Three years ago, the Fleet was only a handful of people hanging out at the lobby of the Marriott with a shared interest in “Battlestar Galactica” and making friends with awesome people. This year, I was witness to the Fleet taking things to a whole new level, making even last year’s amazing success pale in comparison. The enormity of what this wonderful group has accomplished - from throwing the epic Colonial Fleet Party at the Sheraton to turning another parade into a memorable spectacle to all the frakkin’ Marriott 10th Floor parties - is testament to how truly capable and amazing this group is.

If there’s one thing the Fleet is good at, it’s knowing how to execute a fun and safe event. Thank you everyone for your hand in bringing out the very best of the Colonial Fleet this Dragon*Con. A special thank you to Edward James Olmos, Michael Hogan, Tahmoh Penikett, James Callis, Richard Hatch, Aaron Douglas, Colin Corrigan, and Lymari Nadal for supporting our group and our charity efforts. We may never top perfection again, but the point is we did it - we pulled our own version of the Adama Manuever this year and you all deserve the sweet frakkin’ glory while it lasts.

So say we all!

Kris (”Athena”)
Founder

 The Fleet blog is back. Why? Cause we figure that not all of our members are able to keep up with all the craziness that we get ourselves mixed up in. So this blog with bring some of the more important events and opportunities to the forefront for our more casual members. That being said:

DRAGON*CON

Dragon*Con is upon us here at the Colonial Fleet.  In a little more than a week the members of the rowdiest fandom ever will be meeting up to drink, dance, and some other things that start with the letter D.

On Thursday night we’ve got our second annual Fleet dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe. The beautiful and deadly Poptart has taken upon herself to organize the dinner and if you want to attend you can get details here. BE WARNED! There is very little time left, if you want to participate, hurry on over and reserve your spot!!!
After the dinner on Thursday night is Athena and Starbuck’s Special Night of Destiny Frakathon! This room party (which means that space is quite limited) is thrown by the dynamic duo also known as the Fleet administrators. For more details check out the thread here.

Saturday is a huge day. We start, bright and early, with the massive Dragon*Con parade. The Colonial Fleet will be there in force, and don’t take my word for it, look here for the details and here for the current roster.
Then Saturday night, the combined powers of the American Sci-Fi Track and the Colonial Fleet bring you the 2008 Colonial Fleet Party!  We are honored to rock the smocks (as in Viper) off the collective BSG fans at Dragon*Con.  This party gonna have it all (except alcohol, so minors can join in the fun this year)!!!!  Read more here and here. In my personal opinion, if you miss this, you’ll be missing out on one of the craziest experiences not involving heavy narcotics, large explosions, or Cylon three ways (That last one might actually happen…).

And as an after-party-party, check out Goodtime’s Nugget party. It takes place after the Fleet party and you can find out more here.

As for Sunday, we’ve got our first annual Colonial Fleet Photoshoot which is looking to be a powder keg of awesome. Click for all the gory details.

Wow! That’s a lot of stuff. But these are just the big TCF events. There are tons of room parties, tracks, and random drinking contests all over Dragon*Con. The great and terrible Eggroll took pity on us lesser life forms long enough to make and update this masterlist of tracks, parties, dinners, etc. Want more? Try our Dragon*Con 2008 forum. It’s got all you’ll ever need for BSG related Dragon*Con info and more!!!

For those lucky enough to have ordered the first run of the official TCF T-Shirt and want to know where and when to pick up yours check out the info here. There are still official TCF lanyards available as well, but hurry here for details before they run out.

I look forward to meeting all the nuggets as well as seeing my old friends again.

Not a member? Join up now! Just head to the Quorum and fill out the easy intro steps.

 Athena out.

We here at the Colonial Fleet don’t believe in staying still, I mean how can we with the Cylons on our heels every day? Earlier today Athena announced the Fleet’s new growth plan: We’ll be turning off registrations beginning May 31st or when we reach 700 members - whichever comes first. We won’t be opening the gates again until July 28th. (The day after Comicon International.) From there, we will continue the process in cycles. Open for registration for roughly one month, closed for roughly two. The most common question to this announcement has been why is the Fleet temporarily shutting down registrations? The answer is:

“A registration cycle is the best compromise between letting everyone and their mother join, and NOT becoming an elitist Quorum. We’re acknowledging that we’re getting bigger and something must be done to preserve the Fleet’s integrity. We can’t expect to keep growing and remain the tight-knit community we always have been. Sorry, we tried. We can’t have both. So either we focus on getting to know each other better, or stop letting people in altogether. Managing our registration in intervals is the best compromise.”

If anyone wishes to register before the deadline I highly encourage you, but should you miss this window rest assured a new one will open on July 28th! For more information regarding the Fleet cycle please see this thread.

Also another small announcement, Venture (myself) will be in charge of the Fleet blog. So if anyone ever has any questions, concerns, or would like me to post something on the Fleet blog I highly encourage you to shoot me an email; majorventure@colonialfleet.org

Stay tuned over the next few days for more announcements concerning TCF happenings from a possible podcast, official shirts, BSG frak parties, plans concerning San Diego ComicCon and much more!

 

Torch, looking like the happiest man alive next to Grace Park, fills us in:

“Grand Slam is an all around SCI-FI con not dedicated to any single show. This year, it was held in the Burbank Marriot Convention Center. I was surprised by the lack of costumes by the con goers. There were a few of us, I was in full pilot suit, and I was happy about all of the positive comments and photos that were taken of me.

