Pages

Sunday, August 24, 2014

So, the convention I went to this past June (over two months ago) was Eternal Con. It was a long and arduous process for me to think about what to cosplay as. Until, I re-watched Captain America, and I realized who I wanted to be: 1940's Captain America, "saving Bucky" edition.

I made most of the outfit. Especially the shield.

I bought my wig from Party City (don't knock it until you try it! Their wigs are amazing.)
I bought the helmet from Amazon, spray painted it blue.
I bought the goggles from Ebay, and slapped them onto the helmet.
I made the shirt (not totally pictured here), from a blue t-shirt from Michaels, and white and red felt. The pants, the utility belt were from my Kim Possible cosplay.
And I had left over fabric to make the spats and I also had left over faux-leather fabric for the parachute straps across my chest.

The process to make sure that I can fully wear the shield on my back was very very difficult. Until I found the best idea: buckles. Like the buckles you would use on your chin strap for your helmet. I was able to attach a buckle on my right shoulder and under my left hip that connected my shield to my back.

I also worked tirelessly on my best friend's red and white skirt so she can be my USO Show Girl. (shown below)
Our friend in the middle, made her Sailor Batman outfit in just 25 hours. She is very crafty.

But safe to say, we were very happy with our cosplay.

Onto the actual event.
We arrived there at 10 in the morning, with our tickets on our phones, our hands stamped and we were in. The venue itself was the Cradle of Aviation Museum in Garden City, which was a lovely size, if not just a tad small for my tastes. There were times around the booths that people would be banging into my shield. It was mostly a dealer's room/artists's alley, and I wasn't sure where the panels were at all. If there were any.
However, everyone that we had met (at the booths and other cosplayers) were all super sweet and nice and funny and very welcoming. It was great to have a small convention of just 7,000 attendees instead of the massive crowds over at New York Comic Con.
Now, onto the pictures!

Sailor Batman and Batman

The littlest Elsa!

Our lovely favorite: DEADPOOL.

Sailor Batman and Batgirl.

Captain America and Amora the Enchantress.

Both bats brooding.

Two Caps and USO Girl :)

Stony (Tony Stark and Captain America)

Found Natasha Romanoff (Black Widow)

And a lovely group of women with our Sailor Batman whom they loved her outfit! :D

Friday, August 22, 2014

It has been some time!

I am so so sorry about what was happening with my life. I have to say that, first of all.

These past months since October have been hectic with my graduate school program, internship, and finally graduating.

Although I will have to show you photos of two events that I have been to, which I  will be adding in their own separate posts in the next few days.

The first one will be about Eternal Con 2014 at Garden City, New York.

And the second one will be about Marvel Universe Live at Nassau Coliseum.

Til then,

Alisoningeekland.

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

COSPLAY WEDNESDAY

So today is Cosplay Wednesday, where I'll either talk about cosplayers or the cosplays I want to do (or in progress of doing)

But recently, I re-found  this amazing cosplayer who goes by the name of Fahrlight on Tumblr and on facebook. I am always blown away by just how alike she and Tom Hiddleston's Loki are (in looks. From what I have read on facebook and Tumblr that she is a very sweet person who loves Lolita, Harajuku, and of course various fandoms. She is 32 years old from Germany who is also a mangaka and has a book out too!

Here are just a few of my favorite cosplay photos of her!
fahrlight:

~
I never meant to start a warI just wanted you to let me inAnd instead of using forceI guess I should have let you win
~
(source)

Fahrlight as Jack Frost: 

From the adorable comic Loki and the Loon, here's Fahr as Loki and Tom!


Fahrlight also as "The Woman" Irene Adler from BBC's Sherlock!


And finally and my favorite pic (and album) of all is the Tasertricks  (Darcy Lewis and Loki!)
She actually cosplayed as both and edited together so it looks like they're in the same room together!




Monday, October 21, 2013

Walking Dead Review Monday!

Ah. Monday rolls around yet again. I actually decided against writing up a review of Sleepy Hollow this weekend (I may post it this Saturday...maybe) due to overwhelming fatigue after a very large and important test that I took that Saturday morning. I was only happy that I went out for dinner with a friend Sunday night, and came home just in time for the Walking Dead at  9pm EST.
                       And without further adieu, my recap and review of the
                                                           Walking Dead, Season 4, Episode 2: Infected.


So the episode starts off where we left off. Late at night, Karen and Tyreese are making out in one room, but they separate ways to go to bed. Karen hears something going on in the bathroom and checks it out. At this point I was biting my nails in anxiety and fear that she will get attacked at this point - but she doesn't get attacked by walker!Patrick (The Walking Nerd actually had a name!).

