Kowabunga

Convergence 2007 was, once again, a convention that should not be missed. The Klingons of KAG were in full force with elements of the Cold Death Quadrant in attendance included the crews of the IKV Rakehell, IKV Black Thunder, and the IKV Warhammer.

The Rakehell arrived the day before the con, using the time to set up the party room, The Rutting Tribble, which served as the Kronos Hunting Club. It is actually impressive how many con goers show up the day before the con actually starts (a lot!). But then there is a lot of set up to do, and its better to do it in advance rather than spend part of the convention setting up your room party..

Arriving on Friday afternoon with the main masses, we found that several elementary schools had coordinated a field trip to the convention and were able that they were treated to some special panels by the various guests on writing as well as science. I thought this was way cool, as did everyone else who ran across the groups of kids that were having a fun day at an SF convention.

The Writer Guest of Honor this year was Lois McMaster Bujold, and Bridget Landry returned as a science guest this year. For those of you who don't know Bridget, she is an astrophysicist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab as well as a master costumer. She is two guests rolled up into one.

Panels ranged the full gamut, from science (NASA's Cassini Program) and theory (living starships) to costuming and writing programs. It is always tough getting to all of the panels as there is a tendency to book several that are of high interest against each other. as this was also the Centennial of the birth of Robert A. Heinlein, there was a panel discussion on his works as well.

The first panel I attended was on "Living Starships" and how organic starships could come about. The panel tended to drift away from the topic and focus more on computer tech, specifically artificial intelligence, and on cybernetics, which is different from the development of organic/living starships.

My wife, Sue, with daughter in tow, sat in on a panel on hall costuming that Qob was on. It sounded like it was more interesting than the panel on Living Starships.

Saturday morning was the Heinlein panel, which started out good until David Romm decided to dominate the panel and inject his political ranting, showing once again what un utter @ss he is. There were also some other disturbing comments made, including one specifically about Starship Troopers made by someone who thought that the central character in the novel, Juan Rico, was of barely average intelligence because he was a grunt. This showed a distinct lack of knowledge of how the military determines who is qualified for any given job (for instance, when I entered the Air Force, you had to be able to lift 100 pounds over your head to be a jet engine mechanic…that requirement was later eliminated). I think she was ignoring the fact that knowledge (or lack there of) is not the same as intelligence. It also ignores the fact that Rico was a kid who just graduated high school, and that lots of people who are smart are lousy at math. I think the person who made the statement about Rico having an "I.Q. of 100" couldn't do multi-variable calculus (I can barely do multi-variable derivatives myself…does that mean I have a low I.Q.?). Actually, I thought it was interesting that a number of people consider Starship Troopers to be one of their favorite Heinlein novels. Other works that were touched on included Tunnel In The Sky, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, Stranger in a Strange Land, Time Enough for Love, the Past Through Tomorrow, and Expanded Universe. This would have been a much better panel if it were not for Romm moonbating like he usually does. I have concluded the best way to ruin a panel is to put Romm on it; if Romm has to be on it, then they should put a muzzle on him so that the other panelists will have an opportunity to talk.

Eric, who publishes Tales of the Unanticipated runs Krushenko's, which is a combination literary discussion room, writer's network, and party zone. One session was on writing groups and what is going on in 2007. This consisted of people who are in writing groups giving status reports of what they are up to and an opportunity for folks looking for groups to connect with each other.

There was a panel on "Blogging as Literature" which was more of a NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) discussion that also touched on blogging. If you are not familiar with NaNoWriMo, it is a time when writers and aspiring writers strive to write a 50,000 word novel in a month. This does not mean having a finished, publishable novel, but having what is hopefully a good first draft. The panelists did discuss the different approaches participants in NaNoWriMo take, including starting with a completely blank page and writing stream of conscious, seeing what comes out, to people who spend time developing character backgrounds and outlines before the kickoff of the month of writing. On the blogging side, it was interesting how many of them don't blog, or only do so as a cursory project. The reason cited is that time blogging takes away from time writing. My counter to that is: blogging regularly helps you develop better writing skills as you have to post regularly, thus writing, and think about your word choices more as blogging tends to be more stream of thought writing. It also helps you improve your ability to produce material as a blogger regularly writes anywhere from several hundred to a couple of thousand words a day, depending on how much they have to say.

I sat on a panel on the Creatures of Star Trek (this year's convention theme was "Creature Feature") which promptly turned into a general conversation on Star Trek. Most of the panelists were TOS Trek fans, with one being a Next Genner, and the audience was a mixed bag of Trek. The discussion hit on all of the various incarnations of Trek, and worked on determining what constituted creatures versus aliens. It came down to the definition of a creature had to do with its level of sentience: the Horta and Salt Vampire were both aliens, although they were presented as creatures, while the Mugato and Crystalline Entity were distinctly creatures. The Doomsday Machine, Nomad, and V'Ger were all constructs that had characteristics of being creatures.

