Sunrise comes after a few hours of driving. Like last year, fog covered the road and fields until the sun rose high enough bake it away. We ran into another DragonCon group during breakfast at Ihop. | One of the fun things about the drive is the random costuming props. Here's our first stop for gas. You can tell other cars that were also on their way to DragonCon by the costumes piled in the backseats. | We finally arrived around noon and the line for pre-registration wrapped around the Sheraton. It took us about an hour to get our badges. Last year we walked right in, but 2011 we waited 3 hrs, so not bad middle ground. |
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I happened to come across the finish-line of the DragonCon Fun Run, in which my friend participated. It was a sweaty, cheering group of runners, full of smiles and costumes adapted for running. Random happenstance brought me across this happy group and it was a joy to see them cheering each other on, a nice community. |
AND HOLY CRAP IT IS!!!! She's incredibly nice and smiles a lot and I am very much trying to keep it cool. I'm heading back in that direction anyway, so I offer to show her to the Marriott and she thanks me for the assistance. In the 7-10 minute walk between hotels we chat on and off. I thank her for the wonderful stories and express excitement in her current projects. She thanks me and smiles and seems to be just a wonderfully pleasant person.
And within the first two hours of the con, I've had an amazing experience just by wandering off my path. I don't have any pictures, because she was just getting situated and it was not the place nor the time to ask. I did tweet at her though:
@janeespenson have a great time at #dragoncon, thank you for coming and thank you for so many wonderful stories! #pleasantwalktomarriott
AND THEN SHE RESPONDED! :
Jane Espenson 30 Aug @artandrhinos thank you for your guidance!
After that I pretty much floated to the Hyatt, waited a little bit for my next panel and then listened to a personable and knowledgeable Michael Stackpole in a writer's workshop. I was able to get my hardcover of - Vol'jin: Shadows of the Horde signed and then got a 25 minute discussion about writing it and the time at Blizzard and the 6 HOUR LORE PRIMER he got from the loremasters. He also was the one who suggested the human hunter character to help complete the journey. I did get a picture, though I had my camera set on Monochrome - so it's a little stylized. The encounter was awesome, and the workshop was both helpful and informative.

Basic summary - talk to an expert. Get the information you need.
also: you can't click off an external safety on a Glock, because they don't have one.
Well, that artist's work is cool and unique, here's his webpage - poopbird.com.

My burger was delicious. Here is a picture of it. MMmmm...it's making me hungry right now.
Good night.