Convention Weekend Was Quite the Success!

Have I told you that I'm...well...kind of a geek? I *love* science fiction - mostly television and movies, but some books, as well. Every year here in Denver, we have a huge celebration for Science Fiction called StarFest. It's very cool because in addition to just being around other geeky people, many of whom dress in costumes, I get to spend some time with my best friend. I also get to see other folks whom I really adore but only get to see once a year at this show.

There are guests from television and movies who also come. This year, the guests were Adam Baldwin (from Firefly and other great shows), Cliff Simon from Stargate, Masi Oka from Heroes (I didn't get to see him at all...:( ), Zachary Quinto, also from Heroes (plays the totally evil Sylar), Nichelle Nichols from the original Star Trek (whom I also didn't get to lay eyes on...), Nana Visitor from Deep Space 9, Anne Lockhart from the original Battlestar Gallactica, and Nate Torrence, who will be in the upcoming Get Smart movie.

I was very impressed with Adam Baldwin and Zachary Quinto. They spent a lot of time walking around the convention and interacting with the fans. That was cool to see. Many guests come in, do their job and get away from the hotel as quickly as they can. At least that's my impression.

It was a great weekend to be sure. I always look forward to seeing my friends, Dayton Ward and Kevin Dilmore. They are sci fi writers specializing in the Star Trek licenses. They said they have a lot of stuff in the works and I look forward to seeing their books out there. They are always a lot of fun. They did a special panel this year - a writing exercise. They had five hats with slips of paper in each hat. You choose one slip from each hat then write a short story based on what was one the slips. Each slip provided an essential element for the story - character, theme, setting, object, and opening line. Mine slips were:

• a 7th grader in gym clothes (Character)


• a food court in a mall (Setting)


• waiting in line for Zachary Quinto's autograph (Theme)


• a George Forman Grill (Object)


• "It was a dark and stormy night..." (Opening Line)

I went ahead and did the exercise, although my story ended up without an ending, and I didn't feel it was very good. I may share it some day for no other reason than it may be good for a laugh.

I didn't have to run a Video Room this year which actually turned out great for me. I turned my staff over to some other folks and everyone seemed pretty pleased with their new situations. I did still have full AV setups for three rooms and screens in two others. Those damned projector screens are heavy! Ugh, I hated lugging those around from one end of the hotel to the other. But the set ups went reasonably well. There was the usual cord and remote crises. Nothing I can do about the remotes but I was able to get all the cords I needed from Main Events. Then there was the speaker wire problem. There was none to be had. I had to splice together wire from all over the place. We finally had to ask DH, Ken, to leave a bit early and go buy speaker wire so I would have it for the Saturday morning set ups. He was not particularly happy about it but it all worked out. Now I'm keeping a box of supplies I may need for future conventions. Lots of RCA cables, extension cords, power strips and of course speaker wire.

As for Weight Watchers, I had planned to stay on plan as much as possible. Well, it wasn't possible really. There were some veggie plates and some healthy food but the bulk of the food was the yucky, junky stuff I love so much. So, it became apparent pretty quickly there was no way I was going to stay on plan. Then it was just a matter of trying to not fall off the wagon so far that it would be too painful to get back on! As it was, I gained three pounds as of this morning. It's disappointing to be sure but nothing I can't manage. I'm back on plan today so it'll start to come off here pretty quickly.

Given my 3.0 pound loss from my weigh-in on Friday, things are going pretty well. I still need to make exercise a priority. I keep intending to walk 20 minutes or so each evening, but it's either too cold or too late...so many toos. No wonder my butt is TOO big. :P