Emerald city comic con 2015

You know, this is one of the comic cons I go to the most, I think. This has to be, what, my 4th? maybe? Something like that. I go so often, and I am always impressed at Emerald City. The sheer amount of panels, the guests, the gaming, the availability of STUFF, the size, and the accommodation of people-be it kids, new families, gender-fluid bathrooms, quite zones and what not are all spectacular, and probably the most inclusive of all cons. Seriously, they had gender free washroom facilities-how awesome is that?

We only went one day, due to finances and time constraints from school, which sucked, but it was still a great time. We got there when it opened, and stayed for a full 12 hours, staying to watch the AMAZING cosplay contest. I really need to u my cosplay game, by the way. I have two in the works right now, and I want to do one for Hannah from Rat Queens, which, by the way, if you haven't read, you NEED to.

My outfit for the show, and showing off my swanky badge

The opening to Anthony Daniels panel, which was introduced by Grant Imahara. The video was exactly what you would expect-a compilation of C3PO in all the Star Wars films currently released. 

Anthony Daniels himself-he is such a sassy man!

Display, not cosplay.

We even had a visit from R2D2!

I NEED that Yoda picture.

And this one. Actually, I just really need a lot of art.

The R series builders were in the house, which was awesome to see.

This Thrall cosplay was AMAZING and was this guys first BIG cosplay project. He made the entire thing, from the muscle suit, to the mask, EVERYTHING. He won both his category, and the overall.

Seattle and Laurell k Hamilton

I know don't talk about it all that often, but I love reading. Seriously.  I'm not that cliche 'girl who isn't like other girls because she reads and drinks tea' kind of girl, but I do like to read. And drink tea.
But I digress.

One of my favourite authors is Laurell K Hamilton.  She writes two awesome urban fantasy series, and has some 30 novels published as well as several short stories. This past week, one of her series-Merry Gentry fae princess-got its newest release, A Shiver of Light.  To support the release, she went on tour and I finally got to meet her in Seattle. 

This is my second time meeting an author and my first time going alone. I was pretty nervous what with crossing the U.S. Canadian border but it all went fine. I love taking the bolt bus across the border because its cheaper, the seats are more comfortable than greyhound, and they have WiFi and outlets for all your charging needs. Seriously, how awesome is free WiFi in a bus?

That is not all my luggage, don't worry! I brought a tiny backpack and a bag for food, that my husband made for me.

That's right, New York Time best seller-multiple times over!

This is Laurell K Hamilton, looking amazing, rocking a super sexy dress at University Bookstore, Seattle. 

The guy taking the picture did a crappy job, but I'm happy that we even got a picture. She liked my chest tattoo <3

I was only in Seattle for about 15 hours before I came back to Vancouver. I had a class to attend, and couldn't be late. I stayed in the Green Tortoise hostel, which is at 1st and Pike, and is such a great, central location for any traveler, and was perfect for what I needed, location wise. I admit, I didn't sleep at all, mostly because the other people in my room were noisy as fuck, and I didn't expect there to be both genders in my 8 person room. Kinda threw me off. I also was paranoid as hell about waking up in time for my 6:30am bus back to Canada. But, the hostel provided breakfast, which I left too early for, and WiFi, that didn't work on my phone. So, it has the potential to be a great, cheap hostel.

But, anyways, meeting Laurell K Hamilton was just awesome.I found out a week before the event that she was coming this close to my side of the country, and I had to go. I miss a lot of cool events because they aren't close enough to me, or they are on days where I have class or work, but I think its important to do things that you WANT to do, you know?

But, seriously though, meeting her was just awesome. She as a person and through her characters inspires me daily to be comfortable with a lot of aspects of myself that are not pretty, or socially acceptable. Through her words, I learned that being me, and just me, was okay. 

So, if you guys want a new cool urban fantasy series to read, I highly suggest anything by Ms. Hamilton. If you're into vampire hunters and zombies, go with the Anita Blake series, starting with Guilty Pleasures, and if you are into fae, fairies and a little bit of torture, go with the Merry Gentry series, starting with A Kiss of Shadows.

Travel time!

Alright guys, I am all packed and ready to be on my way to Toronto, to go see the famjam for the holidays! That means that I might not be as regular as I have been for the next 2 weeks. I'm going to try and update at least once or twice-there are a LOT of cool things that I'll be doing that I will want to share. I'll have my tablet, and my phone and my camera, so, hopefully, I'll actually do an update.

If not, I hope to at least do a video upload over at my youtube channel.

I feel bad that this is a short post, so here are some other photos from Seattle from last post! ^^

Seattle day of out and aboutness!

As mentioned, we went out like tourists on the second day of our trip to Seattle. This was all, basically, planned, so there was no horrible disappointments with this at all.
We weren't really sure what we wanted to do, but decided that all the cool stuff we haven't seen was near the Space needle, so that's where we went!

It was a BEAUTIFUL day out, and we walked around the gardens and area that surrounds the space needle. We didn't actually go up the tower, because our friends apartment (from last post) was actually higher, and had a better view. And I'm cheap like that.

So, instead of the needle, we went to the EMP museum, which is all about music, pop culture and sci-fi. They also had an AWESOME fantasy section that is all limited time and stuff. If you like any of those things mentioned, then the EMP museum is a MUST to see when in Seattle. Seriously, we were there for HOURS. Total nerd for that kind of thing, mind you. I won't/can't post all the pictures, because I took SO many, but here are some of the choice ones from each section of the EMP.

It was a lot of fun, and they even had a student price, which was hella awesome. I love it when places have student prices. I mean, seriously, I pay SO much for tuition and books and stuff, that it's nice to save a little money when I can. Sure, I could just stay inside like a hermit, but, where's the fun in that?

Before leaving Seattle, we went up this one HUGE tower, that had one of those rooftop things with a view. When i remember the name, I'll add it, but, until then, you can just enjoy the same view that I did.