I survived my very first comic con! C2E2 2013

I went to Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo - C2E2 and survived!  It was a blast - so much nerdy cool saturation in one place!  My only complaint is that their free WiFi kept dumping and I couldn't get on twitter to arrange meetings with some of my fellow tweeters.  I was only able to tweet after I left, which is not nearly as much fun as live tweeting, but it is what it is.

For those of you not following me on twitter - here's my cosplay:

Moi!  I'm a leaf on the wind... as Wash from Firefly!  I wore boots all the way through, but they became uncomfortable after about 4 hours and the sneakers came out.

My C2E2 badge and pilot's license.

Insanely talented chalk artist.

I have no idea who this guy is supposed to be, but he looked frighteningly wicked.

For my full write up - check out Bring Out Your Geek!

Bring Out Your Geek is live!

I've been working on a project for a little over a while called Bring Out Your Geek.  It's both a webcast and website - and I'm so excited to show it to everyone!

www.bringoutyourgeek.com

A site and show for all things geek - with content provided by geek girls.  We broadcast the show on Loud N' Loaded's vimeo - links to broadcast and a brief summary of the shows are available on the site: https://sites.google.com/site/bringoutyourgeek/the-webshow

Thank you to Kelly Thul @kellythul who has helped me make wide strides with the site - he's the bomb people, don't let the piranhaconda egg in his office scare you.

C2E2 Recommends...

In the How to Survive C2E2 guide, they recommend that you shower.  I find this amusing, frightening and perplexing...

Do we need to be told to shower?  Is this like those warnings on the side of products that we all laugh at - like those telling us not to eat shampoo, or hand plastic bags to infants? - but were put there because it was a problem at least once?

Pictures for C2E2 will be uploaded on Sunday - and I'll let you know if the shower thing was taken into consideration by all.

In the meantime, here's a glimpse of my cosplay!

I tried it on, pulled out the sewing kit, made a couple of minor adjustments and we're ready to go!  It is however, heavy and a bit... sweltering so I'll be taking along some gatorade packets in hopes that I don't dehydrate into something resembling a dried, albino apricot.

See you on the flip side!

Defiance pilot, a collage of the new and nostalgia

Two posts in a week! Normally, I try not to post more than once a week but I have a lot to say this week, apparently!  I'm just so over the moon about going to C2E2 I can't keep it to myself and now I really want to get this posted before the next episode of Defiance airs.
Apologies to those of you that subscribe, I'm not trying to spam.

I'll say up front, I like Defiance and I felt like the pilot was enough to make me want to check out the game.  I couldn't help but notice that it seemed like there were some graphics borrowed the game, and while I prefer not to be able to spot those kinds of things, I do hope it will help the show.  Perhaps they can share?  We've seen too many a beloved sci-fi show crash and burn due to budgetary constraints - especially those associated with special effects. 
While there were some bits that bordered on predictable, it was still fun. I'm not going to get into the nuts and bolts of the plot details because I highly recommend watching it and I don't want to give up too much. I will say that I felt like Defiance had a decidedly familiar feel to it that was, at first, hard to pin down and I think that's due to some similarities with multiple science fiction movies and shows.

The streets of Defiance were rife with Terra Novany Star Wars feels - the town itself had a very Terra Nova flavor to it, but with more aliens - which is very Star Wars. 
Location wise - you can't help but see it:

Terra Nova vs Defiance 

Defiance vs Terra Nova

Then there were the characters - decidedly Star Wars; there were four sets which I could not escape drawing parallels between:

Tarr is the hotter, thinner, paler, crime and pay-off-collecting kindred spirit of Jabba the Hut.

Jeb Nolan is the carbon copy of Han Solo.  The similarities were uncanny - from the gambling and hanging out in bars to dispatching a thug quickly with a short burst of violence which felt a bit like Han shot first.  Ever the reluctant hero, he didn't want to stick around at first, but eventually he did the right thing (Which one am I talking about there?  Ha!  You don't know, do you?  Because it's both!).

Madam Mayor Amanda Rosewater is a lot like Leia, both are beautiful leaders right down to their braids.  Amanda was tough on Jeb and despite being attracted to him, she didn't take any of his scoundrel crap.

Irisa and Chewie.  Both are loyal but deadly companions.  Chewbacca might have better manners than Irisa but there's no mistaking the close roles they play - even in their back stories.  If you are a giant nerd like me, you know Chewie was saved by Han, which is why Chewie follows Han through his escapades.  Han may not have saved The Chew from his own parents, but it flows in the same vein.

Speaking of Jeb and Amanda - I couldn't help but notice that their conversation about Jeb taking off with reward money seemed to echo a parallel universe in a galaxy far far away, by way of the ice planet Hoth with Han and Leia.  Both conversations also happen to take place whilst under the threat of an invasion...

Those kinds of conversations are also very reminiscent of interactions between these two:

 Mal and Inara/Firefly

All that being said I eventually end up here:

Yep.  I went there.  Fire-Def-Star-Nova.  Def-Star-Nova-Fly? Respectively: Mal/Firefly, Jeb/Defiance, Han/Star Wars, Jim/Terra Nova.  Apparently all big damn heroes* are required to have three letter first names.

