Geek Bunnies

Hello everyone! First of all, I’d like to acknowledge that is has indeed been exactly a year since I last posted a blog. Oops, sorry about that.

Secondly, since Gen Con Indy (www.gencon.com-The Best Four Days in Gaming!) is coming up this weekend (Thursday-Sunday, August 14-17, 2014), this is technically my pre-Gen Con post. However, it’s not what I’m going to be focusing on. No, that’s another thing entirely, which leads me to…

My main point, which is… bunnies!

To be more specific, Giving Bunnies. www.urbanthreads.com/bunny

In short, the idea is that you make these little stuffed bunnies, give them name-tags, and leave them places for people to find. Hopefully you brighten someone’s day, or bring a smile to their face. My lovely sister has an embroidery machine and found the lovely website and free pattern that I’ve linked to above. This gave her a wonderful idea.

GEEK Bunnies!

Her idea was that we make several of these tiny bunnies, customize them in geeky ways, and leave them around Gen Con, with my Facebook page (www.facebook.com/avitalelizabethwriter) and Twitter (www.twitter.com/avitalelizabeth) info on the back of the name-tags so we could know who found them (be sure to add #GeekBunnies!).

So we did. I started a list of possible characters to base bunnies off of (it grew too large, we had to leave a lot for next year) and we picked a solid list of thirty-one bunnies to make (this year!). We customized them with different colors of fleece (what they’re made out of), different thread colors, and many tiny accessories. I even knitted several tiny scarves!

Now we’re done with this year’s batch. Thirty-one bunnies are sitting upstairs, nametags attached, ready to explore the Indianapolis Convention Center and Gen Con Indy. Hopefully the recipients will share a picture so we know who got lucky and found them. Who knows, maybe it will be you!

PS-After Gen Con, I'll post an album of all the geek bunnies we made this year, in case you're curious!

Pre-Gen Con 2013

Yes, Gen Con is coming up. Yes, I’m going (my second time!) (all four days!). Yes, I’m wearing costumes (you heard me right-costumes. As in, more than one. On different days, of course). Yes, I’m dragging my boyfriend along (he’s actually pretty excited). BRING. IT. ON!

Excitement aside, I really don’t have much planned-just a few things I know I’m doing and a few things I might do. And that’s totally okay.

A Floridian friend of mine on Facebook recently asked for some advice on conventions. She said the Tampa Comic Con looked fun, and that she planned on going, but that she’d never been a comic nerd so she didn’t know how to prepare. I typed out a long comment response, and quite liked the way it turned out, so I thought I’d share it with you as a little advice for Gen Con (or any convention). Enjoy.

I haven’t been to a Comic Con before, but I have been to Gen Con Indy, which is a gaming convention. I was not a gamer at all before I went, but I heard that they had writing classes going on too, which is something I’m definitely interested in. So I went to some writing seminars, hung out with my friends that also went, and just walked around looking at everything.

Even if you’ve never been a comic geek (or gaming geek, in my case), they’ll have something that’s related to something you’re interested in. Just look at the schedule, see what’s going on, and check a few things out. Even if you’re not a comic geek, I’m sure their exhibit hall (where stuff is on sale) will be super fun to walk around in. They have lots of stuff that’s not actual comics for sale. So, just check out some stuff and have fun!

So that’s my last word on the subject of Gen Con (or any other convention): Check out some stuff and have fun! See you there!

Louisiana Ramblings

As my father and I finished our driving circuit on the Creole Nature Trail in southwest Louisiana, I was not thinking about the multitudes of waterfowl we observed or the delicately beautiful shells we gathered on Rutherford Beach. I wasn’t even thinking about the thirty-three (that’s right, 33) alligators we had just seen on the Pintail Wildlife Drive & Boardwalk.

No, as we drove through bayous and across waterways, I was thinking about my character in the Paragons of Palegain role-playing game (RPG) I’m currently a part of, and how much she would hate Louisiana. You know, because she’s terrified of bridges. And Louisiana is heavy on bridges. She wouldn’t be able to move!

…

I’m such a geek.

All things gamer aside, I had a great time in Louisiana with my dad last month. New Orleans was on my really-want-to-see-before-I-die list, and my dad and I both had the vacation time. We planned the trip in a hurry, leaving a lot of time open for figure-it-out-as-we-go scheduling.

Bourbon Street and the French Quarter on Saturday night were an experience. People on balconies threw beads at us. We bought beer on the street and ran into a surprise (for us) St. Joseph’s Day parade several times as we meandered through the Quarter. There’s really nothing like a parade in the French Quarter in New Orleans. Imagining it ten times crazier for Mardi Gras is difficult!

