A full post!
Hi! I'm awake now! This is due only to the fact that my bloodstream is made up entirely of caffeine right now, but hey! I'll take it how I can get it! Following is as much of the story as I can think to tell. If you want to skip to the pictures, they're at the end! I'm also going to attempt to put a jump here but... Well, I kinda fail at HTML, so I'm not sure if it'll work! XD
Dragon*con, as I mentioned last time, was amazing. I went in expecting to share a badge, which gives you access to the con, with someone else. But within ten minutes, I knew this place was FAR to epic for me to miss a moment, so I went out and got myself my own tag. They even let me call myself boomchick! XD
Okay, let me give you some scale here. The hotel I was staying in was unbelievably huge. It was ginormous. To me, at least. I'm kinda a small-town girl, but it was big. I was staying in the International wing of the Hyatt. The place was packed to the gills! Trying to catch an elevator down from the 12th floor every time I left the room was an adventure every time! Getting back up there was even harder.
The con itself was... Gaia, it was amazing. There were thousands of people. Thousands and thousands. And they were everywhere. I can't even describe how many people there were. It was stunning. Everyone was wearing something interesting, from elf ears to costumes to the coolest t-shirts everywhere. The number of three wolf moon t-shirts was particularly amazing!
In addition to looking amazing, EVERYONE THERE WAS NICE! I'm not sure if that was just my impression or everyones, but of all the cons I've gone to Dragoncon was the nicest. People turned in lost things (We'll get to how I know that in a moment here,) they'd help you get places, they'd take your picture, they'd answer questions and they were always happy to help if they could! It was just wonderful to be around them.
Then there were the panels... Oh the panels... First night I went to the panel on writing homosexual novels, and it was awesome! (One of the panelists was the guy who wrote "The Trouble with Tribbles" from Star Trek!) It was fascinating, and tons of fun! And a large representation in the crowd from the slash writers.
Then it was off to the Drum Circle. The Drum Circle was one of the most enjoyable things I have ever done. At least two dozen people bring their drums (of all kinds) and improv song after song after song, starting at 11:30 and going till everyone passes out from exhaustion, basically. While they play, the bellydancers, and would-be bellydancers dance. And dance. And dance. I was dancing until at least 1:30 every night. It was beautiful. I'm still super sore.
The next morning I get up early to watch the Dragon con parade! You can actually see footage on the internet. It was indescribably good. My friend Mari was one of the belly dancers in the parade and forgot her finger cymbals in the room, so I had to run them down to her--and I do mean run--which was quite fun! The streets were packed with people, so getting through to her was something of an adventure. And when I got there, she passed off a piece of her jewelry and told me to try not to touch it... It was strange. Later found out that it was because she'd discovered it could give you lead poisoning! Oops...
So after the parade, I went off on my own to explore, without a costume, but with my shoulder dragon and elf-ears. I wandered around the hotel, getting lost twice, and ending up in a completely different hotel, eventually. During my travels I found the art show, and the two SMALL dealers rooms. Each of those three places was enormous, and filled to the brim with other con-go-ers.
The next time I wandered around, lost, I ended up getting accosted by terrifying nightmare people from Atlanta's number one haunted house Netherworld! The thing was, like 15 feet tall! And it had mantis-hands! AHHHH!
After they all had a laugh at me for freaking out, I went and lined up to see Adam Savage of Mythbuster's fame. The line went around the hotel, but I got in! He was really really funny, and super engaging. It was a riviting experience. After I remembered I hadn't eaten in a while and had a few cookies who my amazing room-mate and instigator Mari had brought along, she showed me to the BIG dealers room... Holy shit.
That place was so huge I never saw all of it. For serious. Amazing.
Oh! And my timeline is off, because I didn't sleep much, but one night, I went into a viewing room to watch some AMVs. By the time I left, it was 3 in the morning. The next morning, I realized I didn't have my phone. After reporting my phone missing to security in two different hotels, both to the hotel's and the con's security, and checking back multiple times with them, being assured that, literally, 90% of things lost at the con get turned in and retrieved, I finally got a message from my mom, who had been awoken at 3 in the morning the night before when a stranger named Aaron called my home phone number from my cell.
