The BotCon 2012 Update Part 3

Current song stuck in my head: The Humbling River by Puscifer.

So today is Sunday, which means the 'Con is over. Am I sad? Yes. But it isn't as bad as it has been in previous years. I'll get to that later. Right now, it's time to sum things up.

April 28, 2012 Saturday

We got up and headed out at a time that we thought was early enough to beat some of the 'Con traffic, but it appears we were wrong. When we got to the parking lot at the Hyatt, the attendants were placing a large 'Lot Full' sign at the entrance. Thankfully, we were able to scoot in and park.

Prime, DA and I headed to the panel room to take in the first panel of the day: Dan Gilvezan and Buster Jones. You know damn well there was no way I was missing a panel with Dan. He’s just too awesome to miss.

It was a great panel and a lot of fun. Dan was hilarious as always and Buster was a good sport about everything. I think Buster was a little surprised at how much we as fans love him and his work. So if you missed the panel, you really missed out.

After that, I hit the club store to buy another BotCon convention comic and hit the line for the noon autographs. That session was for Dan, Buster and Simon Furman. Now, I’d already gotten Mr. Furman’s signature on a pair of comic books but I had a third that needed to be signed and I also wanted a sig from him along with Buster and Dan on my extra Con program. I think that may be a bit of a tradition now: grab an extra program, get a whole slagload of sigs on the cover. Hey, it’s easy to carry and isn’t expensive so why not? (^.^)

I got autographs from all three: Simon was gracious as always and Dan was just a huge sweetheart. I mean that. He is perhaps the sweetest, most charming and funniest guy you will ever meet. A true class act. As to how he puts up with crazy fangirls like me, I can’t even begin to fathom, but he does and I appreciate that. Buster was also wonderful: I thanked him for his work on Transformers as well as that on The Real Ghostbusters. He said he remembered his work on Ghostbusters and thanked me for my kindness. He was truly sweet.

After the autographs, I went back to the panel room and sat in for the Transformers Club roundtable and the Hasbro panel. Epic reveals in each, but they’re all over the net by now so there’s no point in mentioning them. Once those two panels were finished, Prime, DA and I stuck around for one of the most popular guest panels at BotCon:

Peter Cullen.

Before you ask, yes, I have met him and he is amazing. When he greeted us in the panel room, the man nearly brought me to tears: as he looked at the crowd, he said he saw so many familiar faces and we were one. We were family.

I admit it, my eyes were misting over at that point. To hear him, the voice of Optimus Prime, proclaim us as family…all I can say about it is ‘wow’. It’s truly overwhelming.

Once Mr. Cullen’s panel drew to a close, the three of us got ready for the Cocktail Reception, Dinner, Hall of Fame Ceremony and Casino night. Prime and I didn’t hit the alcohol all that much and neither one of us did so well at gambling (well, I stuck to bingo) but that wasn’t the biggest surprise of the night. No, the big surprise of the night was the fan’s choice Hall of Fame inductee. The choices were Arcee, Sky-Byte, Beast Wars Megatron, Rodimus and Wheeljack. The winner?

Wheeljack. I was more than a little surprised.

After the festivities were over (and DA, Prime and myself got tired of looking at scantily dressed girls attending a dance), we headed back to the hotel and crashed.

April 30, 2012 Sunday

The crowds weren’t as thick today; it was as if the Con’s ending was hovering like some vast, predatory bird on the fringes of the day. The three of us didn’t have to deal with the parking issue today and the lot didn’t seem quite as full. After parking, we headed to the panel rooms for the live script reading of Bee in the City 2.

If you missed it, you may be in luck—Pete Sinclair has said that it will be posted to YouTube. When it is, I will link it as you have to watch it to enjoy it. But it was a hoot!

Once that was done, I dashed to the Dealer Room to get the autographs of David Kaye and Garry Chalk. But we also had Abby Collins there as well and I got her signature too.

When I got out of the line for that, I loitered around a bit and waited for the last autograph session, another one with Dan Gilvezan and Buster Jones. You know how you’re at a function and you see that one person at the head of the line and you kinda hate them a little? Yeah, I was that person! I was first in line for that autograph session! I got Dan to sign my name badge and had him sign an ornament for a friend of mine who was volunteering at the show. (Hey, I owed her big time!) I also got Buster to sign it too. Happy? Oh yeah, I was.

