August... Not a good month... With even less happening.

Lets not beat around the bush and get straight to the point... I have done very little to next to nothing since the last post. There have been some MASSIVE changes going on at work so things have been nuts for me doing loads and loads of overtime and because of this i have had no time to really do anything apart from work, eat and sleep.

"But wait weren't you on holiday in August". I hear you cry.

 Well yes i was or am... 

At the time of writing this i am still on my holidays. and i have done very little apart from rest and sleep... I am annoyed at myself as i really wanted to do something for my One Year Anniversary that was on the 12th but then that flew by and next thing i knew it was past and i had missed it.  So moving forward i will try harder to commit to something and the follow it through. and with that i am looking to the future and that means MECHA MONTH!!!!

Yes Mecha Month. This November i am planning to do some little extra things through out the month. This will involve some Gundam kits and a few other bits i'm working on. It is still in the early stages so more on that soon. But i will say XBOMBER!!!

So that was my post short and with very little to say. i am really hoping that then next post will be better. It has to be because this is one of the worst posts i have ever done.

London Film and Comic Con 2014

Well I don't really have a lot to say in this post with the heat i have had very little sleep and work has been a nightmare. So a lot of the plans I had for July have fallen through. But stuff still happened and i should write about it... If for no other reason than i do not want July to go by with out at least one post.

I was unable to attend the London Anime and Gaming Con. But all is not lost there was the London Film and Comic Con and Hyper Japan...   

London Film and Comic Con...

I have been looking forward to this since the start of the year. I had tickets to Stan Lees talk and a photo with him.

Out side of the convention there were some Transformers parked up and they looked really cool. the Prime they had was epic and the Bumblebee was ok too. There was also a Barricade there to. I really should of taken photos... And i know that is becoming a running theme with these posts.. i really need to start take photos while i am at these things.....

Once we got inside we had a little walk round and we were amazed by how small and cramped it felt. I think this was due to the fact that they had changed the layout of the con. the dealer area was pushed up front and the autograph area was in the middle with a couple of the stages and some photo areas at the back. This was poorly designed. The layout they had last year which has not changed for as long as i can remember was simple but very effective.  This year things were very claustrophobic and there was very little room to move down. But apart from that it was a good con i just wished we were told about the second hall next door where they had put artist ally and the gaming area... that was a good idea to use two halls but a little work on the layout and thing would have been perfect.  

After we walked around we went to get our photos. This was very cool but the organisation for this photo shoot was just terrible...when we got to the que me and my friend were met with a mass of people many of them had tickets for later in the day as this was the first of two photo shoots Stan Lee was doing that day... There was no attempt to sort the mass of people out or to try to remove the people who had tickets for the second shoot away. I understand that Stan Lee was late but that still does not change the fact that things were just poorly handled. Once he had turned up then thing started to move and we were put in to the que... My problem is this should of been done before hand and they know Stan Lee is a LEGEND and was going to cause a lot of interest and lots of people were going to turn up. But when things got moving they got moving and we were moving along very quickly. Once the photos started the que started to become smaller as the mass of people started to leave and that just left the people who had tickets for the first photo shoot. Even before the shoot Stan Lee walked passed us was we were trying to ask one of the people trying to sort out everyone. Have to admit i was a little starstruck... 

And YES i know i have a Superman T-shirt on i have been reminded of this many times. I realized what i was wearing when i was on the bus to the train station... By then it was to late to go back and change.

After we had lunch we walked around and again then went to the Stan Lee talk. This was ok i was hopping for more of an insight in to the When, How, Who. But he did tell us about that but then again how many documentaries have been made him that covers him and is life. But he did say Black Panther is in the works. SO not much to say about the talk.I did find a video of his talk on the Saturday on youtube. That covered pretty much the same stuff as the Sunday talk.

Apart from that there was not a lot to say i did pick up a Superman figure to add to the collection and the Transformers Reissue Thundercracker and now i have the three original Seekers... next on my list the Coneheads.

In other news i have finally book mine and my brothers tickets for Destination Star Trek and have tickets for talks and photos. More on that in a later post. Also i ordered the tickets for the EXG con and that is pretty much all there is for the rest of the year well except for the Winter LFCC and Winter Expo... Oh and i still have no idea what to do about the One Year Anniversary of this blog... So any ideas you have let me know.  

  

    

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. 

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.