She said he'd found my phone, and was holding onto it for me. It was a whole different adventure to find Aaron, but I eventually found the room I'd met him in the night before, and was assured by his coworkers he'd be there soon. When he showed up, he gave me back my phone, and all was right with the world again! Aside from the roughly ten messages from people my mom had contacted about my phone trying to get in contact with me...XD
So more adventures followed. I won't relay them all to you, but from girls wearing nothing but three pieces of tape to guys in steam-punk wheelchairs, this con had everything. (though there was a severe lack of remnants.)
The last night, I participated in the two best things ever. First I watched the funniest movie I'd ever seen--"The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra!" It was incredibly, and intentionally, awful. Highly recommended!
Then I went to (drumroll please) Dub your own Hentai! It was AMAZING! They just turned the volume down on hentai movies, called anyone up who wanted to try, held auditions for those who wanted to give it a shot, handed them microphones and let them have at it! I won one of the first rounds, and was one of the first three to go up. It. Was. Epic. The hentai was bottom of the barrel stuff, which made it even more fun!
The guy doing the dubs next to me did a dead on impression of Bill Clinton and was cracking me up so badly I sometimes had difficulty improving my own lines! I have no idea what that show was about. All I know was that I got a standing ovation, and the nickname 'irish girl' for the accent I was doing. When our twelve minutes of dubbing was up, we got to go back to our seats and watch everyone else take their turn! The dudes impersonating Sean Connery and Forest Gump were particularly amazing...
After that ended--too soon for my tastes-- I met up with a couple friends of mine who were in there with me, and my buddy Kate and I ended up staying up till five in the morning together watching people play Dark-kin (an improved, spur of the moment murder game. It's awesome.) I had to turn in then, but Kate ended up staying up all night playing with them!
The next con cannot happen soon enough. That was the best thing I have ever done. For serious. Check the link below for pictures! I would have taken more, but my camera died. I'll let you know if I find any good collections on the internet!
For the pictures, I'm going to try and get them up on my livejournal, but until then, go on ahead over to my flicker here and check it out! There's at least a few cool ones!
So there you have it. The amazingness of it all... Sorry to bore you with the long post! Hope that jump worked... I promise more fanfiction is coming! I'm going back to work right now, as I finish this post!
Mucho love to all of you, all around the world!
Dragon*con, as I mentioned last time, was amazing. I went in expecting to share a badge, which gives you access to the con, with someone else. But within ten minutes, I knew this place was FAR to epic for me to miss a moment, so I went out and got myself my own tag. They even let me call myself boomchick! XD
Okay, let me give you some scale here. The hotel I was staying in was unbelievably huge. It was ginormous. To me, at least. I'm kinda a small-town girl, but it was big. I was staying in the International wing of the Hyatt. The place was packed to the gills! Trying to catch an elevator down from the 12th floor every time I left the room was an adventure every time! Getting back up there was even harder.
The con itself was... Gaia, it was amazing. There were thousands of people. Thousands and thousands. And they were everywhere. I can't even describe how many people there were. It was stunning. Everyone was wearing something interesting, from elf ears to costumes to the coolest t-shirts everywhere. The number of three wolf moon t-shirts was particularly amazing!
In addition to looking amazing, EVERYONE THERE WAS NICE! I'm not sure if that was just my impression or everyones, but of all the cons I've gone to Dragoncon was the nicest. People turned in lost things (We'll get to how I know that in a moment here,) they'd help you get places, they'd take your picture, they'd answer questions and they were always happy to help if they could! It was just wonderful to be around them.
Then there were the panels... Oh the panels... First night I went to the panel on writing homosexual novels, and it was awesome! (One of the panelists was the guy who wrote "The Trouble with Tribbles" from Star Trek!) It was fascinating, and tons of fun! And a large representation in the crowd from the slash writers.
Then it was off to the Drum Circle. The Drum Circle was one of the most enjoyable things I have ever done. At least two dozen people bring their drums (of all kinds) and improv song after song after song, starting at 11:30 and going till everyone passes out from exhaustion, basically. While they play, the bellydancers, and would-be bellydancers dance. And dance. And dance. I was dancing until at least 1:30 every night. It was beautiful. I'm still super sore.
