7.31.2013

What's Up Wednesday (8) / RSW (7)


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


And it is EXCELLENT. I like can't handle how good, how rich Maggie Stiefvater's writing is!


WHAT I'M WRITING


So I honestly thought I wouldn't be able to get any words down. I am still recovering from SDCC (and other things, but more on that later) if you can believe that. Imagine my surprise when I was hit by the muse again this week. I didn't write what I'm supposed to be working on, but I did write a little scene from something else. I reworked part of an old scene and I have to say I like this version a lot better.

I even wrote two #twtpoems!




Goal: Finish up this scene and actually write something for Luck.


WHAT INSPIRES ME RIGHT NOW

Maggie Q (Nikita), Danai Gurira (The Walking Dead), Tatiana Maslany (Orphan Black),
Katee Sackhoff (Battlestar Galactica), Michelle Rodriguez (Fast & Furious)
The fierce, talented, and intelligent women of EW's Women who Kick Ass panel from Comic Con. I was in Hall H all day Saturday with 6000-some other people for all the big movie panels, and while I loved hearing about the big projects and seeing the movie stars, I was THRILLED to see this panel in the middle of the roster. It was so refreshing to see this diverse panel of women talking about the challenges they have faced and still face in the industry. It brought a level of depth, discussion, and substance to an otherwise fun-but-fluffy day.

And whatever reception it may have had with parts of the audience, I thought it was so awesome this panel was put in front of such a packed room. MAYBE this discussion about women, sexism, and diversity reached some new people.

Read more about the panel here: Michelle Rodriguez, Maggie Q join EW's 'Women Who Kick Ass' Comic-Con panel

Full transcript here: Comic Con 2013: Hall H presents Entertainment Weekly’s WOMEN WHO KICK ASS


WHAT ELSE I'VE BEEN UP TO

SDCC RECOVERY! Seriously. I've been taking naps after work all week & I slept in all weekend. I did also manage to go to my little cousin-once-removed's birthday party, give Loki (the dog) a bath, and go to the Justin Timberlake & Jay-Z Legends of Summer concert. Yeah, those activities didn't help the recovery too much...

Dance party at the Rose Bowl with Jay-Z and JT!

I'm also sorting through my SDCC pictures (and memories). I'll continue these couple of Fridays to recap the days chronologically, but I thought I'd post some outfit pics here today. Here are our attempts at geek chic!

DAY 1/ Outfit 1

Sister: Bright blue bandeau, comic book exclamation tank, crochet shorts, HP Dark Mark
(I drew it) Slytherin TOMS, POW! ring (pictured below).
Mine: Lit-themed! Interrobang rings, lightning bolt bracelet, HP Marauders shirt, Ravenclaw
tie-as-belt, gray shorts.


DAY 2/ Outfit 2

Sister: White tank, Star Wars skirt (hand-sewn, pleats & all by our grandma!)

Mine: Space-themed! Star Wars shirt, cosmic skirt, starburst ring, celestial rings.


DAY 3/ Outfit 3

We sort of bummed it on Saturday (Day 3) because we knew we'd be in Hall H all day. Plus, we had to get up in the middle of the night to go sleep in line. So, there was that - hence the hoodies!

Sister: Tokidoki THOR shirt, blue maxi skirt, UCLA hoodie (not pictured).
Mine: black tunic top, galaxy leggings, Tokidoki THOR hoodie.
Accessories I PLANNED to wear but didn't.

DAY 4/ Outfit 4

Also known as what we wore when we went to Nerd HQ and saw Tom Hiddleston. If you watch the panel, you can maybe spot me in the crowd thanks to my bright blue jacket.

Sister: Marvel comics dress worn as shirt, gray shorts, black/cream jacket (not pictured).
Mine: Tokidoki Avengers shirt, patterned shorts, Tokidoki THOR hoodie (not pictured).

What's up with you?


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

1) What's Up Wednesday (7) / RSW (6)
2) SDCC Recap No. 1

7.26.2013

Randomosity on Fridays: Comic Con Edition

It's been a week since Comic Con, and both the Sister and I have major SDCC hangover. Part of it is the continued sleep deprivation, but also it was just so fun. It was amazing to be around so many people with common interests and to have so much going on around us. Our days (and nights) were always packed with things to do or at least sights to see.

In any case, I think it's kind of impossible to write out everything that went down and pictures are more fun anyway. So here's a longer, day-by-day recap of our very first Comic Con experience. This will probably be Part 1 of 3? Hope you'll check back for more next week!

WEDNESDAY

We drove down to San Diego, settled in at the studio we rented, and went to pick up our badges...which turned out to be at a hotel that required more freeway driving. I discovered I hate San Diego area freeways. Lots of traffic ensued; the Sister started calling BS on everything, leading her to believe the theme of the weekend would be "This is BULLSH*T." (Clearly, this was NOT the case.)

Jelly!Prongs and AT-AT came with us!
We came prepared with lots of snacks & vitamins!

My jewelry for this pre-Day 1 was Alice in Wonderland-themed.




THURSDAY/ Day 1

After an early night (we knew to get as much sleep as we could before Friday night/Saturday), we headed to the convention center! Main goals of the day were to get into the Divergent/ Ender's Game panel in the infamous Hall H in the afternoon and the Hannibal panel at night. Anything else would be a bonus!

Erudite temporary tattoos!
The Hall H line was freakishly short, so we ditched it after we saw how truly huge the hall is to come back later. We managed to hit the Exhibit Hall, particularly the Summit booth to get Divergent & Ender's Game swag. On a side note, the Exhibit Hall is nuts. It is HUGE and crowded and has very elaborate booths!

There was some "THIS IS BS" complaints (mostly due to confusing/inefficient booth management and crowding), but then it was all good because we discovered how to get into their "T-Shirt Bar" - where basically you can choose a design (either Ender's Game armies or Divergent factions) and put it on a shirt.

The Lionsgate booth next door was giving away Mockingjay pins for Catching Fire, but luckily we weren't there to witness that giveaway. I say lucky because we heard it was basically a free-for-all...not unlike the actual Hunger Games...

At this point, we headed back into Hall H and watched panels for The Europa Report (a pseudo-documentary sci-fi movie really based in science - like NASA scientists were their consultants) and Entertainment Weekly's Visionaries panel, which consisted of the directors Alfonso CuarĂ³n (Gravity, Harry Potter 3), Marc Webb (The Amazing Spiderman, 500 Days of Summer), and Edgar Wright (The World's End, Shaun of the Dead).


I loved the Visionaries panel. It's always wonderful to hear great storytellers talk about their craft. Bonus points for just having great chemistry, being fanboys of each other's work, and for behind-the-scenes stories about their upcoming movies.


Then it was DIVERGENT time. Not gonna lie, we were mostly excited to see Theo James and he was indeed lovely to behold. It was also super cool to hear first from Veronica Roth that Allegiant would be from both Tris AND Four's POVs! Oh and seeing actual footage from the movie was cool too. Have to say, I'm pretty excited. :)



Our stars: Theo James (Four) & Shailene Woodley (Tris)
Maggie Q looking flawless and adorable. She plays Tori.


Next up, ENDER'S GAME. Other than the very talented young stars (Asa Buttefield and Hailee Steinfeld), we were obviously stoked to see HARRISON FORD in the flesh. He was hilariously grumpy...


...especially when people started asking him Han Solo & Indiana Jones questions. Example: what would Han Solo and Indiana Jones say to each other if they met? Answer: Hello. How are you?

He (jokingly?) said he is never coming back to Comic Con.

In all our excitement, we almost waited for the final DEXTER panel, but we remembered the HANNIBAL panel was at 6:45p in a room on the other side of the convention center. So we hauled our butts over there & got in the giant line, thinking we were probably not going to get in. You might not know but HANNIBAL, the TV show run by Bryan Fuller (who ran one of my all time favorite TV shows, Pushing Daisies), has a small-ish but really dedicated fanbase; we're cutely called "fannibals."

But as the precursor to our SDCC Weekend of Awesome, we were very lucky & made it in. We were literally among the last 20 people they let in. It was one of the best panels we attended. The panelists clearly love making the show and are aware of how much the fans love it. Plus, the fans who asked questions had GREAT questions - about character arcs and story and symbolism.



We even got our first piece of exclusive panel swag from Hannibal, and the panel was nice enough to stay afterwards to take some pictures & sign things. I mean, during the panel Bryan Fuller asked a girl cosplaying as "the stag" for a picture after and Hugh Dancy jumped in for that photo too. Just so much fandom love! (And anyway, you know how nice they are because I got a pic the next day...but I'm getting ahead of myself.)

After picking up our swag from the Fulfillment Room (which was even further away), we headed back towards the Gaslamp district. We didn't know when the offsite Ender's Game Experience closed, but we were delighted to see it still open with a short line (since it was 8-something at night). So we went. IT WAS SO COOL.



They basically built a bunker that contains 8 set pieces from the film, props and costumes. On top of that, you get to be green-screened into the Battle Room (as you saw in Wednesday's post) and you get to have your pic taken for an International Fleet ID card. The swag was cool too- pins, stickers, and dog tags.

In the tiny, child-sized launch shuttle chairs.

Welcome to Battle School.



Actual Battle School desks.


Oh shizz, the enemy gate is down!

The giant stars of the null-gravity Battle Room. (Can you find the Sister?)


The view from space is quite lovely.

Our fellow ladygeek Nicole was staying at a hotel nearby, so we met up with her after the experience. And she gave us the scoop on the SHERLOCK panel that we missed. Oh Season 3, you cannot come soon enough!

Since this post is getting long, I'm going to have a post specifically for swag and outfits. There is just SO MUCH!

Expect more SDCC recap posts to come. I still can't believe I was there! Have a great weekend!!

Related post: What's Up Wednesday w/ SDCC pics!

P.S. If you're interested in seeing that Nerd HQ panel with Tom Hiddleston that the Sister and I attended, it is posted on youtube (along with the other great Nerd HQ panels) at The Nerd Machine's official youtube page.

Here are the highlights to get you curious. He does a spot-on impression of Zachary Levi in this, but if you watch the full thing, there are MORE impressions!

7.24.2013

What's Up Wednesday (7) / RSW (6)


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

I'm still reading both THE DREAM THIEVES and ENDER'S GAME. It's not that these books aren't gripping. It's more like I was too busy and tired this past week to do much reading.

Besides, instead of reading Ender's Game, I was kind of living it at Comic Con (SDCC)!

Check it out. We're inside the Battle Room!

More on all that later. I will say that I also spent a part of the weekend running away from book spoilers for Ender's Game since I wasn't finished. :P


WHAT I'M WRITING


I knew this week would be a bust on the writing front, though I did desperately hope I'd have time to get some words down. Unfortunately, this was not so. Turns out preparing for Comic Con and Comic Con itself is...just as crazy as you think it'd be.

Goal: Write something this week. Anything. (But honestly, I'm in such a post-SDCC haze that I really don't know if this will be possible.)


WHAT INSPIRES ME RIGHT NOW

My fellow geeks and fangirls/boys, who made my sister and my first Comic Con so freaking amazing. The whole experience exceeded my expectations by like 100% - and my expectations were reasonable (not low/ not high). I was grateful and impressed by the nice people we met in line, who gave us tips and traded swag with us, and I got to spend quality ladygeek time with fellow Tom Hiddleston admirer Nicole, who was also participating in Ready.Set.Write!. Plus, I met Twitter friend Lauren!


WHAT ELSE I'VE BEEN UP TO



I need a whole separate post for this because TOO MUCH happened. Before I begin posting a whole bunch of pictures, suffice to say, the Sister and I went to San Diego with reasonable expectations. We knew we weren't going to see everything we wanted to see. We knew we might not sight any celebrities. We also prepared for the possibility of not making it into certain panels. We had a few moderate goals:

1) See the Divergent panel (mostly THEO JAMES).
2) Go to the Ender's Game Experience.
3) Go to the Godzilla Experience.
4) Make it into Hall H on Saturday for the Marvel panel.
5) Make it into the Dr. Who panel on Sunday.
6) Get free stuff.
7) Maybe sight a celebrity / like see Harrison Ford at the Ender's Game panel or Jennifer Lawrence at the Catching Fire panel.

ALL OF THESE THINGS HAPPENED AND THEN SOME. In particular, I was in Hall H for...

THIS EPICNESS

Loki completely owned Hall H. He received a standing, cheering ovation the second he revealed himself on stage. And in a show of true power, he silenced a crowd of 6500 with just a finger to his lips. (Picture courtesy of the Sister)


And then we got to see the man behind the God of Mischief in a much smaller setting the next day (thanks to pure good luck and SDCC karma) with Zachary Levi. WHAT.

Photo courtesy of the Sister.

Guys, I like adore Tom Hiddleston and I was barely expecting him to show up for the Marvel panel (since it was more Capt. America 2 focused than THOR 2 focused) much less having him appear as LOKI. And that was enough for me. It didn't even cross my mind he might do the more intimate Nerd HQ panel appearance!

THIS WAS OUR FIRST COMIC CON, and it was basically so awesome I kinda think we shouldn't go again because I don't know what could possibly live up to this. (But we'll probably still go again.)

Ahem. Some pictures:



HARRISON FORD! I think someone just asked him a Han Solo / Indiana Jones question.


As the photographer said, "You guys are rocking the Star Wars." YEP! By the way, my grandma made Sister's skirt!

Not only did we make the Hannibal panel on Thursday (after Divergent/Ender's Game), we also randomly ran into them again on Friday. Look! Hugh Dancy!

Hugh Dancy was super nice & stopped for this pic. My hair is looking particularly pink.
So yeah, longer recap of Comic Con on Friday! I might have to do multiple posts. There was just SO MUCH!

Q4U: What's up with you? How was your weekend? What would be your dream Comic Con?

Edit: Here's my SDCC Recap No. 1.