The best stories from yesterday at MegaCon will have to wait until later, because I have to be at the show in 30 minutes, and I just woke up. (Check out my rock and roll lifestyle, man.)
Here are a few memorable pictures from yesterday:
I get to make lots of Cards Against Humanity cards at conventions. I play a game when I do this, to amuse myself: when I write a question card, every answer card I do after it is for that question, until the question changes. The first question at this con was “What is Shatner’s secret fetish?” The answers can’t be printed in a family publication. Luckily, this isn’t a family publication. The two really gross ones that I remember are: Juggling the placenta, and cum on a moustache. If you’re bothered by that, don’t play Cards Against Humanity.
Lil’ Wil is all ready for Easter in this snazzy sweater! The whole reason Joel and I made this silly little plushie toy was so people would get excited and make things for him to wear. It’s been slow to take off, but I’m starting to see lots of great sweaters and other costumes for him at shows, and I love that.
My shitty camera doesn’t do this couple justice, at all. She made her costume, including the really, really awesome shoes, and used Felicia’s Flog to build the staff. His Fawkes cosplay is perfect, down to the belt and the sporrin. They were really nice people.
This is a picture from 1988 or 1989, when I went to Universal Orlando with a bunch of Nickelodeon people. It was so much fun, I don’t even care that I was wearing a neon green fanny pack.
How awesome is this NERDIST COSPLAY?! This guy was hilarious, and he did a great Hardwick impression. He really fucked the snake out of the cage with this one.
Near the end of the day, the volunteers were having some fun. The volunteers at this show that I have interacted with have been fantastic.
And here’s the most recent answer card for Cards Against Humanity. It’s a little on the nose, but it made me laugh.
I had a really great panel yesterday morning, and the TNG panel last night had some truly memorable moments. I’ll write more about them later.
A real quick post before I head over to the second day at MegaCon, with some of the cool things I saw yesterday.
Darkstar Cosplay!! For those of you who are wondering why I love this so much: Darkstar is a character I play on Ben Ten: Alien Force. The Ben Ten Wiki says:
Michael Morningstar, also known as Darkstar, is one of the Plumber kids that appear throughout the course ofBen 10: Alien Force. He appeared in the episode All That Glitters and since became one of the most notable regular villains in the series. He has the ability to drain life force from living beings, he gained a grudge against Ben and his team after they accidentally caused him to turn into an awful zombie-like being who has to wear a helmet to hide his face. His plans usually involve gaining back his original face and feeding himself, though he seems to still be interested in feeding from Gwen’s vast stores of Anodite energy.
He’s a great character who I love performing, and sort of the Doctor Doom of the Ben Ten-i-verse. The young woman who is in this costume made it herself, and came all the way from the Philippines to be at this convention! I’m kicking myself for not getting a photo of her friend, who was cosplaying as Michael Morningstar.
We had a cab driver last night who didn’t know we were with the convention. He was starting to make fun of all the people walking around the streets in cosplay. I stopped him and said, “I really love the people in cosplay. Making a costume and then wearing it at a convention is the purest, most unselfconscious celebration of love for a movie or character or TV show, or whatever a person is excited about. Cosplay is really cool, man, and it takes time and effort and money to do it right.” He had no response. [Success Kid.jpg]
A mashup of two of my favourite things: Star Wars, and Iron Maiden. Up the irons!
I was on a pillow once. It was awful.
This hand-painted Grumpy Cat pillow is grumpy, and amazing.
Finally: remember that time Wesley Crusher was on a stamp?
Well, okay, he isn’t technically on a stamp. He’s more like on a piece of paper that you throw away when you use the stamps … but it’s the closest he’ll ever come to being the 24th century version of the Elvis stamp, so let’s just let him have this one thing, okay?
Yesterday was our last day at Walt Disney World. A few hours ago, we said goodbye to our hotel and the resort, and I am writing this from our new room at the Megacon hotel.
We spent most of yesterday in Disney’s Animal Kingdom. I didn’t know what to expect from the park, but I do know that it blew my expectations out of the water. The theming, design, and attention to detail in that park was just spectacular. I thought it was a little weird to not know where real animals ended and Disney Imagineering began, but I just accepted it, relaxed, and had a good time experiencing the results.
