So How Was Dragon Con Goes Virtual?

The Lights Have All Been Turned Off for the Year

It’s late Monday evening as I write this. Dragon Con 2020 is (largely) in the books. There’s still a lot of content out there on platforms like YouTube and Vimeo that there was just no way to work in enough time for over the last few days. So, there’s still some Dragon Con 2020 to enjoy during this next week. But as far as the Roku, DCTV Dragon Con Goes Virtual stream, and a few other platforms carrying the live feeds this weekend are concerned, Dragon Con Goes Virtual has gone dark tonight.

Discussing Dragon Con Goes Virtual

Around Dragon Con – The Center for Puppetry Arts

[This article was originally written for publication on the Needless Things website in August of 2018. Unfortunately, it was a part of the archives lost in the September 2018 migration of the site to a new platform. In the case of this and the other ‘Around Dragon Con’ articles being published this month, the things covered here are still as contemporary and relevant as they were when these articles were originally on Needless Things. Enjoy this one and the others, and, hopefully, you’ll find something in the ‘Around Dragon Con’ articles that will make your time in Atlanta better than it’s been before.]

 

Tucked away on the corner of 18^th Street and Spring Street in Atlanta, Georgia is the Center for Puppetry Arts. If you’ve been to Atlanta but never visited the Center for Puppetry Arts, this or next year’s trip down for Dragon Con would be very good times to consider rectifying this oversight. Now, unlike the Georgia Aquarium, this isn’t a sight you can see with just a short walk down the street from the Dragon Con host hotels. It’s anywhere from a 45 minute to 1-hour walk depending on who is doing the walking. You can drive to it in about 15 minutes, but what levels of insanity would you have to be suffering under to cause you to consider driving in downtown Atlanta?

Around Dragon Con – The Georgia Aquarium

[This article was originally written for publication on the Needless Things website in August of 2018. Unfortunately, it was a part of the archives lost in the September 2018 migration of the site to a new platform. In the case of this and the other ‘Around Dragon Con’ articles being published this month, the things covered here are still as contemporary and relevant as they were when these articles were originally on Needless Things. Enjoy this one and the others, and, hopefully, you’ll find something in the ‘Around Dragon Con’ articles that will make your time in Atlanta better than it’s been before.]

Located in downtown Atlanta by Centennial Olympic Park- just a few blocks diagonal from the Dragon Con host hotels -is the Georgia Aquarium. Officially opened to the public in 2005, it was the largest aquarium in the world until the 2012 opening of the Marine Life Park in Singapore. Someone else coming along and beating it out for sheer size was no small feat. The Georgia Aquarium is home to several thousand species of saltwater and freshwater life from around the world living and swimming in over 10 million gallons of water. Just a little over 6 million gallons of that water can be found in the aquarium’s primary exhibit, allowing it to be one of only two institutions in the world to house whale sharks. You’ll also see swimming alongside the whale sharks some of the largest manta rays you’re likely to ever see, as well as more fish and more varieties of fish than you can likely count in one single day’s trip to the Georgia Aquarium.

What’s sometimes still a surprise to me when at Dragon Con is talking to my fellow con-goers and discovering how many of them have never been to the Georgia Aquarium. It’s even more surprising when they seem to not even know there is a Georgia Aquarium. Why? Well…

Around Dragon Con – Preparation

[This article was originally written for publication on the Needless Things website in August of 2018. Unfortunately, it was a part of the archives lost in the September 2018 migration of the site to a new platform. In the case of this and the other ‘Around Dragon Con’ articles being published this month, the things covered here are still as contemporary and relevant as they were when these articles were originally on Needless Things. Enjoy this one and the others, and, hopefully, you’ll find something in the ‘Around Dragon Con’ articles that will make your time in Atlanta better than it’s been before.]

Preparation, you ask? What, you ask, is this another article about getting ready for Dragon Con going over all that well-worn advice about how it’s important to have quality snacks to nibble during the day, vital to hydrate, the importance of getting sleep, begging you to shower and use deodorant, reminding you to eat a few proper meals every day, etc. that gets written about and talked about every single year as Dragon Con draws closer? Well, outside of that sentence, no, not really.

This year I’ll be writing several articles talking about what’s out there around Dragon Con and not actually inside the official Dragon Con footprint. So, no, no talk about how it’s important to have snacks, hydrate, get rest, shower, use deodorant, etc. while at the con or even about getting in some exercise before heading down to Dragon Con so that the (now five day) weekend doesn’t kick your butt. However, we will be covering some of the same concepts as well as a few others that, while perhaps too late to make them useful this year, may make future Dragon Con weekends a bit more fun.

Take one more look at that photo of just one small portion of Atlanta. That’s a photo taken from a high spot over by The Georgia Aquarium (which we’ll be getting into a lot of detail about later in the month) and Centennial Olympic Park. That’s an area that a lot of people who I’ve spoken to who attend Dragon Con never seem to get around to visiting. This is somewhat surprising given the opportunity the layout offers for cosplay photoshoots and, of course, this little thing called the Dragon Con Night at The Aquarium.

This is one of the things I’d like to see more people change about their annual visits to Atlanta. Why? Because there’s a lot of stuff in Downtown Atlanta that are absolutely awesome to see and experience. How awesome? Since my family changed how we set up our Dragon Con vacation and started seeing more of the area, I’ve seriously considered relocating. Of course, I then somewhat more seriously consider the fact that I’ve got seven more years to go before I can retire from my department with a full retirement intact, and, well, Atlanta does seem to frequently get its summer weather on loan from Hell and I absolutely hate heat. So, for now, it’s just staying my favorite vacation spot.

Dragon Con 2019 is Nigh

 

This year has flown by so far, July is dissolving in the mists of time, and August is almost upon us. That’s a somewhat relevant fact for those of us going to Dragon Con as the official kickoff date of the festivities this year is Thursday, August 29. I won’t mention the rather sizable few of you who have adjusted to the new first day by making Wednesday the new Thursday and are claiming the 28^th as the first day of con as, if I did that, several people I know might rip out all of their hair.

Nevertheless, the important (thing no matter the precise start date) is that Dragon Con is now less than 50 days away.

I Was a Toys “R” Us Kid

Today (assuming you’re reading this on the day it goes live) is Thursday 28, 2018. Within the next 24 hours, the last Toys “R” Us in the United States will be closing its doors for the very last time. A business that Charles Lazarus started in 1957 (or 1948 if you go all the way back to Children’s Supermart) will cease to exist. But, more than that, and unlike so many other businesses that leave us in the ever evolving consumer landscape, a piece of our collective childhoods will cease to exist this week.

ConCarolinas 2018 is in the Books

ConCarolinas is multi-genre, multi-media convention that has at this point been plugging away in North Carolina for the better part of the last two decades. I’ve been an on and off attendee since 2014, so I’ve only seen some of the growth of the convention in recent years as well as seen a couple of nice locations for the event. Although, I have to admit, of the four ConCarolinas I’ve been to, this one was a little different in more ways than one. One reason was something everyone may have noticed. The other things were a tad more personal.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays to all of my friends and family out there.

Embrace, Promote, and Defend What You Love. Support Your Friends’ Works and Others. It Can Pay Dividends

 

Support what you love.

Promote what you love.

Those seem like pretty basic concepts. They also seem like easy things to do. But if you spend any time at all on social media, you’ll see that a lot of people use their time “socializing” by doing things other than this. As a matter of fact, a lot of people- and I am guilty of this myself from time to time when it comes to the realm of politics –seem to spend as much time or more essentially promoting the examples of what they don’t like than they do promoting the things they like.

That really is something a lot of people should work on changing.