Con Coma is Real - Cosplay Confusion

So as I write this it is Saturday afternoon. Thursday night we people watched and made it to the midnight countdown, barely, I mean around 11:45 we were begging for the clock to move faster. Yesterday (Friday) we spent the day in the gaming area, participating in paint and take a fun tradition, and even got to the Art Show this year for the first time. 

Today was spent browsing the vendor hall, and eating and adult beverages at the Hard Rock. Of course there was people watching and photos of some of our favorite costumes throughout each day. Not to mention the walking so... much....walking. 

I just woke up from a nap, some might call it in the Con Coma but I believe that hit yesterday and hit hard. Upon returning to our hotel on Friday afternoon (around 5pm) we got in comfortable clothes and that was all she wrote. By 7 we were snoring up a storm and by 10 we were settling in for the night. At one point I thought about getting dressed and going to the pool but that seemed like a LOT of effort so I continued to lay there. I think I’d still be asleep if my alarm hadn’t gone off this morning.

I rolled into Atlanta with two costume options. A half ass version of Super Grover just cause I thought it would be funny. It was a last minute pull together which is why I say it’s half assed. My boss texted me Wed to say I had left the print out of the Super Grover logo on the printer so well I already messed that one up. I also have a pretty decent Marvin the Martian. That one I put some effort into. It’s really kind of cute. I haven’t worn either. As you know readers I have a love hate relationship with Cosplay. I look around the convention and want to participate but then I see things like this …..

Or this ….

And this ….. 

And think my costume seems sad and pathetic now and so I don’t wear it. I feel like it cheapens everything else that I see. I’m sure it doesn’t cause I’ve seen things that are way worse than anything I’ve tried to put together and there are some who are testing the limits of spandex. So maybe one day I’ll decide to follow through with the Cosplay but there’s also the possibility that I’ll be the one in a dorky T watching all the awesomeness go by.

Even if I don’t use Marvin here at the Con, we are doing a Trunk or Treat at Church so I can wear him there. So he won’t go entirely to waste, at least that’s what I keep telling myself. I really need to make the eye holes bigger so I’ll actually be able to see.

Thanks, 
Marcy
@beaslma

Random Thoughts

So it’s been a while since I posted and it’s not that I haven’t been thinking of you guys or wanting to post but it’s just …. I have so many things I want to write about that all of it ends up a jumbled mess in my head … this happens on occasion and I have decided it’s time for another random thought’s post so that I can think like a normal human being again.

Adulting

I’ve talked a few times on this blog about being an adult and how I try so very hard to not be an adult however I am one. I went on vacation last week to the beach. On my way home from the office on my last day of work before my trip I stopped at the local liquor store to buy supplies. Upon getting home some 4 days later I was unpacking to realize I NEVER OPENED MY SUPPLIES. However that didn’t bother me as much as it hit me that I didn’t even think about opening my supplies. Like really? That bottle is still in the brown paper sack I took it home from the store in. That’s messed up on so many levels. If that weren’t enough, tomorrow we get a new employee and my boss will be at another office so I get the job of showing her around the office, getting her hooked up with HR, telling her what we do, and showing her where she can find things. Like I’m the 2^nd in command. Which I guess I was aware of but now it seems more official. That sounds like a job for a grown up …. Am I that person?! When did that happen? That sounds so …. Responsible.

DragonCon/Cosplay

So it is July …. You know what that means … it’s time for that all important decision …. To Cosplay or not Cosplay and why is that so hard for me? I always think of these ideas and then decide they are dumb or no one would get them or I’d never be able to do them justice so I decide not to do them. Then I get to DragonCon and boom there’s the costumes that I thought about or I’m reminded that everything is fair game at DragonCon. It is not uncommon to see amazing cosplay, as well as mediocre cosplay and blow your mind cosplay and it’s all ok. Last year I saw several Quail Man costumes, something I thought about then decided no one would remember or get it. This year I’m thinking about Daria from MTV days when you know MTV showed music and only a few other programs. I also thought about something that will allow me to use my new awesome chair Golden got me for my birthday/Christmas. I also thought about Jeanette Miller from the Chipmunks. I can totally pull that off nerdy girl who loves books.  However I know me, I’ll make all these plans, get up there and chicken out. I like to blend into the wall and in costume that’s not really what it’s about. Golden’s better at this Cosplay thing than I am. She’s better at a lot of things than I am but I don’t want to give her a big head. Maybe as DragonCon nears I can get Golden back on this blog … what do you say @theonlygolden ?