I caught up with DA afterward and we talked; eventually we ran into Prime and we made our way to the Activision booth to see a demo of Transformers: Fall of Cybertron. The game looks amazing, but pardon me a moment, for I must rant.

mini rant
Alright people, signs are posted for a damn good reason. I don’t care if you think your kid hanging off a statue isn’t going to hurt the statue--if it says don’t touch, then your kid shouldn’t be climbing on it. Seriously, do you let your kid play in the middle of the damned street thinking, "Hey, little junior dumbass is smart enough to get outta all them there cars’s way. Kid’ll be fine."? Sure he will…then the little dipshit gets hurt and YOU feel the need to sue someone because YOU are a fucking moron. If you are that damned stupid, do us all a favor and adopt a damn goldfish. Or better yet, raise a Chia plant. If either one of those get hurt or die because of your own idiocy, you’ve got no one to blame but yourself. And for the love of Primus, remain a shut-in and stay out of the public eye. We’re tired of dealing with you.
/end mini rant

Aaaaaaaaaaaaah, better.

Anyway, after that, we all got posters. A raffle or two later and the Dealer Room was shutting down, as was the Con. Prime, DA and I wandered around, found Asuza-san’s table and took a look. Asuza let me have a Bumblebee toy for free and we bought a pair of Japanese Happy Meal toys from him. Awesome!

After chatting with some of our friends, the three of us headed outside and to my shock there’s Dan Gilvezan just outside the hotel. So I took the opportunity to hug both him and his wonderful wife and tell them goodbye. He said we’d see each other again, as I’m not getting rid of him that easily. Oh, yeah, huge grin on my face!

We got back to the hotel, chatted and around 7:15, took DA to the airport. We said our farewells, I hugged him good-bye and it looked as though some tears may fall. Well, until Prime yelled, "Stop crying!" We all had a good laugh at that one.

I’ve had dinner and now I’m going to bed. Yeah, I am sad that the Con is over, but not as badly as I have been in past years. As of right now, I’m wondering where our next reunion will be held. I can’t wait to see the rest of the family again.

--Weasel

...and I just died a little inside...

Current song stuck in my head: Key of the Twilight from .hack//Sign

Yes, you're reading that correctly, if you clicked the link in the title: Prince Fielder has signed with the Tigers.

I could cry. Seriously. Not even joking. I really wanted Prince to stay.

Ah well, those are the breaks. Good luck, Prince. It was fun seeing you hit for the Crew. Best of luck with your new team.

--Weasel, "Not going to cry, not going to cry, not going to... too late."

Two Words:

Go Rangers.

COMMUNICATIONS INTERRUPT: 'WE' ARE TOO BUSY

Hard to say if you heard of the ridiculous storm that crossed Wisconsin yesterday morning. If it was mentioned nationally, I sure didn't have a lot of opportunity to hear about it.

Damn system was on a tear at 75 MPH and was blowing winds at a fair clip higher than that. As you might imagine, some trees don't take to well to such windspeeds. Powerline poles...well, duh, same thing.

Wingthing and I have no power at our house, and it's been that way for over twenty-four hours, now. WE Energies, which serves a large portion of the Fox Cities (too large, if you ask me, and I don't care that you didn't), has, I suppose, their hands full trying to restore power to everyone that lost it. Doesn't make seeing houses on the other side of the street with power at night any less an irritation, unfortunately. Unfair, I know.

The humidity was already making staying in the house a fairly miserable experience by itself by the time I returned home from work yesterday. No light but candlelight in the waning hours of the day just added to it. We both finally uttered 'screw this' and went to a fine Fox Cities establishment...well, an Applebee's...to have a light dinner and watch the Brewers game (8-2 over the Astros, yay).

Back home...still no power. This morning...still no power. And all the fallen branches are still in the backyard and on the roof (though no, I wasn't expecting them to magically disappear. Didn't have that thought at all, but now that I have, BOY IT SURE WOULDA BEEN NICE DONTCHA THINK I SURE DO).

