In the Beginning There Was Chaos

There were two things I wanted to make sure I caught at Dragon*Con: William Shatner and Carrie Fisher. Just so happens that William Shatner was giving an opening address at the start of DC. All I needed to do was get there about an hour early and I figured I'd be fine. HA

My first issue was getting everyone's schedules into Google calendar for the day and then printed out. First issue was the printer was uncooperative. The second issue is Google calendar sucks when printing out schedules. Once you have more than about 5 items for the day it doesn't print what it shows you, it prints what it wants and sometimes actually leaves stuff off. Unfortunately 7:30-8 in the morning was not the time to solve this problem. Now frustrated and running late I was having trouble packing my backpack for what I needed during the day which caused yet further delays.

When we finally arrived and split for the morning, I was indeed late for the opening address. *Sigh* Well that's why you make out your schedule with multiple options. I decided to grab some caffeine from the backpack and move to another event. Next drama, in my haste I didn't pack any of my caffeine options. Not such a stellar start to the convention for me.

Extras Casting Atlanta
Learn what it takes to be a zombie- Currently casting The Walking Dead .
Hey it's in the same hotel so why not? For those who didn't know, The Walking Dead is filmed in Atlanta. There is also a rather large studio just south of the city which always has something in production. This is a real casting company that gave advice about being an extra, had you fill out a contact sheet and take your picture to keep on file. So I did. You never know...***Braaaaiiins****

There’s More to Saturn Than Its Rings
This is held in the room run by JPL scientists and I mean the actual scientists that are currently working on these projects. Master Johnathan and I spend quite a lot of time in this room. It is the goto room when Con is just stressing us out.  It's always good to get there early, as Kevin found out. When he arrived he said it was so full people were spilling out of the door so he couldn't get in. This lecture was specifically about what Cassini has sent back recently about Saturn's moons. I am calm now....my Con is now back on track.

BSG - Children of Humanity
Guests: Richard Hatch, Aaron Douglas, Tahmoh Penikett, Edward James Olmos, Michael Hogan, Mary McDonnell, Kevin Robert Grazier, Tricia Helfer
This was quite a panel for Battlestar. Olmos babbled for waaaay to much of it about things not really related to Battlestar. I find him annoying as a person. He doesn't get Con. On the flip side he's the only person I've seen that could actually out talk and talk over Richard Hatch. The rest of the cast was very funny when they were allowed to get a word in edgewise. If Olmos isn't in attendance I would definitely recommend this panel.

How to Avoid ‘Spouse Aggro’
I felt that this deserved its own posting.

For some reason again this year, Master Johnathan and I showed up to another Jedi Exhibition. I don't know why we do this. We both had it on our schedules. Last year the one we stopped into was like watching the children at your friend's house play around with toys so we used that as an opportunity to leave and get lunch. This year we decided to go because it looked like it was a professional group.  I was thinking it was perhaps some people with weapons training demonstrating how potential battles would be fought with light sabers. It ended up being only slightly better than the event we saw last year. Events at DragonCon can be hit or miss. This one was "A swing and a miss!" So we sight saw for a while then proceeded to get in line early for Sanctuary. Oh and for future reference when I say "sight see" I mean went and got a Vodka and Red Bull and people watched.
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Sanctuary - League of Extraordinary Individuals
Guests:Amanda Tapping, Christopher Heyerdahl, Robin Dunne
I must admit that I was not a fan of Amanda till Sanctuary. I found her character on Stargate very wooden and unfeminine. Master Johnathan had to talk long and hard to get me to even watch Sanctuary. I'm glad I did. When I watched the show I would have never recognized her had he not told me. All the actors were very good on the panel if not also a little PG-13. It got off to a slightly rocky start when the first question asked was if Robin's parents were disappointed that he had lost out on some acting award in Canada for the second year in a row. What's up with some people? He handled it well and the show went on with quite a few jokes, references and jibes to the fact that Amanda is the boss and executive producer. Can't say anything bad about the boss....she writes the checks you know.