Edmonton Entertainment Expo

This weekend I decided to volunteer for the Edmonton Entertainment Expo. I've attended these type of shows on occasion down in Calgary before (here & here) and have enjoyed them quite a bit. Partly, one of the reasons for me deciding to be a volunteer is that I hate lineups. So for a bit of service, I got to skip right by these folks.

 So I could rummage around the stacks of comics looking for deals on Trade Paperbacks.

Or taking in some gory costumes. The Silent Hill nurse is enough to give you nightmares.

Over the last few years I have noticed that Steampunk has become huge.I really appreciate some of the great imagery and DIY style of the cosplayers but overall I just don't get it. That being said - this gun was cool.

When I wasn't wandering around aimlessly I was working the VIP line for celebrity autographs. My job was to escort VIP pass holders to the front of individual celebrity autograph lines, keep people moving around the exits and tell people to turn off their 'flash'. The celebrities in attendance included:

• Misha Collins from Supernatural - I had never heard of him but the ladies loved him. He was at the far side of the line from me and for the first two hours of my shift I thought Misha was a woman due to the name.

• Lee Majors the Six Million Dollar Man - Seemed nice but getting a little rickety and in need of a tune up.
• Julie Newmar - The original and best Catwoman. She is looking her age and had a bit of trouble getting around but she was fantastic with the fans and by all accounts a very nice lady. Plus, she wore some cat ears the first day which everyone loved. The old pictures of herself that she were signing were pin-up style and were exceptionally hot.
• Burt Ward, the original Robin, smiled a lot and wore a Hawaiian shirt. 
• Jewel Staite from Firefly and Stargate Alliance. Meh...She ran about an hour late at all times. 
• Billy Dee Williams who rocks a purple cape better than any man as Lando Calrissian.
• Charisma Carpenter from Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel. Holy Crap she looked good. Especially for 42. She was hard to take your eyes off of. I couldn't get a picture of her as she really didn't like all the cameras around. I had to continually tell people, "No pictures of Charisma". I don't think anyone was confused thinking that they couldn't take any pictures of my undeniable charm. Also, she could seem a little stand offish but she was quite nice with young kids and even stomached an especially creepy dude who had an empty baby stroller full of knick knacks and a copy of her Playboy issue. That dude gave even me the creeps.
• Nichelle Nichols, Lt. Uhura from Star Trek the Original Series. I spent the majority of my time volunteering about 5 feet from her. She was a very nice and very accommodating lady. She ended up signing a lot of weird and cool stuff. When requested to sign the Mr. Potato Head version of herself I could hear her giggle and proclaim that she had forgotten all about them. For her age she looked great, almost regal. She was easily the most recognized and appreciated of the fans at the show.

My spot at the show. 

I wore a Red Shirt in front of a Star Trek Original Series veteran on a "Away Mission" for multiple hours and managed to walk away and tell the tale. Much better than these Star Fleet rejects...

When you start walking the floor of the show you quickly start to realize who the real stars of the show are - the Cosplayers.  One shopkeeper/cosplayer from CanadaCosplay.com had all of the guys talking - she was the most realistic/enhanced human of Jessica Rabbit you will ever see. Gravity has a new opponent.

Here she is leading a pack of kids in a dance party of Gangnam Style.

Costumes from the crowd.

Batman and Zatanna (Z is probably my favorite cosplay costume ever)

Storm Troopers, Deadpool (lots of him this year) and Spidey.

Hello Kitty + Samurai = Awesome

Superman, Ghostbuster, Wonder Woman

Iron Man and Elektra (such a cute little assassin)

A completely badass Red Skull complete with the Cosmic Cube.

Catwoman, Harley, Bane (lots of him in the movie costume), Batman

I have no idea - but I love it.

I usually come away from these conventions with a couple of small purchases and I am happy with my hall this year.

 Good deals on some hard to find comics by Alan Moore, Garth Ennis and Matz.

 A lovely signed picture of Lt. Uhura.

My new favorite shirt. Fing Fang Foom whose name means "He whose limbs shatter mountains and whose back scrapes the sun".

Well done to the organizers of the Expo. Can't wait till the next one.

Engaged!

As of about 18 hours ago I am now engaged to this pretty girl.

And yes that is a corn field in the background - I proposed in the corn maze of Prairie Gardens.

 Full story to come when everyone catches their breath.

Saskatoon Visit

On the Labor Day weekend of this year I headed back to Saskatchewan to do some old fashioned labor and help my brother Lawrence shingle the roof at his cabin. I headed out straight from work at noon on Friday and made it to Saskatoon just in time to pick up my nephew Liam and head out to the Huskies Football game.

It was the season opener and also Military night and the place was packed and jacked for the season to begin. They even had a couple of jets come fly over. It was awesome - literally no one seems to care about collegiate football in Alberta and in Saskatoon they have freaking jets!

Sunset at Griffiths Stadium.

The Huskies won easily, embarrassing the visiting University of Alberta Golden Bears 32-0.

We hung out after the game to see the celebratory fireworks. It was great being back in Saskatchewan to watch a football game. The good folks in the province really understand and appreciate the game.

I got to Lawrence's at Humboldt Lake (aka Stony Lake) mid morning on Saturday and we promptly got to work.  The non-sided structure is the new addition that Lawrence built to attach to our old Humboldt Mini-Golf Office / Greenwater Cabin A.

We stripped the shingles off one side of the old cabin revealing the bare plywood - which was in surprisingly good shape.

You can see the plywood stamped from its original purchase and build of the cabin - 1983. I have some memories of the original construction at the time, but I don't know if I fully 'trust' them. I remember it being pretty hot and Geoff and Dad seemingly pounding nails for what seemed forever.

The view from the roof as Lawrence fixes the staple gun.

We didn't get as much of the work done as we intended as the weather played havoc on us with rain and wind. Thankfully we were able to get some work done and put down a protectant before the rain soaked into the attic.

A little physical work was actually a good divergent activity from my usual life in the office. It also didn't hurt that I got to hang out with Mom a little bit, visit quickly with Auntie Olga and Richard and have a couple of my favorite snacks prepared for me - taco salad, fruit salad.

Bonus - I claimed some trippy pillows for my place that Mom made.

Golfing at Fort In View

It has been an active year for me on the golfcourse. Being in Business Development has meant more work tourneys than usual and the odd 'meeting' on the links. You would think that my game would be improving but you would be wrong - except for nine magical holes.

A couple weeks back, Chris, Ivan, Adam and myself headed north up to Fort In View golf course. Along the way we saw the most 'interesting' in memoriam I have ever seen.

On the course Chris is all intimidation.

The infamous tripod driver up the but putting stance.

Adam has possibly the worst hook I have ever seen on his woods. He will often line up about 45degrees to his left and still hook it into the rough on the right side of the fairway. Very impressive.

Ivan is new to golf and is all power. 

On our first time out we got about 14 holes in before we were chased off the course by rain and lightning. For me it was a mercy kill as I was really hitting the ball horribly. Thankfully the course gave us a free pass for 9 holes as a consolation.

The next time out we were all hitting the ball well but I was really just...on. After putting up a snowman on the first hole I found my groove and ended up with 2 pars and a birdie over the rest of the holes for a respectable score of 45.

A couple more pics of the boys.

Pause and Reset

After an electronics breakdown of my hard drive/cell phone and the move of all of my stuff to Chrissy's I am now ready to start blogging again. Sorry for the delay - new stuff coming soon.