Category: Photography

It has become a tradition: I am entirely unable to post about Dragon*Con until at least a week afterward. For various reasons, after going home on Monday and sleeping, I remain entirely burned out with respect to the Con for at least a week. Hell, last year I never managed to post my recaps at all.

I blame this on several things. One, so much stuff goes on that to try and boil it down to a short blog post is to malign the awesomeness of it all. If any one or two things had happened then my writing skills would suffice to describe them in glowing detail, but that is not the case for Dragon*Con. Two, I’m just so damn tired for the entire work week afterward; long nights with little sleep lend to a long week of trying to catch up on my rest. That way leads toward less blogging. Three, I like to be able to post with attendant images, but I’m still (see one and two) behind on getting my Dragon*Con Select images up. Hopefully I’ll have dented that severely by the end of the weekend. Four, I have other things to do, and this qualifies as something above and beyond.

All that being said, this year’s Dragon*Con was a blast! I had reserved five rooms in the Hilton in downtown Atlanta where all the gaming was, as well as the Podcasting, EFF, and several other tracks were located. I ended up giving up one of those rooms to Cunning Minx and party and another to a friend from college and his family. The other three we stuffed with people who flew and/or drove into town for the weekend. It’s always good to see these people because the opportunities are few and far between.

Dragon*Con runs from Friday at 1:00 to Monday at 5:00 and is crammed full with things to do. This year I did fewer panels and more hanging out with people. Unfortunately, I had such a good time on Friday night (starting at Scott Sigler’s Pimps and Hos party) that I spent the vast majority of Saturday in my hotel room sleeping it off. You’d think by my age that I would have learned not to do this sort of thing anymore. In fact, this hangover has been officially classified (by me) as the second worst ever. It might have been the worst ever from a physiological perspective, but the title goes to the hangover that caused me to miss a friend’s wedding. So, Saturday was a write-off.

Sunday I got my copy of Zoe’s Tale signed by John Scalzi as well as hearing him read from his upcoming novel High Castle. Also on Sunday I attended the “Are you Ready for an Apocalyptic Crisis” panel which was great fun. The panelists are all locals and professional crisis and disaster managers (they weren’t making this shit up) so I’m going to have to look them up.

Other stuff happened, much fun was had. Jenn got one of the first fantasy novels she ever read signed by Anne McCaffrey. Chris won a costume prize with an awesome costume built by Kristin. I apparently was noticed by Eric Flint when I was standing at the back of the room taking pictures (I need to send him the link to that image). I took lots of pictures of myself because, well, why not?

I’ve got enough good pictures from the Con that I should probably host a daily “What’s going on in this picture” entry (actually, that’s a good idea. I’ll have to get the people who were with me involved).

Jenn, Mike and Jim made an excellent Dr. Horrible combination (amusingly, I heard third-hand that there was a run on welder’s goggles in the month leading up to Dragon*Con, blamed on both Steampunk aficionados and Dr. Horribles).

Oh, so much went on. Next year, I really need to take notes because it all becomes a blur. Suffice to say that it was a blast, again, and I want even more people to come down next year. I realize the strain that travel places on people, but it’s a hell of a weekend.