lonewolf3878

As I mentioned in a recent train image I uploaded, I recently got a used Nikon D800 DSLR camera, and a Nikon Nikkor AF-S 70-200mm lens. My goal was to have a camera that can take night photos, which means I also need the Nikkor AF-S 14-24mm lens. This is the best one for night shots with a D800, but like the other lens, even used ones aren't cheap, and it will be awhile before I can get one. For now I'm not going to use it much as it will take a lot of work to figure out how to operate it to it's fullest extent. And my other camera still beats it for now... aside from a dark spot that I have to edit out of most of my photos.

One reason I can't get the lens yet is I'm saving money for my trip next month. I'm planning on going down to Arkansas with a friend to catch the solar eclipse (I'll probably be dead by the time the next one comes around), and some railfanning. I wanted to find a hotel in Russelville (in the total path), but all of the hotels there (and everywhere else along the path) have jacked their prices up 2-3 times the normal cost. Had to get one a hundred miles from the total path.

And it's time I get rid of my backlog of train photos I haven't uploaded yet. Little by little I'll go through and upload everything I haven't yet (since Jul. 2022). These will be both one off, and series photos from railfan trips. I think I still have some airshow ones to upload too. Speaking of which: Later this year there will be an airshow in Topeka again. Definitely looking forward to it.

And speaking of warplanes: I'm almost done with my Vector Thrust skins. I have a couple more sets to make and upload before taking a break from it.

Well another Harmonycon is in the books. Here's how my trip went.

Friday

I left home at 2AM Friday with the goal of getting to the hotel by 10AM. Something seemed strange though.... Oh yeah... No winter weather to worry about! It was in the 50's when I left, and the only weather threat was rain Saturday and Sunday (I'll take wet over frozen precip anytime), so the trip down was easy, aside from the usual tensing up while driving through Oklahoma City and the last 30 miles into Dallas. I didn't have to worry about going too far off the interstate as the con's new location was the Hyatt Regency next to Reunion Tower, which was just off the interstate. I made it to the con at 9AM. Way earlier than I expected

I was hoping to get a parking space in their north lot, which was closest, but my worst fear came true and I had to get a spot in the south lot... Almost 1/3rd of a mile from the hotel entrance 😫 . So after getting checked in early, I spent the next hour using my little push cart to get my stuff to the con... including pushing it down and up a very steep hill. On my first load, despite having it strapped down, twice 2 of my things fell off the dolly and hit the pavement when the cart abruptly stopped on a sidewalk crack. The next load was no less easy, though lighter. My 3rd trip I only had to carry a few things by hand. Needless to say I was worn out after that.

When reserving my room, I put up the few dollars extra for a city side room. Namely because there's several tracks next to the hotel, and I would have a view of them (Union Pacific, BNSF, Dallas, Garland, & Northeastern, Amtrak, Trinity Railway Express, and Dallas Area Rapid Transit all run by the hotel). Mine wound up being on the 19th floor, offering a good view of the trains and city.

After getting settled in, I headed down to registration around 11. Opening ceremonies was at 11:30, so I wondered if I'd make it. Nope. The line for registration went all the way across the lobby almost to the elevators. Opening Ceremonies was more than half over when I found out there was a separate line for sponsors (which I was). After that I just went back to my room to get into my Flash Sentry cosplay.

As usual I first went to the vendor hall. Wound up getting the set of HC mascot plushies, and yeah they got to ride around on the Harmony truck all weekend. Unlike the Sheraton, there was plenty of room to run my R/C's around.

And this time two other people had R/C's too including this mini Lunamobile:

My first panel was the Who Is Best Pony one. This year the winner was Applebloom. Then was the pony version of Match Game (I like the original show). After that I got something to eat and just did some general hanging out. Next was a panel on how to beat Youtube's "made for kids" crap. I caught a bit of Coltchella and the Trivia Trot panel too. And I tried getting some nighttime shots of the Dallas skyline from my hotel window.

Finally I went to the OC Battlez panel (it was me and 3 others) taking part) before going to bed after being up over 24 hours.

