ConCarolinas 2016!

This past Saturday, Emily and I made the trek to Concord, NC to attend ConCarolinas. It was the first time in years that we've gone and both of us were really excited.

I donned my Tightrope Girl costume and Emily in her Kairi costume and we made the two hour trek. Driving in a corset was interesting! We made it a little before 10 am and quickly got our badges. From there, Emily wanted to check out the dealer's room.

I tried to encourage her to look at everything before spending all of her money. She did ok but did end up buying a Beanie Baby Unicorn coin purse almost right away.

We saw my friend, Mikey, and bought one of his coloring books. We mostly wandered around after that until Emily declared she was going to die from hungry. We found that one of the food trucks was set up and we got a couple of hot dogs. We enjoyed our meal on a patio area and got to watch some SCA knights do battle.

After that, it was time for Live Action Hungry, Hungry Hippos. It was an activity for the kids but the parents had to get involved too! Emily thought this was great fun but it was hard for me! I was still in my corset and Emily isn't exactly a lightweight anymore. We did about five rounds until I basically said no more! She got a ring pop as a prize and she was very happy with that.

parents had to get involved too. We had to wheelbarrow the kids to the middle of the floor where the kids had to grab as many balls as they could then we dragged them back to their respective corners.

We did some wandering around after that. She got to spin the wheel at one table and I got to answer a trivia question. I answered it correctly and won Yu-Gi-Oh! cards. Emily practically screamed with joy! She also gathered a lot of candy from the different tables - it was like geeky trick or treating.

After a trek in the blazing heat back to the car, I got changed into my 2nd costume. My Kaylee costume is still very geeky but it's much, much more comfortable to wear. It was nice to not be corseted anymore.

We went to a panel about the lack of Rey toys and female characters in general. I found it interesting but Emily got bored after a bit. She is apparently still a little too young for panels

I wanted to see the costume contest but Emily didn't really. I offered her a compromise - that we could sit in the very back and she could play with her new stuff while I watched the costume contest. She agreed and had fun quietly playing with her Yu-Gi-Oh! cards. There were a lot of amazing costumes to see!

After the judging of the costume contest, we slipped out to get some dinner because now I was hungry. There were several other food trucks but one was wasn't open and the other was just a dessert one. So we opted to get hamburgers and chips. We went to the lounge area inside and had a nice little dinner.

It was getting to be closer to my friend Mikey's concert so we went to the room where it was going to be. We had an hour beforehand so we just stayed and watched the belly dance show that was happening right before the concert.

The belly dance show was very entertaining. The theme was Star War vs. Star Trek so all the dances were inspired from those shows / movies. By the end, Emily was trying to belly dance to the music herself!

After that, it took a few minutes for Mikey to set up and then his show got rolling. Emily, ironically, spent some time coloring in Mikey's coloring book while Mikey was singing. I enjoyed the concert a lot. I've only seen him live once before at the Browncoat Ball in 2014 but sadly I don't remember it because of my seizures. I pretty much sang along the whole concert!

After Mikey was done, we headed out. It was after seven and we had a two hour drive home. The drive home was uneventful and Emily slept most of the way. She says she wants to go the whole weekend next year.

ConCarolinas is a great con! Lots of great people, fun entertainment and lots of geeking out!

Captain America and Hydra

Image: nypost.com

It's pretty obvious from my blog that I'm a huge geek. I've never been much of a comic books geek though. I know all the characters, but most of my familiarity with them comes cartoons and movies. I love the Batman animated series - I remember rushing home from school in order to see it every day.

I didn't know a lot about the Marvel characters until the MCU started up. I remember Todd telling me that I had to go see Iron Man because it was so good. I loved it as well. I enjoyed Thor and the 2nd Iron Man movie too, but when Captain America: The First Avenger came out I was blown away.

Since that time Cap has been my favorite super hero. He's brave, strong, has a good moral compass and tries to do what he thinks is right. He's all American and I just love him.

When the internet lost its' mind a few days ago over the last page of the new Captain America #1 where Cap is showing saying, "Hail Hydra", I was pretty annoyed. There is no way, in my mind, that Steve Rodgers would be Hydra. Let alone Hydra for 70+ years!

It wasn't until I saw a post last night that it started making me feel angry. On Tumblr, several people posted how kids were really upset over Cap being Hydra. When I talked to Emily, who is 7, and asked her if she thought Steve could ever be Hydra she looked at me like I had two heads. No way is he ever could be evil.

Yes, Marvel can do what it wants. Yes, they can retcon this like so many other storylines / characters. But it's still vastly out of the character of Captain America. I think a lot of fans would be happier to read new stories with new characters instead of comic book writers gutting favorites for shock value.

For me, I'll be clinging to MCU Steve who would never bee Hydra. I was watching The Winter Soldier and then Age of Ultron last night. Cap spent the whole of The Winter Soldier fighting against Hydra and he was so shocked and appalled that SHIELD was basically hiding Hydra that he punched a screen in anger.

If I could draw, I'd try to make my own comic. I'm positive it's not easy but I'm sure I could come up with a better story than the one within Captain America #1.

