Image via Wikipedia

We started our Sunday out with the panel featuring Sean Maher and Summer Glau, Simon and River Tam from Firefly.  It was nice to see them together, and they were clearly very fond of each other, as they discussed how their brother-sister relationship during the show extended even off the set.  As they have always seemed, both were rather shy and soft-spoken and seemed a bit overwhelmed.

We hadn’t yet done much more than glance into the dealer and exhibit halls yet, so we headed into the mass of people to have our look around.  I continued to fail in my search for a tiny tophat to go with my steampunk costume, but I did get an autographed copy of the Browncoats: Redemption DVD and (once again) tried to convince the BF that he would look wonderful in a utilikilt. (He does have the legs for it!) We went over to look through the Walk of Fame again, and happened upon a huge costume photoshoot while we were at the Hilton, so I went out to take (lots) of pictures.  While we were wandering around, we also had an encounter with K-9 and about six incarnations of the Doctor.  Unfortunately, I never did find the Matt Smith lookalike again to get a good picture, though I kept seeing him at a distance. (Seriously…this guy could be a body double.)

We went to a Babylon 5 panel that was supposed to feature Claudia Christian and Jason Carter together, discussing the relationship of Marcus and Ivonova. Unfortunately, even we did not avoid Celebrity Drama this weekend (after hearing how the Star Trek: The Next Generation panel fell apart).  Claudia Christian seemed to have decided to use the panel to plug for her current projects and didn’t want to share the stage with her co-star. Initially, it seemed that the back-and-forth between the pair was just good-natured teasing, but about 15 minutes into the panel, Claudia Christian picked up her things and left (apparently completely baffling the audience and Jason Carter about what had been done to piss her off).  It seemed like a completely unexpected bit of prima donna-ish behavior from her, because nothing particularly insulting had been said.

Jason Carter, however, saved the panel and managed to turn it into one of the funniest we’d seen this Con.  He didn’t seem to think it a chore to discuss Babylon 5 or his character and was quite happy to answer questions put forth by the audience.  He was hilarious and kind and appreciative of the fans.

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• The 2010 Dragon*Con parade (cnn.com)

DragonCon Parade

We started our Saturday out with the parade, as always.  The parade is always a wonderful exhibition of all of the best costumes DragonCon has to offer.  This year, there were huge contingents of superheroes, steampunks, and Ghostbusters. At least two of those groups could easily be explained by the world record attempts scheduled for later in the day. As for myself, I was the steampunker in the audience taking the pictures.  I’ll be putting up a gallery of all of the pictures I took this weekend on a separate page, to keep this post from getting too image heavy.

From there, we went to the James Randi panel, which was absolutely wonderful.  Randi is such a treasure, and I’m glad we got to see him. Since not everyone there would be as familiar with his work, he explained the purpose of the James Randi Educational Foundation and the million dollar prize.  He opened the floor up to questions, most of which were focused on the “woo” that people attempt to scientifically prove, and fail to do so, in pursuit of the prize.  Randi discussed how the people involved fool not just their customers, but also themselves. He used the example of dousing for this, where many of the dousers believe that their ability is real and, even when proven otherwise, will find excuses as to why so that they can continue to believe so. Randi’s main point, throughout the panel, was that each person who is encouraged to think critically is another victory for the skeptical community.

Afterwards, we headed over to the Walk of Fame to see who was over there and to get some dinner at Ray’s in the City, which turned out much better than our meal last night.  We had to eat a bit early, because we were heading to the Browncoats: Redemption premier that evening, and we expected the line to be ridiculous. (We were right, it snaked around three floors of the Westin!)

I had purposely kept my expectations for the movie low, knowing that it was done with an extremely low budget and, for the most part, volunteer work, but other than a few sound issues, the movie was really good. It kept to the spirit of the Verse that Joss Whedon created, without stepping on the story or characters that all Browncoats have come to love.

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As far as yesterday went, we got up here safely, despite almost being run over by a Marta bus, and got our badges after waiting in line for 3.5 hours at the Sheraton (with the Sheraton employees behaving in the same manner we have come to expect – rudely – but with the DragonCon staff themselves being phenomenal).  Since last year we had such a wonderful experience at Nikolai’s Roof, we decided to go eat there again this year, but it turned out to be the sort of disappointment that only a meal you look forward to for a whole year can be, when it turns out to not be as good. The service was poor, particularly in comparison with the animated and fun server we had last year, and while the lighter courses were still extremely good, the main course was over-cooked for both of us.

