Eleventh Reel: 2012's Weekend of Canadian Geekery (Part 2)
Saturday - Bring on the Awesome
That morning I dreamt about ponies and Luceti and people I left behind at home. I don’t remember it beyond that. But we got a good amount of sleep overall, waking up at 9 and taking naps while the other showered (well, I did anyway). The great thing about our hotel was that they provided us with a breakfast buffet every morning, which meant one less meal a day to worry about. There was an array of foods including scrambled eggs, sausages, cereal, bagels, toast, and even waffles. Saturday morning was also the only time we caught any of the Olympic games that weekend, since the dining area had a TV that was broadcasting the bicycle races.
We still had time before the first program on our list, so we went to the Bulk Barn and got a shitload of candy. Seriously, we still have some left over: big feet, gummy bears, smarties, those hard fruit candies, and chocolate-covered almonds. And that’s what we snacked on throughout the entire rest of the con. Then it was time to see the 404’s.
In case you’re unaware, the 404’s are an improv team that were at ConBravo! last year and basically do sketches that involve all things geeky. We saw them that last year and loved them, so we opted to see them again this year. This wasn’t their first show, though; they had an 18+ show the previous night, but we couldn’t go because of ponies and having to take an Atlas home. … And ponies, but awell. Anyway, this particular show had the group split off into separate teams and we had to vote each round for which team we thought was the best by holding up separate-coloured cards. (Ry still has one of them… and the back now has Hangman games all over it.) Like we expected, the show was hilarious.
(Unfortunately, there are no YT videos of our specific shows, but the 404s do have their own channel.)
Immediately after that was, unfortunately, the first Channel Awesome Q&A - not “unfortunately” because it’s Channel Awesome, of course, but “unfortunately” because this meant that we were too late to make it into the line before area was full. Due to the size, the Q&A was moved from the Main Events room to the Atrium, which resulted in both good news and bad news:
Good news: This meant we could sit on one of the balconies from the upper floors, and thus still be able to watch the Q&A and the Channel Awesome members.
Bad news: Because of the size and all of the windows, the acoustics, at least from where we were at the time, were terrible. We could only make out half of what Channel Awesome or the people asking the questions were saying so mentally it was much easier to just zone out all dialogue.
Mind you, this doesn’t mean it was all a loss. For one, seeing above not only the panel but the entire area from the balcony meant we could spot a lot of different interesting cosplayers. We couldn’t recognise all of them, but we took pictures of the most unique-looking ones, albeit from afar.
There was a Link.
A Harley Quinn.
A fleeing Batman.
Two characters that looked annoyingly familiar.
Final Fantasy?
One of the above characters at a closer view.
Aaaand I don't really know about these ones. Anyone want to clear them up for me?
We also caught Paw Dugan and Elisa Hansen walking around, since they and the rest of the “New York gang” (so they, Lindsay Ellis, Todd in the Shadows, and Nella are dubbed since they all live in New York) weren’t being questioned at this panel.
There was also a "Hey, listen!" fairy near them at one point.
Plus, we did manage to catch a few really sweet things during the session. The members there for questions were Lewis, Doug Walker (of course), Mike "The Birdman" Dodd, and Joey "Roo" Desena (alas I don't know the latter two as well).
From left to right: Roo, Lewis, Doug, and Birdman.
We were only really interested in the first two because we had never watched any of the other two’s videos… but amusingly enough, we just happened to come into the Q&A when the age-old question was asked: What do the members of Channel Awesome think of MLP? Birdman’s answer was obvious, since he was there dressed up as Pinkie Pie. But Lewis was the open-minded one who said (correct me if I’m wrong, fellow attendees, since I couldn’t quite make it out) that he likes the writing and the characters and the overall quality but isn’t a fan. Doug simply said, “It’s cute but it’s not for me.” (Apologies for not knowing the answer from Roo, since I don't know him and the audio was terrible.) The other highlight was somebody asking how long Doug can hold a note with his amazing operatic voice… which resulted in a record of thirty-five seconds. Absolutely incredible. The greatest thing was that we would all cheer whenever we thought he was about to finish, or just because he had gone so long already, and he would be still going. That voice box of his really is astounding.
Oh, and sometimes people would be asking Doug to sign things and he would traipse off the platform as if he were angry and then sort of snatch the item away from them… and then sign it courteously to show that he was just kidding. And one person asked for a hug (I think?) and he went over and lifted them up while he was at it. So the session, even if it was often frustrating to barely hear anything, was still worth it.
Time to look at the vendors! I came to the con hoping I would find some MLP t-shirts or some Channel Awesome-related things, maybe even some earrings. They definitely had earrings… but the former two were nowhere to be seen. And the place was packed. I started to get stressed out because I was beginning to feel overwhelmed with disappointment but still wanting to get something for both myself and Ry and Atlas (who asked us to get him anything that screams “Atlas”), but not wanting to get something just for the sake of getting something, plus the fact that I couldn’t even stop to think about all of this because there were all these people who kept on wanting to be where we were and it was just such a big mess at the time. So instead we went outside and had our “dinner” (which was cheese sticks) while munching on candy and pondering what we would like to get. Eventually we returned to the marketplace and got what we were sure we wanted - earrings for this girl who made amazing jewellery. Amazing in that many of the earrings were of food that genuinely looked so good it seemed edible. She also did these teardrop thingies with sad faces and the stars from the Mario games. And probably a bunch of other stuff I’ve completely forgotten. Ry ended up getting cupcakes and smiling pieces of toast. I got cookies and those teardrops by Ry’s suggestion. We would’ve stayed since the traffic had died down quite a bit, but we needed to get going to the next panel. This panel was the ever-famous Atop the Fourth Wall LIVE!
