What's Up Wednesday (21)

What's Up Wednesday is a weekly meme geared toward readers and writers, so we can check in with each other. To join, just check out Jaime Morrow or Erin Funk's blogs for the link widget and sign up!


WHAT I'M READING

Still ALLEGIANT. Yeah, nothing to see here. I'm in a reading funk, so everything is going slowly.


WHAT I'M WRITING

Still NaNo-ing, but I was somewhat distracted and also started writing a short story. We'll see how that plans out as I am notoriously bad at short stories. I am enjoying myself though since it's wintry and creepy.


WHAT INSPIRES ME RIGHT NOW

The holiday spirit! And there's nothing like Disneyland to get me in the holiday spirit.

WHAT ELSE I'VE BEEN UP TO

Well, I re-dyed my hair, so I'm less blond and more red-haired now. AND though it's ridiculously expensive, my friends and I gritted our teeth and decided to go to Disneyland.

It was SUPER FUN TIMES, especially because we were separately surprised to meet Thor.

Our first stop was to see the Treasures of Asgard exhibit. This featured weaponry of Asgardian guards and the Warriors Three, as well as the book about Dark Elves. Of course, we were most excited to see Loki's helmet (shackles and frost dagger too)!

So the above images were actually taken at night because in the morning, we were herded into the room with Loki's helmet and shut in. The lights went off and Odin spoke to us about the Bifrost and allowing humans to visit Asgard, and then there were flashing lights (aka the Bifrost) and then these doors opened to reveal Odin's Throne Room and THOR! He welcomed us to Asgard.

Then we were literally locked in that room to meet/greet/take pictures with him before we could leave. The Sister and I were like WHAT IS HAPPENING?! But it was super cute to see the kids interacting with him, and Thor was very in-character and had the Hemsworth-Thor accent down.

And then it was our turn, and Thor noticed the design on the Sister's shirt and asked what it was. It was Loki's helmet, and the Sister showed him my Loki key chain, and then Thor was like "...I see." Needless to say, he was not thrilled, but it was funny and he kept asking us questions before concluding that we had been "befuddled by [my] brother's magic and mischief."

"I see we have some admirers of my brother's here." Yes, Thor.  Yes, you do.

I tried to assuage him by saying we love him too (we do...we're just in Loki's army, sorry bro), and then he asked us what kind of picture we wanted and suggested we do this:

Yep, we are so fierce. Thor kept insisting we be fiercer like shield maidens of Asgard...or something?

Our friends, who had gone in to see Thor 2 groups ahead of us told us they were just as surprised by the meet & greet. So surprised in fact that they said "Oh sh*t, it's Thor" loud enough to make the people around them laugh. After we left Asgard, we went to see the Stark Industries IRON MAN Hall of Armor.

The rest of the day was more along the lines of regular fun Disney stuff.

Mad Tea Party: No spinning!

The Haunted Mansion decked out Nightmare Before Christmas style!
The Sister loves the wreath monster.

I was the rebel spy! Apparently, I look super shady. At least, I did in the pic that droid took.

And finally, this doesn't have to do with me, but it's almost time for one of my favorite annual blogfests: the YA Superlatives blogfest! For more info, click on the banner below. I hope you all will participate! That said, I need to get reading!!!

What's up with you?


P.S. We're probably not going to blog on Friday since it is the day after Thanksgiving. To all our U.S. friends, HAPPY THANKSGIVING! To everyone else, happy weekend!

VERSUS: Who would win?

Howdy, folks!  Happy Friday!  To celebrate the incoming weekend, join Alz in her existential literary and media pondering, which this week consisted of her wondering who would win in a no-holds-barred fight-to-the-bitter-end winner-takes-all kicking-ass-and-taking-names battle between random characters from different worlds!

You see, I was just thinking about Moby-Dick and how he is a huge white killer whale, only not that kind of killer whale since he's actually a sperm whale.  And how he's giant and mysterious and vicious and apparently out to get Ahab not only because Ahab is out to get him, but because it's just what giant white mysterious metaphorical killer sperm whales do.

And then I thought about other giant killer sealife--you know, Jaws.

And I thought, Who would win?

Moby-Dick VS Jaws
RAWR^2

JAWS

Strengths: Huge killer great white shark. Can eat his way through boats and ships and people.  Impervious to small firearms and probably harpoons (been a long time since I've seen the movie).  Has cool theme music.

Weaknesses: Exploding things jammed into his mouth.  Ultimately mortal.

MOBY-DICK

Strengths: Huge killer sperm whale.  Can smash the hell out of boats and ships and people.  Has a taste for human flesh or at least the legs of captains named Ahab.  Impervious to harpoons and spears and other sharp objects.  Is a consummate metaphor for all that is unknown and unknowable to mankind.

Weaknesses: Captains named Ahab.  Probably immortal since he's a metaphor.

Who would win?  Personally, I think Jaws would rip a few decent chunks out of Moby-Dick, but good ol' Moby would make seafood mincemeat out of Jaws pretty soon after.  To quote V from V for Vendetta, "Ideas are bulletproof."  In this instance, I daresay "metaphors are sharkproof" is a fitting translation.

~*~*~*~

Next up is two gargantuan reptilian beasties: one comes from a lonely mountain and the other comes from the oceanic depths of Japan.

Smaug VS Godzilla
Dude, not gonna exaggerate: In the book, Smaug's underparts are literally encrusted with diamonds.

SMAUG

Strengths: "'My armor is like tenfold shields, my teeth are swords, my claws spears, the shock of my tail a thunderbolt, my wings a hurricane, and my breath death!' (207)" and "'I am armoured above and below with iron scales and hard gems.' (208) Smaug, The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien.

Weaknesses: Chinks in his armor.  Or rather, a chink (singular) in his armor.

GODZILLA

Strengths: Gigantic amphibious reptile with atomic breath. Can swim, sometimes fly, and also level metropolitan cities in a matter of minutes.  Generally impervious to man-made weaponry.  Can regenerate.  Pretty frequently rebooted too.

Weaknesses: Doesn't stick around for too long before going back to sleep, returning to the ocean, apparently being killed, and/or otherwise disappearing from the world indefinitely.  Also, the reboots occasionally suck.

Who would win?  Assuming these two behemoths are approximately the same size, I'd say it's a pretty even match, even allowing for a ground-bound version of Godzilla.  Smaug seems more intelligent than Godzilla and more complex in his goals and greeds, but all it'd take is one lucky (or well-aimed) punch or atomic fireball from everybody's favorite original kaijuu and Smaug would be nothing more than a smoldering smear on Godzilla's claws.

~*~*~*~

Last but not least, especially since Krispy's Sister and I have been engaged in nefariously nebulous Loki-related plotting, I of course thought of our favorite Marvel villain ever...and his namesake.

Loki VS Loki
The Ultimate Showdown

LOKI (dog)

Strengths: Cuteness and fluffiness.  Can run at 200 mph for short but intense bursts.  Sometimes has nuclear poo.  Special attack: uterus-punch.

Weaknesses: Doesn't swallow that last gulp of water before dashing off, so often chokes.  Can be lazy.  Easily distracted by flying bugs.

LOKI (Marvel)

Strengths: Magic and the ability to duplicate himself.  Throws butterknives with deadly accuracy.  Exceedingly charming and obsessively vengeful in turn.  Glowstick of Doom.

Weaknesses: Daddy issues, brother issues, xenophobia, and hubris.

Who would win? Loki would win of course.  Which one?  LOKI, OF COURSE.  Ahem.

~*~*~*~

Well, that was interesting.  I was trying to pair like with like so things wouldn't get too unfair or be unbalanced, though of course in Loki VS Loki, we all know who has the real advantage...

Who do you think would win in each scenario and why?

Happy Friday!  Have a fantastic weekend and go see Gravity!  Krispy says it's amazing and I can't wait to see it.

Randomosity on Fridays: Comic Con Edition (6/Final)

Yes, I swear this is the last of the recap. We're finally on to Sunday, the last day of Comic Con, which was awesome and bittersweet. SO here we go!

DAY 3 / Sunday

Sunday was another bright and early day since we had to get back in the Hall H line and also check out of our apartment. After trying very hard not to wake Lauren up as we scrambled all our stuff together, the Sister and I put all our stuff in the car and went to meet Nicole in the Hall H line. The panels that we were interested in on Sunday were Supernatural, Breaking Bad, and The Doctor Who 50th Anniversary - basically, the first 3 panels.

While we were in line chatting, Misha Collins ran by on his morning run and briefly stirred us up out of our sleep-deprivation-induced stupors.

Since Nicole's group had slept over-night and we'd done the shifts thing, we were pretty much at the very front of the line. It was kind of awesome. It was even awesomer because we got really front and center seats. If only we had been this close on Saturday/for Loki!

SUPERNATURAL

The cast, show-runner, and producer!

As usual, the Supernatural cast was amusing and funny. Watching J2 joke around never gets old. Felicia Day was a surprise guest (and will be returning next season, yay!), and they showed us the gag reel. The SPN gag reel is always laugh-out-loud funny.

When Felicia Day came in as the surprise guest, everyone else was purposely making it seem like she was a diva and no one liked her. So when she stormed in, Jensen ran off while Jared and Misha tried to hold Felicia and Bob Singer back.

BREAKING BAD

Confession, I only just watched the pilot of Breaking Bad this week, but the Sister is a huge fan of the show. So it was really cool for her to get to see this panel, especially since this is the last season.

I was kind of spoiled for all previous seasons since they showed a reel, but it's okay. I barely remember any of it and it was like flashes of everything. Then, they showed us the first 5 minutes of the 1st episode of the then yet-to-be-aired new season.


Bryan Cranston came in wearing that very realistic mask of Walter White's face. It then became a source of endless amusement during the panel...

...Especially, when Bryan Cranston put the mask over his mic and talked into it. Lots of making out jokes ensued.


DOCTOR WHO

Then, it was the panel most of the audience was the most excited for - Doctor Who! Before it started, all the Whovians in the crowd were holding their sonic screw drivers in the air. It was kind of sweet.

Matt Smith and Jenna Louise Coleman were super cute and talked about how they cheered fans who were cosplaying as them, including one incident where the fans only recognized them later as they were driving away.

David Bradley, Mark Gatiss, and Marcus Wilson were there to also promote An Adventure in
Space & Time - a BBC movie about the making of the Doctor Who TV series.

Craig Ferguson was the moderator and told us not to hassle David Bradley about his character in Game of Thrones (don't mix fandoms!), but David Bradley made one funny comment about how recently, "the wedding invitations have dried up." HAHA (but also, I am crying!)

Of course, the best part of this whole panel? We got to see the trailer for the Doctor Who 50th Anniversary special. As far as I know, it is not online yet so please excuse me while I gloat just a little bit...because it was AWESOME. So much Matt Smith and David Tennant interacting and being AMAZING together. Also, the return of Billie Piper's Rose! Eeee, I can't wait! #sorrynotsorry


When this panel ended, we filed out of Hall H and went back to my car to put our stuff away. Then I had to walk the Sister back to Petco Park for her NERD HQ panel with Tom Hiddleston.


NERD HQ: Conversation with Tom Hiddleston

You may recall that she got a ticket on Saturday night from a fan with a pair of tickets to spare, but she only managed to get one. We tweeted all morning Sunday to see if anyone else had spare tickets but no luck! The Sister was very gracious and offered to give me the ticket (since she said I'm the bigger fan), but I insisted that she go.

So I dropped her off at the waiting area at Petco Park and was going to go explore the Nerd HQ stuff while she was at the panel. But then she waved me over before I walked off. Long story short, the girls with the extra tickets couldn't contact the other person who had tweeted for the ticket, so they gave it to me. We paid the Nerd HQ people and got in line. We were in Row 8.

We also found Nicole (who was in the front row) and freaked out with her over my good luck. She just kept saying "I had a feeling! I knew it would work out." And it did because as they had been all weekend, the Comic Con gods were so kind to us.

Zachary Levi moderated (since Nerd HQ is his brain child). Tom did a little dance when he came in, and basically it was an hour of listening to Tom being intelligent, charming, and adorable.

He quoted Shakespeare, spoke French, did impressions of people - including Zachary Levi (and it was freaky because he sounded just like him). He also joked about how he couldn't figure out how to sit in the chair; it's at once too low and too deep. It was pretty much like the best thing ever.

And he ended the whole thing by doing an impression of a velociraptor. He actually acted out the entire scene from Jurassic Park where the raptors are trying to get into the kitchen where the kids are hiding. It was unreal.

Aaaand all of this epicness was captured on film for you by the generous folks at Nerd HQ. So if you have an hour to spare, I absolutely recommend you watch this.



When this was over, Nicole, the Sister, and I fangirled about it for a little bit outside Petco Park before we parted ways. The sunny weekend had also given way to gray clouds and a slight drizzle. So the Sister and I got to my car and left San Diego for home.

This is also why we think we maybe can't go to Comic Con again because it's unlikely that any experience can top this. I mean, we got to see all the things we wanted to see, saw some celebs up close, saw Loki, and saw Tom. It was just TOO EPIC for our first Con ever.

But we're totally going to go again next year. Anyone want to join us? :)

For previous SDCC-related posts:

1) What's Up Wednesday (7) / RSW (6)
2) SDCC Recap No. 1
3) What's Up Wednesday (8) / Our Comic Con Fashion
4) SDCC Recap No. 2
5) SDCC Recap No. 3
6) What's Up Wednesday (10) / Our Comic Con Swag
7) SDCC Recap No. 4
8) SDCC Recap No. 5

Randomosity on Fridays: Comic Con Edition (5)

'When will this recap ever end?' I hear you ask. 'It's been over 2 months since it happened!' I know, it's like a never-ending recap, but like I said last time, we haven't gotten to the BEST PART yet. Even now, the entire experience feels surreal to me.

So please indulge me in my need to set this down in pictures and words, and who knows? Maybe it'll convince some of you who have been thinking about going to SDCC actually make plans to go! Onwards!

DAY 3 / Saturday (Part 2)

Last we left off about mid-afternoon in our long Saturday sitting in Hall H. In case you were wondering, the Sister and I had a lunch that consisted of a wrapped up Hot Pocket, some birthday-cake Oreos, and fruit snacks. Yeah, we were real healthy...

After the super cool Women who Kick Ass panel, things got real interesting real fast. 20th Century Fox did their block, which consisted of the films Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Wolverine, and X-MEN: Days of Future Past. It was all fancy because they gave us 3-D glasses and presented all their trailers in 3D.

There wasn't too much to RISE since they were early in production. They showed the Wolverine trailer, which admittedly looked more interesting than the teasers I'd seen, and then they trotted out Hugh Jackman.

As you can imagine, he was lovely, charming, and funny. He left the stage and Bryan Singer came out to talk about X-MEN. They ran the trailer, which guys, it seemed pretty freaking cool, and when the lights came back on, he noted how oh the panel table seems really long and there are so many seats...

Yes, they pretty much brought the ENTIRE combined cast of the X-MEN franchise. There was so much star power at that panel, you can imagine the freaking out that was going on and the number of camera flashes that went off. It still kind of blows my mind that we saw ALL OF THEM sitting there together.

Of course, they were charming and hilarious. Sir Ian McKellan was super cute with Sir Patrick Stewart and he kinda/sorta proposed to Michael Fassbender. James McAvoy was adorably excited to be there. Jennifer Lawrence and Peter Dinklage were their usual charming selves. So on and so forth...

To top it all off, as the cast exited the stage, 20th Century Fox passed out claim vouchers for swag - and as you saw from our SDCC swag post, it was a lot of stuff - posters, shirts, hats.

The Marvel panel was next, the last panel of the day and pretty much the one we were most excited to see. But after 20th Century Fox starstruck us and then gave us free stuff, it was hard to imagine what Marvel could possibly do to top that. The crowd was still all astir from that panel when moderator Chris Hardwick and Marvel'sKevin Feige took the stage.

Since there was no THOR 2 panel, they started just by saying it was releasing in November and that they were going to show us a new trailer. But as you've all probably heard by now, the microphone and lights cut out in the middle of Feige's trailer introduction and we heard a voice that sounded a lot like Loki.

