Rose City Comic Con 2017

I just realized that I had these photos sitting on my desktop that I still hadn't posted from Rose City Comic Con back in September of 2017. Yoda got famous at this convention! We have another Wizard World Con scheduled next month.

September 8, 9 and 10, 2017

Brent Spiner (Data) from Star Trek: TNG

Katee Sackhoff (Starbuck) from Battlestar Galactica

Didn't realize Yoda had his picture taken until hours after the event when it was splashed all over social media.

The 90s are Alive in Portland

I made a new friend on the internet. I know, weird! 

This day in age it is far more likely to receive negative feedback or hateful speech than it is to meet someone kind. I met this new friend on Instagram. She runs a Game of Thrones themed account and favors many of the same characters that I do. We quickly struck up conversations in the comments sections of her posts when one day she asked if anyone would be interested in "beta" reading a Game of Thrones inspired story she was writing. She is from the Netherlands, is fluent in Dutch but also knows English quite well. She wanted to have someone proof read and make relevant grammar and punctuation changes to her story. I offered to take a look. We exchanged email addresses and the rest is history!

Each morning for the past week, I wake up to find an email from the Netherlands in my inbox. There is a 9 hour difference between she and I so typically I am asleep when she is awake and visa versa. Each night I sit down and write an email back, proof read her latest revision and mark up her story in red (she totally doesn't mind and is such a good sport about it).

Through this process she and I have discovered interesting cultural differences, strange English grammar/spelling rules and a few misnomers. For example, she thought we used the word "supper" because she heard it in a movie (and yes, I know some people do but not as widely as "dinner"). She didn't know that there are different uses for "to", "too" and "two". I find myself often explaining to her the difference between American English and UK English which is often accompanied by a spelling difference too. She soaks it all in, often puts a smiley face next to my comments and occasionally rants about the beautiful but strange language that is English. 

I was telling Hubs about my newest venture when he gave me an affectionate smile. I questioned him why and he said that what I was experiencing was what the internet was meant to be in its purest form. That it reminded him of the 1990s when we were excited to read email because it wasn't work or bill-related. That two people - on opposite sides of the world - find a common interest, trade ideas and thoughts, and are both better for having had the exchange. His epiphany hit me immediately! He is right, the excitement and happiness I experience each day exchanging emails with my new pen pal is exactly what the internet felt like back in its infancy, before all the vitriol, anger and anonymity. 

In many ways 2017 is a better, more progressive and advanced place to live but for now -- I am going to savor the simpler days and enjoy my few moments of living in the innocence of the 1990s again -- while talking to my Dutch friend about boobs and dragons.

If you get the tv reference of this post title, than bravo to you! You are a rockstar!

Game of Thrones In Concert (includes video)

For my birthday, which passed back in March, my sister bought me two tickets to the Game of Thrones concert at the Moda Center here in Portland. I knew it was coming to town and wanted to attend it with my girlfriend Brandi but Hubs kept telling me to hold off buying tickets. I started to quickly suspect that he had something up his sleeve but was very much surprised to find that it was my sister who had splurged on tickets.

On the night of the event, Brandi and I went out to dinner, wearing our finest GoT geeky apparel; her in a shirt which said "That's what I do, I drink and I know things" (which is even funnier because she owns a wine business) and I in my Hound helm shirt. We arrived at the Moda Center right on time, found a parking space ridiculously close to the venue, found our seats astoundingly fast and even indulged in some beverages before the show.

The show itself was incredible! Hubs and I had attended Star Wars in Concert back before moving to Oregon but they have really upped their game in the past 6+ years. This was an entirely new experience which included several stages, lights, video and even fire. There was a live orchestra and choir which performed the music from the show, conducted by the composer himself Ramin Djawadi. I cannot say enough amazing things about this experience! If you ever have an opportunity to attend something similar, I highly recommend it. One downside to the Moda Center is that they did not have a space where they could set up costumes and props from the show for public viewing like in other cities. That would have just been icing on the cake to have been able to see those as well.

Battle of the Bastards

Texas Vacation: Day 3

Day 3's adventure began in Waco, Texas to visit Magnolia Market. Some of you may be familiar with Chip and Joanna Gaines and their television show "Fixer Upper" on HGTV. I loved visiting their retail shop and seeing in real life what I have watched being built on television.

Located in downtown Waco

The Magnolia Silos

Magnolia Flour: the most delicious cupcake I have ever eaten!

Called the "Cup of Jo", chocolate cupcake with coffee frosting.

Dr. Pepper Museum located just steps away from Magnolia Market

The soda you purchase from this museum is the best Dr. Pepper I have ever tasted. I don't know what they have done to it but it is more fresh and delicious than any fountain or bottled drink.

Saw the Magnificent 7 at the Alamo Draft House.

The single best movie-going experience of my life!

They deliver food and drinks right to you as you watch the movie.

Happy New Year!!

2014 Phillips Family Year in Review

I thought it would be fun to take a look back at the things we wanted to accomplish this past year and see if any of them actually happened:

Hopes for 2014!

1.  Go on another dig (Yes -- here)

2.  Go to a convention or two -- Nope

3.  Travel and see new places (Yes -- here)

4.  Finish my Hepcat model (Yes -- here)

5.  Get the Spruce Goose to fly (we tried -- here)

6.  Have a wood insert installed in the fireplace (Yes -- here)

7.  Entertain more and have more visitors over to the house (Yes)
     We did this! We had Mitch and Joy, Dan and Amy, Matt's friend Brett and my friend Marlane over

8.  Work on the yard and plant a garden -- Nope

9.  Reach my goal weight (only a few more pounds...) (Yes)
     Did it! But put those few pounds back on during the holidays. Still a success!
10.  Find a church that we really like -- Nope

11.  Have a healthy and happy little furry family in our teeny tiny little house! :-) (Yes)
       Trudy was only broken once this year and the other animals did very well, so I consider this a victory!
12.  Due to popular request: Visit the Hudsons in CA!! (Yes -- here)

Things We Did but Didn't Plan On

1.  Saved and returned a dog to its home

2.  Went sledding for the first time

3.  Did lots of crafting and DIY stuff

4.  Almost died from mold and found out I am missing a sinus

5.  Became Vice President of a non-profit organization

6.  Lots of home improvements

7.  Threw Mitch an 80th birthday party

8.  Saw an F-22 Raptor fly!

9.  Went to an Arizona Football game (BEAR DOWN!)

10.  Matt ran a marathon! (He planned on it, but didn't include it in our "hopes" above)

11.  Got a full time job and became a teacher @ my favorite museum!

12.  My sister came to visit me!!!

Hopes for 2015!

1. Go to a convention or two

2. Work on the yard and plant a garden

3. Find a church we really like

4. Watch less television

5. Give back to our local police department

6. Run a 5K (K) and run another marathon (M)

7. Reach my goal weight -- again

8. Buy a new car

9. Get a new area rug for the living room

10. Pay off my credit card (almost there....)

11. Continue doing home improvements

12. Continue to have a healthy and happy little furry family in our teen, tiny little cabin!

May 2015 be as restful as Trudy sleeping with a pegasus!

Video Editing

Every time I even contemplate making another music video, I watch these two and I remember what outstanding video editing looks like and than I change my mind. How I can I compete with such brilliance?

Mass Effect 3

Tom and Curtis, do not read this post if you haven't finished Mass Effect 3 yet!!

Do you remember back in March when I completely lost my mind because they ended Mass Effect 3 in the most stupid and ridiculous way possible? In case you forgot, here you go. Well, I played it again (actually I played 1, 2 and 3 again back to back) after Bioware released a patch which included an extended and updated ending. It isn't perfect, but OMG it is so much better than it was before. It doesn't solve my biggest grievance which is that everyone had the same ending but it did at least answer what happened to the crew you have been working with for 3 games. I have to give Bioware some credit for listening to the fans and doing the right thing.

Mercury Astronaut Tribute

I had an idea over a month ago to create a video tribute to the Mercury Astronauts. It was much harder than I anticipated. Finding NASA footage that was good quality and than getting it into a format that iMovie could understand was a process, but tonight I finished it and published it for the world to see.

The music is from the Mass Effect 2 video game. The song is called "Suicide Mission" (which is rather fitting when you think about it -- and completely not on purpose). I already have a second video in mind to complete the Mercury Program since I only had time to use footage from the first three missions (there were six total).

On a side note -- my sister says that I love heroic music and I never really noticed that fact until recently -- she is right, I do!

I hope you enjoy watching it as much as I did making it! :-)

The X-Files (1993-2002)

Back when Trudy originally hurt herself, she needed constant contact and attention, so I was desperate for something I could do without using my hands or getting up off the couch much. That left television for the most part, so I popped in season 1 of X-files which lead to 2 and 3 and so on until just last week I finished season 9. My overall feeling a week later is that I am glad I survived it. :-)

It was fun to take the adventure all over again and watching all the episodes in order really made the mythology arc of the show make so much more sense. However, the writers/creator of the show changed the characters and scripts so much the final two seasons that it was almost unrecognizable. I am glad I experienced the X-Files again (this time older and wiser) but I cannot imagine doing it again anytime soon. Maybe in another 10 years.

 P.S. Trudy is feeling much better today!

Mass Effect 3: Spoilers!!!

Seriously, Curtis and Tom, do not read this post if you haven't finished Mass Effect 3 yet!!!!!!

