Con-fessions: Granitecon 2009

It's a Friday night and Rob's away. Meanwhile, I'm glued to my monitor looking for the newest and shiniest SDCC news on panels, events, rumors, angry geek girls. Between today's news of a Mythbusters panel and prior news of BSG possibly including Edward James Olmos, David Tennant and Dr. Who, V, Dollhouse, District 9 including Peter Jackson, browncoats and rumors of Megan Foxx in a Slave Leia outfit, it's a wonder I can live a normal productive life with normal restful sleep.

Hmmm... but even that is questionable with last week's Can't Stop the Serenity bash.

Anywho, Rob re-organized his comic book collection which meant multiple trips to Double Midnight Comics for comic book boxes (really non-nerds, there are special boxes for your comic books AND even special card board and plastic bags to protect them - almost like scrapbooking but without Martha Stewart). On one of these trips, he returned home with a flier for Granitecon.

We'd been to one in the past and it wasn't all that fabu, but since it's the year of the con, we gave it another shot. And I had a blast! I was so happy, chatting with indie artists, finding a way cool Super Grover print. And the most exciting was meeting Juli Mayers. Who not only is a browncoat, but also had browncoat fan art and personalized it for us (it says "Have a good damn wedding") AND her own funny Nathan Fillion story. Whoa. That was just way too cool.

Yep, I was jumping around like a super-happy freak after that.

Oh oh and there was Marek Bennett, who uses comic books to help teachers teach literacy, is pretty neat-o too. And he let passersby, including my adult self, make our own comics. Yay for interactive, fun and dare I say educational freebies. I'm a sucker for people who encourage reading.

Granitecon itself has gotten better as the years have passed. More vendors, more people, still gaming. I would love to see some panels brought in and maybe some live action demo stuff. More people in costume make me smile. And it's good for press to grow your event. Speaking of press, those youngins working the 92.1 booth did not seem like they were nerdy. Maybe they were, maybe they weren't. Just in case, here's my shout out: Don't judge me; I had a rocking time.

All in all, our $10 contribution was worth it (5 big ones each), so we'll probably be back next year. Yawn, must be time for bed and a peek at Nathan Fillion's tweets. Don't judge me! They're amusing.

Get your Con on!

So far, we've managed to hit two conventions this year in prep for our big Comic-Con debut. The first was Boskone in Boston which was more literary than TV/anime/video game/movie stuff. Still very fun. And we tried out our new Browncoat Brigade lanyards.

Early in the AM, I hit the a panel about attending cons on the cheap. A few good tips to be had, but nothing new or thrilling. Lots of good stories about adventures at cons past.

Throughout the day, members from the Higgins Amory Sword Guild in Worcester, MA performed fighting demonstrations, including a Jedi light saber sequence. The coolest part is that the broke down the sequence move-by-move and explained the probable fighting style and logic for the move. (more pics available on the wedding photo site)

Another "highlight" from our day at Boskone included a panel about inadvertent messages authors send in writing, such as in the Twilight books. Although the write up specifically included the book, none of the panelists had actually read them. That and the panel ended up being overtly 70s feminist, so much so that I turned to my son and said "Um, you can leave it you want. You're not really the enemy."

We ended our trip with a quick shopping excursion: Rob bought me beautiful leather photo album with a cat face on the cover. Actually, the artist shaped the face into the leather from the backside using organic materials. For Rob, I bought a cute little print of "Doctor Whomster"by Charlene Taylor D'Alessis, a hamster dressed as Tom Baker Dr. Who in front of the blue tardis. The little print comes in very handy when explaining exactly what a tardis is.

Wedding Invites and Joss Whedon

As we finish up the invites for actual factual mailing, I'd like to take a moment share our recent adventure to hear Joss Whedon and garner his signature on our wedding invite and save the date. Sometimes, I feel like people think we're a little off kilter for having a Firefly/Serenity (aka sci-fi) wedding, but there is a certain level of respect when you get the creator of your theme to sign your invite.

For those outside of the cult-like following, Joss Whedon is the creator of the shows Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Dollhouse and of course, Firefly. He is also the mastermind behind last year's smash internet success, Dr. Horrible's Sing-along-blog. We've listened to interviews on shows, such as NPR's Frech Air, and when you listen, he seems like a quiet but smart guy. And in this house, quiet, smart guys are kinda kick-butt.

Joss Whedon's fans are so dedicated that every year, in honor of his birthday, cities across the globe hold theater viewings of the movie "Serenity" and raise money for the charity he supports, Equality Now. (Yes, we'll be attending the Boston CSTS on 6/20 and yes, I'll be posting about it.)

So when Rob heard that "the man" was going to be accepting an award from the Harvard Humanist Society AND that it would be open to the public, we decided we had to go. For the bargain price of $10 a ticket, we headed to Harvard's Memorial Church to see him.

*So it's May 30th and we're working on the invites, but yes, we did have one lone invite ready to be signed. Just because we had one, didn't mean we had the other fifty waiting in the wings.

We headed down on the Friday evening and chatted with other Browncoats in the will-call ticket line. Thankfully we were will-call, as it started to rain and our small line smooshed under the shelter of the pavillion. While in line, I learned valulable tips for attending San Diefo Comic-con (our honeymoon destination), such as the fact that the panel rooms don't clear out after each session and that people will stake out seats all day for panels occurring that night. I honestly would have never of thought of that. Good to know.

