Ohhh Myyyy

Defiance
Q&A with stars of one of Syfy’s newest shows! G. Bowler, J. Murray, S. Leonidas; Fri 10:00 am; P’tree Ballroom [W]
Defiance is new this year. For a new twist the series is linked to an online MMO that Kevin plays. So this is where the three of us decided to start. It's amazing how a new series can already have such a fan following. There were many people dressed as characters from the show which the stars appreciated and asked for photo ops after the panel. One girl spoke of an outfit to wear in the hot tubs at night that was so *beep* she made the stars blush while talking about it. There weren't any kids in the audience were there?

So now we're off to try and get in line for George Takei. If twitter is any indication he's a bigger draw than Shatner at Con this year. Damned if, among the thousands of revelers, we don't run into the owner of The Highlander and his wife on their way in the opposite direction.  Entropy never ceases to amaze me.

He Says, She Says

So you know what we're saying but what do the Guest Stars of Dragon Con say?

As we get closer to Dragon Con the #dragoncon twitter search starts to go nova so I have to shut it off. I just realized it might be nice to replace it with a list of the some of the biggest guests twitter feeds.  As soon as one feed is too unruly the Guests start to tweet Dragon Con. I think it works out. I'm guessing by sometime Wednesday I'll flip the feed on the website.

My list currently includes:

• Doctor Who- Noel Clarke
• Doctor Who - Peter Davison
• Doctor Who/Torchwood - John Barrowman
• Torchwood Burn Gorman
• Torchwood Gareth David Lloyd
• Torchwood Eve Myles
• Torchwood/Buffy/Angel James Marsters
• Buffy - Nicholas Brendon
• Buffy/Angel Eliza Dushku
• Angel - Amy Acker
• Star Trek Marina Sirtis
• Star Trek Brent Spiner
• Star Trek George Takei*
• Star Trek John de Lancie
• Star Trek Michael Dorn
• Star Trek William Shatner*
• SG-1 - Richard Dean Anderson
• SG1 Christopher Judge
• Defiance - Grant Bowler
• Highlander/GoT - James Cosmo
• Highlander Adrian Paul
• Farscape Anthony Simcoe
• Farscape Gigi Edgley
• The Incredible Hulk Lou Ferrigno
• BSG Richard Hatch
• Xena Lucy Lawless
• Warehouse 13 Eddie McClintock*
• Grimm Silas Weir Mitchell
• X-Files/Supernatural Mitch Pileggi
• Author Jim Butcher
• OUaT Raphael Sbarge*

* Some of our more favorite tweeters.

It's All In the Preparation

Keven arrives today. He sent ahead a list of recipes that we should be able to make and either take with us to the convention or have waiting for us when we get home at night. Of course more importantly he sent ahead a box of alcohol. Anything from our local grocery store I bought before he arrived but I waited until he got here to take him to the piece de resistance....our new found German butcher Patak's.

After dropping off luggage we got PRESENTS!!! We got a game and his/her aprons for the kitchen and a cookbook and a fun garlic mincer on wheels....but the coolest was the chainmail stuff. I got a necklace in bronze that I double wrap and also use as a bracelet and John got this cool tie.

Next, Kevin and I headed out to finish out the shopping before Con. As we step into Patak's a golden light enfolded the room and angels started to sing. Nothing like taking a person who holds Meatacide each year into a German butcher shop. I'm tell'n ya, kid in candy store. I swear he tried to buy at least one of everything. I think he forgot that Milrath and "The Boy" were not joining us. Pounds of bacon, mega pounds of sausages fresh and smoked. It appears food will not be an issue this year. I'm also figuring that, when he's not looking, I'm packing half of it into the freezer.

So home again home again jiggity jig...time to cook. We fry up all the bacon for ease of use in breakfasts to come. We make macaroni salad, pasta salad and potato salad. And, for a finally, Kevin grilled up a storm of Brats and pork chops.

Mmmm Foooood

Snacks bought, alcohol bought, mixers bought, refrigerator full, arteries preparing to clog....bring on DragonCon.

What to Bring, What to Bring...

So are you looking for something unique to bring to Dragon Con? Have I got some suggestions for you.

Are you one of those people who has enough T-shirts so that you don't have to do laundry for a month? Do you want to combine your love of football with your love of Doctor Who? Maybe you're just a fan of anything Will Wheaton does. Then do I have the shirt for you

*For those of you who don't know, this is modeled after the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. And if that still doesn't help I'm envious of you.

Maybe you're looking for something a little more feminine (Be you guy or girl. Hey I don't judge.). Are you looking for something to combine your love of fashion with your love of a good buzz? Enter the wine purse.

*Brought to you by Darchild. Again, I don't judge.

And finally, maybe you're more of a Rave type person. You want to combine your love of Dragon Con with your love of glow in the dark objects and lollipops (those of you who rave YOU know what I mean). Then I have the perfect thing for you: a Light Saber lollipop that, when you push a button, glows in the dark.

 *I actually have this one courtesy of Mistress Niki. It's not that I'm saying she's into phallic symbols. Make whatever inferences you will.