I am not a newbie when it comes to video games, like every other kid of the 80s and 90s, I was raised with gaming consoles and computer games. I am new, however, to the whole role-playing-shooter genre. I feel in love! Which is probably why my heart is broken over how Bioware decided to end the three part series. I invested approximately 100-120 hours in the three games, making decisions which I was led to believe would result in a different ending than my hubby or other gamers. In the final minutes of the game you are given 3 options, whichever one you choose will change the galaxy forever. But guess what, no matter what option you choose, it's the same ending! Are you kidding me? 100 hours of decision making and 3 different options at the end and THEY ALL END THE SAME WAY? If I had known that I would have traipsed through the galaxy killing everyone who ticked me off instead of building alliances. What a disappointment!

Apparently I am not the only one who felt this way. This video may be offensive to some (profanity) and probably isn't safe for work.

New Burn Notice Video

I have been working on a Burn Notice video over the past few weeks. Since Hubby had to work late last night, I was able to finish it sooner than expected. My video making process is slow mostly because I try to fit a clip with the lyrics, so sometimes an entire day will go by and I only added one 4 second clip. This video begins my desire to have a more professional video editing software, there was so much I wanted to do but was limited by iMovie 11.

I also posted a better quality version on Youtube.

Burn Notice Video

I have spent the past couple of weeks working on this Burn Notice video. I have a new Mac and wanted to see how the new iMovie worked. Overall, I am pretty pleased. iMovie is more limited than Pinnacle for Windows (but far superior to Windows Movie Maker) and hopefully in the future I can upgrade to Final Cut Express.

The song is "How We Roll" from the Fast Five soundtrack. I used Burn Notice clips from all seasons including the most recent ones (5x01-5x09), so if you aren't caught up on the show and don't want to be "spoiled", I would wait.

Also, I will be starting my own Youtube channel in the next couple of weeks, which will host all my music videos. I will post the link here when it is done!

Sleepover

My sis came over last night to watch the Golden Globes and rather than drive an hour back to her house, she just stayed over night. Both the dogs slept with her on the air mattress in the spare bedroom. Traitors. :)

Letter to NBC

The Today Show has been a part of my morning routine for as long as I can remember, but as of this day I am no longer a viewer. Here is the letter that I sent to them:

Dear Today Show Executives,

I am writing to inform you that I am done with the Today Show as of this day. As a faithful viewer for many years, I simply cannot take it anymore! The last straw was a segment (which aired today 6/25/10) regarding “fun summer drinks” where the host ran through the segment so fast (under one minute) that it was pointless to even have the segment at all. I cannot tell you how tired I am to be directed to your website to “get more information”. Your website shouldn’t be a replacement for an informative segment. Viewers barely have time to sit down and watch portions of your show let along hit your website to fill in the missing information. If you deem it important enough to talk about, than give the viewers enough time to enjoy it.

I might have been able to get past Meredith Vieira’s condescending attitude and ridiculous guest questions, I might have been able to get past Al Roker’s stupid jokes, and I might even have been able to get past Natalie Morales’ constant interruptions of the guests, but I cannot get over the shear and utter waste of time your program has turned into.

I, frankly, am looking for some hard hitting questions and informative interviews. I don’t need to see the mother of an abducted child who can only weep through the interview as one of your hosts asks ridiculous questions like “do you think he/she is still alive?” or “what do you want your child to know”. We already know the answers and all you are serving to do is upset the mother further and bring heartache to the viewers. In addition, the-cousin-to-the-brother-of-a-neighbor-to-the-suspect is not an “exclusive” interview; it is your show’s desperate attempt to be relevant.

The transitions between stories are also a source of great irritation and disgust. If you insist on doing a story about a bludgeoned-to-death college student, do not immediately follow it with a story of a lost turtle, or worse yet transition straight to the "funny" weather guy. Your executives might be able to adjust their emotions at the drop of a hat, but as a general rule the at-home audience needs a little more than 2 seconds to digest and reflect on the horrible story you just showed.

I recognize that the Today Show is geared towards “soft news”, stories about puppies and kittens and tropical vacation spots with a touch of the real world mixed in for good measure, but this show is so ridiculous and so out of touch with what real Americans are worried about and, in my opinion, vacant of any real substance, I cannot for one more minute waste my life watching a single segment of it.

Proof that I am not completely off my rocker: the Today Show's top stories for today include a year dead child molesting celebrity, a lost turtle, and tips to beat the summer heat. I don't know about you, but I couldn't live without this information.

Conan O'Brien

The interwebs are all abuzz today as news that Jay Leno may replace Conan O'Brien in his current (10:30) time slot and may retake the title of The Tonight Show host.

Really? Are you serious? Leno, again? Give me a break!

Leno wasn't funny 5 years ago and he isn't funny now. Go ahead NBC, get rid of Conan and prepare for the backlash because Leno's old program was crappy, his current program stinks and so will his "new" one. Also, I beg you NBC executives please, please put more Dateline and repeats of Law & Order on to fill air time since you haven't beaten that horse to death!

Fear not Conan, I and millions of others will watch you no matter what time or network (Fox) you are on. NBC is in fourth place for a reason, they're idiots!