#and I liked the vibe when I went to the con on Sunday last year | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

kelmcdonald · 3 months ago

Text

Rose City is this Weekend!

Hey everyone, I put out my September newsletter. You can sign up and be notified for future newletters here: https://mailchi.mp/fa17a626907f/keepingupwithkel

Here is a copy/paste of what it says:

I'm at table B-12! Right up front! Stop by and get some books! I'll have copies of Failure to Launch!

Perfect Crime Party is currently crowdfunding! I mentioned it last month but this is the newest anthology I edited for Iron Circus. There is a lot of fun lighthearted crime stories. So please grab yourself a copy!

This months werewolf movie is An American Werewolf in Paris. I'll be hosting it on my discord September 17th at 4pm pt. If you wanna join, just sign up for my discord here. I starting to run out of the big deal werewolf movies. So I'm also open to recommendations.

Tuesday 8pm-10pm PST – Art times

Wednesday 8pm-10pm PST – Art times

Thursday 6pm-8pm PST (during the Iron Circus Geekshow)

Sunday 8pm-11pm PST – Playing Baldur’s Gate 3

Please stop by!

I spent a big chunk of August traveling. I went to Worldcon for the first time. It was in Glasgow, Scotland. My thought was if I didn't like the con, then I could just leave and do something touristy. I did end up enjoying the con and I plan to go when it's in Seattle next year. My hotel was about a 20 min to the convention center but it was pretty nice and along the river.

If you don't know, Worldcon is a sci-fi fantasy con where the Hugos are held. It's in a different city every year. While there is some fan stuff, it is mainly aimed at pros and aspiring pros. As such the vibe was very different at Worldcon that the many comic shows I've been to. I think a lot of the panels at comic cons are basically press releases. There are some panels on craft, but they usually get buried/given bad time slots. Which makes sense because those comic shows are more focused on fans and sales.

So it was nice to listen to some topics with writing being the focus. I particularly liked one I went to about governments in sci-fi and fantasy and why those two genres tend toward writing about fascism or monarchy. I went because in The City Between, Connor's husband Jordan is their worlds equivalent of the governor. I think I got some good notes and ideas on how to flesh that angle out more in future stories.

Also at Worldcon I grabbed some new books. One I ready finished, To Shape a Dragon's Breath. It is about a native girl who finds a dragon. Her people used to have dragons but were wiped out when white settlers started colonizing the area. Said white colonizers also have a lot of laws about dragons, so she has to go to one of their schools for dragon riders. It was very well written and I got through it pretty fast. My one complaint is at the beginning the main character is a bit too nice for my tastes. That isn't a flaw with the book, just my personal taste. I frequently like characters that are trash monsters to the point where my friends tell me they can't watch someone of my favorite shows because everyone is too awful. So me thinking a character is too nice, is probably a plus for everyone else.

After Worldcon, I stayed in Glasgow an extra day to explore. I was traveling with my pal Bones Leopard who wanted to visit the Glasgow Necropolis. I took a lot of graves I thought had cool designs.

Right next to it is Glasgows Cathedral. So we also popped in and I took a bunch of pictures of that.

Afterward, Bones feet started to hurt, so I ended up wandering around on my own and talking pictures of architecture I thought was neat. And while exploring I came across a group of bagpipers performing.

After that I went to Edinburgh for a few days. Mostly I walked around and saw some performances. The Fridge Fest was going on while I was there. So I got to see a few fun street performances. On day was pretty rainy in the afternoon so I spelt it in the National Museum of Scotland. But the big thing I did in Edinburgh was I climbed Arthur's Seat. The view was amazing!

I put all my Scotland pictures in my google drive. Anyone who wants to see them can browse here. The folder includes:

a bunch of buildings I thought looked neat in Glasgow and Edinburgh

walking along the river

all the graves I took pics of

a religion museum next to the graveyard and cathedral

inside the cathedral

the oldest house in Glasgow (each floor showed it in a different time period)

some landscapes/hills taken from inside the train to Edinburgh

climbing Arthur's Seat

photos from the National Museum of Scotland

The whole trip was fun. I also got to hang out with Kate Ashwin in person. Iron Circus wants to do a boxset of Cautionary Fables, so we sat down and figured out what we want the box to look like. Now that I'm home I'm gonna rest up and focus on The City Between. I have like 4 pages left of Shards of Reflection to finish up. So I need to make sure the next story, Glass Diamonds, is ready to go fairly soon. One that is done I need to rearrange my patreon a bit.

Obviously, I haven't had time to get back to You are the Chosen One in over a year. But Patreon removed goals from Patreon over a year ago. When I started You are the Chosen One, I was using goals as a milestone to justify when either You are the Chosen One or The City Between could have another update day. The goal is removed and I wouldn't have time to do that even if my patreon did reach it. So I need to reassess what I'm doing. I will probably start posting it publicly, however I don't know if I want to rotate it's chapters with The City Between with updates on Wednesdays, or just post it whenever. Also, Patreon removing goals was a more minor example it continuiously making unhelpful changes. The newest of which is them forcing everyone to switch to a different payment model. Basically, until this month, I charged all my Patreon backers on the 1st. That is how subsciptions used to work on all patreons. But they thought that was a problem because sometimes someone would sign up the 25th of a month and then be charged twice in a short amount of time. For the past year, Patreon has been pushing creators to switch to everyone gets charged on whatever day they signed up on a monthly basis. While pushing everyone to make this change, they also made an app, one that barely works. Because they made an app, now anyone who pays via the app is giving Apple 30% of what they pay. This sucks but it is thing that has been known and talked about in the tech community for years. Like before Comixology died, it wouldn't let you buy things in it's Apple app BECAUSE of this 30% fee. So Patreon has made some news posts complaining that Apple is doing this. But the sneaky part is they are using Apple enforcing it's shitty TOS as an excuse to force creators to switch to new subscription model. The new model is worse for me because well it's nice to get a big chunk of money all at once each month, rather than have it trickle in day.

Anyway, this was fuuuuun news to come back to when I was very jet-lagged. There is a new patreon-like service called Comradery. It definately looks appealing. So I'll probably look into mirroring my patreon content on there. But that will probably be something I sit down and figure out in like December rather than right now. For now I gotta focus on keeping The City Between running.

That's all for this month. Thanks everyone for you support as always!

#newsletter #worldcon #werewolves #comics

1 note · View note

arihi · 2 years ago

Text

Return of the Recaps (Beguiled 2022)

Oh man, I forgot con recaps were even a thing until Spider was like ‘I’m thinking of writing a con recap’ and that memory was unlocked for me. It’s been a while, okay!! I’m not even sure if I properly did one for the last Charmed 2020 that I attended, either.

This isn’t going to be a very structured post - imagine I’m saying all of this super fast gasping for air in between, like a train of thought. My internal monologue is apparently just gibberish with occasional circus music, so it makes it hard to write things in a non-train of thought manner. And, it wasn’t a very structured con for me. Back when I attended classes more often and went to specific events on days, it was easier, but this con I just went with the vibes, which I’m more and more certain is the best way to do it. (I even wrote a post about it that’s only a little outdated! Spider is now found at @it-me-spider.) My point is the same there - flexibility is your most vital skill at cons. Spider and I had three scenes planned, and only one of them actually went through - and it involved a lot navigating/an impromptu craft project. I almost love that they didn’t go according to plan? Not that they didn’t happen, but I treasure that we were able to be flexible and sort things out. Something I tell Spider often when she gets a work call while we’re together, is that it’s an adventure.

The vibes of the people at the con were good. I was able to catch up with so many old friends, get to chat in more depth with those I’d only met in passing in the past, and meet at least a few new people! It was a very social con for me, and that’s what I needed after so long without one. It was a perfect amount of social and low-key, in that there weren’t as many crowded dinners or room parties or con areas, so that I felt socialized but rarely overwhelmed. I think I may put a hard cap on people for future meals at future cons.

Which wasn’t to say I was never overwhelmed. Spider and I had daily, sometimes twice a day debrief/decompression times in our room alone, which I’m just going to have a rule for going forward because it was SO helpful. Sometimes I wouldn’t realize that I needed a breather until we were already in the room. There were a few snags and negative spirals, as emotions run high at cons and there are high highs and low lows, but we navigated them together and are all the more stronger for it.

I got to show Spider off to everyone I could. There was a list of people I wanted her to meet and we got to meet most everyone who was attending. She’s amazing, and so good at socializing I’m low-key worried she’ll get along with my friends better than I do! But that makes me so so so happy. All this time I’ve told her about the side of cons that I’ve experienced, and how great they were for me, and this past weekend I was able to show her a few snapshots of that, I hope. She was very happy to socialize and would make plans for doing so, and pushed me to be a better version of myself, and I saw her shine so brightly at this con. I love her.

Most of why I attend cons nowadays is for the people, but I do still have to shout out that most of the concom was amazing, and I saw how hard they worked during the con. I attended the concom feedback hour on Sunday, and most of them were very receptive to feedback. If I could add more feedback here, it’d be for someone not to play a weird trick question about consent and then joke that we probably didn’t understand what it was, since that was fucking weird and inappropriate. I acknowledge it must’ve been a huge struggle to organize the con during these hectic times, and with fewer actual capable hands on board.

Most of how I’ve changed in the past 2.5 years is lower reserves of energy, and lower tolerance for bullshit. I’m more selective with my time because I can be, and because I deserve that for myself. I went to the Beguiled literally the week that I moved out of home, so emotions were complicated - and this Beguiled carried a much different energy for me, a more confident and comfortable me. I let myself enjoy things and people I wanted to enjoy, and I made my voice known when things didn’t feel right. @tennfan2 snuck in one of the kindest things I’ve ever been told, right at the end of Sunday night - that after everything I’ve been through, it was refreshing to see me become a more awesome version of myself. And I feel like I have - in no small part due to particular friends and followers who have followed and supported my journey.

As a last bit of con magic, 15 minutes before we were supposed to board, @daja-the-hypnokitten and @spiralturquoise happened to be near our gate, and we were able to say our last goodbyes. A great close out to our trip.

Until next time, my friends.

#hypnocon #Ari adventures #Beguiled 2022 #I love Spider #what other tags did I used to use for these?#hypnosis community #I used to @ all the people I saw and chatted with but that's simply not possible #I talked to a lot of people!

19 notes · View notes

three--rings · 3 years ago

Text

Havencon Weekend Report

So, I had an absolute blast this weekend.

On the most shallow end, it was my first real con in freaking years, and just being back in a con environment is a little like coming home. And then it’s the first time I’ve spent any significant amount of time in explicitly queer space for over a decade. And then finally, meeting up with a group of online fandom friends (members of the Renegade bindery) was another kind of feeling at home.

Havencon itself is a small but very comfortable con with immaculate vibes. Like honestly from moment one of arriving at the hotel I was like, ah yes, the colored hair and queer outfits, I’m among family. That’s honestly a big deal for me, as a fairly straight-presenting femme-presenting cis female bisexual in a 20 year marriage to a man. I have not always felt welcome in queer spaces in my life, but at the same time those are the spaces I DO feel most comfortable. Those are the spaces I sought out as soon as I turned 18 and where all my closest friends are/belong.

But my normal social life is more mainstream nerd oriented. Occasionally I’m jarringly reminded I’m Among The Straights.

Anyway, just, these are the thoughts this weekend inspired in me, among many.

I went to a handful of panels, mostly writing-oriented ones. Some were more fruitful and interesting than others, and I think there’s something lacking about a panelist interview format for getting into actual writing tips/advice. But I’ve always wanted the nitty gritty workshop style panels myself.

It was cool getting to hear Patrick Weekes and their partner Karen Weekes from Bioware talk, since I’m such a huge Dragon Age nerd. Besides the occasional anecdote about writing past games, there’s nothing really to report other than they certainly sounded optimistic about DA4 with Patrick being lead writer. And knowing we have a nonbinary lead writer for the game is...yeah, it’s a thing that makes me hopeful. Patrick certainly talked about EA as nothing but supportive of diverse inclusion. Though there was also a lot of talk about budget limitations, so, yeah.

But most of my weekend was talking bookbinding and fanbinding with both my fellow bindery peeps and to others who attended our panels. Lots of enthusiasm for the concept and new discord members. And I got to see (and fondle) everyone's gorgeous books and feel inadequate in comparison. I also learned so much just from chatting and have a list of techniques to try out as soon as I can get some more typesetting done. (New tools to play with include hair dryer and electric sander...)

Oh and Saturday night I went to the Rocky Horror showing with everyone and that was such a trip. It’s been over 20 years since my last live show of RHPS and yanno, things have changed (and others haven’t.) It’s also personally bizarre because RHPS was a hyperfixation of mine when I was 16-17 so revisiting it with time and perspective is just...something. A lot of our group hadn’t seen it and when asked to summarize it, I called it “cutting edge queerness for the 1970s.” No, lots of it didn’t age well, but also...there’s still SOMETHING about it. I will say the shadowcast was very gender and size inclusive and quite funny.

