Still Alive...

So glad to hear it!

Do you have any convention plans this year? (I probably already asked this before, but I have mentalpause, so...)

I'm committing total conwhoredom this year (AT3, ShoreLeave, ComicCon, Gatecon and the Farscape Con - BB & CB will be there)

I've cut back my con activity to just one a year, the NJ/NYC con. I have an insanely great seat (front row, center) and it's in an area of the country where I have a ton of good friends I like to visit. And the museums are stellar. As are the cemeteries. :)

I've been tempted to try others (Shore Leave, Dragon Con) but so long as Creation continues to get reasonably good guests and if this year's hotel isn't utterly unpalatable, then I'll keep going to the NYC NYC-area Cherry Hill con.

I'd love to go to a con with BB & CB. I am seriously crossing my fingers for them this year. :) And Teryl. And Amanda.

Well, Ben is going to the Creation Stargate Chicago con. Teryl does them fairly often, but I haven't seen her listed on any of them yet. It appears Alexis Cruz and Kavan Smith are doing a couple each. I haven't met Major Lorne. (And I'm sad Adam Baldwin pulled out of ShoreLeave, but we do get Jewel Staite instead...which pleases me.) I see Rachel Luttrell's scheduled for Cherry Hill. I haven't seen her in person (not counting ComicCon where you rarely get to see them face-to-face) since she subbed for Amanda in NJ 2004.

Alas, I fear Creation Cons are not in Amanda's future. She looked so unhappy when she left the 2004 Chicago con. (I saw her leave the autograph area, but someone else I know had an even more inside look and said the same thing without my offering my opinion.) (She *might* have gone to the Vancouver ones? Not sure.) I could be wrong, though, and she could totally surprise me - in order to promote SG:Continuum and/or Sanctuary. Edith and I had hoped she would do ShoreLeave again this year, but we get David & Kate Hewlett, which is cool. I've only seen him at ComicCon and haven't seen her at all (she was announced for NJ after I had already bought the tickets for BB at Farscape '06).

A lot of the same folks who attend NJ attend ShoreLeave (Helena, Tricia, Jo, Janet and Tyler Fox) - well, at least they *have* in the past. Whether it was only because Amanda and Carmen were there, I don't know. And ShoreLeave is so much less expensive than Creation, you get two autogs (one Sat/one Sun) from the 3 main guests, and the non-main guests are available for autogs (tho' you have to pay extra for them) so much more time - where you actually can stand there and *talk* with them without a nazi timing you. One disadvantage is multiple (concurrent) panels (not for the main guests, but two non-main ones might have their panels at the same time). But each guest speaks TWICE also. One disadvantage is no reserved seating; another is no online registration, so people on the east coast have an advantage over west coast peeps for getting the lowest numbers unless you pay to overnight the form. (Not sure they even allow that!)

Oh, and another thing about BB & DB - autogs NOT included in the gold pass or preferred...and $70 each (+ $70 each for photo ops).

I've kind of given up hope of seeing Teryl or Amanda at Creation because I've heard before that neither of them likes doing their cons. I maintain hope but I'm aware that it's a pipe dream. I got to see Kate Hewlett last year and she was a real treat. You'll like her. :)

It's the lack of assigned seats that keeps me from seriously considering trading in the Creation con experience for one organized by almost anyone else. I'm not young enough to stay up all night and sit in the hall to assure myself a good seat. I'm short and if I'm not near the front, I simply don't get to see anything. I really, really like having my own damned seat, being able to go to the bathroom without giving up my place, and only attending the parts of the con that interest me. I like being able to go to my room and download photos during the parts of the con that aren't my cup of tea.

So far, NJ has only Kavan Smith (woot! I haven't seen him before!) and Jason Momoa (would be the 2nd time I've seen him) signed up, but who knows which guests will show or not. God knows when they finally look at the hotel where it's being held, they may cancel in fright. *shakes head*

I certainly hope those Gold Tickets aren't priced as stratospherically as the Stargate ones are if they don't include autographs from the two main actors -- and $70 for an autograph is WAY steep. I would certainly hope the autograph nazis are kept in check if folks are paying those kinds of bucks for an autograph! Shit, I'd take the photo op instead.

