Probably missing some things, but better done than perfect:
Highs
* Vegas, baby! Loved Fremont Street so much. Love the advertisements, bustle, alcohol, music, barely-dressed or creatively-dressed people (male and female). Saw someone in handcuffs being escorted out of a casino. Exceeded expectations
* The silver lining of a small turnout: everyone knew everyone by the end, and we had loads of fun.
* Having bruised hands, achy elbows, and sore quads by the end of it. When I started going to fests, I went with the philosophy that if you weren't a little injured by the end, you weren't juggling hard enough. For the last couple years I've gotten more reserved, chatting more, juggling less. Recently, I decided that I'm not ready to be one of those jugglers who spend more time sitting at tables than juggling. I felt I kept up with the youngins well.
* Meeting BJ! A surprise as well. Very enthusiastic, knowledgable, and a clever/creative low-numbers juggler.
* Trying out a handful of the other skills there. Cornhole was simple to pick up, and then seeing the competitors play was amazing. The yo-yoists were out in full swing, there were some pretty fast speed cubers, and the sepak takraw guys were super cool. Everyone I spoke to in each of those communities were very kind, and helpful in trying to improve my skills in each. Got to try fencing for the first time!
* Playing JUGGLEZILLA (we decided to extend a game of 5b JUGGLE because it was lots of fun) and coming up with crazy stuff with Fabion (sp?)
Lows
* Not having a clear method of transportation to the second venue. The buses were indirect, and while it was eventually sorted by Joe and Bob, it caused delays for all, and stress for some. It took some convincing to keep some people in for the last day.
* Having to stay in a hotel room/area that allowed smoking indoors for the first night. Horrible sleep, felt disgusting the whole time.
* Jason not juggling much. I get that he was busy with organizing, but I wish he would've delegated more to allow him to juggle. I'd certainly have volunteered for a couple hours (and I'm probably not the only one) if it meant he could've juggled more.
Goals
* Get some tips on techy >4 ball stuff from people - check, worked on overheads a fair bit and am making progress.
* See more of the city than I usually do at fests - check. Was well worth it.
Crushes
* Joe Showers - for helping with logistics and exuding enthusiasm.
* Bob Maier - also helping with logistics, providing games prizes, pizza, etc. Him and Joe were the Mr Fix-its that you turned to whenever you had a problem.
* Doug Sayers
* Emily Carlson
Banes
* The smoke. So much smoking in the casino, any time I had to leave the Grand (where SkillCon was) it was disgusting and took me a few minutes to recover from each time.
Surprises
* Running games! They went very well, and stayed within their allotted time. It was fun to boss some awfully good jugglers around.
* Taking a match of sumo combat off of Vova. He was pretty rusty and wasn't there for the rules announcement, but still counts!
* The powerlifting announcer taking shots at all the other events. It seems like he completely missed the point of SkillCon. This would have been a low or a bane, but everyone else was so helpful and respectful that he just seemed out of place.
* The ESPN colour-commentator being a reasonable juggler, and knowing names of patterns.
* Spencer and Sam being beasts! I'd never heard of or met them before, but man. Spencer does some crazy siteswap transitions and Sam was running 6b overheads for a good, long time.
by Mike Moore, in response to this post 2015-11-10 23:10:36