JaPa, the quadrant commander, and other members of the Black Thunder, made their presence felt during the after hour parties (okay, there really isn't such a thing as after hours at a con). JaPa, Qob and I had a chat about how we can get some more activity going on in Iowa, which means staging some away missions to there for those of us in the Twin cities. It is not a daunting task, just a matter of timing and interests. I told JaPa that we may be able to make DemiCon, next year, depending on if/when Sue and I get "lucky." It also seems appropriate to do some stuff with the neighboring States as they are regularly coming up here for conventions.

Living up to Klingon standards, Qob and I made our way around the party floor on Saturday night, harassing Feddies as we went. One stop we made was at the Romulan consulate where we managed to fire off some appropriate insults while drinking all of their Romulan Ale (at least putting a dent in their supply). Qob also did a good job of putting the Rommie Ambassador down for his feeble attempts at telling Klingon jokes. We had a lot of fun at their expense.

Qe'pa made up a bunch of stickers that read "this tribble has been spayed by the Klingon Empire" that were distributed amongst the crew. We promptly went on a mission to spay all of the tribbles (and a few Feddies) at the con.

The Rakehell's party was, as mentioned above, the Kronos Hunt Club, and had a sign up featuring a pair of tribbles and called, interchangeably, the Rutting Tribble and Rotting Tribble, depending on the side of the sign you were looking at. The room was decorated with pelts from a number interesting creatures including tribbles. Shotgun shell lights, weapons and targets completed the display. The lineup of drinks ranged from Romulan Ale (better than the stuff of the same name served in other party rooms) and the con's favorite, Hot Sex with the Klingons. There was also a bottle of Tribble Sweat on hand, which did not survive the first night of the convention.

The House of Toast was online, as was the U.S.S. Nokomis putting on a two-room party where you have the TOS and Mirror universes. Tardis Tea Society, Torchwood, Vampire Hunters (who never heard of William Bonnie, Junior! Egads! Haven't they ever seen Billy the Kid vs. Dracula?), Tiki Bar, and the Mad Cow Party, just to name a few of the dozens (literally) of parties going on throughout the weekend.

G'Amar and Kosh both had entries in this year's masquerade, and looked very good. Unfortunately we (as in my wife and I) missed about half of the masquerade, including their presentations, however I was serving drinks at the Kronos Hunt Club with Kosh, who was just a skeleton of his former self. His costume was Ghost Rider, and was well received.

The IKV Rakehell put on a performance of a new skit, "Kaptain Kang's Killer Thriller Theater." This one mixed in some video shot before the con and mixed in as a Kaptain Kang serial with live bits of movie trailers.

Kosh sat in on a panel, displaying his gargoyle costume, covering fantasy creatures that was well attended despite being opposite closing ceremonies. His gargoyle costume was a big hit last year and he has been having a lot of fun with it ever since.

Convention attendance was bigger than previous years, as the con continues to grow and attract more people. The attendance count was 2595 present and accounted for, with total registrations of 2711. The hotel was filled to overflow, and a second hotel is now being leveraged to help with the load. Next year will be even bigger as it will be a four-day event celebrating their tenth anniversary. This means get your reservations in early (ours are already in!).

Sunday night was spent relaxing with what was left of the Klingons in attendance heading over to TGI Friday's for dinner, then watching the first couple of episodes of Torchwood.

Convergence keeps getting bigger and better every year, and the hotel staff is probably the friendliest I have run across in all of the years I have been going to conventions.

Much fun was had by all.

Tags:

Convergence Klingon KAG

Posted by Sqotty at 7:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
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Convergence 2006 kicked off with a blast and never slowed down. There were five ships from the Cold Death Quadrant, and Klingons came from points further to see Robert O'Reilly (Gowron) and J.G. Hertzler (Martok), this year's Guests of Honor. And they were well worth the effort to come out to see, as they dominated the convention's scheduled panels, always entertaining, and very fun.

There are a lot of photos in this report, so I had to make thumbnails of them to improve download speed, so please klick on the photo to see the full-size picture.

During their panel's, O'Reilly and Hertzler gave a good accounting of how they entered the acting field and the road that eventually lead them to their famous roles on Star Trek as Gowron and Martok.

67k JPEG Robert O'Reilly and J.G. Hertzler.	75k JPEG Robert O'Reilly and J.G. Hertzler.
70k JPEG J.G. Hertzler.	69k JPEG Robert O'Reilly and Anna Hansen.
64k JPEG Robert O'Reilly and J.G. Hertzler. Robert is waving at my daughter, Anna.	70k JPEG Robert O'Reilly and J.G. Hertzler with Sue and Anna Hansen.
66k JPEG Robert O'Reilly goofing off with microphone holder.	57k JPEG Robert O'Reilly and J.G. Hertzler.

