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Ask GeekGirlCon: What’s your favorite Halloween costume?

Hi everyone! Halloween is just around the corner and, as we geeks all know, is a great day for cosplay! We asked our staff what their favorite Halloween costumes were, and here’s what they said:

Anna Daniel, Facebook Administrator

“My favorite Halloween costumes are little kid costumes. Specifically, the costumes that kids love so much that they wear them even before Halloween. Seeing a parent with their little Jedi, monkey, ballerina, etc. at the grocery store is adorable.” Anna Daniel

Erica McGillivray, President and Marketing Director

Erica (left) gets back-in-the-day geeky for Halloween

“My favorite Halloween costume ever was the Star Trek: The Next Generation uniform that my mom made me when I was in 4th grade. I even found a fake visor. It was also the first time I ever cosplayed. Thanks for nurturing a geek, mom!” Erica McGillivray

Tammy Vince Cruz, Vice President and Design Manager

Tammy cosplaying as the Senshi of Revolution and Time, Sailor Pluto!

“Guarded by Pluto, planet of time. I am the soldier of revolution, Sailor Pluto! Well, at least for Halloween. This was my 2nd cosplay, back in the day! I hand-carved the Time Key myself, and the Garnet Orb was even detachable! I’m hoping to reprise a new version of Sailor Pluto in 2013, 15 years later! Yup, I just dated myself.” Tammy Vince Cruz

Susie Rantz, PR Manager

Susie as Daria Morgendorffer — blank stare included

“One of my favorite Halloween costumes in recent years was Daria Morgendorffer. I LOVED Daria growing up, because she showed me that you could be smart, sassy, and challenge social norms. It was a fun costume to put together, but it was also really difficult to take photos, because I usually have a permanent smile plastered on my face.” Susie Rantz

There you have it, folks! What was (or will be!) your favorite Halloween costume?

Guest Contributor
“Rock On!”

Artist Corner: Hello, The Future!

Hiya, readers! For this installment of Artist Corner, we at GeekGirlCon connected with Nicole Dieker of Hello, The Future! She has been reaping the successes of her recent Kickstarter and took the time out to answer a few questions from us in between shows.

Hello, The Future! punching in the hours to make music for a nerdy world.

1: For folks not familiar with your music, how would you describe your sound?

“Nerd folk” is probably the most accurate statement. I say “geekrock” a lot too. Sometimes I tell people I sound like “girl Jonathan Coulton,” which I really don’t, but there’s a lot of overlap between people who like JoCo and people who like my songs.

2: You have recently completed a successful Kickstarter! What was the most rewarding part of the whole process?

Learning that I have a fan base willing to support an unfinished project.

By this point, I was nearly three years into performing as Hello, The Future! and I looked at the Kickstarter as a bit of a milestone marker; if I couldn’t get support for this project, I should step back from the full-time independent musicianry.

Then we not only funded the project, but also funded two stretch goals. It was an amazing feeling, knowing I had a team ready to support and back my work.

3: What are some obstacles you have faced as you were promoting The Geek Girl EP?

Boosting the signal is always the biggest obstacle. There are so many musicians and so many Kickstarters and so many tweets and videos and Facebook posts.

In my case, I started telling the story of the Kickstarter long before I actually announced the Kickstarter. I involved my audience in the process from the very beginning, showing them drafts of songs and drafts of rewards, letting them know how invested I was in this project and how much I wanted to give them the best work I could.

This helped because when we were ready to launch the Kickstarter, the audience was already ready to back. I didn’t have to spend the first week of the Kickstarter explaining it to people.

The other smart thing I did was get on as many podcasts and websites as I could. I would watch the stats, and every time I did an interview (even for a small podcast) the signal would boost and more people would back the project.

4: What is the most valuable advice you can offer for someone thinking of starting their own Kickstarter?

I have two pieces of advice.

1: Test your project and rewards with your fans before you launch the Kickstarter. I put an early draft of my Kickstarter online and asked my audience to tear it apart, which they willingly did (the internet seems to enjoy that kind of thing). They gave me a lot of useful information, including which rewards they liked (and which rewards they didn’t like at all) and helped me shape the final draft of the project.

2: Do the math, for both the money and the time. Make a budget. Create an estimate of how much it will cost to produce the main project, and then add on how much it will cost to produce and ship all of the rewards. Remember that Kickstarter and Amazon each take their cut, and that there’ll likely be taxes you’ll need to pay as well. Then figure out in which order you’re going to fulfill and ship the rewards, and how much time you’ll need to produce each of them (while you’re simultaneously working on the main project). That’ll help you create a realistic plan of action for the Kickstarter.

