Hotlanta Was Hot For More Than One Reason
Back from Atlanta and Dragon*Con.
Actually, I swear, this con is sorta weirdly love/hate with me. From a programming and visual perspective, it's ridiculously awesome. The panels there are just so much more interesting. I mean, just as an example, on Sunday morning, I went from a panel discussing ethics in cosplay (oh man, there's a lot of to think about from that). And then after a quick pit stop, ran to a panel on the power and pitfalls of mathematical modelling. Yes, I know, to most of you, that sounds about as interesting as watching paint dry. But that stuff is interesting to me. And the people in costumes running around meant that 10% of the time, I got pictures, and the other 90% of the time, I was just so OMG at what I saw that I kinda blanked out with changing thoughts of "that's too awesome" and "WTF was that".
The problem is that I've gotten too used to attending anime cons where I have a lot of people I can potentially find and hang out with, and I had a real problem doing that at Dragon*Con. Yes, I actually didn't do any partying again this year. I was going to on Sunday, admittedly, and I had something come up that pretty much threw me off my mental game and kept me out, but that still doesn't really excuse me not doing so on Friday and Saturday. Those that know me well know that I'm very much a private/solo type person, and it actually requires some force from me/on me to get me to do things like socialize. I'm actually a very odd fit for Dragon*Con, and if it wasn't for the fact that the sights and things to do otherwise actually make D*C a better con for me than most of the anime cons, maybe I'd be less inclined to have positive feelings for Dragon*Con.
Which of course all suggests that I need to drag more of you people out there so that I have more people who'll drag me around into doing things that I otherwise wouldn't quite do willingly on my own. But I guess we can leave that planning for another year.
Talking about people I didn't meet, oddly, I just never ran into some people the whole entire weekend. It kind of sucked that way. There are a few people who were surprised that I was even there. There are probably going to be a few people who are now going to be surprised that I was there, given that I didn't run into them at all.
Just as a random note inserted here: I had managed to get to see the "Walk of Fame" for a little while was I was over at the Hilton roaming. WOW. There's something to walking around in a room not much larger than an average anime con's dealer's space, and being able to see all these TV stars and movie stars right there, selling autographs and pictures and such. I suppose if I were a bigger fan of most of these series, and if I were into the whole "OMG CELEBRITIES" thing, I might've been in heaven. I'm sure there's tons of people who'd go "OMG OMG I'M JUST A FEW FEET AWAY FROM SUMMER GLAU OMG OMG OMG" or something. I'm just broken in my head that way.
Saturday was, admittedly, kind of odd. Hit the parade, hit a panel hosted by foremost skeptic James Randi, and was ready to hit another, but then finally ran into amazonmandy and bobbarker to figure out what the hell I had needed to bring an all black outfit for.
Yeah, I kinda got transformed into a Sith Lord, with lightsaber, as a gift, for which I will be probably thanking those two for quite a while. It was kind of amusing wandering around the floor a bit, challenging jedi here and there, though admittedly, I felt somewhat awkward and out of place at points just wandering alone. But at least now that I know what the heck it is, and what might need to be changed to do something like that better, I guess I can think about it.
Pretty much had a good time in the end, and D*C really is still a better convention than almost any other anime con out there for some very specific reasons. If nothing else, Dragon*Con is about the only convention I can think of where I can probably calculate a proper HSQ if I wanted to, and it'd be a non-trivial quantity. Again, I definitely could do better though. One of these years, I'll finally get my comfort level for Dragon*Con right, and then it'll probably be madness. But for now, I'm already planning to be back next year.
As a final note, just as an odd aside: the amusement of taking an unplanned lightsaber in box back as checked baggage and picking it up on the carousel is probably outweighed by the concern that someone's going to want that lightsaber a bit more than you do. I calculated, though, at least it was likely luggage insurance was going to work in my favor, and at the very least, it's likely less expensive than the laptop, PSP, and iPod I was carrying back in my main carry-on. There was also something amusing to the idea that Sith lords fly coach like everyone else, and probably being better armed in that shuttle bus back to my fan than everyone else.
Oh, and I have up some of the pictures unprocessed up in the unprocessed archive, if you know how to access that. I actually don't have all that many more shots to add, since I kinda lazied out after the parade on Day 2 and because of the whole Sith Lord thing, but I'll get those up soon.
That's the past at this point. So let's look at the future. The only conventions left this year on the potential schedule are PMX and MikomiCon. Truth be told, I'm not actually looking forward to either of these events, so I'm not thinking much of anything out of these. It's distinctly the quiet season, and I almost prefer it that way. I'm actually looking much more forward to visiting friends out east next month in a non-convention setting.
Next year is a puzzle. I've told myself that I need to do something to help enjoy what I go to more. ALA is kind of a question mark at this point, but I get the sense I'll probably be there. Katsucon I think is a little more certain, and I'm mostly just looking for the right flight. And Dragon*Con is a good bet at this point. But everything else frankly is still kind of a blur. I'm getting frankly tired of these things, and I almost would rather do things on my own accord, my own rules, rather than the rigid structures invoked by cons. At the same time, I acknowledge that a convention is about the only way to get certain people together, so I can't ignore them. I just have to... plan better, I guess.
