The Blerd Spectrum
The Blerd Spectrum
The Blerd Spectrum Podcast: Live from BlerDCon 2021
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We finally made it to BlerDCon after the depths of the Coronavention... but now that we're here, where do we go next? Join the crew and our first live audience as we tackle the fate of conventions as we know it!
#BlerDCon #BlerdSpectrum #OtakuNoir #GERDClothing
Don't forget to check out OtakuNoir.com and use promo codes "theblerdspectrum" or "blerdspectrum" to get a special discount on your next order!
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Oh, hey y'all, what's going on? So we wanted to introduce ourselves really quickly. We are the Blurred Spectrum. We just started our podcast last year during COVID. So yay, freedom. But only relatively so because oppression. So we're gonna start on this end. We have a lot of really fun friends and family of the podcast and of our cast here. So uh let's start.
SPEAKER_16Hey everybody in front of the podcast. I'm Drew Keys, uh local musician and avid anime watcher. Naruto's a favorite as you see.
SPEAKER_00Hi everyone, my name is Josh. I go by an urban nerd. I'm a rap poet, um poet laureate in London, Connecticut. Could you say that one more time?
SPEAKER_14Just kind of like louder. A little bit louder. Stand up for the mic and for Instagram. Hi everybody.
SPEAKER_00My name is Josh. I go by an urban nerd. I am a poet, rap artist, also New London's Connecticut, poet laureate. Um, with that, I'm a longtime fan of Blur Spectrum and uh yeah, all around Blurred, as you can see.
SPEAKER_16Hello, I'm a Kazishanryu.
SPEAKER_13Peace God.
SPEAKER_16Member of the podcast, uh, you know, uh local nerd, uh into many of the things. A lot of them edible.
SPEAKER_17Um pineapples. Um my name is the Black McCoy. Uh you probably heard my voice a lot. Um probably maybe not that much, I don't know. Fuck it. Um uh cosplayer, uh professor of philosophy, and uh yeah, probably I I I identify as also a problem.
SPEAKER_14So YOLO! How's everybody doing? YOLO? I said YOLO.
SPEAKER_17That's too close to yellow. It's 2021. Wow.
SPEAKER_14Yellow. Uh so how's everybody doing? Nobody's speaking. Yeah, it's feedback, feedback, feedback, feedback. Now louder, louder, louder.
SPEAKER_17Like this is our first time being in front of an audience. Thank you. How are you? Right there. I'm doing phenomenal feedback. Thank you. That's what we not see.
SPEAKER_14Anyone else? I need some more energy. Come on, come on. Somebody, somebody, somebody, somebody.
SPEAKER_17Okay, we have a mildly enthusiastic wave of almost like it. Don't worry.
SPEAKER_14Alright, so my name is Jacob, but I go by on the podcast the moderator, Suchi no Shogun. I'm actually uh doing this for the first time today. I thought I'd go natural. I've been seeing Miss Skittles do it all the time, so I'm excited to see if this actually works. Um, I'm cosplaying as young Suchi. It's a character that I'm developing for a video game relatively soon, so I'm really excited about it. Um other than that, uh, I'm also a business owner, I'm a programmer, I am an instructor of IT certifications, I do a lot. Um I also edit this podcast, even though everybody talks a whole lot. So I do my best. Alright.
SPEAKER_17You're gonna have to make it sound like an issue.
SPEAKER_02Um I'm a roloy, I'm a local artist, I'm a writing artist as well. Um what else were we saying?
SPEAKER_14Uh what you do?
SPEAKER_17We didn't have a structure.
SPEAKER_02We're just doing Sing, dance song, write all that good stuff, poor music.
SPEAKER_17Um and don't say it quickly like it's a little deal, like it's a big deal.
SPEAKER_15Take your time.
SPEAKER_17Thank you. Who's that in the audience? And yes, she does have she does have an actual drawing skills in her own. She does draw skills. I was upset because I wanted to be MMs because I live in Island.
SPEAKER_12Oh, my name is Talent. They call me Talon the Flame.
SPEAKER_17So if you've ever listened to the podcast and you've heard about the flames, these are the flames. Those are the flames. I know. Sometimes they be flaming on the podcast, but we try to stop them, but you know. It's mostly because Talon can't not be in bed.
SPEAKER_14Like if you've ever watched any of our YouTube videos of our episodes, you'll see Talon flame in the bed.
SPEAKER_17And you'll also see like their postcoidal faces. She's usually glowing and bathing, some things off.
SPEAKER_05I don't know what the hell is going on. What you do? I'm sorry, baby. You do agree with me. Hello, my name is Chine, aka Saturday cosplay. This is actually my first ongoing as Saturday cosplay, so this is actually pretty big for me. Um I am a huge anime enthusiast. Anything that's dealing with war or horror, sci-fi, I'm a chick right here. I love big goods, so if you left me, please give me some big goods.
SPEAKER_17I didn't I I'm glad that's where that went, because I I went elsewhere.
SPEAKER_05Um, but I love body painting. Um I've been cosplaying since 2013, and my first cosplay was Poison Ivy, and uh I kind of came back in 2019. I guess accidentally rented myself as a cosplay body paint person that people like yeah, you can see body painting. Okay, I guess yeah.
SPEAKER_17It's like also that that that's that's my job now. Gotcha.
SPEAKER_05But it's nice to meet y'all. Thank you so much for being here. It means everything's as well.
SPEAKER_17Yeah, y'all y'all are our first like live live audience. Oh, you're live, you're right.
SPEAKER_14Yes, thank you.
unknownThank you.
SPEAKER_14That's what we're talking about. Let's go better than Jimmy Kimmel. I like it.
SPEAKER_17Give us that energy. I don't think that's very hard to do. Oh.
SPEAKER_14We're starting out early. We are. Okay, so uh, so uh this is.
SPEAKER_17Does anyone have a four loco in the audience?
SPEAKER_14Wow, really? Okay, so this episode uh that we're deciding to do at BlurCon is live at BlurCon 2021. We have a couple of topics that we did want to go over with our esteemed audience, uh, and of course our Instagram audience. Uh, we're in the middle of what we call on our podcast the melanated solstice. Uh, what that's all about is we give showcase and rise to a bunch of different black businesses, black artists, both musically and paint, uh uh black musicians and producers, as you see, uh as well here, uh artists of cosplay, as well as artists of uh different works of art and um uh developers and things of that nature. So if you listen to some of our episodes, we've had businesses and different people promoting themselves. And if you follow us on Instagram or any other platform, uh we showcase each of them every single day, every single week, just trying to give you know some more visibility to all of them in this area and of course outside of this area. Uh so uh today though, uh we actually have a couple of like uh coupons from some of our um some of our partner businesses and artists.
SPEAKER_17Uh okay, try to do it.
SPEAKER_14So if you look on the screen and you decide to go to any of their websites about any of their merch, we have in the way.
SPEAKER_17But it's alright, girl, you're good, you can set up. You weren't even in the way.
SPEAKER_14So if you if you look at any of their websites, you can check them out either during the the uh panel or afterwards. They'll have coupon codes, uh, either the Blurred Spectrum or Blurred Spectrum on any of their websites, and you'll get special discounts on any specifically on Otako Noir. On Otaco Noir, sorry. On Otaco Noir's website.
SPEAKER_17We haven't gotten like the influencer, but hey, we have a promo code for everybody. Like, no, just the just the one.
SPEAKER_14Wow, thanks for putting this down.
SPEAKER_17I'm not. That's they're here about the journey.
SPEAKER_14I did it. Yeah.
SPEAKER_17Wow.
