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Gside> It was a pleasure hanging out with you. I know we met at 2003, but I was so completely being pulled in eight different directions at all times, no time to just hang out.

Hope to see you next year.
Greg Bishansky
Sunday, August 7, 2005 10:55:07 PM
IP: 69.118.108.212

I suppose I owe a con journal, don't I? Didn't take any notes, so I've forgotten most people's names.

Trip wasn't so interesting. Got into Vegas late Thursday. The plane was practially full. Why are there so many people flying from Jersey to Vegas on a red eye? But after that got a ride to the hotel and slept. Next day, I went for breakfast then waited around the main lobby for registration. Didn't know until I asked some passing congoers that there was a lobby to the con area. After getting my con packet, there wasn't much to do for a while but stand around and chat.
When panels actually started, I planned to peek in on the round robin, then steal some of the food from the con virgin panel. However, I got roped into the robin; we had some fun. The operative phrase of it being, "around in a circle, going, 'Wheeee'". I like to think I helped Wolfers get that spit take. After that stole some cake and melted ice cream from the remains of the con virgin panel before the grammar panel. Emambu offered a cookie to anyone who spotted two existing mistakes in his handout. I thought I saw two missing commas, but that was a no go.
I believe it was at the writing for animation panel that most people noticed the winner of the Most Stereotypical Fanboy award, Dark Lord. If you didn't take the time to read his nametag, he was identifiable by his light blue mini duffel.
I stopped off for a rest and to get rid of my package o'stuff before Opening Ceremonies. The greetings from the cast were fun, espcially Keith David's being denied everything... even his convention.
From there, it was dinner at the buffet with A Fan, then the Blue Mug. Greg wimped out of what color exactly females are on the excuse of being color blind; and I'd like to take partial credit for a resurgance near the end of the thing by asking which cast members have the best sex. I should have included a past and future rider there so the answer wouldn't be so obvious.

And I'll need to be getting up for work tomorrow, so I'll end it here for now, and see if I can't get more up tomorrow with some responses.

Na zdorov'ya.
Gside - [gside@comcast.net]
Fair Haven, NJ
Sunday, August 7, 2005 10:53:02 PM
IP: 68.83.187.89

First Knight > Well, if Merlin has any taste, he'd hate it. That movie (and I use the term loosely) was the Arthur/Guinivere/Lancelot triangle if Hollywood had done it. It was little more than a vehicle for Richard Gere to swoon female audiences as Lancelot... and he does get the girl in the end.

It was a terrible, terrible movie.
Greg Bishansky
Sunday, August 7, 2005 06:24:22 PM
IP: 69.118.108.212

HARVESTER - I haven't seen "First Knight" myself, and so can't be certain over what Merlin might have thought of it (though I doubt that he'd have liked it).

A further irony in the Disney movie is that Merlin's portrayed in it as utterly unenthusiastic about the young Arthur taking such an interest in knights and jousting and is attempting to steer him away from it - when Arthur's future role as king is going to be strongly associated with such matters! Merlin really must have had a vague idea as to what Arthur was supposed to be doing (maybe believing that he was to be a medieval scientist, a la Pope Sylvester II or Roger Bacon)!

I'd forgotten that line of his to Archimedes until you reminded me of it. One bit that I got a kick out of was when Merlin's up in his tower, trying to remember just where he is (to Archimedes's disgust), when suddenly he hears Sir Ector bellow "Can't you remember anything?" Whereupon Merlin retorts in indignation to that, until he discovers that Ector's actually chewing out Kay down below.

By the way, how far have you gotten in "Out of the Blue" as yet? You've obviously read the scene where Merlin's feeling grumpy over having seen "The Sword in the Stone" and Mary's cheerfully teasing him over it, but how far did you get past it? Just curious.
Todd Jensen
St. Louis, MO
Sunday, August 7, 2005 06:11:41 PM
IP: 4.245.16.70

Todd: Not to mention the fact that at one point in the movie, Merlin was also barking like a dog at a lady squirrel (and telling her he's just "horrible, grouchy old man"). And as I recall, Merlin had very little to do with guiding Arthur to his destiny. He wasn't even in the same century when Arthur was in London, and freed the sword. There was one moment I did enjoy though, and that was the scene when Merlin threatened to turn his pet owl, Archimedes, into a human, and Archimedes's response to this ("you wouldn't!").

