dph writes...

Was Merlin's conception/birth intentional on the part of Oberon? What I mean is did Oberon deliberately seek out to have a son who was half mortal in the case of Merlin?

dph writes...

Could you please list the following events in chronological order:

1)Oberon overthrew Queen Maeve
2)in reference to City of Stone part 4 in the scene where Bodhe says the English rid their land of gargoyles years ago, the point in time in which the English thought they rid themselves of gargoyles
3)Merlin was born
4)Oberon married Titania
5)Atlantis fell
6)Last Member of the Lost Race died
7)Goliath, Angela, Bronx, and Elisa meet Nokkar

Thank you for answering this question.

Shannon "Shan" Muir writes...

About four years ago now, we had a lively discussion about the portrayal of disabilities in animation. With the queue briefly open, and with the episode initially featuring Jeffrey Robbins ("A Lighthouse in the Sea of Time") now out on DVD, I wanted to revisit that subject.

With the huge strides that have been made in Assistive Technology for those who are impaired, do you think that it provides more opportunities for storytelling? Or does it in any way reduce the level of dramatic opportunities available to you as a writer?

Shannon "Shan" Muir writes...

Greg,

What is the significance of Jeffrey having a middle name of "MacClaine"? I have only run across it twice, when you mentioned Paul Winfield's death in the archives, and also in the video introduction on the DVD. Nowhere have I found a reference to why it was chosen, or why he needed a middle name at all. I am very curious... thanks.

Shannon "Shan" Muir writes...

Greg,

You asked for our comments on the DVD, and I think you missed the comment room the week I posted most of this information, so I've reposted here but tailored it to emphasize and de-emphasize areas as I think would better fit your personal interest and remove date specific wording. It also is presented in a single unit versus the three parts it originally showed up as in the Comment Room.

As to the "Gathering of the Cast and Crew" featurette, I think it was well edited though at times the backgrounds were hard on the eyes. This may just be a personal thing. The footage clips intercut throughout from the series fit incredibly and it really feels like they took the time to find the best bits. It drove me nuts at first that you were the only person facing screen right when everyone else faces screen left, but after multiple views I understood why. It's because you get the majority of screen time and they very likely wanted to create a balance between how often a person was on one side of the screen over the other. Your on screen percentage set it up that you logically should be the only one on that side. Had it been able to be more balanced as far as each person's on screen time, Michael Reaves and Frank Paur could have been on the same side as you, and the voice actors all facing the other way (sorry this is my Radio-TV degree training kicking in).

My favorite part is Frank Paur's ending on the whole thing about optimism. He said exactly why I think the show resonates with me, it's a lot like the way I try to look at life. One gets kicked, then get back up again and still believing there's got to be some good in the world. The most thought provoking line is Michael Reaves when he talks about most animation being people "just whacking each other on the head" and - all due respect to Mr. Reaves! - every time my gut reaction is to yell at the screen "then why don't you change it?" (Side note: it just makes me more aware of why I stay in the animation business and where my heart is).

As to the Introductions. Generally I think they work, especially as someone who didn't watch the series years ago and only caught up more recently on the Toon Disney airings. For people newer to the show, I think they help you feel "caught up" or refresh your memory if you haven't seen them all in order. I also like the fact you can select them in isolation without watching the episode, in case you didn't choose it initially but then want to back up and find out what he said after viewing. But... I'm sorry, but I find it hilarious you can watch just all the Introductions back to back. I mean, I like and respect you and all, but I don't see a point! My boyfriend Kevin had an awful lot of fun with this, making a joke along the lines not to watch it too much and get obsessed with Greg Weisman. (I couldn't let it pass without comment. I feel safe enough since you know both Kevin and myself, so I feel safe bringing it up just for you to ponder.) This is my one major question abotu the set: can you illuminate more as to why the option of watching all the Introductions was included?

As to the "City of Stone" commentary: Very good overall. Thought the wrong Demona model issue was a tad overemphasized, though I think this couldn't be helped because of the conversation between the three of you (which was a definite plus over hearing just one person's take). And to be honest, I wrote most of the animation errors off as a overstressed Demona and the effects of the loss of the last of her innocence by making the choice she made, I never really noticed until the three of you brought it up. And I'm usually REALLY picky about continuity, as it is part of my job when I work on shows. And I did learn some new things as well about the series, mainly from Mr. Reaves and Mr. Paur as fresh voices.

Overall, I am pleased with the sound quality and visual quality of the episodes compared to how I saw them aired on TOON DISNEY, with the obvious exception of "Vows". Mistakes happen, I know, but the wrong ending making the DVD submarines a powerful story, in my not so humble opinion. I say that as a writer even more than just a fan of the show. I know there's no real way to correct this box set, but I think there should be something addressing both endings as a bonus on the last disc (should it be made), talking about the whole situation of why the ending was changed for subsequent airings and presenting both endings. Provided of course, you can sell Disney on even addressing this (or that you even see this in time to make any impact on that level, given the queue backlog). It would (semi) satisfy those more knowledgeable of the series that have precisely forgotten the intended ending (though obviously not included in the episode), be more trivial bits for those into that kind of thing, and educational for those wanting more behind the scenes information about the animation process and the kinds of things that can happen. And I say that as an animation professional, a fan of the show, your former student, and someone who has written about the animation industry for non-artists.

Anyway, I hope that information and insight is of some help to you.

Todd Jensen writes...

Here's a few comments on the second Gargoyles DVD.

One thing that I find a little startling is the "introduction sequence", which contains what may be the first case of 3-D animation that I've seen for "Gargoyles", in the form of a 3-D representation of Goliath in his stone sleep - which then breaks away to reveal a more conventionally animated Goliath beneath. It's certainly taking a little getting used to.

I've been watching the DVD, at any rate, and enjoying it, particularly its clearer animation than my old tapes enjoyed. The first thing that I saw, of course, was "City of Stone" with the audio commentary on. The comments from you, Frank, and Michael were mostly familiar information from "Ask Greg", though I got a kick out of the remark that the only ones happy about Demona's spell upon the city (besides Demona herself) were the pigeons! (I was also pleased that you allowed the audience to hear Demona's two most important lines in the four-parter - perhaps two of her most important lines in the series - "What have I - what have they done to you?" and "The access code is 'alone'.")

I also enjoyed the "Gathering" interview with cast and crew. (One bit that amused me was Brigitte Bako's comparison of Angela to such Shakespearean heroines as Desdemona and Juliet. Her particular choice of those two struck me as appropriate, since Angela gets possessed by Coldfire/Desdemona in "Possession" and she and Broadway are reading "Romeo and Juliet" in the library in "The Journey".)

And I certainly hope that sales will be good enough for Disney to come out with the final 26 episodes of Season Two this December (the December of 2006) so that we can have the entire set. At any rate, my congratulations for an enjoyable product, that definitely beats my old tapes from the nineties (except that they use the original ending for "Vows").

dph writes...

1st, I want to thank Greg Weisman very much for answering my timeline question, even though by the time you read this post it will have been a couple of years since you answered it.

About the december dvd release

I loved the commentary on CoS. I was hoping for commentary on Avalon as well, but having it just on CoS was pleasing.

The only 'complaint' about the dvd release that I have is the lack of links to scenes within the episodes. That way I can jump straight to particular spots within episodes without having to fastforward through the episode.

I was very pleased on have unedited versions of quite a few episodes. I actually im'd GXB when I saw "Leader of Pack" because the tape I had of that episode had selected edits (Toon Disney) and I didn't remember what the original episode looked like towards the end. I also enjoyed watching "Eye of the Beholder", again, because of problems with the quality of the recording that I had with that episode.

Overall, I enjoyed/am enjoying the release of those dvds.

On the next dvd release, I would love to see commentary on both The Gathering and Hunter's Moon, but if I had to choose between the two, I would choose Hunter's Moon.

I am looking forward to seeing you in person at the 2006 Gathering of the Gargoyles.

Anonymous writes...

On the Gargoyles Season 2 Volume 1 DVD, what's up with the wrong ending of VOWS on the DVD? Was is just an error?

Greg Bishansky writes...

My thoughts on the DVD.

First off, I've been anticipating this set for a long time, my favorite episodes ("The City of Stone" Four-Parter) are on it, so having it on DVD is a real treat.

The episodes themselves all look great, the picture is sharp, and the sound is awesome, and keep in mind, prior to this, I was watching these episodes on decade old VHS cassettes, all from the original Disney Afternoon airings. So I was always hearing a sound effect I hadn't heard.

One little thing, I finally have all of "The Cage". I taped the episode when it aired, but the day I taped it, the cable decided to go out for fifteen seconds during Goliath and Elisa's talk at the Clock Tower at the beginning, and I never caught a re-run, so this was my first time seeing the entire episode.

I loved the audio commentary for CoS. Greg, Michael and Frank are all fun to listen to, though I am surprised that Michael (and for that matter, many fans) never noticed Demona was off model a few times in CoS Part One. I noticed... but then, I always payed very close attention to Demona ;)

Hmm, Greg things Demona was a little bit in love with Macbeth in the CoS Part Four flashback. Curious ;)

Overall, a very solid DVD release, Disney is being very good to us with these. The only thing that annoys me is the wrong ending for "Vows" being used for this set. But thankfully, I have found no further mistakes (Yaye, the mouth on Xanatos's armor isn't moving!), and that's a minor complaint (but hopefully one we'll see corrected for the eventual Blue Ray or HD-DVD release)

Of course I can't wait for next set. ::Crosses his fingers for Hunter's Moon commentary::

Carol writes...

Adding to all the con journals before Gore closes the door... Here are a couple thanks from G2005 guests:

...please post a note to all the fans expressing my heart felt thanks for their well wishes and especially for the Get Well Card.  I look forward to seeing them all next year.  In the meantime I plan to work on some Gargoyle Flipz books.

Dennis Woodyard

I had a nice time at the Gathering and I am looking forward to bringing in the best book we can possibly do for those fans.

Dan Vado

And just another thanks to all our great guests at G2005. Greg, and The Weisman Family, Thom Adcox, Dave Schwartz, Dan Vado, and though he could not make it in person Dennis Woodyard, who joined us in spirit.

Carol
G2005 Guest Coordinator

BrooklynX writes...

As requested, here is most of my Gathering report.

Thursday, July 29th:

Despite trying to sleep in, all three of us got up early. After eating, we packed up our small bags that we were taking up before folding the CD covers. Once we had everything ready, we packed up the cars. I was taking mine, while Arno rode in Beedoo's (since six of us were coming back from Las Vegas).

After filling up my gas tank and getting some ice, there was a mix up and I ended up hitting the road before they did. We met up at a rest area and then got moving again. About ten miles out from Kingman, we ran into a lovely thunderstorm that was pretty decent in size.

About an hour later, we stopped at the Hoover Dam. After taking a few pictures, we hit the road again for the last bit of the drive into Las Vegas. One thing I did notice on the drive was despite being close to the exit for the hotel, it sure seemed to take forever. Finding our exit, we discovered that we had to get over four lanes to make the turn into the parking lot.

We got over two, but missed the turn. I think we went another three or four blocks before turning around and pulling in. We checked in, found the room and a few minutes later, was greeting by another thunderstorm that included hail. It must have followed us up.

At some point, we brought all of our stuff in and discovered Dubble, Jade Griffin and somebody else's name that escapes me.
After storing stuff in the room, we hit the buffet for dinner. After getting back, we noticed my room key didn't work. Ooops. I think around midnight or a little after, we called it a night.

Friday, July 30th:

The lot of us in Beedoo's room started waking up around 8 am or so and started taking our showers. By 10:45, we wandered downstairs to get breakfast. Of course, we got there at the tail end, so we got charged for breakfast, but got to sit down for lunch. Ooops.

After our food, we started to pick up our packets and then Beedoo and I went to get the keys fixed since two worked and the other two didn't. After that, I think we found Rob and put his stuff in our room. Once that was solved, I think we wandered for a bit before I ended up tagging along and watching the first Clan Olympics event. They tried to draft me, but I was just going to watch.

It was pretty funny and after that, I believe I ran into Mandolin and we went to a writing panel for a little while. Later on, I ran into Countess downstairs just after she ran her toe over with her luggage. Took her up to the room so she could deposit her stuff.

More wondering around and then we had dinner at Subway or the buffet. I can't remember which. Attended opening ceremonies, where I never get tired of everything Greg presents, even if it is the same year after year. After it was over, I did my pre-registration for next year.

The rest of the night is a blur, though at we saw Abram Wintersmith and later on, Maui showed up. I conked out early and woke up at some point to say hi for a few minutes before passing back out.

Saturday, July 31st:

Once again, getting up took the lot of us quiet a while, even though we tried to all meet at 9 for breakfast. We got downstairs around 10 to discover that it was brunch and rather pricey. We then went to the café and had breakfast there.
From there, I tagged along and watched another part of Clan Olympics, the Trivia Torture. I then hit the art show for a little while, though I didn't view all of it. After talking with Siryn and a couple others for a little while, I tried to find out if there was a nearby art store so I could pick up a sketchbook. Digging out the yellow pages, I found out there was one about a mile up the road.

Finding the place was no small task since it was buried in the back of this fairly decent sized plaza. After picking a couple up, I stopped at the Vons that was in the same center for some more bottled water since running out earlier in the day.

After dropping things off, I met up with Norcumi and Quindar so we could make a dinner run. I think it might become a tradition for the three of us. I drove us to the TGI Friday's where we talked about the insane construction projects going on at our college campuses among other things. Once we got back, we ended up watching the poker tournament.

That was a fun game to watch. I ended up chatting with Silver for a while as she drew and inked one of my gargoyle characters, Eagle. I think we called it a night just after midnight.

Sunday, August 1st:

Unlike everybody else in the room, I woke up around 11am. I guess I really needed the sleep. I ended up getting Subway for breakfast/ lunch. I ended up talking to Tigrse for a little while. From there, I went up to the dealers' room where I found Silver and she finished color the Eagle picture.

Jade Griffin drew it next, followed by Liz while I voted in the art show. I also got dragged into helping meet part of the scavenger hunt by saying something along with a few others and then running down to my car with Rob so they could use my ice scrapper.

Moved my car a little closer since I had to park farther out after the dinner run the night before heading back inside to then pass the book over to the Kythera. She drew and colored a naked version of Gadget who looked like she was stalking Chaos off screen for some, uh, adult fun.

And the last person to draw in there was Dreamie, who did another sketch of Chaos. Then the art show started closed up, so I tried to hunt down the rest of the Arcadia clan that wanted to hit the Rainforest Café. Sadly, I didn't find them, so I watched Law and Order in the room while relaxing. I fetched subway for dinner, since I didn't have the money for the banquet until a few days before the Gathering started.

Countess swung by the room and I chocked on my food that I tried to scarf down so I could see the masquerade. After getting there, I tried to get a picture of Flanker, only to find out my batteries were dead (and they were supposed to be new). Ran back up, got some new ones that worked and make it back down with a couple minutes to spare.

Once that was over, I pretty much hung out and talked with Thom and Flanker for a while before watching a few others throwing balls at various circles with points on them in another room. After watching for a little while, I called it a night.

Monday, August 2nd:

Got up early and started packing all of my things around 8 am. Around 9:30, we got breakfast. While a few went back to finish packing, I ran into the art room to pick up the art I had bid on. From there, we loaded up both of the cars and finishing, realized me missed the shuttle out to the strip.

A trip on the shuttle, followed by one on the monorail, we hit the Star Trek Experience. The first ride some of us went on was the Klingon one. It was quite cheesy, but we had fun and laughed how part of Las Vegas surely got wrecked. Near the end, I yelled out "Vegas will never be the same again!" which got a few laughs.

Realizing we lost part of the group, we waited around for a bit before doing the Borg 4D. I would have to say that was cheesier than the other one. Of course, one of the probes nailed me right in the spine and the 3D glasses didn't fit very well over my regular glasses.

After that, it was dinner at Quark's Bar. The Klingon guy ruled. At one point, he came by and said, "Six girls for two guys. You are true warriors." Later on, he asked which one of us was the leader. Sadly, all good things come to an end. Rob, Beedoo, Arno, Countess, Delfine and myself said goodbye to Dubble and somebody else (who were staying the night) before we headed back to start the drive home.

The drive was pretty decent and we were treated to a nice light show from a thunderstorm. About 20 miles out from Kingman, I had to pullover and stop for a couple minutes because the rain had gotten so bad, I couldn't see more than 3 feet in front of me. And I think Rob chewed up about half of his battery power trying to take pictures of the lightning. I don't remember what time we got in, but about ten to fifteen minutes, we were all asleep.

All in all, I had fun at the Gathering and look forward to next year.

Allaine writes...

July 30, 2005
Day Four

It appears that Summer, like Mooncat, is an early riser, which means more trouble for Alexandria and I.

We didn't have any plans until noon, when MC and Alexandria hosted their Othercon Adult Round Robin. Naturally Summer and I came along. It was held in one of the hotel suites, so there was one of those beds that lowers out of the wall. I was still tired, so I probably spent half the panel lying in the bed (and much of the rest of the time pacing around the room). The panel attendee list was a lot like last year - Spacebabie and Malkavien were there for the second time, along with Alexandria and I (who hosted it last time). There was also Mooncat, Summer, and Efrainman.

Imagine this - seven writers in the room, and a majority of four was best known for writing femslash. Everyone writes the names of two characters from the show, puts the slips of paper in a pile, and then the characters are randomly selected.

The first name chosen was Demona. Later I discovered three different people used her as one of their choices.

The second name chosen was Fox . . . in her were-Fox form from Eye of the Beholder.

I looked directly at Summer. No words were necessary. Who else could it have been?

When I looked at all the slips of paper afterwards, I discovered only two male characters had been written down - Matt Bluestone and Jon Canmore. Spacebabie was the obvious culprit. Still, she was vastly outnumbered by we slashers, and a second straight year with a f/f pairing at the Adult RR was inevitable. Note that last year, we got Fox and gargoyle-Elisa. What is it with the Adult RR and characters in their altered states?

Anyway, we had a real blast doing this RR. We went around three times, coming up with an interesting little story where Fox changed INTO a were, BACK into a human, and then two more times again! Always, conveniently, Fox was a human when it was Summer's turn. Just reward for her. She was okay. While others spoke, she and MC drew naughty sketches.

Afterwards, we didn't really have any other panels that we were excited about, so we spent the entire day at the Strip. Part of the day we took Summer to the casinos she missed the first time, especially the Luxor. Summer likes jackals, obviously, and there was a nice store inside that sold Anubis-jackal figurines which we knew she would like. We also returned to the Excalibur, the MGM, etc. While we were at the Luxor we also rode one of those motion rides that makes you feel like you're on a roller-coaster when you're not (like the Back to the Future ride at Universal Studios). The ride was fun, although the movie that came with it was laughably bad.

Then we went back to the Tropicana and took the hotel shuttle to the Fashion Square Mall. We walked around there for a while, then checked out the Treasure Island before heading to the Mirage with its "secret gardens".

For just $15 you could enter a very nice animal habitat with a few specific kinds of animals. They had several dolphins in one part, and in the other part there were white lions, white tigers, white striped tigers, orange striped tigers, regular lions, an elephant, jaguars, and a very odd-looking turkey. I was able to get some really nice pictures, but really this was a special moment for Summer and Mooncat. Suckers for big cats, they are. I think they left only because it was closing time.

We also took in the outdoor Sirens show in front of the Treasure Island that night, which I thought was pretty lame. It was very hot, incredibly crowded, and there was a short show with some pyrotechnics as a gang of pirates fought against a gang of strippers. Well, sirens, but they were strippers of course. Before it started, I took a few minutes to check out the new Wynn, which is a very high-class hotel. I also got a couple pictures of the Manolo Blahnik store, just because someone asked me to. (Not the last time I'd take pictures of a shoe store that weekend!)

