The Blog to Nowhere

It was rainy all day but that didn't seem to put a damper on things. It kind of messed up people's cosplays, though. I didn't see as many costumes as yesterday.

( Sunday details behind the cut )

Well, that's another expo done for the year. Now I need to find time to go see Avengers: Infinity War. I've been living in fear of spoilers since Thursday night.

Whoo, parade day! Perfect weather today. I wish I had a group shot of the Doctor Who cosplayers, but I didn't think to grab one. There were these cute kids (twin siblings) dressed up as Twelve and Thirteen. Oh my god, they had so many people taking their picture. The parents are big Whovians themselves and they've been dressing up their kids since they were born.

( Friday details behind the cut )

Saturday is going to be a little more packed schedule wise. I need to grab Wil Wheaton's autograph and potentially give him a knitted Wesley Crusher doll that I made him. Here's hoping he's accepting gifts.

- I get a lot of good books from my book club, but there aren't a lot of books I rave about. I recently finished The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers and it was so good. I had wanted to read this book for a while now and I finally had some time to get it out of the library. If you love Firefly and Mass Effect, this is a book series for you. It has a rag tag crew of a cargo ship just trying to make a living set against the backdrop of this galactic community that includes a lot of neat aliens. The book is a bit info dump-y at times, but you just plough through it to get back to the good stuff, which is scenes with the crew. The plot is basically a series of vignettes as the crew makes the trip to the small angry planet of the title, but they're great character moments. There's no big political conspiracy, well, there is, but the crew isn't involved with it for most of the story, so that's a nice change from these sprawling and complicated space operas.

And I totally pictured Nathan Fillion as the captain of the ship. He probably doesn't match the actual description of the character, but when I think of gruff but lovable captains in charge of a oft repaired cargo ship, I can't picture anyone else.

There's a second book in the series, but I'm annoyed that it doesn't follow the crew. It's still set in the same universe and it picks up on a plot thread from the first book, but I'd rather the author spend more time with these characters she has crafted. Oh well. I'll still read the second book, but the third book better be about the crew or at least feature them in some capacity.

- After watching The Defenders, I wanted to upgrade my Jessica Jones cosplay to include her black hoodie and somehow that led me back to looking at pictures of her infinity scarf. Now, when Jessica Jones first came out, no one had identified the screen used scarf, so I had winged a pattern when knitting my own scarf. Well, to my great delight I saw that fans had identified the scarf in the interim and I was finally able to track down some reference pictures of the SA scarf. Needless to say, my scarf was a decent attempt, but it's not a good match.

Now, I'd usually be content to just leave the scarf as is, I'm a "good enough" cosplayer at heart, but this is knitting. This is a skill I'm actually good at. If I can knit a better scarf, then dang it, I want to knit a better scarf. So I've been looking at stitch patterns that will closely resemble the actual stitch pattern of the SA scarf. It's some weird stockinette seed pattern that also creates a honeycomb look on the wrong side. I think I've found a stitch pattern that would recreate most of the elements, but I still want to see if I can refine it a bit further before I start looking for wool.

(I really should be focused on my Christmas knitting, but I just can't help myself.)

- Alex Kingston and Charlie Cox are guests at Edmonton Expo this year. I keep meaning to head up to Edmonton to check out their comic expo, but the time and money factors always get in the way. Alex is the last person I need to finish off the autographs for November, aka Eleven's month, on my Doctor Who calendar, so that's part of the reason I'd like to meet her. With Charlie Cox, I just want to ask him if he's still knitting. :-D Though, perhaps this means they will come back to the province next year for CCEE since the expos sometimes carry over guests from one city to the next.

- And damn we've been busy at work. Can't wait for the long weekend.

My rushing around day was yesterday, so today was a lot more chill. At least, as chill as it can be for a Saturday.

( Chill Saturday details behind the cut )

Tomorrow is the last day. There's a few more panels I want to check out, but I'm also debating whether to get Nathan Fillion's autograph again. I have a Mal action figure that's begging to be signed. I guess I'll decide in the morning.

Comic book expo this weekend! Yay!

As always on Thursdays, I took the opportunity to check out the exhibitor's hall. I was not wearing sensible shoes so now my feet hurt. This will probably be the norm for the rest of the weekend.

I'm keeping myself on a budget this year, so the only thing I bought were Girl Guide cookies. Yes, cookies. They never seem to come to my door so I had to buy a box.

I also got James Marsters' autograph. He was here a few years ago, but I totally missed him, so it's great that they got him back during Buffy's 20th anniversary. I have so much vintage Buffy swag from the late 1990s and early 2000s and I finally managed to put some of it to good use. Below is a Buffy postcard of Spike and Drusilla from a pack of postcards printed in 1999. Yes, I've had these postcards for over 15 years!



And apparently James doesn't do shenanigans during photo ops, one of the reasons he doesn't do team-up photo ops with John Barrowman, since Barrowman is the king of shenanigans. Oh, and I totally forgot to tell James Marsters that I'm super excited to see him in Runaways. D'oh!

Tomorrow is parade day. Temperature doesn't look awesome, but at least there's no rain or snow in the forecast. I know Peter Capaldi is already in the city (a friend managed to snap a pic with him at the hotel) so fingers crossed, Capaldi is part of the parade. I will probably squeal like a little girl if my cosplay group ends up walking behind his car.

So, my big Star Trek vacation. I attended this con five years ago, and it had been impressive then, but this year was even more impressive. Over 100 guests (some major, some minor), and seating for 6000 in the main panel room. That may not seem like a lot - hell, the Corral here holds just as many people - but that's still up from the seating for 4000 attendees when I was there last. Total attendance was, supposedly, around 10,000. That's a lot of people to squish into the hotel's convention area, which is large, but contained to one section of the hotel.

