More about Dragon*Con!

Aaaaaannndd.....more Dragon*Con pictures!! I took some neat photos of Atlanta and made a collage out of the best. My favorite is the top right....

I like it for a few reasons. One is that all I was trying to take a picture of was the row of buildings with the street and the crowd of people in the street and the building at the end of the road. Two is because when you follow the skyline of the buildings and when your eyes reach the top of the yellow building, it makes it kind of look like a painting (well in my mind, at least). I love pictures where you can't tell if they are real or not (and this one is real!). And third, I like this picture because I got the reflection of one of my favorite Atlanta buildings. I don't know what building it is, but for two years in a row, I've gotten really good pictures of it. 

Ben laughed at me when he saw this picture because he said "oh what a nice reflection of the other building" and I said "what other building?" and he laughed and said "I bet you didn't even know you got that in the picture"....Nope. And it turned out nice. :)

We went to an art festival in Marietta. They had some cars that people had decorated entered into a contest. Here are a few neat cars. Some people have some great imaginations!
 

ALIEN CAR!

BEJEWELED CAR!

this one's my fave

GUITAR MOTORCYCLE! seriously, this is a real motorcycle that looks like a guitar. Really cool!!!

HEAVEN OR HELL CAR!

PINK SHAG CAR! (well it's a van, really.)

PUBLIC POLE AND FLAMING CAR! so much to say about this one. There is a pole on top for dancing. There are two gold poles on back of the car (like in middle picture) that really shoot flames out of them.

AMERICA CAR!

BLANKET CAR!

Here's some costume collages from Dragon*Con 2012:

Awesome costumes, everyone!! Ben and I had a blast meeting these people and taking pictures! We got some great info and insight on what it takes to make some of these costumes, so maybe soon we can start making some costumes of our own to wear at Dragon*Con in the coming years!

And now, for some comic book heroes!

On the road again back home...

 

Dragon*Con 2012!

Right now Ben and I are mad at dragoncon because it's been 2 weeks since we came back home from it and we are still sick with the "con rot" or "con crud" as some people call it. But besides that ickiness, we really had a fun time! 

So what is this dragoncon I speak of? Dragon*Con is probably the biggest sci-fi/fantasy convention around. It takes place every year around or on Labor Day weekend in Atlanta, Georgia. The website says there were over 52,000 people there this past convention. Ben and I did a lot of people watching, saw a TON of amazing costumes!

We arrived in Atlanta on Thursday afternoon. Once we got our hotel keys and convention badges, we took our stuff to our room, relaxed for a few minutes, and went to the spot where our pizza party was going to be.  

After the pizza party and hanging out with friends, we went downstairs to the lobby to walk around. A few people were in costume on Thursday but not many because a lot of people were just checking into their hotel rooms on that day. 

Ben and I went outside and were admiring the buildings at night when a man on a horse-driven carriage asked if we wanted a carriage ride. Sure! He took us around, showed us a lot of gorgeous buildings with a ton of history behind them. I didn't get any good pictures because the horse knew when I was about to snap a picture and he managed to step in a pothole in the road every single time. ;)  

I gotta learn more about this camera because sometimes I can snap pictures while moving and they turn out ok and not that blurry. But sometimes it doesn't work like that and the slightest movement makes it so blurry, you wonder what in the world you must have been trying to get a picture of. 

There was a beautiful building right outside of one of the hotels, and Ben and I must have snapped a million pictures. It didn't matter at what time of day you look at that building, it was beautiful. It has all these plants in front of it, and at night with the lights on, some of the plants had glowy leaves.

Friday we went to a few panels. The first panel we went to was Storytelling through Role Playing. Ben likes role playing games (RPGs). It was a very interesting panel! I'm not that into RPGs, but I would like to be the person who writes the game into a story. Just once. :) 

Another panel we went to was for the cast of the show Eureka. Huge room filled with people! If you haven't seen that show, it's really good, and it's on Netflix! 