Which leads me here:

Killing Machines: River/Firefly, Irisa/Defiance

To say nothing of this:

Irisa and Leeloo/Fifth Element

And if I'm going to go there, let's just skitter sideways to here:

Doc Yewell/Defiance and Odo/Deep Space 9

I also found that the post apocalyptic feel lends itself to Mad Max remembrances particularly with the vehicles but also with some of the characters - say hello to these guys:

Mad Max vs Defiance

None of this took away from the fact that I genuinely enjoyed this show, perhaps because Defiance reminds me of things I've genuinely enjoyed in the past.   It was like someone threw a bunch of things I love into a blender and Defiance poured out a spectacular remix - into a giant martini glass.  I will be watching to see where this goes, hopefully it will gel into something we can enjoy for more than one season.

*For those of you unfamiliar with this phrase - it's from Firefly.  Also, shame on you.  Go watch it.

Cosplay - here I come!

Okay, so... just to be clear there will be no spike heels or skimpy costume for my cosplay.  I'm not quite graceful enough to pull of anything skimpy, also as implied by the first half of this sentence, I would snap an ankle like a green bean in spike heels.

Where will I wear said cosplay?
Why C2E2, of course!  Chicago Comic And Entertainment Expo April 26th-28th

I have ordered my ticket and I am super excited!  I'm even more excited to dress up... someone asked me if I would be uncomfortable dressing up - the short answer is yes.
The long answer is.... A while back I wrote a post here about how I am done with fear and so I decided that I am going to cosplay at my very first comic con as a gesture to continue in this vein.  Every once in a while, I need to prove to myself that I still have the moxie to get completely out of my shell.  Don't get me wrong, I don't retreat back to the safety and darkness of my shell as often as I used to... but it does happen.  It might happen, hypothetically, in a very nonspecific way, when the only other woman at physical therapy thinks I'm sleeping with my hot pack around my neck and says "Looks like T-Rex girl on the table over there needs to be fed, I can see her ribs." 
First, I am a bit fuzzy on why she called me T-Rex.  Is my head that abnormally large?  Are my arms that stumpy short?

 Me.  At physical therapy. 
(Scene from Meet The Robinsons)

Second, I am even more fuzzy why I allowed some weird, judgmental stranger to make me an antisocial hermit for two days, but I did.  A week later, I don't know that I really care what she said - but at the time, it had an effect on me.  So now, I'm back out of my comfort zone and buying stuffs for cosplay.  
I find that by forcing myself to do things I am somewhat uncomfortable doing (writing a blog post about being uncomfortable, perhaps) I am able to pry the sheet of white-knuckling shyness loose and do something constructive for myself.  That might sound like treating a phobia and I suppose to some degree, it is like immersion therapy.  Though not in the way you might try immersion therapy for fear of heights, because all that does is make someone acutely aware that they are not, in fact, afraid of heights - they are afraid of falling from heights... which is a bit different.  And yeah, let's try immersion therapy for that, right?  Haha.  No. 
I digress.
I will of course take pics and share, I will only be there one of the three days but I feel like that's good enough for my first time.  Two items for my ensemble are here already - two more are on the way.  While I won't say just what I'm cosplaying at, here's a hint:

Any time I think of chickening out, I remember that I've ordered things and they have been shipped, and frankly I'm a little too frugal not to do this after I've paid for things I really can't return.  Also, I think of my new  mantra, which is from Shakespeare: "And though she be but little, she is fierce!"  To help remind me, I worked that famous line onto canvas in a few different ways, but I have one of these sitting in my office.

Now a reminder - Free Comic Book Day is May 4th, go give your local comic book shop a little love and get a free comic.

In other news - I have been invited back to the snarkALECS show!  I'll join them on April 25th to discuss snark and Troll 2.  I have a new headset complete with microphone so that I no longer sound like the chick manning the drive thru at Taco Bell.

Lastly, I am retiring the half a zombie picture in favor of the Female Ginger Doctor pic!

She wants your brains... or a cocktail.  Or maybe she wants your brains after you have a cocktail.

Two-Face style zombie.  

Link to snarkALEC broadcast!!

I am beyond excited to tell you that the snarkALECS show is available!   Weeeeee!  Now you can all hear what I sound like with a head cold! 

Unfortunately, I don't know that I sound terribly different without a head cold and my mic was a tiny bit problematic.

Nevertheless... the show was a BLAST to be on and it is fun to listen to!  We had an awesome time talking twitter, soap, snark, Jurassic Park 3D, Chupacabra Vs The Alamo and The Walking Dead - take a few minutes (38 min for part 1 and 57 min for part 2) and watch... or just play it in the background while you're doing other things...

Part 1

Part 2

Listen!  Share!  Say hi!  Looking for more info on snarkALECS or any of the participants?  Check this post! 
Thanks Mel, Tony & Kelly!
Now if you'll excuse me, I'm shopping for a microphone...

Dark Loki is... um... dark.

Is it mischievous?  Is it?  IS IT?!?!

This is what happens when I get bored.  Particularly when I am procrastinating because I can't figure out what to write next and I'm treading water at 35,353 words.  I kid you not:

Just be thankful I didn't share the picture of my healthy smoothie with greyish-pink foam on top... yes, it is even less appetizing than it sounds.
Oh, by the way, the snarkALECS radio show/podcast was a BLAST!  So much fun!  I'll be posting details on how to watch/listen as soon as they are available.  My microphone, the one built into my laptop, was not the most fantastic thing so I'm researching one for purchase - if you have any ideas let me know (some of these things are expensive!).