Dragon*Con Part 1

I just got home from my first-ever convention. It was an absolutely insane experience. I'm exhausted. And I can't wait to go back again next year!!

So, here are the first adventures of @teacher_geek and @JayneHatJake at Dragon*Con!!

Day 0: Quest for Badges

We hiked the mile and a half from our hotel, the Renaissance Downtown (con hotels were booked by the time we decided to go), down to the Sheraton where registration was. The line stretched around the entire block of the hotel before it ever even got inside. So we stood. For two hours. In the Atlanta summer. Honestly, though, it wasn't horrible, because we got in line at about 7:00, and the sun went behind the buildings pretty soon thereafter.

There was a family from Nebraska with a little 7-year-old boy in front of us who we got to talk to for a few hours. The boy was super cute and decided I was his new best friend when he learned I was a teacher. The wait was also made a bit better by the added soundtrack of Star Trek music. 

We had to wait outside two hours before getting inside to deal with this mess:

Then it was chaos in the room to pick up badges. We were in there almost an hour, then they started calling out random last name letters to go get in the short lines up front. We got called, but our friends with us didn't. After we got our badges, we still had to wait for another 30 minutes for them.

After that, it was crash time. Getting ready for a few LONG days ahead.

Day 1: Initiation by Fire

Costume of the day: Battlestar Galactica off-duty duds (no dogtags - still need to get some! want Starbuck or Boomer, couldn't find them at D*C!) As seen with my friend Briana, dressed as Aviendha from The Wheel of Time.

I only went to three panels the first day, but they were all great. The first one was "What's New in Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature." That panel gave bits and pieces about some new and upcoming YA books. The ones I heard about that I'm super excited to get my hands on are:

White Cat by Holly Black

This is the first  in Black's new series "The Curse Workers" about a society where some people have the ability to work curses, good and bad, by simple skin to skin contact. The protagonist is a boy who is born into a curse-working family but doesn't have the same abilities his relatives have.

Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi

Along a post-apocalyptic Gulf Coast, many people scavenge wrecked ships in order to survive. I was told it would be great for fans of Uglies, so I'm up for it. 

For the Win by Cory Doctorow 

I LOVED Doctorow's first YA book, Little Brother, so I'm really wanting to read this one. It's apparently about sweat-shop MMORPG gold-farmers across the globe and their struggle to defeat evil AFK bosses to make their real lives better by working together. More stuff about electronic freedom from one of the masterminds at BoingBoing. 

Incarceron by Catherine Fisher

Something about a living prison, evil princes who deposed rightful heirs, arranged marriages, star-crossed lovers, etc. Sounds interesting enough for me!

Behemoth by Scott Westerfeld

The follow-up to Leviathan, Westerfeld's re-imagining of  World War I if the Brits were into genetic engineering of animal and machine together and the Germans were totally steampunk. Can't wait!

There were many more on the list that I'd like to read, but these are the ones that really stuck out in my mind as getting on my "Must-Read" list. 

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We spent the afternoon fighting our way through the Peachtree Center Food Court, visiting the Her Universe and Southeastern Browncoats booths, and then finding our way over to the Westin for a Whedon-y good time. While shopping, I scored a killer Chibi Ahsoka Tano tee, met Ashley Eckstein (*squee!!* I mean, how cute is she!?), and got some great Browncoat gear for the boy!

Since we had a long time to wait before the "Simon and Kaylee Reunited" panel, we sat in on "Epitaph Three," a discussion panel about Dollhouse. It was interesting to hear people's takes on the show. I feel like it's one I need to go back and rewatch to get more out of it at this point. Until the end of season two, I didn't REALLY get into it, nor did I put much thought in there. The panel really has convinced me to give it another go. Netflix, anyone? 

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After the Dollhouse panel, we went and sat in line for the first Firefly panel of the weekend. It was Sean Maher's first EVER Dragon*Con panel! We ended up with great seats, about five rows back, just off-center, for the Q&A with Jewel Staite and Sean. I honestly can't remember much except for a few things. The first of those is why I can't remember anything else. 

I was starstruck. Yes, I'll admit it. Since it was a Q&A panel, they had two mics set up in the ballroom open to the attendees. No one was lining up on our side. I thought of a question quickly and sneaked out the row to the mic. Then I got to have a brief conversation with the incredible Jewel!! 

