Category Archives for Conventions

Posts about conventions I go to, including Gen Con, Pop Con, Indiana Toy and Comic Expo, and others.

Wrangling the post-event blues

As I’m writing this, I’m two days out from the end of Gen Con 2024, and I just saw the following post in the Fans of Gen Con Facebook group:

I need a term for the way I’m feeling being back at home and work and real life today. Is “AfterCon Blues” a thing? 🥺🥺

“AfterCon Blues”, or what I often call “post-event drop”, is very much a thing. You spend 2-4 days among a bunch of like-minded people, all excited about a specific thing – gaming, anime, LARPing, or something else you enjoy. You’re super excited about everything going on. You end up chatting with a lot of people you’ve never met before, maybe even make some new friends in the process. You go to lots of fun events, and maybe don’t get quite as much food/water/sleep as you usually do because you’re so very focused on all the fun that’s happening. You probably spend a little too much money on all sorts of cool goodies you’ve been wanting to buy for a while. Then the event ends, you go home, and it’s back to your normal day-to-day life: work, chores, pets who missed you very much while you were gone. You’re happy to be back at home in your own bed, but you miss the excitement of the event you just got back from, and you feel a little depressed. (Maybe even more than a little.) What do you do?

Well, here’s The Crafty Nerd’s guide to wrangling the post-event blues, based on my own personal experiences. Not everything here may apply to everyone, but hopefully at least some of it will be helpful to folks who are coming off of a convention, LARP weekend, or other event and are feeling a bit of that post-event drop.

Take care of yourself physically.

This is probably the most important thing to keep in mind. You may have been pushing your limits over the past few days, and likely didn’t feel it because of all that adrenaline and excitement fueling you during the event. However, I bet you’re feeling it now – you might be sore from walking many, many more miles than you usually do during a given day, and extra tired from not getting quite enough sleep. Chances are you might even be fighting off an impending case of the dreaded “con crud” – or, in other words, whatever virus was running rampant through the crowds at the event. (These days, it’s likely covid instead of your standard cold.)

Because of all of that, it’s important to take care of yourself physically when you get home. Take a day off work after the event to give yourself time to recover. Get to bed early if you can, or sleep in late the next day to help catch up on that sleep debt. Drink plenty of water or electrolytes to help yourself re-hydrate. And if you think you’re getting sick, make sure to take some extra time to recuperate if you can. Stay hydrated, get extra rest, and test yourself for covid to see if that’s what you’re dealing with or if it’s just a regular garden variety cold.

For me, I know that when I push myself extra hard, I’m likely to experience some bad burnout after an event like Gen Con, so I make sure to take a day off work afterwards and try to be extra gentle with myself. I typically let myself sleep in as late as I need to, and make sure to drink extra water to help me rehydrate because I know I’m terrible at staying hydrated well at big events. If I think I’ll have the energy to drag myself out of the house on my recovery day, I may even schedule a massage to help loosen up those angry muscles I’ve overused by walking 20+ miles while carrying a heavy backpack over the course of four days. I also make sure to eat a little bit more than usual once I get home to help make up for the fact that I’ve burned way more calories than my body’s used to burning.

Take care of yourself emotionally.

Post-event depression sucks. You’ve just come back from a great event – but you wish it were longer or happened more frequently. You may have seen friends you only get to see during this event, and you miss them already. You don’t want to go back to work, you just want to have another day of that awesome event.

Or, instead of post-event depression, you’re experiencing a post-event meltdown. You’ve completely drained your social batteries and are so overwhelmed that you just want to melt down and cry. It’s good to be home, but you did so much over the past few days and you just can’t anymore.

Or you’re dealing with both, which is a special kind of post-event miserableness that I end up experiencing pretty regularly. It sucks a lot. 😅 Whatever you’re going through, it’s important to take care of yourself emotionally, too. What does that entail, though? It’s different for everyone – for example, it might help some people to spend some time with friends and be social, while for others you might need some quiet alone time with your pets and some comforting TV shows. Think about what helps you when you’re struggling, and try and do that to help beat the post-event depression or mitigate the meltdown.

