So much happened at con this year, it was over in a snap from my perspective. The months leading up to October disappeared quickly, and con came and went faster than any of the SNAFU Cons preceding it.

The quick review is this – as far as the attendees were concerned, this was the best con ever . . . as far as the staff was concerned it was not nearly as smooth. There were very few large fires, but there were so many little problems that it made it hard to breathe sometimes. Better training and prep is needed. I knew this year would be bad for prep as con approached but I may have been one of the few who really understood how unprepared we were.

As you read the following please keep in mind that I pieced together disjointed memories as well as I could. Sometimes all I could remember that it was sometime on a particular day. If you remember something happened in a different order than how I list it that is why.

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My con started with more sleep dep than I have ever had. I had pulled two all-nighters on the previous weekend (schedule printing and code party back to back) and after that had only been running on minimal sleep to be able to accomplish everything that needed to be done before con started. Everything got too late of a start: the badges, the laminating, the schedules, the con book . . . everything was piled up and rushed. Some of it was my fault, but most of it was just a combination of factors which resulted in things just being done far too late.

I do very much appreciate the assistance I received from several staff members who came over to my house and helped as long as they could to move the pile of things along. If it weren’t for their assistance I probably would have broken down at some point that week and nothing would have gotten done.

The night before con I was furious at Nathan because how many all-nighters has he done in prep for con? I honestly don’t know, but I felt that of all the people, he should have been at my house at 4am laminating the last 100 badges instead of me doing it by myself. That’s kind of what happens when you’re in charge – everything stops at you because if no one else does it then it’s still your responsibility.

The Wednesday night before con I got approximately 2 hours of sleep – I finally got that sleep because I was on the edge and I had FINALLY finished all the badges. It is worth mentioning, IMO, that I did NOT have any energy drinks or caffeine at all on Wednesday.

Then it was Thursday.

Thursday morning disappeared for me. I remember helping pack the cars but I don’t remember much before that. On a whim I grabbed my nice USB 3.0 hub and stuffed it in my backpack along with several other things I thought might be useful, just in case. The hub did become very useful at registration, so I was very glad that I had grabbed it. However, at the end of con it was packed in the wrong bag so it was lost for a couple of post-con months before it was discovered in my OTHER bag.

We were just discussing making a second trip to Reno because we were out of room when Jared called (texted?) and offered the remaining space in his vehicle going to Reno. Lifesaver! We ended up leaving for Reno later than Sam had wanted because of it, but it allowed us to not leave anything behind on purpose. Things got left behind, but it was all accidental. We left around 10:30am or so.

Arriving at the GSR we unpacked the cars and just set everything off to the side by the loading area. Sammich and Thomas were left at the GSR to set up registration. Sam and I went off to get the truck (almost exactly at 12pm, noon). The truck rental went okay, and then we went and got the tables. I didn’t even bother attempting to help load the tables since I was fairly useless from sleep dep for anything that physical. I left for WalMart to buy some Visa Gift Cards to be able to use for on-the-fly staff purchases. We only used them once during con. Oh well, but it was nice to have. This year really had the fewest at-con purchase runs ever.

When I arrived back at the GSR I went straight to registration. The room did not have enough tables, but everything was otherwise doing all right. Registration was on track to being set up. Liz found me and we spent the next few hours going over the layout.

In the middle of going over the layout with Liz, I was approached by Logistics – we don’t have enough chairs. We’re short chairs for Artist Alley.

Wut?

I excused myself with Liz and went off to the car where I had left the invoice for the tables/chairs. Sure enough, we were short chairs (they did, however, give us exactly what was on the invoice so although we were short chairs, we were charged for only the chairs we got). I texted Nathan. He kept asking me questions which seemed like he wanted me to deal with it – I insisted that he deal with it. It turned out that Nathan hadn’t been clear enough with them that they needed to increase the chairs when we increased the tables. Just one of many communication issues this year. We were able to use GSR chairs for the ones we were short.

At some point I ran into Haku. He finally had his friend for me who wanted to take over for the Rave department. I had been trying to pin that down for over a month and now I could finally talk to someone. Something failed there, but I was happy to finally get to meet him and start talking.

I asked about his plans, what he wanted to do with the dept, etc. I don’t remember his exact response but he talked about bringing people in and something something BLFC something something Smash. I immediately went in to a loud reaction which caught the attention of everyone setting up at main stage and in the immediate area.

Fuck Smash. Absolutely not. Absolutely NOT. NO SMASH. No. No. No. No Smash.

This got Origami coming over to also say how much he did not like working with Smash . . . more calmly than I had.

The response from the new guy was “okay, I get it, no Smash.” It was obvious he wanted to move on but I really wanted to rant more. I took pity on the new guy and let the topic move on. I never did get to go into the details of why I hate him and will never have him at SNAFU Con. I’m not quite sure what he thought of that reaction. I should ask him. That’s just me, though . . . I feel strongly about certain things and I react. Explosively.

Moving on we discussed other things such as how the DJs almost never made it in the con book – and he, specifically, as a DJ who has been with us since 2010 never made it into the con book and he was going to fix that for 2015. All in all, since I had no idea if Bill was even going to show up this weekend, I needed the new guy ready to take over for the Rave. Officially he would be under Bill if Bill showed up, but if Bill didn’t . . . then I needed him to handle it. He was ready and willing.

He was also willing to help me out in registration which won my heart right then. He came to reg and I trained him on Sam’s group (Sam + me). He said my real name at me in a way that made me just want to smack him. I do not hide my real name but I do not exactly made it well known, either. I think he thought it was some sort of secret? I dunno. He worked registration several times throughout the weekend which was awesome for us.

The aforementioned new guy was DJ Monster who has gone through a handful of nicknames because I didn’t want to call him Monster. The first was Kittens because he was wearing a Death by Kittens t-shirt. The second one was Mittens because Monster + Kittens = Mittens. The third which came about well after the con has been KMittens for the same reason. He’s been a good sport about the random nicknames. We have settled on Kmittens but the K is silent so it is pronounced like mittens.

Early Thursday sometime I showed Nyandrew his Con Ops room. We had put a printer in the room and it was their problem to figure out getting it working. To my knowledge it was never set up. Additionally, the room was nearly never used. Half-way through con, Con Ops was moved to a back office. It was our first time with an actual “Con Ops” so I don’t feel too bad about all the errors we made over it. In general the attendees didn’t need it anyway, and we were able to alert the staff of the changes.

Eventually I was able to continue on with Liz. We went over every room – layouts, tables, chairs, etc. I received the staff vouchers in her office. She has a picture of the fur shoot on her wall from BLFC that Sam took. I pointed out that we had a version with the parent photoshopped out (there’s a woman taking a picture in one corner).

As part of the walkthrough with Liz she gave me keys to the offices for the areas. One color was Nevada, one color was Silver State. I ended up mixing them up once or twice but luckily they were labeled. I believe I gave a copy to Nathan, Rovers, and Logistics. I expect I gave one to programming as well so they could get into their box.

Back at registration, I want to say that I was looking over Thomas’s shoulder or something when Susana came to me to tell me that she had a vendor on the phone who had canceled on us. I remember hearing something like Susana was going to give me the phone . . . which I wasn’t going to take. I remember hearing something like “well Beta’s right here, I’ll ask her.”

The phone call was regarding the payment of the booth – can she get it refunded, if not can she use it toward next year, etc. I felt side-swiped because I didn’t really have time to think and I’m FAR too nice to people face-to-face (like bad-business-decision nice). I do not like to make any decisions that fast. I spoke with Susana about it later. It wasn’t a huge deal but I did explain that I don’t like to be put on the spot like that. She very rightly told me I should have told her that at the time. I apologized that I’d been flustered and was just trying to communicate it afterwards so that it wouldn’t happen again.

There were all sorts of things I should have said at the time but didn’t because I was off guard . . . the best thing I should have said was that all requests of that nature need to be in writing. Oh well.

