Allrighty, I've had enough people irritate me into writing this up. Let's see if I can recall enough of this trip to be entertaining.
The Preceeding week saw hectic last-minute planning on my part. I should really become better organized. As I work a 10-hour graveyard shift, daytime is more a time to sleep, not do stuff. And with no AC, I often find if I don't get to sleep early on in the morning (when it's still cool) I don't get anywhere near enough sleep by the time midday temperatures awaken me. Never the less, Wensday found me preparing to prepare by clearing out my siut case from my last trip, sometime last December.
Thursday rolls around. Originally, I had to work Thursday night, so all my plans were scheduled around that, but a couple weeks before BotCon I was able to secure Thursday night off. I originally did this with the hopes I could sleep well Thursday night before the con. Instead, it saw me burning 100 CD's of assorted works of mine selected the night before, preparing my now ex-travel computer, Reflector, for the journey, and generally running around like a chicken with its head cut off. A last minute decision found me swapping one printout for the art show for another. The swapped out art will be displayed next year instead.
Friday: The Fun Begins
Early Friday morning (Pacific time) found me waiting outside for the taxi cab to come take me to the airport. In the past, the Taxi has been a good 15 to 30 minutes early, and calls up at the exact departure time to say they are there. This time, I find myself waiting 30 minutes, as I watch this taxicab drive up and down the street. I go back up to my apartment and call the taxicab company, who inform me their guy is on his way. They apologise for the delay. I hang up, and just as I'm heading out the door, my phone rings. I run back to my room, trying not to awaken my room mate or his sister (who is visiting for the weekend). It's the taxi, calling to let me know he's here. That's nice. I make for the door again with my luggage, when the phone rings again. It's the taxi company saying my cab should be out front. That's nice. Now go away. I head out the door once more. The phone rings.
I let it ring.
Out front, I meet the taxi cab driver. He pulls around the apartment building as I suggest, but parks in such a manner that I have to lift my luggage over my head to put it in the trunk (driveway has a steep incline, with a level bit at the top. Taxi driver parked in such a manner the trunk was hanging over the incline, but the taxi itself was level). Nice. I mention as I climb into the cab that I would like to make a stop by my bank before the airport. I am ignored, and he asks which airline. I tell him, and we're off. I continually ask if we might make a quick stop by the bank first, and am continually ignored.
Finally arriving at the airport, he suggests I leave my visa with him, and go get money from the ATM in case it doesn't go through. No, that's not going to happen. So, I have him give me my receipt, and go get cash from the ATM with which to pay him. Virtually no tip. In retrospect, I shouldn't have tipped at all.
Now in the terminal, I start off on a most unexpected adventure. My luggage checked, and boarding pass in hand, I make my way to the gate... which appears to be constructed of plywood and cellophane sheets. Hmm, must be remodelling.
At this point, I should mention I have flown Northwest Airlines once before, for last years BotCon. They are a less than stellar airline, and I will never again fly with them. Their fleet appears to be in poor condition, with flights always being overly noisy, and odd sounds I don't here on flights with other, more reputable airlines.
I decided during the 3 hour overlay I had in St. Paul that the city just hadn't seen enough of me at BC'99
I decided in Detroit the Universe was mocking me.
After standing in a line for a little over an hour to discover that indeed all flights had been cancelled untill the following day, and that it would take an additional 5 hours to pull my bags if I did not want to wait and instead have them with me tonight, I decided I would just continu on without them. Looking at my itinerary, I see that there is a difference of 5 minutes between the departure time in Detroit and the arrival time in Ft. Wayne, so it can't be too far. I'll just take a Taxi.
First taxi has no idea where Ft. Wayne is.
Neither does the second.
The third points me back to the first, who goes to talk to his teamster. The teamster knows where Ft. Wayne is, but syas it's a $300 ride. I start to get out of the cab. They take it down to $250. I reluctantly agree, at this point just wanting to get to the convention before the dinner ends. Getting a rental never even crosses my sleep deprived and now stressing mind.
To his credit, the driver was a very agreeable man. An immigrant from Kenya, he was working on getting his bacheloreates and becoming a gourmet chef.
