I wrote a blog about a month ago about the Liveathon that I watched & really enjoyed, well yesterday was the last day of the Indiegogo campaign to raise funds for The Commissionaires Must Die (or CMD which is how I will refer to it from here on) which is the project the liveathon was done in support of, so April & America decided to hold another liveathon during the final 6 hours of the campaign only this one was called a livethankathon as they also wanted to thank all those who had contributed to the campaign but they were also going to introduce a lot of the cast of the movie & even read part of the script :D But before I talk about that I wanted to say something that I was thinking about after the livestream ended last night.
I was just thinking back on the whole process of the liveathon & it's effect and I have to say that April & America have accomplished something pretty spectacular as when I started watching the first liveathon I had never heard of April, I only really knew of America from her work (which I really enjoyed & and is amazing but it is definitely not the same as knowing the person at all) and to be honest at that point I really didn't care about the movie at all, I was there as it sounded interesting & to support America. As I mentioned in my previous blog entry as I watched the first liveathon that started to change pretty quickly from 'something I'll check out' to 'wow I'm actually really enjoying this'. I think one of the other major reasons that I got so invested into the project and these people is the incredible job that April did in hosting it as she has such a warm and friendly nature about her that it is almost impossible not to like her and want to cheer her on, this medium is definitely ideal for someone like her! As I mentioned previously April did an outstanding job at integrating the chat room, interacting with everyone and basically keeping everything going & I don't think that these liveathons would have gone anywhere near as well as they did if it wasn't for her amazing efforts. So by the end of the first liveathon I was now a big fan of both April & America and less so of all the other people in the room (no offence to them we in the chat room just had much more of a chance to interact with them) and beyond that actually felt I had the start of a real connection to April & America as people not just as actors, I was also completely on board to help support them in their project which to be honest at that point was still more their project in abstract then really to help them with CMD as during the first liveathon I was pretty much just supporting April & America themselves & trusting that whatever they were doing would be awesome but I still didn't really care about the movie itself. However, learning more about the movie during the livethankathon last night & getting to meet the cast & hear them read part of the script was actually really cool & got me actually excited about the movie itself & not just the people behind it. All this and 1) I am not a big movie person, I can't remember the last movie I watched I tend to watch TV shows instead of movies & 2) I am much more a visual person, I like to see and examine things and shows, I am not really the best with just hearing things (probably why in general I prefer books to audiobooks) so if I enjoyed just hearing the script I have absolutely no doubt whatsoever that when I get to actually see it, it is going to be beyond amazing :D So here we have someone who went from not really knowing anyone or anything involved with CMD to someone who is now passionately interested and excited to see CMD & who has forged connections with some of the people involved, and all that was in around 66 hours of livestreaming. That my friends is some very special kind of awesome!
Going back to the livethankathon it was actually rather touching even at the start as I was in sense like coming back to somewhere warm, friendly & comfortable. I don't think I quite realized how much I had missed it till it had started back up again :D They also introduced a lot of the cast for CMD which was really awesome as there are some people in it that I am a huge fan of :D First of all I am very much looking forward to seeing April in her actor mode in the film after becoming a huge fan of her as a person during the liveathons :D so it'll be cool to see her in the movie. I have to say though that I am most excited about David Blue being cast in the movie :D Anyone that has read some of the earlier posts in this blog know that I am big fan of Stargate especially Stargate Universe as it is still one of my all time favourite TV shows and Eli, the character David played on the show, was one of my favourite characters as he did such an absolutely outstanding job with it. So I am very excited to know that I'll get a chance again to see him in this movie. I am also looking forward to seeing John Keating in the movie as well (Yes he is in the movie even though in my earlier blog I just said he was a friend of April & America) as I have been talking to him on Twitter a bit so it'll be nice to see him in the film! A lot of the other actors in the movie I don't really know but I am looking forward to getting to know them & see them in the film during the production (which is also going to be livestreamed in case you weren't aware) They started reading part of the script for CMD and then would stop at tenser points & offer to continue for more donations in what was termed a scriptease (between this and April's Pandies from the first liveathon, they do seem to like words that rely on correct pronunciation :P) which was quite a success so we got to hear a generous amount of the script (which as I mentioned earlier was really good!). After this they took a break for some pie as it was nearly American Thanksgiving down there and then as the time on the campaign started to approach the end April & America started to go through the Donors list to thank those that donated & while they had time say something about the people donating which I though was really nice of them & that caused a number of people in the chatroom at least to get at the very least misty :D
In the end, thanks to some sizeable last minute donations they were able to make the goal of their Indiegogo campaign ending with a total of $10,070 raised for the film :D It was then time to say not really goodbye but until next time as they will be streaming the process of making the movie which I (and I am sure many others in the chatroom) will try to catch as much of as we can :D It was great to once again be able to hang out with these awesome people & see them achieve their goal! I can't wait to see how CMD comes together over the next few months or so :D
A collection of thoughts, musings and whatever else happens to cross my mind
Wednesday, November 21, 2012
Monday, November 12, 2012
How I've been doing
I definitely want to try and update this more often then I have in the past but at the same time I don't want to be trying to post anything if I don't feel like there is a good reason to so I am going to try and go for that and we'll see how it works out.
First of all I would just like to say thank you to everyone that read my previous blog and either commented on it or sent me a message regarding it, it was a tough thing to write but all of your encouragement was very much appreciated. It has been interesting how the liveathon I mentioned earlier in my blog has kinda shaken up my life and started to get it going a little more again in the best way possible. I met a bunch of amazing new people was able to get a going again on my blogging a little bit and even went out last night to meet a group of people that I mostly don't know which is not something I would normally do.
Awhile back I gotten into the show Lost Girl and then got to attend a Q&A panel with the whole cast at Fan Expo 2011 and even got to meet most of them later at the convention, as the show was approaching the end of its second season they decided to have a finale pre-show which would air before the finale and they wanted a fan audience for it so they held a contest for tickets to it where they asked people to write a short piece on why they liked the show. I figured that since I was really enjoying the show I'd write one and submit it but honestly did not expect to win. While much to my surprise I did win and got to attend it which is where I met a few other big fans of the show and started to connect with them via twitter. I once again met up with a bunch of them at the Lost Girl panel at Fan Expo 2012 and so when I heard they were going to be having a get together with fans and that it was going to be in my area I debated about going but as I know I am not always the best when it comes to social situations especially in person social situations, however I figured it was probably a good thing to try and force myself to get out and start trying to socialize at least a little outside of the internet and with the support I'd been getting from some of my friends both new and old I figured I would go. I have to say that I am glad that I did as I ended up having a pretty good time, I was certainly a little nervous especially at first but thankfully there weren't too many people there and everyone was friendly and since we were all there because we liked the show we knew we all had at least one thing in common. We ended up talking about the show and other shows and a number of things mostly geek related. I was originally planning on only going for an hour or so but ended up staying there for about 3 and a half hours since I was enjoying myself.
I guess the main thing now is trying to figure out how to try and keep the momentum up and hopefully keep myself moving forward even if it is slowly instead of letting it slow down to a stop even though that is honestly what I'd probably be most comfortable with even if it wouldn't be the best thing for me.
First of all I would just like to say thank you to everyone that read my previous blog and either commented on it or sent me a message regarding it, it was a tough thing to write but all of your encouragement was very much appreciated. It has been interesting how the liveathon I mentioned earlier in my blog has kinda shaken up my life and started to get it going a little more again in the best way possible. I met a bunch of amazing new people was able to get a going again on my blogging a little bit and even went out last night to meet a group of people that I mostly don't know which is not something I would normally do.
Awhile back I gotten into the show Lost Girl and then got to attend a Q&A panel with the whole cast at Fan Expo 2011 and even got to meet most of them later at the convention, as the show was approaching the end of its second season they decided to have a finale pre-show which would air before the finale and they wanted a fan audience for it so they held a contest for tickets to it where they asked people to write a short piece on why they liked the show. I figured that since I was really enjoying the show I'd write one and submit it but honestly did not expect to win. While much to my surprise I did win and got to attend it which is where I met a few other big fans of the show and started to connect with them via twitter. I once again met up with a bunch of them at the Lost Girl panel at Fan Expo 2012 and so when I heard they were going to be having a get together with fans and that it was going to be in my area I debated about going but as I know I am not always the best when it comes to social situations especially in person social situations, however I figured it was probably a good thing to try and force myself to get out and start trying to socialize at least a little outside of the internet and with the support I'd been getting from some of my friends both new and old I figured I would go. I have to say that I am glad that I did as I ended up having a pretty good time, I was certainly a little nervous especially at first but thankfully there weren't too many people there and everyone was friendly and since we were all there because we liked the show we knew we all had at least one thing in common. We ended up talking about the show and other shows and a number of things mostly geek related. I was originally planning on only going for an hour or so but ended up staying there for about 3 and a half hours since I was enjoying myself.
