[June 14, 2012, DCA Airport, Washington DC – USA]
So just last week I was lamenting to the bartender at my “home” hotel at the Miami (Florida) Airport Marriott that I haven’t bumped into a celebrity lately there.
Well, so I am at the DCA American Airlines Admiral’s Club and guess who drops in? Cliff Clavin (John Ratzenberger) from Cheers! Is that cool or what, as in “Cool beans!”
[May 25-28, 2012 – Santa Clara, CA – USA]
Hanging out at BayCon and cranking up those airline miles. I like long weekend four day cons because I can stay up late on Saturday (since normally flights are reeeeal early going west to east).
Sunday is a nice relax-a-day. Oddly, there were more party rooms Sunday night than there were on Saturday; but the costumed people on Sunday dropped to almost nil after 5:00pm.
The highlight of course is the Klingon room party – they threw it on Friday and Saturday night and that’s always fun. I am being deficient in pictures again, but here are a few:
[May 18-20, 2012 – Piscataway ,NJ – USA]
Another year, another visit to the Steampunk Worlds Fair. Met my old friends there from the first Steampunk Worlds Fair. Was totally cool. The best part of the Fair is that there are a massive number of merchants there so you can get every conceivable (Inconceivable!!!) outfit or accessories thereof. The entertainment is also top notch. The con spanned two hotels and there both were crawling with a ton of people dressed to the max so it was very entertaining.
With all cons, there are pros and cons but the “cons” of the con really stood out this time. Just don’t buy extra tickets for anything other than music venues. They are very lacking. For example, the Absinthe Tasting only had two absinthe and two mead! Mead? Really? Now, I would not have minded as much if they went through the whole ritual of the melting the sugarcube, etc. Nope. Just filler entertainment trying to pad out 4 drinks in 15 minutes to a drag out of 2 hours. And this pushy “entertainer” (I use that term loosely and he shall remain nameless) kept on interrupting with his less than funny antics. He did that last year too. Very annoying. I don’t know why they let usurpers ruin planned events like that. Anyway… For the finale, Voltaire took the stage and he was quite entertaining, except (since this was a surprise guest) a lot of people felt extremely uncomfortable with his R and X rated lyrics.
So again, third year in running, I completely dis-recommend any dinner tickets, any high teas, any tastings and any event (other than music) that costs extra. I rate them a complete waste of money and precious “con time”. Enough on that – I need to emphasize everything else was just great. People were dressed to the nines and everyone was having fun. Here are a few pics. I know I should take more…
[February 23-26, 2012 – Atlanta, GA – USA]
Ok, finally a con with a ton of pictures. My second time at AnachroCon, a Steampunk convention. The first time I was there they already outgrew that hotel. I hate to say it but they were bursting at the seams at this hotel. The con suite was removed from the activities, but was on the same floors as the party rooms that wasn’t too bad. The party rooms were great, in fact. I think this is the first Steam event I went to where there were half a dozen party rooms per night, so that was awesome! However, the dealers room was incredibly way too small. I’d say one of the features of a great Steampunk con is a great Steampunk dealers room – because people always want to upgrade what they have or start buying bits and pieces for the next costume. (A BIG dealers room is essential.) Nonetheless, it was great! And I seem to meet more people at Steam-cons than at any other con. Met “Biscuit” and her hubbby “Limey” (he’s from the UK, yes, he used it on himself so it’s not being rude or anything) this time. And a bunch more people. I do highly recommend AnachroCon, go next year! Here are the pics:
[February 20, 2012, LAX Airport, Los Angeles, CA – USA]
I was at a Mensa RG (Regional Gathering) in LA. No pictures there. But at the airport, I finally was at the right date and the right time to see the Qantas A380 cruise into the gate. I took a picture and was starting out the window from the AA Admiral’s Club and saw a Boeing 757 taxi by. I thought, cool, so I took another set of pictures. Then, a bus drove by. Talk about luck. SO now you can visually see how big the Airbus A380 really is… (Too bad I didn’t get a head on picture, the wingspan is ginormous.)
