DragonCon

First week of class was great. I enjoyed meeting all my students, mostly first-years. They are anxious and squirrelly, but that's normal. We had Convocation on Thursday and it was a nice ceremony. I didn't take any good photos though. 

In other news, I gave away 55 books this summer through BookMooch. I'm trying to reduce the book collection, since so many are just packed in boxes and I don't have shelf space for them. There are still many to unpack and sort through, so this is an ongoing project. Likewise, I started selling the board games I don't play, and I sold 9 through BGG Marketplace this summer. The immediate result of all this is that I have a slightly larger clear space in the third bedroom. It's basically the size of one stack of boxes.

The most exciting part of the week was attending DragonCon. I was a volunteer at the Art Show, which earned me a free badge. I left school right after class on Friday to take MARTA downtown to check in before my first shift. I was stationed outside a breakout room, and my job was to count the people who entered the room. Not too hard, and I was able to listen to the band that played two hours. They were called Wasted Wine and I enjoyed their music.

Wasted Wine playing Friday afternoon.

When my shift ended, I had time to attend a panel. One of the other volunteers and I found the Volunteer Village area and took advantage of the free snacks and swag there. Then I found a Murderbot panel happening in the same hotel, and that turned out to be pretty good. After the panel I went home.

On Saturday I had a bunch of errands to run in the morning. I drove over to the Doraville MARTA station after lunch and found it more full than I'd ever seen before. I had to park on level 4. I got downtown just in time for my shift, and this time I was stationed on one of the doors. My job was to check badges and turn away people with open food or drink containers. They let me have a radio and headset, although I never used it. Also outside the hall was a performance stage, so I was able to listen to the various bands all afternoon. It was really interesting to see all the people in costumes. Some gave me swag or ribbons.

One of the bands: the Dust Bowl Fairies.

At the door.

After the Saturday shift, I wandered back to Volunteer Village for a snack. Then I stood in line for 45 minutes for the Sixty-Minute Silmarillion, which was a panel retelling Tolkien's history of the First Age of Middle Earth. Very funny! Original songs and a slideshow. They said an older version is on YouTube, but I haven't looked for it.

Sunday I had school work to finish in the morning, and I went downtown after lunch again. I was allowed door duty again, which was equally fun. Afterwards, I was considering the Atlanta Symphony show, but the line was already extremely long, so instead I went to a Star Wars panel that turned out to be random people selected from the audience, reading awkward dialog from the films. It was very funny, and I only had to wait 30 minutes in line.

Droids outside the Star Wars area.

Monday was the last day of the Con. I went a little earlier, but not early enough. I thought I might get into the vendor hall, but the line was already too long. I had door duty again, but only for three hours. After the art show closed, we helped load out. 

The last band was Vicki's Dream, a heavy metal group. They were loud, but very good.

Big yellow carts to carry artists' stuff out the loading dock.

Before we left, volunteers got to choose a piece of donated art. I got a print called Lunar Bunnies. It was kind of a pain to carry home on the train, but I managed not to crease it or drop it.

My gift.

Since I spent so much time on trains, I finished my car book (Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close) and started another (The Elegance of the Hedgehog), which is helping me work through the enormous TBR list. Both of these books were acquired in 2021.