Welcome to my Sci-Fi Convention web page!
Not just for Stargate fans...
Random thoughts about cons & scifi in general...
May 25, 2011 Happy Geek Pride Day!
My friend Torie & I have adopted the phrase "who can say that?". We volunteer for scifi conventions and get to meet and sometimes work with our favorite scifi actors. Oh the stories...but we never kiss and tell...well not everything. It's really a surreal experience. Who can say they did crowd control for Lou Ferrigno? Who can say Marina Sirtis gave them spanakopita? Or that they once sat in a hotel restaurant with Gary Graham, Christopher Lloyd and Tony Todd's brother? WE CAN! :-)
July 27, 2010
May the Force be With You. My non scifi friends are quick to make fun of my scifi-ness. But mention Star Wars, and suddenly they all come out of the woodwork. News Flash, Star Wars is sci-fi!
January 24, 2010
So I was so excited about the "premiere" of Caprica...but the more I watched it the more I realized I had seen it before. I must have rented the DVD when it came out which apparently had the episode on it. It took me 20 minutes on the web to find this out. So now I have to wait 2 weeks for a never-seen-before episode.
What's up with that!
September 11, 2009
I've got the greatest friends in the world. Just as BSG has their "ragtag fleet" of mismatched ships, so as it is with the friends I keep. A teacher, a vegan, a government worker, a pharmaceutical exective, and Torie. If we can all get along, with our diverse views and lifestyles, why can't everyone else? A Rag Tag Fleet of friends I have. So Say We All!
July 5th, 2009
What the heck is going on with conventions? Used to be you would go up to an actors table, pay $20, get an autographed 8x10, and take a picture with them using your own camera. Now everything is a la carte, and the prices are ridiculous. Most recently I've seen Nimoy for $75, Ben Browder for $70 (whatever!). And now some actors will only allow photos via "photo ops" with a professional photographer. Hold on to your seats for this one...Patrick Stewart's at Dragoncon are $200! Yes, that's two zeros! So what used to cost me $20 bucks just 4 years ago, now costs me, on average, $40 + $40. Which on most occasions I skip the autographs do the photo op, & split it with a friend. And people are more than willing to pay these prices, even in today's economy! Someone call CNN.
May 16, 2009
How did I become addicted to Twilight? Or is it who "turned" me? (you know who you are). The girl who "doesn't do vampires" was convinced to "just read the first book". Yeah right! Two weeks later I was running down the street to borrow the fourth book from a neighbor. Another soul caugth up in the Twilight obsession. To tell the truth, being the visual person I am, I saw the movie first. Helped me envision the characters I was reading about. And now this girl has gone from Twilight to Moonlight to Angel...
And lucky for me, there's a con for that.
March 10, 2009
Here's a story worth mentioning. If you've seen the photos on my convention pages, you can see that I'm a fan of many scifi shows. One of those is the new Battlestar Galactica. Last year I decided to go back to school to become a teacher; there were 6 exams I had to take for certification in my state. I had taken and passed 5, leaving the essay exam for last, since writing makes me nervous. I showed up at the exam site on a Saturday morning; of course I had watched BSG the night before and I had dressed comfortably for the exam in a track suit and BSG tshirt. Now the writing prompt is unknown until the exam begins and you open the test booklet. Well of all possible scenarios, my prompt was (to the best of my memory something like this) "talk about a tv show or movie that mirrors society". Didn't take me long to figure that one out! I wish I had a copy of my essay. I remember mentioning politics, war, religion, relationships...I figured I would pass with flying colors and/or the evaluator would have one heck of a laugh. The teaching position I wanted was available and it all was dependent on an essay I wrote about Battlestar Galactica...
The Lords of Kobol must have been looking over me. I passed the essay, got the teaching job, and just spent the most wonderful first year any teacher could ask for!
March 1, 2009
Convention survival kit:
Bottle of water (standing in line for hours dehydrates you)
Hand sanitizer (the thought of all those bazillions of germs!)
Body spray-to mask the smell of others & yours
Extra camera battery-don't stand in line for 2 hours to NOT get the photo
Cereal or snack bar-how embarrasing to faint from low blood sugar when it's your turn
Cash-the ATMs always run out
Observation: it's funny to see the change in actors when you meet them in the first season of their show, and then after a successful few seasons...I've seen some actors go from humble to diva. A certain young actor from BSG, and another from SG1. Don't let the spotlight go to your heads, guys.
Sometime two years ago...
This is a work in progress. I have to let you know how difficult writing is for me, I have a hard time getting my ideas and thoughts out of my head and onto paper (or a computer, for that matter!). It’s like being in a constant state of writer’s block. My attention tends to jump around a lot too, so I will start writing something, think of something else, and I find myself going back and forth!
I have to thank all of those fan writers I’ve met at cons that inspired me to write. Oh and I have to thank my husband and kids for putting up with this crazy con obsession of mine.
I Love sci-fi. Call me what you will, a Trekkie, Trekker, Scaper, Fargater, whatever. I’m all of those.
Sci-Fi Enthusiast, maybe. More like Sci-Fi Obsessionist (I think I just made up a new word!). I remember my first favorite show to be Land of the Lost. Not space related, but kinda falls into the category Science Fiction. As far as space shows go, Star Trek-The Next Generation was my first Love. I’ve seen every episode. However, I started watching it after the series had ended! Then there were other shows in between, but I have never been so obsessed with a show as I have been with Stargate. I am so blessed to have had 10 seasons of a sci-fi show that I Love! It's tough to be a sci-fi fan. Just when we get a great show, it goes away.
Then one day I saw a commercial for a Sci-Fi convention featuring Michael Shanks. I didn’t even know Sci-Fi conventions existed. I had heard about those Star Trek ones (who hasn’t!) but thought those were a thing of the past; never mind conventions with actors from all sorts of sci-fi shows. So I dragged my oldest son along (he was only 7 at the time). I became completely OBSESSED. Since November 2003, at the time of this writing, I have been to 13 cons. I could have bought a Harley…
What amazes me about meeting a new actor, you have all this anticipation before the con, you watch their show and think “oh my gosh, I’m going to meet that person”. Then you get anxious “what am I going to say? What if I say something stupid?” Then when you actually meet them, especially in an intimate setting like a banquet or dessert party, all of a sudden they’re a regular person like you and that has an interesting job. And they’re all so tiny; tiny people that look so big on tv. Then when you see them on tv after meeting them, it’s like it’s not the same person. You’re really able to separate them from their character.
Another thing that I’ve found surprising is that every actor I’ve met is really humble. None (at least the one’s I’ve met) are divas or arrogant. They all completely realize that we are the ones that provide their paycheck, and are completely appreciative.
It also blows me away how many wonderful, truly great friends I’ve made at these conventions. Some are acquaintances that you look forward to seeing at the next con, and others are truly sisters at heart. (you know who you are!).
I absolutely love the Q&A Panels. I especially love (and I’m obviously not alone) stories of behind-the-scenes pranks and bloopers. And how the actor got the part.
Some girls watch soaps, I watch sci-fi. Some girls go to the spa for the weekend, I go to the sci-fi conventions. What can I say.
Hope you enjoy the site and my adventures at cons. Hope it’s not to boring or just drags on. We take our memories for granted, so if nothing else I can go back and say “oh, I forgot about that time!”
Gatefan