SPEAKER_14Anywho, so uh my relationship's anything. So if you see, uh if you check out any of the promo codes, go to their websites and you can get some discounts on either the Otakan War boxes or some future stuff from GERD Clothing and other um other like melanated uh Melan is Paradise and a couple of other for uh other couple of businesses. So starting with our panel today, uh we have our main topic, which is what the audacity is. So the first topic, the first topic for today, uh one of the things that you're like you're the moderator, you're the host. You were the backup that you can you know fizzled out.
SPEAKER_17I'm the talent, you're the host.
SPEAKER_14Ooh, alright. Okay, so uh it's gonna be a question today. Uh so uh our main topic for today is uh a year ago when we started uh the Blurred Spectrum, uh the panel, our our panel came together, and the main reason why we came together is because we're kind of bummed about the fact that we couldn't go to cons anymore. Go figure. So here we are that's a year later.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_14A year later, uh just about 53 weeks uh later from when we first started the uh podcast, and now we're back at Blur. Well, some of us are black at black at Burr.
SPEAKER_17We're all black at BlurCon. Well, actually, not we aren't all never mind. Um we're all black at BlurCon. There we go.
SPEAKER_14Good job. That was interesting how you did that.
SPEAKER_17Well, you know, it's all about how you get there.
SPEAKER_14Oh, yeah. It is the best part. So we're black at Burr. See, you made me do it. We're back at BurCon this year, and uh we're excited to be able to once see all the faces, the live faces. I think a lot of different sporting events, different TV shows are you know, getting their live audiences back. So we've been excited to do like a live special in front of people. I think the first live anything we did was our Pokemon.
SPEAKER_17Oh, our red Pokemon versus an episode, and I was fighting. You were unconsolable, is what you were.
SPEAKER_14First of all, it's inconsolable. No, I said unconsoleable on real on purpose.
SPEAKER_17Why would you be that person?
SPEAKER_14So but you were busy. So but so but today we're going to decide uh what should cons do differently. Uh we we've seen a bunch of things in terms of cons going virtual, uh cons doing you know, zoom-based, uh uh uh Zoom-based conventions, uh meetups and things of that nature. But now that we're face to face, should they continue this way? Do you feel like we have like 50 million people in this hotel, escalators packed to the brim, elevators that can't only go in one direction? Do you feel like we're doing the right thing? Are we going in the right direction? Or should we change the way that we're doing things? We change the format, should we change the layout? So the questions that we have our panelists, and of course our esteemed audience is here with us today, is what should be done differently? How should cons move forward? Uh, should they stop cold turkey and wait till the COVID pandemic is over, the pandemonium, the panoramic, the parmesan, should it be over, or should we continue moving in this form where everybody's supposed to be wearing business? I was talking to everybody. Okay. See, look at you. Talking behind people's backs. Triplin, trickling, trickling. So should everybody be wearing masks or should we change the way that it works? So I think we should start with our panel first in terms of what they think they should do, and then we'll move on to our second topic afterwards, after we talk to our audience. Cool? Everybody? Cool? Alright. So we'll start with that side, Miss Uh Sione Cosplay.
SPEAKER_05Hello. Um, let's see. When it comes to cons, you know, we all want to be able to come together and have a packed house with coronavirus. I mean, some things are very difficult for all of us to come here. And yesterday a lot of us missed a day because of the checking and reading, and you know, it's hot as hell. And usually Friday is kind of like that crunch day when, you know, weird shit happens. Weird things happen, you know.
SPEAKER_17You can say weird shit. It's okay.
SPEAKER_05Oh, thank god.
unknownOh, that's okay.
SPEAKER_17Yes. Any children in the audience?
SPEAKER_14Anyone under the age of 18? Not your cosplay, but just you yourself. Okay, cool.
SPEAKER_05Um, so I I think uh it it makes it very difficult for all of us to come together and hack the things on the same page at the right time. So I would think for the console work uh, I guess cohesively in a certain way. I would say maybe we of course I'm not saying because again, you don't want like you know bigger cons, you know, and it took like you know, it's kind of like a smaller con that's getting buried here. But let's say if you're going to Odon, imagine the line yesterday. You know what I'm saying? So imagine the lines for Oticon. And OdaCon's lines are always insane. Always so it's like it's kind of like wow, do we have to wait two days? Do we have to wait two days? So I would say um do the virtual for a little bit of time. I would say to really make sure that the COVID is like very leveled down so that you can kind of open up without having all these restrictions. And of course, restrictions are great because it keeps us safe. You know, we're all vaccinated that's here. But I think just to make it flow a little better, I would say wait until everything's really at a kind of like a very low infection rate so that everybody can come out and not have the anxiety of possibly getting sick. Um so I would say wait a little bit, wait a little longer. This will probably my first and last problem this year until next year for that, you know, for that example. And because I am a panelist, you know, I want to come here and show my support. But if it wasn't for the voice that can probably be today, I would say.
SPEAKER_12If you're from a foreign country, you gotta be a painful shot. Just to get it helps in the long run. And uh hopefully people will make a forgery of the card once that we won't get on the card.
SPEAKER_05I heard they were forgeries out here, though.
SPEAKER_17Yeah, I didn't know people were that pressed. Like, oh, let me just make this fake vaccination card. Keep your eye contact.
SPEAKER_14Anybody who looks down, be judging you. Focus. Uh don't don't say you on your phone. We watch it.
unknownLooking at the ones in the back.
SPEAKER_14I'm saying, looking to the side, putting their face down, sliding their mask up so we can't see their face. Ain't nobody in here, cyclops, so we're looking at your eyes.
SPEAKER_12So hopefully I think in like two years we're gonna wait. Like that's more back at all.
SPEAKER_14No disrespect. No disrespect a little bit for me.
SPEAKER_17Don't feel like if you do, we will help you hide the body. What? We have a very diverse set of things. No. No. No, no, it's not for free. I'm not saying we do it for free. I mean, it's just it will be done.
SPEAKER_03So, um, for me, I think moving forward as far as cons go, I think the combination of virtual and in-person events, uh, I think I think that should be a thing moving forward because there are a lot of cons that all you know all over the country that people would probably go to if they could go to them. But having that virtual aspect um I I feel like is more inclusive. So you have more people, you know, at your event, both virtually and in person. So I I think cons should do that moving forward. Um, but in person, as far as the virus goes, um, initially I was not going to come to BlurCon um until they made it mandatory facts. Uh that aspect of it made me feel a little more comfortable coming, and I know you know people out here, you know, with a fake card or whatever, but but um I I do I do like the fact that BlurCon, you know, put out like rules like, hey, if you're gonna come to the convention, you gotta be vaccinated, your your kids gotta be vaccinated, you know, on Wednesday that we are I mean not vaccinated, but um tested. Um also you know, no photographs of your your car or whatever, like you know, people be doing wild shit. I'm saying so that's not hard to vaccinate. Right, right, yeah. So um so I do appreciate that aspect. Um, because I I wouldn't be here either if there wasn't mandatory vaccination. I know a lot of people are salty about it, but they were salty as hell.
SPEAKER_17I mean when uh when blurcon first announced that shit, people were upset, like legitimately angry.com won't force us to get vaccinated. Like, first of all, no one told you go get vaccinated. You're just saying you ain't getting in this bitch if you're not vaccinated.
SPEAKER_03That's how but um so yeah, I I feel like the the the vaccination, the mandatory vaccination is a good start to help people, you know, get more comfortable coming back to the con scene. Um, I do think there should be an in-person cap.
SPEAKER_17Yeah, I agree.
SPEAKER_03Is it an in-person cap here? No.
SPEAKER_14No.
SPEAKER_03So if 100,000 people just want to.
SPEAKER_14100,000 people are gonna show up in there. Well, they they would have been aligned all weekend. They would have been in line the whole weekend.
SPEAKER_03So when it comes to larger cons like Katsu and Mad Fest and AwesomeCon, like I don't know how I don't know how you know they're going to manage making sure their con doesn't turn into the word.