Sure, I’ll have a beer in Africa!
It was a lot of fun to have beers from different countries. Here I am drinking a Hakim Stout in Africa. It was tasty, and more like a brown ale than what we consider a stout in the West.
Expedition Everest was the most fun I’ve ever had on any roller coaster, anywhere in my entire life.
I like this picture. I put something in the foreground, so the forced perspective of the mountain would make it look even farther away and bigger than it is.
I want to go back to Animal Kingdom at a less busy time of year, so I can really take my time and explore the whole place, even though the crowding made the Asia and Africa lands feel more like I’ve seen them in movies, and in a way added to the illusion.
At the end of the day, we went back to EPCOT, so we could see the movie in Canada, and have one last beer around the world. When we got there, though, our feet were killing us and we were both verging on the cranky side of hungry and tired, so we just got a beer in America (Anchor Liberty Ale), enjoyed the view of the lake and all the people having fun, and skipped the movie in favor of walking back to the monorail for our final stop: The Carousel of Progress in the Magic Kingdom.
On the way out, I asked Anne if she would mind very much if we stopped by Journey Into Imagination.
“I loved this ride so much when I first came here in 1987,” I said, “and I’ve been told by countless people that it’s better for me to let the memory live on, rather than ride it again.”
“Does it not hold up?” Anne asked.
“I guess not, but I didn’t ask why. I think it’s better not to know.”
We made a left turn and walked past a small child, who had clearly had enough of the day.
“It’s Meltdown O’Clock,” I said.
“I can’t blame him,” she said. “This is a lot to take in for a kid.”
“Hell, it’s a lot to take in for an adult!” I said.
We arrived at the fountains in front of the pavilion. “I know this seems silly, but when I first saw these fountains, I was just enchanted. I’d never seen anything like this reverse waterfall, and the little tubes of water leaping from place to place was just magical.”
We walked around the fountains, and I remembered, like looking at a faded photograph or VHS tape with the white balance just off a bit, what it was like to stand in that spot when I was 14, with my parents, brother and sister, sort of in disbelief that I was really there, in a place I had only heard about and didn’t think I’d ever get to visit.
“It’s crazy, when I think about it, that water fountains made 14 year-old me so happy, especially at an age where most kids — myself included — work so hard to be too cool for everything. These fountains just brought me joy.”
Anne said nothing, and I quietly watched the tubes of water leap from pot to pot all around the pavilion.
“Okay,” I said, after a minute or so, “I’m ready to go.”
We held hands and walked to the entrance. A few minutes later, we rode the monorail back to the transportation and ticket center, and then took the ferry across the lagoon to the Magic Kingdom. We watched a beautiful sunset over the lake, and then made our way to the Carousel of Progress in Tomorrowland.
It was exactly what I wanted it to be: a frozen moment in time when a Powerbook 170 could control the entire House of The Future, and animatronics were as magical as anything. I’m really glad that it exists, and that it exists in this very specific and particular way. I hope they don’t mess with it at all, so kids (and parents who are looking for a place to sit down for a few minutes) can be inspired to create that Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow they sing about in there.
We went to EPCOT yesterday. I went into space — TWICE — and had beers all over the world. Well, mostly all over the world. I mean, I love you, Canada, but I’m not drinking Labatt’s. And whatever they call “beer” in France is actually “anger and shame in a bottle.”
We had so much fun, in fact, we slept for 13 hours (I guess three days of nonstop fun will do that to old folks like us) so we’re just getting started today. Here are a few memorable moments from yesterday:
Oh the huge manatee!
The Living Seas is still one of the best places in EPCOT. I could have watched these manatees for an hour.
It’s an oversized hat. It’s funny.
Anne kept saying she wanted a hat to keep the rain off her hair. I want a hat that I can fill with water and take a bath in. For some reason, even though this hat fits both criteria, we didn’t get it.
Thanks for watching Tabletop!
This is the best thing, ever. I’ve seen people wearing Tabletop T-shirts at cons, but never out in the wild. When I saw this guy, and he saw me, we both sort of freaked out and simultaneously asked if we could take a picture together.