I saw Tyco briefly at some point early in the day on Thursday. I don’t really remember when but there was a conversation about the door locks. We were borrowing his locks for the air walls but I was unaware that the double-doors in the Nevada Foyer wouldn’t work with them. He said he’d been meaning to make locks for them and needed to do it so he would. At some point on Friday I moved a table and found heavy pieces of wood under it. I assumed it was the locks.

Additionally, Thursday night sometime Tyco brought us a power extension which was lovely. I vaguely remember Origami pulling it out of boxes and setting it up. It was a heavy-duty cord with an outlet every 4 feet or so. It fit our needs so well it was like it was built just for us.

At some point in the afternoon I went back upstairs to check in. I realized it was getting late in the day and I really needed to check in before it got too late.

Unlike last year, checking in to the hotel was NOT its own adventure. It went pretty damned smooth . . . there wasn’t even a line when I walked up! Once I was done there, I did have to send an email to all our guests about check-in though because there was a simple but special process for them to check in. I just stood on the second floor leaning up against a wall tapping the email into my phone for 5 minutes before heading back to reg.

On my way back to registration I received a phone call from Katie wanting to meet me at reg. I ended up standing right in front of the escalator talking to her because I didn’t trust my coordination to be able to step on the thing correctly while talking on the phone. Yes, I was that sleep-deprived and con hadn’t even started yet. Although it is worth noting that I do not normally trust escalators normally because I worry that I’m going to step wrong and tumble down them. Same issue walking down stairs. Anyway . . .

At that point, it was also already 4:30pm and reg was supposed to open in 30 minutes.

When I made the long trek down the escalators and across the hallway back to registration Nuriko was measuring out space for the swap meet . . . in reg. That didn’t work for me. She had asked earlier if she could set up in a place and I misunderstood her. I believe I told her ‘yeah, anywhere in there’ and meant anywhere in Nevada Main. She wanted to set up in reg. After some discussion we did move to Nevada Main in an area that seemed to work well enough. The fact that we still had to set up the tape lines which were going to go right through her area was the deciding factor for her to move into the Nevada Main area.

I never knew when the line for prereg started. It actually started outside the room and in the hallway. I don’t know who first thought that was necessary but when I realized it was happening I pulled people inside because there was no reason for anyone to stand in the hallway when we had all this wonderful space in registration. We didn’t have tape lines yet so I just acted as line control and asked people to wrap to where I was standing and I very quickly had a relatively short line in order.

It was one of the longest lines we had all weekend, but really wasn’t very long at all. Twenty-five people, maybe?

The server wasn’t ready to take any registrations in time for opening. Joy. I think we got up and running at 5:15 or 5:30. I’m sure I can check the logs of the first checked-in badge to know for sure but (shrug).

To distract people stuck in line I handed out candy. I was glad to have purchased it. They had to wait – might as well make it a better wait.

We processed people VERY quickly once registration got up and running. I remember noting where someone was in line (near the end) and next thing I noticed they were right at the front. The line size appeared to stay the same for a while, though. We actually processed over 300 people on Thursday but the line never went over maybe 15 or so people after we had worked through the initial group.

At some point Thursday evening I realized that I didn’t have a way to track the staff food vouchers. Again. Last year we had made a sign-out sheet and I just forgot to make it this year (I already have BACON generating the damned thing for next year). Oh well, guess we were going to yellow-pad it! Put your name here and your signature here. Here is your $30 in food vouchers. Moving on.

It has been determined that Thursday is not a good time for newbies. Thursday was the only day this weekend that was actually hectic. There were plenty of stressful moments, but Thursday was actually hectic. Next year only people who have previous registration training should help in Reg on Thursday! Mostly. I’m sure there will be exceptions.

I don’t remember much more of what kept me busy Thursday night but I know I was far too busy to go to sleep when I wanted. I still had not had an energy drink or any caffeine and I very much wanted to crash. I was on the edge but there were still a lot of things to do.

I don’t remember what I was doing, but I remember I was sitting at a desk working on something thinking about the things left to do that night, including making our tape lines. In what was the most perfect timing ever, I saw Ryan, and then Bear, River, and a few others (?who? I’m so sorry I can’t remember) walking past. My memory is really fuzzy at this point but Ryan reorganized the tables and set out chairs, and Bear and the others handled the taping of our lines. I basically just gave them my spreadsheet with the rough layout and let them figure it out. I had to correct a few things once I saw how the tape actually looked, but it all worked out well without me having to put in a lot of effort. I was able to focus on whatever else it was that was keeping my attention.

I know something I had been struggling with was finding my new volunteer form. I had spent time on making a form which matched the new system and the file seemed to be lost. I had been searching for it that morning in the places it was likely to be, but I could not find it. Recreating it was one of those things keeping me awake. Llama offered to help and I drew out what I could remember of it. I never did find the form. I may have accidentally deleted it.

Llama reappeared with an angry Blanca in tow. She was upset about the changes. One glance at the form and I knew I wouldn’t have allowed it anyway, but I spent a while arguing with Blanca. Nathan was trying to help but not really making the situation better.

The form from llama was more-or-less correct but was not done to my standards. It may even have been missing a field or two that I had forgotten to write. I never got the chance to really review it and think about it because I spent way too long arguing with Blanca until I was completely fed up with the idea and didn’t give a fuck anymore. Sammich tried repeatedly on Thursday and Friday to get volunteers on to BACON but couldn’t manage it. The volunteers desk never did really experience the new system.

Other than that, there were still several things which needed to be printed off. Sam assisted me with the other things that needed printing off but he was also very tired and very upset and he just wanted to go to bed. I gave him Silverfish – my very tiny thumb drive. This becomes important later.

While I was standing by the printer dealing with what seemed to me to be the final things, he made the mistake of telling me he would be going back to Carson to sleep instead of staying with me in the room. I began crying immediately. I had been on the edge for the last few hours and that was the tipping point. It was only a few seconds but it was enough that when Origami walked up to Main Stage he asked what was wrong. I remember swiping my hand back and forth and saying it was nothing but I really needed to sleep.

We went back to reg to handle a few other things and soon we actually did get to go to bed. I really needed to sleep. I managed to break down in momentary tears two more times before making it up to the room to sleep. I got to sleep around midnight.

Sammich was going to stay up all night and complete work on making registration work for Friday. I was trusting Sammich to open the room but I really wanted to be there at the opening in the morning. I had my alarm set to 5:30 to allow me to get up and go and shower and be down on time.

5:30am my alarm went off.

7:00am Sam’s alarm went off.

I had apparently turned off my alarm and went right back to sleep. I didn’t immediately panic because reg was covered – Sammich was on it. I did text him as I was getting out of bed to let him know that I had pretty much slept through my alarm and would be down soon.

I showered quickly and found a lake on the bathroom floor when I was done. Lovely. I wasn’t really rushing but I wasn’t wasting any time either. I got dressed, got my things together and went down stairs. I saved brushing my hair until I got on site.

I don’t remember a lot of the blur that is Friday morning (although I think I’ve pieced most of it together). There were people in registration. I was still dealing with some things. I remember taking in three volunteers and just writing on yellow paper their times because no one knew where Blanca was. I know I needed them, but I don’t remember the state of the room. I vaguely remember training people. I know there were some problems with the flow for the reg system – it was confusing. I also had forgotten about the cashbox count-ins and I had remembered one transaction too late to tell people about counting in. Thomas had to make a change in the DB to fix my error.

I remember noticing guests and while the reg tech was checking the person in I was sorting out their guest bag and pulling it for them. On Wednesday I had put together guest bags with badges, lanyards, funds owed . . . anything that a guest was supposed to receive from us was either in their con bag or stapled to their con bag. I did not want any mistakes to happen at con. This worked out wonderfully, although there was the frequent question of “are my badges in here?” so I’ll have to figure that out a bit better. Maybe put them on the damned lanyards? I feel a little dumb for not just doing that to begin with, but there is a small possibility of the badge becoming detached from the lanyard and that would be a nightmare. I dunno. I’ll work that out next year. I do know I will be doing these pre-made bags again.

