Category Archives: travel

my visit with king tut…

Elementary school, that’s when I decided that Ancient Egypt was awesome and that I wanted to learn more than they were teaching me in school. I looked at books in the library, I watched TV specials, and when the internet came to my house, I did a lot of research. When I first heard about the traveling King Tutankhamun exhibits, I knew I had to go to one someday. Years passed. Lots of years.

[insert montage of my growing up time from elementary school to last yearish here]

Then I was listening to NPR one day and they were advertising for the exhibit in Seattle. The stars aligned for me on this one, it just so happens that I am in Seattle a lot. This past trip, my parents were asking me if there was anything specific I wanted to see or do, I suggested King Tut, and the rest is history. Beautiful, Egyptian, ancient history.

I can’t even describe the feeling as I walked into the first room of artifacts. It was stunning, take my breath away stunning. Seeing things, in such good condition, that had survived thousands of years, completely took my breath away. It’s hard for me to put into words, and that drives me batty, but it really was that astounding. I said to my mom and dad and my friend Andrea over and over things like, “Can you believe this still has paint on it?” or “This statue is in remarkable condition. It has arms!” or “Look at the craftsmanship! The detail is amazing.”

It was a feeling of absolute glee. Childhood dreams combined with adult reality. I felt like a little kid again, all wonder and awe and joy.

Anyhow, since words seem to be failing me, here are some of the pictures I took. They don’t do the artifacts justice, but I love them anyway.

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And check another one off the bucket list!

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bucket lists and father’s day…

I went on a trip to Seattle! That isn’t that unusual for me. I go there sometimes. This time, going meant crossing two things off of my bucket list.

This blog is about the first thing: I went to a baseball game with my dad. This may not sound like a huge thing, well, it may not unless you know the whole story.

My dad is a baseball fanatic. To be slightly more specific, he’s a San Francisco Giants fanatic. My daddy taught me to play baseball. He coached little league for me, he played a never ending game of double or nothing involving pop flies with me, and took me to my very first professional baseball game.

Daddy and me in SF.

We went to see the Giants play in the city, we went early and hung out around the dugout, and my dad talked me out of being shy and into getting signatures on my mitt. In short, my dad taught me to love baseball, to love the Giants, and to be almost as happy about a Dodger loss as about a Giants win.

My senior picture… in my Giants sweatshirt.

Hugging the stadium after the world series win!

Then, my dad had a heart attack. It was out of the blue. I’m sure most people say that, but this really felt it. He was in good shape, he wasn’t overweight, and he ate a healthy diet. For more on all of that, you can visit the post I wrote about it. While he was in the hospital I did two things to keep myself sane, I wore his watch everywhere, and I added to my bucket list going to another Giants game with my dad. I wasn’t entirely sure it would happen, but I had to believe it.

And on Sunday the 17th of June this year (2012), I went to a Giants game with my dad. Sure, it was in Seattle, but the Giants were playing, and that is what matters! I wish I could say we won, but the Ms got us. However, it was a brilliant game. It came down to the last inning, the last few seconds. It was crazy, good. It would have been better if the Giants had won or the Dodgers had lost (they totally won that day too, the jerks), but I was at a giants game with my daddy, and I’m so glad I get to cross that off my bucket list.

Panorama of Safeco Field in Seattle

Buster Posey at bat!

After the game. See the sadness in our eyes? Yeah…

Before the game… happier campers.

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travel, photography, comics, and life…

It’s been a busy few weeks.

I went to Seattle, and that was great. I spent a far too short weekend with my friends Drew and Andrea and their son Andy. We celebrated Andy’s first birthday. He’s growing up incredibly fast. Sometimes I still lament that they live so far away and not next door (where they used to live), because if they were next door, I would know the little man better. Also, I would get to spend more time with friends that make me happy. The visits are nice though, and I cherish them. We went to Bainbridge Island, ate good food, walked around the city, and spent a lot of time laughing. It was short, but it was refreshing.

Following my whirlwind trip, I got home and cleaned my house like crazy. The same friends I visited ended up staying with me for a few days while they were in town for a funeral. Again, the time was far too short, but it was good to have a little extra time with them, even if the situation was less than ideal.

The day they left, I got busy with final edits for a photography/poetry project I had scheduled with my friend Heidi. Heidi is an amazing photographer, and currently very pregnant. We were running on borrowed time with this project, so there was no room for delay. The photo shoot went well, even if not flawlessly. I’m super excited to see finished pictures and to get some sort of show going for the whole project.

Before I left for Seattle (backtracking, I know) I started a new web comic. Many of you know the story of the last comic, but I don’t feel like rehashing the entire mess that lead to its demise. It wasn’t pretty, and it hurt, and I’m glad to be done with it, moving forward with something new, and having the opportunity to write punchlines once again. For those of you interested, you can find my new comic Jasper and Sally at jasperandsally.com.

I plan on doing more poetry to get up on the blog soon. I have some observation haiku to publish on here, as well as some other things. Also, I’m going back to Seattle in a week, this time to see my mommy and daddy. (HOLY CRAP I CAN’T WAIT TO SEE MY MOMMY AND DADDY!) I have a lot of stuff planned that will be insanely blog worthy.

So yes, things to come on the blog:
Observational Haiku
Possible Other Poetry
Andy’s Amazing First Birthday Party
Baseball
King Tut
General Fun With My Parents

Anyhow, I felt it was time to check in. Write at you again soon!

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geek girl con (the rest)…

Sure, this post is VERY late. But I’m going to comfort myself by saying that late is better than never.

Part 3: Everything Else!

(To be talked about in this post: Cosplayers, swag, food, fun, swooning.)

I’m starting off with a picture of me with Andrea. Why? Because she’s awesome and she (along with her husband) let me stay at her house while I was away from mine! This is us on the monorail (fancy-schmacy) on our way to the EMP for the con!

Cosplayers are my heroes. They have confidence and they want people to notice them. That absolutely blows my mind! I love the idea of cosplaying. I talk about it every now and then. However, my friend Brandi said something that made me second guess myself on that. “They want you to take their picture. That’s why they do it.” Um, *gulp*! I’m not sure if I can live up to that statement, personally. I’ve done a bit of the cosplaying in my time. Well, I’ve done it twice, both times for movie premiers. Here is proof:

Yep, that’s me as an oompa loompa and as a Gryffindor. Here’s the thing though. I did that for me. Not because I wanted attention, but because it was really, really fun. I’m a bit scared to go into public like the con folk in their amazing costumes and have people expect that I want to be photographed. I think that’s one of the areas where my brain is broken. Anyhow, bring on the cosplay photos!



Aren’t those fantastic? I especially enjoy the lady Link and the crocheted Bowser shell.

So, we got really lucky and the Arab Festival was going on at the same time as the con in the same location. This meant that instead of fast food or having to leave to find good food, we got kabob, rice pilaf, hummus, baba ganoush, amazing salad, and baklava. I’m pretty sure I would eat that exact meal at least 3 times a week if I knew where to find it around here. It was amazing!

We had a lot of fun exploring and looking at things. It was exhausting. The first day alone I bought 3 largeish books and a few comics. I had them with me in my backpack all day and by the end of the day my shoulders were killing me. However, I got said books and comics signed by people I adore, and that made it worth it.
I was completely atwitter after meeting Jane Espenson. Seriously people, she wrote for Buffy! She also did episodes for Battlestar Galactica, Firefly, Dollhouse and Gilmore Girls. On top of that, she wrote for Game of Thrones and is currently working on a show I am very excited about: Once Upon a Time. *Swoon* Guys, she talked to me! We had a conversation. She signed copies of a couple of Buffy comics for me that she wrote, and then we chatted about writing and how much I admired what she has done and her ability with words. I felt really, really silly. I acted like a total fangirl. Anyhow, I got to meet writers and they signed things for me and we did lots of things around and about. It was more fun than I can quantify with words. So:

1: A picture of the Space Needle. 2: Brandi getting some awesome eye makeup. 3: Free 5 Hour Energy. It was disgusting and I’m not sure it worked.

Brandi, Andrea, and I chilling with a tiny Tardis and Amelia Pond.

The only thing I really have left to talk about regarding Geek Girl Con is the swag I brought back with me. And there was a lot of it. I bought books, prints, comics, pins, and a vampire. I also walked away with some starter Magic decks that I forgot to photograph because they are getting cozy with the rest of my Magic decks. I got three though: blue, black, and green. Andrea got some too. They were just handed to us at the Card Kingdom booth. Well, actually, we saw the guy give decks to someone else, we loitered for a while, he didn’t offer any to us. Later we went back, engaged him in conversation and scored our own! That’s how the passive aggressive lot gets free stuff! Anyhow, here are pictures of my stuff!

1: The entire pile of stuff. 2: Some comics I grabbed. 3: Vampires from Little Vampires.

1: Books! Wicked, Dreadnaught, Leviathan, Becoming the Villianess, She Returns to the Floating World, and Buffy Comics. 2: Two awesome, little comic books.

1: Little Vampires buttons. 2: Geek Girl Con buttons. 3: Doubleclicks buttons.

That’s about it! I had a blast going up to Seattle and hanging out with Brandi, Andrea, Drew, Andy, and Rachael. It was a fantastic trip! I met great new people, spent a lot of time completely overwhelmed, ate amazing food, and got to explore the city a bit (but that’s another blog). I hope you all enjoyed reading my recaps of the event, and I hope some of you make it next year!

Oh! P.S. I took these pictures today too. This isn’t Geek Girl Con swag, but it is swag from Seattle. Brandi acquired this amazing mustache on a chain for me at PAX, and gave it to me before the concert on night one. It was, at one point, Jonathan Coulton’s mustache, but now it is mine because Brandi is awesome and when he said he didn’t have much use for it, she told him she knew someone that would love it. She was right, I do love it.

1: The awesome mustache. 2: JoCo’s signature on said awesome mustache. 3: Cole’s pirate crocodile rocking my mustache as a pair of glasses because Cole thought it was HILARIOUS.

And this is me and my mustache the night of the concert. I wore it the rest of the night as a necklace. It looked pretty awesome.

Okay, now that’s really all. Bye!

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geek girl con (the events)…

Part 2: Events!

(To be talked about in this post but maybe not in this order because I’m not very good at order: concert, clue, miniature painting, busking, burlesque.)

The night before the con officially began, there was a Geek Girl Concert. Marian Call, The Doubleclicks, and Molly Lewis put on an amazing show for their fans!

The venue was small and it made the show feel less formal and more fun. If someone asked me to describe it, I would probably liken it to a house concert. Intimate, informal, interactive, and a whole lot of laughs and smiles. I went into a bit about each band in my limerick post, so I’m going to make this more about pictures.

(The Doubleclicks, Marian Call, and Molly Lewis sing Marian’s Nerd Anthem at the end of the concert.)

The con itself had a lot of events going on in between panels. One of the ones that we actually made time for was painting miniatures. Card Kingdom, this absolutely amazing game store, put it on, and it was a blast! We got paint everywhere and made our little (free!) miniatures look super awesome.

We’re all so focused! It was serious business, you guys. You have no idea!

Brandi… roll playing? And Andrea smiling at her achievement.

Our little army. Brandi’s on the left, Andrea’s on the right, and mine is Elfface the Magnificent there in the middle. His arms fell off. Well, really, they were chopped off in battle. Yep. He can still bite your face off though!

My poor, little, armless ranger. Seriously. I looked at him wrong, and his arms fell off. My brain is that powerful… Be scared?

In the same room as the painting, there were games being played. The con had organized Magic games and Dungeons and Dragons going. There were tables piled high with Steve Jackson, but we did not participate in those. No, we played Clue. (Brandi brought it all the way to the con from her house.) To be fair, Andrea and I joined in a game that Brandi was playing with Angela and Aubrey. They had planned to play previously and were nice enough to let us in. The first game was won by Angela and the second was taken by Brandi. I didn’t have a chance. I’m still not sure how one is supposed to go about winning that game!

Saturday night Brandi and I went to a burlesque! If you EVER get the chance, I highly recommend you go to one. It was entertaining and fun, and this one was especially awesome because it was centered around the works of Joss Whedon! Whedonesque Burlesque did a great job depicting scenes and characters from Dr. Horrible, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Dollhouse, Angel, and Firefly. The hostess was hilarious as she introduced acts, and a very handsome Captain Hammer kept people laughing all night as he made jokes and frolicked about posing and flexing his muscles. Burlesque not your thing? That’s cool. I loved it! Pictures weren’t allowed (for fairly obvious reasons) but here is a shot of the program sitting on my lap while we were waiting for things to get started!

Finally, I want to talk about busking. That was a new word for me this weekend, so I assume it may be for others as well. It refers to the act of playing music for money on the street. The girls from the concert decided to do a bit of performing outside of the main event center to see what kind of money they could make. I don’t know how it turned out for them, but it was AMAZING for those of us that got to witness it! They put on a great show. Good music, good weather, cosplayers wandering about, and TMBG and JoCo singalongs. What could be better? I took a ton of pictures and tried to pick the best of the best, I also took a few videos, I hope you enjoy!










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