#NerdsUnite: The Ramblings of a Raconteuse (Comic-Con Craziness)

<editorsnote> Nerds, meet my buddy Helenna. We met on twitter not too long ao, and she's totes mcgotes one rad chiquita banana with a flare for all things flair! That's right, Helenna here is what we call an artsy fartsy nerd. She's a poet, into all things dramatic arts, and she's going to come on board to write each week about her love of said drama. Well not like actual drama drama, like some cat fight shit - but you get the idea. I only have one thing left to say ... HIT IT HELENNA!!! </editorsnote>

#TalkNerdyToMeLover's @Helslevy

I talked a bit about the awesomeness of Comic-Con in my last post for Talk Nerdy to Me Lover/my previous tumblr blog, and I wanted to show you some of my favorite finds from the convention.  Note to self:  bring a bunch of spending money next year because it is geek shopping heaven! 

My favorite finds?  

#1) The “Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8 Volume 1″ book of all of the comics bound together. 

This is really exciting for me because I haven’t started reading any of the comics yet.  If you aren’t familiar, the comic books keep going where the television series left off.  I am such a huge fan of Buffy, and Joss Whedon’s work, and I can’t wait to dig into this book!

#2) DC’s “Hawkgirl” by artist Dennis Calero 

My friend Patty J. Robinson mentioned that she had a friend in artist’s alley.  I went to go look at his work and what did I find but an AMAZING piece of artwork he did of Hawkgirl!

Now, this was a big deal to me because my buddy Alan Sizzler Kistler had mentioned me on Comic Book Resources as his actress of choice to play DC’s Hawkgirl. I knew I had to have this particular piece, and it has a place of honor in the middle of my white board at my desk where I write down my goals and dreams.

I look at this board every day for inspiration, and it’s so fantastic to have this fierce woman cheering me on…

and #3) DC Comic’s “Huntress” and Joe Benitez’s Lady Mechanika comics 

While walking around the exhibition hall I picked up a whole bunch of “Huntress” comics.  Earlier this year I was looking for Hawkgirl comics in LA, and I ran across the Huntress. While Hawkgirl is a character I’d love to actually play, Huntress is a character I’m seriously considering cosplaying as next year for Comic Con 2013.  I’m hooked on her story, and can’t wait to read more!

I’d also been trying desperately to hunt down the Lady Mechanika comics.  I’m a big fan of the steampunk genre, and had been told that these were the cream of the crop when it comes to steampunk themed comic books.  I have yet to start going through them, but I’m pretty stoked!

Now while I was on my way to the wedding I attended in Seattle after my few short days at Comic-Con, I watched a couple of fantastic documentaries: With Great Power: The Stan Lee Story, and Secret Origin: The Story of DC Comics.

Watching both docs was fab because it gives a really great comprehensive overview of both Marvel and DC, and I highly recommend both!

To say I still have Comic-Con fever is an understatement.  Even though I’d already seen Morgan Spurlock’s film “Comic-Con Episdoe IV: A Fan’s Hope” I went and picked it up from Toys R Us because it comes with Joss Whedon and Morgan Spurlock action figures.

Now who can resist that? They now have a place of honor with the other figurines on our shelf.

Yup, my Comic-Con fever is in full bloom. In fact, I’m literally planning next year’s trip to San Diego and I can’t even wait!  It feels like the anticipation I used to have for my birthday party when I was like, six years old and I knew that all of my friends would be with me to celebrate, and there would be awesome goodies there!  Yes, I feel like I am six again, and it’s the greatest feeling ever!

Until next time…

P.S. I also got this amaze balls Nerd Machine shirt at NerdHQ! Love it!!!!

#xoxo hels

tweet me at: @helslevy

browse me at: helennasantoslevy.com

email me at: contacthelenna@gmail.com

#NerdsUnite: Best Week Ever (Comic Con and My Birthday!)