Travel and fun with Friends

As part of my New Year’s Resolutions at the end of 2016 I wanted to travel more, and spend more time with friends. So far I’m making good on that promise. Earlier this year with my friend Christina and I made the trip to Auburn for the weekend and traveling with her is always an adventure and fun. Of course I went to Birmingham in May for Golden’s birthday and got to hang with her and Marible. I just returned from a trip to nearby Orange Beach to see Journey with my friend Katie, at the end of Aug/Sep we will be going to DragonCon with Golden, in November I’m also going to Disney with Golden, and today I added to my itinerary with a tip to Nashville in October with my friend Christina to see Ed Sheeran for whom I've gone straight stupid for. I’m super excited about this trip. It’s been a while since I went to a full on concert in an arena and we have awesome seats. I am fighting my fear of the world by going out and about and putting myself into situations that normally make me nervous and scared. I have decided we are all going to die someday, I might as well be happy while I’m here and not have regrets, well not have a lot of regrets anyway. Besides fear of the unknown is no fun ... right. Now I just need to work on the writing thing.

Prayers for this nation and yes even this President

I’ve thought on several occasions about writing an open letter to our current sitting President but know he’d never see it, even if someone could read it to him, so I think it’s a giant waste of my time. However, every time his orange ass is on my TV or in an article I’m reading I am once again reminded of the point of letter. For full disclosure, I didn’t vote for him, I don’t care for him, but he’s what I have ended up with. That being said I need him to succeed and before you all grab the pitch forks and for a riot let me explain. If he can pull this off then the idea that anyone can be president lives on. Granted that person has to have money and there are limitations on who can and can’t be president but if he tanks it, and it looks like he’s going too, then for the rest of our lives anytime someone “outside of the box” runs for office they will point to his big orange ass to explain why that’s a bad idea. It’s not a Republican VS Democrat thing it’s a human vs human thing. Let me also add that I trust Trump far more than Pence and if the powers that be that are trying to impeach Trump win then we end up with Pence and I’m not sure that’s a world I want to live in. So I need everyone to relax and let’s see what this dumbass can accomplish before you know he nukes us all into non-existence.

Social Media/Elevation of the current rhetoric  
As some of you may or may not know during Lent this past year I gave up social media in general. No twitter, no facebook, no Instagram, no notifications, all I kept going was e-mail. It was everything I dreamed that it could be. It’s been about 4 months and part of me wants to go back. I purged a lot of my “follow” list when I got back on all my social media platforms and I definitely don’t use it like I did before the “break” but there are days where it’s still too much bullshitting and this person bitching about this and that person bitching about that and these guys over here wanting to bitch about something else and the others complaining that no one gives a shit about what they want to bitch about. Here’s the thing… it’s a giant world out there and we are all allowed to have different opinions the issue is when we completely dismiss the difference of opinion simply because it’s not mine. That being said the way we dismiss one another also upsets me. While in college I took a Rhetoric class and I remember telling the teacher that I thought people were being too sensitive about it, sometimes a writer talking about a dog is just that a dog. I want to go an apologize to that teacher now. I’m witnessing it first hand on a daily basis. it’s not that we have intelligent arguments that could sway the person being talked to, no that might make too much sense. Instead we use juvenile name calling and hastags to belittle and attack one another and then those same people bitch because our President is doing the same thing on a daily basis. Our children are watching people, well not my children cause I don’t have any but my nephews for sure. They see us acting like childish bullies on the internet and then we wonder why they are doing the same. Let’s elevate the conversation or not have it at all. It starts with us and Social Media is key to this change.  

I’m sure there are more but for now this is enough …. Thank you for letting me have my brain back.

