I almost forgot

[featherynscale]

On the way to Dragon*Con, about 2:00 a.m., we had a brief interlude of being on the wrong road and having to switch to some pretty scary Kentucky backroads to get the Minivan Galactica pointed in the correct direction. I mean like small town roads, covered in mist and darkness, with fantastic curves with way more road signs than are strictly necessary. At one point, we were forced to stop and wait while a large truck came across a long narrow bridge that had been reduced to one lane. In Kentucky. Did I mention Kentucky? Later at Con, we saw a guy with a shirt that said "Paddle faster -- I hear banjos", and it was a little like that.

This little setback was not without its opportunities, though. We got to listen to a fair amount of talk radio, and if you've ever thought about what sort of things they probably put on talk radio at 2 a.m. in Kentucky, you're probably right about them. We heard a person identified with words like "doctor" and "scientist" give a long, soft-spoken assessment of the state of the world, in which he talked about how the "zero-population-growth people" wanted to kill off all the people in the world. He later identified them also as the "environmentalists". As an environmentalist and a zero population growth advocate, I was shocked to discover that we had invented AIDS and cancer. "You see, the abortion and the birth control weren't enough, so They invented all these diseases... They want to get rid of all the people on the earth."

This of course led to a fair amount of snarking and carrying on.
"They hate babies. You can't trust a baby-hater."
"Wait, we're them."
"OK, we hate babies, then."
"Can I have some peanuts?"
"Do you hate babies?"
"Yes, I hate babies. Give me some peanuts."

It probably saved us from falling asleep at the wheel or going insane on the road, so that's all okay. But seriously, this guy was just coming out with this stuff like it made sense. Not good.

Also, I do not hate this baby. Her mother was at con last year like fifteen months pregnant, with Cthulhu painted on her belly. And lo, it did turn out to be an Elder God. What a cute little Elder God!

Comments

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

Hee!
Yeah, there were a ton of kids there this year. It's my understanding that all the official programming has to be reasonably family friendly until 8:30 or 10:00, and all the parties and whatnot tend to happen after that, too. There seems to be some sort of rule about only doing really egregiously little costumes until late in the evening as well, though since I have no particular inclination to walk around unclothed, I don't know if that's a rule or just a thing people generally do.
Also, there seemed to be childcare and a number of daytime panels/programming things suited to kids. I don't know if that's usual, or if they just got a lot more kid-friendly this year -- it's not normally something I think about, but agrnmn was talking about bringing his kids, so I suppose I just was noticing it more.

[karinablack.livejournal.com]

so kewt! That would be reason to go and make it a family vacation :)
Maybe in a few years... though I've promised her Disneyland first (by the time she's 5.)