<editorsnote> Nerds, meet Julie. You may know her already as Confessions of an Unwed Bride (her posts are SOOOO GOOOOOD!!!! So much soul in such a little body!!!) I digress ... she's got a whole lot more going on in that nerdy little noggin of hers, and wants to share said knowledge about general pop stufferino with you guys. Here is her latest ... HIT IT JULIE!! </editorsnote> 

#TalkNerdyToMeLover's @ItsMeJoolie

Wow…what an absolutely amazing week this was! Comic Con and My 30th Birthday!

I didn't know how I was going to get onto the floor of Comic Con this year and I didn't know if I would have a place to stay. I only knew one thing: that come July 12, I would be in San Diego! It's that simple. I knew I was going to be in San Diego, I knew I'd at the very least hit up CC parties and at the very worst I would have to sleep in my car. Once you have that bottom line, you have nowhere to go but up! I used to plan things out perfectly, now I just live with the knowledge that things will work out, they will fall into place. You may have to hustle a bit to make it work, but in the end it will.

After realizing that I had slacked on getting a badge through TNTML, I started asking around. I'm blessed to have so many talented friends that could potentially get me a pass or maybe they might have a place for me to crash… "I'll have to see Julie, I'll let you know". So everything was very, very up in the air even just a mere week out from the event. But alas, everything beautifully came together at the last minute. @Leah_Cevoli was a speaker on a panel and was able to give me her guest pass! Then @MyMelodie let Jen and I stay at her place in San Diego. Perfect! Last year, I didn't have a pass and I slept in my car. So this was a huge improvement!!

I also took off of work this year, so I was able to go all of the days that I wanted to. So Jen and I drove down on Thursday morning and didn't hit any traffic. Score again! We parked the car in a hotel that said there was no parking for the convention (confidence will get you everywhere) and parted ways.

I went to go pick up my badge. Such a fabulous feeling! A badge with my own name on it!!! Squeee! I hit the convention floor for a bit, immediately overwhelmed by the vast amount of people and all the shininess that is Comic Con. Then I found @JohnSollitto and caught up with him.

A short while later it was time for Leah's panel, "The Most Dangerous Women at Comic Con". It was a nice mix of nerdy women. There was 10 chicks on the panel including Adrienne Curry, Patricia Tallman (Babylon5, NOTLD,Evil Dead 3) and moderated by Bonnie Burton (@bonniegrrl), a very kick-ass lady herself. There was a wide variety of questions asked including what have they/would they cosplay as and a whole discussion about booth babes (conclusion on that topic: they should know whatever it is that they are reppin').

And then it was already party time. Through the beauty of social media we found what turned into our resident bar for the weekend, The Propaganist (@PropagandistBar). We ended up there the following night, which was just a great, great night out. There's so much bullshit at Comic Con, so many "Are you on the list?" type of (crowded and boring) parties that it was so great to find a nice place to drink and hang out with friends.

Then Saturday came along. I had spent a lot of time partying and not nearly enough time doing what we should all be at Comic Con for, nerding out. I met up with my friend Jay because I knew that he and I are always on the same page with this kinda stuff. We walked around for hours and I'm pretty sure I still missed some stuff. One thing that has become my favorite thing to do at these conventions is take some time to visit with all of the artists and see their work. They are always friendly and quick to strike up conversation. While doing this, my eyes landed on a familiar name, Peter S. Beagle. I freaked. One of my favorite movies as a little girl was The Last Unicorn. Just loved it. I remember it coming on the Spanish station and watching it anyways because I knew all of the words. When I got older I bought the book and read that, too. I ended up buying a gorgeous illustrated version of the story and he signed it for me!! He was so humble, after I thanked him, he thanked me and I could tell he really, really meant it. As I walked away holding the book I joked, "Okay, I can go home now". We didn't stay out very late that night and left SD at a decent hour on Sunday and again, did not hit any traffic.

Everything was so great, but what made it really special was my amazing friends. What a great way to end my 20s!! Just amazing!

