Sunday at Dragon Con

What a day.

Rose very late. WookieeGunner and myself rose and took in the exhibitor's hall and dealers room. The exhibitor's hall was not as crowded as other days, the dealer's room ... just as much. It took only a few minutes before I felt like cattle. It was rather tough to move around in there! Nonetheless, we managed to find gifts for various people.

Next was lunch, which was a burger from Gibney's Pub. It was busy but not that bad. Gibney's is a black wood toned pub. It's been in Atlanta for some time I believe and has very, very good burgers. However, healthy? Well, we won't go there. Did I mention how good they were?

After that I raced over to get back to the room. Joined some friends in an online virtual world for awhile. Fun stuff!

An hour or so later, Wookiee and I changed into our costumes. Mine was the Tesla Ranger, his the Rogue Trader (that looks awesome). Once done we headed down to the art room. A friend of mine there, who I had helped out once, wanted to see my costume.

She loved it, and we discussed the parts and some about the medal she had given me as a thank you gift. Those in turn gave me a few ideas for improvements in the future to my outfit.

Wookieegunner's Rogue Trader was a massive hit. I'm not surprised. It turned out downright awesome. He says "I'm not done". Eh, given the huge positive reaction? I say the people have spoken and it's an awesome costume.

Anyway, we walked around after that and I headed for a really great panel on Curiosity. It was given by one of the engineers from JPL who worked on the rover itself. She covered all sorts of things like it's size, what payload is on the thing, and some of the neat things it has found so far.

Like did you know that the rover contains instruments they are using to help with prepping for putting a human on Mars? Neat! She told several funny stories, those I'll save for another post, when I'm less weary (It's the wee hours of the morning).

To wrap this up, post panel, I caught up with wookiee, got a quick hamburger then we headed to the Steampunk ball / party. That was GREAT fun. Live bands, lots of people in steampunk garb and willing to discuss how they made it. It was all sorts of fun.

All in all, a good day. However right now a blurry one! I'll sort my thoughts and make a better post tomorrow.

Just a good old Dragon Con Saturday

Ah Saturday. In my own humble opinion, it's the busiest day of Dragon Con. Day passes, people in town for just football games and finding out "Hey there is this thing called Dragon Con!", it's a madhouse in a way, or Circus Maximus. I'm never certain which.

This morning was the parade. Now, if you've never seen a Dragon Con parade, it's not quite a normal parade. It's closer to a Disney parade with song and dance and bands and animatronics. One float had a three story tall rock man with moving arms and fingers and head. A blast of fire shrouded him. Not far away was the ... and really this only can be called ... the Legion of Ghostbusters. Right down to three - maybe four - Ecto mobiles!

It continued on for quite awhile. Stormtroopers, Browncoats, etc. LOTS of brass bands, bagpipers, you name it.

When all was done, the groups broke up and returned to the Marriott for photo shoots. I tracked down as many as I could, but there were SO MANY. I got what I could. Though the ones I got were fantastic!

Much later, after walking my feet off, I met up with Wookiee, changed into my really great State Alchemist costume, and we searched for lunch... and searched ... and searched! Finally, we went back to Fires of Brazil. No complaints from me!!

Post lunch, we walked around got some pictures made, I had one made of me, and just enjoyed the day despite the REALLY thick crowds. The heat did eventually get to me however, and I was forced to retreat to the room and rest.

That turned out to be a good idea. When I woke, I dressed back in my State Alchemist and headed down to the Science track. A panel on the Higgs-Boson to be exact. And what a panel it was!!!

It was great! The panel was packed to capacity. I'm really glad I got in. It was fascinating hearing and learning about it. I've never gone to the Science track in the past. Now that I've gone to one, really, not going was a major mistake over the years. Should've always tried to get into at least one. I will from now on. Even if I wound up getting asked by the staff to be the door guard! heh

All in all, it was a good day despite the heat overtaking me. I'll be more careful tomorrow. I don't want to miss the other Science tracks tomorrow!