Laura Post looked exactly like her picture. I gave her her bag, introduced myself and told her that that would probably be the only time I’d have to interact with her during the con. That was mostly true. She seemed really nice. =)

The pre-made con bags also gave me a perfect and very helpful visual cue as to which guests had checked in and which hadn’t. At some point I had to send someone to make sure WindoftheStars came and checked in. She was the final bag in the box. She actually had set up her table and was in the foyer without a badge most of the day. New policies will be happening next year over that one.

Early in the day, I have a very vague memory of someone coming in and asking about cosplay. I had no idea where cosplay was (the people in the department). I had seen Diana on the floor at some point because I think she came and got her badge. Someone else had seen Rika. No one knew where anyone was. I am pretty sure I pointed her in the direction of the cosplay cool-down room which was supposed to be cosplay home base, as far as I knew.

It was busy in registration. It wasn’t hectic, but there was really no time to slow down and think about much. I was asked several times where Blanca was or what to do about volunteers. I had just yellow-padded mine and suggested the same to whoever was asking. All that mattered to me was keeping track of their time. (Apparently Jared was Blanca’s ride and he slept in.)

I remember asking Llama to go get Silverfish from Sam’s computer because Sam was asleep and I wanted it back. Llama returned without it – Sam had apparently kept it with him that night rather than leaving it in his computer which was probably a good idea. Sam was still asleep at that point so I just didn’t worry about it. I would ask Sam later.

At some point on Friday morning between all the things going on Sam popped his head into reg to let me know he was leaving for Carson (at least I think he did . . . he could have just called or texted me but I thought I remembered actually seeing him in Reg). It was later than he’d planned but still fairly early in the day. He had to head back to Carson to board the cat. He wanted to know if I could remember anything I needed him to pick up. At the time I didn’t have anything.

As I was working in reg and dealing with the master cash box, I had turned a yellow pad into a columnar pad. I did manage to text Sam while he was at the house to bring me a columnar pad. I own a handful of them, but I doubted he would be able to find any. Just buy one if it couldn’t be found in a minute or so. I asked for a 3-column pad.

At some point in the morning (still before opening) I was approached by our Vendor Liaison, Susana, and the GSR AV guy. I never learned his name and that’s probably for the best.

Long-story-short, one of the vendors had brought in equipment that they hadn’t told us about (although they claim they did which might be true but it was a communication error somewhere) and they were going to need their own power drop. They should have requested extra power in advance. (This will be clarified further in the contract for 2015.)

The issue was what to do – disallow what they were doing, or add another power drop. Ultimately I told Susana that I was authorizing a power drop but I was making it her decision as to how she wanted to handle her vendor. The thing about this particular situation was not the vendor, nor was it Susana . . . it was the AV guy. I wasn’t happy with the need, but I’d rather keep the vendor happy, or at least let Susana handle her vendor how she wanted to. So I authorized it.

The AV guy spent the time talking down to me and interrupting me when I was talking to Susana. I don’t really remember much of the specifics because I was focusing on the problem, not him.

After he told me something like “Well these are the politics you have to deal with when you run an event like this” making me wonder if he had any clue who he was talking to . . . I said very sternly “I understand, thank you, sir,” and then I physically turned my body to face Susana completely and angle away from him. I emphasized “Sir” like it was a dirty word or an insult. It certainly felt like one coming out of my mouth.

The entirety of registration had pretty much stopped what they were doing and they were watching me to see what I’d do. I knew there were two attendees in the room who had just gotten their badges or I would have likely gone off on the guy. I can’t do that in front of the attendees. It’s not their business . . . Staff though? Staff would just have a wonderful story to tell about the time they saw Beta explode at someone.

“The issue is whether or not I am authorizing the power drop. I am authorizing it. You make the call with your vendor as to whether or not you have it done,” and off they went.

Susana returned later to tell me that they did the math and they actually didn’t need a power drop. That was joyous considering we needed like 6 more power drops in the main area that we hadn’t been aware of.

Liz had been in and out that morning. When I told her about the AV guy she was mad . . . apparently after that she told him not to talk to me again. Fine with me! lol

So, there was an issue with our power drops. Apparently in previous years there had been power drops added to handle our power needs but they never charged us, and none of us were aware . . . not even Liz! My main thing was “it is what it is.” Of course we needed the power. If we have to have it then we pay for it. End of story. There’s no point in arguing or whining about it. I’m not crippling gaming over a last-minute thing that we all were unaware about. The extra charge was $2500 and Liz was going to try to get us a flat $2,000. (We were not charged that much in the end but our invoice was definitely higher than originally expected.)

When all the details finally shook out over the course of the convention, the story goes that someone asked Abe where he needed power and he told them. No one ever told Abe that we only paid for 2 power drops. No one ever told Nathan or myself that more power drops had been necessary. Everyone on our team thought it was all handled and the people in the GSR just never told us.

So now we know. And if we’d known earlier we wouldn’t have had that issue this year. Oh well. (shrug) Next year people will be “mathing” their power for drops.

At one point everything settled down a bit and I sat down next to Thomas. Sammich had gone to bed.

Within minutes of sitting next to Thomas a woman walked up and handed me her badge and said she wanted it exchanged for a general badge.

It took me a minute or so to register what was happening. My first thought was that she wanted a printed badge. But no . . . it was a printed badge. I didn’t quite get it.

It slowly dawned on me that she had a staff badge and no longer wanted it. What? I asked a few questions trying to figure out what was going on and she apparently no longer wanted to be staff.

Uhm. We’d only been officially open for like an hour or so by that point. It could have been later in the day, but it was still pretty early Friday.

Rather than stay behind the desk and have all the reg people around I said “let’s take a walk.” We only really went around the corner inside the reg room but the room was big enough and there wasn’t anyone too close so it was private enough. What happened?

Long story short cosplay dept fell down on its communication and she didn’t want to be part of it anymore. She also didn’t want to just keep the staff badge (even though I told her she should just keep it) because she hadn’t felt like she’d earned it. Okay. No problem. I convinced her to keep her staff badge for a bit and we’d figure something out.

My first response was to get a hold of cosplay and fix the internal issue. Cosplay could not be found. I honestly don’t remember when I had her help in reg, but she ended up helping in reg. She became a wonderful addition to the registration team. Yay for us. =)

At some point Friday morning around 11-ish a woman with two kids came in and was trying to get a military discount on her self and one of the kids she was with. It was discovered that military discounts were one of the things that the new at-con UI didn’t have. Oops.

She was super-nice and extremely patient as Thomas worked on that. She came over and sat by the admin table and we chatted. There wasn’t a lot going on in reg so it was a rather pleasant chat.

She took the time to tell me about how military IDs work which was something none of us in the reg admin really knew about before. Apparently, if a person is in the military, spouse and children get military IDs as well. Children are not required to get the ID until they are something like 16 (or was it 18?). Her daughter however had hers early for a reason I’ve since forgotten, but otherwise if a parent comes in with a military ID, the children should be given the discount because they can get a military ID and would have been able to use it. Good to know. We will have to consider that going forward and may update our policy. It does extend the very permanent discount further than we’d initially anticipated but we aren’t interested in changing it at the moment.

I did see her around con a few times. She was always smiling. =)

When Sam arrived later that morning, he brought me a 6-column pad which was still perfectly fine for me. I have since determined that I need to teach registration managers some basic accounting. No one knew what to do with DR and CR written at the top of the pads even after I told a few people. I should honestly do a little tutorial on how the accounting works because if it’s understood there will be fewer mistakes. (Just remember, Debit is ALWAYS on the left!)

Sam also brought me a sandwich since I hadn’t eaten all day. I didn’t finish the sandwich until much later in the evening. He also came back with a back massager and a few things from home we needed in the hotel. The things lived behind the reg admin for most of the day until Sam had time to take most of them up to the room. The back massager stayed put. I never saw the back massager used but I did see it plugged in by the end of the weekend so someone used it at some point.

At some point in the morning the lights in reg flickered. I’m a little unsure on the timeline for this but it was after we opened at 11, and before the vendors opened at 1, so I’m guessing around 12:30ish because there was a line for vendors. I was talking to Liz when it happened and she went off to the main area to check everything else out.

