On Gaming, Wil Wheaton and TableTop... or How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love Wesley Crusher and Board Games.

Gaming has probably been one of the highest influences in my entire life next to movies & TV, comic books and music. I’ve been gaming since I can remember and I can’t think of a extended period of time when I wasn’t doing some sort of gaming in my free time for any prolonged period of time. When I was a lot younger I remember playing board games with my Mom and my brother (and if he was wasn’t working my Dad) and we had a few of the classics like Scrabble, Cluedo, Monopoly, Trouble, Connect Four (my personal favourite), Snake and Ladders (obviously) and a couple of others whose names elude me at this point¹. It’s funny how much you don’t realise that some of those games really do teach you a couple of things², and as much as I hated Scrabble back then I kinda like it now and I can get pretty aggressive at Monopoly. Unfortunately like most people the older you get, the less you play such games, and with the invention of home computers and gaming my gaming desire were sated elsewhere (specifically the Commodore 64 at the time).

For the sake of being truthful and to taking the long route to get to the point, I have a confession to make. When I was a young kid I hated Star Trek, and for the life of me I can’t truly understand way because it should have been a show that I would have loved. I think it just never took my imagination at the time but I do remember being distinctly put off by the theme music (yes I didn’t like the woo-ee-oooh voice over the music) but I think it was also in combination of the static picture of the grey big headed alien that used to creep me out³. Along came this thing called “Star Trek: The Next Generation” and by that stage I was a little older (but not much as we’re about to see) and I became a rabid fan of that particular incarnation... well except for one thing, and by thing I mean person, and by person I mean Wesley Crusher. Wesley was a little bit older than me and by all accounts he should have been someone I should have looked up, and yet I didn’t, I just couldn’t stand him. I think it could have been the great combination of ‘whiny’ mixed with ‘know-it-all’ but alas the true reason is locked up within the mind of a 10 year old⁴. Either way like most imbeciles I transferred that grudge to the dumb actor that played him and I held that particular grudge for a few years, mostly because I was a dumbass teenager and that’s what you do. I wish I could go slap that idiotic version of me and say “HE’S JUST AN ACTOR, BLAME THE CRUMBY WRITERS WHO COULDN’T WRITE A KID TO SAVE THEIR OWN!” But I digress... a lot as it seems.

During this time I pretty much stopped playing “bored” games altogether, amiright? Ha ha, actually I still liked playing board games but opportunities presented themselves few and far between. Typically the only times I ever got a proper chance to play any was playing Scrabble when we were suffering from regular power black outs, mostly because it was the only game mom insisted on playing.. stupid learning games when I could be playing Amiga. By the time my brother left home we never played any, although one year my parents bought me the 20^th anniversary Star Wars Monopoly set, which to this day remains my favourite version of Monopoly (especially as the Pewter tokens where taken from the same moulds they used for the RPG lead figurines). Sadly as much as there was a flurry of monopoly playing, it kind of fizzled out, but not until one epic game on one of my birthdays when a match lasted until 4am, at which that point I was so tired I called the game and kicked my friends out of my house so I could sleep.

Cut to a few years ago and I remember reading about PVP and how Scott Kurtz had met this person who was surprisingly cooler than anyone really gave him credit for, his name was Wil Wheaton. What. The. Hell??? One of my favourite web cartoonist likes Wesley Crusher??? Well luckily enough (for me) I had grown up a lot since then so instead of vowing to stop reading PVP, I started to look into the worst thing to happen to Star Trek (well until Enterprise) and was surprised to learn that Wesley had become an author, “because obviously he was a fucking terrible actor har har!” my incredibly dumb teenage inner nerd probably said, and so I started reading his blog. Just for clarification this was about the time that ‘Dancing Barefoot’ had been published and I think ‘Just a Geek’ was in the process of being completed, but it was an incredibly good point to start reading as his skills were starting to get really good (as his earlier blogs are a bit... well, self-absorbed crap is probably a bit harsh but kinda fair, yes I went back that far). And so I started to like Wil, but the Wesley thing still was in the back lurking⁵ but was financially (and geographically) unable to get his books so I never truly became a fan... until a couple of years ago.

