![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Arisia recap
Jan. 20th, 2025 08:26 pmLast weekend I went to the local science-fiction convention, Arisia. There was an enormous amount of chaos surrounding this convention. I am not privy to why the convention committee all resigned or whatever and a brand-new one appeared in the middle of the planning, but chaos kind of showed in the execution of the convention. They also had lost their hotel, so they had to scramble to get a different one, again not privy to any details here. The different one has been used in the past, but it's really not big enough. I didn't remember how too small it was; I think the last time they had it there my kids were small and so my needs were modest and focused on kids stuff.
They also have been taken over by "accessibility Nazis": I'm all about accessibility (e.g. I put alt text on my images) but roping off a hotel space because it is only accessible by stairs and not allowing people who can use stairs to utilize the space seems ridiculous when space was at a premium.
I'm a little concerned that somebody will notice that the "stairclimbing contest" is not accessible and not allow it next time. It's kind of fun: the hotel is a pyramid, and the fire stairs just go down along the side from floor 14 down to floor 4, so you have this long mountain that you are descending or ascending. So the previous time we had this hotel somebody had the "Climb Mount Arisia" idea. Last time some people actually brought climbing gear and ropes and played around with that (though most people just walked up with their feet). This time it was just walking up the stairs with your feet. I'd say that about 50 people participated. If you got to the top, you got a sticker, and if you did it more than once you got a star on your sticker. I did it twice. It's quite a lot of work to climb up 16 floors, some of which are double height. (Although 13 is absent so maybe that makes up for that.) This time somebody had a bunch of small posters printed up about "if you got this high it's the same height as some pyramid in Central America" or "some other pyramid in Egypt is much taller than where you are now" or something related to climbing, mountains, pyramids, or just height. They also got this found art.
I spent a bunch of my time volunteering in the game room and in the goat check (typo of coat). It's fun because you get to see a lot of people; I caught up with a couple of people I hadn't seen in a few years because they wanted to check their goat. (Some people actually did check stuffed goats; much hilarity ensued and a lot of photos taken of said goats by other customers checking their coats.)
I think if I didn't volunteer, there wouldn't quite be enough stuff that I want to do, and I would be bored. In fact, I did read a moderate amount of my book while there. But maybe I would actually play more games instead of just proctoring the room. Perry came with, and spent 95% of his time in the game room, where he played a number of games. Seems like every time I was looking for him, he was in a game, rather than just lurking and wishing he was in a game. The only T-shirt that I got was the one that I got for volunteering. The dealer's room was less than half the size that I think it usually is, and there was nobody selling T-shirts. (A lie: there were people selling T-shirts from whom I had bought T-shirts the previous year and did not want another one just like it.) There weren't a lot of booksellers, though I did end up buying 5 books.
They also have been taken over by "accessibility Nazis": I'm all about accessibility (e.g. I put alt text on my images) but roping off a hotel space because it is only accessible by stairs and not allowing people who can use stairs to utilize the space seems ridiculous when space was at a premium.
I'm a little concerned that somebody will notice that the "stairclimbing contest" is not accessible and not allow it next time. It's kind of fun: the hotel is a pyramid, and the fire stairs just go down along the side from floor 14 down to floor 4, so you have this long mountain that you are descending or ascending. So the previous time we had this hotel somebody had the "Climb Mount Arisia" idea. Last time some people actually brought climbing gear and ropes and played around with that (though most people just walked up with their feet). This time it was just walking up the stairs with your feet. I'd say that about 50 people participated. If you got to the top, you got a sticker, and if you did it more than once you got a star on your sticker. I did it twice. It's quite a lot of work to climb up 16 floors, some of which are double height. (Although 13 is absent so maybe that makes up for that.) This time somebody had a bunch of small posters printed up about "if you got this high it's the same height as some pyramid in Central America" or "some other pyramid in Egypt is much taller than where you are now" or something related to climbing, mountains, pyramids, or just height. They also got this found art.
I spent a bunch of my time volunteering in the game room and in the goat check (typo of coat). It's fun because you get to see a lot of people; I caught up with a couple of people I hadn't seen in a few years because they wanted to check their goat. (Some people actually did check stuffed goats; much hilarity ensued and a lot of photos taken of said goats by other customers checking their coats.)
I think if I didn't volunteer, there wouldn't quite be enough stuff that I want to do, and I would be bored. In fact, I did read a moderate amount of my book while there. But maybe I would actually play more games instead of just proctoring the room. Perry came with, and spent 95% of his time in the game room, where he played a number of games. Seems like every time I was looking for him, he was in a game, rather than just lurking and wishing he was in a game. The only T-shirt that I got was the one that I got for volunteering. The dealer's room was less than half the size that I think it usually is, and there was nobody selling T-shirts. (A lie: there were people selling T-shirts from whom I had bought T-shirts the previous year and did not want another one just like it.) There weren't a lot of booksellers, though I did end up buying 5 books.