I guess the main thing now is trying to figure out how to try and keep the momentum up and hopefully keep myself moving forward even if it is slowly instead of letting it slow down to a stop even though that is honestly what I'd probably be most comfortable with even if it wouldn't be the best thing for me.
Saturday, October 27, 2012
Where I am at
This is a post that has been kicking around in my head for quite awhile now I have just been trying to work up the nerve and motivation to just do it all the time as it deals with some of the more depressing areas and aspects of my personal life but at the same time it is also in a sense a story of victory over at least some problems and I think the people that have helped get me to where I am at deserve some sincere thanks. Once again I will apologize for my awful grammar as this being more personal will probably be harder to write and therefore more prone to these kind of errors.
This is a story of how Felicia Day, The Guild, Chris Pope, Twitter, Kenny Mittleider and Podcasting in many ways saved my life both figuratively & probably literally as well but that is the end of the story to understand how we need to start at the well not the beginning (as that would be too long to explain) but at a beginning. A few years ago (I honestly can't remember exactly when this was I will explain why later) I was working but struggling alot with depression, self-worth & self-esteem issues which I have had for most of my life in some respects I was living my life on a rickety scaffold that was helping me to be functional and keeping the depression from consuming me. However I was fired from that job and that more or less collapsed the scaffold that had been keeping me going along with that a few other things happened at around the same time which further beat down on my self-esteem and self worth. In response to all this I think some part of me realized that I was heading for real danger and so as a self-defence mechanism I fell into a pretty deep state of apathy as if you just don't really care about anything then whatever happens to you doesn't hurt you as you don't care so while it did effectively eliminate the pain my depression/self-worth problems were causing me it came at a very high price. I don't know that I can really explain the full impact of being in such a state of apathy as I honestly really didn't care about much I never really talked to anyone unless they initiated it and even then I wasn't really there, I only ate when I had to keep my body from getting too annoyed at me, I didn't go out or do anything unless I was seriously pushed to do it, I spent most of my time trying to find things to help pass the time but even with stuff I used to really enjoy I found I lost most that enjoyment and only really continued with it as it was familiar and did indeed help pass the time. While I was in this state I didn't really keep track of time as one day would blur into the next and one week would blue into the next so I honestly couldn't tell you how long I was in this state and even now looking back it has seriously screwed with my ability to determine when things happened before that.
I think it was around the start of the summer of 2010 that I started to find that there were times when I'd start to pull out of the apathy a little and want to try to start moving forward however as the apathy waned the pain and stress of depression/self-worth would start to return and would generally plunge me back into the apathy.
I think it was around the beginning of Fall of 2010 when I was in the middle of one of these times where the apathy had waned and I was looking for things to watch on the internet when I saw a video called 'Do you want to date my avatar' by The Guild in my list of suggested videos on YouTube. I had been playing WoW (or World of Warcraft) since it's launch and so I had heard of The Guild in passing but not much more then that. So I figured I'd check it out since I was bored and didn't have anything else to do. Even though I knew almost nothing about The Guild I still got quite a kick out of the video as it was joking around with alot of MMORPGs (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) staples so I figured I would go and actually watch The Guild since I enjoyed the video (which was a rarity for me those days) so I started watching it and after watching the first 2 and half seasons in one go had to tear myself away so I wouldn't screw up my sleeping schedule anymore as it was very early in the morning at that point. Needless to say as soon as I got up the next morning I went and finished watching the available episodes (I think they had finished season 4 at that point) after I finished watching them (and really enjoying them which again was rare for me at that time) I was curious to learn more about the series and that is when I heard about the story behind The Guild and how Felicia had gotten tired of not getting to do what she wanted as an actor so decided she was going to write herself a part in something and thus created The Guild.
This actually really resonated with me as I was also at a point where I was tired of going nowhere and kinda wanted to try to start moving forward again and so I started looking for all the interviews I could find of Felicia to learn more about her and how she had been able to do this and to try to learn a little more about her as a person. Learning about her story combined with the fact that I was already at a point where my feelings of apathy were lessened gave me the strength to start to fight against slipping back into the deadening apathy once again. I knew that if I was serious about this I wasn't going to be able to do it alone as I knew I would eventually just get overcome by depression etc again and fall back in and since at this point I didn't really have any solid social contacts (I can't blame them though I mean I completely dropped off the grid) I decided I would try to get a little more involved online as I did talk to a few people from my WoW guild online and so thought I'd see if I could find any other like minded people online to start trying to get myself out there in a sense and work on my by then very rusty social skills. After listening to one of Felicia's interviews where she talked about Twitter gave her the opportunity to communicate with people she otherwise wouldn't have access to gave me the idea to actually join Twitter and to use it to reach out and thank people I otherwise would have no contact with such as actors in TV shows I enjoyed so I joined and tried to find some of the actors I knew of in TV shows I enjoyed and whenever I watch an episode where I thought they did a good job I would send them a short message to tell them that which also helped me a little as it is always nice to let people know they are doing a good job (Trust me no one knows the value of a compliment more then someone that doesn't like/hates themselves). I also decided right there at the beginning that I was going to keep my own tendency to be negative off of Twitter and only send something if it was positive or uplifting in some way that way it would only be a help to me. I also figured I would start my search for places I could find a community off by looking into the community which had formed around The Guild so I joined the community site they had setup and started joining the chat room they had setup there and actually met a bunch of cool people alot of whom I later started following on Twitter which helped it become more of place to have conversations instead of just sending out messages from.
One of the times I was in the Guild chatroom they were all talking about a live podcast they were looking forward to so I ended up deciding to go listen to the podcast with them which ended up being Tech Barbarians which is hosted by Chris Pope and Mark Eoff which is the first time I was introduced to Chris and it just so happened that the guest they were interviewing was Jenni Powell who at the time was the cohost of Knights of the Guild which was a recorded podcast she did with Kenny and so that was the first time I was introduced to the other two people who would play a large roll in where I am now. After listening and enjoying the live podcast I figured I would check out the Knights of the Guild podcast and really enjoyed it both Kenny and Jenni are wonderful and delightful people who would joke back and forth between the shows segments. I just want to take a minute to try to describe Kenny as he is just an amazing guy, he just seems to have a natural warm and friendliness about him that just makes you feel welcomed and note I got all this just from his voice as I was just listening to audio podcasts. The Knights of the Guild podcasts became kinda of a refuge for me as I would listen to them and feel accepted and happy and would generally end up laughing alot as well. As I continued listening to them I started to send in a few pieces of feedback which is something I had never done before but I figured since this podcast had become important to me I would thank them for it. Also Kenny & Jenni usually read the feedback they got on the show so hearing my name on the show was also pretty cool and helped me feel more connected so I continued to send in feedback although over time it was just to make Kenny happy as he always liked to get feedback and I started talking to him on Twitter and on Facebook at this point and has become one of my best and closests friends online.
As I have mentioned I am a pretty big video game player so while all this was happening I also found out that Chris Pope also did a live podcast with voice over actors from TV and video games and so started listening to that as well as continuing to listen to his Tech Barbarians podcasts and so got to know him more and befriend him but also I started to talk to few of the people that I regularly noticed were at the live podcasts as well and so through that my circle of internet friends widened again with Twitter being the hub of most of my contact with people now. Chris then told me he was planning on starting a podcast based around WoW which I had played for years with Russ (one of the guys I had met and become friends with through the other podcasts), Maria who was an experienced player who had been raiding in WoW for awhile (as had I) and then finally Teal who had never played any MMOs before but who I knew as she had played a character on The Guild and that he wanted to have a Guild in WoW which was connected to the podcast and if I wanted to join them in that guild so I did and through that and the podcast called I Hearth Geeks I got to know both Maria and Teal and so my group of internet friends expanded even further (Teal has also created her own webseries called My Gimpy Life which is awesome so please check it out on YouTube).