Since after High School the only gaming that wasn’t in front of a TV screen was role-playing, which was sometime in front of a GM screen (if I was running it), I had pretty consistently played Advanced Dungeon and Dragons 2^nd Edition from 1997 until around the time 3^rd Edition came out. Athough around 2001/2 I had “graduated” to playing the more serious RPGs like Vampire: The Masquerade and Mage: The Ascension. After a few years of playing these games I slowly got tired of the weekly RPG grind, and other associated dramas, so I quit playing for a few years. I eventually returned for a short spell but between early morning wake-up for work and late night RPG sessions were very taxing, as well as other dramas that where much like the other dramas, made me quit once more. Since then I’ve joined other games and they either went nowhere, or people became unavailable so the games never continued, or I got so tired of turning up for a campaign and spent 95% of the time twiddling my thumbs because I had nothing to do.

I’m not sure exactly what happened but I was thrown back into the world of Wil Wheaton after reading more about some of the things he had been working on. I remember that he was in an episode of Numbers playing a jackass comic book publisher, but I ended up downloading the episode because it was also set in a comic convention and also guess starring Christopher Lloyd. I really like the episode and I did like what is possibly the birth of Evil Wil Wheaton. Around this time I find this thing called “Memories of the Future” in which Wil starts writing humorous plot summaries of old TNG episodes, but wasn’t able to find all of them at the time. Then Wil starts popping up all over the internet in things and I go back to his blog and I’m immediately hooked back into his world, but I wasn’t truly a fan until I started to listen to “Memories of the Futurecast”. Wil’s delivery combined with his reviews just killed me and I needed more, so I got all of Radio Free Burrito. At this time Lulu had finally started delivery overseas and I had a job which allowed me to buy more crap off the internet, it was like a match made in Silicon Heaven. Needless to say I got all his books, his podcast, his audiobooks (which are also in the car) and started following his blog again. It was because of Wil’s cameos I ended up becoming a huge fan of both Leverage and Eureka, both of which I’ve rewatched numerous times are both some of my favourite tv series of all time (independently of Wil’s contribution to the series but his cameos did inspire me to watch them).

Finally we reach to this time last year and a web series that I can honestly say has changed my life for the better. Whilst I still love playing video games to this day, and will probably finally get started on the buttload of new DLC for Mass Effect 3, RPG gaming was either getting stale or games were being cancelled or never started⁶ despite best efforts, so the whole ‘social’ gaming stuff just really wasn’t happening and I don’t care much for MMORPG. Any way suddenly there was this announcement that Felicia Day was creating a new channel on YouTube that was finally showing the new season of The Guild, along with a load of new showing including... wait, what? Wil Wheaton? Hosting a show about gaming??? Shut up and take my money! It turned out to be a show dedicated to table top or board gaming, but not your regular Monopoly/Cluedo/Scrabble ventures. It was intriguing to see this show, never thinking that within a few short weeks I’d be playing the games involved within the show itself! Whilst I spread the word to a few of my friends about the show, it was my friend Adam who I’d only known for a short time beforehand (and yet strangely enough helped him move before I really got to know him) had a couple games, including Settlers of Catan... and so we played it... and I was hooked. My other friend Eric had gotten a decent job and was also starting to build up a collection of games from TableTop, so we arranged a game’s night with Adam... which then turned into a weekly gaming night (including RPG sessions) and we included more people⁷. Whilst we haven’t gotten around to getting all the games that have been played on TableTop, the ones we have played have been incredibly good (and in some cases downright hilarious) that we also tend to take several games to PC or Console gaming nights to have a break from the monitors and have some fun.

So far between Adam, Eric and myself we have the following games played on TableTop or derivatives of: (in order of episode appearance)

- Smallworld (not a big fan, but I’m warming up to it)

- Settlers of Catan (one of my faves)

- Tsuro of the Seas (the sequel to the one played, and possibly a better game)- Ticket to Ride (a personal favourite, and a story I’m hoping to share in the future)

- Munchkin (originally just Space Munchkin but a group effort has expanded this to included many of big box expansions and loads of the littler expansions to the point we have at rough guestimate over a 1000 cards in the set)

- Cthulu Gloom + Expansion (spin off of the original Gloom, still very fun)

- Say Anything (THE best party game with a bunch of funny seedy people)

- Elder Sign (slow to start with, but can be one of the best group games)

- Dixit (like Say Anything, can depend on the group, fun but I think I prefer the other one)

- Pandemic (pure evil)

- Fluxx / Star Fluxx / Pirate Fluxx / Zombie Fluxx (we were playing this before TableTop was made, but I think my preferable deck is Zombie) 

That’s it so far, we’ve been trying to get the rest but they are either hard to get, sold out, or cost too much/can’t afford at this moment. Strangely enough we hardly every take any photos of us playing these games and with today being International TableTop Day, here is a photo from Thursday when we were playing Cthulu Gloom.

