Thursday, April 30, 2015

Broken

I thought I would break this game. It is breaking me.

War for the Overworld is almost finished. I didn't think I would encounter a level more broken than mission 9. Yeah...in this level I have had to deal with endless streams of imps in multiple locations, rituals that don't work (including the super power one that does literally nothing), draining territory battles (where if you attend to something else for 5 seconds, suddenly half your base is gone), rituals that break functions that normally work, dudes getting stuck places, dudes not paying any attention to rally flags, dudes running away, enemy dudes getting rescued and healed almost instantly, and invisible people attacking your dungeon core. Oh and broken ghouls. Broken ghouls everywhere.

Then I spent a good number of hours last night getting Guild Wars 1 ready (at least figuring out my account stuff) as Mesk and HKS would like to start that soon. I was having trouble logging in and linking my accounts. At first I tried resetting my password, and then none of the possible emails worked, and then finally one randomly decided to work, and then it wanted me to use one of my GW1 character names as a security question. I played this over 7 years ago. Thankfully, I'm a predictable little twit and correctly guessed my character name. So now it works. Yay.

Bioshock 2 is finally uploading. I hope you enjoy my misery.

Lost Kingdoms continues. It's actually close to being done. It's a pretty short game.

You already heard all about War for the Overworld.

I need to finish up my Tera stuff.

I need to finish up all my co-op stuff.

I need to finish a lot of stuff.

Wednesday, April 22, 2015

Let's Get Down to Business

If you don't break into song after reading the title I will be very disappointed in you.

The moment I finished typing that line, a beetle fell into my lap and I had to resist every urge to eject my laptop, which is also in my lap, away from my body while I reached for a cup to catch it. Now I have a pet beetle for a moment. It shall reunite with its fellow beetles when I'm done writing. To be fair though, I thought it was a spider, in which case the outcome would have been much worse for everyone. Especially if my brother was involved as the last time I encountered a spider (in the shower...while I was taking a shower) he offered to turn the lights off for me. Whoever thought putting the light switch OUTSIDE the bathroom was a good idea needs to be shot.

 Anyway, I am writing to you today not to tell you of my crippling fear of spiders, but of what the heck I'm doing with my LPs in the next little while. My answer is: I have no clue.

I had work last week, and then the black hole of awesome that was comic con that absorbed my entire weekend, covering for my boss who is out of office this week (did this for one job...now the other...) and some medical stuff. The good news out of all this, other than feeling like crap most of the time, I am completely healthy! I actually would have preferred they found something because I would really love not to be tired and sore anymore. My doctor thinks it was a virus and anticipates another 2-3 weeks of recovery. Great.

So in my exhaustion last night I tried to figure out what I need to post, what I need to edit etc. Let's see...on my hard drives right now I have:

Bioshock Infinite
Half Life 2 Episode 2
War for the Overworld
Tera
Guild Wars 2
Murdered: Soul Suspect
Among the Sleep
Fire Emblem Path of Radiance
Primal Carnage (mostly really poor quality clips as I never intended to do anything with this but then it ended up being hilarious)

All of the above are in various stages of being complete. All of the above aside from Fire Emblem, require a bit of editing.

On Shauna's hard drive I have:

Testament of Sherlock Holmes
Dreadout < to be edited by Shauna. She's starting video work. Yay!

And completed LPs I have:
Contrast
Bioschlock 2

And if I have any others I'm completely forgetting them at this time. I have a plan for a special video should I reach 1000 subscribers. I'm not going to ruin the surprise...mainly cause I haven't completely decided if this is what I want to do yet.

My idea is that I will edit up all this stuff, get that out of the way and THEN move on with other LPs. It's probably not going to go down that way, but still. I really want to do more Skyrim and play through Grim Fandango. And then I will, inevitably have to go through the pain that is Awesome Possum. Because I foolishly agreed to play it. That and Kristy is insisting that I play through Mass Effect, so that will be a thing too. Not sure if I'll record that one though...

Sunday, April 19, 2015

Sunday at the Calgary Entertainment Expo 2015

Final day at the Expo. It was an amazing (albeit tiring) weekend. I am seconds away from passing out in my chair, but I don't have too much to report on this evening. Regardless, had a lot of fun today! I decided to start this off with the highlight of my day:


Got to get my picture with Hayley Atwell! Such an amazing woman and I love Agent Carter. You can tell I was flattered to meet her as my face was much redder than normal...

Shortly after arriving at the con, I met up with Kristy and we queued for our photo op. I have to give the organizers and volunteers props here as they've done a fantastic job at organizing the lines, crowds and fans. The volunteers in our area were super friendly and fun (and will initiate spontaneous Spice Girls sing and dance numbers). We got our picture with Ms Atwell and wandered the Big 4 for awhile looking at the vendors.

We headed outside shortly after to get food from the food trucks. Out of all the amazing trucks and choices of food we opted for two large bags of mini doughnuts. Seriously these things were like 6 dollars and I still have half a bag (which would be a full $5 bag at Stampede). Meandering back into the BMO centre we hear an announcement after walking through the doors that Hayley Atwell's panel was about to start. We both turned around and ran back outside to the Corral to watch.


My pictures are terrible. This is the best one. But it did not matter, because Ms Atwell was extremely entertaining. The questions were quite intelligent (the most awkward one being "When did you know you were so perfect?"), which was nice as they can be pretty awful. Again, a Spiderman kid was there...but I wasn't sure if it was the same one since it was a different costume. Kid was still incredibly adorable.

Best stories included Ms Atwell telling us about what they'd do to keep awake while they set up the lighting and sound systems including chair jousting and throwing grapes and catching them in their mouths. She also told fantastic stories about her playing party games with Chris Evans and wearing Evan's fake legs for his running scene (and how no one noticed). I really loved hearing her talk about Peggy Carter though because it seems like while her personality leaks into her character, a lot of Peggy leaks back. Was really neat.


After the panel we met up with Oliver, Jay and Hayley and we wandered the Expo hall together while Kristy did some shopping. I was a little burnt out at this time, so I didn't go out of my way to ask cosplayers for their pictures (though there was still a lot of amazing costumes to be seen).



We did a tour of the adjacent hall and checked out the LEGO display again. We found out that Ninjas beat Pirates. Kristy didn't buy it. Also Jay told us about how they changed the display every day to reflect the battle that was being decided by people voting on the outcome. I did notice that the ships were facing the other direction and all the pirates had been chased off the island. Also hee hee the Groot in the background.


After we fed Kristy to the orcs and decided to call it a day. We left the con, said goodbye to Jay and Hayley and went to wait 30 mins in line at Peter's Drive Thru for a milkshake.

All in all, great day at the con. I am very tired and going to pass out as I need to somehow get out of bed tomorrow morning for work. Fantastic con this year Calgary Expo people. You did a great job (despite some grumpy weapon and prop check people) and I will look forward to coming back next year!

Saturday at the Calgary Entertainment Expo 2015 - aka The Return of Tank Girl

I'm super tired, so expect this to be riddled with typos and strange sentences.


This day follows the adventures of Tank Girl and her friend Jet Girl! Sarah and I met up early in the morning and experienced Saturday at the con together. I decided to dress up as Jet Girl as Sarah will be moving in a few weeks and will miss the next couple of cons. Figured it'd be fun to do a combo cosplay...though Sarah's Tank Girl game is way better than my Jet Girl.

We arrived and not long after we were told to check Sarah's prop (i.e. rocket launcher) at the weapons and prop check. We're like, okay that's no issue. Well we were wrong. The girl at the counter gave Sarah a really rough time about her rocket launcher asking if it was made out of metal. 1) If it were metal, it would be about 20 more pounds (or more) than the plastic pipes its made of. 2) If it were metal, she would not have been able to lift it with one hand, which she was doing while busy telling us that she couldn't tell if it was metal or not. Finally after thorough inspection, she gave it back and started asking Sarah if she was wearing anything under the rockets and warning us that she might be asked to leave later in the day because of indecency. Note that she has gone to the con, over three times in the past with this costume and had absolutely no problems or wardrobe malfunctions. We were never bothered once about it, by anyone. In fact, all the con workers, security and volunteers were among the ones complementing her and taking her photo. Then when we think we're done, Sarah turns to leave and she spots her fake grenades on her belt. They were confiscated immediately to be returned at the end of the day. They were metal and too real for the con, because apparently these were too real and would scare people. Because people actually think they are REAL GRENADES AND ROCKET LAUNCHERS AT A COMIC CONVENTION. BECAUSE THESE THINGS ARE TOTALLY LEGAL IN CANADA.


So after that borderline harassment (seriously, I get you were doing your job and you HAVE to follow the guidelines for people's safety, but she was extremely catty about the entire process), we enter the con and headed over to one of the leather vendors to have Sarah's bag fixed. A day in the life of Tank Girl!


Afterwards we spot Barf (who I'm fairly sure I saw last year) and got his picture. We also spotted Dark Helmet, but he escaped before I could capture him. This got creepy really fast.


I swear the cosplay gets better every year. This toothless had wings folded up on her back. She released them for the photo. I don't even know how you'd go about making something like that. Seriously impressed.


We wandered the exhibition halls, taking in the con and searching for an illusive pair of feather earrings. We took pictures of the cosplayers we met along the way (and were able to snag for photos).


Meeting the Punisher was especially fun as I ended up watching the awful 2004 movie later that evening. So much brooding.


Was super excited to meet this cosplayer. Yay Elizabeth! 


Sarah was particularly impressed with this cosplay. They could have come from the same universe...if I didn't know better.


This is likely my favourite picture from the con. We happened upon all the power rangers and we decided this was a golden opportunity that could not be passed up. 


After wandering the exhibition halls for a few hours, Tank Girl was ready for some pizza. We picked up our food...


...and had a random encounter with a friend! I got a picture of the happy occasion (once we stopped holding up the pizza line) and took our precious pizza outside for a break. We enjoyed our food while watching a group of Once Upon a Time cosplayers get a million requests for pictures. Poor Evil Queen was just trying to have a smoke and kept getting press-ganged into photo ops. Apparently they were all a group of strangers that met on Facebook and decided to do a group cosplay together. A cool idea and a great way to meet new people...unless you want any kind of break.


We wandered the Big 4 building next and met many fantastic cosplayers in there as well. We also found the Spock look-alike (who is not featured in a photo unfortunately...also he was super tall...it's 2am and I feel like this is important information). There were also a horde of steampunk and Victorian cosplayers, which was interesting to see.



We dropped by a time machine and a group of gentlemen running a contest for a bit-role in a local movie they will be creating. We got a photo in front of the time machine, but we were unsure of where and when the scientist in the background escaped to.


Shortly we encountered one of Sarah's cosplayer friends, who incidentally won the costume contest a few years back. Sarah exchanged some fake blood for a photo and we were on our way once more.


Outside I took full advantage of some guy wanting out photo by getting our own. So much easier to get photos when you are also cosplaying. Everything is just so much less awkward...unless you are Sarah's comic con stalker. Then it's just weird.


This woman looked like she had a pipe sticking right through her, though you can't see the back. Blow off some steam Bennett!


Yay Isaac cosplay! Was talking to some friends later about this costume and apparently each of those little bits is metal. And very sharp. So he has to be careful not to cut anyone by walking in their general vicinity. Also surprised he wasn't confiscated at the door. Yes. His entire self. Confiscated. Did I mention I'm tired?


Found two Tank Girls in a row! First in front of a booth...


...next around the corner in a vehicle display for the airsoft gentlemen (who might I add were allowed to bring in their VERY REAL AIRSOFT GUNS and wander around the con...but remember, fake rocket launchers aren't allowed; too real and dangerous). I will also add that the Tank Girl in this above photo reported that she had her own rocket launcher confiscated, even though it was made out of the exact same materials as Sarah's. Consistency. What's that?


Who you ganna call?


We met up with some more of Sarah's friends before we headed over to the Stephen Amell panel (Sarah was super excited to see him). These lovely ladies were the first to report on a vendor that was kicked out of the con...more on that later.


Line-up for the panel was naturally quite long. We arrived in good time and found some seats.


And we waited for the show to start!


Stephen Amell seemed like a down-to-earth guy and was good to the fans and people that came to ask him questions. I'll admit, I don't know much about the guy, so it was kind of fun to watch the panel and see what he was about. He had funny stories about other actors and their farting habits...

Not too many awkward questions for him aside from some guy asking if he'd take off his shirt for the audience. Apparently he had finished filming season three of Arrow the night before (apparently at 4am) and flew to Calgary right after. So kudos to him. Also we learned that we shouldn't have dairy products.


Sarah and I took a quick break afterwards and returned for the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. panel with Ming Na-Wen and Brett Dalton. Quite a large crowd turned out for this one!


Ming was way more positive, upbeat and smiley than Agent May. Took me by surprise to be honest, but it was a pleasant surprise none-the-less. She also kept teasing Brett relentlessly. He took it really well.

The two of them also finished filming the evening before the con and reported that they had had very little sleep. This was probably the reason for Ming thinking the Spiderman kid asked who would win in a pee fight rather than a regular fight. Essentially he had asked whether the characters ever needed to pee (that or the actors, I can't remember) and then Brett asked him how he went in his Spiderman suit. The kid replied with a "uh...question 2" and asked who would win in a fight between Coulson and May. Ming misunderstood and hence the pee battle. Then some dude asked who WOULD win in a pee battle and it was assumed that this would be who could hold it the longest. We also learned Brett has a small bladder and likes to keep hydrated.


Almost ready to head home, we walked outside and met the Silver Surfer and Wolverine.


Before we could collect Sarah's things, she got stopped for an interview where she was asked a lot of...interesting questions about superheroes. We retrieved her grenades and out of curiosity I asked the fellow at the counter why they were not appropriate (I was nice about it I swear!). He said that they were metal and looked too real, which really wasn't much of an answer as we got it before from the other girl. Next time she needs to make sure they are more "cartoony." I think Sarah should just paint smiley faces on them. That's cartoony right?

Anyhow, another awesome day at the con. I am extremely exhausted now and will go to sleep. One more day! Hayley Atwell! Yay!



So cool story. As I mentioned earlier. we were talking to Sarah's friends and heard from them that some vendor got kicked out of the con without a refund for offending people and promoting hatred. I wondered what they could have possibly done to have this happen. Well, turns out they were Gamergate asshats. I couldn't be more pleased. Despite my irritation with the costume and prop policy, Calgary Expo has done something right.

Also apparently I don't exist. Excellent. They won't be expecting me. Mua ha. Ha. Sleep time.

Friday, April 17, 2015

Friday at the Calgary Entertainment Expo 2015

Friday at the con is usually pretty low-key for me. I don't go for long because I REALLY need to save energy for the Saturday. I'm still experiencing quite a bit of fatigue, so I only went for a couple hours again today in the evening. One of these days I'm going to have to try and watch the Parade that precedes the show on Fridays. I've never actually gone to watch.

Not too many pictures to share today. Don't know why, but I was pretty shy today, so I had to build up a lot of courage to ask people for pictures. It's easier to take pictures of merch, because merch doesn't have feelings or reactions to photos...UNLESS IT DOES.


Arrived on the grounds by train today. I wasn't interested in paying a ridiculous parking fee today, so I got uncomfortable on the train.


Not sure if it was because it was the last couple of hours, but it wasn't all that busy this evening. Definitely had more people milling about, but they were all spread out enough that it didn't fell claustrophobic.




I found the LEGO display that I somehow missed in my travels yesterday. I actually thought they didn't show up this year, but I obviously skipped over their aisle by accident. The display was as impressive as always.



Finally built up the courage to ask some people for their photos. This is always much easier when I'm also dressed up...and actually with people. Feels weird when I'm on my own asking. These costumes were amazing though. Some of my favourite so far (Lucina!).


Wandered outside shortly after and watched a Viking murder some other Vikings in front of the coke stage. I decided to head back towards the Big 4 and see if there were any good cosplayers in there. A lot of cosplayers head over to that building when they want a break as it is less busy and there is food. It's a great place for photo ops.


For instance...I found the Ninja Turtles actually eating pizza. I'm going to assume it was planned.


I left them in peace and returned later when they were ready for pictures again. I think I saw them with an April...but I didn't get the photo of them again...as it would have been even more weird.



Found where the gaming section was. I remember the one year it was in the BMO centre and people were crammed in there like sardines and everything was hot and uncomfortable and they looked hot and uncomfortable. Anyway, I enjoyed the group wearing wizard hats.



Back outside, I sat down for awhile to rest and enjoyed just watching people pass...and enjoyed getting their street passes on my DS. I was there for a good amount of time listening to Harley Quinn talk about her friend and continuously have to abandon her smoke for photo ops. Meanwhile the Joker was having trouble enjoying his coffee. I got many street passes and then decided to head back to the BMO centre to join up with some friends that were getting autographs (yay not a loner anymore).


Passed this amazing cosplayer on my way back and then...


I spotted Mayor Nenshi getting his picture taken with the Vikings. I snapped my own terrible shot and attempted to get closer, but then they finished and broke it up. I passed by a game of quidditch being played by a bunch of small children and a couple of incredibly bored looking teenagers, and entered the BMO centre again.



Was super excited to see Groot, Rocket and Drax while my friends were talking to Spongebob, so I got their pictures. I don't know what it is about Groot...but he kind of creeps me out here. Don't get me wrong. It's an amazing cosplay...

Maybe it's the frown.


After my friends got all their autographs, I bid these three lovelies a fond farewell and headed for the train.

Now I'm just at home, preparing for tomorrow. If only I could find that DAMN LIPSTICK.