AggieCon 37 - Back in Black March 23-26, 2006 Ah, my first convention. Granted, I was a college freshman and a zoology major so I was focused more on study-study-study than being involved with Cepheid Variable or going to AggieCon. I regret that now, but back then I really needed to work a lot just to keep my head above water in my classes. At least I went to Con at all, yes? Sadly, I really just went to AggieCon 37 on Sunday, the last day of the convetion. It was my first con ever, so I didn't really know what I was doing, I didn't really know anyone to go with, and so the plan was really just to wander around aimlessly for an afternoon and then go home to work some more. Most of my time at con was just spent in the Dealer's Room, even. Oh well. I still enjoyed myself and I was hooked enough that I was looking forward to next year before I even got home. That was a good sign, at least. AggieCon 38 - 10,000 Lawn Gnomes Later March 22-25, 2007 Somehow I remember more about the build-up to AggieCon 38 than the con itself; that is probably because I once again did very little at the convention itself other than wandering about the Dealer's Room looking for goodies to grab up and take home with me. I believe this was the year that I discovered Celtic Designs' weapons and bought myself my first dagger, but other than that I don't recall much of what else I ended up buying...but I digress. In the time leading up to AggieCon Cepheid Variable decided to prepare with a wonderful idea to advertise the event. The theme of the Con became "10,000 Lawn Gnomes Later" and so a number of Cepheids created and painted tons of plaster garden gnomes to place around campus, with some saved to sell at AggieCon itself. I was quite amused with the army of stormtrooper gnomes and the random pikachu gnome myself. In fact, long after AggieCon 38 took place we still had a number of gnomes in storage and I was lucky enough to be able to have one. At the time of compiling this page he's sitting on one of the shelves above my computer desk next to some of my old textbooks. But, no good idea runs smoothly, do they? Cepheid Variable placed the gnomes around the Texas A&M campus as advertisement, planning an invasion of the little guys in the week or two leading up to the convention. For a day or two all was well. Then, the gnomes started disappearing. It didn't take long to discover that some of the cadets on campus were stealing them, mostly likely freshmen ordered by their upper classmen. I don't recall if we were ever able to get our gnomes back, but I do remember The Battalion calling the theft "bad bull" which was surprising within itself; someone actually sided with Cepheids! AggieCon 39 - The Penguins are Stealing My Con March 27-30, 2008 The convention was a bit smaller this year, but that made my running about the place all the easier. I finally really started to get more and more involved with Cepheid so I actually had people to talk to and visit during the convention instead of just wandering about and continuing my new tradition of buying at least one piece of weaponry from Celtic Designs every year. I was one of the general workers for AggieCon in 2008 and, though I ran about a bit doing some smaller jobs like Dealer's Room door nazi and such, the one shift I really remember was monitoring the Anime Room. I think most of the time I was in there I was showing The Wallflower. I had never seen it before then but it got me interested; over the next dew weeks I tracked down and watched the entire series. All in all, it was a lot of fun and with all of the chaos of AggieCon, the Anime Room was a nice work shift to get to have fun yet get away from it all for a while. Ah, relaxation. AggieCon 40 - In Space No One Can Hear You Rawr March 26-29, 2009 Despite such a long name for this year's Con, the convention itself was fairly small...at least as far as the Dealer's Room was concerned, anyway. Because of the combination of Darwin's 200th birthday, Cepheid Variable decided that AggieCon 40's theme should be a tribute to his evolutionary legacy, if a bit warped. Hey, what's more science fictiony than dinosaurs in space? Better yet, what's better than a velociraptor austronaut playing DDR? ...Best Con logo ever if you ask me. I think I spent, surprisingly, a good chunk of the convention in Con Suite. The room was big with people filing in and out all day and it was really fun to interact with everyone wandering through and saying hi to old friends who stopped in for a snack and whatnot. It was fun to set up my laptop and have a marathon of Yu-Gi-Oh! The Abridged Series for anyone interested for a good while. Actually, when I returned to Con Suite later that day, actually, someone else was playing the same abridged series. I still kind of wonder if I started it lol! The Dealer's Room was rather small that year, which was sad. I missed seeing the book tables, especially; I had hoped to look through their stuff for some books I had been hoping to get. Even so, there was plenty of shiny things to look at and the entire thing was still a load of fun. Granted, I missed the the living chess match held that year that I had wanted to see, but if that's my only regret I call it a win. AggieCon 41 - Night of the Living Con February 5-7, 2010 With the closing the MSC building on the Texas A&M campus, Cepheid had to find a new location for AggieCon while renovations were going on. After trying to search the surrounding area for a suitable place to hold the con, they struck up a deal with the local Hilton. I have to say the setup of rooms there could not have been layed out better. The biggest problem in the MSC was that things had to be spread out and separated from one another. At the Hilton everything was close together, easily accessible, and you never had to go far to find something fun to do. It was just plain convenient. And filled with zombies. This convention was probably the best I have attended to date. Period. Everyone worked so hard to make it fun for the guests and it really showed. The Dealer's Room was huge and filled with incredible tables, the panels were fun, all the guests that I got to meet (Steven Gould signed my copy of Jumper, huzzah! He's incredibly nice!) were incredible and great to talk to, and the entire thing was just plain fun. Dealer's room was giant again and it was so much fun looking at everything, even though money was tight and I couldn't get everything that caught my eye. In summary...great panels, great guests, great shopping, great art show, gaming, everything! The entire thing was a big experiment for Cepheid, but it turned out great. Everyone really seemed to enjoy themselves and, now that we know what we're doing without the MSC, I think next year's AggieCon will have a great base to build from. AggieCon 42 - Life, The Con, and Everything March 25-27, 2011 Perfect theme for the 42nd con, don't you think? In the Hilton again, we at least knew what we needed to do to set everything up and run around to try and make it work. Again, I...went a little overboard in the Dealer's Room, but how could I not with all those fantastic booths?! I was so tempted to get some awesome steampunk goggles but ended up passing them up...if they come back next year I'm pouncing on those! They were gorgeous! I am glad, though, that I picked up some great books from Edge Books since, sadly, they won't be able to return next year. They are fantastic people and will be greatly missed by a lot of us. It's like losing a friend. In true Cepheid fashion, the number of attendees this year, 419 I believe (about 100 more than last year, wow!)...adds up to 14. A successful Con indeed! :D I think we were also mentioned in the local paper, too. I honestly don't recall how in-depth it went, since I was just in the mindset of "whoo! we're in the paper!" at the time. I was too busy having fun with friends and playing Pokemon White in the hallway with total strangers to be bothered with things like publicity, man! Priorities, right? So yeah, between Dealer's Room, Art Show (beautiful work!!), and hearing incredibly awesome Cepheid stories, the entire Con was worth it. AggieCon 43- or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Con March 23-25, 2012 I'm excited, are you excited?! If we're all going out with a bang in 2012, why not have some fun first?!

~ last updated 3 Jan 2012