Also, Friday, we met ALICE COOPER!!! 

pics from here and here

It's probably my highlight of the trip because it was so awesome to get to meet him! He wasn't in all the makeup that he wears in his shows, he was just a down-to-earth person. (He looked like the picture on the left when we met him.)

The best part about meeting him was that he was willing to talk to my mom on the phone (again, very down to earth). Let me set the "stage" for you:

Ben and I were walking past a room that said something to the effect of "Meet Alice Cooper here!" So we walked in and there was a long table (probably 3 or 4 people in line in front of us). On the table were all sorts of professional pictures of Alice Cooper that you could purchase and have him autograph. Behind the table sat two women who were selling the pictures on the table and selling tickets for people to get a professional picture WITH Alice at a later date and time at the convention. 

Ben and I were a little confused because we thought when we walked in and saw the table that Alice Cooper would be behind the table signing autographs and meeting people. However, he was around the corner (so that you couldn't just take pictures from the doorway or see him from the doorway). He had a sign that he didn't want any pictures taken there at the table while you were meeting him, so we respected his wishes, although I wish I could have taken a picture while he was on my phone!

Anywho, we told the women that we just wanted to meet him. We were waiting behind 2 people at this time. And in that moment, I call mom, thinking it would be cool if he could talk to her or just say hi. When she answered, I didn't have any time to tell her that she might get to talk to Alice Cooper, I just had enough time to tell her to hold on a second, and then Ben and I were the next ones to meet him. 

We walk up to him and shake his hand and tell him we're big fans, and then I ask if he would mind saying hi to my mom while handing him my phone. He laughs and one of his security guards (I'm assuming that's who he was?) kinda laughed too. He said ok and asked what her name is, I said Melanna. He took my phone and said "Hi Melanna?" and since she didn't know who she was talking to, she just said "Hi?" thinking that she was probably talking to Ben. Alice laughed and said "wow, someone really IS there!" He asked "Is this your one phone call from jail?" and then he said "Well it's nice talking to you" with which she replied "It's nice talking to you too" (still confused at why Ben was acting that way). As he was handing the phone back to me he said "tell her I'll bail her out!"  

We said thanks and nice to meet him and went on out the door. Mom was still on the phone so I said "Mom! That was Alice Cooper!!" and she said "What?!" "Mom, that was ALICE COOPER!" "Ohmygosh are you serious?! I was talking to Alice Cooper? On the phone!! I can't believe it! That was Alice Cooper!" lol  soo hilarious and awesome all at the same time. Apparently she had a good day because she got to tell everyone she saw that day that she talked to Alice Cooper on the phone. We have no "actual" proof, but it's a true story and so awesome that he was so nice and friendly to do that.

The rest of the trip was basically spent people-watching. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday of the convention is when most people are out in costume, and it's so cool to see some people's creations. Some costumes are straight from costume stores, and some are actually hand-made and really original and thought out. Some people's creativity and imaginations are really amazing sometimes! I will have to post more pictures of people's costumes at a later time because some of them are on the other computer and it is occupado at the moment.

The day after we got back from Atlanta, I started my new job! It's in a brand new hospital. The CEO really has "patient and family healing" in mind in every aspect of the hospital, which is really cool. My bosses seem awesome right now. The hospital isn't even open yet and we're all so busy trying to get it all ready for the first day when it opens. So far, it's amazing though!

Neato frito

I took this picture while in Atlanta last weekend, probably one of the neatest pictures I've taken in a while.  :)

 

Inspiration

In the past year or so I've become very inspired to make something artsy/artistic/creative. It's a lot to live up to, being married to an artist, but I can still try. So what if I fail or if I'm not good at it, at least it was fun and inspiring (if only to myself). Since we got our point-and-shoot camera last November, I've really been trying to "get our monies worth" and take all kinds of photos. I should probably read the instruction manual and really take the time to learn the different functions and buttons to it. Ben taught me the "macro" and "infinity" functions and I can't stop playing with them. I told him I would be using those functions forever until he teaches me a new trick, haha. That is how I took the banner picture of the moth on this website, using the macro function.

