Keep Calm and Don't Lose Your Head

About two weeks ago, my sister and I had the opportunity to attend an advanced screening of the pilot for the new fall show Sleepy Hollow. I found out about it through a tv website that I visit regularly, and jumped at the chance since it is one of the shows I've been interested in.

For those of you not familiar with the show, here is the official synopsis from the press release. “From co-creators/executive producers Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci (the "Star Trek" and "Transformers" franchises, "Fringe") comes the adventure thriller SLEEPY HOLLOW. In this modern-day retelling of Washington Irving's classic, ICHABOD CRANE (Tom Mison, "Salmon Fishing in the Yemen") is resurrected and pulled two and a half centuries through time to find that the world is on the brink of destruction and that he is humanity's last hope, forcing him to team up with a contemporary police officer (Nicole Beharie, "Shame," "American Violet") to unravel a mystery that dates back to the founding fathers.”

When we got to the theater where they were having the screening, we got vouchers for a free popcorn and soda/water. We decided not to use them, though, because the lines were pretty long and it was going to start in about 20 or so minutes. This theater had the unique feature that you could pick your seat when you got your ticket. As convenient as this may seem, it was a little annoying for us because by the time we were able to pick our seats enough people had come in ahead of us to take all the “good” seats, meaning that we were stuck down in the front section even though when we got to the theater there were still non-reclining seats available. Ah, well, that's life. From our vantage point the picture was a little distorted, but it wasn't so bad as to be completely distracting.

Before they showed the pilot, they showed two featurettes. The first was about the director, which I had previously seen online, and the second was about filming the period bits of the pilot. Apparently, they filmed the entire battle section of the pilot in one day, which is really impressive considering all that they had to do. Also, Tom Mison's mom always likes it whenever he does period stuff. It's the first question she asks him when she hears he has a new project, so he was glad to make her happy with Sleepy Hollow.

I don't want to give away too much of the episode, so I'm going to try and just give some overall impressions about it below.

While it does start in the Revolutionary War-era, it moved rather quickly to our time period. I had thought that there would be more story set-up at the beginning than there was, but I understand why they decided to do it that way. They did a very good job of setting up the plot – such as why Ichabod is here now and what he needs to do. Nicole Beharie's character (Lieutenant Abbie Mills) is given good set-up as well, giving her an important part to contribute to the plot, and not necessarily just Ichabod's modern/female sidekick. Near the end of the episode, she has to make an important decision pertaining to her future with the department. I had forgotten that John Cho had been cast in the pilot, so it was a pleasant surprise to see him. His character takes an interesting twist that I didn't really see coming. Ichabod didn't really flip out over it suddenly being 250 years later from when he last knew it to be, but it is dealt with (sometimes a little humorously). However, it is entirely likely that he's internalizing it some (due to all that's going on) and it may be dealt with more down the road.

There were some good “from another time” jokes, as well as the no-head thing for the Headless Horseman. I really liked one of the effects used when the Headless Horseman beheaded a person. It was very unique and kinda cool. They utilized the flashbacks well, and I think that it's something they will use going forward. I did have few nit-picky issues with some law-enforcement things that happened, but that's mostly because I have the experiences to know they wouldn't do that in real life. (I know, I know, suspension of disbelief...)

Overall, Megan and I really enjoyed the pilot. It was something we had already been looking forward to, and this already cemented it. We will definitely be watching it when the show premieres.

Before I go, I will leave you with one last tidbit – someone uses a shotgun and AR-15 to spectacular effect.
Don't forget to tune in to the pilot of Sleepy Hollow on FOX Monday, September 16^th 10pm Eastern/9pm Central after Bones!

Just Go with It

This past weekend, my sister and I continued our tradition of going to the Renaissance Fair on its last weekend. This time we also took my friend Melissa, and it was her first time attending. I even managed to convince her to dress up with me, since I have enough bellydance costuming to dress at least two people. It's always fun to have someone dress up with me when I go, since I feel like that's half the fun of going. It's also a lot of fun to see what other people wear (especially on Steampunk Weekend!), and I make sure to let someone know if I really like their outfit. When we were there this last time, I even got a couple of compliments, which definitely helped make my day.

