Tampa Steampunk Goes To Metrocon

Last weekend, I had the privilege of attending one of Florida's biggest annual geekfests, an anime convention called "Metrocon."

While I'm not the biggest fan of Japanese animation, there was plenty more to feed my nerdy soul, including science fiction panels, steampunk costuming and meet-andgreets with two of my heroes, zombie guru Max Brooks and rock opera writer Terrance Zdunich. 

The weekend was wonderful. I spent 12-hour days at the Tampa Convention Center on Friday and Saturday, fawning over other cosplayers' handcrafted outfits. I watched a fire show, got asked by dozens of people for a photograph and had my picture put up on Zdunich's blog. 

Like I promised, here are a few pictures I took of myself and of other costumers. My outfit was a steampunk mechanic's outfit, complete with self-modified , an apron my mother made for me and grease smears on my face (stupid airships, always blowing up at the wrong time.)

"Remember, always tighten the gaskets before removing the lugnuts."

Confused? Check out my first .