Reports are going around this was a $300 taxi ride. This is absolutely true. The base price for the cab was $250, however the driver was so nice and helpful at both ends, I gave a ~15% tip. I did this, as I have no idea what's considered a good tip for a taxi driver, so went with what I usually give at restaurants. Then, because he even went so far as to make sure I got to the convention all right, I gave an additional $20, coming to a grand total of $305.
Next year, I drive.
Two hours later, we find Ft. Wayne, and after a quick stop at a gas station, we have directions to the convention center. It's almost 9:30, and I'm feeling a little anxious. Ten minutes later, and I'm wandering around every building on the corner except the right one. After a quick discussion with a cop and a security guard, I'm headed in the right direction. Another 5 minutes and I manage to locate the dinner hall.
That's when it all caught up with me. My stamina failed, and the days eventful travelling just caught up to me. I needed food, I needed rest, and I wanted my damned convention dinner exclusives. And I do this in front of con staff. I think some of 3H was there, too, but at this point my memory starts to fog up. At one point, I recall being huddled against a hall with my luggage, waiting for someone to see to me, and Phil leading me to a table with semi-familiar faces. I recognized Hex, Rob Jung, Raksha, and Vulcana. Then Sipher. Then the fog returned, and all I remembered was voices talking. Someone said something about the food having just been thrown out, which didn't improve how I felt any. Then a pile of leaves was set before me.
I was hungry.
I ate the leaves.
Xiphos, stunned
Someone started talking again. It was M Sipher. I couldn't make it out. "...fo... ...lo... ... ... me... ." OK.
Sipher didn't know why I was following him.
I didn't know why I was following Sipher.
I went and sat back down at the table.
I think it was Hex who eventually managed to get me from the table to a line, where I picked up my toy exclusives. At some point, I also managed to get the plate, comic, and my registration packet. Raksha was sparkly. There was someone at the front of the line in a skimpy leather or vinyl outfit. I saw Scylla. I stared some more at the skimpy outfit. Things went blurry again.
I vaguely recall being escorted by Hex to my room, where he left me to get a key to my room from Sipher (one of the people I was rooming with this year). Once in the room, I set my one peice of carry-on luggage in a corner with my newly acquired boxes of stuff, and went to take a shower.
Amazing rejuvinating powers, a shower holds. Feeling less grungy, and a bit better, I headed back downstairs to socialize in the hotel lobby. There I saw some faces I recognized; Hex, Sipher, and Doug Dlin. I didn't recognize the others, but they seemed sociable enough. I became fascinated by Super Fire Convoy and Gigatron.
Eventually, Ben Yee and Robert Yee (no relation, afaik) showed up. They were tired too, and had a travel story that rivaled mine. Rob Yee mentioned he was hungry, so after being told at the bar they didn't serve solids, we headed out to find food.
The place we found was Arby's. Arby's drive through was open, but not the main restaurant.
They wouldn't serve us unless we had a car.
So I told them I was a car.
They didn't beleive me.
So I drove off in a huff.
We were unsuccesful in locating any other nearby open fast food places, so headed back to the hotel where I had a root beer, and Phil Zeman very kindly donated some breakfast bars to me. With more than a few leaves in me, I headed off to bed.
Saturday Morning
After an early morning that leaves me with a briuse on my arm where my head had been laying on it, I call up the airport to inquire about my luggage. They have it. So, I request they give it to the next courtesy shuttle to arrive from the Grand Wayne Hilton. They agree, and say it should be with me in about a half hour. A half hour later, at 9:30, I call up the front desk. Apparently, I need to arrange for the shuttle driver to pick it up. OK, makes sense. So It'll be another 20 to 30 minutes.
After an hour, I decide I will just go set up my stuff in the art room, and check by the front desk every 10 minutes untill my stuff arrives.
2 hours later, the courtesy shuttle with my luggage finally manages to return from the airport. I still have no explanation why the 20-minute courtesy shuttle took 2 hours to return.
11:00am on Saturday, and I'm finally able to change clothes! Ahh, fresh underwear! Non-smelly shirt! Clean socks! I feel much better. Now, to find Suzanne Ferree.
