Geeking Out

One of the favorite pursuits of geeks around the world is attending conventions. For anyone who doesn't know about this, imagine thousands of people getting together to dress in costumes or geek-related t-shirts, browse comics, fairies, or sci-fi gear, meet celebrities, and attend panels on various related topics. One of the largest of these conventions is Dragon*Con, held every Labor Day weekend in Atlanta, Georgia. An estimated 30,000-40,000 people descend on the downtown area, taking over all major hotels. This year the big draws were Leonard Nemoy and William Shatner of Star Trek fame. Besides them, there were a few dozen other celebrities of lesser or simply different fame.

And that's where my family was this weekend! Smack in the middle of all of that geeky chaos. From Friday through Monday we hung out with friends that we only see once or twice a year, took around 100 photos of the goings-on, and ogled at the great costumes. Every aspect of fandom is represented at this multi-genre con: Star Wars, Star Trek, Stargate, Lord of the Rings, comic books, anime, paranormal investigation, TV, movies, horror, novels, artists, and just about anything you can think of. It's something we look forward to every year, and have already purchased our tickets for 2010 (it's cheaper if you do it this early). Even my kids enjoy it, because they get to be in costume and have their pictures taken.

Tomorrow I have to go back to a normal life, but here's a glimpse of another side of this vet's life.