Holidays and absences [3]

One of these days, Halfy, I shall do that, tandem ride. Be like swan for 5mins, (tho in my case its more like a Christmas turkey )

Great vids Halfy. Tandem looks ok, but still might be to scared to do it.

Norc wrote:O_O you'd never get me up in one of those! faster is safer?!

Thanks Nork gave me an excuse to post this.

Went on the Shanghai Maglev - World's Fastest Commercially Operating Train.

Took a picture of the speed we were doing.





The train has actually exceeded 500kph in testing. It does the 19 mile journey to Pudong airport in 7 minutes!

Went on the bullet train as well. Shangai to Beijing, but that only went 350kph.

That was Brilliant Chris I enjoyed that. Don't see it catching on in Blighty tho ? On long haul distances the infra structure has be so secure, so safe. I don't know if we can ensure that here ? Gawd almighty we cant even provide a decent bus service where I live !!!

Somehow I expected things around 300 km/hr to look blurrier, but closer to 500 km/hr it was quite satisfying. Loved the train passing.

I jumped a mile when the train passed. Girls on the other seat had a good laugh.

I attended Katsucon this weekend, which is in National Harbor, MD, basically right where the Potomac meets the Capitol Beltway. Really it's in Oxon Hill but when they built the resort they wanted to have a different name in their street address so they came up with National Harbor. It's the second-largest anime convention in the Maryland/DC area and since I decided a couple years ago to try out additional cons beyond just Otakon, it's been on my list of ones I wanted to go to. Honestly, a big part of this is because of the hotel/convention center that hosted it since it always looked really neat in photos. I think it measured up in person. This is what it looks like from near the waterfront:



The atrium area is huge and houses several restaurants, a number of open areas that people used for cosplay photoshoots, a large fountain, and two honest-to-god houses that I think were gift shops.



When the con hotel block opened last April I made my reservation within the first five minutes before the good rooms sold out, so I was able to get one with a balcony overlooking the atrium from the 12th floor. It's relatively empty in this picture because I took it on Thursday night before the convention had actually started.



This was the 24th Katsucon but it's been growing very rapidly in recent years and honestly the space is not big enough, though they seem intent on staying due to their relationship with the hotel's owners. Trying to move around was like the Baltimore Convention Center in the last few years that Otakon was in Baltimore, but worth. This hallway, one of only a few connecting the hotel half of the building with the convention center half that included most of the event space, was especially bad because the line for one of the food places snaked out into it.



As always I got a con t-shirt. I don't buy souvenirs much but I like t-shirts that represent places I've been, especially convention shirts.



I didn't take a ton of cosplay photos, in part because the crowded hallways made it difficult to ask for pictures in many places without blocking traffic, although plenty of people did which contributed to the traffic issue. But here are a couple that I did take. First is Alex Louis Armstrong from Fullmetal Alchemist:



Second is Toothless from How To Train Your Dragon. You can't really see it from this angle but the back of the suit included a spine and wings.



I'm not really sure what's up with the dinosaurs in the last photo. I saw the costume on the left at Anime Central in Chicago last year, but I don't know what it's from. I don't think it has anything to do with Star Wars, as I'm pretty sure this was just a case of people posing together, but I could be wrong. Note also BB-8 near the bottom of the picture; this was a remote control model.



Anyway, some of you guys may have already seen these and others as I posted them on Facebook, but I figured I'd share a few here as I have in the past. TBH it wasn't my best con experience but it's always fun to be a part of a big fan event like this.

Never heard of that convention center, it's beautiful! Glad you're having a good time.

Looking good any particular focus events of the convention?

Thanks guys.

halfwise wrote:Never heard of that convention center, it's beautiful!  Glad you're having a good time.

The entire resort complex including the convention center is only about 10 years old. This was my first time being anywhere near it since it's surrounded by residential neighborhoods on all sides except the river. I'm glad I got to go 'cause it really is a great building, but all in all I think I prefer conventions that are in cities. Those have much better quick/easy food options within a convenient distance, and public transportation means not having to pay out the ass for hotel parking.

Bluebottle wrote:Looking good any particular focus events of the convention?

Beyond the general theme of anime Katsucon is especially focused on cosplay. They also had a major programming track of panels about Japanese culture, history, and society. I went to a few and while I already knew most of what was covered in some of the history ones, there was a panel about gender and sexuality in Japan that was really interesting. The panels more specifically focused on anime weren't as interesting as some others I've seen in the past but the AMV contest had a pretty good lineup. Unfortunately the screening of the winners was at 10am this morning (Sunday) and I was still packing and checking out at that point so I don't know if any of the ones I voted for won their categories. I've watched relatively little anime since Otakon six months ago so I didn't buy any DVDs in the dealer's room but I watched a lot of shows that they were screening, which is nice since it's a very different atmosphere than watching alone on my laptop like I usually do, and because I end up seeing shows I wouldn't necessarily have tried otherwise (though usually there's a reason why I wouldn't've tried them ).

Will be on the Queens official business for a couple of weeks. Not telling you where as those damn palantarazzi don't need me to do thier jobs for them.

Have fun all.

{{{{{ Have a good time Lance, or at least an interesting high stakes one! 
And have no fear, I am absolutely certain the last thing the NotP are doing right now is bribing officials in the Admins office for info on your whereabouts and booking a hotel close by within range of their long-lens palantirs. It hasn't even crossed their mind. }}}

Just in case anyone wondered where I was back in August:

We have an adventurer in our midst,

That looks like a great trip!

chris63 wrote:

Norc wrote:O_O you'd never get me up in one of those! faster is safer?!

Thanks Nork gave me an excuse to post this.

Went on the Shanghai Maglev - World's Fastest Commercially Operating Train.

Took a picture of the speed we were doing.





The train has actually exceeded 500kph in testing. It does the 19 mile journey to Pudong airport in 7 minutes!

But that's only an average of... 170 mph?

That's over 300 mph.

I think Forest meant the 19 miles in seven minutes part, although I'm getting ~163 mph (probably within a rounding error, though).

{{ How odd I was just wondering about you Lance, and if you were still off on adventures, and was pondering putting a missing ad out for you in the next NotP, I even popped by your Flickr account to see if any clues could be gleaned! But here you are safe and well, back from your 'holiday' mums the word (never understood that phrase, all the mums Ive ever known couldn't keep a secret if you paid them! Mimes the word would make more sense, now thats a group of folks who can keep a secret unless your really good at charades and have a high tolerance for getting crabbit ) Was I saying something?   Sure I was...I think I may have drank to much   oooh peanuts! }}

https://www.facebook.com/ClimaExtremo/videos/495023210977315/


Seeing this all lit up at evening made me think how beautiful it must have been back in the day. The first view of this must have put people in sheer awe.

Eldy wrote:I think Forest meant the 19 miles in seven minutes part, although I'm getting ~163 mph (probably within a rounding error, though).

Yes, if you were looking at average speed. I wonder how long it takes to get to max speed, how long it stays there for and how long for slowing down.

My trains in to London don't break 80mph as far as I am aware.

Lancebloke wrote:Just in case anyone wondered where I was back in August:

what fantastic hols

So Lance was in NYC and never gave me a ring. Looks like he didn't need much help seeing the sights, though. I approve of the concentration on Central Park.

But it's okay, I was probably either running camp or feverishly preparing for the new semester. My August was pretty tight.

I know. Was with the family and we were only there 2 full days.

If my job ever takes me there (which it may do since I have moves to a new team), I will give you a shout!