I spend some time wandering the dealer room, art room, and panel room trying to find her. Eventually, I bump into her. She's been in the video rooms most of the morning. Of course, the one area I just briefly walked by without checking.
The time I spent searching, and much of the time afterwards, is fuzzy time again. Shortly after finding Suz, a group of us headed off for lunch, when I realized I should probably withdrawl some cash for the day. I head off really quick with Straxus, as he knows where the closest ATM machine is. It's not too far, and it doesn't take long for me to insert the card, hear a small "grrrnch" noise, and see "This machine is currently out of service" get displayed across the terminal.
F**k.
That card was my only source of cash.
I spend the rest of the weekend bumming money off of friends (good, dear friends who I now owe money) just so I could eat. Fortunately, for everything else I needed, checks were accepted. The loss of my cash source, however, severely hampered my toy-buying.
Immediately after getting some food from the fast food place we all ended up at (Was it Wendys?) I went up to report the card incident to my bank. Once that was taken care of, I sat down to discover the food place had given me the wrong order.
Marching back to the place, I got the right order, only to discover I had forgotten to ask for no mayo.
I hate mayo.
I was also hungry.
I ate it anyway.
Much of the remaining day becomes blurry from here. I recall walking the dealer room, but not really looking at anything, walking the art room some more, and attending a few panels.
Blurry recollections are of stopping by Raksha's table, stopping by Hex's table, and somehow completely missing the Rugby's Starbase table. I wanted to see what sort of nifty stuff they had for this year. I gave Straxus a pair of squirt guns I had painted up in preperation for a LARP I never became involved with as appreciation for the money he gave me for lunch. He seemed to like them.
I was there for the Hasbro panel, and the BW voice actors panel. Others have already gone into depth regarding some of the emberassing, moronic, and in some cases, inflamatory questions that were asked. But there were also some good questions, and overall I felt a good time was had by all, despite Mr. Vomitus Maximus, and the incessant requests for an Arcee headmaster toy. Aside from that, I felt their impromptu polling of the audience had a largely positive effect, and quite possibly was one of the better things they could have done. After all, it is we who owe them for bringing this line not only to fruition, but it is we who owe them for continuing to keep this line alive. It was one hell of a courtesy to have them, once more, come out, turn their official backs to much of what was in the art room, and then ask US for our opinions.
Alec Willows
Alec [As Tarantulas]: With FRIEEES!! Lots of FRIEEES!!
The voice actors were just loads of fun, and I was really bummed I missed the Johm Moschita panel. From what I heard, it was lots of fun as well.
At some point, Vulcana, Saberwind, Suz, and myself headed off to Target where they grabbed some supplies, and I grabbed a prop [a fake plant] for the TFMST3K the next morning. When we got back, a small group of us started talking dinner prior to the movie.
Thinking back on previous BotCons, I jokingly suggested "pizza!"
Thgis was meat by a death gaze from Vulcana.
Eventually, an even smaller group of not quite entirely the same people as what was initially gathered was hearded out down the street to a small bar with a small restaurant in the back where we ate some acceptable food. Then it was back to the convention center and off to the movie.
The movie was quite enjoyable. I noticed many things I had missed out on before, and got my eardrums almost blown out by too-high a volume and treble level early on in the movie. Either they lowered the volume, fixed the sound mixing, or I adjusted, but it seemed to get a little better after the first 20 minutes.
After the movie, I was carted off to a side room in the Hilton, where I was handed a ladybird book to read. Laserbeaks Fury.
Remembering this from last year as the book containing such wonderful things as Megatrons ultimate line, and Laserbeak being outwitted by a windmill, I decided to make some substitutions; Megatron was played by the part of BW Megatron Starscream was played by whoever I felt like having say his lines. Laserbeak was replaced by a tortured Terrersaur Soundwave was just plain confused (and in a bit of pain whenever Terrersaur burst from his chest, or got shoved back in) Prime was replaced by Primal.
The next story, a post-movie based story, was just bad. Doug ended up taking over, as I was becoming tired. After the readings, I went to bed.
