Steampunk Details!

Once upon a time I read this blog post by Jen at Epobt, and I thought it was one of the coolest things ever. I'm no where near as crafty as Jen and John are (although Trevor could be if he had as many cool toys as they do!) but I thought I'd give it a try. It took pretty much two years to pull together, thanks to school keeping me busy and me being a perfectionist whose fine motor skills don't function to perfectionist standards, but I went steampunk on the Sunday of this year's Calgary Comic Expo.

My friend Teresa Rehmann asked if I was interested in doing a photo shoot, so I ended up with some waaay better photos then I would have gotten doing them myself. :) (And she made us dinner!) All of the photos of me in this post are by Teresa! If you want to see some behind-the-scenes shots of the shoot, I've posted some here.




The ray gun is super fun! Trevor gave it to me for Christmas in 2011 - he bought a toy gun, took it apart, and spray painted it, and we added the gears on later. It makes very non-period-accurate noises, but I like it. :)
My earrings I got at Comic Expo, but I'm not entirely happy with them. Modifying them before next year is on my to do list...
I'm also wearing a watch on a chain that you can't see - Mom gave me the watch, which actually does keep accurate time, and I got a chain from Value Village for it, so I didn't keep pulling out my anachronistic cell phone to see what time it was. :)
And the hat! My mother-in-law picked it up somewhere, and while it was the general look that I wanted, what a lot of work it was trying to figure out a way to wear it...it's a burlesque dancing hat, and came with an elastic chinstrap, which was not at all the thing.



I ended up sizing a paper bowl to the opening of the hat, sewing a headband to it, and then Trevor glued it inside the rim of the hat. It took like, a year of thinking to come up with that... Sadly in the end, the hat was too heavy to stay on very well, so I only wore it for the photo shoot when I wasn't moving around much! I have NO idea how burlesque dancers would have been able to keep it on...hopefully I'll come up with a better solution in the future!
(Dax wants to know why I'm trying to take a picture of something that isn't her...)



I really like this one...it's my second favourite! This is an old building in Union Cemetery.
I'm thinking about how nice it'll be to go back to my airship and have my clockwork butler serve a cup of tea just the way I like it. :)



This one is my favourite - I love the light!
My cuff bracelet is one of the pieces I'm most happy with. I got it for a few dollars from Value Village, and it was just a tacky, battered, faux-silver discard. Add a coat of copper paint, glue on a few gears and a key charm, and voila! EXACTLY what I had in mind. The glass amber beads on copper wire, on the other wrist, were also from Value Village, and all I had to do to them was wash them. :)
The goggles were never really meant to be worn. They're the flippy-bit off a pair of welding goggles my brother gave me, painted copper (seeing a theme here?!), with some added gears, and a brass button with a military-ish logo on it. I glued gears to the sides and sewed a brown ribbon to them, for hanging them from my belt.

This is my third favourite shot! I'm aiming for the airship piloted by my arch-enemy, that French scoundrel called Jacques Pierrot.
My blouse I had in my closet - bought on a whim and never worn. The navy velvet skirt was Mom's, passed down to me randomly, and also in my closet, never worn. The black velvet vest is a total credit to my mother-in-law, who modified it from a weird sort of housecoat with odd sleeves (bought at Value Village for a few dollars...) into what is now EXACTLY what I had in mind. Why not a corset, you might ask? Well, have YOU ever tried to fight off airship pirates in a corset?

This little hat I adore - I got it at Claire's pretty cheaply, and liberally adorned it with dollar store feathers. It came with really awful fake pearls, so I chopped them off and replaced them with buttons that are shaped like gears. My friend Shelli found them in a button store in Vancouver! (She also brought me a large antique silver belt buckle that I love, but haven't found a use for...yet...)
The earrings I'm wearing in this one were a gift from my mother-in-law as well, 'Demure' by lia sophia. They're not exactly steampunk, but I like them!
I'm also wearing a vintage cameo pin, which I think Mom must have given me, but I'm not sure of its provenance at the moment.
The 'silk' parasol I got in Chinatown on a memorable rainy day...and Trevor sawed off the bamboo handle and attached a brass candlestick, and added an eye hook on the end so I can clip it to my belt or bag. (He's SO HANDY!)

The slightly 'Oriental' aspect of the costume was influenced by (a) finding a velvet jacket-thingy with a mandarin collar and clasps, (b) watching Firefly, and (c) the fact that the Opium Wars are frequently steampunked, so it all seemed to fit together rather nicely!

I still have lots of things I want to do. I'd like hot air balloon earrings like these, or maybe earrings from this Etsy vendor, I'd like to turn an old powder compact into a gage, kind of like this:

I'd like to turn some of Dad's old air force pins into a medal,

I'd like a cloak, and a white lace petticoat,

And a chatelaine,

adorned with keys and little vials, like this!

Shoes that are more steampunk would be nice too - I quite like these!

And last but not least, I would love an arm bracer! I haven't been able to find a picture of one that's exactly like what I want, but this should give you an idea, if you don't know what I'm talking about. :)

I have this 'leather' holster in brown, and I got it on a heck of a sale, but I don't love it. It's a smidge big for my ray gun, and you can't really see the gun when it's in it. So if you have any ideas on modifying it, I'd love to hear them!

Ok, there's my steampunk life! Now, back to student life...midterms start tomorrow!

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Calgary Expo 2013 - More Thoughts and Some Links

May 1, 2013, 10:20 am, edited: to add this link from a blog reporter's point of view.


Since it's blogging Wednesday, and since other then write my last final of the semester and buy a new bed (after almost 11 years of marriage we're finally getting a king-sized!) I haven't done much of interest, and I'm still thinking about Comic Expo and watching the comments roll on in their FB page, I still feel the need to write about some things, and link to a few things.

I should say that as someone who does quite a bit of conference planning (but on a smaller scale, maximum 150 people) I can't even grasp the amount of work and number of lists that go into putting this one - 1000 volunteers to manage is a dizzying number - and the expo staff do a great job. But with every conference, no matter how well it goes, there are always things you could do differently next year, and the expo people are great about taking fair suggestions of things to change. Lots of people don't make fair suggestions (where in Alberta could they possibly find a bigger venue then the stampede grounds?!) but they're good about listening to the reasonable ones.