 

 

1 – There was this absolutely awesome ‘haunted house’ board game that I thought was pretty fun, unfortunately my recollections are incredibly sketchy at best; however I remember that if your character got scared you had to put this little plastic glow in the dark scary face on it, which was kinda awesome.

2 – I swear Connect Four and Battleship helped me learn more about strategy then Chess ever did.

3 – One day I’ll reveal why I didn’t like Doctor Who has a kid as well... but not today.

4 – Whilst the VHS copies where available here, it didn’t debut on TV for a couple of years afterwards, probably a good thing too as I vaguely remember watching an episode on VHS and had no idea wtf was going on with the series... by this stage I had gotten over my fear of the old series was becoming a fan of the movie series, so I didn’t know why there was no Kirk or Spock at that stage.5 – Well until a few years ago when as an adult I re-watched every TNG episode and saw some absolutely fantastic Wesley episodes I must have missed as a kid, and got a greater appreciation for the character and was actually happy to see him in Nemesis.6 – I’m not entirely blameless, I’ve had a Ghostbusters RPG on the boil now for nearly 2 years and just haven’t had time to work on it let alone run it.7 – Which keep being run until Adam and his fiancée were forced to move house at short notice and the drivable distance isn’t feasible to make regular trips from my house or at least whilst I don’t have a job and can’t afford the fuel.

Another Quick Post

Wow these last couple of days have been incredibly busy and so I wrote up the last three blog posts in one sitting, although it was originally going only be one post but I Lucas’d them, and decided I could use them whilst I knew I would be nowhere near my computer for the next two days... Hurray for scheduling!

I’ve wanted to write up some posts for a while now and bank them for later use, but with everything that’s been going on I’ve either been too busy or too wiped to write anything. Well tomorrow is International TableTop Day and I know I’ll be away from a keyboard from about 10am playing some awesome games until about 4 when I’m going to go watch some Wrestling... yeah you heard that right. So I’m going to call it a short one and start writing up something for tomorrow.

Proton Pack Progression 3/3 – Reg

REG (2013 – Present)

 

The story so far...

 

By this stage of my Ghostbusting and Prop Building career I have either made or been heavily involved with making four movie based Proton Packs, and I must admit my skill has improved as it went along and my attention to detail was getting better as well. Thus it was decided to create a brand new Proton Pack that would challenge my skills to their limit and save the universe!!! Naw my fellow buster Jon and I decided we finally wanted to do the rare and elusive Real Ghostbusters Proton Pack. One of the problems with this build is there exists next to no plans to go off as many previous builders have either kept the ones they made to themselves or the plans that do exist are kind of vague. The other problem is that beyond the original concept drawings used for the series that made it onto the internet, the size and scale proportions change in almost every single scene of the cartoon series and some of the other details aren’t really well explained (for example the gun hook.. which I only figured out how it would work after I finished construction).

 

Jon designed and constructed the RGB shell out of movie board, which is a pretty strong and durable cardstock whilst I designing and constructed the thrower (with absolutely no existing blueprints) and worked on the electronics. Seeing as we both wanted one and we both wanted these done for Oz Comic-Con Perth, we essentially had to get two of (almost) everything and construct both at the same time. The construction took almost a month and believe me it wasn’t cheap as both of us sunk in a lot of time and money into this project, and they weren’t finally put together until the night before the convention (we still had a night to spare as we were busting on the Sunday, but we both knew we’d be too tired to do anything). There is still a few things missing and some things I would like to either replace, rebuilt and complete but it didn’t matter as we had an absolute ball that Sunday, and the whole thing was incredibly light due to the construction materials and no heavy batteries (everything ran off two 9v batteries).

 

Not much really to say at this point as the pack is barely a month old at this point so it’s not like it’s had any really memorable adventures I can talk about. Oh and why Reg? Well when I started writing this it was to be with all three packs and I knew I wanted to separate each section with the pack’s names... but this one didn’t have a name, and I couldn’t think of any. The previous names has come about because of a great event or a silly gag, so nothing really was sticking out at me; that was until I was writing it down as the initialization “RGB” and I read it and went “Reg!” and it kinda stuck in my head... not as existing I know but it somehow seems appropriate.

