Dallas Sci-Fi Expo

This past weekend, my husband and I met up with some friends at the Dallas Sci-Fi Expo (actually in Irving). We really enjoyed the convention we went to last spring and agree that we very much want to continue going to them. As much fun as it was to make a big trip/vacation out of a bigger convention, we thought it would be nice to try some of the local offerings as well. It's not like we don't live smack dab in the middle of a big metroplex where these things do actually happen from time to time. The Sci-Fi Expo actually seemed perfect for us, since we also wanted to see how our daughter would do in such a setting: it was close by, less expensive, and smaller (a mini-con, as it were). If we had to leave early because of a cranky or misbehaving child, we wouldn't feel ripped off, but there was still plenty for us to see and do. It also seemed like a good fit for our friends, who had not been to a con before and wanted to give one a try.

So, we went, and we had a great time. It was a two-day event but we just went for Saturday. Still, lots of fun was had. Baby Girl behaved herself extremely well and enjoyed seeing all there was to see. Our friends also enjoyed themselves, commissioning portraits of their daughters as zombies from one of the booths and seeing all of the various cosplayers. There were some good media guests at the con, several cast members from Firefly (Jewel Staite, Ron Glass, Adam Baldwin, and Sean Maher) and Eliza Dushku being the two big draws of the weekend. Also in attendance was Alexis Cruz, who I am most familiar with as Skaara from Stargate the movie and then later on Stargate SG-1 as well, although he has actually been in a ton of stuff. I think the award for the most random guest goes to Noah Hathaway, who played Atreyu in The Never Ending Story (and also Boxey in the original Battlestar Galactica, which I did not realize until we saw the photos in his booth). Well, either him, or the dad from Teen Wolf.

We actually didn't get any photo ops or autographs, but it was a small enough space that we could see the various celebrities signing and talking with fans. That was pretty cool. I would have liked to have been able to go to the Firefly Q & A panel, but unfortunately it was full and we couldn't get in. So we enjoyed just wandering the exhibition floor, seeing all of the art, talking to a few vendors, drooling over the various toys and props, and admiring the cosplay. Of course, you know I had to stop and get photos with a few people!

Me with a Clone Trooper as Baby Girl looks on. His gun is named Vera! Especially apt with the random Jayne
walking by in the background.

These guys get bonus points for creativity. This wasn't the only Indiana Jones cosplayer, but it was the only
Professor Jones Sr. to be sure!

There was a trio dressed as Rainbow Dash, Derpy, and Spike from My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, but by the time I thought to get a photo with them, they were all having lunch and I didn't want to bother them. Their costumes were really spiffy though. I did get a picture with Darth Vader as well, but it seems to have been accidentally deleted by me swallowed up in some sort of photo black hole, alas.

One really spiffy thing was that one of the writers for GeekMom was there. I had seen a post a day or two before that Brigid Ashwood would have a booth there, so I made note of her booth number and with my husband's help was able to find it so I could stop by and say hi. In addition to writing for one of my favorite blogs, she is also an amazing artist. Her style is beautifully ethereal and fantastical with some steampunk elements as well. You should check it out. She has also started making these absolutely gorgeous perfume lockets that I've been drooling over. I know that they will make a spectacular gift for someone I love dearly, I just have to find the perfect one for her. She was super nice and I enjoyed getting to talk to her for a few moments. It was actually one of my favorite moments of the convention.

Geek + Mom = Awesome! (Although Baby Girl doesn't seem to think so, the way she is trying to escape...)

Eventually the kiddo got squirmy and we had been by all of the booths twice (once to check everything out, and again to pick up the stuff we had scoped out that we wanted to buy) so we headed out. All in all it was a pretty fantastic way to spend a Saturday afternoon, I have to say. We are thinking maybe next year if the guests are relevant enough to our interests we will spring for the VIP passes (good for both days and gives priority access to panels and early access to the booths) and get a hotel in that part of town so we don't have to drive back and forth.

For the curious, here's the swag I ended up taking home:

Con badge, Doctor Who minifigs (Amy, a Cyberman, and Rory), Soft Kitty t-shirt (from The Big Bang Theory), a handful of spiffy twenty-sided dice, and a Stargate Atlantis staff badge for when I finally get my Stargate costume together.

