DragonCon Meetup

August 25, 2003 7:32 AM

Dragon*Con 2003 hits Atlanta this weekend. I know I'm not the only MeFite going, so maybe we can shoulder our way past the Stormtroopers and the Klingons at the hotel bar and have a little MeFi Meetup, eh?
posted by grabbingsand to MetaFilter gatherings at 7:32 AM (26 comments total)

Ah Dragon*Con. Some fond memories, those. I won't make it this year, though.
posted by Nothing at 7:47 AM on August 25, 2003

Atlanta Nerdfest!!!
posted by jonson at 9:11 AM on August 25, 2003

(deep sigh) Is there a word in Klingon for Lonliness? (checks dictionary) Ah yes...Gar' Dachhhh!
posted by dgaicun at 9:16 AM on August 25, 2003

out of the question! you mefi people are weird.
posted by mcsweetie at 11:08 AM on August 25, 2003

I'm gonna be there! Woot!

I know there will be a LJ meetup, too. But yeah, I'd be up for a MeFi D*C meetup.

Sayyyy... 4am in one of the Hyatt elevators? Great!
posted by tittergrrl at 1:45 PM on August 25, 2003

you can find me at the hotel down the street with the rest of the furries!!
posted by shadow45 at 3:26 PM on August 25, 2003

Are you serious? DragonCon?
posted by xmutex at 4:11 PM on August 25, 2003

I went two years ago with a few of my Boston crew. Had a hell of a good time. Drove down in two days with a kid just back from Madagascar, suffering from some strange tropical disease, but luckily didn't contract it myself. Missed the first two days of classes playing board games and generally being a bum and a half. A great time all around. Oh, and ate a lot of Waffle House.

Go and rejoice, fellow mefites.
posted by kaibutsu at 5:21 PM on August 25, 2003

"When I was a child, I spake as a child..."
... oh, nevermind...

May the Schwartz be with YOOOUUUUUUUUU!!
posted by jpburns at 5:48 PM on August 25, 2003

LJ meetup? What community is that a part of, tittergrrl? (I'm at UGA right now, but my home base is in gwinnett, along with half of Athens). Alas, wish I could go to D*C but got Destin action instead =)
posted by jmd82 at 10:28 PM on August 25, 2003

I believe that would be L to tha I to tha V to the Ejournal.
posted by cortex at 5:15 AM on August 26, 2003

And here I thought MetaFilter had gone all mainstream.
posted by jjg at 11:32 AM on August 26, 2003

posted by quonsar at 12:07 PM on August 26, 2003

I went a few years ago. It was neat. Everyone should go at least once.
posted by jennyb at 12:58 PM on August 26, 2003

Not enough time left. Maybe next life.
posted by timeistight at 1:05 PM on August 26, 2003

When I was 14, I used to attend a convention in Dallas called the Fantasy Fair. I was 14, though, and at that age getting drunk with gamers was better than not getting drunk at all. Now, with my stunning good looks and average social skills, I would be king of a gathering such as this.

Too bad I have friends.
posted by Item at 1:58 PM on August 26, 2003

item: If yer stunningly good looking, we'd smell you out as a Jock Poser in no time and have you killed. Nerds can do that, now.
posted by cortex at 3:17 PM on August 26, 2003

Jeez o'flip people. A tad hostile are we?

Its a dorky convention. Big ol' whoop. No different at its base than any other convention really, be it political (which I've attended as well), sports, organizational, or commercial.

Not everyone there is dressed up in Star Wars gear, or lacks the mad bathing skillz, or constantly plays games. For many its just a 4 day release of all kinds of dorky tensions that they don't get a chance to deal with otherwise. Then its back to the workaday world, and the joys of a typical existance.

If anything, the people watching alone is worth the price of admission.

Plus you'll get more ideas for documentaries at DragonCon than most any other locale/event in the world. ;)
posted by tittergrrl at 3:46 PM on August 26, 2003

item: feel free to start demonstrating those "average social skills" anytime, bub. 'Cause your comment didn't exactly live up to that standard.
posted by GeekAnimator at 5:38 PM on August 26, 2003

Aww, c'mon, boys. I was only trying to say that I was once like you, only now I'm not. See?
posted by Item at 8:46 PM on August 26, 2003

I was once like you. I walked the earth free and clean, needing not the comforting veil of shadow to obscure me from the sun's piercing eye. And the laughter. The terrible, terrible laughter. Freak, they call me now. Hideous! Yet beneath the mask of flesh scarred and torn by fate's savage grip, am I not a man like any other?

Fools. Mortal, pitiful fools. I will avenge this. Oh, yes, I will avenge it. [demonic laughter]
posted by arto at 9:07 PM on August 26, 2003

If anything, the people watching alone is worth the price of admission.

This is true. I've only been to a couple of science fiction conventions - once to meet Harlan Ellison, and the other two times to meet Jack Vance - and I don't think that I fit the general phenotype of the kind of person who goes to these things.

There is so much to see at "sci-fi" conventions. Stormtrooper-costumes that have been lovingly plasti-molded. Nearsighted klingons. Jedi that have really let themselves go. Everyone should go to at least one. They actually are fun, even if you're not in on the joke.

And I also agree with tittergrrl that there's really no reason for everyone to make fun of grabbingsand for suggesting that metafilter and dragoncon might overlap like some kind of Venn Diagram of geekdom.

I know you guys are nerds, and I love you for it. Grabbingsand knows that you guys are nerds, and wants to meet you because of it. What's not to love?
posted by interrobang at 12:23 AM on August 27, 2003

watch yourselves guys , i hear there is a lot of 'chatter' on the al queda airwaves about this event.
posted by sgt.serenity at 4:50 AM on August 27, 2003

er.

thanks, sgt.

i think.
posted by grabbingsand at 5:18 AM on August 27, 2003

I've never been, but it's always funny to see a MARTA train full of goths and storm troopers. The panhandlers leave the D*C folks alone.
posted by Frank Grimes at 11:53 AM on August 27, 2003

I agree, the people-watching is spectacular. I used to live in downtown ATL, and every year at DragonCon time a bunch of people from my building would get together and go hang out in the Hyatt lobby, solely to people-watch.

It's also interesting to wait in line at the ATM behind someone dressed in chain mail.
posted by Vidiot at 5:02 AM on August 29, 2003