Today, we started the day off by eating breakfast at the table next to Larry Hagman (!), then we headed off to the Wikileaks panel, which didn’t turn out to be the objective discussion we were expecting. The host of the panel didn’t seem to have researched the matter beyond the bounds of what was necessary for his presentation. The Q&A after the presentation allowed for a more open discussion, however, where a lot of good points were put forth, including discussion of Wikileaks’ own editing of documents to support their cause and the fact that Wikileaks’ publishing their findings on the Great Firewall of China has allowed people in China to better be able to get around the firewall and access information outside, as well as provide uncensored information and news to those outside the borders.

Salvador Dali - image from Wikipedia

Since the High Museum was offering a discount to DragonCon attendees, we decided to go see the Salvador Dali exhibit there, which was absolutely wonderful. It was focused on Dali’s later work, which I knew very little about, being most familiar with his early surrealist art. Perhaps the most amazing thing about the paintings was the sense of dimension he was able to put into them, the way some of the images seemed to jump out of the canvas toward you and how some of the paintings were entirely different pictures depending on how far away you were standing from them.  B was particularly struck by the sheer size of some of the paintings. The exhibit really established Dali as one of the first true pop artists, who embraced his commercial popularity and didn’t understand the critics who would discount his work simply because it was popular to mass audiences.

We ate dinner tonight at Ray’s in the City, which turned out to be a much better experience than last night.  Now, we’re going to relax and watch some DragonCon*TV and get ready for tomorrow, which promises to be our busiest day at the Con. We’ll be attending the parade, so you can expect many, many more pictures (Saturday is always the biggest Picture Taking Day), and we’re heading to the James Randi panel, which is the main panel we’re both excited for.

So far, the big, main panel I definitely want to see is the one with James Randi, probably the one on Saturday at 1:00 PM.

But as for everything else, there’s still a bit of decision making to do. So far, here’s the breakdown of the panels that were of interest to me, and I will likely be attending, time constraints, line-length, and need to sleep and eat allowing:

Friday:

• 10:00 AM: Wikileaks Panel
• 1:00 PM: Kai Owen Torchwood Panel
• 4:00 PM: Quantum Leap Panel or Babylon 5 Panel
• 5:30 PM: The Guild Panel with Vork and Zaboo
• 10:00 PM: Writing and Marketing Same Sex Fiction Workshop
• 11:30 PM: Skepchick Party or “Gay Themes in the Whoniverse” or SLEEP

Saturday:

• 8:30 AM: Breakfast with James Randi
• 10:00 AM: DragonCon Parade!
• 1:00 PM: James Randi Panel
• 4:00 PM: Stan Lee Panel or Firefly Panel or Steampunk World Record Photoshoot
• 5:30 PM: Adam Savage Panel or Chuck Panel
• 7:00 PM: Firefly Redemption Fan Movie Screening
• 10:00 PM: Alternative Sexualities in YA Lit
• 11:30 PM: “We Write the Weird Stuff” Slash Fanfic Writers Party

Sunday:

• 10:00 AM: Robot Battles
• 11:30 AM: An Hour with the Tams Firefly Panel
• 1:00 PM: Kai Owen Torchwood Panel (if we don’t make it to the first one)
• 2:30 PM: Stan Lee (if we don’t make it to the other one) or Cyborg Panel
• 4:00 PM: Adam Savage (if we don’t make it to the other one) or Steampunk Makers Exhibition
• 7:00 PM: Babylon 5 Panel

As I’ve said, I’ll be liveblogging the Con and the panels that I attend, so watch my twitter feed or this blog if you want to Attend Vicariously through any of these.

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Yes, yes, I know I’ve been a bad blogger lately.

Truth is, I’ve just been crazy busy. My days have been pretty much going like this:

• Get up, get dressed, feed cats.
• Go to work. Do work.
• Come home, feed cats, Exercise!
• KNIT! SEW! KNIT! SEW! COSTUMES MUST BE DONE!
• Collapse into bed.
• Repeat.

Somewhere in the middle of this, I also received my first commission. That is, someone asked me to write a story. In return for this story, I will get money.

This terrifies me. This is the exact opposite of how my story writing usually goes. Usually, I write the story first, and then look for a place to sell it,  receiving the requisite handful of rejection letters (or emails) before I find a place for it, if I ever find a place for it.

This is the first time someone’s offered to pay me before the story is even written. What if the story I write isn’t what they were really looking for? What if they don’t think it’s really good enough to merit their payment? Eeeep! There’s that panic!

