All Dead Inside

There was some form of scheme for meeting SM&F on Monday morning, with the intention of having breakfast together before Steve & Moni had to drive back to the frozen North, a.k.a. Chicago, but it has left no traces on the text message history on my phone, so it’s just possible that we arranged it in person & by speaking directly to each other, like savages.

The plan hit some snags when there were no signs of life in Steve & Moni’s room, and it was only when the hotel desk called up that they were shown to still be alive, if very unwell & trying to sleep it off in Steve’s case.
There’s a chance he got the same thing Stacy did yesterday, which we don’t yet have a fun name for; I’m leaning towards G. Coli, but that’s not as immediately obvious as “H1Nerd1” or “The South Asian Nerd Flu” which hit a convention a few years ago.

Undeterred, Frank & I asked the concierge for a breakfast recommendation, and ended up at Cafe Patachou.

They had, among other things, big-ass omelettes of a nice, if hard to finish on account of size, nature, and a coffee dispensary inside with both a mug tower (an example of the contents is seen above) and takeaway options for that last cup.

I do find it interesting to see how different places, and sometimes different servers, deal with the endless coffee refill situation.
Some orbit with a coffee pot, some, like Patachou, have a station & let you do it yourself, and some, like the JW most of the time, put an insulated coffee pot on your table, and let you figure the rest out yourself.
While on that topic; Drink refills of soft drinks was a little surprising, but most welcome. Fry refills at Johnny Rockets was a baffling concept to me.

 

And You, You Were Acting Like It Was The End Of The Con

Back at the Westin, Steve had recovered, or Moni had re-animated him using dark necromantic arts and the contents of the complementary soaps & shampoos in the bathroom (and if that was the case, well done Moni – Very convincing), so we ambled through the mostly-empty ICC to visit Bee Coffee one last time.
We nattered with the staff, found out a lot about Who’s Yer Con, got a branded D6 for some reason possibly related to them not having given them all away, and us being there, and generally did the ‘winding-down & saying goodbye’ thing.

Walking back through the ICC, where move-in move-out was in full swing, we got to chatting about Big Red Couch business cards & badge ribbons, and Moni had some suggestions concerning the making of very custom cards which I’ll need to follow up on once I’m back in NZ.

Back at the Westin Frank divided up all of the swag he’d been given into keep & give away, with some of the latter going to Steve & Moni, and some just … Actually, I have no clue where it was going.
This did remind me of what I’d seen in a rubbish bin at the JW that morning.

I didn’t ferret through, but I’m guessing that those are boxes which have been emptied of the contents, boards, etc, to save on volume & weight. I hope it doesn’t come to that with my own luggage, but this this in particular is a heavy-ass space-killer;

 

Expelling The Unclean One

Steve & Moni left, successfully and without the need for a CDC quarantine, which was a load off my mind after watching season one of The Strain.

Frank drove them to where they’d left their car, so as to avoid the $40/day valet parking fee, and I wandered back to the JW to pack my bag.
Was not looking forward to that.

 

Got It Second Time

Having pinched some ice bags from the hotel lobby to put dirty laundry in, so that I could use it as packing material, my first run of suitcase-packing was roughly a half-kilo over; I say roughly because I couldn’t hold the scale steady enough for it to stabilise on a reading.
Run two was just round one with the Dresden Files book taken out & put in carry-on, and that put it nicely under the line.

 

Closing It Down

Frank came back into town a few hours later, and we grabbed some dinner, chatted, then sat in the bar at the JW & just hung out for a while.
We ended up talking to one of the folks looking to set up high-end experiences at conventions, and apparently their launch/awareness-raising events went well.

I’m still conflicted about that business idea.
Their statement that “You wouldn’t need a con badge at all” makes me wonder what the point of coming to the con would be, and I can’t see the market for the services they were suggesting (someone to go get your Dealer Hall stuff for you, a hot shave, getting Gen Con Exclusives direct from the manufacturer) having that much of a market.
I’m also very uncomfortable with what looks to be a parasitic business model, letting Gen Con bring in folks, then creaming off the top half-percent or so of the cashed-up gamer crowd.

My friend Chris is of the mind that they will have done the numbers well, and are by no means uninformed or naïve, and I hope he’s right, because I can’t see that big a market for this.
Then again, what the hell do I know? I use the VIG programme to ensure that I get a hotel, with Early Access and the VIG Lounge, with it’s chairs & drinks, as medium-range ties for second place.