SPEAKER_14Yeah, when you say it it's like something grown on the back of your throne.
SPEAKER_08Is there a problem?
SPEAKER_03Yeah. You know, you have those larger cons that are not mandatory acts for attendance, and it's like you know we just go meet in and do whatever So I don't I don't know how I feel about those cons yet. Um so yeah, I I think waiting a little while maybe for larger cons to see here as well.
SPEAKER_14To see here. Uh oh.
SPEAKER_11Yeah, it's managed for around. That's true.
SPEAKER_08Oh, we also go to science now. Oh no. No, no, no. We should live.
SPEAKER_02Aurora. Uh I do agree. But at the same time, I'm also really empathetic. Um because we all know what it feels like to be an outcast for lovingness. So to not to already have that taken away from you and not knowing what anyone's situation is, and they have to stay in a space where they can't be their full selves the way that we can right now, I feel for them. Genuinely. Um, because even if they got vaccinated, it doesn't mean they were able to even get over here. Because not everybody had a job situation around throughout 2020. So like I genuinely feel for those folks. Like, I'm I'm happy with all the rules and like the amount of sections that they're trying to apply, but I feel for those that really that come here and this this is their savior. This is their their home away from home.
SPEAKER_13Ooh.
SPEAKER_14Ah. I had my answer and then she said that. And uh the empathy to have. Oh my god. Um yeah, so my opinion on it is uh when they first, well, I have let me not do that because we're live at LurchCon, can't do that.
SPEAKER_17Uh so I have to reserve all criticisms for some other time. Yeah, when we're not here.
SPEAKER_14Uh so I have my own feelings about uh conventions, my own feelings about uh, you know, doing events during the pandemic. And uh I felt like how they started talking about doing BlurredCon uh seemed like they were being very efficient, very organized, like they had thought of everything and planned out everything.
SPEAKER_05I like being shaking your hand though.
SPEAKER_17First of all, the more essential word was the more essential word was seemed.
SPEAKER_14Seemed like you know everything was on the on the up and up. I've I've spoken to a couple of other uh um groups that were planning on doing conventions during the pandemic and it didn't pan out the way they thought it would, and it got cancelled. Um so my opinion on it is uh like Sione's, uh like uh Talon Flames, like Miss Skittles, to you know wait a little bit longer till you either can construct a way for it to be not necessarily well, obviously safer, but be in a way where we can you know all come together. Because like a lot of signs, I I've seen some signs here that said be six feet apart.
SPEAKER_17I have seen no I have literally seen no such signs.
SPEAKER_14Did you hear about the signs? Did I hear about the signs? No, I I I visibly saw the sign when we got here yesterday. A sign. It didn't belong to BlurCon, it belonged to the hotel. It was out front. So it wasn't even their sign. No. Okay. No. So it was wistful thinking. Because I was like, oh, snap, six feet. And then it was crazy because yesterday, so we're a panel, obviously. So we got panel passes. We're supposed to get it from a different room. But we were downstairs because there was no instruction. We were waiting in line with, you know, I don't want to say like everyone else. No, we're just waiting for it. We're waiting in the line. So we were in line for an hour. And I was like, oh, okay. And then when we got like to the front of the line, almost the front of the line, they were like, oh, you're a panel? You should have been on the third floor. I was like, I was in line for three hours. So you know with the common folks? My whole thing is I didn't say that.
SPEAKER_17You don't clutch like this and not feel like pearls on my neck.
SPEAKER_14I'm not wearing pearls. So it um so my whole thought process is until a proper uh uh organized procedure, safety procedure, PPE procedure can be put together, it would have been better either to remain virtual or as Ms. Skittles uh either Mosquittles or Saiyan Cosmo was saying, to put a cap. Because like the idea that if 100,000 people got vaccinated and said they wanted to go to Plurgon 2021, got on a plane, got in their car, got on a train, and showed up, we would have been like, wow, that line is going outside. It's 90 degrees today. That's that's interesting. That's wow. But it's air conditioned in here, that's nice. Glory. Yeah.
SPEAKER_05I guess it's more so like efficient today, it's condition.
unknownAnd so instead of bringing your car, these cars can easily be in place, so they should have this electronically in the system.
SPEAKER_08Yeah.
SPEAKER_05And you know, because I think they could have that, you know, that you can just like, hey, give me your name or whatever, your last four, and they have it in the system that takes away the you know, the photocopy cards and things like that, and so that people can feel more, you know, reassured that everybody is actually vaccinated. So I think it's more so efficiency, making sure that things are really organized, but how much can you organize in a a year? You know what I'm saying? It takes some time.
SPEAKER_14I was gonna say that means somebody would have to go the extra mile because that that particular list of people who are vaccinated is open and available for organizations, both nonprofit and profited, to just look up and find the content. But is it is it wait, but is it really a budget issue if it's free information? It's not necessarily budget, it's more so um, what's the word? Um accountability word of the day! Accountability, people.
SPEAKER_08What is it because it's a nonprofit organization?
SPEAKER_14Well, it's a for-profit organization. It's okay. We throw shit on the podcast that we're all on. Well, I have to say it out loud.
SPEAKER_02Okay, because I was I'm like, well, technically, this isn't to serve. It's not irregular. I don't know, I'm not big on medical records being public. You right that makes me uncomfortable. Somebody who did work in the nonprofit field for a long time in the health field, yeah.
SPEAKER_14Like if you're like super, it's not it's not access to medical uh documents. It's allegedly there's a system, and I watch my air quotes. People on Instagram watch my air quotes. Allegedly, there's a system that when you get vaccinated, it's supposed to put it in a system or database that when people go and look for it, simply have a check mark that says uh Suchino Shogun vaccinated. Okay. The black McCoy vaccinated. So it's not giving your medical records, it's just put the name in, put and you tie it and say send us almost like send you a transcript. Oh, thank you. I'll grab it back, thank you. So put a transcript to a location and saying this person is vaccinated, so they don't have to do the extra information and put it your medical information.
SPEAKER_17And that's c that's costly to do access?
SPEAKER_14Well, I don't want to go into the minutiae of the computers in the government buildings that aren't updated and have been updated for several decades. But the fact that they would need a database that would store all of our information and hold it for a period of time that people would be able to access and be able to use in such a way would probably cost a couple of trillion dollars, so they say. Sorry.
SPEAKER_17Oh, you mean like Facebook?
SPEAKER_14Same thing. Uh but you remember, you don't want Facebook to have your information, right?
SPEAKER_13If you want to go there.
SPEAKER_17Um your conversation. So um my my perspective on the on the entire situation is very kind of back and forth because I what? Jaded. Jaded. Jaded. I think it's meant. Um no, but like, um, I I definitely agree with Miss Skittles and Sushi that like we sh there should be a cap in some way, shape, or form. And I think there are a lot of all the other alternative solutions that like weren't accessed or like thought about. Like sometimes it just takes like that extra thought to like really come up with a solution, uh, especially a viable one. Um I definitely think that we should have a larger or there should have been a larger conversation about what that infrastructure looks like. And sometimes like if like let's say for example we did go with this database to make sure that was simplified this entire like checking in process. Like at that point, it's like, okay, so if that is something that that's why I asked, like, is that something that costs money for would it have cost money for the con to do? Because it's like if you have a very easy way to do something, at what point what like why was that not a solution that was thought about, or why was no one there to suggest it? And not even in the vein of like, oh no one knew, but like no one bothered to try. And so that raises a lot more questions for me about the integrity of the planning process of some of the people behind it. Um, it raises a lot more questions for me about how the the planning committee of whatever place that they um planning to do these things, um have like a true care or care for the attendees, right? Because when we start talking about our safety, we're talking about like how how much do we care about the people that are gonna be there, that we're gonna put all these things in place to make sure that they're safe, they can have a good time, and we're in compliance with you know with all the shit we need to be doing in the fucking first place.
