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Dragon*Con 2013: Day 2

9/1/2013

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Pictures are in a photo gallery format.  You should be able to click on one and use arrow keys to go back and forth between.

Trudy Petree's Funeral

I learned a lot of amazing things about John's grandmother.  I knew, for instance, that she was a day lily hybridizer, but I did not know that she was a world renowned hybridizer who sold day lilies even to places in California and Disney World.  They acknowledged her flowers with her name on them.

We drove home for the funeral, spent time there and at the graveside with the Petree family, then ate a sweet and leisurely lunch at Chili's before going home, changing, ironing some things, and driving back up to Atlanta. John was stressed over Saturday.  He knew his grandparents even better than I know mine.
Dragon*Con on Saturday Evening:  Day 2

We got back to Dragon*Con about 6:30 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.  In spite of that, we managed to see some pretty spectacular costumes.


Random Sights

There were a lot of people in suited armor - I love these - so much fun!  I saw a great Willy Wonka and a perfect umpa lumpa from the movie Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - the old one, mind - not the terrible recent recreation.  When I was a kid, I must have watched that movie non-stop over and over about a hundred times one summer.

We saw a space marine from the Warhammer 40k tabletop game!  I also saw a group of soldiers - they were dressed up like real army troops.  Dragon*Con also supports military history and costumes.  There were three of them, they looked great and were getting a lot of attention.  I wish I had gotten a picture.

We looped through the dealers again but they closed five minutes after we got there, so we couldn't see much.  I did note a glass blower booth I hadn't seen before that was really cool.  I haven't been able to find it since.

Looking at the Armory

While waiting for a panel to start that we wanted to see, we ran across the Armory.  It's a collection of weapons from ancient to modern times on display.  It was kind of entertaining to look at - particularly the Samarui swords.  They had inscriptions about how they were made, along with interesting pieces of armor.


However, when we got to the modern room, it kind of hit me like a punch to the gut:  stuffed full of wall-to-wall rows and stacks of guns of all kinds, including the center of the room - machine guns, huge cannons and all kinds of stuff that I have no idea what it was.  Looking at so many guns in one place was kind of startling and ... sickening.  It made me nervous.  As much as I enjoy fantasy, SF and a good action scene in books, I just don't like weapons in real life.  In fact ... I hate them and I hate war.  I hate it for how it destroys and ruins people's lives.  I hate how our troops have to go overseas and die for the rest of us.  It's necessary, but it's still terrible.  It makes me feel slightly like I pansy - I haven't even really seen war - but, I can't help it.  I'm not sure how anyone could read about it or have friends in the military and NOT hate everything about it.  I'm not a pacificist or anti-military whatsoever.  I just really don't like death and suffering.  Who does?

So I didn't put any pictures up here of the guns, because I don't want wall-to-wall pictures of guns on my blog.  Just seeing them looks repulsive.  I did put up a picture of some old chemical grenades though.  They looked funny to me, like bottles of magic potions, which they certainly are not!  But that's what I thought of when I saw them.

Panel:  Science Fiction Track, Human Wave SF

John and I went to a panel on the Science Fiction track called, "Human Wave SF," which was discussing the dystopic trend in modern science fiction and why more optimistic SF was not being written.  It was unfortunately not as interesting as we thought it would be - though they did bring out some good points.  SF has always appeared pessimistic to me, even the stories some would call 'hopeful.'  

One of the panelists did not even consider Game of Thrones to be pessimistic.  (???)  I thought this should have automatically disqualified her from the subject.  But that's just my opinion.  I tried to read Martin's Game of Thrones series.  It was far too brutal for me.  I could get past about chapter 10 of the first book.


He's a brilliant writer known for unbelievably awesome world building, but also very vicious and graphic writing, in which literally any character can die at any time. Since he builds a cast of hundreds, he kills them off quite regularly and sadistically.  I'm told one of his chapters ends with a wedding, at the end of which everyone is brutally murdered for no reason.  Almost all the characters are selfish, out for their own gain, ends justify the means with few redeeming qualities.  There are lots of explicit sex scenes, intrigue and back stabbing.  None of this appeals to me.  I'm pleased, by the way, that Brandon Sanderson says that he cannot read Martin either, for this reason.  Yay for Sanderson, and just another reason for me to like him.

Despite the fact that I did not find the panel interesting, it did remind me of a few key points that I want to emphasize in things I write, so I'm glad we went.  While we were waiting for it, a nearby room about spoilers for Jon Snow (Game of Thrones character) was literally packed out to max capacity, which we found amusing.

Observations While Eating

While getting dinner in the food court, we observed a steampunk Iron Man - absolutely amazing!!  He also reminds me just a little of C3PO, if you squint.  John said, after I stopped him to take a picture and left - see what you did?  You murdered him!  He's going to die of starvation!  When he stopped for me, so I could take a picture, he got immediately surrounded by a stampede of other people with cameras.

