#ren faire Las Vegas

[noturbabyghoul]

I’ve been trying to reach you about your ships extended warranty ⚔️🏴‍☠️

[sugoiney-weaver]

Dress rehearsal for my Gale costume for Las Vegas Ren Faire next week! Had to make sure I still knew how to use a razor and temporary tattoos

[loveydoveypiperwright]

A non-choreographed game hosted by Blood of Heroes [two knights can grab the skull and run it to the end-line. If hit on the helmet, they kneel for ten seconds. Either remaining carrier can steal the skull and run to their end. Other knights must protect their skull runner] + various cosplays I saw around the faire! The templar trooper called me a heretic upon learning that Merrill is a blood mage… I said, "I may be an apostate, but-" and then took off running lol

I saw: Many a hobbit, many a Shrek, various Star Wars x medieval themed armors, several colonial outfits, four Gandalfs, three types of witchers, three Tavs, three Captain Jack Sparrows, two Maleficents, Legolas, Astarion, Gale, Karlach, Jaheira, Ciri, Aloy, The Hunter, King Baldwin IV, and a person in green goblin make-up with a shirt that read PARTY GOBLIN! My brother saw a lot of anime cosplays and kept pointing them out to me. He also saw a christ cosplay and went "Jesus!!" and they responded "My child 😇❤️" while walking past

At least the weather was relatively cooler than it has been for the past few weeks. I saw a lot of faire-goers in black 🙈 The mandalorian had a mic inside their helmet hooked up to a speaker on their shoulder, so you could hear them very clearly. Cool stuff!

[sleepyysweetheart]

The Ren Fair was alot of fun!

[princesspakalolo]

Easily my favorite video atm 🥰

[crazycomicshow]

Age of Chivalry

The event was fun but next year I am getting a multiple day pass so I can take items I buy out to my car instead of having to carry them all day. Plus it will allow me to bring food instead of having to spend money at the overpriced vendors. Bought a reusable mug that look medieval that I can carry with me at the con. Which will allow me to refill it at the water fountains instead of having to buy bottled water. I did buy a kilt and some pants I can wear for next time I go. I also got a sleeveless shirt incase it is a hot day again. I already have a long sleeve shirt I can wear to keep my arms protected when I wear the kilt or if it is chilly out. I do have a cape I can wear as well when it is chillier out.

Learned a few lessons but overall I had a good time. Even had one of the vendors thinking I was trying to hit on her.

[razmerry]

Drawtectives: Orc Lore... 2!!!!

My first Drawtectives orc lore post that I made 2 years got over 600 notes, and I always intended to compile one for the second season. I just needed to rewatch all of it first! This one includes more general information about the Drawtectives world than the first did, cause it’s really fun. 

Part 1

Episode 1:

- York has become a male model! Good job, king

- Extra world lore: Boogle, Bamerica (where engineers drive the train)

Episode 2:

- Common knowledge in the orc tribes is that the one thing you can’t fight is death - it gets you in the end

- “There’s always time for the east” - a classic Northern tribes quote

- Extra world lore: Pollywood, gredit cards, Zac Giraffe, Belp, Bi-Fi, Halloween is canon!

Episode 3:

- No one has ever reported back after confronting a wild train

- Reconfirmed: the roughly cuboid shape of wild cats, including tigers which have a Garfield-like appearance

- One of the only comics in the Northern tribe was Cashews by Barles Pört, featuring Sneppy 

- Things York can write: eat my butt, wow now thatsa potata, Sneppy

- York doesn’t talk about his #1 and #2 weirdest days: “too weird”

- York is “a very social creature” according to Rose; all he needs are friends and food

Episode 4:

- Confirmed for the third time: York is a math guy

- York is big enough that he has a high drink tolerance

Episode 5:

- The “Ren Faire Las Vegas” is a story in the Northern tribe told to children, about a magical place with heroes and knights and glitter; York hoped to see it someday

       - Which included the hero “Belvis Breseley” and his many disciples

       - Interestingly, the Benaissance appears to possibly be etymologically linked to this “Ren Faire”, when the famous turtle painter Michaelango lived