When I got to the mic, Jewel asked me to try to embarrass Sean. I said I'd do my best. I asked them how they felt about the Simon and Kaylee relationship left unresolved when the show was first canceled. I then got a story about how Sean was with his mom when the show was canceled and how they all went to Nathan Fillion's house to eat his incredible bean dip. Sean was dodging the question, big time. Jewel antagonized him by trying to get him to answer. He clammed up and turned red. Her response was, "Sean said he felt, 'frustrated'." I succeeded in embarrassing Sean Maher. (It seemed like something easy to do, though, to be honest. He seemed very shy.)

Also, they got Nathan Fillion to call both of their phones and goof off for a good five minutes of the panel. It involved Jewel telling him to make a decision based on "WWMRD?" or "What Would Malcom Reynolds Do?"  Then he and Sean made fun of Jewel for said advice. It all ended with 1200 people flipping Nathan off over the phone. 

They also shared about their experiences working on Warehouse 13. Apparently Eddie McClintock is just as big of a prankster and goof-off on-set as Fillion is. Also, his sense of humor is really dry, and he's got great delivery/timing. And Sean called him Eddie McFuckface. I'm guessing the guest stars got to be the butts of some of his jokes during there time at the Warehouse. 

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We met up with @PhysicistLisa and @abrogdon for dinner. It was fun. The boy was impressed because Lisa introduced herself just the way he had hoped. She said, "Hi, I'm Lisa from the Internet!" I thought the boy might have had a tiny squee moment.  It was so much fun to hang out with the first of my Twitter friends. We actually ran into @GameCouch and wife earlier in the day, but we were on our way to panels, so we didn't get to hang out at that point. 


We played our first round of Battlestar Galactica: The Board Game for the weekend and hung out people-watching until our late-arriving friends from Indianapolis got to the hotel. Then we booked it back to help them check in. I squealed and ran through the lobby when I saw @geeksoap, my #WonderTwin, at almost 2:00 am! (I also met @fubbleskag and @CapSteveRogers at that time, who are both frakking awesome in their own right!) 

Then, after getting them settled and talking for a while, I finally fell into a fitful sleep at about 2:45. See? There really *is* no sleep at Dragon*Con!

Star Wars Bacon

Yes, you read that correctly. This is one of the many reasons I love Twitter and my geeky friends I've made there. If you are a regular reader of Crayons and Cylons, you know that I am quite the fan of bacon. But as we all should know, I am not the only one. It all started out as an innocent tweet about my dog:

Then it began to elicit responses such as this:

To which I responded:

It began to spiral out of control from there...

...as everyone had their own opinions on the epic epicness of bacon.
But what Nick said caught my attention. I mean, come on. Star Wars bacon?! How incredible is that?!

I issued a challenge. My friends were game...

Lo and behold, there was success!

We feasted our eyes upon this:

Not a TIE fighter, but an AT-AT. Nick's work was astounding. He won the Internets last night!
I would still like to see a bacon TIE fighter. If you ever see one or make one, please share it with me!

While Nick was using his Google skills, fueled by the power of 34 (though, technically, 32, as this was not Star Wars bacon pr0n), other things were happening. Scary things.

I discovered there is a Twitter baconbot. His name is @Bacon_FTW

Then, Nicole had to go and do this:

It led us to Bacon Today, and their story about some crazy guy who's figured out how to DYE BACON! Why would you ever commit such an atrocity?!

Her find started to bring down the bacon high we were all on from the discovery of Star Wars bacon.

But then CT from Nerd Lunch rode in on his trusty PhotoShop steed and presented us with teh awesome.

And with that, I called it a night.

It had been an epic adventure that would not have been possible without the power of teh Tubez. It is both a blessing and a curse. And for that, I thank you, Al Gore's head in a jar.

fin.

It's Taking Over

"There's a demon in the Internet." - Rupert Giles

Last week, I was watching Buffy, as I often do when I need to destress. This particular line from the episode I was watching, "I, Robot...You, Jane," really struck me. Now, in the case of Buffy, yeah, there was a REAL demon that Willow had inadvertently released into the 'Net by scanning an old book. What I got to thinking about is not an actual demon existing in the Internet but how much the Internet has changed my life for both the good and the bad. 

 In April, for the original Bloggerstock exchange, the bloggers all wrote in response to the statement, "The Internet ate my..." I was not involved in the first exchange, but I found all of the posts to be incredibly interesting. (I will, however be participating in this one. Be on the lookout for a guest post on May 31!) I want to take the time to take on the demon of the Web and share what he's eaten from my existence. 