By then it was already 9 PM, and we'd been on the Strip for seven hours. We took the Shuttle back to the hotel because I had to meet with Lynati and Aaron again to plan for the game show. This time there were a lot fewer disruptions, and we edited and suggested questions until about three in the morning. And we still weren't done! We agreed to come back the next night after the Masquerade for the last push.

And then - well, it was 3 AM. I was exhausted. I went to bed.

July 31, 2005
Day Five

I think by now I was trying to forget that my vacation was over halfway done. I'd been waiting a year for this trip, you see.

I crawled out to breakfast because I had to be at the Anthology Signing at 10:30 AM. Glad I went. I don't remember how many books I signed for, but Ellen was there, and Greg Bishansky and Mandolin and Summer and Lynati and Aaron and Lauren Balestrino . . . a lot of talented writers and artists, let's say. It was a lot of fun :)

I don't remember what I did for the next hour. Walked around, talked to people, I imagine. Eventually I went to the W.I.T.C.H. panel in the Con Suite, which was (no offense, Greg) more interesting than I thought it would be. Plus by now everyone had heard about the infamous "Is Irma a lesbian?" discussion at the Blue Mug-a-Guest the other night.

My day got a lot busier after that. I hosted my first of two panels that afternoon, the "Reading Aloud" panel. Everyone got to read from their own stories aloud. I read the first chapter of "The Forty-Seven" with help from my roomies and Ellen. Alexandria, Tigris, Lynati, and Summer all read. I forget who else read aloud, but I have it all on tape, so they've been recorded for eternity. It went very well, I thought.

From here we went right to the Radio Play. This time around Greg unveiled a non-Gargoyles script he'd written as a TV pilot. There was a definite fantasy element to it, and despite it being something wholly original and not in the least fandom-based, it was quite entertaining. After that was the Banquet. By now Alexandria and I basically have a tradition of not attending, so we had dinner with Mooncat and Summer instead, which was just fine by me. We came back for the Masquerade, though. The costumes were very good. My favorite was Cindy as the Banshee. At one point I was mugged by "A Fan", who was dressed as Mace Malone - I think. He was a gangster, I know. No, really, I was mugged. He shoved me into a corner and ordered me to stop taking pictures. True story.

Anyway, after that they had the art awards to hand out. Much to my shame, I never really got around to voting, but there was some really great art this year, and even _I_ could tell that the Zodiac pieces were the best of them all.

By this time my roomies had gone out to the Jacuzzi with Alex Garg, while I waited at the awards with Ellen Stolfa and my camera. I think the very last award they gave out was the "Editor's Choice Award for the Gathering Anthology", which surprised me because I wasn't aware such an award existed. It didn't last year.

While I was still digesting this, they announced I was the winner. I was pretty much floored. Ellen got up and hugged me, which was nice, and everyone applauded, and I'm sure I didn't express just how grateful I was for the applause, just as much as I was for the award. I kinda hugged Lynati too. I received a large stone gargoyle statue, which is looking down at me right now.

There wasn't much else to do after that except track down my roommates and heap scorn on their heads for relaxing in a spa and missing my big award. Then I went back to the Con Suite once Lynati and Aaron were ready, and we worked on the Game Show. Emambu was there for a while too, and we talked for the second time of the Convention (the first was when he and Ellen were in the lobby the other day). Us Philly guys have gotta stick together.

We finally finished the questions, if not the printing, at 3:30 AM. I schlepped back to my room and passed out.

Haley writes...

What day,year,month was Brooklyn born.

Darkmoonight89 writes...

I recently visited the CreatureComics.com sita and was wondering when they go on sale can I order one off line or do I have to go to a comic store? If so what store?

Winterwolf writes...

2005 Gathering Convention Report

So this year for 2005 I was on staff as the Dealer Coordinator. In the end I think that went well but I feel like I should have had twice the dealers we did have. Go me for volunteering myself last fall. lol I should have gotten dealers starting with the end of the 2004 con. You live and you learn.

With the past two conventions of me on staff and for the most part feeling responsible to work the Art/Dealer room I don't really have much to talk about. Did I have a good time? Yes I did. Let me elaborate. For the most part I'm skipping over people's names because this thing would be way longer and I'd feel bad as I'm likely to miss someone.

Friday, July 22, 2005

The Gathering for us starts a full week before the official start. After a full day of work we go pack up our car late Friday night. Why were we leaving then? Because of our plan to attend Sea Dog Nights! For those not in the know, Sarah and I belong to a pirate entertainment/reenactment group called BOOM which is short for Brotherhood of Oceanic Mercenaries. The website, which Sarah and I did much of the work on, is http://www.BOOMPirates.com

So we packed up our pirate stuff and our Gathering stuff which included my laptop, my printer and my sword. I left my pistol behind to be on the safe side. ;)

We left home at around midnight and drove from just south of Seattle to just south of Portland until I felt I needed a nap.

Saturday through Monday

We got in the last of some great piratical fun. There was Sea Dog Nights which was interesting as it was filled with SCA and other performer types. That was down near Eugene, OR. We also had a extra good time entertaining at a private party Sunday in Vancouver, WA and spent Saturday and Sunday night with friends in Portland.

Monday morning we said our good byes and made the trek to Las Vegas. We had planned to go through Ashland, OR which is just at the southern end of Oregon. Since we slept in it was about 6PM when we got to Ashland. Since it felt like we missed a lot by getting in to Ashland so late we figured we'd stop back this way again.

The car didn't like Mt. Ashland which put a bit of strain on the breaks with several miles of 6% down slope. The car just kept speeding up so I had to break every so often so we didn't speed down to the top speed of 110 which is on my speedometer. I've only gone up to 80 in it before. We continued south on I5 until we passed Sacramento then found a place to sleep for the night.

Tuesday, July 26, 2005

We continue on and on through California down to Bakersfield then go roughly east from there to Las Vegas. We probably should have found someplace to stay along the way but we both were looking forward to getting into Las Vegas so we went all the way to the Palace Station. Our reservation was for Wednesday with check out on Monday. Well it turns out there was a huge furniture convention in town so all the rooms were booked. What?!?! Oh yeah and this furniture convention is not open to the public. It's dealers only and wow they've filled up all the remaining spaces we have. So 6 hotels later we find a motel 8 that has rooms available in nearby Boulder City. I should have just called my aunt and uncle and said we had no place to stay. Oh well. Maybe we will next time. :)

Wednesday, July 27, 2005

Checked into the Palace Station and got all our stuff in the room. Then I dropped my car off to get the AC fixed and the front brake pads replaced as I wasn't going to have the time myself. I spent time fixing up the database and getting everything ready for the Art Show this would be a recurring theme tweaking, updating or enhancing to get the most out of the Access database with all the art show information. For dinner we met with my aunt and uncle and had a very rich and tasty French meal. That was quite enjoyable.

Thursday, July 28, 2005

The big activity Thursday other than working on getting everything ready for everyone that registered for the convention was the Tournament of Kings. It was a good show. Unfortunately Greg and Thom were stuck in a snafu of airline issues so they were unable to attend. We were in the Dragon section so it was amusing when the evil dragon knights would come out and kick ass. It happened far too infrequently if you asked me.

Friday, July 29, 2005

Frantic day with much setup. Fortunately we had set the room up last night so it was manageable. The dealers were ready to go quickly. I had to really scramble to find an electric screwdriver. We had peg board, 2x2s, screws and an electric screwdriver with no screw bits! Noooooo! Do not want!!

Aaron saved the day finding and asking a maintenance worker to borrow his electric screwdriver. We were behind schedule an hour but we worked hard and got all the art up quickly after assembling the art display boards.

I got a $3 cup of hot water and tea bag for Dreamie so she'd have her morning tea and not feel like total crap anymore. It was a necessity but I must say curse you Starbucks! I could get a 100 count box of tea bags for that price. ;p

Saturday, July 30, 2005

The celebrity poker tournament was entertaining. I stood behind Thom and watched in horror as he went all in when he didn't have the cards to back it up. It was entertaining to watch and in the end it came down to one hand between Chris Rogers, Greg Weisman and Gorebash. Chris won.

After that I wandered a while and then dropped in on Hudson's Rant. It was funny and I'll leave it at that.

Sunday, July 31, 2005

The two big things about the day I remember are the masquerade and the banquet. I enjoyed the food and ambiance much more than the hotel buffet. The food was far better and the atmosphere was comfortable and inviting. Mix in that every table had a few door prize winners on top of everyone getting a gargoyle candle holder and it just was perfect. I had mixed feelings about the dessert happening as the masqueraders were entering the room but that was probably due to the fact that I took pictures of all of them before getting into the room. So I didn't get to sample everything but I did get some good treats. I hear I missed the best chocolate stuff. D'oh!

There was a great Brooklyn this year that won best of show and it was well deserved. There were many great costumes this year of which I have pictures of them all. I was a pirate as had been the case for the past 3 years now. :)

Monday, August 1, 2005

Until we closed the Art and Dealer room it was all about selling anything that was left. Over time artist filled in and picked up their artwork that hadn't sold. For the most part it was a blur of me filling out receipts, taking payment and getting people out with there items.

It was a relief to get all the Disney art packed up and safely out of the Art Room. It was fantastic to have at the convention and a wonderful show of support by Disney. Still I felt the need to go and check that the priceless works were okay every so often.

I also managed to get a few minutes to extend my checkout time by an hour. And get all my stuff into the car as we planned on leaving later in the evening.

That night we decided to go with the rest of the staff and see Penn and Teller. It was a great show. Thanks Chris! We had a good time.

I could go on now about the trip back but I'll just say it was a non stop drive back to Seattle, WA that took 21 hours and left me wanting lots and lots of sleep.

I know this all doesn't sound like much but it was a great time and I'm glad I was on staff for the 2005 Gathering of the Gargoyles convention. :)

Janelle writes...

When is the "Gathering" coming to Chicago?

Bryan Osborne writes...

WHEN (not if because I know this will happen one day do to the popularity of the show) Touchstone Pictures or another company gets to work again on the live action Gargoyles movie, do you think it will be rated past the PG mark do to the violent content of the cartoon series?

Shara writes...

Ok here is my Con journal it's a bit late.

Being a first time person to this convention I have to say I had more fun here then I did as say Comic con or anime expo or any of the big conventions. This con is like a big family and everyone is so nice. It's so fun that the cast of the show and greg all sit with you and talk to you. Not like big cons where the body gards are around a famous perosn.

I will be back next year. This is going on my list of conventions to attend every year. I've always wanted to attend but It was never close enough for me to get to.

Friday

I got up late. I planed to leave at 5am and left at 9.
I drove up from california. Got a rental car to make sure I was'nt broken down and lost in the evil desert. I have never been to vegas before let alone driven that far. I found it fun how you would be in the middle of no where and suddenly on the side of the freeway. You see Bestbuy. Then you drive many miles more and a mcdonalds apears. The thing that I kept wondering is ...."is that really a mcdonalds or a secret under cover goverment building" but anways I think I got excited when I saw a roller coaster going over the freeway. I thought is this vegas am I here? Can I stop driving now? Course it was only one building but I mean a roller coaster over the freeway. You can't go wrong there. I wanted to stop it looked so kewl.

Kept saying must get to gathering. Must get to gatherng. Finally saw lots of large buildings and knew I was there. Got into traffic jam. When you get in a traffic jam you know you are someplace important. I got off at the wrong exit and did'nt know you had to keep going down the freeway and there was a giant palace station hotel sign. Hehe me and my stupidness. Finally got there and saw Cins in the hotel lot with other people with gargoyle tshirts on. I knew I was in the right place. Everyone at the gatherng was so nice. The moment I got there they helped me carry my stuff up to the dealers room. I got there and met up with flanker and everyone else who was helping me with my booth. I got the booth set up and practiced the dice game with a few people before opening ceramonies. EVERYONE MUST PLAY THE DICE GAME!!! :wink:

Flanker was really good at getting people to play it. Everyone played because of the candy. CANDY IS GOOD!!!

Next year we hope to do another game like that with better prizes and a themed California theme. Dealers room was really fun too. Got to talk to all the neat artists in the fandom.

Opening ceramonies. Ive never been to a gathering before so This was really neat. Got to see all that neat stuff that greg brought along . I love keith david and his "ive been denyed everything even my convention" After opening ceramonies Checked into hotel and got large set of wings up to room. The people playing the slots are like " what the fuck " and then go back to playing their slots.

Then I met up with sarah the great. I found out they call her that cause she is great :wink: We got into our skanky, hoe, hootchi mamma outfits to go clubing. Then messed around on the strip for a bit. When we got back it was like 3am. I have never seen so many drunk people. I liked ceacers palace because of the arcade. Lexy played some sort of fishing game and won something wierd. Then we found some pimp hats in the gift shop. We found this little doll. I relaly don't know how to explain this. It was a doll that had hooker clothing on and little boobies cleavage showing. I just had to wonder what the hell. Finally after walking around on the strip we all piled back into the van and went back to the hotel. I was so tired I just went up to the hotel and blacked out. One thing about vegas. 2 dollers for breakfast. :lol:
Saturday

Woke up to the noise of someone having fun in the next room. Flankers responce as I wake up " hey shara do you hear that" " Hear what?" Squeek squeek squeek squeek. Bang bang bang bang agienst the wall. Must of been a stray vegas hooker.;-)

Anyways got up made it down to the dealers room to set up the booth. It was fun hanging out in there eating candy and getting people to roll dice for t-shirts and candy. We had about 3 entries in our art contest to win a season 1 dvd. Writting contest we got some really neat entrys. I have to post The drawings and writting on the publicity site and the comics site as soon as I get some time. http://www.ka-blamo.com/cons For anyone interested in that link. I have this really rich friend who is crazy. by crazy I mean about gargoyles. He has a giant life size goliath statue he had osmeone make to sit in his living room. Anyways the point. He pays for me to get booth space etc at conventions to promote gargoyles and we have contests like the one mentioned above. Our new project is located at that link.

Dealers room. Went and looked at the raffle and artwork. It figures the one peice of artwork i wanted to buy was bid on by a weisman kid. You can not outbid the kids of the person who created your fandom. Our booth had posters on it left over from comic con. The aeon flux and everquest ones went fast. its funny everyone hated the kanu reeves constintine movie *L* no one wanted thoughs really. Basicly the game went like this you get 3 rolls the first day. 2 rolls the second day. And 1 roll the last day. Depending on what the dice landed on you got to choose from 2 prizes. T-shirts where gone by the second day. Had so much fun. Flanker is great. he would yell out. "hey you!!! You want to roll some dice? Get free stuff" People love free stuff. Then came the quest for food. I found a subway in the hotel we where in and I am cheap so that was my first food quest. Lexy and my other peeps joined in on the free tshirt fun. Met a really neat writter named ellen. We talked a bit. I'd love to talk more to her. Found hudson and molested him day 1.

Hudson molestation day 1

Had to cuff him with fuzzy hand cuffs and give him spankings.

Back to saturday.

Went up to the hotel and changed into my taekwando outfit. I forgot my orange belt. *pouts* But anways walked through the casino feeling all tough. Had my chucks at my side. Helped flanker out with his martial arts pannel. Did my songum 2 form for everyone and talked about taekwando. Met a really neat girl who used to do takewando we talked for awhile about our schools. Flankers pannel was fun because we found this cop lady whoh was attending the gargoyle con. She talked all about her work and such. Learned about what to do if someones trying to rape you etc and all that.

After that went back to dealers room and found cin and her group and talked and bothered them for a bit. Got my stuff and closed up our table in the dealers hall. Went back to my room and took a nap. talked to tabs on the phone told her that next year she has to help me molest hudson. Then slept for an hour before flanker and sarah got me up to go walk around on the strip.

The vegas strip is amazing. Its like adult disneyland/disneyworld. So much to do and not enough time. We went walking around on the strip and saw all the neat hotels that we missed on friday. Then we saw charlie and the choclate factory. Interesting movie. I still like the old one for its cuteness but I like the new one for its creepyness. We where giggling at the guys handing out the asian school girls flyers. You buy her and if you dont like her will send you another. LOL Interesting. That and they had newspaper stands. Insted of newspapers they where full of girly dirty magazines. Sarah got her tiki mug. I wanted one but was careful not to spend. took some neat pictures and sarah and I became crazy tourists.

Got back agian everyone was going to the 2 doller all you can eat feast thing at 2am. I was so tired flanker and I went up to sleep. I had masqurade the next moring so I needed all my sleep so i could torchure myself with that costume of doom.

Sunday

I can't really remember what I did sunday. Oh wait I was working our both in the dealers room. Then I went to flankers martial arts pannel and helped him out. I brought my taekwando uniform and my training Nunchucks. That was fun. I am alwasy shy when I am in front of a big group of people. I talked a bit about why I got into taekwando and did a form.

Then I went to cins costume pannel that was very well informed. Being a cosplayer all her tips really helped me. Wig care is the hardest part. I went to look at her portfolio. That thing is amazing. I showed her my gargoyle mask I made.

Not sure what I did next. I think I was tired and went and took a nap. They Closed the dealers room down for the slave labor comic pannel.

The banquet was much fun. I was'nt going to go but I am glad I did. The food was Good. I'm not a picky eater. All you can eat is good with me :P Then I left to get ready for the masqurade. I was dressed as brooklyn from future tense. It took me awhile to get into that thing. The wings are hard to move around in. We had to move from the con suite down this back way of the hotel. They have this thing about masks and such. I ended up creating a new dance called the gargoyle shuffle because i had to side step down the hall. Cin helped be my gargoyle mother and direct me just like my friend tabs did at comic con. I won the goreelisa award and another award. Love my gargie statues. There where some really nice costumes and cute ones too.

After that I went up and got out of the torture costume:P the mask is hot and the wings are really heavy. Then I went to find abe and his shot in the dark game. That was alot of fun. hes another neat person I met this year. The game was where you threw squishy objects at point cards in the dark. I played that for a bit and then got draged into the next room where greg and Tom where sitting down talking with everyone. They where all just hanging out and being silly. This is where I really found out that this convention is so neat. Just how it's like family and everyone is talking.

Finally went to sleep woke up on monday and packed had to say goodbye to Sarah and flanker and maui and many others and get back home since I drove. Before we went out to eat agian at the 2 doller breakfust. Molested hudson one more time before leaving :P Hes so fun to talk to.

I cant wait till next year.

Gathering Pictures

More pictures from the Kewlest convention ever.

Hudson picture. Is this before or after the molestation.?

http://www.ka-blamo.com/journal/gathering/Hudson.jpg

Lexy,Flanker and the dice game.

http://www.ka-blamo.com/journal/gathering/dicegame.jpg

Sarah and our trip to the office depot. Strange things in there.

http://www.ka-blamo.com/journal/gathering/saraleia.jpg

Winter and his ren fair garb.

http://www.ka-blamo.com/journal/gathering/wolfie.jpg

Abe and the shot in the dark game. I think I was having to much fun with this game. Squishy balling things in the dark . *giggles*

http://www.ka-blamo.com/journal/gathering/shotdark.jpg

Allaine writes...

July 29, 2005
Day Three

The Gathering officially began today. I was up relatively early, partly because Mooncat basically woke up early every day, and it wasn't easy to stay in bed with her up. The three of us went to breakfast at the Palace again. Since the entrance to the Palace buffet was right next to the convention registration table, there were a lot of people milling around, and I said hello to some people I hadn't seen in a year.

From there I sat in on the Con Virgin panel, even though this was my third Gathering, and I was surprised to see all the people who were there for the first time this year. Once it was over, I stole an opportunity to shamelessly promote my upcoming Win David Xanatos' Money game show panel, once again giving someone the opportunity to (loudly) discover that "Allaine" is not, in fact, a woman.

Then I went to Ellen Stolfa's panel on writing improvement with Emambu. I left halfway through because it was mainly a primer on grammatical mistakes, and I was already familiar with most of the information. I ended up in the Art Room for a while, where I finally spoke to Cindy/Eden. We'd actually seen each other the previous night in the hotel lobby, but she was talking to someone and I didn't want to interrupt (and she wasn't really sure who I was). Kathy was also there and I found out she'd be leaving early, unfortunately.