There's a vocal minority who think that line-saving isn't fair, and to some extent it isn't, but how could they possibly police that without being overly harsh? You'd end up splitting family groups and making a large majority of people who come with other people unhappy. If mom takes kids to the bathroom while dad waits in line, and then you didn't let them in line together, and dad gets into the panel and the rest of the family doesn't, you have a bit of a disaster situation for that family. I don't know if there's a better way to do it, except...

I think the trick to managing line-saving (and also room-camping, as mentioned in my previous post) is to have people register for panels beforehand. This could be tricky, because the panel schedule was still changing on the Friday, but I'm sure they could think up some kind of system! This would allow them to put panels in the appropriate-sized room, and avoid the chaos and angst that comes with filling up a panel and not letting anyone else in. For instance, if they'd known that Nathan Fillion was going to be so insanely popular, maybe they could have put just that one panel in the Saddledome?!

Another problem with the panels the way they are now is that they often start 10 to 15 minutes late, and they still have to end on time to clear the room for the next one, so having more flex time between each panel might be a good idea, whether you have people sign up ahead of time or not. When you line up for an hour to only see the actor for half an hour, it can be a bit disappointing! Sometimes it can also take a bit of time for the crowd and the actor to warm up to each other, and then it's just as the panel is ending that the ice is finally broken and the good Q&A is flowing freely.

Next year it would be nice to see the con start Thursday night with a limited sneak-peek opening, and then scheduling all day Friday. For the number of people that come from far away, I think that would give them more bang for their buck.

You know what the expo REALLY needs next year? A designated area for cosplay photos. For some people seeing the costumes and collecting photos of them is a huge con pastime, but it can be a pain in the neck for people who are trying to get somewhere, but who are too polite to walk through someone else's photo. If they had a nice area with some backdrops and places for people to stand, and even approximate times of day when cosplayers from certain fandoms would be in the area, it would make everyone's lives a bit easier.

I am curious about if they had a lineup plan for bad weather - it was snowing like crazy on Monday, and I wondered what they would have done with the thousands of people lined up outside on Sunday if the weather had been like that then? And speaking of lineups, I heard about how some people went over to the Big Four building to the 'food court' (which is a grand title for what amounted to three food vendors) or the photo ops, and then had to re-join the massive entry lineup again, which seemed rather unfair, and meant that I avoided the Big Four until late Sunday afternoon, which is apparently where all the seating was...

And I know that empty space with seating doesn't pay the bills when that space could be rented to a vendor, but for the love of people's sore feet, I hope they have more next year! I miss sitting in the cushy chairs in the Palomino area and people-watching!

The system with the photo ops seems well-organized in theory - you buy your ticket and a time slot online ahead of time - and then you line up 15 minutes before the appointed time with the other people who are in that slot. I haven't done a photo op in years - since the bad experience with Shatner (if you're going to spend $80 on a photo, you should at least get eye contact) - so I don't know if it's still the same or not. I've seen a lot of great photo op moments online this year, so maybe it depends on the actor.

Anyway, I think they need to have a ticket system for the autographs. If an actor can provide their photo op rates ahead of time, why not autograph rates? Then you don't have as much problem with lines that are too long, and people who don't get an autograph after standing in line for ages. Then you can plan your budget because you know what they cost, and you'll know if they charge extra for a photo at the table. Also, if you bring something of your own to sign, it's the same price as if you buy one of their photos, which seems a bit unfair. I think the autograph system that they have right now could use some work! I wonder how other cons do it?

Here's my friend Shelli's blog post about the Calgary Expo. I thought she had a picture of me dressed up, but apparently it was too unflattering to post...eeep! :)

Here's an interesting article from the Calgary Herald, and a large portion of it is an interview with Lexa Doig, who's panel I quite liked.

This is a blog post from someone who managed to get into the Game of Thrones panel, which I didn't. :(

And here's the perspective of someone who had a VIP pass and managed to get into Fillion's panel when it seemed that all hope was lost. Jealous! But at $300/pass it's just not really an option for me. :P

It's funny - I remember my first expo, in 2010, back when it was just a small vendor hall and the Palomino rooms, and how overwhelming and fun it was. Then 2011 was bigger, the year of the Shatner and the photo op gong show, and 2012 was the year of disaster for most people (although not really for me - it was definitely my favourite year, guest-wise), and I did a blog post for each day. Each year seems to have a different 'flavour', and I'm looking forward to seeing what they come up with next year!

This is the high point of every expo ever:

A massive Stargate or Stargate Atlantis reunion next year would be AMAZING! :)

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Calgary Comic Expo 2013

(This has turned out to be really long, so feel free to skip to the steampunk video at the end. :)

Comic Expo last year was a great experience for me, because I'm driven to be early and organized, so we didn't have any problems with the lineups and getting locked out that other people did. I found the crowds overwhelming, and the Sanctuary panel was too short, but otherwise it was pretty good. This year they capped the ticket sales, which was a good plan. The tickets were more expensive, but I figured it was worth it for small crowds.

 

I went down on Thursday for the early badge exchange - trading in the paper ticket for a wristband and badge. I got there about half an hour before it started, and there were already a ton of people in line. They started moving us in only a little late, and the process went pretty smoothly.

 

On Friday I had a final in the afternoon, so I only went for about an hour. The doors were to open at noon and I got there about 11:30, I think. The line up was crazy long, the farthest back I've even been from the doors, but I was still in by about 12:20. My goal was to check autograph prices and do a bit of shopping, since Friday is traditionally a slower day and I thought there'd be fewer people. IT WAS SO CROWDED. And I noticed that people who checked in for their wristbands on Friday got shopping bags of stuff that people who checked in early on Thursday didn't get. Blergh...

