Revel writes...

June 23
Woke up late, but there was nothing that morning I was in a rush to get to. Trip to the food court and back, I checked out to see if there were any bids on the art and took a walk through of the auction items. I did a little sketching for BrooklynX and greeted a few guest as they came and went.
Got to talking to Nikki about next year and she was more than happy to show off the brochures she had brought. She definitely had done a good job all weekend pimping Pigeon Forge to anyone who was interested. I certainly am excited to head that way next year.
The Radio play was the Mirror and it was great to have Keith David at the helm. He's as much fun to watch as he is to listen to. Crispin's Scottish I think had a bit too much of a pirate twist to it, but made the girls swoon and everyone else laugh.
Dinner was Hotdog on a stick because I love corndogs and never get to have them anymore. Though as I was putting mustard on my plate I had a little girl call me weird for putting a little mustard on my French fries as well…. Me, weird?… nah.
While we waited for Blue Mug we were hanging out in Aaron and Mara's room again and Nikki decided to put on an anime. It was a really bad hentai with all the bad things you can imagine including no story plot. Was funny though.
We knew getting to the consuite early was important, but it was a lot smaller than I imagined. Yes we were loud, that many people it's impossible not to be. But we had fun while it lasted. Greg's a robot, Thom says Lex is still horny, Crispin and Thom were bad, and Keith sang and told stories. Eventually we got kicked out, but not in a graceful way. This is where the hotel staff really balked. We have had other hotels be very accommodating, why, because we are paying guest. But this staff, more than just one was very rude. Should have given them the finger.
Moving on.
After they told us we couldn't go to the convention rooms or hang out in the Foyer a small group went to the bar, I got a Jack and Coke. It was mostly just small talk going about. After it closed we hung outside for a bit but eventually, once again, we were kicked out of that as well. This time by some wedding rehearsal guest. Who does wedding rehearsal at 1am, honestly?
After getting told to leave that many times bed was in order.

June 24
Being that it was now Sunday several of the food court establishments were not open yet when we got up to eat, but the hot sandwich place was, was really good too.
I caught the tail end of the comic panel and stuck around to take pictures. I said hello to Hedgecock, whether you like his art or not, I thought it was important to at least show him some respect.
I did attend the Voice actors panel, because I love to hear their stories and what people will ask. I have no idea why I decided to stand in the corner, not like I was on security detail, but it did give me a good view of the room, sorry if it made anyone uncomfortable.
Morgan Sheppard was a lot of fun to hear, and hearing all their stories on their favorite and least favorite moments in the biz was very interesting. Thom was late, he went for food. I ragged him a bit, but Thom is great like that, you can play with him like just another guest.
Once again during the signing I hung back and took pictures. GregX and I chatted a bit about how the con was going and general chit chat. We had mentioned how neither of us had seen Steve Blum yet when he walked up. Got to shake his hand and say hello but had to usher him to the W.I.T.C.H. panel that had already started.
I had a few things that Spacie wanted signed and she was in her own panel, a Hellsing DVD for Crispin to sign and a Big O poster for Steve Blum. The signing was running long with so many guest in a little room I had to point it out to Greg Weisman.
Aaron, Gside, and I went up to the con suite to try and see the other music videos that were not shown, but there was no VCR to play them on, that was rather disappointing, but I did snag a few pieces of pizza.
Just for fun I then dropped in on the Drawing Erotica panel. Mara and Kyt lead this one well. Not sure if anyone learned anything but was a lot of fun and I think everyone else would agree.
Spacie dressed nice for Banquet and I'll have to admit after seeing Tony in his sharp suit, I felt like a slob. Nevertheless the food was good and we had several good conversations with Patrick Archibald about direct to DVDs, story boards, and his current projects.
After a second helping and listening to the guest and a few questions we readied for Masquerade. To be honest I thought me as Brode just didn't work. At least as Dracon I had a fairly similar body type. Brode is more bulky, but I did my best effort at a cheap bastardized eastern Euro/Russian accent. (I improved so lines on walk out and had to do it again because the music was too loud.) I plan to have a better costume next year. And I'm not afraid to agree that Tony has no shame, he would probably say so. There were not many costumes, but the ones there were, were great.
Afterwards I took pics and looked forward to continuing the Blue mug we were kicked out of the night before. It was a more intimate setting this time, more space and less people, plus Michael Reeves joined us. I was honored and pleased to hear that Greg W not only liked this one particular piece of my art that he loved the concept of a bearded Thailog that Greg X and I came up with just in random conversations. Eventually we reached a good stopping point and crashed.

June 25
Got up as early as my fatigue would let me. Cons burn you out. Anyhow, I wanted to make Greg's Time travel panel and I only missed the first few minutes. Quantum physics can give you a headache, but is fun nevertheless.
I then made it to my only other panel, which I felt really under qualified for, Digital Rendering. I do well, but I'm the first to admit I'm still just starting, especially when compared to people like Steph, Karine, and Kyt, all three who are professional artist. Anyhow, the panel was a blast, Steph is great to watch in action, very energetic. She has a photoshop brush named WEEE!!!
Closing Ceremonies was very quick, almost too quick, but it was over. It was a good con and assuming nothing goes horribly wrong we'll be at the next one.
Dinner was in the Food court again and the hang out was Aaron and Mara's room. We had lots of visitors though. Leo stopped by, Allaine said goodbye, was nice to talk to him more this year.
WE had to crash a little early, and loaded the van that night so as to just get up and run in the morning. We had a long way to go.

June 26
Had a slight irritation with the desk clerk at check out. She didn't even ask if we were splitting the room payment and just put the WHOLE THING on my card. Then she didn't know how to refund it. That killed a half hour. Very annoying.
I took first leg and got us all the way to El Paso. That was about 12 hours of driving, but add two hours for time zones. We could have stopped but after eating at a Chili's we felt pretty refreshed and pressed on all the way to San Antonio. Which was fine, saved money. We got in SA at about 6 in the morning and just crashed.

June 27
Slept a lot, hung out in San Antonio and read my comic again and most of the Anthology. We left the next day for Houston and thus returned to normal working life

Ending Gathering 2006.
See you in Tennessee!