RTX anyone? Announced earlier today, RTX Austin 2018 will take place from August 3rd to the 5th this year, a departure from the normal early July dates.

I went on a whim last year; with my wife having a couple of conventions she wanted to attend herself, I saw RTX tickets were on sale last January and picked one up because why not? I was a fan of RWBY (still am), was interested in some of their other things (ditto), and knew at least one person who lived in Austin (who has since moved, however), so it made sense. It was an adventure, as I’d never been to Texas before. I had no real idea what to expect, but I wanted to give it a shot.

Boy, am I glad that I did. Austin is a great city, and, even though I was nervous about staying sort of on the outskirts, it wasn’t hard to navigate at all. I ended up using Lyft a whole bunch, something I’d never used before (or since, as we don’t have it here), but it wasn’t difficult or complicated. It actually was kinda nice, as all the drivers were friendly and talkative, giving me some more insight on the city itself and some of the people that lived there. And yes, everything everywhere was air conditioned, thankfully.

The convention itself was amazing. I know I haven’t gone to very many, certainly not of that scale – the inaugural PAX East, Emerald City Comic Con 2013 being the largest – but it was such a welcoming and friendly atmosphere. Going alone had me a little nervous, even though I knew a few fellow attendees who I met up with there, but I never once felt out of place or awkward.

If you bought a general weekend pass, you were given one autograph session code as well. The VIPs, who get two each, got to pick their sessions first, so I didn’t get one with anyone I really knew, so I chose to meet another group of people I’d heard of: the guys from Kinda Funny. Meeting them was amazing, and only made me a bigger fan of them. They do a daily (M-F anyway) gaming podcast that I’m up-to-date on after 100+ episodes now, because they’re awesome. Looking forward to their panels and another autograph session if I can manage it this year.

So, yes. I want to go back. They have a new ticket level this year that interests me, the Weekend Plus package. It’s a cross between Platinum (which was VIP last year) and a Weekend pass, which includes two autograph sessions and some other perks. You don’t get into the Friday night party, which, eh, and I don’t care much about priority lines as all the panels I wanted to see last year weren’t a problem to get into, provided you didn’t mind sitting further back. Being tall has its advantages that way too, I ‘spose.

Tickets go on sale in February, and I’m definitely going to be picking some form of pass up at that time. If you’re looking for something awesome to do, I highly recommend checking it out.

So, it occurred to me earlier that, while I failed to write in this blog daily for 2016 (and didn’t every try for 2017), I can begin that whole process anew today. I think I’ll keep the goal to just once per week, in order to make it more realistic, but must say that I’m a little excited at the possibility of living up to this goal.

Will I have a lot to say? Probably not. I am looking forward to the challenge of keeping it up, however. I’m not really one for New Year’s Resolutions (see: making this one two years ago and failing, for example), but I do like the general idea of trying to improve one’s self. Writing is something I want to improve, so here we go.

Last year was actually a pretty good year for me, writing-wise. I set a goal in mind (to create something by a specific deadline), met the goal (finished said thing and submitted it in time), and also started meeting with my cousin on a weekly basis in February to discuss our writing. That was the biggest part; even when we didn’t have anything new to review or talk about, we still made an effort to meet up and at least talk about things. I really hope we follow through with that in 2018 too.

The 2017 NYC Midnight Flash Fiction challenge was pretty fun as well, even if I didn’t make it to the second round this year. The first round consists of two challenges that everyone gets to do, and the top five in each group move onto the second round into new groups, then the top four of those groups make the finals. In 2016 I got there, but fell short this year. It was very fun, though, and I got some useful feedback. More importantly, I got to write in two unfamiliar categories, and did pretty well with them, so there’s that. As a result, I signed up for the 2018 NYC Midnight Short Story challenge, which takes place later this month. We’ll see how that one goes.

Of course I’ll try to write about more than writing, but that’s what I’m focusing on right now, so there.

Welcome to 2018. Upward and onward.