Then dun, dun, DUN! I turned 30 on Tuesday. Oh dear, Lord, I've been dreading this. No one wants to get older, but as a female, you lose value in the eyes of some guys, the media. So it can be hard to look forward to getting older. Again though, I have some great friends and an amazing boyfriend,  so I really felt the love. My bf took me out to dinner on Monday night and got me a Jambox, which I have wanted forEVER! The boy had the most gorgeous flowers delivered to my office on Tuesday and then took me out to dinner again! We then headed over to play trivia with the gang. After it was over everyone sang me happy birthday. A great way to end the evening!

Here's the best part about turning 30. The wisdom I've gained and the self confidence and worth that I have grown into. I'm actually throwing myself a birthday party this weekend. I haven't done that since I was a child. I never thought anyone would come to my party and/or I was not social and literally didn't have many friends to party with. But now, I am beyond excited to see everyone that I care about gathered together.

"Don't dream it, be it."  

Yes, easier said than done and I still have to work on that myself, but "if you build it, they will come."

Big thank you to all of my friends for making Comic Con and my birthday great and for being just totally awesome people.

#nerdsunite

Click here to follow Julie on Twitter
and @itsmejoolie on Instagram

#Adventures in Randomness and Rock & Roll w @leah_cevoli

<editorsnote> Nerds, meet my buddy Leah. She's pretty rad and has an INCREDIBLY random life. Like, no - for reals ... did you know she has an obsession with vampires, psychics, and tarot card readers ... and she had more sex as a teenager than in her 30s ... anddddd she even had two ex boyfriends die violently - one from a heroin overdose, and the other was murdered. Holy moly roli poli oli - that shit be cray cray. Either way, she's now here to write about her life, love, and all things nerd. I only have one more thing left to say ... HIT IT LEAH!! </editorsnote>

#TalkNerdyToMeLover's @Leah_Cevoli

Comic Con in one word was AMAZING.

This was my fourth year attending the International San Diego Comic Con; arguably the largest gathering of geeks, nerds, dorks, and creative, talented, passionate people in the universe. www.comic-con.org

This year held a lot of SDCC firsts for me!

MY FIRST SDCC SIGNING/APPEARANCE: For this I have to give a big shout-out to Jonathon London at GeekScape. Jonathon emailed me a few days before con and invited me to bring my fellow Co-Stars from the soon to be epic-fantasy series, Legendary to a signing at his booth. After discussing it, Jonathon and I thought it would be fun to invite the whole Geek Girls Create team.

The signing was a lot of fun, and an absolute great way to start off SDCC2012. The best part about a signing/appearance, is the young girls. And I don’t mean that in a creepy way, I mean the young girls that come up to the table and share a piece of their soul with you. Their eyes light up, and you can see the energy flow of inspiration travelling thru them, as they connect with you, someone who inspires them. If I have one mission in this lifetime, it is to uplift and inspire through my stories and life adventures. And that’s one of the things Geek Girls Create allows me to do.

My first SDCC Panel:

For this I have to thank the amazing Katrina Hill.Our GGC panel was not accepted this year, but Katrina worked her magic and invited TEN amazing women onto her panel, “The Most Dangerous Women of Comic Con”. Katrina wanted to spotlight the movers and shakers in this industry, those of us who are outspoken, proactive, and positive… she organized a great group, and special shout out to our panel moderator Bonnie Burton who someone made time-stop and allowed all 10 of us ample talk time.

I was nervous, not gonna lie.2000 people in the room, on a panel where half the girls I know and the other half are mere twitter legends. But it went off without a hitch, and I found a new Karoake Pal in Clare Kramer, and a fellow Philly girl in Milynn Sarley.

I like making people laugh during panels, and ooh, and ahh… You have to be quick on your feet with a coherent answer, and if at all possible a joke. I like it. I like panels. A lot.

