Shore Leave 2008
The "week of Shore Leave" started on Wednesday when threnodyjones came into the airport. From there we went to The Macaroni Grill this gave me a chance to make a dash into Target for a set of FireFly DVD's for signatures this weekend.
Thursday admittedly we vegged out at the house. It was just easy to stay home and chat vs running around town.
Friday we normally run up and register then leave. However this year we decided not to waste the gas and instead go out for Pat's food. Admittedly, we piged out but it was great! And we waited for crickwooder arrival. We then stayed up talking and laughing until 3am! Hee. It was great reconnecting with two of my favorite people once more.
Saturday - Con Day! Tip, I am to old to do a 3am day and be happy about getting up early the next day. Still mom-in-law was ready to go and after awhile we all got our asses moving and to the Q & A's.
Malcolm McDowell was first up. Some good quotes from him "Oh, come on and ask you're question already. I'm not getting any younger." and "The Royal Shakespear Company SUCKS! But we also know you Americans will buy anything with an english accent."
David & Kate Hewlett were next. I do not know why they put these two together because everyone asked Kate more questions then David. We didn't get any good on set SGA stories or anything. They kept doing in jokes with each other so over all, not like an amazing Q & A. Still one original question was asked "I love SGA and I love Cheese. What is your favorite cheese?"
Jewel Staite's turn was interesting. They had her sitting down low in a chair. She was slow getting started but then someone asked her to tell the finger story. That got her animated enough and the rest of the Q & A went pretty well. On a side note, Saturday her table was impossible to get to. She constantly had a long line. So I decided that Sunday would be the DVD signing day.
George Takei was by far the best IMHO. He started out acknowledging the con's 30 year history, then thanked each member who has helped him - by name - and then talked about eqality and rights. It was a great platform and speach on how gay marrage would have been a part of Raddenbary's vision of eqality for all. Once they started the other Q & A's Zap, mom-in-law and I left to go to print autograph line pictures.
The autograph line was slow moving but not overly bad. No-one was personalizing really the con line chatter wasn't too bad either. We did find out that the line for Outback on Friday was up to an hour and a half wait. So that sealed the deal of ordering to go and coming back here to munch. They also pushed the autographs to late Saturday. They started the line at 5pm! So I think we were done by like 7pm.
Sunday crickwooder had to leave early but needed Jewel's autograph as well. So we got there at 10:50am. The main autograph line was starting at 11am on this day again a new development they normally do it at 3pm. So that allowed us to hop in line to get those autograph's early. We also couldn't get Jewel's until noon because she wasn't there. We were able to get all the autograph's and head for lunch by 1pm. My only small complaint was that Jewel was charging $30 for anything you wanted signed - even the con book! On one hand, I think she is making money where she can and I don't fault her for that. On the other hand, everyone else was good with $20 a pop - she isn't that big of a draw so come on. Still she got $60 from me as I wanted one of my own pictures signed and the DVDs.
Overall I have to say it was a damn good con. We were not really overly rushed. Mom-in-law had a blast and wants to go again (I am in shock on that one). People watching was good wedge ass was back! We saw a lot of old slasher people from other con's that had not come to Shore Leave for awhile and we had great food.
More on other things done non-con wise in another post.
Thursday admittedly we vegged out at the house. It was just easy to stay home and chat vs running around town.
Friday we normally run up and register then leave. However this year we decided not to waste the gas and instead go out for Pat's food. Admittedly, we piged out but it was great! And we waited for crickwooder arrival. We then stayed up talking and laughing until 3am! Hee. It was great reconnecting with two of my favorite people once more.
Saturday - Con Day! Tip, I am to old to do a 3am day and be happy about getting up early the next day. Still mom-in-law was ready to go and after awhile we all got our asses moving and to the Q & A's.
Malcolm McDowell was first up. Some good quotes from him "Oh, come on and ask you're question already. I'm not getting any younger." and "The Royal Shakespear Company SUCKS! But we also know you Americans will buy anything with an english accent."
David & Kate Hewlett were next. I do not know why they put these two together because everyone asked Kate more questions then David. We didn't get any good on set SGA stories or anything. They kept doing in jokes with each other so over all, not like an amazing Q & A. Still one original question was asked "I love SGA and I love Cheese. What is your favorite cheese?"
Jewel Staite's turn was interesting. They had her sitting down low in a chair. She was slow getting started but then someone asked her to tell the finger story. That got her animated enough and the rest of the Q & A went pretty well. On a side note, Saturday her table was impossible to get to. She constantly had a long line. So I decided that Sunday would be the DVD signing day.
George Takei was by far the best IMHO. He started out acknowledging the con's 30 year history, then thanked each member who has helped him - by name - and then talked about eqality and rights. It was a great platform and speach on how gay marrage would have been a part of Raddenbary's vision of eqality for all. Once they started the other Q & A's Zap, mom-in-law and I left to go to print autograph line pictures.
The autograph line was slow moving but not overly bad. No-one was personalizing really the con line chatter wasn't too bad either. We did find out that the line for Outback on Friday was up to an hour and a half wait. So that sealed the deal of ordering to go and coming back here to munch. They also pushed the autographs to late Saturday. They started the line at 5pm! So I think we were done by like 7pm.
Sunday crickwooder had to leave early but needed Jewel's autograph as well. So we got there at 10:50am. The main autograph line was starting at 11am on this day again a new development they normally do it at 3pm. So that allowed us to hop in line to get those autograph's early. We also couldn't get Jewel's until noon because she wasn't there. We were able to get all the autograph's and head for lunch by 1pm. My only small complaint was that Jewel was charging $30 for anything you wanted signed - even the con book! On one hand, I think she is making money where she can and I don't fault her for that. On the other hand, everyone else was good with $20 a pop - she isn't that big of a draw so come on. Still she got $60 from me as I wanted one of my own pictures signed and the DVDs.
Overall I have to say it was a damn good con. We were not really overly rushed. Mom-in-law had a blast and wants to go again (I am in shock on that one). People watching was good wedge ass was back! We saw a lot of old slasher people from other con's that had not come to Shore Leave for awhile and we had great food.
More on other things done non-con wise in another post.