Norwescon

Norwescon is the Seattle-area SF/F convention I’ve been volunteering at since roughly 2010. Once a year, I go get geeky with about 2,500 of my closest friends at a local hotel for a weekend.

Norwescon 29 Photo Extravaganza

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One or two (or three or four…hundred…) photos

Well, not only did I survive my first Norwescon (didn’t even get auctioned off, either, once some kind soul told me that I probably shouldn’t be admitting that it was my first time), but I did it camera in hand. And, since I’m a complete and total photo whore, there’s a few pictures to be seen.

Just a few.

I was only there for Friday and Saturday, but still managed to come home with almost 1,600 photos. I’ve distilled the most presentable 441 into this photoset, and I’ll spend a little time further distilling things down and putting “the best of the best” into the Norwescon group‘s photo pool.

In the meantime, though, in addition to the big monster set, I can also give a few pointers to certain themes, such as…

  • The graffiti wall. I had fun stopping by from time to time to see what additions had been made, and overheard a few people commenting that they were glad someone was documenting it.

    (The Doubletree was partially under renovation, including the hallway that housed the Norwescon office and the Hospitality rooms. Since the walls were simple unfinished temporary drywall, they became an impromptu graffiti wall. Fen…er…fun with markers!)

  • Friday night’s Stardance — specifically, the “most evil” pageant before the floor was opened up to the general public.

  • While I didn’t actually make it into the Masquerade, I did grab a good spot in the photo pool for the costume gallery photoshoot. Lots of incredible costumes!

  • The Rasputin during the Saturday Night Hoedown.

  • Star Wars vs. Star Trek: While there were Klingons and Federation representatives, there were far more Jedi, Stormtroopers and bounty hunters making their presence known. I guess that galaxy far, far away is a bit more interesting than our own (of course, given how Jabba dresses his slave girls, I can’t say that I’m surprised…)!

And those are the major themes. I had a blast, and I’m looking forward to doing it all over again next year.

(X-posted to my LJ, Norwescon, and my website.)

iTunes “Majestic” by Orb, The from the album U.F. Orb (1992, 11:06).

Off at Norwescon

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I’m spending the weekend at Norwescon, so I’ve already missed my one-photo-a-day posting goal. Heh. No big surprise.

Here’s one from yesterday at the con, though…

Norwescon 29, Seattle, WA

There’s 109 more of Friday in this photoset, with photos from today to be added to the set later (sometime tomorrow, most likely).

iTunes “I Took Your Name” by R.E.M. from the album Monster (1994, 4:03).

Happy π Day!

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It’s π day (3/14). Whee!

Randomness:

  • I’m in the last week of the quarter, touching up my last paper for English (no final, yay!) and cramming through the last few sections of Math in order to be ready for the final on Tuesday. Hence, why things have been relatively quiet lately. There has been action in the ‘eclinkticism’ sidebar (also known as my del.icio.us account, but a definite dearth of actual content. So it goes.

  • I’ve sent off my one birthday wish to my parents, and they’ve said they’ll consider it. Yay! This, of course, now has me wishing that my birthday was just a little bit earlier in the summer. Heh. In any case, I’m keeping my fingers crossed. I’m not, however, posting just what the birthday wish was, as I don’t want to jinx anything.

    • Said birthday, by the way, is May 3rd, at which point I’ll be turning 33. The same age Jesus was when he died, according to tradition. Should anyone want to get me anything (including, but not limited to, friendly e-mails wishing me well, cards, books, music, money, a 30″ Apple Cinema Display…y’know, little things…), I won’t complain.
  • Thanks to a random Google search, my first girlfriend dropped me a note to say hi and get back in touch. Pretty mindblowing, but it’s been a lot of fun catching up with her.

  • As we move into spring (finally!), I’m looking forward to getting out of the house a bit more over the spring/summer festival season and finding some more good photo opportunities. Events that I’m hoping to show up at over the coming months (pending days off from work, financing, and other random things that might get in the way), some of which Prairie is looking forward to accompanying me to, others of which she’ll smile indulgently, roll her eyes, and pat me on the butt as I walk out the door:

    1. Sakura Con 2006 (Saturday 3/25): Seattle’s anime convention. While I’m not huge into anime (I’ve enjoyed a lot of what I’ve seen, but I’m no big fan), I’m planning on heading down to wander around on Saturday, when they’re having their costume/cosplay contest. Should be lots of fun costumes wandering around.

    2. Emerald City Comicon (Saturday 4/1): Seattle’s comic book convention. Again, I’m not a huge comic fan (my collection consists of Neil Gaiman’s Sandman series, Alan Moore’s Watchmen and V for Vendetta, the Clerks comics, and issues 1-10 of The Tick). However, I did have fun taking photos when I stopped by last year’s ComiCon, and hope to do the same this year. Again, I’m aiming for Saturday, to take advantage of the day’s costume contest.

    3. Norwescon 29 (Friday 4/12 – Sunday 4/14): I’ve been hearing about Norwescon since I came down to Seattle, as many of the regulars at the_vogue are also big into sci-fi, fantasy, role playing, and all the other various forms of entertainment that can be found at a fantasy convention. This year, I have a few friends that have been planning on going, so I figured it could be fun to take the weekend and actually go to this thing to see what I thought. Should be interesting….

    4. Folklife (Saturday 5/27): This will be my third jaunt to Folklife. I’ve got a small set of photos from 2004 and a larger set from 2005, we’ll see how many I come home with this year. Planning on Saturday as a definite day, other days may happen depending on scheduling (there are other people at work who also want to hit Folklife, we’ll just have to see how the weekend works out).

    5. Seattle Pride Parade (Sunday 6/25): Unfortunately, this one’s questionable right now, as that’s inventory weekend at work and the schedule is marked “NO OFFS” for this day. I’ve mentioned (ahem…whined…) about this to my manager, but I’m not sure yet if I’ll be able to make it or not. A shame, as I’ve been there in 2001, 2003, 2004, and 2005.

    6. Bumbershoot (Saturday 8/2 – Monday 8/4): A possibility, but questionable at this point. Prairie and I skipped last years, and may end up skipping this year also. If it weren’t enough that ticket prices keep getting higher and they’ve dropped Friday from the festival schedule, we’re looking into the possibility of taking a 2-week trip down to California in September, so timing and finances may not allow adding Bumbershoot to the mix. Until that’s confirmed, though, it’s still a tentative on my list.

And…I think that pretty much covers everything for now.

Oh, one last thing. Battlestar Galactica just wrapped up their second season. Oh. Wow. So good. If you’re watching the show, you know what I’m talking about. If you’re not watching it…well, you should be. Grab Season One from Amazon or Netflix, and Season Two from iTunes, sit your butt down, and watch the best sci-fi to grace the small screen in years.

Okay. Now I’m done.