I bought general admission ticket and then the photo ops and autographs. That way, I get to see them up close and personal. For being in the last row (okay, 2nd or 3rd from), I got pretty decent photos. By that, I don't mean FAB, like the first few rows, but "okay":

http://pics.livejournal.com/majorsamfan/gallery/00024b0b

I wasn't quick enough to get him when he came running to the back once. And his leather jacket was soft as butter....yummm.

I emailed Creation and asked whether there was any possibility of getting a dual photo op with both BB & CB; haven't heard back yet. It would probably cost a FORTUNE.

David & Kate are doing dual ops at ShoreLeave for about $10-20 less than another photo op with each of them added together. I wrote and asked if there was a possibility of a David/Jewel dual op, and Kett said they're working on it.

The reserved seat IS awesome at Creation; it's just too expensive. And if I go preferred, opting out of the party & brunch, I'm 15 rows back, making that not quite as "worth it" either.

At ComicCon I always just make friends with people either in line or as we sit, and if I have to pee they hold my seat. But usually, there are 2-3 panels in a row in the big room I want to see.

Those seats ARE expensive. They're only worth it if you've got a great seat but otherwise, I think they're a bum deal. I really hated Gatecon's method, which was to kick everyone out half way through the day. If you wanted a good afternoon seat on the day Michael, Christopher, and Amanda were there, you HAD to skip the entire morning's schedule and sit in line instead. I'm old, I'm employed, I'm a curmudgeon. I want my damned seat. :|

It costs the usually $369 - which does NOT include 3 out of the 7 guests' autographs (BB, CB and David Franklin) nor the brunch, neither BB or CB comes to the special gold cocktail party function but for $90 you can buy a ticket to the brunch with BB (& other guests) and for another $90 you can get a separate cocktail party with CB from the one that's included. The cabaret ticket is included but no brunch AT ALL.

From their site: "Complimentary, non-rushed, in-person autographs with great guests..." Yeah, right. Ask Aaron Douglas about how one of the CEOs stood outside screaming on the phone that Aaron was actually TALKING to people - in full hearing of fans waiting in line for his autograph. Aaron said at ShoreLeave he'd never do Creation again and would tell anyone who'd listen not to do them either; however, he did one in the past year. His boss probably told him he *had* to do it or something.

Oh that is a crappy deal. I guess Farscape fans can afford those incredibly overpriced DVDs and so they can afford tickets like that. That's...unreal.

I heard about the Aaron Douglas incident. I'm always amazed that when I think Creation can't possibly find employees who are worse, they do. Last year's NJ con was *fabulous* because all of the uptight jerks were elsewhere working other cons. Quite an amazing difference.

They were in Burbank...with me.

(Sigh) but now Brian's gone ......... WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

Um...it would be awesome if you got them at NJ at some point, but as long as the Farscape con is scheduled for the same weekend, not sure how that would come about. As long as the Farscape cons go on, I can't see either of them choosing a Stargate con over their Farscape fans. And they're both committed to the Farscape con this year.

Can you believe Creation charges $569 for their Vancouver gold pass? It is four days and does include a set tour, though, with a photo of you on set (location to be determined).

I didn't realize the Farscape con was on the same weekend as NJ. I agree; there's no way they'd choose Stargate in NJ over a Farscape con in California. *sigh* I hope they manage to come up with a guest who will be a wonderful surprise. Steve Bacic would be AWESOME.

Creation is totally about squeezing every last dime out of their attendees and then spitting on them. I really wish there was something between Creation and the old Gatecon chaos.

Just got word back from Gary at Creation that they won't be doing duo photo ops with Ben and Claud at the Farscape thing because they're appearing on different days, and "it just couldn't be worked out". I had seen a video of them on stage together at one Farscape con...and it was hilarious.

*sigh*

:( Bummer.

try dragon con :) you have so much fun people watching!