Proton Pack Progression 2/3 – Geoff

GEOFF (2011 – Present)

 

After wearing Eliza a couple of times I noticed how much things got dinged and just how much stress it was taking even trying to maintain it, after all the material itself was only foam with card stuck to it (also known as foam core) so I decided to finally bite the bullet and build myself a new Proton Pack and make it somewhat more sturdier for future events. After several attempts of getting a shell, I finally managed to get one off ebay... and honestly it wasn’t that great a shell. It took a lot of work fixing most of the problems with it, and it still didn’t help that it was slightly warped on the edges, but I managed to complete it on time (again barely) for Supanova Perth 2011, the first official gathering of the newly minted WA Ghostbusters. We had an absolute blast at that convention and I’m not exaggerating when I say it took us over an hour at one to move less than ten meters at one point, we were photographed so many times I’m glad I wore my sunglasses for the flashes (actually the previous year I looked like I was wearing cherry lip gloss my lips were that raw from all the smiling for photos).

 

After naming the first pack after Eliza Dushku, I really hadn’t thought too much about naming this one until something inspired me. One of the things that bugged me about my first pack was that there wasn’t enough to time and/or to buy or construct the ‘bumper’ at the bottom of the pack, so I was determined to get one on the next pack to try and get it at accurate as possible. That being said one of the biggest snags I encountered when being this pack was that no one was making bumpers and the one I got access too was too small for my pack (yes measurements do vary on these things depending who built what and how). So I got some plans, I measured my pack, scaled everything up to fit, and proceeded to build from scratch a custom bumper that fitted my pack... OUT OF FOAMCORE!!! Yeah I know, considering I retired my old pack because of the same material, however I was running out of time and money so that’s what I had at hand, and a shitload of car body filler. That being said it has still held up this entire time but I’m still thinking of replacing it soon for a more accurate and resin bumper. So why Geoff? Well it’s because the bumper on its side looks like a giant moustache, and there is a great episode of Top Gear where the boys are tasked to make from scratch an electric car, which Jeremy Clarkson designs, adds a moustache to the front and calls it “Geoff”. This always stuck in my mind when I thought about my pack, so I called it Geoff. Simple huh?

 

Geoff has so far been to several conventions, promotional events, cinema screenings, a zombie walk, a Telethon Christmas Pageant and even survived a trip to and from Melbourne relatively unscathed. The only things I had to replace was the Ion Arm Attachment as the rod fell off (and the replacement is not even more accurate) and my gun bracket after some punk nearly broke it in Perth when we were doing promotions. Geoff pretty much has taken up residence in the back room of my parents house on a chair, and he still makes me smile when I walk past him. However with ongoing problems with my back and the strain of constantly carrying over 15 kg of equipment, I wanted to have a change and finally build a pack I’ve wanted almost as long as I’ve wanted a movie GB... an Real Ghostbusters Proton Pack!

Proton Pack Progression 1/3 - Eliza

I've recently been going through my photo collection trying to find some pictures of past costumes throughout the years for an album, as it was requested of me to have an easy way to access them. As I was searching I found a picture of the back of my first Proton Pack whilst I was at Supanova in my first year as a Ghostbuster. This kind of got me reflecting on how I’ve come as a costumer and as a prop builder over the years, but more specifically how my Proton Packs have evolved through the builds. At last count I’ve either built or been heavily involved in the building of four movie Proton Packs and two Real Ghostbusters  packs, but here is my personal collection.

NOTE: I originally imagined this would be one post, but I began waffling on so I’m breaking it up into three, each focusing on my personal Proton Packs.

ELIZA (2010)

My first Proton Pack nearly didn’t happen as the fibreglass shell and some parts I had ordered a couple of months before Supanova were never sent to me, as the shell is literally what everything attaches onto and it quite possibly 90% of what makes a Proton Pack, well a Proton Pack. Whilst I did eventually get my money back (not in time for the con mind you), I did get a replacement shell made out of foam core from my fellow buster Brenton to which I frantically painted and attached as much as I could in the days before the con and only got it finally finished the night before. Unfortunately the morning of the Con the mounting bracket where I had attached the Thrower (the Gun bit, which I had purchased and made months before) had popped off due to how fragile foam core was, so I spent the Saturday holding the thrower all day. I fixed it that night before I went off to dinner so I could at least holster it on the Sunday.

