Saturday at the Calgary Entertainment Expo 2016

I did not dress up today as Sarah was busy (and not well enough to go with car crash injuries and a bad knee)...so I went incognito! (ie. not dressed up).

Oliver and I arrived late at the con today cause I had stuff to take care of in the morning and I felt like I got hit by a truck after running around everywhere and cleaning yesterday. As we descended upon the con (taking transit cause we didn't want to worry about parking), Oliver and I saw it was a little bit busy today. We arrived as some sort of panel or event was getting out and we got caught up in the crowds from hell. I fought the urge to punch someone as we moved towards the door.

Took a picture of these two here and attempted to enter the building. We were inside for about 2 minutes when we decided it was a bad idea and that I was going to suffocate in the human sea, so we went to the Big Four instead.

Checked out the gaming area to see what everyone was up to and what sorts of board games were available this year. The entire food court area was pretty full and the game area was radiating a distinct heat. I didn't find the LEGO display I was looking for, so we ducked out to actually try to attend the LEGO panel...for curiosity reasons. 

We could actually enter the BMO Centre this time and we made a slow trek to the back of the hall and into the Palomino rooms. After taking some time to pet a dog, we arrived at the panel. Dave Ware was the feature panelist today who talked about his work as a LEGO artist specializing in mosaics and buildings. They were giving out LEGO minifigures for random things like answering questions, lying about attending things and coming in late. 

I FINALLY found the LEGO displays after Dave Ware mentioned where his booth was. For some strange reason, this is the ONE aisle I didn't walk down. For something so big (and seems to get bigger every year), I always have trouble finding it. The first few pictures I took were really blurry and dark because I forgot to change my settings and clean my lens. I somehow smudged the camera during the panel. 

Finally realized the pictures I was taking were messed up and cleaned the lens off. 

You can see Dave Ware's art pieces in the back there, but everything here just has so much detail to it. After we found the LEGO display, I made a desperate plea for food ad we went to get pizza. There was a good collection of cosplayers (I THINK they were with the 501st), so I snapped a picture since a bunch of other people were.

After meeting up with Jay and Hayley as well as some of their friends, I proceeded to consume my pizza with gusto. It's probably the fastest I've eaten any pizza ever. We decided as a group to go watch people beat each other up dressed as Vikings, so we began wandering that direction. I spotted a crew of Batman characters, so I ducked over quickly to get a picture and promptly lost everyone. I spent a good five minutes looking for them and found them over by the vikings.

You can probably see how busy the con was today by looking past the viking arena area (they play quidditch here too). Not sure if you can see any cosplayers in the picture (I'll have to zoom in later to take a peek), but there were a lot of good ones out there. I would have taken pictures of a lot of them, but I was pretty exhausted by this point. 

I saw a crew of Fallout 4 cosplayers, a million League and DoTA characters, a few Warhammer 40k, a few Undertale costumes (the same duo walked by about 4 times...I think they were doing laps), Steve from Minecraft, two different Wolverines with hoagies, full body paint Hulk and She Hulk (might actually be able to see them if you look hard in the upper picture), Spidermans, Batmans, Steampunk Batman, Sauron, thousands of Reys and Kylo Rens, a pair of parents with  BB-8 baby and 2 pink R2D2 kids, a ton of Disney Princesses and a duo of Steven Universe cosplayers. We then watched the Vikings stab each other and scream a bit before we split up for the day.

Oliver and I wandered back into the con for a bit to look at some merch and check out the booth with the robotics at it. We finished off the night at Jay and Hayley's by watching Galaxy Quest and Captain Hemlock Space Pirate. OH! FLOWER!

Friday at the Calgary Entertainment Expo 2016

I was on a few dedicated missions today at the Comic Expo. Mission number 1) Attend the Clark Gregg (Agent Coulson) panel and Mission number 2) acquire a Trump.

I got in to the office early this morning so I could duck out for a few hours and my coworkers were curious if I had pictures of the con. Chris arrived and mentioned that I should have gotten the Trump cut-out as it would get "great milage in the office." I decided that this was a fantastic idea and when it came time to leave for the con, I knew I was coming back with one.

I arrived at the con, lined up outside Disneyland style and entered the con. The parade was before the con started this morning, so I saw a lot of excellent cosplayers loitering outside. I couldn't take the time to get their pictures, however. Oh no. I was on a mission remember? (also they were outside on the lower level and I was already inside).

I quickly made my way over to the booth selling them and approached one of the people running it. I died a little inside when I walked up and said, "Hi, I can't believe I'm saying this, but I would like to buy your Trump." I made the purchase and asked to come back for it so I wasn't carrying that thing around and as I leave he yells "we sold a Trump!"

Anyway, with mission 2 accomplished (mostly), I wandered the floor for a bit to see if I could find the LEGO display and Jeph Jacques. I was not successful in either endeavour before I had to leave for the panel. I did however come across some awesome cosplay:

I went out to line up and was pleased that I had timed it perfectly enough that the line started moving as I got to it.

Since there were no panels before, we were able to sit down early. I was in there for about 20 minutes watching previous panel video and some strange, disturbing animated song (I wasn't paying attention until the part where this woman was dragging a dude, kicking and screaming before she stripped him naked and put him in a pot and cooked him). I got some of my street passes because I actually remembered my DS this time, and then the panel started early.

Mr. Gregg seems like a pretty decent and funny guy. He also seems like a giant nerd as he stated he had a lot of fun filming the Marvel movies and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. He also had some funny stories about his lip sync battles with Hayley Atwell and how he got competitive with her to the point that they stole Lola. Another funny anecdote (though he didn't seem to think so) was that during the filming of Agents of Shield season 3, the other actors had a tendency to come over and listen to the sounds his fake prosthetic hand made when it was pulled off his real hand. Unfortunately there were a few spoilers (I haven't seen season 3 yet), but it was overall a good show.

Afterwards, I returned to pick up my Trump. The woman who delivered it to me was absolutely disgusted. She couldn't believe people were actually buying cut-outs of him. I told her it's for my office since he's a running joke there and she said that he's a running joke everywhere. Then, "at least the last guy who bought one said he was going to put it in a bonfire."

The delivery of Trump to the office seemed to be a success.

First impressions of the Trump cut-out:

"That's amazing" and "Why does it smell so bad." (when he was taken out of the box). Apparently reactions have ranged from "I died a little inside" to "dreams do come true."

Trump was peering out our east-facing windows until our CEO found him.

"What's the card-board cut out guys?"
*turns it around*
"OH MY GOD YOU GUYS. Where did it come from?"
*Everyone just shrugs*

He currently lives outside the elevator making the office great again. He'll likely be moved to the men's washroom to surprise our CTO when he comes back next week.

Thursday at the Calgary Entertainment Expo 2016

Well, it's that time of year again ladies and gentlemen. Pull on the nerdiest shirt you own and join me in my adventures at the Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo.

My afternoon started off with me getting stuck behind a train (not too uncommon considering where my office is located). While I waited, I crafted this response:

I arrived at the con, forgot it was Thursday and that I could park closer, and ended up walking quite a ways to the con. I was meeting up with Shauna, so I went to get our wrist bands and start wandering the con. This year the admissions and games (board and video) are in the lower section of the Big Four.

Behind me off screen to the left was the arcade, board games, food court and admissions area. To the right was this curtained off, dark, PC gaming area. I didn't take a peek inside, but from here I could see a lot of glowy.

Ooookay I took way too many portrait photos. So upstairs was the usual exhibit area with artists and vendors. Saw a Dalek, about a million flasks and was quite proud of myself for recognizing a Harry Dresden cosplay (however he was NOT in front of the staff shop, which was mildly disappointing). I found a bullet bracelet for Sarah and about a million of those leather watches I actually spotted in a pharmacy the other day. Shauna texted me at this point, so I wandered outside to find her.

I met up with Shauna where she adjusted her wrist band and complained about being expected to wear a sparkly band for 4 days (because people like doctors or lawyers who may attend might not want to wear a band the whole weekend if they had to be in a professional setting). I waited for her to get it right and we wandered back to the land of flasks...after we passed these two:

We actually came across the woman on the right peering into Pikachu's mouth to see how the costume worked, but they both didn't mind that I asked them for a picture. Then Shauna was like "oh, you're one of THOSE." She forgot I did daily recaps of the con.

We wandered around in the Big Four for awhile, and I found a giant stock of Toothless plushes. I'll have to see how drastically they diminish over the weekend.

Again...why did I take so many PORTRAIT PHOTOS. We wandered past the food trucks outside (pretty much the same ones as last year if anyone is wondering - perogies truck, Viet truck, candy truck, Japanese place and a coffee kiosk) and back into the BMO Centre to the exhibition halls. We started walking the aisles as I randomly blurted out random characters and art that I saw as we nearly got plowed over by other people equally not paying any attention where they were going (and this is THURSDAY mind you). I turned the corner and saw the most amazing sight.

The Tower of T-shirts MOVED. For the first time (at least since I've been going), the Tower is not along the edge creating a human singularity. For once, planning actually makes sense. It's dead centre. It's truly a sight to behold. I still didn't go inside because that's a claustrophobic nightmare, but I was still impressed someone had the foresight to put it there this year.

No idea wtf the giant purple head was, but there were these crazy glowy dresses on the other side. I think these are the people that make the Useless Machines.

So there were a few things this year that were...well, a "thing." Above you see two of them, Pop Figurines and life-sized cardboard cut outs. Both were everywhere in abundance. The Pop Figures have been around in large quantities for a few years now, but the cut-outs are fairly new...at least this many of them. There's even one of good old Drumpf with a $50 sticker covering his mouth. Shauna made the quip that she wondered if it came with darts. I asked the vendors and they said unfortunately not. The other thing we saw a lot of was...

...life sized anime body pillows. I've seen them at the con before, but there were A LOT of places selling them this year. One place (seen in the top picture with Shauna), even invited you to "turn them over."

Shauna wanted to be sure we pointed out some...details. I have questions, but I don't think I want the answers.

I still don't know how Five Nights At Freddy's is so popular. I saw a lot of fan art and cosplays. Like...way more than was reasonable. This seems strange to say but I now understand a little piece of my job a bit more. An understanding that asks way too many more questions as a result.

Naturally, even today, the cosplay is on point. There were some pretty impressive costumes around, even this early in the con. 

Shauna made the mistake of pointing them out to me, then I'd derail our explorations by asking for pictures. I'll likely be taking way more pictures of cosplayers on Saturday/Sunday. I'm really sad I missed out on pictures of an adorable Deadpool dad and Harley Quinn daughter, Kylo Ren and Rey, and Ike and Marth. I just missed all of them.

The one place over in the autographs building of the BMO centre had some interesting pieces this year. There was no Gollum or Azog, but there were a couple of cool displays including an impressive Balrog in a case. 

I was particularly impressed by the Balrog. Most of this stuff is for sale in some shape or form, but it's for people much richer...or much more dedicated than I. 

We finished off our day by saying hello to some puppies. Shauna was having a little trouble holding this little fellow, who was eager to get back to his human. 

And thus concludes Day 1 at the con, of which we left to get cheap fast food because we were both starving. We decided to pass on the food trucks for now. Tomorrow will likely be short because I'm only running over (possibly literally) to the con to see Agent Coulson, Then I'll be unfortunately preoccupied for the evening.

As a recap, the merch at the con this year is pretty good. A lot of the same webcomic creators are back. Most of the same artist vendors with the same prints. Too many cardboard cut-outs, FNaF, and body pillows were around. There were tons of great t-shirt places, the usual comic stores, the same tattoo place, that weird visual theme park ride thing, and PUPPIES. I haven't found the LEGO display though...

PS - I FORGOT THIS PHOTO

Best picture of Captain America ever.

Purple is the Manliest Colour

It's true.

(seriously, not going to let that one go any time soon).

Today will be a double post day as it's the beginning of Comic Con (yey). I'll be leaving work and heading right over to the grounds to wander the con and see what's there this year. I'll be posting daily recaps as I usually do. Friday will be short though as I'm only running over there in the middle of the day on my "lunch" to see Agent Coulson. I won't be there in the evening cause I'm going to be helping clean up a place. 

For now...soundtracks!

Psycho-pass - Didn't get to this one last week. It's another of Mesk's.

Persona 3 - One of Kristy's favourite games if I recall.

This week was probably the only time I'll ever accomplish 20,000 words worth of writing. Ever. I can't believe some people find this to be a small amount. I can't even comprehend that notion. The reason I was able to do this? I'm preparing a compendium of my work so I can try and organize my thoughts and solidify the history and lore for this project. I'm trying, so hard, to get a full reader's copy done and I have learned through initial feedback that my delivery of the backstory and history in the first two chapters is lacking. I will amend this somehow. 

As for video, I have started Shadow of Mordor and continue with the usual line up of editing and recording previously mentioned this month in my posts. Hopefully I'll have this uploading soon. I also have a plan for a new series...but I won't elaborate on that quite yet. I want to do a beta first since my last attempt at trying something new ended with my hopes and dreams being crushed before the first installment was even complete. 

See you soon for my Thursday recap of the comic con!

Recommendations

Shauna said she has music requests/suggestions today, but she's still sleeping I think. Mesk mentioned that I never use the soundtracks he sends me (mostly cause they all go to my home computer and I'm on a work one), so I'm going to start with some of his suggestions.

Aldnoah Zero - I'm trying to decide what this reminds me of. It's almost Cirque-ish at the beginning. I can only assume this is Cirque turned into anime based off music alone.

Fate/Zero - A slightly shorter one, but another one of Mesk's recommendations.

Jojo's Bizarre Adventure - Six hours and forty minutes?! Okay then. I may listen to this for awhile then switch. I wasn't expecting such a long mix...

Shauna arrived.

Allods Online - Not a bad soundtrack and yet another game I haven't heard of before. There's a lot I need to look into.

Comic con is coming (not this weekend, but the weekend after). Sarah will be busy that weekend (and is thankfully not hurt or dead holy shit that car accident...so much for the car named "Lucky"), so I'll be attending the con with Oliver, Shauna, Jay and Hayley. As always, if anyone who reads this is attending, I'll be around, likely all four days.

Continued more Planet Alcatraz. I think I'll need to take periodic breaks from that game, because the poor English translation is very confusing. I hit a dead end in the game cause I picked too many of the wrong dialogue options...which isn't hard to do as some of them sound like they have the same tone and context, but I restarted from an old save. I'm glad I did because things got a hell of a lot more hilarious because of it. I still don't really understand what happened.

I think I may start Shadow of Mordor or Myst IV when I have a bit of time. Murdered is now half-finished in terms of editing. Still working away on Gauntlet and I will start releasing the Saints Row 4 footage fairly soon.

Yay Westie

There is a westie at my work today. She is fluffy. Also something smells like old socks. It is not the westie.

Wreck It Ralph - I'm going to drive you all insane today. Good luck getting some of these out of your head. Some songs are missing. Likely due to YT being a dick about things. Here's one of the ones it skipped. This one is on the official CD for some reason, even though it's a remix...

Megamind - Accidentally turned soundtrack Thursday into favourite animated movies Thursday.

Spirited Away - Copyright notices. Copyright notices EVERYWHERE. So I picked a playlist with other Studio Ghibli tracks, but you may find more working ones.

Oh my god. It's the soap. The soap is making my hands smell like socks.

Also: The rest of To The Moon has been released as of last night. This week, since I do not have much time for recording, I will be working on editing and posting pre-recorded material. Expect at least one of each Gauntlet and Murdered by the weekend.

Less ded

I'm back from my trip and boy do I have a lot to do. I haven't really let my to do list sink in yet, so I'm doing the best thing I can do for my future self: pretend I don't have to do any of that and play Fire Emblem. I managed to finish Birthright while I was away and am now onto Conquest. Conquest is WAY more entertaining in terms of level clear conditions, design and difficulty. I'm quite pleased. I'm not sure why half the characters are trying to seduce me though...or getting way too much enjoyment shooting people with arrows. Actually I probably shouldn't read too much into that.

I'll be officially back to work tomorrow, but for the time being, I'm posting the rest of To The Moon since I didn't get around to doing that beforehand. I have no idea what the plan is for the next couple weeks other than knock to-dos off that list (including taxes...before I run out of time). I'll update more maybe on Thursday.