This week’s caption contest features a wealth of content. Is she a hippie? A vegetarian? Has she sworn off coke? Does she not know how to use a fork?

You decide!

This one oughtta keep you busy. What are these girls doing? Why do they feel the need to have their assault rifles so casually slung across their backs? Wherever they live, I’m torn whether to shudder in horror as to what would require such armament or squee with glee that the right to bear arms is so universal that even women do it when in a store.

Shawn Powers is the winner of last week’s contest.

(Note: These are likely young Jewish women in the Israeli army, unless I miss my guess.)

You guys know the drill.

Congrats to Badfun for last week’s winning caption: “These are the balls you’re looking for!”

This week blends nerdery with a 21st Century gesture of disrespect. Whatever could be going through the Stormtrooper’s mind?

Last week’s winner was Catalyst22′s FIRST post.

You guys know the drill.

Behind the cut…

Yes, it’s that bad.

(more…)

Most of you want the pics. They’re here. I was in sessions most of the day, so I don’t have a whole lot. Expect more tomorrow.

The day started with me taking a tour of the walk of fame. I got to meet Nathan Fillion (Mal on Firefly/Captain Hammer in Dr. Horrible) and James Callis (Baltar on BSG). I saw Sean Astin (Sam from LotR), Edward James Olmos (Admiral Adama on BSG), Alan Tudyk (Wash on Firefly), and Morena Baccarin (Inara on Firefly). Nathan Fillion was incredibly gracious, warm, and funny. The couple ahead of us had a tiny baby (scarcely two months old at my estimation) who was wearing a “Blue Sun” T-shirt and a Jayne Cobb hat. Nathan held the baby and posed for a picture without making a fuss. It was awesome. Also, James Callis was charming in the old-world style. His accent and demeanor reminded me of a landed knight or noble lord. He was witty with all of his guests. (Kate, you’ll be glad to know that I got you a signed picture from both of them. Wet your pants later, please.)

Next, I visited the area of Dragon*Con reserved for the serious scientists. I attended a session that detailed the particulars of the Cassini mission to Saturn. The NASA scientist who was there was passionate about her work, and gave us the skinny on the surface of Titan, theories about the ring formation of Saturn, and some basic cosmology. For a science nerd like me, it was a very entertaining talk.

I did one thing that really strays over into the realm of geekery. I attended a seminar given by Brandon Sanderson (author of Mistborn). Who is he, you might ask? He’s the young man (younger than me!) who has been chosen to fill Robert Jordan’s shoes for the completion of the twelfth volume of the Wheel of Time titled Memory of the Light. I was assured by his words and his answers to pre-submitted questions. He is a Jordan fan first and foremost, and his has the full support of the Jordan estate and Tor to complete the book. The manuscript is due at the end of December, with a potential release in the fall of next year. He indicated that the book would be roughly 650,000 words, which is about 250,000 longer that The Shadow Rising. (That’s the fourth book of the Wheel of Time series, and also the longest at just over a thousand pages.) Brandon was rightfully sketchy about the details, but he did indicate a few treasures. They are, in no particular order:

1. He knows who killed Asmodean.
2. There are some plot threads that Robert Jordan specifically instructed be left unfulfilled.
3. He writes in character “groups,” bringing them all to the same point, then writing the climax of the book when the all come together.
4. Robert Jordan himself wrote both the Prologue and the final chapters of the book. The rest of the book is thoroughly outlined, but there are some gaps that Brandon will have to fill in based on intuition and RJ’s notes.

I attended some sessions over on the writer’s track, but I shan’t bore you with those. There was good information and a reasonable presentation at each.

The other thing I will talk about is the back to back readings that I attended–first with Patrick Rothfuss, who is an incredibly funny guy in person, and then with Tobias Buckell. Patrick regaled us with answers to all of our stupid questions and read from two humor columns and a poem. As a poet, he is incredible. He is emotional and lyrical at the same time, and his imagery is vivid despite the medium. Tobias Buckell was right after Pat’s reading, and unfortunately, his reading was not well publicized. If you’ll recall, I just finished Crystal Rain and gave it a positive review. Unfortunately for Tobias, the room was nearly empty for his reading, so being the affable character that he is, we sat in a circle around him and just chatted for a little over an hour. He is a fascinating person. I understand much better what drove the “Caribbeans in space” theme. Hearing him talk about it made me excited to read Ragamuffin and Sly Mongoose, the next two books in his series.

As I usually do at Cons, I ran into John Scalzi, but I had the added bonus of running into (again) Tobias Buckell.  They were both doing a book signing at a book dealer’s booth. I got them to sign Zoe’s Tale and Ragamuffin respectively (and I was damning my stupidity for not bringing my copy of Sly Mongoose, which is sitting at home on my night stand). John joked about being evil to me at Viable Paradise (which is coming up in three weeks, squee!), so I assured him that I was planning on him being an asshole about my writing. We broke off the conversation in chuckles.

Tonight I will be attending the Colonial Union party (a big BSG party), and tomorrow I will be attending readings from John Scalzi and John Ringo, as well as more items on the writer’s track. Rest assured I will be more intentional about taking pictures (good pictures!) tomorrow and Monday morning.

You know the drill.

BSG Caption Contest! Do your worst.

I drove to Boston and back, I’m tired. You will have to wait for my witty diatribe tomorrow while Pete recovers. However, do not fret! In our absence, I’d like to present you with a caption contest. We haven’t had one in a while, and you guys seemed to love them.

Here is your pic.