- A classic game from the Northern tribes called “Lift It”: where you have a heavy object and see if you can lift it

Episode 6:

- It takes York a few seconds to transform between “Fight Mode” and “Show Mode”

- More Cashews lore: the lead character is Barley Brown

- Another newspaper comic: Beefcliff, which is apparently spelled differently in other locations

- BC also exists: unclear if this is our world’s or simply a coincidence

- Wild trains enjoy bones: new, old, yours, doesn’t matter to the train

- It’s speculated that trains evolved from wild bikes, with some diverging evolutionary lines including trucks

- Wild trains have feline ears and tails; if the ears are in the alert position, the train has now targeted you

- “Life is a railroad, and I’m going to ride it ‘till my stop”: a line from the hit group Bascal Blatts

- An interesting thing to note: synthetic trains are built in the image of wild trains

- York lost 17 of his cousins to wild train attacks; so York has approximately 35 cousins according to him (and I trust his math)

- Wild trains have a “burning inferno” as well as a mouth-eye, and the tail can be used somewhat like a blade

- Stripes on the side of the wild train help it blend in with tallgrass environments

- Horse Pope: holy figure? Into gambling? Oversees soups?

- York: sometimes known as “The Terror of the Northern Tribes”

- York has a net worth of about 6 million bones in his bank, although it’s unclear what the exchange rate is to Bamerican dollars

Episode 7:

- Bibby Joey: creator of the famous song “Scenes from an Italian Restaurant”

- BUNO!

- Eugino, a popular card game (Eugene-Oh?)

- I’m not writing down the rest of those board game puns

- The only game played in the Northern Tribes was “rock hit”, where you threw rocks at another rock in the air and see which rock survived; perhaps Lift It was more of a personal challenge

- There are no tables in the Northern Tribes

- Eugene’s favorite karaoke song is “I Need A Villain” by Donnie Byler, featured in Grek 2

Episode 8:

- York is the smart one, according to Rose: “he thinks the loudest”

- He’s also bad with faces and voices according to Rose; reconfirmed from S1E5

- I just really like that he was 100% convinced that Alm and All were different people

- Phone-bone, apparently

Episode 9:

- I enjoy the two-part confirmation that Northern Tribes orcs have southern accents

- “Joe Beans” is not a traditional orcish name

- Not everyone knows that the Northern Tribes have a monarchy

- “Orcish size” drinks are in a bucket, evidently they are literally sand buckets

- Jancy came to York’s first modeling show :,)

- York once tried to arm-wrestle a snake

- Wonderful film by Studio Jiggly: Ghosted Over There

Episode 10:

- No lore just solving the case!!

Episode 11:

- York’s favorite action hero is Ben Ception, who enters people’s dreams

- List of the months: Febicember, Smarch, Mapril, Junary, and Bachtober

- York’s powerful… stream gives him time to get his arms warmed up for a fight

- Another social media app; Binstagram

- “Lofty goals do lead to existential horrors” - daily quote by Rose

[tpadegimas]

Refelections on accountability, radiation and defense with your feet.

We’ll get to all that, but first some announcements: UnObtanium Bazaar will be at the Las Vegas Pirate fest this weekend! We will be at London Bridge Ren Faire (in Lake Havasu City) next weekend. I am watching the Suns with the sound off partly so I can write, but mostly because I am tired of the local commentators whining about the fouls. In basketball, the accountability is fairly…

[cattatonically]

Screwed - K.M. Neuhold (Four Bears Construction, book 4)

Synopsis

I’ve had my fair share of less than proud relationship moments, but waking up married to my brother-in-law’s best friend is a new low.

A drunken wedding to a man who already rejected me once? Check. A hefty bet about how long it will last? Check. My feisty new husband, determined to make our friends pay up? Double check.

I’ve never managed to make a real relationship last nearly a year, there’s no way Daniel will stick around long enough to win this bet. The only problem is the longer he stays, the more the lines blur between what’s real and what’s for show. Does he feel it too or am I totally screwed?

***Screwed is a woke up married, faking it to their friends but also totally hooking up, sweet, STEAMY love story that happens to be the fourth book in the Four Bears Construction series. There are no bear shifters in this series, only the OTHER kind of bears.

My Thoughts

Near the end of the last book, Hardwood, something very curious happened, involving Ollie very much avoiding Daniel at all costs. We were introduced to Daniel in Caulky, as Ren’s best friend. I didn’t anticipate we’d get his side of the story, but I’m definitely glad we did.

Ollie and Daniel are very much a mismatched pair. They could not be more opposite. Where Ollie longs for the stability and romance of a committed life partner, Daniel couldn’t imagine anything worse.

And then they end up getting drunk and married in Las Vegas.

Ollie has been the butt end of a lot of jokes over the course of three books. But Daniel has had enough. He stood up for Ollie in a real big way – by pretending the marriage is authentic, and betting Cole, Ollie’s brother, that the marriage will last. I’ve definitely heard of going to bat hard for your friends, but this is on a very, very big level.

And while Ollie was skeptical, he went along with it – there’s big money on the line, after all.

The more time they spent together – partially for the bet, and partially because they do actually get along rather well – the more they were clearly drawn to each other. They fell together in a rather unconventional way, and built a solid foundation of friendship before opening themselves up to what they were feeling for each other.

In the end, I can understand why Daniel was so guarded. But watching him slowly, and surely, fall in love with Ollie, and vice versa, was a really wonderful journey.

[noturbabyghoul]

Ren faire ‘24

[sugoiney-weaver]

Today I got a haircut, went to the bank for cash and some silver dollars for the ren faire, then came home and started playing dress up to pick out my outfit for the weekend. I wanted to do a remix of my existing elements that i haven't used before, without borrowing too much from my Gale costume that i will wear Saturday, for sweat and dirt and stinky reasons. I didn't take any photos though. I'll be sure to get some this weekend!

[subbyfoxelf]

2022 in review, part 5: novel first reads

my top ten favorite first reads of this year! more or less! idk it’s harder for me to rank books than other kinds of media sometimes, i feel like. i did my best.

1. wolfsong by t.j. klune (2015)

i already wrote a very long review of this so i’m not gonna rehash it here, but yeah this is a gay werewolf book with a very unique/artistic writing style and i’m pretty sure the main character is literally otherkin. (they don’t use the word “otherkin” but his experiences line up so well it’s kind of scary.) obviously i’m a fan.

2. wolf-speaker by tamora pierce (1994)

omfg i need to get back to this series i love tamora pierce’s writing style so much. i keep alternating between kicking myself that i didn’t read these as a kid & celebrating the fact that i get to read them all now. but, yeah, i need to get back to this series. and her stuff in general.

3. any way the wind blows by rainbow rowell (2021)

this is far & away the best book of the simon snow series. it’s just such a godsdamned satisfying ending.

i mean, okay, i do find it a little off-putting that i’m meant to believe that penny is heterosexual, but we can’t win ‘em all. but also we get to see her rules lawyer a fucking demon??? and be a stone cold badass in the process? so i can’t really complain about how that went.

the writing of simon & baz’s intimacy with each other was fucking sublime. it was so heartful & honest, i just ached for them.

i’m a little disappointed that this was such a definitive ending because i could’ve kept following these characters for like a dozen more books, but honestly it was such a perfect ending it’s kind of hard to argue with it.

4. birth of the firebringer by meredith ann pierce (1985)

yeah i can’t imagine what i found appealing about the unicorn book with narration from what feels like an awfully authentic animal headspace whose culture is SUPER pagan and where the main perils are 1) vore, 2) mind control, 3) literally a tornado. just truly drawing a blank here.

5. wayward son by rainbow rowell (2019)

i’m so glad the harry potter books never did an american roadtrip because holy shit it would have been insufferable. this, on the other hand, is brilliant.

everyone at ren fairs is apparently actually a witch or supernatural creature? vampires run las vegas? techbros are trying to contract vampirism for incredibly dumb reasons? yes, yes, yes. perfect.

