Blackbeard's Last Stand, with Jedi
Been a while, so I'll bring you up to speed a bit here.
Hit the Baltimore Comic Con, met Mark Schultz (writer/artist of Xenozoic Tales), Bill Willingham (author of Fables and Shadowpact), and Tony Harris (artist of Starman and Ex Machina). They were all cool, signed posters and books and Tony Harris drew M a sketch of the Shade and me a sketch of Starman. I spent too damn much money, but had fun.
I also spent a week in the Outer Banks of North Carolina with the SDO crew. Pics are here. We had much fun. I got to go to (or very near at least) the site of Blackbeard's last stand and the lost colony at Roanoke, both of which I have been interested in for a long time. I bought WAY too much pirate related stuff - flag, stickers, couple shirts, car flags, books, etc. What can I say - pirates rock.
The Force was definitely with us: Lego Star Wars II was played ALOT, and we had Force FX replica lightsabers. Mine is Luke's green one from Return of the Jedi. We had duels on the beach after dark, although I was being gentle because my saber was awesome and I didn't want to wreck it...these are the good ones for about $100, with LED lights and motion sensor controlled sound effects. Tyrant damn near destroyed his Darth Vader one dueling, but the duels themselves looked awesome. M unfortunately was sick much of the time and is still recovering, but she's getting better. Public Service Announcement for all of you: before spending a week at the beach, check to make sure you aren't allergic to aloe or sunblock. I had no clue I needed to use special sunblock before I ended up with second degree burns from the sun on top of an allergic rash a couple years back, and we are pretty sure the aloe got to M...not things you normally think of, so keep it in mind.
We also did go-karts, mini golf, bumper cars, and skiff boarding, all of which was much fun. The skiff boarding led to a sore nose for me from slamming the board with my face after the board slammed the beach (big wave). I'm amazed it never bled...maybe the salt water kept that from happening, I dunno, but like I said it's still sore all around that side of my nose a week later. We also did some night fishing, but nothing noteworthy - I caught the pier and had to cut my line, and then got a little 6 inch fish, but not sure what kind. Too small, so I let it flop back through the cracks in the pier to the water. That pier was kinda frightening - it had been through enough hurricanes that it was uneven and swayed in the wind, and was about three stories off the ground. I'm sure they have to go through inspections, so it was probably ok, but damn did it make us nervous.
As you can see in the pics, we also had Mrs. Bates with us, a life size replica of the desicated corpse of Norman Bates' mother from Psycho. Most of the time she stayed in bed (she has trouble getting around by herself these days), but she was good enough to pose for some pics before we left.
Not much else going on though. I'm still prepping for my career change and starting the next semester of classes, which combined with work is keeping me pretty busy. I have managed to play some Okami on PS2, which I recommend you all check out; and read a few books, most notably World War Z by Max Brooks (who also wrote The Zombie Survival Guide), which is frikkin AWESOME. It's all about the big zombie war. It's extremely well done and if you like zombies at all, you should pick it up.
I meant to go into some philosophical musings as well here, but I don't recall what on. It seemed a good topic at the time, but you know how it is: you have a good idea, save it for later, and all you remember is that you had a good idea, but not what it is. Much like dreams - you know you had a good one, but don't recall the details. I hate that.
Hit the Baltimore Comic Con, met Mark Schultz (writer/artist of Xenozoic Tales), Bill Willingham (author of Fables and Shadowpact), and Tony Harris (artist of Starman and Ex Machina). They were all cool, signed posters and books and Tony Harris drew M a sketch of the Shade and me a sketch of Starman. I spent too damn much money, but had fun.
I also spent a week in the Outer Banks of North Carolina with the SDO crew. Pics are here. We had much fun. I got to go to (or very near at least) the site of Blackbeard's last stand and the lost colony at Roanoke, both of which I have been interested in for a long time. I bought WAY too much pirate related stuff - flag, stickers, couple shirts, car flags, books, etc. What can I say - pirates rock.
The Force was definitely with us: Lego Star Wars II was played ALOT, and we had Force FX replica lightsabers. Mine is Luke's green one from Return of the Jedi. We had duels on the beach after dark, although I was being gentle because my saber was awesome and I didn't want to wreck it...these are the good ones for about $100, with LED lights and motion sensor controlled sound effects. Tyrant damn near destroyed his Darth Vader one dueling, but the duels themselves looked awesome. M unfortunately was sick much of the time and is still recovering, but she's getting better. Public Service Announcement for all of you: before spending a week at the beach, check to make sure you aren't allergic to aloe or sunblock. I had no clue I needed to use special sunblock before I ended up with second degree burns from the sun on top of an allergic rash a couple years back, and we are pretty sure the aloe got to M...not things you normally think of, so keep it in mind.
We also did go-karts, mini golf, bumper cars, and skiff boarding, all of which was much fun. The skiff boarding led to a sore nose for me from slamming the board with my face after the board slammed the beach (big wave). I'm amazed it never bled...maybe the salt water kept that from happening, I dunno, but like I said it's still sore all around that side of my nose a week later. We also did some night fishing, but nothing noteworthy - I caught the pier and had to cut my line, and then got a little 6 inch fish, but not sure what kind. Too small, so I let it flop back through the cracks in the pier to the water. That pier was kinda frightening - it had been through enough hurricanes that it was uneven and swayed in the wind, and was about three stories off the ground. I'm sure they have to go through inspections, so it was probably ok, but damn did it make us nervous.
As you can see in the pics, we also had Mrs. Bates with us, a life size replica of the desicated corpse of Norman Bates' mother from Psycho. Most of the time she stayed in bed (she has trouble getting around by herself these days), but she was good enough to pose for some pics before we left.
Not much else going on though. I'm still prepping for my career change and starting the next semester of classes, which combined with work is keeping me pretty busy. I have managed to play some Okami on PS2, which I recommend you all check out; and read a few books, most notably World War Z by Max Brooks (who also wrote The Zombie Survival Guide), which is frikkin AWESOME. It's all about the big zombie war. It's extremely well done and if you like zombies at all, you should pick it up.
I meant to go into some philosophical musings as well here, but I don't recall what on. It seemed a good topic at the time, but you know how it is: you have a good idea, save it for later, and all you remember is that you had a good idea, but not what it is. Much like dreams - you know you had a good one, but don't recall the details. I hate that.