Sammich had already gone to bed and it was just Thomas and me as the main admin in the area. None of the computers seemed to go down but within a minute or so the reg people started complaining that the pages weren’t loading. I think I repeated about 6 times “I know. The server is down.” Sammich had to be called down to reset it up because apparently Thomas couldn’t do it. Like . . . Sammich actually told Thomas that he couldn’t do it and he was on his way down.

I stuck around reg for a while. It was fairly low-stress since there were only a handful of people in the room. Of course, at least one of those people was complaining, but soon enough Sammich had it up and running again and all was well.

I had received a report that all the lights had gone down in the main area – I gave llama my red flashlight. After a while I received a second report that all the lights were still down in the main area. Once I was sure everything was okay in reg, I wanted to go take some pictures. Apparently it looked pretty cool with all the cell phone lights.

I tried to take Thomas’s camera but it wasn’t ready. He fumbled with it for a bit because I was NOT going to be messing with settings on a foreign camera. Screw it – I’ll just go grab mine from main stage.

I hurried off and wow . . . black in the SS Foyer. Llama had the red light going through a water bottle and was playing with it. I took it back and headed to Sam.

The Silver State main area wasn’t as dark because someone had opened various external doors to let light in. I was not sure if it was cleared through GSR security or if some attendees had made the decision. It was done so I wasn’t going to worry about it. (I did learn later that it was cleared through the GSR.)

I got the camera from Sam and just as I was walking away from main stage towards the dark SS Foyer and the lights came on. There was applause. The lights were dim and slowly brightening, but they were on and I was sad. I had just gotten the camera and I wanted to take pictures of the attendees’ lights in the dark. That camera was one of the few on site which actually could have accomplished what I wanted. I did ask one of the photographers around if he’d gotten any pics but his equipment couldn’t handle the low light. Damn. Oh, well.

The GSR was impressed at how our attendees handled the black out. Everyone pretty much just calmly pulled out their phones and continued on. Like that poster. It was pretty cool. The AV guy from before did actually talk to me again and tell me that the blackout was due to something at the power company and not us (considering all the power issues it was good to hear). Liz was still upset that he talked to me after she told him not to.

I learned later that the Walmart across the street was not allowing people inside. We had power because we were in the GSR and the GSR has generators. Can’t let the gambling stop! We’d always said that that is what would happen if the power went out and when it was put to the test this year we were right.

I took the camera back to reg, anyway, to be able to possibly take a few flavor pics. I never did anything with it and eventually Sam did come take it back.

I continued throughout the morning to attempt to track down cosplay. At 2-ish-pm I found out that at Nyandrew had stated that he and Rika would be on the floor at 1:30pm. Okay well then where were they?

They showed up at around 2:30pm.

Okay, fine. I spoke with Nyandrew and cleared up my problems with the communication about saying 1:30 and meaning 2:30. Not a big deal, really, but more communication needed. Moving on – where was Rika? I need to talk to cosplay now. I had several calls sent over the radio for cosplay to come to reg now.

I then forgot about it because I had to deal with other things. Well . . . ‘forgot’ isn’t the right word. Put it at the back of my mind for later is more correct.

I don’t know the order of events, but at 4:30pm I was on my way to catch part of opening ceremonies (or on my way from catching part of opening?) and I finally ran into Rika in the main room. I went into things with her then about her cosplay staff and the time issue since I’d been looking for her all morning. We really need to have a post-con meeting but I got things handled well enough to get it out of my mind for at least the duration of con.

I also want to mention that opening/closing ceremonies has been going so much better now that Ryan and Nathan are planning it. Even if it’s just a half hour before the show the planning has made the quality jump quite a bit. Good job, guys. =)

Most of Friday we were waiting for the rush to come in registration. In the late afternoon we finally got a bit worried that the rush had never happened. Thomas pulled up the graph to find out we had actually been busier than previous years and we hadn’t even noticed it. We were actually in the middle of the Friday spike! I was absolutely elated – we were in the middle of the rush and we couldn’t feel it. We were pushing people through very fast and we didn’t have a line. It was glorious!

At some point . . . probably Friday afternoon . . . Haku offered to help so I had him make the staff voucher sign-out sheet. Thomas gave him the staff list and he formatted a sign-out sheet. Thank you Haku! Later on a volunteer pointed out that her name was on that sheet. I gave her like $5 or $10 in vouchers for finding the mistake and we crossed all the volunteers off the list. More reason we need BACON to just generate it next year (This is coded! It makes a nice PDF). I don’t know when but at some point Sammich transferred all the yellow pad sigs to the new printout by writing “YP” on the line and putting the yellow sheets behind the new printed ones.

I don’t really know when Jenny showed up. I know she came to reg while I was in it, but the order of events on Friday have so far just been a best guess. I’m surprised how much I can remember, honestly, because before writing anything down con was mostly a blur beyond a few very large events. I don’t really know what happened when on Friday, with only a few exceptions and vague times such as “before we opened” or “before opening ceremonies.”

I’m not sure if Jenny had arrived before opening ceremonies or after. I do know that the first thing I remember her doing was giving Thomas a massage. That was one of the best things she could have done. It’s weird seeing Thomas relaxed during the con but it was a great thing to see.

We got her a radio and I introduced her to various staff members since she’d been unable to make any meetings and she was going to be my radio for a good portion of con. She was extremely pleasant and helpful. I just really hope I did not screw something up to make her not want to come back. I always worry that I am going to scare new people away.

I think Sammich was actually back from his nap by the point Jenny showed up.

Around maybe 10pm-ish I met up with another high-level staffer in the hallway (Nathan? Nyandrew?). He was on his way out of reg and I was on my way in and we just sorta stood outside reg and talked. I really don’t remember the person I stopped for, but very quickly we had a growing circle of high-level staffers in the middle of the hallway. I barely remember who was there so I won’t even try to name names.

As part of the discussion Sam found me and gave me back my thumb drive, Silverfish, then joined the circle for a bit. I remember Inuki showing the first hint of anger I think I ever remember from him. Apparently there were some kids in the hallway taunting our attendees. He’d asked them to leave and they hadn’t. Nathan went to take care of it – he almost seemed EXCITED to take care of it – but they were gone by that point.

The meeting lasted probably about 10 minutes. It was a lot of updates between each other, some good, some bad. It was generally a rather happy meeting with many laughs. Or at least that’s how I remember it.

Sometime before 11 Sammich went off to get Hentai Redub handled. I received a report back that it was going REALLY well. It was very funny. I left a reg manager in charge a little after 11 so I could catch it. I believe it was Cassie that I left in charge . . . I don’t entirely remember though.

The redub was excellent. The Kraken Con folks were in the back and Otakon Vegas was near the front. I cut around the room and went to where Sammich was. We didn’t have the monitor set up yet to see it, so I stood off to the side of the front to watch. I do not really remember much about it other than thinking it was absolutely excellent this year. Escalante had dragged Wordsound along and they had a wonderful chemistry that worked really well. I assume it’s because they’re both music guys.

The episode ended about 10 minutes to midnight. There was a quick discussion with Sammich about not knowing where Andre was to start the HMVs so we decided to run one more episode and HMVs would start maybe 10 minutes late.

At maybe 5-till-midnight I left to go help shut down reg. Andre was sitting in the hallway on his laptop. I filled him in on the change because we hadn’t known he was sitting outside. He didn’t want to come in because he wasn’t particularly fond of redubs. I completely get that, but this year was very funny. He had no problem starting a bit late and gave me some shit about him always being on time and have we ever had a problem with him. Nothing malicious, just banter.

When I was in reg helping shut down a security guy popped his head in to ask if we needed anything – “nope” – and he left.

. . . well, actually I could totally have him lock up the doors.

I ran out to catch him. By the time I caught up with him he was almost all the way down the hallway on his way to the Silver State.