5: What are you geeky about right now?

I am coming late to the Song of Ice and Fire series, having discovered it through the Game of Thrones HBO show. Nearly finished with A Feast For Crows at this point. Because I am a redhead, I’m making a Hipster Melisandre costume for Halloween which includes a t-shirt that reads “I served R’hllor before it was cool.”

Thanks again for taking some time out of your hustle for GeekGirlCon, Nicole! Congratulations again on not only a great EP, but a successful Kickstarter!

To follow the adventuers of Hello, The Future!, please visit the following:
Website: hello-the-future.net
BandCamp: hello-the-future.bandcamp.com
Tumblr: hello-the-future.tumblr.com
Twitter: @hellothefuture


Shubz Blalack
PR Content Producer
prcontent@geekgirlcon.com

Shiboo_Krismer
“Rock On!”

Adventures at BrickCon 2012

Hey everyone, Shubz here and back from a fun-filled weekend of sleeping in, sun, and LEGOS! That’s right, this past Saturday, I got an opportunity to check out BrickCon with my husband and a few of our friends. Feast your eyes on some of these impressive structures!

This pyramid is no joke! Check out all the detail in the layers to give it that unfinished look.

You can’t go wrong with Ron Swanson.

There was a booth with blacklight and light up lego structures, and my favorite was this beautiful chessboard.

Now this was definitely another favorite! BEHOLD THE BATCAVE! This was complete with a rotating panel that held Batman’s other suits and all the vehicles the Caped Crusader cannot go without.

I never knew the Justice League decorated so minimally.

Folks, this is only a fraction of the Hogwarts structure.

Another view of Hogwart’s. How awesome is that?

Please check out BrickCon’s site to catch more of the fun and building that happened this past weekend.

If you are a builder of any of the structures I have added, please email me at prcontent@geekgirlcon.com so I can properly give you props on your hard work and creativity.

What’s on your Lego builder bucket list?


Shubz K. Blalack
PR Content Producer
prcontent@geekgirlcon.com

Shiboo_Krismer
“Rock On!”

October Geek About Town

Wally the Dog is too busy this October with so many nerd events!

Hi folks! Is it fall yet? Here in the Pacific Northwest, it’s hard to tell right now! Let’s celebrate this sun a little longer with some nerdy fun!

Tuesday, October 2nd: Tuesday Night Games at Raygun Lounge with Queer Geek!
From the website: “This weekly meetup replaces the Monday meetup group that used to meet at Six Arms (and Chao Bistro before that). It will be held at the Raygun Lounge, Gamma Ray Games’ new game bar. Come and play board games and take part in other geeky pursuits and mingle with your fellow geeks” (Note: This is a weekly event so if you can’t catch Queer Geek! this time around, come through every Tuesday night for some gaming!)

Wednesday, October 3rd: Nerdy Board Game Night
Location TBA, please see event invite for details.

Thursday, October 4th: Dominion Tournament
Please see invite for details. If you would like to participate in the tournament, you must register!

Friday, October 5th – Sunday, October 7th: BrickCon
From the website: BrickCon is a convention for adult fans, collectors, and builders of LEGO®.

Friday, October 5th – Sunday, October 7th: Maelstrom International Fantastic Film Festival
From the website: The Pacific Northwest’s premier weekend long event devoted towards independent and international genre filmmaking. The event was created to offer exposure to films that traditionally are overlooked by the festival circuit from genres including action, animation, fantasy, horror, and science fiction. The festival will feature an amazing selection of fantastic films from around the earth – with the possibility of artists presenting the works themselves. U.S. and world premieres will play alongside global festival favorites and select retrospective titles.

Tuesday, October 9th Information Architechture Panel from Amazon
From the event invite: What is the role of an Information Architect at Amazon.com? You’re probably burning with curiosity, wondering what an IA does at the world’s largest online retailer. You probably wouldn’t guess that there are only 4 known Information Architects in the entire company! While Amazon has employed browse taxonomists for years, IAs are relatively new to the mix – mostly as a result of the tremendous growth of the company, and the information challenges that come with it. At this IA Meetup, you’ll have the opportunity to meet a panel consisting of three of them: Nick Sweers, Carolyn Tweedy, and Nick Berry. These IAs will inspire you with their pioneer spirit, as they show you how they are defining the practice within a culture dominated by developers.