To be ever randomly continued...
That morning I dreamt about ponies and Luceti and people I left behind at home. I don’t remember it beyond that. But we got a good amount of sleep overall, waking up at 9 and taking naps while the other showered (well, I did anyway). The great thing about our hotel was that they provided us with a breakfast buffet every morning, which meant one less meal a day to worry about. There was an array of foods including scrambled eggs, sausages, cereal, bagels, toast, and even waffles. Saturday morning was also the only time we caught any of the Olympic games that weekend, since the dining area had a TV that was broadcasting the bicycle races.
We still had time before the first program on our list, so we went to the Bulk Barn and got a shitload of candy. Seriously, we still have some left over: big feet, gummy bears, smarties, those hard fruit candies, and chocolate-covered almonds. And that’s what we snacked on throughout the entire rest of the con. Then it was time to see the 404’s.
In case you’re unaware, the 404’s are an improv team that were at ConBravo! last year and basically do sketches that involve all things geeky. We saw them that last year and loved them, so we opted to see them again this year. This wasn’t their first show, though; they had an 18+ show the previous night, but we couldn’t go because of ponies and having to take an Atlas home. … And ponies, but awell. Anyway, this particular show had the group split off into separate teams and we had to vote each round for which team we thought was the best by holding up separate-coloured cards. (Ry still has one of them… and the back now has Hangman games all over it.) Like we expected, the show was hilarious.
(Unfortunately, there are no YT videos of our specific shows, but the 404s do have their own channel.)
Immediately after that was, unfortunately, the first Channel Awesome Q&A - not “unfortunately” because it’s Channel Awesome, of course, but “unfortunately” because this meant that we were too late to make it into the line before area was full. Due to the size, the Q&A was moved from the Main Events room to the Atrium, which resulted in both good news and bad news:
Good news: This meant we could sit on one of the balconies from the upper floors, and thus still be able to watch the Q&A and the Channel Awesome members.
Bad news: Because of the size and all of the windows, the acoustics, at least from where we were at the time, were terrible. We could only make out half of what Channel Awesome or the people asking the questions were saying so mentally it was much easier to just zone out all dialogue.
Mind you, this doesn’t mean it was all a loss. For one, seeing above not only the panel but the entire area from the balcony meant we could spot a lot of different interesting cosplayers. We couldn’t recognise all of them, but we took pictures of the most unique-looking ones, albeit from afar.
There was a Link.
A Harley Quinn.
A fleeing Batman.
Two characters that looked annoyingly familiar.
Final Fantasy?
One of the above characters at a closer view.
Aaaand I don't really know about these ones. Anyone want to clear them up for me?
We also caught Paw Dugan and Elisa Hansen walking around, since they and the rest of the “New York gang” (so they, Lindsay Ellis, Todd in the Shadows, and Nella are dubbed since they all live in New York) weren’t being questioned at this panel.
There was also a "Hey, listen!" fairy near them at one point.
Plus, we did manage to catch a few really sweet things during the session. The members there for questions were Lewis, Doug Walker (of course), Mike "The Birdman" Dodd, and Joey "Roo" Desena (alas I don't know the latter two as well).
From left to right: Roo, Lewis, Doug, and Birdman.
We were only really interested in the first two because we had never watched any of the other two’s videos… but amusingly enough, we just happened to come into the Q&A when the age-old question was asked: What do the members of Channel Awesome think of MLP? Birdman’s answer was obvious, since he was there dressed up as Pinkie Pie. But Lewis was the open-minded one who said (correct me if I’m wrong, fellow attendees, since I couldn’t quite make it out) that he likes the writing and the characters and the overall quality but isn’t a fan. Doug simply said, “It’s cute but it’s not for me.” (Apologies for not knowing the answer from Roo, since I don't know him and the audio was terrible.) The other highlight was somebody asking how long Doug can hold a note with his amazing operatic voice… which resulted in a record of thirty-five seconds. Absolutely incredible. The greatest thing was that we would all cheer whenever we thought he was about to finish, or just because he had gone so long already, and he would be still going. That voice box of his really is astounding.
Click to viewOh, and sometimes people would be asking Doug to sign things and he would traipse off the platform as if he were angry and then sort of snatch the item away from them… and then sign it courteously to show that he was just kidding. And one person asked for a hug (I think?) and he went over and lifted them up while he was at it. So the session, even if it was often frustrating to barely hear anything, was still worth it.
Time to look at the vendors! I came to the con hoping I would find some MLP t-shirts or some Channel Awesome-related things, maybe even some earrings. They definitely had earrings… but the former two were nowhere to be seen. And the place was packed. I started to get stressed out because I was beginning to feel overwhelmed with disappointment but still wanting to get something for both myself and Ry and Atlas (who asked us to get him anything that screams “Atlas”), but not wanting to get something just for the sake of getting something, plus the fact that I couldn’t even stop to think about all of this because there were all these people who kept on wanting to be where we were and it was just such a big mess at the time. So instead we went outside and had our “dinner” (which was cheese sticks) while munching on candy and pondering what we would like to get. Eventually we returned to the marketplace and got what we were sure we wanted - earrings for this girl who made amazing jewellery. Amazing in that many of the earrings were of food that genuinely looked so good it seemed edible. She also did these teardrop thingies with sad faces and the stars from the Mario games. And probably a bunch of other stuff I’ve completely forgotten. Ry ended up getting cupcakes and smiling pieces of toast. I got cookies and those teardrops by Ry’s suggestion. We would’ve stayed since the traffic had died down quite a bit, but we needed to get going to the next panel. This panel was the ever-famous Atop the Fourth Wall LIVE!
To be ever randomly continued...