A Dragon*Con with an objective

In spite of the self-imposed painstaking efforts I’ve undertaken throughout the last three years in doing League of Legends costumes at Dragon*Cons, I’ve never really gone to a D*C in the past with any sort of objective or goal in mind.  Usually, everything is up in the air, and all I really want is to walk around, take a bunch of pictures, and for one day, get in my own costume, before devolving into a night of drinking and partying and hanging out on all the nights.  I don’t care about guests, I don’t care about celebrities, panels, exhibitors or just about everything that is boasted being present at the convention.

As I’m sure I’ve said before, it really makes me wonder why I’m so eager and willing to drop exorbitant amounts of money on lodging, food, booze and parking, for what’s essentially a weekend of hanging out.

Probably, because it’s a weekend of hanging out, and I really enjoy simply hanging out.  The grandest stage for what’s essentially one giant convenient excuse to hang out with friends and acquaintances from near and far.

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These things exist??

Impetus: A United flight going from Newark to Denver has to make an emergency stop in Chicago, to remove two unruly passengers from the aircraft.  The two passengers, seated one behind the other, had an altercation that stemmed from the rear passenger applying “Knee Defender” clamps, which prevent the seat ahead from being able to recline, and the front passenger taking objection to being incapable of reclining.  It culminated with front passenger throwing a cup of water in the face of rear passenger, before the flight was forced to land in Chicago to remove both from the aircraft.

Never mind the story about the altercation, the takeaway from this entire story for me is that something like Knee Defenders actually exist.  And I fucking love it.

Obviously, this is because I fly more than your average non-business traveler, and I’ve had more than my fair share of getting the one person on the entire flight who decides that they have to recline their seat.  Seriously, there will be times where I get an entire row to myself, so I decide to spread out a little bit, and the person in front of me has the exact same idea, but has to make sure that they’re in the seat in front of me.  As soon as the ding indicating that we’ve reached cruising altitude is heard, the seat plops back crudely, and if my leg is crossed, or the tray is down, it’s an unpleasant sensation of having something appear to fall into your lap.

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As if there was any doubt

For the past two weeks, teams from across the United States as well as several other countries in the world have been whittling each other down, to see who amongst them were the best of the best.  Throughout the journey, there have been tears shed, hearts broken, nationalistic pride abounds, and agendas emerged and dissipated upon the wins and losses of the varying teams.

And when the dust settled in Williamsport, Pennsylvania there was only one team that endured the journey without once tasting the bitter flavor of defeat: the South Korean team.  The Koreans went a perfect 11-0 en route to the world championship, where they defeated the U.S. champions from Illinois in what was basically yet another rout, in spite of the final score.

The best part is that this it was not in League of Legends.  It was in an actual, physical sport; the best one in the world, no less – baseball.

Sure, it was Little League baseball, but it’s still a worldly sanctioned tournament, and they defeated Japan in the process; twice, en route to becoming the true champions of the world in 13-and-under Little League baseball.

And I’m okay with that.  I’ll take Korean wins wherever I can get them.

Man, What A Stupid Commercial #015

Synopsis: attractive wife in her little black dress tells husband to hurry up, before walking off. Husband’s finishing touches include application of Brüt cologne. Upon application, a shriek is heard from the adjacent bedroom, and wife re-enters the bathroom and is suddenly pregnant. Camera pans to Daschund dog, also pregnant, and then a pregnant goldfish in its fish bowl. Tagline read: LET YOUR MAN OUT.

I know the underlying message is that Brüt makes the wearer SO manly, that surrounding females of all species have no choice but to have their wombs aggressively and magically inseminated and suddenly end up in their third trimester.

But you know what’s not funny? Unwanted offspring.

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Oh, Georgia #96

Long story short: Woman can’t parallel park near courthouse, asks complete stranger to parallel park for her.  Is surprised when complete stranger drives off in her car.  Woman’s sister was still in car when thief takes off.  Startles thief, who not only walks away scot-free, but also steals both the woman and her sister’s purses.  Bonus: woman’s car gets ticketed after being abandoned by thief.

You know what’s the most ironic thing about this whole thing?  The carjacker is probably the one party in this whole scenario that comes out looking the cleanest.  I mean sure, he’s still criminal scum and shouldn’t be on the streets, but he was pretty much gifted a free car.  Was he supposed to not slam down the alley-oop when lobbed one?

If you leave the door to your house open and tell the guy in a ski mask out front to not rob you, what do you think is going to happen?

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When adults and media ruin the game

Originally, I wanted Mo’ne Davis to lose, because the hipster in me always wants to see anyone hyped up beyond the stars be brought back down to earth, and to remind everyone doing the hyping that nobody is bigger than the game.

Mo’ne Davis did lose, and the Taney Dragons are one more loss away from elimination from the Little League World Series.

But in the aftermath of the loss, I realized that I wasn’t happy that the hype machine was knocked off its tracks.  Mo’ne Davis, in the span of the last week, had been turned into this symbol of hope and expectations for not just the female gender, but also the entire African-American race, and I’m happy that the symbol of hope and expectations was knocked down a peg by her defeat.

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I think I’m becoming forgetful

I am agitated today.

I forgot my phone at home, because I was sidetracked from the usual droll morning routine, and I realized that my phone pocket was empty right when I was about to make the left turn out of my subdivision.  It wasn’t too late to go back and get it, but it was too late in the sense that in the game of minutes that’s Atlanta morning traffic, I’d gone too far.  I’ll live without it, but it’s more of the niggling inconvenience of not being able to derive some amusement from it be it from texting friends or checking the Big Brother-free internet, during any sort of downtime.  And, I won’t have a source of music to listen to while I’m running on the treadmill, which is going to probably suck.

I forgot my work ID/key card in my car.  By the time I realized it, I was already in front of the employee door to my office, with no key to buzz myself in with.  The thought of walking the eighth of a mile and a flight of stairs in a sauna-like humid morning just to go retrieve two plastic cards that nobody in the building actually checks didn’t seem quite worth it.  I used the front door to the office instead.  The fact that my gym fob was attached to it almost made me want to go get it, but I could just as easily check in with my phone number at the front desk, so I scrapped that idea as well.  I’d gone too far.

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