San Diego Comic Con - Day 4 - Saturday

Hey all.. so it's day 4 of comic con.. I realize that my comic con reports aren't that exciting as I really didn't do much of the con itself. The past few years I have gone to con to hang out with friends and cosplay.. I don't do panels or get autographs and such.. so I'm sorry if these reports aren't what you were expecting.

So on to Day 4... Up at 7am, since this was my last day of cosplaying I wanted to make sure I was there from open to close. As always prepping started with my ears.. yesterday I had a nervous breakdown trying to get those on just right... this time I didn't care.  I knew my wig would cover most of it.. so it took me less then 15 minutes to get them on. Chris and Robert were wearing suits.. Chris was going as Barney Stinson from How I Meet Your Mother and Robert was one of his Suit Bros. Those two along with Michael went down to the hotel restaurant for some breakfast, I opted for the store danish that I had gotten earlier this week to save on some money. I finished getting ready and by the time I was leaving they were done with breakfast. We headed over to Brett's hotel to pick him up. He is cosplaying for the first time in his life and needs a bit of encouragement and friend support. He was cosplaying as The Slenderman. I didn't have a clue who that character was but OMG.. soon as we got to con it was apparent that I was the only one who didn't know.

While walking to con my brother noticed that there was a rather large tear on the side of one of my Hobbit feet. I knew it was coming, I knew I was pushing the limit of the wear and tear on these feet. As I looked closer on my other foot I noticed a much smaller tear there as well. We quickly went to a local store and picked up some super glue. I was hoping to seal up both cracks long enough to last the day. With my brother's help it looks like it is going to work... yay!!!

So as I mentioned we got to con and Brett was initiated with picture requests.. everyone we passed would say.. "oh look it's Slenderman". Even 5 year olds knew who he was. He was the MVP of our cosplaying group. He was so in character, by the way he walked or reacted to folks going crazy over him... it was priceless.

For lunch we went to Cafe Defiance, the wait wasn't that bad and we were seated right next to Greg Aronowitz and his gang. While we got food Chris played the Defiance MMO game (each table had a screen and controller to play). After lunch we went back to the floor of the con and had more pictures taken of us. My brother headed up to the Revolution panel. We continued to walk around showing off our cosplay and taking pictures. We were up in the pavilion resting when Chris got a tweet from Geekyhooker about a critter drop.

The past few years a person on twitter with the name Geekyhooker create these croshay characters and then leaves them at various spot all over the con. She then tweets a clue as to where to find them. Well Chris is obsessed with this. Last year he ran eight blocks in a suit just to find one. He had already found one yesterday but today the drop was really close to where we were, so he and a few of our friends headed out to see if they could find it. About 20 or so minutes later he returned triumphantly. He scored Captain America.. which is funny as he got Captain last year as well. Unlike last year he gave me the Captain America and it's awesome!!!

We stayed until the floor closed at 7pm and then headed back to the hotel. Mike was already there preparing to put on his Tron outfit.

Before I realized it, I had taken off my ears and as soon as they were free I realized that I should have left them on as we were going to the Geek and Sundry Cosplay Prom in a few hours. I couldn't believe I tore them off so quickly. After that I debated on going to the prom as I was tired, so I removed my entire Hobbit outfit and rested for a bit.

Once again Chris helped Mike put on his Tron outfit and he left for the con and the streets of San Diego. Robert, Chris and I rested in a room for an hour. By this time the guys convinced me to go to the prom but like this morning I quickly put on my ears.. didn't really care what they looked like, put on my outfit and my feet and were off. BTW my feet were holding up.. no additional tears could be seen.
 
We got to the prom a little after 9pm and found America, Dove and his brother Tyler. They were kind enough to save us some seats. We sat there for a bit and chatted. We watched the various cosplayers dancing. I swore I wasn't going to dance as I didn't want to completely ruin my feet but after an hour or so the music drew me in and Robert really wanted to dance so I couldn't say no. I didn't move as quickly as I normally do but I took my time and danced for about a half hour. More and more friends arrived and America, Dove and Tyler left for another party and my Brother and his friend Ray showed up in their fantastic costumes. They put a show for everyone and they all went crazy. Mike has told me how people react to his costume but to see it in person it's pretty amazing. And in fact my brother's friends Ray won best costume at the prom and won a laptop computer. 

It was hot inside so we moved our group out to the outside area. We now had about 25 guildies hanging out with us outside. Ariel showed up and took some pictures for the WIRED article (Will talk about that in a future blog). Both Robert and I were tired and decided to leave the party just after 11pm. We said our goodbyes and headed back to the hotel to crash for the night.

Day 4 of San Diego Comic Con 2013 was a lot of fun. Brett is no longer a Cosplay virgin and from the reaction I'd say his first forte into cosplaying was a success. Though I had issues with my feet they managed to keep together for one final hurrah. Tomorrow is our final day at Comic Con.. glad it's all ending but will miss seeing everyone everyday.

Pictures from SDCC 2013 Album 1

Pictures from SDCC 2013 Album 2

Pictures from SDCC 2013 Album 3

Guild of Extras Exposed

A few days prior to San Diego Comic Con I got a call from my friend Olivia asking if it was okay to give my name to the Senior editor of WIRED Bill Wasik. He was looking to do a story on The Guild of Extras as part of WIRED's Comic Con coverage. Come to find out that he was talking to Olivia for an entirely different reason and she brought up The Guild of Extras and it went from there. She mentioned that I was one of the "ringleaders" of the group and to contact me to see if the group was doing anything during con. I told him a few things that we had planned and then put him in contact with the four folks who created the group; Anne, Chris, Jen and Kim and he just kind of rolled with it.

Bill hung out with some of us here and there during the con, he'd ask questions about how we come together, our favorite scenes we were in and so on. He interviewed some of the creators of the group and even tried to interview Felicia.

They sent a photographer down on Friday to meet up with us and follow us around a few days catching us being us, her name was Ariel Zambelich and she instantly became part of our geeky group and an honorary Guildie. 

We didn't know what the article was going to focus on. I mean Bill seemed liked a nice guy so we didn't think it would be some sort of "crazy fans" kind of story. What we got was something I didn't expect. Bill hung out with guildies for the entire time at con and really got to know our passion for the show and our love for each other. 

The article made me proud to be a member of The Guild of Extras, my own little group The Geek Mob consists mostly of members of The Guild of Extras.

There were a few things in the article that were wrong (misinformation), the one that bothered me the most was at the end of the article "Over the past two years, his (Dallas) and Reaves’ house has emerged as a sort of Guild of Extras headquarters, hosting tabletop role-playing games and weekend-long movie marathons."

Now if you're a regular reader of my blog you know I'm the one that throws the gaming/movie marathon weekends and in turned formed The Geek Mob. When I first read that part I was hurt as I put in alot of work into those parties and to no get credit stung a bit. But I got over it quickly, 99% of the article is fantastic and shows our little group in such a great light.

I'd like to thank Bill and Ariel for being AWESOME and sharing our little group with their readers.

You can read Bill's article HERE

Aerial was kind enough to send me some pixs that weren't used in the article.. you can see them HERE.

San Diego Comic Con - Day 3 - Friday

Slept pretty good but then again I was somewhat drunk and it had been a long day. I slept to about 8am and laid there around hour until 9, before getting up and starting my day. I knew I'd be late to con today and I was cool with that. Didn't really have anything planned this year. No panels just hanging with friends and cosplaying.

My brother arrived around 10am and joined Robert, Chris and I in our room. I was preparing my Hobbit cosplay (this time I was playing Bilbo) and once again I struggled with the ears. It took me four attempts, an hour and 15 minutes and two sets of ears before I said screw it and just left them the way they were. The bondo that I had was a few years old and it turned into a kind of rubbery paste and I could no longer use it to smooth out the lines.

In the past I have left my ears on the entire con, it makes it interesting to sleep but it saves me so much time in the morning. But since I was going to the VIP party last night I didn't want to have my Hobbit ears on and removed them.. I'm kind of regretting that now. 

I was tired and frustrated, not the best way to start out my Friday con day. I did help my buddy Chris get into his "extremely popular" Altair cosplay from Assassins Creed. And I finished putting on my Hobbit feet and wig... luckily for me the wig/hair covers up most of the ears so it didn't look that bad.

Mike, Robert, Chris and I headed to the con around 11:30am. We walked the floor checking out all the cool booths. My brother wanted some Hasbro toys but I informed him that he would have to get up super early like 3am and get in line to get a ticket to get in line to buy a Hasbro toy... and he was up for it, but I told him let me tweet and see if any of my friends already had a Hasbro ticket and would be willing to pick up the items he wanted. Luckily my friend Steve saw my tweet and mentioned it to another friend of mine Luis who had a ticket and was gracious enough to pick up the items for my brother.

Chris was with for a bit before heading off to an Assassins Creed panel. My brother also left to walk around upstairs in the autograph room. That left Robert and I walking the floor.. we were joined by various friends at time but it ended up just being the two of us. We headed over to the Hilton as I heard there was a Hobbit hole made up entirely of Lego's.. I had to see it. We found the Hobbit Hole along with the Scooby Doo Mystery Machine. We got pixs and found some picnic table to relax for a bit. My brother re-joined us as did Luis with my brother's Transformers and SW Angry Bird figures. Our friend Will joined us as well but didn't leave with us when we decided to head back inside.

We meet up with more friends and Chris re-joined our party. We decided to go grab a late lunch, early dinner at the Spaghetti Factory, while there we were joined by photographer Ariel. She would be taking some photo's of our group for an article that was being written for Wired.com. (I'll be doing a separate blog on this whole thing.. stay tuned).

We finished lunch and Mike headed back to the hotel as he didn't want to carry around his huge Transformer toy. We meet up with some friends and started to walk the floor. We had a rather large group and it's always tough navigating the floor with a large group, but we did our best.

About an hour later I called it a day.. it was around 5:30pm. I had to get back to the hotel room and help my brother get into his Tron outfit. When I got back I took off my Hobbit outfit and put on some street clothes. I was talking to my brother when Robert and Chris joined us.

Chris actually helped my brother with his Tron outfit. It was getting dark and my brother's cosplay looks best in the dark. Once he was done he took off to got to con and walk the streets.

Robert, Chris and I were heading out to see my friend Jason Charles Miller preform at a local bar. The audio wasn't the best at this place but it was great seeing him play live. His music is a cross between country and rock. We were there for a few hours and had a great time. Afterward we headed to the Geek and Sundry Community Party. This was for any and everyone and from the crowds it looked like everyone was there. I stayed for about an hour before calling it a night. I had partied hard last night and I didn't have the energy to do it again. So Robert, Rupert and I headed back to our hotels..Rupert had to pick up some stuff he left in our room, but before we got there we stopped by a Hot Dog place and grabbed a bit to eat.

We got back to the hotel and a few minutes later my brother Michael arrived and I helped him remove his Tron outfit. The three of us went to bed around midnight. Chris got in around 2am or so.

Day 3 of San Diego Comic Con 2013, got off to a slow start. I only cosplayed for about six hours, got to enjoy a great concert and went to another G&S party, but didn't party as hard. Overall it was a good Friday.

Pictures from SDCC 2013 Album 1

Pictures from SDCC 2013 Album 2

Pictures from SDCC 2013 Album 3

San Diego Comic Con - Day 2 - Thursday

I didn't sleep well but that's the norm for comic con. I got about 3 or 4 hours off and on the entire night. But the show must go on. I was up at 7am putting on my Hobbit ears. This is always the hardest part of my cosplay, well this and getting the hair/wig right. This process can take me up to an hour to get them on just right. I usually will get some help from my buddy Chris and after we struggled for a bit they were finally on and looked pretty good.

I then put on my shirt, pants and socks. All that was left was my hair/wig and feet.. both of those things go on last as both of them are pretty torturous to wear all day so I wait until the last minute. Chris cosplayed as 3 Hole Punch Jim from The Office (I've never seen it), later in the day he kept losing the 3 holes so he finally removed them and looked like a Mormon the rest of the day.

Chris and Robert were hungry so I told them to head down to con and I would meet them there. Once they were gone I began the process of putting on my wig. I did a lot of pre-work with this wig last week to get it just right so all I would have to do was put it on my head and for the most part it worked. I spent about fifteen or so minutes messing with it but in the end I think it looked pretty good.

The final step in me becoming a Hobbit were my feet. If you read my previous blog you know I was hoping for new feet but that didn't happen so I was using my now three year old feet. I never thought these feet would last this long. I've worn them on 15 or so different days for various cons and they are still going strong, but I had a feeling this would be their last hurrah.

I was ready to go by 9:10am and out the door. Robert and Chris were already there and in line to get into the con. By the time I got there it was just past 9:30am and they were about to open the front doors.

Today was all about cosplaying, all I did was walk around the con floor, getting pictures taken of me and taking pictures of all the other awesome cosplay outfits. We'd hook up with other friends here and there but it pretty much was just Robert, Chris and I and also Brett who joined up with us early on.

Mid day we went back to the hotel to drop off purchases (I did not buy anything) and went looking for a place to eat. We found Jolt'n Joes, this is where the Geek and Sundry stuff was happening (well upstairs to his place). We had a party of about six then Thomas joined us making it a party of seven but they scrounged around and manage to put together a table for six only and acted like it was impossible to get seven. Since Thomas joined us last by happenstance he left the party and the six of us where seated. We had no utensils, napkins or pretty much anything. We sat there for a good 30 minutes before the wateriness finally came over to our table to take our order and this was after many attempts to get her attention. What is crazy is the place was not packed. They were busy but she only had a few tables to take care of. So our food came and when I asked for a napkin, as I didn't want to get my shirt dirty she scoffed and asked if I was a messy eater. She brought back one napkin for me only... none for the others. The food was mediocre at best. We realized that since we were a party of six this company automatically adds a 20% gratuity to our bill.. we were not happy. Luckily for us when we got the bill there was no added gratuity and if there was I had planned to say something about it. So the service was horrible and the food was mediocre... we won't be coming back to this place again.

After our disappointing lunch we headed back to con and continued to walk around the sales floor. Around 6pm Robert, Chris and a few others left con to go to Wootstock. That left Brett and I at the con. We stayed another half hour before calling it a day (the con sales floor closes at 7pm).

Brett and I said our goodbyes with plans to meet back up later once the guys got out of Wootstock. I stopped by Chipotle on my way back to the hotel and picked up some dinner. When I got back to the hotel I de-Hobbitfied myself. It was great getting the feet off as I had been in them for over 10 hours but the best part was taking off the wig.. my head could finally breath again.

I sat in the hotel room alone, watching TV and eating my burrito. I was invited to the Geek and Sundry VIP party tonight and it started at 8pm. Not many of my friends were invited and I debated on going. Around 8:30pm I decide that I should at least make an appearance.. I mean this was a VIP party and I rarely get invited to those. So I put on a nice dress shirt (the only one I brought) and headed out. Got to the party and it was pretty packed and as I expected I didn't know anyone. The only person I knew was coming for sure was Jen and Sean and both of them were at a panel still. My buddy Chris Pope was also going to be there and I was looking forward to seeing him as it's been a few years since we have see each other. I did mange to find Vince Caso and we caught up a bit, then my buddy Chris showed up and we chatted.

I had been there around a half hour and just when I thought about leaving my friends Doug and Brian showed up with their plus ones.. who happen to be my friends Jes and Anne. Whew.. I had some folks I could talk to now. Soon more and more friends showed up, America, Dove, Greg, Red, Nicki, Jen and Sean. Between Red and Brian they were able to bring in alot more guildies, Dani, Jeff, Bel, Becky and finally Chris and Robert when they got out of Wootstock. This was now a party I could enjoy. I had had a shot of Fireball when I was in the hotel room before I left and they gave me two drink tickets so I had a beer and a rum and coke. When Chris got there he bought me another shot of Fireball... so I was feeling good. We all were feeling good. We spent the next three hours dancing the night away and having a blast. Since this was a VIP party there were several celebrities (friends of Felicia) like Colin Ferguson, who I love and have worked with before on The Guild. Nathan Fillion who was also on The Guild and his friend Alan Tudyk from Firefly fame. There were also lots of web-celebs.. it was fun rubbing elbows with the stars :)

We closed the place down and at 2am we headed back to our hotel room to crash as I had to be up early to prepare for my Hobbit cosplay.

Day 2 of San Diego Comic Con 2013, was a blast. It started great with folks really enjoying my Hobbit cosplay and faltered a bit with our crappy lunch but soared to new heights with the G&S VIP party... good times were had by all.

Pictures from SDCC 2013 Album 1

Pictures from SDCC 2013 Album 2

Pictures from SDCC 2013 Album 3

San Diego Comic Con - Day 1 - Wednesday

Got up early as I couldn't sleep. I was too excited for the next five days. Not only was I going to be cosplaying and seeing cool thing at the con but I was going to be spending 5 days with two of my favorite people in the world Chris and Robert. I had just seen Chris a week and a half ago but it's felt like forever and I could wait to go pick him up from the airport. I see Robert almost every week and I still get excited when we get to hang out, these guys mean the world to me.

Still had a few last minute things to do/pack and man do those little things really add up.. so much so that it made me late. I loaded up my car with my bags around 10am, I had two suitcases (one for cosplay and one for regular clothes) and several back pack kind of bags.  I wanted to be gone by 9:30am. Traffic was pretty heavy so I didn't get to Roberts until around 11:00am. Chris was flying in at 11:30am at LAX, which thankfully is close to Robert's place.

Timing couldn't have been better, as I got to Roberts he was packing up his car, I transferred my stuff into his and within a few minutes we were off. We got to LAX around 11:30am and had a bit of a problem with communication as Chris' phone has a mind of it's own. Finally after our third go round at LAX we met Chris outside the terminal and loaded his stuff into the car. We were now ready to hit the road to San Diego Comic Con.

We drove about 20 minutes or so before deciding to pull off and grab some lunch. Once feed we jumped back on the freeway and headed south. Traffic was hit and miss as usual. Took about three plus hours to get there. We got to San Diego and found our hotel and checked in. We took our stuff up to the room and kind of relaxed for a bit. It was nice room, pretty large and had two double beds. It would be just the three of us for a few days (Wed/Thurs) then my brother would be joining us for Friday and Saturday. We unpacked and then headed to con to pick up badges. Well I was picking up my badges as both Robert and Chris were relying on others for their badges and we weren't sure when those folks were getting them.

Our hotel is about four blocks east and five blocks north of the convention center. It's just over a mile and about 20 minute walk. All of this isn't bad and we got such a great deal on the room (Thanks Robert). We got to the convention center and it was a madhouse. There were hundreds and hundreds of people all over the place. It was around 4pm and the con wasn't opening for another two hours but you couldn't tell from the crowds. I got into the very long professional line (at first I wasn't sure where to go as the staff there wasn't that helpful) but I did manage to get in the right line. Robert and Chris took off around the convention to see if they could find the Assassin Creeds Ship, which was docked on the water. It was hot outside but luckily the line moved quickly and within 20 minutes I had my badges (mine and my brothers).

Once I had my badge I hooked back up with Robert and Chris and we walked around The Gaslamp district looking for a place to grab some dinner. We found The Counter (burger joint) that was closed last SDCC was now open so we grabbed some dinner there. By the time we were done it was 6ish and we headed back to the convention center. Since my brother was not joining us until Friday I had the extra badge to give to either Chris or Robert. They did rock/paper/scissor and Robert won two out of three. He was going to use the badge first and then come out and give it to Chris later. This was Roberts first time on the con floor. He came last year but didn't actually do the con itself. We ran into some friends and one of them didn't have a badge so he hung out with Chris, who come to find out found a large group of friends to hang out with outside of con.

We entered the con and everyone went in different directions. I went to the Weta booth to get the exclusive Hobbit action figure Azog. It was crazy busy on the floor. There were people everywhere. It felt like a Saturday rather then a Wednesday preview night. It took a good hour or so to get to the front of the line but I did manage to purchase two of the exclusive Hobbit "Azog" figures. I also got a cool Superman/Hobbit mash up tee shirt as well.

We hooked back up with some friends (Both Chris and Robert had their own badges now). We walked the crowded floor for a bit before getting in line at the Titan shop to buy the exclusive The Guild Companion Book (come to find out they only made 30 of them). We stood in line for what seemed like forever (about 30 minutes) but we finally got the book. What made these different from the "regular" books is these are hard bound covers and have an extra page with the autographs of the entire cast. (I'm going to do a separate blog about the Guild Companion at a later date.)

It was now 9:00pm and the con was closed for the day. We were all tired so we headed back to the hotel, what was great is that there was a shuttle bus that would take us back to the hotel and after along day it was nice to not have to walk back.. even if it was just a little over a mile away.

Once back at the hotel we dropped off our stuff and headed back out to meet up with some friends who went to see the Hammer Improv show. We got there just when they were getting out. It was great seeing a bunch of people that I haven't seen in over a year. We stood around and chatted for about a half hour before we started to walk around the gaslamp district looking for a place to eat and drink. After walking a few blocks and not finding a place that could accommodate all of us (there were about 15 of us) I finally called it a night and headed back to the hotel room, Robert joined me. As it turned out alot of people called it a night and only a few stayed out to party (Chris included).

Back at the hotel I was in contact with Greg and Red 5 about my Hobbit feet. If you remember from an earlier blog I had asked Greg to make me some new feet as my old Hobbit feet were going on three years and I didn't think they could take much more. They asked that I leave my old Hobbit feet as a reference. Well these guys are so busy they didn't have time to make my new feet so Red said she would stop by my hotel and drop off my old ones. I was just hoping they could last a few more days. Robert went to bed and I stayed up (not by choice, I was tired). Chris got home around midnight and went to bed. Around 12:30am Red called and said she'd be downstairs in a few minutes. I went down and a few minutes later she drove up and dropped off my old Hobbit feet.

I went back up to the hotel room and crashed.. had to be up at 7am to prepare for my Hobbit cosplay tomorrow (err rather later today).

So ended day 1 of San Diego Comic Con 2013, It was a crazy day.. being at the con for only a half hour I was already tired and asking myself why I am doing this again :) Of course this was only the beginning of what I hoped would be an AWESOME five days in geek heaven.

Pictures from SDCC 2013 Album 1

Pictures from SDCC 2013 Album 2

Pictures from SDCC 2013 Album 3

Friends, Superheros and Birthdays

Today I headed over to Universal Citywalk to hang out with some guildies who were visiting the LA area before heading down to Comic Con. Most are from out of state with exception to Thomas from Ireland and Bel (Adam) who came the furthest, all the way from Sweden.

Joining us for lunch today was Bel, Jeff, Becky, Tim, Thomas and someone I have never meet but we are twitter friends Tammy. Also Tammy's friend, who's name I can't remember.

Citywalk is a great place to meet up and hang out but the parking there is just so darn expensive. So I opted for parking in the Metro parking lot down the hill. You're not suppose to park there but I have done it for years and nothing has ever happen. I told Thomas to park there was well so we both got to the parking lot about the same time but there weren't any spots. There were marked spots that said you have to have a permit before 11am to park there.. it was 10:45am so both Thomas and I parked next to each other with our cars running and waited until 11am arrived and then got out and walked to the tram at the bottom of the hill that would take us up to Citywalk.

When we got there the other guys were already there. We opted to go upstairs to the "fast food court" area as it would allow folks to eat cheaply but also pick what kind of food they wanted. I got Panda Express with a few others. We found some seating by combining a few tables and we then ate and talked for the next two hours. It was pretty relaxing just sitting there people watching and talking with friends that I haven't seen in over a year.

We decided to walk around a bit as some of the guys wanted to get Cinnabon. If you won't know what Cinnabon is it's a place that makes some very tasty Cinnamon Rolls. Bel had to get one and send a pix to Erlend who is in England and loves Cinnabon. Thomas also got one and I found out this was his first time eating one.. he enjoyed it.

It was around 2pm and I had to get going. I was hanging out with my buddy Will as it's his birthday today. I said my goodbyes and headed over to Will's who is only about 10 minutes away. Once at Will's we talked about what we wanted to do. I figured we'd continue our Deep Space Nine watch but he wanted to go out to the movies. He wanted to see Man of Steel, World War Z or Pacific Rim. I had already seen Man of Steel and Pacific Rim and loved both of them but I had no desire to see World War Z but was willing to see it with him because it was his birthday.

Guess where he wound up going to.. yep... back to Universal Citywalk. Will was hungry when we got there and we went to Pink's for a hotdog. We then went over to the movie theaters and wanted to see which one of these movies fit into our timeslot and the winner was Pacific Rim. So I watched Pacific Rim for a second time and I have to say it's just as much fun as the first time.

Once the movie was over we walked over to Gamestop (a place I rarely visit as I'm not a big gamer). I saw these kids playing some sort of Justice League pvp game. It reminded me of the arcade game X-men that I use to play with I was a teenager. Will and I played the demo, I was Superman and he was Batman and I fell in love with the game. What makes it even better is that it's a game for Xbox 360 which I have.. woohoo.. The game is called Injustice: Gods Among Us and I MUST HAVE IT!!!

We then stopped by.. yep.. Cinnabon and we both picked up some tasty snacks before heading to Hollywood for Will's Birthday dinner at Bossa Nova. About 20 of Will's friends attended including mutual friends Jes, Jen, Robert, Dallas, Becca and Jarred. It was a nice evening and a great way to celebrate his birthday.

From the moment I met you I knew we'd be friends for life. I have watched you grow and change over the years. You are truly one of the sweetest human beings I have ever met. I'm thankful everyday that you are such an important part of my life and I can't wait for all your success which you so richly deserve.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BUDDY.. LOVE YA!!

Magic Mountain with Thomas

Today my buddy Thomas and I went to Six Flags Magic Mountain. If you have read my previous blog Thomas is visiting from Ireland for SDCC. I found out last year that he loves roller coasters so I told him the next time he's in town I was going to take him to one of the best places to ride roller coasters in the world.. Magic Mountain.

It was hot but the crowds weren't that bad. I think we waited an hour at the most for rides but normally it was 15 to 20 minutes. We rode every single roller coaster and the only major ride we did not ride was Lex Luther's Drop of Doom as it was shut down for maintenance.

We got to the park and the first thing I had to take him on was X2 as I knew the line for that would continue to grow. We then rode Viper, Tatus (which is my favorite), Ninja, Superman, had some lunch then rode The Gold Rusher, Apocalypse, Riddler's Revenge, Green Lanterns First Flight, Batman, Colossus, Scream, Goliath, Full Throttle (which is new and was my first time as well), Revolution and finally Superman again.

As I mentioned we rode Full Throttle which opened just a few weeks ago. It was our longest wait, just over an hour but the ride wasn't what I was expecting. I thought it was another roller coaster and in a sense it is but not your typical one. First thing you do is shoot off into the largest loop in the world. That doesn't sound bad but it's so big that when you get to the top of the loop and you're hanging there the car literally slows down to where you're not sure you are going to completely over the loop. You are only held in by your lap restraint, there is no over other shoulder harness. It's extremely scary. After you barely go through the loop you go into a twist and into a tunnel where you stop. You are then eject backwards and go through that twist again but only get halfway through it. As you start to move forward you hit the tunnel again where you are shot out of it like a cannon and go over the top of the loop that you just went through. At one point you are slightly inverted. Once you are over the loop you are instantly stopped and the ride if over. As I mentioned it's a fun ride.. just not what I was expecting. The ride lasts maybe a minute.

We had a blast, if you know Thomas, he's a fairly quiet and reserved guy but on the roller coasters he'd let lose and screamed along with the rest of us, it was fun to see that side of him. From his reactions I would say X2, Tatus, Superman and Apocalypse were some of his favorites. But he loved them all as I knew he would. Can't wait to take him again when he's back in town.

Check out Thomas's Vlog for our day at Magic Mountain.

MASH 4077 Podcast Episode 58

Download from itunes tinyurl.com/MASH4077itunes , listen on Stitcher Radio ow.ly/iZJIz or Listen, get direct download from our main website MASH4077Podcast.com

Show Notes

Kenny Mittleider from Knights of the Guild, Alien Nation: The Newcomers Podcast & Confessions of a Fanboy Podcast, Simon Meddings from Waffle On Podcast, & Al Kessel from Tales from the Mouse House, Fast Forward & Just Because Podcast discuss one of the most successful and longest running television series in history.. M*A*S*H

Today we cover Season 3, Episode #10 - There is Nothing Like a Nurse
58th Episode Overall
Directed by Hy Averback
Written by Larry Gelbart
Production code B309
Original air date November 19, 1974

Set during the Korean War in the 1950’s

Plot Summary: The nurses are evacuated when the threat of an enemy parachute drop arises. Hawkeye and Trapper try to enliven everyone's spirits whilst they are gone.