Next was the Demona debate, hosted by Spacebabie and Revel. This was a lot of fun, mainly centering on questions like "Which words best define Demona?" and "Was she that bad a planner, or did she just want to be stopped?" Nothing like making excuses for a genocidal madwoman, I say. Also had one of the best lines of the Gathering when we were discussing why Demona never had any children after Angela and someone observed "Why would anyone go near her anyway?" (I believe his point was that you wouldn't want to come within ten yards of someone so unpredictable and dangerous.) My response was something along the lines of, "I can't believe I actually HEARD those words."

By now our last roommate Summer Jackel had arrived. This was my first time meeting her, and she proved to be a really great companion for the next four days. I ran into Cindy again and she invited me to come with her to the Mirage and meet her sister. I went to find Summer to see if she was interested, because she's got a thing for big cats and they have plenty of THOSE at the Mirage, but she was jet lagged and passed out, so I eventually passed on Cindy's offer. I basically wandered about until the opening ceremonies. I think we maybe had a snack.

Then came opening ceremonies, which was the usual collection of special videotaped moments and messages from the cast and crew. Greg had a lot of news regarding the DVD release of Season Two, as well as a sneak preview of some of the extra material. Apparently a lot of the cast was in L.A. for the DVD bonus materials, and Greg took the opportunity to record their messages to the fans. Still, the best moment was Keith David, who said, "I've been deprived everything - even my convention!"

The crowd basically erupted.

My roommates and I left a little bit early so we could head to the New York, New York casino. We had tickets for a 10:30 show that night, and we met Ellen for dinner at a Chinese restaurant inside NY NY, which was all very nice. Then we went to the show, which was Cirque du Soleil's R-rated Zumanity show, and I won't go into a lot of detail, but it was really an incredible show. I would see it again in a second. I think it was that moment that I understood that Las Vegas isn't about gambling any more. I would like to return some day for a three-day visit, stay at a hotel, take in a couple shows (definitely another Cirque show), not do any gambling whatsoever, and consider that a great time :)

Speaking of gambling, earlier that day I went to get the gambling out of the way. I put $20 into a quarter-slot Wheel of Fortune machine in the Palace Casino, determined to play until it was all gone. As it happened, I got my total up to just under $125 before I played back down to $80. I cashed my sixty-dollar profit, and I ended up spending the rest of that sixty dollars in slot machines the rest of the vacation. So I broke even in Vegas, which was good enough for me.

Anyway, once the show was over, the four of us went back to our hotel rooms and crashed. The next day would be Summer's real introduction to the Strip, and a chance for the rest of us to see some things we'd missed.

Doug Mug-A-Guest 05 writes...

I have been reading allot of the stuff on Bronx, Matt seems to keep implying that he is just some animal. Now if we take out the gift of spoken word wouldn't you have to say that about the entire clan, I mean from a human standpoint aside from the fact that some of them can talk, most people would just consider them a bunch of monsters. I think perhaps this is something that many people have not considered, I mean these creatures are not human beings, they have some human qualities (Even Bronx), nut alas they are not. I always thought that that was something that made Elisa and Goliath's relationship so beautiful, here you have two completely different creatures who have simply forgotten about all that. One other thing about bronx, why does everyone call him a dog? I mean he isn't, he's a gargoyle, so here are some questions about him
1. Greg does it bother you that people refer to him as a dog?
2. you have mentioned a maturation difference between beasts and standard gargoyles, it seems to me that bronx is kinda on the old side, almost close to hudsons age sometimes, he has many of the same traits/habits as hudson, or perhaps and older canine would.
3. Bronx also seems very tough, for example in city of stone when bronx was watching over Elisa and Owen, Demona did not seem to feel she could beat him, she even put down her mace. Also he seems to be the only one that can pin her for any length of time, I can't help but think if Lex or Brook had stayed behind she would have taken them on, so are most gargoyle beasts considered dangerous and you should not take one on, or just him?
4. Demona seems to not want to hurt bronx right away, she did threaten his life later but does she just feel like he is a big dumb animal and doesn't deserve to die? or does she just not care.

Well greg, hope to see you in LA

Cassie Lockhart writes...

Hi!
I love the Super Robot Monkey Team series, and I was wondering: What's up in the episodes you worked with? I'm really curious!
I live in Norway, and I'm Norwegian. The show is on every Saturday and Sunday, so I watch it every weekend!
Those cyborg monkeys are so darn cute!
My favourite is Antauri. He's so wise and sweet.
Who's your favourite?

Big hug, Cassie.

Secret Agent Gerbil writes...

'Ello Mr. Weismen. Not a question, but a comment rather. I just wanted to say that despite my tender schooling age (I'm a freshman you see...but who knows what I'll be by the time you get around to this...) I just wanted to say that ever since I realized I wanted to be a comic book writer, your brilliant story, Gargoyles (and it's massively couldn't happen but you never know nowadays universe) has greatly inspired me! As I jot down my little ideas I wonder how I can expand upon them to create something truly unique!

And thus, I just wanted to tell you that Gargoyles has been a direct influence on my future attempts at possible creative properties of my own and I consider you (and your creative team) an inspiration!

And...also...

Nah, that's it. I got nothing else. Adios.

Legend84 (Newphoenix84) writes...

I was wondering the character Xanatos has very similar lives with Tony Stark was there any influences on creating Xanatos with Ironman? Thanks in advance.

Brenda writes...

What is the diffenece between reptiles and leathery birds also what is the same about them?

Gside writes...

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 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.

So, day two.

Wait, I believe I forgot something from Opening Ceremonies. A partially recreated lyca reel of The Lost (the Team Atlantis episode with Demona). Excellent work on the timing and additional art. And especially the bit of subtitling.

Right, day two.

Skipped out on the first set of panels for brunch, then off to Series Development. There we found out why Steven Speilberg is an evil, evil man (he ruined two pitches for Greg).
Voice Acting was interesting, and it was there that I heard Thom's approach to scripts: "My line, $@!#, !@#$, $!#@, my line, my line..."
I was hoping for more comparisons of style out of the Martial Arts and less of a saftey lecture, but it was still we got at least one good fight out of it.
The comic panel was a nice brief look into the industry and how last minute we were. Greg Guler's Goliath and Eliza that they had at Comicon is the only piece of artwork they have for it.
Then a quick dinner before the Poker Tourney. Kaioto went out early, Thom played mostly by committee, I forget who lost their last chip on a blind, Greg had some good plays, but Chris Rogers eventually pulled through. Fun, but I was hoping for more calling and less folding. And after that, ice cream right before the shop closed for the night. Then a brief trip to the arcade with Greg and Thom. Thom isn't that bad of a marksman. Not spectacular, but better than I with a lightgun.
And to round out the night, Hudson's rant. My British comedy got a brief but funny throwaway, but he elaborated more on my next. I got some love from Revel as he and Spacebabie left for the night, then I pulled out myself before act two.

To continue: Day three.
Got some food, went to hang around the art show for a bit. Then it was time for the storytelling panel; pretty straightforward, ended with a bit of film analysis (look at how these elements come between the characters; his neck between the ceiling beams makes you think of scissors; that lamp looks like a coffin).
There were some technical difficulties at the original W.I.T.C.H. room, so we went to the con suite. On booting up the DVD player there, we were treated to a nice adult content warning. Someone had forgotten to take out the "how to dominate your man" DVD.
After that, I took a break before the radio play, which was a nice story about the immortal daughters of Shakespeare. Though I did hear some of the gratuitous nudity was added just for us.
The banquet was nice, I sat at a pretty much all TGS table (Greg Bishansky, Revel, Spacebabie, Mandolin). In the dim light it was hard to tell the color of the stars under the candleholders for the door prizes, but that was all right. Then there was lots of Masquerade prep time; the cosplayers needed a security escort through the casino. Apparently they get paranoid about people in masks. Revel was quite slick as Jackal, but the giant heads were impressive.

And to finish up my con journal.

But first about the hotel. Boy, those were low shower heads. When will they discover that things built for the average man are too small for half the population?

So, sunday. After checkout and breakfast, I decided to see if I couldn't spectate Win Xanatos's Money, but Aaron convinced me to take the pretest. Should be a used car salesman, that man. Surprise of surprises, I was in, against two fic writers whose work was the subject of some of the questions (Ellen and Alexandria). My strategy was to see if I couldn't figure it out from, see if they others' lack of answer would give me a hint, then take a guess. Managed to kill the Mulder question on a guess, chose a British name for another because of a spanner in the question, and the only one I killed by memory was on Norcumi. Went into finals with a $100 lead, and I was pretty sure I wouldn't get it. It turned out that no one wagered anything, so I won it. I probably should have put down something to let the better woman win.
After that was Creating Original properties, where Greg showed off a couple promos (one a repeat under another name from '03). Then I hung out in the art room (with Revel, Spacebabie, Emambu, Winterwolf, Dreamie, and a few others), helping to take hooks out of pegboard, except to check out how the bidding went on Thom's pants.
I don't remember much about Closing Ceremonies, but afterward Revel and Spacebabie let me come with them back to the main hotel (having handed in my room key already), where they had a little discussion that I was a slight sounding board for. Then it was off to the con suite where they had a little mating ceremony.
Nothing left to do after that but waste time until my flight out at midnight, arrived in Newark at 8, then the monorail to the train and the train back to Redbank (and a ride back home).

Na zdorov'ya.

Zoma Dragon Friend writes...

I am new to the Gargoyle World and just have one question. Who are the named members of Wyvern Clan. (I told you I was new). I have been trying to get them all straight but there are relations and mates and...yeah...You have probably answered this question a million times, but I do not want to search 1,000 questions about them.

Mandolin writes...

Greg -

(Insert Mandi's G2005 con journal here.)

For a variety of reasons which involve exploding lightbulbs, bad cosplay, and a possessed automobile that no one really wants to hear about, I don't think I'll get my con journal done before August 31st. Oh, I'll get it done anyway, but I have the feeling it won't be done by the deadline and you just need the numbers before then. Better a late con journal that's not crappy and tainted by my need to hurt various contractors. So I was there, I came, I saw, I had fun, G2005 was over far too soon, and I'm looking into making you a "Lunatic Most Trusted" button.

(Incidentally, if I don't make it to G2006 or you read this before I do, I forgot to ask you something at the Blue Mug-A-Guest when you said you were a Shakespeare freak - did you ever see "Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet)?" I'd recommend it if you haven't; best play I've ever been involved in, and it messes with Othello and Romeo and Juliet SO MUCH...)

Now watch. Now that I've given up getting it done before the deadline, I'll get it done in time anyway. Oh well...

Vicious writes...

I'm wondering about all the places visited in the world tour episodes. Did you or any of the creative staff actually see places like Prague or the Queen Charlotte Islands? Did you base them on your experiences or just do some research without actually knowing much about the places to begin with?

Spacebabie writes...

I'll plead the Fifth part of the journal

Monday August 1

Joined GregX for breakfast again. I wanted to watch Win Xanato's money, but I needed food and I wanted to pick up my art. After I got my art I went to see the tail end of WXM and I got to see Gside win. Afterwards Allaine asked the audience members various True and False questions.

After helping Aaron clean up the are and returning the stuff to the consuite we came back down to Salon B to watch the original properties panel. The animated show pitches looked amazing and I hope they will gain some life.

I had to see who was going to win Thom's pants and the poker chips. Lynati won the pants and Alex Garg won the chips. Gregx won the Demona shirt designed by Liz. I won a Lexington action figure and a Goliath poster that Greg Weisman signed. (My father want to put it up in his office.)

The saddest part of the day was closing ceremonies. It was the official farewell and Greg and Chris bid us a farewell and reminded us to register for next year.

A lot of us finished cleaning up the art room. The room looked so sad when it was empty.

After we finished cleaning Revel and I figured it would be better idea to just do a "Mating Ceremony." We went up to the Consuite where there was a crowd. Emambu conducted the ceremony and we pledged our love to each other and I received a pretty ring.

Revel and I decided to get dressed up and go out to dinner. He had never been to Carrabas and we went there. He dressed up in the suit he sued for Jackal sans the shiny gold parts, and I wore the pretty blue dress I brought along.
The cab driver stiffed us on the way. We both ordered a drink. Revel tried a Cosmo and I had a vanilla cappuccino martini. I had the shrimp pasta meal that had a lot of mushrooms.

We had no trouble with the cab ride back. We wanted to take the shuttle to the strip, but we just missed it and it was getting late. We needed to wake up early the next day.

Spacebabie writes...

There will always be a Part Four.

Sunday July 31

Before we left the room, Revel called someone to fix the sink. Once again Revel and I stopped y Starbucks for breakfast. I had another caramel frappucino and a blueberry muffin. I went back up for my anthology and we ate together at one of the tables before going to the con.

After getting my anthology signed (With cute comments by GregX and Allaine) I went to the body casting costume panel. I learned about how to make different casts and how to make horns. Dreamy showed how she made her wings for her 2000 costume.

After the panel I went up to the Event Suite for the W.I.T.C.H panel. After fiddling around with the TV equipment we decided to go to the consuite and watched the "selling" video which was different from the pilot episode. Greg told us about the change in management and the fact that some Gargoyles Voice actors will appear. Thom had been cast as a talking calculator.

After the panel I went back to the art room and hung out until it was time for the Radio Play. I thanked Karine for a great con last year and got to see the latest baby pictures of Matthieu.

The radio play this years as based on a pilot for a quirky dramedy (As someone who was a fan of Ally Mcbeal and Ed, I think we need more of those.) Revel was the resident geek, Emambu the cop, and Siryn was the main character. Jen played her sexy sister. At one point Siryn stood up and paused before her face turned pink. Great acting from everyone, loved Seth's little Keanu Reeves improve.

I briefly returned to my room to do up my hair and makeup for the banquet. The sink was fixed! Joined up with Revel and we had a table with Gside, Mandy, Aaron, and Lynati. GregX folated between our table and the Family table. The little gargoyle candles were neat and so was the little statue in the middle. Banquet food was buffet style.

After everyone had their dinner fill we returned to our room for the masquerade. I did the costume thing with my Hot Topic fangs while Revel dressed up in his suit. I heard Greg W's voice outside our room and I looked out and saw an adorable pair of gargoyle hatchlings. I waved and smiled at them. I heard one of them respond. "She's got fangs."

We met in the con suite and Chyna Rose loaned my some polygrip to make sure my fangs stayed in place. I got to see everyone else's costume. There was Benny as Goliath, Erin as the Gathering 01 mascot: Holly, Shara as Brooklyn, Onyx as the Onyx gargoyle, Echo as a gargoyle with large silky wings, Fusion demon as a kitty demon, Cindy as the Bin Sidhe, Noel as Werefox, Dancer as Dancer, Y2Hecate as Sin and Afan as a mafia type.
We were lead through the secret passageways of the hotel to the con area. I'm getting better at walking towards the front, posing and then taking my seat…no more nerves. I took pictures and posed for some pictures. Cindy won first Canon , Revel was 2nd place. Noel won for Cosplay, Onyx won first for non canon, echo for noncanon. Benny won jr division canon, Erin non canon and Fusion Demon won best jr cosplay. Shara won best of show with her amazing Future Tense Brooklyn. I loved the flashing eyes. We chatted more until Revel and I got sleepy.

Anonymous writes...

[Mr. Jensen, could you please just pass along this version if you deem my question worthy of being passed along at all? I just realized the way I'd worded the stuff I mentioned in the ending in the first version it might sound impolite.]

Hello. I was just reading the Lexington section last night in the hopes you had clarified something about Lexington's motives, and some stuff I read made me wonder about something. As the question I was looking for hasn't been answered, however, I'll ask this first.

I recall a long time ago that you mentioned that, in Future Tense, Puck chose Lexington as the mastermind because he was going for shock value. What were this dream-Lexington's reasons for carrying on Xanatos' legacy after the "real Xanatos" died in the fight with Hudson, though?

Secondly, and here I get to the main reasoning behind writing this: I very much applaud your intentions to, if the societal climate ever provides for it, portray Lexington as attracted to other guys. Although I'm not attracted to my own gender myself (I am a young man), I do believe in tolerance for people who are attracted to their own genders, so I approve of this very much.

However, some of the reasoning mentioned in the discussion as to why Lexington is attracted to other men concern me that you may be unintentionally indulging another kind of intolerance without knowing it. That of the intolerance directed towards a person, often ostracized by their peers simply because they prefer books and the so-called more "thoughtful, intellectual" pursuits as opposed to what the majority of the society prefers; simply because they're "smarter." This is a group I belong to.

In the discussion some of the people asking the questions theorized Lexington was attracted to other guys because he was scrawny, wasn't as interested in Angela as the others, was friends with Alex, and some other reasons I don't recall. You confirmed their questions in such a way I'm unable to tell if you're also confirming their reasoning behind which gender Lexington finds attractive.

This is a concern to me because there are plenty of ostracized "smarter" people. (By the way, I can't think of a better term right now, but I apologize to anyone who reads this if it sounds arrogant. My personal belief is anyone can become as smart as anyone else, some just choose not to enhance their thinking capacity as much as others.) Plenty of people in this minority who don't care about their appearances because they believe appearances are on-the-surface traits which don't matter. Plenty of people who find the opposite gender attractive but choose not to pursue attractive people because they're either uninterested in a relationship, or believe whether a person is or isn't attractive is not important in life and not worth concerning oneself with in any way. (Or, to use a less extreme example, plenty of people who do pursue the opposite gender a little, but even if they are interested in relationship or paying attention to attractiveness, are much less interested in a relationship or a person's appearance because they would rather engage in other "intellectual" activities.) And plenty of people who do not believe in the stereotype that a male of any age should only associate them with "tough" aspects of life and befriend children outside of their own family, show affection to them. So on and so forth.

And from what I've heard and inexperienced, one of the harshest insults levelled against people such as this, who simply would rather be different than the majority, is to accuse them of being different not because every person is unique and because people could be interested in things outside of what the majority is interested in, but because they are attracted to their own gender. Which is insulting not only because these people mistakenly think it is wrong to be attracted to one's own gender, but also because they are claiming that the only reason they could still be a human being and not be interested in sports, cars, appearances, popularity, et cetera, is to be part of a minority they see as horrible. In other words, that no one could ever not be interested in what the majority is interested in and still be a human being of any kind.

So what I want to know is; why did you characterize Lexington in these ways? I know you would never intentionally portray anything intolerant, but I feel the minority I'm a part of is often misrepresented in many ways: for instance, as "wanting to be popular despite being different" when many of us simply don't want anything to do with the majority of a society we strongly disagreed with and just want people to recognize its okay to be different. And because of this, when studying how to best portray Lexington right, some of your ideas came from this misinformation. Hence, I'm asking now to allay my worries you were misled by this misinformation - which I doubt you were - and the minority I belong to is being represented accurately as well, since aspects of tolerance are a recurring motif in Gargoyles and has become a major topic involving discussion about Lexington.

Thank you for your time.

Anonymous writes...

Hello. I was just reading the Lexington section last night in the hopes you had clarified something about Lexington's motives, and some stuff I read made me wonder about something. As the question I was looking for hasn't been answered, however, I'll ask this first.

I recall a long time ago that you mentioned that, in Future Tense, Puck chose Lexington as the mastermind because he was going for shock value. What were this dream-Lexington's reasons for carrying on Xanatos' legacy after the "real Xanatos" died in the fight with Hudson, though?

Secondly, and here I get to the main reasoning behind writing this: I very much applaud your intentions to, if the societal climate ever provides for it, portray Lexington as attracted to other guys. Although I'm not attracted to my own gender myself (I am a young man), I do believe in tolerance for people who are attracted to their own genders, so I approve of this very much.

