Monday, December 7, 2015

Time Flies (As opposed to blow flies. Which are annoying. And gross.)


Instead of apologising, I'ma just jump right in -

Sometime right before my birthday in July, I had just a normal flu. After a few days of dealing with a sniffly nose etc, I felt my sore throat come back. This was unusual. Generally colds finished with a whole lot of snot and that was it. Gradually my sore throat got worse and worse. It was a Friday when I finally called in sick and then lay in bed all day. I got brother to take me to the medical clinic where I waited for a few hours to finally have a doctor take one look at my throat and go, “Ooh. Yes, that is definitely tonsillitis.” Yey.
Facebook post from 15th July:
"What? COMMON COLD is evolving! Congratulations! Your COMMON COLD has evolved into TONSILITIS!"

I have recently become a fan of Deapool. That mad, mouthy, mercenary entertains me to no end. I think I read the comics for about 12 hours straight at some point. Cannot wait for the movie to come out in February! They had an excellent joke going about it; there was a bit of uproar when they announced that it would be PG. Later they released an ‘interview’ with Ryan Reynolds where they were discussing the rating of the film. Ryan (in the Pool suit) comes in from off screen and destroys the interviewer with a huge set light and informs the viewers that of course, Deadpool will be rated R. I thought it was a perfect combination of silliness and the fourth-wall-break-ness that Deapool is famous for XD

I don’t think I’ve played proper Minecraft in several months. People on the RT server probably think I’ve died. All of my time has been taken up by my beautiful prehistoric scaled babies... ARK Survival Evolved is amazing. It’s a first person shooter survival game. A bit like Day Z, or Rust, but with DINOSAURS. You can ride raptors, and pteranadons, and giant proto elephants and FREAKING T-REXES AND SPINOSAURS. It is simply glorious. The maps are so beautiful. I actually went out and bought a new (second-hand) computer so I could play it. Speaking of my computer – his name is Kable after the character in the Deadpool comics. And like his namesake, he is prone to fits of insanity and sometimes comas. Several different issues have arisen since I’ve had him – there was the time where he would not boot properly. In Windows 7 he would just do this ridiculous thing where he’d restart after reaching bios. Then, after upgrading to Windows 10, when that issue was fixed, he began having this stupid issue where it would appear that the computer turned on, but both screens would just stay black. I eventually figured out (all on my own, might I add) that it was a graphics card issue. Instead of using the actual graphics card, it was using the little onboard graphics processor on the motherboard. Then he began having extreme issues with booting again! At one point he didn’t even boot. The next day I reinstalled windows 10. I thought I’d had everything backed up... I lost most of my emails. *is grumpy*
He is back to being awesome though. Boot times are phenomenal. Windows 10 is fantastic. I fixed up my ITunes library – AGAIN.

July also brought Cairns’ first every convention! Tropicon lived up to its name – it was a con, and it was tropical. The middle of an Australian FNQ winter and it was SO HOT. My Maleficent cosplay went nowhere, so I dressed up as the Cheshire Cat. It didn’t help that I was still getting over my tonsillitis (or perhaps I was in the process of getting it?). But I had a good time. There were so many more people there than I expected! And tons of cosplays! A Five Nights at Freddy’s costume eventually came in first place – and it was indeed spectacular.

In all my Cheshire glory

In early August, I went to RTX. I could die happy now. I really should have written everything down each day I was there! There is so much now I probably don’t remember! It was a blast! The trip of a lifetime! Oh, god, it was so amazing. I met so many people, it’s not funny. I hugged Ryan Haywood. I HUGGED RYAN. TWICE. Just... Glorious... I should really describe the whole trip:

Leading up to my trip I had my 22nd birthday party! I really shouldn’t have, but I was disappointed from not having a 19th or a 21st. So me, Lee Freestone, Lucy Raymer, and Penny Dobinson, some of my new awesome friends, hung out at my place, got inordinately drunk and played lots of party games. Penny made me red and blue cupcakes with RvB quotes one little flags stuck in them! They were adorable!

Planning that party caused me to put off packing for my trip, which was very dumb. I was up till late still packing the night before, and it was dark when Mum and Dad took me to the airport. It felt bizarre, like I wasn’t actually doing it! Me and Dad hung around and looked at the history of the airport in this little hallway. It was really quite cool. I tried to buy some breakfast at a cafe – nothing else was open. They wanted to charge $18 or something ridiculous for a large puff pastry thing. I said “Screw that,” and had a museli bar that I had packed. The flights there were very uneventful. I remember I watched Avengers 2 again on the long haul. There were a couple of other movies I can’t remember. The Qantas in flight service was really good. I really enjoyed the hot breakfasts. It was the first time I had eaten scrambled eggs and they weren’t that bad. My seat was a middle seat. The two girls I sat with were very nice. One of the most interesting parts of the flight was how cold it got outside the plane. It was going approximately 1000km/h and the temperature outside dropped to -58.0degreese Celsius at one point. Amazing. Arriving in the Las Angeles Airport was a little lacklustre. I didn’t get to see much of it – we were taken on a bus to what looked like the oldest part of the airport for my connection to Austin. I did not enjoy the Austin flight – I had forgotten my jumper in my bag and I nearly froze. Note to self, always take a jumper on planes. It gets cold up there man. Arriving in Austin was exciting. The shuttle that was supposed to be there for me wasn’t though. I had to convince the people at the counter I had a voucher for it. The hotel I stayed at, the Radisson, was very nice. I had a freaking King bed. That was glorious. I learned to sleep in the middle after a few nights.

My first day I had free. I went for a walk. Of course, the first thing I wanted to visit in America was a McDonalds. On my way there I saw a squirrel! I was shocked! Then of course I took a photo. McDonalds was a novelty. I had to message my brother pictures of the receipt and the sign for the price of mcnuggets. My breakfast probably cost me about $3 US. And apparently you could get 50 chicken nuggets for $10.00. Insane XD

First day of RTX was a blast! I immediately began making friends when I lined up in the VIP line to get my badge. Alex and Nikki were media people and were super awesome. I started a trend where everyone in the lines sat down. I hate standing XD First panel I went to was the Happy Hour panel. I was in the front row egging Geoff on to drink the snake wine XD

I can’t remember if I made it to the RTAA panel (it’s on my schedule here, but... hm...) I definitely went to the Founding Fathers panel – that was a gas. Best part was they showed an extended version of the Lazer Team trailer! I am so psyched for that movie!

I had cosplayed that day as my Minecraft character who is half enderman. I also met Gaelfox who is a fantastic RT community fan-artist! Saw many other cool cosplays, namely an Ursa grimm from RWBY, and Zer0 from Borderlands 2. Met so many people in the VIP Lounge! By the end of RTX I managed to get all of the Achievement Hunters to sign the art I did of them, well, all except Ray who left earlier this year. One awesome thing that ran through the whole of RTX was a sort of game called Murder at RTX. There were rooms set up as crime scenes and clues hidden everywhere and suspicious voicemails and if you completed all the clues and solved the murder, you got badges! I did not get to compete unfortunately; I was having too much fun running about going to all of the panels... I did get to see the first crime scene though, which was pretty awesome :D

I think the highlight of the whole thing was the VIP party... On the Friday night, I ran home in the middle of the Cards Against Humanity panel, which was super funny, and in a huge rush, scrubbed off my black facepaint, washed my hair, washed my hair AGAIN, dressed quickly, shot town to the lobby, took a pedicab through gorgeous downtown Austin (mind you, my contact were out of prescription, so everything was just a gorgeous glittering blur) and made it to the Market. I hadn’t had ANYTHING to eat that day, so I had two free drinks and I was GONE. My friends I’d made that day found me and fed me water. I was witness to Bruce Greene and Adam Kovic from Funhaus being super gay. I met and talked with so many people. Notably, I talked with Gray Haddock, the voice of Locus and Torchwick, I had an argument with Ashley Jenkins over Maroons vs Blues, I had a long chat with Nick from a Simple Walk into Mordor, and I’m pretty sure Chris Demaris was hitting on me XD. I was wearing the most gorgeous blue dress and Gus nearly choked on his drink trying to tell me how nice he thought I looked. I met and hugged nearly all of my idols, and it was FUDGING GLORIOUS.