While we're on the subject, I also wonder what Merlin would think of the movie "First Knight." I know he wasn't even a character in that one, but it was also missing many other characters from the legends.
Harvester of Eyes
Sunday, August 7, 2005 10:31:38 AM
IP: 69.174.1.148

DPH - Actually, it was Ed Reynolds, not me, who included the Green Knight in TGS.
Todd Jensen
St. Louis, MO
Sunday, August 7, 2005 06:39:23 AM
IP: 4.244.12.102

Just finished posting my Gathering photos and a few new pieces of art that premiered at the Gathering like "Kill David"
Revel - [<------Gathering Photos!]
Sunday, August 7, 2005 01:23:05 AM
IP: 24.182.112.92

In my world lit 1 class, I took a test Thursday over the stories of Beowulf and Gawain & the Green Knight. Todd - Didn't you slip a reference to the later story in Pendragon Season 4? We're gettign to study Hamlet; we just went over the morality play "Everyman".

I added a bit of trivia that the professor didn't know. He noticed the name Reynard was assigned to several foxes in literature and didn't know what the name Reynard means. You would think he would have looked up the meaning of the name because it appeared so often.
dph
ar, usa
Saturday, August 6, 2005 09:07:49 PM
IP: 63.232.255.212

Dezi - "Mooncat: What's with the X..my mind's a little fuzzy, but you never used that before, did you? hee hee fuzzy..."

Pets the fuzzy Dezi *^_^* I added the X because there are now zillions of other Mooncats out on the web, and when I join new forums my user name is often already tagged out. So, hence the X addition. Just a little something to personalize my user name.


MooncatX
Saturday, August 6, 2005 12:10:56 AM
IP: 68.102.17.133

HARVESTER - Actually, both dates for Hiroshima are correct, since the bomb was dropped on August 5, U.S. time, but August 6, Japan time.

I'm glad that you enjoyed the Season Three finale to "Pendragon". I'll admit that we had some genuine uncertainty over how to wrap it up, but we still had some fun working on it. The idea of Arthur saving Braddock's life at the Houses of Parliament was one of the very first ideas for the Fugitive arc (Damien Tobin, who proposed that arc, also suggested that idea).

I'm glad that you liked the Merlin-Mary-Morgana business as well; I was fond of it (including Merlin and Mary's first kiss). I wonder if you suddenly felt a sense of "Gargoyles deja vu", incidentally, over Morgana's feelings for Mary being at odds with her desires for revenge.

Jumping to Season Four (and, yes, it's the last one - we'd planned a Season Five at one point, but it was finally called off, alas), Merlin's lack of fondness for the "Sword in the Stone" movie was one of my ideas. I like the movie myself, but I couldn't resist wondering how he'd respond to seeing a depiction of himself as hopelessly forgetful and getting his beard tangled in everything (not to mention that Merlin, in the movie, almost ruins his assignment by keeping Arthur from going to London for the tournament and pulling the Sword out of the Stone there!). Add on to that how he'd feel if his girl-friend was seeing the movie with him.... (The idea may have also been partly influenced by one of my favorite scenes in "Batman Beyond", where Bruce Wayne goes to see a really campy musical take on Batman and is thoroughly disgusted by it.)
Todd Jensen
St. Louis, MO
Friday, August 5, 2005 06:28:14 PM
IP: 4.244.12.250

Okay, I just goofed. Today's date is August 5, which would make the date of the bombing August 5, 1945. I've been working way too hard lately.
Harvester of Eyes
Friday, August 5, 2005 12:22:32 PM
IP: 69.174.1.148

I've not read that Timedancer story (I'm going ahead and finishing the entire Pendragon series first), so I am afraid that I can't comment on it. I will say, however, that my grandfather was one of the people involved in the Manhattan Project. He and his colleagues had to assemble a part of the bomb, and although they were never told what the final product was going to be, they were pretty sure. He's said that he never really lost any sleep over it. If the bombs hadn't been dropped, the war would have gone on for a few more years, and ultimately probably would have taken as many lives as were lost on August 6, 1945 (of course, I can't say if that figure includes the people who succumbed to various forms of cancer in the years afterward).


