Dragon*Con 2005 report, pt. 4
Sunday, 9/4
Sunday I decided to finally drag out the only costume I’d packed, my Enterprise uniform. On a whim, I headed to the Dealers’ Room where a booth was selling animal ears, and found a pair of ‘cat ears’ which perfectly matched my head hair. The combination had unexpected results; all day, people decided I was dressed as John Candy from Spaceballs, and I was in too good a mood to correct anyone. I must have been asked to pose 7 or 8 times, so my vanity was well stoked. Costuming felt good. I will be bringing more outfits next time.
I suppose it’s possible that more people saw Spaceballs than ever saw an episode of Enterprise.
Headed to one of Connor Trineer’s panels in hopes of a picture with him, but the line outside the ballroom in question stretched practically into the next hotel. A shame, as he was always my favorite part of Enterprise. I wandered instead into a MSTing of The Empire Strikes Back, which to my great surprise, was hilarious. I’d always assumed you couldn’t MST an actually good film. Another panel with the actors who portray the Weasley twins in the Harry Potter flicks had been cancelled, so I wandered about the con for a while, making most of my actual purchases.
It was either today or the day before that I picked up my favorite bit of loot: a brand-new copy of Fourth Edition Shadowrun, personalized to me by Mike Mulvihill (inventor of Shadowrun) and Jordan Weisman (inventor of FASA and WizKids). My wife rocks, BTW.
The masquerade was broadcast on the hotel TV network, so we opted to watch from the comfort of our room. Some of the costumes were incredible – the three Warhammer 40K Space Marines, painted not realistically but as if painstakingly detailed by a giant with a telephone-pole sized paintbrush, were completely stunning – but believe it or not, Technicon and Rising Star’s masquerades run smoother and more professionally. Honestly! Perhaps at Dragon*Con’s level, it’s just too much to easily handle, but we local con staffs have nothing to be embarrassed about.
EDIT: Oh, and speaking of such, they had one filker, a relatively famous one on the con circuit, cover the kids’ costume judging; and another one cover the main judging. Keith, we have to get you to Dragon*Con. The first guy had fair material, but no singing voice to speak of. The second guy might be useful in extracting information from suspected terrorists. White Plectrum may not be as well known, but honestly – not as a fanboy at all – it’s a better act.
Masquerade over, and the hotels start truly rocking for the last evening of the con. The noise several floors up is quite distinct, and according to people’s photo journals, some of the best hall costumes of the weekend came out. Sadly, your hero is old and tired. I didn’t leave the room after we turned off the TV, and conked out before midnight.
Birthday, icon, and filk
Happy birthday to yubbie – hope he and collenk have special plans this weekend!
I’ve been threatening to write this one for ages. A new filk for Keith…
Technicon 2005
I’ve always liked Niven’s Laws. I don’t slavishly agree with them, but they are an excellent source of topics to ponder.
This leads to the fact that I’ve just deleted a lengthy rant about SF/fantasy fans who, despite entreaties from their favorite authors that they start thinking for themselves, are still want to be told what to think and what to believe. The only thing we humans got that the rest of the animal kindgom didn’t is a more complex brain. It’s way past time that we as a race consider trying out some of its higher gears, just to see what happens, you know?
Ok, wow, Technicon report, cool.
Addendum to last post…
I’ve just noticed that “plectrum.net” no longer comes up in my web browser. I hope Keith only let the hosting lapse, but kept ownership of the name. We can find new hosting with no problem, but I see no reason to let the site evaporate just because White Plectrum’s taken some time off. Heck, there are websites out there for bands that haven’t released music in half a century!
Various things I’ve been meaning to post about…
On reading Lord of the Rings: it’s a long, wordy story. It will take you a long time, and you could easily be pretty confused about lots of stuff the first time you read it. It’s also one of the best pieces of fiction I’ve ever read. See, it was written by a man who loved words – words were both his job and his hobby, so he wrote a lot of them. But the world he created, he spent decades building before LotR was published, and that’s one of the most amazing things in it. By the time period of the books, Middle-Earth has an oral history reaching back tens of thousands of years, and parts of that history are directly responsible for current events. It’s not light reading, but it’s a world one can get fully immersed in.
On my favorite Disney rides: Star Tours, Alien Encounter (way cool), Rockin’ Roller Coaster, Test Track, and The Haunted Mansion (we will make out on that ride someday, Rain!) and those are just the first five. Disgustingly, that place is just as much fun as all their propaganda says it is. 🙂
I still don’t know what “oekaki” is.
Everyone still freaks out when they see my beardless face for the first time, but I ought to have enough chin shadow by Rising Star to be respectable. Rain insists she was unaware she’d married a 17-year-old. I have to admit something, I got a little nervous about that costume being a bit “over the top” on the drive over to the party, but I got pretty good reactions from everyone. I should stop worrying so much.
As I am a card-carrying lemming, (“Let’s go!!”), here’s my job test:
# 1 Chef
# 2 Teacher
# 3 Artist
# 4 Author
# 5 Graphic Designer
# 6 Mathemetician
# 7 Park Ranger
# 8 Salesperson
# 9 Web Designer
# 10 Computer Game Programmer
# 11 Movie Star
# 12 Rock Star
# 13 Astronaut
# 14 Chemist
# 15 Doctor
# 16 Engineer
# 17 FBI Agent
# 18 Geneticist
# 19 Inventor
# 20 Lawyer
# 21 Politician
# 22 Professional Sports Player
# 23 Researcher
# 24 Police Officer
# 25 Reporter
… I think “Iron Filk” is as close as I want to get to chef, and I’d never be a salesperson, but the list is interesting nonetheless.
Biography trivia answers to be posted soon!
