" I Thought These Things Smelled Bad On The Outside"

Hey!

Remember this little nugget of joy from ThinkGeek back on April 1st?

It was only a joke, but a very well-received one. So much so that some folks were going to to even try and make their own 'cause they thought it was so cool.

But check out this:

Tiny frozen Luke inside a dead Tauntaun as a craft project.

(more pictures here)

It's for an art gallery showing at the Bear and Bird Boutique in Florida this coming July.

The showing is called "Stitch Wars" and according to the site's description, it's a "group art exhibition featuring amazing handmade goods inspired by the most fabulous space opera ever made".

I'm sold. Who wants to vacation in Florida during mid-July through August? (Wait... Summer in Florida? On second thought, I'll pass)

(via Super Punch a few days ago)

--------------------

But wait! That's not all!

As if that wasn't enough geektacular news for you, check out this custom Nintendo Wii.

The case has been modified into a Metroid Wii:

(Lots of different pictures of it here)

(also via Super Punch)

Calgary Expo & Banff

Alright, I'll try to wrap this up 'cause it's really gone on longer than I had planned on.
Besides, I'm going to see "Star Trek" this Saturday and I want to be able to talk about that after I watch it.

Sooo....
Not much sleep on Saturday night so on Sunday I was running on fumes.
Thankfully the day was less crowded and therefore less busy.
I grabbed a few people who were volunteering and they were absolutely the best help I could've asked for!
They helped get the lunches out and on time without any problems. YAY!

Palindrome hooked me up and got me a chance to have my picture taken with Jewel Staite.
Thanks man! You're awesome!

I know I look like a dork... but hey, I got my picture with her. I'm a happy camper now.

I also got a few new self-portrait sketches at the show. You can check 'em out here, but here are the artists that drew them:
Sergio Aragones

Dave Johnson

Darwyn Cooke

Bryan Lee O'Malley

Heck! You can go check out all the new sketches I got here.

I went to the auction for the pieces that were in this year's Calgary Expo Artbook to bid on a couple of pieces I had my eyes on. One of them being the Terry Moore piece.
I lost the bid on the second picture I wanted, but after a brief and heated bidding war I won the piece that I really wanted by Terry!
here he is holding it after I won it

It's currently being framed at the moment and will be hanging on my wall soon!

The show wrapped up and everybody went out to a post-show dinner before making the trek out to Banff.

On the way to the lodge, I rode with the Seattle crew (minus Technogreek) and we told some of the most awful, tasteless jokes we could think of. It was good times.

After we got to the lobby to check into our rooms, the kid behind the counter noticed that Josh Ortega was wearing a "Gears of War" T-shirt and commented about it.
When Josh told him, "I'm the guy who wrote the story for that game", that kid practically lost control of all bodily functions.
Then Josh told him who everybody was and the kid geeked out hardcore.
He came up after his shift and hung out with the group that evening and was amazed that he was surrounded by a bunch of comic book professionals. He just kept saying "WOW!".

We went to Canmore on Monday and visited an Ammolite jewelry factory.


Then we had lunch at an incredible beer brewery, the Grizzly Paw. I didn't have any beer, but I did have their hand-crafted root beer which was super-duper!

Above the door of the pub was a warning sign to watch out for bears in town.

It wasn't a joke. The bears have started to get used to seeing people so they aren't afraid to wander around downtown looking for food. In fact ALL of the garbage cans were even bear-proofed to help deter them.
We didn't see any bears on our trip, though.

That evening I watched "Machine Girl" with a few of the guests and laughed our heads off with all the ultra-violent nonsense!

On Tuesday, we went into the town of Banff (for reals, this time).
Technogreek is badass!



It comes in cans?!?



I got dropped off to do some gift buying while others went on to ride the famous gondola.

It was snowing practically the whole time we were in Canmore / Banff and on Tuesday it was not safe to run the gondolas so nobody got to experience it that day.
Instead, they texted me and we met up at another pub for a bite to eat.

Then on to the candy store for... what else? CANDY!!!!

We walked around town some more and I bought a few things for Hotness, my mom, and my niece & nephew that day and then we all headed back to the lodge for a rest.