The guest panels were going on for the whole day and all of the speakers were entertaining. I especially liked Brent Spiner poking fun at James Marsters for most of his time. I met up with Sho’Nuff just after I had taken my photo OP. We met and browsed the dealer area. Later, we arrived for Grace Park’s stage time as she got some interesting questions. One was about her panty dance from the episode that aired the night before (’Six of One’). She mentioned that she didn’t really know anything about it and was basically told to ‘wing’ it. The funniest part she mentioned was that Katee Sackhoff is VERY girlie. If there was a bee, she’d scream and Grace would just kill it.

The con ran Fri-Sun but the only BSG star showing up was Grace Park and she was the only reason I went. It was definitely worth it as I shall treasure my photo op. I also met and made some new friends there. Sho’Nuff, myself, and an older gentlemen were the only people in BSG costumes. It was cool to meet another TCF’er…barely a warm up for DCON!”

“All-Con started out at a slow pace, but in the end became bigger and better than anyone could of hoped for. ‘Whats that guy dressed up as?’ ‘Well frak, I don’t know, but he’s got a gigantic sword and a uzi!’ All-Con isn’t genre-specific and that’s what makes it a wonderful place. Not to mention the awesome TCFers that were there as well! We had Marines, viper jocks, and even our very own Cylon Centurian. Aaron Douglas (”Chief Tyrol”) was our resident BSG celeb for the weekend, where [he became] honarary CPO the very first day of his visit.

He told stories of his heroic challenge coin duels, his son getting in a viper and finally realizing it couldn’t fly, and talking about Katee Sackhoff - who’s actually very non-Starbuck. At the begining of con, Aaron was seen waking the booths with his belt undone and his sandals on. And of course, the most precious of all Aaron lore: his frakkin’ awsome shirts. I’d give someone’s arm and leg for one of those shirts! (Most of his shirts are sent to him and/or given to him.)

The entire con lasted 3 days and even though TCF didn’t have a major meet up, it was an honor to be there with everyone. Everyone’s costumes were wonderful and it was a blast meeting new friends. All-Con overall was something I didn’t expect. As Aaron said, ‘This place is shaping up to become a mini-DragonCon.’ [At his panel], I plainly asked him if he’d heard about the TCF D*Con Party (’08). A light shone through the room and the gates of a holy place opened - he jumped from his chair and shouted in triumph. Maybe I was just getting too close to him.”

Here’s some pics from the All-Con 2008 Gallery.

Thanks to Radium for the story & pic and Maglight for keeping the cylons at bay:

“Most of the TCFers met up Friday at the con and proceeded to own the place, despite the overwhelming hoard of anime glomping children. The first thing we did after finding everyone is to go to the ‘Like Father, Like Son’ panel with Mark Shepard (’Romo Lampkin’) and his father William Shepard. TCF made an excellent showing at the panel and you could see that Mark was impressed. Unfortunately, I cannot remember all that was talked about at the panel but I do remember there were people there that hadn’t even watched the show. I know…shocking.

Mark Shepard and Leah Cairns (’Racetrack’) loved us. Mark kidnapped our group whenever we would wander into the autograph area and would regal us with stories and various ramblings about BSG stuff and random things. He literally hung out with us for over an hour on Friday and nearly that long on Saturday. When Banshee and Cam decided to try out the boffer fight (foam weapons fighting), Mark and his father came over and stood next to us to cheer and heckle the gals. They were getting beat up by the 12 year old boys. It was very funny.

At one point on Saturday, Mark pulled out his iPhone and started showing us pictures of his family. He is clearly a very proud papa. In response to that, Mystique whipped out her own iPhone and shared her pics with him. It was like Dueling iPhones.

Leah is such a wonderful person. She is just so bubbly and friendly and really loved our [’Razor’ Divine Devils] outfits. She kept taking pictures of us and then would jump into the group photos. She was so impressed with our outfits that every time we would walk by she would jump up and leave her table to inspect us. She said we looked so good that we could walk onto the set and know no one would realize we didn’t belong there.”

Some Season 4 hints from Leah and Mark:

• Next season will be pretty bloody. She doesn’t expect most people to survive.
• Mark said that the cat will be back.
• Several people in the cast have been told they are are the 5th cylon by Ron Moore.

Thanks to Cassiline for the pics and report!

Head down to Orlando, FL this weekend (Mar 7-9) and say hello to the frakkers of The Colonial Fleet! Over 30+ members are expected to be in attendance, along with “Battlestar Galactica” guests Mark Shepphard, Leah Cairns, and Steve Bacic. Megacon is our third largest con attendance besides Dragon*Con and Comicon International.

Preparations are under way on this thread.

* Parade Sign-Up
* Discussion Thread 

“Last year, we showed everyone what we’re made of. This year, we’ll make sure they never forget us. Some come loud, be proud, and get ready to have a frakking awesome time. We’ve requested 60 ribbons to start, but if demand is high we can get more. Sign up as soon as you can, because with our ever expanding member base, we’re going to be a massive fleet this year. You don’t have to be a member of TCF to march with us, but it’s highly encouraged, given that our membership process is easier than fixing a gimbal.” –Apollo

http://www.myspace.com/thecolonialfleet

Welcome to a new year with TCF!