I went over the various doors I needed locked. We closed down reg, workshops, and panel main, if I remember right. I returned to reg and when we were all done I took the cash and badge box with me with the intention of putting them in my room at some point in the night. Yeah, that never happened. The boxes sat behind the hentai desk underneath my backpack all night, guarded well by hentai staff.

In the hentai room I was worried about Saturday Morning Cartoons (SMC). I don’t remember much other than worrying about it and poking at Sammich to make sure we were set. He seemed unconcerned. We would need to get back into the very locked reg room.

At around 3am-ish, we left a friend of Sammich & Gordon in charge of hentai – he wasn’t staff, he was only volunteering for the con officially, but he was someone Sammich trusted so I didn’t worry about it at all. Additionally, I had met him before at a previous hentai screening night so it wasn’t like he was a stranger.

It really isn’t a big deal to get back into locked rooms at the GSR . . . especially for me as one of the names on the contract. Back in reg, Sammich focused on the task at hand which turned quickly into frustration. He thought it would be a simple task to get Internet to video main but it wasn’t. I busied myself by cleaning up and organizing the reg stations. I threw away trash, removed Friday badges from the stations, and laid out Saturday badges. I set up our little pen flower pots.

At some point while cleaning up I realized that I didn’t have Silverfish (my aforementioned thumb drive) in my pocket anymore. I searched all my pockets and couldn’t find it. While Sammich was working I went into the hallway to hunt for it a bit and use the restroom. I ran into Smokey in the hallway and told him what I was looking for. He also tried to find it and said he’d keep an eye out for it.

I don’t remember all of what happened between 3 and 6am but it was a lot of sitting and waiting and letting Sammich back into reg while he tested the internet in video main then came back to reg to poke his machines further. Eventually Thomas joined in. I think he may have been napping.

At almost 6am I left Sammich to it and headed to hentai because hentai was over and we were supposed to be starting SMC. The GSR security was unlocking Reg doors. I spoke with the rover watching the doors and at the end of the episode playing we called it – hentai was over. There weren’t many people in the room but there were people . . . people who wanted to watch some cartoons.

It was now my job to entertain the room. Sooooo we played with my flashlights. I waved them a bit – rave in the hentai room! Woo! We played shadow puppets . . . the most amusing thing, though was how wonderfully the red light lit up the inflatable penis ball. I could even make it move around inside the ball using the flashlight. That was glorious.

Soon enough Sammich reappeared in an angry huff. It was officially no-go on Internet in Video Main. We brain-stormed a few ideas but ultimately the plan became “move it to Reg!” Had this been another con we probably would have canceled but at SNAFU Con with me in the room and SMC being a personal pet of mine, I was determined – something as silly as a lack of internet would not stop me.

I picked up the projector we all took things we needed and moved to reg. On the way to reg it was noticed that Panel Main was open with the light on and no one in it. Uhm. Okay well I didn’t have time to think about it. I just closed the door so a passerby wouldn’t know it was unlocked and we headed on to reg. That early in the morning AND in the back hallway there wasn’t enough traffic for me to worry about it much.

While Sammich and Thomas were setting up the things I headed to Tech (main stage). I found Origami on the night shift and told him we’d removed tech from the room and why. And we needed sound. He got on it and split the Video Main system. We received the two monitor speakers in Reg. Always a lifesaver, Origami! =)

We actually started SMC at 7am… An hour late and in the wrong room. I did have Sammich put out a call the the room had changed. I didn’t think anyone would care but juuuust in case the staff would know. The start was a little rocky. We were in a semi-circle around the wall (screen? screw that) and some of the group was on the floor. We tried Curious George but it was just a little weird and not super funny. Finally we just put on Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood. That show never disappoints.

We watched a few episodes and we were watching it when Liz found us. Liz was in the room when the little girl cat said “I like it when the tomato squirts in my mouth” and we all just fucking lost it. Liz said she had more fun watching us than the show and stayed around a minute or so then left.

During SMC we had the doors to reg open. It was rare but people would wander in. I told them reg opened at 8am. Some were there for Saturday Morning Cartoons, others left and came back at 8am. I was the gatekeeper.

Reg opened at roughly 8am without too much trouble, I think. I don’t quite remember why I left reg but at some point I headed over to the main area. The first thing I saw entering the Silver State Foyer was two rovers sitting in chairs off to the right with a little pile of stuff around them. I did not like that. They couldn’t really do their assignment (badge checking) that way. It’s fine for late night but it was morning and people were going to be starting coming in soon.

I walked straight to them. “I don’t like this . . .”

I got them standing, spread out a bit and the stuff was moved under the peace bonding table out of sight. Much better. =) They were extremely accommodating with no resistance to what I was asking. That was really nice. I didn’t think to get their names to invite them back for next year. Oh well. Hopefully they do volunteer or staff again.

I don’t remember what it was but the female rover made a joke to an incoming attendee. The attendee smiled. I did warn her now to make jokes to attendees like that because we have a large segment of our attendees with aspergers or autism who might not interpret the joke as intended. Her response was along the lines of “OMG, I should have known. I work with special needs kids.”

In the food room I grabbed some peanut butter on a roll and came back out to the Foyer. I stood there observing things for a bit, happy not to have anything urgent going on. Freshman came over to talk to me or hug me or something and it looked like he was going for my food. I pulled away from him sharply – “My sandwich!” I repeated that and ate while he tried to hug me and insisted he didn’t want my sandwich. It was fun.

At some point while I was standing there talking with Freshman the male rover looked at me and said something like “oh, YOU’RE Beta, aren’t you?” Apparently he was actually going to ask to see my badge earlier until I said “I don’t like this” and he realized I was a decision maker. It all fell into place for him when he realized who exactly I was.

I was going to head over to Silver State main and I almost made it to the door as Joe called me back – “is this yours?” He had Silverfish! It had ended up in lost and found (I don’t remember if he said he found it or someone else did) and he had kind of remembered Sam giving it to me at the impromptu staff hallway meeting last night. Additionally when he plugged it in into a computer it was full of SNAFU stuff.

I carried Silverfish in my hands for hours after that, worried that if I put it in my pocket I’d lose it. I had lost my chap stick the same way and was suffering the rest of the convention. Thankfully, Sammich always had chap stick and let me use his repeatedly. At reg, Cassie suggested a lanyard for Silverfish and although I shrugged off the suggestion at first, I decided to try it and it worked out well. I wore it like wrist/hand jewelry for the rest of con. To date, Silverfish has not left that lanyard and the string gives it enough bulk in my pockets that I don’t usually secure it to anything unless I’m traveling.

This next thing I’m not quite sure where it falls on the timeline of con. I think it falls around here somewhere because I was standing in the Foyer when it happened. In a period of about 60-120 seconds I had a missed phone call (and/or text) from Thomas and then I had three different staff members tell me that Thomas needed me in reg. I had someone call over the radios that I had received the message and to clear the call. Shortly after clearing it on the radio Doug came up to tell me the message again.

I don’t remember what I was doing but I think I was talking to Liz because it was important enough that I wasn’t immediately on my way back to registration. As soon as whatever was handled I headed off to reg. Thomas was in a panic.

I’m not sure how many of the details I can really give but long-story-short there was a very upset person who expected a comped badge but who had been set up as a volunteer. We needed to find Abe because there was a communication problem that only he could clear up and none of us could find any records to clear it up. All con emails are archived in a central records email that we can search in situations like that but the searches did not provide anything useful. In fact the screen shot he showed me stated he was a volunteer. Volunteers pay first.

He insisted that he was supposed to have a complimentary badge. So we went to gaming to find Abe. There was no Abe. We called Abe. No answer. We texted Abe (I think). No answer.

Finally, we found Liz. Liz gave us every room number which had Abe’s name attached. We had not previously known we could do this but apparently we can actually have security do a room check on any room in our block. Well that’s good to know. We didn’t need to go that far. For now we’d just go knock.

We knocked on all four rooms.

We found Abe. Abe had been sleeping. =(

Abe cleared everything up and got things handled as needed. I felt terrible bothering him since he was sleeping and we all need sleep, but there was nothing else I could do. There were other things at play that I don’t want to go into, but it was pretty much mandatory that Abe handle this particular registration issue.