It should be noted that on it was only on the Saturday that there were three busters (including myself) although only I was going on the Sunday. Whilst I didn’t need to go in costume for the Sunday, I decided to do so for some more fun... and it was a good thing I did. Whilst waiting in line to get an autograph for (I think) Summer Glau, Eliza Dushku saw my costume and absolutely flipped and when I went for her autograph she asked if she could wear me pack... and this happened!

Yes that is the photo I took of Eliza Dushku wearing my pack, and was named after her from then on, and I uploaded the photo onto my Flickr account. The next day I was bombarded with messages (not really, just “WTF DUDE!” from my GB buddies) as reports spawned on some of the biggest GB sites on the internet after Eliza Dushku had found my photo and tweeted it! Read about it here and here!

After a couple more outings with Eliza, including a Hollywood themed party which I won first prize, I was getting worried about her getting damaged so I decided to retire her in favour of a fibreglass shell and try to make it a bit more accurate as well.

Productivity Fail

Well I was supposed to be getting a head on a few projects that have been left behind with, well everything that has gone on in the last few months when I basically had to spend most of the day driving people around again. I'm not complaining, if anything I'm in a particularly foul mood because of Centrelink being .. well Centrelink. Either way I'm too tired to feel creative (it's taken nearly two hours to begin to write this post) so hopefully I'll get a head of things tomorrow.

[SECRET PROJECT ALPHA] REVEALED!

Yes, it's finally time to reveal what I've been working on this last week and it is... FORBUSH MAN!!! .. What? You don't know who Forbush Man is??? *sigh*

Essentially Forbush Man is quite possible the worst “Super” Hero in the entire Marvel Universe, intentionally created that way by Stan “The Man” Lee and “Jolly” Jack Kirby for the satirical comic series called “Not Brand Ecch”. Forbush Man has absolutely no super powers, wears red thermal underwear with a blue towel and a large Pot for a helmet! So here is my take on this classic Marvel Character!

I think the only thing I’m slightly unhappy with is the ‘F’ placement as it’s a little bit too far down... Unfortunately I actually glued the piece on to the front because I wanted a bit more attachment the (intentionally) bad stitching, and just guestimated its position as I didn’t have any help at the time to place it (it’s kinda hard to place someone on yourself whilst you’re wearing the costume. I also need to possibly add some fibreglass to toughen up the helmet as the paint is prone to cracking and people with long fingernails have a tendency to puncture it whilst “looking” at it.

The only real revisions I want to do is get some boots that look closer to what he wears, or at least make some fake gaters to go over my existing boots, and add some elastic to the bottom of the pant legs to make them stay in my boots a lot better (and possibly make them less baggy). Overall I’m happy with the costume and looking forward to putting on again in the near future (hopefully when it’s cooler as that suit is a fucking oven!).

EDIT: Because I'm a freaking moron I forgot to give a shout out to Courtney Coombs who provided the patterns and measurements I used for the suit (and my Real Ghostbusters flightsuit which served as a basis of this costume), and my folks for their assistance in getting this done!

[SECRET PROJECT ALPHA] Is Finished!

Well at least by the time you have read this it will be and I will have shown off my amazoring skills as a costumer *insert canned laughter here* to all my friends *insert whooping here*. That being said as I write this I still have about 5 things I have to knock off before I head to the party, so here is the last of the baffling cryptic photos for the project!

 

If you can guess the character from the picture, then you get 10 internets!

IT'S THE FINAL COUNTDOWN!!!

Dee-doo-dee-doooo, dee-doo-dee-dee-dooo.....

Managed to get a couple more things done on [SECRET PROJECT ALPHA] and after I've finished this post I'll no doubt have more stuff to do! However one part is finished and completed now as this evening I used some of the weathering techniques I learnt from one Adam Savage's Tested.com videos, and I think it's looking amazoring!!!

So here is another cryptic photo!

Got a couple more things to do tonight to save my time tomorrow before the great unvealing, so I'm best get to it!

What A Great Way To Spend A Birthday!

{Birthday Song – Richard Cheese}

So it’s my birthday! So instead of doing what I suppose most people would do on their birthday, which probably involves alcohol and hookers, I spent the majority of the day so far working on stage two of [SECRET PROJECT ALPHA] which is mostly just me modifying and cutting patterns and sewing stuff together, although I still found time to go help my Gran with giving her a lift to the Chemist for some meds! Today I also managed unlocked an achievement, I managed to sew a functing zipper onto the costume with completely screwing it up! I'm not entirely pretty but it'll be hidden by a cape anyway.