145k JPEG Boba Fett's on patrol.	108k JPEG Boba Fett's. These are some of the crew of the Black Thunder.
107k JPEG Boba Fett's. These are some of the crew of the Black Thunder.	94k JPEG Bridget Landry, science guest of honor. Bridget is a long time friend and currently works for NASA on the Cassini Mission. She is also a "master" level costumer. And now a member of the Clan MacDude.
119k JPEG Sue and Anna in the 3D stellar neignborhood walkthrough. Th science room guys put this up last year as well. Brilliant idea!	93k JPEGAnna meets Connie.

Convergence has earned a reputation as a hard-partying convention, with parties controlling the cabana area, which is a great space for a party zone, and spreading onto the fourth floor this year. Many parties adopted the con's theme, "To Boldly Go…" with great gusto. The RakeHell's "Viva Las Vegas" was very popular, serving up the specialty drinks that has made it famous; although not Klingon, the U.S.S. Nokomis teamed up with the World Defense Force to form a two-room theme party based on the TOS episode, "Mirror, Mirror", complete with agonizer booth. The Warhammer ran the KPLA pirate radio, and, of course, the North Dakota folks put on "Captain Kirk's Den of Ill-Repute." In all, there were some 40, yes, FORTY, parties this year.

74k JPEG I admit it, I don't recall which party this is.	105k JPEG Bridget and Sqotty imbibing the the Rakehell's specialty drink.
69k JPEG Mirror Mirror Party, this half hosted by the World Defense Force.	75k JPEG Mirror Mirror Party, this half hosted by the World Defense Force. Note the agonizer booth.
70k JPEG Mirror Fluffy.	75k JPEG Fluffy and Anna in the Mirror Empire party room.
49k JPEG Mirror Mirror Party - Feddie Side. Hosted by the U.S.S. Nokomis.	49k JPEG Fluffy and Anna in the Mirror Empire party room.
159k JPEG Viva Las Vegas. Hosted by the IKV Rakehell. Qe'pa is getting a minute of relaxation.	86k JPEG Sqotty in the Rakehell party room.
120k JPEG K'Ditzy at the bar in the RakeHell party room.	91k JPEG Mount Olympus, hosted by the Xenaversity.
133k JPEG Klingon Jed in the RakeHell party room.	104k JPEG Klingons in the RakeHell party room.
133k JPEG Klingons in the RakeHell party room.	90k JPEG Honor Harrington in the RakeHell party room.
93k JPEG Sue-la and Susan at the WDF Mirror party room.	75k JPEG Captain Kirk and his House of Ill-Repute.

The masquerade had 25 entries, with four of the entries coming from the IKV RakeHell, including one entry from the ship's up and coming costumer's, Karin, who appeared as He-Man. Karin is six years old, and is on her way to becoming the youngest master level costumer. Qob, JaPa (IKV Black Thunder), Mordok and Sqotty provided comedy relief as the "Chancellor's Personal Guard," set to the tune of "Men in Tights." I wish I had been able to get a video of it. Patrick put in a non-Klingon entry as a Gargoyle, which looked very good, and Qe-Pa and Mordok entered as "Viva Las Vegas." Karin won Best Young Fan, and deservedly so.

81k JPEG Qob, mentally preparing for the Masquarade.	163k JPEG Lamatron 2112. This was a way cool entry, involving lots of electronics, including ear movement. Nicely detailed. Hard to believe the guy sold his Harley to make this rig.
118k JPEG Jelly Fish, nice costume.	130k JPEG Patrick's Gargoyle. He's one of the many entries from the RakeHell
81k JPEG Hello K'itty, this is just so wrong.	142k JPEG in fact, I had to post two pics to get the point across.

Saturday night festivities include a Klingon Wedding for two new members of the IKV Rakehell: Earl and Holly. This ceremony was conducted by Gowron and Martok and attended by throngs of con-goers, with belly-dancers providing pre-ceremony entertainment and followed by a short dance party. This provided a number of photo ops with both O'Reilly and Hertzler.

127k JPEG O'Reilly, Qe'Pa, and Hertzler.	108k JPEG Crowd scene for the wedding.
100k JPEG Ceremony.	99k JPEG Ceremony.
94k JPEG Herzler and Orion Slave Girls. The one on Hertzler's left knee is the bride.	128k JPEG Wendy and Alois at the wedding.

As the festivities continued, O'Reilly and Hertzler were inducted into the Clan MacDude by Sqotty and Qob, joining the ranks of John Colicos (Kor MacDude), William Campbell (Kolath MacDude) and Michael Ansara (Kang MacDude).