There are a few minor things I remember about that period of time. I remember going on our way back to registration to look something up and Sammich looked at me, made eye contact and said something along the lines of “oh, good” indicating he wanted me. I just flatly said “No” as I hurried past him. I think I said it twice. We were in a hurry and I was determined to solve the problem.

Thomas was panicking. He was crazy hyper. He was on the edge about to punch something, going a mile a minute, talking somewhat high-pitched, hyper. He said things he regrets. I know as the time continued I became calmer as Thomas panicked more. It was what it was. Just calm down. We’ll get it handled. We’ll find him if we have to knock on every door. . . which we did. “Hi is Abe in this room? No? Okay thank you.”

After dealing with that mess I was back in reg. I realized that Jenny didn’t know about our food room. So I took her back to it. We sat back there for a bit and ate. Other staff came and went. We talked. Small meetings in the food room are common at con and usually good things.

So, on Friday there had been an issue with the guests that I shouldn’t give any details about. There was a lot of headache trying to get all the details from the guests and Llama and Nyandrew were figuring it out most of Friday. By the end of Friday it was reported back to me that all was good. It was a misunderstanding and it was all clear.

So while Jenny and I were in the food room, Warky arrived to get some food and told me his side of the story. I wish I could repeat it. Knowing at the time that it was a misunderstanding made it a crazy funny story. Like . . . oh wow that’s insane timing. It was very, very funny.

So after we left the food room we were at his table and we were talking about things. He was talking about the issue possibly causing him not to be a guest in the future and I jokingly replied with something along the lines of “Oh, I don’t know . . . as long as you can refrain from [doing that thing that caused all the drama].” This joke was apparently overheard and we received an additional complaint about it later. I felt terrible . . . and then angry. The thing is, I never would have joked about this particular thing had I not thought that all parties involved knew it was a simple misunderstanding. With the knowledge I had, it really was simple and extremely funny and not something that needed to be kept secret. The fact that we got a second complaint about it makes it so I that I can’t even tell you what I’m so upset about. >_<

We also got a complaint that a volunteer took it upon himself to attempt to clear up the misunderstanding . . . which was handled very poorly on his part. I’m not sure how to fix that because I don’t even think he was staff . . . Of course, it was supposed to be handled by our upper staff, which it was, but since he wasn’t staff and he didn’t attend meetings he didn’t really know there was a procedure and things already happening and . . . anyway, moving on.

At some point mid-Saturday reg was running okay. I had made a few people aware that I wanted to go to the Firefly panel. I don’t remember what kept my attention but I had about 5 different people tell me that it was starting or started. I was able to go to it but I showed up a bit late.

I went to the front of the room and took a chair close to the wall. I realized very quickly that I was having trouble staying awake. It wasn’t the topic – it was really interesting – I was just THAT tired. After a few minutes of fighting with myself I decided I was being stupid because I wouldn’t be able to remember any of the panel if I spent the whole thing fighting to stay awake. I stood up against a corner of the room for the remainder of the panel and had no further problems staying awake or paying attention. It is convenient that something as simple as standing can make it SO much easier to stay awake and focused.

The room was configured such that there was a “back” corner up near the front so although I couldn’t see the back of the room, the back of the room also couldn’t see me – so if someone came in looking for me they wouldn’t be able to find me. I located myself there intentionally.

The Firefly panel was great and I wished it was longer. That seems to be the way of most of Frazetti’s panels – they need to be longer. We will be doing longer panels for him next year (of COURSE he’s invited back).

Late afternoon on Saturday, Bill showed up to reg. I was surprised and happy. I discussed with him that I wasn’t sure he was going to show – he said he wasn’t sure either. It was a very quick and easy conversation to tell him I had a new head to take over for him. He seemed glad. He apparently hadn’t even applied as staff this year. I had to do some minor reg-magic to comp his badge and we got him squared away and off he went. I don’t think I saw him again that weekend. I am under the impression that he helped a bit with the rave and then left. Oh well.

During Saturday I had hyped up the “Cult of the One Door” to Jenny and had explained it to a few others. She decided she would rather go to the two art panels (Iron Artist and Nude Art) rather than join the Cult. I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how both would be possible . . . but it simply was not. I am glad that she was so excited about the art panels, though. She showed me some of her sketches from Iron Artist and I recognized some of the cosplay (like. . . “hey, I know that person!”) – she was that good of an artist.

I am glad that our art department offers those awesome panels that people seem to love. =)

One of my reg managers, Cassie, did want to join the Cult of the One Door. I helped rush things along to get her out of reg. I think there was a partial transaction on her computer or something when we left reg because we were really out of time. I just remember calling frantically to her, something along the lines of “come on, come on, let’s go, let’s go.” We left registration at the last possible moment.

A lot of the staff and volunteers were already in a circle. Most were sitting and most of those who were sitting seemed to be new members. I wanted to stand next to Nyandrew so I had to have Felicia move a bit over. Shortly before we were about to start Ryan came and stood between me and Nyandrew. I don’t remember what he said but he wanted to be present for the speech. I told him to stand there and look intimidating.

Then we were ready to start. We call this “The Fear of God Speech” and it is the initiation into the “Cult of the One Door.”

I did my traditional stance change where I go from relaxed to closed and angry looking. First Nyandrew spoke. It was one of the best speeches he’s done with one exception – Blanca interrupted him. I wanted to throttle her for that but I said nothing . . . I just glared. There was little point and it would only weaken the speech further so I just kept quiet and waited my turn. When Nyandrew was done with his “I will pull your badge, so help me” part, I started mine.

Nyandrew’s part is all about what will get your badge pulled and it starts with “There is only one door at the rave.” If a rover lets a person through the door they are guarding they will loose their badge.

My part is a little less doom than Nyandrew’s is. I go over what to do if someone pushes past you and how to handle it such that we will not pull your badge. We aren’t unreasonable and if someone is insistent about it it’s more important that the rover is safe and doesn’t do anything stupid because they’re worried about getting their badge pulled. Any questions? There are never any questions as first. Everyone is always as quiet as a mouse . . .

I believe Whirlwind spoke next. She went over basic sign language to be used during the rave (the most important of which was alerting someone that you need to use the bathroom).

When we were done and asked for questions no one had any . . . except they did. Nathan was the one who started the questions. From there we got several others. I know at one point Ryan attempted to ask me a question to the side. It was a very good question and I told him to ask it to the circle which he did.

We really need to record this so that we can make sure we cover the questions going forward.

Sam came in partway through the speaking. He had missed Nyandrew’s portion which is the most important and from some perspectives the most amusing. He had brought in the Cult of the One Door shirts. When everyone was done and every question was answered, I had the new red shirt in hand and closed over so it couldn’t be seen. In a similarly mercurial mood switch and in my most enthusiastic and happy voice possible I called out “Welcome to the Cult of the One Door!” as I revealed the 2014 Cultist shirt.

Shirts are $10 and are only available for purchase by people who are members of the “Cult of the One Door” which are specifically people who have worked the rave since we started the idea in 2013. This includes DJs and Sound Techs, but most importantly it includes the rovers and volunteers to watch the doors. Currently, we also allow upper-staff to join by sitting through the initiation speech, but I don’t know how long that’s going to continue without some door watching involved. We always really need door watchers.

Sam had the sales book and sold the shirts to anyone who wanted one while I took down the badge numbers of everyone present in the room for our records.

After the speech I headed back to reg. Cassie stayed and helped watch doors for a while – they needed the help. I don’t know how long she helped but she did come back to registration eventually. After making sure that the shirts got recorded in Reg I went to put on my cult shirt. There was some minor drama between me and Sam since he had gotten us the wrong sized shirts. It got cleared up, though.

While I was dealing with record keeping with Thomas there was an issue at the rave. Early that day there had been a girl who had fainted. I knew her because she used to be part of Fully Unscripted. Apparently she is going through a medical issue where she is passing out for no apparent reason and without warning. Not much we could do about it. She passed out at the rave. Joy. Felicia came rushing in to reg to get water. I was frustrated and yelled at her – why the hell was she coming to reg for water? We had no water. She should be reporting this to the GSR per our procedure not running to reg. Was anyone reporting it?