There is one thing I also forget to mention was that back when I was first getting into Twitter and the internet community I found out through twitter that the cast of one of my favourite TV shows Stargate Universe was coming to Toronto and that Innerspace (a local geek/review/news type show) was doing a special with the cast and a live audience and so I ended up being able to go to it (I wrote an earlier blog entry about it if you want to know more) but I really enjoyed it. It was also the first time I had ever had the chance to actually meet any of the actors I admired so that combined with all the excited talk I would hear about conventions and how much fun they had attending them from my new group of friends especially as they planned for SDCC (San Diego Comic Con) 2011 led me to look up and decide to attend Fan Expo 2011 (this is also why I know this all started the year earlier) which ended up being an amazing experience which I really really enjoyed and why I attended three conventions this year including Fan Expo again and have really enjoyed them and actually met some awesome new people this year through watching another webseries called Pretty in Geek which is pretty funny and I highly recommend checking it out as well on YouTube.
These people all helped me to be able to fight against the urge to just slip back into apathy and not bother with trying to sort through my problems with depression and self-worth and the pain and stress that comes with them and so in that sense they figuratively saved my life as let's be honest existing in that sort of apathy isn't really living it is merely existing. As for how they may have literally saved my life? well without those three key people I probably wouldn't really have any online friends and I honestly can't believe that I would have been able to keep just existing in that state of apathy forever as eventually something would come along and rip it away and if that happened without the support system I have now I don't know what would happen but it is definitely conceivable that I would commit suicide (as I have thought of it before but never acted on it) and so by providing that support system they may have literally saved my life.
All I know is that I will be forever grateful to Felicia Day for having the nerve to follow her dream and then to share the story and be such an amazing role model for people like me. Not only that but every interview or video I see of Felicia being herself just deepens my respect for her which I just love. I am also thankful to her for giving a reason to join Twitter through which I have been able to do things I never thought possible and so I stand as a living example that telling your story and being yourself can positively impact people even if you have no idea who they are and have never met them as Felicia has for me.
I also want to thank both Chris and Kenny or the Podcasting Kings as I like to call them :) for not only being amazing friends themselves but also for introducing me to so many other awesome geeky people who have become my friends and part of my social framework.
I am sorry this is so long and probably at time rambly and I am sure chalk full of grammar and spelling mistakes but I didn't know any other way of doing this.
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
The Awesomeness of a Liveathon
Well it has certainly been quite awhile since I have added anything here but but between an awesome experience I had recently, more about that to come, and a conversation I had with a friend who is a superb blogger himself has convinced me to take another shot at it. I think I should here warn that I am not always the best at expressing what I feel and generally when I try grammar is the first casualty so please forgive that as I often have trouble writing these so tend to write them in quasi-stream of consciousness.
It all started this past Sunday as I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my day and saw a message from America Young who is an actor/stuntperson whose work I quite enjoy (check out Geek Therapy on You Tube and you'll see why!) mentioning a 60 hour livestream she was going to be doing in order to try to Geekify one of her friends, April Wade, in support of a movie they were going to be making together called The Concessionaires Must Die. As I am myself a geek I thought it sounded interested and so figured I would check it out. This rather quickly went from something I was going to watch for a bit to something I watched all day to something I was glued to for every second I could possibly watch it till it was over. I am not really going to go over exactly all of what happened during the Liveathon, as it was dubbed during the stream, as I would much rather talk about the experience of it as in many ways I think that is what is the most amazing about it. If you are curious to see what the schedule was for it it is still posted on their site here The Making of CMD Liveathon they managed to stay mostly on schedule but as with anything done live some changes needed to be made.
What made this livestream so compelling wasn't just that America and April were great & entertaining hosts (Which is far tougher then it sounds as not only were they trying to introduce April to things she has been resistant to but also entertain the people watching via the internet, especially when they were watching movies/tv shows where they couldn't show them for copyright reasons, but they also were trying to raise money to support the movie they are making which adds its own demands as it requires frequent explanations as to what they were doing, what is the movie about, why should you donate. So while it sounds easy 'Watching movies and tv shows while being filmed how is that hard' there is so much more involved) nor the fact that they had alot of great, entertaining and energetic guests & friends but it was that through their interactions with the chatroom and the interactions with other people in the chat room it came to feel much more like meeting a group of people at a convention and having a sense of connection that only grew stronger as the livestream continued to the point where I now follow a bunch of these people on twitter so that I can continue to communicate with them despite the fact that the livestream is no over. We had some trolls, pervs and other internet undesirables show up but I love that we as a group in the chat room would either flag them or ignore them or do whatever we could so that they wouldn't disrupt the livestream. In many case we became the ones that took over the explanations and calls for donations when the people actually on the livestream were busy with what they were doing as we had become fully committed to what they were doing at that point.
On a more personal note I am usually not a very social person, I tend to be rather shy and I have massive problems with self worth and self esteem and as such I usually have alot of difficulty making new friends but by the end of the livestream I felt I had actually made some friends on the livestream such as April who I had never heard of before but now I think is absolutely awesome, America who I only really knew of through her work on webshows but now I feel like I actually know the real America a little and John Keating who was one of the guests who was in most of the livestream as a friend of America and April. However that wasn't it I also felt like I made friends with some of the people in the chatroom such as Angie who is a published author of a number of books, who has alot of the same tastes as me in TV and video games and who incredibly stayed awake for 69 hours straight in support of the liveathon and others that I look forward to getting to know better. In fact I felt so supported and encouraged by the liveathon that I actually went and sent friend requests to some of them on Facebook which I know sounds trivial and dumb but for me it is actually quite a big deal as I have been avoiding anything that might possibly involve rejection like the plague out of a fear that seems to have claimed my life but even though I was still quite scared and nervous about even that I was actually able to do it thanks to the confidence that the liveathon had given me.
So I would just like to say a deep and heartfelt thank you to both America Young and April Wade, and to all the amazing guests they had come join them for the Liveathon and to Angie and everyone else in the chatroom that made this such an awesome and encouraging experience!
If you would like to learn more about the movie they are making you can find that here The Making of CMD and even though they raised and amazing $6,550 towards their goal during the Liveathon there is still time for you contribute to this amazing project! They have more information and some amazing perks here Support CMD
It all started this past Sunday as I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my day and saw a message from America Young who is an actor/stuntperson whose work I quite enjoy (check out Geek Therapy on You Tube and you'll see why!) mentioning a 60 hour livestream she was going to be doing in order to try to Geekify one of her friends, April Wade, in support of a movie they were going to be making together called The Concessionaires Must Die. As I am myself a geek I thought it sounded interested and so figured I would check it out. This rather quickly went from something I was going to watch for a bit to something I watched all day to something I was glued to for every second I could possibly watch it till it was over. I am not really going to go over exactly all of what happened during the Liveathon, as it was dubbed during the stream, as I would much rather talk about the experience of it as in many ways I think that is what is the most amazing about it. If you are curious to see what the schedule was for it it is still posted on their site here The Making of CMD Liveathon they managed to stay mostly on schedule but as with anything done live some changes needed to be made.
What made this livestream so compelling wasn't just that America and April were great & entertaining hosts (Which is far tougher then it sounds as not only were they trying to introduce April to things she has been resistant to but also entertain the people watching via the internet, especially when they were watching movies/tv shows where they couldn't show them for copyright reasons, but they also were trying to raise money to support the movie they are making which adds its own demands as it requires frequent explanations as to what they were doing, what is the movie about, why should you donate. So while it sounds easy 'Watching movies and tv shows while being filmed how is that hard' there is so much more involved) nor the fact that they had alot of great, entertaining and energetic guests & friends but it was that through their interactions with the chatroom and the interactions with other people in the chat room it came to feel much more like meeting a group of people at a convention and having a sense of connection that only grew stronger as the livestream continued to the point where I now follow a bunch of these people on twitter so that I can continue to communicate with them despite the fact that the livestream is no over. We had some trolls, pervs and other internet undesirables show up but I love that we as a group in the chat room would either flag them or ignore them or do whatever we could so that they wouldn't disrupt the livestream. In many case we became the ones that took over the explanations and calls for donations when the people actually on the livestream were busy with what they were doing as we had become fully committed to what they were doing at that point.
