The Convention Conundrum!

I realise that my blog posts this week, both on this and The Lawdable Blog, relate to conferences and conventions and sound like Big Bang theory episodes but that can't be helped. 

This is a long over due posting! I mean what geek worth their salt hasn't been to a convention...me apparently, well at least till the weekend.  When I popped my convention cherry by attending the XIX Q-con at Queen's University Belfast.  I have promised myself for at least 6 years that I would attend Q-con and this year, all be it rather last minute, I went! 

We debated for the day or so before going if we should attempt Cos-play but since it was rather a slapdash affair we felt it better not to risk it a) anything thrown together last minute would not be good enough and b) as first timers we were not sure how many people would be dressed up and if we would look like numptys if we came dressed.  That being said on the Saturday morning I was dressing I saw my weeping Angel costume in my wardrobe from Halloween and I was sorely tempted!

We arrived shortly after the doors opened on the first full day of the Con.  Registration was quick and painless and we were issued with some passes and let loose on the expansive convention space.  There were traditional table top RPG's running all day over all 3 days on every possible topic you could want from Shadowrun, to traditional DnD and even a Game of Thrones game.  There were warhammer style games in another part of the hall, another space for computer gaming and a floor dedicated to board games, including trials of the Discworld game 'Gaurds Gaurds' and the Munchkin board game. 

As per convention usual there were stalls and sellers, and despite my concern that they would be a rip off because it was an event they actually proved to be at about shop average which did motivate more than one purchase!

We were drawn to a stand selling board games and were rather quickly susumed into a game of Munchkin with some guys from Steve Jackson games, who not only let us try an extended Munchkin deck which I had never experienced before but also a few other word games that proved highly entertaining.  We did spend rather a lot of the con playing with them, but since they should no desire for us to bugger off and bother other people we assumed it was because we had winning personalities. 

 I passed it off as grown up day by attending a Q-ED event, a lecture by a University of Ulster tutor on the benefit of Hack and Jam days for game development, but in reality the day was nothing of the sort - and certainly far from boring.  It was after this that the Steve Jackson game guys invited us to try another game, which quickly turned into 2, then 3, then 4....

Becase it was so last minute we didnt attend the full 3 days of the con and only went to the day events rather than the plethora of night time activities that had been planned for after hours but it still smashing! With £10 for a day and £20 for the weekend I can easily say it was well worth the money and I think next year I shall be making sure I'm pre-registered for the whole weekend!

I did purchase my very first set of dice and a set of Munchkin Zombie, and Munchkin Booty.  So expect a write up on table top rping and board games soon! 

Zombies, Zombies, And More Zombies

I recently got a copy of Left4Dead 2, and I have been trying to get a grasp of the game.  I am not a fan of the first person shooter, in fact I am generally rubbish at them (as anyone who has played C.O.D with me can attest) but since it’s Zombie related and came highly recommended from a few gamer mates that know more about these things than I do.  It transpires I am RUBBISH at Left4Dead 2 but I will hopefully get better as I play because my weapon based survival in a zombie apocalypse is pretty terrible!  My house mates very nicely told me that

Having spent some time recently playing the game I that I would be rubbish in the apocalypse – I refute this claim but it got me thinking that I should get together my bug out bag…just in case.

The ‘Bob’ is a bag that contains everything you need to survive for a short period of time, until you can start your foraging and get your long term survival plans in place (a post on that will come later)

Food

·       Realistically a 3-5 day supply should set you up before you can secure other sources and forage effectively. 

·       Things which don’t require water to prepare are the best things to get started with.

·       If you plan on surviving at home then having a lot of canned food at home is a good start but it can’t be hauled if you plan on surviving at a secondary location. 

·       List of Recommended food: 

§       Protein Bars

§       Energy Food Bars

§       Camp food/travel food

§       Vitamin packs

§       candy –while it lacks nutrients it’s calorie rich. 

§       fresh food and vegetables you have to hand

§       Protein powder – can be added to water to create a high calorie drink. 

·       There are some other sundry items that I will throw into the misc section that sort of relate to this area.

Water

·       The average person needs about half a gallon of water per day to maintain life, since the first days will come with a certain amount of exertion you will need more than that.

·       One gallon per person per day is recommended as a minimum

·       As before a 3-5 day supply will get you started.