Either that or change hobbies. I've heard this cosplay thing is really fun and all. ;)
Actually, I swear, this con is sorta weirdly love/hate with me. From a programming and visual perspective, it's ridiculously awesome. The panels there are just so much more interesting. I mean, just as an example, on Sunday morning, I went from a panel discussing ethics in cosplay (oh man, there's a lot of to think about from that). And then after a quick pit stop, ran to a panel on the power and pitfalls of mathematical modelling. Yes, I know, to most of you, that sounds about as interesting as watching paint dry. But that stuff is interesting to me. And the people in costumes running around meant that 10% of the time, I got pictures, and the other 90% of the time, I was just so OMG at what I saw that I kinda blanked out with changing thoughts of "that's too awesome" and "WTF was that".
The problem is that I've gotten too used to attending anime cons where I have a lot of people I can potentially find and hang out with, and I had a real problem doing that at Dragon*Con. Yes, I actually didn't do any partying again this year. I was going to on Sunday, admittedly, and I had something come up that pretty much threw me off my mental game and kept me out, but that still doesn't really excuse me not doing so on Friday and Saturday. Those that know me well know that I'm very much a private/solo type person, and it actually requires some force from me/on me to get me to do things like socialize. I'm actually a very odd fit for Dragon*Con, and if it wasn't for the fact that the sights and things to do otherwise actually make D*C a better con for me than most of the anime cons, maybe I'd be less inclined to have positive feelings for Dragon*Con.
Which of course all suggests that I need to drag more of you people out there so that I have more people who'll drag me around into doing things that I otherwise wouldn't quite do willingly on my own. But I guess we can leave that planning for another year.
Talking about people I didn't meet, oddly, I just never ran into some people the whole entire weekend. It kind of sucked that way. There are a few people who were surprised that I was even there. There are probably going to be a few people who are now going to be surprised that I was there, given that I didn't run into them at all.
Just as a random note inserted here: I had managed to get to see the "Walk of Fame" for a little while was I was over at the Hilton roaming. WOW. There's something to walking around in a room not much larger than an average anime con's dealer's space, and being able to see all these TV stars and movie stars right there, selling autographs and pictures and such. I suppose if I were a bigger fan of most of these series, and if I were into the whole "OMG CELEBRITIES" thing, I might've been in heaven. I'm sure there's tons of people who'd go "OMG OMG I'M JUST A FEW FEET AWAY FROM SUMMER GLAU OMG OMG OMG" or something. I'm just broken in my head that way.
Saturday was, admittedly, kind of odd. Hit the parade, hit a panel hosted by foremost skeptic James Randi, and was ready to hit another, but then finally ran into amazonmandy and bobbarker to figure out what the hell I had needed to bring an all black outfit for.
Yeah, I kinda got transformed into a Sith Lord, with lightsaber, as a gift, for which I will be probably thanking those two for quite a while. It was kind of amusing wandering around the floor a bit, challenging jedi here and there, though admittedly, I felt somewhat awkward and out of place at points just wandering alone. But at least now that I know what the heck it is, and what might need to be changed to do something like that better, I guess I can think about it.
Pretty much had a good time in the end, and D*C really is still a better convention than almost any other anime con out there for some very specific reasons. If nothing else, Dragon*Con is about the only convention I can think of where I can probably calculate a proper HSQ if I wanted to, and it'd be a non-trivial quantity. Again, I definitely could do better though. One of these years, I'll finally get my comfort level for Dragon*Con right, and then it'll probably be madness. But for now, I'm already planning to be back next year.
As a final note, just as an odd aside: the amusement of taking an unplanned lightsaber in box back as checked baggage and picking it up on the carousel is probably outweighed by the concern that someone's going to want that lightsaber a bit more than you do. I calculated, though, at least it was likely luggage insurance was going to work in my favor, and at the very least, it's likely less expensive than the laptop, PSP, and iPod I was carrying back in my main carry-on. There was also something amusing to the idea that Sith lords fly coach like everyone else, and probably being better armed in that shuttle bus back to my fan than everyone else.
Oh, and I have up some of the pictures unprocessed up in the unprocessed archive, if you know how to access that. I actually don't have all that many more shots to add, since I kinda lazied out after the parade on Day 2 and because of the whole Sith Lord thing, but I'll get those up soon.
That's the past at this point. So let's look at the future. The only conventions left this year on the potential schedule are PMX and MikomiCon. Truth be told, I'm not actually looking forward to either of these events, so I'm not thinking much of anything out of these. It's distinctly the quiet season, and I almost prefer it that way. I'm actually looking much more forward to visiting friends out east next month in a non-convention setting.
Next year is a puzzle. I've told myself that I need to do something to help enjoy what I go to more. ALA is kind of a question mark at this point, but I get the sense I'll probably be there. Katsucon I think is a little more certain, and I'm mostly just looking for the right flight. And Dragon*Con is a good bet at this point. But everything else frankly is still kind of a blur. I'm getting frankly tired of these things, and I almost would rather do things on my own accord, my own rules, rather than the rigid structures invoked by cons. At the same time, I acknowledge that a convention is about the only way to get certain people together, so I can't ignore them. I just have to... plan better, I guess.
Either that or change hobbies. I've heard this cosplay thing is really fun and all. ;)