My good friends Ian, Juliean, Laura and Melanie made the journey to go to Worldcon with me. Thank you, Juliean, for suggesting the idea a year or two ago.

Day One: Registration. In the registration hall, there's a charming life sized hippogriff.



Just outside registration is a large Chinese dragon.



The organizers "garnished" the ConCourse with blinged out decor



... and encouraging texts.



Cosplay has been a part of fandom since time immemorial. There's a great posterboard on the history of the WorldCon. Here's a picture from the first WorldCon in 1939. Forrest J. Ackerman is credited with starting the tradition of the Masquerade.



On display, there are modern costumes - anthropomorphic:









Roger Zelazny's Amber novels are well represented, from Corwin's silver and black...



...to Julian's white scale mail.



Rendered here using plastic spoons.



But the most blinged were Mucklebones



And the Grand Tourney Gown



Just down the hall, we catch up with Terry Pratchett. His T-shirt reads "Tolkien's dead. J K Rowling said no. Phillip Pullman couldn't make it. Hi, I'm Terry Pratchett"



In honor of Terry's presence, "The Mended Drum Tavern" nestles itself in one corner of the ConCourse, complete with troll.



There's even a T-shirt Pratchett-ized map of Boston



The dealer's room is a treasure trove of geek swag, featuring not one, but TWO chainmail dealers



"This year, fans will be wearing time-tested classics - dragons and wolves on black XXL T-shirts"



"No outfit is complete without, oh, say 30 or 40 witty buttons"



"Don't forget your laser pistol"



"Um, little girl? Don't turn around."



There's a GLBT panel featuring prolific author Melissa Scott

Lots of walking. Mathieu, Mel and Ian take a break.



How do you think gamers close out the day? Dalmuti!



How do you think gamers open the day?



Today, there's an awesome panel on Mars exploration. Panelists include Ian Randal Strock and Gregory Benford.



Mathieu and I buy a cool painting in the artist's showroom. Tamara Gurevitz let me take her picture with the painting.



In the gaming room...



we get into a little dispute over two Munchkin cards



The high point of the weekend comes at the Masquerade, the convention's costume contest. The kid's entries are adorable.

"Gone Wireless"


"Starfire" (from Teen Titans)


"Vampire Princess"


"The Grim Sweeper"


The adult costumes are ~impressive~.

"Dragon Priestess"


"Angel of Biotechnology"


I'm sorry to say, I was standing by the door when Melanie went on stage with her costume. (ergo, small blurry picture)



She's brave to strut in front of 5,000 people. Laura and Mel worked really hard on the costume. That's a toad on her shoulder - not a frog. That's also our frying pan. :) Congrats!

Thanks again to everyone! I had an awesome time!