Conventions
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CanCon 2017
by Two weekends ago, I went to CanCon 2017, which is a mid-sized genre fiction literary convention that happens in Ottawa every autumn. I went to some great panels, including a very entertaining talk by Robert J Sawyer on pitfalls to avoid in the writing life, and a fairly intense panel on mental health, neurodiversity, and creativity. I didn’t get to all of the panels I want to do, but I didn’t expect to. I had a teenager with me who has some anxiety issues, and the venue was just a little too claustrophobic for her to be able to handle for long periods. For those who lack such issues,…
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Road Trip!
by My kids are a little older now, and don’t all like the same things anymore, if they ever did. I’ve learned the hard way that dragging all three of them on a family trip isn’t necessarily the way to go, unless we tailor the trip pretty extensively, or make it a vacation with few limits or rules. Since the second option is hard, and the first is a pain in the backside, I’m trying something a little different this year in between: shorter trips built around each kid. This has multiple benefits: it lets me focus, it lets them get extended individual time with me, and it makes sure…
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Quinte Mini Con Recap
by A little later than I originally planned to get this up, but I’d like to state for the record that I want to go to more small conventions next year. Why? Because Quinte Mini Con was a lot of low-stress fun. There was ample opportunity for geeky shopping for me, my wife, and the kids I brought with me (4, including 2 of my 3). Panels were all volunteer run and consisted of a selection of things the girls were actually into: Anime, webcomic, plus cosplay stuff for the cosplayers, an evil laugh contest, some retro gaming, and a couple of celebrity guests. Now before you get too limiting…
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Cosplay Lessons from Lokai and Bele
by Lessons learned or extrapolated while putting together a fairly simple cosplay for a major summer convention. This isn’t hard advice about how to make things or what to do or what to cosplay as, but things to think about when you’re planning that cosplay or starting to put it together. Pick A Character That Is Meaningful To Someone (You, Maybe) By this we mean pick something not because it’s cool or because you think it’s neat (although that’s still valid), but because it says something either about you or to you. That can be something as simple as loving the character or the episode of the show/movie/anime the character…
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Fan Expo 2014 – Day 4
by Last day of the con and had to pack up before we could go. This went well, and we still made it there before 1030, dropping right into the line up for Elijah Wood’s signing. And I got a lovely little sound bite. We also lined up for John Dimaggio, who, among many other things, is the voice of Jake the Dog on Adventure Time. I thought I got sound there, too, but my Zoom appears to have eaten it for the first time ever. More likely, I screwed up with the buttons. Missed the MLP panel, but spent time gaming with my son instead and found something we…
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Fan Expo 2014 Day 3
by A few more photos, but not as many as there might have been with my son and I in costume. A crowded day, but a good one, mostly. But I’ll get to that. Late to the con this morning due to how much time we spent on makeup. Hulk Hogan, who arrived a little late but spent a lot of time and care on his responses. Most of the Q&A was wrestling based, surprise, surprise. Managed to meet Garrik Hagon, who might be known best to geeks for playing Bigs Darklighter in the original Star Wars movie, but has almost 150 credits to his name. Nice fellow. Very personable.…
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Fan Expo Day 2
by More photos today, but it seems like I spent more time standing in line while I was at it. Fan Expo a little more crowded today. A few backups in the transit tube giving us a taste of what’s in store tomorrow. Ed Greenwood, who started his panel early (ten minutes before his moderator even got there), ran until they kicked us out of the room. The Dynamic Duo, Adam West and Burt Ward, were fun on stage together, but weren’t on stage nearly long enough. Less than forty minutes, in fact, and I wonder if there are health issues we’re not aware of. Hope everything is fine there.…
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Fan Expo 2014 Day 1
by Didn’t take a lot of photos today, but I’ll probably make up for that tomorrow. So after having to wait an extra hour for our hotel room to be ready, we proceeded to have the worst underground parking lot experience of our lives. Four interconnected buildings (or maybe three?) each with their own P1, P2, and P3 levels, and each labelled identically. Signs and arrows that pointed everywhere, some of which were only for pedestrians but most of which were actually completely unlabelled and meaningless. Doors that only opened in one direction. Dead ends that appeared out of nowhere. But the con, when we finally got there, wasn’t too…
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Cosplay for the Con
by So by now, you’re sick of hearing about Fan Expo and why I broke my promise to not go this year. Instead, this post is about cosplay. I made a suggestion to my family not too long ago, joking, mostly, about a potential group cosplay to do for a convention this year. To preface that, Erik and I have been pretty seriously discussing doing the two half-black half-white aliens from an episode of classic Star Trek, “Let That Be Your Last Battlefield”, but I’m not sure how well it’s going to work. It’s barely 2 months before the convention, and we haven’t even looked at material or makeup. That…
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Fan Expo Again
by Okay, so as we all figured out yesterday, I’ve given in and allowed myself to be seduced by Fan Expo one more time. While they don’t appear to be making a big deal about it being Fan Expo 20, at least not yet, they are, as I suspected pulling out all the stops to get my money. Witness for the defense, a partial guest list. Captain Kirk, Captain Picard, Captain Hammer, Frodo, The original Batman and Robin, The current Doctor, Freddy Krueger, Joxer the Mighty, Darth Maul, Richard Dreyfuss, Stan “The Man” Lee. Okay, the last two are real names, but even if you know Richard Dreyfuss from Close…