Todd: I finished Pendragon, Season Three several days ago. Wow. A lot revealed in this one. While I had some issues with the resolution between Arthur and the authorities (they really had nothing concrete to show the police, but I'd say that the fact Arthur saved Nigel's life, as well as the fact that his daughter seemed to know him, was probably enough to convince him that Arthur could not be the Connection). Regardless of how that was resolved, I'd say the scene between Merlin and Morgana made up for it. I especially liked the use of objective narrative, which was often a favorite tool of Hitchcock's: we know something, but the character in the story does not. We know that Morgana and Mary are not really the same person, but Merlin doesn't. This only makes Merlin's reaction hit harder to home. Ultimately, that was more effective than if we had been left in the dark along with Merlin. Plus, the scene finally brought Merlin and Mary's true feelings out into the open. And it looks like Morgana just became more complex. She seems to want to have a relationship with Mary, but she just can't see past her personal vendetta.

And I have started reading Season Four since Season Three. I've heard in previous posts that there are no further seasons of Pendragon planned. So it should be interesting to see where everything that's been set in motion eventually winds up. On, and Merlin's comments on "The Sword in the Stone" (which I used to have on VHS, and I remember the Bermuda scene quite clearly) make me wonder what he'd think of the movie "Excalibur."
Harvester of Eyes - [Minstrel75@gmail.com]
Friday, August 5, 2005 11:43:29 AM
IP: 69.174.1.148

Well, I recall that when that particular Timedancer story came out, there was a lively discussion here about how accurate its take on the biology of gargoyle stone sleep (and how an atomic explosion would affect it) was.
Todd Jensen
St. Louis, MO
Friday, August 5, 2005 08:20:55 AM
IP: 4.245.20.114

Normally, I draw a distinction between fan-fiction and reality. But since this is the 60th anniversary of the Hiroshima & Nagasaki bombings and the Gathering folks have only sparsely reported on last weekend. Anyone care to discuss the Timedancer story "I am Become Death"?
Taleweaver
Friday, August 5, 2005 08:02:48 AM
IP: 207.69.136.198

Mooncat: What's with the X..my mind's a little fuzzy, but you never used that before, did you? hee hee fuzzy...
Dezi
Friday, August 5, 2005 12:16:05 AM
IP: 68.54.214.198

The Gathering was a blast *^_^* -- Vegas was fun but expensive, food is only cheap if you go out of your way to eat somewhere not on the Strip in the big Casinos, and the weather is so horribly hot and dry wandering around for cheapie places isn't your first choice. All the food and water in the Strip places is rather pricey, but drinks... alcoholic drinks, are very very CHEAP. Beer and Margaritas are cheaper than bottles of water.

Spent eight days and seven nights there, with Allaine, Princess and Summer Jackel was with us for three of them *^_^* we had fun!

MooncatX


MooncatX
Friday, August 5, 2005 12:08:13 AM
IP: 68.102.17.133

Happy Birthday, Spen!
Todd Jensen
St. Louis, MO
Thursday, August 4, 2005 07:34:56 PM
IP: 4.244.12.109

Dezi : I've read the CR archives, I know that the CR dies around the gathering, I was wondering why the same wasn't going on at Station 8.

Fire Storm : Welcome back! "Also, after running for a few years, Windows 95 and 98 installs just become unstable." In my case, the freezing problem has been going on since the day I bought the computer six years ago. It's a 98 BTW.

As a side note, it's my birthday today.


Spen
Thursday, August 4, 2005 07:02:59 PM
IP: 207.177.11.252

Ok, so talking about computers brought me out of the woodwork.

Harvester: From experience, the only way that dust contamination would be a factor is if there is a thick ( > 1/4") of dust covering the motherboard (and yes, I have seen dust blankets that thick and thicker on systems I have worked on). That would act as an insulating blanket and heat up the components, causing thermal damage over a long term. If this is the case, the problem is likely the RAM.
Also, after running for a few years, Windows 95 and 98 installs just become unstable. Not sure why, it just does.