SPEAKER_16Um I think I find myself uh you know in a similar middle ground. I know uh we we lost a lot of uh good people. Good, good. But no, we lost a lot of uh companies, jobs, and organizations during the pandemic. And uh sad truth is that a lot of uh a lot of companies can't survive just to wait another year. Um so I don't I don't know if Gurkham was in in that position. Um But uh I you know I think I think they they uh put a decent uh foot forward. Um I think I think a more half and half approach. I think like if they had uh like you know partly online, you know, somewhat of a limit on the uh on the attendees, like have cameras in like all the panels, record your tournaments, uh have uh, you know, have like you know, people with cameras on each floor catching, like, you know, just catching, hey, let's get a picture, you know, just have like a real kind of you know semi-interactive, like you know, you could have had it when people were interacting with the panels online. Uh even though I mean that sounds like a whole lot more work than you usually do. But um, but you know, if you could have like really made this uh kind of an online, you know, event as well as uh in-person event while, you know, while putting all the rules in place and uh, you know, and limiting the amount of bodies that can come into contact with each other, uh, I think that would have been uh you know a good a good foot for the you know was something to let everyone get out while still letting the most amount of people uh engage while keeping everyone's you know potential safety in mind. Uh yeah, no. I I don't I don't I don't know how much work goes into making something like this. Um so I don't want to make a whole lot of you know uh uh assumptions and you know cast cast down a lot of judgment. But uh but you know it's definitely some more things that probably could have been done, some some things we probably could have thought of a bit better.
SPEAKER_14So for those who can see the hear the alarm in the back, okay, it's gone now. I I feel like we should be concerned. So I was I was ready because I did the I was like For our audience, I was doing you the benefit of staring directly out the door, waiting for somebody to run past, and then I was gonna give you the notion, but I didn't see any movement, so I believe it was a false alarm.
SPEAKER_17As much as I'm glad all of you are here, I would have just left and hoped and hoped you follow suit. Like alligator shit. Right.
SPEAKER_00Um yeah, no, I think I'm I had a I had a thought as well. I got you, I got you. Thanks, Mom. Annoying older brother. Um I'm kind of caught in the middle of the same way where you know, of course, I want to think about safety first, and I I didn't know that about that limit that there wasn't a limit either, so that's that's kind of yeah.
SPEAKER_17Um dropping truth bombs that is shocking all the audience. Wow.
SPEAKER_00At the same time, I actually went to um Blurred City. We did another panel discussion about two weeks ago, and they tried to make everything virtual where you can make a you can make an avatar, you can like press the arrow to walk up to the stage, and it was trash. Like it was trash, just it didn't it didn't work. Like, shout out to Blurred City because they tried something new. Oh, thank you. I know they did something like that. Whatever it was the the output. No, and I'll I'll shout out because Blurred City wanted to have us back and they were apologetic. They're trying a new platform. Man, there was there's five of us that was supposed to be on it. It was only two people that could get into the website. Oh I got to tech support on Zoom to the point where someone had to remote into my computer, and by the time I got like to click the arrow to the stage, it just crashed again. So it's it's one of those in-between times where like we would love to have it like completely virtual. Um, there's like new software they're trying to develop, but it ain't there yet. But then that made me think about when you said that, it would have been dope just to have like volunteers, just like give someone a volunteer, get them to start on Instagram and just be like, you know, what's it called, LurCon tournament, and just have them go live. Like that would have been easy to get somebody to volunteer and just live stream it, and then you could, you know, for those people that couldn't make it, could have like live streamed and went into that. So I think that would have been uh a lot of people that would have been more than willing to come help out and you know been on the ground and take a few.
SPEAKER_16So especially with free packs, right?
SPEAKER_08Look, still cool.
SPEAKER_16So uh one thing I do like is that um BlurCon is probably the only place that I've been to that has actually checked for the Vax cars because since I've had my car, this is the first time I pulled it out. So my glove. I don't agree. I just thought about it.
SPEAKER_17I mean, I haven't I legit haven't used it until today.
SPEAKER_16Exactly. So I commend them for that. So um, but yeah, I think it there could have been like some sort of hybrid thing in play, um, you know, in person, virtual, because I know a lot of people were really pissed that they couldn't come, as you probably saw on like the IG comments and everything. But um, yeah, I feel like there could have been some type of virtual aspect for the people that couldn't make it, so you know, so you just have more people in general um safely. But um, and I know the check-in process was kind of long. Um, I don't know, there's there's probably a way that that could have been quicker. But yeah, maybe I guess like I don't know.
SPEAKER_17I always have this thought when like if something could be more efficient, it's never I never I never think that it's because it it was impossible to do. It always just seems like no one took the effort to try and do it. It's like so I want to be generous in that regard. Like, I I want to say that you know what, maybe there was just some problems that just couldn't be traversed. But but the real the more real situation is that I don't think that anyone really put forth the the what is probably more minimal effort to streamline a process a lot better than it had been.
SPEAKER_14Not gonna touch that one. But yeah, that's that's all I really had to add. I really think that was my two cents. Okay. anybody in the our esteemed audience have any things that they thought could be done differently with what they've seen so far today, or this last two days or day and a half. Yes?
SPEAKER_07Oh I I just think that this convention needed a lot more communication skills.
SPEAKER_14Communication skills.
SPEAKER_07So the thing is the extra $100 to get the VIPs. They pay the Facebook group for the VIPs.
SPEAKER_00Stone out.
SPEAKER_07And um, there was no communication. Like, so I mean, I was lucky because I lived close to five. I come on Thursday, so I can't afford occupation to the owner process. I'm not gonna be stuck outside, you know, waiting. And a lot of people can't do that. But you didn't communicate to people what time it was. So you had a lot of people pay this extra money sitting outside on the first floor because they couldn't get in to do the party or anything. They come in the kitchen at eight. Um people going on Facebook Live complaining about it. Like if you have a group, how about you just post it a group? Registration is this time. You post everything else. You always come out like maybe you should get here on Thursday. Friday's gonna be busy. But I just think that this convention, because of how unique it is, is starting to outgrow the space probably a lot faster than maybe.
SPEAKER_17Yeah, expect it. Because this is only what, like the fourth year?
SPEAKER_07Right. I think supposedly they have a five-year contract, and so next year's probably gonna be a good one.
SPEAKER_14The last one here, yeah.
SPEAKER_07Um, but I'm like, you need to find a bigger space. Um like I'm going to Odecon in three weeks. So thankfully, I think because it's such a larger space, they usually have a lot more volunteers. They do. They have a lot more people doing registration because thankfully they they mask our manufacturers. So they're just checking your ID, you get your badge, and you leave. Yeah. So I I think this convention, if they were in a larger space, maybe it can be a little bit more uh organized. Yeah. But this the space is too small for all these people.
SPEAKER_14Definitely. Were we saying this?
SPEAKER_05I'm sorry. Look, OdaCon also, they capped at Baltimore Convention. And so um OdaCon, I think it's gone on for about 25, 30 years, something like that. So it had the time and longevity to get the funds, get the voluntary, as I said, but also they saw that they outcrew their space. So um, I don't know where they started. It probably was at the Baltimore Convention Center when it before it's first started. But you know, it was at the Baltimore Convention Center. Like I'm from like the Columbia, Baltimore area, so it was easier for me to go there, but again, they kept the 33,000. And imagine the Baltimore's type, you know, the hardware is tight, so 33,000, and they feel like this is too much. I think what they were saying was a fire hazard because we can. But they have that organization online, they actually have the power account on there to say, okay, there's 33 tickets left. There's, you know, some people like, what was it worth? Because it won't be everybody. Yeah. And I think if uh a lot more times utilize that, showing like the little count of how many tickets are left, you kind of also know I can't, you know, go this year, how many people you also know that it's a safety measure as well. And so after I think about a couple of years of keep like happy at 33, you know, you need to go to DC, the Walter D. Washington Convention. Oh, wow.
unknownLike each year, if you go online, you can see how many people have wanted a con.