 

Anyway, signs for autograph prices weren't up (after the repeated loud demands for them last year, I figured they'd have them for sure this year). I did see Cary Elwes sitting at his table, which made me happy/sad since I was missing the Princess Bride panel for my final. I commissioned a pair of steampunk earrings from a vendor, and then I got out of there and headed for school. I think I did ok on my final...I guess we'll see. :)

 

Saturday morning we got there around 9, for doors opening at 10. We were a lot closer to the front then I'd been the day before, and we were in the hall by shortly after 10. I tried to check autograph prices again, but there still weren't signs for most tables - just a few handwritten ones. (So frustrating to try to plan around a lack of information! Apparently it's due to the actors' managers setting the prices, which apparently are subject to changes based on how the manager is feeling that day, and apparently there was one person who's rates even changed over the course of the weekend!)

 

There was a bit of a schmoz with the lines into the Palomino conference rooms where the panels were, and if one more person asked what we were lining up for (the implication being that it was a strange and awkward place to line up, but the doors weren't open yet), I was going to say something rude... :P The first panel we went to was about Lord of the Rings, and there were four guys on it. Craig Parker and Mark Ferguson played elves, and Sir Richard Taylor (who has a pile of Oscars) founded WETA. The other guy's name I can't remember, David something, I think, but he's the head model-builder at WETA. They were very funny, and it was quite entertaining, talking about props and effects for Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit. It was hard to get decent photos because it was a flat room, and despite the very large screen in the corner, they weren't projecting on it, AND the lighting was terrible, and flashes weren't allowed. Anyway, here's the least terrible of the photos... :)

 

LotR Panel
The very dark-haired, tanned guy on the far right is Craig Parker

This is Craig Parker's elf character. I would NEVER have recognized him.

 

Next we went to see Lexa Doig, who we know as Dr. Lam from Stargate. She was really funny. I don't know much of anything about the other shows she's (been) on, although Continuum is my to-watch list, but she was very entertaining. She's married to Michael Shanks, and she had some funny stories about the life of a family with both parents working in show business. (Shanks has action figures and she doesn't...)

 

 

 

 

We caught the end of Stan Lee's panel (he like, invented most of the traditional superheroes) because we wanted to see the one after it, and it was a good choice. He was HILLARIOUS. The man is 90 years old, just had cataract surgery and can hardly see, and he still came. He tells it like it is, and had some really interesting things to say. Someone asked him what he thought about the way comic books seem to be getting darker, and he said something to the effect of the producers of comic books wouldn't make them dark if they didn't think anyone would buy them, which was insightful. :) There's a short article in the local paper about his panel.  



Stan Lee

 

The reason I wanted to be in the stadium so early was for the next panel, Carrie Fisher. It was the priority things on my list for the day, and I wasn't disappointed. She's SO funny, and seems quite genuine. She talked a lot about how fun it was to strangle Jabba the Hutt, and talked about how she and Harrison Ford stayed out all night with the Rolling Stones, "like people do", the night before they filmed the Cloud City scenes. There's some more about her in this article. I would definitely pay to see her again. 

 

Carrie Fisher / Princess Leia

Next up was a Supernatural panel. I don't watch Supernatural myself - I think it looks creepy - but the friend I was with is a big fan, and I wanted to stay in the corral area anyway, and it was a good choice. I know one of the actors (Mark Sheppard) from Firefly, and another (Mitch Pileggi) from Stargate Atlantis, and they were also very funny and highly entertaining, talking a lot about the on-set pranks. 

 

Sheppard, Pileggi, and Misha Collins

 

Then it was Stargate time. Trevor introduced me to Stargate when I met him, and while I haven't yet managed to see all of the episodes, I really enjoy it. I've also been following Michael Shanks in Saving Hope, which is a great medical drama with a twist. 

 

Shanks has great facial expressions.

 

Richard Dean Anderson has changed a LOT. I would not have recognized him.

It was a slightly odd panel, but SO, SO funny. They moved their seats from the middle of the giant stage right up to the edge of it, so they could be closer, which was nice! They took audience questions, and then they'd get silly and go off on tangents. They warned at the start that they might or might not get around to actually answering any of the questions...but I think they did manage to at least sort of answer them all. RDA has gone a bit Shatner - it was hard to tell if he was behaving oddly on purpose, or if he was really odd. He actually seemed to forget Chris Judge's name for a minute! I don't remember most of it now, but there was one fan who mentioned "A-Tapps" in her question, and Shanks took a second to catch up and the he said, "Did you just call Amanda 'A-Tapps'?", which made me laugh. It's the internet fangirl name for her but I didn't realize anyone actually called her that in real life... I wish she'd been there though, that would really have been amazing. Anyway, I heard some people complaining about it, but I was definitely entertained!

 

We wandered around a bit after that. I got Cary Elwes' autograph, which was exciting. He was really nice and shook our hands, and when I told him I hadn't gotten to go to his panel, he said that he'd have to come back next year.

 

If I had to choose between the Princess Bride, and Robin Hood: Men in Tights, I'm not sure I could!

 

Usually when you buy an autograph, if the actor's not too busy, you can ask for a photo and they'll pose for a quick one, but there was a $10 extra fee this year! From the sounds of it, most actors have added that on, which is kind of sad. I mean, I know they need to make a living too, but I assume they get an appearance fee, and then at least $30 per autograph, and at least $30 per professional photo op, and each of those only takes a minute at most, so it just seems like a lot to add one more charge on top of all of that...

 

We did a bit of shopping - I really wanted a Stargate shirt, but I couldn't find any decent ones. There was one vendor that had a couple, but they were $25, which is a lot for a cheap shirt, and the designs weren't that fun. (I mean, I love Amanda Tapping, but I'm not sure I need her face on my front...) So I'll have to keep an eye out online for a good one. We did find seasons 8 and 9 of Stargate, gently used, for a great price, that made me happy. Wil Wheaton actually walked right passed us, wearing one of those giant Doctor Who scarves, which was fun. The vendor area wasn't too crowed, and I didn't have any of the claustrophobia issues I had last year.

 

All in all, Saturday was a fantastic and I was really happy about how it went.

 

We mad a stop at Walmart on the way home because I hadn't found a mini hat or fascinator I liked for my steampunk, so I found a headband I liked, and then I stayed up till all hours finishing steampunking things, which involved gluing gears on things, and then supergluing my fingers together. It took a long time, nail polish remover and isopropyl alcohol to get them unstuck again...

