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DragonCon ’24

I think this is the end of DragonCon for us. This year was TERRIBLE.

We got Saturday passes only, since we just wanted to shop and get a couple of autographs.

WELP. That was a bust. The line to get into the Mart was 2+ hrs. It was doubled up on the sidewalks, wrapped around the building several times AND serpentined through the loading dock.

Needless to say, we did not get in.

We did not get to see our vendor friends that we only get to see at Con. We did not get to shop. We did not get to see our comics and author pals. Nothing.

DragonCon is notorious for overselling. The owner is a money grubbing asshole who does not give a single shit about the con, only the money he makes from it. He does not care about vendors, guests or attendees. If this convention cared, it would not be the dumpster fire that it is. As I’ve stated before, it must be nice to have a business that makes MILLIONS with no staff.

When people complain, the standard con response is “oh, well, we do the best we can!” Right.

Well, people are certainly complaining now. There are several forums/groups that are chock full of vendors, guests and attendees who are vociferously complaining about the shitshow that we witnessed this year. I hear it was the same last year – we skipped, so we were unprepared.

Not only is it unpleasant and unsafe for guests, the vendors that must load-in and -out of this con spend pretty much a whole day just waiting to get into the dock.

It is perfectly clear that putting comics, pop art, vendors and authors all in the same building is not working. This convention needs to spread out these tracks like it used to be, in order to have more access for the attendees. But even with that, this convention needs to have a cap that is not whatever it is now. I’ve heard 80k, and I think that’s about 20k too many people. Every single area was overcrowded.

When the bulk of the con is either walking, standing in 90 degree heat in a line or dodging projectiles thrown by drunk people, that is not much of a con. Panels were pretty much inaccessible as well, with lines wrapping around the hotels. On top of that, the Walk of Fame (that is now run by a third party) has become too pricey for most people. $60 for an autograph from a NOT FAMOUS person outside one show is pretty fucking ridiculous. It was $40 2 yrs ago.

In the Olden Days™ (pre 2010s), the con was bustling and there were crowds, sure, but not like this. Also, we RARELY had fighting, people throwing projectiles from hotel balconies and other such jackassery. In all our years of going, we only saw one blackout drunk guy throw a beer bottle from the second floor of the Hyatt. That’s IT.

This convention refuses to hire security or any other needed staff, which is the main issue. When you cram 80k people together, you fucking need REAL security, not some con slave with a radio. DUH. This seems pretty obvious to me. But staff is not hired because the owner is a money grubbing ASSHOLE (as previously mentioned). Hells bells, they won’t even fund a proper green room for celebrities! They feed them hotdogs and other junk because “there’s no money” for a properly catered room. BULLSHIT. I’d be ashamed to run a multimillion dollar convention and have such a shitty green room!

I am so disappointed in this convention. It used to be our big event of the year. People go now just to stay in their rooms and party. That is NOT why I go to cons! I want to see the panels! I want to shop! I want to be able to afford getting the whole SNW cast to sign our poster. But DragonCon is not interested in doing any of that. I can stay home and party with friends. I don’t need a $500/nt hotel room for that.

So, I guess we’re done. I am really sad about that. But so many of our friends have already stopped attending, it’s not like we see THEM there, anyway. Sigh. I tell you, if they limit ticket sales and fix the logistical issues, we might consider attending again, but I seriously doubt anything will change. What would help is that if you are a vendor/author/artist and are sick of this shit, PLEASE SAY SOMETHING. Go to the groups/forums and BITCH. It might encourage this convention to fix its shit. Other conventions can manage it, why not this one? (Answer: GREED)

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Writing this Summer

My blogging has been sparse this summer! Mainly because I’ve been busy with reading, keeping this place going and rebuilding our deck!

Pretty much every weekend has been dedicated to working on the deck for the last 3 months. We are not fast, but we are VERY meticulous! We are 95% done, only the stair rails remain as far as construction. We’ll have to put lattice on the base to completely finish, but we’re taking a break from the deck to pursue other things for at least a month. Probably two. Anyway, here is a shot of where we are – we are SO proud of our hard work!!



If you’d like to see ALL the refurb photos, please to be perusing the Google Drive.

