Emerald City Comic Con 2012: The Costumes
My apologies for the Mindy overload here, had to jump in a few pictures with these awesome folks.
Slideshow of the great costumes at Emerald City Comic Con 2012:
Nerd Fun With Photoshop
Here are some of my most favorite creations for this term’s Beginning Photoshop class.
These were created in less than an hour, because I had a freaking deadline to meet. The Boba Fett in pimp attire received quite a bit of mileage. Did I mention it’s a Beginning Photoshop class?
Boba Fett Superstar
It’s hard to improve on Pimp Boba Fett, but I think pink glitter stars are pretty close.
The Trouble with Tribbles
My folks are Star Trek loving nerds. The tribbles were an added bonus. Also – that guy photo-bombing.
Boba Fett Beach
I imagine that Pimp Boba Fett uses a lot of hearts to punctuate his exclamation points.
Don’t worry, this won’t become a crappy Photoshop photo-journal. These were simply the highlight of an entire day spent fighting software (teeth gnashing, hair pulling, tear inducing). They brought joy to my heart and made me giggle.
Here they are world. For your LOL pleasure.
Free Comic Book Day 2011: Portland Preview
Some of youse out there might know already, but Saturday is the national and annual Free Comic Book Day 2011. The DH and I have charge of two nephews (their dad is off in Tennessee processing insurance claims from the Southern Tornado devastation last week). Therefore, our activities might be much more muted than last year, but I’m pretty excited about the prospect of introducing one of my nephews to his first comic book shop (ESPECIALLY on FCBD).
They are extra lucky, because we’re also taking them to Thor on Friday night. I don’t doubt there will be a free comic there (as there was for Iron Man 2 last year).
So what’s going down in Stumptown that is kid friendly at our comic shops? I’ll divulge all right here.
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-From 10am to 6pm FREE COMICS while supplies last
– No in-store artists or signings or other special events are advertised. You should stop by anyway if you’re in the neighborhood!
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– I’ll assume 10am or 11am-6pm FREE COMICS while supplies last (as most stores are doing) no times are indicated.
– Didn’t have much posted on their webpage and only a small blurb on their Facebook profile mentioning two artists will be available for signings, with no time frames included.
- Zachary Baldus (New Mutants, American Splendor)
- Shannon Wheeler (artist/writer, Too Much Coffee Man)
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– From 10am to 7pm FREE COMICS while supplies last, $2 Doorbuster graphic novels, 60% off hundred of sale items, TFAW bucks, signings, stormtroopers and pirates.
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Emerald City Comic Con 2011: The Costumes
Everyone knows the best part of a fan convention is the opportunity to cosplay your favorite franchise in the safe company of fellow nerds who will love you for it. Even a crappy costume gets love at a comic con. And for those not crazy enough to dress up, there is always the opportunity to snap a photo with those who are.
As promised, here are some of the best costumes from March 4th-March 6th. Included a few of the costumes from the Masquerade which have already been seen, but these pics are better. My apologies for so much…me…in this slideshow. 😛
SADLY, this is the last ECCC related blog entry until 2012. But that doesn’t mean there won’t be anymore content on this here blog!
NEXT WEEK: Battle: Los Angeles Review, Spartacus: Gods of the Arena Recap and The Hunger Games Link-Bombs + My Attempt at Casting.
LATER THIS MONTH: Sucker Punch Review, Book Club Recap, Bridge City Comics Signing Recap
AND MORE: I’ll also be meeting with a friend here in the PDX area who is interested in collaboration. Excited about mixing things up a bit and seeing what kind of response we get. I’ll post more details soon!
The Other Gryffindor Scarf and…Other Stuff
Guess what I finished, just in time for the opening of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part I? The “Other” Gryffindor scarf – which shows up in Prisoner of Azkaban (my personal favorite) and The Goblet of Fire (my least favorite). I modified the pattern a bit – used a heavier weight yarn: Aran/10 ply (8 wpi) instead of what the pattern suggested. Also used size 8 needles, as there were no size 7 at either of the two craft stores I visited. I only cast on 60 stitches per row, instead of the 100 it recommended. 100 would have been HUGE. This is the pattern I worked from – DID NOT alter the number of yellow rows. Ended up using barely one skein of the mustard colored yarn.
