Gallifrey One – Page 6 – Confessions of a Neowhovian

Gallifrey One’s Network 23: Day Two

February 19, 2012 Confessions

I didn’t see much of Con Buddy on Saturday.

I think it had to do with our different approaches to getting photos and autographs. He’d done a lot of that on Friday, and had a stronger interest in the programming being offered Saturday. Not that this stuff didn’t interest me – there’s stuff I’m pretty sad I missed – but my priorities were different.

So I spent most of my day standing in lines. I started with some autographs. I got them from Eric Roberts, Daphne Ashbrook, Maureen O’Brien, and Richard Franklin. I also stopped by to give Caitlin Blackwood one of each of my ribbons, since I’d heard she was collecting them, and get a picture of her with her mum. Of course, I’ve since lost my camera… (Here’s hoping it’s at the lost and found this morning.)

Con Buddy actually beat me into the next line by about five people. I got to chat with a lovely woman who was there in her wheelchair with her service dog Wiggles (who was wearing a K-9 vest signed by John Leeson) before going in to have my picture taken with the TARDIS console from The Movie. Then I headed strraight to the next room to stand in line to have my picture taken with Paul McGann. (I ended up looking a bit manic. While a bit irritating, I suppose it’s not completely surprising.) Right behind me in line were a lovely young couple with whom I’d struck up a conversation over lunch on Friday. It almost felt like chatting with old friends.

Gallifrey One’s Network 23: Day One

February 18, 2012 Confessions

I’m in heaven.

Let me back up for a moment. Thursday was a long one. It was full of alternating chunks of travel, waiting, and socialization. Plane ride. Wait at airport. Drive with friend. Eat brunch. Bus ride. Wait at station. Train ride. Visit/light snack with friends. Wait at coffee shop. Visit/dinner/overnight with friends.

Friday was all sorts of different. My friend with whom I’d stayed the night drove me to the Marriott, the con’s hotel, in plenty of time to pick up my badge and take care of some other business before the first of the programming. At first it was a bit uncomfortable, because I’d not managed to find my con-going friend (hereafter Con Buddy) yet, and as a n00b, really didn’t have any idea what to expect, or where to find anything of interest. The first stop was thus “Gallifrey 101,” the panel for con neophytes.

Here we got our first taste of a theme that continued throughout the day (and, I imagine, will continue throughout the con): there are a LOT of us here this year! The room in which Gallifrey 101 was held was standing room only, and there were very few, if any, con members in that room who didn’t raise their hands when asked if we were first-timers. It’s growing.

I’m Off to Gally!

February 15, 2012 Announcements

Tomorrow I’ll be heading to Gally (for those who aren’t in the loop, that’s the Gallifrey One 2012 Doctor Who convention in LA), and I’m getting a bit giddy. Partly I’m excited to meet some of these actors (and the photo ops! ~squee!~), partly I’m nervous about being on a panel. Yes, I know – I signed up for it! But as the reality draws nearer, I’m starting to wonder if I can actually pull it off. Will I freeze in front of an audience?

Logically, I’d have to say “no.” After all, if I can get up in front of a class of college students and blather on about astronomy for an hour or two once or twice a week for a whole term, then surely I can sit in front of a few hundred(?) folks with five other people to back me up and blather about my avocational obsession for an hour just once. Surely.

I think I’m more nervous about making a fool of myself in front of various celebrities. Yes, these people are used to being swarmed by rabid fans, so nothing I say or do will be all that remarkable. Then again, that’s a separate problem – who wants to be one of the crowd? Obviously, there’s not a lot I can do about that; it’s not like I have the best cosplay costume ever (read: none) to make me memorable. But deep down, I think every fan wishes he or she was the one that stood out, the one that so-and-so fondly remembers from this-or-that con. I can’t help it.

To take my mind off of the unpleasant realities of anonymity, I plan to post updates from the con here at the blog. (Eventually, there will be a new section under which I’ll post those and other such “unclassifiable” entries such as this one. It’ll be cool. Really. Also, your suggestions on what to call this new section are welcome. So far, I’m considering News, Reports, or Out and About, but none of those really grab me…) I doubt I’ll be able to post very often, but there should be something up before next week’s usual posts (reviews of The Sensorites and The Caves of Androzani:SE). At the very least, I’ll be posting pictures of me with Paul McGann and with William Russell in the IAN shirt.

So. Will the Neowhovian be able to navigate Gally without undue trauma? Stay tuned…