Today I was on a journey through the mall. A magical time when I was to buy new shoes and was magically coerced into buying two new pairs of shoes because of a sale - and were I to not participate in this "buy one get one" phenomenon I would in fact be losing money and that's all bad.
Anyway, as I am walking through the food court at the mall I see this woman. I would not ordinarily classify a woman as young as her (20 or so to my age) as woman, normally she would be a "girl" because I'm from the South and that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it. I'm using the term "woman" to clarify that this is someone who should have known better.
This woman is wearing a long shirt, as one might expect to find paired inappropriately with a pair of opaque tights. Now, I'm sure I don't need to tell you that tights are not pants, nor should they be. However, this woman had forgone to even wear the tights.
When your top covering is that short, lower coverings are no longer optional. Nightclubs get a pass, but this is the mall, in broad daylight. You are appearing in a public place - wear clothes, it's the law.
I admit it, I stared a bit. But in that way where you're trying really really hard not to look like you're staring. As soon as she came alongside of me, and thus I was out of her field of vision I did a full body recoil while mouthing "Oh. My. God."
I look up and there is a woman, sitting with two friends who were not privy to the same view. She is staring after and making exactly the same face I am. As I come alongside her I say, "Same girl?"
"Oh my god yes." She affirmed with incredulity. We shared a laugh.
Moral: If you dress like a slutty hobo in public I'm not the only person who will be judging you for it.
On Saturday I drove the 180+ miles to Dallas so that I could attend ComicCon. It took me just shy of three hours. I then drove the 180+ miles back that night, making for a total of six hours on the road.
It was so worth it.
This was my first Comic Con, although not my first convention. That honor belongs to a Hercules/Xena Convention I went to when I was... 14? I'm not exactly sure although I do clearly remember cosplaying in a toga that became my go-to Halloween costume for the next ten years. Good times, man, good times.
Anyway, my first Comic Con, yes. It was exactly the amount of people I was expecting crammed into about 1/3 the space. The place was a fire hazard waiting to happen.
I went with Kali and Mike Kunkle, the good people of Dreamworthy Gifts, who I met on twitter. No, it turned out they were not in fact serial killers. My TV has been lying to me for years. They were sweet enough to bring me a present...
It's an outdoor plaque, the quarter is included for scale. It's really nice and was totally sweet of them. Which I may or may not have said about fifty times. And they didn't even know I'm studying astronomy! Spooky....
So the con? Man, I keep getting sidetracked. Well, after having lunch we went down to the Richardson Convention Center where I gave up on finding a parking spot and parked like a half mile away. Whatever. Little known fact about me, I don't shop for a space. I'd rather just park in the boonies and walk.
We walk in and are at one end of the artist's hall. There is barely enough room to slide your way through the crowd, and all of the artists I am interested in have hoardes of people between me and them. I'm doing an initial walk-through where I add up prices in my head so I can be sure I have enough money for the stuff I really want. Also, wishing I had some sort of drawing talent at all. Cause like whoa and damn, some of the art was spectacular.
I did get a chance to talk to Joel Watson of Hijink Ensue, one of my favorite webcomics and proud member of my Morning Coffee. He is as funny in real life as in his comic. ( Strangely, a lot of writer's are not.) Also, kind of cute. Just throwin' that out there.
I did end up picking up some pretty neat stuff, chief amongst them being a Godzilla shirt, a Wonder Woman print and 'Godspeed you fancy bastard' (which happens to be the Hijinks Ensue first collection; so, you know, go buy it).
But really it was just a fun time with some really good people. I will definitely go back next year.
(Also, I went to Whole Foods in North Dallas and lamented that I don't actually live near one. That place is amazing.)
I am sick. Bleh. Been trying really really hard not to be for the last couple of days, thought I was doing well today, then got up and did a baby shower for A and was one my feet and busy for about six hours.
Now I feel like shit. Eating soup, drinking Sprite and just generally feeling sorry for myself - as one is wont to do while ill. I will likely spend my Saturday night watching Buffy since I have been wanting to go back and rewatch the series, and since I have it right here...
On the plus side, the dog is super cute when I'm sick. She brought me her ball and after I explained that I wasn't really up to going outside and throwing it, she walked away all dejected like. She returned with her blue squeeky dinosaur and laid it in my lap, then laid her head on my lap. Thank you dog, that makes me feel a lot better.