Some handmade stickers by Kathryn Crenshaw of Galactic Dust Bunnies.

What's a comic expo without a few comic books? Got the Buffy the Vampire Slayer Omnibus volume five and a lovely illustrated companion to Anne McCaffrey's Pern novels.

My daughter also picked up a little swag of her own because, as my husband put it, "Mommy is a sucker."

Old school Bedtime Bear! She loves this little guy. I could barely get it away from her to take a picture.

And it had to go right back to her for nap time afterwards. Look at that satisfied face...

So there you have it, folks. A fun weekend adventure almost right in my own backyard (give or take forty miles). I look forward to checking out some of the other DFW area conventions in the future. If you are interested in checking out a convention but don't know where to start, I definitely recommend the Dallas Sci-Fi Expo, or look for expos in your own area if you're not local. There is lots of fun to be had for sure!

Webseries Recommendation: Geek Therapy

I don't watch a lot of webseries, I'll admit. When I watch videos on my computer I prefer them to be very short (like, under a minute short) unless they are extremely relevant to my interests. To get me to sit still for an entire music video or theatrical trailer, it had better be something I am really excited about. You've got a clip of a cute animal doing something amusing? Awesome! How long is it? Three minutes???? Are you kidding me? No thanks, I'll wait for the GIF.

The point I think I am trying to make here is that when I do find a webseries that catches my interest, enough for me to continue watching episode after episode, you can be sure that I think it is FAN-FREAKING-TASTIC. Especially if I recommend it to other people. Like you, my readers. Geek Therapy is one of those webisodes, y'all. They are short and sweet, most clocking in at around two minutes, and very very funny. For geeks of all flavor.

Made by Comediva, these shorts are about a therapist who works to counsel geek wannabes (yes, they exist, believe it or not, though probably not in such exaggerated form as this series shows) toward achieving true geek status, as well as helping to bring back geeks who have gone too far down the rabbit hole. I was originally tipped off to the series by GeekMom, and after watching a few I immediately subscribed.

Sure, the series pokes fun at us geeks and nerds, just as much as it does at the jocks and normies, but it does so in a loving fashion, to my eye. It's certainly no worse than The Big Bang Theory. It also brings up the interesting point that being geeky has somehow become "in" of late, or at least the appearance of being geeky has. We have wormed our way into pop culture and people are starting to take notice and wonder what all of the fuss is about. Now we just have to work on being inclusive and letting people into our club if they really want to be there. I'm not really worried about the posers, they'll be gone as soon as the next fad hits. But hey, the more people who discover how awesome being a geek really is in the process, the more chance that some of them will really stick around, right? I feel like that's the overall spirit of this series. Also, it makes me laugh. A LOT.

But good things are best when shared with others, so, for your Friday viewing pleasure, check out a few. I think you'll enjoy them.

Well, now that you are sufficiently amused, please go forth and have a marvelous weekend!

Legos Are Supposed To Be For Everyone

So unless you have been living under a rock for the past few months (or just do not go into toy stores, care about Legos, or know anyone with children, in which case, this post probably isn't for you), you have probably heard about the new line of Lego, Lego Friends, targeted specifically for girls. The toys are finally out in stores, and I've given them a looksee. I've also been reading the various and sundry articles that have popped up on my particular web radar on the topic. There has been quite an uproar about the new line. A lot of it from the female community.

If you're unfamiliar with the Lego Friends line, it features several specific new characters and buildable playsets for those characters. The color scheme of the sets can be classified as decidedly "girly," lots of purples and pinks and such. The playsets feature a beauty shop, vet, "cool" convertible, stage, fashion design studio, dog show, cafe, and a bakery. The minifigs are not the standard Lego size. They are a bit bigger and have actual curves. In general they look more like actual people than bricks. There are no boy minifigs, just girls. I think you begin to see where some of the uproar is coming from.

To be fair, there are two playsets that show some great promise to me and seem less "girly;" a nifty looking tree house and an inventor's workshop. Lego's official stance on these new sets is that they did years of marketing research to find out what girls want, and this is what their results showed was desired. They are just trying to give girls what they want. Okay. Well, on the surface, there's nothing wrong with that. Nothing at all. You can insert the obligatory argument that of course this is what girls want if this is what we keep giving them play with, but it only holds so much water.

