DragonCon 2004! The skinny on all the goods.
Posted by: Baldy 09.08.04 12:01am
Well, DC 2004 has come and gone and I am home again. All in all, it was a good trip. I left a day early to beat out bad weather for the 5 hour drive home but things seemed to be winding down on Sunday afternoon anyways.

I got to Atlanta on Thursday and called Mike Chomyn to get situated in our room. After dropping off my stuff in Joe Y's room, we went downstairs to find the others. Oscar D., Shane T. and Karlee were already onsite and were hanging out in the registration area waiting to get passes. After we got them, we went walking around the hotel. Its a big hotel, The Hyatt Regency, and a lot of things were going on.

Hurry up, elevator! We gots places to go!!

Down in the bowels of the hotel is where most of the gaming and collectors discussions were being held. Up one floor from that is where more rooms were setup for meetings as well as some dealer tables and such. The main floor below the lobby had really large rooms where bands would play, costume shows were and the occasional meeting for large groups like Star Wars and LOTR.

Out the back of the hotel led across the street to another hotel with more stuff. They had a few floors as well and we really only checked it for the dealer rooms. They also had collector panels and art galleries there but we stayed away from those for the most part. Well, I say for the most part because James Gallo was adamant about going to the Harry Potter Jeopardy Challenge. We didn't go but I hope he did well. Also, all the game, toy, clothing, misc BS, and autographs were done over there. Needless to say, *I* had to get pics with some of my fellow Pr0n Industry babes and I will try to post those soon. Like a dummy, I packed everything I would need EXCEPT my fekkin camera. Mike C. was generous enough to lend me his for our excursions and we hit paydirt on many levels. Thursday was horrid for lines. The line for registration was crazy and extended way out the hotel and onto the street and I just knew I would be in it for hours. But we all had a savior! Joe was kind enough to get us cuts in line by just being himself. It seems that as long as you look like you know what you are doing, no one questions you much. I called Mike and Joe met me upstairs to bring me to the rest of the gang. We waltzed right by security and other people and didn't look back. I was done with getting my badge in less than 15 minutes! It was great! Too bad the others weren't as lucky. The darned computers were acting up just as poor Oscar was trying for his badge and we waited like 20 minutes for them to get back up and running. When he did get it, we all started cheering and people were looking at us like we were nuts. Little do they know.........

The crew waltzed right past security

After we got settled, we ventured out to get shots of the costumes and so on. Most costumes were nice and we had the occasional hot chick come by, but last year was much better for the more risque outfits. I didn't see any body painted half naked women this year and that just sucks. But we made up for it with a little competition that Mike and I devised. We decided to see who could get a picture with the ugliest chick there starting Friday night. And I won't say who won until I can post pics but lets just say that it was a BAD idea to do this. VEEEEERRRRRRY bad idea. I am still having nightmares and problems keeping food down.

As a side note, I had a running issue with our beloved Oscar of Oscars cases. It seems he wanted a bit more for shipping and handling of a few cases I wanted from him than I had expected. He claimed that since he flew First Class then he had to be paid more for his trouble. As the weekend went along, his shipping got more and more silly and his excuses as to why were even better. First he says it was just him in 1st Class, then it was the cases too. Then the cases had thier own seat. Then they had pillows for support and a seatbelt. And on and on. By the time Sunday came along, he was up to $50 or $60 for shipping! And to make it worse, he kept adding at the end of every statement, "But I still love you." and a sly smile. Folks, NEVER ask this man for direct shipping! It's a crock! Just let him mail it and save yourselves the craziness. Nice cases tho......

Oscar recovers after his shipping nightmare

That evening we went out for food at a local diner and it was pretty good. We would frequent that spot all weekend as they had good food and a veggie-compliant menu as well. And just ask Jeff C. about thier desserts. Damn those slices of pie and cake were HUGE! Later on was the usual costume-fest and then bed. Not a huge crowd for costumes just yet and we knew that Friday and Saturday were better for those anyways.

That's all for now and I will update again next week with more on DragonCon 2004.

Baldy