At a Con

This weekend I went to a con.  MileHi Con in Denver.  This was a smaller con.  Probably less than a thousand or so attendees.  Compared to several of the smaller cons I have attended this was pretty good.  I will say the organization was stellar.  I had some issues but all in all it was really good.
My issues were petty but they were there. The big one was that on the schedule there were listed several scenarios for D&D 5e.  I tried to attend 3 of them and not once was there a DM to be found.  The last scenario I tried on Sunday, I found someone with the handbook and we hung out for like 45 minutes.  Many people came by to join in and yet no DM.  I worked on my character, still it kind of sucked.  There were six of us and there was nothing to play.  BUMMER.  While we all waited to see if the DM was just late we chatted about us all trying to play throughout the weekend only to find no DM.  My other issue was scheduling. 

Peri Charlifu Pottery

The vendor hall was meeh...nothing great nothing bad.  They even had someone selling jelly.
I went to watch the critter crunch or the robot battles.  Lots of fun.  The Art auction was great.  If you have never seen the pottery art of Peri Charlifu, I think you should check out his facebook page.  His talent is amazing!

The Con Suite was awesome.  I went several times.  There were always friendly people there.  Tons of food and soda.  The organizers did a spectacular job putting this together.

I have some concerns for this con.  First, The hotel they were in this year was small and will not allow for much growth.  This is an easy fix when they grow, move.  Second, I think the average age of attends was >45  years old.  Not good if you expect to keep going.  The people were all amazing, but this con will not last much longer if you do not bring in younger generations.  There was not any fun.  There was entertainment but the fun was seriously lacking.  There were no parties.  The con suite was fine, but not fun.  I went to a panel (I am not going to say which one) and I learned a lot but it was not fun.  Honestly, if I was at a larger con, I would have left this and one other other panel I attended and gone to something else.  But, this being so small I did not think the other options were any better so I stayed. 

This con like many others was focused on literature.  To get a younger audience, they need to bring in things that are more relative to the younger crowd.  There are tons of YA authors out there and yet I did not meet a single one.  There was not a single panel on Game of Thrones, Arrow, Gotham, or any other currently popular sci-fi.  NOTHING!!!!!  No comics, no tv, NOTHING.  Not a single fan panel on what is on tv or in the movies.  There have been several movies, tv series, and best selling books come out in the last year since the last con.  We, as a society, are all looking for instant gratification, the younger generations especially.  They need to bring in new and current subject matter.

Two years ago I went to a struggling Baycon and they came up with a DIY room.  I think it saved that con.  When I went again this year there were DOZENS of folks under 30.  Maybe MileHi should try that too.  They need to do something.  The social media presence is little to none.  Beef it up!!! There has to be some volunteer that is a Twitter, Facebook, Pintrest, Vine, Instagram, Google Plus, Tinder, Snapchat, Cyberdust, etc guru.  Seriously, they have a webpage, and a smaaaaall facebook gathering.  Honestly, more relevant panels and panelists.  That in itself will go far.  Hell, get Nicholas Brendon, he does cons and apparently he is entertaining. 

All in all, I liked this con.  It was entertaining, not really fun, but entertaining.  I hope they can grow and are able to continue.  If you are in the Denver area, I recommend going. 

Sports

This week has been a busy week in sports.  My usual TV program watching has been relegated to the DVR since all of these sports have come up.  I am stressed about missing the season premiere of The Flash, but sports need to be watched in real time.  Super Heroes are ok to visit the DVR.
This week has been a busy week in sports. There has been football, college and professional.  NASCAR, the basketball pre-season began and the post-season for baseball.  I love sports in different scenarios. 

My Nebraska Cornhuskers played and lost to the Michigan State Spartans.  Big bummer since it was the first Nebraska game I have been able to see on live TV in a long time.  Still it was amazing to be able to watch my team live.  It has been over a decade since I have seen one live.  There was a ton of red of crowd in the crowd and that made me so happy.





 Then come my Kansas City Royals and beyond all doubt they clinched their play-off bid with a win over the Oakland A's.  After that, they went on and swept the LA Angels of Anaheim (what a load of a name).This is their first trip to the post season since they won the World Series in 1985.  I wanted to jump for joy and to cry for the look of sheer joy on the face of George Brett. 

 
The San Francisco Giants beat the Pittsburg Pirates in the wild card and are currently up 2 games to 1 over the Washington Nationals-oh yeah what does Gloria Estefan have to do with the Nationals?  I was confused by that on the commentary.  Game 4 in SF is on now so I might update this after the game.  Maybe, maybe not.  Oh Well.





My brotherish-in-lawish went to the NASCAR race in Kansas City and had a total blast-do I know what happened?  Hell no but he and my sister from another mother had a blast.  I am not that huge of a fan but I have been to a couple of races and wow, it takes your breath away watching the cars go by and feeling their the whoosh.

My Dallas Mavericks are on tonight against the Houston Rockets and hopefully they will win.....I know it is pre-season and all but I want them to win.  It is funny listening to the commentators having difficulty with the Mavericks players, Chandler Parsons and Tyson Chandler.  I think this difficulty will continue for the whole season. 



I have been so busy watching sports and I am sorry I have not updated on the weekly Gotham and Scorpion.  I watched them both a bit late and I think they are both continually getting better as the weeks go on.  Right now, though, I am busy rooting for whichever team is on.  GO HUSKERS, MAVS, GIANTS and I hope more than all the rest that the ROYALS win the World Series.