 

Sunday morning we were there about the same time and about the same place in line, or maybe even a bit closer to the front, but the weather was not nearly as nice, and the wind was so strong it was blowing over the metal gates that were dividing the lines. They let us in a bit late, but the line moved quickly once it started, it wasn't too crowded inside, and the doors to the Palomino rooms were open, so we decided to wander around and check out who was signing autographs. They we got told off by a volunteer/security person for loitering (!!!) and as we headed in a different direction, we passed a group of girls with their programs open, deciding what they wanted to do, and they got told to move along too! I didn't realize at the time, but that was a bit of an omen/recurring theme for the day.

 

The first panel we went to was Sylvester McCoy who's best known for playing the seventh Doctor, from Doctor Who. He was also Radagast the Brown in the Hobbit, and the fool in an adaptation of King Lear I watched recently. He was so funny, charming, and sweet, I would just keep him.



 

I mean, look at his hat! And his pinstripes! And his CANE! Dapper!

He talked a bit about Doctor Who, and I know enough that I could follow along, even though I've never watched any (there's 50 years to catch up on, apparently!). He told a story about how a stuntman saved him from a concussion or worse when filming the Hobbit, and he talked a bit about doing Lear with Ian McClellan. He was the only guest we saw this year (or maybe ever?) who came down into the audience in person to walk the mic around and take questions, so I did manage to get some decent pictures, because he was standing right in front of me!

 

We wandered around a bit, and then went to part of a panel with the guys from WETA again, then ducked out early to catch the end of Peter Dinklage's panel (he was in Narnia) and be in the corral for the start of Nathan Fillion's panel, which was supposed to be the high point of my day. We were about half an hour early, which I thought would be plenty of time, because hadn't encountered any lineup issues to that point. Sadly, the corral was FULL and they weren't letting anyone even through the doors in that general direction. So there were a whole bunch of confused people milling around, not sure what to do, and loud announcements being made to the effect of 'move along', and 'no sitting in the concourse'.

We decided to find a place to sit down and eat and regroup, which seems reasonable, BUT THERE WAS NOWHERE TO SIT! Even the area that has chairs had all the chairs turned to the wall, and if someone came and sat anyway, staff came and chased them away. If anyone sat down against a wall anywhere, someone came and chased them away. There were no benches and no eating area (we found one later in a separate building, but that wasn't very helpful...) so we ended up leaning against a wall to eat. Then we went back to the area where Fillion's panel was, and the door was open, so I got hopeful, but then they closed it again.

 

I found out later on Twitter that when Fillion's panel started, the corral still had a ton of seats available. I also found out that the supposedly sold-out Expo had released a batch of Sunday tickets partway through the day. I don't know if the ticket sales are related to the supposed capacity issue, but it does seem suspicious.

 

Anyway, at that point I was almost in tears from sheer frustration and ready to go home, but then we got a message from a friend who was coming and almost at the grounds. So we went outside and finally found a place to sit on a flower bed-wall. And then we got more food. And then I felt a little better, but I was still annoyed. We decided to go back in for one last panel, and as we were walking past a bank of windows, we saw Nathan Fillion go by in a golf cart, so that was as close as we got!

 

The last panel was Ian McDiarmid, who played the Emperor in Star Wars. He apparently doesn't go to cons very often, but I don't see why. He's got a lovely Scottish accent and was very charming and interacted really well. I quite liked him. He'd never been to Canada before, but said he hopes to come back. The room was mostly empty, which was sad, but it was the last panel of the day. I was also sad about the mostly empty room, because if I'd known it wasn't going to be packed, we could have squeezed in going to Walter Koenig's right before. The problem was that they were in the same room, and they clear the rooms between sessions, so if we'd gone to Walter's, then we would have been at the back of the line for Ian, and would then run the risk of not getting in. It was worth staying for though, and I'm glad I didn't run the risk of not getting in.

 

The Emperor! Back in the flat room with the bad lighting...

 

I'm torn on the clearing the room versus not clearing the room debate. Part of the reason why Saturday was so low stress was that we were in the corral for hours, and didn't have to move around or line up or anything, and you're allowed to eat in the corral. If they tried to empty that space between panels it would be a traffic nightmare, with people being kicked out only to line right back up again. But then you have people who camp out all day on one spot, even if they don't care about the panel, potentially taking seats away from people who really want to see that actor, which kind of isn't fair. I think I'd rather have seat camping though, just because it's so much less stressful, and Expo can be stressful enough as it is! 

 

The no lurking and no taking photos in the autograph area definitely irked me. When you're on a limited budget, there's a lot of fun to be had in just walking around and at least seeing the actors, and maybe taking a few really poor-quality photos from afar, just to say you saw them. The lack of fee signage is frustrating, although I see that that's probably not the Expo's fault. But how hard could it be for publicists to set rates and policies and send them to the Expo ahead of time? Especially when some of these people do a lot of cons.

I think the saddest part of the day was the constant refrain of 'move along, no pictures', and 'move along, you can't sit down'. It just got really old, really fast. It felt like stormtroopers... I guess they were trying to keep more on top of crowd control then they did last year, but it felt like they were being too controlling, and over-compensating. Hopefully next year it'll be a bit more relaxed!

Sunday turned out to be kind of disappointing, although overall the weekend was really enjoyable. There was an article in the paper the other week about how after last year's epic mess the founder of Expo almost didn't have another one, so I'm very thankful, despite the things I didn't like this year, that he continued on with it. When we got home, while we were eating, there was a documentary on about the Queen's mother-in-law, who lived in Nazi-occupied Greece and hid Jews in her home. So that kind of put my problems in perspective!

I only ended up taking one photo of my steampunk...by the end of the day I was just too tired and crabby to care! And there's a few things I'd like to tweak, so I'll do that and then do pictures another day! Now, to study for my last final...


 

My wrist cuff....
Just glue some gears on it, and call it steampunk, that's the trendy fashion nowadays!
 

 

 

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Coming Soon...

Guess what Friday is?!

It's my major English theory final...

It's also the FIRST DAY OF COMIC EXPO! I'm so excited! I'm going to go just for a couple of hours before my exam. Sadly the timing of the exam conflicts with the Princess Bride panel. (sad fangirl)

I don't know for sure yet if I'll go in steampunk garb or not...I still have lots of things I want to do, and my hat's not ready, but I have to study! So we'll see...I'm also kind of nervous about it since I'm not going with anyone else in costume.

Anyway, stay tuned for a post or two over the weekend! There will be fangirling galore, no matter what I wear! :)

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Not-Quite Spring in Glenbow Ranch

 Last weekend I REALLY wanted to get out of the city. My friend Heather was coming down for the weekend, and my grand plan was to go out to Grotto Canyon. Sadly, when I got up on Saturday morning and checked the weather, there was a SNOWFALL WARNING. Driving out to the mountains was probably a bad idea, so for Plan B we went to Glenbow Ranch Provincial Park instead, which is only about half an hour from home. It did fulfill my need to get out of the city - despite the almost-full parking lot, we didn't see anyone else.

We took Tiger Lilly Loop, starting right at the edge of the parking lot and going down into a nice little forest in a valley. It was actually quite pleasant down in there - the wind wasn't bad, and it hadn't started snowing yet.

Rural decay!

 

Queen Anne's Lace - it was literally taller than me. There were half a dozen stalks of it, like some alien plant on another world.

 

"Frozen Pond & Dead Tree"

Then we came out of the shelter of the trees and into an absolute wind tunnel. We had a picnic we were going to stop and eat, but it was SO COLD. So we booked it up this really steep hill (my shins were sore for two days - next time I do Tiger Lilly Loop I'm going to do it down that steep hill FIRST...) and back to the car in record time. We did see a huge flock of robins, which does give me hope that spring really is on the way...

 

Well, whether or not spring weather arrives, spring is here, because today was my last day of classes! I have exams on the 19th, 22nd, 26th, and 30th, and then I have almost two full weeks off before the spring semester starts. Hooray!

 

And Comic Expo is in a week and half! Ahhh! So much still to do if I want to go steampunk, but I can't even think about it until after my German final on the 22nd. And I'm missing the Princess Bride panel with Wesley and Humperdink on the 26th because it's at the exact same time as my English final, which is inconceivable. :(



 

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These are a Few of my Favourite Things about Calgary

I'm not really sure what inspired this...but I've come along way from loathing Calgary the way I did when I first moved here. I've come to find the prairies beautiful, and I've gotten used to sunny winters. I'm not quite used to the cold, but I'm dealing. :)

So, in not really any particular order, here are some of the things I love most about Calgary:

 

 

My church, Foothills Lutheran. I've been going here since November of 1999, a few months after I moved to Calgary, and a month after I met Trevor. And then we got married here in 2002. And I don't really mean I love the building (although after working there for four years, spending weekends sleeping on the floors with the youth, spending hours in the kitchen putting on meals, etc, I do feel a certain fondness for it...) it's the people who make up the church that I love! Whenever we talk about moving back to BC, the first 'con' I think of is that it would be so hard to leave our church family.

 

The view of snow-covered mountains never fails to make me 'awe', especially when the sun is setting behind them. Although I've yet to take a photo of a Rocky Mountain sunset that actually does it justice!

 

 

Heritage Park, from my trip this summer with Shelli.

 

Heritage Park, from my friend Teresa's wedding a few years ago. If Trevor and I ever get married again, we're doing it at Heritage Park. :) I'd spend way more time there if I could - I just love it. For a history geek like me, it's heavenly.

 
 

The Gibson Collection at the University of Calgary library is SUCH a gem. Bob Gibson was a Calgary man who spent his entire life collecting books. Most of them are of the speculative fiction variety, and if anyone thinks I have a lot of books...he had over 35,000 pieces that were donated to the UofC in 2002, after he died. That was 10 years ago, and they're still cataloguing! I had a tour of some of the stuff that's still not catalogued, and there are years and years more of work to do on the collection. The real crown jewel in the collection are Gibson's 500-ish hand-bound anthologies that he put together himself of stories from magazines. He bound each one in paper with a hand-written cover, and kept meticulous records in a card catalogue system. I wish I could have met him!

 

When Words Collide is a Calgary convention for people interested in reading, writing and publishing fiction. 2013 will be the third annual con, and I'm really looking forward to it. I'm always too busy to take pictures - this one is from 2011, with my friends Brittni and Anita at the EDGE party. It's small, and SO well run, and there are always too many interesting panels to see - I'd need a time-turner to do everything I'd like to. :)

 

Riker, Troi and Worf at the 2012 Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo.

 

A Darth Vader cosplayer at the 2011 Comic Expo.

 

Brent Spiner (Data) at the 2010 Calgary Comic Expo - this was my first con ever, and it was amazing. It opened my eyes to a strange new world of geekery and fandom! They've already announced Michael Shanks for 2013, and I SWEAR by my pretty floral bonnet that I will have my steampunk cosplay ready by then. :)

  

The Calgary Military Museum is fantastic. Again, as a history geek it's one of the best museums I've been to, but also for their annual Remembrance Day service. We decided to go to a different one this year because I wasn't feeling well and wasn't up for all the walking and standing involved, but I do regret it a bit. In a world that's increasingly secular, it's lovely to go to a service with all of the military pomp and circumstance, as well as prayers and hymns. If you've never been, I highly recommend it!

 

Glenbow Ranch Provincial Park is my newest favourite thing. It's only about 20 minutes from our house, but it's outside town enough that it makes me feel like I've been out to the country. The view of the mountains is beautiful, and the prairie scenery is unparalleled. It has lots of different walking paths, so you can go for a long walk, a short stroll, or just a picnic. Beautiful!

 

Heather and me at the Calgary Philharmonic's sci fi tribute, narrated by Robert Picardo (The Doctor) and John DiLancie (Q), a few years ago.

 

Me, Anne (with Bethany the baby bump) and Heather going to a Christmas performance of the Messiah at the CPO in 2007. I think if had to pick just one favourite thing about Calgary it might very well be the CPO. The most recent concert I've been to was last week - it was Songs of the War Years, with the orchestra and a singing group, and it was fabulous. I've only been to one concert that disappointed, and in that case it was the imported group rather than the orchestra who were disappointing. They are so amazing - as a non-musician, it's magical to hear the disparate parts of the orchestra warming up in controlled chaos, and then to hear the harmony when the maestro lifts her baton. Just...just...GO see them, ok?

 

Calgary is home to some fabulous heritage architecture. When I first moved here, while I was struggling with hating this cold, beige city, one of the things that distracted me was the heritage buildings everywhere downtown. I have a list of them saved, and it's still one of my goals to visit every one of them. Maybe there's some way to turn that into a history paper....

 

The red pandas at the zoo are the cutest things ever. I'm not really a fan of zoos, although I've been to it a few times. But the red pandas...they're worth the price of admission, right there! My little brother took this photo last Christmas when he was here. Lookit the cute little red panda TONGUE!

Something that I don't have a photo for is the Morpheus Theater Group. They do four shows a year, and I never miss their Gilbert & Sullivan one in the new year. They perform in the Pumphouse Theatre, which is one of those great pieces of Calgary heritage architecture. They are definitely worth supporting, and their ticket prices are really affordable.

 

So there you have it; some great things about Calgary. If you live here and haven't experienced some of these things, well, what are you waiting for?! Get off the computer and out there ASAP! And if you're travelling to Calgary, make a list of things you want to do, let me know when you're coming, and I'll try to show you around! :)

 

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Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo 2012 - Sunday

I've been a bit slow with getting Sunday's recap up - after going five days with only cursory checks of emails, Twitter, blogs, Facebook, and Pinterest, I had a thing or two to catch up on. :)

Sunday morning I had been planning to go to the early service at church, which would have put us down at the Stampede grounds around 10:30, but since the first panel I wanted to catch was Amanda Tapping at 11:00, and in light of the chaos on Saturday, I figured the earlier we got down there the better. I got up before 7, and saw on Twitter that people were already talking about lining up, and the Expo twitter account was recommending that people be down there by 8:30, so I was a little concerned when we weren't there till 9 and the line was ENORMOUS. However, the line was actually moving as they ushered people along - I'm actually not really sure where they put all the people, because when we got into the autograph area, it was only about 9:30 and the vendor area wasn't open yet - they opened it as we were arriving. Trevor headed off to do his own thing and I went to track down Amanda Tapping...

The doors to the cushy conference rooms wasn't open yet, so I tagged onto a loose bunch of people standing around outside them. One of them commented on my Princess Bride t-shirt, and we got to talking a bit. The one girl was saying that she had come all the way from BC to see the Sanctuary panel the day before, but had been one of the unlucky who didn't get in, so I told her about my YouTube video of the panel. The security guard finally got permission from the higher ups to open the doors around 10, and by shortly after I had snagged a nice seat for the panel. I had some time to read, and listen to the people around me discuss fun things like Stargate, fanning, and Tumblr. The girl from BC I had talked to mentioned that she had a Tumblr, and that she was posting daily updates, so I tracked her down. I'm a wee bit jealous that she's also a student with a family, but managed to come all this way for the con, and do photo ops AND autographs with BOTH Chris AND Amanda. :)

This is her blog about Saturday: http://teaandscifi.tumblr.com/post/22026855229/okay-today-today-was-i-cant-even-describe
And here's her blog about Sunday: http://teaandscifi.tumblr.com/post/22093197876/calgary-expo-day-3

I find 'meeting' other fangirls through the magic of the internet to be incredibly fascinating. But that's probably a whole blog post in itself, so on with Sunday.

Amanda Tapping and a couple of other people started a charitable foundation called Sanctuary for Kids, and the panel was about the work they do. I mostly went because Amanda could make reading the phone book sound interesting - I already support a bunch of charities and can't really take on any more. But I was very interested to find out that one of the charities they work with is one that I sort of know - Next Generation Nepal. Last summer, the university had what they call 'the common reading program' where all of the first-years read the same book. The book was Little Princes, and it was about how Next Generation Nepal was founded. I highly recommend the book, and they do a lot of good work with children in crisis. Nepal is rife with human trafficking, and Sanctuary for Kids also supports a Nepalese charity that works with women who have been trafficked. They also work with a charity in Haiti that helps abandoned disabled children, and one in Vancouver that works with mothers and children who live on the streets. Amanda and Damien Kindler fund the administration costs for Sanctuary for Kids out of their own pockets, and choose charities with low administration costs, so that a dollar donated to the foundation is still a dollar going to the children in need. Pretty cool, hey?

Amanda Tapping

After that, I headed over to the Corral to meet Trevor. He'd sat in on the Futurama panel (he's a fan, I'm not!) and gotten us good seats for the next Star Trek panel. Troi, Riker and Worf were very entertaining, and had somehow managed to avoid having a Space channel 'moderator', which was great. Sirtis calls Michael Dorn "Dorny", Frakes kept singing the first line of O Canada, and they teased each other (and the not-present cast members) a LOT. I didn't know that Sirtis had been in an episode of Stargate, so I need to look that up now. (She needs to be told that tights aren't pants though! :P) One of my favourite bits was when they started heckling a group of people in Starfleet uniforms who were trying to sneak out early - turns out the people that were leaving were going to get in line for their TNG photo op. lol... Here's a link to the whole session: http://youtu.be/dceWdTS6wUg I love that I can re-watch so much of the stuff - it all seems to happen so fast at the time.

Marina Sirtis, Jonathan Frakes, Michael Dorn

After all of that laughing, I was ready for lunch. Trevor got in line for Wil Wheaton, and I battled the crowds for chicken fingers, a burger and fries. Lots of work, let me tell you! When I joined him in line I was pretty concerned that we might not get in, since it was in the same theatre as Saturday's Sanctuary panel fiasco, but they were much more organized, and we ended up with pretty decent seats.