Local library internet access results in the finely crafted blogpost you see before you onscreen. Bask in its glory, 'cus WHO KNOWS WHEN IT'LL HAPPEN AGAIN.

+++PRIME OUT+++FINALLY REACHED MY TIPPING POINT, I HATE HEAT AND NOW *RAIN*+++WHERE IS THE DAMN SNOW+++

EDIT, 1223: IIIII HAVE THE POWWWWWERRRR (and, ostensibly, so do others up the street)

Back Home

So we're home, Prime and I. I'll make a nice juicy pair of posts later today; one is already written. Right now, sleep.

Update

Today is the travel day, so this is the only post you will see. Expect the final chapter posted either Tuesday or Wednesday. Prime and I are on a red-eye; we will be slagging exhausted.

--Weasel

(Insert Scream Here)

(Current earworm: Iridescent by Linkin Park. Love this song; it is going to be in Dark of the Moon, after all.)

The last few days have not been good, to say the very least.

Thursday, I came down with what I suspect was food poisoning: I was fine until I ate lunch but an hour or so later I began to feel like hammered slag.

Didn't work on Friday and it wasn't by choice. I had to call in. There was no way I could sit upright for more than a few seconds, so you could forget about me standing. It was a good thing I did. I spent most of the day sleeping and ridding my body of whatever toxin had invaded. It was painful as hell and I hope I never have to deal with that sort of bullshit ever again.

The only thing I could keep down was Jell-O (which I can't friggin' stand) and Poweraide. Solid food? The very thought of the stuff made me want to gag.

I am just now feeling really normal. For the last few days I've still felt a bit off, dealing with cramps and feeling like someone slammed me straight in the gut with Mjöllnir. Yeah, not pleasant don't even begin to cover this. I haven't even been doing my usual Golett rescues on GTS. Didn't EV train at all, either. I just felt too bad to even mess around with my DS.

But wait! It gets better!

Yesterday, I was doing a bit of editing, listen to some music, and perusing the web as always when Alexa-1, my darling laptop started to behave strangely. Everything seemed fine, then at around 4:50, she powered herself down. I thought at first I had inadvertently yanked a cord or something, but everything was still connected.

I shook my head, hit the power button and Alexa seemed to power up, then she shut down again. Now I was getting worried. So I tried switching her on again. She made it to the "Start Windows" screen and shut down again.

Now, I was completely panicked. Something was wrong and I had no clue as to what. I did the one thing I always do when shit happens and I'm clueless as to what may have occurred.

I called Prime.

I was all but screaming in hysteria when I told him what had happened, that something was wrong with Lexi and I couldn't get her to power back up. He told me he would be home soon and he'd take a look at her.

He fixed her. Seems she got a bit overheated, so she shut herself down. She's fine now, or else you wouldn't be reading this.

Yeah, it's been an interesting few days. I could use a few that are nothing like this, I tell you. If I go through this sort of crap again, I may end up bald before BotCon.

--Weasel, "And I thought my damn job was the biggest source of stupid on the planet. Silly me."

And Today in Utter Fail...

So Prime had taken the day off today and was hitting the net this morning when he found cheaper-than-standard tickets to the Brewers home opener on StubHub.com. (Cheaper than what a lot of the nutbars posting tickets to the site had been asking since they went on sale. $15 apiece for tickets that would have been $20, I think, directly from Brewers.com--whoa, yeah, jump on that!) So he nabbed a pair, got me out of bed and after a few errands (print 'em out, hit an ATM, get an oil change--all as quickly as possible), we were on our way.

Things don't always work out as you plan. Sometimes, human stupidity can really fuck you over.

Prime and I were driving through the Oshkosh area, which has some massive-ass road (de)construction in the area. This is an area of 41 that has been under reconstruction since the beginning of time. The sun will fucking implode and there will still be some dumb jackass out there filling in fucking scrapes because the state of frickin' Wisconsin can't be sussed to pay to get this shit done right the first goddamn time. As we were winding down the road, we hit a pothole. And I mean we HIT a fucking pothole.

I was hoping that all we got out of it was a jolt and nothing else. I was wrong. I was very wrong.

Hitting the pothole fucked up the rim to our front driver's side tire. We now had a flat with about an hour to the first pitch.