89k JPEG O'Reilly and Hertzler join the Clan MacDude, becoming known as the Brothers MacDude. We can still call them Gowron and Martok.	98k JPEG A bunch of MacDudes...except for one.
102k JPEG A bunch of MacDudes...except for one. Same one, in fact.	102k JPEG Sue-la, Gowron, and Sqotty.

Qob then proceeded with KAG promotions and honors, with Gowron and Martok participating in adding to the honor bestowed on a number of fine warriors.

86k JPEG Gowron and Martok preside over promotions, with Qe'Pa receving honors and Qob in the background.

95k JPEG JaPa on the left, Krom second from right, and two other Klingons (okay, one is Sam, but I don't know his Klingon name).

This large gathering ended with a group photo of the all the Klingons gathered around O'Reilly and Hertzler.

82k JPEG Gowron and Martok in a group shot with the Klingons present.	106k JPEG Hertzler and Alois.
125k JPEG One of the many Klingons present.	90k JPEG Hertzler, Qob and Sqotty.

Sunday, last day of the con, was a slow day as people began to wind up their stay.

55k JPEG a space pod from 2001: A Space Odysssy marks the entrance to the main stage.	101k JPEG Hal 9000. The screen ran clips from the movie 2001: A Space Odysssy.
85k JPEG Anna visits Con Ops.	159k JPEG Anna at one of the panels. Would you believe this is her FOURTH convention? It is.

The high point on Sunday for the members of KAG was its presentation during closing ceremonies of a Death Howl Memorial for cast and crew of the Star Trek series who have passed on.

At this point the crew, and many in the audience, let forth with a thunderous roar, and ended it with a tumultuous applause. The dialogue was written by Qob.

During closing ceremonies, J.G. Hertzler announced that he intends to move to the Twin Cities. This will be a welcome addition to the region.

KAG run panels included a Klingon makeup panel lead by Qob.

Convergence was a real blast this year, and consistently delivers lots o panels of interest, from costuming to hard science.

Here's some picutes I didn't exactly fit in wit the above, but wanted to include...

123k JPEG Steve and Terri doing Pigs in Space.	94k JPEG Grommit being stalked by a sheep. No idea who is in the costumes.
115k JPEG Sue-La.	245k JPEG Sqotty MacKlingon.
111k JPEG Batman and Anna.	79k JPEG Patti, stuck between Mirror Empire and a Klingon.
154k JPEG Ivan gets a parting shot.	123k JPEG What would "Viva Las Vegas" be without K'Elvis.

Posted by Sqotty at 6:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
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I am back from Convergence, and getting back to something resembling normal. Between the LMH and myself, we have something like 6GB of photos and video to process. That's a lot!

Convergence was a blast. The Guests of Honor were shown a great time and all want to come back.

Lot's of partyig and miscellaneous adventures.

The one down side is that the hotel changed thier internet policy from FREE to pay lots, so I was unable to blog live from the con. :-(

I'll be posting a full report with pictures and video later in the week. I have to get al of the picturs that I'll be using processed first.

I do have a short video of the Death Howl posted at youtube.com. It will be linked here as soon as I have everything else ready to go.

IKV Rakehell
Convergence
KAG

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Convergence 2005 is officially over! And, as usual, it was a blast. Be sure to check out my during the con reports. See the following pages for more write ups:

Report 1

Report 2

Report 3

Report 4

Now for pictures and more details:

Kelly McCullough, Elizabeth Bear, Patrick Smith (back), Kevin Trainor (seated).

These are the folks that lead the Blogging as Literature panel, which strayed heavily into politics. Intersting panel, and it is hard to separate politics out in any discussion involving blogs, however, it would have helped if the left-wing nut knew what he was talking about. As mentioned in my original post, kudo's to Elizabeth Bear for getting the panel back on topic and off of politics.

One of the really interesting comic book based costumes was Swamp Thing.

The Swamp Thing.

The Swamp Thing Attacks. My, doesn't she look terrified?

Nice Star Wars outfit.

Jed and Elisa, a couple of cool people, and members of the illustrious Clan MacDude.

Qob with guests in the Rakehell party room.

Corncob Macdude, one of the two inductees into the clan from Wisconsin.

The Wisconsin Asylum for Insane Cows party. Mad Cow never looked so good.

And then Mad cow got even better!

The Science Room expanded to the great atrium area with this 3-D display of the galactic neighborhood. The big gold star in the center is the Sun, and the various balloons mark the location of the various stars in our area, with cards taped to the floor listing their names and details. Very cool display. The guys that run the science room here never cease to amaze, and they spend an incredible amount of time developing these displays.

629k JPEG Click the image to see a larger version of this image. Very cool and worth the the download bandwidth.

This is the Mars Rover, parked outside of the Science Room.