Here is the finished product:
The "Other" Gryffindor Scarf
We’ve been re-watching the Harry Potter movies leading up to the midnight showing and I’ve already spotted another HP item I’d like to knit up. Maybe as a hat for my mother. I’ll have to check the Charmed Knits book out from the library again…or maybe one of my kind friends or family will purchase one for me.
Anyways – finishing up this project is abnormally satisfying, as I am ready to take a much-needed break from knitting. Yes, after nearly 2.5 months of ALWAYS having a knitting project on the needles (as well as knitting up three birthday presents), I’m taking a week off. Well, maybe just a few days.
I’ll probably start something on Wednesday.
But another pleasurable indulgence has taken hold in the interim: VIDEO GAMES. Most specifically…
Galen Marek is another one of my video game crushes.
It was fantastical to be immersed in the world of Starkiller again, and both the DH and I managed to beat it in one day.
Yeah. That doesn’t seem right. It was a ridiculously short game. Much shorter than the Assassin’s Creed sequel, and also shorter than the original Force Unleashed. The original Force might just be one of my favorite video game experiences in a long, long time.
So – the sequel had a lot to live up to, and didn’t quite make it. It seemed like the storyline was rushed and lacking both the depth and breadth of the original. There was no twist, tangle or really any character arch or growth. Pretty disappointed in the story.
But the game play is excellent. I’d like to get my hands on a copy for the Wii, so I can experience the joy of wielding a light saber again. Otherwise, I’m holding out hope for the third installment. And praying they don’t make a movie out of these video games. I’m quite of the belief that this particular storyline fits so much better on the small screen, with all the intimacy of you, the controller and the TV.
Sure – this would have made a great movie. Theoretically, the prequels would have also made great flicks as well. And we all saw how that played out. No, I much prefer Starkiller, Juno, General Kota and Proxy to exist as playable characters in a video game. I really don’t want Lucas putting his grubby mitts on these folks.
For those doubters – you must answer this question: what would the story gain from being turned into a movie? Video games are already visual and auditory, as well as tactile. Movies just remove one of the sensory experiences. In my opinion, more movies need to be turned into video games. 🙂 But GOOD video games. Not the shite that is already churned out by the direct-to-game industry.
Of course – any obsession or interest is automatically filtered through my youtube lens – so please enjoy a few videos I’ve stumbled across in my searching:
The classic fanvid: music plus video clips
Something altogether different – a lego fight sequence inspired by Force Unleashed.
That’s all you get folks.
We’re picking up a copy of Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood tomorrow after work, so you can look forward to some madness on that end. We’ve got Harry Potter on Thursday/Friday and the Portland Comic Book Show on Sunday, so you can pretty much be guaranteed some posts in the near future. Get excited! 😀
Star Wars vs Star Trek Portland Bike Ride 2010
Oh joy – oh rapture! When one of my exercise-y hobbies can intersect with my love of all things nerdy, it is impossible for me and Dan (the DH) to resist.
Here is how we spent yesterday evening.
Since we’d spent most of the day moving a friend – Smalls – we didn’t end up following the entire route. Plus, Dan was pouring sweat, the mask coupled with the heat. The lekku headpiece and this only being the second bike ride of the season (plus the hottest day of the year thus far) also did me in.
It was great to see so many nerdy folks come out for two great tastes – well, three really: bike riding, star wars/trek and cosplay.
Here are some great pics that didn’t make the video:
LINK LOVE
Top 10 Film Creatures Used as Transportation
Trains, planes, automobiles, horses and the occasional camel or elephant are the typical modes of transportation for the heroes and heroines of most Hollywood Blockbuster movies. But in the last few years as fantasy and sci-fi have become more widely embraced, the modes of transportation for characters have changed dramatically.