My yelling caused Thomas to have a breakdown and leave. I did not see him for quite a while after that. Like Sunday, I think.

I was extremely frustrated that our procedures that we had covered in the staff meetings (report medial emergencies such as this exact situation to the GSR) were not being followed. In the end the GSR didn’t even come down because by that point she was awake and didn’t want their help so they couldn’t do anything.

Later, I remember telling reg to wrap up and I went off to the “Insert Panel.” I had brought Jenny along because in the past it was a very funny panel. However this year the hentai crew had not chosen a hentai in advance and Ryan had not had time to preview it. It really was sub-par because it was fresh. It felt more like the regular hentai room with a restriction of only three people talking. I felt bad that I’d pulled Jenny to it.

I’m not quite sure of the time when I went back to reg. I think it may have been 11:30 or so. The plan was to go close up reg. Registration had been scheduled to close at 11pm but most of us (including and especially me) forgot that fact. I came back to find reg people still pretty much doing their normal reg things.

I started pushing to close the room and get everyone out. There was a girl in the room who wanted us to stay open later for a friend of hers. She was doing her best to stall us and I was doing my best to shut down everything except the one station that she needed. I was trying to help but I wasn’t going to hold the room open any later than it already was. It was perfect timing – the guy showed up and we were able to get him his badge and close the room.

I left the room to head back to hentai at roughly midnight as the logistics team was putting their bars on the doors and a GSR staffer was just entering to refresh the room. On my way over to hentai I saw Stephen from Kraken Con. I talked to him briefly about what he’d seen in hentai the night before – he thought it was funny but Lindsey didn’t. He told me that the other con heads were meeting and talking at a table in the main area. I said I’d keep it in mind and I might stop over but I was on my way to the hentai right then.

I got over to hentai and sat down . . . and within a few minutes Sam headed straight towards me. I hate that walk and I generally get to see it every year from one head or another. This was not the first time I had been dragged out of hentai on a Saturday night because of something going on during the rave.

The rave itself was going well. I had intended on checking it out with my red flashlight but at some point between Saturday Morning Cartoons and the Rave, I had lost that flashlight. I remember spending time looking for it most of the day on and off but never found it. I think I was actually looking for that flashlight while Sam walked up to tell me that the GSR people were removing the bars from the doors that he has just put up. More than that – the guy was being a real jerk and throwing things. Sam wanted someone in charge to talk to him.

I did not want to be that person. THAT is exactly what one of Nathan’s main jobs is – to deal with the hotel. I do not and did not want to deal with the hotel when someone is being unreasonable. I went over that direction and had a quick meetup with Sam, Nyandrew, and maybe a few other people. Nathan’s off the floor? Get him back on the floor. Nathan needs to handle this. I never spoke directly with the GSR staff member.

We spent the next 5 minutes or so trying to contact Nathan and get him downstairs. I learned later that he was actually out to eat with Kylie. They couldn’t exactly hear the walkie but they kind of could. It made Kylie paranoid – she thought someone at another table was talking about them because she kept hearing their names.

While we were waiting for Nathan to come down, Bryan (Monster/Kittens/Mittens) came over to say he was going to bed. I told him that he needed to stay till the Rave was over. Bill did show up but didn’t really want to be the main guy anymore so it was on Bryan. The response was a very calm “okay.” This was another wonderful moment that put him on my good side – no arguing, no hesitation, nothing . . . just “okay.” Very mature and responsible.

Eventually we got Nathan downstairs to deal with the problem. He went into the reg room. I eventually also went into the reg room with a small party of people and we sat in the chairs along the side and pretty much waited. I was not going to get involved in this matter. The jerk eventually left as the really nice security guy from the previous night showed up to ask if we needed any doors locked. As a matter of fact, we did . . .

Nathan spoke with him. Soon there was a very official looking person from the GSR talking with Nathan. This person was much more friendly and level-headed. The response from them was something along the lines of “oh yeah, there’s another organization that does that, too.” That would be BLFC, where we got the door locks in the first place.

Nathan came and sat with us. The long and short of it was that we could lock the doors, but not while the rave was going on. Okay, well why didn’t they just say that instead of throwing a hissy fit?

We sat and we talked and we waited. Nathan made some joke about going through the doors and giving me his badge then taking it back. The joke went on to Sam who had been in and out several times to lock the doors so he handed his badge to Nathan who handed it back and said he needed to do that a few more times. So Sam handed his badge to Nathan and when Nathan tried to hand it back to Sam he refused to take it – he was free! I yelled that he wasn’t getting out of it that easily and took the badge sharply from Nathan and pinned it back on Sam’s shirt. It was all in fun.

The group of us hung out in registration waiting for the rave to end until finally the music stopped. Someone checked it out and when the rave room was completely empty Sam went to put the bars on the doors and I went back to hentai.

On my way back to hentai I was stopped by a mom and her son who had just left the hentai room. She wanted to tell me what a wonderful job we’d done with this con and how impressed she was. We were talking in the hallway for at least 10 minutes. As much as I wanted to get to hentai it is always nice to talk to someone about the con.

I went back to hentai and it seemed a bit dead. I wanted to have some fun after all the drama with the GSR and the rave (again), so we decided on running a moaning contest. I pulled out the hentai yaoi manga which had been donated by Warky and Yaoi Press (plug plug) and Sammich looked through his hentai as fast as he could to find a good scene.

He found one.

We broke out the microphones and had audience members come to the front and act! We gave a prize to anyone who participated. He proceeded to redub the hentai as it continued past the sex scenes to the point that I took down some names and emails to contact later about improv.

The excitement lasted an hour or two but eventually everything died down. Sammich put on Rance which I was happy about but there was like one person left in the room and I very quickly crashed. I do not really what time it was . . . 4am? (The rave ended at 2 and I was in hentai maybe 2 hours after that so 4am is a logical estimate.) I left it to Sammich and I headed off to sleep.

I think it was after I left hentai but before I headed up to the room that I ran into (I think) Tasha and Amber. They helped me find an unlocked bathroom (those bastards lock the bathrooms at night – what the hell). I think we talked a bit. I don’t remember why I didn’t just go up to the room . . .

I did make it up to the room and I got (I think) 3 hours of sleep. I have a vague memory of fumbling to plug my phone in and turn the fan on before passing out (I like to sleep with a fan). I also remember turning the fan off, taking a quick shower, and heading down to reg as quietly as I could. There were sleeping people in my room when I entered and left so I did my best not to disturb anyone.

Reg opened at (I believe) 8am and I met up with Sammich shortly after it was supposed to open. He was there and at his admin station. I came in brushing my hair and I was still brushing my hair when few people came in and needed assistance. There were no reg-techs in the room yet so I quickly tossed my hair up, counted in a computer and helped a few people before another reg staffer arrived. I remember having my hair brush on the table and knocking it to the floor because I felt it was ugly and needed to be off the table. I promptly forgot about it . . . leaving it on the floor until one of the staffers brought it to me later that day. Oops.

I had told the reg staff not to rush or worry too much about Sunday . . . just show up and we’ll figure it out. Sunday is a very low-key day for reg. So no one was there at opening but within about 30 minutes or so the staff started arriving.

Once I had a few reg staff to handle the flow, I began work on entering volunteer slips. Remember how back near the beginning I said that Sammich never got the volunteer desk on BACON? Well now all the volunteer slips needed to be entered by Reg. It was now Sunday and we would have people asking for their refunds . . . which we did. At first we sent people away and told them to come back later since we were just getting started. Soon enough I had Red, Jenny, and Thomas entering time and I was organizing it – I was equalizing the stacks as people worked through them, dealing with things as they came up, making change, etc. As people came up I would pull time to the top and Thomas would refund, although we eventually got other staffers refunding as well.

