“Do you know why they wouldn’t let Helen Keller drive? Because she’s a woman!”

- Tim

Alex as Katharine Hepburn:

“Shut the fuck up, Jimmy, or I’ll strap on my Oscar and screw you.”

Teeth (2007)

“She started being a sort of vigilante of the vagina.”

- Dorothy Smith

“Just pull it: it’ll come out. Kilts are magical, like unicorns.”

- Mihály

“That’s why I have more fun than most: I can let go of reality.”

- Dan Karl

“I’m just humoring myself that my opinion matters.

“You will never know the exquisite pain of the guy who goes home alone, because without the bitter, baby, the sweet ain’t as sweet.”

- Brian Shelby, Vanilla Sky (2001)

This weekend in Atlanta was absolutely amazing. I can’t believe it’s taken me this long to embrace my inner geek.

I don’t usually deal well with new situations, lots of people and/or new people, but I felt surprisingly comfortable surrounded by all the nerds of different shapes and sizes. It’s refreshing to see how many people actually feel the same passion I feel about a great many things.

The event was pretty well organized, all things considered. The entirety of four hotels was dedicated to Dragon*Con events. A handy booklet listed events, times and locations for the weekend. Despite this organization, we still felt a bit lost for a majority of the time; trying to plan panels, find rooms and work out timing issues. Alex, Kenneth and I are in agreement that this trip is best described as a learning experience: we are compiling a list of things we need to do or do differently for next time (yeah, we’re already working on “next time”).

We attended a Miss Star Trek Universe Pageant, which featured a green belly dancer and Seven of Nine (or is it Six or… whatever) dancing to “All the Single Ladies,” hosted by two Klingons. It was fun. We attended a panel called “Adult Themes in the Star Wars Universe,” which didn’t sink to new depths of perversion, it just started there. Apparently, everyone in Star Wars is fucking everyone else. We touched on issues including getting Twi’leks off by incorporating their head tales during intercourse. Ewoks apparently started the furbie movement. Artoo has MANY attachments not displayed in the movies.

The Battlestar Gallactica panel was actually really good. Edward James Olmos was very engaging and informative. Dean Stockwell was pretty funny. Richard Hatch got to be a bit of a bore, as he spent most of his time defending himself and his character. Oh yeah, I took a piss with Edward James Olmos.

And the costumes…. I knew that many people would be dressing up, since that is kinda what you do and I expected to see several genres represented, but I think what surprised most was how varied the quality of costumes was. I guess since the interwebs showcases the best outfits, I must have figured that that was the standard, but I was wrong. Some of the better ones included an 8′+ Chewbacca, several slave Leias, between 5 and 7 Indiana Jones’, a handful of Kara “Starbuck” Thraces, a shit-ton of Jedi, a Grand Admiral Thrawn, a Leeloo, a Zorg, a couple of “Up” kids, stormtroopers, predators (including a female predator), at least one alien and a variety of steampunk get-ups.

The following is a selection from this weekend’s events.

Setting out on our great adventure

Chewbacca (I’ll let Alex estimate his height).

Viet and Alex with Captain America.

Viet and slave Leia.

“Frak you, you fraking frak!”

- Dragon*Con t-shirt

“Scientists have pedicted that the future is going to be FAR more futuristic than they had originally predicted.”

- Krysta Now, Southland Tales (2006)