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Five days of con stuff, and I'm still drowning in interwebs backlog. Gah. Let's do the day by day!
Got up at the usual time and headed out half an hour later than intended, which was OK because I build a half-hour delay into my scheduled departure time. Ha. So then we drove to Atlanta, 6-ish hours, and checked in at the Marriott. We got a room on the third floor, which fucking rocked, because that meant we could take the stairs and avoid the elevator mess.
Wandered over to get our badges and stood in a hot line for about an hour and a half. Registration is always such a clusterfuck at the very end where the line splits into by name thingies. After I finally got my badge, I went outside and discovered voice mail from my dad. No signal in the ballroom. So I called him back, and we met at the hotel to figure out dinner while waiting for![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
chalgaryn to get her badge. We decided on Chinese, then we walked through Trader Vic's, which was horrifyingly full, so we wound up in a restaurant-bar in the Hilton, where my dad bought 5 rounds of drinks for all 4 of us. O_o It was fascinating.
Rather than join what would likely be a massive line for the 10 am Shatner & Nimoy panel, we opted to watch it from the comfort of our closed circuit TV in the hotel room. Win! It was interesting. I've never been a huge TOS fan, but it was interesting anyway. Then it was find shit to do until more stuff happened and things opened. I took a turn through the exhibitors and dealers halls until it was time to go line up to get my books signed by Lois McMaster Bujold. She was a bit bemused that I handed her two copies of Memory (hard and paperback).
Then I put my books back in my room and trotted over to the panel I was on: LMB's fantasy vs SF. It was a fun discussion, mostly about the Miles books, because they seemed to be the favorites of the majority - who preferred SF in general, as it turned out. No big surprise there. We got to throw out the line "Is this a kissing book?" about the Sharing Knife series, so it's a win.
After that, food at the diner, then lazing about a bit before getting costumed up and heading to the Time Traveler's Ball. We were there about an hour, and it was kinda boring. No dancing! It was advertised as having a fashion show first, and there was, but I was kinda z_Z about it. And warm, in 4 skirts, a corset, and a lined jacket bodice. And a wool hat. Glad I didn't add the wig. So we wandered back over to our hotel, ran into a friend in the lobby, chatted a bit, and headed back upstairs.
The benefit of being on a low floor in the Marriott is you can people watch from the balcony outside your door. So we did that a bit before crashing.
Slept in a bit, and meandered over to the food court for Caribou. (Lite white berry w/cinnamon=YUM.) Then I moseyed over to the SFLit track where the women's roles in SF panel would be happening. I got a seat in the back. That was an interesting talk, and I chatted with the moderator, who's on the board at Broad Universe, which I'd just found on the internets a week ago. I'm totally sending my money & joining. Wound up chatting with her and a couple other Broads, and at one point Lois came & sat with us. I refrained from hyperventilating at her ;)
Then I went to the doctors in SF panel, which was kinda cool. Then, uh, met a friend, and went back to my room to watch the Patrick Stewart panel on closed circuit. He's really nice and kinda funny. And pretty hot (for a really old guy.)
Then we waited forshinshan to get off work in the dealers room & walked over to the Indian place. Damn, that was good. Also not crowded at all. Best masala chai EVER. A++++, would drink again.
Then twas off to the Tom Smith show, where we met P & L. Also saw LMB there! She sat in the front row. He did Ay Callisto, so I was happy. Then back to the room for more people watching, or possibly sleep. I forget.
Slept in a bit, then got dressed for the Hetalia photoshoot. It took a bit to find, but once I did, it was fun. Met some folks, and the other Hungary (who was there with her nerd mom) was adorable. Then I went to LMB's reading, which was AWESOME. I want the book *now* dammit. She really reminds me of Ben's mom. They're about the same age, and their Japanese pronunciation is equally bad. (Kibou != kyeboo. Jin != jean.)
Then off tojoyeuse13's translation panel. It was sadly empty, but Lois had a signing at the same time in the other hotel. But we had fun anyway. It was interesting that the German translation kept the humor (rat bars, for example) and just borrowed loan words freely from English (die Shuttles, zB.) After that, it was up to John Ringo interviewing LMB, which was also interesting. I was slightly disappointed that she doesn't like the giant robots shows (but they're the best kind! There's great space politics in there!), but she loves Roy Mustang, so I had to forgive her. Someone asked if there'd ever be a Simon prequel, and she said no, and added that people ask for Ivan books all the time, and she said maybe it'd be about Ivan and Byerly competing for second place. I'd read that. Possibly so many times the book falls apart. (Also, it would give a lot more fodder for Ivan/By slash. Win!)