However, some of the reasoning mentioned in the discussion as to why Lexington is attracted to other men concern me that you may be unintentionally indulging another kind of intolerance without knowing it. That of the intolerance directed towards a person, often ostracized by their peers simply because they prefer books and the so-called more "thoughtful, intellectual" pursuits as opposed to what the majority of the society prefers; simply because they're "smarter." This is a group I belong to.

In the discussion some of the people asking the questions theorized Lexington was attracted to other guys because he was scrawny, wasn't as interested in Angela as the others, was friends with Alex, and some other reasons I don't recall. You confirmed their questions in such a way I'm unable to tell if you're also confirming their reasoning behind which gender Lexington finds attractive.

This is a concern to me because there are plenty of ostracized "smarter" people. (By the way, I can't think of a better term right now, but I apologize to anyone who reads this if it sounds arrogant. My personal belief is anyone can become as smart as anyone else, some just choose not to enhance their thinking capacity as much as others.) Plenty of people in this minority who don't care about their appearances because they believe appearances are on-the-surface traits which don't matter. Plenty of people who find the opposite gender attractive but choose not to pursue attractive people because they're either uninterested in a relationship, or believe whether a person is or isn't attractive is not important in life and not worth concerning oneself with in any way. (Or, to use a less extreme example, plenty of people who do pursue the opposite gender a little, but even if they are interested in relationship or paying attention to attractiveness, are much less interested in a relationship or a person's appearance because they would rather engage in other "intellectual" activities.) And plenty of people who do not believe in the stereotype that a male of any age should only associate them with "tough" aspects of life and befriend children outside of their own family, show affection to them. So on and so forth.

And from what I've heard and inexperienced, one of the harshest insults levelled against people such as this, who simply would rather be different than the majority, is to accuse them of being different not because every person is unique and because people could be interested in things outside of what the majority is interested in, but because they are attracted to their own gender. Which is insulting not only because these people mistakenly think it is wrong to be attracted to one's own gender, but also because they are claiming that the only reason they could still be a human being and not be interested in sports, cars, appearances, popularity, et cetera, is to be part of a minority they see as horrible. In other words, that no one could ever not be interested in what the majority is interested in and still be a human being of any kind.

So what I want to know is; why did you characterize Lexington in these ways? I know you would never intentionally portray anything intolerant, but I feel the minority I'm a part of is often misrepresented in many ways: for instance, as "wanting to be popular despite being different" when many of us simply don't want anything to do with the majority of a society we strongly disagreed with and just want people to recognize its okay to be different. And because of this, when studying how to best portray Lexington right, some of your ideas came from this misinformation. Hence, I'm speaking now to make sure you were not misled by this misinformation and the minority I belong to is being represented accurately as well.

Spacebabie writes...

The Third Part is always the Charm
Saturday: July 30
Revel and I woke up to notice the fact the sink had backed up. We were in a rush for breakfast and stopped at Starbucks. I had a caramel Frappucino and a blueberry scone. We grabbed our food and rode up to the registration area where we hung out with Hudson and Silver.

The first panel for that day was the Writing Action Scene panel. Revel was one of the presenters along with Ellen and Kathy. Kathy had warned us she was at the point where she was easily distracted by shiny objects. Good points came up like having a "cooling" time after writing a story before editing and to have a cutting room area on the computer or in the folder.

Next it was a trip up to the event suite for the Othercon Round Robin. It was me, Mooncat, Princess Alexandria, Efrain, Dennis, Summer Jackel, and Allaine. The bizarre couple we used was Werefox and Demona and had it set during Eye of the Beholder.

Once the RR ended I went down to the dealers room and purchased a belt buckle in the shape of a wolf's head for my brother and talked with several artists. I also collected several pretty business cards.

Around three I went to Salon C for the background art panel. Dreamy and Kyt showed some nifty background they had used and tricks on how to make them by showing individual layers. Kyt also showed us how to make images of fire.. The panel was almost over when the fire alarm went off. Confused, we slowly walked out, congregated at the registration area, and slowly made our way to the escalator when it stopped. We returned to the panel for some Q and A before it officially ended.

Next up was the SLG panel. Dan Vado made a good point that the Haunted Mansion comic would not involve the movie. We got to see some pretty visuals followed by pics of the Wonderland and Tron comics, followed by the now famous image of the Gargoyles Comic.

Revel and I took a dinner break and met up with GregX and was invited to share a table with….*there goes my memory…I am getting old* We talked about schools, work and Gregx's famous drive in 2003.

After dinner I used up a 20 at a roulette wheel. Then went to watch the poker match until it was time for the Group Art Fun.

There was a big sheet of paper, some markers and a lack of attendees. For a short while it was Dreamy, Fusion Demon and me. Then Fusion went back up to the Con suite and Y2Hecate arrived. We decided to get naughty and draw porn. Dreamy drew the naughty pic while Y2Hecate and I laughed. Dreamy wrote "Rant Topic Number One" next to it, then we ran up to the con suite while still laughing.

The three of us kept up our poker faces in the con suite until it was time to go down for the Rant. We waited for more people to arrive including Revel and GregX. Dreamy did point out the pic to where Hudson went "Well, hmmmm. What is the topic?" and rattled of a possible list. The rant went on until a giddy Siryn with a veil caught our attention.

Spacebabie writes...

Part Deux
Friday, July 29
Apparently the power went out because we woke up to see a blinking clock. Revel adjusted the time before we went to The Feast for breakfast. We joined Flanker and Sara the Great. After Revel and I finished eating we heard Thom's voice. We chatted with him and Lanny about various topics: including the evil eggs benedict and dogs.

After breakfast we helped Kathy set up Registration. Packets were handed out and we greeted friends. I squeed with delight at the fact we got a whole family with hatchlings. I showed some of my fellow Harry Potter fans a sketch I drew in my sketchbook.

Noon rolled by and it was time for my round robin. Hard to compete with Greg Weisman and cake and ice cream, but I managed to snag some people. The story primarily involved Puck and Fox and things got strange, fast. Just don't shout "Weeeee"in front of Chyna Rose unless you want her to die laughing.
Next I went to check out the art and dealers tables. I made sure I purchased a copy o the Eye of Odin Anthology, and Calendar. I also rolled some die at Shara's table and won a couple of T-shirts and a flag.

Next came the Demona Debate with Revel. (our first panel together). We made sure everyone who wanted to say something. Mostly what was discussed was about whether or not Demona was evil. I felt a little hampered by the burning in my stomach and a sore throat. The latter worried me due to the fact a sore throat is usually a harbinger for a head cold. (I felt fine through the rest of the weekend.)

We returned to the art show to talk and I went to bid on a few pieces of art before Revel and I went to get some Burger King. GregX gave us some money to get him something. I ordered a grilled chicken sandwich meal with fries and a diet soda and Revel tried the Chicken Fries meal.

After dinner we got ready for the opening ceremonies. Chris greeted us and asked how many gatherings we have attended. Then the 2006 Gathering Staff did their spiel. Then Greg Weisman took the mike and showed us the visual goodies he brings every year. There was a recording of Keith David regretting not being able to make it and video recordings from Greg, Thom, and several of the cast and crew telling us that they hope to make it next year.

Greg showed two preview clips. (The Power Of One recording one that we haven't seen before. We got to see some preview bonus material from the second season DVD, the recording of artwork for New Olympians and Dark Ages and the Bad Guys Leica Reel. The last see got to see was the fan made Leica reel of "The Last." It was the video recording, plus the art boards pieced together and colored and some new art provided by Vashkoda (Who did an excellent job)

After Opening Ceremonies I preregistered for next year and Revel and I dropped some stuff of at our room. We went to the Casino where Revel showed GregX how to play Blackjack. When they went to play some video poker, I tried my luck (Or lack there of) at the nickel slots. After using up a dollar I went to the Irish Pub and had a margarita.

The Blue Mug A Guest officially began when Thom entered he room. It was not quite as Blue as 2003 but it was Bluer than last year. Some questions were about the 2nd season DVD and the comic. Greg mentioned he felt that one of the girls in W.I.T.C.H. Might be a lesbian.

Andrea shouts out. "It's not Irma is it?"

Greg's response: "How did you know it was Irma?"
We all left around the same time as Thom.

Nick Gawel writes...

If Samson is Goliath's great grandson in Gargoyles 2198 wouldn't Samson look more like Broadway since males look like their dad?

Anonymous writes...

I am trying to adapt some of the Gargoyles characters into a role-playing game, where they can interact with the likes of Spider-Man or Batman. In preparing to integrate the Gargoyles, I was wondering how strong the five principle Gargoyles are? From what I see, I am guessing that Goliath is the strongest and can probably lift somewhere in the neighborhood of 3 tons, while Lexington is the weakest, and can probably lift only a few hundred pounds.

Spacebabie writes...

Gathering 2005 Journal

Friday: July 23
Just like last year I flew out to Houston which was the starting point for the road trip. The flight was pretty basic, but a little hard to find where my luggage was coming in due to the fact the sign was broken. I found Revel and he knew where my luggage was coming in.
Tuesday: July 26
Aaron and Lynati had arrived. They had to take Mara to the airport before leaving San Antonio. The game plan was they would spend the night at Revel's house then we would pack up and leave for the road trip the next day. Aaron's car was packed with Con stuff.
Wednesday: July 27
While I made sure I hade everything packed, the others went to get the rental minivan. It took longer than we anticipated but it was a nice minivan. It had fold down seats, and pockets in the floorboards to store extra stuff. It also had a CD player, cassette player, radio, and satellite radio, There was even an outside sensor that let us know what the temperature was. The most amusing detail was the Florida License plate. We packed up our stuff: con stuff, luggage, music and snacks, and drove off.
Around Midnight, Texas time, I started to doze off. Lynati managed to shove some things around and stretched out on the floorboards, giving me enough room to stretch out across the seats.
Thursday: July 28
Woke up around 5:30 am at the Arizona Welcome Center. It was 58 degrees outside. I snoozed a little more until we arrived at Flagstaff. Yes, we visited one of the cities from the World Tour, not exactly at the university. We stopped at a McDonalds. I had a coffee and a yogurt parfait.
Our next stop was at the Hoover Dam. We stretched out and took pictures, before we continued on our way to Vegas.
Lynati phoned Chris when we parked and he sent someone with a key to lead us to the Con Suite. Inside were Seth, Hudson, Kael, Chris, Lanny, Dreamy, Dancer, Kathy, Winterwolf, and GregX. I was still exhausted from the trip so I took a small nap on the couch and woke up around the time Emambu and Leo had arrived. Some of us talked and others watched a few cartoons on a laptop Once the four of us road trippers had relaxed a bit, Aaron pulled the minivan to the front and large group of us went down to Carry in the luggage and con stuff and bring it back to the suite.
We opened the boxes and suit cases that contained the con stuff when we were finished. The Con stuff included packets that contained the programs an badges, T-shirts, Gathering Anthologies, the calendars, the trophies, little decorations and stuff for the auction.
Not long after it was check in time. Revel and I checked into our room, dropped off our luggage, hung up our jackets, costume material, and my little blue dress. We brushed our teeth after that long trip. Revel took a nap and I went back to the suite.
A large group of us went through the casino, to the elevators where we rode them up to the con area. We pushed around tables for the dealers and carried in panels and wooden beams for the art show. Afterwards we returned to the con suite where we were informed of Greg W's and Thom's plane, and where we had a great view of the afternoon thunderstorm. I'm used to such storms, but it was interesting to watch it.
When it as time for the official staff meeting, Emambu and I returned to my room and woke up Revel. The three of us went down to the Guadalajara for dinner. All three of us had a sandwich platter. Mine was the turkey club. After eating we returned to the room where we looked through Revel's sketch book and Emambu allowed us to look through his outline for his panel. We talked about the con and life and between 9:30 and 10:00 I drifted off.
I woke around one and heard Revel talk about how Greg Weisman did not like the new Batman movie. I changed into sleeping clothes, brushed my teeth, set the alarm and returned to bed.

MooncatX writes...

Mooncat's Gathering 2005 Journal…Part One

For me it began on the Wednesday before the Gathering, as with little sleep due to constant visitors the two days previous and frantic packing, I got up at 6am which was an hour later than planned. Even though my plane wasn't set to leave till around 1pm, my ride, who was also my house sitter, found out he had to go in to work that day and had to drop me off first, in the early morning, as he was borrowing my car during the week I'd be gone. Wretchedly tired, but running on pre-convention adrenalin, forgoing a morning shower or breakfast and hastily grabbing up my luggage and carryon and purse, we set off for the airport, my friend driving…

And found out it's a good thing we left early as we did because he completely missed the turn off for the airport as he chatted at me. But still, made it to the airport with plenty of time for him to get to work from there. Me and my luggage trundled into the check in area, where no living person was manning the desk for United (Ted), but fortunately I could just stick my credit card in the automated thingy and get my ticket/boarding pass… but darn if it didn't register the fact I had two pieces of luggage to check in! But finally a living person came to the desk, and made the adjustment and checked in my baggage. She offered to put me on an earlier flight to Denver (where I was to change over planes) but would be unable to make any earlier flights from Denver to Las Vegas, so I'd end up sitting in Denver for hours between flights.

I should have taken the earlier flight. As it was, I was so sleep deprived I thought spending time in the relatively quiet and peaceful local airport would be better than a bustling airport like Denver, and declined to make any changes to my flight plans…. STUPID MOVE… If at any time you can leave earlier, even if your connecting flight is supposed to change, DO SO. As it was, my original flight out was DELAYED, making me late for my connecting flight so much so I had to dash from one end of Denver's concourse to the area my connecting flight was to leave from and BARELY made it on board my flight…. Unfortunately as I was to learn later, my LUGGAGE didn't make the transition with me =(

But, I myself made it to Las Vegas pretty much on time, and then operating on only a single egg and cheese biscuit I snagged at my starting airport in the very early morning, and surviving the rest of the day on the tiny bag of pretzels they give out on the air flight, and half cup of beverage, I departed my plane and knew immediately that Vegas was quite a different city the moment I entered their air port. First thing you come across in the airport? SLOT MACHINES, rows and rows of them. Digital, and disappointingly modern and video game like. At the time it seemed a local eccentricity, a quirky thing to tell friends about later when recounting the trip. By the time I was to leave Vegas, I would be heartily sick of the ever present slot machines, because they are EVERYWHERE in that city, just everywhere. Even the little 7/11 quickstops have them. That, and the scent of cigarette smoke seemed ever present in Vegas.

But back to my missing luggage, which after patiently waiting at the luggage claim area, I realized was not forthcoming. I went to the alcove that United has for luggage problems and found out my luggage would be arriving on a later flight from Denver to Las Vegas, and was quickly assured that they could forward my luggage to my hotel. Since I had a dinner date set with my roomies Allaine and Princess Alexandria, (set up on my cell phone when I got off the plane) and I didn't want to keep them waiting, I accepted the United rep's offer to send my luggage along to the hotel and set off to catch the shuttle from the Airport to the Palace Station Hotel. After questioning a few people from the info desks and then the nice policemen on their cute bicycles I found the spot to wait for the shuttle. That part was very easy, and I arrived with my purse and carryon (a nice large over the shoulder bag that unfortunately did not have a spare set of clothes, only my reading materials and such, to find Allaine and Princess at the hotel *^_^* … (to be continued)

keemew2 writes...

Okay. I have read everysingle Owen/Puck question in the Archives as of this time (the newer questions that are not in the archives yet, however, have yet to be read cuase then I would have to comb through the recent answers list very carefully).
Anyway. I have noticed on thing that seems to be quite a trend with a lot, and I mean a ~lot~ of answers.
"I can't and/or won't answer that at this time."
So, my question is this. When? ~When~ will you let us know things? Will we ever be able to find out? Will you ever tell us? There is so much I want to know, but so little you are willign to tell us for now. Are you trying, oin some way, to manage to start the series out again from a real seasojn three on? Are you planning to find a way to make those spinnoffs? What is your cruel reasonign for stifling us of this knowledge that we so desperatly crave!? DO you realize how evil that makes you?
I was eleven when this show came on. I watched it as often as I could, I was excited because it was Disney and my ~dad~ liked it (he hates nearly anythign Disney related). Not to mention that it was the most challenging show I'd seen of all the shows that had been on (I really, really ~really~ loved the dark undertones of the series, it was new and interesting, not kiddified).
Yes, I know I am a drama queen. That isnt' th point.
So, is there any chance my question of 'when' can be answered?
I'll love you either way, but I'l love you more if I can get a good answer ;P.

Karlyl/Trishana writes...

Very brief con journal for Gathering Vegas 2005. I'm used to doing longer ones, but lordy, I just haven't had the time (or the memory, haah) *_*

Thursday Night

I worked all day:P

Then I got home and packed and was trying my hardest to get ready for the art show. That so didn't work out for many reasons, even if I finished, sorta, a couple of pieces. I stressed and ended up just saying I wasn't going to bother. It was just unnecessary strain on my already twitchy self.

Friday

Got up super early and went to airport for my flight at 7am to Vegas. Thankfully the Southwest lines were fast moving and was checked, given a boarding pass and gone through security in about 45 minutes. Beautiful. Anyways, I got on the plane and found out that I had Speed Racer in LA style traffic for a pilot. I felt sick after that flight *_*

Anyways, I landed about 8:30 am, but didn't get my luggage until sometime after nine and didn't catch a shuttle for some time after that. By 10:15ish I was on my way to the Stratosphere Hotel, where all us folks who value our lungs and don't mind commuting a bit were staying. ^_^ Cindy directed me to our room ( haha, that was funny) and I made it up to the 23rd floor and finally got a chance to eat the breakfast I had gotten two hours earlier but hadn't eaten. I still wasn't feeling too hot after eating, but it was bearable.

We ( the herd of Stratosphere folks) headed over to the con not long after that and went to register. I hadn't pre-registered, though they had it listed as such in the book, hahaa. I saw some of the Miniclanners ( lexy, Solstice and Oracle) so I chatted a minute, then ran into Jade Griffin, Julie and others while we all waited for the general registration to open up. It did and I got my badge and stuff, then headed straight for the art room, where I saw Liz, Andrea and Tony, and other folks. We laughed and greeted each other and stuff, then I was conscripted into helping Liz put up her art of doom. I think we went to a panel too, on garg anatomy.

After that we went to opening ceremonies, which was very cool. Lots of stuff that we hadn't seen/heard before -Keith David's "I've been denied everything, even my convention!!!!!" line was just spectacular, since he couldn't come. Vashkoda's leica reel was awesome! Hopefully there'll be more next time:]

After opening ceremonies, I can't remember exactly what happened, except that I felt totally sick and needed to eat or something. The smoke of the Palace station was kicking my behind, so I told folks I was going to eat something…anything and left. Ran into Nezumi and we braved the Guadalajara restaurant in the casino. The salsa and chips were good. I felt better afterwards and then I went back to the con.

…I have no idea what happened after that. O_o I just know I crashed that night and felt horrid when I did, but much better the next day.

Saturday

Me and Cindy slept in, thank God. I was awoken by a call from Darth Vader on my Nextel phone at some ungodly before 10 am hour, but I mumbled at him that he didn't put out enough to wake me up so early and to call back later. I went back to sleep after that.

We did get up eventually and went to the Aladdin hotel for their buffet, which is AMAZING. We then wandered into the Paris Hotel and I oogled some chocolate desserts that I'd had the last time I was in vegas. Thankfully, I abstained, though it was difficult. After that we went to the con and hung out in the art room. I was having a severe bout of "I can't draw to save my life" so I was just hanging out and attempting to produce something…anything. It wasn't working. So I actually just hung out a lot, I think. I know I didn't go to any panels that day even though they had the big comic unveiling info session thingy.

Me and Cindy eventually headed back to the strip and visited Excalibur and…Ra…gawd, what was the name..er..yeah! Luxor. That was it. We visited the Luxor and put a lot of shiney powder on. We debated on heading back to the con, as it was almost 6pm, but ended up just going to the Stratosphere. We had a jackass of a cab driver and so we decided to get a massage in the water massge thingies. Oh My Gawd. HEAVEN. That is soooooooo good! I have to do it again, let me tell you.