So the last few weeks pretty much every ounce of spare time that I’m not spending working on my costumes for DragonCon (OMG ALMOST HERE), I’ve spent working hard on that story.

So in the middle of all that writing and sewing and knitting and writing and sewing and knitting….there hasn’t been a lot of room for blogging. Worry not, though, folks! I think I’ll queue up some excerpts from “The Boy Ran” for the next couple of weeks, and I’ll be liveblogging DragonCon again this year!

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The one unifying theme of DragonCon is that it is where geeks go to be geeks, no matter what sort of geek they are.

So here goes, the Annual (s)IB Survival Guide:

1. BRING COMFORTABLE SHOES!!!
   

   I cannot stress this enough. Unless you’re an athlete or work out regularly, you’ll probably be walking more in this one weekend than you walk all year. Total. And no, that’s not hyperbole for many of us. As cute as the thigh-high boots with the stiletto heels might be, you’ll hate yourself after a weekend in them.

2. MAKE A SCHEDULE WELL AHEAD OF TIME – Download the schedule grids as soon as they are available online and decide what you want to do, when.  Work out a tentative schedule for your Priority must-see items, plus some contingency options in case you don’t get into your first option. Leave time in your schedule to wait in line 3-5 hours for the big name panels. Make sure to allow time in your schedule to do those important things like bathroom breaks and eating. Remember: You cannot do everything. This is absolutely impossible, barring the invention of the time machine and/or the interference of our favorite Gallifreyan.. There will be things that you will miss.
   • The DragonCon schedules are still subject to change even during the convention. Be sure to pick up a copy of the Daily Dragon every morning (or afternoon, depending on when you wake up) to check on any changes that might have been made for the schedule that day. They are available at the info desks.
3. YOU WILL WAIT IN LINE:  Yes, I know that I said that in the schedule section, but you will be waiting in line a lot.  Leave your grumpy back in the hotel room and try to make the most of it and it can be fun.  You’re likely to meet some neat people in line, and you can costume-watch.
   • If you’re with a large group, it is acceptable to wait in shifts, particularly for families with small children.
4. DON’T LOSE YOUR BADGE – Your badge is required for admittance into any convention event, and you will have to pay for a new one if it gets lost.
5. PACK A SURVIVAL KIT – Bear Grylls might go into the wilderness with nothing but a shirt on his back, but you don’t want to go to DragonCon unprepared. Here are a few things that might be good to have on hand:
   • A basic Foot Care kit, including moleskin and bandages for blisters, gel shoe inserts, etc.
   • A basic First Aid kit, including, again, bandages, antibiotic ointment, pain reliever, antacid, allergy medicine/decongestant, any prescription medications, etc. Add condoms in there, if you think you’re likely to hook up. Be safe!
   • Bottle of hand sanitizer (to avoid the Con Crud)
   • Sunscreen. You can expect Atlanta in August to average over 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Getting burned, if you’re prone to it, isn’t fun. Due to the same circumstances, extra deodorant is a wonderful thing.
   • An easy to carry and refill water bottle (and single-use flavoring pouches like Crystal Light makes, if you don’t want plain water) to save you money and help save the environment, by avoiding tossing plastic water bottles.
   • Bring your own snacks. They’ll be much cheaper than anything you can get at the stands in the hotels.  Double that for alcohol. The liquor stores and hotel bars love DragonCon goers, but you’ll spend anywhere from 3 to 5 times what you’d spend at home for the same drink.
   • A notepad and pen, for making notes for your blog (heh) and, of course, to write down contact info if you meet anyone neat.
   • Camera and lots of extra batteries if it’s not rechargeable. Bring twice what you think you’ll need.
   • For more suggested items to bring, see the Packing List on the DragonCon Wiki.
6. Set up a location and landmark to meet at if you get separated from your group.
7. DragonCon offers a Con Suite, where there is always something cold to drink and usually snacks, all of which are free. This year, the Con Suite is in the Hyatt, rooms 223 and 226.
8. SET A BUDGET AND STICK TO IT: I withdraw a specific amount of “mad money” each year to take to DragonCon. I am allowed to spend that money, and only that money, no more.  Keep your money and a picture ID safe in a money-belt, which are handy for tucking into pocketless costumes. Stick a list of emergency contacts in there too.
9. BE POLITE: I have heard so many horror stories told by actors after ComicCon.  On the other hand, I’ve heard tons of good things from the actors and guests about DragonCon. Let’s keep it that way. When in doubt, follow the advice of the Great Geek God, Wil Wheaton, and “Don’t Be a Dick.”
10. COSTUMERS:
    • Be sure to start your costume well ahead of the convention! You don’t want to be staying up late the night before you leave to finish your outfit.  I usually start my costumes about 2-3 months ahead of time, depending on how time consuming and/or expensive they might be. My Tom Baker Scarf, however, I’ve been working on since Christmas.
    • Bring a needle and thread and some safety pins, just in case, and some Febreeze to freshen it up if necessary, also some color-safe stain remover, if your costume can handle it.
    • Take into account your body type when planning your costume! Yes, there are a lot of totally toned young hotties going around in nothing but a few bits of string, but honestly, no one wants to be a couple steps down on the escalator with their nose inches from a stranger’s uncovered ass, no matter how toned it is.  As insulting as it may sound, I know no one wants to see my cellulite, and I’m fairly sure no one wants to see yours either.
    • I have heard, though I would not vouch for its veracity, that it is legal for women to go about topless after 10 PM in downtown Atlanta, provided their nipples are covered with pasties or the like. However, I do not recommend it, as I have seen some police officers get a bit testy about it. If you’re going to go uncovered or painted and are particularly well-endowed, carry a shawl or covering of some sort to wear until you get to your party.
11. LODGINGS & MISC.: Unfortunately, if you still don’t have a hotel room, with 29 days to go, you’re probably just SOL.  I am aware that a large number of people had their reservations canceled after the hotels were sold to become dorms, so there is an even larger number of roomless searching this year than usual.  The best place to find people willing to share a room and/or anything else you might have a need to ask is at the DragonCon Livejournal Community.

