DragonLine*Con
ealdthryth went to spend time with our various tribes at Dragon*Con this year. This year was the year of lines. We got late start (which I had been not-so-secretly dreading) and ended up leaving the house *after* the time we had hoped to actually arrive in Atlanta.... It made no difference. The staff had thought to reduce the wait time in the pre-registration line by opening it earlier. Nope, we still spent over three hours waiting in line to pick up our badges. Some how, Merill and Cindy (who were a full block ahead of us in line) ended up waiting longer than we did. Someone with some time on their hands needs to do a statistical analysis on the distribution of names, and divide the registration staff to handle it. Plus, trying to have 15 or so volunteers try and process 20-30,000 guests doesn't seem very effective to me. But, then again, several people will have to give up a portion of their convention time to do it, so I'm not sure how you can recruit the necessary staff to manage it.
Actually, the registration line was probably the worst line of the con that we were aware of. The Steampunk Makers' Exhibition/Art Show was pretty long, and we came very close to giving up and leaving, but after serpentining through one level of the Westin, I figured it would be a shame to miss it. We ended up in the big cattle drive to move through, and I didn't really get to stop and observe too much. However, in defense of the organizers, they did make a last minute change to move it from a conference room to the ballroom in order to accommodate all the folks who came to see--the conference room would have been completely overwhelmed and there would be nowhere for anyone to queue up. In spite of that drawback, there were a lot of neat things to see, and it gave me some ideas.
We didn't go to as many panels this year as last. The panel on The Prisoner was an Epic Fail. One panelist was way too fond of his crassly-expressed opinion about the reboot. He hated it and refused to admit that it had any redeeming qualities or that there was room for a different way to interpret the script--and if you didn't agree with him you were a fool. It made the whole thing a bad experience--which is in stark contrast to how welcoming the panelists were at the the last BritTrack panel we went to. We certainly won't be returning to any future Prisoner panels--even though we are fans of the show. Jerk. Since it was the first panel we attended this year, it kind of tainted the convention experience for me, and made me vaguely dissatisfied (although I did generally have a good time in retrospect).
I got to go to one of the Eureka panels. Erica Cerra ended up being the only one there because the other actors' flights hadn't gotten in yet, but she was adorable and personable. After watching some of the later Eureka panels on DCTV, I can tell why the show works as well as it does--the cast has a very good rapport with one another, and you can tell they are friends....unlike what we heard about what happened in one of the ST:TNG panels (yeep!).
Thanks to the Droid Builders' group that presented how they went about building R2 units, ealdthryth now wants to build one. I must admit that I would love to give it a shot...but where would we keep it? How would we take it any where? Plus there is the expense (which surprisingly isn't as much as you'd think).
Other than that, we went to the Steampunk Photo Shoot and the Time Traveler's Ball, and people-watched most of the convention. Yes, we did do a little shopping, and we finally have some new original art to hang (once I get a coupon for framing at Michael's or something). One of the artists does paper casting, and he is great. Every time we see his work, we have a Great Debate over whether or not we should get one of his works. This time, the debate was brief...and in the artist's favor.
To bookend our D*Con experience, we ended up waiting over 2 hours for a bellhop, and less than 30 miles from home, we got stuck in a traffic jam--1/2 hour to go 5 miles.
Pictures are up at ealdthryth's Flickr Account. I'm a little pouty because I cannot find a decent picture of our railroad crew ensemble....
Welcome Home Fu
AElfgifu was the first cat to greet us when we arrived home. And then she immediately hid behind some stuff in the living room to let us know she disapproved of our absence. Ignatius was asleep somewhere, but eventually came down to tell us he loved us and missed us. Josie sat on the stairs and made sleepy kitty faces at us, and eventually, Kiera dashed through on her way to find her Sweet Baboo.
After 24 hours, AElfgifu is a little nicer to us, and Josie has been content to curl up in my lap.... MMMMMM! Plush Kitty Endorphins!
Actually, the registration line was probably the worst line of the con that we were aware of. The Steampunk Makers' Exhibition/Art Show was pretty long, and we came very close to giving up and leaving, but after serpentining through one level of the Westin, I figured it would be a shame to miss it. We ended up in the big cattle drive to move through, and I didn't really get to stop and observe too much. However, in defense of the organizers, they did make a last minute change to move it from a conference room to the ballroom in order to accommodate all the folks who came to see--the conference room would have been completely overwhelmed and there would be nowhere for anyone to queue up. In spite of that drawback, there were a lot of neat things to see, and it gave me some ideas.
We didn't go to as many panels this year as last. The panel on The Prisoner was an Epic Fail. One panelist was way too fond of his crassly-expressed opinion about the reboot. He hated it and refused to admit that it had any redeeming qualities or that there was room for a different way to interpret the script--and if you didn't agree with him you were a fool. It made the whole thing a bad experience--which is in stark contrast to how welcoming the panelists were at the the last BritTrack panel we went to. We certainly won't be returning to any future Prisoner panels--even though we are fans of the show. Jerk. Since it was the first panel we attended this year, it kind of tainted the convention experience for me, and made me vaguely dissatisfied (although I did generally have a good time in retrospect).
I got to go to one of the Eureka panels. Erica Cerra ended up being the only one there because the other actors' flights hadn't gotten in yet, but she was adorable and personable. After watching some of the later Eureka panels on DCTV, I can tell why the show works as well as it does--the cast has a very good rapport with one another, and you can tell they are friends....unlike what we heard about what happened in one of the ST:TNG panels (yeep!).
Thanks to the Droid Builders' group that presented how they went about building R2 units, ealdthryth now wants to build one. I must admit that I would love to give it a shot...but where would we keep it? How would we take it any where? Plus there is the expense (which surprisingly isn't as much as you'd think).
Other than that, we went to the Steampunk Photo Shoot and the Time Traveler's Ball, and people-watched most of the convention. Yes, we did do a little shopping, and we finally have some new original art to hang (once I get a coupon for framing at Michael's or something). One of the artists does paper casting, and he is great. Every time we see his work, we have a Great Debate over whether or not we should get one of his works. This time, the debate was brief...and in the artist's favor.
To bookend our D*Con experience, we ended up waiting over 2 hours for a bellhop, and less than 30 miles from home, we got stuck in a traffic jam--1/2 hour to go 5 miles.
Pictures are up at ealdthryth's Flickr Account. I'm a little pouty because I cannot find a decent picture of our railroad crew ensemble....
Welcome Home Fu
AElfgifu was the first cat to greet us when we arrived home. And then she immediately hid behind some stuff in the living room to let us know she disapproved of our absence. Ignatius was asleep somewhere, but eventually came down to tell us he loved us and missed us. Josie sat on the stairs and made sleepy kitty faces at us, and eventually, Kiera dashed through on her way to find her Sweet Baboo.
After 24 hours, AElfgifu is a little nicer to us, and Josie has been content to curl up in my lap.... MMMMMM! Plush Kitty Endorphins!