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Had a lot of fun at NYCC, though now my legs are really tired. I took about 100 pictures. If you're curious, you can find them here.

A lot of amazing costumes. Got to meet some very cool people, such as Peter Mayhew (got his autograph!) and C. E. Murphy (aka

mizkit). Went to a lecture by the curator of the Museum of Natural History. Strange to see them at ComicCon, but they did a good job. They had a tent set up as a mini-planetarium (the line for the real stars right next to the line to play the latest Star Wars game at the next booth) and had some neat stuff from their gift shop. What I love is that the lecture was packed to the point of standing room only. I think they had to turn some people away. They were already lining people up at the back wall when I managed to get to the front of the line, but the guy directing people noticed my cane and what appeared to be an empty seat on the far side of the room. Walking around to get to it, I found a seat empty in the middle of the front row. I asked and it really was available, so I had a great view. Even managed to get a question in at the end. The best part, though, was when, in the context of the possibilities of interstellar communication, the speaker made an offhand mention of neutrinos, and the entire room laughed appreciatively, instantly getting what he was talking about. (i.e. The recent, as yet unverified, claims from a group of physicists in Europe that they'd clocked neutrinos moving faster than the speed of light.) That's when you know you're in the right room. It seems comic book geeks are also often other types of geeks, too...

Sunday was Kids Day, so I got to take my (older) niece and nephew for free. It was hard keeping us all together, but the kids were great. Nephew loved all the Star Wars stuff, and was fascinated to discover that you could actually build your own realistic costumes. Now he has a new ambition for when he grows up. :-D Niece bought her first comic, an Archie collection. She was already reading it on the way home. I feel better now. I'd been neglecting their education, but I think I started to make up for it.

In other news (so to speak), I saw an interesting ad in the Sunday New York Times this week:

(Click here for larger version.)

Yes, it's a 1/4 page ad for... an ad to be published in next Sunday's Times.

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Yeah, that was a great sign. Which is why I took the picture. And no, I won't tell you that you need to watch Star Wars if you don't tell me that I need to read LOTR (which you never have, but I get what it's like from that end of things).

Not sure how much you read about the Kessel Run, so I hope you don't mind if I give you a quick recap. When we first meet Han Solo, he brags that his ship is so fast it's the one that made the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs. The line is infamous because it's one of the most glaring astrophysical errors in the movie (besides the usual cliche ones like sound in space and asteroid fields dense enough that you can see more than one rock at a time). A parsec is a unit of distance, not time. So the fans had to scramble to come up with a theory that would make sense of that. They decided that Kessel was on the far side of "The Maw," a cluster of black holes. So only a fast ship (and a skilled and daring pilot) could manage to take the shorter route (skirting around the black holes and slingshotting off them or something). Which still doesn't make much sense because a parsec is over 3 light years.

And here we are at the planetarium tent with a reference to that run made by people who actually know what a parsec is. Delicious. (Although I'd have preferred "You'll make it to the front of this line in less than 12 parsecs" or something like that. Ah well.)

Anyway, the planetarium show was short but very cool. (7 minute movie projected onto the dome of the tent, going from Earth to the edge of the known universe and back, with every single visible object in its actual position to the best of current knowledge.) Saw a show in the museum's real planetarium yesterday, too. Planetariums have come a long way since you were 13. I wish you could come see this one. Especially since next month they'll somehow have a giant color hologram of the Keppler exoplanets that you can actually walk through.

And yes, so cool being amongst so many of my own kind. I'm proud we filled the room to overflowing.

Glad you had fun at the Con! I enjoyed the pics! The costumes are great! (And a horsie!!!!)

LOL at the ad!

david and i just got done looking at the pics, had fun trying to guess who everybody was before scrolling down to your caption to see if we were right. lol. also had fun reading your terrible terrible puns ;p;p;p you crack me up :)

How many of them did you get right?

Also, what terrible puns? I know I make them, but I don't recall any here. As I remember, I was being rushed along when the pics finished uploading, so I just did very brief, factual descriptions.

Anyway, glad you liked. :)