My first Film Project at SDCC:

I’ve recently become the Social Media Manager for an epic science fiction series of feature films, Space Command. For Comic Con, I was hired as Social Media Manager, and a liaison for all things SDCC. Signings/Appearances/Meetings/Street Teams/Parties. 

And as such, after my awesome (all about Leah), Thursday ended. The rest of Comic Con was spent working with and for Space Command.

It felt great to be part of a working team of industry professionals, hell legends (Iain McCaig is our lead character designer.) 

Space Command is an Independent Series of Feature Films, a new Science Fiction Franchise... that is making serious strides, and I am so happy to be on-board. We welcome you to take the ride with us.

Join Us
www.facebook.com/SpaceCommandMovie

www.twitter.com/SpaceCommandMov

Comic Con was filled with purpose for me. I didn’t waste time, searching the convention floor for random folks, or trying to get into the coolest parties.

I had purpose.
I had a team.
I had fans.

And I had a great group of friends by my side, who even throughout their busy schedules, ended up showing up for each other at all the right moments.

In 2008, I drove to San Diego to see the Robot Chicken panel, I had no idea what comic con was. My plan was to drive down for the panel, and drive home afterward. And instead, I tumbled down a rabbit hole. Thank you Robot Chicken for introducing me to this world of magic, mystery, and fairy tales come to life.

Comic Con 2012.. you ROCKED my world.

Thank You.

Live Love. Love Life.

#xoxo

click here to follow Leah on twitter!

#Nerdsunite: Confessions of a Videogame Journalist (Back from the Grave)

 <editorsnote> Nerds, meet my buddy John. We started talking on the twitter not too long ago, and then he reached out and asked if he could write for us regarding his journey through the nerdy realm. I was all DUDDEEE!! That's so raaaddd!! And now, here we are. Like right now, in real time, this is happening. Pretty cool huh? HIT IT JOHN!!! </editorsnote> 

#TalkNerdyToMeLover's @JohnSollitto

Some of you may be wondering why you haven’t heard from me in a while. Others of you could probably care less, I’m sure some of you haven’t even read this blog. I have been through a number of different things over the past few month or so that have kept me from posting but still working for the site in a background capacity. Think of me like the Wizard of Oz behind the curtain at this point. Though, not nearly as important and cool.

I will talk about each of them in turn and I’m sure this will be the longest post that I will ever write here, unless something equally traumatic happens or worse and a bunch of other stuff piles on top of it in some sort of perverse way. But in any case:

I have literally been waiting for the perfect time to use that clip and now it has come. Excuse me while I laugh a little after all the madness.

My house flooded. Yeah. That toooootally happened. Let me set the scene for you.

So my family is moving their sign shop to a different location in Irvine, some 30 minutes away from Huntington Beach. That involves a lot packing, shipping, car trips, me lifting things and general nonsense with cable and security and internet at the new joint.

We have a lot of stuff in the sign shop from all the material we use to the giant 54 inch printer and cutter,  to tables and freaking tools. It’s just a mess. If my father wasn’t an organized person this place would be a death trap.

While this is happening, my mother is also moving her classroom to another school since her school is going to be under renovation. That requires me to do a lot of driving, lifting things, moving things and whatnot. Two different moves going on. No big deal right, those are under control.

So the first day of work this week my favorite co-worker comes back to work after having moved with his wife to stay with her as she followed her career. We’re just so happy to have him back because he’s so good at what he does, he works well with us, and he’s just awesome.

The day’s going good, I get sent home to just chill. I’m pulling up to the sidewalk in front of my house and I notice there’s water on the driveway. I’m thinking, “It’s the afternoon, the sprinklers wouldn’t come on...” I get to the front door, ready to turn off the alarm, start my workout and play some guitar, when I hear a hissing as it opens.

Quickly rushing into the house I set foot in a SOAKING wet dining room. I then run to the downstairs bathroom where the pipe for the tank of the toilet has burst and is just spraying willy-nilly about in the bathroom like some sort of metal cobra spitting venom at indiscriminate objects. This must have been going on for some time because my parent’s room? Flooded. That bathroom? One inch of water all over the place. The garage? Also flooded. Kitchen? Fuggetaboutit. Flooded. The only room not affected was the living room as it’s elevated about 6 inches or so above the dining room by a step. Oh but don’t worry, that started to get wet too as the water creeped up the carpet and soaked it too.

I’m home alone, the house is flooded and what do I do? I lose it. I don’t think I’ve ever just shouted obscenities at the top of my lungs like that with the front door open. I just didn’t know what to do. I called both my parents and told them to get home right away, opened all the windows to start drying the place out, tried sweeping water out of the garage and then just sat on the floor staring at the water.

I didn’t know what to do. I couldn’t think of anything. Eventually my parents got home and we began taking things off the floor that were wet. Some books were damaged, shoes, wooden furniture too. It was bad.

I was sent out to get dinner and honestly I got to the parking lot and had to just sit there for a while and let out my frustration. I just stared at the sky and turned up my music. P.S. thank God for the Chulahoma album by the Black Keys, saved my life. If you haven’t listened to that album you should. I highly recommend it.

Then we had a guy come and check everything out and he said they might have to get into the walls because of the asbestos that was probably in them since the house was built so many years ago that it would most likely have it in there. Great, that means the whole kitchen would have to be redone and the floors and some of the walls and all repainted.

Next day they came, guys with a big ass truck all ready to pack up what could be salvaged and what they were going to try and save and everything in between and put it away. I’ve never moved before, sure gone off to college, but never moved and seeing my life and my family’s put into boxes so that the house could be emptied was unnerving.

Fast forward to through some bullcrap with the insurance company rep stalling and thinking we’re trying to cheat him out of money and keeping the contractors from working on the house and two mini-vacations for me later, the house is still under repair. The entire first floor has concrete flooring and there’s a good foot to two feet of drywall just ripped open from the dining room to my parents’ room so I can see basically the entire house if I lay on the floor.

It’s...it’s pretty horrible. All three of us have gotten sick from the dust and crap in the air, it’s cold, and depressing. My family is remarkably strong to have dealt with this so well, but there have been times when we’ve all had to let it out.

In between all of that, I went to the Bay Area for a while to visit someone I met at E3 and her roommate. That was...remarkable. I hadn’t relaxed like that in a long time and I owe it all to her and her roomie. They’re saints.

The reason for the visit is that I might be getting a job out that way very soon and I wanted to check the area out if I’d like it. I do. It’s beautiful and there’s lots of green which I’m not used to out in a beach town, but I liked it a lot and I’m excited at the prospect of actually working out there. I’m already cultivating a lot of leads and saving up to move there soon. At the latest after I finish my last semester at Cal State Fullerton.

And then Comic Con happened. Now, I’ve been going to SDCC for 12 years, back when I was a wee lad and before the Great War when there were pushcarts and none of this Google-stuffs. No, I kid, but seriously a long time ago. I remember when Con was really small and you could just walk in and see the whole floor in one day and then relax for the rest of it all and just go to panels and all manner of things.

Now it’s a little bit of a circus but it’s dying down from that as I think studios and such are realizing that Con just isn’t the gold mine they thought it would be. I’m kind of glad because that means there’s just going to be more comic people there and nerds rather than people who are there just to see freaking Twilight.

But, this was my first SDCC where I got to hang with friends and here’s a picture of me with some of the Talk Nerdy Ladies. You may recognize some of them.

Aren’t we a cute bunch? Shit got real after that. We went to bars, we drank, we danced, I’m pretty sure Julie killed a guy and Jen lit a car on fire but other than that it was pretty normal. In all seriousness it was a load of fun and I’m so thankful for the ladies letting me tag along and not letting it be a “ladies only” type of thing. It made me feel good to be a part of the group, not that I’ve never not been, but it was nice to have friends this time as opposed to just hanging with my folks.