Wil is a fun guy - I never had any particular opinion on Wesley Crusher, but I really enjoy the Big Bang Theory, and I follow him on twitter. The nice thing about about him is that he's a geek too, and he's really great to interact with as a fan. One guy asked Wil to say hi to the guy's wife who couldn't be there, and Wil was really nice about it (http://youtu.be/YFbC0oOlZSM). It was a great panel, although some of the gaming stuff he referred to went over my head. He mentioned that he's working on the second installment of a book reviewing all of the TNG episodes from the first season, so I tweeted him about my copyediting business. I'll probably never hear from him, but one of the nice things about fangirling is that sense of limitless possibility - who knows what might happen when you're only limited by your imagination? Agam Darshi from Sanctuary just accepted my Linkedin request, so you never know... :)

Wil Wheaton

After that, we had an hour before the final panel, and I REALLY wanted a fresh-squeezed Stampede lemonade, so we slogged against the crowds to the far side of the venue for snacks. We were talking to our friend Courtney who works for Stampede catering, when there was a loudspeaker announcement about the Phelps brothers, and that the Harry Potter panel had just started in the theater we had JUST left! Oh my, was I ever CROSS. After I had tried to sort it out on Saturday, here it was, and we were too far away and disorganized to get there. Hopefully they'll have a better organized Harry Potter panel next year! Tom Felton (Draco Malfoy) had been supposed to come this year, but then ended up not being able to, so hopefully in 2013...

And then the panel I've been waiting for since they announced that the ENTIRE cast of TNG was coming to Calgary - Sir Patrick Stewart himself. Not only am I a fan of Captain Picard and Professor Xavier, I'm a fan of Sir Patrick's work with the Royal Shakespeare Company, and most recently, the version of Hamlet he was in with David Tennant (Doctor Who). The panel was wonderful - he told the story of how he found out about his knighthood, and in a moment that made me squee with glee, he FACEPALMED. I don't even remember what the topic was, just that an internet meme came to life right before my eyes. Over on YouTube 'YoungJim409' has video of the entire panel if you want to check it out. It was a great way to end a fantastic con!

Sir Patrick Stewart

I was really happy that the Expo quit the procedure of giving every star to cross the stage a white Calgary cowboy hat, and the cheezy 'oath' that goes with it. It was SO annoying last year, and when you only have 45 minutes for a panel, I don't want to hear about white cowboy hats, I want the guest star to be speaking about interesting stuff! So that was a good change. As someone who does quite a bit of conference planning (although on a much smaller scale, of course...) I appreciate and am overwhelmed by the effort that goes into running this thing - it's amazing, and I'm tired just thinking about it.

One thing I need to stay on top of for next year is being a bit more situationally aware - this year Gates McFadden and Denise Crosby cut across a line right in front of me and Christopher Heyerdahl walked right next to me, and I didn't even notice until it was too late to say something witty. :) I don't remember if I had any close calls like that last year, but in 2010, my first con, I literally nearly ran over Paul McGillion (from Stargate Atlantis) as I was coming out of the washroom and he was going into the one next door. Trevor was watching and laughing at me...but I really need to get more on the ball about paying attention to what's going on around me. How does one train for something like that? If you have any ideas, please let me know. :)

May the 4th be with you!

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Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo 2012 - Saturday

I was up and online early Saturday morning. The first panel I wanted to catch wasn't until noon, but I was trying to figure out what was going on with the Phelps twins, who play Fred and George Weasley in the Harry Potter movies. They were a late addition to the con, and there wasn't any info in the program guide about when they might be doing a panel, and the volunteers I talked to on Friday night didn't know anything about it. So before I went to bed, I tweeted @calgaryexpo and asked about it. During the night they did respond, but it wasn't very helpful - it just asked if I had gotten the update newsletter, which I hadn't. I did eventually find a copy - there was one in Trevor's goody bag, but not mine. Anyway, it didn't list a panel, just their photo ops, so I assumed that meant they weren't doing a panel.

But I was up early, so we headed down early and got there around 10:30. We basically walked right in - the only delay was simply the volume of people who also got off the same c-train. I wanted to walk down 'autograph alley', but it was literally such a dense crowd we could hardly move, so we gave up and headed into the exhibit hall. The problem was that they had all of the big stars down one aisle, and all of the old wrestlers down the other, so 90% of the foot traffic was stalled in one area.

The first panel I wanted to see was in the Corral, which was fairly empty during the Fringe panel right before the Star Trek one. We got seats and listened to the Fringe actors, and even though I don't know the first thing about Fringe, it was fairly entertaining. I need to check out what else John Noble has been in, because I really enjoyed him. While we were waiting for the Star Trek panel, we were joined by my new friend Stephanie who came all the way up from Lethbridge just for the one day. We secured decent seats further up after the Fringe people left, and were entertained by Spiner, Wheaton and Burton (Data, Crusher and LaForge). It was a fun panel, and each of the three of them got a fair amount of spotlight time. Burton's stint on Reading Rainbow came up, and the crowd sang the RR theme song. There was a lot of imitating Patrick Stewart's accent, discussion about Wil being easily amused, discussions of Timmies, and bashing of Microsoft, which is always a good time! The whole panel is up on YouTube, courtesy of 'oilcountryDon' if you want to look it up.

Brent Spiner, Wil Wheaton and LeVar Burton

A lot of the panels during the weekend were moderated by one of a trio of talk show hosts from the Space channel. As a trio, I find them highly annoying. However, thankfully, apart from each other they weren't bad at all. Still, I would rather just have the dynamic of the actors without having another person added into the mix.

Trevor left part-way through the panel to secure a place in line for the Sanctuary panel, since that was really the MUST SEE panel of my weekend. Isn't he great? However, it turned into a bit of a gong show. Steph went off to do her own thing, since Sanctuary isn't her thing (but I mean really, how can Sanctuary not be anyone's thing?! :) and I went to try to find Trev. The crowds outside the Corral were dense, so instead of trying to struggle upstream, I just went to a spot near the start of the Sanctuary lineup, meaning to meet up with Trevor as the line progressed by my spot. However, once a large chunk of the line had gone by, it completely stopped and there was no more line. My cell phone couldn't connect, and since there was no line in sight, I hopped on to the end of what was passing by me into the theatre doors, and managed to snag two decent seats. The panel was supposed to start at 1 pm, but by 1:15 it hadn't started yet, although I'd managed to get enough cell reception to let Trevor know where I was and that I had a seat, since they'd stopped letting people in. SO CLOSE! I almost didn't make it, and that would have made me cry!