6. star trek: discovery: dead endless by dave galanter (2019)

we gays are so powerful, you guys. i mean, the fucking butterfly effect of the awful season 1 of discovery unironically employing the bury your gays trope resulting in us ending up with this profic au where culber’s ghost finds his way onto a discovery commanded by a michael burnham who never mutineed and has family dinners with fleet captain georgiou & surrogate sibling saru, and he just immediately starts making out with au stamets who starts working on bending the laws of physics to the will of his multiverse gay love story.

sometimes profic is just fanfic with resources & a stamp of legitimacy, and when it is it’s glorious.

7. star trek: discovery: fear itself by james swallow (2018)

the discovery novels are shockingly good. like, this one is so action packed while also being such a great character study of saru. it honestly surpasses what the show was doing contemporaneously. i’d really like to see more comics or novels set on the shenzhou.

8. murder on the orient express by agatha christie (1934)

this was almost certainly hindered by the fact that i had seen so many adaptations of it by the time i read it that i felt like i had already read it, but i nevertheless enjoyed it quite a bit and am eager to read more mystery novels (and christie novels specifically.)

9. lunatic fringe by allison moon (2011)

patient worldbuilding, imperfect but well-meaning characters having mostly (mostly) good-faith conflicts over strategy, and L E S B I A N   W E R E W O L V E S. yeah, that’ll work.

10. blood and chocolate by annette curtis klause (1997)

this book’s picture is in the dictionary under “problematic fave,” but this really is delightful if you can get past all the ways in which it’s awful. and i can, clearly.

[zentloper-xmas]

Zentloper Xmas Letter 2022

Lo and behold– it’s a Christmas letter! Stunning! Magical! Magnificent!

Well, I hope that’s how you feel opening this. 😂 Before I write these things, I scroll through my photos and make a list (and check it twice *wink*) of what’s happened. It felt like very little had happened this year, until I did that scroll. Turns out, plenty’s happened! So lemme share some highlights...

Neil and I both got promoted! 🎉 Neil ocially became a Data Analyst in April of this year. He’s still at Amazon, and does a lot of audit-related stu at the warehouse to ensure accuracy and junk using various code. Maybe one day if we’re really lucky, they (or another company) will recognize his value and pay him appropriately, cuz right now he’s still making peanuts. 🥜 As for me, SEMI had an opening that was a 20% pay bump and more reliable hours, still WFH, so who could say no? I’ll admit, it’s not the kind of exciting job I prefer... like operating roller coasters🎢 or dancing up on stage, but I’m smart enough to recognize a good thing when I see it: a flexible, reliable gig like this will be really beneficial when we eventually have a newborn around. 🍼

We’ve gone all sorts of places this year, as my wanderlust is never quite satiated. In January (to get me, and the Prius Neil’s folks gifted us, back from Cali), Neil flew over and we road-tripped back to our Texas home, spending a couple nights at the Grand Canyon’s cabins. The snowfall was gorgeous! We also hit Roswell, NM to see some aliens 👽 and a unique “immersive art experience” known as MeowWolf.

Neil’s sister Martha had her thirtieth birthday in May, 🎂 and the whole fam planned ahead of time to convene in Denver, CO where she and her husband, Chase, live in order to celebrate the occasion. I particularly enjoyed dining at the fancy restaurant Chase worked at, Guard and Grace– known to be one of the best steakhouses in the world! In July I joined my parents in Las Vegas to attend FreedomFest, a gathering of so-called Libertarians (calling them “so-called” because many of them were not actually very good at practicing Libertarian principles... 🗽) for many thought provoking panels and discussions. In August I took my Etsy shop “on the road” for a Sonic fan convention in Dallas, where I sold lots of stickers and buttons and the like– I think I recouped the expense of the trip... maybe! 😜 Then in September we had a pleasant camping trip in north Houston as well as a Ren Faire in Bastrop.