The Science Room. One side of it. They also had severl computers running a shuttle landing simulator, which is a really cool flight simulator.

Sharon, one of the volunteers from the Raptor Center. Otis is a Screech Owl cute little guy.

Nice pose from Otis.

This is Chuk, the Peregrin Falcon brought down by the folks from the Raptor Center.

madame Maxine, also known as Max, is a Bald Eagle. She ended up as a permanent raptor center due to an injury to her wrist, which, if I recall what Amber said, is the joint where the wing attaches to the body. don't quote me on that, though.

Very nice shot of Amber holding Madame Maxine. As you can see, Max is pretty darn big. What is interesting is that her body weight is right around 12 pounds. Incredibly light, especially when you realize that wild turkeys, roughly the same height, weigh in around 30 pounds or so.

Elastigirl and Orgasmigirl. Hmm...I wonder...

Mel, Dana, and Elisa. Dana is the good witch, Glenda, from the wizard of Oz. elisa is the Cat. Not sure if Mel was a specific character.

The one, the only picture taken of me at this con. With Elisa and Mel.

Fluffy as the Mad Clown. I believe he said the film was Night of 1,000 Corpses.

Poison Ivy and Battlestar Galactica. Interesting combo.

The Batman. Very cool outfit from the ‘60s era series.

Connie's Space Lounge is one of the con run party rooms, with live music.

The World Defense Force party room, also known as the Bog. Cool bunch of people. Fluffy, who runs this party room with the WDF, is also a member of the Clan MacDude.

And last, but not least, the Scotch Fairy. I have to wonder if he has read the Legend of the Scotch Fairy

The most incredible thing happened this con. I realized recently that a large number of the pics I take at cons since moving to Minesota have Ivan in it. Some how I managed to not have one picture of Ivan from the entire con. Incredible, but true. Or is that Believe it, or not. Take you pick.

No matter how you slice it, this was a great con, and convergence just keeps on getting better year after year. I know that I am not the only one looking forward to seeing what they have in store for us in 2006. And I better book my room much earlier this time, as they are filling the entire hotel.

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The photos with commentary is now up in the
Mission Reports section. Enjoy.

When you are done there, Check out the Rampant Wombat for more Convergence details.

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Convergence 2005 is over. In fact, its now the day after. Time to get this final post finished and write a mission report and put up the photos. Not to mention pick the girls up from doggie camp and get some yard work done around here.

Final numbers for Convergence, roughly, as I didnt have a note pad (and it was also too dark to write during closing ceremonies) was 530 (or so) rooms out of approximately 560 rooms that the hotel has were filled. This means send in th room reservations early. Once again, Convergence had over 2,000 attendees, with the numbers being 2407 memberships sold and 2304 in attendance. And on Saturday night, it felt like it. I only hope this con doesnt outgrow Sheraton Bloomington, as it is a fine hotel, and the layout for conventions is close to ideal.

The Sheraton Bloomington has two areas with function rooms, one in the main tower, where the dealers room, main stage, space lounge, and registration were located, and the club tower where most of the function rooms are located, with a couple of more in between the two towers.

The party zone is in the Cabana, which is two floors of rooms that surrounds the swimming pool and over flowlounging area, and makes for a fairly large, and mostly accessable block of room parties.

The IKV Warhammer (KAG) raised $140 for the American Diabetes Association through their Batleth Tournament and other goodies they had on hand.

Four new members were inducted into the Clan MacDude. This makes roughly 20 Clannies in the upper-Midwest now. :-) Maybe it is time for a room party.

Closing ceremonies included a short parody of fandom (come join our group) with a look at what is in store for next year. Based on what they said, I expect them to have a indepth space program.

The main guests said a few words thanking the attendees for making this the best convention they have ever been to, and coming from Marv Wolfman, Len Wein, Mercedes Lackey, that carries a lot of weight. Mercedes kissed the Convergence Board, one of them repeatedly.

After closing ceremonies, the crew of the Rakehell departed to a nearby, undisclosed, restaurant for dinner and discussions of the con. Were all looking forward to next year.

After words, I went home and crashed, getting a badly needed nine hours of sleep.

Ill have my mission report posted later today, with photos, so be on the lookout for it.

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It is Sunday morning at Convergence 2005. I have survived another night of drunken revelry. At least, this time, it was easier as I chose not to get hammered like on Friday night.

Saturday evening started out with dinner in the bar with some friends, then heading up to the masquerade where we learned we were a day late and a dollar short as the main stage was filled to capacity, so we were sentenced to the overflow area with a couple of hundred others, where we could watch it on big screen TV.

I lost track of the number of entries after 23, however, thats roughly the number. Although I didnt get a good view, and many of the disappeared after the masquerade judging was complete, what I did see was very good.