The Internet ate my money...

This is three-fold. Number one, we pay a nice monthly fee to have high speed DSL at home. It is GREAT service, but our telecom (phone, DSL, and Dish Network) bill is our most expensive bill aside from the mortgage!   

Then there's the fact that I can go shopping for practically ANYTHING I can imagine online. There's no telling how much money I've spent on Amazon and ThinkGeek over the years. If I can go shopping without crowds, lines, rude people, and the general public, I'm a much happier person. 

Last, those pesky monthly subscriptions for things I like too much. Like I used to play WoW, so that was a monthly fee given to the Interweb demon. And now I can't imagine living without Netflix! We occasionally get the DVDs and watch them, but it's the instant play via our Wii that gets the most use.

The Internet ate my time...

I spend more time in front of my computer and playing on the web than is healthy. I am blogging, looking at random things on Reddit, watching videos on YouTube, on Twitter, in 20sb chat or forums, on a Wikipedia surfari, or a myriad of other worthless distractions.

The Hub and I also used to get sucked into the time vortex that is World of Warcraft. I've not played in 3 years, and he hasn't about 6 months. He gave it up because the amount of time spent playing was becoming an issue and he was getting bored. His friends transferred servers. I still heart him, though! :)

Sometimes, instead of being social in real life, or going to real life events, I'd rather zone out in front of the glow of my MacBook's screen. It's sad really. I would not ever want to calculate how much time I spend each day online. Especially now that I've got my iPhone. I'm plugged in no matter where I go now! It's scary, really.

The Internet ate my privacy...

This is the Facebook issue that everyone is starting to deal with. Or at least a lot of us are. I mentioned to people I work with the other day that I'm contemplating leaving FB altogether, and  they didn't understand why. Too many people out there just don't get it. Facebook is selling and linking your information and interests for profit. I do not appreciate it.

I'm a public school teacher, but I've been using FB for years to keep in touch with old friends from HS and undergrad. I do not want my 12 year-old students to find me. I don't want their parents to see my weekend plans. I've attempted to keep things as private as possible, but every time there's a privacy update, it resets everything.

Advocacy groups are trying to force FB to keep default settings as "opt-in" instead of "opt-out" by taking this to the FTC. If you ever have questions about this stuff, check out the Electronic Frontier Foundation. They're all about transparent, fair Internet with REAL privacy. You want to really read something scary about Internet privacy (or the lack thereof), check out Cory Doctorow's book Little Brother.

The Internet ate my sorrow...
One MAJOR positive thing about the Internet is that it's given me a place to vent over the years. In grad school, during the pre-Facebook days, I had a horribly emo blog that I know no one read, but it was nice to vent. Now that's what I do here, through Twitter, and on 20sb. I've discovered a great community of people who have been more than supportive whenever I've just needed to rant.

It's also been a great way to keep myself distracted when on the verge of a breakdown or when I'm sad because the Hub is on a business trip out of the country. It keeps me from digging myself into a deep hole. It truly has helped me in so many ways!

So to the Internet demon, I say, "Thank you and damn you, for you are both a blessing and curse, but now I don't know what I'd do without you!"

My Friends Are Made of Awesome

As you may or may not know, in the US, we have somehow misappropriated the Mexican Day of Beating the French into Submission (Cinco de Mayo, not a true Mexican holiday) as a ridiculous excuse to go out to the nearest Mexican restaurant, eat lots of enchiladas, and get drunk off as many Dos Equis, Coronas, and margaritas.

Also, this year, said holiday of American debauchery (do we REALLY need an excuse to drink and eat lots of cheese?) fell on a Wednesday. Most of our friends are no longer in university. They have real jobs, like us. Those that are still in school at the local university had final exams that week. So, as it starts to be come clear, we were completely unable to celebrate said fiesta. But some friends came up with a brilliant solution. As we're not really celebrating 5/5 for it's true purpose, can't we just celebrate some other time?

This is how yet another great theme party was born. Last night, we celebrated Catorce de Mayo. And here's how:
(I apologize none of these pictures are mine. The food was too awesome and disappeared too quickly!)

{via}

I made turkey enchiladas. I've made these in a more "gourmet" way before, but since I had all of 45 minutes last night, I used canned enchilada sauce... They were still delicious.