SPEAKER_05It keeps going up like every year. I think the last time was like maybe 38,000 from 2019. So yeah, I mean you can tell, you know, black nerds, uh, nerds of color, even nerds that are not of color, they love to come to spaces like this. So you can see how much it's growing, and they're gonna have to do something soon. I'm surprised at how many people came out. You know, kind of COVID time past, you know, present issue.
SPEAKER_17We're still trying to figure that out here.
unknownAlright, so yeah, I I think they can find a bigger space next year.
SPEAKER_17Yeah.
SPEAKER_14One more person? Uh yes. Um, I think as a whole, our time has a huge up a huge marketing opportunity because of the pandemic.
SPEAKER_15We've gone into a sort of virtual, like even more in-depth and a virtual lifestyle can charge for streaming. Let's still open up a whole new revenue for it. Yeah, right. Having cameras and each panel running the charge virtual, opening up an opportunity for the panelists become, but still having that option for people to have preferred to just stay home and sit there and throw their handles and sit. They're not here. So you can offer both and create revenue for a lot more people, but they drop the bottle. I understand that this is still a fresh organization, it's still a fresh movement. So it can't continue to work out, but at the same time, like somebody should run in the world. Yeah, yeah. It's not a money issue. There's passionate people behind the type of same.
SPEAKER_17Yes. I think I I absolutely agree. I think that's one of the larger things to keep in mind when trying to do some of like trying to organize cons like this, is that there's it's never that no one ever wants to help. Like I'm pretty sure every single person in this room has an idea of how to get a con up and going and running in a way that's efficient, that's safe, that's really dope, that everybody can vibe with, that wouldn't that you you would love you would love to volunteer that time, especially if it was so you can continue. Eh, one, so it would be so you could could continue. Wow. Could continue doing the thing that you love. Um, you can just share in that fellowship of the thing you love with other people, and you get free shit from the con. You get to go to the con you get to participate in the con for free. And that's like I'm all I I haven't paid for a con in a few years, so I understand. Um that's all that's always a perk, not having to pay for anything. Um I mean, yeah. So, like, I mean, it it's not that there aren't any quote unquote resources available to get a lot of these things going, because as much as we love the con scene, as much as we love cons, they are nothing without us. And if we have what it takes and we have what's necessary to push it forward and make sure that it's be it's the best con it can be, because these are more as much as the people who started the cons are the parents of the con, like it's our baby too, because we we're the ones who have to give money to it. We're the ones who the vendors come for. Like we like we take care of each other, it's a communal relationship. And like I I think it's important for cons to recognize that and make sure that they listen to the people who are coming. Like, if there's a way to do all of these things that we need them to do, then and we have all of it, just just ask. It's a simple question. You had a counter-argue?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, so coming from the event planning space and like having to put on set events like this and full conferences, is which gives the technically the same thing. Minus the video games. Everything that everybody mentioned, excluding you, Gwen. Oh, okay. I know, I know. It does cost money. To do that stream, it has to be, it's gonna call it will cost money. To get larger locations to accommodate all of us, it's gonna cost a lot more money. And because we're the capital, AC is a bitch. They want their money. Especially the thinner, the closer you are to the to the White House that you're able to accommodate and use the love, the power of the skyline, baby, this shit is not cheap. So I can genuinely say as someone on the other side of the spectrum and like, you know, bad them a little bit, I can understand it's it really is the cost. And while I do think that was the great solution that Gwen suggested of like building community with each other and like reaching out to all of us who've been who may have came from the very first one to now to say, like, yo, we'll put in, we'll support, we'll help, we know things, we got people, and give them different little things for helping and stuff. Like, that would have been a great idea to help support this. But a lot of what y'all are discussing is more than what they can afford if there's if because we're still fair. Yeah, and it's right on the outskirts. I'm from I live in Southeast DC. I was like less than 15 minutes of a drive.
SPEAKER_17I don't doubt that part. I just think I I don't I and I I know that that is absolutely true. The only thing that I want is better reallocation of those resources. I know they're limited, like they're better than the axe. It's more so reallocating. Like creating a hybrid situation may have cost more, but they're there are also they I know that there are ways to like shift the infrastructure enough to be able to account for it. Like I we both have worked in nonprofits enough to know that there are people up top that don't want to do that. Two more points. Yes. Point and then point.
SPEAKER_10Right there. Oh no, I was saying that um I just want the class to be a little bit more open, like, because I really want to go to New York Comic Con and like limited capacity. What the hell does that mean? There's no person, there's literally limited capacity. Oh, and we'll see because we might sell more tickets later. What does that mean? Like literally just like comes, can you sell tickets? Can they sold out with this one per hour? We have your comic con is gonna be packed, but again, what's limited capacity?
SPEAKER_17So they don't say what the capacity is. So they they just said limited capacity, but said no no number, no nothing. Yeah, that's uh that's another communication issue because it's like we don't know what the we don't know what the capacity of the space is, and I'm gonna go to the house. And then what were you gonna say?
SPEAKER_09I don't know problems with volunteers that they are volunteer. So I don't want people who have been here, but I think that's another thing like something I would like another thing that I would like to tell is like I don't want to have some I am like uh I mean all of those are I think don't get me started I actually don't I I think all of those are 100% valid points.
SPEAKER_14I mean, but I think the difficulty is, you know, the the people who are in charge of all of these different organizations, all of these different conventions, you know, there we always talk about when certain ads are put on TV, certain things are put in movies, certain things are done in businesses. We're like, well, who was in the room when that happened? Why was there nobody there? Who's to say why you do that? And the issue is like the like the church. I knew you were gonna pick up a specific point for the bake sale, and you're like, ooh, wow. That's not what that's a good example. It may be visualized. Um, but yes, that exact that exact point is we always want that that the the to be a person in that environment, in that room, in that meeting, to say, okay, well, maybe we should tell everybody that the the exact count is 30,000. Maybe we should step up where the volunteers get paid lower than minimum or minimum wage. Or maybe we should they wouldn't be volunteers then, but that's that's the point. Uh and you go back to the most cycle. I'd say it's most likely something. So, you know, I think the issue is for every organization, for every con as time goes on, and deciding they constantly say they have to understand the space that they're in and then figure out what the next step is. So if nobody's looking into the future, they're only focusing on the current, and they're like, oh, okay, well, we're in the same hotel from last year, the year before last, we're gonna set it up this way, we're gonna do that, and then we're gonna do that, and then that's gonna be it, and we should be good. Not knowing that there are 100,000 people who are in the house for an entire year who want to get out and see the people who they haven't seen in over a year. So there are different things you have to take into consideration to think about, and not to cut the conversation off.
SPEAKER_02But definitely about the next one.