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Before I got into CRPGs, before I ever logged into my first MUD, my first and favorite computer games were always RTS games. This has always continued to be the case, despite my annoyance at a growing emphasis on multiplayer combat to the detriment of story campaigns and character development.

For me, Story is Everything.  If the game doesn’t have a strong inherent story of its own, I have to be able to make my own story for my characters. Unfortunately, a lot of the RTS games these days have forgotten story completely and don’t exactly allow you the opportunity for much story creation on your own. If there is a single-player campaign, it’s half-assed and repetitive. If there’s any story at all, it’s the exact same two paragraphs of flavor text before every battle regardless of what race you’re playing. Some games don’t have single player options at all.

So naturally, I’m more than a little excited about the grand-daddy of RTS games launching its sequel tomorrow. Blizzard has always been good with story, to the point that I continue to replay the original StarCraft campaigns to this day, in spite of the fact that my PC technology has far and away outstripped it and the only way to make it look remotely right is to play it in a tiny little window on my huge monitor.

Aliens! With Armies! Yeeeah!

Blizzard’s never exactly been original with their stories or their games. The difference is that they take what has been done and, inevitably, find some way to do it better, even if it’s something as simple as making the interface more user friendly.  The Warcraft universe is almost a direct ripoff of Warhammer 40K with some elements of Tolkien and a strangely prominent amount of Lovecraft thrown in. Starcraft, well . . . let’s face it . . . Starcraft is Aliens with armies. And without Vasquez, which is a real pity. I love Vasquez.

But while not original stories, or even original looking characters, Blizzard’s stories and characters rarely feel like they are just paper-doll placeholders. The stories actually have a proper plot arc, the characters actually grow and change. Sometimes they change into bad things, but they aren’t just static “I’m important because I’m in charge” types.  Blizzard can always be counted on for a good campaign, even when good single-player campaigns are out of fashion.

I’ve been in the beta, playing skirmish matches against other players and co-op against the computer, and I have to say that I’m very pleased with what they’ve done with the gameplay, and the graphics are wonderfully pretty without being too much of a resource hog.  Apparently the single-player campaign gameplay has been balanced separately from the PvP combat, and I’m interested to check out how they’ve done that, and what sort of difference it will make to the singleplayer game.

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And yet, we ask the same things of men. Okay, sure, we don’t ask them to wear makeup. (Or, well, most of us don’t. I’m actually oddly fond of men in makeup. And glitter. And/Or Kilts. But that’s my thing. Erm.) We giggle over the Old Spice Guy, who is  funny as hell, but he also has all of those nice rippling abs. We might complain over the amount of time it takes to go the whole nine yards, with elaborate hairdos and makeup, but we do it while gawking over men who could only look that way with hours every day spent in the gym.

