A quiet night, a stack of books, a tuna melt on rye

I've been compulsively updating hih_animagus all day today because I want to know what my animal choices are. It would appear that patience is not one of my virtues -- not even a little bit. And, I'm not sure that the post is even supposed to go up today, since my analysis of when voting goes down and choices go up from previous rounds is inconclusive. What? I had to do something while during all of that refreshing and checking out a bunch of date stamps seemed like the way to go.

Another Gally has come and gone.  Tear. I had tons of fun, actually did some autographs and pictures, and now can't wait until next year!  Full write up to come later....probably.

This weekend I learned that cons are the most fun thing ever.  And that I can avoid getting every illness that makes the round through my company, but give me two nights of wacky sleep and I've got a horrible cold. 

In my last update I shared a picture of my costume for Gallifrey One.  Now I will share all about my weekend, so you can feel free stop right here if you want to avoid the geekiness.  I promise there will be much geekiness.  First off, charging for checked luggage was a horrible, horrible idea on the part of the airlines.  I can't believe they are making up that much money as it seems like everyone is now just carrying on the bag they previously would have checked.  Now, I'll admit that I had a roll aboard, but it conformed to the stated measurements on my conformation.  I was attempting to but it in the overhead bin next to bags twice its size, which I guarantee did not meet those measurement guidelines.  Grrr.

Things I learned about cons this weekend

• The things you want to see will always be placed against each other.  
• People hand out ribbons with random sayings on them to attach to the bottom of you badge.  No one seemed able to tell me why, or how it started.  Like Mardi Gras throws, it seems that you want to collect as many ribbons as humanly possible dispite their lack of purpose. 
• Everyone is crafty.  Okay maybe not everyone, but I could have spent the entire time (and did spend much of it) cooing over the crocheted doctor doll, the leather bound tardis diary, the knit dalek, the full scale tardis replica that had sound effects, the costumes (including a full cat face and a space suit that change from black visor to skull on stage).  I got to watch bits of a fan film being shot (must remember The Perpetual Motion Machine so I can watch it after the script is written and the whole thing is shot), and to inspect a prop gun made out of a lug wrench.  People seemed impressed with the tardis knit out of embroidery thread on US size 000 needles that I'm currently making.  One woman wanted me to make here one, which I refused (hopefully gracefully).  I don't really ever want to make one again because it's been nothing but a pain.  And, if I were to make one again it would cost well over the $20 offered as I've probably put over 50 hours into this thing already and it's only a little over half done.
• Going on your own is okay.  It's still probably more fun to bring fiends.  It wasn't too difficult to talk to people (and I never talk to people well), but with your own group of friends you don't have to worry that you're latching too much onto a group that doesn't really want you there.  Granted that may be a worry that only I have.
• Internet culture provides endlessly interesting scholarly type work.  Also there people in fandom who don't know the internet terms.  I watched UST being explained and got to explain BNF myself. 
• People like to stay up all night -- I will never be one of them. 
• I also don't think I will ever be involved with the cult of celebrity either.  I didn't get any autographs nor did I stand in line to get my picture taken with anyone.  First off, I didn't want to walk up to anyone and say "I've never seen you in anything, sign this" 'cause that seems rather rude to me.  It would also be the truth.  Then there is the difficulty of being slightly different from everyone else, so as not to induce boredom, but not so different as to be weird and creepy.  There is a fine line to walk between the two, one I do not think I have any skill at. 
• I now have a picture of myself with a tardis.  That fact makes me smile every time I think of it. 

Also, I would recommend Moths Ate My Doctor Who Scarf if you have a chance to see it (and, you know, have some sort of interest in the topic.) It was rather funny despite my lack of old school knowledge and the number of jokes require the intense knowledge of bad British television(?) personalities. 

Finally, flying with a head cold is not an enjoyable experience.  Hopefully I will be able to stop hacking long enough tonight so I can get sleep for the whole back to work thing tomorrow.  Also so I can deal with the various people descending on me to celebrate Mardi Gras this weekend. 

I'm going to share pictures today.  First, I did finally get my hair banged: ( Me in my Gallifrey One costume )  That is the only corner of the room 214 at the Tallahassee Hojo that does not contain a mirror, lamp, or large piece of furniture.  Also, yes I am displaying my supreme geekiness, I'm trying to win Carrie's prize for geekiest person in the company, though I'm pretty sure that both Nicole and Tyler continue to have me beat. 

Also, ( Unexpected archaeology picture ) That is me in my unit, measuring my walls for the profile.  Also in the lower left corner you can see our bucket "The French aka France".  My digging partner Maureen insists on naming everyone's buckets.  At the unit next so us she named the bucket "Withlachoochee" which is the name of a river in Florida.