gateslacker

I know I waited way too long to give anyone a play by play of the weekend. My excuse is Dragoncon put me behind with regard to school work and whatnot and I have only just now caught up. Let's see what I remember....

Friday:

Events didn't get started till one so we didn't have to haul out of bed at 0 dark 30.

de23 and I actually had time to go for a short walk before we started the real walking between the four hotels. At Dragoncon you tend to spend a great deal of time firmly attached to the program. If you don't figure out what you are going to do a wee bit in advance, you will be lost. I had decided to catch the Torchwood panel first. Now, I don't remember much about it other than Gareth David Lloyd is very funny and much cuter in person. He is way more animated than Ianto seems to be (without the emo contortions). All in all, I attended two Torchwood panels and enjoyed both of them. Word is, the season is going to run much like Doctor Who with 4 or 5 episodes covering one story arc. Mum was the word, however over who would be there to replace Tosh and Owen. When asked about Martha Jones, we got a very cryptic "Her presence will be felt". I am still holding out for Micky and, after rewatching a few Doctor Who episodes, I think he could very well take over for Tosh. At least I am hoping.

After Torchwood, De and I hoofed it over to the Hyatt, the farthest hotel from the Sheraton where we attended the TW panel. We were about to go in when, having learned from the event during the previous day where we attempted to find the end of the registration line by walking around the hotel only to end up where we started, I decided to ask what the line was for and, yes, it was for the Firefly panel. The line was very reminiscent of the Stargate panel lines last year. Unfortunately, we were too far back for me to get good pics of Nathan Fillion and Alan Tudyk. And this turned out to be the case for the rest of the weekend. The Firefly panels were definitely the funniest and NF's energy is rather reminiscent of Chris Judge without all the drinking.

After this panel, De and I parted ways and I headed over to the Brit Track room to see Robert Llewelyn. We were going to meet back up again for the Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog later. (Yeah, right, but I will get back to that later.) I have to admit that going in to D*C that I was most excited about seeing Robert Llewelyn and I was very pleased when the Track room filled up. RL confirmed that there is going to be a new one hour ep of Red Dwarf and though he was told that he could tell us this and had told some folks previously, later he was informed that he wasn't supposed to tell us and that from this moment on, we heard it all from Craig Charles. That one got quite a few laughs. All in all RL is very busy fellow what with books and other shows and whatnot. He is very funny and I enjoyed all three of his panels even when I didn't have any awareness of this particular show or that particular project.

After this panel, I hurried to get in line to the Dr. Horrible panel. (I was already at the Sheraton for this one) Now this is the part where texting comes in handy. De texted me asking where I was and that she was outside at the end of the line. I texted back stating that, no, I was in the lower level at the end of the line. ARGH! How could we both be at the end of the line? Come to find out, there were two lines..LOL. I never found her and took one of those empty one person seats. The panel had a projector screen set up and played the Dr. Horrible webisode thing while people on the stage acted it out. It was quite fun but I had thought this was relatively new. The audience was singing along, quoting dialogue and acting certain parts out as though the thing had been around for decades. De told me that, during the end sequence when a rather unfortunate event occurs, an audience member yelled out, "Damn you, Joss Wheden!". I didn't hear it from where I was sitting but I thought that was pretty funny so I don't think De minds if I include it here. It seems that no character is safe from the clutches of death where he is concerned. The whole thing was quite lively and this was one of my favorite panels at the con.

After Dr. Horrible, De and I miraculously found one another and hoofed it back over to the Hyatt again to see the MST3K guys. After they had answered a few questions and whatnot, their newest incarnation for making fun of bad B movies was played. I think this one was called Wasp Woman or something. The guys hung around to see the audience reaction. The poking fun at B movies thing was much the same but I think it lacks that extra oomph that came from the antics of Joel and/or Mike and the robots aboard the Satellite of Love. I also remember thinking that I would love to see these guys take a crack at Sumuru or Megasnake...LOL.

After the movie, we met up with

rosiewook and

dm_lunsford and headed back. I was starving because there had been no time in the schedule to even eat..LOL. Those snack bars I packed came in very handy,

Saturday:

Saturday we were up and about earlier because we wanted to get there in time to obtain parking. It seems that there was a major sporting event going on that weekend which is probably why we were unable to get a hotel room. I won't go into as great detail on this day because I didn't really do anything new except get my autograph from RL. I was too chicken to attempt small talk and I am also terribly bad at it. He was very pleasant but the encounter was very brief. I attended another Torchwood, Firefly. and RL panel and also had the time today to actually eat and browse the dealer's room where I found some fun T-shirts. I really loved the T-shirt we ended up getting for

rosiewook as a thank-you gift. It said "Captain Jack Harkness has never Slept Here". Maybe I will get that one next year if I am still ga-ga over Torchwood. I was really tired Saturday evening for some reason and I didn't enjoy the great costume stake out as much as I usually do. Plus, it just so happened that August 30th fell on a Saturday again and I couldn't help my wee bout of melancholy and missing Steve. Just because it has been eleven years does not mean I don't still have those waaaa moments. I think I hit the sack as soon as we made it back home.

