For Llanion and the BA Chat Room

Cos you all know why…

Okay… just… wow…

Breana and I were both away from the blogger’s chat room. I had a second to look back at the room while checking in freight and this is what I see:

TheStoppableForce: Hey hey hey hey hey.
TheStoppableForce: If ANYONE’S unnatural, it’s me.
TheStoppableForce: Game on.
Faulsey: Yabut that’s because your mother didn’t love you and you turned to dark forces.
TheStoppableForce: No that’s because the Lich King loved me.
TheStoppableForce: Specifically he loved me with sharp pointy things.
Llanion: Wooooow, not touching that one
TheStoppableForce: Then necromancy.
Faulsey: Which is why your mother didn’t love you!
Faulsey: I mean, it’s hard to love a ruined corpse.
TheStoppableForce: Cue the necrophiliac jokes.
Llanion: The possible slash fic here is frightening…
Faulsey: Not just any necrophiliac jokes, stop.
Faulsey: Oedipus styled necrophiliac jokes!
Nightravyn: /coming to a screeching halt and staring
Llanion: So would Arthas/Draenei DK be undead slashfic, or tentacle slashfic…?
Breana: wow
Nightravyn: o.O
Faulsey: Both.
Faulsey: Undead tentacle.
TheStoppableForce: oh great, the undead tentacle slashfic is what brings them both back
Breana: okay leaving chat for a bit until the talk of corpse sex has moved on
trizophenie: Wouldn’t that be Yogg/Draenei DK? The undead tentacle?
Faulsey: No, that would be tentacle on tentacle action.
Llanion: So wrong. So very wrong. *curls up in a little ball*
Faulsey: I’m expecting a full house of eye twitching here.
Faulsey: -pats Llanion gently… with a tentacle-

Pirrrrrate Day!

Well that was fun – Wrapup

For Day 1, click here. For Day 2, click here. For Day 3, click here.

Monday morning, Jared and I woke up and went out to breakfast with Mike and Heather. All four of us were moving slower than normal. It was a long haul weekend for us all, and Jared and I still had the drive home to deal with. Yep, we’d checked the list of panels and there wasn’t anything that begged us to drive back into Atlanta and go to it. We’d already gotten our shopping done, so it was just home time.

After we packed up the car and hugged Mike and Heather goodbye, I started driving for home, with Jared finally passing out in the passenger seat. I ended up resorting to my usual tactic of singing along with various selected road tunes on the iPhone, just not quite at the volume I normally do when I’m alone in the car. I didn’t want to wake Jared (or scare the hell out of him). Somewhere between Birmingham and Tuscaloosa, I made Jared take over driving before I fell asleep. By the time we got home, I was good and loopy. The cats were thrilled to see us… for about 5 seconds. Then it was all “Where have you been, dammit!”, “You smell like other cats!”, and “WE”RE STARVING!”. Little liars. I know Dana fed you good while we were gone. (Kika, yer tubby anyway, so shush.)

So, now that I’ve gotten sleep and I’m back at work in the “normal” mode of things again, how was Dragoncon? As usual for my trips to the con, when it was good, it was very very good. When it was bad, it was %^!@$. Okay maybe not that bad, but certainly an exercise in frustration. They’ve done a great thing in setting up certain panels to either be shown live or played later in the hotels TVs. But you can only see those if you have a hotel room in one of the big 4 hotels. If you had the time, and wanted to see a panel you couldn’t get into/had to miss, but knew the time it would be rebroadcast, there was nowhere to see it. We asked and were told one place, but it was very much NOT someplace to watch the feeds. So we were SOL. Annoying.

Normally, Dragon*Con’s security staff is very much visible and around. This time? Not so much. I’m thinking they either didn’t think they were going to have this many people show up for this year’s con and were stretched insanely thin, or the security people were seriously understaffed this year. I did have a run-in with one con security person that when I asked if the line she was keeping under control was the Hobbit line, and she snapped at me that it wasn’t. I blinked, responded politely with I was just asking, and she visibly took a breath, smiled and apologized, whereupon I smiled back and said it was okay, and all was right in the universe afterwards. So my vote’s for understaffed/overwhelmed staffers.

The panels (at least the ones we got to see) were great. That’s never been a problem (much) at this con. A lot of people were having a great time, and for the most part I did too. I wish I’d been able to see more than I did, but time constraints and lines hampered that. Next year, I’m hoping we can get hotel rooms and go from Thursday to Tuesday and really do the whole thing. That would help a lot on the stress involved.

