DELETED

Pony plushies are apparently a status symbol at cons, but they're expensive for obvious reasons. But luckily there are patterns online to make one at home? I'm not sure if I want to get into sewing, but I'm curious how easy/hard a very small one would be to make.

https://make.smol.horse/ (I can't archive this, but I saved an offline copy of the pdf.)

https://imgur.com/a/tiny-pone-ep-pattern-K4L3Q (archive)

derpibooru.org/images/152249
https://www.deviantart.com/cavelupa/art/Updated-Pony-Plush-Pattern-337440530 (archive)

Thinking about using the access-only features to post about serious and more private things, like the room party I had last weekend. I figured I was going to have an "anyone who adds me to their circle gets added to mine" but I haven't gotten around to it. So I guess you can comment/ask if you want to see more personal and less mundane postings. I mainly have meta related stuff in mind.

This post is a day late because I spent the 15th hung over! I'm off work today but I work the rest of this week AND 38 hours next week, so let's get this post over with while it's still morning...

My brain is all over the place so I need to just compile notes. I'm trying to be in order of events, but this is also going on a tangent.

• FAMOUSLY, Harmonycon 2026 is probably going to go down as the convention Chris Chan was kicked out of. This info was completely sprung on me, I was standing in line for over an hour to get Tabitha St. Germain's autograph. Someone next to us showed us footage of him getting escorted out of the building... And another video circulated of the con owner trying to take the phones of people recording the incident, holy shit.
• I got mixed signals from this con in general. One of the first things I saw was a small Anonfilly plush suspended by balloons. It's very difficult to separate G4 from it's 4chan roots but this con was a smidge chuddier than I expected at certain moments. On Saturday there was an anon meetup. Literally. A bunch of men were wearing green masks and congregated in the lobby outside the game room, and they were chanting shit like "MARES! MARES! MARES!" and "BRING BACK CHRISTINE!" after the incident on Friday. Very surreal to see. There's photos, including one I took, but I wish I recorded the latter chant.
• I also suspect that uh, one of these anons drew the SS runes in the communal sketchbook. I ripped it out before I left.... for fuck's sake......
• I grabbed a lot of stickers and business cards as usual. I um, found a very cursed button from Mare Fair that I feel like I'll be put on a watchlist for having. And a highlight on Friday was a card for therapy and marriage counselling for bronies. Very cool!
• Mare Fair came up often... I'm honestly not sure what to think about it, because the shit I've seen online differs from the anecdotal things I've been told. But there was a small pocket of /mlp/ users here among the 1600+ attendees. I'm morbidly curious about it despite the rancid things I've read, but I can't leave DFW anytime soon even for a weekend. On top of the extremely cursed button I found, I have an Anonfilly magnet on the fridge now and... Some Mare Fair 2025 bottled scent from Snowpity? It actually smells decent...
• My autograph from Tabitha St. Germain was worth it, but I can't take a photo because she used a silver sharpie for it :( So a scan will come one day. I literally missed 2 panels waiting in line for it!
• The Hyatt is, as usual, very hideously expensive for vending. I use my credit card for food but most of the money I spent was using my credit card. My lunch and dinner on Friday were decent, as were the martinis I got at the bar, but holy shit. I got very tired before 9PM on Friday and couldn't make it to the 18+ panels that night, so I drank more caffeine the next day. The cost for sodas and energy drinks are complete robbery. $6.50 for a fucking Celsius when $6 can get you 3 cans. The only decently priced deal was my dinner on Saturday, which was $15 for a grilled chicken sandwich, small bag of chips that's normally $4, a soda, and a free tumbler with Dallas on it. The prices made me so mad that I grabbed another Celsius for my soda...
• One of the first panels I went to was about making friends at conventions... I am still struggling with this. So many interactions kind of end when we leave, and these spaces have up to a thousand or several hundred people at the minimum!!! On the other hand, I haven't been to a multi-day con since August, so I forgot that people aren't going to post on social media until after they go home and the con ends. I'm slowly scouting people on social media, but unlocking my Twitter makes me want to kill myself... :( :(
• Running a panel must be fun if you're extremely autistic. On Friday I was at 80% of a panel that was basically "G5 Is Good, Actually" and you know what? I might try to give it a second chance... I knew it was unfinished, but not that executive meddling is why it's so awkward to watch :( The movie is insane, I didn't like the Netflix show, I could see the Youtube show and comics...
• Saw a preview of episode 2 of the Fallout Equestria animated adaption. I was very tired so I don't have much to say about it.
• Kind of fucked up but I saw a dead body on the way home on Friday night... There was traffic on the highway which is weird because going home is usually pretty fast, but people were rubbernecking an accident. It was so bad there were 2 ambulances and then I saw a body being covered by a blanket. And I told the Uber driver this is so fucking disrespectful to rubberneck someone dying. It made me hyperaware of my mortality for a moment and really sad
• It was raining so hard on Valentine's day. I flipped my shit for not going in earlier, but it was fine when I came in around 12-1PM. One of the first things I did was grab an espresso cocktail and barely got drunk off it. The bar was playing "I Turn My Camera On" by Spoon which was sadly fitting... Unintentionally framed the rest of the day.
• I forgot to mention I had stickers printed of my art and a carrd as a test run. People seem to like it, but I don't know how many followed the link. I have less than 20 stickers left, I have 100 of a different design on the way though...
• I am not familiar with ANY of the musicians, so I couldn't go to the concerts that were the same time as other panels. I did attend Koa's music panel and it was actually really cool, I already knew about how music parodies or samples other songs but I heard a preview of the upcoming album and it's SOOOOO GOOD.
• I missed the Transformers panel :(
• Um... The big thing is I attended my first room party! I skipped the ones I saw advertised at TFF/TFS because I thought they were just fucking, but when I was charging my phone an older dude said it was just drinking and talking...
• I never heard of Neighcon until now and I realized that this party was full of 4channers. And I found a 4chan post saying the party had the cops called on them Friday night, so I HAD to see this. It wasn't bad and I don't regret it, but it was a very very surreal experience to eat tendies, drink, and watch stupid videos (and later terrible) with /mlp/ people. I kind of realized that maybe room parties are where the magic happens.
• I went to the party a bit after 8PM, then I left around 9PM for the Trade Ya! panel. Since after I went to TFF last year I found out how much I love these events to give away and trade merchandise. Good news: I offloaded nearly everything I brought, which is good because I had no hotel room and was carrying a bag for 8 hours. However when the panel was ending I got really desperate and just announced that KIDS GET SOMETHING FREE. I gave a little girl one bait-quality G1, then I had another lament being 18, and two others were like "I'm 15, does that count?" Yes. Please take this shit away from me. I got Star Catcher, a G1 I forgot the name of, and some official Rarity merch. And a weird official figure of a strangely feminine Big Mac I want to mod, but the hair sucks...
• After the Trade Ya! panel, I went back to the party and that's when it got cursed lol. But someone promised to bring G2 Ivy for me next year, I just need to assemble some good merch to trade for her...