OCP-001: XP: You have never had XP crash on you? Lucky. I have an install on a 1.4ghz machine that runs so VERY slowly (no spyware, no adware, no virus), I have had glitchs in XP so severe that flatten and reinstall is the only option, and I oh so frequently have to reinstall XP on systems that just simply loose their reigstry/kernel/other important info.
And all of these were either on my own systems or on the 400 systems at work.
To me, the most stable Windows install was 3.1. NEVER had a problem with that. 2003 server and XP take 2nd and 3rd place.
Fire Storm
Thursday, August 4, 2005 04:41:24 AM
IP: 68.21.39.3

Harvester & Spen: Regardless of S8 it seems that the CR here dies pretty good during the Gathering. Dunno why, but this isn't the first time, and prolly not the last.
Dezi
Wednesday, August 3, 2005 10:05:01 PM
IP: 68.54.214.198

OCP-001 : "Freezing is caused by spyware" Then why does my non-online computer freeze about three times a day?

Harvester : I'm afraid it's a problem you'll just have to live with. To the best of my knowlegde, there is no way to stop it.
"I blame the Gathering" Then why was the S8 CR so busy?
Spen
Wednesday, August 3, 2005 08:41:18 PM
IP: 207.177.11.252

harvester> Freezing isn't caused by dust, as far as I know, and I built my own computer. Freezing is caused by spyware and software conflicts. If your copy of windows is old, and is 95 or 98 and not XP, then crashing is going to be an issue no matter what. I have XP and it never crashes.

Download, update, and run these programs:

Ad-Aware personal SE (http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/)

Spybot search and destroy. (http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html)

Even if you haven't been online in a while, you STILL have to run these (trust me!). Let me know what comes up, I'm curious.
OCP-001
Wednesday, August 3, 2005 06:47:20 PM
IP: 24.92.59.173

OCP: Someone informed me last night (or early morning, rather) that Greg announced at the Gathering that the first 26 episodes of Season 2 were being released on DVD this December. I forgot to ask her about the comic, though, but I was tired.
Harvester of Eyes - [Minstrel75@gmail.com]
Wednesday, August 3, 2005 09:43:38 AM
IP: 69.174.1.148

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pacific poker download, pacific poker download, pacific poker download
Wednesday, August 3, 2005 08:59:04 AM
IP: 80.28.207.180

Nine is fine.
Starsinger
Wednesday, August 3, 2005 07:24:03 AM
IP: 209.240.205.61

I have a technical question: if your computer keeps freezing for no reason, and you know it can't be the result of a virus, because this particular computer has not been hooked up to the internet in a long time, could the reason it keeps freezing be due to dust contamination? I took the outer casing off, and all the connections seem to be in place, but there was a lot of dust on the boards.
Harvester of Eyes - [Minstrel75@gmail.com]
Tuesday, August 2, 2005 11:13:52 PM
IP: 69.174.1.148

Back from the Gathering, and not looking forward to working tomorrow. I'll have write up a journal later, but someone should say it in here:

Congratulations Revel and Spacebabie.

In an unofficial ceremony conducted by Emambu in the con suite after the con, they pledged themselves mates.

Na zdorov'ya.
Gside - [gside@comcast.net]
Fair Haven, NJ
Tuesday, August 2, 2005 11:10:10 PM
IP: 68.83.187.89

*snags lucky 7*
Mecord's Cat
Tuesday, August 2, 2005 07:11:52 PM
IP: 24.10.141.91

Sixth!
Spen
Tuesday, August 2, 2005 03:40:34 PM
IP: 207.177.11.252

"Five is the loneliest number..."

okay, so it doesn't have the same ring as "one..."

:)


Rodlox
Tuesday, August 2, 2005 09:57:08 AM
IP: 68.49.173.148

Fourth or fifth, either way it's good.
Taleweaver
Monday, August 1, 2005 11:52:13 PM
IP: 207.69.137.139

Third!
Dezi
Monday, August 1, 2005 09:47:46 PM
IP: 68.54.214.198

Second comes great after first.

(and a hush falls over the room).
Harvester of Eyes
Monday, August 1, 2005 09:32:10 PM
IP: 69.174.1.148

1st!!
dph
ar, usa
Monday, August 1, 2005 09:15:08 PM
IP: 63.232.248.178