I've been off I2 for a while. I've been up to alot of stuff... some projects around the apartment and yard, studying for an IT certification, a pet programming project, and not the least of all a vacation. For the tenth year in a row, I went to a massive sci-fi convention known as DragonCon. Just the highlights:
The Science programming track had a panel on autism/vaccination. I didn't go, but my girlfriend did. (Remember, I met her on AFF.) She said there was only one person in the audience who acted like a curebie. Turns out the purpose of the panel was to debunk the vaccination theory. They didn't invite anyone who supports that theory because they cannot provide a sound scientific argument. I wasn't in the mood to hear any curebie politics, so while my girlfriend was there, I was watching a panel in the room next door, about "botnets", those things that get into your computer and zombify it into doing other people's bidding.
Some of the volunteers at the convention acted like they needed an ass-whoopin'. The convention is up to 50,000 attendees now, and has growing pains to show for it. For example, after we drove for eight hours to get there, my girlfriend and I had to go stand in line for two hours to exchange our tickets for badges. (No badge, no admission into any event.) They tried to close the registration room early that night, until a whole bunch of people in line raised holy hell. One young punk on the staff replied "This is my apathy face" when somebody bitched at him about standing in line for that long.
To see one TV star, we had to stand in a long line and then allow ourselves to be herded like beef cattle into the largest of all the ballrooms used by the convention. They were very strict about everyone moving to the furthest available seat in a row before sitting down, filling one row in orderly fashion before starting the next row. The only problems with that: 1) the person ushering people into rows was touching everyone on the shoulder as we went by, and 2) my girlfriend got the last seat on one side of a wide aisle, meaning I would have had to sit across the aisle. I figured we'd spill into the next row so I continued. Then a staff member started giving me shit, so I went back toward the seat I should have had but someone already took it. I went to the next row. I was about ready to kick somebody's ass, but I kept myself in check. You'd think they'd at least have consideration for groups of people wanting to sit together, but that wasn't to be. That particular event (to see a Star Trek cast member) was being run by a chapter of that Trekkie club that I despise so much, so that explains alot. Shitheads! In future years, I'll probably just pass on any "Trek Track" events.
We stayed on the tenth floor of one of the main convention hotels. All night long, it seems there was either a police car, an ambulance, or a fire truck parked in the street between the hotels with lights flashing. Apparently, there were the usual few who would have too much to drink, one girl OD'ed, one nutjob tried to harm a celebrity, and some assholes there for a football game were throwing eggs down an atrium at convention attendees. As much as I like this convention's host city, I do not want to see the inside of one of its jails, so I really don't understand why anyone would want to do something stupid while there.
I've been going to sci-fi cons for years, and have seen trends come and go in costumes. This year and last, Steampunk is very popular. People who choose to build steampunk costumes put alot of creativity and effort into it. I haven't read or watched much steampunk material, so as far as I can tell, there's probably alot of originality in the costumes. Hopefully, steampunk will stick around for at least a few years before people's interests shift to other things. I'm not into costuming myself, but I am big into photography. The steampunk costumes present some interesting challenges to me and the many other amateur photographers at the convention. (e.g., Flashes shine back off of metal, so a photographer has to either use ambient light with no flash, or use a diffuser. I brought along a set of colored diffusers, and the gold-colored "tungsten" diffuser allowed some interesting results with the steampunk stuff.)
As with the past several years, there was a parade on the Saturday morning of the convention, for those who weren't hung-over in bed at 10 am. That parade just gets better every year. This year, it included a replica of the trojan rabbit from Monty Python's "The Holy Grail". Also new was a Dodge Charger painted as the General Lee from "The Dukes of Hazard". And yes, it included the horn that plays "Dixie". (Hey, this was in Georgia, so it only makes sense to have one of those!)
There were several concerts in the ballrooms late at night, including my absolute favorite of all the events I attended. The Science programming track held a "Mad Scientists' Ball", which included a band that used two large Tesla coils as musical instruments. The coils were each about ten feet tall with a hoop at top with a diameter of about four feet. They were placed about fifteen feet on either side of a metal cage large enough for someone to stand in while the coils were being played and shooting arcs between themselves and the cage. You'd probably think someone would have to be crazy to want to stand in the cage, but in between songs, there was no shortage of people waving their hands in the air, eager to get in the cage. I guess the safety is all in how it's grounded and insulated. Also at the Mad Scientists' Ball were representatives from the Church of the SubGenius, which produces a podcast I like. I didn't get to see them do any Devival stuff, but I did take a look at what they were selling at their table in the back of the room.
There was a zombie walk, but I didn't get a chance to see it. The schedule books didn't make it clear which parts of the venue the zombie walk would be passing through, or how many people would be taking part. I'll try to catch it next year. The venue consists of several large hotels in downtown Atlanta and all their meeting space. Most of the hotels are connected by enclosed walkways over the streets. Included in that complex is a mall at the base of an office building. So, what I want to know is if the zombie walk includes the inside of the mall on its route. I think it would be hilarious to see people walking through a mall dressed as zombies, a la "Dawn of the Dead". If I can verify that they'll be there next year, I'll also be there with my camcorder. Hell, if I'm up to it, i might also get zombied up and participate.
Another first for this year is that I've decided to start "geotagging" as part of my photography hobby, so I took along a GPS data logger. GPS stuff doesn't work well in "urban canyons" and deep in the indoor meeting space at these hotels, so the only track logs I have are of the road trip there and back.
Anyway, that's some of what I've been up to in the time since I last posted here.
