Tuesday, May 15, 2012

My JIB 2012 tweets. Both of them.

Start at the bottom and work your way up.
Internet was REALLY expensive so I was Internetless for most of the time. :( That's the reason for this serious shortage of con tweets.







Friday, May 4, 2012

Jus in bello 3 - autographs

By Saturday afternoon I gave up on trying to get all the autographs. So in the end I got only 5. 

BTW, you know what the best thing you can hear when you finally get into the autograph room is? Sorry, this line is closed. I loved hearing that.




Thursday, May 3, 2012

Jus in bello 3 - The Good, the Bad and the Hilton

I will probably write a proper con report, eventually, but this summary will have to do for now.

I loved the panels. Everybody (by everybody I mean the guests) was so relaxed and having so much fun on stage. Hell, I never had so much fun during panels before! 'Twas awesome. :D I actually had no intention of going back to Rome, but if there's JIB 4, I just might have to seriously rethink that. Just because of the panels.

I hated the fact that they had panels, photo ops and autographs at the same time. I sometimes say that POs are the reason I'm going to cons, and I'm mostly joking, but I consider them a very important part of the whole convention experience. They are a tangible memento. This time I couldn't buy all the POs I wanted because I knew that I would have to miss most of the panels to get them. That's a huge minus in my book.
On Saturday night, after the concert, I suddenly realized: OMG, is Jim Beaver even here?! Two days of the convention were over and I was yet to see the man. I think that says a lot. So does the fact that I didn't get all the autographs that came with the pass. (Didn't want to miss more panels.)

I really enjoyed the concerts. I always liked Jason's songs, but I was never a fan of Steve's songs. (Which is kinda funny considering I love Kane. Their songs, I mean.) But this time, I was sitting there thinking Why the hell didn't I like his songs??? *still baffled*

I didn't like the offending chair(s) in the photo op room cause when the guests are sitting, that just makes for really awkward POs. Some of my POs look like somebody took ppl from two different photos and photoshopped them together. And I especially didn't like what happened when it was my turn to have my pic taken with Jensen. The woman there pushed me. Literally. And she pushed me so hard that she managed to move me from where I was standing and it took me like two steps to stop myself. What the hell happened to a pat on the shoulder or a simple Go or Next or even the Italian equivalent of that? It's not like I wouldn't have understood her.

Rome is relatively close. And it's really nice when you can get to the con (and back home) in practically no time. It didn't even feel like I was going anywhere. Even my dad said that to him it felt like I went to a neighbour's house for a cup of coffee and not to another country. lol Also, when I'm going to cons in America, traveling for 23 hrs can be really exhausting. (Especially on my way back home while I'm trying to fight off some serious post-con blues.) This time I didn't even care that I had to wait 6 hrs for my flight.

Having Demon pass sucks. Big time. If you have a DP, your entire time there you are just a second-class con-goer. You can stand in line for an hour waiting for a photo op or an autograph and if somebody with an Angel pass comes at that time, they'll just waltz past you. And if you're really unlucky, it'll turn out that everybody with the Sinner pass is also in front of you. Cause there's only one line for DP and SP. And, of course, if you have DP, you will realize very soon that there's a teeny-tiny problem with the stage. You see (or actually, you don't, and that's the problem), the stage is not high enough. And if you sit in the DP section, you won't see the guests. Best case scenario, you'll be able to see them on the screen. But if I wanted to watch them on a screen, I would've stayed home and watched them on YouTube. Also, you can pretty much forget about taking pictures which is something that is very important to me.

It's great that the guests are there for two or three days and for more than one panel.


And the Hilton? The only good thing about Hilton Rome is that it's so close to the airport. The ONLY good thing. Rooms are ridiculously expensive. And then they charge you 22  for 24 hrs of economy (aka lousy) Internet. And no, there's no free wi-fi in the lobby. Can you say rip-off?
I had so much fun every time I wanted to go into my room because I never knew if I'll be able to unlock the door.
Then there's also the matter of the invisible room service menu, iron and ironing board. I managed to get the menu even though the woman from the housekeeping didn't speak English (and I don't speak Italian). She just went to another room and took it from there. (I sincerely apologize to the guest that got that room.) I didn't even try to ask about the iron.
I had a fun conversation with a guy from room service on Sunday. I got one of those call-this-number-so-we-can-remove-the-tray little cards. So I called. It took me 5 minutes to explain that no, I don't want salmon, I want someone to come and remove the tray. Finally he realized what I was saying and told me to leave the tray outside. So I did. Then I went out. When I returned 3 hrs later, the tray was still there. *sigh* Then why the hell did they make me call room service??!
Oh, and the safe didn't work.
4-star hotel, my ass.

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Jus in bello 3 - photos

Here are the links to my con pics. But keep in mind that THIS is what I saw before I put my 20x zoom to good use:


So don't expect too much. Pics are not that good and there are often heads in the way.
Vivid example:















Richard, Sebastian, Misha, Mark, Rob, Brock, Steve, Jason - photos
Sebastian, Mark, Steve, Jason - photos
Jim, Brock, Richard, Mark, Sebastian, Rob - photos
Misha - photos
Jensen, Jared, Misha - photos
Jensen, Jared - photos