After the masquerade, it was time to party again. However, tonight, it was somewhat less raucous as many, as I think many decided not to repeat last nights over indulgence, even though the alcohol flowed freely throughout the party zone.

The famous House of Toast, which serves up toast with some 60 different toppings, and sushi, had an early crowd as the line for toast flowed out the door and down the hall.

Belly dancers were also in great supply as the Rakehell had several on hand to provide evening entertainment. Belly dancers were also involved with at least one other room party.

Missing this year was the resident harpest from the Prancing Pony. The Pony was loaded for bear otherwise.

There was also another room that had a fairly full bar serving up mixed drinks, including White Martians. I was that White Russians. Whats the difference.

The DJ run dance floor was rocking, mostly 80s music, with Johnny Quest videos running in the background.

I called it an early night at around 2:30, and got a whopping five hours of sleep.

Con is almost over. Ill have a final report later today, then upload my photos tomorrow.

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Afternoon…the Raptor Center put on a very good demo, featuring three of their touring birds: Otis, the Red Faced Screech Owl; Chuk, the Peregrine Falcon; Madame Maxine, the Bald Eagle.. This was an educational presentation in a freeform format.

The Raptor Center volunteers, Sharon and Amber fielded numerous questions about the center, the birds they brought, and raptors in general.

Something that caught me by surprise was that roughly 30% of the birds brought into the Raptor Center suffer from lead poisoning. There are several factors that cause this to happen, from lead sinkers used in fishing to the use of lead shot when hunting game, the determining factor here is the field dressing of game where the "yummy" freebies are left behind, and often contain lead fragments from the shot. Food for thought, don’t use lead shot when hunting.

The session was also laced with anecdotes of dealing with raptors. I am now thinking of becoming a volunteer, as it would help me learn more about some of my favorite neighbors, the Eagles.

The science center is at this time setting up a scale model of the galactic neighborhood using balloons with the anchors laid out in a grid, giving a walkthrough, 3-d model. A very cool idea. I’ll have pictures posted in my post con report.

Elisa and Jed introduced me two of their con newbie friends, and suggest I behave.

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Its now the morning of Day 2 of Convergence 2005. and I am just a wee bit hung over.

Yesterday, after getting checked in and overcoming problems with the card key programming for the elevator so I can get to my room on the club level, I headed down to the con, picked up my badge, made a first pass through the dealers room, then went to the Friday panel I had planned to visit.

The panel, "Blogs as Literature" started off talking a bit about different blog sites, mostly Live Journal, which is popular amongst SF fans, then degenerated into blogs, the internet and politics. The winner of this round was Kevin Trainor, the lone Libertarian/Conservative type on the panel, the others being two liberals and one rabid left-wing nut whos idea of facts on the internet seems to be similar to Dan Rather and his National Guard memos. Kudos do go to Elizabeth Bear, one of those on the panel (not the left-wing nut) for getting the panel back on topic.

Evening party time was, well, a blast, with three party floors this year, and many of them top notch. The clan MacDude ranks bloomed with several new members with the addition of Jed, Rick, Corncob and Pro. Jed is a Minnesotan, Rick is from Chicago, but spends a lot of time out here and has a number of friends hear, including Jed and Elisa. Corncob and Pro are from Madison Wisconsin.

Fluffy MacDude and the World Defense force had the Bog up again, and I delivered up to fluffy a bottle of 12 year old MacAllen, which we promptly went through about half of the bottle.

Then there was the tribble sweat. I had filled my flask with Wild Tribble 101, which neer failed to get a reaction.

The IKV Rakehell was running its party room, with the groups standard drink of choice, supplemented by numerous other intoxicants, including (and most notably) a fine homebrew provided by Jed.

Corncob, Pro, and their group from Wisconsin were running one heckuva party, with loud Rock and Roll and dancing. Much fun was had until the party shutdown around 3 AM to the group of party goers singing along with American Bye.

After that, it was crash time.

I would like to take a moment to acknowledge the excellent staff of the Sheraton Bloomington, who are once again taking great care of all the crazies (myself included) and dealing with a weekend of non-stop mayhem. They are a darn good crew, and I think this is due to a lot more than the t-sirts the con gives them every year.

More later.

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This is the Twin Cities big convention. Held at the Radisson Bloomington, a hotel nicely laid out for SF conventions, with main party rooms in the cabana surrounding the pool, and meeting rooms throughout the hotel. Attendance was expected to hit 2000, which puts it on a par with BayCon.

The con itself has done a great job of setting up a film room, complete with sofas and easy chairs. The two main media guests will be holding court there and presenting "The Empire Strikes Back". Sounds to be most impressive. The dealers room was full of stuff appealing to most fans, t-shirts, games, swords and daggers, costume stuff, jewelry, as well as books, although I thought that the book selections were lacking (two used book dealers and one new books dealer with a small selection). There was also a science room with displays provided by local astronomy groups and the local chapter of the Mars Society.

