Entry tags:

crochet, cthulhu, dragoncon, fallout 3, sarah jane adventures, sean astin, the middleman, toaster

Back from Dragoncon and Half of my Life?

I wanted to kick things off with the most adorable destroyer of worlds there is. Hand-crocheted by the girlfriend of Boyan Radakovich (author of the "High School Drama" boardgame), these little C'thulhus flew off of the table during Dragoncon. I wish I had the pattern to offer up, but I'm told that the crochet needles start to become non-euclidian after you make more than three of these things, so we're awaiting FDA approval.

The con once again proved to be costume central, and the creativity on display was terrific (I wish I'd been more aggressive with my camera). We had super-folk, some space marines whose loyalty to their leader seemed unbreakable, and even what appears to be a Dalek turning its nose (well, eye-thingie) up at its handler displaying a tattoo that just wasn't sensitive to his guest. Or it could be upset that a rather campy-looking toy version of his no-good brother-in-law sold for 3000 times its original price.

Much coolness was added to my autographed toaster in the form of sigs from Edward James Olmos, James Callis, and Michael Hogan, who was kind enough to laugh heartily when I put the toaster on the table in front of him and said, "I have bad news about the paterinty test." Sadly, Katee Sackhoff had to cancel, so I may have to bring the ol' bread-burner back one more time, if she's a guest. I'll post new photos of the toaster later on this week or next.

But the coolest thing I got signed was something I forgot I had in my trove of geeky treasures. Rather than have Sean Astin sign something potato-related, I had him autograph this bit of my childhood. It still has the record in the sleeve, too. Mr. Astin was almost afraid to touch Sharpie to such a "priceless antique," but after picking out which cartoon character was Samwise, he left his mark nearby. Now I need to find Elijah Wood to scribble on Frodo. As for the Orc... I dunno? Joel Tobeck?

Moving to other medieval media, there's a trailer up for the BBC's new series, Merlin. It looks pretty compelling. Also, it would seem that Buffy's "Rupert Giles" got a promotion to King in this production, so good for him. There's also apparently a second season of "Sarah Jane Adventures" on the way, as there's a teaser trailer up on the internets. All we can tell is that there's at least one alien from the last season of Doctor Who, and that a lot of characters turn their heads at appropriately sinister musical beats.

Turning to US TV, the sci-fi blog lists (spoiler warnings, if you haven't seen the series) reasons why (at least when it comes to plot threads) we need more of 'The Middleman'. Heck, I just needed one reason: It's so unlike most TV it should just BE... which is usually the kind of program that gets cancelled, but there we go.

I also picked up my own copy of "The Orange Box" after months of yearning for replaying "Portal" on a friend's computer. I think I'm getting old, or I caught a touch of the 'con crud' in Atlanta, as I became WAY sick after the "Half Life 2" levels with the swamp-boat. I'm pulling for a stomach virus, as I don't think I'll be able to stop myself from playing "Fallout 3" in FPS mode at least part of the time. Yes, I pre-ordered the latest "Fallout" from Amazon.com, complete with lunch box and Pip-Boy wrist-mounted computer. If my wife will let me, I may add it to my convention attire. :)

Onward and linkward, whichever ward that is:

- Globule is a puzzle game like "snake" where you create a tail (of slime) that you want to make as long as possible before landing on the level's "exit."
- Coca-Cola is testing new high-concentrate soda fountains that will, in theory, let you get 100 different drinks out of an 8-nozzle-sized fountain. My question is: Will the Quickie-Mart employee who eats a handful of the concentrate (and you know one will) die horribly or not so horribly? And will they require embalming?
- The Mythbusters use paintball guns to demonstrate the difference in graphics processing between a CPU and a GPU. If that didn't make sense, watch 'till the end for an 'instant' Mona Lisa painting.
- Very often, history is a confusing thing, but thank goodness we have Blackadder to sort out how WWI started. Poor ostrich...
- If you're a comic book geek (as I am, proudly) and you get the nagging feeling that John McCain is reminding you of somebody, there could be a reason why. And now I can't STOP seeing him when I read "Kingdom Come."
- This is more of an "artsy game" with a lot of "calm time" in between puzzles, but Aether has a boy riding a monster that can use its tongue to swing on clouds and into the stars. Visit planets and solve puzzles by moving your creature over and onto things. Kind of relaxing...
- My D&D lovin' soul is making me post Dungeon-Sweet-Dungeon, a flash game where you try to build, populate, and bait a dungeon complex in the hopes of attracting (and killing) adventurers. My first attempt saw my two goblins, skeleton, and slime get defeated by a level 3 villager, who made off with my 40 gold. :(