And then Sunday night we got to go to the Austin Book Arts Center which is my new favorite place. So many amazing machines and tools and supplies. And the supplies are all so cheap! I’m hoping to be able to take some classes there at some point though probably not for a while.

Anyway, I have needy cats to hold and a bag to unpack and mostly a back to rest, but it was totally worth it.

#personal #havencon

18 notes · View notes

onthemeander · 4 years ago

Text

ACOTAR Review

I have to start off by just mentioning that this book was heavily suggested to me. I only ever heard praise of the plot, characters, and the romantic message at its core. I feel this needs to be brought up because it was the fuel for the utter frustration I felt while reading this book. A frustration at my core that drove me to write my first ever review, so thanks for that.

Let’s start with the Pros of this book.

It is an easy read. I can inhale 300 pages in only two days. It is a good relaxing read if that’s what you are looking for. The kind of book you can curl up with on a rainy Sunday and just pass the free time if you're burned out on binging Netflix.

Okay, that’s it for the Pros. Now onto the Cons.

This book, a loose reimagining of Beauty and the Beast, feels like it has been written by a 50 shades of grey fan who hates Disney princess movies because the princesses are not “tough” enough. This novel comes off as the edgy version of a fantasy world that wants to include all the dark sides of life but doesn’t want to address the life long lasting implications of those dark actions. I am looking at you Ryhsand. Oh and I will go in on him later but first let's talk about our heroine.

Feyre is a young girl whose family has fallen onto hard times and it is her single minded goal to keep them all alive. They live hand to mouth, off the game she manages to hunt in a rather inhospitable forest. One day while trying to kill a Doe she sees a massive wolf and decides to kill it as well, as it was making eyes at her doe and a girl is hungry.

She kills the massive creature and takes both animals home to skin and prepare for meals. The money and food ensuring that her family won’t starve for at least a few weeks if they ration properly. Days later another more terrifying monster comes to her cottage, a Fairy in beast form by the name of Tamlin, who says she killed his friend. Now, because she killed a fairy, she can either die or come live with him for the rest of her life. She takes the later… obviously.

Feyre is a fine enough protagonist, bland enough that you can imagine yourself in her position and fantasize about having two hot men chasing you. In my younger years, I would have happily daydreamed about being in her world, surrounded by magic but being personally skilled enough to not need the aid of magic.

A pet peeve, a totally personal bias, is that to her everything is just the worst. Her Sisters are awful, her dad useless, the cottage disgusting, hunting she hates it, the fairies vile, the Spring Court a prison, and so on. The issue isn’t so much that she has a negative mindset, that is human and that can make for an interesting shade of protagonist but in this novel, it is so one-note. Everything is described with the same level of disdain. Which makes moments where she talks about having to protect her family or Tamlin honestly confusing because with how little she seems to like them the reader is left wondering why? Because of a promise she made? To a mom she hates?

Listening, family relationships are complicated. The best line I’ve heard about a relationship similar to Feyre’s, comes from the movie Ladybird, where the titular character tells her mother “I know you love me but I don’t think you like me.” Maybe it’s the fact it’s a movie and the way it is said but it is hurt there. There is a pain in the girl’s voice that her mother and she are at odds.

Feyre at no point talks about the personal pain that comes from being so distant from her family. She just resents them. Even a short moment of remembering the better days, little memories of when her and Nestia playing together as kids or Elane showed her something in the garden. Something that shows that there is, even for the briefest moment love in these relationships.

Without those moments, Feyre’s flip-flopping between going home and staying at the Spring Court feels more like padding to extend a book that saved all of the interest for the last 3rd.My bigger issue with Feyre is she doesn’t seem to really think so much as exist and react in the world. For a series that many have commended for being about feminist agency, Feyre lacks more agency than a rock in a river. At least then the water has to move around the rock.

A story based around Beauty and Beast is always going to bring into question the nature of female agency. This French fairy tale was written in 1740, in a women's magazine, meant to help teach girls about their ultimate futures. In a society where women were the property of fathers and husbands. It urged girls to look at their “beastlike” husbands and try to find the good in them. To become okay with the fact that who they marry might treat them terribly but means well… maybe this book is a perfect adaption of that idea, but I digress.

Feyre is whisked away to this magical world and through her, we learn about the fairy world. A world of violence, court games, and so much sexual assault.

While in the spring court she is tricked by a mirage of her father, nearly eaten by Naga’s, threatened multiple times by basically everyone, sees a fairy die from its wings being ripped off, finds a severed head in the garden, and so on. Whenever she expresses confusion on what is happening there is always a Fairy there to monologue away the day with detailed pages long exposition.

She readily accepts any explanation of the fairy world a man, in particular, tells her. Its exposition for the readers but for a girl who has grown up in a world that believes fairies are violent and enslave humans she is so quick to accept everything they tell her. She doesn’t stop and questions intentions and if she does wonder about the intentions of a character she usually ends on the side of being favorable to them, l especially if they are attractive.

It's clear that Feyre isn’t there to be a character but a vehicle, an avatar for the reader to travel from point A to B. She never reacts to things in a way that a person of this world with such polarized groups would react to being forced to live in the enemy camp.

Then there is Tamlin. He is fine. Your standard brutish romantic interest that is cursed to be ugly forever, by way of the phantom of the opera mask. He is demanding and haughty and thinks he knows better than everyone. Your standard High Lord ego makes for the verbal back and forth that toes the line between sexual tension and toxic relationships.

He does that standard bodice-ripping shtick, while hopping up on fairy dust, he pins Feyre to the wall and bites her neck. She says no, he ignores and then runs off. With a lovely little moment later blaming her for leaving her room, therefore, he can't be held responsible.

While Feyre has probably never listened to a single rule in her life that is still a huge red flag.

Lucien, an interesting play on the Beast’s servants. He is torn between wanting Feyre around to break the curse but also hating her for killing a friend. Honestly, I think this could have been the most interesting relationship if there was more time devoted to it. That happens a lot in this book, interesting things happen too fast and a lot of time is just devoted to Feyres’ water bowels.

Finally Ryhsand, oh dear Rhy, how I wish I could cut you from my mind just as easily as you pop other Fairies brains. Rhys is not a bad character but his introduction into the book is right when this 400+ novel went from bland but inoffensive to outright infuriating. He is the triple threat of assault; Mental, Physical and Sexual.

We first meet the Lord of the Night Court at the Fire Festival (or in honor of Maas naming conventions Fyre) where he saves Feyre from a trio of Fairies that wanted to assault her. A fine enough intro, maybe a bit overused, but I liked the Howl’s moving castle vibes with the playboy swagger and not knowing why this guy is helping at all.

I was excited at first when he showed up, I couldn’t help but get online and see what fans had to say about the books and instantly noticed that the top pairing from the series was Feyre and Rhys. Not just a fan-loved pairing but an actual canonical couple. I was interested to see how the story went and how the author would hint at this future couple while the current story was still very much pointing to a Tamlin happy ending.

Imagine my surprise when the very next scene that Rhys pops up in, ends with him physically pinning Feyre and mentally assaulting her. I believe she refers to it as a talon in her mind ready to rip her consciousness into oblivion. What a great love interest.

To add insult to literal injury, he then mentally violates her and reveals all of her more adult desires that she has been thinking about Tamlin.

He blackmails them all, threatening to tell an evil queen, Aramantha, about Feyre’s existence unless Tamlin kneels and begs. Even then he demands Feyre’s name. She lies and gives him a girl’s name from her village.

Later we learn that the village girl, Claire, has her family burned alive in their home and is dragged to the Fairy world where she is brutally tortured, mutilated, and put on display like a bear pelt. This cruelty is all the result of Rhys not keeping his fat mouth shut about Feyre being in Tamlin’s court.

The author thinks it's okay to excuse this innocents girl's murder away and make Rhys seeming cunning, by saying that he knew that wasn’t Feyre and lied to protect her. A logic so backward I am surprised my spine didn’t snap in how far it had to bend to dodge the fact that he caused her endangerment by telling Aramantha about Feyre to begin with.

Things get darker than the night court once we enter under the mountain. There, while trying to survive Aramatha’s trials, Feyre breaks her arm to the point that the bone is exposed. A day later, bleeding out, in pain, and feverish from infection, Feyre has to talk to Rhys in her cell. He offers to heal her arm in exchange for her living with him every month for two weeks.

Feyre is not interested in his deal and tells him to leave several times. What does our future perfect mate decide to do then when denied what he wants? He grabs Feyre by her exposed arm bone and twists. This man. This sexy dream boy that so many people say is their model for relationships, grabs an injured woman’s exposed bone and tortures her. Just so she will promise to live with him. He is the little boy kicking the dog because it didn’t follow his orders.

After being physically assaulted in a way that is so painful I am sure most people would black out, Feyre agrees to his deal. However, she bargains the time down to one month. He agrees and seals the deal. Just like that Rhys becomes the male embodiment of a period, complete with all the emotional distress, muscle cramps, and blood.

So does the torture end there? Oh no. For several nights after that he makes servants strip her, paint her and dress her in fabric so thin that she is basically naked. Why paint you ask? Rhys claims it is so she and he knows if anyone touches her. Though I will say that while he states this he touches her shoulder and the paint magically fixes itself. So You know it will show if anyone but Rhys touches her.

He then parades her publicly in front of the entire court like a toy. She is forced to publicly expose her breasts and genitals to a crowd of people that from day one want to see her die. He reduces her to a sex object in a crowd that already does not see her humanity.

Then he drugs her. Not an exaggeration, he even admits to it later in the book. He forces her to drink wine that makes her blackout. The next morning she can barely remember anything and has to rely on Lucien to tell her what happened. While blacked out she is forced to dance practically naked, giving Rhys lap dances and just sitting in his lap. She is exposed so throughout that Lucien even comments that he has seen more than he ever wanted to.

All of this culminated in a moment where one-night Feyre gets a moment with Tamlin, the man she loves, and they kiss and touch each other. The paint is smeared and Rhys finds them. He tells Tamlin to leave and then pins Fyre again calling her a stupid human. Then shoves his own tongue down her throat against her will as she thrashes. Aramantha finds them then and makes sure everyone in the court gets a good laugh at Feyre’s “promiscuity”.

The act is disgusting but what really made me want to burn this book was the scene directly after this. Where Rhys shows up and gives his “reasoning” for abusing her. He was just protecting her because Aramantah would be mad if she found Feyre and Tamlin kissing. He was using her nude dances to try and anger Tamlin so he would fight back when he can. He drugged Feyre so she wouldn’t have to remember the humiliation of being someone's harlot. He did all of it to help her and him.

It's okay that he abused her because it was all for a greater plan. It's okay cause he is hot.

This is the moment when I have to step away from the book review and talk about what I have seen surrounding this novel. I have heard several fans explain away Rhy’s abuse by saying “but it was in her best interest” and “that’s what war does'”. So, let's unpack that, first “in her best interest” is basically the catchphrase of every abusive partner at this point. There will always be a reason for the abuse, it’s a gaslighting tactic that ensures that abusers can deflect any blame from themselves and onto their victim. This creates complicated emotions that will paralysis the abused person from leaving the relationship altogether.

If you find yourself in a relationship where you are always rationalizing away mistreatment then please take a step back and question why there are so many excuses to begin with.

As for the but war does that. I would like these same people to say that while looking at photos of real war atrocities. To look at images from the Nanjing Massacre or the Wounded Knee Massacre and say the same thing. Those acts of violence against men, women, and children were done during the war. Does that make it okay then if the violence was done by an attractive soldier who was deep and brooding?

I have a tendency to write my own preferred scenarios which I know is kind of pointless for a published book but fix fit fiction is a thing so hear me out. Or don’t, that’s fine you can stop reading here as the review is over. I just have one simple idea that could fix a lot of my problems with this series.

Separate Rhysand into two separate characters.

Make the man she meets at the Fyre Festival and the guy who threatens her in the mansion and under the mountain just different guys.

You can keep the dark cunning mystery man of the Fyre Festival, maybe not even name him until he shows up again in the court to help. Have him come to her cell and offer his help. Have her say no and instead of grabbing her exposed arm bone he just says it’s the only help she will get. Hell Feyre talks herself into anyways after he grabs her bone so let's just skip that violence. Have her agree just as he is about to leave and give her the stupid arm tattoo and save her life. Then that’s it. He shows up at the end to help her but that’s it.

The man who meets her in the cell does not need to be the same man who forces her to do stripteases in front of hundreds of people. Make it Attar or some other male henchman of Aramantha who makes her do the dancing and drinking and everything else.

You still want him to be cunning and calculating? Maybe have a little bit of the grey morality that makes us all squirm? Great than keeping the scene with the forced kiss (not great but whatever). That is easier to overlook than drugging, sexual harassment, and assault. He can be forcibly kissing her to protect her and hell let's throw in an apology for fun.