(moth picture using macro function)

So I take pictures now...that's my thang. I edit pictures too. And although I haven't tried picking my brain cells using Photoshop, I have enjoyed using the free online picture editing tools. I have really been wanting to show off some of the pictures I have taken recently and would love feedback. I think Ben is getting tired of me always asking for his feedback. I don't feel like I have an "artist's mind". I don't see things the way he does or the way he can imagine it. My mind is probably pretty square, but I am trying to step outside of the box and understand other ways that objects can be viewed. I am still learning and playing. So while I definitely want feedback and criticism, I'm still fragile and enjoying my playtime.... not toooo much negativity please. :)

this is one of the few I haven't edited. yet. i was playing earlier trying to get only the water drops in focus. it kinda looked neat but was making me a little sick with everything else being blurry. i figured a picture shouldn't make people sick so i got rid of that edit. haha. maybe there is a way in photoshop to carry out that idea without it being an eyesore?

another unedited one. taken in my mom's garden. the flowers look like that because i was using the posterized function on the camera. so technically the camera edited it before i even really saw the picture. wow gotta love modern technology.

it's probably obvious i edited this one. ben says it's too blurry but i actually kind of like it (why else would i have kept it like that). suggestions/comments?

Atlanta, Georgia

Dragon*Con 2011

DragonCon was tons of fun!!! It was my first year to go and Ben's second. And it was the 25th year anniversary of how long DragonCon has been around! We left around 8 am on Thursday, September 1st, stopped at Cracker Barrel about halfway through the trip, and made it to Atlanta around 5 pm. 

                                           this is a picture of a building from the 47th floor of the marriott in downtown atlanta

The owner of Artix Entertainment (Artix) had a pizza party in his suite around 7, so yay free pizza! He apparently posted on twitter his location and about the party, so there were lots of fans that stopped by to meet him and have free pizza. It was very interesting to see these people as famous icons in the gaming community.

Friday morning, we were the first ones on the list to watch over the fan table and give out buttons and goodies to people walking by. We did very well giving out little "Day 1" ribbons...we gave out almost 600 within the 2 hours we were scheduled there! The Day 1 ribbons were little things to go on people's DragonCon badges to signify that you went to the Artix fan table each day (there were Day 2 and Day 3 ribbons as well on the subsequent days). One of the mods, Dumoose, worked on challenges from loyal fans in playing the AQW card game. It's funny how the makers of the card game have such horrible winning numbers...of course I'm sure the fans enjoy winning against one of the creators, hehe. 

After "manning" the fan table, we walked around, grabbed some lunch, walked around a little more, and then went to the Artix Panel, which was from 2:30 - 5 pm. Some of the Artix Entertainment team dressed up as their in-game characters, which of course the fans LOVED! Artix had on plate mail that clinked every time he moved around. It was hilarious. Their new game Pony vs. Pony was released that day...and after playing it today, it is a pretty addictive game! It's not really anything like their other games, seeing as how most of their other games are MMORPGs (massive multiplayer online role-playing games). It's still fun though....just don't listen to the intro song too long or you may go insane.

                                                Artix fan table Day 1

                                  Dumoose playing the AQW card game with fans

at the Artix Panel (Artix team in back)

musician Voltaire crashed the panel and sang us a few songs 

 On Saturday, we enjoyed our free time, met some famous people (i.e. the girls from the hit web series The Guild, and Christopher Lloyd), and then we got to hang out with Ben's uncles that live in Atlanta and his brother and his wife who came up for DragonCon. We people watched for a while (not to sound creepy but there are a lot of cool costumes and sometimes ya just gotta sit down and watch), then we went out to eat at a nice Italian restaurant, and then we people watched some more. Oh, and before we went out to eat, Ben and I went to a panel for Boris Vallejo and his wife Julie Bell. They are famous fantasy artists, and Boris was a big inspiration to Ben when he started drawing. The panel was about how they work together being husband and wife and was really cool to learn how they got started and how they are now. Ben was able to get one of his books about Boris signed, so that was really cool!