So in short: I’m alive. My house flooded. I might be moving to the Silicon Valley. I might have a job. I had a LOAD of fun at Comic Con. And I’ll probably write more about that all in detail.

Okay, I’ll stop writing now.

#nerdsunite

Want more from John? Click here to follow him on the twitter!

Check out his gaming site too!

#NerdsUnite: The Ramblings of a Raconteuse (Universal Balance)

<editorsnote> Nerds, meet my buddy Helenna. We met on twitter not too long ao, and she's totes mcgotes one rad chiquita banana with a flare for all things flair! That's right, Helenna here is what we call an artsy fartsy nerd. She's a poet, into all things dramatic arts, and she's going to come on board to write each week about her love of said drama. Well not like actual drama drama, like some cat fight shit - but you get the idea. I only have one thing left to say ... HIT IT HELENNA!!! </editorsnote>

#TalkNerdyToMeLover's @Helslevy

So, this has been an emotional week, a week that proved to me that the universe likes to balance itself out with a equal amount of positive and negative, good and bad, right and wrong.

I often feel this weird emotion when things are going really really well; that I’m looking for something to go wrong, for the negative to creep in.  That’s more of a habit really I’ve had my whole life that I’ve been working on breaking.  I’m doing pretty well at it.  For me, it’s more that I used to worry (actually I’d spend a lot of time worrying) about something going wrong when things were going very very well in my life.  I’ve since learned to enjoy all of the good things to their fullest, and instead of looking for a negative event to occur, I simply observe them as part of the balance when they do happen.

This week started out being exhilarating. Barry and I went to our first Comic Con ever and holy crap, I was in absolute HEAVEN.  Comic Con truly feels like home, a place for all of the passionate geeky wonderful people of this world to come together and feel a sense of belonging and camaraderie.  My heart was so full and warm with happiness the entire time we were there.  Seeing Wookies walking around brought tears to my eyes.  It was amazing and wonderful and overwhelmingly awesome. 

I can not thank my fellow Geek Girls Create ladies enough for including me as a sister on this geeky journey.  Thank you Kristen Nedopak, Stephanie Thorpe, Leah Cevoli, and Cricket Lee.  Also a big thank you to the amazing Alan Sizzler Kistler and Patty J Robinson, both of whom, along with the geek girls, helped guide me through my first Comic Con.   Barry and I are already planning next year as a full week excursion where I’ll even be cosplaying and fingers crossed, perhaps on a panel as well ;)

I left San Diego after two days with tears in my eyes and longing for 2013 to come even sooner.  Although…we’re starting to save money now cuz holy nuts does that event make you bleed out money LOL!

After that we flew up to my nephew’s wedding in Seattle.  It was a lovely wedding and it was so wonderful to see my Filipino family. 

Now, these awesome events came at the same time that one of my best friends is in the hospital after having a bone marrow transplant due to the Leukemia that she has been fighting for the past few months, another good friend of mine’s father is very ill with lung cancer causing her to fly back east for an unknown period of time to be with her family, another friend’s grandmother passed away, and there was a death in my husband’s family.

Yah, a lot of different emotions circulating through me right now.  So many different energies in the air, and I always find that as an artist, Barry and I are much more tuned in to those energies.  Or, in a way, I often feel like I’m easily affected by them and it feels like that movie “Fallen” where the energy somehow passes along to us in weird ways.  For example, we had a very bad customer service experience with the Alaska rep and then a very strange run in with a Sea-Tac Airport TSA agent who was incredibly rude to Barry and made some seriously racist remarks.  So, so strange.  Oh, plus the weird solar flare activity starting up this weekend… But when I started to look at all of the difficult things happening at the same time as these amazing things, it all makes sense.

The universe seems to like to balance itself, keep itself in harmony, and I’ve learned to see it all as two sides of the same coin. Both are important, both have weight, and both are the currency of life.

#xoxo hels

tweet me at: @helslevy

browse me at: helennasantoslevy.com

email me at: contacthelenna@gmail.com