So, I'm beginning to realise that taking notes during panels, etc might actually help when writing a con report ... (g) Also giving my con booklet to Ann ('cus I had Clark & she had Lex & obviously needed the pair *wink*) may not have been the cleverest thing to do if I want to remember the panels I attended! LOL
Looks like I'll just have to do my best. :-)



Thursday Feb 24th
Ann, xanthefic & I met for a lovely, chatty breakfast before waving goodbye to Disneyland.
We dropped Xanthe off at LAX, as she was flying off to visit with some friends on the East coast, & then drove north towards Ventura.
We arrived at the hotel by about noon so decided to head off for a Cost-Co run. I got season 5 of 'Angel' - Spike!!!!! ♥
We also found a really nice mall with a Hot Topic - yay!

We got back to the hotel & registered for the con - picking up our booklet, panel schedule & name tags. As in past years, the name tag came in a great little holder that hangs around your neck & has room for keys, dealer room cash & a notebook, etc. This year the con actually provided pens, notebooks, a $5 dealer room voucher (excellent!), a Legolas pin & a glossy pic - mine was of Lock from 'Lost' who I like well enough but was very happy when I swapped him for a Capt Jack! ;-)
I also added some pics of Sean&Orli;&Viggo; to my name badge to make it complete (g).
We milled around for a while chatting - I touched base briefly with 'tilla, meri_oddities, melina123, maygra, kadymae & the always beautiful Melissa, before we headed over to Outback for Alice Springs Chicken - yum! (Well, actually half a one - I can't eat that much!)
Ann wanted to see Survivor so we high-tailed it back for an early night & planned which panels we wanted to attend. Have highlighter pen will be a Jim! ;-)

Friday Feb 25th
melina123 gave me a Legolas pillow case! I love it & put it on my hotel pillow for the rest of the stay (probably to the bemusement of the maid.)
Thanks again, Melina - I absolutely love it & Legolas & I had really sweet dreams.
*hugs*

The hotel was really nice & all the panel rooms were up on a beautiful mezzanine.
I attended the 'Where Have All The Good Conversations Gone? Rise & Fall of the Escapade Panel' panel (g).
Having attended Escapade for the last six years or so, this was interesting - hearing people's perceptions of how times have changed. Things that once raised controversy are now much more mainstream - or certainly tolerated with less public dissension it seems.

After that I went & checked out the organised pimping - I got a pimp dvd for Rapid Heart films that I'm looking forward to watching if the pretty pics are anything to go by. ;-)
I needed to check in my art for the art show & so did that after lunch. I had quite a few pieces to show - including several of my LotR character manipulations plus some new Pros manips & the odd PotC, X Files, Smallville, Due South & a Spike/Xander piece.
I took the opportunity to check out the other art & fell in love with a Chris/Vin Mag 7 Suzan Lovett piece that I decided to bid on. I also saw one of her PotC pieces & bid on that too.

Next, was a technical panel called 'Getting the Good Parts of a story Just Right' - about writing sex scenes. This isn't an area I feel that I particularly struggle with but am always eager to learn & try to improve. It was a really good discussion on good writing techniques & ways of creating intimacy through thoughtful word choice, etc. MacGeorge & Bren Antrim made some really interesting points.
I'm not a trained writer - I've never taken any writing classes - & really just go on instinct & the technical rules of grammar, etc that I was taught at GCE 'O' level! So it's always a little intimidating for me to hear 'proper' writers speaking about the technical aspects of writing. However, this panel was very friendly & people were so helpful. I thoroughly enjoyed it & came away feeling enriched.

The next panel I went to was called 'Minding Your L's and J's: Etiquette in the Livejournal Era' hosted by the wonderful justacat & smaragdgrun.
It was interesting to see how wildly people's opinions on what constitutes 'appropriate' behaviour differs. Though everyone seemed to agree that it's extremely bad to use someone's RL name/details in a pseudonym journal! I hadn't realised how worked up people got over lj-cuts & stuff like that too. As a matter of politeness, I try to use cuts when I know my post is pretty long or pic-rich - just to avoid filling up my flist friends' page or to stop swamping people on dial-up.

Then I attended the 'Not my OTP' panel which was looking at what happens if you follow a minor pairing in a fandom. I went to this because being a Sean/Orli girl in a Hobbit or Vig/Orli world can sometimes be frustrating (g). I don't mean that seriously - more just that I want more Sean/Orli fic to read please! ♥ Though I am a Vig/Orli girl too, of course... *cough* pairing whore *cough* (ggg)
It was an interesting panel though I'm completely blanking on any details! ;-) I knew I should've made notes! LOL

My final panel of the day was 'Slash & Fandom' - of which I have no memory. I'm sure it was great but I just can't remember what happened. Sorry - I'm hopeless! :-)

Ann & I then headed off for dinner before going to the party in the con suite. This was a great, relaxed mingling & I had a lot of fun chatting with justacat & the_shoshanna about Pros (okay - I mainly smiled, nodded & occasionally threw in a word or two!) For anyone doesn't know, Justacat is running the huge, fabulous Pros online archive now.
I met up with smutcutter too - though I can't remember exactly where - possibly in the hallway (g). But I do remember that she was looking fabulous & it was so great to finally meet in person.
As I was running early the next morning I made a night of it at about 11.30pm & headed back to bed for a quick slash fix & some sweet dreams. I did lie awake a little while working on the Disneyland-inspired Sean/Orli fic that had jumped me earlier in the week. I really must write it all down at some point!



Tbc... :-)