On a brighter note, I got a Team Edward (James Olmos) in the mail today, from my sister-in-law who is doing everything in her power to become my most awesome relative - blood or otherwise. First it was a Star Trek necklace, then the Geek Girl's Guide to Cheerleading, then Maus... now Team Edward. I love you J.
I have very mixed feelings about Sunken Treasures.Don’t get me wrong, each entry, in and of itself rawked (with one notable exception), yet as a whole, I was left with the feeling I had not quite gotten what I paid for.Since what I paid for was a $5 DRM-free PDF, what I was expecting as yet remains undefined. Also, if I didn't already know I was a little in love with Wil Wheaton, the DRM-free-ness of his book would've sold me.
Start with the bad.One of the portions of Wil Wheaton’s writing I do not get behind are his production diaries.Hollywood and TV magic hold little interest for me and while I can see where people do enjoy them, personally if I’d known that 34 of 84 pages of Sunken Treasures was going to be production notes from Criminal Minds I probably would have skipped on the purchase.This might have something to do with the fact that I’ve never really gotten behind Criminal Minds as a show.The review and notes from “Datalore” were in fact awesome* so I may be grading on a rather unfair curve here.There was nothing necessarily wrong with the entry, but it ranked a solid ‘meh’ on my scale of interests.
*As soon as Memories of the Future comes out I’m buying that puppy.
Now onto the good fantastic.One of my favourite stories from WilWheaton.net is the story of “The Trade” and I think most of why I like it translates well to why I like a lot of his writing.In it, an 8-year-old Wheaton is convinced by an older acquaintance to trade away his Death Star with Cool Trash Compactor Monster.In return, Wheaton received a Land Speeder and five bucks. Anyone who cannot already see the unfairness of this trade should avoid WilWheaton.net, Slashdot, io9, wookieepedia and this blog amongst (many) other places.While the story has a nice emotional impact in its own right, where it really succeeds is in drawing on the reader’s own experiences.Who hasn’t been convinced to give up something of great value for much less than its worth?I was six when a cousin, five years my elder, conned me out of my remote-controlled pony.I don’t remember what I got out of the deal, but the fact that I remember Captain Hoofsy* to this day probably says a lot about how bummed I was about the results.I hadn’t thought about the great Captain in a very long time, but Wheaton’s tale dug into my brain and dug out a gem from my past.
*I was six, Captain Hoofsy is a great name when you’re six.
A lot of his writing, a lot of his reminiscences, are like this and it is where Wheaton really succeeds as a writer in my opinion.He’s just a guy who grew up in approximately the same time I did.While I wasn’t attending auditions after school and listening to a Walkman with Susan Sarandon, I did spend my fair share of quarters on pinball machines and Space Invaders.Wheaton’s life is not my life.After a moment where I felt ‘Oh jeez, I know exactly how you felt’ there would come moment when you realize that this was not a usual childhood, and this is not a life I can relate to.Moments with his family such as “See a Little Light” and “Remember This” show a family life that I can envy without feeling an urge to vomit.They are true, heartfelt and, while sentimental, lack the sentimentality of someone who is trying way too hard.
The ultimate message I got from Sunken Treasures is that the basics of life are the same.We all played as kids, whether in arcades after school or on the set of major motion pictures.We’re all proud to see our families succeed and grieve when those we love pass on.Wil Wheaton doesn’t preach.He tells the story in such a way that you follow along in your own mind with your own life’s experiences.I don’t think any two people will have the same reaction to his work.Our reaction comes from the emotional tint we’ve given our own similar memories.
Sunken Treasures is the Hot Cocoa Box Sampler (as the subtitle tells you) and you get a little of everything.While it didn’t touch my soul, it does make me yearn for Happiest Day of Our Lives, which I will be buying somewhere in the copious amount of time I have between now and starting grad school.
If the whole book had been like the first 50 pages I’d have no hesitation in saying this was a fantastic read and everyone should go buy it right this very moment.As it is, know that nearly half your buy is production notes; and while it’s not really my cup of cocoa, I’m sure for many it will be the best aspect of the book.I did read the whole thing, so that counts for something.
I give the first half a solid A (only nudity gets an A+ Mr. Wheaton, remember this for Memories of the Future), and the second half an A for writing style and a D for being pertinent to my interests.