Once the doors opened, we scored seats about 9 rows away.


The presentation opened with a video montage that showcased moments in his shows that pointed to religion or humanity. Joss Whedon did make a short but very interesting speech and I have to admit, I'm really, really glad that we got the opportunity to see/hear him in such a venue. We were able to listen to him speak intellectually with a dash of sci-fi, rather than just all sci-fi, all the time. Even the questions from the Harvard Humanist group as well as from the audience, were a smattering of the two, hearty questions about humanism with a light dose of sci-fi appreciation.

Afterwards, the moment of truth came as we herded into the line for autographs. Only one item was allowed per person, no personalized, and no photos after a certain point (to keep the line moving). Although he seemed tired, he was very nice to all, and even included "Happy Wedding" on our invite. Yay! Rob gave him a save the date to which he replied, "If I come, I'm eating all the food." A very sweet gesture. We all know he's not really coming, but as a story-teller himself, it's all about the stories you get to share.

For more information, and better reporting on the event, check out The Signal's Season 5 #8 podcast or the Humanist Chaplaincy at Harvard story (bonus if you click the link at the bottom of the story for more photos, go to page 16 photo 242 and you'll see Rob at the end of the row in front of the lady wearing the green shirt holding a tripod in the aisle. Rob's in a purple long sleeve shirt and black sweater vest.)

8 weeks to go - you've still got time

As I mentioned in the last post, my package came with some special Browncoat touches. Jen from JLH Jewelry was kind enough to let me know that the idea comes from Wear with Style.

This woman knits one of the most recognizable pieces of fan costume: the Jayne hat. In the show, Jayne receives the hat with a letter from his mom. His normal tough-guy exterior gets a little mushy and the audience can't help but like him just a wee bit more.

The Wear with Style site also has a special note to those who purchase the hat, explaining that the owner's special family circumstances and how buying a hat helps someone you don't know in a very real way.

So if you're coming to our wedding and aren't quite sure what to wear, consider a Jayne hat paired with army green cargo pants, a tshirt, black boots and Vera. Cheers!

And we will call it this land

I was tickled today to open a package to find this:



I had ordered some special Firefly-inspired jewelry from the online site JLHJewelry. When I turned onto my road this afternoon and saw the mailbox slightly open, I couldn't help but hope that it had arrived. I had first found her site months ago, but the piece I wanted was not available. On a whim, on May 14, I googled "Inara Jaynestown jewelry". The site came up and behold, there was the piece with an updated posting dated May 14, 2009. I was so excited I checked the calendar to make sure I really knew what day it was. I then emailed the owner as fast as my little hands could type explaining the Browncoat wedding bit and hoping beyond hope that someone else hadn't spied my prize first. Thankfully, I received an email that same day telling me they were all mine. Yippee!

So, when on a Monday afternoon, I spied that semi-open mailbox cover, I was already excited. But when I opened the envelope and saw them. It was all too cute. So much so, that I almost didn't notice these:

The box containing my piece was carefully stamped with notices from the 'verse. Wow, I'm am definitely impressed now. It's really all in the details.

DIY Engagement Photo Shoot

Saturday morning was met with mixed emotions in our home. Friday mid-day, we had rearranged our plans due to a last-minute-impending-weather-doom (aka rain) for our engagement photo shoot from Saturday evening to Saturday early-to-us morning. Rob doesn't necessarily like having photos done and tends to get a wee bit angry the day of, but to his credit does suffer through photos because it makes me happy.

We awoke bright and early, checking our email accounts, CNN and Facebook for the most important updates of the day and proceeded to beautify ourselves for immortal photo goodness. As we were about to head out, I checked my email for one last thing, only to find our shoot canceled. All dressed up and now down trodden, we had an epiphany:

We had a digital camera with a self-timer.

Armed with our camera, we headed out for coffee and made our way to Valley Cemetery. Unknowingly, choosing the cemetery worked to our advantage as sans tripod we improvised using headstones, stairs and poles. Rob did most of the set up, as it was easier for him to run into place than it was for me.

When we were done with the cemetery, we hopped in the car for a quick trip to Building 19 for a TableTalk pie (for those who don't know the story, I'll be posting it in the near future). While at the 19, I received two compliments on my dress and was asked if I was going to prom. Hee hee.

We ended our journey at Victory Park with our pie for a few funny shots. Rob was tickled that our shoot has a story arc (which is available in full to our family and friends on Flikr). Click here to see the public version.

All in all, we're happy with the pics and have a fun story to share. Remember, the glass is always half full. Cheers!

May the 4th be with you

In the realm of geeky goodness, I have to say our appropriate-dress required Browncoat wedding could rank a lot higher on the totem pole. At least Rob loves all things cowboy and western and I have a past with "Cowboys in Italy" and am obviously Asian. But some people take wedding themes to a whole new level.

Sometimes Rob assumes my geek meter is higher than it actually is, so when he told me that people were already posting their May 4th wedding pics, I had no idea of the full meaning. So I asked the silly question of "What?" until I got the joke. Remember when you were in junior high and weren't swearing with phrases like "sofa king" and "sh it's around the corner"? Well, just say May the 4th out loud and let your geek flag fly. While you're at it, use the Google (shout out to Julie for the use of "the") and search on "May the 4th wedding" for geeky Google goodness.

Makes a Browncoat wedding seem pretty tame by comparison.