Prime got the spare on as quickly as he could and we restarted towards Fond du Lac, but there was no damned point, we realized as we hit North Fond du Lac. By the time we would get to Miller Park, it would easily be the middle of the sixth inning or the top of the seventh.

We had to turn around and go back home. Pissed does not even begin to describe how I felt. Prime and I were heading though Fond du Lac, me crying my eyes out, Prime trying his hardest to pretend not to be miffed at having to eat $40 for my sake. I wanted to be there, for my guys. And now I couldn't, all because the state of damned Wisconsin (or county of Winnebago, or whothefuckever it is that's responsible for the stretches of US 41 that are perpetually under construction) cannot get off its fucking ass and take care of the damned roads. Seriously, if you dumb shits actually paid to have the shit taken care of rather than half-assin' quarter-assin' this slag, we wouldn't have to deal with fucking reconstruction every goddamn year. You guys are quickly becoming a second Chicago; barrels of goddamn fun every fucking summer, year after year. Why the hell do I pay frickin' taxes if you can't be moved to actually use the money to take care of this bullshit. Honestly, stop picking your asses, stop raiding funds and take care of it, rather than pulling this dogshit. /rant

The day wasn't a total loss. Prime and I hit the Oshkosh Target and grabbed a box of Topps Opening Day cards, grabbed a late lunch at the local Sonic (mmmm...limeade) and we hit a nice little sport card shop called Big League Cards. Prime nabbed a few classic Brewers cards he didn't have and I grabbed myself a 5000-count storage box (which I desperately needed, trying to complete this set) and a card of a young(er) Prince Fielder. (Damn, he was a cutie back then. Not that he ain't bad lookin' now...rowr...)

EDIT (1601 CDT): And the Crew lost, 2-1 to Atlanta...SHIT!! :frustrated headdesk: Talk about insult to goddamn injury...but I guess I'd rather the Crew hit the speed bumps now rather than later. (Still hoping for the Series, it's early, don't let it get to you, blah frickin' blah...)

--Weasel, "Maybe we should send the bill to the fricking state of Wisconsin; it's a thought."

Dear Victoria Jackson,

Please, shut the fuck up.

I am serious, SHUT THE FUCK UP. You sicken me. Go drink from the fire hose or go look at Mr. Frying Pan.

Dammit, this casts a horrible pall on UHF, which is one of my favorite movies. Now whenever I see it, I'm going to start shouting at Weird Al, "You're better off without that stupid twit!"

And people wonder why I'm praying for the Robot Apocalypse.

--Weasel, "I don't think that the robots will be as fucked up in the head as humans are..."

Friday Photoblog: "DAAAAAMMMMMMMIIIITTTT!!" Edition

Inside Bumblebee's Hall of Fame display case at BotCon 2010. Very self-explanatory.

(I probably won't have to fight a LEGION if this ever shows up on eBay,

but there's aaaalllways someone with a bigger slagging pocketbook, you know...)

Friday Photoblog: "Denim Blues" Edition

Bumblebee sign in the Boy's Dept at my local Wal-Mart.
(Guess who wasn't allowed to keep the damn sign?!)

The C Word

Yesterday after I got off the clock, I wandered around my store a bit. Walked through the Lawn and Garden area and groaned. In the back left hand corner what did I see?

Christmas lights and wrapping paper. It begins again.

Yeah, really looking forward to all this crap. Can we just fast forward to next June so I'll be in Cali for BotCon? I'd much prefer that, thank you very much. (It is my "Christmas", after all.)

--Weasel, gritting her teeth and waiting for the clusterfrak that is the holiday shopping season.

SON OF A---!!

I'll bet that Barricade is laughing his skidplate off about this one.

Ouch. Seriously, OUCH!

Yeah, poor 'Bee looks like hell. But both drivers were okay. Something tells me my sweet little Autobot would actually be a bit proud of that.

You know, I've seen listings for wrecked cars in one of our local Auto Traders. Mr. Bay, if you don't want to repair that Camaro, I'll take him and nurse him back to health. (Hint, hint...)

--Weasel, "I'd give him a good home."

Friday Photoblog: "Peanuts and Cracker Jack" Edition

A shot of Prince Fielder on the Jumbotron at Miller Park. From 2008.
(The season's over and it's frakking killing me!)

