Convergence 2005

Convergence 2005 is officially over! And, as usual, it was a blast. Be sure to check out my during the con reports. See the following pages for more write ups:

Report 1

Report 2

Report 3

Report 4

Now for pictures and more details:

Blog Panel

Kelly McCullough, Elizabeth Bear, Patrick Smith (back), Kevin Trainor (seated).

These are the folks that lead the Blogging as Literature panel, which strayed heavily into politics. Intersting panel, and it is hard to separate politics out in any discussion involving blogs, however, it would have helped if the left-wing nut knew what he was talking about. As mentioned in my original post, kudo’s to Elizabeth Bear for getting the panel back on topic and off of politics.

One of the really interesting comic book based costumes was Swamp Thing.

Swamp Thing

The Swamp Thing.

Swamp Thing Attacks

The Swamp Thing Attacks. My, doesn’t she look terrified?

Leia

Nice Star Wars outfit.

Jed and Elisa

Jed and Elisa, a couple of cool people, and members of the illustrious Clan MacDude.

Rakehell Party Room

Qob with guests in the Rakehell party room.

Corncob MacDude

Corncob Macdude, one of the two inductees into the clan from Wisconsin.

Cow Party

The Wisconsin Asylum for Insane Cows party. Mad Cow never looked so good.

Cow Party

And then Mad cow got even better!

The Science Room expanded to the great atrium area with this 3-D display of the galactic neighborhood. The big gold star in the center is the Sun, and the various balloons mark the location of the various stars in our area, with cards taped to the floor listing their names and details. Very cool display. The guys that run the science room here never cease to amaze, and they spend an incredible amount of time developing these displays.


Solar System Icon
629k JPEG
Click the image to see a larger version of this image. Very cool and worth the the download bandwidth.

Mars Rover

This is the Mars Rover, parked outside of the Science Room.

Science Room

The Science Room. One side of it. They also had severl computers running a shuttle landing simulator, which is a really cool flight simulator.

Sharon and Otis

Sharon, one of the volunteers from the Raptor Center. Otis is a Screech Owl cute little guy.

Otis

Nice pose from Otis.

Chuk the Peregrin Falcon

This is Chuk, the Peregrin Falcon brought down by the folks from the Raptor Center.

Madame Maxine

madame Maxine, also known as Max, is a Bald Eagle. She ended up as a permanent raptor center due to an injury to her wrist, which, if I recall what Amber said, is the joint where the wing attaches to the body. don’t quote me on that, though.

Amber and Max

Very nice shot of Amber holding Madame Maxine. As you can see, Max is pretty darn big. What is interesting is that her body weight is right around 12 pounds. Incredibly light, especially when you realize that wild turkeys, roughly the same height, weigh in around 30 pounds or so.

Super Girls

Elastigirl and Orgasmigirl. Hmm…I wonder…

Mel, Dana, and Elisa

Mel, Dana, and Elisa. Dana is the good witch, Glenda, from the wizard of Oz. elisa is the Cat. Not sure if Mel was a specific character.

Sqotty, with Elisa and Mel

The one, the only picture taken of me at this con. With Elisa and Mel.

Mad Clown

Fluffy as the Mad Clown. I believe he said the film was Night of 1,000 Corpses.

Poison Ivy and Battlestar Galactica

Poison Ivy and Battlestar Galactica. Interesting combo.

The Batman

The Batman. Very cool outfit from the ‘60s era series.

Connie's Space Lounge

Connie’s Space Lounge is one of the con run party rooms, with live music.

World Defense Force

The World Defense Force party room, also known as the Bog. Cool bunch of people. Fluffy, who runs this party room with the WDF, is also a member of the Clan MacDude.

Scotch Fairy

And last, but not least, the Scotch Fairy. I have to wonder if he has read the Legend of the Scotch Fairy

The most incredible thing happened this con. I realized recently that a large number of the pics I take at cons since moving to Minesota have Ivan in it. Some how I managed to not have one picture of Ivan from the entire con. Incredible, but true. Or is that Believe it, or not. Take you pick.

No matter how you slice it, this was a great con, and convergence just keeps on getting better year after year. I know that I am not the only one looking forward to seeing what they have in store for us in 2006. And I better book my room much earlier this time, as they are filling the entire hotel.