For myself, my objection isn't really to the playsets themselves. With the exception of the two I mentioned above, when I went to look at these sets, none of them really appealed to me at all. I don't really like the overall look of them. But I am not a girly girl. I tend to stay away from the swaths of pink in stores unless I know there is something specific I am looking for in that section (*cough*MyLittlePony*cough*). If my daughter wants these sets once she's old enough for them, I probably will get them for her. Right now she seems to love all things "girly" and "boyish" pretty much equally. I don't necessarily want to play with this new line of Legos, but I am not their targeted demographic, and I am not offended they exist.

No, I am not offended that Lego is upgrading their line to include sets that they think girls would enjoy. I am offended that Lego is making new Legos For Girls. There are two implications here: The first is that all of the Lego lines that don't come in those shiny new pretty pink boxes aren't for girls. The second is that girls don't already play with Legos.

I believe that both of those statements are undeniably false.

Yet some executive somewhere got the idea that girls don't play with Legos. That executive (who, for the sake of argument, I am going to just assume is a guy) felt that, in the interest of the Lego business, this was something that needed to be rectified. Okay, well, I'm with him up to this point. If he really thinks that girls don't play with his product and he really wants them to (probably more because he wants their parents' money than out of a desire to share the joy of Lego with them, but, whatever), then that's cool. It's awesome that he wants to make a product that is accessible to everyone. Totally on board with that.

So this executive then ordered years of research to find out what girls want to play with. I don't know if it was specifically asked what they want to play with in a Lego, or just what they want to play with in general. I don't know if these girls were asked what they think of the current Lego sets available and if they found them too boyish. I wonder how big their sample size was or if it was specifically girly girls who were targeted. Maybe I am not giving the executive enough credit and he does realize that some girls do play with Legos and just wanted to attract those who prefer Barbies. Either way, he did apparently decide that research was necessary, and that, too, I am okay with. I do kind of wish we could get an idea of that actual research process to know how accurate it actually was to the young female population at large. But hey, if wishes were ponies, right?

Where I am not okay is with the fact that this new line brings with it a very clear segregation between "boy" Legos and "girl" Legos. The colors of the boxes are split by gender. The toys themselves are relegated to "boy" aisles and "girl" aisles in the stores. No longer can a girl stumble across a Lego set and think it looks cool and go seek out more. Now, girls will see the pink Legos next to the Barbie dolls and maybe pick them up, and then go back to that same pink aisle for more...and likely never see the really cool other sets they might also enjoy in the next aisle over. Because the toys in the pink aisle are for girls and the toys in the blue aisle are for boys.

An interjection: Yes, some kids (like me, both then and now) wander through all of the aisles. Some girls don't want to conform. Some parents won't let them. But those aren't the girls that executive was aiming at when this whole thing got started.

I am not trying to deny agency to children or their parents in the act of choosing out toys. I know I have some very certain ideas on things I will be buying for my daughter throughout her childhood whether she would have picked them out or not. I know she will pick out some toys I would never have otherwise considered getting her.

I am quite frankly baffled that a company that has for so long been awesome and for so long had a product that I have felt truly did not care about fitting gender norms has all of a sudden decided to throw all of that out of the window. No more being a universal plaything. Now there are Legos and there are Legos For Girls. This isn't just me getting up in arms about there all of a sudden being girly additions to the existing lines. Lego is clearly separating the genders now.

