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MarsCON Report - Saturday
Mar. 9th, 2014 10:03 amSaturday morning Mason has swimming lessons, so, rather than negotiate the back and forth, he came with me to MarsCON. I stopped by registration for my badge and bought Mason a day pass.
This was Mason's first ever con. I thought for sure he'd hook up with his friend Molly and that'd be the last I'd see of him, but he ended up sitting in the back of the panel room, which was Kruschenko's, so there were comfy chairs in a kind of antechamber. So Mason didn't even have to listen to us drone on about "Getting into the Mind of a Fanatic." Actually, the panel was pretty good, though there were a lot of panelists and we veered into the NAZI analogy, despite![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
naomikritzer's valiant attempts to keep everyone on track.
The rest of the con was me showing Mason what a con is like. Mason, being Mason, adored the demonstrations. We watched a Korean sword martial art and we learned the difference between a Korean sword and a Japanese katana. But, Mason and I were pretty excited to talk to the Sa Ba Nim of that dojon because, apparently, you get to learn sword at any belt. We tried to win a sword, but, alas, we didn't get the prize. I did, however, get to cut paper with a bokken. That rocked.
Mason and I tried to go into the game room, but the rules of said game room kind of baffle me. Like, it's not clear how one starts a game. I presume that one can just sit at a table and open a game and people will join you, but every time we went in there were no open tables. It was also unclear how one jumps in to a pre-running game, or even if one can.
So, we took some jelly beans and left.
Mason really loved the prop room, and if the picture ever makes its way through the aether fem my ridiculously un-smart phone I'll be posting a shot I took of Mason standing next to a very, very realistic looking Dalek. Mason also really loved all of Umbridge's proclamations/rules from Harry Potter... and all of the Harry Potter props, actually.
Then when we came out of there the SCA people were doing a demo of their battles and Mason tried to watch that, but the SCA people were very... postalizing and kept wanting to TELL us things about their organization, armor, etc. Mason just wanted to see the bashing of heads.
After that we just kind of killed time waiting for the Anime room party to start. When it did, they'd started watching Wolf Children, which I adored. Mason and I sat on the floor and ate girl scout cookies and commented along with everyone else. This might be the moment that Mason realized that the world is filled with nerdy otaku JUST LIKE HIMSELF, because he was beaming through the film, his ears all perked up, like he finally felt, as the heroine of Wolf Children says, "like he found his pack."
Oh, and my furry friends? YOU SHOULD WATCH THIS. It will make you cry. It made Mason and I cry, but damn it, I think it would be even more powerful for anyone in the furry fandom. The basic message is not only 'you need to accept who you are," but also, "let your children be what they are." And, bam! Right in the FEELS, if you know what I mean.
Also, I have to confess that they had an Anime quiz and Mason and I got THE ONE BLEACH QUESTION...
...WRONG.
Mason says he knew the answer but didn't want to speak up. Meanwhile, I wrote down the year that the Bleach Anime came out wrong. I remembered it had a "4" in it, but didn't realize it was 2004 (I might have put down 1994).
THEY HAD ONE BLEACH QUESTION AND I BLEW IT.
I may have to leave the fandom in shame....
So, today I'm off to go back to the con by myself. I think I'm going to miss having Mason there. He's a good companion for these things. He and I have already agreed that he'll come along for at least one day for the rest of these.... and I couldn't be more proud. Leap, my little wolf child! Leap!
This was Mason's first ever con. I thought for sure he'd hook up with his friend Molly and that'd be the last I'd see of him, but he ended up sitting in the back of the panel room, which was Kruschenko's, so there were comfy chairs in a kind of antechamber. So Mason didn't even have to listen to us drone on about "Getting into the Mind of a Fanatic." Actually, the panel was pretty good, though there were a lot of panelists and we veered into the NAZI analogy, despite
naomikritzer's valiant attempts to keep everyone on track.The rest of the con was me showing Mason what a con is like. Mason, being Mason, adored the demonstrations. We watched a Korean sword martial art and we learned the difference between a Korean sword and a Japanese katana. But, Mason and I were pretty excited to talk to the Sa Ba Nim of that dojon because, apparently, you get to learn sword at any belt. We tried to win a sword, but, alas, we didn't get the prize. I did, however, get to cut paper with a bokken. That rocked.
Mason and I tried to go into the game room, but the rules of said game room kind of baffle me. Like, it's not clear how one starts a game. I presume that one can just sit at a table and open a game and people will join you, but every time we went in there were no open tables. It was also unclear how one jumps in to a pre-running game, or even if one can.
So, we took some jelly beans and left.
Mason really loved the prop room, and if the picture ever makes its way through the aether fem my ridiculously un-smart phone I'll be posting a shot I took of Mason standing next to a very, very realistic looking Dalek. Mason also really loved all of Umbridge's proclamations/rules from Harry Potter... and all of the Harry Potter props, actually.
Then when we came out of there the SCA people were doing a demo of their battles and Mason tried to watch that, but the SCA people were very... postalizing and kept wanting to TELL us things about their organization, armor, etc. Mason just wanted to see the bashing of heads.
After that we just kind of killed time waiting for the Anime room party to start. When it did, they'd started watching Wolf Children, which I adored. Mason and I sat on the floor and ate girl scout cookies and commented along with everyone else. This might be the moment that Mason realized that the world is filled with nerdy otaku JUST LIKE HIMSELF, because he was beaming through the film, his ears all perked up, like he finally felt, as the heroine of Wolf Children says, "like he found his pack."
Oh, and my furry friends? YOU SHOULD WATCH THIS. It will make you cry. It made Mason and I cry, but damn it, I think it would be even more powerful for anyone in the furry fandom. The basic message is not only 'you need to accept who you are," but also, "let your children be what they are." And, bam! Right in the FEELS, if you know what I mean.
Also, I have to confess that they had an Anime quiz and Mason and I got THE ONE BLEACH QUESTION...
...WRONG.
Mason says he knew the answer but didn't want to speak up. Meanwhile, I wrote down the year that the Bleach Anime came out wrong. I remembered it had a "4" in it, but didn't realize it was 2004 (I might have put down 1994).
THEY HAD ONE BLEACH QUESTION AND I BLEW IT.
I may have to leave the fandom in shame....
So, today I'm off to go back to the con by myself. I think I'm going to miss having Mason there. He's a good companion for these things. He and I have already agreed that he'll come along for at least one day for the rest of these.... and I couldn't be more proud. Leap, my little wolf child! Leap!