The Science Room 95k JPEG

On the first night, although there were many panels, I pretty much missed them, except opening ceremonies, which was very entertaining, opening up with a video poking fun at the hotel they were at last year ("Change the date, or change the hotel...next time, change the date") with a Wizard of Oz parody. A group of storm troopers made a special presentation of Dr. Pepper to the guests. There was also a 42 towel salute as a send off to Douglas Adams, author/creator of the HitchHikers Guide to the Galaxy.

The Friday night party scene was excellent. The local KAG group, IKV RakeHell, were doing their 60's hippy protestors, handing out draft cards and chanting "give war a chance". The Sith party served up "Hore Frost", an intoxicating beverage that was served ice cream float style. Even some of the Feddies showed a touch of style and imagination with very nice, non-standard, star fleet uniforms.

The IKV RakeHell Party 221k JPEG

The IKV RakeHell Party 187k JPEG

The science panel on the solar system (John Lynch, Jay Curry, Michael Sanford): "panspermia" discussion that life on earth did not originate here, but came here via comet, meteor, or other means. discussion of a previous solar system that existed here, prior to what existed, referred to as Nemesis, and bacteria carried here on meteorites contain living amino acids. Seeds found in the pyramids have become germinated, proving that although there cannot be life without water, there are still delivery systems that can carry life from one location to another. Panspermia.org is a recommended website on the subject. An interesting point was made that we (the Earth) have NOT been visited by alien visitors, as they would, most likely, leave behind some bits of their native micro-biology, and if that should prove stronger than the native micro-bilgy, life here as we no it, would have been wiped out. This can be extrapolated and taken further. There was also discussion of free roaming planetary bodies.

Empire Strikes Back: both Peter and Michael agreed that no one, except maybe the three top billed actors (Mark, Carry and Harrison) had a complete script due to the tight security involved in the making of the film. Michael was asked if George Lucas liked his death, said that Lucas told him that it was the best screen death he had seen. Asked who they modeled their characters on, Michael said "Hitler!? I don't know", Peter said he went done to the zoo, modeled after apes and chimps. Chewie would get a guideline from the GL. David and Peter admit they have their call sheets, the only souvenirs they have from shooting empire. Peter told us that the voice of Chewie was actually recordings of a brown bear made at the San Diego Zoo, but he still had to make noises in order to get reactions from the cast embers during the shoots.

"The Empire Strikes Back" Michael Sheard and Peter Mayhew (seated) 72k JPEG

"The Empire Strikes Back" Michael Sheard 130k JPEG

Down on the cabana was a leisure chat room, Krushenko's, where topics of discussions included biohorror genre, and what makes it different from other horror stories, from H.G. Wells and H.P. Lovecraft to Michael Crichton and the Andromeda Strain. This discussion eventually lead into FrankenFood, the genetic engineering of food stocks and the socail/health impact it is having, such as the recent Starlink corn ending up in the human food chain debacle.

Room parties were the places to be on Saturday night, jammed pack with partiers drifting from room to room and conversation to conversation. Krushenko's was frequently busy, and the RakeHell protest party was jammed pack through most of the evening. The Feddies were out in full force, and the frequent encounters with the Klingon's ended in drinks and good cheer. The highlight of the evening was Klingon Wedding of K'Elvis, the King of Rock and Roll!

K'Elvis 119k JPEG

Sunday was, as with most three day cons, a relatively slow day, with nothing happening until after 10, and more accurately after 12, as most con goers were sleeping in after a long night of reveling. Michael Sheard and Paul Mayhew were back at it, signing autographs for the fans and chatting it up. Nice guys, and I, for one, hope to see them again.

The closing ceremony was the main event of the day. Most cons that I had been to that had a closing ceremony, I found it rather dull, however, ConVergence was different. It was opened by the/crew of the IKV RakeHell performing "The Big Sleep Strikes Back", a Star Wars noir skit written in a style reminiscent of the hard boiled detective novels of Raymond Chandler. The audience roared with laughter as Qui-Gon Marlowe went on the trail to find the missing Luke Skywalker, hired by Princess Leia weilding a cigarette at the end of a very long extended filter wand, only to be chastised by her when he fails to turn up anything but Han Solo frozen in carbonite. It ended with Marlowe requesting the barkeep to "play it again, Sam" and the Stars Wars theme.

Scenes from "The Big Sleep Strikes Back"

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Additional photos at Convergence

Posted by Sqotty at 8:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
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Silly me! I didn't take a lot of notes. Just pics.
Enjoy!

166k JPEG Laura, the Captain of the IKV Rakehell

182k JPEG Evil, but cute

153k JPEG Klingon pirate radio

130k JPEG Klinging on to the lady!