There were also a lot of Tony Starks we saw not in the suit, but with the glowy circle thing under their shirt, with black hair and glasses.  One of them looked *extremely* convincing, just like Tony Stark in the movies.

I also found Nemo again!!  Not Verne's Capt. Nemo, but General Nemo, a caster in Warmachine from Cygnar, the faction I play.  I started out playing pNemo when John introduced me to the game.  I saw this guy dressed up as Nemo in the last Con was like ... AHHHH!!! THERE'S NEMO, MY FAVORITE CASTER!!  It was hilarious.  I was really happy he was back again and took another picture.

Favorite Costumes of Day 2

It was hard to decide on what costumes we liked best on Saturday.  John's favorite for the day was probably the Warmhammer 40k space marine guy.  I really loved the steam punk iron man and also, the space marine guy.  Between the different things we were doing, John was also looking up a lot of stuff about Mandalorian armor, so he didn't notice the other costumes much.  He did say he was seeing a lot of poison ivy's and harlequins from Batman, and we discussed that.

Possible Costume for John

Going back to Dragon*Con has rekindled John's interest in building his own costume.  Last year, he just couldn't decide on what he'd like to do.  This year, he considered storm trooper, Vader (I was like - what?? Vader??  But he's evil!  John said - but he gets redeemed in the end! - Vaders are *amazingly* popular with kids, for some reason, it's true) and Mandalorians.  So far, he's leaning on doing a Mandalorian armor suit.  I fully support this notion!  We'd have to save up, but we could do it.  It's not quite as expensive as Vader.  The most expensive costumes are 1) Boba Fett and 2) Vader.  But he's getting overwhelmed with how involved it is at the moment.  Looking into it from scratch is pretty scary.  It would be awesome though.  

I considered doing a suit with him at some point ... but thinking more about it, the Mandalorians just don't appeal to me.  I really like fully armored suits, but they aren't the style I like - not quite as fully armored as I'd like to be - though some are.  I don't know.  I'm still not sure yet.  If I did a full up armored suit, it would be something really serious.  Not all Mandalorians have a complete set of plates, like an iron man, for example. Many have cloth leggings of the same colors as their plates.  That's just not realistic enough for me.
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Dragon*Con 2013: Day 3 (under construction)

9/1/2013

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Pictures of the day! Short comments coming tonight I hope. *crossfingers*

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Dragon*Con 2013:  Day 1

9/1/2013

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Comments on Observed Costumes

John and I had a blast yesterday - I had about seven people take my picture and I found lots of other fellow Jedi!  There didn't seem to be near as many Jedi last year.  I thought there were fewer Doctor Whos, but John corrected me.  I only saw about four, but he said he saw a whole CONGREGATION of them in one spot - tons and tons!  I wish I had seen this - it would have been hilarious!  

My Favorite Costumes

My favorite costumes were 1) the Han Solo and Indiana Jones that were walking together and 2) the family that dressed up as characters from the movie Epic - a leafman son, a new queen daughter, the husband was the crazy scientist dad with the goggles and the wife dressed up as the girl in the red jacket - they looked ADORABLE!!  They win the points of most adorable costume ensemble ever!  (see picture notes below)

John's Favorite Costumes

John really enjoyed this well done Master Chief from Halo.  There were two and I think I missed the really good one that he saw.  There were so many costumes I wished I could have taken pictures of and didn't get a chance!

Miscellaneous Costume Discussion

I had fun taking pictures with all the Jedi and the storm troopers I found.  I learned - Jessica needs to learn how to hold a lightsaber properly!  *hides face*  I do a bad job at that.  Must read up on my Jedi lore.  I gave out one of Tom's cards to a couple who asked about my belt.  I hope more people ask so I can give more out!

Panels We Attended
Star Wars: Introduction to the Extended Universe (EU) Panel

I actually enjoyed the panel quite a bit!  They recommended books you could start reading without knowing a lot of background information at different points along the timeline.  The panel members consisted of various people who wrote, produced or edited for official Star Wars blogs, radio shows and podcasts, along with last year's Star Wars trivia winner.

Star Wars: What We Know About Episode 7 Panel

This panel was right after the EU panel  and it packed the room!  No surprise there - we're all dying to know what's what with episode 7.  The panelists discussed first what they did know for sure, which was not much - J.J. Abrams as director, John Williams doing the score again (YAYYYY!!), and a few other tidbits, such as it was most likely to be released summer of 2015, filming in early 2014, and takes place 20 years after The Return of the Jedi.  (The prequels are about 20 years apart from the originals.)