SPEAKER_14And the next problem is so one of the things we're just talking about is being here since Friday, right? And everybody has seen certain things, been in certain places. I'm sure most of you, if not half of you, if not some of you, have been at BlurPond before. And there was a specific layout, specific order, and there was a way that you were expecting the environment to be seen. Now, I wasn't at BlurPond in 2019, um, but I believe most half of our panel was here at that time. And there was a certain expectation, a certain thing that they expected to see, a certain layout that they expected to see. And because they didn't see it, certain things have been changed. Now, of course, I'm not talking, I'm talking very vague in that, but I have been doing so. It's not gonna happen. So, what I'm saying is uh a lot of our panelists obviously consider cosplayers, and they have done this for as you know, certain period of time. And with being a cosplayer, certain stresses come into play. And you know, not to be complex being blurred, certain stresses come into play. So the next topic that we're going over is mental health and the stresses of the business. So we're in this space that we haven't been in a year, and we're like, people play like many years. I definitely must say, we haven't we have a competition of there's like there's there's certain things that we expected to see when we came back to the top, but then it's also someone at this table who was very stressed out yesterday, and because of though, they went through certain mental health challenges that they had to particularly work on or work with or try to figure out. And I've sort of certain other people sitting on this panel to my weekends of our things that they had to work on, and you'd certain um inhibitor to you know work their way to the last part of these last 20 more evening. So, you know, the the question is for marketing for the audience, when you come across certain stresses, either as cop players, as you know, individual active conventions, or just being a word in general, what are some of the stresses you face and what are some of the ways that you get the most active? Um this is for those who are listening, maybe they can find something you want to say that would potentially help them in the future. We talked about this before we had an episode called um, and this time. So this time we want to talk about learning specifically learning mental health. What are the things that are going through your mind? What are the things that you've done over the last 24 36 hours? Maybe even the last week that it's roughly to the time right now. Are you tired? What are the things that you're not doing? What are the things that you you utilize to help you get through this thing, or eventually gonna help you get through the rest of this weekend?
SPEAKER_16And that's not definitely um yeah, that area really.
SPEAKER_02So myself.
SPEAKER_16So um I feel like maybe uh definitely uh like five.
SPEAKER_14Um what did you do to kind of get hit through those two points?
SPEAKER_16Um outside the area about a euro kind of like. Oh, you can build it? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I can I can have the outfit because I'm gonna stand there for the moment. So that's it. I bought a euro. Yep. Um there is an ice cream out there. No that's a movie. So do it. Do it.
SPEAKER_17Yeah, you can get two wings to have pizza mango.
SPEAKER_15Is it ice cream or no? Yeah.
SPEAKER_16Check that out. Um I guess for the check-in line, I don't think there's anything you can really do about that. Um, I mean, you know, I guess it's it's not as bad today as it was yesterday, so it's just gonna feel better off anyway. But yesterday, you just have to go through it.
SPEAKER_14Uh Urban Earth? Um talking point? Solution?
SPEAKER_00First of all, I was like, I'm not about to try to go to everything. I'm not gonna do that to myself. Um, but I'm from Connecticut, so I actually drove down.
SPEAKER_16So I told myself, yeah, I mean, not on time.
SPEAKER_00Um I told myself, man.
SPEAKER_15I told myself I'm gonna get it.
SPEAKER_17You feel extra shade. Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_00I see you, I see you my African king. Um I knew I was like, well, kinda.
SPEAKER_14You felt good about that. Wow.
SPEAKER_17Anywho, continue, please. Y'all can use this title.
SPEAKER_00No, yeah. I was about to break my neck to get down here. I wasn't about to try to get here on Friday because I already knew what that was about to be. And then I had I reached out to J C up and I was like, I'm gonna take my time. Um coming Saturday morning, I'm just gonna like pull out, walk around, try not to get around everything. Um I've already picked that around. Which is kind of just a funny thing. I haven't been around a lot of people in a minute, I haven't mentioned in a minute. Um let me just floor my crazy. I'm not gonna lie, I didn't make it to the party last night. And again, I was like, I haven't been around a lot of people like this in a minute. Like, let me go like playing food fast, chill out. So I did appreciate like having the game looking to the side because it was like a moment of like, oh like shit, it's been a minute to be around this many people and like trying to talk to people, conversations. So I didn't appreciate having some like chill spots to just hear the food outside, though.
SPEAKER_17But it's so good, it's it's so good.
SPEAKER_16Right, Kazah. Um maximize my uh lack of trust as uh that is my path in life. Uh so uh and you know, and it's naturally been a uh convention. I think uh I think the best tools available to you are to uh just uh take part, you know, with a lot of beautiful black people wearing uh in that beautiful uh building. There we go. You know, I was going in the direction that we have to annually steer beautiful everyone else as well. So, you know, I mean, you know, take you know, take part in the sites, meet your old friends you ain't seen a while, you know, buying your internet friends you made. Yes, internet friends. You know, what was his name? DJ Sensei? DJ Senpai. Senpai, yeah. He was popping yesterday. Yeah. Wayne and I'm gonna do it. DJ Senpai?
SPEAKER_14Yeah, but he said Sensei.
SPEAKER_08Just like you won't. You won't.
SPEAKER_16That's fine. I knew my patterns would steer me in the right direction. That's right. It's supposed to be a safe place. Uh my chicken, I thought it was gonna give me hypertension, but I think that was uh I think I was just unlucky.
SPEAKER_17The tenders were nice. Apparently the uh the other pieces were uh the black requirement.
SPEAKER_08Um, the fact of the coin.
SPEAKER_17Um I can't I realized that I wasn't breathing as I was talking earlier, so I'm gonna do that. So um existing, which is hard. Um no, so um I I'm I say on it will probably um echo this and so on Miss Gittles. Like, so I was there was a cut another cosplay that I was working on that I was really super stressing myself out about. I'm not gonna tell y'all because I'm just gonna do it later. Um that big of a project. And I knew I wasn't gonna like have it ready for Blurcom, but because it was such a large and massive undertaking, but I had the the dumb idea to like, oh let me challenge myself to see if I can get this done. And if you ever put a cosplay together, like you really throw yourself into it. Like it's a very um it's a very Marxist process and so far. And I say that in the spirit of when you are when you're using your physical labor to put something together, you get thoroughly invested in that thing. Yeah, like it is now an extension of you, it is a part of you. And working so hard on it, like lose literally losing sleep and taking naps at like six in the morning and wake another nine, and just like all the work I put into it, like when Thursday rolled around, I was stressed. I had a whole existential crisis. I'm like, it's not gonna be done. I just I can't do it.
SPEAKER_06I can't do it.
SPEAKER_17Like, and and and it didn't help that I was also kind of being gassed up to try and finish it too. Um, because I put what you looking at me for?
SPEAKER_14You agree, you were I'm sorry, you said you were what? Gassed up by who?
unknownBy me.
SPEAKER_14Oh, okay, thank you. I'm not aware.
SPEAKER_17First of all, it's not a bad thing that I was not a bad thing.
SPEAKER_02I was very much looking forward to it.
SPEAKER_17It wasn't it's not a bad thing that I was being gassed up. This nigga gassed me up too. It's fine. It's good, it's good to it's good to gas people up and you know, give them like help them, you know, want to do achieve the goals they're trying to achieve, right? But um, it's not a bad thing. I didn't I didn't say it insofar as it was a bad thing. But it's like, you know, I had a lot of energy pent up in me to get this thing produced, and then when I couldn't, I was like, well blur accounts is gonna be shit now because everything is gonna be terrible because I didn't finish this. I'm a failure. I'm I I'm not good at this at all. Like I had like I had a whole I had a whole moment. And then, you know, it wasn't so I actually got here and I realized uh one that you know I would have had a hard time really putting all of it together and walking. And um, it was today actually So Suchi, like literally before we came up here. I was like, you know what? I'm glad I didn't finish because I would have been very angry.
SPEAKER_14Just in case y'all didn't know what that sound was, that was the sound of the word of the name of the cosplay. So they were bleeping themselves out. So that wasn't that wasn't it?
SPEAKER_17That doesn't happen very often, so right. Um but no, like I was like, I would have been really pissed off because it's big, it would have been insulated, I would have been hot, I would have been pissed the fuck off. I would have been sweaty, and uh no one else no one else would have wanted to be here because I would have been very, very angry. So I mean, you know, uh I think that's for me has that was the biggest stressor. And it's the stress that I put on myself. But I think when it comes to cons, we have a tendency to put stress on ourselves because we want to have fun, we want to be able to go to all the things we want to go to, we want to be able to make and get things done, especially that con crunch itself is stressful. And then when you put an actual con that you love in front of that con crunch, then it becomes that much more stressful. So I mean solution, you know, try and be gentler with yourself advice and also trying to take yourself.
