I keep forgetting that I have the Contrast LP that I can post in case I run out of solo LP stuff. My memory in general is really bad lately as I've got a lot to remember. Allergies/inner ear issues isn't helping the matter. So if I forget about something, I apologize. I'm doing it, but it's not on purpose. Usually I remember something important in time...at the last second...and then fly into a frenzy trying to recover the situation.
I need a full day to just work on video. It's the only way I'm going to catch up at this rate. That or just an hour each day, uninterrupted to work on this stuff. It hasn't been easy this past week with my aunt staying with us to visit my grandpa as well as work and other chores I've had to handle. My car still needs an oil change and that glass chip fixed...
Lost Kingdoms is officially finished. I may post my other failed attempts at the final level on the public drive at some point, but to save you all time, I only posted my first and last tries on YouTube. You miss a lot of anger and exasperation. If you screw up and die in this level at any point you have to do the entire level over again...and it's not short. Even rushing through the level (not even the boss portions) is a good 15-20 minutes with the mobs that jump you. Then there's two bosses to get through (annoying vampire dude and the final boss with an arena-wide AOE attack that takes your health down to 1...unless you hug the very edges). This is actually one of my all-time favourite bosses...but it'd be better if it took you to a save point at the beginning of the boss.
GeneralDelta seems to be taking this video channel thing to the next level with a website and contests and such. I think I'll remain a bit-player in this for now. I'll join in their games from time to time (right now Dead Island...much to Mesk's amusement), but for now I have no time to do more, especially when I have other video projects I want to do. Like Guild Wars 1 with Mesk and HKs (since we've been trying to do this stuff for ages...and really at this point they're waiting on me...heh).
Also poor Voyeur. We were trying to FINALLY finish RE5. Little did we know that Window Live finally got toasted and Steam took over hosting. Somewhere in the process all the save files were lost. We were literally on the final boss and it me so long to get my shit together that we lost all our progress that close to the end. So after waiting 2 hours for the game to update (i.e. redownload), we found this out, tried to restart and then experienced a string of crashes and disconnects. So we aren't finishing that LP. Consider it complete and off my list of things to do.
Tuesday, May 12, 2015
Tuesday, May 5, 2015
Sigh...
So it likely won't be posted until tomorrow, but I've run into a bit of a problem with the Bioshock 2 content. Like the first game, it has music in it that is copyright protected. Really great for immersion...really terrible for LPs. YouTube picks up on it and then companies like SME and UMG swing their weight around and suddenly my videos are blocked in multiple countries for something I have no control over (unless I want to completely turn music off). It's bad enough that companies like Nintendo are leeching money off of Let's Play videos and content (cause they obviously need more millions to add to their billions), but then music publishers come along and say mmmm we want a piece of that, or just slam the doors in producer's faces. There's already a number of my videos that these people are making money off of (I don't monetize and likely never will), as little as it is, and some of them I've discovered make claims on content in videos that they have no ownership of to make money off of them. Joke's on all of you! My view counts are low! Enjoy the 2 cents you're going to make (assuming any of my viewers don't actually have ad blocker).
I make no money, at all, on my videos. I do this for myself, to improve my skills, to have some laughs, and to have fun. I do the requests, I do collabs, but really why I keep doing this is because it's a great way to communicate my interests and ideas, especially to people I know. Even if those interests and ideas are limited to cussing at a screen for several hours. When I use music in my videos, or record a game, I am doing it solely to entertain (whether I accomplish that or not is another matter entirely). So you can imagine how frustrating it is to have my content blocked, because big music is butthurt about the minuscule money they're missing out on. I really don't mind the copyright claims and I generally accept them. These people put effort into the production of their music and deserve to be compensated for it. That said, I highly doubt the actual artists see any of this money in the long run (please correct me if I'm wrong, experts), especially when things are claimed like THREE HUNDRED YEAR OLD SYMPHONIES. I'm pretty sure Mozart and Beethoven are fair use guys. Lastly, just like LPs of games, use of music in videos can sometimes lead to viewers listening to more of that artist's music or even buying albums. For instance, I learned about and started listening to Imagine Dragons because of an Assassin's Creed music video I watched.
Somewhat angry rant aside, I will remind all my viewers who read this that I do have a public drive with content that is blocked in one or more countries on YouTube. Feel free to view and download that content at your leisure. The link is here as well as under the title at the top of the page. I will be removing the track in Bioshock 2 part 6 (hopefully this doesn't mess up the quality of the video too much, but if it does I plan on uploading the blocked parts to the public drive anyway). Just a heads up in case you are wondering why there is no audio around the 6 minute mark.
I make no money, at all, on my videos. I do this for myself, to improve my skills, to have some laughs, and to have fun. I do the requests, I do collabs, but really why I keep doing this is because it's a great way to communicate my interests and ideas, especially to people I know. Even if those interests and ideas are limited to cussing at a screen for several hours. When I use music in my videos, or record a game, I am doing it solely to entertain (whether I accomplish that or not is another matter entirely). So you can imagine how frustrating it is to have my content blocked, because big music is butthurt about the minuscule money they're missing out on. I really don't mind the copyright claims and I generally accept them. These people put effort into the production of their music and deserve to be compensated for it. That said, I highly doubt the actual artists see any of this money in the long run (please correct me if I'm wrong, experts), especially when things are claimed like THREE HUNDRED YEAR OLD SYMPHONIES. I'm pretty sure Mozart and Beethoven are fair use guys. Lastly, just like LPs of games, use of music in videos can sometimes lead to viewers listening to more of that artist's music or even buying albums. For instance, I learned about and started listening to Imagine Dragons because of an Assassin's Creed music video I watched.
Somewhat angry rant aside, I will remind all my viewers who read this that I do have a public drive with content that is blocked in one or more countries on YouTube. Feel free to view and download that content at your leisure. The link is here as well as under the title at the top of the page. I will be removing the track in Bioshock 2 part 6 (hopefully this doesn't mess up the quality of the video too much, but if it does I plan on uploading the blocked parts to the public drive anyway). Just a heads up in case you are wondering why there is no audio around the 6 minute mark.
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.
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.
Friday, April 24, 2015
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...
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!
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.
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.
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.
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