Think I’m done? Not quite! Last month we drove through Lousianna, Alabama, and Mississippi to get to Florida (upping the # of states I’ve visited to 23) for Neil’s maternal grandmother’s service. While she passed mid-Feb 2020 and was cremated, her interment was planned out far in advance so all her children and their spouses could attend; Neil and I were also able to make time in our schedules to go. I’m glad we did. We were graciously given a room to stay at his Uncle Adam & Aunt Rox’s home, and they were fabulous about showing us around some of the sights FL had to oer (even in the midst of Hurricane Nicole), like gators 🐊 and the beach. I’m determined to take them up on their oer to come back to see Busch Gardens next time!

We sure get around for being complete homebodies, ha. As for the house in Buda, we now own a partial stake. After my brother and his family moved out and into their own place down in Schertz, my folks and us drafted up a FSBO in order to “go halfsies” on the place. Finally, some sweet sweet equity! In order to pull o this stunt, Neil and I legally tied the knot at the courthouse on June 3rd. 💍 Neato. We are still planning to do a ceremony with friends and family at some point. We’ll keep y’all posted!

I continue to flex my creative muscles, be it whipping up some new seasonal place settings for our dining table, decorating the garage for a spooky Trick-or-Treat walkthrough 🎃 for the neighbor kids, or taking on painting projects to spruce up the joint (next up: baby room!). Also this summer I ended up reading quite a few memoirs by transgendered individuals 🏳️‍⚧️ as research for something I’ve always wanted to do: write an autobiography. I’ve spent a lot of time flipping through all the journals I’ve kept over the years (on my 40th), scrounging through my keepsake boxes, sorting photographs (digital and film), and bugging relatives for info. I’ve got 66,000 words down so far and a lot more words to go. I never was one for brevity.

I’d been hoping to announce some surrogacy news in this letter (have I dropped enough hints in this letter?), but unfortunately there have been delays. When Roe v. Wade got overturned in the summer, it caused a fair amount of panic nationally. A lot of appointments got scheduled in the reproductive health space, so we’ve been trying to be patient as things progress. That said, there has been progress: We’ve selected an agency to represent us, set up an escrow, and our potential surrogate is in the process of medical screening. Best case, it’s possible we could have a young one joining us late in 2023, but I don’t want to make promises when so many of the factors are out of our control. Can I take this moment to say, man, heteronormative couples have it easy... Just *boink* and baby!

In this increasingly digital world, I’ve decided to catalogue these Christmas letters 🎄online. So if you’d like to see letters from years past without digging them out of the shoebox you assuredly keep under your bed like me, or if you weren’t on our mailing list yet when I began in 2017, you can by going to the following blog:

https://zentloper-xmas.tumblr.com/

You may even see some bonus photos there for this year!

Lots of love, y’all, and Merry Christmas!

Rick & Neil

[curiouslittlecat]

Mal,

I will maaaaaybe give you the argument for the axe throwing. Maybe.

Waffle House just outs you as so American I can't even believe it, and if we're flying all the way to American we're going to like, NASA in Florida, not Waffle House.

And I'm pretty sure fancy dress parties were like a whole big thing back then so I doubt a Ren Fair would be that interesting.

The Ikea argument is a maybe. It's not a good argument, but it's a maybe.

First off, I would start by asking her what kind of stuff she likes and is interested in? Seems dumb to plan something without even asking the opinion of the woman in question. A wikipedia article can't actually tell you everything about a person, contrary to popular belief.

However, some starting points that I would maybe go to after that to jumpstart the conversation:

A movie theater to see a movie because she literally died before the invention of the first moving picture and I feel like that tech would super excite her

Las Vegas Soho to the retro arcade there, because it's games and tech all rolled up into one and also it would be ridiculously fun and probably not like anything she ever got to experience

London Science Museum because then she can get to experience a lot of the history of what's changed but also they have all the labs that she can mess around in and potentially come up with something new using today's tech that we've literally never even considered

Alton Towers because an amusement par with all of those crazy rides would way kick up the adrenaline and also show off what we're doing with tech and machines and computers. Plus amusement park food

But like I said, all of that would be after I asked her. Obviously.

Cat

[1] New Message

[aspookybunny]

Day 1 of the Age of Chivalry Renaissance Festival in Las Vegas, Nevada

[fuckyeahasexual]

If any Vegas locals are going to ren fair today I will also be there giving out book swag!