What comes to mind is the question "When does a hotel restaurant cease to even care?". The Ramada Inn which was the location of our convention this weekend had a little restaurant, and when Loen and I rolled out of bed Friday morning after a whopping 4-hour nap, we were an hungred, and went to eat at Justin's Place.

And here I thought it was the gym....

Himself was not in evidence, but had he been so, I would have asked Justin a few things. I ordered coffee, juice, and two eggs over-light, bacon, toast and hash browns.

These are hash browns:

Hash browns are a mass of innumerate shreds of potato fried until crispy. They are what String Theory would be if it worked at Waffle House.
OTOH, these are home fries:

The potatoes I got looked like pan-dried one-inch cubes of potato, fried and dry, which appeared to have been counted onto the plate, rather than spooned. They wept for emollient Heinz ketchup. Or just salt.

They got the eggs right, and the mass of bacon was a treat, but the quantity was likely because the strips just wouldn't come apart. The toast was toast. Cold toast.

There were perhaps five tables being served, with two "servers" being in evidence. At the beginning, my coffee was a long time coming. When it arrived, I waited ten minutes for a spoon to stir it. Mmmmmmm...lukewarm hotel coffee.

(Let me interject here that I am not That Guy. I do not have unreasonable expectations, and I do not consider myself to be a pwecious snowflake for whom the planet revolves. I have been a waiter several times in my life, and know what is involved. I expect servers to be trained to Do Their Job. Hmmmm...mebbe I am That Guy.)

Bottom line: it took too long for the service cycle to complete. Part of the food was not as advertised. Loen commented about his breakfast, being amazed at how hard it appeared to be to toast a bagel.

We did not eat there again.

Here was an inn with a restaurant, which is usually the center of the public face of the hotel, and yet this seemed an afterthought. The hotel was well-worn at the heels, in a truly troubled part of town (the hotel across the street looked neat, but had the reputation of having hot and cold running hookers.) The standout business in the neighborhood was a Dollar General Store. This old Ramada is likely not long for this world, which will be sad. The hotel staff were helpful and polite. The room was clean, so it was not a visit to El Rancho Roacho. The restaurant was just not what the place needed, though it is probably what would be expected.

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Another thing I note is the devolution of fannish things. Pop-culture convention-goers are ceasing to be members of Fan-dom, but rather to be members of Con-dom. The Con is the thing, not so much the anime, the sci fi, or the gaming. It may be a function of Weekend Party Culture. I merely observe this. Anime cons are decreasingly about teh anime, and cross-fandom is rampant. Doctor Who shirts are an important part of our con mix, f'rinstance. Every con is becoming a multi-fandom media con rather than hewing to Trufandom, that is to say, the con-goers are increasingly polymath, less focused on a particular show or genre. (I will regret this) Many costumed kids (cosplayers) are appearing as characters from a bizarre webcomic, Homestuck.  Anime cons seem to be the most convivial, being friendly places for Who, Homestuck, anime, steampunk, and Pony fandom to congregate friendlily. Ecumenical fandom. But con-culture as a whole is becoming mixed, blended, frapped. More volume, less substance.

Cons are now Popular.

Everybody's doing it.

I think that this does not bode well.