Friday, October 12th: Seattle Art Museum Community Night Out
From the SAM Website: Celebrate the creativity and ingenuity of women artists with an evening full of free live music, art making, My Favorite Things tours, performances and workshops inspired by Elles: Pompidou and Elles: SAM. Bring your family, friends, students, kids, parents, and fellow artists—there will be something for everyone! (From the SAM website) Join GeekGirlCon for “Ten Things I Know About You,” a game about famous female geeks and geekery. Spin the wheel for a topic and then name everything you can think of about it in the next 30 seconds. Surprise yourself with how much you know and maybe even win a prize!

Saturday, October 13th – Sunday, October 14th: InfoCamp 2012
From the event page: Join us at InfoCamp Seattle 2012 for an exciting weekend of talking & learning about everything information! As always, it will be you, the participants presenting sessions, talking amongst yourselves, and driving the content of InfoCamp!
…Rates are $60 for professionals, $20 for students for the 2 day event including lunch and snacks…This year will return to Mary Gates Hall at the UW. As well as the unconference format, we are featuring two speakers in 2012: Seattle City Librarian, Marcellus Turner, will start things off on Saturday before we move to the participant-led sessions and discussion. On Sunday, we will feature Information Architect and educator, Dan Klyn, to get us jazzed for another day of enthralling discussion between the participants. For more information, see the Seattle InfoCamp Blog.

Sunday, October, 14th: Dominoes and Such
From the event page: “What are we doing? Dominoes (or other games depending on the mood), chatting about anything sci-fi related, drinking (caffeinated or unleaded), and general silliness. We start around 10:30 a.m. or so and play until whenever (usually 2:00 p.m.), feel free to come early or late; punctuality isn’t important.”

Friday, October 19th: DMG 5: Billy the Fridge, Art Vandelay, Death*Star, MC 117
Every third Friday at Pink Gorilla U-District, the DMG series features a line-up of live performing chiptune or nerdcore artists, complete with a visual display, and free-play gaming.

Friday, October 19th: Geeklesque: Unites!
From the website:In times of crisis, those with great powers often come together. Leagues are formed; things get avenged; clothes… are taken off?! Critical Hit Burlesque (Portland, OR) and Jo Jo Stiletto Events (Seattle, WA) are teaming up this fall to bring you Geeklesque Unites! Geeklesque Unites will feature some of the best geek-themed burlesque from around the Pacific Northwest, for one night only on Friday, October 19, 2012.

Friday, October 26th – Sunday, October 28th, 2012: AkiCon
Three-day anime, manga, and Japanese culture convention.

Friday, October 26th – Sunday, October 28th SteamCon
Three-day steampunk convention during Halloween weekend

Sunday, October, 28th: Dominoes and Such
From the event page: What are we doing? Dominoes (or other games depending on the mood), chatting about anything sci-fi related, drinking (caffeinated or unleaded), and general silliness. We start around 10:30 a.m. or so and play until whenever (usually 2:00 p.m.), feel free to come early or late; punctuality isn’t important.

Monday, October 29th – Tuesday, October 30th: Seattle Interactive Conference
From the website: SIC 2012 provides a unique stage for entrepreneurs, technologists, advertisers, designers, entertainers, online business professionals and thinkers to converge: Visionary speakers on technology, creativity, and emergent trends will leave you inspired, and networking events promise to better connect you.

Got some geektastic events you want to add on to Geek About Town? Email Shubz at prcontent@geekgirlcon.com!

Shiboo_Krismer
“Rock On!”

Artist Corner: LadyJ

Emcee Lady J

Hi folks, Shubz here! Recently, I got in touch with emcee LadyJ to ask her a few questions about her journey as an artist and to also discover what makes her inner geek sing (or in this case, rap)!

1: We ask everyone this: what are you geeky about right now?
All I gotta say is this. If you understand the term “Love & Tolerate” you are 20 percent cooler in LadyJ’s book! >:)

2: What made you choose rap as your preferred method of self-expression?
I found myself having a hard time understanding my own emotions. Like seriously, at the age of 9, I just never seemed to give a crap. Musically, it all came out, whether it was composing the music, lyrics, or otherwise.

3: What boundaries have you faced in your development as a performance artist?
Sacrifice, know what to sacrifice, when to sacrifice, and how to do it. Ya can’t reach where you want to be without it, so ya gotta become a juggernaut.

4: What song did you have the most fun creating?
Off my Our Fantasy mix tape, there’s a song called Lunar Cry. I got to act the most insane I ever got to act on a record. A couple of friends helped me alot with the concept and lyrics; one of them was even on the chorus. (Note: song contains strong language)

5: Are there any upcoming projects you have to share about?
I have a few commercial single dropping soon. Fat Trel and a few other local celebs will be featured. I plan on doing another project for my fellow otaku soon… It’ll be completed before the year is up in time for AUSA and MAGFest!

Thanks for taking the time to geek out with GeekGirlCon, LadyJ!

For more information about LadyJ and her fantastic tracks, visit:
Twitter: @createladyj
Facebook: LadyJ
Website: createladyj.com
YouTube: LadyJ’s YouTube Channel (Note: songs contain strong language)


Shubz Blalack
PR Content Producer
prcontent@geekgirlcon.com

Shiboo_Krismer
“Rock On!”

Ask GGC: What was your favorite school subject?

Hi everyone! With the new school year starting, we asked our GeekGirlCon staff what their favorite school subject was. Here’s what some of them have shared:

Set

Jex Ballard, Volunteer Coordinator and Board Secretary: “My favorite subject in school was always math. I was a founding member of my elementary school’s math team, where we traveled all across Washington state competing against other schools. The best part was that Friday practices were game days where we played games like Set, Pylos, and any other game that enhanced our mental ability.”

An accurate depiction of Kris belting out a sweet tune.

Kris Panchyk, Vendor Coordinator: “My favorite subject through high school and college would definitely have to be choir. I was lucky to have stumbled into a fantastic group of people in high school, and musically we were AWESOME. It’s carried over into a love of music now and getting involved with local choirs.”

Ellen Ripley and Buffy (photo from EW.com)

Susie Rantz, PR Manager: “Geez, it’s hard to pick a favorite subject, because I feel I was a completely different person in high school than I was in middle school, and was yet another person in college. I will say the class I enjoyed the most was “Action Heroines in Contemporary Cinema.” We got to examine powerful female action heros, which meant watching Alien, Terminator 2, Buffy, Thelma and Louise, and more! I realized there were many more complex action heroines than I expected — and made me want to search for even more!”

What about you? What was or is your favorite subject in school?

Shiboo_Krismer
“Rock On!”

PAX ’12 : Game on!

PAX 2012 was like PAX usually is: tons of stuff to see, lines to wait in, and free swag to get.

Just walking the show floor is an experience worth the cost of the badge, with grand displays set against the deafening noise of games and attendees. I’m always comparing it to a theme park: tiring, exciting, and fun. I played almost too many games to note, a couple of my favorites being the hilarious Octodad and The Walking Dead.

Borderlands 2

The moments I always remember, though, are the ones spent in random rooms on the second and third floor playing board games with friends and people I’ve only just met. It’s not just because I love tabletop; I think that this is where the community of PAX still lives on through the noise and the overstimulation of the exhibits. There’s a very simple joy in gaming that’s hard to find as you get older, and to be able to share that with your friends is a great feeling.

There’s also a great mix of simple, complex, lighthearted and serious tabletop games available in the library, so no matter who you are playing with (or where your exhaustion level is at 10:00 p.m. on Saturday), there’s something for you. Some of the highlights in tabletop for me were Ufology and Cards Against Humanity, which I had never played before this weekend.

Ryan Gosling may or may not have been at PAX…

Now all I have left is lots of sleep, a Magic the Gathering coloring book to do, and a list of games that I absolutely *must* buy. Oh, and a TMNT costume.

Heroes in the Half Shell!

ttyl,
Julia Santo
Programming Operations Director

Guest Contributor
“Rock On!”

Board Game Review: Small World

I was recently introduced to a new board game that I’d never heard of before. It was quite entertaining, enough to drive me to share my experience with everyone else! With the typical (and reasonable) constraints of allowing for 2-5 players ages 8 and above, Small World is a game that will keep you captivated and on the edge of your seat for about an hour with the continuous shift in activity. It’s a game of rise and decline, conquest and defeat, and excitement for all of the players!