Where is Dawn Now? Year 3

Just to catch everyone up....last year I was breaking orbit from Vesta on my way to Ceres. I must be slacking cause I'M STILL NOT THERE YET. Of course looking at the image you would think I could just skip over to Ceres right now since I seem to be so close. But you know, space being all weird and all, looks like I have to take the long way round. They are telling me I'll make it by 2015. OMG I don't know if I can wait that long. It's the journey and not the destination right? RIGHT?

Dawn Mission Status

As an FYI you can follow progress through twitter: @NASA_Dawn

The Eleven Doctors and His Companions

There is a contest for Dragon Con called Fandom Music Video Awards. Every year fans string together their favorite movies/shows to music or what have you. Some are good and some are bad, about what you would expect. If you're interested you can peruse to your hearts content.

This one I liked enough to share. Partly because it's the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who, partly because I like the song and partly because I'm all about showing off the girl power in Doctor Who which tends to get overlooked. Other similar tributes on YouTube are waaay sappy or mostly focus on the current Doctors (or worse yet just focus on Rose). I think this one found a good balance between all the Doctors and his companions.

-Enjoy

Preliminarily Scheduled

So the first official schedules are out. And so begins the dilemma of..."So much time, so little to see. Oh wait reverse that."
2013 Dragon Con Pocket Guide

With the addition of the AmericasMart building everything has kinda shuffled around (including the parade route).  Vendors have moved from two floors in the Marriott to take up two floors in AmericasMart. One of those freed areas is now being taken up by the Walk of Fame which was in the Hilton. So basically where you spent most of Con Darkchild has now changed. I guess we'll have to scope you out new spot for next time. The Puppetry track moved to a different floor other side of the same hotel. The Space track moved up a floor to no man's land but hopefully it's a bigger space (ha ha, get it? Space?). I have a feeling this will be a bit chaotic for us.

Also, several tracks have merged but have made way for new tracks. I never understood how there was an entire track just for Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time so no big loss there.

Here are some of some highlights of shows/actors that will be represent'n.

Richard Dean Anderson, John Barrowman, George Takei, William Shatner

BSG (Battle Star Galactica)
    Tom Zarek,Anastasia "Dee" Dualla, Admiral Adama, Karl "Helo" Agathon
Arrow
    Oliver Queen, Malcom Merlyn, Slade Wilson, "The Count", China White, Detective McKenna Hall
Farscape 
    Chiana, Dargo, Stark
Defiance
    Joshua Nolan, Irisa, Stahma Tarr
Torchwood
    Captain Jack, Gwen, Owen, Ianto
True Blood
    Pam, Holly, Ginger, Luna, Hoyt, Tara
SG-1
    Jack O'Neal, Teal'c, Dr. Janet Fraiser
Star Trek
    James T. Kirk, Sulu, "Q", Lt. Worf, Deana Troi, Data, Ensign Harry Kim, Benjamin Sisko, Jadzia Dax, Jake Sisko
Grimm
    Adalind Schade, Hank Griffin, Monroe
Warehouse 13
    Peter Lattimer, Helena G. Wells, Mrs. Irene Frederic, Leena

These aren't necessarily all panels I see and doesn't mean that's it for all the big shows or stars in attendance it's just the ones I decided to list. No Babylon 5 or Firefly for the first time in forever.

This is the 50th anniversary of Dr. Who so there will be a room dedicated throughout Con to playing episodes from every season. And as always, there are several Dr. Who's in attendance for panels.
50th Anniversary of Dr. Who Marathon

And how's this for esoteric? There is even a panel with Lee Majors and Lindsay Wagner. Yep you read that right, the Bionic Man and the Bionic Woman.

Welcome 2013

Dragon Con August 30 - September 2

So I'm realizing how I'm stuttering my start this year. I don't have any excuses...it's just hot and really humid and it's hard to get excited about traipsing about outside with 60k of my closest friends. Of course I'm not wearing a costume so I don't really have much to gripe about but gripe and complain I will.

Some of you might notice that the Dragon Con name has changed. The short of it is: they formed a new corporation to get rid of a stock holder. So I'm trying to get the name changed everywhere. If I've missed a spot don't panic I'll get to eventually. There are some people who are just so touchy about these things.

Twitter managed to obsolete my feeds so that was a fun day of figuring out what they did. I think it's all working again. They removed most of the configurable parameters...you know....they made it better (HA). Google+ finally rolled out their new changes. Well kinda. I almost scrapped the page since most of you don't see it anyway but I was able to at least block all the spammers again so I decided I'd keep it for the time being.

This year is also a little different in that it doesn't look like we'll be near missing another hurricane like the last two years. I was beginning to think the gods were angry at Dragon Con for a while.

That aside, as I mentioned before, we lost two guests this year (Darkchild and The Boy) but Kevin has assured me he can more than make up for it. Master James has opted to go cross country and teach banjo to a bunch of yahoos (is that politically correct?) but Mistress Niki will be joining us on Saturday.  As it currently stands here is the cast for this year:

Mistress Dawn
   The ever lovely, eloquent, and charming Lady of the House.
Master Johnathan
   Man of miscellaneous knowledge and Lord of the House.
Kevin 
   Still waiting for a cool tagline.

All Hail the Dragon Con Cast of 2013