die Besessenheit

I am slowly catching up on the backlog of blog posts that I need to write from the month that I spent travelling and being otherwise preoccupied. As anyone who as ever been in my bedroom in the US will know....

You need to squint to see what it is, but it's a 6' tall pixelated image of Spock's face made out of paint swatches I took from Lowe's. This hangs in my bedroom.

I am kinda of...

Lord. This needs a post of its own. It's a scientific poster I made describing how warp travel works. I have a 4' version in my room.

A huge Trekkie.

Today's word means “obsession” and I am obsessed with Star Trek.

I've known forever that there are Star Trek fans around the globe, and from the moment I got to Germany I started looking for a Star Trek Convention to attend. I went to one in Chicago in 2006. I skipped a week of school. I said my grandma died...again. Whatever. My professors didn't miss me that much! The convention in Chicago was a big step for me to take. Going to a convention is like taking the final step into Trek-dom, like a coming out ball for a Southern debutant. It's like the difference between having a cat and having cats, if you get my drift. There are loads of people who've seen the movies, but there is something about shelling out money, travelling, dressing up, and geeking out with other trekkies that really separates the fans from the Trekkies. That Convention was awesome, but like I said, I was scared and didn't dress up. I regret that in hindsight, because there were some awesome costumes!

He's wearing a late 23rd century uniform.

We start them young.

The woman in red is holding a tribble and wearing an early 23rd century engineering uniform and holds the rank of lieutenant. The other two are wearing 24th century uniforms. The chick is a science offices (also a lieutenant) and the dude is an engineering officer, but I can't see his rank.

Yes. That's right, this lady has blue face. She is an Andorian.

The mom is a Vulcan, but somehow her kids are not. Someone was lied to.

She is dressed up as Seven of Nine, a cyborg and the hottest plot device ever created..

This old bird is also dressed as a Vulcan, and is giving the Vulcan salute.

Another Seven of Nine, the lady was Australian if memory serves. and the dude is dressed like someone from the 23rd  century mirror universe...don't ask.

Anyways, getting back to my point. Once I got to Germany I started searching like a starved jackal for a Star Trek Convention. I only found one that was worth mentioning. It is called FedCon and takes place in Düsseldorf every year. I immediately looked at ticket prices but was disappointed to discover that they were between 109€ and 399€ for the weekend, plus the hotel. As a person living on 220€ per month, this was out of the question. Then I thought, “Oh hell, sometimes if you check the English version of a store's website, the prices are the same just in dollars.” So like with iTunes, in the States a song costs $0.99, but in Europe they cost 0.99€, and in England they cost 0.99£, which means you actually pay anywhere from $0.99 to $1.60 for the same song depending on where you live (which is utter bullshit, but if it works in my favor I won't complain too loudly). In this case, the price was converted so there was no “discount.” I did notice though that the English version of the website was incomplete and poorly written, and I thought, “well if I can't get in, at least I can help them be successful.” So I shot them an email offering to translate the website into English. Their response was “That sounds great, do you want like a free ticket for doing that?”

…

I nearly passed out.

Last month my dream came true, and I visited the convention, this time without lying to get away, and it was awesome! There were 5,000 other fans there to enjoy Trek-dom with. I stayed with the host family of a friend, all of whom are also trekkies!

I don't know if you know how a convention works, my guess is no since almost everyone I tell this to has asked me what the hell one does at a convention. Basically it's four solid days of Q&A rounds with actors and directors, presentations about SciFi and fantasy stuff (Mistakes in Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica and Mormon Theology, The End of the World in SciFi, etc), a costume contest, a merchandise room, several parties, photo and autograph session, and mingling with fans. You have to make a plan of attack before you go. Schedules are sent out in advance for this purpose. No bullshit.

During one of the question rounds with Dr. Frasier from Star Gate (btw, despite the name, it's not just a Star Trek convention, but a general SciFi and fantasy convention), I got up to ask a question. Now the Q&A rounds are conducted in English since most of the actors don't speak German. This means that everyone asking questions has a thick German accent. Everyone that is, except me. So I walk up to the mic and say, “I've always wondered if scifi actors...” and the actress cuts me off “Where are you from?! Not Germany.” So I tell her I'm from Kansas, and then everyone in the room laughs at the way I said Kansas. Then she said, “Boy, you're cute, how old are you? What”s the age of consent in Germany?” I then said that I'm old enough and then that I'm single. We flirted like this for about 3 minutes in front of 5000 other people. Then I asked my question, she answered, and then she asked my name. I told her, smiled, and walked away. I thought this would be the end of it. Then during another Q&A, the actor who played Doral on Battlestar Galactica pulled the same thing...sadly without flirting. After this, I was officially known as “Alex from Kansas" around the convention grounds. No less than 4 people came up to speak to me just because of this, and in the grocery store outside the convention, I overheard two different groups of people saying in German, “oh yeah that's Alex...she was right; he is cute.” So that's how I got thoroughly embarrassed at a Star Trek convention.

Ok now you can enjoy the photos.

Thunder-Thunder-Thunder Cats. HooooOOOOO!

Alien vs. Predator. They were married. and their son was a small predator.

Fry, Zap, Nibbler, and Amy

For all my friends playing Settlers of Catan, you can get a Star Trek Version now!

Fraking Toaster.

I think this might have been some sort of bondage relationship, since the slave Wraith had the collar on all weekend. There were more Wraiths, and it was hilarious to see them just chilling outside the hotel smoking a cigarette like it is the most normal thing in the world to have 20" dreadlocks, blue faces, and fangs.

One of my people on the subway toward the Convention site.

Who you gonna call?!

A Gorn talking to a Vulcan. The actual fight scene with Capt. Kirk and the Gorn is such a shitty scene. But so shitty that it's good.

More fans, along with the guy who held the talks on Temporal Logic and Mistakes in Star Trek. Both in German. Temporal Logic was a kick in the head at 9:30am. OH and the SyFy channel was there giving out goodies. One of the goodies was a condom...as if anyone is getting laid at a Star Trek Convention....

Any Mass Effect fans out there. to the left we have Shepard, and to the right we have a Quarian.

One of the Star Trek make-up artists did a tutorial that took this dude from normal to Klingon in a hour. The trick: paint the prosthetic piece blood red, and then apply the skin tone make-up.

R2-D2 was rolling around like a pimp. I'm not sure of a midget was inside controlling or if it was remote controlled.

This lady was kinda strange to talk to, but he costume was impeccable.

Sadly the only picture of me. The woman is a Trill. I am dressed as a 23rd century science officer (commander). My mom made the costume.

I am so addicted to conventions now. I am already planning my next costume. Unless my mom can either sew leather or tease leaves into a wig I may have to do this one on my own.