Sunday:

I woke up really tired but then seemed to gather energy as the day progressed. I was going to try and actually attend a Stargate related panel for the first time by attending Cliff Simon's panel. However, the line was really long and

rosiewook didn't think we would get in so I headed out to a different hotel to see RL once again. R did try to call me later because they added chairs. Ah well, it didn't really bother me overmuch. After this, I headed over to yet a different hotel to get in line for my first BSG panel of the weekend and it is at this time that I had the absolute best ever waiting in line experience when the end of the line just so happened to occur at a nice comfy bench in a hallway. Wheeeee. It's the small things, you know. I knew that

de23 was planning on this panel so I prepared my "cut in" line of "I thought you were never going to get back from the bathroom". Fortunately, it was not needed as across the hall there was another Firefly line and, also being a thoroughfare, it became rather noisy and no one noticed when she sidled in.

Michael Hogan surprised me most because he is nothing like his stern, brusque couterpart though you can't really tell that from the pics. Speaking of pics, I despise the Dragoncon lighting choices. It didn't take me two days to get the settings for the lighting this time but most of the pics are still rather crap due in part from my distance but mainly from the crap lighting. That blue you see on Baltar's head is NOT my fault. There were actually blue lights shining on them. Plus, the lighting makes everyone look like they are having some serious liver failure. But, it's the best I can do without the really really fancy schmancy camera with massive zoom lenses that I would never want to lug around anyway. I really didn't learn anything other than I think BSG has been moved back till April. APRIL! What is it with sci-fi and their best shows because they really have this love-hate relationship going on. No word on just who that last cylon is but I really didn't expect any hints. I did learn that James Callis is going to be playing Merlin in some project. I think it might be some TV miniseries thing but I didn't catch that part. I found that information exciting.

Now I am drawing a complete blank as to what I did next....LOL. Oh yeah...D'oh. Now, I really did get to attend the first Stargate panel of the weekend when i attended the DSD tribute. I couldn't help but get teary which I think comes from having met this wonderful person albeit briefly. But of course, I'd also get all teary every time someone else got teary. It really was a nice tribute and it was followed by the auction hosted in part by David Nykl who, though having never did any auctioning before, really got into it. Lots of cool things were auctioned off and I do remember really wanting that signed Continuum script. Of course, that item brought forth the most money.

Now, I am lost again but I think, at some point, we all managed to find one another again at the SGOWF track room where we attended a TWITS (They were in THAT show?) viewing where we also watched some of Pierre Bernard's Recliner of Rage spots, which De had never seen. After this, we spent the evening at the Marriott watching all of the costumes and the crowds. I was more energetic and in to it today.I have included a short vid that demonstrates ,for those who have never attended, just how large this event is and how many people wear costume, though I do think there may have been less costumes this year. Remember, my vid only includes the one hotel. I do think the addition of the fourth hotel and moving the walk of fame over to the Hilton helped with crowd control. This year, there was no having to sneak in any side doors because the fire marshall had closed down the hotel. Plus, I think they moved most of the track rooms out of the confusing Hyatt, where I got lost last year and was unable to find my way out...ROFL, I kept going up and down in circles, if that is possible. I played with Premiere Elements for the first time for this one and I don't know where the extra 2mins of blank screen time came from. Just click stop when the music/vid fades to black. There is no more after that.

Monday:

PCD is beginning to set in. It always does just prior to leaving. This am, I attended a Stargate panel and I don't even remember who was in it...LOL. It may not have been at this particular panel but I do remember that Cliff Simon, who has recently become an American citizen, talked about how Americans should be proud of who they are. This wasn't said in any over the top patriotic or political way, rather, I think he was addressing how many of us are almost embarassed about it and that we have many reasons to be proud of our country. With the political climate, it is frequently forgotten just how often our country does step in to try and help. I can't remember much else.

I had already got his autograph but I decided to see RL one last time and get my picture taken with him. At D*C, a person needs to really make some choices about who to see and who to obtain autographs from because, if you are a multi fandom girl like myself, you could really drop vast quantities of money in the walk of fame. I even made the a concerted effort to not wander around in the walk of fame seeing who was where. No, I zeroed in on my target and did not stray off that path! This year, RL was my focus. During this encounter, I also managed a wee bit of small talk. I definitely thanked him for coming all this way, especially since RD does not have the massive fanbase at this con that some of the other shows do. His fourteen year old son had tagged along so we talked about that a bit. He said that his son had had a good time and I said that my son had wanted to come but that I feared losing him to the gamers. I really wanted to ask him to record my voicemail message as Kryten but managed to not do that. When it came time to take the pic, his son had wandered over to the Farscape folks table "because his mother is Australian". (The mention of the Farscape table around the corner almost persuaded me to head in that direction next but I remained focused and did not stray from the path so as to not unload massive amounts of cash.) Once the pic was taken, we shook hands and I headed out straightaway. It was a very pleasant encounter.

The four of us met up for lunch where we ate and then stalled for time because we didn't want to see it end. Finally, though, we had to say our goodbuys to

rosiewook and head back to Tennessee.

Here is the link to my shutterfly site. Once there, click on the Dragoncon08 album and, once the album opens, click on slideshow. I know that is more steps but photobucket hates me on livejournal. Or is it the other way around?

gateslacker.shutterfly.com/