Especially in the last few months, I’ve found myself in the movie theaters turning to the person next to me and jealously exclaiming – I want to ride “insert awesome creature here.” Here are my top 10 personal favorite creatures used as transportation in film.
10. TaunTaun – a kangaroo, llama like creature from Star Wars: Empire Strikes Back. Native to the ice cold planet Hoth. They may smell bad, but they’ll keep you warm and cozy when you use their guts for a sleeping bag. And while you may not be able to ride one in real life, you can actually buy a TaunTaun sleeping bag, and be the envy of your friends at all the nerd parties.
9. The Great Eagles – the second coolest creatures in the Lord of the Rings Trilogy. They appear a few different times – once to rescue Gandalf from the Orthanc Tower in Isengaard and next to rally during the climactic battle for Middle Earth, fighting off the Nazgul. They also fly into Mordor to pick up the fatigued Frodo and Sam as Mt. Doom explodes all around them.
8. lorek Byrnison – the talking polar “ice” bear from The Golden Compass movie. He acts as a guardian and protector of the main character Lyra, but also his own back-story, which yields some wicked cool bear-on-bear fight action. As opposed to bear-on-man action, which is what would happen if you attempted to ride a bear in real life.
7. Buckbeak the Hippogriff – appears in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. The creature itself is a bit of a bitch to manage, but if the end result is a fun flight around Hogwarts, and a rescue later on in the film, than HP is willing to risk it. Buckbeak also has a warm spot in my heart as he was nearly the victim of a beheading.
6. Fell Beast – evil dragon creatures from the Lord of the Rings that are controlled by the Nazguls. They look bad-ass with their giant wing-span and have a cool scream to inspire fear in the hearts of weaker men. Unfortunately, that seems to be their favorite snack, so they would probably make you the neighborhood pariah when folks started going missing.
Chad Vader – Day Shift Manager
Lazy blogging alert. Hey – it’s the first week of Fall Term, be happy with this and not the crappy semi-literate-barely-slap-dashed-together shit review that I was going to post. I’ll save that for when my coherency level is operating at full throttle.
Continuing the growing obsession with all things Star Wars…and in conjunction with trying to locate a decent Darth Vader costume for Dan, I stumbled upon this:
There is a whole 8 installments of this series – but apparently they’ve discontinued DVD sales. If it weren’t free on the internet, I might almost pay for it. Almost. For more information…
Much Love, Mindy C
Unleashing the Force
So – I have a confession to make. In the last four days, I spent AT LEAST 10 hours playing video games. OK, just one video game in particular. Are you ready?
This is highly unlike me. It’s rare that a video game out there manages to capture my interest with it’s attractiveness, easy playing style, and storytelling.
And most of those that do hook me end up being some kind of RPG style entity – a few that I’ve fallen for over the last few years:
And of course – World of Warcraft. I was pretty much logging like 3-4 hours a night for a three month stretch back in 2005. Yes, bask in the nerdiness of that statement. But I haven’t touched that game since then.
So – by and large I’m not a huge gamer. I enjoy RPG style outings (though I never really got into Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess) and interactive games like Wii Sports, Guitar Hero, Rock Band and DDR. But I don’t read gaming magazines, or track release dates for games. It’s just not my thing.
So, this game is one of those rare exceptions.
Dan purchased The Force Unleashed for the Wii console exactly one week ago. He played a little last Friday night while I paged insanely through Twilight, trying to ignore the John Williams orchestrations and blaster shots.
My level of interest in Star Wars waxes and wanes, and for the most part – I could care less about spaceships and aliens. However, I happened to glance up now and then last Friday evening and thought…shit, this thing has a STORY. And the voice-acting and characterizations aren’t half bad.
Dan caught me eye-balling, and then practically insisted I duel him.
Of course, he soundly kicked my ass several times and I threw the controls down in frustration. But despite the brutal beating – I enjoyed being able to wield a light saber and use incredibly fun force powers (push, choke, repel, electricity). Since adequate dueling requires that the champions be on equal footing, Dan suggested I start up a game and figure out how to use the powers.
And then I was hooked.
Dan
tinyheroes
Tiny Heroes 