Some examples:
-The minifigs and many of the bricks for the Lego Friends line aren't compatible with the rest of the Lego pieces. The rest of the Lego sets use pretty much universally compatible bricks and minifigs. If they were really trying to get girls interested in Lego as a whole by hooking them on the more accessible girly sets, then the girly sets would be compatible with everything else.
-When you open up a new Lego kit, you get a bag with a bunch of pieces and instructions on how to assemble them. Even the minifigs need to be put together. This is not the case with Lego Friends. Many of the pieces come pre-assembled and can't be taken apart. There is, flat out, less assembly available in the Lego Friends sets.
-In the U.K. the Lego Club Jr. magazine has now been split, there is an edition for boys and an edition for girls. Pictures submitted of creations by girls or girls playing with Legos all go in the girls' magazine now. Even if the girl still chooses to subscribe to the boys' edition. There are no photos of girls anywhere in the boys' magazine now, telling boys also that girls don't play with Legos (and that they shouldn't want to play with the new line).
-On the Lego website when you go to the shop and then click "categories," the new line isn't listed under the name of the line or the type of playset, like the others out there. It is listed under "Girls." That's right, there are all of the other products available on the site, and there are the products for girls. I took a screenshot, look:

Also, compare the for girls minifig with the others.

Again, I am not mad that Lego wanted to make more money by making a line they thought more girls would buy. I am not mad that these new Legos exist. I just really, really, really wish they had put some more thought into how they were going to introduce this new line. Good lord. Just make them Legos not Legos For Girls. Make them compatible with the rest of your bricks. Make the bakery and the vet and the cafe part of the Citi line. It would have fit in so wonderfully. Continue to tell the world that you want to offer toys for everyone to enjoy, and now they have a bigger choice! Don't say, oh, by the way, we don't think girls want to play with what's already out there. We're just gonna go ahead and call all of that Lego and make some pink stuff and call it for girls. That's what they want, after all. I can't imagine there are any boys out there who want some pink bricks, or to be a vet, right? (HEADDESK)

I am a geek. I love geeky things. Things like video games, books, comic books, movies, cartoons, science fiction in general, archaeology, history, taking things apart to find out how they work, attempting to put those things back together again, toys designed specifially to be taken apart and put back together again, and then put back together in an entirely different way, and so on. Lego has always fit right in there with that. But I am also a girl. Not the girliest of girls, maybe, but still a girl and totally cool with that. Except for when I have to deal with the stereotypes that girls don't do or like, well, any of the things that make up pretty much the core of who I am. I've come to notice that attitude a lot more lately as I get more involved in the worldwide geek community. It makes me angry and sad and annoyed and insulted all at once. And it exists because of things specifically like this, like what Lego has done right here with its Lego Friends line. As long as marketers keep trying to tell everyone that girls don't like these things, or that these things must be made more girly for us to enjoy them, then people are just gonna keep going on assuming that this is the case. It isn't, damn it. It isn't.

Anyway. Sorry. Really trying not to rant. It is just so hard to believe that Lego dropped the ball so hard on this one. At least from my perspective. I know I am not the only one out there who sees it that way, either. I have seen many similar entries from Lego fans, parents, girls, and guys who see this issue like I see it. So I am adding my voice into the mix. Maybe if enough of us speak up, Lego will get the hint and go back to remembering their product has been loved by everyone--boys, girls, kids, grownups--for decades. Why start trying to pigeonhole us by gender now?

Dear Lego,
Bottom line here: Keep your new line, but make it accessible to boys and girls. Please make future installments compatible with the rest of your toys, and allow the girls as much chance to put all the pieces together as everyone else. And for the love of Pete, please don't stick us off in our own little corner as if we should have no interest at all in the rest of what you have to offer.

Thank you,
A concerned mother, kid at heart, and lifelong Lego fan.

Imaginary Valentines

Happy Valentine's Day my dear readers! I hope that whatever your relationship status you truly do have a wonderful day. Remember, there are many different kinds of love out there, so if you don't have a special romantic valentine to share your day with, there's no need to be all grumpy and anti-love. Declare yourself your valentine and treat yourself to a fantastic evening of your favorite things. Or make a good friend your valentine and go out and have a good time together.

I have to say I am lucky enough to have found the love of my life and we have a nice low-key celebration planned for the evening. We're going to dinner with our daughter at one of our favorite restaurants and just plan to enjoy one another's company. I am very much looking forward to it.

I read an interesting Valentine's Day-inspired article on GeekMom yesterday. Geek Mom Delphine asserts her belief in every reader's right to fall in love with the characters in the books we read. I really couldn't agree with her more. I think a character so well written you can fall in love with him (or her) is the sign that a writer is doing something very, very right.  After reading this post, I was inspired to come up with my own list of fictional valentines to share with you guys.

