No Strings Attached

Posted By Kathleen David on October 15, 2013

Or is in 16 days.

So I would like to point out some places I look for how to do things.

Instructables is my go to site first. Searching it can be a bit of a pain at time and remember that all the tutorials are created by the members so the quality of Instruction is variable. However this is such a cool site with lots of ways to do things.

The Replica Props Forum is a brain trust of information and is the heavy hitter of props replication. They are into screen accurate props and reference for such. When I send my brother the reference for the Dark One Dagger he made me for my birthday, that is where I went first.

Spoonful is run by Disney and a great place for craft ideas both Disney and not Disney. I have found all kinds of interesting crafty projects and ways of doing things there. I tend to use it as a jumping off point. It is also an excellent site for crafts to do with kids. They have it divided up by age and complexity.

Dad Can Do I found because I was looking for a way to make a simple wand. But this site is so much more than that. There are all kinds of craft ideas for all kinds of things.

Doll Street Dreamers is a group I joined ages ago and their website is helpful in how to make dolls. The list is also an amazing brain trust.

For puppet patterns I look around at various sites. A lot of my patterns I make myself but I like to see how others do it. Both Puppeteers of America and UNIMA are good places to go look for things.

So what crafty resources do you use? I am serious interested.

I am grateful for all the people who give of their time to make these tutorials and the like.

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Posted By Kathleen David on October 14, 2013

Peter attended Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Caroline and I attended Saturday and Sunday.

Longest lines I stood in were for food and I chose the short lines for vendors with food that all of us would eat but it still was a 40 to 60 minutes to get to the food. I went after the height of lunch hour (2 pm) and that was the line. I know there is only so much that the convention can do about it. This year there were a couple of vendor trucks on property (the mac and cheese truck ruled) so because of the new RFID chips if you wanted to go further out, you had to get your badge checked out and then in to get back into the venue.

I didn’t hear lots of problems with the RFID chips. There were some that were sorted out. But overall except for the pain of having to check in and out, which really wasn’t for us, I think it worked.

The twitter take-over needs a serious apology from NYCC. I didn’t register my RFID chip because I was warned off it by my friends who did and found themselves “saying” things that they did not type. Not cool.

Crowd control was pretty good. They had some of the more popular booths hire security for line control. They had the path that the line was going very clearly delineated. And they kept people informed whether they were out of something or not. Once the hot item went, they went down the line and made sure that everyone knew that there was no more to be had that day. Props to Matty Collector for keeping the booth moving and the information flowing. Everyone at the booth knew what was going on and could either tell you or quickly direct you to who did.

Where the crowd control fell down was the rest of the floor. I don’t how many times I walked through a photo in the middle of the floor but I just didn’t care. It is the middle of the show floor and we are trying to get around and see things. Also the middle of the walkway where people are trying to get from point A to point B is sucky place to get photos. I give high marks to the staff in the Artist Alley who politely asked people to go over the walls to take photos because they were trying to keep lines in order and traffic moving. There were places designated for photo taking. The bottlenecks some of these picture taking people created were not fun to get around. Then there were what I called “the lost”, they couldn’t find something and couldn’t read the map for some reason. I spent probably about a 3rd of my time on the show floor helping people find booths and people. I never got to the autographing area so there are a bunch of friends I didn’t see but I really didn’t want to deal with the crowds there. Same with programing but props for setting up the feeder lines so well. One could walk around there very nicely.

I did get a chance to catch up with old friends and make some new ones. I had a lot of fun talking about puppetry with a number of people both professionals and fans. I met one person who was at my build panel at Dragon Con that I did with Liz and he showed me his first puppet. The kid has mad skills and will go far if he continues. I showed him some of the sewing tricks I used and gave him some ideas on things he could do to get the look he wanted better. I told him I wanted to see what he did next because I am betting it will be amazing. I showed Mr. Beagle my puppets, which he had never seen. He was impressed. A lot of people where impressed by the amount of detail that went into each puppet.

Caroline did well selling her drawings to the public. She is quite the salesman. She had fun on the show floor as well. She met the creator of Monster High. She met authors she likes. She got to talk to Jill Thompson about Scary Godmother. Jill asked Caroline if she would do a drawing for the Scary Godmother kickstart comic. Caroline did and created a really fun Scary Godmother drawing that Jill is going to use. She spent some time talking to Peter S. Beagle which she always enjoys doing.

Peter sold books, signed autographs, and talked a lot to a variety of people about a variety of subjects. He also did a number of interviews for people’s podcasts and the like. It was a good convention for him too.

So overall it was fun and we will, if they ask us, be back next year.

I am grateful to the staff and crew of NYCC who did such a good job of keeping things from dissolving into chaos.

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Posted By Kathleen David on October 11, 2013

OK it is Friday. This weekend is devoted to NYCC but I need to get a couple of things off my chest before I dive into the crowd. I have already had my coffee so this is not a RTBTCKI but it is in the same randomness that you find there.

The Gym-
I have a really good YMCA near me that is our gym. They keep it clean and they have up graded the equipment just about every year. Caroline likes it because they have a pool and an indoor track that she loves to run. She can’t use the weight room until she is 13 but she finds things to do.

And most of the people at the gym are respectful and friendly however there are a couple of denizens that need to meet the clue by four.

Dear older patron, yea! You love the new elliptical machines. So much so that you love using them for hours (not kidding on this one). Guess what dude, the rest of us would like a crack as them as well. Which is way there is a half hour limit on them. And trying to pretend that you only did half an hour on the machine and didn’t see anyone waiting so you just kept going to a lame excuse on the best of days. Step off and leave for a bit. If the machine is still not being used, then get back on. No love the person who had to wait 10 minutes for a machine to use. PS: The attendants know you are a problem and are keeping an eye and a stopwatch on you.