Then you set up a situation where you have this dark and mysterious figure who we still don’t know why he helps her.

I know people say wait till book two and I do plan to read it. I got to see what excuse the author comes up with that seems to explain away so much abuse. What could she possibly say that makes me sit back and say “You know yes he pimped her out and yes he pulled on an exposed bone but you know what he just suuuuuuch a good guy.” If she is that good of an author then she should become a PR writer who makes spin articles for R. Kelly and Harvey Weinstein.

#acotar #a court of thorns and roses #rhysand #feyre #book review #book reactions #I had to get this out of my system #random rant #maasverse #long post

9 notes · View notes

goddessofthundathighs · 5 years ago

Text

INTERLUDE II: FREEDOM

Suggested Listenings/ Songs Mentioned: Luvin U x 6LACK;

Free x 6LACK; River of Tears x Alessia Cara

Prompts Included: “You’re never this quiet, what’s wrong?�� & “Delete it. Now.” submitted by @princessstevens & Anon

4 years, 5 months, 19 days, and 12 hours had passed since the last time I saw her face and even now, she was still as beautiful as I remembered. Her hair was pulled back into long passion twists that stopped just above the waistline of the distressed denim jeans. The crisp white hightop Chuck Taylors matched the cropped top that she wore and orange Cateye frames decorated her face. She was regal and after all this time, she still took my breath away.

“Long time no see,” she finally spoke after a beat, regarding me with the smile that used to make my knees weak. I kept my face neutral, not wanting to give my wayward emotions away.

“Why are you here?”

“I missed you.”

“Bullshit.”

“I’m serious, Skylar. I never stopped thinking about you, and the fact that your face is on nearly every billboard in LA doesn’t exactly make it easy to avoid you.”

“You’re an actress and I've been avoiding you just fine, Monica.” I know that cut deep, but at the moment, I didn’t give a fuck. She had no right to be in my shop attempting to profess any type of feelings for me. We had long since ended our proverbial song and dance.

“So you have no words for me? No questions as to where I went or why I did what I did?”

“Monica, it’s been 4 years since the last time we spoke. As always, you got me all excited, talking about marriage, kids, and all that other shit, but then once your parents and family began shunning you for being happy with a woman, you changed. You projected your trauma and pain onto me as though I was the problem. Like I conned my way between your legs and forced you to want a life with me. It’s been the same song and dance between us since college. So forgive me if I don’t welcome you with open arms whenever the wind decides to blow you into my life. I’m not some toy that you can pick up and play with, then put back on the shelf when you feel like you don’t wanna be gay anymore. Your gay has seasons, mine doesn’t. This is me, 24/7 and I’ll be damned if I let you pull me into your pit of indecision and self-pity. I wasted 7 years of my life doing that, I’m good.”

“I think you should leave.” I was so busy fussing that I hadn’t even noticed O’Shea walk back in. Monica stood frozen, obviously taken aback by my speech, but it needed to be said. She took a step closer, regarding me carefully as her hands moved to touch my face. I moved my face and looked towards the exit.

“I’ll always love you,” she whispered softly as she turned to walk out of the shop.

“You good?”

“I’m fine, Shea.” I was lying and she knew it, but she just let me go, figuring a needed to be alone. I walked back to my office and called the one person I knew could make me feel better after seeing her.

“Nola Green Flowers, this is Ruben. How can I help you?”

————————

O’Shea had a way of catching me off guard with her questions. For the last week, I have been actively avoiding both her and Erik, knowing they both wanted to check in with me and my mental state. I mean, I know that they were just looking out for me, but I really hadn’t been in the mood to discuss anything. I wanted things to go back to the way they were before she barged into my shop.

“Sky?”

“Huh?”

“You’re never this quiet, what’s wrong?” The short answer: everything.

“If you don’t wanna talk about it, we don’t have to.”

“Nah, you’re fine. I need to. Monica and I met back in 2007. It was my senior year of undergrad and I was in the process of completing all of my exit requirements. She was a cheerleader with the prettiest smile and her skin was immaculate. Like no matter the time of day, she glowed. She was beauty in its rawest form and I was stuck. She was the first girl I had ever looked at and was like ‘wow, she’s beautiful.’”

“So she was your first girlfriend?”

“Yes. She was the first person, besides Erik that I found homeostasis with. We vibed and connected on a level that I hadn’t seen aside from my fathers.”

“So what happened?”

“In short, she wasn’t feeling it. We dated consistently for about 3 years until everything went downhill.”

“SKYYYLARRRRR!”

That sound never stopped being sexy to me. The way my name spilled from Monica’s lips as I licked and sucked her to oblivion was all the motivation I needed to make sure she’d sleep peacefully through the night as I worked on my dissertation.

“Come on Babygirl. I know you ain’t tired, I’m just getting started,” I teased as I rolled my tongue against her clit before slipping it into her entrance. She loved when I tongue-fucked her. I could always feel her essence pool up on my tongue before sliding down my throat, and I’d drink it all while staring into her eyes.

“Baby, I’m about to cum!” Bingo. I replaced my tongue with my fingers and slid up her body to place long, wet kisses down her neck and chest. One swipe of my thumb across her clit and she was squirting, soaking my fingers and sheets with that sweet nectar that had me addicted to her. I kissed her softly, massaging her legs and thighs to work the feeling back into them as I was sure they were numb. She hummed peacefully, thoroughly sated and drowsy from our session.

“I often caught myself watching her in awe, wondering how I got so lucky to be in the presence of someone so authentic. Though I was a fairly good person, I sometimes felt as though I didn’t deserve her.”

“I don’t think I wanna do this anymore..” My heart stopped as I looked into her eyes.

“It was fun while it lasted, but this lifestyle isn’t for me.”

“I wanted to yell. Fuss about her wasting my time for the last 3 years, getting my hopes up with talks of the future and children, but I let just let her go.”

“What did your dads say?”

“Papa Simon was crushed because he hated to see me cry, but Papa Ruben was like Erik. They both said that something felt off about her, but they kept quiet because they saw how happy I was. After we broke up, I drowned myself in my research. I made it so that I didn’t have time to nurture a relationship and therefore get my heart broken again. Then like clockwork, she’d pop back up every year or two, get back in my head, and drop me like a bad habit. It got to the point where I wouldn’t tell anyone she was back because I wasn’t sure how long she’d stay. Things finally ended in 2015. After 3 years of consistent dating followed by another 4 of on and off again flings, I was done. I couldn’t keep setting myself up for failure no matter how much I loved her.”

“How did you cope with her being gone?” “Erik. Sometimes I would call him to vent and he’d take me shopping or out for ice cream to take my mind off her.”

“Not to change the subject, but when was the last time you guys had sex?” The question was calm like she was merely asking about the weather. “I know it’s blunt, but it’s been weighing on my mind for a while.”

“Before Monica, I had never had sex with a woman so, at the time, sex with Erik was all I knew. It was convenient and it was great. After her, I knew no man could ever touch me or make me feel that way again. We had sex for the first time since college four years ago and that was when I knew that being with a man wasn’t for me.”

“So y’all haven’t had any type of sexual encounters in four years?” I shook my head no.

“So then why does he—”

“He likes to get you riled up. You’re the first girl that understands and accepts our relationship. Everyone else always says that there’s no way that we can continue to be platonic given our history.”

“There’s nothing to misunderstand about the two of you. It’s very clear that you guys have a bond that isn't inherently sexual and or romantic in nature. At least not between you.”

“I think so too, but everyone has their own opinions. I remember his last girl, Lynda. She always thought that there was more to our relationship and that I was trying to steal him away from her. In actuality, I was trying to save her life, but that’s neither here nor there.”

“Save her life?! Oh goodness. What she do?”

“Long story.”

“Bitch I got time.”

“Well…”

The sound of the phone ringing interrupted our story time and impromptu bonding.

“Dr. Green? It’s Oya. Could we meet in person? I’d like to discuss the toys you recommended.”

————————

I’m going down, and you have watched me drown // In a river of tears, lost beneath the stream

Under the waves I’ve found the strength to say // the river of tears has washed me clean

Alessia Cara has a way of singing my soul. I sat at my desk, nursing a bottle of Hennessy as my text thread stared back at me. My mind had typed and retyped the message, yet nothing seemed to thoroughly convey everything I was feeling. I sighed, chugging the rest of the bottle before letting my fingers dance against the keys.

All I ever asked of you was honesty. We have both always been super busy individuals so time wasn’t an issue, but I needed you to be your true self and I see now that you struggle with that. No matter how much I love and care for you, I can no longer allow you to make my heart your home whenever it’s convenient for you. I need someone that will shout their love for me to the heavens all the time, not just in the bedroom. I need someone that’s as raw and authentic with me as I am with them. So consider this my goodbye, I hope life treats you well.

I watched the grey bubbles appear before a reply came through. To my surprise, I had just poured my heart out to the wrong person and his response was simple.

That was beautiful. Delete it. Now.”

Of course I’d accidentally sent the message to Erik and as usual, he was right. She didn’t deserve my tears or an explanation of my feelings. I pushed myself up from my desk and wiped my tears as I walked upstairs to my bathroom. After a long, hot soak in the tub followed by my other Self-Care Sunday rituals, I changed my sheets and crawled into bed, vowing that tonight would be the last night that I cried for Monica Sanders.

TAGS: @vikkidc @thadelightfulone @sydneebleu @blktinkerbell @madamslayyy @chaneajoyyy @jozigrrl @thehomierobbstark @amethyst1993 @iamrheaspeaks @mareethequeen @forbeautyandlife @whatmoredoyouwantamericaa @blowmymbackout @wakanda-inspired @nickidub718 @heyauntieeee @princessstevens @bartierbakarimobisson @xaviera108 @alexundefined @raysunshine78 @dameshaemonique @laketaj24 @youreadthatright @theogbadbitch @bugngiz @amirra88 @post-woke @im5ftbutmythroat66 @blackpinup22 @maya-leche @blessyd-bthyname @unholyxcumbucket @eclecticblkgirl @kissmyafropuff @rick-sosa

TAGS DON’T WORK: @beaut1fulone-blog @chefjessypooh @queengidiva619 @love-me22 @honey-poooh @diva-Princess-on-fleek @heybriheyyy

#vanity writes #my shit #erik stevens #killmonger smut #daddy erik #killmonger fic #erik killmonger #erik killmonger x black oc #bde #carnal stimulation

76 notes · View notes

sapphiresea · 6 years ago

Text

ECCC – The Wayhaught Experience

Hey guys! So a couple people asked that I write about my experience at Emerald City Comic Con, and I did! It’s a bit long, so it’s below a cut because I had a lot to say, but I also trimmed it down a bit for better fit. (Pictures included.)

Now, let me start by saying my plan for the weekend was really simple. I was getting Dom and Kat to each sign my group photo from last year, and on top of that, I was getting another autograph from Dom to use as my tattoo – asking her specifically to write “I’m here and I stay” for me. Then, I was going to get a selfie with each and a duo photo op. Yeah. Let’s not talk about how much extra money I dropped because I decided they were too amazing and wanted to capitalize on this convention as much as possible. But also, I definitely do not regret it.

So once I got my ticket, I headed straight to the building where they had autographs, photo ops, and main stage panels. Although her line was longer, I decided to see Dom first, then Kat, during their first autograph session of the con.

I wasn’t too far back in Dom’s line, which was cool, and it felt pretty fast to get to see her, even though she was chatting with everyone. Two people in front of me were trying to get a selfie and Dom was holding out the camera trying to position it so they were all in frame and it looked like a major struggle bus for someone short, so I offered to help. She immediately thrust the phone at me and very politely agreed and thanked me. So when I got to the front, she was like, “Hello again!”

She was confused by the instruction of her manager for what I wanted for the tattoo, but as soon as I said it, she knew immediately what I meant. She pulled a multicolor pen from her fanny pack, clicked the blue and said she would write it a couple of times to make sure I had what I wanted. The second time was perfect, though. I told her that last summer had been particularly hard and that I had lost a lot of people I cared about, and that Jolene had really helped me to get through some of those nights, and got me to five years clean (which received a “wow” from her). I said that listening to her talk about anxiety in the Black Badge podcast had very much helped inspire me to send in my grad school applications and that I had just been accepted into all the schools to which I applied, and she was really impressed. I can’t remember exactly what she said, but I do remember her saying, “Isn’t it amazing? You’re so afraid of doing something and there’s no reason for it! You got into every school!” She asked where I was planning to go, so I told her I picked York University in Toronto and she said that was awesome and “right around the corner from Kat!” She also asked what I was studying, so I told her quant psych/statistics, and I don’t think she connected as much with that, but she was still very sweet about it. I thanked her and got a really cute selfie before moving on to meet with Kat.

Kat was a completely different energy altogether! Dom was very mellow and sweet, like she really lives up to that hippie vibe, but Kat was much more intense, full eye contact, leaning forward, asking a bunch of questions.