When it comes to taking care of myself emotionally, I tend to hang out in the online social groups focused on the event to help keep the excitement alive a little longer – with Gen Con, I spend a lot of time in the Fans of Gen Con group, and after a LARP event I’ll be more active on the group’s Discord server. Even when I’m feeling overwhelmed, interacting with people online doesn’t drain my social batteries nearly as much as in-person interaction, so this way I can still stay connected to folks without adding extra stress to my already worn-out self. If I’m overwhelmed as heck – which I usually am after an event like Gen Con – I need that alone time, so I make sure I’ve got time to decompress after the event. This year, my post-Gen Con decompression time involved throwing on some Star Trek, snuggling with Hannah, and occasionally poking through the goodies I got at the con. (And crying a little, because sometimes I just need a good cry to release some of that emotional pressure, so to speak.)

Find what works best for you, and make a note of it for next time.

Again, not everything I suggested here will apply to everyone. A lot of this is based on my own experiences, which are admittedly different than most folks due to being neurodiverse. However, maybe some of these suggestions will help, and might give you a starting point to figure out what will help you fight off the post-event blues. And when you do figure out what helps you the most, make a note of it for the next time an event comes around – this way, you’ll be prepared to take care of yourself should you start feeling a little depressed or rough after you get home from the next big convention or LARP game.

Gen Con 2024: I needed this

I’m currently sitting here in the Crossroads Corridor at the Indiana Convention Center, Doomslug hanging out by my side, waiting to see if any more folks from the Fans of Gen Con group want to come grab badge ribbons, and soaking in the last couple of hours of the Best Four Days in Gaming.

Plush yellow and blue slug wearing a miniature Gen Con 2024 badge with the name Doomslug on it sits on the floor of the Indiana Convention Center with a pile of The Crafty Nerd badge ribbons in front of it.

… yes, I made Doomslug her own badge, I know I’m ridiculous

I needed this. The past four days have been a lot, especially since I haven’t been to Gen Con since 2019, but I missed this so much that I’m actually on the verge of getting weepy right here in the middle of the convention center. (That’s probably due to a mix of exhaustion, overwhelm, and not getting enough food to fuel the 15k+ steps I’ve been walking per day since Wednesday, heh.)

I was a little nervous about coming back to Gen Con after not attending in person in so long. The past few years have not been great on my mental health, and I get overwhelmed a lot more easily than I used to – and I wasn’t sure how well I’d be able to handle being around approximately 70,000 other gamers, especially considering the largest event I’d been to before this was the Statewide IT Conference at work this year. (There were around 900 attendees there, if I remember right.)

Crowd of people socializing at The Stink, an event hosted by Indy Mavens on Wednesday at Gen Con.

Photo by Indy Mavens. Look who’s doing a tiny photobomb in the lower left corner!

Thankfully, the Gen Con community – or at least the people I interacted with personally here – is still as awesome as ever. I feel like this year more than ever, I’ve seen so many people out there taking care of their fellow con-goers. I saw folks posting in the Fans of Gen Con Facebook group that they found someone’s badge or other lost items and brought them to lost and found, con clerics wandering around to help with costume issues and basic first aid needs, and helping people find where to go for specific items they were looking for. I even did what I could to help by sharing hand sanitizing wipes, telling folks where they could find things like locking pin backs and fancy hand fans (I sent so much business towards the Geeky Endeavors booth during the con!) and even giving a spare mask to Liby of Bloomington Stitchery while they held down the fort at the Different Drummer Belly Dancing booth. (And tried not to go into awkward fangirl mode when I saw them there, haha. 😅 )

This was a weird Gen Con for me. It’s the first year I’ve flown solo for the most part, and my first Gen Con without Rana since we met in 2013. I ended up doing things differently this year – I didn’t take as many cosplay pictures as I’ve done in the past, and I didn’t sign up for a lot of events. I did, however, finally hand out some Crafty Nerd badge ribbons I bought in 2019 to hand out in 2020 – and that resulted in me talking to a lot more people than I normally would at Gen Con. (If you found your way here after snagging a badge ribbon from me, welcome!)

In general, going to Gen Con this year felt like coming home again after a long, exhausting adventure. Things are different, of course, and I’m a very different person than I was when I last attended, but it was still so good to be here. I’ll be posting in detail about my Gen Con experience over the coming days, so if you want to hear more about my Gen Con 2024 adventure, stay tuned!

Gen Con 2024: t-minus 8 days

Gen Con 2024 is a little over a week away, and I feel like maybe I’m actually ready for the con! (Well, mostly ready, anyway.)

Costuming: a change of plans

It’s not entirely unheard of that I change my mind about costumes for Gen Con, but I don’t usually change my mind with a week to go until the convention. 😅 In my last post, I vaguely referenced recycling a costume for this year’s Gen Con – the plan there was to go as Ezri Dax instead of Jadzia, since I’m a lot closer in height and body shape to Ezri than I am to Jadzia. (Terry Farrell, who played Jadzia, is six feet tall – which I didn’t realize until I heard her mention it on an episode of The Delta Flyers recently. For comparison, I’m a little over five feet tall, so I was more of a mini-Jadzia when I cosplayed her in 2019, haha.)

However, drawing on all those Trill spots by hand is a labor-intensive process, and I don’t entirely have the spoons at the moment to wrangle creating temporary tattoo versions of Trill spots, so I decided to go with something easier: I’m going to dress as Ëlinyr, possibly for all four days! (She’s definitely got a big enough wardrobe to make that happen.)

Granted, Ëlinyr’s looking a little different than she was last time I talked about her much on the blog…

Photo of myself as Ëlinyr - I'm wearing elf ears, and a pair of tiny red horns are attached to my forehead. Red swirls are visible on my cheeks and forehead.

During the 2023 season of Kishar, due to some fey nonsense involving one of her partners, Ëlinyr ended up feytouched! Which involves some fun new makeup, horns, and a lot of body glitter, haha. If you’re at Gen Con and want to say hi, the easiest way to find me is to look for the elf ears, red horns, and red swirlies on my face. (I’ll likely be wearing a different red dress each day, too.)

Other convention prep: business cards and badges

I mentioned in my last post that I ordered some new business cards – they came in a few weeks ago, and I love how they turned out! Here’s Shallan from Brandon Sanderson’s Stormlight Archives series showcasing the old business card with the new one:

Close up of a desk mat featuring Shallan Davar from Brandon Sanderson's Stormlight Archives series, with two business cards for The Crafty Nerd on top of the mouse mat. One uses the old branding colors of dark magenta and gold, and the second uses the newer branding colors of teal and gold.

Hopefully I’ll end up handing out lots of the new business cards this year – I want to get back into the swing of regularly posting in the blog, and who knows, maybe I’ll make some contacts at Gen Con this year that’ll result in some new content for the blog.

I also dug out something I originally bought to hand out at Gen Con 2020, but we all know how 2020 went – so these ended up languishing in a drawer in my desk for most of the past five years… until now:

Gold badge ribbons that say "The Crafty Nerd" on one line and " I found her!" for the second line. Both lines of text are done in metallic purple font. One badge is set aside and has a yellow label stuck over the second line of text that says "That's me!"

Badge ribbons! Almost everyone at Gen Con loves collecting badge ribbons, and right after Gen Con 2019, I made these so I could hand them out at Gen Con 2020 as part of a “here’s what I’m cosplaying as today, come find me!” thing I was going to do.

Well, it’s four years later than I’d planned, but I’m still excited to trade these babies with other people who are handing out badge ribbons at Gen Con (like the person in the Fans of Gen Con group who made ribbons featuring the pattern of the old Indiana Convention Center carpet) or hand them out to folks who ask nicely! If you’re going to Gen Con as well and want a ribbon of your own, keep an eye out for my “That’s me!” badge ribbon at the top of my ribbon collection.

My Gen Con schedule

I’m not signed up for quite as many things as I’ve done in past years, but that’s okay – I’d rather avoid overwhelming myself by packing my schedule with events. Here’s what I’ll be up to at Gen Con, for those curious:

Thursday, August 1st

  • 11:00 am: Bradley Beaulieu Book signing (if you haven’t read any of Bradley Beaulieu’s books, they’re great – I highly recommend the Song of the Shattered Sands series!)
  • 2:00 pm: Cross-Stitch: Make a Dice Tray

Friday, August 2nd

  • 1:00 pm: Cross-Stitch: Intermediate and Advanced Stitching

Saturday, August 3rd

  • 3:35 pm: Different Drummer Belly Dancers at the Costume Contest Pre-Show (I’m really excited about this – this is my friend Margaret’s belly dancing troupe, and my work friend Katie sang on a recording that DDBD will be dancing to in the costume contest pre-show!)
  • 5:00 pm: Mark Gunn: Sci Fi Irish Drinking Songs in a Kilt

Sunday, August 4th

  • 11:00 am: Star Trek: Into The Unknown Learn to Play

Aside from that, I plan on wandering around the convention center in costume, looking for awesome cosplays to take pictures of (with permission, of course!), and braving the Exhibit Hall to visit some of my favorite vendors and artists, and find new enamel pins to add to my collection. I’m also considering bringing the Sailor Moon quilt I bought in 2019, pieced in 2020, and quilted in 2022 to show off to Quiltoni at the Craft Hackers booth, since I bought the kit from her and am really proud of how it turned out!