That evening EVERYBODY headed back into Canmore for dinner at the Grizzly Paw Brewery one more time.

I had an Alberta beef dip with a side of poutine. YUM YUM!
Don't be hatin' the cheesy, gravy goodness!

I also picked up some tasty BBQ sauce that they make there.

Back at the lodge afterwards, everybody was having a good time.
It was the last evening together, and nobody wanted to go to bed.

I played "Rock Band" and "Street Fighter" on the PS3 with a few of the guests.
At one point during a game, Frank Cho walked in wearing a bathrobe (from the room) and watched everybody play for a bit.
Then suddenly, and very non-descriptly, he pulled out a package from his robe pocket and asked "Smoked salmon, anyone?".
Everybody erupted in laughter at the weirdness of it, but Frank just stood there and said, "It's really good. Try some".

After that I went back to my room where a few of the guests were drawing in each other's sketchbooks. Also, Josh Ortega and Liana K. we debating just about ANYTHING that could be debated.
They talked (and drank and talked.....) ALL through the night and into the next day.
It was fun listening to them, but man was I pooped. And I had to catch a plane home that afternoon.

We stayed at the lodge for a while that day packing up.
Some of the folks who hadn't gotten to ride the gondola the day before went back into Banff one more time since it stopped snowing.

Finally we all headed back to Calgary to go to the airport and catch our flights back home.
I remembered to take Dramamine this time, so my airplane ride was just peachy.

We got into Seattle around 6:30 p.m. (local time).
Hotness picked me and couple of other guys up and then dropped me off at my car while she continued on to drop them off where they needed.

I got home. Unpacked most of my bags. Sat down to eat with Hotness.
During dinner, I started slumping over and could barely keep my eyes open.
I finished dinner and went right to bed. I was asleep before my head hit the pillow and I slept for 12 hours straight!

I took the remaining couple of days of the week off from work to so that I didn't have to "jump into the fray" as soon as I got back.
I paid some bills, ran errands and stuff like that.

It was an awesome time but I'm glad to be back home.
I'm already looking forward to going again next year (hopefully), though.




Well, I hope I didn't bore you to death and I'm sorry it took so long to post about the trip (and that it took so MANY posts to do it).

The Trip Up

Okay......

I'll have to break this up, but I'll start with the first few days before the convention.

I worked a full day on Monday. Tidied up everything on my desk and tried to tie-off any loose ends before I left. Got home that evening and packed my bags and then waited until it was time to leave the next day.

My flight wasn't until mid-afternoon on Tuesday, but I'd taken the whole day off so I wouldn't be rushed.

On Tuesday, I loaded my car and headed out to the Comic Stop to meet up with Technogreek, who was also flying up with me that day. I grabbed some lunch and hung out with him while he packed.

Then we took off for the airport.

The flight went well.

I don't "hate" to fly, but taking off and landing always make me a bit uneasy.

Taking off from Sea-Tac wasn't a problem though and the hour-plus flight was pretty smooth.

That is, until we got closer to Calgary.

About 20 minutes before we were to land, the plane hit a lot of turbulence and really made me uncomfortable.

I thought I was just really hot, as I started feeling very warm and was sweating quite a bit, but I was getting motion-sickness.

As it turns out, I had forgotten to take the Dramamine I brought with me before my flight.

So by the time we landed it was all I could to to get through customs without barfing.

I made it okay and our ride picked us up and went out for dinner.

I was feeling quite queasy, so I didn't eat anything. I took the Dramamine (I figured, "What the heck. It couldn't hurt now") and hoped for the best.

Things started to settle in my stomach and I actually ate an ice cream bar later that evening before calling it a night and going to bed.

The next day was pretty calm. I was feeling much better and there wasn't a lot to do for the Expo quite yet.

We sort of lounged around the house and then went for a late breakfast nearby.

I had chocolate sourdough French toast with blueberry syrup.

Oh. My. Goodness. It was sooo yummy!

We then walked over to Redd Skull Comics and met up with Kelly. (a friend and part-promoter for the Calgary Expo)

After that, we went back to the house until it was time to pick up a couple of people from the airport.