Saturday

I got up at 8am, and With not much going on in the morning, and the rain that hit during the night gone, I got my bit of sightseeing and railfanning in. Dealy Plaza and everything connected to JFK's assassination was only a half mile walk from the hotel. Interlocking Tower 106 was also there. Didn't have time to go to the 6th Floor Museum as it opened at 10, and I wanted to catch Amtrak's westbound Texas Eagle which was due in an hour.

There was a pedestrian walkway on one side of the RR bridge over Reunion Blvd. East, and so I went here and got some pic's of UP and DART trains in addition to Amtrak.

Went back to my room, got into my 80's Shining Armor cosplay, and headed back to the con. For the first time, I was going to be able to see the My Little Millionaire panel (I was always missing it thanks to the cosplay contests). I had my 4DE open wings alicorn Twilight plushie in my backpack, and while going to get in line for the panel, it fell out, and I couldn't find it. Long story short, never got it back, and it will cost $100 to replace it (so much for honesty). That did sour the rest of the con a bit (appears I wasn't the only one who lost a plushie there).

I caught about a half hour of the cosplay contest (long enough to see the entrants) before going back to my room and getting my plushies for the meetup. There was around 200 plushies in the pile alone. Mine are visible along with my truck near the right side in this pic' (with my giant Luna partially covered by the big Glimmy). Next year they'll try and make it a mane hall event.

After this, I did the second part of my sightseeing: Going up to the Reunion Tower observation deck, then again got something to eat.

After that, I caught part of the Glimmer Gang Unleashed panel, and a panel on G1 MLP. With some more R/C time during a break. Also briefly setup a small 80's toy display.

I then caught the again hilarious Jackbox and Pony Life panels before going to bed.

Sunday

Once again spent the morning finishing packing, but I also decided to setup my HO scale train for a bit. Unfortunately it only made it around a few laps before the power pack croaked.😡 I should've brought one of my good ones.

Then I realized I might not get my stuff cleared out of my room before check out time. Once again I found myself pushing that cart up and down the hill 1/3 of a mile twice in a mad dash to get everything loaded. The last few items I'd carry with me for the rest of the con. Made it with about 6 minutes to spare. Had to just chill for a half hour to recover the energy lost moving everything.

The only panel I caught was the convention stories one before going to the charity auction (raised $12,000). Then finally it was closing ceremonies. Total attendance was 1115.

Plans are to have another next year. Will I go? We'll see. This was the parting shot before the long drive home.

Until next year!

Oh and here's what I got at the con:

Well another year has started, and as I type this there's already 8 inches of snow on the ground, with another chance coming plus arctic air which will keep anything from melting. Lovely.

As for projects: I'm getting closer to finishing the Equestria Vector Thrust skins. Once those are done I will try both DCS World and Ace Combat 7 ones. Both of which aren't much different from Vector Thrust skins. And aside from some drawings I want to do, I have no other MLP projects lined up (doesn't mean I won't suddenly decide to make something).

I do have another R/C pickup project ongoing. Another Planet Toys Nissan like my Celestia one. This one won't be pony themed (but will still be able to carry pony plushies). I got it off Ebay with the intention to use it for parts for my other to try and fix the steering, but it had the same steering issue (IDK maybe that's how it supposed to be). 2 of the tires are shot, but I used tire glue to hold them together, and hopefully I can find some that work. It didn't come with the controller, but by a stroke of luck it's the same frequencies as my other, which is why I decided to customize it too.

I'm still backed up on my train photos, which is something I need to fix. I have the habit of going on railfanning trips, then not uploading the good photos. One thing I'm looking forward to is when CPKC brings their 2816 through on the KCS line. Will definitely be catching it. Maybe UP will send 4014 out this year too.

As for conventions and other events: I have plans to go to Harmonycon this year, but the fact they moved it to the start of February means an even greater chance of a winter storm making it impossible to go, so I'm not getting my hopes up. If I do, I plan on doing some railfanning too (possibly including from my hotel window) since the UP and commuter lines go right by the hotel. Planet Comicon is also earlier this year, and i'll be planning on going to it. Finally I have plans to catch the Solar Eclipse in Arkansas, which would be a 2 day trip (down the day before then back after the eclipse). The drive is actually shorter than going to Harmonycon so It shouldn't be too bad (too bad the Eclipse isn't happening during HC because Dallas is right in the total path).