Adventure Exploring the Dealer Rooms

They expanded the dealer rooms this year and moved them to a different hotel. My favorite places were the tribble booth, the steampunk trinket booths found everywhere, leather items, etc. A dealer photographer even asked to take my picture and gave me his card to find it online: geektography.

John found a board game booth that he checked out for a while and started playing a trial game with a dealer. While he did that, I looked around. I found a large book booth (Baen books, largest of the book booths in the place) and picked up Star Wars: Kenobi, a new Star Wars book that came out recently, and heard about on the Star Wars EU panel. 

I saw a new epic series by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson called Hellhole.  It said it was about a military genius, was a militaristic SF space opera, something fans of Honor Harrington and Star Wars would like... I decided that sounded cool and something I'd actually read. Military genius strategists stories and space operas are both two of my favorite book flavors.  I bought book two because the first was sold out.

Then I happened to run across a book booth with Kevin J. Anderson in it! And he wasn't even being mobbed! He said hi and I asked him if he had the first book in his series and he said in fact he did! (Of course - it's his book after all. He he.)  He signed it personally along with the other book I had by him and Brian. That was one of the highlights of the day. 

John's game finished up (he won, bought the game and got the expansion for free) but I misdirected him because I didn't really know where I was. He eventually ran into me though.  While he was trying to find me, I looked at handcrafted pottery and bought a really awesome looking chalise that I just love - lots of blue, wavy lines in it.  I'm going to beautify my desk in lab with it.  I love blown glass and hand-crafted anything.

Unexpected Surprise, While Waiting for Author Panel

We sat down in the main Star Wars room for the author panel, while the previous panel was wrapping up.  One of the guys in the front said out-of-the-blue that I had a nice costume and why don't I join the Star Wars costume contest?  I was like ... Sure!  I've never done that before.  So he gave me a card with a number and instructions on where and when to show up (12:45 p.m. Sunday afternoon).  He had me fill out a form.

Then he looked at my costume more closely and said - hey! Have you ever thought about joining the Rebel Legion?  You're almost canon!  You just need one more pouch!  I said absolutely!  So, he introduced me to the GA Garrison Leader of the Rebel Legion, who was still up on the panel platform and I said hi.  They gave me further instructions about how to take my photos for the application - front, back, side shots and action shot on neutral backdrop - and how to make it official.  They said hurry and apply!  We want to see that application by next week!  This made me very happy.  I'm extremely eager to join them and be an official Jedi.  I ordered my last pouch Saturday night from Tom.  It's an Obi-wan style upright version that is large enough to hold an iphone - perfect!

Star Wars: Authors Panel

Timothy Zahn, Kevin J. Anderson, Michael Stackpole and Aaron Allston headed up this panel. The four of them have authored a large majority of Star Wars books.  Kevin J. Anderson has written 54 so far and Zahn has written 10.  Zahn is single-handedly responsible for restarting the Star Wars franchise, after it was declared "dead" with his Thrawn triology, book 1 of which is Heir to the Empire (which is completely *amazing* and has one of the most compelling and mind-numbingly awesome characters and militery geniuses in it, I might add, Grand Admiral Thrawn).  Before his triology, no one realized just how many Star Wars fans still existed.  

They had a great time of question and answers, jokes and fun about their books.  They speculated some about what the movies would do to the book market, but the general answer right now is nobody knows, but they were all just excited as the next person to see the movies, whatever they turned out to do.  

At the end, they had a raffle.  The room was quite packed, but somehow, I managed to win the last book!  I was SO excited!  (Even though I already have a copy - it was Heir to the Empire by Zahn.) I came up to claim it and Zahn asked me how I wanted it signed, and Kevin who was sitting next to him, leaned over and said, "It's to Jessica!"  He remembered me from the booth earlier.  I was quite happy about all this.  John and I met Zahn at the last Con as well, and Kevin.  They are both so awesome and nice.

Fin

We went home to the hotel not long after that.  I started reading Hellhole by Kevin J. Anderson.  It's pretty good so far - I'm about on page 70 or so.  I was finding it a bit frustrating that almost every chapter has switched to a completely different character (of about twelve chapters), but I'm guessing that's because it's the start of his and Brian's own epic series.  Unforunately though, as good as Kevin is, he's not a Sanderson.  Sanderson is just *better.*  If you read Sanderson, you'll see what I mean.  Sanderson and Rothfuss are TOP NOTCH.  I have yet to read anyone in the fantasy/SF genre whose writing quality is higher.

Thus ends the fun, awesome Day 1 account!  Forgive its verbosity.
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    It turns out, I've acquired a permanent form of Dragon*Con fever which means I must always have a Jedi robe on hand to wear on short notice.  This blog is about my slow collection of nerd costume accessories.

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