                   However, we do see walker!Patrick go out of the bathroom area, walk creepily down the hallways and into a cell with a sleeping man, and has himself a little meal. Soon enough, walker!Patrick and new!walker are both creeping down the hallways and attacking poor souls.
We cut to a scene of Glenn waking up with Maggie, and taking a photo of her with a very old Polaroid camera, and we realize that they are way outside of the prison walls, in a high tower surveying the scene. We also cut to Rick taking care of Judith early in the morning, holding her and getting some food. And Michonne was also leaving to go to find the Governor again.
However, everyone of the main cast heard the screaming and whatnot, and Glenn, Rick, Daryl, and Michonne went to help. Michonne however got overrun by walkers and twisted her ankle, Maggie and Carl helping her to rest while the walkers were taken down easily.

About 14 or 15 people have died, and Rick finds out that Patrick just died. And they all theorize that it was a new flu. Later on, there was a council that made up of Hershel, Carol, Daryl, Glenn, and Sasha (as far as I could tell in the show), and they thought that it would be best to quarantine those who were in cell block D (who are alive, mind you) from the rest of the community, at least for a few days.
Cue the council hearing coughing outside of the council room and they see Tyreese holding Karen up, and they advise for them to be separated.


The next day, a few of the characters find out that they are almost going to be overrun by walkers at the fences, since one of the fences is bowing so badly that it'll fall over at any second with how many walkers are up behind it. So the group (Maggie, Glenn, Rick, Carl, and Daryl) all take turns getting rid of the walkers.


But Rick has an idea, and he had the best and worst idea ever: to sacrifice the little piggies that they had in their pen to move the walkers far away from the prison fence, at least so they can reinforce the fence to be stronger against the hoarde. So Daryl drives Rick out into the field far from the prison and they let the pigs go, for the walkers to go after.

The last scene we see of the episode, is Tyreese the next morning going to find his girlfriend Karen, only to find a blood trail on the floor. He follows the trail out into a side-yard, from there he sees his girlfriend and another character (David) charred to a crisp from a fiery death.

                                                                    Interesting things I found this episode:

Carol was promised by Mika and Lizzie's dying father (who was bit) to take care of them like they were her own. She agreed. But she also said to Lizzie that she is stupid and weak for not stabbing their now-dead father in the head so he didn't turn. The younger sister said that Lizzie isn't weak, she's just messed up.
It made me wonder what Mika meant by that statement.

Another thing I found interesting was that it was the spanish-flu-like infection. Not sure how it came up again, considering its only been a few years since the fall of civilization, and even right now we don't have the spanish-flu, but then again, this is fiction.

Thirdly, WHO WAS THE ASSHOLE THAT BURNED KAREN AND DAVID TO A CRISP?!
My bets are on the army medic Bob Stookey. (I feel like the show is racist enough to make a black guy the criminal. But that's just a theory.) (This is Bob Stookey: 

Also WHO WAS FEEDING THE WALKERS RATS?! (My guess is the girl Lizzie. She seemed to treat the walkers as humans rather than human-hungry flesh-eaters.)

See you all next week on Walking Dead review Monday!