I got up to her pretty quickly, as the lines weren’t long so early on Friday. I was having her sign my group photo from last year’s Calgary Comic Expo and she recognized it immediately and asked if that’s where I’m from. She was very excited when I said, “yes.” I said I had just flown in that morning before coming and that I was living off about 45 minutes of sleep. She was like, “Oh, so you’re here, but you’re like, I’M HERE BUT I’M A LITTLE BIT CRAZY!?” Which…yeah, pretty much!

I told her I was excited just to be there, though, because the trip was a graduation present and a celebration because I got into every grad school to which I applied. She was stunned and congratulated me and I replied that it was really cool because it was a highly competitive program and I didn’t think I would get in at all. She asked what I study and I told her quant psych, and that there’s only four schools in Canada that have that program and most only have a couple spots each per year. Her eyes went huge and she congratulated me again. She said she was sure I’d make the right choice of where to go, and when I said I had just accepted the offer from York, she asked if I meant the one in Toronto and was stoked when I said “yes.” She told me York was an amazing school and I would absolutely love it. She added that she had considered York for undergrad because they had a theater program there, and then had almost gone there for an MBA when she didn’t think acting would work out. I told her my best friend had just gotten her MBA from there and she was like, “See!? It’s an amazing school!” and started talking up Toronto and how much I would love it. That made me pretty jazzed, really. We actually ended up talking much more than I thought before taking two selfies (they’re pretty similar, so I only included my favorite) and I had to run for a photo op unrelated to Wynonna Earp.

Right, so…Here is where the impulsivity of con life kicked in. And let me start this by saying: I did a great job at not blowing a ton of money on impulse buys for stuff. So what I spent here was almost kinda-sorta balanced, maybe? Don’t overthink it. I bought individual photo ops for Dom on Friday and Kat on Sunday.

I met this guy, David, in line for Dom’s photos, and we were chatting the whole time. He was really fun, and we ended up hanging out after. Anyway, it came up that I didn’t have a ticket for Saturday’s show and his son wasn’t going to be using his. He offered to let me buy it off of him and was able to get it for me before the end of the day! Amazing. And as it turned out, Saturday was an incredible day, as well, so I am immensely grateful that I didn’t end up missing it.

Here’s my photo op individual with Dominique. We don’t get a lot of chance to really talk during photo ops, but of course I asked for my usual funny faces, and when we were done, she joked that she’s certain that it was going to turn out really sexy. She was right.

I changed my Sunday photo ops with Kat to be Saturday photo ops. I had chosen to wear a jacket I found a few months ago that was the same Waverly wore in season 2, and when I walked in, Kat exclaimed, “That looks familiar! Was it on the show?” I replied, “Yeah! Waverly had it.” And she was like, “Oh, Waverly had it! I remember that.”

I brought along fake moustaches to go along with her #SolidarityInStaches posts, and I didn’t even have to ask before she was like, “Can I pick whichever one?” Of course, yes, and she took the pink one. I picked a curly black one and pocketed the rest. She peeled off the sticker back to stick it to her face and gave a hilariously serious pose, while I just held mine up. As I left, she asked if she could keep it, and I said, “Definitely!”

I met up with my friend, Carole, after the live stage interview, and she was about to go see Dom and Kat again and in case no one’s picked up on a pattern yet, I’m weak, so I was like, “Cool, I’ll go have them sign my individual photo ops!” Plus, Kat was selling that photo of her and Bernie that was donating all of the proceeds went to Soi Dog, which is a great organization, so I decided to get an autograph for my best friend, who I got into Earper life a few months ago, who loves Kat.

This time, I saw Kat first, and I told her all about the friend she was signing for, because she recognized immediately that my name was not ‘Catherine.’ I told her I had tried for ages to get my friend into it and lure her in with great representation and storylines and humor… Finally I remembered a very important fact about my friend: her weakness is hot redheads. So I texted her a photo of Nicole and said, “Did I mention there’s a hot redhead lesbian?” and she immediately jumped at it. Kat thought that was hilarious and said my friend sounds awesome.

Since she was still signing, I spoke with her a bit about Pooched and she was so excited that I had watched the trailer and the live stream and enjoyed it. You can really tell how passionate she is about that project, and honestly guys, if you haven’t yet, you definitely should watch. I joked that my friends and I don’t have dogs, but we do treat our cats like that. She asked if my friends had ever thrown a birthday party for their cats and I told her I have one friend who did. I added that we’re honors students, which means we present almost every week in class and she will work her cat into every presentation. Sometimes it’s really creative. That really amused her.

She also mentioned that she loved the moustache photo we had taken and that she had kept the pink moustache and was planning to take a picture with it later. I have no idea if she really will or if she’s lost it or anything, but I was just happy that she enjoyed it! I told her I had found a box of fake moustaches randomly in my room and she was like, “Do you know why you had them?” and I said, “I just know my mom bought them for me years ago and they were just sitting there until you started your moustache thing!” She said it was meant to be, or something like that.

Dom’s table was completely empty when I was done with Kat, so I hopped right over there. As I was paying for autographs, she noticed immediately the outfit I was wearing and exclaimed, “You’re wearing the Waverly shirt!” I replied that I had thrifted it, too, which she thought was great. As she started to sign, I told her my name is Steph because she hadn’t had it written down yet, and the volunteer asked if it was a P-H or F-F and I said, P-H, which prompted Dom to sing the spelling of my name in a cute little tune of S-T-E-P-H. It was really adorable.

I asked if it was strange coming back to North America after so long in Brazil, and she said it was, especially since she had been in the amazon with tribes and small towns, which was extremely different from anything like this, but that it was nice to be back, too. She talked a little about the importance of travel, and that she would really recommend seeing Brazil, because it’s a whole other viewpoint and understanding of ways of doing things.

We started talking a bit about Start the Wave, and I asked about a post she made awhile back about being a no-waste traveler, since I find when I travel is when I become the most wasteful. She gave a few suggestions, like bringing your own bamboo utensils, water bottles, cups, etc. Apparently she had a whole other bag with “all that shit” which was a pain in the butt, but ultimately worthwhile. She said that she found you have to tell people right off the bat that you have your own things, so they won’t give you cups or straws or anything that will be wasted because you’re not using them. We also lamented the North American reliance on plastic water bottles a bit when I mentioned that, from how I had grown up, I used to rely almost entirely on bottled water until I switched to a good water bottle, and that my parents still just keep loads of bottled water in their fridge. She said her family does the same thing and it kind of drives her crazy when she opens the door and finds a whole bunch of bottled water.

I saw that some other people were coming and it was toward the end of the day, too, so I said it was great chatting with her and hopped off.

Sunday, I arrived extremely early for the Wayhaught panel to get good seats, which meant sitting through hours of 80′s music and the Stranger Things panel which came before, but that was actually pretty fun.

I wasn’t initially planning to ask a question, but I had finally come up with something funny that they’d never heard before, and I was like, screw it, and went up. I was the first person in line on the right side, so I was the second to ask a question. I just realized watching the video back that Dom waved at me and said, “Hi Stephanie,” in her sweet little British voice before I even introduced myself, so apparently she remembered and recognized me!? That’s actually really cool and I’m still trying to recover from it. I was super nervous, but they were really funny with their answers and I loved Dom’s fascination with the show. It was such a great atmosphere in there, and so much fun. It was really a bummer when the whole thing was over.

The next thing on my agenda was about an hour later for the duo photo ops. Side note: right before me, someone was doing a photo op with a lightsaber and Kat was playing with it. She was excited as heck that it made noises when she moved it.

I walked in and Kat’s eyes locked on my sweater before she noticed my face. My sweater was an oversized York University shirt, so she exclaimed, “Oh my god, are you Canadian!?” And then she looked up and before I could reply, about a split second later, she mentally face-palmed and was like, “I’m so sorry! We had a whole conversation about this! You’re going to York for grad school! I remember!” I told her it was alright, I wasn’t offended or anything, but she insisted she remembered. So that was pretty nice. Although I normally do fun photo ops, I asked if we could just do a group hug, and they were like, “Of course!” and pulled me in for one.

I’m not even going to pretend like I hadn’t already decided to go back for one last autograph session, but listen. I wasn’t the only one. The girls in line with me also went to every autograph session and they go to every convention with Dom and Kat, so I figured it’s fine. Plus, they were always really happy to see us. I will say, those line ups were really fun. Earpers really know how to make a line a good experience. And Dom’s line was long, so that was a very good thing.

My last meeting with Kat began with another apology for her question during the photo ops. Before I could even put down the picture I wanted her to sign, she looked me right in the eye and said, “I am so sorry, Steph! I do remember we had a whole conversation about York and grad school.” I replied that it’s perfectly okay and that honestly, I didn’t expect her to remember because I know she had met so many people over the weekend that I wouldn’t have been offended if she didn’t. She apologized and insisted again that she absolutely did (and given that she also addressed me by name multiple times without seeing it written down anywhere, I definitely believe her). It was really nice, though, even if it wasn’t necessary!

This was my moment to be a sap, though, and I told her that, although I’m sure she’s heard it a million times, it was really awesome to finally see a lesbian who’s alive and whose whole story doesn’t revolve around coming out and dealing with being gay as if it were the worst thing in the world or some obstacle to overcome or something, because it feels as if that’s all I’ve gotten to see. I told her that I’m only slightly younger than her (and then she asked my birthday, but I’m not sure why) and that it felt like my whole life I hadn’t really gotten to see representation like that. The first time I even heard the word ‘lesbian’ was as a derogatory term when Ellen Degeneres came out, and I was too young to even know what it meant.

She was so kind and listened to every word, and it was really nice. It also spurred a conversation about Ellen, who she exclaimed her love for (we all know, Kat; we all know). We talked about her a bit and I mentioned that I’m also a big fan of Portia de Rossi and she said she’s really great, too, so I asked if she had ever read her book. She answered that she hadn’t and said she would have to add it to her list. I told her it’s about Portia’s eating disorder and her experience coming out as a lesbian, so if she’s in a dark place or just wants something light and fluffy, maybe skip to the epilogue. She seemed really interested in it, though, and asked the title. When I told her, she replied, “Wow, that’s beautiful! I am definitely going to take your recommendation and check it out!” We then took the following selfie. I gave her the direction to do wide-eyed, open-mouthed excitement, and she was like, “Of course!” But you judge if that’s the look she actually made. I love them, though.

From there, it was on to Dom’s line, which, like I said was long. I got into it more than an hour before the convention was supposed to finish, and I was still in the overflow line when 5:00 PM passed. Kat still had a number of people in her line, as well, but not quite as many because she was going faster. Both of them insisted on staying for every fan, though, and even when Dom was being rushed and told to go faster with each of us, she made a point of apologizing that she couldn’t spend longer with a lot of people. It was very sweet. When Kat left, she waved to all of us to say goodbye and thank you for coming and that she hopes to see us at future conventions.

To be honest, since I had already seen her that weekend, had I not already stood in the line for two hours by that point and paid for another autograph/selfie combo while in the line, I would’ve left so Dom could have gone home sooner, but since I had, I just made a point to be fast when I got up there. I pretty much told her that I thought she was spot on about Earpers being an incredible community, like she said in the panel, and thanked her for the weekend. When we had taken the selfie, I asked if I could hug her and she said, “Of course,” so I did, but that was about the extent of the interaction because it was undoubtedly a long day for her and I didn’t want to make it longer.

That’s where my weekend experience ended with them, and honestly, you guys, it was really so awesome. I can’t quite tell you how awesome it was, or how energized I felt leaving. Earpers are amazing. Kat and Dom are incredible.I just love this whole fandom so much I could squeeze you all! But I’m done rambling for now.

#wayhaught #katherine barrell #kat barrell #dominique provost chalkley #wynonna earp cast #emerald city comic con #eccc #long post for ts

37 notes · View notes

coffeewithcalypso · 5 years ago

Text

I am very tired. And I don’t know why. I mean I didn’t sleep well Friday night. Not sure if I was excited about the weekend or what. Then, even though I went to bed at like twelve I didn’t sleep well Saturday. Not sure if it was sleeping in close proximity but also apart from someone which meant I never really fell asleep so I could make sure I stayed on my side of the bed or if I’m just a light sleeper and the other people moving around the house kept waking me up. Or a mix of the two. And then last night I accidentally slept from about 7 to 9 and then of course couldn’t go to sleep until it was actual bed time.

It was a weird weekend. I met up with some friends who were at a con, planning to go out that night but instead we spent all day in the hotel bouncing from room party to room party. Which was cool except that I couldn’t really get on every else’s level because I didn’t bring any of my own alcohol and didn’t want to abuse everyone else’s generosity and also I had to navigate to the place where I was staying at some point that night.

