rdmasters and leecetheartist just won the Marge Hughes (Mumfan) award.

I am incredibly pleased by this, and deeply sorry I missed the awards ceremony because of it. Richly deserved, photos later.

Two very cool things happened today at Swancon.

First was the live commentary on the Dalek episode of the new Doctor Who by the scriptwriter Rob Shearman as interviewed by Ian Mond.

Second, and possibly cooler still*, was hearing that two of my very good friends rdmasters and leecetheartist are the fan guests for next years Swancon.

Huzzah!

Well I've booked my flights and accommodation for this year's Swancon. I'll be arriving a couple of days early, checking into the hotel on the Wednesday and checking out on the Tuesday morning.  I'll then be sticking around for a couple of weeks flying back on Tuesday 8th April.

Given the length of the stay I'll be bringing the trike with me so I can stay in training and rack up some Ks. 

Its been a busy, and tiring, week at work. Enough so that I've barely had time to lurk let alone post. 

I'll be showing up at least some of the time at ConFlux but may not be spending too much time there, I'll see how it plays out. Possibly not tonight, I'm much less interested than usual in pretending to be sociable...

One of the recurring* panel items at SwanCon is "Trailer Park" where panelists, including angriest, present downloaded trailers for upcoming films along with their comments and predictions about the films.

One of the films discussed this year was the live action / CGI Transformers (can't you just hear the trainwreck coming?).

The new movie has changed the designs of the Transformers and angriest speculated that this may be motivated by a desire to preserve the sales of the original designs merchandise (still going strong apparently) if the movie tanks.

Well I can now report seeing evidence supporting the theory. Today I was off work sick and channel surfing during the afternoon. Along the way I came across an ad for some original design merchandise packaged with a DVD that described itself as the "real Transformers".

*Possibly because it is invariably entertaining, funny, and informative. But don't take my word for it, go see it next year. :)

It appears that I didn't escape the post con lurgy after all. I seem to be coming down with it now. Sigh.

Well,  I find myself festering in the Qantas Club lounge of Sydney airport. Again.

I'm on my way home from SwanCon at which I even went to a panel item or two.

Mostly it was about seeing old friends that I see all too rarely, and playing board games with them (something else that I do all too rarely these days). Oh, and buying stuff at the auction. It was all good. :)

Two new games bear mentioning - Wings of War  and On the Underground. 

 
Both very enjoyable, I'd probably buy copies if I had a chance to play them on a regular basis...

I was looking at the excellent news just posted by tikiwanderer when I noticed that her userpic may be a photo that I took at a SwanCon masquerade.

If so, I'm really flattered that Tiki liked the photo enough to use it, especially as it was one of the earliest photos I ever took with the camera (since I'd only bought the thing the day before).

And it got me thinking that I've got more than a few masquerade photos dating back to 2001 for SwanCon and several other eastern states conventions. I'm more than happy for people to use them as userpics, so if you think I've got a photo you might want leave a comment IDing the convention and describing the costume.