Number6's Journal

Okay, so I did wind up going to Fan Expo, but, to my surprise, I went on Friday rather than Saturday. Right up until the day before I wasn't sure which way I'd go, but ultimately I think I made the right decision. No photos, today, I actually didn't take many (or at least, my camera didn't, I thought I took at least a few more than it turns out I did). Maybe I'll add some in on a second post.

But I did accomplish my major mission. But, before I go into detail, I need to do a brief pre-con report. ( Read more... )

So, onto Fan Expo itself! ( Read more... )

Anyway, on balance I guess I'm glad I went, even though it was exhausting and I'm going through various "what I should have said/done" scenarios in my head now that it's far too late. And now I only have to meet two more members of the cast of Firefly in order to complete my signature collection (Adam Baldwin and Ron Glass... three if you count Joss Whedon for creating the series, which I would).

Not a lot of pictures today, but there are some. Mix of reasons for this, one was a lack of costumes that really appealed to me (there were a lot of fine costumes, but many either seemed to be stuff I had no idea what they were, or old standbys I'd seen and photographed a couple times before already, probably by the same people), another was timing (there were a few times where I saw somebody I would have liked to photograph but they were in motion and by the time I could have turned my camera on and snapped a picture, I knew they'd be long gone), and a general social anxiety towards asking people that seemed to befix me today. Which is odd because in other social areas I did... well, okay. There's a difference that I think explains it which I'll get to behind the cut.

The story will be chronological, more or less, maybe with a bit of highlights at the second cut for those who don't want to read the whole thing. There may be a picture of myself behind the cut, so bewarned, venture in at your own risk.

( Read more... )

So, the edited highlights (but no photos except swag, for those, look earlier):
Met Alan Tudyk, talked about Blue Sun
Met John Rhys-Davies, class act.
Talked to a few people, but mostly a lonely experience as usual.
Mostly walked around in a daze
Got a free T-shirt and some candy
Went home.
Had a Gyro.

And now, the haul and swag pictures, including autographs: ( Read more... )

Was it fun? I don't know. Honestly, 'fun' is one of those words that don't seem to rightly apply to cons. When people ask if I had fun, I don't know how to answer them. Even a 'good time' is a bit tricky, although I can a little more confidently answer yes, since at least I don't regret it. It was an experience, that, even if it wasn't "fun" or especially "good" was at least different enough to the normal monotony of my life that it was worth doing for that alone. And it had some positive effects, and it was fun to mentally prepare for, even though I'll surely be depressed for a while afterwards.

So... yeah. I had a day.

My thumb's sore. And not quite as opposable as usual. Am I devolving down the evolutionary chain? Or perhaps I just hurt it playing Ultimate Spider-Man. Probably the latter.

This year, I'm going to try really hard not to post a depressed, ranty, V-Day post. Because really, it's all been said.

Features I wish LJ had (or if they already do, I wish I knew how to do it):
1) Browse posts to a community written by a specific person. Mostly this is so I can track down some of my old posts, but sometimes I might want to see what someone else has posted before.

2) Apply tags to your friends list. A lot of times I watch, say, Supernatural a couple days later than everyone else, and lots of my flist post about it that first night. I don't want to backtrack 3 pages to find the posts about it, or go to everyone's individual journal and read back (as I ususall do), I'd rather just say 'okay, let's look at 'tag supernatural' on my friends lists. Though I realize it'd probably be a lot more complicated to code than basic tagging (depending a little on how the flist is implemented), it would still really improve my LJ experience.

Book Foo:

Finished: Big Planet, by Jack Vance
A Fire in the Sun, by George Alec Effinger

Some thoughts, minimal spoilers, behind the cut.
( Read more... )

Started: Hyperion, by Dan Simmons (Thursdays and Sundays) (reread)
Stardoc, by S.L. Viehl (Wednesdays)

Random cracky crossover idea. Yet another thing I'm not going to write, and I'd be surprised if nobody else has come up with it yet, but I've been playing around with it in my head a little. One of them is Supernatural.
( Read more... )

One of my minor goals in life is to have the adjective 'intrepid' prefixed to whatever description of me someone gives. I mean, sure, intrepid explorer would be great, or intrepid astronaut, or intrepid post-apocalyptic drifter would be awesome. But I'd settle for 'intrepid manual labourer'. Or 'interpid slacker' or 'intrepid layabout'. I think I've just typed intrepid way too much.