It's a lot of fun to just walk around and take in the atmosphere of the fair, interacting with the cast members. Not long after we got there, we came across two of the men playing bigger-sized Jenga, having women pick which block they'd take out and then using their sword to do so. We usually go with a list of things to do/see in mind, but we also take advantage of random things like that if we just happen upon them.

We had a list of shows that we wanted to see/wanted Melissa to see, and we got to see a number of them. The top ones were Gypsy Geoff (a sort of clown/comedy/juggling act), Adam Crack (a whip show), Moonie (another clown/comedy act, except he communicates by whistling – it's awesome), Bluebeard (a comedy act), and the jousts. We saw all of them except Bluebeard, since we decided to watch a glass-blowing demonstration instead. I will usually give tips to my favorite acts, since that's how they make a lot of their money, and I enjoy seeing them every year so much. I gave Moonie a bigger tip than usual, since he was especially hilarious and had me doubled over in laughter at least twice. Before one of the jousts, we stopped by the Vegetable Justice area (a guy taunts/insults you and you try to hit him with tomatoes). It was pretty amusing for a little while, but after a bit it got kind of grating. He had some really good jokes, but maybe I'm just the sort of person who doesn't like to see others insulted.

This year, we managed to catch all three jousts. We don't always catch them every year, because sometimes the storylines are pretty similar. It was different this year, though, and they added a new knight - Sir Gareth, Prince of Idlewilde. Though, our favorite knight is Sir Maxmillian and we always sit in his section and cheer for him when we can. He's one of the “bad guys”, but he knows just how awesome his is, mouths off to the other knights all the time, and poses on his horse. He calls his supporters “naughty little monkeys” and Megan refers to him as the rockstar of the group, which I kind of agree with. The final joust is a joust to the death and it was amazing, with me on the edge of my seat during the fight. They even got the squires involved in fight at the end! For a second it looked like Max had won (he'd killed the last of the knights), but then one of the squires killed him and won!

While we're at the fair, we also kind of like to go with the flow and sometimes stumble across fun stuff. In this manner, we randomly stopped by the military camp and watch some of the shows that they had. The barber surgeon show was really good, with him talked about all that he did, and did a good job of involving the audience. I got points from him because I knew some of the answers to his questions. The other one we saw was on medieval armor and weaponry such a swords (obviously), pikes, and muskets. I really liked the shows because they did a really good job of balancing comedy with real information. You walk away feeling entertained, but also think, “Huh. I learned some really cool stuff.”

All in all, it was a really great day and I had so much fun. I can't wait for next season and might have to go three times in order to see everything that I want to!

Into the Breach

So, I have now been to my first official convention. My descent into nerdiness is pretty much complete. After a bit of a false start, I went on the Saturday of the Wizard World Chicago Comic Con, which ran from Thursday afternoon through Sunday.

For the last couple years I had wanted to go, mostly of just wanting to and thinking that it would be fun, but it never worked out since I couldn't rationalized spending the money. This year, I saw that John Barrowman (one of my favorite Doctor Who actors) was going to be there, so I felt this would be a good time to go. Since my sister and I only had tentative plans for Friday, so I thought that if those fell through, we could go to the convention instead. However, she then didn't want to go. Since this would be my first convention, I wanted to go with someone who had been to one before, just to make me feel a little bit more comfortable. Therefore, I decided not to go. I said something to that effect on Facebook, and a friend from high school mentioned that she would be there all day Saturday and that I would be more than welcome to meet up with her there. After waffling a bit most of the day, I finally decided that evening that I was just going to do it and go.