The Good and Bad of Dragon Con 2015

I've been attending Dragon Con for a long time. I've seen it grow and change quite a bit over that time. Both last year and the year before, I've done posts about the bad of Dragon Con. While I'm going to touch on the things that I think still need to be fixed, I'm also going to address old complaints that have been fixed for this year.

The crowds were massive again this year and while I didn't have as many issues with them in the past, it's something that the con is going to have to address at some point. I saw lots of badge checks to keep the hotels free of anyone besides con goers and hotel guests. We also didn't stay very late most of the con because of my health issues, so we may have missed some crowds.

Vaping was a bad for me. We were in line for the Walk of Fame on Friday for a while and one of the people nearby was vaping indoors. I'm very sensitive to that sort of thing but thankfully I didn't get too sick. Someone asked her to stop and she got very defensive saying that it was just vapor. Well, it is vapor and other things. I had thought that vaping was not allowed in the convention, but I saw a lot of it.

This isn't necessary a bad, but I wish that either the dealer's room or the Walk of Fame were open earlier than 1 pm on Friday. There are some panels going on before but Friday should honestly be a full day like Saturday and Sunday, especially with some official Dragon Con stuff starting to happen on Thursday.

The worst bad of Dragon Con was not something I experienced myself, but heard about afterwards. Apparently there was more than one sexual assault at the con this year. As a not so strong female, this makes me very uncomfortable. I am usually with my husband most of the con and we don't stay late, but it's not a good thing.

But on that depressing note, onto the good things that have been fixed in previous years!

We didn't get down to the con until Friday morning because we didn't want Emily to miss two days of school. Thankfully the badge pickup process is still great. It took us longer to walk to the Sheraton and inside the building than it did to get our badges.

The main issue we had last year was the bottleneck in the Marriott where you could head back to the blood drive and some track rooms, take the path to the Hyatt one way and take the path to the food court another way. It was a massive mess last year. What they did was put a divider and routed the traffic each way - it worked extremely well so no traffic jams happened.

I've marched in the parade for four or five years. This year the route was changed because of a new street car system they put in. The new staging area seemed to work a lot better than the old one - it was really easy for me to find my group. Plus longer parade makes more room for people to see it.

That's just an overview of the good and bad from Dragon Con - I'll be doing reports of each day over the next week or so!

Rest in Peace Mr. Spock

When I was a teenager, I got very interested in Star Trek. It was when Star Trek: The Next Generation was on the air. I started with TNG but my love of Star Trek got me into exploring the original series. I quickly fell in love with that.

While McCoy is my all time favorite Star Trek character, Leonard Nimoy's Spock was always really fun to watch. I loved seeing him in the movies, especially in the first Star Trek reboot. The scene with him and Zachary Quinto is just awesome.

Today I was just working and surfing on Facebook when my feed exploded with the news that Leonard Nimoy had passed away. I knew had been sick and in the hospital, but it felt like a punch to the gut. I'm sure many other Star Trek fans are feeling the same way.

I'm feeling very sad, but also feeling lucky to have enjoyed his work for all these years. I'm also feeling extremely lucky that I got to meet him a few years ago at Dragon Con. His line was very long so he didn't have a lot of time to give each person but he was very nice and kind to Todd and I. It was a great experience. 

Like I did when Gene Roddenberry  passed away, I will be spending my afternoon watching Star Trek movies. I'll probably start with The Wrath of Khan and then the Search for Spock while I try not to cry too much. 

LLAP

Browncoat Ball 2014 - Saturday & Sunday

This is the 2nd post of my Browncoat Ball 2014 recap - click here to read the 1st post!

Saturday of the Ball dawned clear and cold. I was awake very early. I think I subconsciously didn't want to miss breakfast because it only went from 8:30 to 9:30.

Breakfast was a buffet and I ate about a pig's worth of bacon. I love bacon! For the rest of the morning, I helped move the vendor tables and  hung out in the game room.

Lunch was Asian inspired and our entertainment was the Fruity Oaty Girls. The same dancers who had done the Hulu and fire dancing did all kinds dances for us throughout the weekend. They actually painted themselves blue! They were super cute and their dancing was great.

We also did the next act of the murder mystery - it was a lot of fun. Especially since the ones of us taking part didn't know who did it.

After lunch, I went on a hayride. The fall colors were really beautiful and the ride was really

relaxing! I caught the end Craig Holcombe's geek comedy act and it was really funny!

I didn't do much the rest of the afternoon. My stomach was starting to not feel great so I just rested. When it was time, I got all gussied up. I was one of the first people who arrived to the hall where the Ball itself was happening. I got my picture taken and mingled before dinner.

Dinner was excellent, though my stomach was still not feeling great. During dinner we got to the next act of the murder mystery. Once that was done, another geek comedian, Art Sturtevant, took the stage. He was so funny!

Once Art was done, everyone who wanted got to learn how to do the Virginia Reel. I did this and a few of the other square dances but then I started to feel really sick. So I opted to go back to the cabin.