I remember entering volunteer slips Sunday morning and having people trying to come up and talk to me. I was trying to get the volunteer time in and couldn’t really talk . . . responsibilities and all that. I remember Sam coming up to tell me that the VIP meet & greet was starting and I almost started crying again. I wanted to go but I couldn’t. I wasn’t going to be able to get anyone to sign my con book. Sam asked if he could take my con book and have it signed for me . . . that made me feel worse because that misses the point completely.

I learned very quickly why my new cashbox system needed a “cash push” in addition to a cash pull. We needed a good way to put funds into the box because refunds were quickly draining the boxes into the negative and the way the system worked one would have to count out their box then count in at the new amount. I’d just never thought we’d need to put money in. Oops, again.

Sammich had spent the morning attempting to code a fast-entry system for volunteer time. Had I had my laptop I probably could have thrown together a fast “back-entry” system but I didn’t. My laptop was running panel/video. Sammich didn’t know the system as well as I did and he’s a much . . . cleaner coder than I am. I am all about the quick, dirty, and functional. I also can’t code on either Thomas’s or Sammich’s laptop. I’ve tried.

At some point Sam came by to warn us about improv start time. Thomas needed to be there. I had to pretty much kick Thomas out of reg because he was working hard. I had already told Sam I would be unable to make it and to make SURE he got it on video. I was depressed but couldn’t focus on that – I had work to do.

Shortly after improv had started I remember talking to Nathan about something and he left, then Llama came in all excited . . . There were two cosplayers who were peace-bonded bananas.

O.
M.
G.

I forgot all my troubles (and responsibilities) and went running off to find them. I told Nathan to come too, as he was (I believe) just outside the doors as I rushed past.

Very quickly there was a small gaggle of mostly upper-level staff members surrounding two peace bonded bananas. They looked slightly scared. xD

I asked them come over to the photo booth and one of them said that it was their friend’s costume so they had to find them and send them over, which they did. I did have to wait a few minutes at the photo booth because of that, though. I did a quick “private” photo shoot. I told them to come back later and sign a model release when Sam was in because I didn’t know where the model releases were. I don’t know if they ever did. I’ll try to remember to post a link to the pics when they’re up.

I headed back to reg pretty much immediately after that. I needed to get things done. I continued helping with the volunteer slips. Sammich had taken over Thomas’s cashbox to do refunds out of.

When things started to settle again I did find a con book and claim it to be mine. I went around and started with our guests. I got Chris, Warky, Preston, and the cosplay guests: WindoftheStars, MeanlilKitty, and Tearatone. I ran into Wordsound in the hallway and got his, even though he wasn’t an official guest he’d really won my heart that weekend and I hope to bring him in as an official guest in the future. He was a wonderful addition to the convention.

I spent the rest of the evening going from working to “sign my con book!” I generally like to get staff members to sign it who I’ve worked more closely with throughout the year or the con. This means it’s pretty much most of the heads, Fully Unscripted, the web admin, and registration staff who sign it.

At some point on Sunday I was working on the volunteer slips and noticed some of the Slants going in and out of Nevada Main with their things. It wasn’t much of a concern to me at the time. As far as I knew they were simply loading up their vehicle. Unfortunately they were doing exactly that and then they left. They didn’t tell anyone (that I’ve talked to) that they were leaving . . . they just left. That is why they did not attend closing ceremonies. I never was able to get them to sign my con book because of it, as well. I am a bit bitter about it.

At some point mid-Sunday, I got to meet with Kraken Con and Otakon Vegas heads in reg and talk for a little bit. It was only a few minutes before I began to be swarmed by staff needing me. Oh well. =)

Before Stephen and Lindsey left on Sunday I did get to talk to them a little further. Kraken Con are really wonderful people.

Late on Sunday after we hadn’t had any badge purchases for a while Sammich asked if we could close up reg. The decision was that while we could stop selling registrations, we couldn’t pack everything up because of volunteer refunds. Sammich made the call over the radio that registration was closed and we were officially badgeless. I think we need to determine the cutoff time for next year, but all-in-all it worked out.

Last year we didn’t go badgeless until closing ceremonies started, I think.

I think it was after reg was officially closed that Cassie reminded me that I had wanted to get some pictures of her since her outfit was so cool. I did another private photo shoot for her then I think the photo booth was torn down shortly after.

Sam came to reg and borrowed an empty cash box for the charity auction. After last year the staff were all VERY careful about the funds. Nothing was lost this year! =D

After the charity auction the box arrived back at registration with a piece of orange tape across it labeling it “Charity Auction.” That box remained locked until I sent the NHS their funds in December. I believe we sent them over $800. Good job, everyone.

I mostly hung out around reg for the remaining time that evening. We got the final logistics volunteers refunded then closed up. As much as Sam hates it, the end of con is when I feel all the burden lift from me. I finally don’t have any serious responsibilities remaining. Sam takes over and he makes sure things go where they need to and that things get done right. I trust him to get it done and I can finally relax a bit. I can’t leave the con floor, but I can relax. A bit.

Various staffers and whatnot ended up in registration talking. I remember Sam coming in and getting annoyed that the room was not finished and we were just talking. So, I did my thing, rallying the people, and we moved everything that was in reg over to the Silver State room.

We were all hungry and went to attack the remaining staff food. I was really annoyed to find that it had already been picked over. Staff food should not be divvied up until the very end . . . like the end of teardown. I was aware of some of the things which were missing and they were substantial. New policies for next year. So now I’m even more annoyed that we need a policy for the staff food of all things.

We pretty much waited for gaming to come back with the truck. The vendors had apparently left a ton of boxes in the vendor room. Nathan and a few others had quite a fun time destroying “boxville.”

FYI, it is VERY cold in the silver state waiting for a truck on Sunday night.

Once we had an empty truck we all pitched in to put the last of the things in the truck. We got it done then went upstairs for food. It was a fairly large party and we all dug into our pockets to find the last of our food coupons. Score! We had like $200 in food coupons between all of us. We each had to pitch in just a few dollars for our meals.

The post-con dinner party is one of my favorite things. We’re all tired and in general very euphoric from con being over. It’s a lot of shared stories and laughing.

Freshman and Cassie came back with Sam and me to sleep in our hotel room. They were going to help in the morning with the truck.

Monday morning was a very fuzzy thing. I don’t quite remember what time we were supposed to be up but I believe we went downstairs a little late. We did meet up with everyone who was supposed to meet us with like two exceptions who had slept in accidentally.

We got the truck unloaded at storage, got the tables to the table place, and all went to lunch at Kings Buffet. Kings Buffet is terrible. Some of our party had had good experiences there before, but it was really bad this time. We did enjoy having food together and discussing con again. Freshman has lots of wonderful ideas about con.

We split and I was happy not to have to drive this year. I had been determined not to drive myself up to Reno and it paid off – Sam drove home and I didn’t have a scary drive home! I do not remember the drive home at all anymore so I can not tell you if I slept for sure but I think I stayed awake most of the way to help Sam stay awake.

We picked up the cat on the way home and I think I passed out very quickly after getting home. I slept for 14 hours and over the next two weeks I was sleeping between 9 and 11 hours a night to slowly fix my sleep deficit.

The farther away I get from con the better it went. Immediately after con I was not super impressed with this year. Oh well. There were a lot of awesome things which happened and we know we have a lot to work on going forward. It is a process.

Other short memories I can’t place in the timeline:

• I don’t know when, but I had registration people count all of our shirts and dice for registration inventory. They worked on it together when they weren’t handling attendees. Good job, reg staff and volunteers, and thank you!

• We had a new inventory sales system this year (previous years was a piece of paper). This new system didn’t work with the cash boxes too well. Once we started selling product in registration I was told repeatedly that the counts were off. We still haven’t nailed down the bug involved. My repeated response was that it was okay – just make sure the counts are accurate. The system was off.

• There are definitely more than a few things I can’t talk about this year. We had a lot of impromptu staff meetings this year. There was one in one of the small offices in the back hallway, there were several in registration, and there was one upstairs in the hallway. Here’s hoping next year has fewer emergency meetings and more “things are all awesome” meetings.