Marcy

@beaslma

Dragon Con Coma

Sorry for lack of tweets for this year’s DragonCon there just honestly hasn’t been time, well ok there might have been time but that time was spent sleeping. Like for real I’ve been sleeping most of the afternoon/evening. I’d feel bad about that but my body loved every second of it.

While I have chosen to forgo Cosplay this year, it always amazes me the amount of Cosplay around me, some expected like movie characters (Captain America, Ironman, Spiderman, The Joker, Batman, any and every single character’s from Star Wars, well you get the picture ….), then some refreshing characters that I didn’t expect like Roger and Jessica Rabbit, or Quailman from the TV show Doug, whom I’m sad to report I didn’t get a picture of, from Nickelodeon. . Speaking of Nickelodeon I also saw some contestants from Legends of the Hidden Temple and another group as the contestants from Guts. 90’s Nick for the Win! :D

However it was the truly unexpected that amazed me, like SheRa and Rainbow Brite with a full size Sprite. I really wanted to get a hug from Baymax but he was covered up by everyone so i just watched from afar. I also  didn’t expect to see so many from the Back To the Future franchise. Not because it’s not a great movie trilogy but because I just didn’t expect it to get so much love. Then there was the group of Amish guys whom I still haven’t figured out. I also loved seeing so many Agent Carter characters because I love that the series is getting that much love.

Once again the creativity of the Con has overwhelmed me. The effort and creativity around me fascinates me and until I’m in it I forget that there are really no rules whatever and whomever you want to be is what you should do, unless you can’t decide that’s when the struggle gets real, or you just go with a  costume for all seasons like this young man who may be the smartest of us all.

Tomorrow will be a full day of fun and more costume watching so I’m going back to sleep …. Night night.

-marcy

Cosplay is not my forte

Don’t get me wrong I love Cosplay I really do but it’s like a LOVE/HATE relationship. It’s weird cause I totally LOVE Halloween. I love the idea that for one night I can literally be anything that I want. I mean one year for Halloween I made a Dog costume because my nephew who was going to be SpiderMan that year said SpiderMan needed a dog. So Dave the dog was born. I had a blast doing that, yet can’t seem to get geared up for DragonCon Cosplay. I don’t understand why other than the pressure to do something really good or not at all...

Something like …. Say … this …. I mean whose brain comes up with something like this?

Or this …. I don't even want to know how many hours this took to create

Or this …I wasn't even sure what this was but it was cool!

There are several things wrong with this pressure however….

1. I like to be comfortable and walking around Atlanta at the end of August/early September just sounds HOT right now and I’m talking temperature hot. Like it’s stupid hot outside and a costume with wigs and outfits just sounds suffocating, especially when you start thinking about accessories.
2. Have you ever tried to get in the back of an Uber car in a costume? How about on the bus? When not staying at a host hotel it’s just damn inconvenient. I want to be comfortable, I want to enjoy the Con, I want to look at all the pretty people and be in awe of their talents. These people btw are insanely talented if you've never been to one of these that's the thing that strikes you the most the amount of talent that Hollywood is letting go to waste!
3. Anything over a size XL looks like a queen’s dress or some long velvet dress from the mid-ages, or tries to "make a big girl sexy!" I’m not sexy, never going to be sexy, don't no body want to see this body, and again a long velvet dress of say the Queen of England is not in my mind true Cosplay. Plus as I said before it’s too fucking hot for a velvet dress.
4. I’d much rather be the person at the Con in jeans and a super hero T carrying around my camera taking pictures of all the awesome Cosplayers on the "display floor" of the host hotel. As I’ve said on numerous occasions I don’t like being the center of attention, I HATE having my picture made so to wear some Cosplay that gets attention would be awful. If I’m not wearing it to get attention when what’s the point?
5. Cosplay, when done right, is time consuming. I have run out of time to put some real effort into a costume at this point and to half ass it seems, just well wrong. We won’t even discuss the amount of money people spend on their Cosplay because if I could buy a decent looking costume that wouldn't mean trading in my car, thus not being able to get to the Con, I’d totally do it. That’s not lazy that’s just smart!
6. People can tell when you are phoning it in. Not all costumes have to be elaborate and have electronics involved but if you just put on a hoodie and a mask in my opinion you are just announcing the fact that you didn’t want to put the effort into this but you wanted to participate. I don’t know it just seems disrespectful to the people who have been working on their costumes since they woke up from their Con Coma last year.

So basically dear reader this post is my confession to Golden and our DragonCon crew that this year I will not be wearing any costumes. This is NOT a call to Golden and our crew to CREATE me a costume, PLEASE for the love of all that is holy don’t! I want to enjoy the Con, I want to walk around for a few days in jeans and a t-shirt, comfortable shoes, and just enjoy being with some awesome people. I want to take pictures, I want to share those pictures, and I want to enjoy my vacation stress free (stress less?). I also, if I’m making a want/wish list, want the DragonCon people to give the Windows Phone users an app that we can utilize throughout the Con, I want to stay in a host hotel next year, and lastly I want to watch DragonCon TV in an overflow hotel. I don't believe that I'm asking for too much here!

So until next time friends, I'll be the one in the Coulson/Fury T-shirt standing off to the side holding her camera and smiling at all the pretty!

-marcy

Halloween is near....

This is NOT the post you are looking for ….

So earlier today I started a piece of fiction. Yeah that’s right I’m writing again. I’m still pretty medicated and after reading it again decided it wasn’t ready to post. It’s far too long, and way more ramble like than I’d like for it to be as it goes onto the interwebs for anyone to find. So I’m going to keep working on it and will share it with you all one day, just not today, maybe not tomorrow and frankly maybe never. However if it’s not this piece it will be another, that’s the thing about writing as you write it you either get a good vibe from what you wrote or you delete the file and pretend it never existed. That’s the great thing about writing. IF I don’t tell anyone I’m doing it then no one is disappointed when I don’t produce. Mental note to self don’t tweet that you are writing cause then the pressure and expectation is on and writers block takes over.

Since Dragon Con I’ve been sick, not as bad as Golden but then I’m not a Medical Marvel. Between my cough medicine, the 4 shots, and the 3 antibiotics I’m on it’s amazing I can even string a sentence together. I’m felt more human this weekend than I have in the last two weeks. I had to get up this Saturday and run some important errands which wore me out by the end of the day. This sickness is getting old. Like Golden as of Sunday I was still looking at suitcases with un-worn clothes still in them, I just haven’t had the energy or time with a crazy work schedule to get them unpacked. I did do laundry this weekend and changed the sheets on my bed so that’s a win for me.

As I said I also ran some errands … and what did I discover as I ventured back out into the world … HALLOWEEN had sprung. Ok sure most of it was CANDY but still I like candy. Walmart had some costumes out, ironically some of the adult sizes. Nothing was on the floor yet, everything in a neat and tidy place cause little hands hadn’t found the isle yet. I also discovered the Spirit store is set up and has started loading all their Halloween goodness into the stores. That’s a small parking lot, it’s going to be a nightmare and I can’t wait for it. I haven’t ventured to Party City yet, the mecca of all things costume but yes I can feel that trip coming and coming soon.

What I’m most excited about is that TV Networks are starting to post their October plans. I’m looking at you ABC Family, AMC, and Syfy. I LOVE IT! This is the earliest they’ve revealed this information. Usually this time of year they are focused on their season premier week and promoting their “new shows” hoping they will be the next big thing. Truthfully with no How I Met Your Mother premier who cares what’s coming on. However last night …. FOOD NETWORK HAD A COMMERICAL FOR HALLOWEEN WARS!!!!! It returns October 5th !!! It's by far my most favorite thing on earth. It’s a pumpkin carver, a sugar artist, and a cake decorator who will work together to make a cohesive design for the given theme of the week. IT’s by far the best reality competition show on TV seriously … watch it…fall in love with it. It doesn’t hurt that Justin Willman is the host of the show, he’s awesome and fantastic. BTW he has a new show coming up on Comedy Central Sleight of Mouth but don't worry i'll tell you all about that when he does. It too will be must see TV!