{via}

Another food geek friend made carnitas de puerco , pico de gallo, and guacamole all from scratch. EVERYTHING was delicious. I bow to his kitchen skills. And he's like me. If he's gonna cook at someone else's house, he travels with his own chef's knife, salt, and pepper grinder. Yeah, we can be picky.

Of course, there were margaritas. I love margaritas, and one of my friends once gave me his awesome recipe. Now I use it, and share it. He's from San Antonio, TX, so he knows his Tex-Mex stuff. I will now share my recipe with you. If you're not in the US, use whatever you can find that's acceptable. This recipe takes the pre-mixed Jose Cuervo Golden Margarita mix and makes it MUCH better.
PS - Margaritas shouldn't be fluorescent green! 


Margaritas of Awesome
This is for each serving: 
2.5 ounces margarita mix (75 mL)
1.5 ounces gold/reposado tequila (45 mL)
1.0 ounce orange juice (30 mL)
0.5 ounce *good* orange liqueur such as Grand Marnier or Cointreau (15 mL)
0.5 ounce triple sec (15 mL)
1 pinch kosher salt

Stir together in a pitcher and serve over ice. I will warn you, these are strong, not for the faint of heart. If you need to cut anything down, go a bit easy on the tequila. I also recommend trying different juices, not just the orange. Lime works nicely as does my favorite, blood orange! Enjoy!

Then, we watched Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory dubbed in Spanish with English subtitles and decided to apply fake tattoos. I have kanji that does not mean what it claims to mean on the inside of my left wrist. It was a wonderful night!

To Game, or Not To Game

First and foremost, I am not much of a video-gamer. I like to blame this on my parents. They wouldn't allow us to have any game system in our house growing up, so when I went off to college, and really had access to them via friends for the first time, I felt horribly incompetent. And something to know about me is I'm such an OCD perfectionist, that if I can't succeed in something fairly immediately, I usually won't do it at all. Hence not playing video games unless they're slow-paced and require no button-mashing. Also, I prefer games I don't have to co-op. Thus my love for my Wii and turn-based RPGs.

This is beside the point, though, as this post has nothing to do with video games. It's about games played while sitting face-to-face with your awesome group of nerdy friends. Some of our old friends from high school had started getting together once a week for "Family Game Night" and invited us to join them about two years ago. There is nothing family-friendly about this gathering. We usually drink a lot and create lewd versions of board games. One of my favorites was dirty Scattergories. And we play Adult Loaded Questions too much for our own good, even inventing our own loaded questions quite frequently.

The Nicknames

I've only been on the Battlestar Galactica bandwagon for about a year and a half, but I can honestly say it's probably one of my all-time favorite shows. And one of my absolute fave characters on the show has got to be Kara "Starbuck" Thrace. She's hot, mysterious, and seriously bad-ass.  Because of my love for said character, and the fact that we share the same first name, spelled the same and everything, my geek friends started calling me "Kara Thrace." I even went so far as to be Starbuck for Halloween this past year. <-- See?

Then my poor husband started getting called Mr. Thrace. Not Anders or anything cool like that, just Mr. Thrace. That eventually turned into us getting called collectively "The Thraces." As in, where are we going to host Game Night? At the Thraces'. Who's bringing the movie? The Thraces. Now we are even stored in our friends' phones with those nicknames.

And then, my husband is also a "Toaster." This came about when we were first starting to play the BSG board game. In the game, you are either a cylon, not a cylon, or a sympathizer. The first three times we played, my husband was a cylon every time, and his covert actions cost the humans the game. I told him he was sleeping on the couch. Then on multiple occasions we have BOTH been cylons in the game, so apparently, now, to our friends, we are "Toasters," and they joke about it whenever they get the chance.

This is one of the many reasons I love my geeky friends. Do any of you have awesome nicknames given to you by friends? Any of them awesomely nerdy?

I'm Baaack (and I'm not Wil Wheaton)!

After a long time of not being a very good (note: consistent) blogger, I actually think I might have some things to say, not to mention an audience this time.

That was always my biggest problem with my blogs in the past. They were before the social media craze, and I don't think anyone truly wanted to read about my boring grad-school life. Now people actually read each other's blogs and comment and link and stuff.

For my first day of this new blog, I am excited to say that I am on Spring Break, so there will be no teacher blog, but I do have a long-time friend coming over to marathon Big Bang Theory with me. This has quickly become one of my all time favorite shows. I'm pretty sure it's because the guys on the show are scarily relatable in my circle of friends. None of them, are, however, physicists. Is a chemical engineer close enough?