Hope you enjoy it, Kenny

Don't Let The Haters Win

My friend Holly Conrad, who I met while extra'ing with her on Season Five of The Guild posted this great message about "haters" on the internet. I have come across my fair share of haters from things I have created and posted on the interwebs, ie video blogs, music videos, podcasts and web series. Her comments are so well said/written that I asked her if I could share it here on my blog and she graciously said yes.

Holly is a fantastic artist and cosplayer as well as one of the most talented people I know. You can check her stuff out on her website HERE.

She is also going to be featured in a new reality show for Syfy called "Heroes of Cosplay" Be sure to check it out when it premieres next month.

Here is the message that Holly posted:

""A quick note and a few thoughts for those that read any hate on the internet or encounter it in life:

Those that reach the public eye in any way will always have those that dislike, disagree, slander, and wait for you to make a mistake, so that their jealousy and fear can have something to dwell on and remember forever.

If you're an artist, you do art. You aren't making things for the haters, these people, you're making things for yourself and for those you love, and those that will appreciate it and be inspired. Whether that be cosplay, art, music, anything. Even putting yourself out there on youtube. You're not doing it for them, and when they comment saying mean things, awful things, you need to ignore them and know in your heart, they are not why you are doing what you do, and they do not impact you. They are wrong and jealous and you should feel sorry for them.

Make art for yourself and those you love, don't be afraid of what people will say, think, do. Be afraid of what would happen if those that matter didn't get to see what awesomeness you're capable of, and never let those that want to bring you down impact what you love. Or make you stop loving yourself.""

I couldn't have said it better... thanks Holly for this wonderful message of just being who you are and to not let the "haters" win. We can all learn from this. 

Hobbit Prep & Gaming

I could not sleep last night.. was up until 3am and only slept on and off for the next five hours. I am so tired I had to pull out he big guns (my huge cup so I could make a triple dose of English Breakfast Tea... yum.

I'm heading out to D&D later today but I have so much to do before then. After my tea I was feeling a bit better so I tackled my MASH podcast. I worked on it for another few hours before it was finished, uploaded and ready to be released tomorrow.

Next on my list was to pack for San Diego Comic Con. Packing my regular clothes is the easy part.. packing up my Hobbit cosplay is harder. This was the only cosplay I was bringing this year.. no Star Trek or Harry Potter.. it was all about The Hobbit. After getting everything packed and triple checking to make sure I had everything I started to work on my wig. I washed the hair, then dried it. Put some product in it and went to town with the curling iron. I posted this picture on Twitter and Facebook with the comment.. "How geeky am I, I'm curling my Hobbit wig on a Harry Potter Quaffle." It actually worked out pretty well and after a half hour of burning my hands the hair looked pretty good. I sprayed so much hair spray on it, that it's as hard as a football helmet. 

That was it.. I was ready for comic con, my podcasts were all done and it was just in time for me to head out to D&D. About 10 minutes into my drive I realized that I had made a mistake and thought D&D was starting at 2:30pm but it was really starting at 3:30pm. It was too late to turn around but it actually turned out okay for me as I hadn't had a chance to eat lunch so this gave me some time to pick up some El Pollo on my way down. 

After lunch I headed to Will and Jen's place. This was a new location for our gaming group. We had a good amount of folks for this D&D session. My buddy Thomas even joined us as a guest player. 

Last we left it, my character Dash was being held captive with a knife against his throat. Well I didn't die (thankfully) but a few of our characters got some major hit points when we were attacked by a giant snake. This wasn't one of our most action packed sessions, we did a lot of walking around in underground caverns. We did manage to not get killed by a bunch of ghouls... so that was a plus. It was another fun session and of course we left it just when things were getting interesting.. can't wait for the next game day. 

I drove Dallas (our game master) back to his place and when I dropped him off my friend America was just finishing her costume session with Jes (who missed D&D). It was great seeing America. We talked in the street for about a half hour. We're both excited for comic con and showing off our cosplay. It was a nice way to end a very good and productive day.