I will say that I’ve heard mutterings about them moving it to the Georgia Convention Center when the current contracts are done with the hotels. Personally, I hope they don’t. Yeah the hotels can be a PITA at times, and the crush can get to be too much. But that’s part of what keeps Dragon*Con’s personality as the laid-back fun con. This is where the PR people don’t dare go. This is where we get to hear people say things that weren’t expected and not sent through lawyers to make sure it’s okay to say that. I’d like to keep it that way, and moving it to somewhere more “professional” like a convention center, seems to kill that flavor. They tried that in 1997. It just wasn’t the same con.

So overall, I had a blast. I’m tired, my back hurts, my eyes hurt, my feet sure as hell hurt, and my knee is probably plotting it’s suicide when I least expect it. But damn I had fun and look forward to doing it again next year. As one last parting item, enjoy an AMV that was shown while we were waiting for the FUNamation panel to start. It made me laugh hard.

Well that was fun – Day 3

For Day 1, click here. For Day 2, click here.

When we woke up Sunday, I hurt. Back in college, I’d wrenched my left knee real good in what my doctor later termed a “sports accident”. (Reality: I was on the dance floor and someone spilled just enough of their drink that a piece of ice landed under my feet. Boom, my butt met the floor. The knee went one way, the rest of the leg went another. Ow. Helloooo crutches!) All this frantic racing about was straining my knee and it was not happy with me. A couple of Advil later, and into the car we went.

First panel was at 10am for WoW addons, hosted by ckknight. When we got there, Krista, one of the WoW friends we’d had supper with on Thursday night, was there and waving us over. Apparently, ckknight had been chatting for a while when we came in and she was feeling outnumbered with all the Hordies there. ::grin:: It was a good panel, and while I didn’t particularly learn anything new and exciting, it did give me a couple of ideas to mull around for UI changes.

After that, it was off to the next TAPS panel, but once we saw the line, my stomach said “Yeah right, go eat something instead of waiting in that thing.” So after lunch, we meandered over to the Hellboy panel for Mike to watch. Interesting to hear the creator’s take on the movies and where he’s taking the series, even if it’s not something that I normally read.

By the time the panel was done, we figured that Jay and Grant were probably back at their tables in the Walk of Fame, and sure enough they were. Once again, really nice and gracious and happy to sign the books for me. After that, it was once more around the dealer’s room to see if there was anything else we needed to get. More purchases made, it was time to head off to get into the Unauthorized Look at the Hobbit panel. TheOneRing.net had a great panel on the latest news on the Hobbit movies and debunking various rumors. Weta is gearing up even though it’s not yet been green-lit, but the status is just a matter of time. Estimated arrival dates for the two films: December 2011 and December 2012. Yey Hobbit movies!

After the Hobbit movies panel, we wandered down to the Myth and History of Pirates. the one thing I’d noticed this year as opposed to previous years is how much steampunk there was. The pirates had been growing in numbers over the years, so it wasn’t that startling, but the steampunkers… Wow. Those were some wonderful costumes! it was almost a tie between goggles and cat ears as the “in” accessory for everyone this year. (I went with the cat ears mwhahah! /meow) But the pirates were linked with the Alternate History track, which is where all the steampunkers were. The pirate track was fun and informative, and then it was off to the FUNamation panel.

I wasn’t sure what I expected going in, but seeing multiple episodes of one of the series they’re releasing this year in the states wasn’t it. The series was Kaze no Stigma. It was… okay. Honestly, I wasn’t impressed. It was action, no wait, comedy, no wait, fan service, no wait romance, no wait GAH PICK ONE ALREADY! Art was okay, dubbing was eh, and the only part that really stuck in my head? The male lead looking at the sky after Something Bad Happened and saying “[dramatic voice]Spirits of the Wind! [regular irritated male voice] WHAT THE HELL?!” That made me giggle. Most of the rest of it, not so much. Once we realized they were going on to the second episode, we left the room since none of us had any urge to watch any more.

After supper, we went down to where the Pirate Party was setting up and started to wait, excited about the evening. Except we didn’t have that great a time at the party. Leading up to the party, we had a blast. Sitting in the corner, waiting for the room to open up, Mike, Jared and I were all more than a bit punch drunk. Our internal censors had given up around the time we woke up that morning. Inner voice? What inner voice? It was total stream-of-consciousness babbling and funny as hell. We were there to hear The Lost Boys, one of my fav Renn Faire bands. Instead, by the time the music started, I was just tired and had a headache. Then it hit me the singing wasn’t the Lost Boys, it was a female a cappella group. They prolly would have been fine in a room where there wasn’t a crapton of people yakking away, complete with echoing and speakers that weren’t powerful enough to get their words across distinctly but instead turned them to mush. On the other hand, the speakers were powerful enough to take all the high pitches and slam them straight into my brain like knives. After 30 minutes of that, I said I was done and screw seeing the Lost Boys. I was starting to get physically ill and just wanted to go home and sleep. That was fine with both the guys, so home we went.