It was starting to snow about this time and didn't stop the rest of the day. It didn't accumulate much, but considering it was close to May I thought it very unusual.

That evening we went out for some chicken wings with Froggy and then back to the house to watch the end of a Calgary Flames game on TV.

Like I said not very eventful, but a fun day nevertheless.

Thursday was when the rest of the Seattle crew was to arrive and we actually spent the better part of this day doing prep work for the Calgary Expo.

I was trimming black cardboard for framing the art prints, helped stuff some badges and things like that.

That evening, we went to dinner at a fancy-shmancy restaurant called "Saltlik".

Honestly, for the price I thought it was just okay. My food was good, but my steak was a bit more "rare" than I normally like.

The drinks however were wonderful. I had a tequila, pomegranate and lime concoction and would've been just fine drinking them all by themselves for dinner!

Other than that, not too much else to really talk about. Just lots of little things to do before the show took place that Saturday & Sunday, so we did some more prep work before calling it a night.

Friday was when the shenanigans began in earnest, so I'll return with tales about that in my next post.

Hanging Out And Staying Up Late

So I'm sitting in my room at 4:00 a. m. and there are 7 other people still hanging out in here with me.
It's the last day of "vacation" in Banff and nobody wants it to end so they aren't wanting to go to bed.

I'm looking forward to coming home (sort of) and blogging about my Calgary trip, but right now I'm just killing time listening to Josh Ortega talk (and talk and talk.....) while some of the artists are drawing in each others sketch books.
There's a Latin guitar CD playing in the background with a cover of the "Spider-Man" cartoon theme on one of the tracks.

I'd like to say to I want to go to bed, but really... I don't.
This is fun.
Hanging out in the room, listening to people in the comics business just be themselves without the typical convention type of conversation.

Well, hopefully I can sneak my sketchbook onto the table and get something while they're drawing.
We'll see........

Leavin' On A Jet Plane

But I do know when I'll be back again.

I'm all packed (early for once, can you believe it?) and just waiting until I have to leave to catch my ride to the airport.
I'm charging up my phone batteries, loading up my iPod, grabbing books and stuff I want to get signed, and just enjoying the extra time off I have from work to do all of it.

This evening Technogreek & I are flying up to Calgary a few days early before the Expo.
We'll be joined by a few other Seattle volunteer alumni in a couple more days.

Last year's trip was hard work but a fun experience.
At least this year I'll be going into it with an idea of what to expect so I don't think it'll be too bad.
Plus I'll have the added bonus of seeing Terry Moore again! (Woo-hoo!)
Hopefully I'll be bringing back some cool new art. (And not just from him)
I'm also hoping to get my picture taken with Jewel Staite, since I wasn't able to at ECCC this year, so if that works out it'll be a nice addition to my wall.

So not really anything to blog about right at the moment.
Just letting you ya'll know that I'll be offline for a few days, but to expect lots of fun pictures and a convention report when I return.
If you read this and want to text me (and have my phone number), feel free.
I won't be answering any phone calls however.

In the meantime, be good to one another and GO OUTSIDE AND ENJOY THIS AWESOME SUNSHINE!!!!

Peace out.

Oooooo.... Must Have

Only 8 more weeks to go before I take off for for the Great White North.

Over on Terry Moore's blog, he posted this picture of the art he submitted for the Calgary Expo sketchbook:

The orignal art will be up for auction during the show.

Guess who's going to be bidding on it? (Wish me luck!)

Weekend Update

Nothing amazing to report from the weekend. Just thought I'd catch ya'll up on things.

On Friday I got some DVD's that I ordered on Amazon.
Tokyo Gore Police
Meatball Machine
Irreversable

I haven't watched the first two yet, but a review will be forthcoming once I get a chance for them.

The third movie, though, I did watch that evening.
It's hard to say whether it was a really good movie or not-so-great. It was a foreign film, so those are usually a bit 'artsy' and kind of subjective to each person's tastes.
I will tell you this;
It's a French film, and it's presented in reverse order. Meaning, that you see the ending (credits and all) and then watch as the movie moves backwards to see how it ended the way it did.
One of the downsides (for me) is that it is filmed in that jerky, constant movement type of camera-style. So especially at the beginning of the movie (or actually the "end") the camera moves around. A LOT.
Not very easy to watch and read subtitles and keep track of what's happening onscreen. Especially when you're as prone to motion-sickness as I am.
It does taper off and become more steady as the film moves backwards towards the beginning.