SPEAKER_16I think are you on the first one?
SPEAKER_14I can go down. Okay. Um, yeah, so no, um, I didn't really have any stresses moving up to the to the um um the convention.
SPEAKER_17Umritants.
SPEAKER_14Yes, I had irritants. I didn't have any stresses um until this morning, yes, until this morning, uh when I was preparing for the panel, and I was like getting everything ready, and I was like, okay, just you know, got a couple things, and then it was something that was missing. I had to drive all the way back home and go and get it. I was like, oh, okay, that's fine, you know, get that, you know, fix this, do this, do that. It's fine. And I think um for me, for conventions, one of the main issues that got really quiet. Uh specifically for the conventions, it's you know, there are uh there are uh there are certain things that we you know set up for ourselves, meeting certain people, going to certain panels, being on time. I I can't stress the fact that, you know, for example, there's uh there's a party, what, tonight from 11 to 5 a.m. and people are gonna like I gotta get there at 11. And there's the people who want to be fast, we late, I'm gonna get there at 3 a.m. And then there's other people say, I'll get there at 4.45, and I'm gonna show up with my best cosplay, and everybody's gonna look at me and I'm gonna walk out 15 minutes later. And you know, there's there's there's going to be people with different and they're gonna be in different ways. And it, you know, for you know, those who are very stressed about certain things, kind of going back to what the black McCoy was saying, you know, just work out how why why are you stressed? What is put it wh why are you putting this stress upon your head? Why are you putting this type of why are you working yourself up to get to the situation where you know, even in Cyan A tells a story quite a lot, even in a moment where you might mess up something, whether it be a cosplay or a situation, you'll walk into the room and people are like, oh my god, that was amazing. You're beautiful, you're you're fantastic. She's she always is, I don't know why it's vacant, but she's so fantastic. It's the perfectionism. It is, it's perfectionism.
SPEAKER_05It's it's difficult, you know, just to think back, you know. We're we all learn in cosplay, we all are colours because it's kind of to mental escape through, you know, probably that we have to go through in our lives. You know, we're different, we're unique, and you know, we were probably grown up being told that we're weird and that we are in a space of our own fears, of our own, you know, of our own kind, and we can just you know embrace that. But on the cosplay end, it's like some people do it because they want to embody a certain character that they love, and others do it because it's uh kind of like a stress relief. Um with body paint, I feel like I'm a masochist. Um I don't I'm like, oh I love this. I'm like, why the fuck am I doing this? Yeah, paint everywhere. Like pain everywhere. You understand? Like, you know, I didn't go to sleep until maybe what, three o'clock, four o'clock this morning just to wake up then at 9 30 to paint me and my my face here.
SPEAKER_14Mind again, because yesterday she was painting.
SPEAKER_05Like, why do I like why do I want to hurt myself like this? Well, I'm supposed to be out there and you know in a cute dress and just enjoy life, but no, I'm here fucking body painting like you know, it's um it's I think to uh go off of like why what stresses us is that um you know at first I just wanted to go to a con and really not know. Like I just want to hide in the shadows, I just want to go to the dealer's room look at art or whatever.
SPEAKER_17Bitch, how?
SPEAKER_05Right, you know, and they just did. You know what I'm saying? Like, oh good, you know, just go. But now, you know, I'm kind of in this cosplay community, and people are looking at me.
SPEAKER_15Because you're bright pink looking for you.
SPEAKER_05I was yo, I was fluorescent yesterday. You ever seen those fluorescent highlighters that were like pink? Bitch, I was glowing.
SPEAKER_17Yes, and then have the audacity to have like jewels on her face, like shimmering.
unknownBut even still, like it was a mistake.
SPEAKER_17Like, so see, see, I make bad choices and everybody loves them.
SPEAKER_05I feel like uh cons are very stressful for me because I usually do things at home, and with COVID, I was able to flourish at home because I didn't have to worry about I left something at home. I oh, I need to get this. I could just go to the store and like I'm gonna post this picture tomorrow. Whatever. Now I'm at cons, people are like, where are you? Where are you? I know you're here, I'm like, fuck. You know, I'm I'm missing things, I'm trying new products that I never tried before. Oh boy. And you know, and and I only knew about that was coming here two weeks ago. So I had to figure out what the fuck I'm gonna do in two weeks to be here to present it to the math and look decent at the same time.
SPEAKER_17I I'm saying first of all, you you always look fucking amazing. Always everything. I don't think anybody in the audience will ever like see anything that you ever done and be like, oh, that's decent. No, bitch.
SPEAKER_05But I am my my biggest critic, you know, and you know, you take the compliments to be very humble, but at the end of the day, I don't see what other people see. And that's at the moment and kind of pushes me to be harder because I'm never satisfied. You know, I I in my head I want it to look like something, and if I feel like it doesn't look like what I'm bringing, I get very frustrated. And in my mind, I'm thinking people are gonna be disappointed. So it's weird, you know, you get in the costly because you want to have a mental escape and you're in it, and you're kind of like in another box because you want to kind of meet that perfection of what you think you should be. And that's really not what it should be about. You should just be out here and just have fun, and no matter if people are looking for you or not, you know, just out here and at the end of the day, I should say, fuck it. If I see things that are blotchy, I'm like, whatever, we have this bitch. Hey y'all! And I just keep it moving. So it's kind of like, you know, con crunch is a big thing. But then when you're at the con, everybody is just happy, you know, we're around everyone. We're you know, we're communicating, and we there's so much love, and I'm just here for it all.
SPEAKER_11So before I even came out here, I had a whole elevator accent. So like me coping, my biggest thing coping is probably the elevator itself. I dare to have each time I eat I feel like three floors. So I'm lucky to still be in. So yeah. So for me, it's good to see people smiling, make the best out of every day, just have fun in the best way you can. Really? Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_04I like that 720 thing. Her smile was growing.
SPEAKER_14I was like, oh god.
SPEAKER_17Just like every podcast. Right, right, right. Miss Kittles?
SPEAKER_03Uh, stressors. Okay, so for me, um, of course, we're in a pandemic, so prior to BlurCon, I I was not going anywhere. I wasn't doing much. I wasn't in public spaces at all, pretty much. Um, so prior to the con, I knew I wanted to come. Once we said it was mandatory backs, I was like, okay, I want to come. So stop it. As soon as I said, I didn't say it now to say that so um so in order to kind of like work away the anxiety of being in a space with so many people, I have uh in in the weeks coming up to this weekend, I have started going like going out to restaurants or you know, going in more spaces with more people that I would I wasn't going out for. Like, yeah, I go to the grocery store and I'm you know it's a grocery store. But like going to a restaurant, yeah, like um, I'm good on that.
SPEAKER_16Um there's like seven months to get you into a restaurant.
SPEAKER_17This one is a Germaphone, like hardcore, heavy. Like the the fact that she's here was is amazing.
SPEAKER_14And that restaurant was empty. I think we were the only ones in there. Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_16No, we went to the one in the chicken place. The chicken place in Virginia. That was close too. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_03But yeah, so I that was my way of working the anxiety away and to to get here and and be okay in the space. And and now that I'm here, I'm glad that I come. Um party downstairs. Um and and I was good. I was actually good in that space. Um, I was also lit.
SPEAKER_08So that helped.
SPEAKER_03Um, but um, I think that was probably the major stressor. Um I I had already had this cosplay. Uh I did knuckles yesterday and I was quick put together. Um and then I think I'm pretty good on the stress. Oh, I I did. So my cosplay for tomorrow, I made well, I make my cosplays, but the pants, when I say I made those pants three fucking times.
SPEAKER_17And why did you have to make them three times? I just I was curious.