I'm considering giving access to people and making a locked post about the room party, this was simultaneously crazy and mundane.

I haven't been posting here lately :(

Harmonycon starts... on the 13th... I'm kind of stressed out because while I don't spent that much money at cons, it's mainly Uber I worry about since I didn't get a hotel room. And my paycheck is really really mid since I missed work during the storm. I plan on attending all 3 days, but I ran into a last minute issue with Sunday because I realized too late (read: last night) that the closing ceremony is at 3-4PM. That is SUPER early and if I theoretically Uber over at 10-11AM, I won't be there very long. But I specifically requested the 15th and 16th off from work because I wanted to try attending all 3 days, so I'm just wondering... What do I even do on the 15th? Not only is 4PM too early to go home, but 4-6PM is peak rush hour traffic so going home will be expensive and take a long time. But I do not live near that part of Dallas so I don't know what's walking distance...? I can walk a few miles on foot but man I have no idea.

My potential "escape route" for Sunday is someone who is at Sonic Expo that I added on Discord is doing a "spinoff" event after the con at 7PM, I could probably follow his group and go there... but otherwise I'm just winging Sunday. Just because the convention ends at 4PM doesn't mean I'll get kicked out of the hotel lol. There should be some stuff going on. My sister's boyfriend will let me know if he works that day too because otherwise I offered for us to do something in Dallas if he's off after 4PM.

Also, I'm off tomorrow before the con. Here's my checklist:
- Haircut
- Pack itabag and extra tote
- Check my tub near my computer for MLP stuff I want to bring or give away
???
Profit