Red vs Blue panel was bright and early the next day. Then I went to a signing with Burnie and Matt – I got them to sign my Bagshot. They were super impressed!

The Ten Little Roosters panel was EPIC. They aired the trailer for Eleven Little Roosters there, much to the surprise and delight of everyone. Also, Miles Luna totally kissed Adam Kovic.

X-Ray and Vav panel we got to see that day’s episode, and then the next week’s episode! Which is arguably the best X&V episode ever – The mad King in his cell... just delicious...

I didn’t get to see the Patch... I think I went to a writing panel? It was very good actually!

Later that evening I went to the Meet the Lazer Team panel. It was a lot of fun! It did mean I missed out on the special concert thing, but I wasn’t too fussed. I wasn’t really a fan of RWBY at that time. Not I quite like it though.

When I got back to the hotel from that, I walked in to see Kerry Shawcross standing at the top of the stairs to the ballroom. This was the RT Side Quest Charity Auction I had hear Nikki and Alex talking about. I messaged them and was like: “Dude... So jealous... tempted to put on something nice and crash that party...” “DO IT.” Was their response. And I sure did it. That was an amazing time too. The auction was actually just wrapping up, so I hung out and met some more RT folks and generally tried to not look shifty. I had a great conversation with a very drunken Josh Flanagan. I met Matt Bragg. And then I very shyly went up to Miles Luna and asked him if I could get a selfie with him. He gave me three amazing pictures. When I asked him for a hug he exclaimed that I was adorable and then picked me up and swung me around. I’m pretty sure that made my entire life right there.

The convention hall floor was so cool! There were so many booths of cool stuff! I got to sit in the replica warthog and on the podcast set and see the Lazer Team suit and everything! I even sat on the model of the Mad King’s throne – not before Ryan darted forward and caused a huge commotion by lounging on the thing! On a sadder note though... In February of this year, our dear, beloved Monty Oum was taken from us. It was like he knew he was going, and he made up for it with the insane amount of stuff he created... I was so distraught when I hear the news he was in a coma. Apparently he’d gone into hospital for a routine procedure of some sort, had a terrible allergic reaction and then they just couldn’t wake him up. Monty was 33 and married to his wife of a tear... There was a memorial for Monty on the convention floor. I wrote a note on the walls – one of thousands left in remembrance of Monty...

Day three started off with the RT podcast. I couldn’t believe I was there in person. Also, I just wanted to mention how FREAKING AWESOME my VIP badge was. It got me everywhere and I skipped ALL of the queues. Then it was the second Achievement Hunter panel! Those are always fantastically funny.

The last panel I went to that day was the Let’s Play Live documentary panel. It was run by a fella named Daniel Favelo. I had been chatting with Daniel the whole weekend; he was sometimes in the VIP seating. I had no idea he was staff until the panel. Here I was going, “I hugged Jack and Geoff and...” and he had filmed them all for weeks leading up to LPL. He has since done the best Immersion episode to date; the Five Nights at Freddy’s and is doing tons of other stuff. I knew Daniel before it was cool XD

I finished off my trip by lounging in my hotel room away from the heat of the Texas summer and occasionally venturing out to eat. I went to Gourdough’s, this place where they make hamburgers out of donuts. It was delicious, and I even met another fan there!

On the Monday after that incredible weekend, I was scrolling through new vids and trying to catch up on the livestreams of the panels that I missed. I watched the week's Achievement Hunter Weekly Update and nearly fell off the bed. I think I might have screamed a little. I finished the vector portraits of all the AH guys – I have nearly all of them signed and hanging in the stairwell now – and the featured art of the week WAS THE PICTURE I GAVE GEOFF. I was so stoked!
Below: The last three pics & bonus AHWU screencap!





My last day in Austin was a bit of a disaster. The same stupid shuttle company that was supposed to come get me didn’t even turn up. The Hotel kindly called me a taxi because the international sim I had was no longer working (there was a lady there from the shuttle who was to pick someone else up, and she was very helpful too) and I made my hasty way to the airport. Of course I missed the stupid flight, but it wall turned out fine because I was booked on the next available one at no extra cost somehow and made my connecting flight. I took the long haul home with two boys of Asian descent who were immigrating to Brisbane. When I got back to Cairns, and collected my luggage and then was picked up by Mum, I turned to her and said, “I just went to the other side of the world. How did I even do that!?”

I went to get free comics on Free Comic Book Day at Kersplatt in the city. People who went dressed up in cosplay got free goodies. I, of course, went dressed at the Cheshire Cat again. It was pretty funny seeing all the looks! Biggest surprise of all was when we walked past this pub and some dude, a waiter I think, ran out and gave me his number! XD

My new favourite movie of all time is now Mad Max: Fury Road. Just... hot damn. That movie is a masterpiece in my opinion. Never have I seen such excellent storytelling with so little dialogue. And the props! Oh, gods, the propmakers in that movie! And the stunts and the characters and just... the whole thing, even though it was a car chase from start to finish, I absolutely loved it.

I had heard constantly about the book called Ready Player One. They had talked about it a bit on the Roosterteeth Podcast and I finally decided one day to pick it up. Oh, god, it is the most amazing book I have read in a long time. I started reading it at 10:30pm one night. I didn’t put it down until 5:00am the next morning. And then I ran out into the street in front of the house and danced because I was so elated. The whole story was just amazing! I so desperately want the Oasis to be real already! Along the same lines, I so badly want a self-driving car too. And then there was the day I freaked myself out a little by reading all about the exponential increase of technology and the singularity. Dude. Technology is awesome and I can’t wait to see what’s next.

Cairns is slowly getting more culture! I went to this year’s Zombie Shuffle with my new friend Penny. My makeup looked out of this world. I had this huge open neck wound and a lovely big cut on my leg. I learned how to make really convincing looking bruises too and covered myself in them and then painted the whole lot with a bunch of fake blood. People really seemed to like it! When we were shuffling about, I had a blast going up and scaring people who had stopped to watch or take photos. Me and Penny went up and began banging on the windows of shops that were still open, much to the amusement of the patrons and staff inside. There was this one group of tourists who were standing on a street corner and filming. I made a beeline for the girl in the middle who was looking a little uncomfortable. She began backing away and then turned to run away and I still came after her as her friends began egging me on! I also made a whole outdoor restaurant seating area laugh when I pretended to go after one of the patrons sitting in a walled off area. I walked all zombie-like towards her, groaning, and then I ran into a table and chairs and pretended to stumble about while my hungry groans turned to pained ones. They thought it was rather amusing. Penny got some awesome pics and vids too XD

In all our gory glory

My Dad lost his job recently which meant my brother had to move out yesterday. I am going to be stuck with the whole rent to pay now... At least any messes will be mine now. And I can have the big bed if I want. I’ve been considering getting a housemate, but honestly I think I want to live by myself for a while. That would be cool. It’ll basically put me on a diet. No more takeout dinners lol. Well, until I get a robot car that is.

I was woken up at 4am the other morning. I looked at my phone, confused, wondering if the call I’d just missed from Mum was a butt dial from her while she was doing a night shift at the hospital. Then my phone rang again. Mum sounded out of breath and really, really upset. She told me to get Daniel, that it was an emergency. Brother talked to her for a second then hightailed it out of the house. Apparently parents had gotten up very early to get down to Cairns to put Dad on a flight to Brisbane for another of his adjustment meetings for his cochlear implant (Dad got a cochlear – it’s kind of exciting!) and they hit a wallaby right outside of Mareeba. Mum was just desperately still trying to get Dad on the plane. They missed it unfortunately and the radiator for their new Holden Trax was toast. To have that happen almost directly after Dad losing his job was just the worst. I think Mum and Dad are doing okay now though.

