This past weekend, I took Kitty to DucKon - a ScienceFiction/Fantasy convention held in DuPage County Illinois. I took her as a life preservation measure -- saving my own skin.
Why would taking her to a con be a life saving measure? Good question. Most folks would consider it more dangerous to take her than to stay home. After all, taking her means exposing her to all sorts of tempting delights in the Dealers Room and the Art Show... and introducing her to all sorts of costuming ideas (and skills). THAT could be expensive!
But her favorite author in the world was the Guest of Honor. And she spoke on all sorts of panels. And she autographed books. And... best of all, she happily chatted with her fans for two whole days. Kitty spent a lot of time with her. Kitty's claws would have come out all over me had I deprived her of that. It just wasn't worth it.
Besides. I kind of LIKE going to cons.
In addition to all the fun panels, and fun people, there was GREAT entertainment and fun playing with lightning on Saturday night the Masters of Lightning brought out their
Tesla coils make -- well... lighting. Among the fun things about Tesla Coils is that they can also be modulated to make music...
From the side, in action, they look like this:
Yes, that's electricity barely controlled there. (Okay, the guys doing it know exactly what they're doing, but it sure looks like they're making lightning in the parking lot).
Once you're all happy with them making lightning, they start playing with it....
The dude is luring the lightning to meet in the middle and light up the lightbulbs on that bar...
And just to prove it's no fluke, he demonstrates that he doesn't really need both streams..
And here is he just plain showing off:
My second favorite trick was the one with the propane torch. For this one, they had the coils play the theme song from a familar movie ....
Who ya gonna call? eh? (Bill Murray, eat your heart out). That sounded rather like this (though the video for this part has him playing with the lightbulbs, not the propane torch)
My favorite part -- was the cage...
It looks moderately cool from the outside.... but very cool from the INSIDE
Kitty thought it was fun too.
If you'd like to watch the first ten minutes or so of the show (and hear the coils play more music), watch this:
Oh yeah, it had nothing to do with the oodles of friends you got to see at the con, and the geeky stuff you got to do...
Posted by: Cgirl | June 22, 2011 at 07:07 AM