I’m also going to try to do daily coverage of Gen Con like I’ve done in the past, in addition to the usual cosplay and haul posts – who knows, maybe I’ll camp out at the Starbucks at the JW Marriott with my laptop and write posts there like I did in 2013. I’m really excited about going back to Gen Con after so long – hopefully I’ll run into some of you there!

Gen Con: t-minus one month

I feel like I’m super behind on Gen Con prep this year, y’all.

And we’ve only got a month until the convention.

A still frame from the anime Sailor Moon, showing Usagi looking very panicked.

aaaaaaaaagh

I mean, I’ve registered for some events, which is something. And even though it’s technically a recycled idea, I do have a plan for a cosplay outfit. (Just one, though. And I need to make something for it and check to see if the wig I bought for it a few years ago is still in good shape.) I’ve got a couple of games I want to try out, and I’m planning on picking up a game I backed on Kickstarter, Cyber Pet Quest, at the convention.

And I finally got off my butt and put together a business card that matches the blog’s new branding, and ordered new business cards! (It only took me, what, two years?)

A digital version of the print business card I designed to match the teal branding of The Crafty Nerd I started using about two years ago.

Even with all this, though, I still feel like Gen Con snuck up out of nowhere. Maybe because it’s been five years since I last went to an in-person Gen Con, and my life is a lot different than it was back in 2019. Maybe because I’ve been pushing myself in too many directions all at once lately without enough rest, and it feels like time’s flying by as a result. Maybe it’s a combination of the two. 🤷‍♀️

I’m still beyond excited to be going to Gen Con again, though. And hey, like I said in my last post, maybe this’ll be the spark that gets me posting regularly again, rather than just looking at my Crafty Nerd desk mat on my desk and feeling vaguely sad about not blogging enough! 😂

Going back to Gen Con

Yes, I’m headed back to Gen Con this year! I bought a four-day badge, got lucky and got one of the mythical attached hotels, and waited patiently for my wish list of events to process yesterday and got into almost every event on my list.  

I know, it’s a little weird that I haven’t posted about it all until now, but up until event registration happened, it didn’t quite feel real. I didn’t think about what events I wanted to go to until last week. Heck, I still haven’t entirely decided on what cosplays I’m going to do, and y’all know how excited I get about cosplay. (I’m currently waffling between a couple of ideas that I’ll probably write about here soon.)  

A weird Gen Con 

This year’s Gen Con is going to be a weird one for me for several reasons. It’s the first year I haven’t gone as press since 2013 – which feels weird, but given that I haven’t regularly updated the blog in about four years, I didn’t even bother applying for a press pass this year. Maybe next year, if I can get back into the habit of posting regularly enough.  

It’s also going to be the first Gen Con without Rana since the year we met at the convention. In 2020 and 2021, we spent some time talking about how we were still going to go to Gen Con together even though we’d split up, and even talked about what cosplays we might do. It’ll be weird, being at Gen Con without her, especially since Gen Con was such a big part of our lives and was the reason we met. It’s going to be weird, going without her.  

In addition, this is going to be the largest event I’ve gone to since Gen Con 2019. A lot’s happened in the five years since then, and the first convention I’ve gone to since Indiana Toy and Comic Expo back in late 2019. I’ve been to a few work conferences since then, and went to the Kate Mulgrew talk in 2022 back when she came to visit the Captain Janeway statue, so it’s not like I’ve been a hermit the entire time. The largest of those events topped out at 900 people, though, and it was exhausting for me to be around so many people. Being around large groups of people wears me out way more than it used to pre-pandemic, and I’m not sure how well I’ll be able to handle Gen Con as a result. I’m not letting it scare me away from going, though.  

A good Gen Con 

Despite all the weirdness, though, I think it’s also going to be a good Gen Con. I got into almost all the events I had in my Wish List (sadly, the Mistborn CCG and Star Trek CCG demos I had on my wish list sold out before my list got processed), including two cross stitch classes hosted by Craftigurumi that I’m really looking forward to. (I mean, come on, this is me – did you expect me to go to Gen Con and not sign up for some sort of crafting class?) And speaking of Gen Con crafting, I’m even considering bringing the Sailor Moon quilt I worked on at Gen Con 2020 to the Craft Hackers booth so I can show Toni of Quiltoni the finished project, since I’m pretty damn proud of how it turned out and want to show it to her.  

