Dragon*Con 2011: A n00b's Tale, Part VI

[Note: I finish this series almost a year after I first ventured to Dragon*Con. It was one of the great fan experiences of my life but, as I hope this final entry conveys, D*C isn't about the events or the celebrities or even the scale, it's about small moments between people who truly understand what fandom is, and fandom means.]

TUESDAY

The day after Dragon*Con 2011 finally ended, it finally ended. For the first time in a week I woke up with no where in particular to be. This is when "the end of Dragon*Con" started to feel real. There was no panel to attend, no line to queue up for, no crowd to beat. It was just time to go.

As usual, I arose before my roommates, showered, and left the room so as not to disturb them. When I walked to the elevator, there was no one waiting, which was a first. The elevator arrived in less than a minute, and I took it all the way to the ground floor with no stops. I didn't meet anyone along the way. The few early risers or all-nighters still in the lobby weren't in costume -- another first since Wednesday afternoon -- and I could walk freely through the skybridge to the Peachtree Center food court, where I snagged a pastry and some OJ. There were some D*C folk about, but the area had reverted to a center for business pros, not megafans. Our grip on the city was giving way, and normal life was once again taking hold.

I eventually made it back to the room, again without any serious crowd impediment, to where my friends were waiting to see out the end of this tale. It was time to pack.

The 25 best links from July 2012

Every link I shared in July 2012 that earned at least 50 clicks on Twitter:

1. Amazon same-day delivery: How the e-commerce giant will destroy local retail. (712) 
2. I Won't Hire People Who Use Poor Grammar. Here's Why. (521) 
3. The Death Of SEO: The Rise of Social, PR, And Real Content (421) 
4. 'Poorcraft' Is Everything Your Parents Never Taught You About Frugal Living (in Comic Book Form) (314) 
5. View from the ISS at Night (254) 
6. "When you sell a company, you can get new shoes, a new car, a new house or a new life." (226)  
7. How well does Khan Academy teach? (180) 
8. Idleness is not just a vacation, an indulgence or a vice; it is as indispensable to brain as vitamin D is to body (179) 
9. The Six Supervillains of Nerd Culture (177) 
10. How to hack the beliefs that are holding you back (166) 
11. What I Learned From Increasing My Prices (160) 
12. Why Do Startups Do This? (158) 
13. Open Letter from a Millennial: Quit Telling Us We’re Not Special (157) 
14. Why does the IT industry continue to listen to Gartner? (149) 
15. Final thoughts on Windows 8: A design disaster (104) 
16. Why Showing Your Face at Work Matters (98) 
17. The Value of Time (97) 
18. Backupify Raises $9M Series C Round: What It Means For Our Customers (94) 
19. The Story of Steve Jobs: An Inspiration or a Cautionary Tale? (88) 
20. 15-Year-Old Maker Astronomically Improves Pancreatic Cancer Test (74) 
21. A Hole in Mars (59) 
22. A Self-Made Man Looks At How He Made It (57) 
23. The 10 superheroes most in need of a movie reboot (56) 
24. Destined To Fail (52) 
25. John Cleese on creativity [VIDEO] (50)

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