The friend I was staying with and I have always had a weird flirty vibe when we’re messaging and chatting but it’s not always like that in person. I figured he was always weird about me being in a relationship except now I’m not. And I kept telling myself not to expect anything and I think I was pretty about it but still. Pretty much nothing came of it but I figured out the next morning while we were about to head to breakfast that he didn’t even realize I was single now (which had occurred to me because I hadn’t seen him since and I announced it in the DnD group chat that is… busy… and things tend to get lost). Sort of disappointing but a nice visit on a friend level.

Then the whole house thing was insane. I was supposed to see it Sunday when I got back but she cancelled on me that morning because she had gotten an offer. Then hours later said to go look at it in case the offer fell through. So I drag my dad to town because he can help look at construction stuff. She’s texting me incessantly about the house while we’re doing the walk through. I call her when I get in the car to ask some questions but we got disconnected (I thought). So I call back and she says something real fast that I think was “We’ve almost sold the house but thanks” and HUNG UP ON ME AGAIN. I guess they maybe got a call from the people who made the offer while she was talking to me? It was so fucking rude. Then she starts sending me links to other houses for sale in the area. Some the same price as hers but ugly as hell and others still kind of ugly and way more money. I had made it clear when I first talked to her that I wasn’t looking at houses, I wanted to look at her house. I just started ignoring her.

So after all that whiplash I decide to go home and drink a bottle of wine. I tend to distract myself from processing feelings. In an effort to not do this I sometimes let myself get drunk because it’s harder to run away from them. Is this healthy? Not really. Is bottling shit up healthy? No it’s not either. I don’t know. So I tweeted a bunch of shit while drinking wine. (And message friend that now that he knew I was single he should kiss me sometime which has not gotten a response.)

Took a nap, woke up sober (it was cheap wine, not that strong) and head up to bed to read and sleep properly. Then I get a text from an acquaintance asking me on a date. An acquaintance who follows me on Twitter and for sure saw all my spiraling texts, and texts about friend. There was nothing in those texts to recommend me as a stable date but whatever. I told him sure we could go on date but not to expect too much. He was fine with that. I’m annoyed though because I started trying to be friends with this dude because he has spoken on Twitter and stuff about wanting to expand his friend group and he’d mess well with a lot of my people. Instead he wants to jump to dating and then when it doesn’t go well he’ll be annoyed and we won’t be friends any more which was the whole point of why I started talking to him.

It was a weird weekend.

Also I’ve been really good about my intermittent fasting. I mean it’s not really that, it’s actually like just stop eating at a certain time of night. I got an app to track it. I did it for a couple of months last year and lost a ton of weight. Then gained it back and more after the break up. This time I’m not losing any weight and it’s pissing me off. I will say I’ve noticed my portions are smaller and I get full faster though so I guess that’s good. I just need to lose the weight again so I can enjoy fashion like I use to and also have fun being single.

I am very tired. The last few years have been bad as a collective but this a personally bad year and I don’t like it.

5 notes · View notes

squeemcsquee · 2 years ago

Text

PeoriaCon 2023: Saturday

This year was the fifth PeoriaCon, a small pop culture con at the Expo Gardens. It’s a con that really feels first like a marketplace, and second like a full-con experience. I really feel like part of that vibe is because of their location. The Expo Gardens admin/youth building has a snack bar and bathrooms and the exhibit space, so you’d think it would be perfect – and it is, if all you want is a marketplace. But if you’re trying to add in panels or game tournaments or anything else, well, then it’s just a wee bit cramped and noisy. Which I guess you can sort of tell from looking at the con map.

Still, the con is growing each year and is definitely popular. This year was the second year of the con being a two-day weekend. If you wanted to attend both days, you did have to pay each day -since they’re still relying on hand stamps as proof of admission for regular attendees, there’s no way to get a weekend pass yet.

In an effort to get people in right at the start, PeoriaCon offers limited edition posters each year. Sadly, we didn’t get one this year – there was already a decent line by the time @lechevaliermalfet and I arrived on Saturday morning.

We paid for admittance and did a quick loop of the dealers, just to get a feel for what we might be purchasing. A strength of PeoriaCon’s marketplace is the variety of vendors you’ll encounter.

There were two free-to-play arcade cabinets set up. Lines weren’t terribly long for either during the weekend, which was nice. We played a few rounds on the Ninja Turtles machine before stepping away to let others take a chance.

We then returned to the panel / cafeteria portion of the building. Here, we submitted entries to PeoriaCon’s sweepstakes – every hour, they announced two winners, who would receive something from one of the vendors on-site. We didn’t win any of these drawings either. Guess luck wasn’t with us this year.

I looked into the panel options for Saturday and the space of the panel area. There were topics that caught my eye, but as in years past, I ended up skipping the panels. The limited space and minimal barriers to the sounds coming from the exhibit space, the photographers set up in the cafeteria, and the bathrooms in the hallway next to the panel space just prove to be too distracting for me to easily relax and enjoy myself during the years I have attended panels.

There was also mock fighting going on, but we didn’t choose to do that, either.

With the sweepstakes entries taken care of, we returned to the marketplace to lighten our wallets a little. But I think we got a great haul, honestly – plenty of good artwork, some new books to read, new dice, and more.

We then had to re-up our hand stamps, as they were starting to fade, and then left for lunch. Nothing against the snack bar at the Expo Gardens – their prices are comparable to what you’d pay at other snack bars for events – but the line was long and the seating limited. So, we went to where we could take our time.

Seriously, how do they expect that stamp to last all day?

@el-draco-bizarro met us for lunch and then joined us when we returned to the con. This year, the guest of honor was Walter Jones, the original Black Power Ranger. He had arrived at the con while we were away at lunch and when we returned, we were surprised at the length of the line. After @lechevaliermalfet confirmed with con staff that Walter Jones would be back on Sunday, I opted to skip the line for Saturday. But I look in on the line from time to time. It took approximately 1.5-2 hours for attendees to get through the line on Saturday to get their autographs, photos, and videos.

I thought I had a photo of the line, since it was so impressive, but nope, I guess I don’t.

There was more shopping and people watching. And I played Pokemon Go all through the day, which probably doesn’t surprise anyone.

I ran into one of my cousins and got to hang out with her for a few minutes.

I also had a vendor recognize me from PeoriaCon’s first year, when I cosplayed my original build of the Glow Cloud. I told him I was working on a new build, due to how heavy the old one was. And because I’ve had some ideas on how to improve the smaller build that I made last year.

And then, at the end of the day, it was time for the cosplay contest.

PeoriaCon may be small, but they have a sizable cosplay contest. This could be in part due to their partnership with a photography studio – all contest participants are guaranteed to get their cosplay professionally photographed.

Seeing the cosplay that’s on display at PeoriaCon is impressive. But I do wish those watching the cosplay contest could see it better. The con doesn’t have any kind of stage or platform for participants to stand on to elevate them for audience viewing. Volume is also an issue – because of the acoustics of the room (the cosplay contest is held in the cafeteria area) and the limitations of the Expo Gardens audio equipment, it can be extremely difficult to understand the emcee.

I took photographs during the contest as best I could, but the angle was super, super shitty for most of them. So, I sadly don’t have many I think are worth sharing.

I did end up going on Sunday as well, so I’ll have that write-up soon.

All PeoriaCon 2023 coverage:

Saturday (current post)

Sunday

#peoriacon #peoriacon2023 #con review #con report #prose and cons

3 notes · View notes

canaryatlaw · 6 years ago

Text

alright, it’s late and I have to be up early for the interview so let’s get writing. Today was alright, not very exciting but fine. I couldn’t fall asleep for my LIFE last night and ended up only passing out sometime after 5, so I definitely did not get enough sleep, even with being able to sleep in till 11 when my alarm went off. I started getting ready, and I gave myself a little extra time than I normally would to get to the allergist because I was going to their office that’s slightly closer to me than the other one was, but then we hit traffic and it was raining so I ended up being late but thankfully it didn’t end up being an issue. So this was to check the patch testing I had on my back for the last two days. Apparently one of them sort of reacted, and they want to check again in a week because sometimes they get worse over time so I have another appointment for them next week. I ubered back home and got changed into comfortable clothes for the chiropractor since I had a 3 pm appointment. It was a good session, not terribly eventful but fine. The girl I’ve been doing PT with is apparently moving to another location and today was my last session with her so I was kinda sad about that, because I liked her better than the other guy who did it sometimes lol but oh well. When I got home from that I ended up running some emergency food supplies over to Jess (pedialyte I had leftover from when I had the flu, applesauce, and cinnamon raisin bread for toast) as she seemed to have once again contracted food poisoning from some food that had gone bad and had to abruptly come home from her job in the middle of the day because of it. I was kinda annoyed to see I didn’t have any of the anti-nausea medicine I like, called Emetrol, that works really well to stop throwing up (except the last time I used it it was too late to stop so I just ended up throwing up bright pink applesauce, which wasn’t fun lol) so I might have to pick some of that up soon. It’s unfortunate because we were supposed to be seeing Rent on tour tonight but obviously Jess was in no condition to go, and I’ve seen a dozen productions of the show at this point (Rent and Les Mis are the two shows I’ve seen the most productions of) so I tried to find someone to take the tickets but was ultimately unsuccessful, which was unfortunate but oh well, it happens. I returned to my apartment and laid on the floor with the ice pack on my back for a while and then sat down on the couch with my laptop while watching last night’s Riverdale (totally ridiculous, as expected) and then the news for a bit. I ended up eating some of the leftovers from last night’s dinner. I had a really strong hankering for ice cream but like, good stuff, not the subpar stuff I had in my freezer, so I ended up putting in a grubhub order for a pint of ice cream from this place I’ve only been to twice but they have the best fucking ice cream and I’ve been dying to have this flavor again (it was cream puff) since I last had it like, over a year ago lol so I felt like I was overdue. So I ate that and watched this week’s Supergirl. I would definitely say it was one of the stronger episodes of the season, the more Lex focused ones have been much better than the others so that’s good at least. I wish we got more actual screen time with Lex, but what we did get was done very well. I had to laugh when they had the clone Kara put down her face shield while they were fighting because they didn’t want to have to spend money on the special effects to make two Kara’s fighting each other lol. I definitely cried at the end with Alex, I’m very glad she has her memories back, it was really getting painful for her to be in the dark this long without any real justification. Seeing Lockwood realize he got played by Lex was really fucking satisfying lol I hate him so much. So yeah, I’m not sure when I’ll actually get around to watching the season finale that airs on Sunday since I’m gonna be at a con this weekend but at this point I’d say I’m looking forward to it a fair amount, which definitely isn’t something I thought I’d say in the beginning of the season. After that I watched like half an episode of the big family cooking showdown before watching Brooklyn 99′s season finale, which was of course hilarious, and then finished the earlier episode before switching over to the news for a bit, but ultimately going to shower and start getting ready for bed a bit earlier than I normally do (not that it ever really makes a difference being that it’s still 12:20 am when I’m actually writing this). Oh well, I’m going to sleep now. Interview at 10 am tomorrow morning, I’m pretty psyched because I think this could really work, so if any of you want to send prayers/good vibes/whatever you do my way that would be much appreciated. Goodnight friends. Happy Friday.

#daily journal #May 2019 #Jess tag #Rachel watches Supergirl

1 note · View note

st-eve-barnes · 6 years ago

Text

My LFCC experience,

This is gonna be long as shit so I’ll do it Under the cut for those who are interested ;)

I’ve been to cons in my country before and met some great people but this was the first time going abroad to a big con that had some guests I’ve been wanting to meet for years, so a whole other level than what I was used to lol

We went two days, Saturday and Sunday. Because we didn’t have any early photo shoots we arrived late on Saturday, hoping to avoid the queue to get in, which worked. I’d been afraid of the crowd, and even more afraid of the heat inside as I’ve seen so many people complain but thank god you could feel the aircon working and it was actually nice in there (so much better than the theatres we went to the day before!) and there was zero queue to get in, so we were very pleasantly surprised.

Our first meet of the day was David Duchovny, me and hubby are both fans (mostly of Californication) so we both had a photo with him. It was quick, as I expected and the picture shows David really is my spirit animal -I can’t smile for pics either as it always looks so fake lol- but he was very nice, really looked you in the eyes when greeting you, no hesitation to put his arm around you and again looking at you as you thanked him (this is not a given, as I’ve learned in later photo shoots) so overall good experience. Hubby hated his picture though, he wanted a pose and there was no option for that with David.

After that we go to Zachary Levi’s panel, I was looking forward to this so much having watched all those Nerd HQ panels with him over the year and he didn’t disappoint. So genuine and so full of passion, this guy is the real deal and I just love him.

Our second meet of the day was the one I was stressing for looking forward to the most: Jason Momoa *insert fangirl scream* I was so fucking nervous for him and I wanted a hug which meant I would have to use my voice and actually ask him a question. He is breathtaking in person, he had a huge fan blowing wind on him (because that did not make him look even more like a mortal god at all, wtf?!) As the line started moving, and it moves pretty fucking fast once you’re in the photo booth, I kept reminding myself ask for the hug ask for the hug and then he’s in front of you and he’s both intimidating as radiating this relaxed calm vibe and I managed to find my voice and ask if I can hug him and he’s immediately like yeah sure and then his arms are around me and the rest is a blur lol All I remember is how fucking firm his stomach felt and how sweet his smile was.