That night, we went out to celebrate Laurean's impending nuptials and had a bizarrely fun time. Didn't get to bed until ungodly hours.

Sunday

Cindy had panels to give today, so we got up earlier than usual and had breakfast at the Lucky Café in the Stratosphere. Very very good quiche and waffle dishes!!! It was lovely. I bought a Chinese fan that morning but apparently left it in the hotel somewhere o_x

We trotted over to the Palace Station. And once again, accosted the art room. Cindy had to give her panels eventually, so I hung out with Kyt and Liz and so forth. Once again, attempted to draw and failed miserably. I ended up in a bidding war with Sonia Lai over Kyt's sexy hot Goliath piece, but we both lost to an interloper ;_; I hope he has a good home. However I did get Liz's Red and White piece, which made me squee with joy.

Ended up going to the radio play which was awesome and funny! This was honestly the first radio play that I've been to before, heh. I was happy that it wasn't too long, nor too short - I've heard the stories of the some of the other radio plays being very long. Since I don't really sit still, I thought that it was a good length.

After the play, I went with Liz, Julie, Kyt and Seth ( not irc goliath Seth) and hung out in Julie and Liz's room until around the time for the banquet. I didn't dress up, though Julie was super hot and gorgeous in her dress!:D:D The food was okay - I am not a fan of eggplant, personally though I would;ve enjoyed a veggie main dish and I would've preferred dessert with dinner. In any case, the best part of the banquet was the little gargoyle candle holders! Those were really cute.

After dinner, we headed back up to Liz and Julie's room because Liz volunteered to let folks change there. Anyways, I think it was the original folks, plus Sonia Lai and Nezumi who made our way up there and hung out. Dancer made an appearance at some point too. We had planned to oogle the masquerade folks and the casino people reactions, but I left before that and headed down to the banquet room again. I got to sit with the Miniclanners, which was SO AWESOME. I love you guys!!!!:D Anyways, that was cool and the masquerade was fun. Cindy was sexy and purple and I was very amused XD

Anyways, the awards for the masquerade and art show were given out and of course, Liz and Kyt cleaned house, but Nezumi got an award too, along with Jade, Cindy, Karine and Nikki, so I was all jazzed because they all did some seriously kickass art. Kudos to everyone who entered the art show and won awards because you all were fabulous!!!!!

After the masquerade, I think we just hung out. Normally we have some sort of dancing or karaoke or something, but nothing this year, so we hung out and the costumed folks trickled back in after removing their costumes. Everyone then proceeded to have a good time. Sexual Hilter and all that jazz. XD

Monday

Uh…we got up at our normal time, and went and had waffles at the Lucky café. Teehee. We made our way over to the con, and chilled in the art room again. I started doodling - I brought my ipod this time to see if a little music couldn't kick my brain into action. It worked, so I sketched in people's sketchbooks. :D I owe Liz a sexy sketch of her lion tiger owl towel guy still, since he's who I wanted to draw. XD

Anyways, It was really low key - folks were leaving and stuff on Monday - the con was a day longer than normal this year. I picked up my Liz piece and enjoyed it. Also watched a little bit of the silent auction, then went back to arting in the art show room.

And OMG, I pre registered for next year. I'd get kicked if I didn't show up for the con in my own back yard:P Anyways, I'm planning ahead, heh. The closing ceremonies was short and sweet. I said goodbye to a LOT of people who were leaving Monday, including the minclanners. They're so cute:D

Uh, after the art room closed down, we all headed out to the Star Trek Experience and ate at Quark's. Kyt got harassed by a Klingon, Tony thought Michael Dorn was talking to him in the toilet, Cindy and I shared a giant smoking and bubbling fish bowl and Oomox is the new orgasm. XD And Andrea's tribble was awful cute >:]

The best of the two rides was the Klingon encounter and I am apparently Jean Luc Picard's ancestor.

We said goodbye to Seth (the irc Goliath one :]) and Karine as they both had late night flights out of Vegas. I wsa sad to see them go :[ Greg had departed before we got on the rides, so everyone was sorta leaving. It was very sad. The reunion was coming to an end.

A bunch of us ended up chilling at the Stratosphere until really late. I finished drawing Dr. Penguin and Ninja Bear for Cindy XD and also consumed this black forest ice cream and cake thing from the haagen daaz store in the hotel. SO GOOD.

Went to bed late:P

Tuesday

Nose and throat felt like sandpaper so I was drinkin' lots of water. I got wedged in the back under some suitcases and we went to pick up Julie. Said goodbye to Liz ;_; Then we went to eat and then headed out of Vegas. Jen and the crew were kind enough to drop me off at the airport and I said goodbye to everyone - Julie, Kyt, Cindy, Patrick and Jen, then headed home.

The flight was fun because I was half asleep and there was lots of turbulence. A LOT.

And my cat pooped on my bed because I was gone too long for his tastes.

That's all:P

Chameleongirl writes...

Con/Vacation Journal Part 2

July 30:
First up (after breakfast .. SUGAR!!) was Clan Olympics - Trivia Torture!
Abe and I ran around getting stuff organised (I did a lot of dashing from the con rooms to our rooms that weekend, this was repaid to me later -_-), running late as usual. Good thing this is the Con though - nothing ever starts on time :)
I love Trivia Torture, it's great to see just what one team will do to another in the hopes of winning cheap plastic medals ...
One of the first-time Con-goers was this sweet looking young girl by the name of Fusion Demon ... Never EVER trust a cute 14 year old girl. They're evil!
Fusion Demon was the one to come up with the grossest foods combinations used in the torture - OJ peppermint and Vegemite shots, aerosol cheese pickles and hot sauce .. her mind is a dark dark place and I shudder to think what she's going to be capable of when she's all grown up.

Good luck on that world domination thing Fusion Demon! XD

As it was the game went off well, save for one girl who got peppermint essence in her eye and Patcher, who got sick after the event.
One team consisted of a family, and the parents seemed to take great delight in torturing their kids. Then the sisters started on each other ... Aaah, family love, it's just beautiful ^__^

We still hadn't finished coming up with clues for the next CO game (Really Difficult Charades), so we went up to Abes room and brainstormed for an hour or so. It was fun. The first clues were hard to come up with, but once you set the ball rolling we were writing down heaps.
'99 bottles of beer on the wall' and 'Go go Gadget arms' were two of my favourites ^_^

I left Abe in his room so I could go get some lunch (I found Subway!) and catch the start of the Slave Labour Graphics panel. By this point my sugar high had well and truly worn off and I was quite tired, so Kyt leant me a shoulder to lean on. Comfy :)
The panel was interesting, though not as informative about the Gargoyles comics as people had hoped. Understandable though, Gargoyles was a last minute inclusion. Still, the other comics look good, especially the Haunted Mansion one.
I had to leave the panel early to set up for Charades, so if anything was revealed after I left someone will have to let me know.

Charades was fun! One team totally ruled at it - they got 9 out of 10 right. And they were hard ones too.
Afterwards we slipped in a bonus game of Greed, using the flashing rubber dice that I brought for Abe. It was fun to watch (and unlike the other props that we gave away freely, Abe kept the dice for himself. They were shiny ^_^).

There was some confusion that evening about what our plans were for tea. In the end I went with Liz, New Seth, Nezumi, Jade Griffen and Clan Arcadia to the MGM Grand for dinner at the Rainforest Cafe. Before we met up with JG and Arcadia, we went for a walk around the strip. This is where my body rebelled and decided to grow HUGE blisters on the balls of my feet, right behind my toes.
I barely made it to the MGM Grand, I just wanted to sit down and cry it hurt that much :(
Still, the walk was worth it - the restaurant was really nice (food was kinda Eh though), the drinks were yummy, there was a zebra and a snarling hippopotamus hiding in the canopy, and in the souvenir store I found a chameleon hand puppet!
I bought him right away and named him Pepe. I carried him round for the rest of the Con and Jade Griffen even drew a picture of us both ^__^

Rather than walk back to where we parked the car (the Paris), we rode the monorail. Liz was disappointed we didn't get the Borg one, but I was just glad not to be walking. I've never been on a monorail before, this one was quick and smooth and CLEAN. Public transport that's clean? you don't get that in every city :D
Anyway, we got back to the hotel safely then practically collapsed on the bed for a heap of sleep.

July 31:
I woke up in the morning with incredibly sore feet, so after a shower I borrowed and exacto blade from Liz and took care of my blisters. I spent most of the day walking around bare foot, only putting on my shoes when I got told off by the security guard at the elevators. I took them back off once I was out of sight anyway :)
I spent most of the morning just lazing about the Dealers Hall, talking to people and making bids on items. I ended up buying this huge black cloak from the Ren Faire dealer, Kate. I can't wait to wear it!
The last Clan Olympics event for the con was the Hunters Moon Dash. A kind of scavenger hunt involving things that Abe hid around the hotel as well as stuff they had to scrounge for themselves.
Once again, the bonuses for this year involved getting staff members to stand in the boxes, though this year we made it harder and specified 2 staff members of the opposite sex :D
It was so much fun to see all the teams run around like maniacs, tying to find their items. Not to mention the mess they made! One team was the clear winner - they got all the items, save one, on the list. The one item they missed was the one no-one got: a frisbee the didn't say Nevada, Las Vegas or Palace Station Hotel. It was agreed by all the teams that there wasn't a single frisbee to be found in the area, let alone one that was tourist labelled :)
When the game was over we cleaned up as best we could (my gods, the mess!), made sure that everyone returned the stuff they had borrowed from the hotel, then we went upstairs and tallied the points. Clan Challenged won (again), followed by both the Arcadia teams. We sorted out the medals for them, then made up a few bonus awards for Fusion Demon, Patcher and the Leonards. They deserved them :)

Next it was back down to the Dealers Hall and the bidding war that had erupted over some of 'my' items. I managed to snag the Gargles t-shirt, lost out on Nikki's art work, and send Kyt's 'Branches' and the Demona/Xanatos/Steel Clan toys to auction on Monday.
The Banquet was coming up, so we went upstairs to change. I love any excuse to dress up, so I wore my slinky black skirt and sparkly halter top. Abe wasn't feeling up to it and he gave his seat to Kyt, so we sat on a table with Flanker, Sarah-The-Great, Liz, Shara, New Seth, Sonia, Denis, and I think Karlyl .. I can't remember, sorry!
The food was kinda Eh. I don't eat beef or eggplant, and the chicken was badly cooked. But I still enjoyed myself - it's about the company you keep, not the food you eat.
After the food was cleared away, we had time till the Masquerade/dessert part of the night began. So we hung out upstairs and got to see some of the costumes before wandering back down to the hall and grabbing a table a little closer to the front.
There weren't a great number of costumes this year, but they were all well done. Benny and Erin were absolutely adorable as Goliath and Holly. Fusion Demon rocked in her outfit (remember, she's evil and will rule the world one day, I know it). Shara's Brooklyn costume ruled, Onyx's was funny. I like the wings on Echo's and Revel makes a a great Jackal (I really want to do Hyena one day). Nikki's Sin and Cindy's Banshee were both sexy :)
Unsurprisingly, Shara won Best Costume for Brooklyn ^_^
Abe and I gave out the Clan Olympics awards and I think Abe said he'll be back to do it next year. I hope so, it's so much fun to watch, but I don't think I'll co-host next year - too much stress!
The art awards were given out - Liz scooped the pool with her Zodiac series and a couple of others. Kyt, Nikki and Nezumi won a couple too :)
After everything was over we hung out in the hall just talking crap, would have been nice to have some music or something though.
I got really tired at about 1 so I went upstairs and crashed.

I am very disappointed to have missed the man-love fest that seemed to be going on at Jen's table. Thankfully, Jen had her camera with her and we can all giggle over it ^_^

August 1:
I woke up at 6am, sick to my stomach. Yup, Julie puked. Yay -_-
I lay on the bed for a couple of hours till Liz woke up, then we went downstairs in search of a breakfast that wouldn't make me hurl. Liz, Dreamie and I ended up in the Guadalahara Cafe. I got toast, they got food that was mostly edible :/
The rest of my day was spent napping on a giant inflatable smiley-face ball in the Dealers Room. I hate being sick!
The day wasn't a total waste, as it was the last day everyone else was just hanging out and chatting, so I caught up with people. Jade Griffen drew her picture of me and Pepe, which made me happy.
At the Auction I managed to get my mitts on Kyt's pic and the toys. It cost me $145, but it was so worth it! I ended up giving the Steel Clan toy to JG (it was the Demona and Xanatos that I was really after).
I hung out for the rest of the Auction, just to see what the other items would sell for. The comics and script did well. As did the poker chips.
While I was waiting, I got Greg to sign my con book. No-one told me that Thom had left, so I was kinda disappointed that I missed out on his autograph. Oh well, next year! :)
I said a sad goodbye to Abe, who had to rush back to Arizona that night so he could go to work on Tuesday. Then I took off with Jen, Karine, Kyt, Karlyl, Cindy, Greg W, Andrea, Anthony, Patrick, Seth/IRC Goliath, New Seth, Jade Griffen, Liz, Miranda and Scott (Hah! Say that in one breath ^_^) for the Star Trek Experience at the Hilton.
We had a great meal at Quarks Bar (expensive, but still yummy). Jen, Karine, Cindy, Karlyl, Andrea and Anthony all had Borg Spheres. A large alcoholic drink commonly known as a fish bowl, because that's what it's served in. A big, round fish bowl.
They even put dry ice in it so it smokes!
I would have had a go at one (or one of the 'lesser' alcoholic drinks), but I was still feeling kinda queasy and I didn't want to give my body more reasons to puke.
During the meal we were visited by a Ferengi and a Klingon. Kyt got totally Kling-owned! T'was funny XD
We were all heading off for the rides when Greg had to leave, so we all said our goodbyes and tried to round up our group so we could all enter at once.
We rode the Borg ride first. It was in 3D, very well done and a lot of fun. The poking by the seats was weird and kinda freaky at first. There were shouts of 'Titania! Save us!' when Janeway appeared on screen.
Aaah, multi-fandom geekdom ^_^
It was a god ride, but there could have been more than one Borg stalking round the set, I was honestly expecting a little more from it.

There were too many of us to fit into the next running of the Kilngon ride, so we waited in line for the next go-round. I really pity the few mundanes that got caught on that ride with us ^_^
This one was a ride simulator, not in 3D, but I think it was better. Very stomach churning.
Anthony and I were both by the door of the shuttle, so we started playing with the control panels. The crew member told us off, claiming we could set off the self-destruct. Hehehehe ^__^
The best part of the ride was where parts of the Strip blew up. Huzzah! XD
When the rides were all over most of us when back to the stratosphere and hung out in Jen's room. Some went downstairs in a hunt for food, the rest of us stayed upstairs and discovered JG's little secret - she's actually a *very* naughty girl.
Maybe if your lucky, she'll scan her 'Jade Strippin' pic and show it off :D
The fact that most of us were leaving in the morning sent us packing back to the hotel, where we passed out (again).
I got so much sleep at this years con, but I was still exhausted. Go figure :)

August 2 - August 11
Time to say goodbye! Liz and a few others were staying on, so we hung out in the foyer with them till Jen and co turned up. Saw GregX in time to say goodbye before his shuttle left.
Liz ended up hooking up with the leftovers of Clan's Challenged and Arcadia while I joined the others for the trek home to California.
But first! We had to get 8 suitcases and 6 people in the car. It was kinda like Tetris, but with people. Poor Karlyl ended up buried under baggage. Most of us did actually. Luckily, she was only with us to be dropped off at the airport, so after another sad goodbye we re-arranged the car and took off once more.
The drive was loooong, and a little boring. But we were too tired to care.
Kyt had to go home (she had work in the morning) but Cindy and Patrick stayed the night.

Cindy had stuff to do in the theatre that evening, so she left in the morning. Jen, Patrick and I took off for food, then Jen left for work. I spent a lovely afternoon sleeping on the couch (this was when I made the awful discovery that I snore).
Jen brought her kids home with her - they're a wonderful bunch. I had a great time meeting them and I'm really going to miss them :(
We went out for Thai, I'd never had it before and it was lovely. Patrick left not long after to catch his flight, so then it was just me,Jen and the kids.

The last week has just flown by. Jen got the Con Cooties (I've avoided it .. so far) so we didn't go paint the town red. But we still managed to enjoy ourselves.
I was introduced to Firefly - I'm leaving with the box set tucked safely away in my suitcase.
We made cookies and overdosed on sugar.
I spent waaay to much money on comics, DVDs and toys.
Kyt came back down for the weekend, which was fun.
We went and saw Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - the most cracked out movie in the history of forever! I loved it :D
I pre-registered for next year, so now I have incentive to come back. I think at some point I offered to be Jen's Con lackey in exchange for a spot on her floor before the con.
I don't intend to spend 4 weeks on holiday next year, but it would be nice to hang out with people for a while in a non-con environment.

All in all, my vacation rocked! I had a great time, the bad parts totally wiped out by all the good stuff that happened.
I'm going to miss everyone. LJ and IM just aren't the same thing.
Photos should be going up when I get home on Saturday.

My hands hurt from typing this all up ^_^

Chameleongirl writes...

Vacation/Con Journal Part 1

Last year was my first Gathering and I enjoyed it so much I decided to come back this year. With one major change - I would be spending more than a week there. Just over 3 to be exact.
Yeah, this is goingot be a loooong one ^_^

July 19 & 20
Since I was dropping $3500 on airfares, I decided to make the most of my vacation, so I arranged with Kelly/KWSapphire to spend a week at her place in Florida.
My flight out was horrendous! Air New Zealand decided to strike that week, so I had to add an extra flight to an already long trip, jsut to make my connecting flight to LA. Not to mention the 19 hour layover in LA
I went from Melbourne->Christchurch->Auckland->LA->Denver->Tampa. It took two days and I was sick as a dog for the last 2 legs. On arrival in LA I was told a room had been booked for me at the Radisson (sp?), due to the airline strikes. All I had to do was get on the Radisson shuttle, tell them who I was and everything would be taken care of.
Firstly, I think I got on the wrong shuttle - I ended up in Culver City. Secondly, they had no idea what I was talking about when I explained my problem. They called around for me and found a room at the LA Plaza.
That I had to pay for.
Still, a real bed was nice, as was real food and a shower! I didn't get any real sleep, but that was ok, it was just nice to lie down for a while.
I was supposed to catch up with Trishana/Karlyl during my layover, but I didn't get to my hotel room till well after 6pm, so we just chatted on the phone for a while instead.

I left for LAX at 430am, glad I did too - the airport was chockers. It took forever to get through the lines. I really wanted to not be sick today, but it was not to be. I was violently ill on the way to Denver, enough to worry the flight staff.
I hadn't eaten that day, not much the day previously, and with the lack of sleep I was really out of it. I was shaking a fair bit, so they got someone to wheelchair me to my connecting terminal. I'm, kinda glad they did - Denver airport is HUGE! I had to take a train to get to the next gate 0_0
Once again I was sick, but managed to get some sleep on the flight to Tampa.
Boy was I glad to see Kelly!
We stopped off at Wal-Mart on the way home (my first real taste of America :P), ate some toast to settle my stomach and then layed out on the couch and watched this trippy Christian Bale movie, Equilibrium.

July 21:
Comic shopping!!
My second day in America and it started off in a comic shop. So much money spent! (SO much more I could have spent)
As a result I now have a nifty Carrie Kelly!Robin figurine, with working sling-shot!
We met up with Kelly's mum (Hey Pat!) for lunch, eating at this great little buffet place called Sweet Tomatoes. Now if that were a world-wide franchise instead of Maccas ....
The afternoon was taken up by napping and the evening by Batman TAS episodes ^_^

July 22:
For the first time, in a loooong time, I went to the beach. Clearwater is absolutely beautiful. White sand, warm water.
A pirate ship on the horizon ... (damn I wish I had pics of that, it was cool)
The water was shallow out to a fair distance, thanks to a sand bar, so it was fun to wade out and body ride the smaller waves :) Thunder clouds were coming in over the water just as we were leaving, it made a lovley sight. We then went off to lunch at Los Mariachis, really nice Mexican.
Anna/[info]prinlee was coming over for a night out, so I made myself pretty for her. She was so happy to see us, especially after I gave her the wombat she (jokingly) requested :)
I know what Anna looks like and you don't! (I even have pictures, which no-one is allowed to see :P)
Went to this little greek place, Mykonos, in Tarpon SPrings for tea.
All the food I'd had so far had been great, this was no exception. After tea we went to Madeira Beach and hung out on the beach, chatted and watched the sun set. Anna hung around till midnight, she finally got to see the Gathering featurette from last year and we pointed out all the people she might know.
All in all it was a really great day and I'm disappointed we didn't get to catch up again before I left :/

July 23:
We had a nice lay morning before heading out to Kelly's parents place for lunch. Their house is beautiful and her parents are great people.
Lazed around the house all afternoon before heading out for the night. We went to a sushi restaurant, but I wansn't feeling adventurous, so I had something cooked ;)
Later on we headed out to a club called Banana Joes. It wasn't really my scene, but Kelly enjoyed herself. Ended up falling asleep (rather uncomfortably) on the couch at someones house, before heading home at 730am.

July 24:
Showered in an attempt to feel human again, as there was no chance in hell of me getting any more sleep that morning. 3 hours would have to do :)
Kelly ducked out for a while, so I was dropped off for our trip to Busch Gardens. Hmm, while I did have a good time there, it would have been better without the torrential rain and huge-arse thunderstorm.
Would have gotten more than one ride in certainly :D At least Kelly got in a few games of DDR between ride lines (got a good crowd watching by the end too)
As it was, we ended up standing around on a staircase for 2 hours waiting for the storm to pass so we could get on the ride. We almost got struck by lightning! By the time the storm had passed it was getting late, so we decided to go home instead :D
I think I slept for 10 hours that night, but I still woke up tired!

July 25:
Today can be summed up in 2 words:
Batman Marathon.
Yup, almost all the episodes from Volume 3, one after the other. I fell asleep at around 930pm and woke up at 11 (this is when Kelly made the awful discovery that I snored, something I didn't believe till a few days ago). It was decided to go to bed and finish up in the morning :)

July 26:
More shopping. This time for DVDs at Target, followed by another trip to the comic shop. Kelly ended up talking for about an hour with this guy who turned out to be an inker for the Fantastic Four editions of the House of M storyline, Don Hillsman II. He got her to sketch in his artbook, while I raided the back issue boxes.
Once again, spent lots on money, and resisted spending even more. At least my brother will love me - I bought him some Deadpool comics!
We decided to go see a movie in the evening, but got there too late to see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, or Fantastic Four. Ended up watching Bewitched instead. It was alright, but really not something I'd go out of my way to watch. Amusing though.

July 27:
Last day in Florida, so we went back to the beach. The tide was out, so the water wasn't as smooth, also I tripped on something on the sand and cut my foot, but apart from that I had fun. We brought lunch and ate it on the sand. I got a little brown. A little :)
Just happened to meet up with Kelly's parents for tea at Cricketers, a nice coincidence. It meant I got to say goodbye :)
It was an early night, due to having to get up at 6am to go to the airport.

July 28:
Viva Las Vegas Baby!!
The day started out early - 6am usually doesn't appear on my alarm clock, but it had to that morning. I'm glad we did start out early though, the check-in desk was severely under-manned and it took forever to get my bags checked in. It didn't help that I'd never used an E-ticket before and didn't know the procedure.
Then, waiting in line to pass through Security, I got pulled aside and got the complete you-are-a-potential-terrorist work-over :)
Yay for pat-downs by middle-aged chunky women!

The one thing I was determined to not have happen this flight was the inevitable puking. Ladies and Gentlemen, can I get a round of applause for dramamine? The wonder drug that, for some incomprehensible reason, is not available in Australia :) That stuff tastes like shit, but it does work. I think it was responsible for me sleeping most of the way to Atlanta.
Waiting to re-board in Atlanta, I succumbed to temptation and bought Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. By the time I landed in Vegas I was 3/4 of the way through (and by the time I left on Tuesday I'd finished it, so much for saving it to read on the plane home ^_^)
At the airport I was supposed to hook up with Liz and Nikki/Y2Hecate, who were landing within a half hour of me. So I found a cleanish patch of floor at the exit and proceeded to wait for them. And wait. And wait some more.
Luckily I had Andrea, Anthony and Nezumi to keep me company, because we ended up waiting about 2 hours for them to show up. It turned out that the airline had lost the suitcase carrying Liz's markers, about $900 worth and they had to hang around while calls were made and forms filled out. We hung out on the exit floor for a while longer then caught the shuttle to the Palace Station, site of this year's Con. I know others have had bad opinions of the place, but apart from the indoor smoking I never really had a problem - the beds were comfy, the AC worked, the food wasn't too hideous .. :)
At the hotel Liz, Nezumi and I hooked up with Jade Griffin and her friend Seth Long (hereafter called New Seth) and went out for Chinese. Apparently Vegas has a Chinatown :) Back at the hotel we hung out at the Con-Suite and picked up out packets early (we're sneaky :P) and discovered that due to several mix-ups, we wouldn't be going out with Jen/Crzydemona and her group to see naked men dance. At my (joking) comment that I was really looking forward to stuffing dollar bills down someones undies, a young woman came over and promptly unzipped her pants and showed me her panties. They were green and very pretty. I gave her a dollar ;D
That was my very first introduction to Dancer ^_^
Not long after that we were kicked out of the con-suite, so we went down to the foyer to wait for Jen, Cindy, Patrick, Kythera, Karlyl. Rounding them up, we (them, JG, New Seth, Liz, I, Andrea and Anthony) went off to the hotel's not-so-irish Irish Pub.
Mmmmm, Kahlua and milk ^_^
At this point of the night it was getting quite late and the new arrivals still hadn't eaten, so we trooped off across the road to the Macaroni Grill for some Italian. It was nice, but the best part was the paper tablecloths we got to doodle all over :)
The last part of the night (before I completely collapsed at midnight) was spent just chatting in the foyer with the group and a heap of other new arrivals.

July 29:
After a shower and a cheap breakfast, I was ready to start my Con Experience.
This year I had succumbed to insanity and offered to co-host the Clan Olympics with Scott/Brother Abe And since he would be arriving late, it was up to me to coerce 4 or more teams into playing, as well as run the first two events. Sarah-The-Great was a great help in rounding up a few teams (including her own), so a big Thank You! to her. We decided to hang out a the Con-Virgin 101 panel to help explain what exactly the CO were, and to recruit a little too. Good thing we did - we got first dibs on the free cake and ice cream when it came out! :D
Next up was the Thom Adcox mug-a-guest (mixed with a really quick lunch). It was a great time, only a dozen or so people, and Thom has the best stories. Next year, he'd better bring in that standee of him in a chicken suit (or even just a picture of it) or I'm going to be mighty disappointed :D
Afterwards, in a slight panic, I set up for the first CO event - a ball relay. Easy enough in theory, but not when it's a giant yellow smiley beach-ball that you can only carry with your back or front (no limbs or other helpy-type things at all). Not to mention the envelopes that contained potential bonuses on the floor (I made them pick them up with their feet, I'm evil ^_^). I'd managed to rope Liz into helping me host the first two events, I think she enjoyed herself quite nicely :) Unlike last year, there were only 5 teams, but they were great - big thanks to Team Challenge, Da Brogues, Bottom of the Barrel, Clan Arc and Clan Adia.
All up, it was a great event, full of chaos and confusion and laughter. Typical Clan Olympics really ^_^

As this even ended just before Opening Ceremonies, I had to run around and clean up as well as get some food. I learned last year that not eating beforehand lead to a humongous headache. Unfortunately, my lack of knowledge of the existence of a Subway in the hotel meant that I ended up with Burger King. Eew >.<
Opening Ceremonies was excellent this year. In addition to the regular stuff (gawd, I sound like a veteran :P) we were also graced with an alternative first pitch video and a fan-made lieca reel of 'The Last', the unmade Team Atlantis episode.
We were also told more about the Season 2 DVD release - the first 26 episodes, up to 'Kingdom', will (hopefully) be out by the end of the year. The second half of the season will, no doubt, rely on sales of part 1. We also got to see a teaser of the special features, part of an interview.
Greg didn't really get into much about the comic, probably due to the fact that there was a panel scheduled exclusively for that the next day.
The highlight of OC had to have been Keith Davids sorry-I-couldn't-be-here section of the cast/crew tape - "I've been denied everything, even my CONVENTION!" ^_^ I don't think we'll ever run out of variations of that line for him to say :D

After OC I Liz and I had to set up for Clan Olympics event 2 - Shot in the Dark. I love this one! A series of targets, 5 squishy tentacle balls and a room with no lights on. Way fun.
The teams loved it too, so much so that a second round of it was hosted by Scott on Monday night, just for fun :)
Some of the team members scuttled off to Jade Griffens MGT, so others had to double up on turns, but we didn't have any drama over it. In fact the game went quicker than I thought it would, so I had plenty of time to make it to the Blue mug-a-guest. While it wasn't all that blue, it certainly wasn't entirely clean.
I loved Greg's reaction to someone asking if a gay character would be introduced in W.I.T.C.H, he said there was someone they were thinking of, but he would say who. Immediately Anthony and Andrea both yelled "Is it [CENSORED]?" Greg, quite shocked, asked how they knew. This must have really ate at him, because later in the night he stopped in the middle of an answer, turned to them and exclaimed "How did you know it was [CENSORED]?!" (or possibly her was looking for an excuse not to answer - with Greg, who knows XD )
At 1am I was having great difficulty making my eyes focus, so I trundled off to bed, after saying a quick "HI" to Scott.

TBC ...

Andrea "Elisa Maza" Zucconi writes...

As you demanded! Beware, it is long. But you asked for it. :)

GATHERING 2005 REPORT

Day 1 - Thursday

We (my hubby Tony and I) got up early. Very early. Like, 3:15 am early. But that way we made it to Vegas at an acceptable hour. Coincidentally (or… was it??), we met Julie at the airport, who was in turn waiting for Liz, so we waited with her accumulated Nezumi and Y2Hecathe. When Liz showed up (carrying a grudge because she was not carrying her markers, which the airline had lost), we made our way to the shuttle and the hotel under much chatting and pointing out the windows.

We laid claim to our hotel room, which means we scatter our stuff until there is no more floor. Then we scouted out the hotel, casino, and con suite while trying to reach Jen on her cell, which finally lead to a joyful reunion with Jen, Kyt, Cindy, Julie, Patrick, and Liz, and we all went out to eat at the Maccaroni Grill across the street from the hotel, which was awesome, awesome food. There was much laughter and chatter and doodling on the paper tablecloth.

We hung out in the lobby for a bit, accumulating more and more people. Thom (Adcox) strolled by and was mugged by all with extensive hugging, then he retreated to his room while we all stayed around waiting for Greg (Weisman) to show up and say hi, who was, as we later found out, waiting in the Con Suite the whole time. We were beat though so we went to bed around 12:30 pm.

Day 2 - Friday

It has officially begun! While Tony met up with the rest of the "black coat gang", I hung out at the art room and helped Liz number her awesome zodiac prints. Trishana showed up, and there was much hugging and squeaking. ^_^ Dreamie let me use her laptop to do some extremely important stuff I had to do for work, THANK YOU Dreamie!

Then I went to the "Anatomy in Fantasy" drawing panel, hosted by Lynati and my cuddlywuddly Kyt. Now, I do know how to draw and consider myself not horribly bad (I do get paid ;)), but the Gathering is a focus point for SO many wonderful artists, with such a wide range of talents - I always learn something from them. Next was the "Writing for Animation" panel, hosted by Greg Weisman, where I finally got to cuddle him hello. Here as well I learned a few new things, and there are always fun stories to be heard on Greg's industry panels.

Somewhere in between here, Chris let me use his laptop to finish that work stuff that I needed to do, so a big Thank You to him also!!!

We took a short recess and then went to opening ceremonies. They were a little shorter than usual, since Greg was getting tired of his age-old Spiel, and decided to loosen things up a bit by dropping some stuff and adding some new stuff we hadn't seen yet. Which was great! As long as we get to keep the "It's better than Barney!" line, we're happy. He was a little upset that Chris 'stole' his "who here has been to how many cons?" show-of-hands game, I bet nobody next year would dare take that from him. ;)

Oh yeah, the Blue Mug! This is where we try to ask "dirty" questions about Gargoyles, and Greg and Thom try to answer them. Last year's BM was not very blue at all, so a few people put all their back into it this time! It was good fun. Tony, Liz and I had set the chairs in a circle, so it was a nice, little, cosy, dirty round. I am especially proud of making Greg speechless, which is not easy! I will not reveal my near-psychic premonition here, because I'm not sure how secret Greg wants to keep it. ;)

After the Mug, a few of us including Greg went to a small restaurant inside the Casino to have most delicious and decadent desserts. Greg gave me some very valuable tips as to what to do with a project of mine.

And again, midnight is long passed… what was it, like 3:00 am?

Day 3 - Saturday

I so wish the panels didn't start before noon… groan… I went to the "Series Development" panel, about which I hardly remember anything… err… yeah. Sorry.

Voice-acting seminar! Did we stay through this? Not entirely actually, at some point I hooked up with Trishana and we went to chat with Liz before her portfolio review with Dennis Woodyard. I think it was really awesome of him to do that, and I felt really bad that I had not prepared a portfolio. I had not done anything this year really, there was so much going on all year that I couldn't fit in any artwork. I hope he does it again next year!

Went to the "Backgrounds" panel hosted by Dreamie and Kyt, which was extremely informative and cause for much drooling over their beautiful artwork. Up next: the panel about the upcoming Gargoyles comic. Adam (Laurean's fiancé) showed up, and I met him for the first time. He reminds me of my high school art teacher - freaky! Sadly Laurean has long hair now, so we couldn't play our switcheroo-prank this year - even though we did get some people confusing us nevertheless.

Thennnn… most of the girls of our little family band (Jen, Cindy, Kyt, Trish, Laurean, Karine (who looks freakin' outstanding for just having had a baby!), Lexi, and I) hooked up to celebrate Laurean's upcoming nuptials in style! At a dinky little strip club named the Palomino… hilarity ensued, and many great lines were forged that evening and will probably last for a long time. While this was going on, Tony and Adam joined Greg, Thom, Chris and Alexgarg in the Charity Poker tournament. They apparently had a lot of fun too, involving ice cream and the hotel's hot tub.

Day 4 - Sunday

I managed to drag my butt out of bed to go to Dan Vado's mug-a-guest. He was really nice, and I learned a few new things about the comic book industry that will hopefully help me out… if I ever finish my book… then the W.I.T.C.H. panel, hosted by Greg. I really love the comic books and the characters, and I am thrilled that Greg is taking over some plotting in the second season to bring the show back closer to the original stories. Pretty cool, we got to see an old animatic that was to be the original pitch for the pilot episode. Greg's wife Beth and kids Erin and Benni arrived also - man, the kids are getting big! I feel old! Then, Tony went to radio play rehearsals, and I relaxed a bit in our room.

The radio play! Always fun and a highlight of the con. Tony was only an alternate this year, but it was also fun for him to get to watch the whole thing for a change, since he's been in almost every play so far. Laurean, Jen and Seth were killing me, they were great.

Yay, fooooood! We were starving. The banquet was beautiful! There were little gargoyle-themed candleholders on our tables that we got to keep. Wonderful costumes, and many well-deserved awards. As I mentioned before, I had been completely and utterly lazy this year, so I could just sit back and enjoy the costumes for once, and not have to jitter about art wards. Yay!  There was much frolicking and laughter, and I got to layeth the smack down on Lanny playing Yu-Gi-Oh. ^_^

Some of us stuck around after the banquet, getting increasingly punchy as the night progressed, as it should be.

Day 5 - Monday

Wow, a 4-day con! This was a really good idea actually. I went to the "Original properties" panel and got to see some awesome ideas from the combined heads of Greg Weisman and his artistic posse.

I will never, EVER understand why stuff like "The Buzz on Maggie" (no offense, Thom!) and "The Wiggles" makes it on TV while shows like TechnoSapiens don't get produced. WTH?

Said good-bye to Thom, who had to run. Miss him! He's such a sweetie. I can even forgive him that he has a crush on my husband. ;) Btw, we found out this year that we have the same birthday. No wonder we have so much in common (including my husband, ha!).

The auction: Mostly the stuff that most of us already have… still, most pieces went for a good price. Some of the artists really made a killing this year - I should not be lazy next year. Tony really wanted the set of poker chips they had used for the tournament, but once they passed $180 that was it… it's ok, we got him another set the next day.

Closing ceremonies were short! But that's ok, rip the Band-aid off quickly.

Our little group of friends, including Greg, went to the Star Trek Experience at the Hilton (at least I think it was the Hilton). How cool that was! We ate (and drank!) at Quark's bar, then Greg had to go and meet up with his family. The rest of us went on the Borg- and the Klingon-rides, which were riddled with fun, groping, and Gargoyles-references because of the voice actors. I got a Tribble (it moves!!!), and I bought Tony a plushie Porthos, his favourite character from Enterprise.

The night ended at some point at the Stratosphere hotel, where we talked and laughed and stalled on saying good-bye.

Day 6 - Tuesday

This was our couple-day, since everyone else was going home. Tony and I had signed up for this time-share presentation that earned you free tickets to a show and dinner. The presentation was short and painless, the dinner was great, and the shows were fantastic. We got two: "The world's greatest magic show" and "The Rat Pack", both of which were really awesome. I am rather seasoned when it comes to stage shows, so I love it when I am surprised and get to say, "Oooh!".

We also got this $200 crystal for $35… It has our faces laser-etched into the center, and it rotates on this lighted platform thingy, really cool. It now sits in our living room.

Day 7 - Wednesday

The long way home. Overpriced airport food and the like. Can't wait 'til next year! As always, the Gathering did not disappoint, it keeps getting better and we keep growing fonder of each other, as we grow together from the seed of "Gargoyles".

That sounded a lot ickier than I wanted. Anyways, good times!!! :)

Allaine writes...

Allaine's Gathering Journal
Wednesday, July 27
Day One

Compared to last year, coming to Las Vegas was uneventful. I boarded a 11 AM EST flight at Phila International Airport. It landed at 1:30 PM PST, which gave me just enough time to read Harry Turtledove's Settling Accounts in its entirety. I didn't make it to the hotel until 3 PM, though, because the shuttle I boarded stopped at three other hotels, including one downtown, before mine.

Princess Alexandria, Mooncat, and Summer Jackel were my roommates this year, but Summer wasn't due to arrive until Friday morning. When I got to the hotel, Alexandria had already checked in, and she met me at the front desk. Mooncat wasn't going to come for another couple hours, so we went to our room and I dropped off my bags. I gave Alexandria several chapters of a story I'd been working on as a surprise gift, and then we went to the Guadelajara Cafe, which normally was the Palace Station's Mexican restaurant. But this weekend they were renovating the 24-hour restaurant, so the Guadalajara had expanded hours and American items on the menu. We went for a snack, because Mooncat wanted us to have dinner with her once she arrived. That took place around 5:30. Needless to say, I was really happy to see both of them. We'd been planning the details for weeks.

The Palace Buffet was, I suppose, what one would expect for $6.99. A lot of choices, none of which were exactly superb. Still, it did the trick, I guess. Alex and I weren't that hungry, so we could pick and graze as much or as little as we liked. After that it was back to our room again. Mooncat had been told upon landing that her luggage was on another plane that wouldn't arrive until later, but that they would deliver her baggage to the hotel. Until then, she had the clothes on her back and not much else.

We eventually decided to visit a local miniature golf course Alex claimed to have seen from the freeway near the hotel. As we were walking out, we ran into Kathy Pogge and Mandolin, our first Gathering guests, and we talked for a while. We caught a taxicab, and proceeded on a laughable half-hour drive where our driver assured us he knew what a miniature golf course was. Alexandria kept trying to explain anyway. "You know, windmills," she said. I sat in the back and muttered, "He has no idea what she's talking about."

He didn't. He took us to a typical country club. The valet there told us that we were looking for a place called Skandia, which was on Industrial Blvd. He was half-right, as it turned out. We drove up and down Industrial but saw nothing. Eventually we went back to the hotel, threw thirty dollars at the driver for the fare, and went inside.

The bell desk informed us that we could walk to Skandia in fifteen minutes if we went out the back entrance. Someone, at last, who knew what they were talking about. We walked up Rancho Drive for a while and arrived at the mini golf course. We played eighteen holes of miniature golf without bothering to keep a detailed scorecard. Instead we just paid attention to who got the best score on each hole, and then whoever "won" the most holes would win. I think I won by three. At the end they had this 18th hole where you got a free game if you made a hole-in-one. Both Alexandria and I got holes-in-one, and we gave our passes to someone else.

By then we headed back to the hotel because it was dark outside. Mooncat's luggage hadn't arrived yet. Apparently the same company handles all the missing luggage and makes one big delivery run at night. The bell desk said they'd call us if it arrived by ten, but we assured them that we'd be up until midnight. Good call. They brought her luggage to our room at 10:30. Mooncat had been wondering what she was going to wear to bed, so that was good timing.

We crashed in our room, and watched some TV and some videos on Mooncat's laptop. I gave Mooncat a T-shirt, and she gave me a Kim Possible snow globe, some Batman: The Animated Series commissioned art, and two Kim Possible posters. We went to bed around midnight, as predicted.

Thursday, July 28
Day Two

Since we had a whole day before the Gathering began, we decided we would hit the Strip today. We took the hotel shuttle to the Tropicana, and from there we checked out most of the major casino/hotels in the surrounding area. The heat was brutal, so we tried to stay indoors as much as possible. First we went to the MGM Grand and saw the lion habitat. From there we got a little turned around, and ended up at the Excalibur, which was cute. We checked out the shops, and I won a little telescoping lance when some woman failed to guess my birth month.

The best part was next - the Luxor. I love ancient Egyptian history and culture, so it instantly appealed to me. They did a really nice job with the place too. Golden sarcophagi, obelisks, realistic-looking walls, sphinxes, etc. We looked in a couple shops here, and I bought a small cat statuette. We also agreed we'd have to drag Summer back there, because there were plenty of statues with jackal motifs. Then we went upstairs and walked through the King Tut museum, which contained a recreation of the rooms of Tut's tomb. We were right in the heart of the Luxor pyramid. You could see all the rooms above us, and the elevators that moved diagonally. We tried to ride one, but they're key-operated. We got a snack before we left.

After that we went to Mandalay Bay, which was also very nice and very new. We basically strolled through the whole casino until we got the Shark Reef, which we decided to come back to if Summer was interested. The place looks gorgeous, but by then my feet just hurt. We ended up heading outside despite the heat and walking past the front of the Mandalay and the Luxor. There was a lot of really nice statuary out front, and I got plenty of pictures. Then we went back to the Tropicana and boarded a shuttle to the Fashion Show Mall. We walked around the mall for a while, then went outside to Treasure Island. We thought about staying around for the free Sirens show outside the TI, but ended up leaving instead. Probably a good thing, because it started to rain as we got on the Mall shuttle, and when we returned to the hotel it was pouring.

We had dinner at a place called the Broiler, which had large portions and was pretty nice. At some point I left Alexandria and Mooncat to their own devices and went to the Con Suite. Lynati and Aaron Wheeler were helping with a lot of the work for my game show panel Monday morning, and we still had a LOT to do, so we agreed I should come by that night before the Gathering began. As it happened, Lynati spent most of the night working on the registration packets, so I just sat in on a discussion with Greg Weisman and some other people, and we talked about things like comic books and "why the Batman Begins movie sucked". (And now Greg knows my name :D).

I think Ellen Stolfa dropped by our hotel room at one point, and we talked for a bit. Then I went to bed.

Betty writes...

Have you heard any new movie roles in the future for Gerard butler? After
"Burns" I've heard "Marlowe" anything else been offered to him

Ellen writes...

GATHERING JOURNAL 2005

I was glad that this year's con was in Las Vegas. This city wouldn't normally be a destination for me; I'm not into the casino and show scene. And, like I kept telling my pals over the course of the weekend, I was getting into town about 40 years too late to do the one Vegas thing I really wanted to do - see the Rat Pack at the Sands. Nevertheless, the bottom line was that - other than this being the Gathering, which I'd attend no matter where it was held - this was an opportunity to go somewhere I'd never been before, and that's nothing but good.

THURSDAY NIGHT

The flight in was smooth and on time, and gave me the chance to get all my paperwork done in anticipation of the panels I'd be co-hosting. I collected my suitcase at the baggage claim and was out the door to find a taxi.

Before I left, numerous people had told me about how the dry heat of the desert felt much better than the humidity in Chicago, that I wouldn't notice the heat in Vegas as much, etc., etc. Bull. It's HOT in Las Vegas in the summer. Period. And I was roasting as I wrangled my suitcase through the taxi line. I nevertheless had to perk up and look my best, because along came Greg Weisman and Thom Adcox in that interminable taxi line, graciously offering to share their cab with me even after the trials and tribulations they'd been through that day. (It had taken the poor guys over twice as long to get there from Los Angeles than it had taken me to get there from Chicago.) One of the things I really wanted to do this weekend was to personally congratulate Greg on getting the opportunity to write more of his stories, and to tell him that, speaking as a writer myself, the news about the comic actually left me with a lump in my throat. The fact that I was able to do this right off the bat was an auspicious beginning to the weekend indeed.

After this pleasant chat with the Boss and Thom in the cab, I checked into the hotel and hauled myself up to my room. I got on the phone with Emambu to set up a breakfast meeting for the following morning, and with Allaine and Mooncat to find out which room they were in. I stopped by and chatted with them and Princess Alexandria for a little while, until I was fairly certain I'd fall over if I didn't get to bed pronto.

FRIDAY

The following morning I met Emambu at the little restaurant at the foot of the stairs leading into the casino. The primary purpose of our meeting was to review our material for the "Writing that Flows" panel. However, I found Emambu so easy to talk to and such an interesting conversationalist that we stayed there until the restaurant manager threw us out at 20 after ten so that the staff could set up for lunch. We moved our conversation out to the lobby, where Allaine, Mooncat, and Princess Alexandria joined us. I finally decided it was high time I went and registered, so I was off in search of the meeting facilities.

Once registered, I found myself with a little free time before our panel, so I retired to my room, put my feet up, and listened to Frank Sinatra on my CD player. One of the best things about this weekend was that, since the events were extended over an extra day, I had extra half hours here and there just to sit back. It made a big difference. I might have been incoherent by the end of the convention, but I was still on my feet.

I was very gratified to see how many people showed up for the panel that Emambu and I hosted, that they all stayed till the end, and that many of them had comments and questions throughout and after the session. I say this because much of what Emambu and I discussed was the dry and boring nuts and bolts of technically clean writing - grammar, punctuation, usage, and all that stuff that makes for, as I call it, a frictionless read. Not very exciting, but so vitally important to good writing.

I had every intention of staying in the meeting room for Greg's Writing for Animation session - really and truly, and I'm sorry I missed it. But at the end of our panel, Shadowrunner (a.k.a. Julie) introduced herself to me. I've always liked her stories, had corresponded with her via e-mail, and had found out just a few days prior that she would be at this, her first Gathering. So we repaired to the hallway outside the meeting room, where we were joined by first Alex Garg and then Jackel (another on-line writer friend I was meeting face-to-face for the first time). Before we knew it, Greg's session was over. What was I saying to the guys in the cab the night before, about getting together with my writer pals and not being able to shut up?

From there I ducked into the dealers' room for long enough to pick up my copy of the Eye of Odin Anthology. It looks VERY spiffy. Christine and Tim outdid themselves on it this year, and I was sorry only that they weren't there so that I could have told them that in person.

I headed upstairs to take a breath or two and change clothes, then met Kathy in Jack's Pub downstairs to review our material for the following morning's panel on writing action scenes. I always enjoy chatting with Kathy; she has loads of great stories from the farm and from life in general for when we inevitably digress from the business at hand.

We both headed off to the opening ceremonies from there, where all present were suitably delighted at the advertising trailer for the next DVD release, and thoroughly agog at Vash's pseudo-Leica reel of The Last. Holy cow, what a tour-de-force of artistry and production that was. Hats off to Vash!

I met Mooncat, Allaine, Jackel, and Princess at Chin Chin's in New York, New York for dinner. (Good, but I can of course do better around Wentworth and Cermak for a fraction of the price. ;) ) The others were off to see Zumanity, but I returned to the hotel for the Blue Mug-a-Guest. I know by now that those sessions are always good for laughs, and this one was no exception. Like last year, however, the discussion tended to be unusually G-rated, since many of the questions had to do with the new comic series that was distracting us from coarser topics, just like the DVD release distracted us last year.

SATURDAY

The following morning, I sat for a while in Starbuck's with coffee, a fruit drink, and a bagel and reviewed the material for that morning's panel with Revel and Kathy. I thought it turned out very well. Kathy and Revel were awesome, there was lively discussion and give-and-take throughout the session, and we covered a wide range of topics within (and outside of) the topic at hand. As with all of these panels, the time flew.

From there I went back to the dealers' room with every intention of scoping out all the artwork and NOT abandoning my coffee on Shara's table (my apologies, Shara!). However, I ran into Alex Garg and suggested we head over to the restaurant in the Stratosphere tower for lunch. He was game, so off we went. The food was good, the view was spectacular, and the conversation was delightful. And every so often we'd catch a glimpse above of the infernal roller coaster outside, atop the tower. We'd glance up at it, then look at each other, shake our heads, and say, "No, thank you."

The downside of this was that we returned way too late for Flanker's panel, so I took a few minutes to put my feet up before grabbing another cup of joe and heading to the Creature Comics/Slave Labor Graphics panel. It got me excited all over again about the release of the comic. Plus, before the panel, I snagged the chance to chat with Shara a little. She's amazing, a real go-getter.

After that, I decided to check off another item on my Vegas to-do list. Emambu and I went over to Rio for dinner at the Voo Doo Café. We loved it - great food, great atmosphere, great view. I'd recommend it anytime. After standing outside and talking non-stop for who-knows-how-long, we finally decided we should head back so that he'd have a fighting chance of catching the tail end of the celebrity poker tournament. Knowing that I had reached my own limitations for that day, I simply headed upstairs and crashed.

SUNDAY

First up Sunday morning was the anthology signing in the dealers' room, which was fun because it was reminiscent of signing school yearbooks. From there I went to Dave Schwartz's storytelling panel. He was approaching the topic more from a graphic perspective than a writing perspective, of course, but I was very gratified to hear him giving us attendees several of the same story/plot construction tips that my panel mates and I have been giving other writers over the past couple of years. I also enjoyed his analysis of scenes from the movie "Mildred Pierce," as he pointed out one visual metaphor after another.

Then I was faced with another quandary - Greg's W.I.T.C.H. panel, or sustenance? I opted for the latter and headed down to the Oyster Bar for a bowl of chowder and some oysters on the half shell (which were quite good). I managed to catch the last few minutes of Greg's panel, at least, then returned to the consuite for Allaine's reading-aloud session. I was honored to help him out by reading parts of one of his excellent works, and tried to do it justice.

From there we headed down to the radio play, which, of course, was very well done. (The unanimous consensus in my writerly circle was that "Doc Shakespeare" would make a heck of a novel.) With a quick change of clothes afterward, I was off to the banquet. I enjoyed chatting with Leo, James Anatidae, CKayote, and the other gentlemen at the table, and the little gargoyle tea light holders at the place settings were a nice touch. Dancer stopped by and chatted a bit as well. Then it was upstairs to put my feet up for a bit (and convince myself that, no, I was NOT tired) before the masquerade. I joined Allaine, Mooncat, Jackel, Princess, Julie and Denis downstairs for the masquerade and cosplay. Too bad MC, Jacks, and PA ducked out to the pool before Allaine received his well-deserved award for having the best Eye of Odin story in the anthology. Go Al! At the conclusion of the awards ceremony, Allaine joined the girls at the pool, and I went down to the pub with Julie. She regaled me with fascinating and humorous stories until we were both too tired to be lucid, at which point we called it a night.

MONDAY

Monday morning I munched on the remnants of the previous two mornings' bagels and washed them down with a diet cola as I packed. I checked out, left my suitcase at the bell desk, and went upstairs with every intention of simply being a spectator for Allaine's fan fiction game. Somehow I got roped into being a participant, though, and thus spent the rest of the session alternately embarrassing myself with how little I knew about the work of my fellow fic writers (several of whom were present) and being amazed at the extent of Gside's knowledge of the subject. He won, of course. And a good time was had by all. I returned to the art room to check out Kythera's portfolios, then joined Al, Jacks, MC, Leo, PA, and Alex Garg downstairs for lunch in the Broiler.

We headed back upstairs for the live auction. Yay for Alex for getting that fabulous set of poker chips, but I just couldn't let him get those playing cards for so cheap, and I think Julie felt the same way. ;) I'll have to buy him a treat in L.A. to make up for bidding against him. But I'm sorry, Alex, that horrified look you shot me when you realized that my hand was up was well worth the price of admission.

We hung around for the cozy, low-key closing ceremonies. Then it was time for me to pre-register for next year and say my goodbyes. That took me a while, of course. And I was touched when the Boss opened his arms to me for a hug. Greg, you're a swell guy.

The trip home was smooth and uneventful. Two very sleepy boys (one big, one little) picked me up at O'Hare at midnight Chicago time, and now I'm back to reality.

In closing, my overall impression of Las Vegas was that it was hot, garish, and smoky, but lots of fun. Above all, though, the scenery was fabulous - the city is ringed by mountains, which are endlessly fascinating to this midwestern flatlander. And I found the natives to be extraordinarily friendly.

I would be horribly remiss if I didn't specifically thank Chris Rogers and the formidable con staff for all their hard work over the past year, and congratulate them on a terrific convention. And one last note: I didn't get the chance at the convention to do much more than to say a quick thank-you to Marty Lund for all his efforts on behalf of Greg's Gargoyles vision in particular and the Gargs fandom in general. But as far as I'm concerned, this guy - who is as low-key as he is deserving of praise - has demonstrated the ability to walk on water. Bravo, Marty, and thanks again.

Alex Garg writes...

**Friday**
I tried to keep a running journal. As you'll see, that didn't pan out.

"I should have had cream cheese. It's 6:48 a.m. and I've just finished a very disappointing egg, ham and cheese bagel. My flight doesn't board for another 90-odd minutes, so for now I'm hanging out at the gate with a bunch of St. Louis-bound folks.

"Usually I'm up at 7 a.m. to be bound for work at 8, but this morning's 5 a.m. wake-up call didn't bother me.

"No, losing my camera bothered me (post scriptum: the camera was found in one of my shoes under my bed. *shrug*) - and my G'03 shirts, which went M.I.A. from the laundry thanks to unwanted (and, as I recall, expressly forbidden) laundry "assistance." Oh well.

"It's well past 70 outside with the humidity somewhere between "swimming pool" and "ocean." Fish could walk on land in this. I can't say I'm too eager to fly into a Las Vegas heat wave.

"8:05 - Jitters. I love flying, but for whatever reason I've been overcome with near-panic. Maybe it's the realization of how narrow my window is for connecting in Chicago, or that I can't get any movement in today's sudoku puzzle (which is a bad omen, let me tell you), but I'm nervous as all hell.

"Should be boarding in a few minutes. Will write when I land.

"10:12 Central - Yeah, it was a very narrow transfer window that damned-near closed on me. I arrived at the gate just 30 seconds before they called my ticket group. Close.

"I don't know what was up with the pre-flight jitters at D.C., but there's no sign of them now.

"This plane is, predictably, very energetic. There's music coming over the intercom, lively conversations about gambling, all anticipating fun times ahead.

"Will write when I land.

"12:04 Pacific - Touchdown.

"Ex post facto: Okay, I was bad about keeping a running journal, but I've got plenty in my memory to write a solid journal.

"Getting out of the airport was an ordeal - much glitz and glamour in the form of slot machines, casino advertisements, and a limo driver holding an 'Iglesias' sign causing people to stop in mid-walk - but I managed a shuttle to the hotel and arrived about an hour after touching down. I had missed the first panel I had wanted to attend, but Fate compensated for that as I ran into Thom in the lobby, where he recalled his travel nightmare.

"As I stood confused at the opening to the hotel's casino, Ellen ambushed me and led me through the chaos to her panel, co-hosted by Emambu. Though the subject material was familiar, it was a good panel - and it was nice to sit in something more roomier than a sardine can.

"After the panel and hanging out with Ellen, I encountered my roommates - Denis, Jenn/Rain, Paul/Akhetnu, and Kaylle - and was introduced to Julie/Shadow Runner, a fellow D.C. area resident (one of the few I've met directly through the fandom). Summer Jackel also made her appearance, and good conversation was had (though, I think, at the sacrifice of a panel she was headed for when I called her away).

"There were many other familiar faces that walked by during that time, but it would be diverting from the journal to name them all.

"My roommates and I poked around until opening ceremonies, and the new material (DVD-related) was good stuff. The well-wishes from the cast were probably the night's highlight.

"Upon that event's conclusion, the 'Four-Eyes Clan' - so-called despite my lack of glasses - headed down to Paris Las Vegas for that hotel's buffet. It was pricey, no question, but it was worth it. To have eaten the same in D.C. would have been prohibitive for the wallet.

"I hadn't been prepared for the expanse of the hotel, however, and so as we poked around the blistering of my feet began; not that I minded at the time, but now I'm thankful I have a desk job.

"We made a fashionably late (okay, really late) appearance at the "Blue Mug" event, but like last year's a lot of it was focused on the DVD and comic news (not that there weren't many attempts to turn it towards "blueness"). However, whatever was discussed there I cannot remember - my mind was three hours ahead into Saturday morning and I can't say I was making much of an effort to pay attention compared to my effort to stay awake.

"The event concluded, we picked up Roger as another roommate, brining the room total up to six, and we called it a night once the event concluded. I took the floor.

"I slept poorly that night - not so much due to the uncomforable nature of the floor as much as the cold of the air conditioner, the lack of a pillow, blanket and long-sleeved shirt. It didn't occur to me until about 5 a.m. that maybe if I moved out of the AC's path I wouldn't be so cold, but by then it was too late to salvage a good sleep."

**Saturday**
Tired! I "woke up" around 7 a.m. and made my way downstairs to the Palace Cafe for breakfast. I missed that they were supposed to be closed, which would have kept me from heading there at all, but this morning they were open for a limited time in order to try out a new system. The best part of their trial run was that all meals were free. Free!

Wonder of wonders, a free meal at a con!

I ran into Flanker on my way out of the Cafe as he was on his way to breakfast with Sarah the Great. I informed him of the free meal available in the hotel, but it was too late - Cafe stopped service and closed up until Tuesday. So, since they were up and in search for a meal and I was in search of something to do, I joined them on a trip to the Strip for breakfast (well, their breakfast anyway).

We got back to the hotel and I headed over to Ellen, Kathy and Revel's panel on writing action sequences. It was good stuff - well done.

From there I went to the dealers' room to place bids on some art (of which I would lose two out of three) and the full set of Gargoyles comics at the silent auction.

