GeneralGeneral

Welcome to GeneralGeneral.com and StarkRavingNomad.com

theGeneral — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 16:59:28 +0000

StarkRavingNomad.com is now a part of GeneralGeneral.com! StarkRavingNomad.com pointed to GeneralGeneral.com for pictures anyway and the content was 90% the same, so instead of two sites, it’s all in one place now. Twitter updates will now go to StarkRavinGnome.

AnachroCon 2012 – February 23-26

theGeneral — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 03:45:53 +0000

[February 23-26, 2012 - Atlanta, GA - USA]

Ok, finally a con with a ton of pictures. My second time at AnachroCon, a Steampunk convention. The first time I was there they already outgrew that hotel. I hate to say it but they were bursting at the seams at this hotel. The con suite was removed from the activities, but was on the same floors as the party rooms that wasn’t too bad. The party rooms were great, in fact. I think this is the first Steam event I went to where there were half a dozen party rooms per night, so that was awesome! However, the dealers room was incredibly way too small. I’d say one of the features of a great Steampunk con is a great Steampunk dealers room – because people always want to upgrade what they have or start buying bits and pieces for the next costume. (A BIG dealers room is essential.) Nonetheless, it was great! And I seem to meet more people at Steam-cons than at any other con. Met “Biscuit” and her hubbby “Limey” (he’s from the UK, yes, he used it on himself so it’s not being rude or anything) this time. And a bunch more people. I do highly recommend AnachroCon, go next year! Here are the pics:

AnachroCon 2012

At the LAX Airport

theGeneral — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 03:34:12 +0000

[February 20, 2012, LAX Airport, Los Angeles, CA - USA]

I was at a Mensa RG (Regional Gathering) in LA. No pictures there. But at the airport, I finally was at the right date and the right time to see the Qantas A380 cruise into the gate. I took a picture and was starting out the window from the AA Admiral’s Club and saw a Boeing 757 taxi by. I thought, cool, so I took another set of pictures. Then, a bus drove by. Talk about luck. SO now you can visually see how big the Airbus A380 really is… (Too bad I didn’t get a head on picture, the wingspan is ginormous.)

Qantas A380 at LAX

Qantas A380 at LAX with Boeing 757 for size comparison

Qantas A380 at LAX with Boeing 757 and bus for size comparison

Capricon 2012 February 10-12, 2012

theGeneral — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 03:25:09 +0000

[February 10-12, 2012, Wheeling, IL - USA]

The problem with going to the same con for the five-hundred-millionth time is that it becomes the same old thing and picture taking gets relegated to, “Oh, crud, I forgot to take pictures.” The you rush and take a boat load. Or, just give in and forget it. Well, I took a few and here are the two better ones:

left to right – Shelly – Jill – Charissa

left to right – Charissa – Me – Jill

Random Travel to Marriott, Orlando, FL February 2-5, 2012

theGeneral — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 03:17:01 +0000

[February 2-5, 2012 - Orlando, FL - USA]

Sometimes I have a to do list of going somewhere for some reason. Well, my “home” hotel is the Miami Airport Marriott right next to the Miami Airport in Florida. Since I have been there for a while, I know a bunch of the staff there.

One day, one of the bartenders. Martha, moved to Orlando and transferred her job to the Orlando Airport Marriott. I missed her going away party in Miami by just one day – and that was last year, so I was trying to go visit her since then.

So, I was plotting my flights and I tried Miami and it was expensive, so I tried Key West ans it was worse and then I tried Orlando and the trip was cheaper than just flying to Miami (meaning the DCA – MIA – MCO flight was cheaper than the DCA – MIA flight).

So I went to the Orland Marriott and visited Martha. Luckily she was working the one of the days I was there in the cafe so we chatted. I brought a note Ira (another bartender at Miami Marriott) had written out and gave it to Martha. She said she missed the Miami Marriottt (where it’s much more live and busier). So, I got a note from Martha and I’ll give it to Ira when I hit the the Miami Marriott next time.

Martha at the Orlando Marriott

Key West Food and Wine Fest, Jan 26-29, 2012

theGeneral — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 21:14:43 +0000

[January 26-29, 2012 - Key West, FL - USA]

So, this is the third annual Key West Food and Wine Fest and it’s the third time for me too. Great as always. This time I stayed at the Waldorf-Astoria The Reach which is right next to Waldorf-Astoria Casa Marina. The Casaa Marina is truly “Waldorf-Astoria” class but The Reach really isn’t. They ought to rename it “Hilton The Reach Resort” or something similar.

