Tag Archives: Dragoncon

DragonCon Recap

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Ms. Marvel taking selfies with other superheroes

Check out all those superhero selfies!  I’m rather proud of them, really.  They were a boatload of fun to take.  I’ve got more that are slowly going up on Instagram (scribblerex), if you’re interested.  The selfies are a nod to the comics (if you haven’t read Ms. Marvel, go do that now!).  Kamala is a teenager and selfies are kind of her thing…also superhero fanfiction!

So…what happened at DragonCon?  Well, everything.  But I’m going to narrow it down to my favorite things or we’ll be here all day talking about pie, Katie’s sparkly shorts, Invader Zim, and how much I love watching people in giant mech suits try to fit through doorways.  So, my top 3:

1.Princess Alethea’s Traveling Sideshow

  • Basically a bunch of wonderful YA authors get together to put on a little…sideshow…?  There’s usually singing, storytelling (Tiny insignificant details!), and antics–like Leanna Renee Hieber turning her novel into a Hermione/Snape fanfic.  Other perks…well…if you’re one of the first people there you get some free swag…I love perks.  I also got Alethea Kontis to sign her newest Trixter novel for me, plus a collection of short stories.  And I picked up Mari Mancusi’s Tomorrow Land…zombies and Disneyland…I’m pretty pumped!  Who else was there?  Well…Gray Rinehart and S.J. Tucker brought their musical talents, and E.C. Myers played handsome prince.  The Traveling Sideshow has been hilarious both years we’ve went, and definitely worth setting aside an hour of your con for (especially you other YA fans out there).

2. The Canonization of Mother Teresa at Sacred Heart

  • Sacred Heart is about a minutes walk from the Hilton downtown, and I end up there for mass every DragonCon.  This year had an added bonus: Mother Teresa was actually canonized on September 4.  Luci and I went to the 6:00 mass for the fancy celebration of it–there were TV cameras and everything.  I can’t find a good article about the mass itself (everything online predates the actually mass, so that’s unhelpful), but this Georgia Bulletin article (the Catholic newspaper) tells you a bit about the Missionaries of Charity in Georgia.

3. Robot Battles

  • I love Robot Battles.  It isn’t quite like what you’ll see on Battlebots on TV.  Robot Battles are held sumo style on a little platform where the robots compete to see who can knock the other one off first.  Michael and I have looked forward to it every year since we first discovered it and it never disappoints.  One day I want to build my very own.  Check out their facebook page for info–I learned that they have a youtube channel as well, if you want to actually watch a battle and see what I’m talking about.  They have the rumbles up (they put all of the robots up on the stage at the same time and have them go at each other)…and I swear one of them probably has video of Kelly Lockhart whacking the bots with a wooden duck…

So…that’s it…that’s all that happened minus A LOT!  But you’ll just have to go with me next year and pick some favorites yourself.  Tickets for next year are still $80 (I just checked…but that could change by the time I hit post), so get ’em while they’re cheap!

————————————–Later in the day edit—————————————-

It’s been a rather heavy day, so I’m moving the heavy part of my post down here…

I feel a little weird about posting on 9/11.  I went to mass this morning and realized that 15 years have passed…how could it have?  America the Beautiful made me tear up a little…which is ok…so here are a few hopes for you today.  I hope everybody gets to take a moment today to remember.  I hope everyone takes a second to send out a prayer for those who lost their lives or loved ones during the attacks.  Be thankful for our country, and our loved ones, and our many brave heroes.

 

 

 

Finishing Up Ms. Marvel’s Scarf

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Ms. Marvel update!

I started on the scarf…the tedious part.  You don’t want to know how long it took me to put the trim on just the edges; I knew adding the funky starburst bit was going to make me want to cry.

Ms. Marvel Comic

Instead of crying, I chose to flail my arms in the air.  Sometimes Michael flailed back.  It was a thing.

Ms. Marvel Stencil

So…to make my life easier I made a weird looking stencil.  (no I don’t remember why it looks that weird…I made it back in June, just never got around to using it).

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Then I traced it with a fabric marker so it would wash out (not that you’re actually going to see it).

Funky shape pinned

And then I pinned one side, sewed one half of the line and then flipped it over to pin the other.  It was moving way too much to risk trying to pin both sides and then sew.

Finished scarf end

The end result looks like this…I wish it didn’t look quite so much like snakeskin, but it looks fine from a distance, so I’ll deal.  Stephanie says it looks good and I’m being too nitpicky.  She’s right.  My nitpicky side is very resentful of her being right, but she’s right.

Michael with a Stick

Lastly, I’ll leave you a photo of Michael with a stick.  We took a brief break to go Pokemon hunting, and Michael found a stick.  Also, I realize I’m playing the WordPress lottery with photos here, and that this photo–the entirely unrelated one–will be the one that shows up on facebook.  Bring it on, WordPress.  Bring it on.

 

Dragoncon: Robot Battles

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I realize that I’m beginning at the end of the con–which does seem like an odd direction to go–but this is seriously one of my favorite Dragoncon events.  It makes the ever depressing con Monday a little better; partially because of its sheer awesomeness, partially because when you’re not walking the hallways you cant be sad about how empty they’re getting and all the tired looking people walking around with their suitcases.

Robot Battles are a little different than the Robot Wars/Battlebots/etc. you may have seen on TV.  These battles(no they’re not really robots, but lets not get technical now, thanks) are a little more restricted by the fact that they take place at a convention and have to use the hotel’s resources without doing injury to the audience or setting the hotel on fire.  So, instead of trying to destroy one another(they’d need some sort of protective glass or a cage or something to be able to safely pull that off), they fight sumo wrestler style on a raised platform trying to knock each other off.  For the very last battle they bring all of the robots of the weight class up to the platform and have a wonderful little free for all (see the youtube video below, and maybe fast forward to 2:08 because that’s where all the action is).

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