Sunday 29 June 2014

Conventions, Birthdays and a One Year Anniversary.

It is the end of June and i guess i should do a little update post . So lets see what is coming up in the next three months.

July

At the beginning July there is the London Anime and Gaming Con on 05th and 06th. There is a link to the Convention website in the Convention Links page. I never been to this before and i am very tempted to go just to see what it is like. If i do go i will do an update and if it is any good then i will have to put it on the list of Cons i go to each year.

Then a week later there is the London Film and Comic Con on the 11th - 13th. Again the website link can be found in the Convention Links page. I will be going to it on the Sunday as this is when Stan Lee will be doing a talk and i have tickets to his talk and for a photo with him. I am very excited about this and i will be doing a post for this as well.... i guess there is going to be a lot of post in July.  

The following weekend will be Hyper Japan 2014. This will be on  25th - 27th. I need to go to this and this year i really need to try some of the food they have. I have attended two of these and each year i have said i want to try that because it looks so good and the smell is wonderful. But i never do and i know the prices will be high but i should try it at lest once.... This year will be different or i will just buy a few flavored        Kit Kats...  

The only other thing to happen in July is my birthday. That will be at the start of the month. So in all July has turned out to be a very busy time of year for me. Not sure if my wallet will be happy but that is what overtime at work is for...  

August

Not much happening in August except it will be the One Year Anniversary of the Blog on the 12th. At the time of starting this thing i had no idea how long it would last let alone considered the fact that i would be doing it for a year. So i will have to think about doing something to celebrate this occasion... It could be something on You tube or a Google+ Hangout.... I don't know but i should do something.... if you have any ideas lets me know in the comments below. I will be on holiday from the 18th so i should put some effort in to it. 

September

EGX London... or Eurogamer 2014. will be going on the Sunday and looking forward to seeing some new games that will be out soon. Heck hopefully it will give me a reason to play my Xbox One.

So that is it. Every thing that is coming up in the next three months as always you will be able to find all the web links in the Convention Links page and Let me if you will be going to any of these cons and if you have any ideas about the One Year Anniversary. 




Sunday 15 June 2014

What does it mean to be a Geek?...

Now before i begin i must say that while i write this blog post i am suffering from a case of Man Flu. So i have tried very hard to keep this as a coherent post as i can but i might go off topic and start to ramble a bit in places... So with that out of the way lets begin.

"I'm getting deeper into the geek hole. And its all your fault."

      That was a quote from a friend.... 

But it got me thinking on a bus ride to work the following day. What does it mean to be a geek and if your already a self confessed geek can you go deeper. The only real answer would be YES. But there is more to it than just ultimately cutting your self off from the world around you. How deep down the hole are you? Why am i thinking about this on the Bus? Am i a bigger geek than my friend? Should i care if i am or not?

So lets break this down. 

I'm getting deeper into the geek hole.

     Geekdom is is an individual thing I will openly confess to be a geek but even i know that i define my geekdom and will not let the geekdom define me. At work i'm known as a Star Wars guy and i am fine with people who don't know me saying that as there is so much more to me than that. So how far down a hole are you... That is like asking how long is a piece of string? I can say i am bigger geek than my friend but he knows far more about fighting games than i do. So do we take geek stuff as a whole or do we cut it down in to its own little subgroups. So doy ou like games or are you a gamer or a geek... I know people who are gamers but i would not call them geeks as they are only in to video games not the larger fandom as a whole. But then would you still call a gamer a geek. For every answer i can come up with i can think of an argument against it. Just look at the Marvel movies. There are loads of people who would say their Iron Man fans but have never read an Iron Man comic. the same goes for Batman. I like the Dark Knight Trilogy they are great movies but they are not good Batman movies. For the simple fact that for me Batman was not the Batman from the comics, IE he was not a detective he wasn't a master tactician. But the films were still great and i enjoy them every time i see them. but i know people who have only seen the Dark Knight Trilogy and swear they are Batman fans. But would it be unfair to call them geeks if all they know are the movies. Look at Star Wars fans many of them have never read a Star Wars Book and only know the movies and they are considered geeks but is it the same thing. Can a fan be a geek or can a geek be just a fan. When do you stop being a fan and when do you transform in to a geek. With geek culture becoming more and more mainstream is the term geek now need a new meaning. You can not call someone a geek anymore and give it negative-cogitations as it everywhere you go geekness is there you go to a supermarket and you see t-shirts with Captain America or Darth Vader on them. but before 2008 that would never of happened. Maybe moving forward we need to redefine the terms geek and fan. At one point they were interchangeable and maybe they still are. And thanks to TV shows like the Big Bang Theory being a geek is more normal now.  
      Back to the question at hand though... 
      Just because you have started going to comic conventions and you have brought a few things from these convention can be considered going to the next level as you are going out of your way to go to these places the same way a football fan who has only watch their team play on TV then decides to go to a live match to see it being played. There is an atmosphere when a large group of like minded people get together. It is something you want to feel more apart of so you go to more cons or football matches... So i give my friend that but how much deeper has he gone. I like anime he dose not yet we both like Star Wars and video games it is very hard to say as only he can answer how far he has fallen down the hole. He has started to look at things that are created by fans and has spent money on things that have been created by fans so yes he has gone past the point of being a casual observer and is now taking part in the community in a small way but still he is taking part in the community non the less. This blog in part was his idea and in my very, very small way writing this blog is my way of taking part in the wider fan or geek community.
      