The Food and Wine fest has it’s Friday event at a different locale every year and this year it was at the Aquarium. It was a cool setting and the number of people attending made the place really hopping. Saturday was the “Duvall Uncorked” event where ticket holders walk from one end of Duvall Street to the other and stop by where ever the sponsors for that year are, from restaurants, shops, etc. to art galleries. I bumped into a couple, Tom and Lynn, along the way and we had a blast. Here are the pics:

3rd Annual Key West Food and Wine Fest

Steampunk Symposium Queen Mary Jan 13-16, 2012

theGeneral — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 20:14:30 +0000

[January 13-16, 2012 - Long Beach, CA - USA]

A steampunk convention was helf aboard the Queen Mary in Long Beach, CA. The location was unique and the ship fit the steampunk them extremely well. This was a four day convention so it was nice and long. As with any ship I board, whether sea or air, I walked fore to aft, starboard and port. The more interesting parts of the ship were all blocked and locked off, which was annoying, but the open parts were interesting as it were…

There was a “con suite” but it was usually devoid of people. It seemed there were more people who knew each other than just broke off into their own little gatherings. Otherwise, it was basically just what was scheduled. There were no party rooms either. Of the pictures I took, a lot more than usual were blurry, so there aren’t too many pictures (sorry). The surviving pictures are below, click on the pic as usual to get more:

Steam Powered Giraffe on stage aboard the Queen Mary

If these few pics of the Queen Mary intrigue you, you can get more information on the ship here queenmary.com.

SinglesCruise.com Nov 12-19 2011 on the NCL Epic

theGeneral — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 22:14:03 +0000

[November 12-19, 2011 - Miami - St. Martin - St. Thomas - Bahamas]

Okay, went on another SinglesCruise.com cruise. This time I hit all the islands (St. Martin, St. Thomas and The Bahamas) that I have not yet been to, so that was a bonus. I think this was the biggest singles group I was with, something like 120 or so cruisers.

In addition, the NCL Epic has a “studio lounge” section where solo travelers can get a room by themselves and not pay the double-occupancy rate. There is an accompanying solo lounge and we also have our own ship’s solo cruisers gathering every night at 5:30 for an hour or two. We get our own cruise director, Natalie and our own bartender, Joyce. So that was an awesome setup. Skip the massive hoards of people on deck. (And the lounge turns into a breakfast area with Yvette in the morning so again, a nice quite private area in the morning.)

So between the SinglesCruise.com activities, Solo Lounge Activities, and my own island exploration, it was a hopping cruise. Here are the pictures from the cruise. I shot about 900 pictures and edited the list down to 453. (That’s a record number of pictures I took in a week). Even with 900, I still ha non-duplicated fuzzy pictures so I loaded those on the slide show too. Have fun!

Singles Cruise on the NCL Epic

Endless Night Steampunk Vampire Ball New Orleans Oct 29, 2011

theGeneral — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 02:16:46 +0000

[Oct 29, 2011 - New Orleans, LA, US]

Halloween. What to do?

This year, I went to New Orleans, LA (US) for the Endless Night Steampunk Vampire Ball on Oct 29, 2011 at the House of Blues. Started around 9:30pm and I got back to my hotel room around 3:00am. Luckily, I didn’t have to wake up till 9:00am on Sunday so I did get some sleep… SO, here are the pics:

Endless Night Steampunk Vampire Ball New Orleans Oct 29, 2011

ZomBcon 2011 Oct 20-23

theGeneral — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 16:42:10 +0000

[October 20-23, 2011 - Seattle, WA, US]

Flew from DCA to DFW to SEA, second week in a row… It was a “mileage run” but there was a handy con in Seattle so that was cool.

On top of that, my work buddy collects mugs so he wanted me to go to the first Starbucks store in downtown Seattle so I figured what the heck. And my friends Charissa and Kevin were supposed to fly to Seattle last year for SteamCon II as a wedding gift but they didn’t make it so I got an extra one for her.

I was at the SeaTac Airport Hilton so I hopped on the light rail (which took 45 minutes) to get to downtown Seattle. Got the mug and hung out at the Pike Place Market and went to a French restaurant (Maximilien). They had Absinthe on the menu so I had to have one. That was cool.

After that mini-adventure, I attended ZomBcon 2011. There were a lo of zombies and zombie killers running around. Is there something in the air in Seattle that this con didn’t have a con suite and didn’t have any party rooms? (If you recall my last post on SteamCon III, they didn’t have a con suite; and they had only a few party rooms which were insufficient for the attendance. Oh well.) Anyway, here are the pics from the con…

Seattle, Starbucks First Store, Absinthe at Maximillien and ZomBcon 2011