The Sister and I looked at each other and said, "Sounds like Tom... Is that Loki? IS HE HERE?!" because the room was completely dark and it sounded like it could be a voice-over. Most of the crowd seemed confused as well, like we were waiting for the trailer to start playing any second now...and then the lights flickered back on...

[Photo/ the Sister]

Now, please imagine a room of 6500 people surging to their feet and screaming, camera flashes going off like strobe lights. That's what happened. The Sister and I were FREAKING OUT that Tom Hiddleston was standing on the Hall H stage in full costume acting completely in character. It was UNREAL.

Loki was snide and charming, insulting and baiting and even shushing the crowd, and still he had 6500 people chanting his name by the end. Loki's army? It is a real thing.

I won't bore you with any more blurry pictures. Suffice to say, I was too busy freaking out and texting my fellow Hiddleston fangirl and lady geek Nicole, who was sitting in the Hall H line outside for Sunday's early panels to really take pictures. Nicole was texting me in ALL CAPS about how she was DYING that she wasn't in the room.

And that's how Marvel managed to top all the panels before them and how Loki won Comic Con.

If you haven't seen the speech yet, there are multiple versions of the Loki speech online. Here's one for your viewing pleasure.



And then they showed the THOR: THE DARK WORLD trailer, which was very similar to the newest trailer that is out now (but with a few crucial, I guess SDCC exclusive segments missing). And they showed us an extended scene before moving on to the CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER panel.


Chris Evans and Scarlett Johansson and some of the returning SHIELD gang, as well as new actors for the new characters. It was cool because we saw an early clip.

The next panel was for Marvel's GUARDIAN OF THE GALAXIES, which had just started filming 12 days ago. So it was a big surprise that they'd flown in the entire cast from London AND put together a quick teaser trailer for us. I have no idea how they put together those things so fast because it looked pretty good for something that had been thrown together in 12 days!

Eee! Lee Pace, whom I adore!

And the adorable Karen Gillian (of Doctor Who fame) revealed that she had shaved her head for her role. In her excitement, she flung her wig into the crowd.


And we thought that was it, but of course, Marvel had one last card to play. After the stage was cleared, Joss Whedon ran in to tell everyone yes, he was working on Avengers 2 and that they had something for us. They then played a very short teaser thing that ultimately revealed that the subtitle for Avengers 2 is The Age of Ultron.

So when the lights went on and we were cleared from the room, the Sister and I headed to the Fulfillment room to pick up our 20th Century Fox swag. This whole process took a while (another long line was involved), but we were still shell-shocked from all the geekery that went down.

When this was done, we headed to the lobby of the Marriott to meet up with the lovely @laurenspieller who was staying with us for a night. This was my first meeting with this online writer-friend, so that was quite exciting as well. While we were being starstruck, she had spent the day on the convention room floor and had racked up an impressive 14 free books! I don't know how she managed to lug that load around all day, but she's just a bamf like that.

The last exciting thing that we discovered from Nicole (other than that she and her friends were willing to do a line-sharing duty thing with us, so we could get into the Doctor Who 50th Anniversary panel on Sunday) was that Tom Hiddleston was doing a last-minute NERD HQ panel on Sunday afternoon. Unfortunately, the tickets had gone online while the Sister and I were still shuffling out of Hall H in a daze and were sold out by the time we found out.

But luckiest of luck, the Sister happened to see a tweet from a girl who had 2 extra tickets she was willing to sell to the first 2 people who tweeted her for it. The Sister managed to get one in, but since she hadn't specified she needed 2 tickets, the other ticket went to someone else. I was, of course, bummed but also thrilled that one of us would get to see him. As you know though, this story ends happily and I do get to go see Tom, but that's for the SUNDAY recap.

With that, we headed back to our apartment to pack up (since we had to check out early the next morning and get back in the Hall H line).

Saw this cool, planetary promo on the way back to our apartment.

For more SDCC goodness, here are my previous related posts:

1) What's Up Wednesday (7) / RSW (6)
2) SDCC Recap No. 1
3) What's Up Wednesday (8) / Our Comic Con Fashion
4) SDCC Recap No. 2
5) SDCC Recap No. 3
6) What's Up Wednesday (10) / Our Comic Con Swag
7) SDCC Recap No. 4