I actually didn't sleep that well and kept waking up during the night, probably because I was so excited about the convention. However, I didn't have any trouble getting up when my alarm went off, and went to the gym for a quick workout. (Yes, I am quite committed, enough to get up at 7 on a Saturday.) After that, I ran over to a local church for their annual used book sale with my mom and sister, since on the last day you can get a bag of books for $10. I then dashed home to clean up and was on my way right on schedule. I got there without much trouble and got in line to pick up my wristband. Even though the line was long (it doubled up on itself a couple times) it did not feel like it took that long since it was almost always moving.

John Barrowman had a panel that day, but I got in just a few minutes before it was supposed to start and was still trying to orientate myself, so I didn't get in but it was okay. I met up with my friend Margaret and we walked around the vendor's room upstairs for a while before meeting up with some other friends of hers. She dressed up as Narcissa from Harry Potter, and her costume was just fantastic. She made her own Hogwarts robes (because she's awesome like that), and they were fantastic and totally unique. Since I don't really have any costuming stuff and I made a last-minute decision to go, I just wore my Adipose (Doctor Who) t-shirt, but actually got a number of nice compliments about it. We spent most of the day walking around the vendor's room and the artist alley/autograph/photo area downstairs. I managed to pick up Series 1 of Doctor Who (which I had been trying to get for a couple months now), my sister's Christmas present (I won't say what it is since she might be reading this), and a Hobbit poster for a really good price. There was a shirt from Tee Turtle that I was practically drooling over, but I didn't get it because I was trying not to spend too much money at my first convention – even though I could have totally bought all of the things. There was so much cool stuff!!

There was a Jaegercon (Pacific Rim) meet-up at 1:15 that my sister told me about, but I missed it since I didn't hear my phone go off and the next time I checked my watch it was almost 2. Also, there were a couple of panels that I would have liked to see, but I kept losing track of time. It's okay that I didn't see them, though, because I was having so much fun just walking around, taking in everything, and seeing all the cool costumes and cosplayers. There were so many that I can't even begin to talk about them, but I managed to get a number of good pictures. It got me thinking about what I might want to do when/if I go to C2E2 next year.

The autograph area was down on the bottom floor and was fairly open, so people walking by could usually catch a glimpse of the celebrities as they were doing signings. This made me really happy, since I decided not to buy the John Barrowman autograph or photo-op, but I was still able to see him and jump with glee and have my mini-fangirl moment. I also snuck a (technically not-allowed) photo. I also saw Wil Wheaton (another exciting moment) (Star Trek: TNG, Big Bang Theory), Jon Heder (Napoleon Dynamite), Zachary Quinto (Heroes, Star Trek), Tara Strong (My Little Pony), Milo Ventimiglia (Heroes), Michael Rosenbaum (Smallville), Brandon Routh (Superman Returns), and Manu Bennett (Arrow, The Hobbit).

Earlier in the day, I visited the booth for a podcasting network that I listen to. They're fairly local, so it was really neat for me because I got to meet one of the guys that I listen to week in and week out during the regular television season. He co-hosts the Person of Interest podcast I listen to, which is one of my favorite shows. We talked a little about it, and he told me that they will still be recording Thursday night, even though the show is moving to Tuesdays, which will now allow them to include e-mails and such from listeners. I know none of this probably interests any of you, but it was definitely a highlight of the convention for me.

A couple of times I mentioned to people that this was my first convention and they were all really nice, saying that they hoped I was enjoying it (of course I was). I'm not really surprised, but everyone I met or interacted with that day was really nice. I was a little nervous at first, not really knowing what to expect, but that quickly went away as I just absorbed everything. Everyone there was like me because they too are passionate about things, and that's what we were all there to celebrate.

I ended up leaving a little before 6, but my friends were going to stay a while longer. There was a TARDIS in the courtyard outside the convention center (which I kind of spazzed over seeing when I was in line that morning), so on my way out I got a picture of it and a guy was nice enough to take a couple of pictures of me with it.

It had definitely been a long and excitement-filled day, and I feel like I saw and did a ton of stuff, and certainly got my money's worth. It was fun to go home and have a Mediterranean dinner with my sister and gush about all that I did. I'm already looking forward to C2E2 in Chicago next April, and am considering going in costume. Any guesses of what I might go as?

If At First You Don't Succeed... Right?

Sorry for the radio silence on here for the past couple months, but life decided to throw me for a huge loop, and I've been trying to figure out some things and how I wanted to talk about it. A lot of what is here I wrote soon after all of this happened, but I wanted to keep it pretty much intact just because of all the emotions I was feeling right after this happened. I even debated about even putting this one up, but felt like it okay to just put everything out there. So, here it goes...

 

I'm not going to lie. The past couple months have been really rough on me. There's been a lot of tears, and sadness, and questioning what I did wrong. I don't really have any definitive answers, so all I've been able to come up with is that this was supposed to happened for some reason.

If some of you don't know, I was full-time employed for all of a hot minute. I normally don't use phrases like that, but that's about how long I felt like it lasted. I don't really want to get into what happened, but suffice it to say that I was pretty much blindsided. If you want to get together I'll talk about it, but I just don't feel like putting the whole thing out on the internet. I cried for at least a good hour afterward, and left me feeling terrible for about a solid week. I'm doing a little better now, though I still have my moments where I feel a little down. I've talked it out with my parents and a friend and came up with some possible ideas about what really happened, but it's nothing concrete. I can just be thankful that I at least have my name on a couple of lists still out there, so maybe something will happen with those, and I can keep on testing.

One of the things that frustrates me about this so much is how much of my own money I had already spent on not just equipment that I needed for the job, but also everything for the academy. Literally two days prior, my mom, my sister and I had spent the better part of the afternoon running around to area malls and stores for last-minute academy items. I then spent Tuesday through Friday of the new year running around the area returning everything I could, and even then there are several items that I couldn't return for various reasons. However I was able to return most of it, so at least I was able to get that money back.

 

This may sound silly to some, but I was really looking forward to having some money. There were a lot of things that I was looking forward to be able to do and get, things that I've been putting off or a while since I need to save my money for more pressing things like gas, oil changes, application fees and whatnot. I've got a hard-drive that's been sitting in my room for a while since I don't have the money to get the stuff off if it. My phone is dying or something since it will randomly restart itself and uses up a lot of battery doing nothing, but I can't afford a new one. It would be great to buy jeans that are the proper size, since mine have needed a belt for about six months, but my current pair are still in good condition. It's silly little things like not needing to be “treated” by others at the movies, at restaurants, or even the half-price bookstore.

 

This whole thing has also messed with my appetite. When this all happened, I was so upset that I couldn't even eat.It was honestly the first time that I've been so upset that I had lost all my appetite. Later on in the evening, I made myself eat some pigs in a blanket just to have something in my stomach. For a few days afterward if someone asked what I wanted to eat, I would just kind of shrug my shoulders since I couldn't put any effort into thinking about eating. Since then, I've been going through both wanting to eat my emotions and also not really wanting to eat anything. Maybe it says something about how far I've come in my goal to eat healthier and whatnot that I'm at least somewhat resistant to eating my emotions.

I am going to be completely honest here and say that my self-confidence is completely shot. I've had issues with this over the years for various reasons, but this is something totally on its own. I was doing so much better because I'm healthy, in pretty darn good shape, and I actually had a police department that wanted to hire me. They felt that I was good enough for them, that they believed that I had what it took to be a police officer in their town. I've put so much time and effort into this that I was so ready for this to finally happen and not just be another college grad without a job.

A few weeks afterward, I met with my old internship supervisor and we talked about what happened. He must have talked to one of my supervisors, because he seemed to have a better idea of their reasons for letting me go. He also did say that I did manage to impress them with a few things that I did right, which did make me feel at least a little bit better. However, there did seem to be some discrepancies that didn't seem to make any sense to me, but at this point there was no point in arguing about it. Overall I felt a little better after talking it out with him, but still not completely satisfied. However, I don't know if I'll ever completely understand why this had to happen.

So, that's been the major thing in my life recently. I've had some other stuff happen, but I'll save that for another post, which I hope to have up fairly soon.