Tomorrow – Day 4 and con wrapup

Well that was fun – Day 2

For Day 1, click here.

Saturday, we were able to sleep in a touch, as the first panel was at 11:30am. Yey sleep! Let it be known I am not a morning person. I will get up if I have to. I will function if I have to. But I most likely won’t be completely coherent/observant. Which is why I completely missed the fact that Jason from Ghost Hunters went right past me til Jared practically had to grab my head and point it in his direction. Durrrrrr. The good part was that we got there early enough (and since there was no panel before them that morning) we were 5 or so rows from their table in the room instead of stuffed into the back like I was afraid of.

The panel itself was great. It had Jay, Grant, Steve and Tango from the regular series, and Dustin and Joe from the International series. There was one plumbing question that got asked, and they all managed to tease each other pretty well over the course of the panel. Really glad I got to go to that one.

The rest of the day? Eh, not so much with the happy. We’d planned at hitting a panel with Terry Gilliam from Monty Python, but the line was insane for him, which I totally understood. After that was the panel I’d really wanted to see: Adam Savage from Mythbusters. The hotel where both panels were being held had some security guys that were, well, impolite would be the nicest term I could use. When someone says “Okay no problem” nicely to you if you tell them to move outside, and then they proceed to move towards the exit, your next action should not be not-quite-yelling “Outside now!” At one point, when I looked back to blink in disbelief that we were getting tossed outside so rudely (not that we were being asked to go outside, but at his tone and behavior), I saw him look at me and start for us, even tho we were still walking off. It had a feeling of “That’s it, I’m physically tossing you outside and I’m not going to be nice about it.” No, I never gestured, “gave the eye”, or was rude in any way, nor did Mike or Jared. So his snarkfit at us was completely uncalled for and just made me ensure I will do everything in my power to never ever stay at a Sheraton again.

I’m sure he’d been dealing with morons all day, and if we’d even done anything that was vaguely rude to him, I’d get it. Hell, I work retail. I understand about customers and the occasional need to destroy something. But a polite “oops, sorry” and compliance does not call for snarling on your part, Mr. Hotel Security Person.

So instead of seeing the Monty Python panel and the Adam Savage panel, I checked to see how the line was for Diana Gabaldon’s book signing, since I had a first edition of Outlander that Mom had sent with me to see if I could get signed. Her line was worse than just about any other author signing I’d ever seen, so we skipped that as well, which bummed me a bit, since I’d really hoped to get that for Mom withthe Adam Savage panel plans going boom for us. Instead, we wandered the dealer and exhibit halls. Gifts and toys were purchased and things were slightly better. After that, it was off to the Walk of Fame to get other books signed, two copies of the Ghost Hunting book that the guys from TAPS wrote. One was for me, and one was for my cat sitter and employee, Dana. As we were walking up to the hotel, oh look there go Grant and Jay. /facepalm But we went in anyway, and were able to get Dustin, Joe, Tango, Steve, and Tango’s dad to all sign the books. All the guys were very nice and chatty, and were pleased to sign the books no problem.

However, all that time spent standing and walking between 4 hotels kinda made us all tired. The disappointments added up too, so tired and cranky about 75% of the day, we decided to hell with the WoW party that was being thrown that night and to just head for home. A stop at Fuddrucker’s for burgers before getting to the house (oh dear god I’d forgotten how good those damned burgers are), and things got a bit better. More messing with cats and kittens occurred, then bedtime.

Tomorrow, Day 3 – Redemption

Well that was fun – Day 1

So this past Thursday, Jared and I packed up and drove to Atlanta to visit friends and hit Dragon*Con. It’s pretty much what I consider my “home” convention, and is one that I enjoy every chance I can get. I Twittered a lot of quick lines while I was at the con but missed a lot of stuff along the way.

This was the first year they’ve started at 10am on Friday morning. Normally, it’s 1pm on Friday that the con gets cranked up, so that was a bit different. Four hotels this year when I’m used to three. And while yes, there’s usually 30,000 people in attendance, I’m curious to see what this year’s numbers are, cos it felt like a lot more this year.