Friday, October 18, 2013

Sexism in Geek Culture

Now I know that most people are sick of listening about how "men wronged women" and the deplorable actions and comments that men say about women. But seriously, I don't think I'll stop posting about this until men realize that they are not treating women like normal human beings.  And so, this is an article that I would love for people to read that popped up on facebooksexism on Tumblr.
See that photo of the cute girl up there? That’s my friend, who I photographed a couple of years ago. Here’s the original photo, in case you were wondering:
image
The thing is, my model was underage when we took this photo together, and now she’s the poster face of a YouTube channel, and you pretty much get the idea of this channel from the preview screenshot. Now I’ve had this photograph ripped off countless times since I  first uploaded it, but never like this.
The screenshot above is the intro to every video the owner of his channel has uploaded since summer, and that’s a lot. Let’s take a look at what this is about, shall we?
Basically, he plays games while talking about women. Nothing wrong with that, except… here’s some titles translated for your reading convenience:
"CSS Commentary - Stupid sluts go!"
"BO II Commentary - Sluts Makeup Hard Anal"
"Sluts #3 - Fat tits and duckfaces hot :3"
"Sluts #4 - Fame-whoring Facebook bitches"
Essentially, those are Let’s Play videos, but the “commentary” was so fucked up I can’t even deal with all the videos.  Here’s an excerpt of a video he narrated together with a friend.
…and the topic we’re going to cover today is a very explosive one, it’s all about unfaithful dirt-sluts. You’ve probably all had your experiences with those. And the thing is, it happens all the time…
… all the time they whine on Facebook, about how they just want a guy that will love and accept them… they find one, but still look at other guys… and they’re like oh yeah, do you want to hang out? They’re provoking it, they’re simply asking to be punched, they want it but don’t tell anyone, best case they’ll just get a ??? pimp punch with 500 meters in run… 
…and I’m gonna give you some advice… if there’s a girl and she’s complaining about her boyfriend and saying she needs to take a break and she’s gonna leave him and she doesn’t want to be with him anymore… don’t fall for it, don’t touch her, amputate her, she’s doing it for the attention, like look I’ve got a boyfriend but other guys still want me,…
LITTLE WHORES!
…so if she has a boyfriend and or she’s simply flirting with a lot of guys… hands off, she’s a dirty slut.
…for example, I met a chick, and she always complained about how her boyfriend is stalking her, controlling her, and she’s feeling like crap but you gotta know, that’s the way they want it, they need that, in this day and age you have to be a bit of an asshole or just total asshole to make it work, in any case…
[talks about how that girl left her bf and started dating him instead, but broke up 2 weeks later to go back to her ex]
…gimme her address, we’re going over, we’re burning the bitch down and the guy, i dunno, we’ll punch him through the window.
[goes on to talk about her sexual skills]
… I mean, that dirty little whore, who does she think she is?! She took me home after a night out and we’re making out and she’s just undressing herself? First of all, why doesn’t she leave that to me, I guess she just couldn’t wait, the dirty whore, couldn’t wait to get my cock in her mouth…
I’ve checked all the videos since he first started using the intro involving my photograph, and what I translated above is just the tip of the iceberg.
Let that sink in: An underaged girl used as the poster face of a series of extremely hateful, misogynist, slur-filled speeches. Someone called her a"Chinese sex doll :3"
(She’s half Korean and half German, but of course every Asian has to be Chinese, am I right? And how, HOW do you go from a clean and simple portrait photo to a sex doll? Who makes this association? )
Usually, if someone asks me nicely if my work can be used for something, I won’t say no. In this case, not only was I not asked, but the context of the usage is so fucking offensive that I’m not going to let this go.
So here’s what: After messaging this guy and receiving a pretty rude response, I reported each and every instance of my photo used in his videos, but it can be hard to get something like this resolved. Especially since my photo only shows for a moment (but she’s still very easy to recognize), and there’s some stuff on Facebook and FB is horrible about resolving copyright claims. You can help.
Here’s an extensive list of all the videos and images he’s made featuring my work:
(a whole video about the stupidity of emancipation)
Feel free to report. You can report as much or as little as you want. Here’s how to do it on YouTube:
image
Or you can report the entire channel! Thanks to attackonthrones
image
Pick the videos with “SCHLAMPEN” (sluts) in the title! 
If anyone who reads this speaks German, I’d be grateful for more translated quotes because I honestly can’t listen to this bullshit for longer. Let’s get this piece of shit off the internet. Thank you."
This whole post was made by a lovely girl named dirkbot on Tumblr.com.

This really needs to be stopped. It just reminds me of the quote from Mean Girls:

And this other lovely quote from angels-and-angles, who says “Slut” is how we vilify a woman for exercising her right to say “yes”. “Friendzone” is how we vilify a woman for exercising her right to say “no”
Plus you should totally read her article about "nice guys" and "friendzoning".

But that's all I have for today!
-Alison-
saf

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

New York Comic Con 2013 Review

                                                                        SATURDAY

This year's New York Comic Con has reached all time highs, for example the capacity (130,000, exactly the same as San Diego Comic Con) and all time lows (the amount of disrespectful people in one place).

However, it was all in all a good experience. Unfortunately, I was unable to go all four days, but what I was able to see and experience was a great deal on the days that I did go. I was able to go to New York Comic Con this year for FREE by helping out a local convention (EternalCon) with handing out flyers in cosplay. I was there dressed as Hit Girl with a new friend who was dressed as Red Mist. And on Saturday, it was the most crowded the convention has ever been! Luckily, we were able to hand out all of the flyers, while being able to get photos with the amazing cosplayers around us.
Here is a photo of my friend Mack (Red Mist on the left) and me (as Hit Girl) with the most adorable little Kick Ass I have ever seen! This kid's father dressed up as Freddy Kugar and it was amazing.
Here's another photo of me and my friend Mack with another Kick Ass who looked EXACTLY LIKE AARON JOHNSON. It was crazy at how alike he looked!
Left: our cosplayer. Right: the movie.

Also, my friend Mack was able to get us (and other Kick Ass cosplayers) to meet the renouned comic book artist of the graphic novel Kick Ass: John Romano Jr!!
We were with another Hit Girl on the left, Kick Ass, John Romano JR, Night-Bitch, me as Hit Girl and Red-Mist!
So that was pretty much day one.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SUNDAY
Day two started off nicely, with my friend and I again in our Kick Ass cosplays to meet Chloe Grace Moretz!
However, what was not good was how fast we met her, (which was literally a "hi and bye!" scene). And that to get a photo with her it was $95, but autographs was $75. Still outrageous for those who have to pay for a 3-day weekend ticket to the convention AND THEN having to shell out MORE money to meet the celebrities. However, I got to pay at half-price to my friend, so it wasn't much of a problem for me to pay to meet her.
The second after the photo was done, I was immediately shedding my cosplay and pulling on my normal day clothes. It was way too hot that day in order to wear the cosplay during the whole day and I wanted to get photos of other cosplayers that day as well.
Another note that was not good, was the fact that usually on Sundays, the dealer's room will have sales. Like, really good sales. And that day, when I wanted to get these supercute superhero underwear (that was for $9!!), it was still the same price as it was on Saturday. So I forgo-ed the purchase.
However, even though I was technically an Exhibitor (Vender's Pass), the pass that I actually had was "Press". So, my friend and I ventured up to the exhibitor/press lounge, where there were NO lines at all to get lunch, and it was super quiet upstairs, which was a nice welcome. We then realized at the end of the hall were Interview Rooms for the celebrities, and stumbled upon an Interview with the Sleepy Hollow Cast!



Left to right: Tom Mison (Ichabod Crane), Katia Winter (Katrina Crane), Writer/Producer/Director Len Wiseman, Creator/Producer Alex Kurtzman, Nicole Beharie (Lt. Abbie Mills), and Orlando Jones (Captain Frank Irving).

They had assumed that I was also press like the others in the room, and Orlando Jones noticed my camera and made everyone look over with a smile towards me. Which was pretty awesome, I had to admit.
Sunday was by far better than Saturday. A bit less people. Able to sort-of meet the cast of Sleepy Hollow (which I have yet to watch. that may be a Review Saturday thing). And able to meet up with a few friends and some Awesome cosplays! Here are a few that I greatly enjoyed on Sunday!


My love, Tony Stark.
Kick Ass 2 Crew!

Daryl Dixon and Maggie Greene from The Walking Dead
Mako Mori from Pacific Rim (and me)


Simon from MISFITS!
(Note: This is actually the same person that I met at Connecticon!)
Left: is from NYCC, Right is Connecticon! And he was super sweet to talk to after I took the photo :)
And lastly but not least:


This amazing Harley Quinn!

Let's just hope that next year I'll be going all FOUR days of New York Comic Con! (October 9th-12th, 2014)
                                                                                                                          -AlisonInGeekland

Monday, October 14, 2013

Walking Dead Review Monday

                                                            WALKING DEAD REVIEW MONDAY

     To kick off my blog, from every Monday on, I will be reviewing the fourth season of the Walking Dead. The episode starts off with where we left off, though, it is a month later. Rick sets off to work in the backyard of the prison, his earbuds in to listen to the music, instead of the growling moaning walkers nearby. My first thought when I saw this scene was "how did  he have music playing?" so far, it's been at least a year or more after the walkers started, there's probably less of a chance of finding batteries or having generated power in a building or even electricity at all. He finds a gun while digging into the grass, and looks over at the zombies, and we are then transported to the opening sequence that we know and love.


     Although, with the loss of so many dear regulars, we are only left with a few for the "regulars" of the show. Andrew Lincoln and Norman Reedus were the top leads, followed by Steven Yeun and Lauren Cohen, then Chandler Riggs, Danai Guerra, Melissa McBride, and Scott Wilson.

     The beginning starts off a month or two after the Woodbury survivors joined #TEAMPRISON. Daryl is making friends with Beth's love interest Zack, who keeps guessing what Daryl's occupation was pre-Apocalypse ("Homicide Detective!"). Michonne has been out and about outside the Prison walls to track down where the Governor ran off to. Rick, decided to take time off from shooting walkers in the face, to farming. You know it's bad when Hershel the farmer is making fun of you for being a farmer.

What was very interesting about this first episode, instead of one overarching plot, there were two: one thrilling, one chilling. The first plot involved newer characters, Tyreese, with his Woodbury survivor girlfriend Karen, contemplating Tyreese going on a supply run with Daryl, Glenn, and Michonne. Newcomer Bob Stookey (The Wire‘s Lawrence Gillard Jr.), an army medic with a history of alcoholism, and Zack (Kyle Gallner) also joined the team to go on the supply run. However, it was Bob's downfall with alcoholism, taking a bottle off of the shelf, had resulted in the whole large shelves come crashing down, causing a disturbance with the unacknowledged walkers walking above on the rotted roof. It was a terrifying, yet almost 1980's horror-hilarious moment where the walkers were not just attacking the survivors -- they were attacking them from falling through the roof ala "It's Raining Men" style. I'm pretty sure after this episode is released online, there will be numerous fanvids of the walkers falling through the roof to the tune of It's Raining Men. 

The sequence is thrilling, inventive, somewhat hilarious and a welcome sign that the show’s creativity is never gone, especially with the gore and visual effects provided by director Greg Nicotero. In an effort to stop a walker from biting his face off, Bob, still pinned underneath the shelves, pushed the walker's head away from him, showing the lovely gorey mess of the walker's skull - a great disgusting moment that the viewers want to see. 

      The second plot involved Rick going out past the prison walls to bring home some food for the community, and stumbles upon a lady in the forest who needs his help. I already suspected that something was wrong after the course of the episode that Rick followed this woman into the forest, and he sees her talking to thin air at her campsite. She had told him that she has done terrible things. What was interesting about her was that she looked as though she were already a walker herself. My theory (or headcanon if you prefer) was the terrible thing she had done was possibly eaten her own husband. A sick idea, but not uncommon in this television show. I wouldn't put it past the new showrunner Scott Gimple.
In the end, she wanted to be with her husband and with the knife that Rick had given her himself, she stabbed herself in the stomach. Rick had 3 questions to ask her before he would be able to bring her to the prison, and while she's dying before him, he asks, "how many walkers have you killed, how many people have you killed, and why?"
It was a way to show the continuing story of humanity, and what lengths people do in order to keep it, (like Rick, or Daryl for example), and the people have lost their humanity along the way (Like Hungry Woman). It shows that it is a terrible world to live in and the terrible things people do in order to survive.
There was another side-plot in the episode which I had greatly enjoyed. Carol proposed "Story Time" over the past month with the younger survivors of the prison, sans Carl Grimes. After a bit of reading, Carol puts the book down and teaches the kids how to use a knife to defend themselves against a walker. It was a small scene that showed that Carol stepped up her game, from being a meek housewife in season one, to a woman who is taking charge of her life, and helping to protect others in it as well. It was a strong feminist moment right there, that sit well within me, to show that anyone has the opportunity to do better and to be better from abuse. Just like Daryl who is becoming a member of the community in the prison, where people call out to him, and want to be his friend (not to mention he is on the council in the prison, alongside Glenn, Carol, and Sasha and Hershel). Daryl evolved into a more caring person, especially when he arrives back from the supply run to tell Beth what happened to her boyfriend. He was there to comfort her, something that he would never had done in the first season.
Beth to me, was very interesting. She has this boyfriend whom she had kissed and joked with before his supply run and when Daryl came back to tell her that he was dead, she was devoid of any emotion at allAnd she seemed to hug Daryl in an almost robotic way, like she was doing it because she remembers that’s how humans are supposed to console other humans. Could she be next to be off-ed on the show like the Hungry Woman? Only time will tell.

Few things I noticed that I thought was interesting:
The young "Walking Nerd" (unnamed on IMDB.com) was sick late and night, hit his head in the bathroom shower, and comes back as a walker.
(photo courtesy of lack-of-surprise)
Zackary was the other white male who died in this episode. That makes two white men who died, instead of Bob Stookey who I was pretty sure was going to die, but didn't. So that makes the round-up of black males who are alive at the prison to 2. Good job Walking Dead. We need more POC characters on the show.
Carol was a badass with knives and teaching the kids.
The pig Violet got sick and died, but we have no idea why or how. Theories say that the "disease" that everyone is infected with, is now airborne and can kill animals. I'm still on the fence about that one.
The Hungry Woman was a parallel to Rick when he saw Lori and talked with the people who departed on the broken telephone. How he could have been if he continued to have the hallucinations.
And from watching the trailer for Infected (4x02) I can guarantee you that this season is going to be the most awesome yet!

See you next week on Walking Dead Review Monday!
-AlisonInGeekland