Here's a little photo collage of cool costumes. I tried to fix the pictures using picnik, but sorry for the bad quality, they're from my phone.

Here's another collage of some guys trying to kill us. I looked worried at first but I guess when they took the picture, I was already laughing. I can't hold a serious pose for nothin'!

On Sunday, we slept in, went to the art room to admire fine art and meet Boris Vallejo again (when we met him at the panel on Saturday, Ben didn't get to tell him what an inspiration he's been, so he was able to do that at Boris's art booth). We bought a couple pieces of artwork for a couple of people... hopefully the recipients will like them. We went to the game room and played some games with Barak and Stefan. I actually can't remember what else we did on Sunday, it was definitely a day where we kinda just went with the flow with nothing planned. Apparently at the pizza party on Thursday night we were gypped out of a large number of pizzas (not sure how since we seemed to have PLENTY of pizzas on Thursday)....anywho the pizza company replaced what we were gypped, so that meant another pizza party on Sunday night! It was a lot of fun. The artists of Artix hosted a "Drink and Draw" where they drew people dressed in costume within 3 minutes, and the costumed people were able to keep 5-10 hand-drawn pictures of themselves for free (free isn't a word commonly heard at dragoncon....dragoncon: where bottled drinks can cost anywhere from $3-6 and a moderately yucky meal can cost $10.  it's a lot like disney). 


Monday was the day we came back home, so nothing exciting there. Overall it was a great trip and we can't wait for next year! We will probably be attempting to make some cool costumes for next year. The scariest thing we encountered at DragonCon was when we were coming up one of the escalators, the line at the top of the escalator had stopped. However, the escalator did NOT stop, forcing us all to squish into the person in front of us. When will people realize you can't stop at the end of an escalator, you must keep moving at least a little distance so others can get off. In a place where there are 30,000+ people, I guess it is hard to remember to keep moving when there are so many cool costumes and things going on. Definitely fun times!  :D


Oh and by the way for those who don't know, Atlanta has a subway (Marta). We didn't go on the subway, but there is an escalator (not the same in the above paragraph) that is the absolute longest escalator I have ever seen. Here is an attempted picture of the escalator (and yes that is a pirate behind us).

Married Life

our "blue steel" faces

Well we've finally tied the knot! Eight years of us proclaiming our love for one another and now it is legal (yayyy!!!) We are so happy to open this door and see what the future holds for us. It's been a little over a month and trying to do all of the post-wedding stuff is exhausting! We have yet to send out the thank you notes. We are really bad at procrastinating though. I finally went to the social security office to change the s.s. card. Now just have to wait a couple weeks until it comes in the mail to go change the driver's license and hopefully get a new passport as well.  But really, married life is wonderful! We've become so much closer in this past month and it feels AWESOME! Even though right now I feel too young to want to expand our family, I have been looking forward to the future and in hopefully a few years we can start settling down and thinking about such things. Although I probably am a little behind...some girls I went to high school with already have 3, 4, or 5 kids. I can't imagine having that right now. But someday.... 

One of the best books I have read (in the past few years at least) is Suzanne's Diary for Nicholas by James Patterson. I have started to re-read it, and gosh it really does make you go through an emotional rollercoaster. I have also started Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen (thanks to a dear friend who has recommended it for months now). It is really a funny book! It also kind of gives you an emotional rollercoaster. Anywho, with work and reading these books and being married and cooking and rewatching Ugly Betty, I haven't really gotten super far in these books. Granted, one of them I have already read, so it's not a reading priority like Water for Elephants. They are really good and I am excited to read what happens next in Water for Elephants.

So, to sum it up, married life is wonderful/amazing/fabulous/awesome/fun and we've both been working so much lately that it will be soooo great when we finally get a mini-break in September when we attend Dragon-Con in Atlanta. It will be my first time going and his second. But we can't wait (and looking at the lineup of who will be there, I am getting even more excited just thinking about it!!!). Yay for married life!