First, The DragonCon Wrap Up
I've been back home a while now and this post is long overdue, but getting caught back up from the missed school and work days was quite the rough patch. So... before leaving for DragonCon I listened to a couple of podcasts providing some advice for "surviving" the experience. Some of those ideas were swell and I thought I'd like to share them and add some thoughts of my own.
In no particular order:
1. Save some money - bring food. We drag a cooler and a tub with a tiny microwave hidden inside every year, plus another tub of assorted snacks, soup, bread, peanut butter, and so on. No one has ever called us on it or kicked us out, not even for the microwave (but your experience might vary). We bring plastic bowls and plates and ware and I am very careful to make sure these are washed and put away so as not to upset housekeeping or make the room smelly.
2. Wear good shoes. You will be doing some walking, and by some I mean lots. And Atlanta is uphill, all the way, and in both directions, or at least it seems like it sometimes. Plus, a point which will come next, it will probably rain, so you will want shoes in which you can climb wet stairs and in which you will not bust your arse on wet marble, tile, or shiny cement. Yes, that was me...
3. Yes, it WILL rain. Probably. The con is scheduled during hurricane season after all, so you can almost count on it raining at least one day, so pack an umbrella, even a small purse size one that you won't mind sticking in a backpack as you go. Also bring shoes that can handle getting a bit wet.
4. Bring a backpack or bag of some kind. You'll pick up swag, or bring a snack or bottle of water, or carry a camera, or a phone, or a notebook, or books you want signed, or the pocket program, or... whatever. Ya know, the umbrella. And you will get sick of carrying it all or trying to sit comfortably with too much crap in your pockets.
5. Consider a sweater. This one, of course, depends entirely on whether or not you are a "cold person" or a "hot person." In Atlanta in August the temperature is something close to that of the sun. Okay, I exaggerate, but it is generally in or near the 90's with much humidity. Outside, that is. Inside the hotels, restaurants, and shops, folks will tend to counteract this heat with arctic conditions. If you tend to get cold you will be miserable. If you tend to get hot you will enjoy this effect, except for when you're packed into a standing room only panel with smelly strangers and the AC suddenly doesn't seem to work so well any longer. Oops...
6. Plan. Obviously you don't want to schedule every minute of every day, but... plan some time to rest, some time to eat, and some time to shower. Please. Hungry, tired people get crabby and smelly people get... smellier.
7. Check out DragonCon TV. There was something new about DCTV this year. They started showing some of the mega panels an hour or two later, the ones that everyone wanted to go to but no one could actually get in to - like Battlestar Galactica stars, Star Gate stars, Whedonverse stars, and so on. Check the DCTV listing and see if you can just watch the panel from the comfort of your room. I mean, what's better than lounging naked while listening to Nathan Fillion talk?
So that's it for the moment. I'll have more about the stuff I did soon, and hopefully some pictures if I can get a link to the 300+ pictures our roomie took. I'll just wrap up with some links that are related to things I've talked about here:
DragonCon - They have tons of fan photo galleries posted.
DCTV - They have video of some of their commercials and bumpers and videos.
DragonPod - The podcast of DragonCon with information and advice about going to the con. Scroll down the page a bit to find "Bonus Episode #1" with Mur Lafferty's advice on surviving DCon, which inspired this post.