So yeah, I’m about to head off out for all-you-can-eat pasta and pizza in Freo, so the next you’ll have from me I’ll be feeling a little bloated... I hope I sewed enough allowance onto the new costume... oh well.

I Got This In The Mail Today...

Best. eBay. Seller. EVER!!! /]*[\ .. oh and I finally has a Derpy plushie, and wants more!!!

Work On [SECRET PROJECT ALPHA] Begins!

So today I’ve officially commenced work on my latest costume that I’m getting ready for an upcoming party (which may or may not be for someone’s birthday who may or may not be following my blog... she knows who she is... hopefully), however just to be a complete meanie I’m being super cryptic so as not to spoil the surprise when on the Saturday when this party may or may not occur... I think I inhaled too many paint fumes.

I’m on a pretty tight deadline and budget (but ain’t I always!) as this needs to be completed on Saturday and I’m creating this practically from scratch with no real plan, as such I bought the majority of required materials today as well as started construction on the [REACTED] which apart from a couple more coats of paint is practically finished. The rest is pretty much cutting and sewing the actually costume itself, which I’m hoping to get completed on Thursday as I have absolutely no time tomorrow (leaving Friday to fix any issues, and do any finishing touches).

However here is a bewildering picture to show you some of what I did today.

 
Whilst I’m at it, here is an updated list of my planned costumes for the year... if you don’t remember my list of projects for the year; it was something I posted about very early on in the blog. I would say go read it, but this is pretty much the important part that I’m updating. Some of the schedule has been shifted around as plans have changed and new costumes has arisen and some have been knocked back as a result. On the whole I should be good to get the majority of them done in their alloted times *crosses fingers*

Costumes
- Big Macintosh – Completed!
-- Notes = Needs a better shirt, better pants, otherwise pretty neat.
- Real Ghostbusters – Completed!
-- Notes = Need to finish missing parts on the thrower, create a proper hooking system for pack.
- Eureka Sheriff – Completed!
-- Notes = Gun Belt never arrived and thus didn’t purchase holsters. Pants didn’t fit exactly well, will need new pair if done again.
- Goliath – Due Supanova Perth 2013
- Wreck It Ralph – Due Supanova Perth 2013
- [SECRET PROJECT ALPHA]
-- [REACTED] Almost complete, begin sewing soon.
- [SECRET PROJECT OMEGA]
- Volstagg – Due November
- Hobbit – Due December
- Eddie – Rocky Horror
- Ghost Smashers – TBA
-- On hold
- Doctor Octopus - Due Oz Comic-Con Perth 2014 (or maybe earlier)

 

Finally Missed A Day...

Well I knew this would happen, just didn't think it'd be this early. Well I should say that I have an incredibly good reason why I missed it, but that's just technically having an excuse however here is what happened.

I was helping setup and pack down a gaming event, which typically involves moving numerous tvs, consoles, equipment, tables, chairs, and two big, heavy, awkward gaming rigs. Moving these gaming rigs alone is typically a three person job as they need to be lifted onto the ramp of the trailer, as well as laid flat, then of course the reverse needs to happen taking them off. Whilst not going into specifics, we were promised some help offloading the equipment after the gaming night... which never happened. We got one extra hand loading the trailer but no one came to help us unload. So it ended up being me (with a dodgy back) and Adam (who has no cartilage in his knees) having to unload the entire trailer (including lifting the incredibly-fucking-heavy-after-several-days-of-exhaustion gaming rigs), unload the car full of gaming equipment and load it back into his place, after 2 really long days of loading, setting up, running the event, packing down, and for me several hours worth of driving (not to mention coming straight off the back of several weeks of grueling prep for Oz Comic-Con). Needless to say I was so absolutely fucking wrecked last night I came home and crashed out for several hours, got up and was so completely brain dead I doubt I could have typed anything what so ever.

So that’s my excuse, and I’ve broke my promise... Yeap.

Rebel Empire Workshops Gaming Night!

Out at the REW gaming night, hope everyone else is having as much fun!

Running Behind Again...

At this stage I think I'm just going to take photos tomorrow and go 'blah' as my post. Today was running around and setting up the Rebel Empire Workshops Gaming Event, so hopefully tomorrow isn't going to be so hectic but probably just as busy. I'm really tired so I think I'm going to cut this one shor

Stabbing Pains...