As I walk away and turn around I see my hubby’s picture being taken, he’s being head locked by Jason and the entire room is just loving it. That picture is the best of the whole weekend! :) It isn’t until I’ve left the photo booth and try to put my photo away that I realize my hands are shaking like crazy and I have to remind myself to breathe lol

We’ve spent the rest of that day walking around the venue, looking at some cool cosplay, my hubby had a later photo shoot with Ivana Melicevic (from Banshee) that went very well too, she was very nice and played along with the pose he wanted. Right after her Zachary Levi had a shoot in the same booth so we’re lucky enough to see him arrive, full of enthusiasm as usual :)

First day was a perfect con experience, queues weren’t too long and very well managed by the crew, everyone was friendly and helpful. There was no rushing the photoshoots at all. 10/10

Sunday we arrive earlier because we have an early shoot with Zachary so we do have a queue to get in but it moves pretty fast. We go to Zach’s shoot but he’s running late (there’s a cycling event in London that day and many roads have been closed off)

As we look at the planning we see the name James Callis has been crossed out for the day, he was my last shoot of the day, the only actor from Battlestar Galactica we had left as all the others had already cancelled weeks before. Apparently he had a change in schedule, this had been known since Saturday morning but not communicated in the venue or to me at all. Usually when someone cancels you receive an email if you’ve booked a photo, I got nothing. If I had known I would have had the option to have a pic with him on Saturday before he left, but since I didn’t know I missed out on that. We’re calling it our Battlestar curse now, apparently we’re not meant to meet any of them :( I did see James walk by me the day before so I guess I have that.

This wasn’t the first miscommunication so I start getting a little annoyed at this point.

By the time Zach arrives at the shoot I feel so discouraged and I realize I hadn’t even thought of which pose I wanted so I just ask for a hug, which he of course gives me and he’s very nice but I’m totally not happy with how the pic comes out.

After the shoot we go to the sales desk, because the LFCC website told us we had to go there to get refunded for James Callis. We spent over an hour at the sales desk, slowest queue I’ve ever seen in my life. While I keep queueing hubby has time to go back upstairs and do his photo shoot with Jewel Staite, when he gets back I haven’t even moved. The disappointment of the day really starts building at this point. Then the woman at the desk tells as refunds just happen automatically online, so we queued for nothing.

Hubby’s not happy cause he now has more photo shoots than I have and he senses my disappointment so he keeps asking if I wanna join him in his Tom Welling shoot, or if I want to meet Aidan (Turner) as I mentioned him before. So I tell him what I really want is another chance to do Zachary Levi again (yeah that sounded dirty to hubby too lol) so he books me another photo for that afternoon.

I wish that was the moment the day turned around for us but it actually got worse after that. After sitting down with some other people there’s a fight with a security guard because he wouldn’t let us or anyone else back in through the same door we just walked through to sit down. Even the guy admitted he doesn’t know why and it makes no sense but we have to exit the building and go back in the other side. A lot of people slip in and out behind his back while all this discussion is happening, only angering me even more.

This all happens 10 minutes before I have a shoot with Zach. It takes a lot to make me angry, like a LOT, but I was fuming at this point. The security guy than says his colleague has gone downstairs to check it out but we have to wait, only we have no time to wait or we miss our shoot. Eventually we leave and take our chances hoping to get back in somewhere else, thankfully downstairs we run into a security guard who is more understanding and just lets us back into the venue. My heart was racing like crazy at this point and I knew I had to calm down before going into that photo booth. Luckily for us Zachary is running late again. Everybody is running late at this point, the queues are huge and it’s all starting to look like a mess tbh.

By the time Zach gets there I’m calm again, and I have the pose I want on my phone so I’m prepared. As the line moves I see that nobody in front of me is asking for a pose and I get nervous again. I saw several poses in the morning and now none and I have to be the first one to ask *shit* I know it’s my only chance so I ask the crew member if I can show him the pic and she’s like yeah, just show him. Zach is so fucking sweet, I show him the pic and he goes for it instantly and it’s exactly what I wanted :) As I step away he calls me back and reminds me not to forget my phone (Zach, I just got to touch you, my phone is the least of my worries right now lol) So finally, a perfect experience on a pretty crappy day!

But the day wasn’t over yet, I had a photo shoot with Daniel Gilles while hubby had one with Tom Welling in the booth next to it so we split up. I arrive and look for a crew member, tell him I’m in batch 7, the guy is like well we’re at bath 14 now I can’t cut you in or people will kill me. Well, this is what batches are for, I’m batch 7 not 14, technically you have to cut me in. I don’t say anything, it’s the last shoot of the day and I just can’t be bothered at this point so I just queue. After 10 minutes I hear that Daniel hasn’t even started yet and I’m in the queue for Matt Smith. The crew member didn’t check and I didn’t ask since that should have been Daniel’s queue but apparently he was running an hour late.

After more waiting they start the queue for Daniel, finally, and it is messy and there is only 1 guy to control an entire queue and answer people’s questions and it just doesn’t work until finally a second person shows up who takes over. After more waiting we get shoved into the photo booth, and this is really like a herd right now, pushing us all together, constantly being reminded to keep it moving. I don’t remember seeing Daniel, I never actually got the time to look at him or say hi. I remember being pushed into his arms and then out of them again, there was a lady standing on the other side urging fans to step away after the pic was taken. She was so fast in doing this she was actually in the pic with one of them because she was rushing so hard. This is not the con experience I want and it reminded me too much of all the complaints I’ve read on here from big American cons. I regret having booked that photo now if I had known it would be this rushed, it wasn’t a good feeling at all. I regretted it even more hearing from hubby that things in his photo booth with Tom Welling went smoothly and he was super nice. Should have gone for Tom instead of Daniel!

So day two: 4/10 and those 4 points are all for Zach.

I’m definitely taking away the good stuff from this con, having met 2 people I’ve loved for so long was pretty fucking amazing, but it’s very hard to evaluate the entire con having had two days that were so completely different from each other.

And it’s somehow fitting because I’ve always had a love-hate relationship with cons and I guess this weekend has shown me that hasn’t changed and everyone can have such different experiences at the same event. I’ve learned a lot for future cons though, and I haven’t crossed LFCC off my list just yet ;)

#personal #LFCC #London #comic con #Jason Momoa #zachary levi #david duchovny #tom welling #daniel gillies

17 notes · View notes

blueeyedwolf33 · 7 years ago

Photo

So, I guess I should talk about where I was for the last two weeks. Give some explanation to the people that took notice that I was less active than normal (if people did even notice).

The last two weekends, I’ve been doing nothing but con-going. It so happened my friend (the Zoidberg in the bottom corner) won a weekend pass to another con in KC and so I went with him. I was able to get most of my McCree cosplay done in time for it. However, as you can also see, my chestplate was at different stages of build in a few pictures, the pictures with the weathering and piping on the sides being the more recent con and update.

The top photo is courtesy of SilveScotty Photography on Facebook and despite the fact that my chaps had broken and I was having a heat stroke, it turned out pretty damn cool. And look how pristine and beautiful that chestplate is before I weathered the shit out of it (lol).

P.S. I know I’m missing my chaps, they kept falling apart and I’m still having difficulties with them (lol).

My further con experiences are under the cut!

The first convention I attended was Sausomecon in Kansas City. It was a smaller convention, only it’s third year but granted, it was still a good time. It was a nice practice run for McCree for the following weekend. Despite having low attendance and a small vendors room, I actually really enjoyed this con because my favorite part of conventions is talking to people. And since it was so small, I was able to really stop and talk to vendors as well as the cosplay guests. One group that was asked to come and put on some panels stopped me on Sunday actually (while I was in my Star-Lord cosplay) and asked me if I had been the McCree the day prior. I said yes, of course, and the female half of the cosplay group physically came up and hugged me and started asking me all of these questions about how long I’d been cosplaying and how I made my builds, etc. It was just… a really humbling experience to be praised by professional cosplayers like that. When I told them that I one day hopped to be on their level, they were so hyped and supportive and gave me their cards if I ever had any questions about anything.

The second convention I attended this last weekend was O! Comic Con in Omaha. Again, it’s a young convention but attendance was pretty high. They’re working the kinks out of how everything operates but, again, it was overall a good time. The vendors room was amazing and I literally spent most of my money on Overwatch art drawn by the artists there. It was great all three days, all three cosplays going over well (Rey on Friday, McCree on Saturday, Star-Lord on Sunday). I made a bunch of new friends that I’ll probably see at the next convention and I can’t wait to go! There was supposed to be an Overwatch shoot actually but I literally got there just as they were finishing up. A lot of people were disappointed but I said it was fine and just brushed it off (as was typical of a real McCree).

There was also another McCree cosplayer there as well! However… unfortunately… he was a bit rude to me. Granted, I was taller than him by half a foot and his chest armor was a little less complex and less three dimensional than mine. Regardless of that, he started pointing out stuff that was wrong with my cosplay. Just… in general I got the whole “girl v boy gamer” vibe from him that I couldn’t like McCree or Overwatch. Not to mention that I’m… well, I wasn’t looking like my typical hot dumpster fire. I felt pretty for once and (astoundingly enough) had people reaffirming this at both Sausomecon and O! Comic Con. I walked away from the interaction with discouragement and a heavy heart.

I’ve also learned from the last two experiences that long and free hair is too fucking hot for McCree so it’s going to be in a thick braid next time because it was humid af and my straight hair couldn’t hang for long with how much I was sweating.

Weirdly enough, kinda mentioned before, I was getting a lot of comments on me instead of the cosplay which was an absolute first i.e. as I was walking down an aisle in the vendors room at O!: “That… is a very fine McCree.” I nearly died and instead started walking fast, my spurs jingling the whole way.

More examples include:

a Genji needing to have a selfie with me after having posed in a picture with me an hour or so prior

a random dude needing both a full portrait picture and then a selfie with me because “it would make his buddy so jealous to have met a female McCree” like he physically got off the phone with said buddy to take a picture with me

Was walking by a group of boys at Sausomecon and heard “I mean, I would have never thought I would want to f*** McCree… but now…”

Someone said I had really pretty eyes

Said I was the perfect example for a genderswap for McCree

But that’s all beside the point. Regardless of all that and the confidence boosters, the experiences made it all worth it especially with the children attending.

What stood out the most was that there was this little black girl dressed as Wonder Woman and I just remember that she had been staring at me as I walked passed and not wanting to startle her, I just smiled and waved. She did take a half step back into her momma’s leg but instead she just looked up at me and squeaked out a “Who are you?” I replied appropriately and told her I was McCree and got down on her level (she couldn’t have been older than four years old). And then I said that didn’t matter because she was Wonder Woman. And let me tell you, I’ve never seen a bigger smile on someone’s face. So we talked a bit and her mom ended up just asking me for a picture regardless of not knowing who I was and I let the little girl hold Peacekeeper (which was bigger than like half her torso) and that… that’s why I go to conventions. Whether I make people happy with my cosplays or make children feel special in theirs, that’s why I go.

#blue's life #cosplay #jesse mccree #mccree #jesse mccree cosplay #overwatch #overwatch cosplay #sausomecon #sausomecon 2017 #o! comic con #o! comic con 2017

12 notes · View notes

nixxofhearts · 8 years ago

Photo

This weekend was amazing! Especially since my experience last year wasn’t the best **link 1 and link 2** I’ll talk about everything that happened both days below!

FRIDAY:

So on Friday I was already anxious. Last year was such a cluster fuck so I had gotten VIP tickets, but I still had this feeling that something wasn’t going to go well. I felt better after inviting @creativelunatic to dinner at my hotel since she helped me clear my mind by going through the plan for the next weekend. Unlike last year, I had friends going this time! After she left that worry began creeping back and It lead to an anxiety attack. The concern of the unknown scared me so much that all I could do was sit there and try to tell myself that things will work out fine. I hoped that that evening wasn’t a sign of how I would be the rest of the weekend. SATURDAY:

That morning my stomach was churning like there was no tomorrow. I felt like I was going to throw up so i didn’t eat anything for breakfast. We quickly got ready and took the tram to the convention centre. Once we got there I saw a huge line. Straight away I was looking around anxiously if there was a separate line for vips like last year. Luckily a lovely guardian came up to me and said I could walk right past the crowds and into the con. I got to the front of the line in about 10 minutes with the help of so many nice guardians! There I met Jasmine. Jasmine is someone I've known for well over a year now but it was our first time meeting. Talking to her automatically calmed my nerves because that was when it sunk in that I wasn’t alone this weekend! I had @creativelunatic, Jasmine, and so many other friends (who sadly only use facebook) Last year I just had my mum and one other friend who ran off to do their own thing the entire time. I strongly believe that if my friends weren’t there I would have had a much harder time.

