Thoughts on MarsCon
My favorite cons give me a chance to connect with my tribe, meet some old friends, have a nice dinner out, maybe do a little unwise spending in the dealer’s room.
Unfortunately, that didn’t work out for me this year as well as I’d like, primarily because I was exhausted. I’ve been overstressed to the point of illness lately, and sleeping poorly to boot. So when I got in around 9:30 Friday night, once we unpacked I conked out within minutes of setting up the CPAP.
Saturday morning as a result of all this, I suffered what I called my “hard drive crash”. I couldn’t bear the thought of being around anyone, I just wanted quiet and dark. With the help of my brain meds, I came out of it around noon, donned my Alice costume, and went out into the con. The Alice costume was a hit – it usually has been through all the variations I’ve owned. I posed for pictures and took a few, and bumped into some friends.
At a busy con, though, you can’t sit down and talk to anyone. You generally get about five minutes with them and one or both of you has to move on. So I didn’t really catch up with too many people; and while I did at least get hellos and hugs from many, there were several more people there I never saw.
After 8 hours of wandering the con and checking out a few panels, I had to head back to my room. My current Alice costume is of heavier PVC than my previous ones, and while I wasn’t suffering heat stroke I was extremely warm. Maya and Bert and I managed some dinner and played a card game Jesse Braxton got her for Christmas – Sushi Go, lots of fun – and then I decided to take a rest before the 10:00 and 11:45 shows I wanted to see,
I didn’t fall asleep like one might guess, but I realized I had no energy left. I couldn’t have walked another dozen steps. Rather than heading out to the con again, I had to fill the CPAP and shut down for the night.
Sunday morning was mostly packing and checking out, but I did hit the high point of the con when we attended the musician’s Round Robin. 11 musicians on stage, each in turn performing a song and usually being joined in by the other musicians, finishing with White Plectrum’s rousing rendition of “The Mulder”, a tune everyone on stage knew. It brought down the house.
So, MarsCon 2020: Not a weekend of unending misery, but I sure hope I’m in better shape next year.
Surgery 2: The Wrath of Hip
Two entries within two weeks! This is a record for my recent blog productivity. I would really like to start using this a heck of a lot more, since Facebook is quickly losing its luster. So what’s up with the Borg?
I’ve been to the hospital for a bone scan, and seen my surgeon for a follow-up. My surgery is scheduled for Thursday March 26th. The likely procedure will be to go in and replace the plastic liner between the ball-and-socket of the prosthetic, and the replace the ball because it’s probably abraded. They may also have to replace the metal cup, which might be tricky because of the metal plates that are very close to it in the pelvis. The worst case scenario is that the entire prosthesis may need to be replaced, which could require two surgeries even more serious than expected. That’s supposedly quite unlikely. Let’s hope.
Even with the good news, I am expected to be recovering for at least three months. I will be damned if I will wait that long. You wait and see, I’ll be up and moving around on crutches at worst in two. Maybe less. I’m not putting my life on hold for some damn surgery. I have stuff to do. I set recovery records last time, and I’m just as determined now. Still going to miss Animazement on May 21st unless a miracle happens.
Speaking of cons, MarsCon is this weekend. It will be great to see friends there, including a new friend I’ve recently made, but otherwise I’m not really feeling it. I have no desire to cosplay for the first time in years and years; this will probably surprise people. I’m sure I’ll hit some of the music tracks, but otherwise I’m experiencing a vast MEH. I’m sure it comes from too much stress and money worries, but cons are feeling less and less like a vacation to me and more like a hassle with some fandom in it.
I’m beginning to have ideas for Managlitch again. My goals is to have a new episode written and recorded by the end of the month. That’s another area where it will be interesting to see if I can record episodes from my recovery bed. I have an idea for written erotica that needs worked out – I haven’t done any of that in ages. And I’m meeting models right and left for my bawdy slapstick video shorts! All I need to get started on those is a filming space and a budget!
The recovery is going to heavily limit my VR time – I will have to see what I can do from a seated position. I know I can play Borderlands 2 VR, but Beat Saber will probably be right out. My cosplay Beat Saber channel will probably have to wait for launch until after my recovery. The good news is that I’ll probably have lost a lot of weight. Surgery recovery tends to do that. At least I will have a lot of time to catch up on TV and regular games I’ve missed.
Speaking of VR, I tried playing one of the new 360º Beat Saber levels. Had to use an avatar instead of mixed reality, and the camera position probably could have been better, but this are a lot more fun than I thought! I want to try some more of those.
Until next time…
Hello Blog
I’m back. It has literally been over a year since I posted here. Maya got cancer, beat it, then had another pop up to be removed. I got a new much-better paying job and somehow still have barely enough to get by. My prosthetic hip has finally work out and will need to be replaced in March. I didn’t get a damn thing written for the podcast since May. This has not been a good year, and I’m hoping luck and effort will be with me to make 2020 better.
On the other hand, I did get a green screen.
A Hurricane Tonight
Bucket-list cosplay: Priss from Bubble Gum Crisis. I will have to commission the services of someone skilled in vacuforming or get really good with the craft foam. (Also invest in some good corsetry…)
“Ether Flier Lavender”
– another in the ‘Sidequest’ series of fiction fragments –
“We’re travelers of luck – We sail the seas of space – Just to try, and make a buck – LA-VEN-DER!!”
Picture if you will a cross between Space Battleship Yamato, Yellow Submarine, and Firefly: a bizarre ship crewed by four misfits with extraordinary skills. Outcasts from their peoples, they take any jobs they find in hopes of surviving and even sometimes turning a profit. Their madcap – and sometimes harrowing – adventures have become legend.
Our Crew
- Jahmest Wecyi: owner and captain of the cargo ship “Lavender Oboe”. Looks like a classic Grey alien with short prehensile tentacles corn-rowed along their skull. Jamest is prone to making nonsensical statements under stress, or just when they’re in the mood.
- “Nearly Mad” Mike NinetyFive: “Nearly” to his friends. Mike is an aurapilot whose glitch also makes him invisible and often nearly intangible. He dyes his hair and wears sunglasses and lipstick to help friends locate his face. He rides the ether filaments better than any other pilot in or out of the Forty-One Worlds… but then they all say that, don’t they.
- Probosca: A lightly-furred, rotund being with a protruding nose, short stumpy legs, no obvious neck, and a single large eye. Her race has a remarkably sensitive, directional sense of smell, which is believed to work in tandem with the eye to provide depth perception and peripheral senses.
- Zeesuf: This being’s body shape is unknown, as it is covered with dense, blunt spines revealing only wide eyes, a small nose, and mouth. The spines work as the legs of a millipede to carry Zeesuf over even difficult terrain and can grasp and manipulate objects. The spines are capable of great dexterity and delicate touch, making zir a perfect choice for engineer.
The “Lavender Oboe”
- It is definitely lavender, but bears no obvious resemblance to an oboe, which doesn’t surprise considering Wecyi named it. It is a tall, narrow ship with a bridge section at the top of a pyramidal superstructure, upon which are mounted a complex array of sensors.
- Beginning perhaps a third of the way from the bow, two bulbous cargo pods are permanently attached flush with the ship: booster engines fill the aft section of these pods.
- The crystalline filament drive sits shrouded at the very rear of the ship, with three large radiator fins that also serve as auxiliary steering in atmosphere. The ship is covered with an abnormal amount of cargo and equipment hatches, not all of which anyone remembers how to open.
- At the very front, there is a curious hole filled with power and data conduits. Clearly, it is a socket for some powerful device. The crew refuses to discuss it under any circumstances.
Catch the all-new adventures of the Lavender and her crew, 17 episodes per binge-able season on the “Infotainer” subscription frequency!
“Light’s Hatchling”
– another in the Sidequest series: fiction fragments which may be expanded someday –
Alex Waverly stood over the crumpled shell of Featherton’s protector. The other four were dazed and wounded, but this one was dead. He couldn’t believe he’d watched her fall less than a meter away from him. The Doves couldn’t fall. It was impossible.
He grabbed the neck brooch from Wing Majesty’s immobile form. Her magically generated costume had faded to the sweatshirt and jeans she must have been wearing before transformation. The gem upon the brooch was as lifeless as its owner.
Alex clenched his fist around it. He knew he might be killed for what he was doing, but he wouldn’t let the Hate Beast do as it would with its fallen foe. Perhaps, just perhaps, he could trigger the Purification Beam in a final vengeance.
Everyone in Featherton knew the power phrase; they’d all heard it in a hundred television specials, limited movie events, and radio commercials. He held the brooch above his head and shouted it, knowing it was a futile, ridiculous act. “I Defend the Living Light!”
It served only to attract attention. Seven glowing eyes swung toward him, and the Hate Beast began to advance. Once more Alex shouted the phrase, and he might as well have been holding a plastic toy for all the good it did. The creature scuttled closer.
“I Defend the Living Light!” he screamed a third time, meaning it as he never imagined he could. A thrill shot through his body; he understood his life was over, but he had not gone down without a fight.
A strange sensation made him look up to see the Light Gem glowing brightly in his hand, sending a kind of painless burning through the nerve endings in his skin and shooting down his arm. He felt decidedly odd.
“Welcome, hatchling…” echoed a voice nearby. An image of Wing Majesty stood tall and proud beside him, no longer battered and wounded, and wearing the ornate blouse and cropped skirt of her Dove uniform. Her eyes were closed as in trance. “Only one fully committed to the Living Light may take the place of a fallen Dove. You, young lady, have shown your faith, and shall take my place as I replaced my predecessor. Kneel before me to receive your – “ She opened her eyes to look at him. “ – oh.”
Alex stared back at her. He couldn’t find words.
“Oh… oh!” She started to laugh, and laugh, and laugh. “Never in a thousand years has any Dove seen anything like this!”
“This – this isn’t funny!” he choked out.
Majesty’s laughter died down. “It is… and it isn’t. You are right that becoming a Dove is no matter for humor. Still… every Dove as far as our memories go has been a woman. Yet, you are utterly committed to the Living Light. Without it, you wouldn’t see me now.”
“What’s going on? Did I defeat the Hate Beast? Are the other Doves okay?”
“Do you wish to defeat it? Do you wish to save my sisters from a horrible demise?”
“Well… I mean… of course I do. The Light has kept us all safe, for uncounted generations. We all owe you so much.
“I believe in what you do. I have for as long as I can remember… I have always wished I could help, somehow.” From somewhere deep inside him, the words came almost without thought. “I swear with my life to defend the Living Light.”
She pierced him with her gaze. “You mean every word of that. You truly do.
“Very well. You shall be known as Wing Chrysalis. Arise, and take your place among the Doves!” Her stern expression slipped ever so briefly into a grin. “This should be interesting.”
The next thing he knew, Alex was back in the street. The Brooch of the Light felt warm in his hands, and the Hate Beast lay dead with a 15-centimeter hole burned clean through it. The other Doves were on their feet and rushing towards him.
“How did you… I saw you grab her brooch. You couldn’t have triggered a Purification!” Wing Scimitar shouted.
“Um… look at, er, him. I think maybe he could have,” said Wing Chalice.
“Oh, no,” sobbed Wing Scepter, looking down. “Majesty has passed beyond, hasn’t she…”
“And she passed it to some guy? Some random guy? Are you kidding me?” cried Wing Talisman.
Alex tried his best to follow their exclamations. “Would someone please tell me what has happened? And why do I feel so cold?”
The Doves looked at each other. Chalice nervously twisted a fold of her skirt and said, “Majesty’s brooch is yours now. You put a Purification Beam right through the face of the Hate Beast. You saved all four of us. You’re a Dove.”
Talisman had trouble meeting his eyes. “It seems so. You’ll need training, but you have the powers… the responsibilities… and the uniform.”
Alex looked down at the pair of hairless, shapely legs visible beneath the hem of his glowing, sparkling skirt… and at the fully developed chest filling his short-sleeved blouse… and fainted.
Giving Thanks 2019
2018 has been a miserable year. All that made this year bearable has been my friends and loved ones. I want you to know that I appreciate each and every one of you, and I thank you for the support you provided just by being there.
“The Adventure of the Foreign Sun”
– another in the Sidequest series: fiction fragments which may be expanded someday –
The complicated diagram drawn on the wall flared in gold. In the flickering light, the arcane pattern briefly resembled the letters “VR” for some reason. A human-shaped shadow with glowing red eyes emerged from it, bellowing in anger.
“Grrraaaaaaggghhhh – oh. It’s one of you,” the creature snapped. “The last one worked very hard to free me from my debt to your bloodline. I see you’ve changed your mind.”
“That was hundreds of years ago. For generations, you’ve been a family legend no one really believed.”
“Obviously, you felt otherwise. A shame. I rather enjoyed my freedom, I must say. However: what’s done is done. You must have gone to a great deal of trouble to rediscover the secrets learned by your ancestor; especially as I can tell we are far from the mountains of Afghanistan.”
“Can you?”
“If nothing else, the sun outside your window is quite the wrong shade of blue. Let us cut to the heart of the matter. What do you people wish of me this time?” The shadow resolved into the shape of a man: one somewhat over two meters tall, with piercing blue eyes, a thin hawk-like nose, and a prominent, square chin.
“Nothing you are unused to. Shyarlok, I require your help solving a murder,” said Siobhán Marie Watson.
Five Decades and Counting
It’s so good to have a partner who understands that I may be 50 today, but I am still 15 as well. (Birthday presents below the cut)
This Is Your Alternate Reality
Another blast from the Atari 800 past: the opening to a video game called “Alternate Reality”. Hard to imagine these days, but this 8-bit game pushed the computer to the limit: the Atari could play four tones at once and display four colors at once. You’ll notice there are more than each in the video. This was done by playing tricks with the internal values so the computer swapped in a new set of four colors and four tones by the microsecond before the screen had refreshed. Hardcore.
