Siblings. You can’t really escape them.
Me and my siblings. I ‘m the totally normal one in the cute maroon coat.
You love them, you hate them, it doesn’t change the fact that they are your blood. But it also doesn’t change the fact that you can get pretty frustrated with them at times, no matter how close you are. There are spells where you want to lash out, make it a little harder on your sibling, prevent their every happiness… you know what I mean. Continue reading
Another Dragon Con has come and gone. This year’s guests were incredible. Cary Elwes is as dashing as you’d expect. Ralph Macchio still doesn’t look a day over 16. C. Thomas Howell and Karl Urban had me rolling with laughter. Peter Weller brought the highbrow. And the Hobbit panel with Adam Brown, Jed Brophy, Billy Boyd and Craig Parker was simply phenomenal.
This year the fam decided to join in the cosplay fun, but with our own little twist – we brought a toga party to the con. We decided to represent different pop-culture/sci-fi/literary genres while donning a bed sheet in a crowd that probably topped out at over 60,000 during the Labor Day weekend.
From left to right The Toga Revolution: Doctor Who, A Ninja (but you probably can’t see him), Elle Driver from Kill Bill, A Steampunk Lass, Darth Vader, Wonder Woman, and Effie Trinket from the Hunger Games.
This week is Dragon Con! Why does this type of convention make me so happy, you ask? Because it brings everything I’m interested in into one place. The people are incredibly kind, and it’s one of the most visually stimulating experiences from an artistic point of view (namely the costumes) I get all year.
Growing up a theme-park-obsessed kid with a pension for all things fun and fantasy, immersing myself into a character is really not that far from immersing myself in worlds like Hanna-Barbera Land, Oktoberfest or Yankee Harbor back in the day. A convention like Dragon Con brings that side of me to the forefront all over again. Movies that made me smile, books that engaged me, characters that meant something and themes that keep me going are all represented there. So no matter how much I’m dragging, or stressed about everyday things, I have a long weekend once a year guaranteed to set me right and to regain some perspective. Above all, it’s just so damn creative!
I went to art school and I see these amazing original ideas and characters being recreated by their fans and I feel so inspired. It’s also a great way to allow yourself to be silly, or goofy, or someone else for just a few days. If you aren’t sporting a costume or at least some sort of geek/pop-culture related shirt, you are in the minority.
For instance, my family and I at least try to make a nod to the Geek culture each year. One year we were Clue characters. One year we sported “I’m With The Geek” shirts and tried to get our pictures with as many cool looking characters as we could. We try to at least throw our hats in the creative ring in some small way. Continue reading
Dragon Con is less than two weeks away! With that, I will be posting and reposting all things related to one of the most amazing weekends of the year until it begins. Today I thought I’d share a throw-back to my first cosplay ever. (for those of you that don’t know, cosplay is short for costume play)
My family owns our inner Geek, so Dragon Con has sort of become a family affair. The first time we decided to pull out all of the stops, it was decided we would cosplay as Austin Powers characters. Here we are:
The gang as Austin Powers. From left to right: Ms. Kensington, Dr. Evil, Felicity Shagwell, Austin Powers, Fembot, Foxxy Cleopatra
My younger sister was Ms. Kensington. Her Husband was Dr. Evil. My older sister was Felicity Shagwell. My brother was Austin. His wife was a Fembot. And I was Beyoncé as Foxxy Cleopatra (but I think that’s kind of obvious).
As outgoing as I can be, I will say I was pretty reluctant to dress up and parade around in costume. I was nervous. I thought I’d be judged, but as we walked around the Con, we felt like celebrities. People were stopping us everywhere to get a quick pic and throw compliments our way. We got to engage with people we normally would never had a chance to meet. I totally got why people do this all of the time! We even followed in our fellow cosplayers’ footsteps and struck a pose when the cameras were running. Because you totally have to have a pose.
So a quick throw-back, but a great one. It was a complete blast. I highly recommend anyone who hasn’t cosplayed, do so. I also suggest anyone who hasn’t gone to Dragon Con go. You have no idea what you’re missing, but that’s ok because I’ll be telling you what you’re missing over the next ten days.
If you have any cosplay pics or great Dragon Con stories, please send them my way! I’d love to share them.
I made chocolate chip cookies last Friday night. Pretty mundane chore for most people, but with me, cooking is always a whirlwind affair. Probably because I suck at it. You can ask my Home Ec teacher and I’m sure she’ll remember. I overcooked, I undercooked, I burned. I forgot to remove packaging. I misread the recipe (many many times). I never kneaded. I never sifted. I never levelled. I blended when I should have folded. I chopped when I should have grated. Nothing has ever really tasted or turned out quite right. I think the Pumpkin Pie Debacle of 2013 proves that.
I am not a ditz. I do know how to read. I think I’ve just never cared when it comes to cooking. And indifference breeds indolence … which brings me to my cookies. Continue reading
Ever want to give a quick shout out to someone or something for making your day a little brighter? Thursday-Thank-Yous is your opportunity. Send them in and we will share them with the world.
Thursday-Thank-Yous
Thank you to all of you that refuse to rain on someone else’s parade. You’re awesome. –Steph C.
Dear Robin Williams,
Thank you for making me smile and laugh so hard I could cry. Thank you for lending the world your talents, for even just a short while. — Libby G.
Thank you Apple for making user-friendly devices. Your devices now have a much lower chance of being thrown across the room. –@evelynnoelle29
Thank you Brother Mark for having lots of inbred kitties. Now I’m not the only one. –Stephanie C.
Thank you No-Take-Backs for sharing Clifford stories. They brighten my day. –Lynn G.
I feel like I had a pretty good throw-back ready to post yesterday. It had stellar story-telling with funny anecdotes. The type of thing you would all get a kick out of, really. Then I heard the news that Robin Williams had died. Then I felt I needed to write something a little different because this news made me so very very sad and for several reasons.
There is a lot of sad news going on in the world right now, including in our own backyards. Sad news that can make one question humanity in its entirety… With that said, take a moment when you read this post, and remind yourself of the good news out there as well. That kid who beat cancer … the man who could walk again … that person who smiled your way. Take these little snippets and file them away because these are the moments to live for. Reach out sincerely and frequently to those you encounter. As Robin Williams’s death reminds us that all isn’t necessarily as it seems. And carpe diem, folks.
There was a time I lived for game shows. The Price Is Right (back in Bob Barker’s day), Finders Keepers, American Gladiators (old school), Fun House, Double Dare, Press Your Luck, I’m Telling!, Legends of the Hidden Temple, $100,000 Pyramid, Couch Potatoes, MTV’s Remote Control, Win, Lose, or Draw, Teen Win, Lose or Draw (Hosted by Family Ties’ Skippy and this ep has Wil Wheaton!), Jeopardy!, and Family Feud. I’m sure there are even more than these that kept me glued to the boob tube as a kid.
The funny thing is, I knew my family could kill it on these shows (the ones not reliant upon pure luck, of course). We are a pretty smart group and were fairly agile at the time. I would watch Family Double Dare and know my family could clean house. Playing along at home, we would shout out the right answers before the families would even blink on screen. We were a gaming family (still are). We were clever (still are). We were competitive (still are). And we lived in Northern Indiana … how in the hell was a clan living in a cornfield twenty minutes from Michigan supposed to get on a show like one of these?
I would dream of the obstacle courses we would conquer and the trivia questions we would nail. Even if we couldn’t be contestants, just seeing a live taping would be amazing! But the chances of my family travelling to California to be part of a live studio audience? Nil.
So living in Atlanta and seeing FREE tickets to a live taping of Family Feud hosted by Steve Harvey a few weeks back, I jumped at the chance to be an audience member. And it was TOTALLY worth it.
Family Feud
Last night Clifford was watching a prepper show. In case you live in the Dark Ages or Kansas, preppers are people preparing for Armageddon. Whether it’s a natural Armegeddon like a tsunami hitting Chicago, or Governmental like a total economic collapse, or just something completely outrageous like a zombie apocalypse, preppers are organizing food, shelter and water for the day the world comes to an end, thrusting order into utter chaos.
Last night’s episode had a married couple that raises bunnies. They kill their bunnies and eat them. They use their crap to fertilize their veggies. I feel like they had a dozen other uses as well, but when they went to kill the bunny, I had to look away.
This is when Clifford began to regale me with the story of his sister befriending rabbits while they visited family in Austria as kids. His family lives in this little village named Saint Marienkirchen. My understanding is that it is fairly rural where his family is located.
In Clifford’s version of events, he explained how his sister became quite attached to the bunnies out back of the house. She would feed them and love on them.
My sister-in-law loving her little friend.
One day when they had returned from the day’s activities, she headed out back to play with them, but the bunnies weren’t there. They were all gone. Because they were dinner. He laughed quite maniacally as he told the story and remembered how devastated his sister was. He found the whole thing quite hilarious.
So back to the prepper show and me turning away from the bunny murderess on screen. Clifford, of course, began challenging me with things like, “What? You couldn’t kill a rabbit to survive?” and “You don’t have it in you, do you?”
This got me thinking. In the case where the world is coming to an end, zombies are taking over or whatever, I’d like to say, “ Hell yeah, I would do that!” And I think this morning’s conversation proves it-
Clifford: It’s the end of the world, babe. You do what you’ve got to do. We are out of food. You know what that makes us?
Me: The first to eat faces?
Clifford: No. The first to break into other people’s homes for food. That’s sick.
Me: Oh! Well that makes sense.
Clifford: So you are telling me that the first thing you do is eat human flesh?
Me: No. I guess I’d break into homes first to see what food we could find.
So know that if the day of reckoning is upon us, I’ve got your back. Until I eat it.
My survivalist instincts kicking in.
