Somedays, I can't tell if I'm living in a sitcom or a drama

[ultranos]

So, on Wednesday, I took the train down from Milwaukee to Chicago and met up with abyssinia4077 and holdouttrout. The next day, we trekked over to the Museum of Science and Industry, where I acted like a five-year-old engineer and played with LEGOs for half an hour while we waited for annienau08. Then I proceeded to grow up to ten-years-old and practically bounced around like I was hyped up on sugar in the space exhibit. (LEM! MERCURY CAPSULE! MARS ROVER! EEEE!)

Trout and Annie left Abyssis and I to our own devices until Friday afternoon. On our way to meet them, Abyssis took me on a driving tour of Fermilab! There were BISON. And SCIENCE.

Oh, I suppose you're all interested in this little con I went to, huh?


So, to be honest, this is just things I remember, because I don't take notes during cons because that's the part of my brain I turn off during cons. Otherwise, it'd never get a break.

-The Big Finish guys from the UK who do the audiobooks: kind of adorably hilarious. I always like it when I can banter back and forth with a dealer in the dealer room. Yeah, they were trying to sell their product, but they were excellent sports about it. To the point where I kind of wanted to just shovel money at them. Damn you, Creation, for your overpriced-everything-else for foiling this plot!

--In any case, I apparently bought 3 audiobooks on CD. Afterwards, I realized that a) I don't have a CD player except for my laptop, and b) Moros the iPod is keyed to Bahamut...the desktop 1600 miles away. Well done, Big Finish guys. *slow clap*

-Gary Jones has funny stories.

-Colin Trinneer looks better without the Wraith makeup and is easier to understand without the fake teeth. He also thinks that the first Michael episode was the best, and he's totally right. "Michael" was a good stand-alone story, and they drew it out too long with the "you made me this way!" thing.

-Michael Shanks is surprisingly entertaining. I didn't realize that he was laugh-out-loud funny. And well-spoken.

--He also gave shout-outs to Lexa, as he knew everything he said was going to end up on the internet. Smart man.

--He also laid an amusing smackdown on this con's That Fan. Stupid stick-boy. I was perpetually THIS CLOSE to telling him that the LARP was in the next town over.

-Phone call to my mother revealed that my great-aunt is a big Stargate fan and was ALMOST at this con with my second-cousin. Also revealed that my mom loved MacGuyver and thought RDA was hot and watched the show only for him.

--This explains SO MUCH of why I don't find Jack O'Neill that attractive. BIOLOGICAL IMPERATIVE NOT TO DO SO.

--Surreal level: VERY FUCKING HIGH.

-Amanda Tapping lives up to her reputation of being amazingly gracious and down-to-earth. It's uncanny. And where Shanks had you on the edge of your seat and laughing aloud and verbally poking the audience, Tapping somehow made a jam-packed room feel at-ease. Twas weird. But in a good way.

--Not so fun: waiting 3 hours for MS and AT's autograph for the tabletop book. Both looked exhausted by the time I got there, considering they were personalizing everything. Oy.

---Although it still doesn't beat the waiting in line for 8 hours to register for Anime Boston 2008 after a full day of classes. Oh, that was fun. Not.

---Despite feeling like an utter dork and fighting the "why on earth would you even care?" feeling, I did actually manage to tell Tapping "thank you" for giving me Sam Carter when I needed the metaphorical boot to the head. That I came to Stargate after having to withdraw from college and was at a low point, and how Sam Carter gave me the kick in the pants I needed to go back. To MIT. And that I'm graduating this year.

----She asked to shake my hand. Surreal level: REALLY HIGH.

----holdouttrout, who was apparently somewhere behind me, claims I made her teary-eyed. Oops?

-Rachel Lutrell and Paul McGillion are actually kind of adorable dorks together onstage. Although his teasing of her was getting a little excessive. I just wish her play-kick at him actually connected. :P She smacked him pretty good a couple of times though.

--Her explanation of where the inspiration for how to play Teyla was really fascinating and kind of echoing for me. Maybe it's the "being a child of immigrants" thing.

-I did not get to see Joe Flannigan, as my parents came down to the hotel to pick me up, thus saving me extra time and $22 dollars, and having them come after 5pm would be rather inconsiderate of that generosity.

--I made them dinner today. POINTS FOR ME!

-All the LJ people I met up with were very cool people: annienau08, holdouttrout, gabolange, abyssinia4077, havocthecat, and others whom I'm blanking on because I'm tired and suck at names. They're about half the reason I could swallow Creation's overpriced shenanigans, considering I usually choke on blatant commercialism. You guys are the bestest.



Oddly, now I'm torn between poking at various fic WiPs and Persona 4. MY LIFE IS HARD.

Comments

[ultranos-fic.livejournal.com]

Heh. The space equipment was extremely awesome. I can't believe that was the first time I ever went to that museum, considering I've been to the Shedd aquarium and Field Museum. And practically lived at a smaller science museum in Milwaukee as a kid.

They had some of the original space suits, and models of all the various rockets used by NASA to send people into space. And a mockup of Sputnik. They even had a mockup model and fairly detailed in layman's terms explanation of the concept of the space elevator. I swear, I could spend days in that museum and not see everything.

There was also a really awesome exhibit on the U-505 submarine, the only U-boat captured in WWII, now housed there. I didn't go on a tour of the inside, since that cost extra, but there was a lot about how WWII-era submarines worked. There was another exhibit on modern subs, but we were running out of time, unfortunately. It would have been kind of cool to see what they had on nuclear submarines, since I'm kind of familiar with some of the technology on them.