So why all this interest in October TV, cause I create a Halloween TV schedule. It’s funny cause it started out as something I did for Golden and myself, then I gave it to my Sister In Law for my nephews, and she gave it to a few people and then they gave it to a few people and now there’s an huge email list of people this thing goes to. People who I work with send me an e-mail asking about it, people I used to work with who send me e-mails reminding me to put them on the list. Heck Golden starts asking about it in August. Ha! It’s a mixture of Movies, Halloween themed TV shows, cartoons both classic and new and a little adult/kid mix. I also make one for Christmas but it’s gotten insane with Hallmark and Lifetime doing everything they can to extend the season well before Halloween.

So stay tuned cause this year I’ll be posting it here so that you can enjoy it, if interested. There are rules…as always but we’ll deal with those later!

Happy Monday! Have a fantastic week! - Marcy

Day 2 recap -Friday funday ‏

Friday was the day! Most people have checked in and gotten dressed. Time to turn up! There are a lot of celebrities at DragonCon and in the city of Atlanta this weekend. There are celebrities here that carry a very impressive body of work and are worth standing in line for. But so far there has been nothing more impressive than the level of Cosplay!

It ranges from people who tinkered around on their old sewing machine at home to people who have fully involved electronics. But at whatever level, beginner to professional, everybody has worked hard and is proud of their artwork!

 

  

Somebody asked how you decide who or what you want to be. I think the answer is that you pick what calls to you. Whatever you find that has a little part of itself worked into who you are, and when you create your vision, you end up putting yourself into your character. It's a full circle of beauty and everyone is beautiful!

I am just one out of four of our group. I was concerned that Maribel would be the least interested of us. Prior to coming she showed no interest in costuming. The only costume we could talk her into wasn't even picked out by her. Alex and I put it together, she was just going to endure it. Her only prerequisite was that we didn't make her look stupid or stand out. She sings a different tune now. I wish I could have captured the look on her face when she saw a fully mechanical, musical Optimas Prime. Halfway thru the day she was begging for us to create a costume for her to look amazing and stand out. Ah what 24hours can do to a person.

DragonCon is great about bringing celebrities and well known persons to this city but so far it's been worth coming just for the Cosplay alone. If all I do all weekend long is party and watch Cosplayers preform, it will have been money well spent. Seeing some of my favorite tv and movie personalities is just icing on the cake!

-Golden @theonlygolden

It Begins.....

So today is my last day of work before my weeklong vacation starts! It's probably the closest thing to senior-itis I experience as a grown ass adult. I just have to get through today. While I'm working, Marcy is en route to my house. It's supposed to take like 6 hours for her to get here but she makes it in 4, OK FINE 4.5 incase her parents stumble onto this blog. Safety first. We will wake Thursday and head to Atlanta for the amazing DragonCon.

I'm packed, well as packed as I'm gonna be. I will either be adequately dressed or running around Atlanta sans pants, only time will tell. The suitcase is closed and zipped so there is no going back. I have my themed outfits ready. I say "themed outfits" because I have seen cosplay that would blow your mind! This ain't it. I am in awe of the artists that produce such elaborate pieces. Essentially I just want to play dress-up and that's what I intend to do.

I will be dressing as the TARDIS because I'm a lover of Doctor Who. I will be dressing as sleepy kitty for the Arthur Dent Pajama Party. I will be hitting up the zombie prom. I will be Princess Darth Vader, just because I live on the dark side doesn't mean I can't feel pretty! And I will be dressing as a rainbow unicorn because I'm fucking magical!

So right now I am in pre-vaca limbo. A constant state of still needing to get tasks accomplished, but really really just not giving a fuck if those tasks do get accomplished. It's horrible I know. I will get it all done, I always do. But if my coworkers know what's good for them, they will stay out of my way. Come quitting time I'm out this bitch, blink and you will miss me!

 

 

DragonCon here WE come! Friendly reminder to all joining us at DragonCon Golden is doing a Geek Drop !!! Details here http://saywhatmg.blogspot.com/2014/08/dragoncon-geek-drop.html