Sunday
Sunday morning found me discussing room payments with a concerned Jameel and Sipher. Apparently, the Hotel room was charged to my card AFTER everyone had checked out. Since my card had already been cancelled, this had become a problem. And the MSTF3K was coming up. So, I grabbed my plant, and headed down to the MSTing, intedning to head to the front desk to take care of things once my part was completed.
The openning skit didn't do as well as we could have hoped. Using TF writer names as quasi-religious faction names seemed too subtle for most people (though I did hear the occasional laugh, so SOME people got it at least), with the "Swarm of Lucasts" line falling almost completely flat. That was dissappointing, but guess it was just too subtle. I sat and tried to enjoy the show, with the stress of having to go try and find a means of paying for the room hanging over my head. My part came up, and I delivered my lines in as amateurish and uninspired a manner as I could muster. Then the moment the lights went out, I rushed out and took care of the room. Luckily for me, they would accept my check, so things were cool. I returned to the MSTing in time for the ending of City of Steel. The rest of the show seemed to go well.
Afterwards, someone was doing some game demo. I wanted to stay, but had to go take care of some matters elsewhere. I believe Suzanne wished to go check out the art room, and go find the dealer room where she could purchase a copy of the BC'97 exclusive CD. In the art room, I discovered someone made a bid on one of my pieces (the Grimlock in static action pose over a blue field). However, the guy never did show up to pay for it, and now I beleive 3H still has it, trying to contact the guy for me. What great guys those 3H guys are! As we navigated to the dealer room to get the CD set, we discovered they had sold out. So, instead, she got the BC'97 Concert CD. I also set my spool of CD's out at this time, so I could distribute my works to a wider apreciative audience.
Afterwards, I went wandering about until the Vince DiCola panel. The Vince DiCola music was fantastic! I don't think I can mention this enough. Some of the renditions of songs he did on the fly... and I REALLY would have liked to have heard more of his demo works and stuff. The man does some beautiful work. At the end of his presentation, he mentioned he had some CD sets available in the dealer room. Jameel gave me money, and I went to buy a set for myself and him. Unfortunately, Mr. DiCola mispoke the price, so I only had enough for one CD. I will be getting more later.
More stuff hapenned throughout the day. Once again, my memory becomes quite fuzzy at this point. I recall receiving my Wildride and Gigatron from Phil Zeman (Thanks Phil! The GigaHand is MIGHTY!), and after saying goodbye to people, retreiving my unsold artwork from the art room, and disposing of my now empty CD spool core, I made my way to my room. I also caught up with some of the #WiiGii! group, met Trent, confused some people with some other people, and eventually ended up back in the room the previous night for more book readings. Ladybird books weren't available this time, but we were able to substitute with other storybooks lying about.
Congrats to Robert Yee for kicking everyone's asses with that absolutely gorgeous Rodimus Primal display! I still say that should have been its own category 
Congrats also go out to Trent, who beat me out this year in the 3D art category. [Next year, Trent!]
Monday
This day was an even worse blur than Sunday. At some point, I met up with Suz to see her off, then went back to bed. Woke up a few hours later, and was ready to head off. I decided to leave the plant behind.
My trip home was largely uneventful. I got back to San Jose a few hours late as my flight from Detroit to St. Paul was delayed, causing me to miss my connection from St. Paul to San Jose. When I finally did arrive, due to a miscommunication on my part resulted in another hour or two before I was finally home.
Defenitely looking forward to next years BotCon, here's to hoping I can afford it 
Epilogue
A week later, I finaly got around to unpacking. Upon openning my checked luggage, I noticed it appeared as though my bag had been opened and gone through. My computer was exposed, and had damage that could only have occourred if it had been removed and very specifically bashed. The power supply was completely thrashed, the case was all bashed, scratched, and smudged with some unidentifiable material that most defenitely did not originate from any of my luggage, and internal components had been ripped from their sockets and strwen about the case. Given the nature of some of the parts in question, this could only have been done deliberately. This is not the first time such things have happened. This is the LAST time I fly NorthWest. I strongly recommend anyone who decides to fly to BotCon in subsequent year avoid this crappy airline, and spend the extra few for a better airline.
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