In other news, I’m having a LOT of VSG troubles. I’ve begun throwing up in addition to getting the spits, which is a new development. It’s not often, but I’ve never had the spits for an hour and/or thrown up before. I looked up “throwing up years after VSG” and found that this could be gallbladder issues, which are fairly common. My nails changing into soft, peeling messes coincide with this new tummy issue, so I think I’m also having vitamin/mineral absorption issues as well. Which makes sense, I can only take my vitamins occasionally since they make me nauseous and/or make me throw up. Blood tests are called for. I’ll get them once we have taken care of the Ranger ($1000) and Shasti ($500 blood tests + checkup).

I’m not saying much about politics, other than to say I think the Democrats have lost their damn minds. OF COURSE I’ll vote for Harris, but I am very concerned that many ::cough white men cough:: will not be able to manage a vote for a black woman. OTOH, if we do manage to pull it off, seeing the Orange Shitgibbon lose to a black woman will be SAWEET. At least until the civil wars start. Sigh.

I’m reading the Scalzi Old Man’s War series and enjoying it a lot. Highly recommend!

Enjoy the rest of the summer, y’all. Stay hydrated!

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Spring and Other False Starts

As we enter late February, we here in the South are now getting our False Springs. For those unfamiliar, False Spring™ is when temps jump up into the 70s and the sun shines and it’s just LOVELY outside. The redbuds bloom, the daffodils and paperwhites pop up and your brain says “Yay! It’s SPRING!”

Only to get freezing cold a week later and perhaps snow. Welcome to the South!

I am enjoying our first False Spring™. It makes me want to actually go out of the house and do things!

It also makes me think of other false starts I’ve had. Sigh. MANY MANY false starts. The most recent being a kitchen career. I managed it for 8-9 months, and I’m proud of that, but it’s not something I’ll go back to. My hands simply cannot take cutting hundreds of pounds of produce every day. I liked the job, actually, but my old body did not. Prep is for the young! I’m not going to get into the other false starts, that will lead to a rabbit hole of melancholy and I do NOT need that.

I just took a tiny little food plating class on domestika.com. It was on sale for $7 and there’s a 25% off Rakuten, so I said WHY NOT? I was an OK class, perhaps better for complete newbs. The girl was ok but her speech pattern ended every sentence as a question? You know that kind of speech? It’s endemic in millennials in particular? Yeah. And her advice on how to edit food shots was to use a PHONE with various apps. LOL LOL LOL! I actually DID laugh at this. Yeah, sure, use your fucking PHONE for editing if you plan to use online only, which apparently is all she does. A true pro who works in REAL media would NEVER use a phone for editing. You can take pretty dang good pix with a phone, but you need PHOTOSHOP to edit. Period. She also talked too much about Pinterest. Clearly she is all about being an “influencer” which I think is idiotic. Anyway, aside from those annoyances, the class was ok. I might take another since they are, like, $5.

Got Romeo’s brakes done – to the tune of $600. My mechanic told me $300, but neglected to be clear that it’s $300 PER PAIR. Sigh. He also pulled nails out of my tires and put the worst of the lot on the back. He also diagnosed my pressure sensor issue to ONE dead sensor, which is great since they are fucking $170 ea. The tires are toast, that’s the next big expense. I don’t feel bad about this, since we’ve spent thousands on that damn Ranger. A couple of grand on Romeo for NECESSITIES is fine with me. I’m going to try to keep the tires to $500-600. I might get the Michelins I was eyeballing, if Tire Rack has them on sale or something, but I’ll probably have to go a step down from those. My main need is wet grip and a quieter ride. These crappy Tiger Paw ones are loud and have zero grip. We hates them!

I’m thinking of Dave today. No reason, really. I was thinking about automation of our house and how much that would’ve helped Dave. I really wish he’d lived to see the beauty of smart phones and how much can be done with them. I know another blind guy, and his iPhone enables him to message and use apps like everyone else. Dave has been gone over 17 years. Here is his memorial page, if you’re interested. Can’t believe it’s been that long.

Which brings me to this: APRIL 1ST, WE’LL HAVE OUR 20TH ANNIVERSARY! Can you believe that?? Celebrations will be had! We got married in 04, right after buying Maplehurst. Here are a few pix and here is the VERY amusing story.