From there I quickly ran to the store with Jasmine to get merch before there was a line up. I got an rtx shirt, a nug club shirt, and some cow chop socks. We were in and out in ten minutes. After that I headed to the slow mo guys panel and got front row! Already I was happy that I spent so much money on a vip ticket. As you guys might recall one of the biggest lows of last year was not seeing Gavin, and now I was so close to him! It felt surreal!

I then walked around for an hour or so and of course spent a bunch of saved up money on anime merch. I had lunch and met up with another friend, Stix. Yet another friend I’ve never met! He was so nice and wanted to help me with a little project I was doing for @h-golightly. @h-golightly has just come out of brain surgery and I have something i’ll be sending off to her soon~ I’ll post about it once she receives it!

It was almost the end of the con day and I made my way to the ballroom where I sat with Jasmine, Jaden, and Ben for Off Topic and the RWBY season finale! During off topic Jack had this blue three pointed boomerang that he was trying to throw and catch successfully. This was a recurring thing with the same boomerang all weekend. Rwby was so intense, even more so with the reactions of the rest of the audience. It hit me hard, the fact that I was part of such a huge and loving community, that during Ruby’s letter I teared up. I felt that I had been worrying all for nothing. I was.

SATURDAY EVENING:

The VIP party was about to start and I wasn’t even ready! I had to rush when getting ready, but luckily when we got to the venue the party was only just starting to pick up. I don’t go out often so the bass and the vibe of the experience was all basically brand new even if it did remind me of a mosh pit. @creativelunatic was nice enough to order me a glass of rum and coke and so we sat in the corner sipping our drinks. I was worried the whole night i’d just be sitting there wishing I had the nerve to get up and talk to people. In a sort of “yolo” moment I walked up to Jack and the next thing I knew I was thanking him for making videos that got me through tough times! I told him how their videos helped me when my anxiety was really bad and I had no way of calming down. Jack was as nice as I expected him to be! He was more than happy to take a photo with me. somehow my hands didn’t shake when I took our selfie! God knows I was shitting myself!!

The next person I saw was Lindsay talking to Jasmine! I had met her back in 2014 so my nerves weren’t as bad! I approached her and she complimented me on my piercings and said I was so nice! It was surreal that one of my idols was complimenting ME, I’ll always remember that. I couldn’t stop smiling.

At this point my feet were killing me! I wore these lovely shoes but i only ever wear flats so it felt like I was walking on hot coals for the entire evening.

I was going to sit back down and rest, satisfied with who I saw, BUT THEN I spot Jeremy about two meters away from me! I thanked him for getting me through tough times and he put his hand on my shoulder since he could tell I was anxious at that moment. He smiled at me and it felt so genuine.

Gus was the next rt employee in my sights! I think I was anxious about him the most. I know his whole antisocial “hate everyone” sort of attitude is a whole joke but for some reason I felt worried that he wouldn’t understand how some silly videos could help me with my anxiety. I said thank you anyway and he said “oh it’s okay, I can relate”. Those few words were so comforting.

After trekking up the stairs one step per 10 seconds, I noticed Ryan. Of course he was surrounded by a bunch of chicks, I didn’t expect much else! Whilst waiting, a guy complimented me on my handbag and a girl complimented me on my dress We had a little talk before we parted ways

Ryan was really nice! He was confused as to how they helped me but said he was glad anyway!

Last but not least was Barb! We talked a bit and I took a photo, but the photo came out dark so she insisted that someone take the photo for us with the flash! She could tell I was anxious and was really supportive. Overall the night was a huge success! I got to meet so many people I look up to! I left feeling so full of joy and excitement! Thank you so much to @creativelunatic who stuck by me the entire time! You helped me gather the confidence, thank you <3 <3

SUNDAY:

In the morning I didn’t feel anxious but my stomach felt even worse. All the excitement from the past day had caught up to me and I ended up puking. Not a great way to start the morning but I wasn’t going to let that get me down! Once we got through bag check I had my two signings! The first was with Jeremy and Jack. They signed my minecraft sword and we talked a little before we took a photo. It was pleasant. I wasn’t feeling as anxious because I had met them the night before.

Dan, Barb, and GAVIN were next! Gavin has and always will be my favourite ah member. I’ve always looked up to him, even striving to be like him to an extent. Last year was almost ruined because I hadn’t seen him so the anticipation had built up even more. I was shaking so much, emotions were boiling up to the surface and I was worried I wouldn’t be able to keep my cool in front of them. As I approached them I was greeted with smiles as Barbra complimented my shirt (The owl shirt from her clothing line) and almost instantly half of my anxiety washed away! I told them about @h-golightly and we made love hearts with our hands for her! This whole experience has sort of helped me with my anxiety in the way that I always thought of RT as these untouchable people. But as it turned out, they’re human too! If i’m worried about approaching someone I just have to remember that they’re people too!

I had lunch in the vip lounge with @creativelunatic before heading to the main stage where we watched AH vs FH untill it was time for the AH panel. The AH panel was definitely a highlight! Once again Jack tried throwing that damn boomerang! We went to the main stage after that and instantly got front row seats (luckily! It was almost full!) We watched the podcast and I sat with Jasmine during the Nintendo switch lets play with Michael and Gavin. It was hilarious!

We were about to head off until some familiar faces came on stage! Gus and Jack. Whilst they talked about highlights of the weekend and saying thank you to all of us, Jack was still trying to throw the boomerang. He said he had done it before and Dan had seen him do it! On his second try it landed under me so I picked it up and quickly handed it to him. He tried again whilst they were walking off the stage and it landed in front of me again! I went to give it to him but he said I could keep it! This was the cherry on top! Me, out of all these people got the boomerang that jack had been carrying around all weekend! It was a crazy thought!

Sorry guys, I know this is extremely long but I just wanted to record what had happened this weekend. I know i’ll remember this experience for the rest of my life. This is the sword I had signed! One side has my friends signatures and the other has RT employee signatures!

#rtx #rooster teeth #rtx sydney #rtxsydney #jack patillo #jeremy dooley #ryan haywood #gus surrola #gavin free #lindsay jones #barbra dunkleman #dan gruchy #ah #rt #achievement hunter

85 notes · View notes

jdrespling · 6 years ago

Text

Headbangers Con Survival Guide

What’s shakin folks? Anthony here again with another killer review coming to you from the FIRST EVER HEADBANGERS CON. Did you say Con? Yes, that is not a misprint. On the evening of November 9th Chris 51 and his crew of metal heads hit the Bossanova Ballroom with one thing on their minds…..METAL. Not only was it successful, but this guy is still feeling the high of being in a room with so many great musicians and people. Never in my existence did I ever think idbe chatting with some of the industry’s leading musicians and some of the greats as well. People like David Ellefson, Dirk Verbeuren from MEGADEATH! Aaron Patrick from All That Remains, Carla & Heidi of the Butcher Babies, Morgan Rose of Sevendust, Corey Glover from Living Color and of course we can not forget our gracious host Chris 51.

You know though for my first time having the pleasure to doing an event like this it went amazingly well. So as the night started to wind down we got a performance from the one and ONLY STRYPER! Man, these guys can still kick a beat and hold their own. Tonight, will always be one of the greatest nights of my life. One of my favorite moments about tonight. I look over in the corner because I was looking around for shots and photo ops, and I noticed Dirk Verbeuren with his head down and drawing on something, so I wanted to be nosy and walked over and started talking to this lovely young woman named Elizabeth Engel from a non-profit organization called RYFO. They help struggling musicians. She had asked Dirk to draw her a T-Shirt design for her organization and he didn’t even hesitate and did it on the spot. That totally blew me away, here he is supposed to be partaking on the festivities but decides to help this organization out. I got fucking goose bumps. Don’t believe me see the pics. Dirk again you are a hell of a drummer and human being, thank you. But I also believe that tonight I was apart of METAL HISTORY! When im wheeling my old ass in a wheelchair going to the 25th annual Headbangers con and its my 25th then I will reference this article and I will rest my case! so tonight I say good day and ill have more tomorrow

Sometimes you can’t help but be a bit giddy. Start to ask yourself who are you going to meet today? What am I going to do? First I’m going to sit in and hear some stories from Eddie Ojeda of Twisted Sister. Did you know that when Twisted Sister first got signed not only were they signed to a UK label, but people thought they were from Europe? Wow, I had no idea. Also, Eddie has a line of Twisted Hot Sauces, that are amazing, so I bought three. I walked around and went over to the exhibit hall to check out the merch booths. Then I went back for the Butcher Babies Heidi and Carla. I bet you didn’t know that one of Heidi’s influences is Slipknot well specifically Corey Taylor and her favorite song is the New National Fucking Anthem SURFACING!!! One of my personal favorites as well. Then Carla is a grief counselor and she is a big fan of the immortal PANTERA! As the day wrapped up from elbowing with Rock Gods, Chris 51 had some special entertainment planned. Hyro The Hero and Soil. To be honest I think Portland is still ringing from that show. As you go to a Con or an event that spans over a couple days you can’t help but wonder what you missed or what you lucked out of. Between panels and signing’s, it can be overwhelming. So, I suggest you find a map or the list of events and plan your weekend. Sunday was here and well I didn’t want it to end, its like that favorite moment that you want to live over and over again. Today I was going to sit in on the Burton C Bell panel well because I like Fear Factory. Jose Mangin our host took the stage. I learned a lot about Burton and Fear Factory. Did you know that their name was taken from a Demo tape they got in Europe? One of their first gigs was in a back yard and Dino kept getting shocked because they weren’t grounded properly. Then we sang Happy Birthday to the one and only David Ellefson. As the day closes and the con is packing up you can’t help but feel saddened and a bit down. So, I got to get a book signed by David Ellefson, and I got a post card signed by Derek Riggs the creator of Iron Maiden’s Eddie. Plus, I don’t know if you all know this, but I am a huge star wars nut and bought a really cool book. I wanted to also see what some of these great artists had to say about headbangers con.

Carla Harvey (Butcher Babies)

EE: Just out of curiosity would you do another Headbangers Con

Carla: Oh of course its been a blast it’s very impressive for the first year for the first Head Bangers Con. I think these kind of things should be a staple everywhere around the country don’t you?

EE: I totally agree

EE: Now, would you change anything?

Carla: Would I change anything, I think this is a great example of what a Head Bangers con should be. There’s nothing that I would change, really nothing. There are so many great people here, the fans have all been awesome and the vendors as well. Maybe have them all in one room so we don’t have to walk around as much.

EE: Was it overwhelming to be in the room with so many of the greats like Burton C Bell, David Ellefson?

Carla: WE have been lucky enough to be in the business for over a decade now and a lot of these people we idolized in our youth have become friends over the years, this is more like a family reunion than anything.

EE: Now I have one important question for you sir, would you attend another Head Bangers Con? (Ron Keel)

RK: I would do it in a heartbeat this has been a fantastic event I’m really glad to be apart of it, and um we have made some new friends seen some old friends and just keep this thing going if Chris Fitty One wants me back for Con number 2 ill be there!

EE: Are you having a good time?

RK: I am absolutely having a blast loving the Rock Star treatment. And a great event for the fans and artists as well!

Nathan Hunt (Shamans Harvest)

EE: how are you doing this morning?

NH: Well I need a lot of coffee especially after last night….

EE: I bet its been a wild weekend.

EE: So the major question is would you do another Head Bangers Con?

NH: Fuck yeah!

EE: Tell me a little bit about your experience this weekend?

NH: Anytime your around like-minded people you know that passion for music it’s always going to be a good weekend.

EE: does it feel like a family reunion?

NH: yes its definitely got that family reunion vibe we all got fucked up Friday, and I chilled yesterday and ordered pizza.

EE: Are you having a good time?

NH: Most definitely I am, learning a lot of shit, with Jose on the stage grinding away.

Davey Grahs (POP EVIL)

EE: The million dollar question is, would you be apart of another Head Bangers Con?

DG: OH Hell yeah, hell yeah this has been great!

EE: What is your thoughts on the concept of having a con for metal heads like us?

DG: I love it I don’t know why we haven’t had anything like this before or sooner

EE: What’s next for Pop Evil

DG: well we have a Canadian tour kicking off next week, then a US run and end it in Europe.

Dirk Verbeuren (MEGADEATH)

EE: Curious, would you be apart of another Head Bangers Con?

DV: absolutely I would this has been a total blast, and ah I think it will only get better since this is the first edition after all.

EE: Where do you think the next location will be?

DV: I am rooting for Los Angeles because it is closer to my house and I like sleeping in my own bed. Lol no I think L.A would be a be a better place because there are a lot of conventions there and its very busy there is a lot of people in the metal scene that would definitely dig things like this so.

Jose Mangin (Sirius Xm Radio)

EE: So Would you be involved with another Head Bangers Con?