I’m also approaching Gen Con with the understanding that I probably will get overwhelmed as heck, and won’t necessarily be running around everywhere as much as I used to, and that’s okay. Lots of my friends are going to Gen Con this year, so if I need someone to help me figure out food because I can’t brain, or just want someone to sit with me someplace quiet in the ICC while I take some time to wind down, I know someone’ll be able to help me out there.  

Also: it’s been too dang long since I did any cosplay, and I’m starting to get excited about exploring different cosplay ideas that have been bouncing around in my head. (And if I can’t really make any of them work, there’s always the old fallback of wandering around Gen Con as Ëlinyr – especially now that I’ve got better costuming pieces for her! But that’s a topic for yet another post.) 

Counting down the days 

Screenshot of the Gen Con countdown from the Gen Con website, featuring artwork of Genevieve the Dragon with the text "Countdown to Gen Con: 73 Days"

As I’m writing this post, it’s 73 days until Gen Con – about two and a half months until the best four days in gaming happens. I’m hoping going back to Gen Con will get me back into the swing of things with the blog here. It’s been way too long since I posted regularly, and I miss being able to say “yeah, I have a blog, it’s The Crafty Nerd” without being embarrassed by how quiet it’s been over here over the past few years. Maybe Gen Con 2024 will help me get past that. 😊  

Nerdy Tidbits: July 6th, 2022

Yes, it’s the return of Nerdy Tidbits – a collection of random little things that may not quite warrant an entire post, but are still things I want to talk about. This edition of Nerdy Tidbits focuses on the soundbooth I’m working on, a cosplay idea I have, and some of my new favorite TV shows.

The soundbooth: a progress report

If you follow The Crafty Nerd on Facebook or Instagram, you’ve likely seen me post about the tiny home soundbooth I’ve been working on. It’s been eating up a lot of my spare time this week, especially in the mornings when it’s not oppressively hot in the attic. As a result, I’ve made a lot of progress on getting it put together!

View through the doorway into my soundbooth - black and teal felt tiles are visible on the walls.

A sneak peek at the soundbooth!

A lot of that progress is due to discovering that my quilting tools are also useful for to slicing up felt sound dampening tiles. The cutting mat, rotary cutter, and quilt rulers I dug out of various boxes have been very helpful for cutting tiles into various custom sizes. I only wish I’d thought of this sooner so some of the tiles I cut early on would have looked a little better.

A teal felt tile on a cutting board, with a big clear quilting ruler and a rotary cutter.

Hooray for remembering I have all these tools!

I’ll be making a full post about the soundbooth once it’s done, with a list of materials and tips for those of you who might also be interested in making your own soundbooth out of a closet.

Cosplay idea: Ensign Tilly from Star Trek: Discovery

I recently started watching Star Trek: Discovery, and have really been enjoying it – and last weekend, when I was thinking of ideas of who to cosplay as for the upcoming Indiana Toy and Comic Expo, it hit me: I should cosplay as Sylvia Tilly. Because, honestly, Tilly is me, but in Starfleet. (And in the future.)

Sylvia Tilly from Star Trek Discovery, wearing her Starfleet uniform.

oh my god I love Tilly so much, y’all have no idea

I absolutely love Tilly. Trying to find a good uniform for cosplaying her, though? It’s been a little rough. I can either get a $200ish uniform from Rubies that’s of questionable quality (based on the reviews, anyway), a $150ish uniform jacket and try to make my own pants, or buy an even more expensive uniform from Etsy that’ll be made to my measurements. (And I think it might be a little too late for that, given that ITCE is at the end of August.) 

Or: I could get the t-shirt the crew of Discovery wears when they’re not in uniform, grab some running shorts out of my drawer, and be Running Tilly. 

Tilly wearing a navy blue t-shirt that says DISCO on the front.

This would be the easiest Star Trek cosplay ever.

I mean, it’ll be comfy, easy enough to get around in, and inexpensive – I can get the Disco shirt on Amazon! Thankfully, it should be easy to find a wig; a Merida wig should work out pretty well, and combined with a Starfleet uniform or the Disco t-shirt, it should be pretty clear that I’m Tilly. (And I could be silly and find a big stuffed cat that looks like Grudge, and carry her around too!)