So onward into the year.

Wasn't sure if I would, but I did attend HarmonyCon this year. I almost didn't because after the drive down on iced roads last year, I had no desire to do it again, and sure enough overnight the Wednesday-Thursday night before the con we got a winter storm. Just like before. It wasn't looking good, but we wound up only getting a dusting of snow and ice, and by the time I left early Friday morning the roads were fine. So away I went... on only a couple hours of sleep.

Friday

I left at 2AM and got to the hotel at a little after 10 as planned. Though I had to drive around once to try and find a parking space (some of the spaces were blocked by construction). Finally saw someone back out and took the spot (I had a room there so I should be guaranteed one). Got checked in and unloaded, and went to get registered. My first stop as usual was the vendor hall. Did a loop around and saw Rimiplushies had several, including a giant Luna. Asked the price and it was $850. Normally stuff like that was out of my reach, and I continued on. Got a Kerfuffle custom from Sanada Ookmai, and as I was walking it kept nagging. I've always wanted a life size (though for Luna this would've been half size) plushie. And I had gotten my income tax refund not long before the con, and I had some money saved up. And before I could stop myself I went back and got it ($920 counting tax). It was designed to carry on your back, which was good because my arms couldn't handle her weight for long XD. And with that my con budget was completely spent and then some. Plus I was worried how I was going to get it back home as my truck was already packed to the gunwales with stuff, but I managed to do it.

First event I went to was the opening ceremonies. After that I hung out with my R/C Celestia pickup until the autograph signing. The main reason for going to the con was Nicole Oliver was one of the special guests. Luckily I got in line early enough so I didn't have to wait too long. And of course she loved it and took a picture. After that I took a couple hour nap as I was running on fumes (no really interesting panels anyway) until Coltchella, which I caught some of, but again I preferred to just hang out. The last thing I attended was a 18+ Quiplash event panel, which was hilarious. I then went to bed to catch up on sleep.

Saturday

Got up at 8:30 and at 10 went to the first panel: One where you could share your creations. I brought one of my trucks and a few brushables, but it turns out it was for projects online, so I featured my pony skins for Vector Thrust, which were well received.

After that I went back to my room and got into my cosplay of the con. I've toyed with the idea of a "Great and Powerful... Papyrus" cosplay, or Papyrus with Trixie's hat and cape (the story was Papyrus met her and when she introduced herself, Pap was interested since their titles were the same except for "powerful". He asked if it was the hat that made her powerful, and Trixie gave them to him and said "find out for yourself" and ran off. Of course he thinks it was out of kindness, but it was because she was scared of him. Also Lyra heard he was looking for humans, and started hanging with him (represented by a Lyra plushie)). Unfortunately I couldn't finish the hat in time and only finished the cape that Thursday. Didn't win anything in the contest (As usual) but it was still fun (though the Papyrus mask I bought wasn't. Had to keep it off most of the time). I wasn't the only non pony cosplay. There was a red Scout and red Engineer, and that Engineer absolutely nailed the Cossack dance to the approval of the crowd. And the FoE power armor cosplayer was back again. There was also a Cadance fursuiter that was a con favorite.

After that was a pony Jeopardy game panel which was good. After eating I hung out some more and again caught snippets of Coltchella. Then there was a 18+ Pony Life review panel which was gut busting XD (and I still think PL is cute).

After that I went back and finally got out of my Papyrus cosplay, and switched into my good ol' Flash Sentry one in time for the "Waifu Wars" 18+ panel, where 2 people from the audience tried to convince the judges which of theirs was better. Very raunchy panel but still hilarious. And that was the end of day 2.