JM: Oh My God of course that is a no brainer, I would never miss something that’s as cool as a gathering of us metal fans and to able to help be a leader for it, a voice for it, it’s an honor to be here. If I saw one dude wearing a metal shirt that’s all I need, but I see a ton of people with big hearts for metal ill never miss this again.

EE: You have done panels for the last two days, right at this moment what is your favorite so far?

JM: I mean dude, Megadeath is one of my all time favorite bands and just always talking to someone of his stature (David Ellefson) it freaks me out because I have been such a long time fan.

EE: Do you still get the giggles when you do interviews?

JM: Always , Always I never take this job, this position this life I have for granted it’s a huge responsibility. But First and foremost I am a FAN.

EE: One last question What would you tell Chris 51 right now?

JM: Dude, I would say thank you for getting all of us head bangers together. Thank you and lets do it again!

Corey Glover (Living Color)

EE: Would you do another Con like this?

CG: Absolutely in a heartbeat I would do it tomorrow, yeah this is fun this is great.

EE: Do you think this is going to open bigger doors and open people’s eyes?

CG: I do I think that as a band, to connect to your audience and the people who appreciate what you do is hard to do at a show, if your really working you only have about a half an hour to meet and greet your fans but its only hi and that’s it. This I get you talk to people all day and that we don’t get to do on a daily basis. Plus the fans can ask specific questions that you don’t get the opportunity to ask at a meet and greet. It like what kind of pick are you using why did you do this instead of that. That is when I feel more connected to my fans.

Burton C Bell (Fear Factory)

EE: Would you do another metal Con and Why

BB: Yes and because its FUCKING FUN AS HELL!

EE: is there anything that really stood out for you this weekend?

BB: Umm just the Family vibe

EE: I have been hearing that a lot from people

BB: and that’s what this is it’s a celebration of the genre intrinsically even if you are a musician or not.

Then I got to see the new Fear Factory album cover…. He hehe…..

This last weekend was not only the time of my life but I have to say very eye-opening. From all the Vendors like The Star Wars Store, Rogue Toys, Period Panties, Terasyne Amps, ROCKSTAR clothing, Morbid Empire, Metal Yoga, Paradise Harley Davidson, Rose City Vapors, and all the tattoo artists. I can’t forget to mention Toxic Zombie, Cryptamnesia, M.I.R.P, YesterdazeNews Bob Williams Photography you my friend my hats off. You all made me feel very welcome into the fold and I can not wait to shoot side by side and work with you all again. Plus Jose Mangin from Sirius Xm Radio. Brother never lose that passion, I love listening to you on the radio and enjoyed watching you on stage during the panels.

This weekend couldn’t have been possible if it wasn’t for the great works by Chris 51 and Morgan Rose. You two started a domino effect that will hopefully last for generations. You gave the metal fans a place where we can be as one and feel like we are family.

Chris and Morgan, I personally can not thank you enough for showing this world what metal is and is always going to be. I am anxiously waiting for the news of the next one.

So guys that’s all I am going to say, if you missed out on all the wonderful panels, and your favorite artists. I am truly sorry you missed a HEAD BANGING WEEKEND!!

Thanks again for reading and enjoying what I had to say

Remember Keep it real and keep it METAL!

I’ll catch you on the flipside!

HeadBangers Con Portland 2018 Review Headbangers Con Survival Guide What’s shakin folks? Anthony here again with another killer review coming to you from the FIRST EVER HEADBANGERS CON.

0 notes

giacintodenmark · 6 years ago

Text

Weeks 2 - 3, I’ve already done so much! and I (somewhat) remembered to take photos!!

The second Sunday since my arrival, the first full weekend. In the morning Hans and I went for a run through the lakeside forest, the beauty of the trails makes the running tolerable.

Sunday evening, Hans and I went to an FC Copenhagen game. We played a Danish team from Southern Jutland and won 3-2 if I can remember. I can’t consider myself a sports fan, but I recommend attending one of these games if the opportunity presents itself. Being amongst the crowd of rowdy Copenhageners is a lot of fun. If you really want to get into it, figure out what the cheers are before going… and if you’re feeling confident, maybe book a seat in the rowdy section.

Another view of the stadium, rowdy section pictured to the right. They seem to have a great time swaying, jumping, chanting, shouting, and cheering to the beat of the drummer for the duration of the game.

I spent the beginning of Week 2 working on the two old bikes my family had in the side yard in preparation for biking to my first field study on Wednesday. The black one had a frayed gear cable and the grey one had two broken tires, a broken tire-lock, and a broken front-brake. I replaced the broken grey bike parts with the black bike parts and removed the front brake of the grey bike entirely. I really had no idea what I was doing, what seemed simple at first became a two-day project (a tiny handsaw and a hammer were involved in the operation, I lacked finesse and turned to forcing my will upon the old and rusty bike parts).

The next three photos are from my first field study with the Urban Ecology course. We traveled to four areas within the city: a shore-side seating area at Sankt Jorgen Sø, Axel Hedes Gade, a small park between some apartments near Axel Hedes Gade, and on a dock in Island Brygge. The field study served as an introduction to the Field Journal assignment we will work on for the entire semester.

Our professor simply asked us to fill the journal with any content relating to our observations of the environments we find ourselves in over our time abroad. Notes, sketches, photos, field samples, anything... we just need to mindfully observe each space. We focus particularly on 3 topics when assessing an environment: (1) Its pros and cons as a habitat for non-human organisms. (2) Pros and cons as a space for human beings. (3) Pros and cons as a space that influences biogeochemical cycles of the city and greater area.

Here is a sample of the garbage scattered around the shore of Sankt Jorgen Sø. I also found broken glass, old clothing, wrappers, bits of plastic, etc. I was also curious about the effect shoreline-type (concrete vs. vegetation) has on the presence of birds.

Axel Hedes Gade, the 2nd area that we met at. Our 3rd area is around the apartment buildings off in the distance. This road runs with many others through this very large field I believe to be part of Amager Vest.

The dock within Islands Brygge we finished our field study at.

Going North (photo taken facing south) up the dock would take you to the Islands Brygge Harbor Baths, one of my favorite spots in the city (Be sure to go during the first 2-3 weeks if you’re here for Winter Semester, its only going to get colder and darker outside! WoOOo!)

I visited the Danish Architecture Museum with my 20th and 21st Century Danish Architecture class. We had an hour to be toured through the current exhibition “Welcome Home,” a historical survey of the Danish home.

I cooked a meal for my host family on the Friday of the 2nd full weekend. I picked up pretty much everything at Torvehallerne, the rest was stuff from home.

Trout stuffed with lemon, red onion, dill, and garlic... basted with a sauce made from butter, dark beer, and leftover stuffing. Artichokes filed with one of the many kinds of cheese I found in the fridge and garlic. I also made some caprese salad.

It was simple and delicious, my host family loved it... there were barely any leftovers between just three of us.

Saturday of full weekend #2. Stopped at the National Museum of Denmark for a few hours. If you really love museums, make this an all-day event... 4 hours only gave me enough time to somewhat thoroughly go through the 1st floor (there are 5 if I can remember).

Lur Horns

Nordic wind instruments. They were used to create an atmospheric background sound for Bronze Age rituals. All of these lurs were found in bogs and are from 1200 - 700 B.C.

This might be what they sound like.

Tirsted (10th century AD)

The plate beside the stone lays out an attempt to translate the inscriptions.

“Asråd and Hildvig raised this stone in memory of Frede, their kinsman. And he was then (the terror of men) and he died in Svitjod (Sweden) and was (the foremost of Frigge’s host); and then: all Vikings.”

Doesn’t make much sense, but this room was one of my favorite in the entire museum. About a dozen of these stones are laid out in the room. I read that when these were first erected they were fully painted in bright color. I find the way the words are etched and stained to be fascinating.

The woman of Himlingøje

From the 1st half of the 3rd century AD. 40-50-year-old woman. Within the woman’s mouth is a piece of gold, called a Charon’s coin. The piece was meant to pay for passage to the realm of the dead. Jewels, beads, bangles, rings, a comb, earthenware vessels, a bronze pail, a dish, ladle and sieve, glass cups, and a silver coin were laid among her. (Information from plaque)

This room and a number of others were filled with remains and the variety of items that were placed beside them at the grave.

After the museum visit, I had dinner at BÆST, a restaurant that's whipping out freshly fired pizza, fresh veggies, and carefully crafted charcuterie and cheeses. A majority of the ingredients they use come from the eastern Farm of Ideas, a farm founded by Christian F. Puglisi, the lead of BÆST and others like Ralæ, Manfreds, Mirabelle... etc.

Swiss chard, Russian kale, grilled fennel, dried olives, and really really good ricotta. Some GOOD sourdough bread.

Margherita. Tomato sauce, mozzarella, basil. (This was good, but I’d get something with their charcuterie on it if I go another time.)

The view of Peblinge Sø from the bridge of Nørrebrogade. On a weekend night, get together some friends, grab something to go from the great variety of food stops nearby and head on over to the many spots that border these lakes.

I took a stop here after my dinner at BÆST, on my way back to Nørreport Station.

On my Sunday morning run, I found an apple orchard near my house. Off in the distance is a bunch of beehive boxes, some of which contain colonies.

Aarstiderne Farm Harvest Market. A nice festival with food stands to showcase their fresh produce; tours of the farm; local artisans crafting things like chocolate, sea-buckthorn jam, charcuterie, clothing, coffee, etc; a produce market; and general good vibes. Its a bit quite a ways north but was really awesome, I recommend checking in this event and ones like it during your time here.

A stand near one of the produce fields. Showcasing some of the freshly picked produce.

A view of the crowd amongst flowers and produce. This photo and the one below show two different farm areas, both containing pretty much the same vegetation. In this photo they are planting everything together. In the other, they are planting uniformly in rows... perhaps they are testing to see the two different methods effect on how well the plants do.

Ørstedparken a nice park near Torvehallerne. We went here for an Urban Ecology session, continuing our exploration of urban environments as a habitat, a human space, and an influencer of urban biogeochemical cycling.

This is one of many parks that were originally a part of the old defense fortification ring decommissioned in the 1870s. A section of the mote has become the lake and bastions have become small hills within the landscape.

The second field study, this time with my 20th and 21st Century Danish Architecture Course. This is Grundtvigs Kirke, dedicated to N.F.S. Grundtvig, built from 1927 to 1940. The architect is Peder Vilhelm Jensen-Klint... His son and his grandson were involved in the work as well. The church is a centerpiece of a village of similarly styled residential buildings and small storefronts. The style is a mix of Expressionist and Gothic architecture.

The glowing interior of Grundtvig's Kirke.

Bagsværd Kirke. Architect: Jørn Utzon (you know him, Sydney Opera House). We were to compare and contrast this church with Grundtvigs despite their great contextual and stylistic differences.

The greatest part of the interior is the vaulting, a sprawling wall of concrete curved into a smooth wave of linen-like white that softly carries light downwards into the room.

The natural lighting works really well with materials and colors. There is a cool, cloud-like softness to the otherwise clean-cut and industrial structure.

Last Saturday night, I decided to try my hand at making pasta from scratch. It was fairly easy, just 400 grams of wheat flour, 4 eggs, salt, and olive oil for the dough. I let it sit, rolled it out, and then cut it into strips. The small meatballs, or pallotine, are just beef, salt, pepper, olive oil. This was my inspiration, I am far from it.

Everything coming together. Pasta’s cooking in salted water, the red sauce has been cooking for around 3 hours, and the meatballs are frying in olive oil.

It’s not beautiful, but it was quite delicious. I’ll be ready for next time!

Prolog Coffee Bar over in Kødbyens District, the best coffee I have had in Copenhagen so far. 2-3 workers serving up stupid good coffee in the small alley-like interior amongst a number of other really cool food stops. I HIGHLY recommend coming here to get a cup and check out the other spots nearby.

This is it. A cortado.

I did not get my own photo of this place, La Banchina, my current favorite spot in Copenhagen. The place serves up a variety of natural wine, beer, baked goods, snacks, and really good, creative meals out of this unusually wonderful place (the kitchen is in a mini greenhouse building). Take a dip into the harbor water, jump into their sauna (50 Kroner), and make some friends. I hope to find myself here many more times, even as the days become dark and damp. (This place is in its full glory during the summertime).

The surrounding area of Refshalevej is worth checking out on its own, I’ll be back to revisit the place in a post sometime later on.

Everyone gathered around for some Snobrød, a Danish tradition of baking bread on a stick. This was available to everyone that stopped by, you just had to find your own stick... this beats roasting marshmallows.

Cabbage, roasted buckwheat, cured egg, fresh creme, chives, and a couple other things. I started eating it before I remembered that I should take a photo of it.

There is never a set menu, they decide what to serve based on what's available and what's on their mind.

Sunset on Vejilesø near my train stop at Holte.

I’ll be posting about Core Course week next!

0 notes