SPEAKER_03So the reason why I had to make the pants three times is because a girl is thick. Yeah.
SPEAKER_08She forgot.
SPEAKER_03A lot of my um patterns I've used before, but I've I've always been in like spandex fabric and stuff. So the I I used cotton fabric for this particular cosplay, and of course this shit didn't fit. I was like, who's whose pants are moving? So I have I have two uh the pants of my girl, I don't know who you think I am, but so uh yeah, so that was probably the the stressor. Yeah, that was definitely the stress. So I was like, I'm not gonna have the shit done.
SPEAKER_06I mean pants are under overrated anyway. So I need a taught.
SPEAKER_02I'm glad I'm last because I legit didn't know what to answer. Um, because first of all, my mom went petty because the Jews started talking initially about the food trucks, and I was like, Yeah, why the fuck couldn't they have to eat inside? And I was like, yes, that's a stressor for me right there, because I'm gonna go outside. If I go outside, I'm going home. And uh, but in reality, I think Kai's playing is also a stressor. And I probably just realized it today because I don't even know what the fuck I am. We just had to put something together. Um I'm so dead ass. All me, me, they, and strawberry. We were in the house trying to figure out like we're just gonna throw this together. And it was like, oh, okay, I'm giving vampire, but my teeth, my my mold for my teeth is gone uh uh broke, so we didn't have any more mold. I was like, fuck, so I can't mold my teeth in. I think Strawberry found a whole outfit this morning. Mind you, we went to a storage unit looking for a fit. Because we were just trying to get this whole Castlevania thing.
SPEAKER_14Amen.
SPEAKER_02They found this. We didn't have everything, we found that. It was like, oh, I fuck with this fit. Oh, you got see that's the nasty right there. They got my smaller, it's not right, girl.
SPEAKER_14I got two points.
SPEAKER_02Because I feel like it takes away from like that's why 12 got peppermint. So now it's given um newborn vampire and there's my master. You know, leash it all. That's why these are like this because I was like, I just it's I'm about to just I was gonna say we were gonna do it.
SPEAKER_17The creepy version of our podcast will happen later on this evening. Say what?
SPEAKER_14I was just wondering if there were gonna be more leashes today because we saw Leia yesterday. I was gonna say we did see you. Y'all about channels. Oh, yes.
SPEAKER_04Oh, I didn't know that. I think you got fit then.
SPEAKER_17Right. I mean, I'm trying to get mine as well.
SPEAKER_14Oh my god. Uh so uh we also want to ask a couple of our audience members, what do you were there any stresses that you have coming up to yesterday? Yeah?
SPEAKER_15Yes. Giving an outfit and also giving your ultimate.
SPEAKER_17Yes. Away from the big fun. Anyone else?
SPEAKER_14Yes? Like the color or the right.
SPEAKER_02That that's a good thing.
SPEAKER_14I never I this is the first time I've ever done this. It does.
SPEAKER_17You really don't know.
SPEAKER_11Well, I just researched that.
SPEAKER_17What congratulations?
SPEAKER_11I think it was outward by like and it didn't come into like two things.
unknownYeah, easy cosplay.
SPEAKER_17Yeah, easy cosplay. Easy cosplay takes a while.
SPEAKER_06Right? Easy cosplay and basic from India? Yeah. Yeah, and then US, I think it might come through USPS or NGPS already been bumped up.
SPEAKER_05Okay.
SPEAKER_02You would have had to order your shit in February just to be close on. Just to close.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, like it was a wish and a prayer for me to get my contacts repeating, so like I really thought I wasn't gonna do a cosplay. So but I think you look fabulous, by the way. I thought you were seasoned cosplay of year. Yeah, everyone. Woo!
SPEAKER_11Like, you know, I had to I had to make sure I came with the album file.
SPEAKER_17Let's give her water breathing, 12th form, C6.
SPEAKER_14Alright, so we do have to wrap up. We've been given up one more, one more. Go ahead.
SPEAKER_06Okay, oh I was I forgot one more question.
SPEAKER_04And uh um, because I'm an obsessive planner, like I so I do all of my before I get there. And like I go to Dragon Con usually, and like I'm extra. So I did people today, I get all the stuff of like all the weeks leading up, I have my schedule. I'm like, okay, this can work with me and you know, do all that I retest everything to make sure that like I can easily work. I know how to go to the bathroom in my outfit, but I can test some more. It is like yeah, I just you know, and I always like try to make them so I can do it. But it's just like, but I do everything ahead of time so that like as soon as I get to con, I'm just like autopilot. You know? I look at the cat, like uh, you know, DragonCon app so I like check off all the panels I want to go to, but then I just roll out of bed and like get my cops play on, and like and I get there, and I'm like, alright, I guess this is here. How far do I want to walk? You know, it's just like I do have because I like to have everything just set up and organized, so I like the the beach coming up to it is definitely like, what about this?
unknownWhat about this?
SPEAKER_04Right. Like I like going through that so like when I'm at con, I can have a good time. And then the thing I always try to remember is that I can take a break. You know, and I always have water on me. I live in Colorado, so I have to have water on my laptop. I'm from here, I'm from Baltimore.
SPEAKER_14Oh, okay. Oh, okay, okay. Like, girl, come here from Colorado.
SPEAKER_04I can't visit my family this weekend.
SPEAKER_14Yeah.
SPEAKER_02I just want you to know. Are you doing two costumes this whole weekend? No, no, no. Oh, baby. Oh, baby.
SPEAKER_04I can hold myself back, so it's just like am I like looking at this, you know, because like yeah, because like usually like just travel and dinner on like a backpack over connected mixed new kids, handbag, and like you know, but no, I only did one today, currently here for today. But um, but yeah, it's just like I this you know, I remind myself that I can I can leave. Yeah, I you know, if I'm all sudden, like I'm getting, you know, feeling you know, anxiety range and I was like, I can walk out and then walk around the bottom and go back in.
unknownLike there's you're not gonna be able to do everything.
SPEAKER_04So be hybrid.
SPEAKER_13Definitely. What do I should? Oh my gosh, of course.
SPEAKER_05Like plan ahead for any X players new old, please. It took me 10 years to actually code. We got 30 seconds. Oh shit. Y'all have fun.
unknownWe love y'all. Thank you for all that.
SPEAKER_14So, real quick, because I had I literally had 15 seconds just to wrap up. We want to thank you all for being here today. Uh, please feel free to subscribe to the Blurred Spectrum Podcast, where Blurred Spectrum Podcast, well, Blurred Spectrum, the Blurred Spectrum on Instagram and Facebook, and then Blurred Spectrum on Twitter. And then we have a bunch of other partners uh like uh Taco Noir and Blurred Clothing, uh Melanin's Paradise, a bunch of different partners. So just check out our podcast. It's on pretty much any place you can get a podcast except for iHeartRadio, but every place else. Google Podcasts, Spotify, Apple, everywhere else. So go ahead and subscribe right now. No, go ahead and subscribe. Um and uh hopefully we'll be hopefully we'll be here. Well, maybe we'll we'll be at the next con. Next one, just follow us on Instagram. Yeah, so thank you for all for coming. Uh, if you have any questions or have anything else you want to add, feel free to either hit us in our direct messages. Why do you or uh you can send something to our mailbag, which is the blurred spectrum at umbralstarcade.com. Um, and then each of us have our own Instagrams and stuff. But I think she's gonna come in and kick us out.
SPEAKER_17But all up there.
SPEAKER_14There they are.
SPEAKER_17Yes, everyone's some of our nurses.
SPEAKER_06I don't see me though.
SPEAKER_17You were on the page before this. Okay. It's a it's good on a loop.
SPEAKER_14So uh thank you again. Uh if you have if you want to talk to any of us, you'll probably have to do it out in the lobby.
SPEAKER_17But yes, thank you.