Sometime last year before RTX, something SUPER cool was announced – RTXAU! Roosterteeth’s very first international convention! I was so excited it was going to be in Australia! I bought my weekend pass almost immediately. I recently booked my hotel and flights too. Then I tried to apply to be a guardian. I thought it might be cool to hang out with those folks and make a few friends. But unfortunately, I didn’t make it. *shrug* Ah well, doesn’t matter now... BECAUSE I GOT ANOTHER VIP TICKET. Aw yisss... I am going to the LAZER TEAM PREMIERE. AND THE AFTER PARTY. *commences vicarious dancing and hip thrusting* I ducked home from work yesterday and sat here poised over Moshtix on my computer, laptop and phone and managed to snag one. I cannot freaking wait. Today I went shopping to find some more appropriate shoes for my beautiful dress I got at Dotti. I found some pretty cool white ones (they are sky high and bound to kill me though) for $14. I also got some gorgeous white opalescent earrings and a contrasting mini-clutch on special. I am going to look like a super model. If I don’t die in the shoes, that is. Wow. I honestly can’t believe I am going to do this... I spoil myself so badly XD One day I won’t be able to get a VIP ticket and I’m going to have a rotten time :P

Roosterteeth recently released a book – the Red vs Blue official companion book. It’s pretty cool. I preordered it the moment it came out. It took forever to arrive in the mail once it had been released. I had no freaking clue that Vic was a computer program. I thought he was just some moron who worked at Freelance HQ who was in charge of the Blood Gulch sim lol. The main reason I couldn’t wait for the book is because of the idea/plan I have for a series of my own books. I want to write an expanded RvB universe series about the other freelancers – the ones not talked about in the series. And perhaps a few of those anyway – Georgia maybe... Anyway, when I do write these and Roosterteeth picks them up, I will be in with them. Then I will request VIP tickets to RTX each year!

I got bored of having no food. Mum suggested I get some ingredients for baking and make scones and stuff. So, I did when I went Christmas shopping last weekend. I was dead when I got back. It is so hot here at the moment and my grocery trolley was so overloaded that it broke the stand and then almost when I was home it ran over my heel and left a huge purple bruise that makes it look like I’ve been shot with a paintball. I cooled off by going for a swim in the pool with Daniel and his friend Elija Ibell, and Eli’s girlfriend Georgia Aitkin (from church – small world, hey?). When we were bored of that, I made lemonade scones! I was too pooped by the end of it, so Eli and Daniel made their own whipped cream. Scones were actually pretty good. I’m not sure if they are supposed to dry out your mouth so much, but I think I remember eating other scones that did that.

I got Once Upon a Time boxed sets for Mum! They were marked down even more than usual at JB Hi-Fi. For Dad, I ordered the XKCD book and for Daniel, I got him some Star Wars stubbie coolers. I also had to get a secret Santa present for my boss's wife, for our Expressway Signs Christmas Party last night. I remembered from last year that the lady really likes her drinks, so I got her some fancy, novelty drink coasters from Target and a nice smelling hand cream thing from the Body Shop. Dinner itself was lovely. We had a great time at Cafe China at the Casino. I got confused at first and had Daniel take me to the other one in the city. We only figured out it was the Casino restaurant after I’d called Matt :P We all got super sauced – well except for Hannah. She’s having a baby! Matt, my boss, decided that we would play a game that he called “Who Shot Santa?” Whereupon opening your gift, you had to guess who got it for you. If you guessed incorrectly, or if you got it right first time and people suspected that you had inside information and had cheated, then you had to take a shot. I had to take a shot of vodka before I guessed that my secret Santa was Mel, our esimator. And what a wonderful pressie she gave me! I got a TARDIS stocking, stuffed with a miniature figure of Christopher Eccelston, complete with sonic screwdriver, and a set of dalek Christmas Ornaments! I think I squealed a little when I opened it. It was just the perfect present for me :P

Oh and as I was walking home today, a little green Christmas Beetle car beeped at me! I waved, confused and tried to peer in through the window to see who it was. It was my aunty and uncle come up from 2 hours down the coast! They were in town shopping and we’d just happened to cross paths. They did a U-ey and came back and asked me what I’d been spending all my hard earned money on. I told them I was going to a movie premiere :P

And, well, that’s it. You’re now up to date! I will write again sometime next year I’m guessing :P

Feeling: My tummy hurts. I'm not sure why.
Wearing: Geoff Achieve shirt. Down with pants!
Listening to: Sugar by Robin Schulz
Eating: Dinner was a meat pie