So in my last post I outlined the necessity of arriving at Dragon*Con early so you can get your badge.  If you are lucky, as I was this year, you will hit the badge line when the newly-minted, computerized badge-distribution system is up and running and you will get your badge in an hour.  This is awesome.  Just to be clear, in the past the badge distribution system was lame and not computerized, leading some people to wait 4+ hours in line to pick up their badges, which is absurd if you think about all the nerds with GIANT TECHNICAL POWERS floating around the convention.

Anyways, we got our badges quickly, which left enough time for delicious carbo-loading with pizza and socializing with friends who want nothing to do with Dragon*Con (which, what? why?), which then left me plenty of time to get back to the convention hotels and meet some new friends.

What?! New friends?!  Yeah, guys, I totally met some new friends this Dragon*Con.  In the past I haven’t been that great with the socialization and keeping track of all the random superheroes/stormtroopers/zombies/wizards with whom I had conversations, but this year via the power of Twitter, Livejournal, Facebook, and the business card I was able to go into Con expecting to meet face-to-face with some internet buddies and was also able to add something like 15 people to my Facebook friends after Con.  Which is nuts, guys, but fun!

So Thursday night I was meeting two lovely women from the Action Figures LiveJournal Community.  I know, LiveJournal is pretty silly, but for some reason a number of the major Dragon*Con information forums are on LiveJournal and I keep an account so that I can comment and be a person.  ANYWAYS the Action Figures group was started by a sassy Miami-an named Tabby to promote healthy lifestyles and fitness for Con-going, costume-wearing women.  Nerds don’t necessarily have the healthiest lifestyle, and since we nerd-ladies want to look hot in our costumes we need all the support we can get.  I’ve mentioned a few times that I’ve really been watching my weight these past few months (down six pounds since the beginning of August, yay!) so I totally jumped on this group.

In the weeks leading up to Con there’d been a lot of posting of pictures and such on the community, so I easily recognized my two new friends when I saw them at the Marriott.  Unfortunately much of the rest of the group was either not in town that evening or busy, so it was a small meet-up, but I think we had a great time!  The two women I met with had both lost a great deal of weight over the past few years and they look amazing.  I’m fortunate in that I’ve never been seriously overweight, but these two women deserve to be proud because they’ve each lost 50+ pounds yay them!  Their before and after pictures are astonishing and I am glad that they are rocking their new, fit bodies with pride.  Skimpy costumes all around everyone!

Okay so I need to take a quick moment to talk about bodies at Con.  Yes, there are a lot of fat nerds out there.  My mother sent me this thread from the Gator forums where a bunch of Atlanta-based University of Florida graduates talked about all the fat nerds trudging around downtown Atlanta on Labor Day weekend.   To this I say: yes, there are a lot of overweight nerds.  And yes, there are a lot of girls in Slave Leia/Leelo/Etc. costumes that probably shouldn’t be wearing them.  Look, I am all about body confidence, but I am a normal, not-overweight size 8 and you will NEVER see me in a Slave Leia costume because I do not have the body for it.  LADIES, please do not wear a Slave Leia costume unless you are a size 2 or have a six pack!  I beg you.  But, back to the Gator forum comment…YES, there are a lot of overweight nerds, but the vast majority of Georgia and Boise State fans I saw in Atlanta for the football game were also overweight.  So seriously, people, America is fat, and at this point I don’t think being a nerd or not being a nerd makes a difference, I just think that we are a fat country.  So stop discriminating and put down that cheeseburger y’all.  ANYWAYS, back to friendsies:

We sat around for about two hours, talking about nerd stuff and weight loss stuff and how I need to be watching Dr. Who (I am remedying it now, four episodes in!) and jobs and life and duct tape costumes and such.  There was a brief interlude where a girl with bright pink hair and a hoody stopped by to pick up special event tickets  from Tracy, one of my fellow Action Figures, and she stuck around for about forty-five minutes talking about how she wanted to make out with an Emma Frost and a Jean Grey and how she couldn’t wait to meet Carrie Fisher to talk about being bi-polar and it just kind of went on and was both bizarre and fascinating.  AND THEN, oh guys oh guys,  AND THEN on SUNDAY she was at the Carrie Fisher panel and a bunch of stuff happened and I shouldn’t jump to Sunday yet but if you REALLY want to read about it (and sort of see what this girl looks like) then go read this article right here AMAZING.  Dragon*Con, guys, Dragon*Con.

I was lucky enough to run into both Tracy and Tabby throughout the weekend when we were all in costume!  I saw Tracy right before the parade, where she was rockin’ a classic Star Trek ladies’ outfit with a short short skirt.  She looked bangin’.

Look at that!  So sassy!  I also ran into Tabby in her sassy Star Trek garb on Sunday night, right when everyone was preparing for their last hurrah.

Also sassy!  I love the pixy haircut.

I also ran into another Action Figures member at a panel for The Guild.  She recognized me from some photos I posted on the community.  Unfortunately I did not get her picture due to crowds (she was on staff for the panel) but it was great to meet another like-minded nerd lady!

So we parted ways around 10:00 because we all had places to be and people to see and costumes to photograph and I spent much of the rest of Thursday night running around the Marriott taking pictures of costumes.  A lot of people jump right into costume as soon as they get to Dragon*Con but I like to take Thursday night as a transitional period.  I usually walk around the hotels to re-orient myself and then I spend a lot of time figuring out my schedule.  This year the nice techie folks at Dragon*Con invented a smartphone application which was awesome, so schedule planning was easier than ever!

Here are some shots from Thursday:

By 11:30 we were all sleepy (because, as usual, Jon and I stayed up way too late the night before fretting over costumes and over important matters) and decided to head back to the room to finish schedule planning and to get some sleep for the coming days.  Oh and also to watch Dragon*Con TV.  Yes, the host hotels each have a channel where they run Dragon*Con specific programming: sketches, fake commercials, live or rebroadcasts of major panels and costume contests.  Yes, it is awesome.

I’ll recap Friday soon, in the meantime you can check out a few more pictures over at my Flickr.