The next morning I get up early to watch the Dragon con parade! You can actually see footage on the internet. It was indescribably good. My friend Mari was one of the belly dancers in the parade and forgot her finger cymbals in the room, so I had to run them down to her--and I do mean run--which was quite fun! The streets were packed with people, so getting through to her was something of an adventure. And when I got there, she passed off a piece of her jewelry and told me to try not to touch it... It was strange. Later found out that it was because she'd discovered it could give you lead poisoning! Oops...
So after the parade, I went off on my own to explore, without a costume, but with my shoulder dragon and elf-ears. I wandered around the hotel, getting lost twice, and ending up in a completely different hotel, eventually. During my travels I found the art show, and the two SMALL dealers rooms. Each of those three places was enormous, and filled to the brim with other con-go-ers.
The next time I wandered around, lost, I ended up getting accosted by terrifying nightmare people from Atlanta's number one haunted house Netherworld! The thing was, like 15 feet tall! And it had mantis-hands! AHHHH!
After they all had a laugh at me for freaking out, I went and lined up to see Adam Savage of Mythbuster's fame. The line went around the hotel, but I got in! He was really really funny, and super engaging. It was a riviting experience. After I remembered I hadn't eaten in a while and had a few cookies who my amazing room-mate and instigator Mari had brought along, she showed me to the BIG dealers room... Holy shit.
That place was so huge I never saw all of it. For serious. Amazing.
Oh! And my timeline is off, because I didn't sleep much, but one night, I went into a viewing room to watch some AMVs. By the time I left, it was 3 in the morning. The next morning, I realized I didn't have my phone. After reporting my phone missing to security in two different hotels, both to the hotel's and the con's security, and checking back multiple times with them, being assured that, literally, 90% of things lost at the con get turned in and retrieved, I finally got a message from my mom, who had been awoken at 3 in the morning the night before when a stranger named Aaron called my home phone number from my cell.
She said he'd found my phone, and was holding onto it for me. It was a whole different adventure to find Aaron, but I eventually found the room I'd met him in the night before, and was assured by his coworkers he'd be there soon. When he showed up, he gave me back my phone, and all was right with the world again! Aside from the roughly ten messages from people my mom had contacted about my phone trying to get in contact with me...XD
So more adventures followed. I won't relay them all to you, but from girls wearing nothing but three pieces of tape to guys in steam-punk wheelchairs, this con had everything. (though there was a severe lack of remnants.)
The last night, I participated in the two best things ever. First I watched the funniest movie I'd ever seen--"The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra!" It was incredibly, and intentionally, awful. Highly recommended!
Then I went to (drumroll please) Dub your own Hentai! It was AMAZING! They just turned the volume down on hentai movies, called anyone up who wanted to try, held auditions for those who wanted to give it a shot, handed them microphones and let them have at it! I won one of the first rounds, and was one of the first three to go up. It. Was. Epic. The hentai was bottom of the barrel stuff, which made it even more fun!
The guy doing the dubs next to me did a dead on impression of Bill Clinton and was cracking me up so badly I sometimes had difficulty improving my own lines! I have no idea what that show was about. All I know was that I got a standing ovation, and the nickname 'irish girl' for the accent I was doing. When our twelve minutes of dubbing was up, we got to go back to our seats and watch everyone else take their turn! The dudes impersonating Sean Connery and Forest Gump were particularly amazing...
After that ended--too soon for my tastes-- I met up with a couple friends of mine who were in there with me, and my buddy Kate and I ended up staying up till five in the morning together watching people play Dark-kin (an improved, spur of the moment murder game. It's awesome.) I had to turn in then, but Kate ended up staying up all night playing with them!
The next con cannot happen soon enough. That was the best thing I have ever done. For serious. Check the link below for pictures! I would have taken more, but my camera died. I'll let you know if I find any good collections on the internet!
For the pictures, I'm going to try and get them up on my livejournal, but until then, go on ahead over to my flicker here and check it out! There's at least a few cool ones!
So there you have it. The amazingness of it all... Sorry to bore you with the long post! Hope that jump worked... I promise more fanfiction is coming! I'm going back to work right now, as I finish this post!
Mucho love to all of you, all around the world!