Arisia 2010

Yeah, Arisia was my first con. For those of you who don't know Arisia is a sci-fi/fantasy con in Boston lasting four days. It seemed to be a pretty standard con- panels, an open-gaming room, and movies in the evening. You get to read my day-by-day account of the whole thing- I'll probably skimp on some details but you're big kids- you can deal with it.

Friday:

We get there around six and went to the hotel we were staying in- nobody else was in my room, and nobody was in my friends room so we just went to the con immediately. When we arrived, we wandered a bit and ate some free bread, not seeing anyone we knew (there were about 35 or so of us from my school). We visited all the dealers and I bought myself a pencil print of Boba Fett and David Weber and John Ringo's Mardukan Epic*. After not seeing anyone for the better part of two hours we saw Outlander- an amusing and predictable sci-fi film. Immediately after, we watch Horrible Turn, a fan made prequel to Dr. Horrible's sing along blog. The quality was pretty good and the casting fit the characters fairly well. After that we find that everyone else had been exploring Boston and has recently arrived at the con- we are tired and head back to our hotel. I finally get to sleep around 3 and my roommates say that they will set the alarm for 10.

Saturday:

I'm sleeping on the floor when I am awakened. It is 11:30. I go see some sword demonstrations, hang around with my friends for a while and then climb mount Arisia (16 stories in 1:55) for a ribbon to attach to my ID. I get myself a gladius- imperial area, centurions sword. We look at boff swords for a while trying to determine if we should get them for our pseudo-larp group we have. At some point we head out of the con and walk for a while until we find a good cheap place to eat (con food is ridiculously over-priced). We keep on walking, get to our hotel, relax there for a bit and head back to the con around 10. When we get there I and some friends watch Reptilicus, a 1961 Danish monster film. It is shown using the 'Emergo' system which is a system that is similar in concept to Imax. It is supposed to make the movie come to life and bring the audience closer to the film. This means they through a 5 1/2 foot long plushy lizard at us during the film. It hit me in the head. I got to keep it. It made my day. There was then a dance, which I found particularly invigorating and left with sword and reptile. Read for lots time- then go sleep (on the floor again).

Sunday:

Most people are leaving today and there isn't much to do. We go to the weapons dealer and I get another dagger and then we head off to the games room for a while. I go to a theremin panel for a bit and then go back to the games room. We play a game of Munchkin followed by a game of Catan [settlers of]. Probably around 5:30 me and a friend head up to the artists gallery and I get a really nice piece of art- nice meaning "it has a dragon in it". Around six we go to watch two hours of trailers/commericals shown on film. Note that Arisia is the only con on the east coast, possibly all of America that still shows film. After that I see the first two hours of stardust and leave because my driver does wanted to leave at ten and doesn't want to get stuck in bad weather. It was some of the worst weather I had ever seen.