Then I had to get out of my 2.5" heels, so it was back to my room, where I hung out (after a quick shower) until everybody got back & we ordered pizza for the Masquerade, which is definitely improved with judicious application of vodka.
After that, Chalgaryn wanted to get the delicious Forbidden Fruit at the Hilton bar, so we went over, and had the worst service I'd ever had. Twice we had to flag down other employees to get our waitress, and we were there to buy multiple $10 drinks. And if she'd come by our table more than once, she'd have gotten at least 15%, but no, she got 10% for shitty service.
We people watched from the first floor balcony - slightly closer view - and a guy dressed with a Stormtooper head and a towel, carrying a shower bucket like in college walked by. It was hilarious.
Not much goes on Mondays. We got up, packed, and checked out. After a quick perusal of the dealers' room, where Ben got the limited edition Sandman statue that lists at $195 for $30 (!!!), we went to Diner for brunchfast. The omelets aren't as good as IHOP's, but I got the biggest cup of coffee I've ever had. After that it was time to brave the parking circle and head out. About 6 hours later, we got home.
So for next year, who's coming?thegreyghost, you & Kev ought to come. There's a whole track on podcasting. If you get your thing going and reasonably popular, you could apply to be guests, even.
I'm thinking we might book 2 rooms once next year's block opens, if we can get at least 4 people to say they're coming. Rooms sold out at the Marriott in a DAY this year.
Right. Time for lunch.
Got up at the usual time and headed out half an hour later than intended, which was OK because I build a half-hour delay into my scheduled departure time. Ha. So then we drove to Atlanta, 6-ish hours, and checked in at the Marriott. We got a room on the third floor, which fucking rocked, because that meant we could take the stairs and avoid the elevator mess.
Wandered over to get our badges and stood in a hot line for about an hour and a half. Registration is always such a clusterfuck at the very end where the line splits into by name thingies. After I finally got my badge, I went outside and discovered voice mail from my dad. No signal in the ballroom. So I called him back, and we met at the hotel to figure out dinner while waiting for
chalgaryn to get her badge. We decided on Chinese, then we walked through Trader Vic's, which was horrifyingly full, so we wound up in a restaurant-bar in the Hilton, where my dad bought 5 rounds of drinks for all 4 of us. O_o It was fascinating.Rather than join what would likely be a massive line for the 10 am Shatner & Nimoy panel, we opted to watch it from the comfort of our closed circuit TV in the hotel room. Win! It was interesting. I've never been a huge TOS fan, but it was interesting anyway. Then it was find shit to do until more stuff happened and things opened. I took a turn through the exhibitors and dealers halls until it was time to go line up to get my books signed by Lois McMaster Bujold. She was a bit bemused that I handed her two copies of Memory (hard and paperback).
Then I put my books back in my room and trotted over to the panel I was on: LMB's fantasy vs SF. It was a fun discussion, mostly about the Miles books, because they seemed to be the favorites of the majority - who preferred SF in general, as it turned out. No big surprise there. We got to throw out the line "Is this a kissing book?" about the Sharing Knife series, so it's a win.
After that, food at the diner, then lazing about a bit before getting costumed up and heading to the Time Traveler's Ball. We were there about an hour, and it was kinda boring. No dancing! It was advertised as having a fashion show first, and there was, but I was kinda z_Z about it. And warm, in 4 skirts, a corset, and a lined jacket bodice. And a wool hat. Glad I didn't add the wig. So we wandered back over to our hotel, ran into a friend in the lobby, chatted a bit, and headed back upstairs.
The benefit of being on a low floor in the Marriott is you can people watch from the balcony outside your door. So we did that a bit before crashing.
Slept in a bit, and meandered over to the food court for Caribou. (Lite white berry w/cinnamon=YUM.) Then I moseyed over to the SFLit track where the women's roles in SF panel would be happening. I got a seat in the back. That was an interesting talk, and I chatted with the moderator, who's on the board at Broad Universe, which I'd just found on the internets a week ago. I'm totally sending my money & joining. Wound up chatting with her and a couple other Broads, and at one point Lois came & sat with us. I refrained from hyperventilating at her ;)
Then I went to the doctors in SF panel, which was kinda cool. Then, uh, met a friend, and went back to my room to watch the Patrick Stewart panel on closed circuit. He's really nice and kinda funny. And pretty hot (for a really old guy.)