Actually, now that I think about it, that's probably 10,000 attendees over five days. The con sold one day admission passes for the first time. Still, that's a ton of people for any con in general.

Everything kicked off on Wednesday and went on straight until Sunday. I'm so glad I had a room in the hotel. After a long day, you could just go back to your room and lie down.

I should note that I didn't get my new camera until Saturday, so there's a mix of pictures taken with my phone and with the camera. I should also warn you that this is a long post with several pictures.

( Star Trek Las Vegas 50th anniversary convention )

Now I really want to re-watch all of the Star Trek shows, starting with TOS and ending with Enterprise. That's only what? 700+ episodes? Wait, should I include the animated series, too?

Man, I have a Star Trek hangover. That was a very busy five days. I'm ready to have a good night's sleep in my own bed.

But the convention was great fun! I sat in on a ton of panels, got a few autographs, saw some awesome costumes, and generally was grateful that I love yet another fandom that has stood the test of time. I seriously want to watch all of the episodes from every series from start to finish.

I need to organize myself, but then I'll have a general write-up. I will actually have non-crappy photos for once! My uncle, who also attended the con, gifted me with a new camera (thank you so much!), so I was able to snap some decent pics from our seats in the 14th row.

Sleep now, though...

- First week back at work. I didn't do anything for the first two days because, as usual, nothing was set up properly. Oh well, at least I got paid to sit around. Things should pick up next week now that I have access to everything. And I don't mean to speak ill of my co-workers, but after poking around the reports and files I used to handle, I have a vague feeling that nothing was done correctly after I left. Probably because no one had time to maintain everything. See, this is why they should have kept me on. I would have kept everyone organized.

- The project moved buildings in the interim, so now I have to commute downtown, but it does give me more time to read. I finished a book yesterday and I'm already a third of the way through the fourth book in The Expanse series. I didn't think I would get to Cibola Burn so quickly, but when I saw that it was available, I had to download the ebook from the library. Sometimes I have nothing to do at work, so it's nice to have a book on my phone so I can sneakily pass the time. Plus, I don't have to lug around a brick of a book in my backpack.

- The Star Trek con I'm attending in August announced Scott Bakula as a guest and it's a big deal since he doesn't do a lot of cons. And I get his autograph for free! It's complimentary with my ticket package. So I have to decide what he should sign; like, do I buy a photo there or do I bring something from home that's free? I didn't love Star Trek Enterprise, but when the man is literally giving away his pricey autograph, you can't turn it down. Maybe I'll find a Quantum Leap photo. ;-) I loved him in that show.

- With the major TV shows done for the season, it's nice to have the evenings free. I'm catching up on DVDs and whatnot. My library got a bunch of new Doctor Who DVDs in, so I'm slowly making my way through them. And I saw today that they finally released "The Underwater Menace" on DVD. This is probably old news, but it was new to me. I guess that means all of the existing episodes have finally been released to the public.

- Speaking of Doctor Who, filming for season ten starts in two weeks. Of course, we won't see the bulk of their efforts until some time next year. Damn you, sporting events, getting in the way of new episodes!

- I finally finished watching Daredevil. Yes, I know it's been four months since it premiered, but I was busy with knitting, and then I was gone for three weeks, and then I was embroiled in my Fourth Doctor scarf, so I didn't have any time until now to finish off the season. It's a pretty good show overall, but I'm really not on board with the costume at the end. I much prefer Matt's black ninja look. I know the red one is supposed to be like armour and protect him better, but it doesn't have the same oomph as, say, the Flash's costume on The Flash. Meh, whatever. Matt will be in the shadows a lot, so you won't see the costume in full detail.

- With one superhero show done, I decided to watch another. Constantine was very short lived, but seeing as the character will be making an appearance on Arrow, I thought I would watch the only season to get caught up on who this guy is. So far, I'm getting a The Dresden Files vibe. Guy who does magick helps people and defeats demons and whatnot. It's a shame Constantine wasn't under the CW banner of DC shows. I'm sure it would have done better if people knew it was tied into Arrow and The Flash. At least the character gets one more go. Oh, and the pilot gets bonus points for having Doctor Fate's helmet as an easter egg.

- Facing a geeky dilemma at the moment. The comic book expo up in Edmonton just announced Jenna Coleman as a guest and I would love to go up for the weekend to see her, but the time and money involved would probably be best served on something else (like my vacation next year). But it's a Doctor Who guest! At a much smaller con where line-ups will be shorter! And I actually have a Clara cosplay! So I will have to decide soon since I would need to book transportation and a hotel.

- I don't know how I ended up with the book, but I got stuck with a Nora Roberts mystery from my book group. To be more precise, it's a J.D. Robb mystery, which is Roberts pen name when she's not writing romance or whatnot. Whatever the author's name is, it's still a crappy book. Ugh, I want to stop reading it, but I pride myself on finishing all of the books I pick up from the group. I thought it wouldn't be that bad, even though it's like book #27 in the series, but despite the futuristic setting the writing still sucks. Not that much description and a lot of talking and the dialogue is not engaging at all. I'm going to need some good sci fi or fantasy to clean out my brain once I'm done with this pile of crap.

Hmm, that sounds dirty, too...

So today was my photo-op day with Matt Smith and Karen Gillan. I wore my "The Girl Who Waited" Amy costume, because it's the most unique costume I have, and I'm glad I did despite the hassle of getting everything down to the con.

( CCEE 2014: Saturday )

My weekend is pretty much done now. I got everything I needed. Autographs from Matt and Karen and their photo. Not sure what to do with myself tomorrow.