a typical child's birthday party.

So what did we serve? Mexican-bottled Coca-Cola in bottles with real sugar, the usual variety of soda flavors in cans (Dr Pepper, Pepsi, Mountain Dew, A&W Cream Soda, A&W Root Beer, Sunkist Orange, Welch's Grape, Cactus Cooler, Sprite, Vernors Ginger Ale, Hawaiian Punch, Diet Pepi, and Diet Coke, if I recall correctly. Also little bottles of water -- the half-pint fit the theme of a youngster's party -- and small bottles of Martinelli's sparkling cider, which also fit the theme of a celebration.

Newcastle Brown Ale, Guinness Stout, and a crockpot of hot Spicy Cider rounded out the beverages. The Newcastle was there specifically because I know glittercat13 likes a little Newkie, and in case jbriggs ended his ConDor boycott I'd have some Guinness for him. We ended the night with no beer, or hardly anything else in the cooler for that matter, so I was pleased with the selections I'd made.

Snacks included Candy-cane Jo-Jos (like peppermint Oreos), Pringles, sour Gummy Worms, Goldfish, Woodford Reserve Rum Balls, Circus Animal cookies, and some cashew treats; Mini Moon Pies, and Chocolate Overload (Overlord?) Cake.

I mentioned the minimalist decorations. (I'm not very good at decorations. Mind, if it's an anime-themed party that I can bring my wall scrolls to, I can cover all the walls...) I did set up my laptop with my ConDor XV photos-so-far, including ones taken earlier during the party. That got some people sitting and watching the slide show.

There's one tactical mistake I regret. selinawoman had come down to join me -- I had an extra bed, and neither library_lynn, missmea nor ala_mokita were at the convention. Oh, inviting her wasn't a mistake, I was glad for the company and she needed to get out of the house. Setting up the party was simple and not difficult at all, but I should have involved Selina and given her some of the tasks to do. Idle hands and all that. And, especially, I should have called her cell phone when the party started winding down and I was cleaning up by myself. The party ran past midnight, which is about the usual for ConDor.

Setting up the party was a snap -- I had everything ready to go in maybe fifteen minutes, with the crockpots going and everything ready to open the doors when I got back from the Masquerade -- but cleaning up and packing up is always slower. I had assumed she was off having fun somewhere and didn't want to interrupt, but it did take a long time. And eventually after I'd decided she'd come back to the room eventually, and turned out the lights, I got a call from the front desk: Selina had forgotten her key, and could we issue her one?

My own fault, not hers at all; if I'd had the thought to make one simple cell phone call, she wouldn't have been locked out (who expects to be locked out of a room that's having a party?) and I would have packed the car sooner and gotten to bed earlier.

What leftovers did I take home? About half of the Mini Moon pies, a lot of the Goldfish. I'd picked up Ferrara Pan-made Sour Gummi Worms, instead of the usual Trolli -- a larger bag (4.5 lbs vs. the 3 lb. box) for a lower price made sense to me. (The Smart and Final house brand sour gummy worms don't have the same quality.) So I expected to have plenty left over, and I gave most of them to justeps. Not much else was left!

When I had everything packed up, Cathy wandered over from next door. They were done for the night, although they don't pack up that night the way I do -- I try to get almost everything moved out to the car before I go to bed, while they do their packing in the morning. She stopped by and read the printouts from the Revell kerfluffle from the animecons mailing list, shaking her head from time to time.

Previously I've mentioned the thriving anime fandom community in San Diego/San Diego County. xkokuux is one such fan, who's in charge of the Photo Room at animelosangeles, and came over to help celebrate with us the party. She said she really enjoyed talking to the other fans at the party, so I'm glad she made it.

Lisa had been to Conjecture a few years before, and wore a costume for their little Masquerade (see right). She hasn't added ConDor and Conjecture to her regular cycle of cons, though -- I think her list is full right now, actually. But it was nice to see her that night.

So. Where am I going with all this? I had a nice time at ConDor. Lynn didn't make it because she was teaching a class, Christian was taking a class, and missmea was home doing her homework, but Selina brightened up the weekend, and both my parents were able to attend (having missed last year due to mom's heart surgery).

But I didn't go flat out taking "everyone's picture." I shot about 300 photos -- so my "hundred a day" average is up, because that was Saturday and just a few hours Sunday -- and ran out of steam. I was late getting to San Diego Friday night (after midnight). toddashi (left) was wrapping up the anime room when I got there, about half a dozen fans were still up in the Con Suite, but I'd basically missed all of Friday. And after the party Saturday night, I stayed up late talking to Selina and didn't get to sleep until far too late. Not nearly enough sleep for a full Sunday. She headed home right away -- I guess she really did only need a Saturday membership -- while I lazed around. I talked to Arabella and Thomas Benson (right) on the pool deck, along with a few other costumers such as Kate Morgenstern (not shown), and desultorily took some more photos. Nineteen on Sunday, all told, plus one at my "halfway stop" in Murrieta.

