Comicon 2015

Hear ye, hear ye. Let it be recorded.

Saturday, May 16th, my nephew and I attended our first comicon, the Midwest Comic Book Association MSP ComicCON at the Minnesota state fair grounds in St. Paul.

We arrived early, despite a drive that looked like this:

We donated food to save money on our wristbands:

Gathered our free swag:

And took it all in:

A month later, I'm still thinking about it. 

In a way, the artists and fans at a comicon are "my people." I didn't have to go out to buy an outfit for the day, I already had one. I've published books where a character has superpowers. I haven't read comics widely, but I knew who to write on a raffle ticket that asked for my favorite artists (Neil Gaiman and Charles Vess).

But I have other people. Theater people. Teachers. Cardinals, Cobbers, and Thunder Hawks. Campers. Readers. Wachtlers. Minnesotans. Put me in a group of them, and I'm at home. 

New Printer

Well, even with convenient online renewal, all books must eventually be returned to the library.

Before I parted with the most detailed, inspirational of the castle and knight books, I scanned a few pages for later reference.

I LOVE MY NEW PRINTER!

This half-price beauty, initiated with my 2014 tax forms, has a touch screen interface, a large enough platen for oversized books, a scanner that actually works, and the ability to communicate well with my Mac. Unlike the appreciated but no longer functioning hp it replaces.

Summer Travel to Jolly Old

I'm headed to England to see Benedict Cumberbatch play Hamlet because it's possible.

I bought a flight from Icelandair because they have good deals on flights.

I've booked a lovely, semi-expensive flat because the last time I stayed in London, there was significant disappointment in the hotel accommodations*.

I haven't planned more than that.

Getting there.
Knowing where I'll stay.
One thing I'll do.

That seems like enough to begin an adventure.




*One semi-working toilet for the entire floor in a room with no curtains; only one plug in, so we needed to charge our phones in the hallway where they could've been stolen; a hotel owner/manager who clearly treated the staff poorly...

Like-Minded Folk

I admit I own a lovely expensive camera, one that shoots not only pictures but serious video. When I bought it, I also grabbed a tripod. Somewhere in the back of my mind was a subconscious desire to become a video blogger. A vlogger.

Why?

Well, I watch a few vlogs from time to time, and VidCon just looks like so much fun. I know, I know. You don't have to BE a vlogger to go to VidCon. You just need to be like-minded folk.

The vlog thing never happened, probably because I'd have to rearrange the books on my library shelves (to be the background). And that would take effort. And mess up the alphebetizing. And, you know, because double chin.

So when I saw that the same people behind VidCon are planning a new con, centered on stories and storytelling, to be hosted in my own backyard of Minneapolis, I immediately bought a ticket. I consider this the first "open door" opportunity created by passing the directing baton.

Nerdcon: Stories. 

As they say...
3,000 people who love the institution of the story and want to spend some time celebrating with like-minded folk.



I am 100% like-minded folk.

More Fun Facts from Days of Old

Hey! It's medieval trivia time.

1. What do you do with the cauldron water once you've finished boiling your bacon-in-a-bag?

2. Lots of ladies wrapped their heads and topped off their look with a hat. How did they "do" their hair underneath it all?

3. What religious reasons were given for insisting that medieval women (who generally worked as hard as men when it came to menial labor) should do what they were told?

4. And why should they (medieval women) be silent?

5. How is the word "wardrobe" related to toilets?

6. What do you call the dude who empties the castle cesspit -- bucket by bucket -- to which the garderobe emptied?

Answers:
1. Use it to wash up, of course. (Yuck.)
2. Princess Leia braids swirled around their ears. Princess Leia braids!
3. Well, since Eve succumbed to temptation first, she, and all women by association, was considered evil. Thus, women were incapable of making sound choices on their own.
4. Since the four times the Virgin Mary's words are recorded in the New Testament were the ONLY four times she ever spoke, in her entire life, women who aspired to be like her would rarely speak. Obviously.
5. In a castle the toilet room was called a garderobe, since you could hang your best clothes in it and the smell would keep away moths. (Garderobe is the French version of wardrobe.)
6. A gong farmer. (Because when you have "to go", you visit the privy/garderobe.)

Not a land, a castle!

The littlest one (bottom right) turned out to be surprisingly well researched. Go figure.

Last week I took advantage of my local library and sheepishly checked out half a shelf worth of children's books on castles, medieval times, and knights. I've been reading serious scholarship on the topics of late, but I needed visual reference. Books with plots, plans, diagrams, arrows, maps, and PICTURES. You see...

I have written myself into a few corners with this story.

First, the captain of the castle guard ended up in the Castle Aco prison for no apparent reason, and I didn't know why he would deign to do so. I wasn't even sure what a castle prison should look like. Or if castles had prisons at all. Or guard captains. I knew that the idea of prisons for long-term punishment was not medieval, but the "dungeon" was. I needed help.

Second, Lamb was locked out of the Castle Aco kitchen, I and didn't know how to get her back inside.

It was fun to figure out these puzzles. Just like solving "problems" when directing a play, the search for my solutions required creative thinking, and the results ended up being much more interesting than they would have been without the struggle.

It turns out it's not a land I need to draw, it's Castle Aco. 

Working on the Lenovo

So far I am writing Lio and Lamb on my Lenovo Yoga laptop.

And, surprise to me, I am enjoying it. I purchased the Yoga in 2013, but it sat around unused and uncharged for most of 2014. This revelation, that I don't hate the machine, has me perplexed.

Graciously so.

The biggest difference, which I have mentioned in earlier posts, is moving the cursor around. On Apple keyboards, moving to the end of a line is a simple command+arrow. I have that shortcut fused into my subconscious memory. I think of moving to the end of the line and barely register hitting the keys to get there.

It doesn't work so easily on a windows based keyboard. Instead, to move to the end or start of a line, I need to hit the devoted "end" or "home" key, which are both easy to hit, but they require moving my hands away from the touch typing position. And I'm just not used to it.

Also, the PC delete/backspace key is slightly to the right of the Apple one, so my touch typing is a little off sometimes. I end up with ////// or  ====== where I meant to delete the word broken, for instance. And if I overcompensate, I end up at "home" and the cursor moves to South Dakota for a few minutes -- until I realize what I've done and find it. Then it's undo undo undo undo undo until I fix the mess I've made in the interim. I should call this move the South Dakota shuffle.

I will admit the Lenovo's touch screen is convenient at times. To move the page up or down, I just swipe it, like on my phone. I'm even faster with the magic mouse on my Mac, though. All in all, using the Lenovo's page up and page down keys is actually more efficient than swiping. Here's why: moving the page up and down with swipes means that the cursor ends up in odd spots.

And we're back to doing the South Dakota shuffle.