Immortal ConFusion: photos etc.

Posted by: Redhead on: January 20, 2013

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By Sunday morning I managed to figure out the best settings on my camera, so for every photo i post here, there were 10 that caused tears.

Good thing Doctor Who and Captain Jack were floating around, as there was a Dalek invasion:

This was partially animatronic. A guy climbed in a drove it around a bit, to the cheering squeels of little kids.

This one was full of Liquid Nitrogen. In a previous life it had been filled with cow semen. I really wish I was kidding.

Also, multiple Tardises (Tardisii? Tardisae? help please. ) You could climb inside both of these, but alas, they were pretty little inside.

I know what my Sukkah is going to look like next fall!

Tim Thurmond the balloon sculptor was there, and he made a few things. This was the bigger of the things. I think it took him about 2 hours to put it together. I’m not sure if that’s 2 hours of  blowing up balloons, 2 hours of hyperventilating, or two hours of twisting balloons, but apparently they were auctioning off the opportunity to pop it.

it stood up straighter when the door was closed

and this was the smaller of the things. The monster head’s jaw was hinged and he could move it up and down while he was wearing it.

How brilliant is that? Go to his website for more awesome.  He’s got a fire breathing dragon there. and an eagle! and Superman! and a really incredible Incredible Hulk!

on Saturday afternoon all the visiting artists took over the atrium and made stuff and painted stuff and ‘puter’d and photoshopped and drew and chatted and I wish I’d known what was happening more than 20 minutes before it ended, otherwise I’d have gotten in there earlier to talk to everyone. I was able to chat a bit with Russell Walks, who does licensed and original artwork.   You’ve seen his work on trading cards, on promotional posters, at ThinkGeek with the famous Periodic Table of Imaginary Elements. His Star Wars and Doctor Who posters are stunning. He showed me a new Doctor Who poster he just finished, and I nearly drooled all over his laptop.  I hope he doesn’t mind, I’m posting a photo of the business card he gave me. Mr. Walks is amazing artist AND a huge scifi fan, as you can see from the boarding pass theme of his business card:

Sorry for the crappy photo. 😦  my favorite Rule is “Passengers Traveling with artifically intelligent/sentient electronics must declare so prior to boarding (Bowman/Poole directive: Sec 200-1)”

and then there was this guy, who magically appeared in the atrium on Saturday.  around 8 feet tall and super creepy. I tested my camera settings on him,  but I didn’t want to get too close.

A super creepy sculpture in the atrium. the picture doesn’t do it justice. I’m afraid to sleep.

pretty fountain in the lobby of the hotel.

stuff you could borrow in the open 24 hours game room.

I mostly spent my money on gifts for people (as in: autographed books),  but i bought two things for myself. Patrick Rothfuss’s Worldbuilders fundraiser literary pin-up calendar, and a Doctor Who coffee mug.   Lee Moyer did the artwork for the calendar, and you can see a lot of it on his blog, along with some of his earlier drawings. What the artwork on his blog doesn’t show, is that the artwork covers the entire page, including the boxes of the calendar dates.  The styling for every single month is different, and it’s beautiful.  Lee and Pat don’t have a choice, they are doing this again next year, and the year after, and the year after that. because I want to buy one every year.

that’s about all I got for pictures. Most of them didn’t come out so well because after having a digital camera for like 4 years I still don’t know how to use the damn thing.

In closing, here’s a few things I learned this year:

– take the first few hours walking around and taking photos. learn needed camera settings for the different rooms, as some have natural light but most have varying degrees of bad florescent lighting. Know the settings ahead of time, so no panic or tears later.

– if you plan on taking pictures during a reading or panel, sit in the front row or an aisle seat. I kept trying to be polite and not take up front row seats, leaving those for people who may be hard of hearing, children, or anyone who direly needed those seats.  so of course a very tall, very large person sat in front of me every single time.  EVERY TIME. that picture I got of the religion in SF/F panel? 2 minutes after I took it someone came and sat right in front me.

– put a few inches of super hot water in the bathtub as soon as you get to the room. Refresh every few hours if possible. humidity at hotels is about negative thirty percent.  bring chapstick. bring cough drops. same reason.

– drink as much water as you can. if you don’t handle changes in tap water well, hit up the ConSuite, they usually have cases upon cases of bottled water.

– remember to eat real food from time to time.  protein bars don’t count as  real food. neither does coffee.  in small amounts both are nice. not in large amounts.

– you can totally party till 3am Or you can go to that really awesome 10am panel with all your favorite authors.  But you can only choose one.

– remember that authors are regular people just like you and me.  You know how sometimes you feel like being super social and chatty and other times you’d rather just take a nap cuz it’s been a really long day and you got crap for sleep last night? yeah, authors have that too.

and because I’m a total attention whore, here’s another photo of me dressed up like Holo the Wolf from Spice and Wolf:

and here’s what she is supposed to look like: