Smell You Later 2016

Well, 2016. It was a year. 365 whole days. How 'bout that?

To be honest, kind of a rough year for LPs. I got more than I thought I would done, but with moving and some major things happening, it was a little hard to get as much as I wanted to done. 

Not finished Evil Within 'cause it makes me angry and Dishonored 2 seemed to be a better use of my time. Not finished my year-end video, mainly just because I'm trying to figure out what the best clips I can use for it are (almost done tbh). I couldn't remember what I released this year because I'm sitting on a lot of old stuff that I haven't published yet. Thankfully YouTube has date and time stamps to help me. Overall just a lot of video didn't get done because a) most of it requires extensive editing, b) I work 40+ hours a week because I like to eat food and live somewhere, c) a lot of random shit happened like my car breaking and my grandpa dying, d) it's been an emotional rollercoaster of anxiety, dread and depression all year. That's looking at things negatively though. On the flip side, my production standards and editing skills have increased, I managed to hold onto a steady job while many people here are struggling to find work due to a bad economy, I got a new car with door locks that actually work, someone close to me rekindled their love of playing guitar after playing at my grandpa's funeral, and I learned that I can survive a full-blown panic attack while driving a car. 

And to start off the year 2017, I got my first "get back in the kitchen" comment ever! I didn't think they actually existed. I thought it was a over-simplified joke that people made when talking about assholes on the internet. a) Either the laziest troll ever, or b) an idiot so frustrated with his life that he actually believes this shit.



It's okay though. This dude and the ambiguous "we" not only created my comments section, but the whole "website" single-handedly. I figured it deserved a special shout-out. Does Google even know? Also he seems to be another person who doesn't understand that you can edit your own comments on YouTube. That or he really likes spam.

Either way, 2016 LP recap video is up. Hope you enjoy!

PS - Almost complete Silver's storyline in Sonic 2006. I wasn't feeling well when I was playing it an ended up having a minor panic attack while playing and nearly puked. I actually had to stop playing for like 10-20 minutes to take a rage break, so I can safely say that this game is now hashbrowns-on-forehead bad. Two games now fit that category and they were both part of 2016.

Lumpy Paste Soup

Extra Life is almost here. I still haven't done my promotional video, but I guess it's been a little bit busy here lately with the car dying. GOOD NEWS THOUGH. I'm buying a new one. As of last night I put a deposit on a car. Should be about a week before I'm mobile again. Test drove it last night and this one actually accelerates when you press the gas! It's great!

Joking aside though, getting a newer car this time to get a little more life out of it. Either way, Extra Life this year will be like the first year playing at Kathleen's. Poor Kathleen will be stuck with me all day. I have a plan to do hourly update videos and smush them all together when the event is over.

We're not expecting that much locally this year because the economy and job market is really bad in Calgary right now, but here's Kathleen's donation page one more time: http://www.extra-life.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=donordrive.participant&participantID=216662

She got past the $600 mark, so I think she said that she's wear a clown nose for the entire streaming session.

So new car, "saved" a community from its sad, slow, death (okay I didn't save it personally, but I believed in it until the person who could save it pulled a miracle out of his hat) and Extra Life on Saturday. Week hasn't been perfect, but it's definitely turning around.

Dishonored - The second game is coming out soon and even though I've heard bad reviews I'm still excited. I really liked playing the original game despite its issues.

I put way too much water in my oatmeal. Ugh it's like lumpy paste soup.

Thief - Yes Oliver, I will play it soon.

Nanowrimo is here. I never participate because I suck at doing these kind of things, but I'm still going to try and work on writing a lot this month anyway. The only person I actually know who has written an entire novel in a Nanowrimo is going to be participating again this year. Amy wants me to read her manuscript for her class and I'm sure I have something to do for Mesk that I haven't done yet cause I'm a lazy piece of shit. Either way, work continues in bits and pieces.

PSA on behalf of Shauna: Don't use the Steam overlay to browse the internet while playing games. Apparently she was looking up something on the PoE Wiki while playing, an infected ad loaded and it blasted her computer with a rootkit. I think she's managed to recover her data, but she had to reinstall windows on her machine. I've never really used the Steam overlay before to browse (done it once or twice) so I haven't run into these problems myself, but figured I'd pass along her message.

Also I think I did something to my finger. I can't make a fist without it hurting. Unless it's a leftover injury from dodgeball I didn't know I got, I have no idea how it happened. It started hurting after I got coffee yesterday so...?

Capture Card

Got my capture card in the mail yesterday and the splitter the day before that. I can now record/stream PS3 and PS4 as well as a swath of other consoles. The catch is that if Shauna and I want to do a co-op thing, either she needs to come to me or I need to take my entire computer to her. Either is possible, but we live on opposite ends of the city. It's a 30-40 minute drive on average. The other option is playing online, but that doesn't help for Outlast 2 when it comes out. We'll figure out something though.

Extra Life is coming up in a couple weeks. I'll likely post my ad video for it on Saturday this week to promote it. Kathleen still has a ways to go to reach her goal. Click here! Help her out! Win some shit! Dictate what I play since I'll probably be hauling my entire set up over to her house!

!!!!!

Music:
Age of Wonders 3
Overlord? - This was not the soundtrack I was looking for...but I listened to it out of curiosity.

Then I got distracted by this.

Haven't played anything since last Saturday. Meanwhile Shauna has been stealing my Steam library to play Pillars of Eternity. She's pretty much caught up to where I am in the game now. I'll probably play more tonight. If not tonight, then Saturday. If not Saturday, than Sunday.

Also I should probably get better at filling in my time sheet. I have trouble remembering what I did yesterday let alone 2 weeks ago. Ugh.

Theme Song

The sentiment of the last three weeks.

I literally had no time for a Soundtrack Thursday and I'm going to be moving around way too much today to seriously listen to anything. What's been going on these past weeks? I have no idea. I think my brain has entered stasis to try and preserve whatever sanity remains. 

It started with returning from vacation and having a massive panic attack in the middle of the night the week later which led to me oversleeping two days in a row (and made me inexcusably late to work). I've then been terrified of being late for the past 2-3 weeks, which added to the building stress levels. Since then we've had about 5-6 people quit (for various reasons), which wasn't the worst because they're all going on to new and exciting things, but one person in particular was one of my favourite people at my job. 

So as a result there was a massive information dump on me to prep for taking over the role temporarily until a new hire started. Now I have half that role, but I've been gradually taking on more and more to the point where my week is fairly full at work. There was a large event for one of our communities this past week which has required about a third of my monthly allocated hours for that community. Meanwhile almost everything that could go wrong did go wrong for another program.

Last week was the pinnacle of things going horribly wrong, but was probably the least stressed out of the last three weeks because I think I reached peak level stress for that time period. That said, I've suffered 4 major panic attacks in the past 3 weeks (one while I was driving which was fun), mostly health anxiety related as my intestine goes through cycles of discomfort and pain (I've just started to assume my intestine is trying to collapse on itself and create a singularity). It feels actually pretty normal-ish today, after a major issue this week which I had to stay home for.

I'm hoping it's something relatively benign and stress-related (please don't be celiac, please don't be celiac, please don't be celiac oh god I love gluteny foods way too much), because at least that can be fixed. I saw a doctor last week, got a bunch of tests done and heard nothing back, which is good because it means I'm not dying as far as they know. I have a follow-up next week, so maybe, finally, after all these years, I may have some decent answers of what's going on. 

Going back through the blogs, the number of times I've said I'm tired or sick, is a disgustingly high number. The worst part of everything these past few weeks has been the panic attacks. They are exceptionally uncomfortable and frightening despite my knowledge of what they are. When they start, they are REALLY hard to stop, and I often just have to wait for them to finish. It's not something fun to talk about, and people tend to have a negative view of things like depression and anxiety, which is unfortunate cause it would be good to have more support for mental health issues in this country. I talk about it occasionally, because it's nice to get my concerns down in writing, it lets other people know they aren't the only ones experiencing it, and because it scares me.

Despite various issues, I'm considering this period of time as a personal crucible. If I can make it through rough spots and be better at what I do, better at managing my health and better at coping with stress, then I consider it a valuable experience. I'll just have to wait and see how this all turns out.

From what I can tell, I'm almost done Shadow of Mordor. The majority of it has actually been recorded in the last couple of weeks. I anticipate the series being about 30-40 segments long (each about 30 minutes each). I tried getting some of the bonus stuff, but it didn't really yield anything interesting other than some supplementary story items, which is cool in it's own right. I have a bunch of the stealth missions outstanding because they suck and I suck and everything sucks about the stealth missions. I may just finish  the main mission and call this LP complete as I have most of the upgrades and I'd like to start a new LP project.

I really want to get Evil Within off my hard drives. If I have time with all the Turkey Day shenanigans this weekend, I will do so in addition to finishing Shadow of Mordor.

There is a lot of snow coming down outside. It's been a blizzard for the last like...hour. 

I feel like I'm getting to the point where I can do a demo video of the first area in my crummy RPG. I need to add a little more...life to it, configure some more battle options, finish the triggers for three of the Interns and finish the "boss" area. I have placeholders for a lot of things in it right now, but that can all be easily updated later. 

Writing wise, I have consolidated my working document and uploaded it all to Google drive so I can take it back to the old laptop and begin building all the random shit I have written out into a narrative that makes sense. IT MAKES SENSE IN MY HEAD OKAY? But yeah, no progress made on the reader version because I just haven't been motivated to tackle that mess.

Update on Kathleen's fundraising: She's off to a good start, but she needs more supporters. There are three free, signed copies of her book available to be won in addition to a copy of her favourite book. Check out her page! I'll be posting a video about it soonish as we're about a month out.

Speaking of which, I have decided to purchase a capture card. I will need to do this soon to have it ready for Extra Life in November. This will also allow Shauna and I to play LPs from the PS3/PS4 (as well as some other consoles). We're planning to do Outlast 2 next year this way. 

And yes, I am aware the demo for Outlast 2 is out. Shauna and I are not playing it in case it will be official gameplay from the finished product. If it turns out to be different, we'll play it retroactively. 

Here have a dongle.

Sunday at the Calgary Entertainment Expo 2016

Man I was lazy with a lot of my pictures this year. It's a lot easier to ask for pictures cosplayer to cosplayer rather than creepy random to cosplayer. I mean I don't normally find it creepy personally, but I always I assume I'm being creepy. Anyhow...

Met up with Shauna at her house and we went down to the con together, mainly with the objective of seeing Nolan North. We wandered around for a short time (kind of the theme of the con unless you have a dedicated schedule for autographs and pictures) and went to go pet more dogs.

Because dogs. =D

Did another loop by the LEGO display (I forgot that half of my pictures were hosed and forgot to take more...or rather when Shauna mentioned it I'm like NO I TOTALLY GOT SOME...'cause I'm smart), and we checked out the autograph times for Mr. North. He was there at the time, but we decided to come back after his panel. 

We came across a table with some incredibly derpy looking Game of Thrones figures. Brienne was probably one of the worst. Shauna said I needed to take a picture and do a caption contest. There's a lot of photos and pictures I feel this needs to be done for (*cough cough Testament of Sherlock Holmes*).

On our way back into the other halls I ran into this guy:

Good to see you again Mini! Also wow, a picture I don't look like a major dork in (intentionally or not). There's a rare sight. 

Outside we found some awesome cosplayers. I got the Fallout crew I missed yesterday as well as...this fellow:

Shauna and I weren't sure exactly who or what it was, so if anyone can enlighten me I would be grateful. Awesome, terrifying, but I honestly have no idea. 

We checked out the gaming and arcade area (of which Shauna was a disappointed in as she assumed it would be a massive section). Some of the units they had there had multiple games available, but all were in use. I believe there were about 10 units total in addition to all of the consoles, a computer cafe and a special stage for tournaments (there was a League one set up for noon, but we were in a line-up by that point).

We lined up for Nolan North about an hour early, happy to sit in the shade and watch all the random cosplayers. We met a pair of Bioshock Infinite cosplayers (who Shauna got a picture of, so I may grab that from her) who had excellent costumes (and were very photogenic) as well as a young man (whose name I THINK was Sydney...I'm really sorry if I misheard you) who had lost his friends and decided to line up super early for the panel after ours. 

So the time finally comes to go in to see Nolan North, we're at the front of the line and it's awesome. Then the dude takes us to the wrong door by accident. So all the people behind us see an opportunity to get ahead, so we literally waited an hour in line for nothing. Thanks guys.

Thankfully it didn't matter too much as we were the third row up or so. Still...principle of the matter.

After another short wait and Shauna becoming increasingly tired of my Streetpass farming, Nolan North took the stage with Sam Maggs as the moderator (that was an awesome appearance I didn't expect). Nolan talked about his experiences voice acting, mostly with Nathan Drake in the Uncharted series. When the time came for audience questions, the gentleman behind us opened with, "Would you rather fight 100 duck sized Troy Bakers or 1 Troy Baker sized duck." He just kind of stared at the guy for a few minutes, said "Who's Troy Baker" and "Have you eaten today, sir?"

Nolan gave some great in-depth answers, some samples of his voices and some advice on voice acting and his experience. He stated that if you wanted to break into voice acting, become an actor in general as you have a wider range and the ability to add facial expressions, tones and actions to the words. He also stressed the importance of saline nasal spray to avoid colds.

I ended up taking quite a few pictures as Shauna's camera wasn't working too well and I was trying to get my own to cooperate. My phone camera crashed twice in the process. Apparently it doesn't like it when I zoom in and try to take a picture anymore (it also completely crashed for no reason a couple hours ago so I may need to fix this). My other favourite bits of the panel was Nolan taking about face capture technology and acting out scenes you'd see in the game (including holding his breath even though it really wasn't necessary). I also enjoyed him talking about auditioning for voice acting positions and just straight-up recommending other voice actors to the people holding the auditions if they thought they'd be a better fit.

We went to get lunch after the panel where I tried a butter chicken poutine, which...actually wasn't half bad and listened to a father who didn't understand how the internet worked explain to his son why he couldn't go play video games at the con (apparently if you log onto a public network it'll give your home computer viruses). 

After lunch we went to go line up for autographs and discovered Nolan was already there early. We got up to the front, had a quick chat with the volunteer there about autograph logistics and met Mr. North. I haven't actually gone to meet anyone like this at a con before. I've waited for OTHER people doing that, but I figure I have nothing interesting to say to most people (at least nothing they haven't heard before). This was different cause both Shauna and I were interested and I have an appreciation for good voice acting (mostly thanks to Mesk telling me a lot about it).

Anyhow, went up and shook his hand and said hello to Mr. North, who promptly told me to call him Nolan. My interaction mostly boiled down to him asking if I had played the whole series and I said I was on the second game still because I got stuck in the stupid museum for a long time. He said I should hurry up because I have about 7 days before the next one comes out. I wasn't too sure where to go conversation-wise from there, but Shauna joined in and talked about my recent life changes and our friendship. 

Nolan went to shake hands with her, but he was like, "give me your hand," but he was holding it out as if he wanted her to place it there and both Shauna and I got very confused, then he's like "oh I want to shake it." Nolan signed her picture (Last of Us print) and talked in David voice for her saying that as you know from the game, friendship never really goes away. I thought that was really nice. Shauna was hard on herself after thinking she sounded lame in front of him, but everything was fine. While Mr. North will likely never read this (if you are I think I'd pee myself a little), I'm sure he'd reassure her and say it was a pleasure (and that there are way weirder things to talk about). We got him to do a little voice acting for us, so I consider that a win. Thanks Nolan! 

So that concludes my con experience in 2016. I am fairly exhausted (but less exhausted than I have been in other years as I didn't cosplay and wander the con in heels for 8+ hours). Looking forward to next year (where hopefully Troy Baker will make an appearance) and to see what else the con has in store for the future.

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.