Summary? I could have had more fun if I'd had more sleep. But we knew that already. And even for San Diego conventions, I should probably take Friday as a vacation day instead of "driving down Friday after work," so I can start the con better rested.

Oh, and why was I so late getting on the road Friday night? Ah, that's another story...

Comments

[summoner-lenne9.livejournal.com]

Hey Chaz! Completly off topic with your winter recap, but this is Sarah The Minion, saying well.. hi! This is my lj! I'm going to add you now!

I'm wearing my pretty red and white bow btw :). My mom informed me it looked hideous with pink. I stuck out my tongue :).

Made it home

[hazelchaz]

I understand you got home before I did... I was so tired I pulled off the road shortly after I left you two and took a nap.

But I got home safely.

I understand red/white isn't really a good match for pink, but I don't have any largely-pink headbands or bows to share.

Re: Made it home

[summoner-lenne9.livejournal.com]

o_0. Bad Chaz! BAD! If you're that tired, take another night at the hotel! I suppose sleeping in your car is better than getting into an accident, but- sheesh! Well, at least you got home.

Oh, no, no don't worry. I love my mis patching pink/red and white. It's wonderful. I don't need anymore headbands, this one is amazing and makes up for EVERYTHING. (Maybe I shouldn't have asked you for it, I feel bad now...)

Re: Made it home

[hazelchaz]

Actually, I was considering what to do with the matching shirt. One of the buttons has come off. (It's sitting in the pocket, it's not lost, but it would need to be re-sewn.)

As I mentioned, it's not that great a fabric for a shirt, plus it makes me look like Minnie Mouse. (Or Mickey Mouse on a night when Minnie was out and he raided her closet..) It bothers me enough when people confuse my bear ears with mouse ears (admittedly, they could be more ursinoid), and wearing the shirt with the ears just throws the whole thing out the window.

So the question arises, what to do with the shirt. And for that matter, there's a bit of remnant from the same fabric.

Any ideas?

Re: Made it home

[summoner-lenne9.livejournal.com]

A bag? It could be the official minion bag with minion business inside it? If that makes sense?

Re: Made it home

[hazelchaz]

Want it? Do you guys ever pick up your mail at the box?

Re: Made it home

[summoner-lenne9.livejournal.com]

No, no, we do. That was a joke, mostly because my mom didn't pick up packages once for about a month. But she picks up mail almost daily. She says she's never gotten an ALA postcard, though she has some vague memory of throwing some anime-con stuff into my room (aka: it's lost). She says this may be fake. I hope it is, because ESPECIALLY if it was AX registration stuff I'm screwed.

So *sigh* I don't know what's going to happen with that registration postcard. Ahhhh! But yes, we do check our mail, heh.

And yes, please? *FEELS TERRIBLE*

Re: Made it home

[hazelchaz]

You're on the list. You'll get another postcard, and another, and all will have your membership number (193) on it. You can prove you're in the database, if you like.

Don't feel terrible about the postcards. They are entirely optional and expendable -- it's okay if you never get them at all.

Re: Made it home

[summoner-lenne9.livejournal.com]

Oh, ok, thanks. *Relieved, heh* Well, in that case, will I get another postcard? :).

Postcard policies

[hazelchaz]

If I do nothing special, you'll get at least two more -- one in the summer, and one in the fall.

If you'd like an extra, I can push a button and spit out a mailing label to get you a duplicate of the current one.

Re: Postcard policies

[summoner-lenne9.livejournal.com]

Oh no, no, it's fine. Especially if I'm going to get them, anyway. It's probably better anyway if I get them closer to the con- less chance of loosing them and all.

Keeping postcards

[hazelchaz]

Magnet. Fridge. When a new one comes, take the old one off and file it away or toss it or something.

Re: Keeping postcards

[summoner-lenne9.livejournal.com]

That is INGENIOUS o_0.

[xkokuux.livejournal.com]

I had a lot of fun at the ConDor party! And I do need to start getting my butt to local conventions regularly, because I've had a lot of fun. Thankfully graduating college and getting a "real job" (maybe) = more $$ for cons!

Cons, school, jobs, etc.

[hazelchaz]

Well, getting a job often means it's harder to take the Friday off... or the entire weekend of the con, depending on the job you have.

Whereas it's feasible to find ways to cut costs at conventions. For example, at San Diego cons, you could drive home and sleep in your own bed -- so you only have to find money for registration and parking.

And, I've been known to let friends crash in my room at cons. I habitually book a double, even when traveling alone, just in case someone turns up who needs the other bed... There are other people like me out there. Some might even already be your friends.