161k JPEG Klingon sword fighting demo

106k JPEG a scene from Sis'Kil and Kil'bert, by the IKV RakeHell

189k JPEG The Borg on patrol

193k JPEG Moulon Rouge

176k JPEG The B-Squad

174k JPEG Ming and K'Elvis

additional photos at Convergence

Posted by Sqotty at 8:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
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All pics are thumbnails. Klick on the image link for a larger view.

Convergence 2003, running over the 4th of July weekend, and held at the Bloomington Radisson Hotel, started off with a bang. Party bang, that is.

After getting checked into the hotel and gear moved into my room, I sought out my comrade in arms of the IKV Rakehell (KAG) and IKV Warhammer (IKF), and checked out the Cabana area, where the party scene would be. A quick description of the Cabana party zone. It's two levels of rooms that encircle an indoor pool and Jacuzzi (hey, this is the Mid-West, we get real Winters, you know) on three sides, with the parties spilling out into a large carpeted area where tables were set up for additional carousing.

After getting hooked up and dropping off some banners for the IKF party room, I hooked up with some of the Rakehell crew and headed to the restaurant for some fuel.

One carouses at parties, and I somehow missed opening ceremony...oh, wait, I was getting Klin-ed up for party night!

The Rakehell's party theme for this convergence was Konquistador, and the ship's bar had added Margarita's, Montezuma's Revenge (A Warrior's Drink) and several variations to the classic Hot S@x, including vir-gin H.S. and Alien H.S. The crew had spent Thursday night prepping the party room, an event I (gleefully?) missed out on due to having to work late at the shop.

127k JPEG Sqotty, with two Klingons up from Iowa.

116k JPEG Laura, Captain of the Rakehell

103k JPEG Mary of the Rakehell

Next door on one side was the IKF party room, which was doing a beach party theme and where one could imbibe in the finest Bloodwine, provided by Bloodmead MacDude. On the other side was Ming the Merciful running the entire (or nearly entire) Time Tunnel series from the mid-60's.

On the other side of the Cabana was the House of Toast, one of my favorite party rooms, not just because they serve sushi, well, okay, because they serve sushi.

106k JPEG House of Toast (and Sushi)

Down line from there was the Prancing Pony where one could tank up on root beer and shortbread (best I've had since I left CA where Angus of Clan Donald was a master maker of shortbread). The two Shield Maidens of Rohan below were tasked at making normal people feel like hobbits, and at well over 6' tall, they were succeeding.

115k JPEG Shield Maidens at Prancing Pony

Friday night is the night I typically pull duty in the Rakehell party room, and once relieved, I headed out for some more partying. Before I knew it, I was running out of steam at 2am, and headed for the crash zone. Okay, before I get harangued for being a whimp and going to bed so early, I had been up since 5:30 Friday morning, as that's when the dual alarm (Katya and Tasha, the wonder dogs) woke me up for morning walkies. At least I would be able to sleep in 'til 7:30.

Saturday was the big day at the con. The IKF was hosting a Batleth Tournament to raise money for the American Diabetes Association, and was also (unfortunately?) the attraction of the people behind the film "Trekkies 2". The Tournament was once again a rousing success, and fun was had by all involved.

111k JPEG Bat'leth Tourney

Meanwhile, one of the hottest spots throughout the con, Krushenko's, there was a panel on MN writer's groups, and it looks like a couple of new ones are forming, and hopefully I will be involved with one of them.

After that, I managed to miss the Masquerade in favor of fueling up the body and getting Klin-ed up for the evening's revelries. I decided to not wear my new Liene as it was drenched from Friday. Hey, with all of that gear on, it was no wonder I was sweating like a tribble. I opted for a more casual look for Saturday, and headed down to the Cabana in time for the parties to open up.

Ran into JP, one of the Klingons from Iowa, who had also opted for the more casual look. Dug his PETA T-Shirt so I had to take a pic and post it. "People for the Eating of Tasty Animals". Pass the steak sauce, please.

100k JPEG KPLA Pirate Radio

IKF ran it's Pirate Radio, KPLA, and had guest visitors sitting in with them for interviews and other fun stuff.

108k JPEG KPLA Pirate Radio

117k JPEG KPLA Pirate Radio

The evening's highlight (and possibly Convergence's) was the Jar-Jar Piñata hosted by the Rakehell. Although not exactly a real piñata, it got the point across, and got pretty badly shredded after awhile.

141k JPEG Jar-Jar Piñata

84k JPEG Jar-Jar Piñata

After the parties wound down, we broke down most of the Rakehell party room before calling it a night and stumbling off to rooms.

All in all, one heckuva good con.

A few last pics.

101k JPEG Medusa

67k JPEG Wonder Woman

97k JPEG Science Room

additional photos at Convergence

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