There is one scene in particular that is very difficult to watch right near the middle.
It's a rape scene and it is fucking brutal. I was uncomfortable watching it, even though I know they are actors and it wasn't real. In fact part of it was digital effects. Still, it's not pretty and it'll make you squirm, hoping that it ends quickly... which it doesn't.

Would I recommend this movie?
Only if you're into foreign films that are sort of avant-garde, and you don't mind a bunch of unsteady camera movement.
The sound track is pretty good. One of the members of Daft Punk did the music for a club scene, so it's got that going for it.
Plus.. it has Monica Bellucci. And her ta-ta's. That's a bonus.
But the ending (which you start at) is messed up for sure, and that rape scene is really hard to get over even when you're done watching the movie.
------------------------
Saturday, I went into Lynnwood and met up with Elwood for lunch.
We went to Red Robin and grabbed burgers and just caught up with each other.
Then we went back to the Comic Stop for a bit and while we were hanging out there a couple of people came in to pimp their locally produced comic book based on a post-apocolyptic zombie attack.
Yes. I said zombies. Way cool.

I don't know much about the book other that it's a photo-comic, much like "Crater on the Moon" or "Dorothy" and it's written and produced right here in Washington.
It's called "Night Zero".
You can check out more about it on their website. Or, if you're coming to ECCC this year you can check it at out their booth.

That evening, I went over to the neighbor's and we ate pizza and watched the first couple of episodes of "The Dollhouse".
I liked it, but only a couple of shows into it I'm not overwhelmed yet. I think I'd like to see how it develops more before making a real opinion of it. It was brainless fun to watch though.
-----------------------------
Sunday I spent doing laundry and dishes before Hotness came back home.
Really exciting. Oh yeah.
I did manage to go through my T-shirts and bagged up a bunch of ones I no longer wear or have been hanging onto for years (but just couldn't get rid of).
I managed to clear out at least a drawer and a half which is pretty impressive.

Then I made a calzone for dinner and watched "Secretary" before calling it a night and going to bed.
--------------------------
Today Hotness came back home.
Her mom's health is continuing to deteriorate, but she wasn't able to stay any longer.
Her brother is taking over the duties of being there and will fill us in as the days continue to go by. Unfortunately and thankfully it won't be much longer.

My niece and nephew got back from their little mid-winter vacation... and they brought their parents back with them.
I'm looking forward to seeing them all soon and hearing all about their trip.

And that brings us up-to-date.
I hope you all had a good weekend and were able to make the best of it.

Brush With Fame

And by "brush" I mean hardly even close... but you'll see.
-------------------------------

A couple of years back, while working in the front office, I got a call one afternoon;
*brrrrring!*
Me: "Hello, Company X. How can I help you?"
Customer: "Yeah, do you carry brand Y inserts for sheet metal?"
M: "Do you have a particular part number for the one you're looking for?"
C: "Well, I need it to have X threads and be X long. I'm thinking maybe part number 123xyz."
M: "Let me see." (tappity-tap on the keyboard) "Um, no I don't but I can check with the factory about getting some. How many did you need?"
C: "I only need a few, like maybe a handful. About 8-10 pcs."
M: "Hmmm... well that wouldn't be enough for a minimum from them but I can see about getting some as samples for you. Can I get your name and a number to reach you back at?"
C: "Yeah. It's Anthony. Anthony Ray. My number is xxx-xxxx. That's my cell so if I don't answer just leave a message."
M: "Alright, I'll call you back and let you know what I find out."
*click*


So I call the mfgr. and order up some samples and have them sent out to us via the U.S. mail.
I called the customer back, "Hi Anthony? I'm just calling to let you know that they were able to send out some samples for you. They're coming out in the mail so we'll probably have them in about a week. We'll give you a call when they get here and you can pick them up or we'll ship them out to you."
Customer: "Alright, thanks. I appreciate you getting back to me. I'll look forward to hearing from you when they come in."


