home from d&d; happyquiet has descended upon netherwood, all boys in our rooms playing decker and hacker and gamer. through the trees i can see a lantern burning; there is moss outside, dripping leaves, sweet mildew, wet cats. wind, but i cannot feel or hear it. geniusbutterfly out on the shore, having shared pre-memories of reunion with self. this morning and lasteve, porchsat and watched the rain, mabelmabelmabel until finally she emerged from beneathe me, aloof and bitchy. during: listened to prisoners on radio perform hamlet. before: charlottesville, williamsburg and the eternal vpn. now i’m hungry, so i’ll eat. blessed be the allowance of stimulus-response.

day two

arose early and drove into town, seeking the one world cafe. delicious success; vegan breakfast, lunch, dinner and dessert – plus free wifi woot! i returned to don my jedi outfit, and descended back into the con. i listened to a series of guests from stargate, buffy and deep space 9 speak – while this was enjoyable, i was once again reminded that this year seemed a bit lacking. there was no ‘big’ star to make the smaller ones shine brighter.

i also attended a presentation of unreleased and otherwise ‘lost’ from the original star wars trilogy. it’s so interesting to me that fans continue to have an obsessive fascination with such material, with the fervor of archeologists uncovering tantalizing scraps of the heretofore unknown literature of some great culture.

afterward, neal and i grabbed some sandwiches and got in line for seats to the masquerade (costume contest), which was also so-so this year. some notable exceptions: the leia slavegirl and the stargate snakehead.

angie didn’t wear her oldschool star trek outfit this year, but instead opted for a delightful little outfit involving a wig and corset, which is never a bad idea in my book.

neal has turned in for the night. i’m hanging out with JLS and angie outside of ‘ten-forward’, the convention dance, which was cool for about 20 minutes, going from techno-ish to longneck hip-hop to poop (think 96.5 classic rock rotation); danced during the first part, people watched during the second, left during the third. somewhere in there the ‘imperial macarana’ was played, but i do not wish to discuss the details of this frightful anomoly.

the party has now entered a fourth phase comprised of late eighties rap/rock, which my friends have returned to as i continue to blog, having more patience than me for this musical foolishness. good god; now they’re playing ricky martin, and a conga line is streaming by.

not many pics this time around; i didn’t want to borrow jimi’s camera again so soon after origins, and neal was fairly conservative with his camera. i threw out the idea earlier to the gang that perhaps we should try going to a bigger con next year – one with more stars, a bigger dealer room, etc. i hate to dis my favorite trek convention, but unless next year’s billing perks up, it will be tempting to look elsewhere.

it’s 1:30 in the morning. JLS and angie are off to make love, ‘paradise by the dashboard light’ is thumping over the sound system, and here i sit tapping away on my laptop as the goth-geek wildlife lope by. time for bed.

day one

thus begins my chronicle of shore leave 26, star trek convention and second home to my geek-lovin’ heart. silentwalker and i have been coming to this baltimore con together for several years; JLS and angie joined us a couple of years ago.

i’m in the lobby of the hotel waiting for them, here on the first evening. on the way up, we encountered a police funeral; traffic was backed up for about 5 miles. ironic that the processions for our honored dead could very well cause traffic fatalities – thankfully, we were inconvenienced at worst, and lost about an hour. silentwalker proved his navigational skills by getting us to the con by the route less taken.

checked into the hotel, picked up our badges, and searched (successfully) for dinner. returned to the con, wandered the dealer rooms. no exaggeration – every year, the slash fiction tables increase in number (google it if the term is unfamiliar).

talked to a bootleg DVD vendor who i’d met at origins, who said he’d actually been kicked out; apparently the powers-that-be felt his offerings were offensive and should not be there. this, as customers are frantically buying as many DVDs from him as they can while the security guards are waiting to escort him and his wares out of the con. hopefully he’ll do better at shore leave – though admittedly, i can download pretty much anything he has.

from there, we attended a couple of science panels concerning the latest information from the Mars missions, and a nice presentation on the wonders of amateur astronomy.

i made a failed attempt at hacking the hotel’s pay-to-play wifi point; unfortunately chronos, my usual operator with the uber kung-foo, was out for the evening; i’ll check in with him tomorrow for ideas. meanwhile, an accapella group called ‘luna-c’ sang a great many old songs to great effect in the ballroom nearby.

i briefly joined the aforementioned amateur astronomists on the tennis courts for some stargazing, but the leader had forgotten a key element of her telescope, so we had to make do with binoculars and enthusiasm. i shared my stories of the big nightsky in the grand tetons, and we discussed comets the size of cities that occasionally sail by our tiny planet.

back to the subjective present: angie and JLS arrived at around 10:30, and were soon joined by silentwalker. we took a seat in the bar, as is our usual; however, we were disappointed to note that the mos eisley feel of the past parade of stormtroopers and klingons was not in effect this year. instead, we had the more typical barflies and bad 80s music. still, we had a good time with our own company, comprised of cigars, people watching and heated discussion of an upcoming road to glory / hand of shiva crossover.

after retiring to our rooms, neal and i walked out onto our tiny balcony, and observed with bemusement that the pirate party was once again right below us. this year’s theme: ‘space pirates’. tomorrow night’s theme: ‘togas and bikinis’. who says trekkies are boring? truth be told, such parties are mostly comprised of larpers, buffy/angel fans and generic gothkids. at this hour, trekkies in general tend to be asleep by now, or haunt the video rooms.

to bed with this trekkie.

Richmond Anti-War March

uplifting, surreal, raucous, hopeful. joriel, jason and i marched with hundreds of others through the streets of our city, chanting and clapping and generally making activists of ourselves.

it was empowering; just a year ago, i wouldn’t have believed you could get this many people together for a protest march against the policies of the bush administration in this conservative burg of ours. still, there were so many cops! but no incidents. there were a few counter-protestors, but they were generally smiling and well-behaved.

as we made the home stretch back to monroe park by way of broad street, we picked up a lot of people, and received many cheers from drivers-by.

from here, we’ve got the DNC and the RNC. for the latter, we’ll be heading to new york to join the protests going on that weekend, and staying with one of my best friends.