Sunday

It got here all too soon. Woke up at 8:30 again and begin packing. Was going to attend the "March for Equality" at 10, but found it had been rescheduled to Friday, so I went back to pack more and prepare for the other main event for me: The plushie meetup at 11. There was an impromptu one last year, but this one was scheduled. I had a suitcase plus 2 large totes full of my entire collection, plus my new Luna. Went to the social room and found a place to set up.

And holly crap did the plushies show up. Altogether there had to be at least 500 plushies from tiny to life size (and the Cadance fursuiter) there:

After this I packed them up in my truck and took my Daybreaker truck to the last autograph event to have Nicole autograph it too. After that it was hang out time. At one point I took one more thing back to my truck and on the way back I passed Nicole as she was leaving and we exchanged goodbyes. Caught a bit of the charity auction (Was going to buy something but my big purchase blew my budget). And wouldn't you know it? The plushie meetup continued right outside it (the big Lyra and Derpy plushies are actually "ant ponies" with 6 legs. My spider ones would like to meet them ):

The auction raised over 12 grand.

And with the closing ceremonies it was time to head back home. Left a little after 4PM and got home a little after midnight.

Had a pretty good time, but I don't know cons just don't seem to be as fun as they were before. Why I don't know. I will anticipate going to next years, but that's a long ways to go. I keep hoping it will happen later in the year than February so winter weather is never an issue.

As for my haul: here it is, including my new Luna plushie:

This year set a new record for attendees: 1,081. The most yet. There were a few issues. Someone stole one of the charity items. There was another supposed theft of some type. Someone fell on the dance floor and an ambulance had to be called, and /mlp/ had a room con at the nearby Holiday Inn Saturday night, and it got shut down by the cops. Some people were disappointed the Sheraton's security Dalek.. errr... robot was no longer there. Something must have happened to it. (Edit: According to Littleshy's blog on the con, the robot apparently somehow found it's way to the nearby freeway(!) and got clobbered. RIP.)

Update: Ok. So it turns out that 2nd reason the cops were called to the con wasn't for a theft. It was for something far more sinister😡. I won't say what though. It can be found on Twitter.

Well made it around the sun again. Time for the annual update of things I plan on doing this year (but probably won't).

First off: I still have a big backlog of train photos to post. Maybe as far back as 3 years. I need to get with it and get them posted. I wanted to get out and get pic's of the Kansas City Southern last year, but was never able to come up with a time to join my friend for the outing. Will try again this year before the merger. With the end of monitorable ATCS fast approaching it will get harder to catch trains. Right now BNSF, KCS, and KCT in the area of Kansas haven't converted to the new system yet (because of the FCC booting the railroads off of the 800 and 900mhz ATCS frequencies so they can turn them over to 5G providers, the railroads are forced to switch it to the 220Mhz ITCM system that piggybacks on PTC, whose transmissions can't be legally monitored). Will have to enjoy it while it lasts this year.

As for projects: I have 3 model kits to assemble and that's all I have planned so far.

On the pony side: I'm finally back to making the Equestria Vector Thrust skins. Whether or not I can keep it going remains to be seen. Still want to do DCS ones too. There's one more brushable custom I want to do, and I have a couple of fanfics I need to finish. And of course art ideas. Speaking of: I did enter my OC Gardenia in Equestria Daily's current (as I write this) contest.

As for cons: I have tentative plans to attend Harmonycon 2023, but again I won't say for certain because something could come up by then. And if there's even a chance of winter weather during the trip down or up I won't go (driving 100 miles on an icy interstate last year was it for me. Not going to do that again). Also planning on going to Planet Comicon in KC in March. William Daniels, AKA the voice of KITT will be there this year (it'd be neat if the Knight Rider Historians brought one of their cars to the con too). "Grand Pear" will be returning also.

One event I'm really looking forward to this year is the return of the Kansas Air National Guard's open house at their Smoky Hill bombing range west of Salina. I didn't even know this existed until I saw a video of a previous year's. To see and hear an A-10 going BRRRRRRT in person is a life goal . Hoping Topeka has another airshow this year too. Here's a video of the 2019 one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_0ln8ERY3E

Well that's all for now. We'll see how this year goes.