Then we waited for
shinshan to get off work in the dealers room & walked over to the Indian place. Damn, that was good. Also not crowded at all. Best masala chai EVER. A++++, would drink again.Then twas off to the Tom Smith show, where we met P & L. Also saw LMB there! She sat in the front row. He did Ay Callisto, so I was happy. Then back to the room for more people watching, or possibly sleep. I forget.
Slept in a bit, then got dressed for the Hetalia photoshoot. It took a bit to find, but once I did, it was fun. Met some folks, and the other Hungary (who was there with her nerd mom) was adorable. Then I went to LMB's reading, which was AWESOME. I want the book *now* dammit. She really reminds me of Ben's mom. They're about the same age, and their Japanese pronunciation is equally bad. (Kibou != kyeboo. Jin != jean.)
Then off to
joyeuse13's translation panel. It was sadly empty, but Lois had a signing at the same time in the other hotel. But we had fun anyway. It was interesting that the German translation kept the humor (rat bars, for example) and just borrowed loan words freely from English (die Shuttles, zB.) After that, it was up to John Ringo interviewing LMB, which was also interesting. I was slightly disappointed that she doesn't like the giant robots shows (but they're the best kind! There's great space politics in there!), but she loves Roy Mustang, so I had to forgive her. Someone asked if there'd ever be a Simon prequel, and she said no, and added that people ask for Ivan books all the time, and she said maybe it'd be about Ivan and Byerly competing for second place. I'd read that. Possibly so many times the book falls apart. (Also, it would give a lot more fodder for Ivan/By slash. Win!)Then I had to get out of my 2.5" heels, so it was back to my room, where I hung out (after a quick shower) until everybody got back & we ordered pizza for the Masquerade, which is definitely improved with judicious application of vodka.
After that, Chalgaryn wanted to get the delicious Forbidden Fruit at the Hilton bar, so we went over, and had the worst service I'd ever had. Twice we had to flag down other employees to get our waitress, and we were there to buy multiple $10 drinks. And if she'd come by our table more than once, she'd have gotten at least 15%, but no, she got 10% for shitty service.
We people watched from the first floor balcony - slightly closer view - and a guy dressed with a Stormtooper head and a towel, carrying a shower bucket like in college walked by. It was hilarious.
Not much goes on Mondays. We got up, packed, and checked out. After a quick perusal of the dealers' room, where Ben got the limited edition Sandman statue that lists at $195 for $30 (!!!), we went to Diner for brunchfast. The omelets aren't as good as IHOP's, but I got the biggest cup of coffee I've ever had. After that it was time to brave the parking circle and head out. About 6 hours later, we got home.
So for next year, who's coming?
thegreyghost, you & Kev ought to come. There's a whole track on podcasting. If you get your thing going and reasonably popular, you could apply to be guests, even.I'm thinking we might book 2 rooms once next year's block opens, if we can get at least 4 people to say they're coming. Rooms sold out at the Marriott in a DAY this year.
Right. Time for lunch.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2009-09-08 05:17 pm (UTC)From:Ultimately, it depends on what I can afford and I am currently quite poor. ;__;
no subject
Date: 2009-09-08 06:34 pm (UTC)From:I don't honestly know how much, if anything, is comped for non-famous guests on track panels. Volunteers get some amount of comp, but you have to spend a lot of time volunteering.
random
Date: 2009-09-08 05:51 pm (UTC)From:Re: random
Date: 2009-09-08 06:36 pm (UTC)From:Re: random
Date: 2009-09-08 06:49 pm (UTC)From:*is not imagining him hanging from a Cardassian ceiling AT ALL*
It sounds like you had a great time overall. I envy you the Bujold panel!
Re: random
Date: 2009-09-08 07:05 pm (UTC)From:Hey, you wouldn't want to make a trip to Atlanta next Labor Day weekend, would you? I know a couple New Yorkers who come down (
Re: random
Date: 2009-09-09 02:49 pm (UTC)From:Re: random
Date: 2009-09-09 03:20 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2009-09-08 06:04 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2009-09-08 06:44 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2009-09-08 07:10 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2009-09-09 12:39 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2009-09-09 01:22 pm (UTC)From: