We leave for Dragon*Con on Thursday of this coming week. There’s a little geek inside of me, singing and dancing around, bouncing off the walls, unable to control her excitement at being back amongst her people.

If only I could harness her energy to finish everything. 🙂 That’s right, I’ve still got a few things on my “to do” list. It’s those darn Kowl feet that are tripping me up. Quite literally, actually. The original feet that I started constructing were just too long and were not going to be safe to walk in. I’ve since changed my design. Instead of creating a foot-like flap that will cover the top of my own foot, I will be gluing foam extensions onto a pre-existing shoe. I’ll then cover said shoe with felt, much like I did with the Kowl head.

The feet are on my agenda for today. I’m determined to at least get the shoes covered with the foam today, if not covered with felt. Time to break out the hot glue!

Maggie’s pretty much finished with all her bits and pieces for Dragon*Con, I believe. She was putting the finishing touches on the paint job for her Castaspella shield. The shield will cover her backpack, disguising the fact that she’s carrying stuff around.

I’m really excited for the parade this year. Maggie and I decided to try out walking in it this year, instead of just watching. Personally, I think it’ll be a much more pleasant experience than last year’s Masquerade turned out to be. We were originally going to be allowed to toss candy to the crowd, but the rules have since changed. Apparently the city of Atlanta didn’t want to have to worry about cleaning up any mess. Party poopers.

Speaking of the parade…we’re going to have a slightly bigger group than we originally thought on Saturday. Maggie posted information about our She-Ra/He-Man characters marching in the parade on a cosplay site. The other day, she received a message from a woman who will be dressing as She-Ra. Turns out the woman also has a body-builder friend who will be dressing as He-Man. They wanted to know if they could join us in the parade. Of COURSE they can join us! Our group is going to be great!

I’ve started going through the massive schedule of activities, circling panels and events I’d like to go to. I want to try to hit a few more of the costuming panels this year. Of course we’ll be going back to “Mr. Star Wars,” the ultimate fanboy competition. I don’t know if we’ll be attending the Alderaan party again this year, or if we’ll be picking another party to check out. I figure we’ll wing it, as far as the parties are concerned. I do, however, want to try to get to the con site in time to catch the lightsaber demonstration. People dressed as Jedi and Sith, bashing each other with bright sabers? I’m in!

The one thing that we’ve been joking about attending is “Light Speed Dating.” That’s right. They have a geek-themed speed dating event at Dragon*Con. I’ve never been to it and, despite our joking about attending in full Jedi gear, I don’t think it’s really something for me. I’m good at chatting with random people at a con, but speed-dating would be a completely different sort of experience. I am curious as to how successful the whole event is, though. Conventions – particularly Dragon*Con – actually do function as a great starting place for relationships. There are tons of stories out there of people who met at Dragon*Con one year and ended up getting married. It’s as good a place to meet your future partner as any, I suppose. I mean, you’ll be assured that you share some of the same interests.

Of course, in addition to the serious relationships that get their start at the con, there are also a goodly number of random hook-ups that occur. I’m not speaking from personal experience, but I know it happens. It’s just something that’s bound to happen when you get that many people together for a weekend of fun. Some folks are going to look for – and find – more types of fun than are included in the official schedule of activities.

Which brings me to this week’s Geek Culture tidbit.

The Penny Arcade Expo – or PAX, as it is known – will be taking place the same weekend as Dragon*Con. Although it’s something I might like to attend one day, it has so far not been on my schedule of events. I still like reading up about it. The other day, as I was sitting on the couch at Maggie’s house, my friend Andy brought something to my attention. Apparently, someone had created a Craigslist ad, trying to organize a party/meet-up at PAX. This wasn’t just your average table-top gaming or LAN party, though. Oh no.

The title of the ad was “Nerd Orgy at PAX.”

You read that right.

Nerd. Orgy.

Apparently, the organizers of the party had gotten a fair number of responses from single guys wanting to join in but, as of the time I read the ad, they hadn’t heard as many favorable responses from single women or couples. I don’t know if they’ve gotten any responses from the latter two groups. The ad didn’t say anything.

Now, I’m not judging. We’re all adults and we’re free to make our own decisions in this life. If people want to get together with a bunch of strangers for some extra-curricular fun…that’s their prerogative. It’s not something for me, but if it happens to fit in your cup of tea that’s fine. I do admit to a bit of curiosity about the whole thing, though. I mean, how many people are going to show up and actually be comfortable in that situation? While this by no means goes for the entirety of the geek population, it is a widely accepted fact that a number of us (I’m willing to include myself here) are socially awkward. It’s not a bad thing. It just happens. Awkwardness just gets included in the mix for some of us. With that in mind…imagine how some aspects of that nerd orgy are going to pan out. The awkward foot shuffling. People not really knowing how to start things out. And I imagine more than a little bit of the dirty talk is going to revolve around aspects of gaming and geek culture.

The existence of this particular party came to the attention of the folks responsible for the existence of PAX – Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik, the creators of the Penny Arcade strip. Maggie and I were hoping that they would have a comic about it, and they did not disappoint.