Guess that’s it for the brain dump today. I hope you enjoy the Tale of the April Fool’s Wedding and the nice weather of False Spring™ #1. :) The image is all my wedding rings! Yep, ALL of those!

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Musings on Life and Everything

First off, this post is about NO ONE in particular. It is about me, and Nick as well, where indicated. But mostly me. The things I bring up are things that have been bumping around in my head for a day or maybe 10 years. SO, do not assume anything – OR if you must, then assume this is about the fucking socials – which are CHOCK FULL of Teh Stoopid™. I’m trying to get back into blogging with actual content – not only recipes or the book list. This is the first really personal thing I’ve written in a very long time. This is a muscle that will need to be stretched…

First up: I am tired.

I am mentally tired of many, many things – and physically tired, too. I’m old, I’ve been there and done that. My patience for DUMB is pretty much NIL. Let’s address the things I’m tired of first – in a nice list, in no particular order.

I am tired of:
– people who cannot or will not adult and then whine about it and/or expect everyone else to accommodate their bullshit
– people who make bad decisions but refuse to change the way they do things
– people who are fucking EVIL and think that no one knows. Uh, we KNOW, darlin’. WE KNOW.
– gender discussions (sorry, y’all, but I am)
– working for a pittance (this is mostly Nick, since I cannot do SHIT)
– having my hands be too weak to ever work in a pro kitchen again (pay sucked, but I liked it)
– not being able to get above breaking even
– pulling money from the goddam TINY investment account to keep us afloat (we’ll end up with NO investments, eventually)
– just the relentless GRIND with nothing to show for it

Money is, as always, the issue. I’m tired of this, too, but we have to live, so it’s always front and center. If we just had an infusion of, say, even $100k, that would significantly get us going. I wonder if my mother re-wrote the will to leave it all to my brother? I’m betting YES, since I am noncompliant and he is her servant. If she didn’t, it is to be split between us, which means that fucking place is getting SOLD. It’s about 10-12 acres of land in an area that’s growing like crazy. The house is a big ole ill-kept monstrosity and the out buildings (garage and barn) are shit, too. No one will want that crap, but the land is perfect for expanding the subdivision. Zillow says $570k, but the description is 100% wrong – wrong house, only 1 acre lot. I think it’ll be close to a million with all that land. It would be great if I could count on that, but chances are slim June would leave anything to me. Sigh. I’ll have to make do with the vintage vinyl records, some tchochkis and an Asian secretary (desk, not an actual Asian assistant) that I have always loved. I don’t look forward to having to deal with my brother in any case – but if it’s selling that fucking place, I’m betting lawyers will be necessary.

As for physical, aside from my hands that are toast, we’ve stopped drinking during the week and that seems to be helping with sleeping, a little. I bought some herbal tinctures from Apothekary which are supposed to help you not want a glass of wine. We’ll see. It’s pricey AF, so I doubt we’ll use these constantly, but I thought it was worth a shot to get us off the wine.

We have decided to try to make more connections this year. We are on the path of establishing some good connections with old and new friends and that has us excited. I am particularly excited to be able to GO to someone else’s house rather than be the constant host. Being the constant host is exhausting and kind of expensive, too.

I love my reading list and I’m happy to have kept it up for so long! Looks like 2017 is the first full fledged list, with a gap in there for 2019/2020. Lots of books read, with short reviews. Here is the category.

I’m poking around for a p/t WFH job. There are a million listings and most are CRAP. Sigh. We need more money and I need to find something to fucking DO. Fuck.

We’re not coming into this year with a lot of enthusiasm. With the election looming, it’s more trepidation and anxiety than anything else. That fucking orange shitgibbon will run. YOU WATCH. And if he wins, we are FUCKED – ALL OF US. Not the rich as much, but still.

If we could flee, we would, but we cannot. We have no fat stax in the bank and we’re too old. Many countries have age and income requirements and we don’t meet them. We could go illegally, but then what? We don’t have money to live on for several years while we get established in a foreign country. So we are trapped here, with Gilead coming in hot. Hey, at least I can be a Martha since I can cook.

So yeah. Not a chipper post, by any means, but I guess it could be worse. We are mostly healthy and the cars mostly run. I think that’s about as good as it’ll be for us for the foreseeable future. We’re trying to get our shit straight and be more present. And pray the cars don’t die. Happy fucking new year! LOL