TV shows I’m in love with lately: Star Trek: Discovery and Our Flag Means Death

Speaking of Tilly: oh, how I love Discovery! Why the heck have I not watched it sooner? I’m attached to all the characters, I’m really enjoying the story, and I’ve cried many times while watching my way through the first three seasons. When it first came out, I heard a lot of complaints about how weird the Klingons were, but in retrospect I should have ignored them. Yes, they’re not typical Klingons, but once I got over the fact that they’re all bald and their tooth prosthetics make them sound like they’re talking around a mouthful of gummy bears, I found them somewhat interesting, and liked getting to know a little more about the history of the Klingons. 

Plus, there’s a cat. How can I not love a Star Trek show that has a cat?

Tilly holding a large brown tabby cat.

Oh, Grudge. She really is a queen.

Seriously, Grudge is the best, and I love how very much Book loves his cat. I need a big kitty like Grudge someday.

I also recently binged all of Our Flag Means Death over the course of a weekend, and I LOVE IT. I had heard so many good things about the show, and they are all true. This show is fantastic. If a story about an 18th century gentleman who decided he’d rather be a pirate captain leading an inept band of pirates and finding love in a very unexpected place sounds good to you, you should watch this. Really, you should.

Artwork of Blackbeard and Stede from Our Flag Means Death enjoying tea together.

Artwork by Karen Hallion – I’ve always enjoyed her work, and this one should be available on her Etsy store soon!

Somewhat related: I also love this drawing by Karen Hallion – and if you support her Patreon, the physical reward tier for this month includes an Our Flag Means Death sticker! Check out her Patreon here, and if you want to see more of her artwork, check out her website. I’ve been a fan of hers for a while, and seeing the Our Flag Means Death artwork she’s done makes me a very happy nerd. 

Nerdy tidbits as a podcast?

… so this is a silly question, but would y’all be interested in listening to the Nerdy Tidbits posts in podcast form? Because I want to make a podcast again. I really want to make a podcast again. I have my tiny soundbooth. I have equipment. I love editing audio. Heck, I could even record my own intro music, even if it is just a few chords on the ukulele. I struggle coming up with topics for a podcast, but maybe just focusing on the little random nerdy things that I’m excited about might work.

It’s definitely something I’m thinking about. Sure, there are a million podcasts out there already – is there much point in adding one more? Still, if it’s something I enjoy doing, I should do it, right? Hmm.

Either way, we’ll see what happens when the next Nerdy Tidbits comes out! Until next time, friends!

Gen Con Online in review: the best four days of gaming goes online

Yes, it’s the post you’ve all been waiting for: the Gen Con Online review! Before I get started, I want to apologize for this post going up much later than I’d planned. Between burning loads of energy on Gen Con Online and work ramping back up (in addition to general pandemic stuff taking a toll on my mental health), I didn’t quite have the spoons to write this up until now. Better late than never, though, right?

First off, I want to talk about this year’s blog coverage for Gen Con. You might have noticed there were only posts for day 0.5 and day 1, and then nothing. It’s not that I didn’t do anything on days 2 through 4 – I did a lot. With Gen Con held online this year, my brain wasn’t quite in the same headspace it usually is. Instead of spending the last hour of my day writing up a post, my mind was all “eh, we’re home, why do we need to write a Crafty Nerd post every day?” I was feeling bad about not writing on Friday and Saturday, but on Sunday, it hit me: this isn’t a typical Gen Con, and maybe I didn’t need to do my traditional Gen Con coverage. So, here we are, wrapping things two weeks after the convention!

Continue reading →

Gen Con Online: Day one

Day one of Gen Con was a lot of fun! So much fun, in fact, that I didn’t have enough energy left after the Quilting 201 workshop last night to actually post this, so there’ll be two posts today! I doubt anyone will mind, though.

Opening ceremonies

The Gen Con Online Twitch channel, showing the opening ceremonies for Gen Con Online.

From the Opening Ceremonies – even Genevieve the Dragon joined in on the fun!

Day one of Gen Con Online was a lot of fun! I spent the morning excitedly waiting for the opening ceremonies, listening to music, and writing out questions for the folks I’m interviewing this year. While the energy was a little different this year, it was still exciting to watch the opening ceremonies. They even did the ceremonial charity dice roll! (It’s not Gen Con without the ceremonial opening dice roll.) I enjoyed the added benefits of actually being able to see and hear all of what went on this time – which isn’t always possible in person at the opening ceremonies, with so many people crowded into one space.

The online exhibit hall experience: The Looking Glass

Once the convention officially began, I spent some time browsing The Looking Glass, Gen Con’s creative way of replicating the exhibit hall experience online.

