DragonCon Quick and Dirty

[featherynscale]

Ah, yes. Back from Con. Before you ask, pictures happened. I'll post them as soon as I can find my camera in the unpacking.

GOOD:
- Inexplicable Alan Moore panel. Note to self: be emailing the British media track people and telling them that you approve of this.
- Manifesting stuff I want in the Dealer's Room. Acquired a very dashing captain's coat to finish off my pirate wardrobe, then, later, a well-loved but still useable copy of the Heroes Unlimited sourcebook.
- Wheel of Time track people. Friendly, not creepy. Aes Sedai comedy singing group: sounds stupid, actually very funny. Interpretive Dance version of Eye of the World: sounds *really* stupid, actually falling down rolling on the floor funny.
- Attractive people in amazing costumes. I enjoy this sort of thing far more than seems reasonable.

BAD:
- Getting lost. Nearly went to Memphis on the way in, then finished off the drive by realizing that the directions I had were to some other Peachtree and Peachtree. Since it is possible to be at approximately eleventy billion intersections of Peachtree Something and Peachtree Something Else in Atlanta, it's not really all that difficult to find the ones you don't want.
- Getting continually kicked out of things. I have never in all of my days been kicked out of anything at Con, but this year, the hotel security were a little twitchy. The Pirate party got kicked out of Everywhere. The Wheel of Time party got kicked off the 10th floor of the Marriott. Several track rooms/panels were emptied on order of the Fire Marshall.
- American Grill, the Marriott. Overpriced breakfast, followed by mild food poisoning/everyone getting ill.

UGLY:
- Too much drinking = stupid, whiny featherynscale. A bottle and a quarter of mead should have been more than enough. But no, then there were pirates giving me rum, and a really cute girl dressed as Jayne giving me vanilla vodka. I somehow avoided the hangover I richly deserved, but got really worried over essentially nothing, and then disintegrated into a sodden mess when agrnmn Tried To Help with the worst possible strategy. Stupid, stupid featherynscale.
- Sleeping through many things I wanted to go to, like the Kilt Inspection happy hour, and the Mythbusters panels (all of them, I think).

AWESOME:
- kittenpants' adventures in the art show. She sold one large framed piece, and got crazy compliments, and met everybody in the free world who it would be useful to know, apparently.
- Janny Wurtz. Playing the uileann pipes in the art show room on Monday afternoon, apparently just because she could.
- The parade. Nearly 1000 freaks and 40 vehicles overrunning the streets of downtown Atlanta. Parading with the Pirates was much more fun than parading with the Aes Sedai last year. We handed out Flying Spaghetti Monster tracts, as well as more conventional pirate booty, went "ARRRRR!" a lot, and got to brandish weapons. Also, the Silly Plastic Cutlass I was carrying does excellent double duty as a kilt/skirt-lifter. Further also, me in a bodice + kittenpants in a bodice = serious potential for traffic accidents, and teenage boys running into light poles. We rule.

Comments

[karinablack.livejournal.com]

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I can hardly contain it!
That sounds like SO much fun!

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

It is crazy fun. Why, o why, do you not go next year? It's not too early to plan :)

[karinablack.livejournal.com]

Money's tight and I have to plan for crazy things like feeding my kid :)

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

Ah, that crazy real life thing. Understand.

[karinablack.livejournal.com]

Maybe in a couple of years.

And actually, I'm Horrifyingly shy irl, I would find it difficult to go meet new people- I put up a good front for about an hour then I craaaack *lol*

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

It can be a challenging event for those who aren't people people. I have that sort of trouble myself (and I'm crowd-phobic on top of just regular old garden variety introverted). But since most people there are geeks, and a fair number are geeks for the sort of thing I'm a geek for, it's easier to manage dealing with people at Con than, say, at a cocktail party or other social event.

[karinablack.livejournal.com]

I loved looking at the people in the pictures.

A LOT of non-traditional beauty, and people seemed really open about just doing what they wanted to do.

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

That is one of my favorite things about the event. Everybody does pretty much exactly what they want to do, and people generally respect that. Sure, there's a handful of on-list comments every year about "OMG there was FAT CHICKS IN SPANDEX" or "OMG Bad Cosplay", but mostly those people get told to suck it up and leave people the hell alone.

And yeah, seventeen billion hot people that don't look like What Hot People Are Supposed To Look Like (which I don't personally tumble for, as a rule, anyway).

Glad you enjoyed my feeble attempts at photography. :)

[karinablack.livejournal.com]

immensely :)
Thank you for sharing!

[beccak1961.livejournal.com]

I noticed Robert Asprin was going to be there. I told Zachary (son) I wanted to drive all the way to Atlanta just to ask him what the hell was wrong with him. Zach offered to come with me and smack him with the latest myth book while I threw Phule books at him until he wrote a decent book for each... heh.

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

Hee. I didn't go to any of his stuff, I don't think.... There was so, so, so much to do!

[triadruid.livejournal.com]

Actually, Asprin was the "Bob" at the Worldbuilding panel, IIRC.

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

Shit, was he? I missed the intro parts, so I didn't know. Not that I ever know who anybody is anyway -- I can barely be depended on to recognize people who are celebrities in visual media, let alone authors, who you only ever see in the jacket pictures.

[triadruid.livejournal.com]

I couldn't actually see most of the panelists (I think he's balding, maybe?) but that's what the pocket program guide said.

[kissmythistle.livejournal.com]

stellabambino does the Brit Media Track. It's great every year. I missed all the panels this time around, unfortunately...

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

Thanks -- I'll drop him a note. :)

(Actually, the only Brit track thing I made it to was the Alan Moore panel, and that only because it was highlighted and underlined and had large arrows pointing to it on my grid, with notes in the margins like "Go to this or the entire trip will be wasted", etc.)

[triadruid.livejournal.com]

I'm thinking a posterboard-sized master grid next year on the room wall so we can REMIND EACH OTHER might be helpful. But that might just be my cordian side talking. I missed a lot of stuff, too...

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

Oh, I don't know. It helped me to pick out what I wanted to see and type it into a list -- but it would have been So Ever Much More Helpful if I'd actually printed that list and brought it with me.

[kittenpants.livejournal.com]

Shit, I printed and brought mine. And it stayed in the bottom of my bag the entire trip.