On a more personal note I am usually not a very social person, I tend to be rather shy and I have massive problems with self worth and self esteem and as such I usually have alot of difficulty making new friends but by the end of the livestream I felt I had actually made some friends on the livestream such as April who I had never heard of before but now I think is absolutely awesome, America who I only really knew of through her work on webshows but now I feel like I actually know the real America a little and John Keating who was one of the guests who was in most of the livestream as a friend of America and April. However that wasn't it I also felt like I made friends with some of the people in the chatroom such as Angie who is a published author of a number of books, who has alot of the same tastes as me in TV and video games and who incredibly stayed awake for 69 hours straight in support of the liveathon and others that I look forward to getting to know better. In fact I felt so supported and encouraged by the liveathon that I actually went and sent friend requests to some of them on Facebook which I know sounds trivial and dumb but for me it is actually quite a big deal as I have been avoiding anything that might possibly involve rejection like the plague out of a fear that seems to have claimed my life but even though I was still quite scared and nervous about even that I was actually able to do it thanks to the confidence that the liveathon had given me.
So I would just like to say a deep and heartfelt thank you to both America Young and April Wade, and to all the amazing guests they had come join them for the Liveathon and to Angie and everyone else in the chatroom that made this such an awesome and encouraging experience!
If you would like to learn more about the movie they are making you can find that here The Making of CMD and even though they raised and amazing $6,550 towards their goal during the Liveathon there is still time for you contribute to this amazing project! They have more information and some amazing perks here Support CMD
Monday, January 23, 2012
Fan Expo 2011 - Friday
First of all yes I realize this post is incredibly late, I've been meaning to write this up and post it for ages but never actually got around to actually doing it so here goes.
Friday was the first full day of the convention however since I was taking the GO train into Toronto to get there and since it was still during the week I didn't actually make it to the convention centre until around 11:30 or so I think even though the convention actually opened at 10:00 ( I believe, I still actually have quite vivid memories of the convention despite it being almost 5 months ago but there are going to be things I'm not positive about) but since there really wasn't anything on in the morning that day I really wanted to catch I wasn't really too concerned about getting there late. In fact it was actually kinda nice since when I got there there was no line at all and I was just able to walk straight into the convention centre and onto the main floor with no problems and no delays at all. There were definitely more people in the main convention area already today then there were on the Thursday but it still didn't seem overly crowded which was nice. All of the booths were set up and manned now and there were a couple of more celebrities in the signing area so everything seemed alot busier now. The first thing I was really interested in was a signing by Zoie Palmer one of the cast of Lost Girl but that wasn't until 1:00 I think so I still had plenty of time before that so I figured I'd just walk around the convention and just take it all in really at this point since the day before alot of it hadn't been setup yet. This is when I really realized that there is a ton of stuff to see just in terms of the floor alone not counting any panels or anything else, I myself am not really into collecting in many regards but I can see how people interested in that could spend ages just looking at the booths and the vendors alone. I tried to get a good sense of where things were in relation to each other so that I could get to the various booths and areas I was interested in fairly quickly when I needed to get there. I made sure to keep walking by the Lost Girl booth, which is where the signing was going to be, as the time got closer to 1:00 so that I could get in line if one started forming. I didn't really see much of a line forming till around 12:45 so at that time I joined the line and so had a pretty good spot and was able to meet her soon after 1:00 (Since Saturday pretty much ended up being my Lost Girl day at the convention I'll wait till then to really say more about meeting the cast). The first Q&A panel I was looking forward to going to was at 2:30 with Lexa Doig who had been in a number of shows I really like specifically Andromeda, Eureka and SG1, so I explored the convention floor a little more then heading up to the room to wait for a good seat for the panel. Unfortunately though once 2:30 came around we were informed that sadly both her and her Husband Michael Shanks weren't going to make it due to weather (At this time there had been Tornado/Hurricane warnings for the area so a few of the guests weren't able to make it till late in the convention and some not at all). This was really the only disappointing thing for me during the whole convention since Michael Shanks Q&A, which was supposed to be later on this day, was one of the things I had been looking forward to most as I have always been a huge fan of Stargate and SG1 but life is life and something can't be helped. So since the two panels I had been interested had been cancelled I suddenly had alot of time to kill since the next thing I was interested in wasn't until 7:30pm which was a screening of the first hour of the pilot of Terra Nova, this was the first time any of it had been shown in Canada. Since I had hours now to kill I went back down to the main convention floor and checked out a few of the vendors I had noticed while I was scouting everything out. I have never really been much of an overt fan, in the sense of having shirts etc, of some of my favourite shows and game I figured I should start to remedy that so spent a good little while looking through the different T-shirt stands especially and ended up getting a Starcraft 2 shirt that I really liked. I also looked through a number of the comic vendors and picked a few of the Guild one-shot comics that I didn't have. I also decided that since I had quite a bit of time to kill I'd take the time and go stand in line to get one of the autographs I wanted, this being from Kevin Sorbo. I had pretty much grown up watching him on Hercules and then later in Andromeda so I had been debating whether I wanted to pay to get his autograph and ultimately the Q&A panel he did the day before is what made me decide to go for it, I am much happier supporting someone that clearly enjoys what he is doing but also very clearly cares about the people he is making entertainment for. So I stood in line for a bit I am not sure how long but it wasn't long and got the chance to meet him, shake his hand, get his autograph and talk very briefly to him which was nice, I will say that all of the celebrities that I got autographs from were very nice and friendly and even though there was often a line waiting I never really felt rushed or that they weren't happy to meet their fans which is something I know I really appreciated. After all that I was feeling a little beat and worn out, I have scoliosis in my lower back so if I am standing or walk alot it tends to get quite sore, so I just found an out of the way corner and sat down and had some water and an O'Henry bar I had packed and just rested for a bit. I am not exactly sure of the timing or order of alot of the things I mentioned I just remember them taking place in that time frame. I eventually ended up just heading up to the room where the screening was going to take place quite a bit early since I didn't really have anything else to do and was a little tired from exploring the convention floor quite thoroughly, I wasn't really in line for anything since there were a couple of panels in the room it was going to be in and unlike what I heard from people at SDCC here they cleared the rooms before each panel so you couldn't just go in and sit there for as many panels as you want. Once the last panel before the screening started I did go and take a seat along the wall near the entrance as I noticed a few others doing the same. It was nice to just sit and rest a bit and to just watch people coming and coming and milling around, conventions are incredibly interesting places to people watch :) As the time of the screening grew closer more and more people started lining up and before long there was quite a long line. I am not sure if they were getting things setup or waiting for all the press, since this was the first screening of Terra Nova in Canada there were a number of press there as well to see it, but we weren't let into the room till around 7:40 or so and I did get an excellent seat. The screening got started around 8:15 or so I think and went for an hour. I actually really enjoyed the screening of it, although I did feel bad at the end as there must have been a graphical glitch on the DVD so it messed up a bit of the picture near the end of the screening. With the screening this ended up being my latest night at the convention, and ironically the next day was one of my earliest as there was a panel at 11:00 the next morning I really wanted to catch. All in all though my first full day at Fan Expo was very enjoyable even if some of the Q&A Panels I really wanted to see got cancelled.
Friday was the first full day of the convention however since I was taking the GO train into Toronto to get there and since it was still during the week I didn't actually make it to the convention centre until around 11:30 or so I think even though the convention actually opened at 10:00 ( I believe, I still actually have quite vivid memories of the convention despite it being almost 5 months ago but there are going to be things I'm not positive about) but since there really wasn't anything on in the morning that day I really wanted to catch I wasn't really too concerned about getting there late. In fact it was actually kinda nice since when I got there there was no line at all and I was just able to walk straight into the convention centre and onto the main floor with no problems and no delays at all. There were definitely more people in the main convention area already today then there were on the Thursday but it still didn't seem overly crowded which was nice. All of the booths were set up and manned now and there were a couple of more celebrities in the signing area so everything seemed alot busier now. The first thing I was really interested in was a signing by Zoie Palmer one of the cast of Lost Girl but that wasn't until 1:00 I think so I still had plenty of time before that so I figured I'd just walk around the convention and just take it all in really at this point since the day before alot of it hadn't been setup yet. This is when I really realized that there is a ton of stuff to see just in terms of the floor alone not counting any panels or anything else, I myself am not really into collecting in many regards but I can see how people interested in that could spend ages just looking at the booths and the vendors alone. I tried to get a good sense of where things were in relation to each other so that I could get to the various booths and areas I was interested in fairly quickly when I needed to get there. I made sure to keep walking by the Lost Girl booth, which is where the signing was going to be, as the time got closer to 1:00 so that I could get in line if one started forming. I didn't really see much of a line forming till around 12:45 so at that time I joined the line and so had a pretty good spot and was able to meet her soon after 1:00 (Since Saturday pretty much ended up being my Lost Girl day at the convention I'll wait till then to really say more about meeting the cast). The first Q&A panel I was looking forward to going to was at 2:30 with Lexa Doig who had been in a number of shows I really like specifically Andromeda, Eureka and SG1, so I explored the convention floor a little more then heading up to the room to wait for a good seat for the panel. Unfortunately though once 2:30 came around we were informed that sadly both her and her Husband Michael Shanks weren't going to make it due to weather (At this time there had been Tornado/Hurricane warnings for the area so a few of the guests weren't able to make it till late in the convention and some not at all). This was really the only disappointing thing for me during the whole convention since Michael Shanks Q&A, which was supposed to be later on this day, was one of the things I had been looking forward to most as I have always been a huge fan of Stargate and SG1 but life is life and something can't be helped. So since the two panels I had been interested had been cancelled I suddenly had alot of time to kill since the next thing I was interested in wasn't until 7:30pm which was a screening of the first hour of the pilot of Terra Nova, this was the first time any of it had been shown in Canada. Since I had hours now to kill I went back down to the main convention floor and checked out a few of the vendors I had noticed while I was scouting everything out. I have never really been much of an overt fan, in the sense of having shirts etc, of some of my favourite shows and game I figured I should start to remedy that so spent a good little while looking through the different T-shirt stands especially and ended up getting a Starcraft 2 shirt that I really liked. I also looked through a number of the comic vendors and picked a few of the Guild one-shot comics that I didn't have. I also decided that since I had quite a bit of time to kill I'd take the time and go stand in line to get one of the autographs I wanted, this being from Kevin Sorbo. I had pretty much grown up watching him on Hercules and then later in Andromeda so I had been debating whether I wanted to pay to get his autograph and ultimately the Q&A panel he did the day before is what made me decide to go for it, I am much happier supporting someone that clearly enjoys what he is doing but also very clearly cares about the people he is making entertainment for. So I stood in line for a bit I am not sure how long but it wasn't long and got the chance to meet him, shake his hand, get his autograph and talk very briefly to him which was nice, I will say that all of the celebrities that I got autographs from were very nice and friendly and even though there was often a line waiting I never really felt rushed or that they weren't happy to meet their fans which is something I know I really appreciated. After all that I was feeling a little beat and worn out, I have scoliosis in my lower back so if I am standing or walk alot it tends to get quite sore, so I just found an out of the way corner and sat down and had some water and an O'Henry bar I had packed and just rested for a bit. I am not exactly sure of the timing or order of alot of the things I mentioned I just remember them taking place in that time frame. I eventually ended up just heading up to the room where the screening was going to take place quite a bit early since I didn't really have anything else to do and was a little tired from exploring the convention floor quite thoroughly, I wasn't really in line for anything since there were a couple of panels in the room it was going to be in and unlike what I heard from people at SDCC here they cleared the rooms before each panel so you couldn't just go in and sit there for as many panels as you want. Once the last panel before the screening started I did go and take a seat along the wall near the entrance as I noticed a few others doing the same. It was nice to just sit and rest a bit and to just watch people coming and coming and milling around, conventions are incredibly interesting places to people watch :) As the time of the screening grew closer more and more people started lining up and before long there was quite a long line. I am not sure if they were getting things setup or waiting for all the press, since this was the first screening of Terra Nova in Canada there were a number of press there as well to see it, but we weren't let into the room till around 7:40 or so and I did get an excellent seat. The screening got started around 8:15 or so I think and went for an hour. I actually really enjoyed the screening of it, although I did feel bad at the end as there must have been a graphical glitch on the DVD so it messed up a bit of the picture near the end of the screening. With the screening this ended up being my latest night at the convention, and ironically the next day was one of my earliest as there was a panel at 11:00 the next morning I really wanted to catch. All in all though my first full day at Fan Expo was very enjoyable even if some of the Q&A Panels I really wanted to see got cancelled.
Thursday, October 13, 2011
Fan Expo - Thursday
Thursday was the first day of Fan Expo but the convention didn't open until 4pm that day, however those with weekend or premium passes were able to get in 2 hours earlier at 2pm so I had planned to try to get to the convention centre at around 1 - 1:30pm as I really wasn't sure what kind of a line there would be given the gap between the early entry and the normal entry.
I think I managed to get there around 1:15 or so and there was a line already well formed, thankfully it was nice out neither really really hot or cold and miserable so I got into line and was enjoying looking at everyone else around as there was definitely a good mix of people in all sorts of costumes from very large and elaborate ones to very minimal ones and everything between. So that is pretty much how I passed my time while waiting till we could start getting in, I think I finally got onto the main convention floor at around 2:30 or so which I felt worked out well. It was definitely interesting walking around especially at first as a number of the stands weren't actually setup and open and a bunch of the others were just starting to get everything out and ready so it was interesting to watch them for a little bit. So I spent a good little while just wandering around the floor checking out where certain booths were that I was interested in, looked at the celebrity autograph area and just generally was checking things out.
There were only really 2 panels that had looked interesting to me on the thursday both were Q&A panels by two of the celebrity guests one at 4:30 and the other at 5:30 which I figured meant that I'd only really be able to go to one of them as based on what I'd heard about panels at other conventions I was planning on trying to be lined up at least an hour in advance for any of the panels I was really interested in so I opted to go for the 5:30 panel which was a Q&A with Kevin Sorbo which I figured would be interesting as I had grown up watching him as Hercules and then later as Dylan Hunt on Andromeda. So after walking around and checking out the main floor for awhile I was starting to get a little tired and sore (I have scoliosis in my lower back which means my back tends to get fairly sore if I am standing or walking around too much) and I noticed it was a little passed 4 so I figured I'd go find the room the Kevin Sorbo panel was going to be in and see if there was a line yet for it but when I found the room there was no line but the doors were open and it looked like people were already inside sitting down since the Kevin Sorbo panel was the only panel in that room for today so I went in and got a pretty good seat and just rested for awhile. One thing I should add here as I mentioned before I really didn't know what to expect from this and as I mentioned my back isn't the best so I wanted to try and avoid having to carry anything if I could avoid it so since this day was a shorter day I figured I wouldn't bring anything and just see what other people brought and get a sense of what I would actually need, and while waiting I realized something to add to that list was a good book as the only thing I had with me was my iPhone which had some audiobooks and TV episodes but the headphones I brought weren't too good so I found it hard to enjoy listening/watching it so I pretty much just sat back and relaxed till it started filling up. The panel itself was great! Kevin Sorbo was just so down to earth and friendly and it really came across that he was having a good time talking about his experiences with his shows and answering peoples questions, he was also alot funnier then I was expecting but all in all I really enjoyed the panel and it just really increased my opinion of him a great deal.
The panel lasted for about an hour so after I was finished there it was around 6:30 and the convention seemed to be winding down so I decided I would head home as well so that I could be rested for the next day and there were a number of things I wanted to get ready so I'd have them with me for the next day. All in all though it was great first day and I really enjoyed it and was looking forward to the rest of the convention.
I think I managed to get there around 1:15 or so and there was a line already well formed, thankfully it was nice out neither really really hot or cold and miserable so I got into line and was enjoying looking at everyone else around as there was definitely a good mix of people in all sorts of costumes from very large and elaborate ones to very minimal ones and everything between. So that is pretty much how I passed my time while waiting till we could start getting in, I think I finally got onto the main convention floor at around 2:30 or so which I felt worked out well. It was definitely interesting walking around especially at first as a number of the stands weren't actually setup and open and a bunch of the others were just starting to get everything out and ready so it was interesting to watch them for a little bit. So I spent a good little while just wandering around the floor checking out where certain booths were that I was interested in, looked at the celebrity autograph area and just generally was checking things out.
There were only really 2 panels that had looked interesting to me on the thursday both were Q&A panels by two of the celebrity guests one at 4:30 and the other at 5:30 which I figured meant that I'd only really be able to go to one of them as based on what I'd heard about panels at other conventions I was planning on trying to be lined up at least an hour in advance for any of the panels I was really interested in so I opted to go for the 5:30 panel which was a Q&A with Kevin Sorbo which I figured would be interesting as I had grown up watching him as Hercules and then later as Dylan Hunt on Andromeda. So after walking around and checking out the main floor for awhile I was starting to get a little tired and sore (I have scoliosis in my lower back which means my back tends to get fairly sore if I am standing or walking around too much) and I noticed it was a little passed 4 so I figured I'd go find the room the Kevin Sorbo panel was going to be in and see if there was a line yet for it but when I found the room there was no line but the doors were open and it looked like people were already inside sitting down since the Kevin Sorbo panel was the only panel in that room for today so I went in and got a pretty good seat and just rested for awhile. One thing I should add here as I mentioned before I really didn't know what to expect from this and as I mentioned my back isn't the best so I wanted to try and avoid having to carry anything if I could avoid it so since this day was a shorter day I figured I wouldn't bring anything and just see what other people brought and get a sense of what I would actually need, and while waiting I realized something to add to that list was a good book as the only thing I had with me was my iPhone which had some audiobooks and TV episodes but the headphones I brought weren't too good so I found it hard to enjoy listening/watching it so I pretty much just sat back and relaxed till it started filling up. The panel itself was great! Kevin Sorbo was just so down to earth and friendly and it really came across that he was having a good time talking about his experiences with his shows and answering peoples questions, he was also alot funnier then I was expecting but all in all I really enjoyed the panel and it just really increased my opinion of him a great deal.
The panel lasted for about an hour so after I was finished there it was around 6:30 and the convention seemed to be winding down so I decided I would head home as well so that I could be rested for the next day and there were a number of things I wanted to get ready so I'd have them with me for the next day. All in all though it was great first day and I really enjoyed it and was looking forward to the rest of the convention.
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Fan Expo - Intro
A quick note: I apologize to anyone reading this if you are a big stickler for grammar as I am terrible at it and since this is mostly for me to put down my recollections of my time it is going to be more train of thought then structured prose although I will try to not make it too horrible however you have been warned.
A friend of mine recently pointed out that it had been quite awhile since I had last updated this blog with anything and was just wondering why. Which was a fair point part of it is that I honestly hadn't given it much thought, the other thing is that for the most part not a whole lot had really been going on with me to write about. However at the end of August I did go to my first large convention in Toronto called Fan Expo and after reading another friend post their experiences at SDCC earlier in the summer I figured that would be something that would be worth writing some entries about and so I will write a post for each of the four days that I was there. I figured I'd put all the intro stuff into this entry so that for the next 4 at least I can just start out with how that day started. This was actually only the second convention I've been to as I went to a small one with a friend in February I think it was, however that one was very small compared to Fan Expo as it was one smallish hall and it was only 1 day so in a sense Fan Expo was my first exposure to the real Con experience. I honestly don't know when or how long it will take me to write these up but I am going to try to get at least a couple up before the end of the week.
I guess the only thing really left for this entry if it is really to be an introduction is to talk about how I ended up deciding to go to Fan Expo in the first place. As I had mentioned for most of my life I have paid very little to no attention to most conventions the only one I ever recall going to would be the CNE (Canadian National Exhibition) with my family and as I have mentioned before on here awhile back I started to get more involved in online communities which lead to the original restart of this blog. As I got know a group of people online and started to communicate more with them I started to hear more and more about different conventions and was the first time I really was connected with anyone that regularly attended them or was even really interested in them. As they started to talk about and make plans for SDCC this year it got me to look into them more and I discovered a growing interest and curiosity about them as they all talked about them with such warmth and enthusiasm. So I started looking into any conventions that might be closer to home that I could check out which is what lead to going to the small convention in February. It was interesting in it's own way and there were a few interesting celebrities there but nothing/no one that I was really excited or interested to see. So while it was nice I definitely did not get that sense of love and excitement that my online friends seemed to have for conventions, I figured that might be because it was such a small convention so I started looking around to see if there were any larger conventions that were held that wouldn't require plane trips or hotel rooms it was through this that I first learned about Fan Expo. I learned that Fan Expo was one of the largest conventions in Canada and that it was held in Toronto every year and after looking at some of the guests and reports of previous years it seemed like it would be much more interesting. At this point I figured I'd keep my eye on it and see who and what was planned for this years show before making any decisions about whether I'd go or not as I wasn't sure if I'd really enjoy it or not since I would most likely be alone, I'm not a big fan of crowds and long lines and I've always been more of a TV and Games kinda geek then a big comic book geek which seemed to be a large part of these conventions. So I kept a bit of an eye on it until they started announcing the guests for this years show, now Fan Expo is a combination of 5 different sections: Gaming, SciFi, Comics, Anime and Horror and so they announced them a section at a time at different dates and so while I looked at them all the main one I was interested in was SciFi being mostly a TV geek as I mentioned (and I didn't really recognize many of the Gaming guest names from previous years) and so once they were announced I saw there were actually a few people there that I would actually be very interested to have the chance to meet them so that definitely increased my interest in attending the convention although at this point they were all tentative and there was no idea who was going to be there when as with the increased interest in going I started to debate while which day should I go, just one day or a few or all weekend. I debated this on and off for awhile ( I don't really remember when the guests were announced maybe around May but that is just a guess) it wasn't until SDCC actually started that I started thinking about it more seriously as alot of my online friends were going to it and so they would be talking about it on Twitter and other social media sites and hearing their excitement and enjoyment of it got me thinking about it. So after all this and after seeing a few more people I would be interested to see being signed up as guests I had pretty much decided that I was going to go but I just wasn't sure when or for how long so I started looking up how I could get there and where it would be and what were the ticket options etc. I debated this for awhile before finally just deciding that I wanted to really give this a good go and so I was going to go for the whole weekend so that I could really get the full experience and make sure I could see as much as I could so I decided to buy a weekend pass as it would mean I could go for the full weekend and it included early entry for the first day of the convention, I further decided to pay extra to have it shipped rather then having to go there to redeem it when it started after hearing about how long lines were for that sort of thing at other conventions from some of my online friends. So I got my ticket, which ended up being a wristband and as the convention drew closer they released schedules of what was planned and so I went through and picked out all the things that peaked my interest and then from that figured out what I could reasonably expect to do and in the case of any overlaps what I would rather do. I had decided to take the GO train (city-to-to public transit) as the convention centre was easily walkable from the station in Toronto. So after doing all the planning I thought I could I got everything ready on Wednesday which leads us to Thursday which was the first day of the convention.
A friend of mine recently pointed out that it had been quite awhile since I had last updated this blog with anything and was just wondering why. Which was a fair point part of it is that I honestly hadn't given it much thought, the other thing is that for the most part not a whole lot had really been going on with me to write about. However at the end of August I did go to my first large convention in Toronto called Fan Expo and after reading another friend post their experiences at SDCC earlier in the summer I figured that would be something that would be worth writing some entries about and so I will write a post for each of the four days that I was there. I figured I'd put all the intro stuff into this entry so that for the next 4 at least I can just start out with how that day started. This was actually only the second convention I've been to as I went to a small one with a friend in February I think it was, however that one was very small compared to Fan Expo as it was one smallish hall and it was only 1 day so in a sense Fan Expo was my first exposure to the real Con experience. I honestly don't know when or how long it will take me to write these up but I am going to try to get at least a couple up before the end of the week.
I guess the only thing really left for this entry if it is really to be an introduction is to talk about how I ended up deciding to go to Fan Expo in the first place. As I had mentioned for most of my life I have paid very little to no attention to most conventions the only one I ever recall going to would be the CNE (Canadian National Exhibition) with my family and as I have mentioned before on here awhile back I started to get more involved in online communities which lead to the original restart of this blog. As I got know a group of people online and started to communicate more with them I started to hear more and more about different conventions and was the first time I really was connected with anyone that regularly attended them or was even really interested in them. As they started to talk about and make plans for SDCC this year it got me to look into them more and I discovered a growing interest and curiosity about them as they all talked about them with such warmth and enthusiasm. So I started looking into any conventions that might be closer to home that I could check out which is what lead to going to the small convention in February. It was interesting in it's own way and there were a few interesting celebrities there but nothing/no one that I was really excited or interested to see. So while it was nice I definitely did not get that sense of love and excitement that my online friends seemed to have for conventions, I figured that might be because it was such a small convention so I started looking around to see if there were any larger conventions that were held that wouldn't require plane trips or hotel rooms it was through this that I first learned about Fan Expo. I learned that Fan Expo was one of the largest conventions in Canada and that it was held in Toronto every year and after looking at some of the guests and reports of previous years it seemed like it would be much more interesting. At this point I figured I'd keep my eye on it and see who and what was planned for this years show before making any decisions about whether I'd go or not as I wasn't sure if I'd really enjoy it or not since I would most likely be alone, I'm not a big fan of crowds and long lines and I've always been more of a TV and Games kinda geek then a big comic book geek which seemed to be a large part of these conventions. So I kept a bit of an eye on it until they started announcing the guests for this years show, now Fan Expo is a combination of 5 different sections: Gaming, SciFi, Comics, Anime and Horror and so they announced them a section at a time at different dates and so while I looked at them all the main one I was interested in was SciFi being mostly a TV geek as I mentioned (and I didn't really recognize many of the Gaming guest names from previous years) and so once they were announced I saw there were actually a few people there that I would actually be very interested to have the chance to meet them so that definitely increased my interest in attending the convention although at this point they were all tentative and there was no idea who was going to be there when as with the increased interest in going I started to debate while which day should I go, just one day or a few or all weekend. I debated this on and off for awhile ( I don't really remember when the guests were announced maybe around May but that is just a guess) it wasn't until SDCC actually started that I started thinking about it more seriously as alot of my online friends were going to it and so they would be talking about it on Twitter and other social media sites and hearing their excitement and enjoyment of it got me thinking about it. So after all this and after seeing a few more people I would be interested to see being signed up as guests I had pretty much decided that I was going to go but I just wasn't sure when or for how long so I started looking up how I could get there and where it would be and what were the ticket options etc. I debated this for awhile before finally just deciding that I wanted to really give this a good go and so I was going to go for the whole weekend so that I could really get the full experience and make sure I could see as much as I could so I decided to buy a weekend pass as it would mean I could go for the full weekend and it included early entry for the first day of the convention, I further decided to pay extra to have it shipped rather then having to go there to redeem it when it started after hearing about how long lines were for that sort of thing at other conventions from some of my online friends. So I got my ticket, which ended up being a wristband and as the convention drew closer they released schedules of what was planned and so I went through and picked out all the things that peaked my interest and then from that figured out what I could reasonably expect to do and in the case of any overlaps what I would rather do. I had decided to take the GO train (city-to-to public transit) as the convention centre was easily walkable from the station in Toronto. So after doing all the planning I thought I could I got everything ready on Wednesday which leads us to Thursday which was the first day of the convention.
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
A Fond Farewell to Stargate
Well last night was both the season and series finale of Stargate Universe, which has become one of my all time favourite shows, so I just wanted to talk about some of the reasons why I have enjoyed this series so much and then comment on the franchise as a whole as this was also (for now) the franchise finale.
Where to start, I think that I have to start with what I think is the heart and soul of the show and quite likely why I developed such a strong connection to this show in particular and that is the characters. SGU was a very character driven show even from the very beginning taking time to introduce us to all the characters and then watching them as they dealt with the trials that come from being stuck on Destiny. This was also one of the best examples of an ensemble cast every character was given a story and depth and their own problems to deal with and in so doing provided a chance for each character to be both heroic and tragic in their own ways, even the secondary (and in this case I use that term very loosely) are given stories and personalities so that you care about them all without regard to who is official 'main' cast and who is 'secondary'.
Another reason for the show success which is heavily tied to the characters and that just really made them so much more then just characters on a show were the actors and crew behind the scenes. This was a cast & crew that you could tell they loved and respected what they did. I think one of the things that really drew me into the show and made me connect to it on a deeper level then I do with most shows was listening to the actors commentaries on the DVDs of the first half of season 1, in listening to them you could hear the actors enthusiasm for what they were doing and for all their fellow cast mates and I think that translates into much better and more dynamic performances then if they were people just there to play a part, do their job and then go home. You could tell that with these people they were putting their heart into what they were doing.
The last two things I wanted to mention in regard to why I loved SGU are the music and the visual effects. In any scifi show visual effects are always going to play a big role in making sure things look good and look real, however one of the problems that can come with such a reliance on visual effects is you run the risk of having them take over the show and instead of supporting the story they distract you from it. In SGU however, not only do the visual effects look absolutely incredible but they always seem to draw you further into the story which is a very tough thing to do consistently. In many ways the music in SGU is similar to the visual effects in that it manages to be both amazing and breathtaking and yet use that to further your connection to the events of the story and provide a deeper connection. If ever there was a show that needed and deserved a soundtrack CD it is definitely SGU.
All of these things I have mentioned can be seen very clearly in the season finale of SGU, it was such an absolutely incredible episode made all the more amazing by the fact that when they were filming it they didn't know whether it would be a season finale or the series finale but it works incredibly well as both. Although it did end on what you could call a cliffhanger "I'd rather talk about what we have, maybe even what we've gained" to quote Col Young and so rather then look at it as a cliffhanger I'd rather look at it as a chance to allow our imaginations to run wild and come up with any and all outcomes we would like and I think that is a beautiful way to leave the series and such an absolutely genius bit of writing.
What makes the end of Stargate Universe all the more bittersweet is the fact that it marks the end of a 17 season and 14 year run of the Stargate franchise. I remember watching the pilot episode of SG1 instead of finishing a paper or assignment I had due at the time and I've been watching Stargate ever since. SG1 was an amazing show as it managed to combine aspects of action, drama and comedy in a very entertaining way which never took itself too seriously. Stargate Atlantis in many ways continued in the same vein as SG1 but this time with some new characters and slightly different aspects and was itself a great show and did an amazing job of continuing the Stargate franchise. Stargate Universe however was definitely a very different kind of show it replaced the idealistic view and tone of SG1 and SGA with a harder more realistic view, it definitely was darker and had more grit to it but still in small ways continued the humour of Stargate although often in more subtle understated ways, but it lead to much deeper characters and an amazing story and in its own way proudly carried the Stargate franchise in a new direction. I am going to deeply miss having the franchise I have in many way grown up with not being around with new episodes. I do not believe that this is the end for the franchise, I like to think of it more like the finale of SGU and it is merely going into stasis until it is ready for new adventures whether that be in 3 years or a 1000 years I do believe Stargate will continue on.
Where to start, I think that I have to start with what I think is the heart and soul of the show and quite likely why I developed such a strong connection to this show in particular and that is the characters. SGU was a very character driven show even from the very beginning taking time to introduce us to all the characters and then watching them as they dealt with the trials that come from being stuck on Destiny. This was also one of the best examples of an ensemble cast every character was given a story and depth and their own problems to deal with and in so doing provided a chance for each character to be both heroic and tragic in their own ways, even the secondary (and in this case I use that term very loosely) are given stories and personalities so that you care about them all without regard to who is official 'main' cast and who is 'secondary'.
Another reason for the show success which is heavily tied to the characters and that just really made them so much more then just characters on a show were the actors and crew behind the scenes. This was a cast & crew that you could tell they loved and respected what they did. I think one of the things that really drew me into the show and made me connect to it on a deeper level then I do with most shows was listening to the actors commentaries on the DVDs of the first half of season 1, in listening to them you could hear the actors enthusiasm for what they were doing and for all their fellow cast mates and I think that translates into much better and more dynamic performances then if they were people just there to play a part, do their job and then go home. You could tell that with these people they were putting their heart into what they were doing.
The last two things I wanted to mention in regard to why I loved SGU are the music and the visual effects. In any scifi show visual effects are always going to play a big role in making sure things look good and look real, however one of the problems that can come with such a reliance on visual effects is you run the risk of having them take over the show and instead of supporting the story they distract you from it. In SGU however, not only do the visual effects look absolutely incredible but they always seem to draw you further into the story which is a very tough thing to do consistently. In many ways the music in SGU is similar to the visual effects in that it manages to be both amazing and breathtaking and yet use that to further your connection to the events of the story and provide a deeper connection. If ever there was a show that needed and deserved a soundtrack CD it is definitely SGU.