Dear young pup, I am sorry that you and your girl friend are having a falling out. But dude, stopping your set to text and the sit there and text some more is not cool. Finish your set and give up the machine. Yelling at your buddy about how much of a c-word your girlfriend is being is a good way to get your ášš kicked to the curb.

Dear young pup’s friend, the old lady that you were looking daggers at because she was using the machine you wanted to use is 92 years old. She got there before you did. She set up the machine the way she needed it and she did 3 sets of 10 like you do but much more efficiently than you. We both heard what you said and think that you really do need to learn some manners. She followed the rules and you get all pissy when someone breaks your pattern by using a machine you are not using since you have 5 of the things set up for some reason that surpasses our understanding. No love the younger women in this picture.

I did get through what I needed to do but it was not easy today.

Driving-

Dear SUV, well you got a whole car length in front of me and then slowed down to 5 miles below the speed limit. What was the purpose in that? The road behind me was perfectly clear. And I would not have missed the stop light cycle except you were going 5 miles below the speed limit.

Dear Mustang, guess what…you were in the lane that vanishes not me. I was going the speed limit and had the right of way. If you had crashed into me, I was in the correct lane and you failed to yield. Honking your horn may have made you feel better but it also got the attention of the cop that followed us for a bit. Hope that ticket in your near future had lots of point attached to it.

NYCC

I can already see what is going on at NYCC from my friends FB and tweets. Oh good grief, MOVE. Find a wall or a corner to sort things out. The middle of a very crowded path is not the best place to stop and consult your program books or take a picture of a cool costume.

I also know that I will not get to any of the cool programming this weekend. I will be in artist alley or on the exhibitor’s floor or at the anime convention. There are things I want to see but not standing around for hours for a one hour panel. Which is a shame since there were interesting things to see. I will also miss out at seeing some friends of the family because I can’t get back to see them because I don’t have one of those badges. Oh well.

I am grateful for people who don’t act like jerks.

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Posted By Kathleen David on October 10, 2013

One thing about attending a convention in your own backyard, as it were, is that you tend to stay at home rather than the convention itself. Now we are a bit of a ways from the city by choice. We can hop in but it is not like living in one of the five boroughs. We have time limits based on a lot of different things including transportation. We also have limits based on Caroline’s schedule of school and activities. So Friday she has school and her busy afternoon/evening. Saturday we will get up extra early to drive into the city for the Saturday portion of the show. Then we drive home at the end of day and probably skip the social events of the evening. We drive back Sunday early AM for the rest of the convention and call it a show.

In some ways that makes me feel a little detached from the events of the convention and the usual social things afterwards. That is neither a good nor a bad thing, just a thing. I have been gathering where people are for probably about the past month and I really hope to see most of my list before end of business on Sunday. There really isn’t a host hotel where many go after the show is closed. There isn’t a district that most of the other events are happening probably because there isn’t much around the Javitts’ center.

Today is prep for the convention. We have to get what Peter is going to sell at table B5 in Artist Alley ready to go. I have to check over the puppets I hope to sell and make sure they are ready to go. Part of this is seeing what we have left from DragonCon in terms of books and the like. The other part is printing up scripts and plots to sell.

I am looking forward to the convention and seeing all my friends. I am not looking forward to the amount of travel I am going to have to do but it is necessary.

Those of you who need my cell number or wonder if it is the same. It is the same one I have had since 1997/8. If you need it, usual e-mail addresses and Facebook are the way to get in touch with me.

I am grateful for the time I will be spending at the convention.

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Posted By Kathleen David on October 9, 2013

Caroline has been going to conventions since she was three months old. In that time she had learned a lot about going to conventions. Now remember that she has only gone to conventions with her dad so her perspective is slightly skewed.

What I like best about convention is that I can be myself. I don’t have to hide the stuff that I like. I can wear costumes and not get strange looks if it is not Halloween. I can share my love of stuff with other kids and not get flack for it. I can talk to adults and know I am being listened to rather than dismissed because I am a kid and my opinion doesn’t really matter.

I like making art and selling it at conventions. I like talking to people about my art.

I like wandering the exhibit hall and seeing what I can see. It can be hard because I am a kid and I am not as tall as a lot of the adults. Also all the backpacks are at my eye level so I have to watch my head to make sure I don’t get taken out by them. I wish people would realize that they are wider that they think they are when they are wearing a backpack or bag. Also the rolling suitcases and carts can make it hard to get around. I am not happy when people cut in front of me when I am looking at something because I am a kid. I want to see things too.

I like meeting people who work in and on film and television. I got to talk to Lucy Lawless at DragonCon and gave her a copy of Fearless to read to her kids. I like meeting the voice actors who do the voices of characters I like to watch. I like meeting other artists and people to create things I like to read. Last year at NYCC I met Lincoln Pierce who is the creator of Big Nate. He was really cool. We talked about drawing emotions and how hard that is. I told him the Big Nate cartoon I wanted to draw.

Wearing comfortable shoes is a must for a convention because you do a lot of walking. If you can, figure out what you want to do before hand. It can be fun to find something new that you didn’t know about. I have found new authors and comics because of conventions. Enjoy talking to people. And be yourself.

Kath back. Hope that gives you a little insight into Caroline’s perception of conventions.

I am grateful that Caroline enjoys going to conventions

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