Side note: If you have problems with claustrophobia and random strangers touching you in random places completely unintentionally because it’s just that crowded, this may not be the con for you.

Thursday, we hit Atlanta and Mike and Heather’s house were we were staying. (Thank you again, guys!) That afternoon, all we did was head into downtown Atlanta, pick up our badges (that took an hour, even though we were there practically right on time), and had dinner with them and more people from WoW that we knew that were in town. Fire of Brazil was a lovely place, but I’m not sure they knew what to make of our table. Yes, the geeks over in the corner were a little rowdy. Sorry. ^^; At least no one started getting stupid, just silly. After that, it was home time to mess with their cats and get some sleep before the con got started the next day.

The panel that started it all off Friday morning at 10am, the Shatner/Nimoy panel, was great. We didn’t have a chance at the main room, but they had an overflow room with video screens showing it in another hotel. Walking into the room to hear Shatner asking Nimoy “Did you just call me a ‘dickhead’?” was giggle-worthy. I’m hoping that panel makes it onto the con DVD for this year.

The Spin City panel with Barry Bostwick and Alan Ruck was also great. I like these panels where the people on them actually -like- each other and aren’t making nice for the fans. Most of the questions ended up in one of three camps for them: Rocky Horror (Bostwick), Ferris Bueller (Ruck), and of course, Spin City (both of them). A good time was had by all.

The Farscape panel was good, but sadly the two people from Farscape I hadn’t seen weren’t there yet: Claudia Black and Ben Browder. I was amused that my personal description of Browder (“He-Of-The-Tight-Leather-Pants”) was echoed by Virginia Hey when she was asked what scene/show she liked the most from Farscape (“Any one that Ben’s wearing those tight leather pants in!”)

By then, it was head back to our friends’ house to pick up Heather, who’d stayed home while Mike, Jared and I went around doing geeky stuff at the con. That night, we had our once-a-con dinner with our friend, Josepha Sherman, a wonderful author and folklorist. Jo was having a moment in time involving a plane that broke, a delayed departure, and no convention badge yet, even though she’d already been on one panel right before we came to get her for dinner. /facepalm At least dinner was delightful, and we headed home for the night.

Tomorrow: the rollercoaster that was Saturday.

Last call before departure!

I’m so not ready to leave town tomorrow. Let’s look at that list, shall we?

1. Knit like it’s no one’s business to finish one project – still working on it /sob
2. Go to Kara for a fun run (how fast CAN a bunch of lvl 80s cruise through there with bad jokes and puns a’flyin’?) tonight done! And damn it was a blast.
3. Finish laundry tonight – still working on it -.-
4. Clean kitchen tonight Done, but going to have to do it again tonight.
5. Start baking bagels and cookies tomorrow. Cookies are done. Sorta.
6. Settle who’s babysitting the cats while we’re gone Done! Thanks Dana!
7. Raid tomorrow night Done with much frustration and weirdness. How do you stop an unruly raid in it’s tracks and completely derail a raid leader boyfriend?

Random guildie: “Hey are we just gonna go in there and shoot it up?”
Me: “Yeah sure, heroin seems like a good choice.”
Raid: “::sounds of screeching brains coming to a halt from shock while people were talking::”
RL Boyfriend: “Um…. whut?”
Me: “/goes way left of center and takes the raid with me” There were gigglefits involved on my part and I make no apologies (and have no idea where that came from). (Dear god don’t use drugs. Drugs r bad, baaaaaad /end PSA)

That still leaves me with the rest of the list today.

8. Finish baking bagels and cookies Wednesday
9. Re-clean kitchen Wednesday
10. Doublecheck laundry pile to make sure it didn’t regrow Wednesday
11. Pack Wednesday (make sure to take items to be signed, multiple books from multiple people, DVDs, etc, plus clothes, etc., gifts, baked goods, batteries for camera, cables for eletronics we’re taking, Katamari games, PSPs, extra books to read, plus knitting for the drive)
12. Clean out car trunk of excess crap Wednesday
13. Attempt to go to bed “early” Wednesday night
14. Wake up at “deargodnoit’stooearlydon’tmakemedriiiiiiive!” on Thursday and get this whole thing started!

I’m honestly not sure what all is happening at this point. I feel like I’m just eyeballing a list and ticking it down, praying I get to the end of it before we leave tomorrow morning. Oh and I still need to print out sign-in sheets for the employees, do payroll early, and print out next week’s schedule for them. /facepalm

Is it Thursday afternoon yet? /whimper