Shortly after 1:15, Amanda Tapping and Christopher Heyerdahl came out with the Space channel guy and sat down. It gets a little blurry in my memory, because I was trying to start the camera recording at the same time as Trevor was standing down in the doorway looking for me, and it seemed like ALL THE THINGS were happening at once. Amanda was needling Chris for checking his cell phone on stage, and he was talking about how he had a text from Ryan Robbins, and that Ryan wanted a Biggie head-slap (Chris plays two characters on the show, and this one, as a sign of affection, smacks people on the back of the head, like Gibbs from NCIS). 

Now, my Ryan-radar was already in full gear, because of this great historical western that's filming its second season in Calgary RIGHT NOW. Chris is in it, which is why I started watching and keeping an eye on what was going on with it (but he's not on Twitter, which makes things more difficult), however, Ryan IS on Twitter, and on April 20th he tweeted that he was packing up in LA and heading back to Canada for an exciting opportunity. 50% wishful thinking and 50% knowing that his good friend Chris was in Calgary meant that I immediately responded asking if he was coming to Calgary for Hell on Wheels, knowing that it was a huge leap, but not being able to resist the urge to fan-girl. Of course, the details were still confidential, so he couldn't reply, but on April 24th, he tweeted that he was on his way to Calgary, and there may have been a bit of flailing going on in my office. I KNEW that he was coming for Hell on Wheels, because it's the only thing filming here right now, and I made sure the Comic Expo knew about it too, just in case they could squeeze him into the Sanctuary panel as well. Really, I tell you, if fan-girling paid money, I'd be a rich woman. :)

But thanks to being so excited and trying to do too many things at once, I missed the surprise of Ryan walking out on stage, and managed to not get any usable photo or video! D'oh! Thankfully Trevor was able to rescue the camera from me and get really good video footage of the rest of the panel, which you can find on my new YouTube channel, MichelleEdits.

Ryan Robbins, Amanda Tapping and Chrisopher Heyerdahl at the Sanctuary panel.
Photo courtesy of tea-and-text.blogspot.ca

The first thing Amanda talked about was the future of Sanctuary, which is in limbo right now thanks to  a whole bunch of factors, and while she didn't have the news we were hoping for, it was good to know that Sanctuary isn't dead - she said its chest is still rising and falling, and she's standing by with the paddles. So here's hoping! Sadly, thanks to the crowd control issues, the panel ended up being only 31 minutes instead of 45, but I'm SO THANKFUL I managed to get in at all! They're just a wonderful bunch of people, and it was so neat to see them in person, particularly Amanda, who I've been a fan of since I started dating Trevor and he introduced me to Stargate.

All the excitement meant that I was STARVING, so we headed back to the autograph area to meet Steph for lunch at the Ceili's pub tent. The food was a bit pricey, but it was better than Stampede hot dogs, and we shared a table with a Newfie from Edmonton and did a lot of people watching. We braved the bathroom, which was DISGUSTING, and then managed to wander down autograph alley.

I hadn't been planning to get any autographs (that whole unemployed student thing) but while we were standing around Amanda Tapping came out to her table to the cheers of the people in her VERY long lineup. As much as I'm a fan, I didn't want to pay $40 and stand in line for the rest of the afternoon, but we happened to be standing by Chris' lineup, which was short, and I was speculating that if Amanda had arrived, he soon would be as well, which he did. And since I was there and the line was short, I got in it. :) Steph went to wander the exhibit hall, and Trevor and I hung out in line. Chris was letting everyone take photos as well, which was really nice of him. The Shatners and the Stewarts don't do that sort of thing - well, to be fair, so many people want to see them that they can't take that time with everyone - but I'd rather just meet a Canadian actor and feel like I actually met him or her. And for once I haven't been replying my conversation over and over wishing that I'd said everything all different - I was coherent and normal. As normal as a 31-year-old woman in a Starfleet mini-dress can be, anyway. :)

Me meeting Christopher Heyerdahl

After all that excitement, I needed to do something a bit quieter, so I headed to a publishing panel in one of the nice plushy conference rooms. The two women doing the panel were Krista Ball (an Alberta author who I saw at When Words Collide last year) and Margaret Curelas from a small Edmonton publishing house. They had both previously worked with 'my' publishing house, Edge, and so I was interested to hear their perspectives on the industry. Sadly, there was something very loud and distracting going on in the conference room next door, and the panel was a lot more basic than I was expecting, but at least I got to sit in a comfy chair for a while. :)

Trevor and I met back up (he'd been wandering the exhibit hall) and he told me about this vendor who had cheap DVDs, including some of the Stargate seasons, so I was able to acquire season 3 for $15, which is a heck of a deal! Who knows when I'll get time to watch it, but at least it's in my collection now. We went to the Coco Brooks (a GREAT local pizza chain) stand to get a bit of a snack, and shared a cheese pizza and a fruit smoothie. I was very entertained by the crowd of people who were camped out on the floor by the stand - I thought it looked like a refugee camp.

A geek refugee camp

We met back up with Steph and caught the last panel of the day - 'Stump the Nerds' with the local 404 geek comedy troop. The person on the troop who I knew doesn't appear to be with them anymore, and the whole panel was pretty special. It was supposed to be PG-13, but I would have given it a 14-A, and some of it was just strange!

I'd heard rumours throughout the day that the fire marshall had stopped anymore people from coming in, but I didn't realize the extent of it until I got home and online again. What a gong show - I'm HEARTILY thankful that my OCD tendency to be over-cautious and early meant that I didn't miss out on any of the fun things that happened on Saturday! My priority before bed was to get my Sanctuary panel video up on YouTube, which ended up being a lot more work than I'd expected, and we were up till midnight, but it's online in three parts, and the first in the series has over 1700 views! Everyone wants to hear Amanda talk about the future of season 5, apparently!

I was going to post a couple of costume photos, but this had turned out to be so long I'll have to give major kudos to those of you who are still reading. (Hi, Mom - happy birthday! :) Stay tuned for Sunday's recap!

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