Catarina's going to her first con today!!!
Other than that, the Moonlight Ball was extremely disappointing. I'm literally quite choked up about it. Here's my post to the AE forums:
I'm glad everyone had fun this year and I'm glad that we were able to raise so much money for charity. That's awesome.
That said . . .
The Moonlight Ball was extremely disappointing for me. I had fun, no doubt, but I also left around the same time we had the vote-by-acclamation on whether we wanted "slow songs" or "more fast stuff!". People enjoy the fast dance music, I can appreciate that that's what people like and I won't make a deal about that. But considering all the planning over the past year . . .
Considering how all year there was a strict dress code being hammered into the forums that was supposed to help create a formal, traditional kind of dance atmosphere to the point that members on the forum were being upset that they were now not dressed formally enough to even enter the ballroom . . .
Considering a dance instructor was hired to teach a basic dance step and did so for the better part of an hour to begin with . . .
Considering all the time encouraging forum members to suggest music for the ball (something I had spent a lot of time trying to do and had gotten all kinds of thanks for caring about this event and whatnot from the planners and execs') . . .
Considering all the work done for the paper origami flowers to enhance the overall style to everything . . .
Considering all of that . . . . . by 10pm the Anime Evolution 2008 Moonlight Ball turned into a rave. And yes, people certainly enjoyed this rave and I don't fault anyone for that . . . but if that was the case, then why bother with any of this? Why bother to dress up nice for the one night of the convention where we get to dress up nice and do a different kind of dance that only gets so much time in the convention anyway? Why ask us all for song ideas for the dance only to hear only one suggested song the entire night (and that only happened because I requested it specifically - and yes, I did appreciate that, don't get me wrong).
And yes, I did have fun at the ball. When the "Mortal Kombat" theme came out, I was more than happy to hit some random kung-fu moves for fun (though granted, doing them in a tuxedo probably hurt me more than not). That was enjoyable. But I think the fact that the theme from "Mortal Kombat" was played at all at a ballroom dance kinda goes back to my "why?" question.
So what does this mean for next year? Do people actually want a ballroom dance at AE? Would people just be happier to have another rave instead? Should we just scrap it altogether? 'Cause if this year's ball was supposed to be improved from last year's, I think the improvements went in the wrong direction. 'Cause I really enjoy ballroom dancing. It's fun, it's different, and there are really only so many times I get to do it. The fact that they take place at a convention I've been supporting just makes the overall con experience that much more enjoyable for me. I was absolutely looking forward to this dance this entire year, and I hate that I left at 10:30pm shaking my head.
But yeah. It's great to hear that everyone had a good time.
On the plus side, TseUq was there and it was great to see her again. Funny enough, so was "The Girl" (if anyone remembers her). We got some good dances in before she left (and before everything went to hell). She's doing well for herself at a software company right now and said she'd see if her workplace is looking for technical writers. That's a plus. Nice to be on good terms with people you haven't seen for a couple years, hey?