·       Water should be kept in plastic containers since they don’t decompose or shatter in the way other containers or glass would

·       A set of water purification tablets or filtration system can be bought cheaply in many survival stores which can be used to prolong your supply. 

Health

·       You should put a small portable first aid kid in your Bob as a priority, they can be bought in most chemists and pharmacies and contain the essentials to treat wounds (bear in mind no kit will protect from a zombie bite)

·       Taking a class in field survival, first Aid and CPR are recommended and a lot of community centers of specialist organisations offer such courses – even the purchase of a good book can offer practical advice (anyone except Bear Grylls)

·       You should aim to include:

§       An extensive supply for prescription medications

§       Sterile bandages

§       Sterile gauze

§       Adhesive plasters

§       Antibiotics or antibiotic cream

§       Peroxide – medical not hair dye

§       Face masks/surgical masks

§       Latex Gloves

§       Scissors

§       Tweezers

§       Needles

§       Surgical thread

§       Antiseptic towels and wipes

§       Ipecac or another emetic

§       Safety Pins

§       Sunscreen

§       Insect repellent.

Misc

·       Clothing – it should be warm, practical, ideally as many layers as is practical.  Layers allow your clothing to be used all year around but you need to thinking about the fact that it will be winter eventually and you need to prepare yourself for that. 

§       Vest

§       T-shirt

§       Sweatshirt

§       Zipped Top

§       Coat – for heat

§       Waterproof jacket

§       Poncho

§       Cargo pants/Military surplus – Jeans are impractical when wet although hard wearing

§       Hiking books

§       Extra shoes (running shoes)

§       Hiking socks / thermal socks

§       Gloves, Hat, and scarf

§       Thermal underwear

·       I will recommend you buying a set of fencing kit –not necessarily the sword and weaponry but the breeches and jacket as the average kit is 850newton Kevlar that is stab proof and there is no way that a human bit is getting through that and allows you to move freely. 

·       Other Items:

§       In the early days cash might still be of use so I would recommend keeping a small supply of ready cash just in case you need to buy things, or a credit card with a small limit would be useful if all you are going to use it for is buying early day supplies, after all no one is going to come looking for the money at the end of the month. 

§       ID – license or registration – like your ‘dog tags’ should the worst occur. 

§       Waterproof bags to protect your gear

§       1-2 man pop up tent

§       Emergency heat blankets and high visibility/reflective gear

§       Signal mirror

§       Waterproof matches /gas lighter / tinder set

§       Small ‘tool kit’ with electrical tape, rope,

§       Multitool

§       Flashlight – extra batteries are a must, or a wind up torch would be useful

§       Radio – another thing that can be bought that clockwork or wind up.

§       Bedroll /Mummy bag –the more compact the better. 

Z-day or the que to get into Rain on a Friday (Belfast joke sorry)

·       Weapons – this is sort of a case of what you are comfortable with.  Gun’s arn’t bad if you are a decent shot but recoil and things can be hard to deal with if you don’t expect them and you don’t have to reload a melee weapon

1.             Knife

2.             Spade with a sharpened edge

3.             Fire axe

4.             Claw hammer

Are just suggestions but generally considered a decent start and any decorative swords you may have at home can sometimes be made serviceable if they are of good enough quality.  

Make sure you are ready, because when Z-day comes there won't be time to plan then, and when this is outside your door you will need to be ready to roll at a moments notice.

Edit: Apparently I forgot a towel THIS one comes highly recommended.

A Competition is Coming!

Alrighty!

It’s competition time! I know I’ve been promising one for AGES but it is finally here!

It’s another ‘recast’ competition – this time for the Game of Thrones! Choose a character from the Game of Thrones and create a graphic for the character as a banner no larger than 500 x 250.  

ALL IMGES MUST BE  NO BIGGER THAN THIS!
This one is not mine credit HERE

The character can be any character that appears in the novels, comic or TV series – the only exclusion is that you cannot use any actor or actress that appeared in the game of thrones – for example a photoshopped Sean Bean cannot be Jamie …capish?

Now for the interesting part…the prizes!

1^st: A Call Sheet, Shooting schedule and 1^st Ed GoT Comic

2^nd: A Call Sheet and 1^st Ed GoT Comic

3^rd: 1^st Ed GoT Comic and Stark House coat of arms.  

As per usual depending on the number of entries I may add other prizes to the mix and spot prizes for originality and flair!

Closing date 21^st February

Dante's Horror-thon!

I took 3 days and did nothing but watched some horror movies and a horror series.  I haven't reviewed them all but here are the high (and low) lights of the marathon are here- all in preparation for upcoming release of The Woman in Black...which is going to be amazing!

American Horror Story: Season 1

WOW, just wow! I literally stumbled onto this series by accident and it was mind blowing! It was the inspiration for the horro-thon because as soon as I saw one episode I had to see it all and it put me in a horror mood! I was shocked that it was by the same guy that wrote Glee but I suppose if you have to write so much sugery dialogue there has to be some darkness in there somewhere!   The entire series was phenomenal and anyone else writing a horror movie should look to it as a guide to the effective creation of dramatic tension and fear…and the twists! Phew! Did not see them coming! I can’t wait for season two. 

5/5

Hills Have Eyes 2

I was really disappointed in this film, having heard good things about the series I expected rather a lot from it but it went straight down the route of gore over substance.  The premise wasn’t bad but someone needs to take the Director aside and explain to him that adding potential rape to a film plot does not make it scarier or more effective.  Upping the body count and the visible gore cheapens the film. 

1/5

Dolls Graveyard

Another film that was clearly rather cheap to make and relied mostly on gore to be effective but since the killers are a little dead girls dolls that are out to avenge the death of their mistress at the hands of her bullying father it does have a fair amount of creep all of it’s own.  It’s really short, at a little over an hour long, so while it’s not great it is mercifully brief. 

3/5

Don’t be afraid of the Dark

This film was sort of a revelation, I really didn’t expect much from it but the cast was half decent and the over all premise was something I really got into.  A couple and their daughter move into the home of a Victorian painter who went missing from the house just after his son disappeared.  Before long, strange things start to happen in the house.  The cast is probably part of the reason this film is effective, Katie Holmes and Bailee Madison do a good job of ratcheting up the tension, and little Bailee in particular is a credit!   It was directed by a comic book artist and the effect is obvious as the film is stylised and wonderfully and a lot of consideration has been given to the appearance of the film. 

4/5

Amityville Haunting

Utter trite! It’s what I get for watching a movie about the haunting of the house that the murders in the house caused! Seriously it’s about as sinister as a bowl of kittens.  Clearly the success of the Paranormal Activity franchise (the first ones) inspired the making of this film but it really is terrible.  The acting is some of the most hackneyed I’ve ever seen in a film with any sort of production value! It feels like the entire cast are internet actors, in fact that comment is an insult to internet actor’s everywhere. 

1/5

Insidious

I first saw this film in the cinema with my mum and reflecting on it, it was perhaps the fact that she and I were alone in the theatre with an old man who kept changing seats that made the film at all scary because on second view it has little of its original horror value.  That being said, it is what Paranormal Activity could have been, the idea of a child and house being haunted by unseen but clearly present evils is done much more effectively here than in other films of its type.  Although creating a demon that looks like an anorexic Darth Maul does diminish the films effectiveness when it comes to scaring nerdy-types.   

3/5

Bane

It’s a decidedly B movie, so automatically its on the back foot when it comes to scary effectiveness.  For a while it looked like it might actually be half decent.  Four women wake up in a medical cell (which in no way resembled portable security gates and plastic sheeting), with no memory of how they got there.  It seems that they are part of a medical experiment but no one will tell them what it is.  It seemed as though the movie might be headed down a sort of ‘Saw’ avenue, with the women going missing, mysterious surgeries and organ theft until….the ‘Doctors’  are seen talking with something that looks that a really angry Ood and the whole film sort of went downhill from there.   By the end I had no idea what was going on…and I am fairly sure neither did the director. 

1/5

B.T.K

It began with the caveat that this was a fictional movie based on the true story of the BTK killer.  Although the movie was made in 2008 one could be forgiven for thinking that it had been made in the late 80’s/early 90’s, it had very low production value and used a lot of very low rent film methods were other more modern film techniques would have been more effective.  Infact everything about the film was cheap, and the tragedy of B.T.K’s victims would have been better served by a more faithful adaptation of the events.  It was very slow in getting started, although once it actually got into the meat and potatoes of the story it wasn’t bad.  It was a bit freaky how much the lead actor actually looked like Dennis Raider. 