The main hall was the only place were wifi signal was good so I did linger a bit to download a book to the Kindle app on my phone. I wanted to rest up so I could go see Mikey Mason perform.

A bit of a side bar - I had been a fan of Mikey's for years but the fates didn't seem to want to let me see him perform live. Many years ago, a friend and I were going to Charlotte's CSTS where he was performing, and we had car troubles and didn't arrive until the middle of the movie. We missed Mikey though.

I wasn't going to let a stomach bug keep me from seeing him perform. So I left the Ball to go lay down for an hour. I still didn't feel great but I trekked up to the Fireside Hall and got a seat next to the fire.

Seeing Mikey Mason live was worth it! He is very talented and extremely funny! After his concert, I went back to lay down. Later I heard I missed the most epic karaoke ever, but I knew I wasn't up to.

I was only able to get a few hours of sleep. In the morning, I tried to eat a little but didn't put it. I was well enough to finish up the murder mystery. Alas, I was not the killer. I watched the raffle prizes be given out - though I didn't buy any raffle tickets.

Thankfully Todd and Emily came to get me pretty early. He got everything packed up from the carnival and Emily helped me take my stuff to the car.

Despite feeling ill on Saturday night, I really did have a great time! The Murder Mystery was a lot of fun and a great twist to make this Ball unique.

Why I Love The Quest

Image: https://www.facebook.com/TheQuestABC

I was vaguely interested in watching The Quest when I first heard about it. My interest in reality shows has waned over the years. I used to love Survivor but it got to be less entertaining as the seasons progressed.

I didn't get a a chance to watch any of The Quest until last week. Our DirectTV was on the fritz which ended up with us canceling it entirely. To fill our entertainment gap, we got Hulu Plus and a new Roku player. I found The Quest on Hulu and watched all of the episodes available in one sitting.

Like many other geeks, I love the idea of normal folks going to a magical kingdom to become heroes. This was why I got hooked quickly to The Quest.

It works a little like Survivor because only one Paladin will make it to the end and a Paladin is cut each episode. They also have to do challenges to determine who will be banished.

But there is a storyline! All the NPC's move through the story and get the Paladins to come along. One challenge involved having to save the Queen from poisoning as an example. The Paladins aren't playing against each other - they want to help everyone to be able to figure out who is the one true hero.

And there is no money prize like so many other reality shows. The 'prize' is you get to fight the big bad at the end. It's the geekiest reality show ever - even geekier than Heroes of Cosplay in my opinion.

The story line, the Paladins (my favorite is Bonnie) and the setting of Everealm has made me fall in love with this show. I can't wait to see what happens next!

Classic Geeky Movies

I tweeted the above tweet last night. I was kind of joking about Ghostbusters being a classic when I first tweeted, but the more I thought about it, it really is.

I'm 37 years old and my youth is behind me. I don't feel that much different than I did when I was in my twenties, so it's hard to believe that it's nearly been 20 years since I graduated from high school. I'm firmly in my middle aged years and I want to share my favorite things from my younger days with Emily.

Emily is five now so she's old enough to see some of the classics. We've already watched The Dark Crystal, and she really liked it. Her favorite parts were the ones with Fizzgig. She's not scared by much so it didn't scare her at all.

Today we will watch Ghostbusters, which is one of my all-time favorite movies. Other classics on the list are Star Wars, Labyrinth, Goonies, and The Last Starfighter. All geek staples from the 70's and the 80's.

I hope that she'll like the movies that I love. I've been holding back from showing her Star Wars because I may feel a bit crushed if she doesn't like it. Plus I can't find my DVD of A New Hope. But since it's suppose to be stormy this week, it's a good time to start watching some classics.

Unique Dragon Con

Last Dragon Con :)

I admit it, I found myself comparing Wizard World Atlanta to Dragon Con last weekend. I know that there is no way that it would have been anything like Dragon Con but I did it anyway.

Dragon Con is such a unique experience and each con-goers can have a completely different experience than anyone else. But it's also very different from other cons as well.

First it's massive - 80,000 to 100,000 people attend Dragon Con every year. Now that's a guess because generally they don't publish the attendance numbers, but it's a huge amount of people. Now it is spread out over five host hotels and the dealer's room is now in a whole separate building.

Because of the hotels, the party never stops. I'm not a party sort of people generally but I like going to some of the track dances if I can stay awake long enough. Because there ain't no party like a Dragon Con party. And I'm pretty sure that Dragon Con is one of the few places that a normal person (as normal as your average geek is) that you can party with celebrities.

I remember Todd's first Dragon Con - he stayed up all night and ended up seeing someone famous really drunk at the bar at the Marriott. My only experience with hobnobbing with guests was the year that I had dinner with Peter Beagle - the friends I was staying with knew him and I got to tag along.

Wizard World was fun but it wasn't the awesome, crazy, exhausting high that Dragon Con is. We actually went and had lunch at the food court at the Peachtree Center after we left Wizard World. It was sad and really empty. But in a few months, it will be filled with geeks and cosplayers and friends!