Work drama. Lots and lots of work drama. Will not discuss it here.

OK, here's Friday... I'll do this a bit at a time as the drama allows. :-p

Can't talk about Friday without mentioning Thursday evening. Remember my post about how scatter-brained I was? That continued... I got home, packed, and got an hour into the hour and a half drive to Janice's house when I realized that I had left my Dragon*Con pre-registration postcard, schedule, and Jedi cloak at home. I turn around while leaving a message on Janice's cell phone that included the f-word at least 5 times. She calls back laughing (which I completely deserved) and says we can meet in Augusta in the morning.

So, in the morning, I dress up as a Jedi, and leave the house around quarter to 7am. Zoom down the interstate, being passed by a former co-worker and his current co-worker wife, also heading to Dragon*Con. Wait for Janice in one of Augusta's Park and Ride facilities, which was completely trashed. She gets there about 30 minutes late, we eat at IHOP, and down the road we go.

Downtown Atlanta is... *sigh* It's very pretty. It's very hard to navigate. It's full of people who sleep out in the parks and openly rummage through the trash, but you never really feel threatened. We found our hotel, a block from the main convention sight, but the parking garage for it was already full, so my car spent the weekend on the curb right outside the lobby. After a room snafu (they tried to give us a room with only one bed), we got unloaded and ready to go. The problem with Jedi is that they have no pockets, so the intubating catheter was tucked into my undies, while my room key, ID, and money got stuffed into my bra (I'm small, there's plenty of room).

We almost couldn't find the Hilton, managing to go in the wrong direction a couple of times. But we found the food court of a mall-like place, which is always good to know. Finally, we get to registration and get registered. I see my former co-worker and current co-worker again, who have to ask what I'm dressed as. Um, did the cloak and the big fake lightsaber handle not give a clue? Anyways, Janice and I compare notes and part ways.

Noon - Gundum SEED episodes 1 - 3
It took me forever to find the room (though I must have passed the room twice), and by the time I got there they were showing episode 3. I understood nothing of what was going on or why things were happening, so I didn't stay long. I have one of the many iterations of this anime in my NetFlix queue, so I'll catch it then.

1pm - TOR 40th Anniversary of Dune party
Met Louis (Hi Louis!) before going in, and hung out with him for this. We got food and drinks and free stuff (I got a copy of The Battle of Corrin)afterwards. Kevin J. Anderson gave a good speech about Frank Herbert and Dune and stuff he and Brian are planning for the future. Unfortunately, I have not been at all impressed with any of the book they've written, which does not bode well for them wrapping up the original series as they plan to.

Went back to the hotel for Advil and coffee.

5:30pm - Gaming and Free Expression (EFF discussion)
Man, this ended up as teh suck. One of the panelists runs what she calls a "mature" RPG thing and kept going on and on and on about how the Patriot Act was going to get places like hers shut down because of anything that could even remotely be construed as terrorism. Two other panelist, one who had actually READ the Act, said that it did not cover imaginary things, but she kept insisting. I left after the third iteration of their argument.

7pm - Wrestling! Four of my old Wildside buddies (Sim J, Azrael, Murder 1, and Rainman will be there)
Oh boy, did this suck. I know I was spoiled by Wildside, but really, you do not have to have every single match go to the 20 or 30 minute time limit. I saw my old pal David Young, who looked incredible, but I couldn't last until the end when he wrestled. At 8:30 they had only were just starting the 4th match, so I left.

More later!