3/5

Bad Reputation

Another movie with very low production value, but it was a bit of a surprise actually.  It didn’t make much a splash into the mainstream but it was actually pretty good.  It was strongly reminiscent of Carrie actually in it’s content and major themes.  Some of the scenes were pretty harsh and pretty graphic.  I would say that this isn’t one for the faint hearted, but it does a great job of distilling all sorts of pain down into pure horrible rage! That’s not to say it was perfect, the film really could have done with a decent script editor.

4/5

Home Sweet Home -For Z-day!

Zombie Realtor takes a real bite out of the market! 

Okay the topic of Z-day has been broached several times to me in the last few months by various friends, as we debated our various plans that we have in place for surviving the zombie apocalypse.  We decided after much debate and arguments that we should consolidate out efforts into one plan so that when it comes we would be organised and in a position to be able to react quickly rather than scrambling.  

As such during the summer several of us took a little day trip to a certain island near where we live (I can’t divulge were or else come Z-day we would be over run by the masses and it would loose it’s strategic value) but the trip allowed us to recky the position of buildings of use, generators, safe harbours, etc that we could when the time comes.  All in all it was very useful and we now have a well formed plan which I will go into on another occiasion as a guide to the creation/formation of your own plans! After the debacle with Judgement Day and the number of e-mails I received from people who were unprepared I feel it is my duty to make sure that everyone is prepared for Z-day…in some small way at least. XD

A few days ago, a friend of mine who we had originally recruited to come up with designs and plans for storage on the island and for the selection of appropriate dwellings sent me information on a competition that was being run by an architecture company asking for designs for  ‘zombie proof’ homes.  

Pros: Isolated Cons: Getting to North Sea

My personal favourite of the current entries is one based upon the redesign of an abandoned north sea oil rig – a little utilitarian but when it comes to a toss up between survival and beauty, survival should win every time and if it doesn’t you need to get your priorities right.   Besides whats to say that glaciers and the floating bodies of the undead that pass by underneath the platform can't be beautiful!  I'm a silver lining type girl after all! 

Pros: Statue of Liberty Cons: Statue of Liberty

For those that value a little scenery and of course the benefit of an island, which offers its own level of security there is a rather ballsy design for a home in the Statue of Liberty, although how you would manage to create this before the apocalypse I would imagine the red tape would be considerable, although it would be both spacious and pretty although logistically it could prove something of a nightmare.  

Pros: No need for additional property Cons: Cholera

There are some interesting concepts for those who are not interested in a full blown escape plan but rather a sort of modification pack for your current dwelling.  It’s rather cool but anyone with any familiarity with books such as The Day of the Triffids will know that after the apocalypse comes the diseases and the pestilence so staying in cities will be a bad idea as things like Cholera and Typhus will quickly take hold so staying in your nice suburb home might seem like a good idea but in the long run its not really tenable.  

Check out the competition and the other entries definitely worth a look if you don’t have your plan Z-day finalised! 

The Z-day Home Competition

More Competition Results!

The results to the competitions that were run in the run in the last month or so to celebrate the launch of Pottermore! The job was to recast Character of Harry Potter- we had some great entries but the overall winner was Peter M with Nathan Fillian as Harry Potter (Epilogue) ! 

Cudos! He will be getting his very own custom Quidditch shirt and $15 worth of vouchers for Cafepress! 

Jessica C with Karen Gillan as Ginny Weasley (Epilogue) also gets a custom quidditch shirt! 

They are on their way to you! 

Keep an eye out for our next competition! 

Potty Potter Competition!

In recognition of the 500th order and the news about Pottermore I am kicking off the new competition with a 'pottery' theme! Harry was the star of J.K. Rowlings series but she has admitted that there are entire complex back stories for many of the minor characters! 

The COMP

SO your task this time around is 'Cast a Character' Pick a minor character from the Potterverse and cast them differently from the movies, create a movie poster, book cover, or forum graphic (500x200) for that character.  Same judging rules as always apply! 

The PRIZE

First prize will be a custom Quidditch shirt for your school/club or affiliation of choice and a $15 voucher for cafepress

Second Prize will be a custom Quidditch shirt as above.  

Closing date: 10th July
Send All entries as jpeg or gif attachments to : dantes.infernals.graphics@gmail.com