All of these things I have mentioned can be seen very clearly in the season finale of SGU, it was such an absolutely incredible episode made all the more amazing by the fact that when they were filming it they didn't know whether it would be a season finale or the series finale but it works incredibly well as both. Although it did end on what you could call a cliffhanger "I'd rather talk about what we have, maybe even what we've gained" to quote Col Young and so rather then look at it as a cliffhanger I'd rather look at it as a chance to allow our imaginations to run wild and come up with any and all outcomes we would like and I think that is a beautiful way to leave the series and such an absolutely genius bit of writing.
What makes the end of Stargate Universe all the more bittersweet is the fact that it marks the end of a 17 season and 14 year run of the Stargate franchise. I remember watching the pilot episode of SG1 instead of finishing a paper or assignment I had due at the time and I've been watching Stargate ever since. SG1 was an amazing show as it managed to combine aspects of action, drama and comedy in a very entertaining way which never took itself too seriously. Stargate Atlantis in many ways continued in the same vein as SG1 but this time with some new characters and slightly different aspects and was itself a great show and did an amazing job of continuing the Stargate franchise. Stargate Universe however was definitely a very different kind of show it replaced the idealistic view and tone of SG1 and SGA with a harder more realistic view, it definitely was darker and had more grit to it but still in small ways continued the humour of Stargate although often in more subtle understated ways, but it lead to much deeper characters and an amazing story and in its own way proudly carried the Stargate franchise in a new direction. I am going to deeply miss having the franchise I have in many way grown up with not being around with new episodes. I do not believe that this is the end for the franchise, I like to think of it more like the finale of SGU and it is merely going into stasis until it is ready for new adventures whether that be in 3 years or a 1000 years I do believe Stargate will continue on.
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Entry 71
It's been awhile since I have written up an entry here so I figured I should add something, I have been sick the past while fighting off a rather annoying cold nothing really serious but definitely quite annoying and quite draining so that is part of the reason I haven't added anything lately. Another reason is that I am not exactly sure what to add on here anymore since I'm definitely not using it for either of its intended uses at the moment, I have been doing a lot of thinking though and if I can somehow organize my thoughts and get the energy to write it all up there might be a more substantial post with regard to how I feel, what my situation is like that sort of thing although I am not sure exactly how much of it can really be properly put into words but I might see if I can give it a shot.
Saturday, March 26, 2011
Entry 70
Well it's been a little while since I've actually written one of these and I really haven't been doing it daily for the past while so continuing with the Day XX titles seemed kinda pointless so I changed it to Entry which makes more logical sense. As for why I haven't been writing daily or much lately that is mostly because I really haven't done much worth writing about and it would just seem depressing and somewhat pointless to just write an entry saying "Well didn't do much today, just played Dragon Age 2, watched some shows and ate then went to bed" but then again maybe I should try to start doing that as maybe it would encourage me to try to actually do something worth writing about rather then just basically passing time. Well that's pretty much where I am at the moment
Monday, March 21, 2011
Day 69
Well my trip to Toronto ended up going quite well, I'll probably try to write up a separate post specifically about the convention in the next day or two but overall I enjoyed it and it was really nice to spend sometime with a friend I hadn't really seen in awhile. I spent pretty much all day in Toronto, a large part of that being at the convention but after we were done there I went back to my friends place as I hadn't seen it and I was able to get two of my friends hooked on the Guild and Community two shows I have really enjoyed and correctly guessed that they would enjoy them as well. I ended up doing a lot more walking then I expected while I was in Toronto since we ended up walking out to a burger place my friend had mentioned to me in the past and the nearest one was about a 20 - 30 min walk from the convention which isn't really all that far but when you really aren't used to doing much it seems like a lot and I was definitely quite stiff and sore this morning. All in all it was a good day and I am glad I went.
Friday, March 18, 2011
Day 68
Well I have now confirmed that I will indeed be going up to Toronto to meet up with a friend and then we are going to check out the Toronto Comiccon that is going on which should be interesting as I have never actually been to a convention so I am looking forward to it, I am just loading up my iphone with some audiobooks for the trip as I will be taking the GO train to and from Toronto since I don't want to have to deal with Toronto traffic and there is a stop very close to where to the convention is being held. It should be quite interesting as it has been quite awhile since I have really done anything out of the house. So I guess we'll see how things go.
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Day 67
Well I think I need to try to start doing these in the morning again so that I don't end up forgetting about them or just being too tired to write them. I think part of it is that I just don't really know what to write for them much anymore since I really seem to be stuck in this kind of limbo where I am just not doing anything. I am planning on going into Toronto on the weekend to visit a friend and go to a convention so that'll definitely be something different maybe it'll even be enough to knock me out of this rut I have found myself in.
Monday, March 14, 2011
Day 66
Well once again I realize that I missed a day of getting a blog post up and I have really been struggling a lot more then usual against this apathy and inaction that has become the hallmark of a lot of my days lately. As for yesterday I also didn't get a blog post up as I really wasn't at my computer for most of the day which was unusual as I had bought the first season of a TV show called Community while I was out on Saturday and started watching it as I had been feeling fairly down and depressed and just got completely sucked into it so I ended up spending pretty much all day yesterday watching all the episodes and special features especially since the DVD set included cast/crew commentaries on every episode and I think I have mentioned before that that is above all else what I look for and enjoy most as a special feature so by the time I finished watching it all I was quite tired and it was fairly late so I just went to bed and only really realized I hadn't written a blog post this morning. So that was pretty much my weekend as for this week I don't know I am trying to get myself going but just haven't gotten there yet.
Saturday, March 12, 2011
Day 65
I know I didn't manage to get a blog post up yesterday I didn't really think about it in the morning and once it got later I was just too tired to do anything about it. Didn't really do much yesterday other then play Dragon Age 2 and try to help a few people in my horde guild get a few guild achievements to try to build up some guild XP which we could definitely use. As for today well I have actually been out of the house for most of the day which is something I haven't done in quite awhile, went out for lunch then did some running around and visited my cousins who are back from doing missionary work with the Tribes in Indonesia so that was nice, but sadly I am kinda worn out from being out so that has been the past 2 days.
Friday, March 11, 2011
Day 64
Well I didn't get too much done today as I wasn't really feeling the best, not exactly sick but definitely not normal either if that makes sense to any of you. Honestly I think that is really about it for today, going to head to bed and hope that I can get a good night sleep and that I'll be feeling better in the morning.
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Day 63
Well today was alright, I got to sit down and talk to one of the people that I have the most respect for out of anyone I know so that was definitely nice. Other then that not too much was going on today, spent most of the day playing a new game I just got yesterday that I've been looking forward to for awhile, so that was fun. I have been feeling a little ill the last while tonight so hopefully I'm not getting sick but I guess we'll see. So I just wanted to make sure to get a blog post in for today as if nothing else I'd like to make sure that I keep up with it in the hopes that it'll help me to continue on stronger in someway.
Tuesday, March 08, 2011
Day 62
Well I don't know that I really accomplished anything truly productive yesterday which was my goal for yesterday. I just don't know sometimes is this just something I've let myself become accustomed to and I don't have the strength or the will to snap out of it, or is that just a symptom of an underlying problem that I have been dealing with for years, or is it some combination of the two or something altogether different. I just don't really know what to think these days most of the time I feel so weak and so tired that it seems an effort to exist and yet at the same time I know there are so many other people out there that are in much worst situations then mine and yet they are continuing on far better then I am. I just don't seem to know what to think anymore.
Monday, March 07, 2011
Day 61
Well yesterday is now the second day I haven't written up a blog entry for the day, I still and honestly don't know what it is that has just thrown me so of course of late, I'm sleeping better for the most part and nothing terrible or traumatic has happened so I am at a bit of a loss for what has so derailed my slow but rather steady progress. There are a couple of things happening this week that I have been looking forward to so hopefully in getting involved with them I might be able to snap out of this slump I've been stuck in. So my goal for the day is to do something anything to try and help me get out or start to get out of this slump.
Saturday, March 05, 2011
Day 60
Well yesterday was the first time that I have actually done made a blog entry I guess it was kinda inevitable with me leaving them till the last minute to write them but it is still a bit of a disappointment. So here I am to make sure I write this one and write it in the morning to make sure I don't forget this time. I didn't manage to do anything productive yesterday but at least I didn't feel quite as tired even if I still felt as unmotivated so hopefully that is a good sign. So my goal for today is to do a little bit of my course work even if it is only for 5 minutes to try to get back on track with it
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