Technical Fucking Difficulties

Well, this is fucking awesome. I have to reformat the hell outta my work.

Yeah, I'm frickin' pissed. But big whoop. I can deal with this, I guess.

--Weasel, "I hate Terran technology. It sucks."

...dammit...

So tonight was the Home Run Derby. Corey Hart had a helluva first round, but didn't do so great in the second.

I don't even remember who won. It wasn't Corey, so I couldn't care.

Yeah, I could cry.

--Weasel, was hoping the Brewers could have that trophy for a second year in a row... oh well.

Day Four

Right now, it's raining a little bit, which suits my mood perfectly. Don't expect an update tomorrow, as that's our travel day and Prime and I will probably collapse the moment we get home. I'm doing this because if I don't... well, let's not go there, okay? I really don't want to flood our hotel room.

Prime and I woke up pretty slagging early this morning; we didn't have to be down to the panel room until 11 but we got up at 7:25. I guess we trained ourselves to get up early. Prime thought it was around nine when he sat up. Boy, was he ever wrong! We got up, got dressed and I went and grabbed breakfast. We ate and DA and I lit out for the panel room while Prime hit the dealer room.

DA and I got there at around 10:10 or so. We listened to the Budiansky panel again, saved a seat for Prime and waited for the Hasbro Designers panel.

A lot of good shit was revealed. It's all over the usual websites, so I'm not going to post that info here. Very informative. Apparently, with TF: Prime, we're only dealing with the show. No toys just yet. But that could change...

After the Hasbro panel, the group and I headed to the dealer room. DA had to head up to our room and pack up, as he had to leave at a little after four. At a touch after 1, I got in the autograph line for Scott McNeil. Got his signature on my autograph litho and tried to get in the line for Paul Eiding (G1 Perceptor).

The line was capped. I really thought I was screwed, but fortune shined upon me. I will leave it at that. (And I owe a certain someone a lot for the help given.)

After getting the autographs taken care of, Prime and I wandered around the dealer room a bit. We ran into DA and the three of us hung out, waiting for the drawing for a chance to win a trip to next year's 'Con.

None of us won. Oh well.

We hung around for a bit, I got to hug Karl Hartman and told him I'd see him next year. The three of us eventually made our way to the front of the Dolphin and waited for the shuttle to come and pick up DA.

It came too blasted soon. DA was loading up his luggage and left much sooner than I had wanted. Prime and I stood and waved good-bye.

I was fine 'til I got back to the hotel. That's all you're gonna get outta me.

Not long after as I started to pack our bags, it started to rain. Seemed a bit fitting to me. I have a few shots of the skyline. Might post one some Friday.

DA called a bit ago and let us know that he was on time and on his flight. That was really good to hear, believe me. It cheered me up like you wouldn't believe.

Watching Transformers on TNT at this very moment. It's rather fitting. It helps ease the transition back to the real world and reminds me that I have next year to look forward to.

I can't wait for my early birthday present in June 2011. I'll see everyone then. Until then, I'll miss all of you. May Primus watch over you.

--Weasel, dreading the return to the "real world" already.

All Good Things...

I've got a Bumblebee temporary tattoo on my left hand. It's fading now as we speak. Somehow, that seems very appropriate.

It's over. It's really over.

Too tired to post much of anything today and don't know if I'll be able to post tomorrow, since it's the travel day. I'll try on Tuesday. I'm about to crash even as I'm typing.

Primus, I'm actually rather melancholy about all this. It's really over.

--Weasel, "I know all good things must come to an end, but why so soon?"

30

I am on day number two of an eight day stretch. I don't know how long I'll be able to hold onto my sanity. So much stupid, so many cranky-ass little old ladies, so much bullshit. I really don't know if I can hold on until my next day off, let alone BotCon. Add on this little bit of news and you could say that yeah, I'm about ready to scream.

To paraphrase Ultra Magnus: I can't deal with this now.

--Weasel "Yeah, life sucks. What else is new?"

An Update

Was feeling better, now feel like slag. And now Prime has it.
More details later; I'm going to crash out. Again.

--Weasel, "Maybe I'll be over this shit by May. I can only hope."