DragonCon 2004, Day 1 Posted September 5, 2004 at 12:00 am

Well, I’ve attended my first DragonCon and I can only say that I wish I had checked it out sooner. It’s a welcome break from the ho-hum, day-to-day metropolitan Atlanta life. As you are surrounded by wizards and storm troopers, you can only feel like this is one place where anything goes and no one is going to judge you. It really is pretty neat, though I did feel underdressed.

Titus and I arrived at the *Con shortly before 10 AM and registered for a two day pass. We laid out all the events we wanted to go to and proceeded to hit them one by one. Here is a breakdown of what we chose:

• 11:30 AM–1:00 PM, Cryptozoology [X]
• 1:00 PM–2:30 PM, Fighting MPAA Lawsuits [EFF]
• 2:30 PM–4:00 PM, (Un?)Trusted Computing [EFF]
• 4:00 PM–5:30 PM, Back to the Future [CLSF]
• 5:30 PM–7:00 PM, How Comic Book Characters Evolve [COMX]
• 7:00 PM–8:30 PM, The FCC Takes a Stand in the Copyright Wars [EFF]

We actually stayed until 10 PM, but I watched subbed episodes of Witch Hunter Robin in the Anime Video Room while Titus attended “My So-Called LiveJournal(.com)” across the way. The “Fighting MPAA Lawsuits” session was cancelled (presumably by Francis), so we found time to get lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe in downtown Atlanta. The *Con is hosted at the Hyatt Regency and the Marriott Marquis, so lunch was only a short walk down the block. In between sessions, we found time to browse some of the cool fantasy works in the art gallery and survey some of the shop vendors. There’s a little bit of everything to suit one’s various fancies.