Cut to a week later~
I'm in Montana with Hotness on vacation. We're sitting in an Arby's having lunch when her cell phone rings.
She picks it up, "Hello? Yeah he is. Just a second" and she hands it to me.
It's one of my co-workers and he says, "You will never guess who was here to see you!"
"You're right I won't. So who?" I said.
"Sir Mix-A-Lot! He was just here to pick up parts you ordered as samples for him!" he says.
"Uh.... yeah. I'm on vacation so thanks for the trying to joke but I'm going to get back to my lunch", I said and then hung up.

A minute later the phone rings again. This time it's G-rod.
"Hey man, we're serious! Sir Mix-A-Lot was just here and picked up the parts you got in for him. He signed one of your worksheets on your desk. He asked where you were, but we told him you were on vacation so he left you an autograph. You TOTALLY missed him dude!"

Then it hit me that Anthony Ray is his real name. It never occurred to me before, because after all... who's expecting Sir Mix-A Lot to call up and order samples of threaded inserts?
He showed up at my work and I totally missed him.

Here's the autograph that he left on my desk:


So that's my close brush with a famous celebrity.

-----------------------------------------------------------

In case you need a refresher, here's what Mix-A-Lot likes:

Missoula pt. 2 - Everything Else

The rest of our time in Missoula was a blur of activity punctuated with moments of nothing.

Without getting all wordy on ya, I'll just point out some highlights.

Having survived the trip out there without having my tires blow-out, we went to Les Schwab and got my wheels aligned and a couple of new tires... for $200 LESS than I was quoted in Washington before I left.
It paid to make the trip there instead of waiting to have it done before we left.

Hotness's brother was in town for a couple of reasons.

1) He was there to attend their mother's 'living wake'.

2) He had to have some surgery done, and came back to Missoula to have it taken care of.

While he was there, we went out for sushi:

and ice cream:

and lunch with their mom and friends:

Hotness and I had crepes again at Liquid Planet.

Yummy!

We also hung out at her mom's and acted like idiots:

Me more so than the others I guess.

We got an endorsement for Obama from Hotness's mom. (She's a big supporter)

------------------------------------------

One night, Hotness and I went to a bar (actually it was kind of a 'dive') to get a drink.
It was a particularly weird afternoon so we thought we'd cap the day off by adding alcohol to the mix.

I was able to sample something I've been wanting to try for quite some time.... ABSINTHE.

(Also known as the Green Fairy.)

It was definitely something you want to try before plunking down big wads of cash to buy a bottle.

I liked it, but Hontess did not.

To me it was sort of reminescent of Jagermeister (but not as 'syrupy' or sweet) and it sort of burned as it went down like tequila.
In fact, Ouzo is probably a better example of what it was like, except the anise flavor was amped up to 11 so it kind of stuck with you the rest of the evening.

Unfortunately I did not experience any hallucinogenic dreams, but I was feeling mighty good after three shots!

------------------------------------------------

Last year we were surrounded by wildfires that settled into the Missoula Valley and left a smoky haze the whole time we were there.

Not so this time. It had been a nice wet spring, so things were very green when we got there and the skies were clear and blue.

That is... until some kids were playing with fireworks and set the side ot Mt. Sentinel on fire.

Hotness and I were leaving the house we stayed at late one afternoon when I noticed smoke billowing up to the sky.

We took a detour and followed it until we saw where the fire was.

In about 2 hours almost 300 acres were burned.

The firefighters were streched thin due to the other fires in California that are being battled, but they managed to get it under control by the next evening without anybody getting hurt and no property damage involved.

-----------------------------------------------

Our last full day in Missoula was finished off with a 'living wake' for Hotness's mom.

She's battling ovarian cancer and has decided to opt out of chemo to fight it off.
She wanted to see all her friends and loved ones before she dies (which to be honest may not really be all that soon so this could be the first of many 'annual living wakes'... but I digress).

All went well.
There were about 100 people that showed up and she got to talk with almost all of them.

Some people sang songs while others played music in honor of her.

I met a few new people as Hotness and her brother introduced me to them.

The 'wake' lasted for a few hours, but finally we had to call it a day and head home.

Hotness and I retired to a motel outside of town for the evening, as there was a marathon the next morning and several local roads would be closed, making our exit from town kind of problematic.

We said our goodbyes and then left early the next morning and got back home in the late afternoon.

We had an enjoyable time, but it's good to be back home again.

Missoula pt.1 - Headin' Out

We got up early on Saturday morning after the 4th of July, got coffee, and headed out east to the Old West (Uh.. what?)

The car was packed the night before, so it didn't take long to get going.

The trip was pretty uneventful thankfully.

I had tried to take my car in to get the tires rotated before we left, only to find out that I had an alignment problem and they wouldn't do it.

In fact, the guy at Les Schwab said, "I wouldn't drive all that way out there until I got this fixed. You should get it fixed and then get a couple of new tires before you go."

I told him I wasn't about to postpone my vacation until they could make an appointment for me to get my car in to them and that I would just have to take my chances and deal with it out in Montana. So I swapped the two front tires and hoped they wouldn't blow out on me during the 500 miles we had to drive.

With gas prices being what they are, I thought it would be easier on our wallets to bring lunch with us so we only had to stop for gas when we needed it and not food.

That worked out pretty well as we only needed to stop for gas just once right as we got into Spokane.

We ate lunch at a rest stop near Sprague Lake and were surrounded by seagulls who weren't about to take any crap from us if we didn't give them any food.

They sat around and squawked and kept inching closer while we ate. I got up a couple of times to shoo them away, only to have them move right back as I sat down again.

After we ate, we figured we'd better get out of there before they decided to mob us. So we threw away our trash (which the gulls were keeping a very watchful eye on) and got back on the road.

Hotness slept the majority of the trip, which was fine.

I hadn't told her about the issue with the tires and I figured it was better to have her asleep than to stress about it and keep bugging me.

We got to St. Regis and then took a different road into St. Ignatius where we were going to stop first for a couple of days.

This other highway paralleled I-90 but with a lot more twists and turns, so it was a nice change of pace from what we usually drive through into Missoula.

We got into St. Ignatius and were driving to their place when we got stuck behind a tractor towing a trailer after it. The road was too narrow to go around so I dropped back a bit and just followed until we got to the house where our friends lived.

By this time Hotness had to go to the restroom and slow-poking along behind tractor boy was not helping.

We got to an intersection where we needed to turn right.

Awesome! This guy is going straight so I'll lose him and we can get there.

Oops, no. He turned right also.

Well, I'll go around him now since the road is a bit wider.

Yeah THAT worked out until he started to turn left in front of me!

I guess he didn't see me behind him because he didn't use a signal. I didn't think he was going to turn since I didn't see any signal. So it was a bit of an awkward moment.

Luckily my car is small and nimble, so when he jerked to a stop I zipped around and kept going.

... all while a wagon full of Amish folk were watching. Way to go city-slicker.

We got to our friends place and called it good. We made it in one piece.

The tires were still intact and we didn't get run over by farm equipment.

It was about 7:00 p.m. local time, so we sat around for a bit catching up and they built a fire in the fire pit so we could make hotdogs for dinner.

We were treated to a wonderful sunset:

The next day we got up and had breakfast, then went out to see their herd of cattle and run a few errands.

After that we got some ice cream from Dairy Queen and went back to their house where everybody but me took a nap.

I opted to wander around their 40-acres and take some pictures.

A little later, a couple of their grandkids showed up and we ate dinner outside again before calling it a day.

On Monday morning Hotness and I got up and got our stuff back into the car so we could finish driving to Missoula that day.

We had breakfast, said our goodbyes and took off.

Along the way, we passed the trees that got burned in last year's fire that we were there for.

This year hadn't been as dry as last year, so the fire danger was much lower.

We pulled into Missoula and got settled at another friend's house where we were staying for a few days before heading over to see Hotness's mom (or Hotness 1.0).

Also her brother was in town (this will be explained later) so we made plans to meet up with him for lunch that day.

And pretty much that was it for the first three days.

Alot more happened afterwards, but I'll put them into another post soon.