Rindis.com

Further Confusion is the most important convention for BackBreaker, as it is generally the highest grossing show we have. Even better, it is local, and a grand lot of fun.

However, there’s been a nasty flu going around, and Smudge caught it a few days before the con. I had a couple minor symptoms for a few days, and then they went away. I thought I’d beaten it off, but I started coming down with real symptoms Saturday night, and spent a fair amount of Sunday up in our room trying to recover. I basically skipped our Coffee, Tea & Memes panel that night because I knew I was in no shape for it.

About that room… Baron was the Artist Guest of Honor this year, which meant that he got one of the fancy suite rooms at the hotel courtesy of the con. The room was practically as big as the current place we’re renting. And the bathroom was just silly. We also brought Micca over and set him up in the room, so we never used the TV as Micca’s monitor is so much better….

On the other hand, the normal restaurant in the hotel was big disappointment this year. It’s normally slightly pricey food with quality that varies from well worth it to worth the convenience factor. This year the menu was minuscule (a single page, and half the meals were sandwiches), and food decidedly sub-par. Oddly, we found that room service had the normal full menu….

Generally, the con was very good this year. I had a great time Friday and Saturday. Managed to contribute a bit to the Furry Espionage panel (which is more Baron and Dave’s subject), and the Mad Scientist panel (which was easier, but also right when I started coming down with the flu. We found out later, that apparently the Mad Scientist panel was being broadcast live… if I’d known that, I’d have tried to look a little more intelligent…. -_^ At any rate, both of them went really well.

Spent some good time with several friends. Spent an evening entertaining Gerald in our room, and used the opportunity to introduce him to four anime series we thought he’d like (Full Metal Alchemist, Ghost in the Shell, Planetes, and Utawarerumono), and he enjoyed them all.

Sunday, I tried to keep from getting the flu too bad while Smudge was largely recovered. So I popped into the Coffee, Tea & Memes panel long enough to offer my apologies, and grab some cookies (^_^). The upshot was that I was available to get Diana guilded, so we got that done.

Apparently, on Monday I looked worse than I felt, and I did not feel at all well. Smudge had relapsed and was worse off than I. So, getting the room and dealer’s table packed up and taken back home was quite an undertaking. We owe the con (and especially Carl) a big thanks for being understanding and very helpful during the entire process.