What is seating like?

it's a mess... and they clear out the rooms between sessions, so you can't come in early and stay there all day... but the sheer diversity of guests is a big plus, AND the people watching... unfortunately, the massive autograph room is in the bowels of hell so if can be very muggy...

How's the great-uncle doing?

And I was thinking...putting up the voting is a lot more work and time-intenseive than posting the challenges, so would you like to take turns at that? Or trade off months, or something?

He's doing as well as one can suppose. He has Stage IV lung cancer and it has metastasized to other organs. He had some treatments (the nature of which I've already forgotten -- radiation, I think) just before I arrived that shrank the size of some of his lung tumors to make breathing easier but nobody claimed it would extend his life. He has given up and that was hard to see but I can't blame him, you know?

I like the idea of trading off (whether it's each challenge or each month) except that I've found it harder to get back into figuring out reminders, skip status, etc. since I was away from the routine -- which is rather pathetic because it's rather straight forward to handle but details are TOTALLY not my strength. Maybe soon it will be a moot point? I have had absolutely zero icon-fu for the week prior to my trip and after this challenge I'm out of entries.

I don't mind the time, honestly. You participate in some unholy number of competitions while I don't. I know you need time to work on your entries. :) If you're feeling left out of the loop, though, I'd be happy to share the burden but I'm not currently unhappy so there's no need to worry on my behalf. I just wish that I were *better* at handling a thousand tiny details.

I can't even imagine the amount of work it takes for sg1_lims - thank you for all of it. It's a great treat to watch the icons every week. :)

It's most definitely a labor of love for me. I get to see amazing SG-1 icons every single week that blow me away, so I know exactly what you mean. I was tired of seeing SGA get the latest and the greatest icons with poor SG-1 lagging behind. I haven't done a study, but my gut feeling is that SG-1 is much better represented on stargate_icons than before and I've made a lot of new SG-1 friends whom I wouldn't have met without sg1_lims.

As Herbal would say, "it's all good."

I was just thinking about you the other day. Very glad to hear you're alive and well, if over-extended. :-)

I've been thinking about you recently, too. We were going to volunteer for Obama, as I recall. :)

I've been printing out and reading riverfox fic to while away the endless hours on the treadmill and stationary bicycle. I can't say that it has yet succeeded in making me more eager to exercise but it sure does help it seem as if the half hour evaporates more quickly. And, you know, it's a good cover for the panting that accompanies the reading of her fic. ;)

LOL!!! Ain't that the truth!

And yeah, we were. Still can, too. :-)

Hiya! FWIW, I think you've done an awesome job with sg1_lims. I've found it fun and challenging, and it's exciting to see the way the icon makers just outdo themselves week after week. The amount of care that people put into their work for that comm is impressive - as are the results. Thank you for devoting so much of your valuable time to making it happen!

Can I be on your fitness filter, by the way? I don't remember if I commented when you first mentioned it. :-)

Hey, you! Thank you. I didn't mean for this to become a conversation about how great the comm is. :) I stole that format directly from shadowserenity; she's the one who deserves the credit. I've had a serious blast with the competition. The caps have turned out to be harder than I expected for the last couple of rounds. I am really stoked by how inspiring it seems to be for so many amazing makers. One of the hardest things for me to do is to *not* comment on people's entry comments. I so often want to say, "Oh, that's a really cool take on the cap," or "Wow -- you floored me with that interpretation," and so on. I've been roundly impressed with everyone.

I've added you to my fitness filter. It's mostly boring stuff and I haven't posted anything in over 2 weeks. *cringe* I need to do that tonight. If you're really, really bored, the entries are here:

http://hsapiens.livejournal.com/security/group:Fitness

Hey
I am glad you are still at it. I am no where at the point as you. I am still soo winded and I still have a lot of extra fluid on my legs that makes it harder.
Reba

Oh man, fluid on your legs sounds particularly unpleasant. I'm not happy to have watched so many members of my family suffer various ailments, but I suppose that I'm lucky in that I've been motivated to make changes before I suffer health effects beyond carrying extra weight. It's hard enough trying to get in shape while carrying around my personal version of a weight belt. I can't imagine adding another layer of difficulty. :(