So, this September, Liz and myself are shipping off to DragonCon, the geekiest convention ever created. If a comedy is slagging off geeks, this is the convention they use as a backdrop. That is how awesome this thing is going to be.

So, this whole mad story started back in my 4th year, when I attended the last New Media Expo to be held in California. This was a pretty much 100% business conference, with multiple talks going on all the time about how to make money out of your show, how to sell your show to listeners and how to “monetize the user experience”. While it was great fun, and VERY informative, I found that I got little chance to hang out with people I only knew online, such as Scott Sigler, Tee Morris and the likes. (In fact, I 100% blame my short time and inability to buy Siggy a drink on Tee, but that’s another story, for another time.) Dragon*Con, however, will be 100% about the fandom side of sci-fi and such, and thus I hope to get more hangout time, and less getting glared at for being a teenager in a “Big Boy Conference”. Which happened.

Originally, there were meant to be three of us going on the trip. Liz, Girl X and myself. So we got in touch with John Merlin, who was also attending the conference (with me… We are planning something, and YOU can’t know what it is! Yet!) and booked us a nice roomy 4 person bedroom, two kingsize beds, breakfast and all. Then, all of a sudden, Liz and Girl X seemingly dropped out on me, leaving me pretty screwed over, in terms of that hotel that Zard had booked. It didn’t take long, however, for Zard and I to work something out, and I soon rebooked a two person room in the Swanky (and much closer to the event) Westin Peachtree Plaza Hotel (second-tallest all-hotel skyscraper in the Western Hemisphere)

One thing that people may remember me for from the last conference I was at was my signed microphone, which I handed around the New Media Expo and got people to sign, resulting in people remembering me to this day. I may be pulling a similar gag this year, just with my new MXL V67 microphone, but I shall have to consider it. It has slightly less body space, as far as I can see, so I may have to let people sign the grill.

So, I have a few questions for you.

If you have ever been to Dragon*Con, or a similar huge conference, what sort of gear should I bring with me? I am aware of the 3-2-1 rules (three hours slate, two square meals and one shower per day) but what else should I know?

Should I book restaurants long in advance?

Last, but not least, who else will be going? I wanna meet you all at some point!

Tags: con, convention, Dragoncon, geek

So chatter about this film will likely stray into this week’s View From the Quad episode at some point, but I thought that I would write a review of James Cameron’s film, Avatar (or how I learnt to stop worrying and love the storyline). Now, as you may know, I think that trying to discuss a film and not give spoilers is a total waste of time. That’s why I always do it at the end of VFTQ episodes. That way if people don’t want to be spoiled, they can just turn off. So be warned. The ending of this film WILL be discussed in the following paragraphs. And if you plan to see this film (you should) you should stop reading now. Unless you have already seen the film.

I should tell you about my cinema experience first.Because that’s important, you know.

So, David, Greg and myself arrived at the cinema to find out that the pleb seats were all sold out. (This being Dundrum, they have a special 90% of all seats reserved for the working classes, which is what not rich people usually pay a tenner for entry into.) We had to pay a full €17 to get into the fancy ass section of the cinema, which had seats exactly like those on the Enterprise, lots and LOTS of legroom and very not sticky floors, things that one does not expect on your normal cinema outing.

Me, getting ready to watch Avatar

Oh, also, there were these two waiters who sat at the side, who you could snap your fingers at and they would fetch you a “soda of your choice or perhaps a popcorn, kind Sir?” I shit you not. They had waiters at a cinema. Oh, also, the drinks and popcorn were free. We had to pay 50 cent for the 3D glasses though. I found this slightly odd. But sure, whatever makes them happy. Would I happily pay €17 again for a fancy seat? Hell no. Back to the realms of the unwashed for me, if you don’t mind.

So, here things start getting spoilerific. This is the general outline of the Avatar story.

There is this huge rich mine of a metal called (rather hilariously, for anybody who is a pop-culture fanatic) Unobtainium on this planet called Pandora. And the big ugly dirty Hoomans (or Sky People as the Na’vi call them) want to mine it for selling back on earth. Of course, the natives have their huge basecamp right on top of the riches mine, and thus the humans want them to move their arses. One of their weapons in arse-movery is the Avatar Program, where scientists and researchers pretty much transport their consciousnesses from their own minds to these odd native clone things so that they can go into the forest and try to talk the natives out of wanting to live on top of the big thing worth lots of money. Sadly, one of their freshly trained Avatar operators died, which makes his Avatar totally useless as each clone thing is tied to the DNA of it’s operator. But wait! The dead guy has a twin! How helpful! And to add drama, the twin has nonoperational legs! Oh noes! Long story short, the twin takes over the Avatar, falls in love with a native and ends up betraying the human race by saving the Na’vi from the bombs and such of the trigger happy army set up on Pandora to protect the minors. Lots of predictable things happen, but so do lots of unpredictable things. One of my favorite unpredictable things was that the movie was actually quite good!

As you may have noticed, this film is released in 3D. And much like Up, this film has got it right. There is not a single bit in the film where something jumps out at you, scaring the bejaysus out of you. The film industry have finally stopped treating 3D technology like a fun toy, and have actually started making great movies with it. The entire movie looks like you are looking through a window, which is how it should be. I didn’t get a headache from the 3D, but some people claim to have gotten them. My advice for people who suffer from 3D headaches is NOT to focus on the background. In films we are used to looking at the background of shots, as this is where the director hides tiny details. But in the current 3D technology, when we do this, our brain is tricked into thinking that it is an ACTUAL background, and thus tries to focus it. And fails. Because it’s a screen, idiot! Thus: Headaches.

There was only two moments in the entire film where I broke out of the story and thought “ah now. That’s just silly.” The first was when they are flying thorough the floating mountains. I managed to suspend my disbelief when it came to them actually floating, but waterfalls? Seriously? How did the water get up there? You are above the cloud line! The second time was when Jake is fighting against the Mech in his Na’vi form. That’s just silly. I’m sorry. A humanoid can NOT successfully block a punch thrown by a crazy robot. Speaking of which, the robot should have had the guns built into his arms. Anything else is just silly design.

So. What was my general impression of Avatar? I’m totally going again. And you should go too.

Tags: avatar, film, movie