Yes, we had beignets (fried dough with powdered sugar) and café au lait (coffee with hot milk) from Café du Monde. No, we didn’t stand in the ridiculously long line at the French Quarter location. We simply found a location just minutes from our hotel in Metairie (just outside New Orleans proper) and skipped the lines. It was just as tasty!

The French Quarter location of the Acme Oyster house was packed on Saturday night, so we went to a location near our hotel another night-no wait! The seafood etouffee with crawfish tails was delicious, and the Manning jersey (no, not Peyton or Eli) on the wall made us smile.

A delicious treat we discovered (on my mother’s recommendation, although she didn’t come with us) was the pecan praline. We had to re-learn our pronunciation: it doesn’t rhyme with “saline,” it rhymes with “spa-clean.” This decadent candy is similar to a brittle, but much softer and easier to eat. Unfortunately for our waistlines (but fortunately for our taste buds), pralines are available at just about every grocery, gas station, convenience store and tourist shop in Louisiana. My dentist will be happy I didn’t bring back a car-load.

One of our trips outside New Orleans proper was a visit to Nottoway Plantation. It was everything you’d expect from a Southern plantation-white columns, long porches, and gorgeous everything inside and out. One unusual fact-the owner is Australian. He keeps it up, runs it as a hotel and tourist attraction, and visits a few times a year from his home in Australia. Hey, whatever keeps the history in that place alive is good for me!

We were walking in the Garden District the Thursday before St. Patrick’s Day Sunday when we ran into a St. Patty’s Day block party. That was where we really experienced New Orleans, with the locals and loads of green beer. There was even a topless woman with body paint covering her chest (no, I didn’t take pictures). One gentleman became fast friends with my father, insisting that we come back to Louisiana so that he could show us the real deal-air boat in the swamps, a crawfish boil, and everything that makes Louisiana great. I get the feeling we won’t be taking him up on that offer. The weirdest thing about hanging out at the block party? Sitting on the sidewalk, drinking a beer, and watching the cops walk by. So not legal in Indiana (unless, of course, it’s the Superbowl)!

We did and saw many things, but rounded out our stay with one last visit to the French Quarter. Wouldn’t want to miss that museum on Jackson Square (The Cabildo-they have Napoleon’s death mask)! We headed out after lunch, but not before I hit Bourbon Street one last time. I had to try a drink that was all over the Quarter-the hand grenade. Tall, frozen, and deceptively sweet, it gave me brain freeze as I slurped it down. Considering the amount of alcohol it contains, it’s no surprise-and I think it’s actually quite fitting-that I left New Orleans just a bit tipsy.

As they say in New Orleans, “Laissez les bons temps rouler,” or, “Let the good times roll!”

I Am Not a Gamer-Thoughts on My First Gen Con

I am not a gamer.

Yes, I spent 80 bucks on a four-day pass for Gen Con Indy (the best four days in gaming!) this year (2012-the 45^th anniversary). Yes, I was at the Indiana Convention Center all day Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday last weekend for said gaming convention (my first time!). That’s beside the point.

I didn’t go to Gen Con because I’m a gamer. I went to Gen Con because I’m a writer.

It turns out that there’s an entire writer’s track going on the whole time, with classes and workshops on various aspects of the art and craft of writing. I obviously did not know this, or I would have attended sooner. Having writing seminars at a gaming convention makes so much sense to me!

I went to Gen Con for writing, so obviously I attended no more than three writing sessions per day. I wouldn’t have been able to fully absorb all the information given had I attended more. And using the time outside of sessions to actually write would have been too taxing, so the only actual writing I did during the convention was taking notes (and drawing up one RPG {Role Playing Game} character sheet). Anything more would have been futile (I hope you can sense the humor in my logic here, or I’m going to looking like a terrible writer)!

I am not a gamer, so obviously I didn’t spend hours walking around the exhibit hall, browsing the vendors, eyeing unfamiliar games, and drooling over gorgeous costumes pieces that were for sale. I didn’t get coaxed into LARP-ing (Live Action Role Play) for the first time, and I certainly didn’t wear a costume while participating in said LARP. I didn’t spend two hours cracking up while listening to Mikey Mason (http://comedyrockstar.blogspot.com/) sing some ridiculously funny songs about gaming. I didn’t lose my table-top RPG gaming virginity at an uproariously hilarious and fun sci-fi QAGS (Quick A** Game System) RPG that several of my friends (including some that run a gaming podcast! http://www.theestablishedfacts.com/) threw together on Saturday night. And I most certainly did not buy my first set of dice (they weren’t a very pretty blue, either)!

Oh, wait… I did all those things. Maybe I’m a gamer after all!

P.S. You can see my pictures from the con here: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10152046747425206.889314.627610205&type=1&l=ba7381675f