Let's see... where to begin...

My name's Rodney P. Malapitan, otherwise known as RPM on this list.
And, well, I went to my first con, the A-kon o'er in Dallas some time
ago.  It all started when a friend'o mine offered to meet me in dallas,
and then I was asked to join the fanfic panel. (after Orick dropped out
and Wilmore said he couldn't do it :p)  I figured, what the heck, could be
fun.  At least it gets me outta my own town.

I. IT'S NOT THE DESTINATION, IT'S THE JOURNEY...

 Well, I decided to drive to Dallas, since I'd have to be doing that again
later this year for Other Reasons.  The drive itself was three hours long,
lotsa grass, a few zombie-thin cows, passed by a prison and an outlet
mall.  Not much to say...

 Until I hit a major storm.  You guys seen 'Twister' yet?  Lemme take this
time to do a minor rant on the wonders of Rain-X.  Basically, it's like
putting non-stick on your windshield.  Raindrops just slide off.  NORMALLY
the effect is kinda like the Star Wars 'warp' effect, the rain will travel
straight away from the center of the glass.  In this case... it was all
zooming LEFT.  Hundreds of raindrops zooming leftwards, straight.  I
didn't need my windshield wipers, but I was getting VERY dizzy.  For some
odd reason, other drivers were pulling oFF the road, and hiding under
bridges.  I ignored'em and drove on.

 Turns out that the winds were going at 50mph, and there was some SERIOUS
property damage going on in Dallas.  Even a twister or two.  But me?  I
didn't know that.  I just kept on driving.  =)

II. WISH YOU WERE THERE...

 Well... I arrived in Dallas with NO POWER.  All the stoplights are DEAD.
Add to that I made a wrong turn here and there (in other words, I joined
the Ryogua Collective) and I was stuck in traffic of the 'Time Sucking
Abyss' variety.

 I got to the con at about... 3:30pm, and the power was STILL out.  It was
warm, humid, dark, and I was wandering dim hallways with roving bands of
otakus zooming about ^.-  I felt like, well, a tourist in a foreign land.
The power didn't jump back in until 6pm, but I was already out with a
roving band of MUCKers at Chili's resteraunt.  Came back to the con at 8,
but I was a ZOMBIE by then, with too much driving, too little rest, and
well... by the time I ran into Nightelf, I was totally fried.  You can ask
him yourself.  I was a horrendous fusion of Ryouga and Shinnosuke.
("eh?  who're you again?  whazzat?  'ey, where'd e'ryone go?
Whazyername again?")

And if that wasn't enough... I got an hour's rest, then returned to the
con, to TRY to catch the vidgame tourney, but alas, I missed it.  BUT
me, a few muckers, and a few fanfic writers got together (Me, J.Biles,
Nightelf, Mihoshi, some others...) and hung out at IHOP until 3:00am.

*YAWN*

as it turned out, we all had SOME experience or another doing stagework.
I counted the number of my delayed fanfics, John Biles counted his... 
he won. :p

And I briefly, BRIEFLY resurrected the idea of a Ranma 1/2 - MACROSS: Do
You Remember Love fanfic.  It was quickly shot down. =)

III. IF ANYBODY'S GOT QUESTIONS...

 The next day, at about 3:00pm, the fanfic panel was held.  It was me
(rpm), Joyce 'Azusa' Meadows, Nightelf, and J.Biles.  There was... a small
audience, I suppose.  It started with only 4, but built up to about, er,
10?  We all took turns talking, and I forgot HOW it happened, but I ended
up singing the first few lines to the USA dub 'Sailor Moon' theme.

Ack.

after that... I wandered around, didn't buy much, went home.  Not much
else to add, really, except that it's hard to find good Chinese Takeout in
North Dallas, but easy to break the speed limit. =)

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
-rpm