So after a particularly useless visit Centrelink, I decided to start work on my niece's Easter present, her very own Miss Smartypants! Those of you who saw the picture of Big Macintosh costume I cobbled together for Wai-Con might remember the plush toy sticking out of my mouth, well that's the toy I made (but out of more softer and fluffier material). It probably took me all up about 6-7 hours from start to finish, but I really wasn't pushing myself; actually I thought it would take me a couple of lazy days, but one I got into it I just kept going. So I'm still feeling a bit tapped out creatively and even played a couple of hours of Mass Effect 3 before my back gave out. Btw I'm loving the mobile app, because I'm in bed blogging.. I know, it's damn sexy stuff right? So I've got a day of moving gaming equipment tomorrow, so might be another lazy post but hopefully I'll start writing up the Con Report and schedule post it on Saturday (as I'll be too busy running around that day).

5 Minutes Late...

Oh FFS... I'm running a bit late, but I've kind of had a busy day job searching and trying to organise future crap that I'm just a bit tapped out at this time. Not to mention that my back has been almost completely crapped out since the weekend, so yeah I'm just gonna chalk this one up to exhaustion and move on. I still like keeping up with this blog and I can't see that changing in the future, but it's getting kinda hard to concentrate of late (hence most of last week's short posts). I was hoping to finally write up the Con Report but the job searching just sucked all that out of me, so hopefully tomorrow.

Tuesday Night Live Streaming...

Yes it's that's time of the week again where I can slack off on the writing and do some gaming. As always it's at http://www.twitch.tv/ganthorion although I've apparently been having some more technical difficulties, so I'm unsure how it's going to go. Again it's at 19:00 WST and I think we're continuing the insanity that is Magicka multiplayer.

On The Oz Comic-Con Hate...

Must admit, I'm getting a sick of the hate directed at Perth Oz Comic-Con. Organizationally it was probably one of the best cons I've attended, especially considering it was their first in the state, and I've been to plenty of them in my time. Seriously I’ve been hearing people I know who are con veterans like me, and I’m absolutely astounded by some of the crap that’s being put out there. Okay so the other state’s Oz Comic-Cons have been a fairly poor, Melbourne of course being the worse, but come fucking on this doesn’t deserve any of that crap being flung at it.

So it was a little packed? So you had to wait in a line? IT'S A CONVENTION!!! Seriously if you don’t want to be in a crowd, stay at home I’m fairly certain you won’t have to endure the pleasure of anyone else’s company. If you don’t want to wait, I’m fairly certain you’ll starve to death in a restaurant. Crowds and lines are a part of the convention experience, not necessarily a nice part but it happens and it’s unavoidable. Of course obviously you should never have to wait in a line because the entire universe revolves around you and you should naturally get preference treatment for being the awesomeness that is you, and of course every single other person waiting in line for the same celebrity should move out of your way because you deserve preferential treatment and the celebrities should spend an hour basking in your presence... wow do you honestly think that’s going to fucking happen?

Sure it’s an over exaggeration, well at least I’d like to think so, but some people do truly believe such things. Okay, there are those that bought the Platinum tickets and they get preferential treatment over us plebs that didn’t buy one, but that doesn’t mean they also get preference treatment over the other hundred or so people who bought Platinum tickets, that’s absurd and yet I hear such things. Oh you had to wait in line for 20 minutes for a photo, well what about the people that had to wait over an hour? Shut The Fuck Up! It's like some people expect a free blow job on entry.

Okay so I’ve calmed down a bit but this elitist attitude does still bug me to this day, and I think it’s one of the things that helps ruin fandom as a whole for the most part. Some people seem to believe that they should be treated like royalty at a convention, or they get angered about things that no one can control. So you want people to be denied access to one of the VERY few events in this city where that they can be themselves in public just so you don’t have to deal with a crowd? That’s mean and selfish. So you’ve waiting in a line for half an hour, so has the rest of the people in that line and the ones behind you are going to wait even longer.

The celebrities with long lines are obviously in high demand, and they have to get through literally hundreds of people who all want a piece of their time whilst trying to sign their names all those hundreds of times. Have you ever written your signature a couple of times on some form til your wrist ached? Now imagine that a hundred times worse all whilst someone is trying to get your attention, that’s probably what it’s like for these people. William Shatner is not a young person, so imagine how hard it is one him to do such things? Think about that next time you get all huffy about having to wait.

If this long rant doesn’t convince you, go to Swan Con; it’s probably more your style.

I Just Came From Oz Comic-Con...

... and boy are my feet tired. All joking aside, I'm an absolute physical wreck right now, but it's that good kind of tired after you've spent all day doing something really awesome. Anyway my brain be going birdy num nums now, so I'll post about Oz Comic-Con tomorrow.... hopefully.

Too Tired To Blog...

Okay, after an incredibly fun but exhausting day at Oz Comic-Con, I had to finish making things for tomorrow's Oz Comic-Con, so I'm absolutely spent! However to not leave you empty handed, here's a photo of me with the super awesome Colin Ferguson.

Almost There...

Well the RGB packs are finished except for some of the new straps, and my Eureka is pretty much as ready as it can be. Still got a thirty minute drive home, and a 6am wakeup call... Oh boy this will be a tiring weekend!

Better Late Then Never!

I just spent six hours building from scratch two sets of new grey straps for the RGB alice frames .. they are not perfect, so I'll just blame the korean animators for their shoddy work. That's pretty much it, I'm absolutely stuffed!

That Moment When...

... you're prepping to go out and you can't find a clean t-shirt that isn't covered in paint and/or glue. I did eventually find one (somehow my Wil Wheaton shirts have been saved from ruination), but I had to dig around. It says a lot when you’ve been prop building so much that you haven’t worn any ‘nice’ clothes in a while, even though I did two full loads of laundry the other day I still only had one unscathed shirt in there. This leads me promptly to two things I need to do after Oz Comic-Con; I need to stop prop building for a while and I need new clothes.

Also that moment when you realise you’ve accidently spilt super glue on your shirt... as you’re taking it off!

And in keeping with the progress photos I’ve been posting recently...

 

More Tuesday Live Streaming!

Yes this a regular thing, I'm also hoping to get some podcasting under way in the future as well as some more content. So go to http://www.twitch.tv/ganthorion# at 19:00 WST to watch my friend Parthon and I tackle the incredibly ludicrious indie game Magicka!

Oh and I finally got my replacement name badge and it looks great, see the comparison to the earlier botched one (underneath obviously).

Border Line Insane

I spent the majority of the day painting black lines on all the edges of the proton packs... unfortunately they came out rather messy so tomorrow I've got to fix it up with some blue paint and neaten them up. It's mostly just painting and assembly now, there is a still a couple of greeblies I've yet to make but I'm trying to get the majority of it out of the way before I rap my head around such things. Anyway, still working at it and I'd better get back to it!

Technical Difficulties

Just finished my prop building for today and my fingers are covered in Super Glue, making typing a tad... interesting. No it's not because my fingers are stuck to keys, althought that would be hilarious, no alas the glue as dried so I'm finding the tactical sensitivity is completely screwed up leading to a lot of mistakes, especially as I tend to touch type in my own awkward manner. Oh well, got a lot of painting done today and I'm looking forward to some more tomorrow as I'm still moving forward.

In the spirit of sharing, here is a photo of most of today's efforts (yes the stuff that is blue and yellow).

Hitting the Wall

I’m reaching that point with the prop build where I’m just hitting the wall, by which I mean I’ve been working so much on it that I’m starting to lose concentration. Except for a few evenings I’ve been pretty much working almost non-stop on getting these props done ready for Oz Comic-Con and I’m starting to feel incredibly tapped out; especially as I’m now onto the gluing and painting stage so the fumes are also starting to get to me. I’m still incredibly pumped and enthusiastic to get this done, but I’m just gagging for a break. Last night I had to step away because my concentration just completely went at about 9pm, even though most nights I’ve been up til midnight working on things. So yeah, it’s starting to become a bit of a strain, but it’s going to be worth it. Hopefully I will have all the painting done on Monday (Wednesday at the latest) which gives me the rest of the week to glue and assemble the rest of the pack and work on the new grey alice frame straps (finally straps that will comfortably fit me!).

So Many Fumes, So Little Time...

That title is a little bewildering I admit, but I’ve got been using a load of glue (mostly contact) in a confined room, just trying to get some work done before I start painting over the weekend. It’s pretty much all systems go as I’m entering the last week to get all the stuff done ready for Oz Comic-Con, so it’s probably going to be a lot of short posts between now and then, and hopefully a couple of really good in depth con reports as we go; although now that I’ve got remote blogging going I might live blog some of the action!

And I’ve been a bit skimpy with the pictures but I think bugrit I’m happy with some of the work I’ve done so here are a couple to wet the appetite.