While hanging around one of the dealer's tables, Ellen invited me out to lunch at the Stratosphere. How could I refuse?

We headed out, the cab driver gave Ellen free tickets to a show of some kind, and got in to the hotel. The restaurant required reservations, but we figured that with the main lunch hour behind us there would be room - certainly for just the two of us - and we were right.

Of all the times to not have a camera, that was the most painful. The view was *stunning* from up there.

Ellen and I had a good lunch, good conversation; it was a nice break from the con.

We had such a good time, though, that we missed Flanker's panel, which was unfortunate as people have given it rave reviews.

So I stalked around the dealers' room a bit more and checked on my bids. I found that I had been bested on one piece of artwork; and so, even though the fire alarm went off and con staff encouraged my evacuation, I one-upped my challenger. Dedication, folks - auctions are not for the light-hearted.

I had been thoroughly bested, however, on another piece of art and someone placed a fifth bid on the comics, sending them to the live auction on Monday.

Once the alarm was silenced, I hung out and waited for the evening's poker game. Fun times, people - though a disappointing turnout. The players were solid - Greg was wearing his "poker shirt" and boasted that he had just brushed up on Poker for Dummies, and Thom... Thom had a clever strategy of playing like he had no idea what he was doing.

Okay, Seth and I coached him once or twice (or thrice), and with our help he put up a good showing, at least up until he was coached to keep a hand with nothing going but a 50% chance for a flush before the flop - not by me, BTW - and from there it was downhill.

His death was when we thought he had landed three aces and encouraged him to stay in, only to have him bested by a full house.

The best part of the game wasn't so much coaching Thom as heckling Greg. So rarely does one have the excuse to send a jeer or two his way - mostly because he usually has a smart-ass response in the wings at all times - but tonight was a good excuse.

Mandi kept a log of quotes from the crowd and players that night, which I hope she'll get around to posting soon, my favorite being (of course) mine:

"Greg'll stay in - unless he's too scared."
*crowd jeers, Greg shoots me a "WTF, man?!" look... then folds. Crowd goes wild*

Chris won by engaging in a proxy war of attrition, pitting the other players against each other while slowly building his pot. After his victory, Greg called for an ice cream run - so 20-odd of us headed through the casino to storm the ice cream stand.

Before I had a chance to enjoy my rocky road, some old guy (and maybe slightly drunk) took me aside and told me how our con had drawn the wrath of local talk radio (though I'm not so sure he was talking about our gargoyles as much as... ... I don't know). I managed to break away before my ice cream melted away into nothingness, just in time for the crowd to discover the local arcade.

Thom and Archangel engaged in a motorcycle race (and, of course, seeing and hearing Thom on a motorcycle immediately invoked images of "Awakening" and Lex's ill-fated ride). I called winner. Thom won.

In our race, I was winning comfortably. Thom saw this and in a sheer act of underhandedness leaned over and pushed my motorcycle in an attempt to throw me off! He didn't succeed, but he did tap the brake in the process, causing me to slow down and miss the next checkpoint, thus running out of time.

He lapped me and won the race.

By this time Greg, et al., had appeared and poked around the various games. I had a few tokens to kill, so I stopped by a shooter to get rid of them before we all headed to the pool. Unfortunately, they made a quick exit.

One moment everyone was there, the next... nothing. You'd think I would have heard 20 people file out of a small room, but no.

So, de facto ditched, I hurried out of the room to intercept the group (which was being shown where the pool was, which was important to me because I had yet to go there) and found them as they entered the elevator bay.

Having missed the pool tour-

Me: "So, where's the pool?"
Greg: "It's... where that wet place was. Didn't you see it?"
Me: "No. Y'all ditched me in the arcade so I had to run find you, you jerks [read that light-hearted, mind you]."
*some laughter*
Thom: [in a not-so-aside to Greg] "He's just mad because I pushed his motorcycle."
*much laughter*

Of course, lost in the exchange was the fact that I still had *zero* idea where the pool was, and so I almost aborted going on the outing.

Also not having swim trunks was a very motivating factor.

However, I determined that, in the absence of swimsuits, there are shorts. Problem: I didn't have a room key.

So I headed back down to the lobby in the hopes that the gift shop carried trunks. It did. I grabbed the first pair off the rack, dropped $15 and waited for somebody to show up to guide me poolward.

Thom appeared. We headed out, others appeared with Greg, and so from the 40-odd from the poker match there were 10 of us at the pool/hot tub. We stayed through the pool's closing at midnight, and from there parted ways.

It wasn't long afterwards that I was asleep on my hotel room floor - well out of the AC's way this time.

**Sunday**
Woke up not as early as the day before, having managed to get sleep out of the AC's path, and headed down to the hotel's buffet with Denis.

After breakfast I headed over to the Dealers' Room to get my Eye of Odin Anthology signed by the folks available - and there was happiness. In talking with Allaine and the other writers present, I had to admit that I had not brought anything for the "Reading Aloud" event later that afternoon, which Allaine was hosting, and so I was going to audition for Radio Play in the event I couldn't write anything that afternoon.

I got in the short line for the Radio Play final call and read as Demona; having succeeded in getting a slot in past years with Xanatos ('03 - Thailog) and Lexington ('04 - Art), I wanted yet another change of pace - and the lines were good.

Immediately following the auditions I grabbed a chair, sat in the hallway and began reconstructing my read aloud piece in the event I wasn't cast.

At 1:30 p.m., as promised, Greg and Jenn (CrzyDemona, not my roommate) posted the cast list, and I was on it.

Relieved (and disappointed), I put away my notebook and headed for the silent auction to check on bids. I had been crushed on two pieces of art I had bid for and let them go, leaving one, and put down bids on the previous night's poker chip set and playing cards. Then I chatted with Revel - also cast - as we waited for rehearsal to roll around.

This year's script was an original, non-"Gargoyles" production, so we were excited to take part. I died in the teaser, but it was fun all the same.

After rehearsal, Chris informed us that the silent auction was about to end and we had just a matter of minutes to place final bids. I entered the room and joined the hoard of people guarding their bids. I had been one-upped on both the cards and the chip set, so I placed the fifth bid on the cards, sending them to Monday's live auction, and the fourth bid on the chip set. Archangel placed the fifth bid on the chips (despite my empty threats to not), and so everything I wanted had to be had on Monday.

The play went well. I died, got some laughs, then enjoyed a back, front-row seat to the rest of the play like a good ghost. Good times, people.

I wasn't signed up for the banquet, so I joined Paul and Jenn (roommate) for another outing to the Paris hotel for crapes, which were to die for.

We rushed back to the hotel for the costumes/cos-play event, and there were some pretty decent ones this year, though fewer participants than last. Chatted with Ellen, Julie, Allaine, Mooncat, Summer, and Alexandria, finding out that the latter three had it in mind to go to the pool, as did I.

I ended up going to the wrong pool, however, and getting trapped in conversation. The woman with whom I was speaking, when I asked where the other pool was so I could go look for my friends, replied, "Oh, there are just three girls at that one. I don't think you want to talk to them."

Yeah...

I managed to escape after some time and, sure enough, the three girls mentioned were quite the three I wanted to find, and we stuck around the pool until midnight.

From there we went back to our rooms, and after a few hours of conversation with my roommates (sans Paul, who was chatting with folks at the banquet) went to bed.

**Monday**
I have to agree with the many folks who have said this before, but I'm grateful the con staff extended this year's Gathering into a fourth day. That made things far less hectic (at least from a con-goer's prospective) and, well, it's good to get a Monday off.

I headed on down to Allaine, Aaron and Lynati's (though absent) "Win Xanatos' Money - Fanfic Edition" event, though that was quite a mistake given my tired state. I had thought participation was going to be voluntary, but oh no! I walked in, Allaine handed me a sheet and said, "You have 15 minutes."

The "reading list" was around 500-700 fics (depending on whether authors' double handles were taken into account), with word lengths ranging from tiny to novella. From there, Allaine and Lynati pulled 21 true/false questions. Because I didn't know I would be participating, I read up on none of the fics before the convention.

So, staring at the 21 questions before me, I did plenty of guessing. Oh, how I guessed - and oh how I screwed up on a number of them.

G-Side, Ellen and Alexandria made it to the next round having gotten 14, 13 and 13 out of those 21 correct (it turned out I got 12 right), and so the pressure was off me. G-Side won, though Ellen and Alexandria were able to hold their own.

From there it was lunch with Allaine, Ellen, Alexandria, Mooncat, Summer and Leo (it feels like I'm forgetting somebody, and I mean no offense if I am) at a place in the casino. The food was quality, as was the conversation, which is a key element in eating out.

After lunch we headed over to the live auction, which was my big event for the day.

I designated many of the above-mentioned as my bidding proxies should something happen to me (and I was quick to set limits on what they could spend in such an event), as my stomach was acting up and I didn't know if I would have to make an exit. After that, I just waited for my items to come up.

The first item was the deck of cards from Saturday's poker game, the king of clubs signed by Thom. My bid going into the auction was the high bid - $21 - but, seeing my competition a few rows down, I jumped that to $24, prompting Allaine to lean over and ask, "Why did you outbid yourself?"

I shrugged.

That must have been enough to ward off my competition, because he didn't offer anything higher. I was confident in my victory as Chris counted down. Until...

"$26!" someone shouted from behind me! Ellen, my proxy, betrayed me!

At some point in our back and forth she admitted she didn't want them, she just didn't want me to have them for cheap. I, on the other hand, did want them so I would have a complete charity poker set.

I ended up winning the war at $38. That's the most I have ever spent on cards. Ever. Greg and Archangel later signed the ace of spades and king of clubs respectively.

Later in the auction came the comic books. I didn't have the high bid at the silent auction, but whomever it was that had outbid me was no longer at the con, so I became next in line. There were some initial bidders, but I knocked them down - someone bid $80, I jumped to $100, and the room quieted down.

Once more I became confident in victory, until Dancer called out "$110!"

We went back and forth until she hit my ceiling of $150, and I thought all was lost. But Allaine came to the rescue and said he'd pitch in $10 if I moved to outbid her. I put down $160, and Dancer did not come back. I was two for two (and Allaine very much has my thanks).

The poker chip set came at the end of the auction, which Chris announced was valued at $300. My ceiling was $200. It was go time.

Archangel had the high bid of $90, and I quickly put down $100. Several others rose to challenge me, but each time I batted them away. However, as the bidding went on I came closer and closer to my ceiling. I put down $180 and nervously anticipated that somebody would put down $190, forcing me to my ceiling (which, after crossing it twice for the cards and comics, I was not going to cross again, even for a $100 bargain).

I waited... and waited... nothing happened. I won!

So, having put down a total of $378 for my various items, my bank account cried just a little bit; however, I was happy. And yeah, E&H crew, we's having some poker matches this year.

And that, essentially, was the end of the Gathering. Closing ceremonies followed the auction, and the sad goodbyes were had. Relative to last year's they were better because more people were around, but it was still disheartening.

Gave my well wishes to those leaving and headed on my own way.

My roommates and I headed over to the Strip for a bit of a walking tour. We started at the MGM Grand to see the lions, then made our way down the Strip to Caesar's Palace and the forum shops for dinner.

Holy hell is that place expansive. It never ended. Ever.

Dinner was at a Hollywood Planet with desert being gelato farther into the mall. My stomach began acting up again and I had to insist that the trip be cut short (well, shorter given the time we had already spent there), lest my body revolted.

We hurried down the Strip towards the Tropicana to catch the shuttle back to Palace Station, but we got there just in time to watch it drive away. So we hitched a cab back and pretty much did our own thing from there - namely packing.

Denis and I went to bed earlier than the others because of our early departure times (Denis needed to leave the hotel at 4:30 a.m., I at 9), and so ended Monday.

**Tuesday**
Uneventful.

Got out of the hotel on time, seeing various folks heading out as well. Security didn't hassle me about the poker chips as I thought they would, and lugging that case through the airport and on/off planes was not fun at all, and surely got some people's eyebrows up.

The flight from Vegas to Chicago was very, very dull. Where on the plane in everybody was excited to get some action, everybody now was licking their wounds. While I'm sure many contemplated gambling losses, I very much realized just how much money I had spent at the auction; and with those expenses on top of the money I spend for other necessities, I might as well have gambled.

Chicago to Washington was a nicer leg - although the two-hour layover was not fun - as I and the person next to me engaged in small talk, but pulling into the gate was a most welcome experience.

Dad picked me up around 11 p.m., after some confusion about which level of the terminal I was on, and I was home by 11:20, in bed by midnight.

**Wednesday**
I woke up for work at 7 a.m., and I was sad.

Fin.

Revel writes...

Monday
I actually kind of wanted to see Win Xanatos's money, but was getting kind of beat so we slept in. For the most part all I did till closing ceremonies was help supervise art room pick up and tear down. Make sure all the items were accounted for and watched Winterwolf do a tavern dance or something, was fun. Ran down stairs with Chris Rogers to get Thom to sign the poker chips, that case was heavy too.
Closing ceremonies was short and bitter sweet, as always. It's sad to see the con end but can't have fun all the time. Spent a while longer with the staff and Emambu cleaning up the dealers room, playing soccer with a yellow wal-mart smiley. The hotel staff really appreciated our efforts to help them clean. Apparently most groups just trash and run. It was nice to help them out since they had been very good to us at getting what we needed.
Most of our friends already know that Spacebabie and I are engaged and we were going to get hitched in Vegas, but after some careful consideration we settled for a simple improve mating ceremony in the Con suite at the dead dog party. It was good enough, though probably in the spring the real thing will happen, which will make our families more happy since they will be there.
The staff left for dinner and Spacie and I left to have our own dinner date in style, suit and dress. Now we settled on a Carabbas that was not too far away, more than walking distance. Unfortunately, I should have just taken the van. But we were on a date and I wanted to be driven. But this emphasized why I am a person that is very do it myself
Because I know it's done right. Damn rip off taxi cabs. At what point does Flamingo sound like Charleston.
The food was good, because I was not driving I also had a Cosmopolitan, I've had better, but the food was good. We were going to walk the strip a little when we got back but we had just missed the shuttle and needed to get up early anyhow. So missed some of the Vegas sites. We can go back someday and catch them.

Tuesday
Not a very exciting entry, Wake everyone up, get the money to Chris, who looked about as awake as us, and load the car and go. We had to make pretty good time getting back because need to get the car back to the rental place by 11am on Wednesday. Damn Dollar rental, hate them. Anyhow, we moved pretty fast, slightly less weighed than when we came and stopped a few times for food and breaks and gas. We drove on through the night.

Wednesday
Well, this should have been uneventful, but at about 5:30 am something ran across the road. I was half asleep in the back with Spacie and Aaron was driving, we were not far outside Decatur, Texas. Aaron swears it was a large raccoon, it looked to big to me, but I didn't get a good look before we were swerving and fish tailed, did a 360 and ended up in the grass with a flat tire. No major damage, but it did kind of ruin our schedule. But remember to always get insurance when renting a car, you never know what can happen.
I got the tire off and a cop stopped by to help. Amazing how many people can dial 911 even at that hour in the middle of no where. The part that slowed us down was having to wait till 7am for a tire place to open, since it was too far to keep going on the donut.
So we got it home, unloaded and got it to the rental people as soon as we could. Remember, Always top off the tank before returning, they charge like $5.00 a gallon if it's not full. I was able to get them to not charge the late fees due to the incident. But still had to pay for the gas. >_< $60 for a half tank. @*&^%!
After a nap and some showers we relaxed and Aaron and I played some Halo 2 and my mother brought KFC.

Thursday
Slept in laaaaaate, and it was nice. We dropped off Spike's art at UPS and attempted to mail out the T-shirts to those that paid for theirs but left the ground bills at the house. Oops. But that's fine I took care of it, later. We had dinner at the Kobe Japanese Grill and sushi. Good food, very short wait and was nice to have a relaxing post con meal. After which we loaded Aaron's Buick Century back up, I put in the new K&N Air filter I bought him and they left for San Antonio.

Thanks once again for another great year and hope to see you in LA

Revel writes...

Journal continued...
Saturday
I had an early panel with Kathy and Ellen on action writing. I was a tiny bit late getting up so only grabbed a bagel and an apple juice in the Starbucks. To be honest I felt intimidated being on this particular panel. Where the Demona thing was a free for all, this had an out line and I was up front with two very accomplished writers. I kind of felt I had no right telling others how to do things with my very measly credentials.
Despite my personal feelings I tried to do my best and kept my mouth shut more. I think it went over well, there were good questions asked so I was pleased.
I believe I sat at the reg desk some more with Lynati, Nourcumi I believe? and IRC Goliath. There were probably others.
I next ran off for the Portfolio Reviews with David Schwartz. The man is very cool, was glad to have some time with him and have him look my stuff over. He gave some good points and was very constructive in his criticism.
I believe I went down stair and gambled a little more while I waited for auditions, with a quick stop by the Con Suite to see if they were playing the extra video time from last years con, they were not.
The radio play has become something now that I try my best to get in now, because I've now done it three times. It's a lot of fun and a bit of an ego boost every year that I make the cut. I've always been proud of my voice, and if had not done drawing would probably have pursued acting of voice acting. When I entered everyone was laughing, I guess I missed the joke but I can probably guess what it was about. I read Lexington this time and it was apparently good enough, though I stumbled at first, took a breath and got through it
I stuck my head in and caught the end of Flanker's martial arts panel. Flanker looked sharp in his Canadian Army uniform, but that was a different night. Anyhow the fire alarm went off, and we sloooowly started to make our way out since it did not seem like it was going to stop. Followed by shouts of, "Save the cash box!" and "Save the porn!" Thankfully it stopped before we could get the art room locked up.
After the false alarm was the Slave Labor Panel. Very promising things, we can all hope for the best and pimp it as best as possible along with season 2 DVD.
Ran to the buffet for dinner before going back to the main room to watch the charity poker. I never realized Greg W was such a good player. Have to watch those clean cut looking guys.
Took a small break after the game to go gamble some before Hudson's Rant. This is something that is really beyond description. There is just something entertaining about giving this man a microphone and letting him talk about what ever comes to mind.
After much fun and immaturity we went to bed.

Sunday
Didn't have any reason to get up early so we stayed in our room a little longer. After which grabbed a bite to eat. I played a little Roulette and ran up the escalator on the wrong side to go back and get Lynati's soup and drink but didn't know where she went, forgot what room she was in. I believe I watched the art room some more with Emambu and others both Emambu and myself had to give up the duty to go to radio play rehearsals later that afternoon. I played the part of one Arthur Somes, a nerdy waiter or something in a sleepy California beach town in a romantic comedy series called Doc Shakespeare. The concept seems very interesting, maybe someday they will get it to sell if they have not stopped trying.
I played a little more down stairs one last time while Spacie got ready for Banquet. The food was excellent. Aaron looked damn sharp, as did Flanker and Lynati. Dreamie and Winterwolf had donned their pirate garb earlier and were cute together. No party is complete without pirates! Note of interest was that it was buffet style, I like this better because when we are served you don't get to customize your meal. I just like that better.
Our table was myself, Spacie, Mandi, Gside, Aaron, and Lynati. GregX bounced back and forth and Flanker came by for a chit chat before we had to go get our costumes ready.
Jackal, I actually came up with the idea a while ago, though it would be interesting to combine the dress suit from Her Brother's Keeper and post Upgrade Jackal. The bolo tie was the easiest part, though should have used a more fine brush when painting. The eye and ear cover was the last piece put together but I though the best part, I was proud of how well it held together. The gloves went through several stages. It was my mother, who works on costumes as a hobby, who came up with using the aluminum from cooking pans. I think it worked well, just a bit too fragile, the thumbs fell off early, but still worked well enough. I think if I were to try again I would use something more sturdy as a base. I know the suit was not the same color as HBK, but I really like that suit.
Won some art awards, was really proud of the second place for "Kill David" I really liked that piece. Eventually we got back to our room and some sleep.