Screenshot of The Looking Glass, which displays logos for vendors at Gen Con in a cloud format.

It’s fun, scrolling through The Looking Glass and seeing what vendors I recognize – and discovering new ones, too!

I love the way the folks at Gen Con put together The Looking Glass – I think it’s the closest you can get to replicating the exhibit hall experience in webpage format while making it easy for everyone to access. You can either scroll around through the field of logos for each vendor and click on one that catches your eye, or use the search and filtering tools to find a specific vendor. I’ve already done a little shopping thanks to The Looking Glass, and I’ll likely do more before the con is done.

Favorite Gen Con experiences still happening online

One of the things I wasn’t sure I’d experience this year was the fun of running into folks I know at the convention. While the Gen Con Discord server has a lot of people hanging out there, not everyone who’s participating in the con is on Discord. I wasn’t really expecting to see anyone I knew on Discord – so imagine my surprise when I ran into my friend Daniel! (He and Kasi and I ran a City of Heroes LARP together back in 2018.) We were both excited to bump into each other, and we talked a little bit about Gen Con Online and me possibly joining his Wednesday Dungeons and Dragons game. Sure, it might not be the same as running into my Kishar buddies while hanging out with my co-worker Rachel, but I’ll take what I can get!

One of my favorite things to do at Gen Con involves wandering around the Indiana Convention Center. Whether I’m checking out everyone’s cosplays or just enjoying the atmosphere, I love wandering around the convention center. And while I may not be able to do it in person this year, I was able to do it in Minecraft!

One of the hallways in the Indiana Convention Center, recreated in Minecraft.

Oh hey, it’s the escalator that leads up to the skywalk to the Marriott!

It might not have been full of people, but I was still so very excited to wander through the convention center in Minecraft. It’s an amazing and detailed re-creation of the convention center, and I won’t lie, I almost cried while walking through it – I miss the in-person Gen Con experience so much. My regular readers know this is the highlight of my year, and the online experience isn’t quite the same. I’m glad I got to enjoy a few of the things I love about Gen Con, though, even though they were a little different this year.

Quilting 201: I swear I’m going to finish this quilt during Gen Con

The event I was most excited about this year was Quilting 201 with Toni of Quiltoni!

Screenshot of the camera feeds of everyone participating in the Quilting 201 workshop on Thursday evening.

I’m sure you all can figure out which quilt-in-progress is mine, haha.

While I didn’t get quite as far as everyone else did (I was running out of steam by the end of the workshop), I did get some of my quilt laid out and ready for piecing! (And ran out of table space in the process, haha) I had a lot of fun working on my quilt, and I’m going to try my hardest to get the top pieced together before the end of Gen Con. I really want to make this quilt, and I’ve finally got it started – I can’t let it sit unfinished now, can I?

And that, my friends, was my first day at Gen Con Online! I hung out online with fellow con-goers, bought a bunch of stuff, and even got some crafting done – I’d say it was a good day.

Gen Con Online: Day 0.5

Happy Gen Con Eve, folks! Sure, this isn’t going to be a typical Gen Con, but I’m going to do my usual daily Gen Con coverage anyway. This is going to be a Gen Con for the history books, with it being entirely online this year, and I want to document it. (My inner Ëlinyr is coming out a little bit, with her need to write everything down, haha.) So, here we go with Gen Con Online, day 0.5!

Socializing with folks on the Gen Con Online Discord

One of the big things I’ve been enjoying this year has been the Gen Con Discord server. It’s no secret that I’m a huge introvert, and shy as heck to boot – which makes socializing in person difficult for me at times. With the Gen Con Discord, though, everything’s through text, which is much easier for me. I’ve been having so much fun talking with others on Discord! I’ve mainly been hanging out in the general chat, cosplay, and crafting channels and enjoying lots of great conversation. Plus, occasionally names I recognize will pop up in the chat — like when I saw Rubiee of Dryad Tea in the general chat last night. I totally had a fangirl moment, haha. (After all, I’ve rambled about Dryad Tea before!)


With the Gen Con Discord making it easier for this nerd to talk to people, I’ve actually been brave enough to ask people for interviews. That’s right, this year I’m actually going to have some Gen Con interviews on the blog! Stay tuned for those interviews as part of my Gen Con coverage!

Preparing the house for Gen Con Online

I’m trying to make the house feel a little more like Gen Con — well, as much as I can without going too overboard. To make it feel a little more like Gen Con, I made a couple of signs to hang up around the house.

