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Before the Cons, a salute to Ada Lovelace and to this, her day. This was a woman who wrote software in the first half of the 1800’s for Charles Babbage’s Difference Engine, and wrote the world first algorithm, thereby becoming the worlds first computer programmer.

The World Horror Convention takes place from the 25th to the 28th in Brighton, England. You can not get in unless you already have your ticket, because it is completely sold out. This is possibly related to the fact that this is the first time ever that this convention is being held in Europe.

In North America, Wizard World, the Toronto Comic Con, runs from the 26th to the 28th. This is Canada’s monster Comics and Collectibles event, second only to the San Diego insanity. Meanwhile, Comicpalooza will be performing a similar function in Houston, TX. Just take a quick peek at the guest list, which is huge; actors, artists, and authors galore… and that’s just the A’s.

I-Con 29 is a general Sci-Fi con, but huge; again, a glimps of the guest list will give you a feel for the scope of this event. This one takes place at Stony Brook University, in Long Island, NY.

Pax East is a Gamer Con running this weekend in Boston. I am not much of a gamer (I’m usually the guy they send out first so they can spot the snipers when they take me out), but I would be there for the music alone! Nerdcore Godfather MC Frontalot, the orchestral VGO, the hacked hardware of Anamanaguchi, and many more. If you hadn’t already guessed, PAX stands for Penny Arcade Expo, which usually hangs out on the west coast.

Perhaps the most unusual Con of the month is Xanadu Las Vegas, a Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Fetish Convention. Only in that city would you have a Masquerade dedicated to the memory of Forrest J. Ackerman (who along with his date wore the first costumes to a Sci-Fi Con ever in 1939), and judged by an Adult Film Star who is also the con GoH; and only in this city would you have a Masquerade where the wearing of an actual Mask is against the law (Nevada State Law prohibits the wearing of any face covering in any casino, and you will be arrested forthwith). This one looks like a world of fun and CONtradiction.

KamikazeCon 3 in Houston, Tx, will be the massive anime event of the weekend. This is no great surprise considering it is the town that has created a full third of the English dubs for anime DVDs over the last decade. They have a ton of guests and a events for the gathering; wish I could be there.

SenshiCon, Alaska’s Original Anime Con (their tagline) takes place at the UAA Student Union in Anchorage, Alaska. While their web site seems to be in need of some help, they do have a strong voice actor guest list which seems to be primarily from FUNimation. Another anime convention this weekend is MomoCon, which I would love to tell you about. Unfortunately their web site is a blank black screen when I go to it, but perhaps you will have better luck. As near as I can tell from their source code, the Georgia Tech Anime Con is using a script to gracefully degrade to standard HTML if you don’t have Flash installed, and has a script which hides the standard HTML if you do have Flash; in my browser both scripts seem to be active at the same time, hiding both the Flash and the HTML.

LunaCon 2010 in Rye Brook, NY is a general Sci-Fi Con with author GoH Tanya Huff. They look to have pretty much everything going on, including Dancing in the Gears, the 2nd annual LunaCon Steampunk Ball, and a massive number of Events and Programs scheduled for the festivities, as you can tell by the list of participants. Meanwhile, in Chattanooga, Tn, FantaSciCon is happening, and it gets my vote for the best Con T-Shirt I have seen this decade. It also has a good selection of guests and a lot of fun events.

The MidsouthCon takes place Friday through Sunday just outside of Memphis, TN. This is a non-profit fan run readercon with Writer GoH’s Kevin J. Anderson and Rebecca Moesta, and many more guests in many other categories. All-Con in Dallas is, as the name implies, a little bit of everything from Anime to Zombies, and again it’s all about the fans. To see a full list of events on one page, check this. MegaCon in Orlando, FL, is another monster event covering multiple aspects of fandom, although their focus is Comic Books and Media Guests.

On the Anime con front there is KawaKon in St. Louis, Animation and Gaming Ohio in Cincinnati, and Anime Milwaukee in WI. These three all look interesting.

I know I have missed some, but I am still kind of shaken up over having my brand new computer try to burst into flame while I was setting it up. I suspect they missed a few details when they refurbed it, and I will be returning it in the morning. Until I figure out the way I want to proceed to get a modern computer, I will continue to do my blog entries on this antique.

A Fan-run con in Bloomington, MN is MarsCon; they have a goodly collection of guests and some interesting events, including Steampunk Bullwhip displays and Dragon Making by Committee.

CoastCon 33 in Biloxi, MS, is another Fan run con, this time with David Drake for the writer GoH and Nicky Clyne as the media GoH (the full guestlist is here).

StellarCon in High Point, NC is a general SciFi con. What I find interesting is it claims to be a smaller event, generally pulling around 500 attendees, and yet the guest list is large and includes some excellent authors.

Pikeville, AL will be hosting a Horror, Paranormal, and Cult film fest/con event called the Dark Woods Con. And RagnaroKon 10 is a Gamer con in Columbia MO.

One of the MediaCons this weekend is Creation Entertainment’s Twilight Con GA in Atlanta. The other media event is a Back to the Future reunion in Florance, AL

The most important Doctor Who Con of the season has to be Gallifrey One: Blackjack 21 in Los Angeles. Guests include Sarah Sutton, Katey Manning, Georgia Moffett, Debora Watling, Frazier Hines, John Levene, and many, many more.

There are two good general sci-Fi cons in the US this weekend; on the left coast is Condor XVII in San Diego, with Writer GoH CJ Cherryh. The theme is Tripping the Past Fantastic in all its Steampunk glory, with a Mad Science Faire and nominations open for the Mad Scientists Hall of Fame. Out of those already nominated, I have to vote for Nichola Tesla for the Real and for the Fictional, it’s a toss-up between Dr. Emmett Brown and Professor Albert Wickwire (in both cases because of the skill and sheer joy the actors brought to the parts). There are also writers workshops, dealers rooms, anime rooms, the Hogwarts Educational Retreat, lots of live music including the Steam Powered Giraffe, and ever so much more.

Over on the write coast, SheVaCon in Roanoke, VA, has guests covering the spectrum of authors (including Kevin J. and Rebeca M. Anderson), artists, and actors. All aspects of Fandom seem to be covered in the Events section, with Anime Rooms, TV/Movie Viewing Rooms, Game Rooms, Computer Rooms, Fan Groups (a LOT of them), multiple competitive Cosplay events as well as non-competitive, and everything else you would expect. Whichever coast you are on, quality general Sci-Fi Fun is to be had!

If you are down under, Continuum 6: Future Tense looks to be the venue of choice this weekend. The premise for the event is that 2010 was used in so many books, movies, etc. to mean simply The Future, that now that it is here we should celebrate! Their home page describes it as Killer robots are beating down the door while Mutant Hordes gather… your Emotional Inhibitor is on the fritz and your Computer is calling you “Dave”, and again this event has everything a good general Con should have, plus something special. This is the event where they hand out the Chronos Awards, which I find somewhat disturbing. I am not disturbed by the thought of the award, but by the fact that I know none of the nominees in a contest that is pulling together the best authors and stories from an entire subcontinent. Looks like I have some serious reading to do!

Meanwhile the Japanese Art Festival comes alive at the Richmond Adult Community College in Richmond, UK. This is a Non-traditional anime-related event, if you are interested in the subject matter, I urge you not to miss this one; it is a monster!

This weekend has Con-G, an Anime con in Guelph, ON, Canada (and personally I love the pun in their name). The events at this one lean heavily to Cosplay and music, and it looks like a lot of fun. At the west end of the Great White North Tsukino-Con will be happening in Victoria, British Columbia. Being on the tip of Vancouver Island, Canada, they may just pull in a few folks who were in the neighborhood to do something Olympic.

Anime also lives in Kansas City, MO, at Naka-Kon, where they have some amazing guests and events lined up, including Peelander-Z. Saturday brings on Chibi Chibi Con 10 in Olympia, WA, as well.

In the general Fan category we have ConNooga, at the historical Chattanooga Choo Choo Hotel and Convention Center in TN. They are covering all aspects of the genre, but it looks like their strength lies in their Artists Guests

For the gamers, Total Con-fusion claims the title of New England’s largest gaming event, and Owl Con covers the game gamut in Houston. The Bash Con gaming fest is in Toledo, Ohio, and like OwlCon takes place on a collage/university campus.

Finally, Furry Fiesta in Dallas is for those who wear the fur.