Harry Dresden
(The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher)

Harry is all kinds of awesome. He has his flaws, certainly, but he is a loyal friend and fiercely protective. He does what he believes is right and he always stands up to bullies, no matter the odds against him. He has a pretty solid sense of humor as well--freely joking about the time that one bad guy kidnapped him and tried to sell him on Ebay. Also, he's a wizard. And when he needed a way to stop necromancers, his weapon of choice was a reincarnated T-Rex. I mean, come on, how cool is that? Sadly though, it could never work out between us. My love of computers and gaming would not mix well with his effect on electronics I fear.

Araris Valarian
(Codex Alera by Jim Butcher)

Well, clearly JB is quite a talented writer. Araris is a very interesting character indeed to me, and he is a romantic, which wins him points. Araris was the most well-known swordsman in Alera, and singulare (body guard and friend) to the princeps Septimus before his death. When Septimus was killed in battle, leaving behind an unacknowledged wife and newborn son, Araris allowed himself to be disfigured with the coward's brand and presumed dead so that he could go into hiding with his friend's widow and son and keep them safe from the princeps' enemies. It's not his fault he fell in love with her, but he was a total gentleman about it, which makes their eventual romance all the more sweet.

Ostvel
(The Dragon Prince and The Dragon Star by Melanie Rawn)

Ostvel stuck me as an interesting character throughout the entire span of both of Rawn's trilogies. Not a Sunrunner, but living among them, and married to not one, but two, over the course of the narrative (his first wife died due to illness), he carried with him a perspective on the group that not many others in the series possessed. He was forever surrounded by people of power (Sunrunners and nobility), but he always remained a very straightforward and simple man, even when Rohan gave him is own princedom to run. The guy was just plain cool. If he was real, he would be the first friend I would turn to in any sort of crisis, no matter how big or small, and I would never hesitate to confide in him. Plus, he just seems like a pretty fun guy to hang out with.  

Bardan Jusik
(Star Wars Republic Commando by Karen Traviss)

Oh man, Bardan. I think I've told you before he's probably now my favorite Jedi of all time. Mostly because he had the guts to look at the Jedi Order and see it for what it was--neither good nor bad, just stagnant, and willing to let itself be used and compromise its morals because it thought doing so would serve the greater good. The man has a conscience, which, dagnabbit is just sexy. Also, he didn't stop being a user of the Force just because he walked away from the order, and he was constantly looking within himself to keep himself from being tempted by the dark side, while still allowing himself to have the kind of life that most Jedi deny themselves. It's hard not to love a man who is willing to give up the only way of life he's ever known for his family. Not for some half-baked romance, mind you, but for his actual family.

Lord John Grey
(The Outlander and Lord John Grey by Diana Gabaldan)

Okay, this maybe is a bit of a stretch, since he definitely plays for the other team. But John Grey is an absolutely fascinating character. He falls in love with a man who clearly prefers women, in a time when homosexuality is definitely something that needs to be kept hidden. Instead of pining about his unrequited love, he gets on with his life, while remaining a silent pillar of support for the man who has captured his heart. He is a true gentleman, in every sense of the word, and it's hard not to love him a little bit.

So there's my top five literary valentines for you. Delphine actually threw in one in her blog that was from a movie, Obi Wan Kenobi as portrayed by Ewan MacGregor in The Revenge of the Sith and I have to say I am totally in agreement with her on that. That particular role made me fall in love with MacGregor as an actor and with Obi Wan as a character. It is not easy to make a stuffed shirt like Obi Wan sexy, but MacGregor somehow managed to pull it off, and whatever lingering reticence I might have been having about being a Star Wars fangirl was completely quashed when I realized that while watching The Revenge of the Sith for the first time.

Other honorable mentions include:
Oz the werewolf from Buffy the Vampire Slayer (he is just cool in every sense of the word).
Charlie Weasley from Harry Potter (a British ginger who loves dragons? I mean, come on).
Alistair from Dragon Age: Origins (a cute, super sweet, slightly naive, prince in disguise with a wonderful sense of humor and all kinds of loyalty and courage to boot? Um, heck yeah.)

So, who are your imaginary valentines?