I’ve also done some work on cleaning up my craft area since I’ll be participating in a live-streamed quilting event!

A table with a sewing machine, a Crafty Nerd t-shirt, and some fabric cutting tools laid out on top of it.

The craft table is ready for crafting! (And hey, it’s Crafty Nerd t-shirt season, too!)

Plus, I’ve readied my home office for a couple of days of gaming and fun. My computer desk is Gen Con Central, haha.

A desk with two large monitors and a desktop computer on it. The computer screens have a custom Crafty Nerd at Gen Con wallpaper.

The Crafty Nerd’s home base for Gen Con Online!

And I’ve also got my new chief yarn tester on standby for craft supervision, too – he’s taking over for Steve since my living situation has recently changed.

A tuxedo cat laying on a bed in front of a lap desk with fabric squares on top of it.

This is Jack, my chief yarn tester and craft supervisor. He loves his job.

What I’ve got going on tomorrow

Here’s a sneak peek of what I’ll be doing tomorrow!

  • Hanging out on the Gen Con Discord, of course – I’m Beth (The Crafty Nerd) (she/her) there, feel free to say hi if you see me!
  • The Quilting 201 workshop, which I am super excited for!
  • Flailing around when the Looking Glass opens, and Gen Con exclusive merchandise becomes available, like the super limited edition Genevieve plushie from My Little Demon.

Tomorrow evening I’ll post a summary of what I got up to, so keep an eye out for my next Gen Con Online post. Otherwise, that’s a wrap for day 0.5 – I’ll see everyone tomorrow for the first day of Gen Con Online!

Gen Con Online: it’s almost here!

Folks, there are only two more days until Gen Con Online. How did Gen Con sneak up on me like that? I’m usually so hyperfocused on Gen Con for the month and a half leading up to the con. If this were a typical year, I’d be vibrating with excitement right now, packing my costumes and snacks for the next few days.

However, this year is definitely not typical. (We all know that by now, though.) That doesn’t mean I’m not excited about Gen Con Online – it’s a tiny taste of normalcy in an otherwise ridiculous year. And I’m going to try my best to emulate some of my favorite things about Gen Con right here at home.

Whiteboard with the text 'The Crafty Nerd's Gen Con Headquarters!' written on it.

… I spent entirely too much time trying to emulate Lobster 1.3 font by hand on this whiteboard, but hey, it looks cool!

Curious about what I’m planning for Gen Con Online? Read on!

Cosplay

Nobody should be surprised that I’m planning on cosplaying at home. I mean, why not? All my costumes are here, and I’ll take any excuse to wear them. They may all be cosplay reruns, but who cares? I doubt J and Kasi or the cats will judge me for it.

Costumes hanging on the back of my office door.

A couple of my favorite costumes are coming out to play for Gen Con Online!

This year, I’m planning on donning my Starfleet science officer uniform once again on Friday – but instead of going as Jadzia, I’ll just be a generic science officer. (After watching a lot of Deep Space 9 lately, I’m realizing I need a few more things for my Jadzia cosplay to make it better, so that’ll be my goal for next Gen Con.) For Saturday, I’ll be dusting off Ëlinyr’s stealth dress and wandering around as everyone’s favorite elf for a day! Sunday’s cosplay is one I tried a few years ago but couldn’t wear it because it was too darn hot. That’s right, I’m trying “Janeway on her day off” again! My hair’s nowhere near the right color for it right now, but I’m going to roll with it.

Events

I’m signed up for a fair amount of events this year, especially since Gen Con is online and likely less draining than a typical Gen Con. I’m especially excited for Quilting 201 (I’ll finally get that Sailor Moon quilt started!) and the Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition game I’m signed up for. (Can you believe that I’ve never actually played a tabletop RPG at Gen Con? And this is my 7th Gen Con!) In addition to gaming and crafting, I’ll be watching a few live performances and watching the Costume Contest Awards Show.

Where to find me

For those of you who have been looking forward to finding me at Gen Con, you’re in luck! You can likely find me lurking around in the Gen Con Online Discord. Sure, it’s not quite the same as running into me in person, but at least you won’t have to deal with possibly getting swept away by the crowd in the Exhibit Hall or waving excitedly while dashing to an event. It’ll be hard to miss me on Discord – I’m on there as The Crafty Nerd (she/her), and my avatar is the blog’s logo. Feel free to message me and say hi! I’m always excited to meet blog fans in the wild.