And yeah, while I appreciate the aesthetic appeal of those pecks, I’ll admit that my personal weakness is a skinny, brainy guy with glasses. (Ph. D.? Hair like a Ralph Lauren model? Slightly metro? Oh my. *swoon*) I like my men well dressed, even though most of the time I’d rather be wearing jeans and a t-shirt.  Thing about all those brainy, bespectacled guys is that usually they dress pretty well, in nice button-down shirts or polos and khakis and suits. Luckily, I managed to find one of these well-dressed blokes, and he doesn’t care if I’m dressed down while he dresses up.

Thing is, why do we complain that men like for women to look pretty while expecting men to look pretty (or, erm, handsome) too? A man can be as macho as he likes, but if he smells, he’s unlikely to get a girl. On the other hand, if he smells really good, even if he’s not all that good-looking, there will be girls that sigh when he comes by.  I have seen this happen. Just ask the local FedEx guy.

We expect men to take care of themselves and look nice, and yet complain when the same is expected of us.

And I’ve always wondered why being expected to be beautiful, or being recognized for beauty, is somehow a bad thing. Sure, there are those guys who think girls only exist to look pretty, and that anything going on inside their brains or hearts is inconsequential, but those sorts of guys are the rarity these days, though it seems the beauty pageant circuit tends to cater to that sort.

I like to look pretty. While most of the time, I’m a jeans-and-t-shirt girl, my one fashion-related obsession is shoes, and I like them pretty and strappy and with heels on. And I like to dress up to have an excuse to wear those pretty shoes. I feel empowered by it, rather than objectified by it.

When I play video games, I like the fact that the character models for female characters are beautiful. In games with many varied races, you can get all sorts of beautiful. And these gorgeous characters go out there and they kick ass. They’re strong and wonderful, they’re dragonslayers and sorceresses and soldiers, but above all, they are strong. The fact that they are also beautiful does nothing to diminish that strength. This something I’ve always found rather empowering.

I also have a great love of old-school burlesque, which, yes, involves women taking off their clothes. However, it’s more about the tease than the nudity, which most of the time consists of little more than a short peak before the curtains close or the dancer dashes off stage. It’s about humor and showmanship and being comfortable in your body, which is a hard thing these days. I know it’s often been a hard thing for me.

I suppose the difference between being objectified and empowered has everything to do with the context of the situation. A woman (or man) reduced to body-parts, with no face or emotion for an advertisement, for instance, is nothing but pure object. And of course, that’s only one example.

But I’ll never be convinced that this is only a one-way thing, where women are the only ‘victims’.  Men are objectified just as often, and women pay attention to appearances just as much as men do. And never will I believe that the enjoyment of looking nice comes solely from the attention of others, sometimes it’s nice just to look in the mirror and think to yourself “Hey, I look good.”

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Little things, most of the time. Big things sometimes. Like how I somehow managed to completely forget plot in the middle of my new story “The Boy Ran” and somehow wrote several nearly identical chapters that could be summarized by “We woke up, we walked, we went to sleep.”

I finished the story up toward the end of last week, ending up at somewhere around 42,000 words. I usually try to put a few weeks between finishing up a story and going back to read over it again, so that it’s new and fresh to me when I start the initial proofreading process.  However, this time I tried a new writing method where I didn’t go back and read over anything at all the whole time I was writing. I’d been having a lot of little projects that I’d started and never finished – generally because I start second-guessing myself about halfway through.

So, I refused to go back and re-read while the story was in progress. I would get it finished first.  And I did. If nothing else, this method has worked to ensure that my doubts didn’t get in the way of my writing.  However, it also means that this first draft is a lot less polished than I’m used to dealing with when I go through my first proofread.

For one thing, there’s those repetitive chapters, which have now been cut out almost entirely, except for a few gems of paragraphs and dialogue that I condensed down a great deal.  I just cut almost 20,000 words out of my story at one go.

So yeah, that novel? It won’t be a novel by the time I’m done with it, I don’t think. Going back over my plot and organization, I realize that this is a story that is probably best told in a short form anyway.  It’s a departure from my usual writing, particularly considering the age of the protagonist and the prospective audience.  It’s also set in a world that is extremely close to home, dealing with some extremely difficult subjects.

I know that it’s possibly one of the most honest and difficult stories I’ve ever written. Perhaps, like dark chocolate, it is a story best enjoyed in small amounts. The words are getting in the way right now.  I’m hoping that by the time I’m done with editing (and sending it out to my betas for their critiques) that will no longer be the case.

I think I got too caught up on hitting that big word-goal and lost the focus of my story in the process.  Sometimes a story doesn’t need to have a lot of words to make a point.

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