Some TV thoughts. Spoiler-Free.
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Oh, speaking of TV, here's a quick list of the SF-related pilots for next year's TV. My thoughts:
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Life update: Apartment hunt continues. No luck yet. I hate moving.

All the news that's fit to print but that has nothing to do with reality!

PerExWriMo update: Going more or less on pace, ( Read more... )

Word count is about 13.5k (that is, total for PerEXWriMo, rather than the particular story I'm on now, which is just over 6k).

Dream Foo: ( Read more... )

TV: Lessee, Lost, Battlestar Galactica, Veronica Mars, Grey's Anatomy, Heroes, Torchwood.

Minor spoilers for the latest episodes, but nothing too big I think.
( Read more... )

Book Foo!
Finished: When Gravity Fails, by George Alec Effinger

For those not aware (or paying attention if I described it in a previous post), WGF is a cyberpunk crossed with a noir detective book about a guy in an Arabic ghetto who has to track down a murderer.

Overall, I quite enjoyed it. ( Read more... )
Started: Ilium, by Dan Simmons

About the Trojan war reinacted on Mars by gods, AIs, and a decadent post-human society.

And of course, Still Reading: Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, by J.K. Rowling (Wednesdays, should be finished this week).

First up, Dream Foo! ( Read more... )

Spoiler-light TV bits: Veronica Mars, Grey's Anatomy, Heroes, Battlestar Galactica, Lost, Torchwood
( Read more... )

I created my very first Wikipedia page this weekend. I've done some minor edits before, but this is the first time I've created a whole page. It will no doubt interest nobody on my friends list, of course. Anyway, what happened was, while I was rereading the Grainger/Hooded Swan books, I did a wiki search for it, like I tend to do for most series I read. Only to come up empty. Not only has barely anybody I talk to heard of it, nobody'd created a page for it. So, I did. I'll probably be adding a little more to it as time goes on. It's an interesting feeling, adding to the sum total of human knowledge on the internet. And the editing was remarkably easy, I've never actually looked into how to edit a wiki before a couple weeks ago. I'll probably be doing more of it when I see something that needs doing. I'm a wikiconvert!

Speaking of writing (but from another angle), I don't think I'm going to do NaNoWriMo. Can't come up with a plot I want to use on it, and I don't want to 'waste' any of the plots I've got stored up on it (I put waste in quotes because I don't technically think it's a waste, but I fear that if I do the style of writing NaNo requires and it sucks I won't be able to write the story again. If I'm to do it, I need a plot that I can feel good using only for it). Also the time issue is a worry. I don't really feel up to writing on days that I work, so that means I'd have to extra load it on the other days, and all that in addition to doing things like my alternaljournal which is certainly a type of writing, but wouldn't count towards words.

Ehh. Anyway, to do my best to keep the spirit of NaNoWriMo, I'm going to resolve to do the following (whether I actually do it is another matter, but I'll resolve it here and either do it or fess up to not doing it): ( Read more... )

Apparently we're getting pretty close to being able to play our first Cybergeneration (tabletop) game, so that should be cool.

Now, let's see, is there anything actually new in my life, as opposed to the various ways I escape reality?... Hmmm, nope, not really that I can think of. But then, why would it? About the only chance I have to meet anyone new would be either at work or in chance encounters. And, well, why not, some social interaction to report: ( Read more... )

Here's a heaping helping of randomness.

One of my fingers has been bothering me lately. ( Read more... )

Monday was Thanksgiving. ( Read more... )

Recently found on BoingBoing this bit about a CBC radio program where they discuss the idea that certain things classified as 'disorders', including autism and psychopathy aren't really such, but in fact 'different ways of being human', and particularly as (perhaps first steps towards) human speciation. I'm mainly just including this here to store the link so I don't have to dig through BoingBoing's archives to find the links when I have time to actually listen. But there is something in the BoingBoing article itself that appeals to me. ( Read more... )

Some TV thoughts. Lost, Jericho, Heroes, Veronica Mars, Grey's Anatomy, Battlestar Galactica, LOST. All talking about recent episodes, but I'm going to be relatively spoiler lite (by which I mean no 'big' revelations, but some incidental minor things, though), so it should be safe even if you haven't seen them, since I'm mostly talking about my own impressions. Oh, wait, there is _one_ icon from Veronica Mars behind the cut, and it's a little spoilery for S3, episode 2. But it was just too funny not to do. ( Read more... )

And now onto Book foo!
Finished: Dies the Fire, by S.M. Stirling (reread)
Thoughts and quote behind cut: ( Read more... )

Also finished: Swan Songs: The complete Hooded Swan Collection, by Brian Stableford (reread)

Since this is really five books in one, I'm going to do a quote or two from each. And there will be some spoilers, but let's face it... I've only talked to one person online who's even heard of it, and no one who's read it, so I'm not under any delusions any of you are going to read it. Hell, I doubt most people'll even be reading the quotes. So I'm just amusing myself with bits of it I liked. But hell, I'm still leaving out any big spoilers, just in case.( Read more... )

Started: The Protector's War, by S.M. Stirling (Fridays and Sundays)
Appleseed, by John Clute (Wednesdays)

TPW is the sequel to DTF, and the reason I reread DTF. Appleseed is a book I got for $2 in the 'last call' bin at a bookstore. Haven't really gotten far enough into them to give any more thoughts than that. Oh and I was wandering through the bookstore and looked again at Ilium, by Dan Simmons. Anyone on my flist read it and have any (non-spoilery) thoughts? I liked the Hyperion series by the same author, but too much mythological content (particularly when it's 'indistinguishable from fantasy') sometimes turns me off for some reason, and I fear Ilium might tread on that.

Anyway, this concludes another edition of HUGE RANDOM POST.

Well, the last meme seems to be closed off to all newcomers. So I'll provide a new meme, stolen from bachicka!

My challenge to you is: Assemble a superteam from your various fandoms.
Your team must consist of the following:

(1) Team Leader (could be anyone, but must have good leadership skills!)
(1) Warrior (examples: Ronon, Faith, Hercules)
(1) Smartypants (examples: House, Giles, Hermione)
(1) Hottie (examples: Brian Kinney, John Sheppard, Amanda)
(1) Comic Relief (examples: Frannie Vecchio, Wash, Xander)

All your superteam members must be from DIFFERENT fandoms. I will count SG1/SGA and Buffy/Angel as different fandoms, as well as Marvel and DC, but I'm not going to split Marvel and DC into all *their* different fandoms; this meme would be way too easy if you could just fill all the slots with different superpowered people.

Whether your team has a 'theme' (all girls! all Brits! etc.) and their scope-- whether they fight vampires, serial killers, invading aliens or work to prevent littering-- is up to you.


I'd say Buffy/Angel count as different fandoms but if you use someone who was a _regular_ on either, he or she counts for BOTH. So if you use Spike (or Cordelia, or Angel) you can't use anyone else. Similarly for other cross fandoms. But that's just my rule.

Here's my team:
Leader: Malcolm Reynolds, Firefly. He's a pretty damn good leader to me.
Warrior: Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I thought of Faith, but Buffy was the title character and so she is by default the superior warrior and would win a Faith/Buffy showdown (unless Faith gets her own series, in which case she would at least temporarily become the undefeatable one). Plus Buffy brings in more chance for guest appearances from the wider Whedonverse.
Smarty-Pants: Samantha Carter, Stargate SG-1. Cause she blew up a sun, once! And, most importantly, she remembers technology and science from previous episodes, and uses the information where appropriate!
Hottie: Veronica Mars. Although not just because she's a hottie, because it allows two smarty-pants on the team.
Comic Relief: Hmmm.. I dunno. I'm going to go with Chase Stein from Runaways (Marvel comics), because he's funny and occasionally not too bright, but he's street smart to an extent and could provide a good dynamic (and hey, Chase/Veronica could be a cracky crossover OTP). Plus, any chance to plug Runaways and use his icon is fun. Also because I couldn't think of any other comic relief characters I really wanted to add to a team that wasn't from a fandom I already used for something else. And hey, this means with the exception of SG1 (of which I don't know his feelings), that means everyone on my list is from a Whedon fandom or a fandom Whedon's professed love for! :)

They travel the world (and into Space) fighting off zombies, vampires, evil supervillains, and hostile aliens, and, hell, Cthulhuesque monsters beyond space and time. Because Chase vs. Cthulhu would be awesome.

Now do your own, either in your own LJ or just comment.

Also, in sad news... looks like Stargate SG1 is being cancelled, unless the creators can find another home for it. Atlantis will be renewed for another year, but that's kinda like... well, cancelling the show I think is better and renewing the one that's okay but not as good. In fact it's exactly like that. Okay, I'm hot right now and not so good on similies.

Spoilery thoughts on Stargate SG1 and Atlantis, episode 4 of current seasons.
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Book Foo!
Finished: Neverwhere, by Neil Gaiman (reread) &
Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card (reread)
Started: Xenocide, by Orson Scott Card (reread)

Minor not terribly spoilery thoughts behind the cut, and some of my favorite quotes from the book. ( Read more... )

Lessee, what else. Oh, I was channel surfing and saw Katherine Heigl (Izzie Stevens from Grey's Anatomy and... Isabel EVANS from Roswell. Why have I never noticed that before? OMG IZZIE IS AN ALIEN, SHE JUST CHANGED HER NAME SLIGHTLY, THEY'RE SECRETLY SET IN THE SAME UNIVERSE!!!!) in a movie. Weird one with Gerard Depardiu as her father who she is pretending is her lover to impress another guy. I don't even want to think about the plot. But anyway, it was cool to see her, so I watched for a few minutes, but it wasn't worth continuing.

I think fairly soon I'm going to rewatch The Prisoner, have a bit of a hankering for that.

Oh, and I'm now on LJtalk sometimes. Feel free to say hi.

Oh, and if Fandom Bits, the cereal, becomes a reality, it (the regular cereal part, that is, not the slashmallows) needs to be made out of the same stuff as Cap'n Crunch cereal. Because just like fandom, it's like crack and wrecks your insides!

First, news of a MAX Pete Wisdom Marvel series. I might actually pick it up and I've never had any particular attachment to Pete Wisdom.

Speaking of comics, at the SDCC Mondo Marvel panel they released some preliminary sketches off Ellis' newuniversal.

Sadly none of my favorite characters of the original NU are there, at least not yet.

Thoughts on Stargate Sg1 and Atlantis, Episode 2 of the newest season (and some icons made or inspired off them)...
( Read more... )

And, even though jokes like this have been run into the ground, I work at a donut store, and today I had a thought. Make a new donut - plane, with gummy worms on top. And you call it...

wait for it...

SNAKES ON A PLAIN DONUT!

Yeah, I know, awful, but so awful I had to share.

Edit: Oh, and apparently something I said that started a sub thread in a scans_daily thread has been metaquoted. I think that's my first time showing up on a place like that.

Hmmm, Fandom Bits. That'd make a good cereal. Like Alpha Bits, but with Fandom. Little crispy bits shaped like the TARDIS or cylons or something. Slashmallows.

Anyway, found some Veronica Mars news here. I'll put the big bits for S3 behind a cut for the especially spoiler conscious, but really nothing much beyond casting stuff and a few stuff I already figured. Also, I rewatched S2 Episode 1 again since it started airing here in Canada, so I'll put some thoughts of that behind the cut too.
( Read more... )

Runaways #18 tomorrow! The big day! And I mourn! I don't even know for whom yet, but I know it's gonna suck and be awesome at the same time! Also X-Factor and Civil War.

And it's not strictly a fandom bit, as I really have no interest in seeing the movie, but one bit from the commercials for Monster House crack me up:
"If those are the teeth, and that's the tongue, then that must be the uvula!"
"... So then it's a girl house!"
"... WHAT?!"

Long walk tomorrow. Also need to choose a new book. Or a reread, which is probably more likely.