      And it's all your fault.
      
      This part is easy he blames me for everything.... Ok maybe not everything but this whole thing started when i ordered/pre-ordered a calender from Comic Book Girl 19s website. I sent him a link and after he hmm and arred he ordered one. And yes i am the one that gives him the heads up when a con is coming up and so on. But really is it all my fault...  
      
      The important part was the first and as such was the focus of the post and to be honest i feel like i didn't get anywhere near an answer. I have spent all this time rambling and have not gotten anywhere. It is like the old saying. 
      "One mans trash is another mans treasure"
      So let me know what you think.
      Is a fan a geek or a geek a fan are they the same or is there more to it. 

Sunday 1 June 2014

London Expo and the Assassin's Fist.

Last Sunday was the 2014 May London Expo. It was good very good in fact and i would properly say it was the best Expo I've been to in a good few years. Heck i even spent some money... 
Not done that in a long time... 
But what made this one so much better.. honestly i don't know... I can complain and tell you why things were bad and need improving in past Expos but this one was just better... Still had its problems but nothing that would take away from the experiences. I was still not too happy with how the MCM team do the floor plan but things were better than the October Expo. And the queuing was so much better with the attendees entering the convention center from the side in two different doors. This was a brilliant idea and made getting in to the con a lot easier and less stressful. Though i did hear the weather on the Saturday was not as nice as the Sunday and a lot of people got court in the rain and hail.

I went to the Street Fighter Assassin's Fist ( SFAF ) panel. The Akuma actor Joey Ansah, Ken actor Christian Howard and Goken actor Akira Koieyama were there giving a talk. Me and my mate were a few minuets late but we still made it for the majority of the talk. SFAF was released the night before but i did not get a chance to watch it but my friend did and he was very very  impressed.
I have now seen it a few times now and have to say it is the best Street Fighter i have seen in a long time.


I can not wait to get this on blu ray when it comes out and i really hope they do get a chance to do more they have said during the panel that they plan to do another episodic show that would lead in to a movie. Fingers crossed they get to do this. The panel was also full of insights in to how they made the web series and general information. Afterwords they were signing autographs at the Manga Entertainment stand. I was able to get these signed.




I admit  looking back i am very disappointed that i didn't get a group photo with the actors but these are still very cool. The actor who played Akuma said to my mate that he remembers us from the panel. That was kind of cool. But all three guys were so nice and genuine people. They were true fans of the games and know there stuff. Very cool guys.

Now i need to brush up on my Street Fighter skills... 

Oh and Ryzor Blade as of right now you can't beat me easily... That would involve me putting up a fight... No you would completely and utterly destroy me... But i will train and one day when the time is right i will challenge you....

I saw a lot of cool stuff lots of toys and a load of retro video games. As always there were the usual amount of manga and comics were there but i was on a budget. I did pic up a few things.

Blu ray
Steins;Gate volume 1&2
Hellsing Ultimate parts 1&2

Xbox 360 
Dodonpachi Resurrection 
Akai Katana

I was tempted to get a few Gundam model kits but i had already took advantage of the sale at www.hlj.com and picked up a few models to do over summer holidays or during Mecha Month this year... 

Well that was the May Expo over... Next up is the London Film and Comic Con, Hyper Japan and the London Anime Con. All this is in July... guess i need to start saving.....