You’re about to be reminded that “It’s a small world after all.” No, I’m not talking about the incessant little robots of Magic Kingdom that sang and danced around your boat as your naive mind wondered what this chorale had to do with Disney World in the first place. Not to mention, Earth has about 510 million kilometers of surface area, which in no way could be considered small! In this case, however, we’re talking about the fictional world (Small World) occupied by Elves, Giants, Orcs, and Sorcerers, and despite the clicheness, it is indeed a small world. It is made up of small chunks of land—certainly not enough to accommodate for the 14 Fantasy Races that intend to conquer and thrive there. Because they can’t all inhabit the land at once, your goal is to build an empire of your race and eventually dominate all of Small World in only 10 short turns!

The Cover of Small World

You will be allowed to select the race you wish to play, paired up with a random Special Power that gives your race a unique benefit. You then use your Race Tokens to take over various regions of the map—in turn, forcing other races away. You must try to cover as much of the land as possible, for each region occupied at the end of your turn allows for the acquirement of Victory Coins, the system of points used to determine the winner at the end of the game. It’s not as easy as it sounds—conquering a region takes two Race Tokens, of which your supply is limited. If a region is already occupied by another race, it takes an additional Race Token for every enemy token already present in the region, and an additional Race Token for each obstacle on the region. This makes it difficult to conquer regions occupied by many Race Tokens and obstacles, so it is important to build a large and powerful army of your race if you wish to take over a large amount of land.

The game board: The land of Small World and its various regions.

Equally important as conquering land is defending it, for other players will be trying to take over your regions as you do to theirs. Sometimes your Active race (more on “active” races below) ends up being spread so thin that it is unable to recover, and the best option is to adopt a new race and begin a new conquest. In doing this, you must first send your original race into Decline. This means that their special powers are eliminated, they are reduced to only one Race Token per region, and the tokens are flipped over to reveal the greyed-out “In Decline” side. Those left on the board will still gain you Victory Coins during scoring, but they are not Active and will typically die out quickly. It is always an emotional time when it becomes necessary to force your own Declined race off of the map to make room for your newly expanding Active race. After 10 turns of continuous rise and fall of supremacy, each player will total his Victory Coins to discover the ultimate winner—the dominator of Small World!

The main reason I like this game so much is that the Fantasy Races / Special Powers combinations are always so unique. They are randomized before the game, and each one is completely original and creative, allowing you to get sucked into the fictional atmosphere. The first time I played, I started out with the Ratmen race and the special power of Spiritry. My Ratmen had no benefit going for them other than their sheer number, and their Spirit ability allowed them to stay on the board after Decline no matter how many races I had on the board. At first I didn’t realize how useful this would be, but it ended up causing my many Ratmen to inhabit a majority of the board to start, and they remained scattered about for almost the entire game—a victory point gold mine! The combinations are different each time, be it Stout Orcs, Commando Elves, or even Flying Skeletons, so the game is always kept fresh and lively.

Some of the Special Power/Fantasy Race combination signature banners

Even though this game has a lot of rules and situations to consider, it is very simple once you get the hang of it. The time goes by quicker than you would expect as you mourn and celebrate the losses and successes of your races and attempt to hinder the other players’ expansions while augmenting your own. You learn quickly that it is most certainly a small world. The one catch is that no matter how many times you play the game, you will always have stuck in your head the little “Small World” Disney tune that has haunted your mind since you were a child. Say what you will, but that song is awfully catchy!

Intrigued by Jaden’s review and want to try conquer a Small World yourself? Check it out at your local game store, one of our community business partners, (get a discount by becoming an individual sponsor) or other online retailers.

You can also watch a lively game of Small World hosted by Wil Wheaton for Geek & Sundry’s Tabletop show.

Shiboo_Krismer
“Rock On!”

GeekGirlCon Statement

On our blog, GeekGirlCon embedded a YouTube video from one of our panelists that was meant to describe, from her own view, what it means to be a “geek girl.”

Unfortunately, we did not clearly hear the beginning of the video, which made a remark that excluded transgendered people from the conversation. Once members of our community raised their concerns, we re-watched the video and removed it from our blog as it did not reflect our mission statement.

GeekGirlCon was created because we wanted to create a safe, welcoming, inclusive place for all geeks. We still live by this creed every day. All ages, gender identities, sexual orientations, sexual preferences, sizes, abilities, ethnicities, nationalities, races, creeds, religions, familial statuses, etc., are welcome. Our core beliefs also state that both “geek” and “female” are self-identified.

We think it is incredibly important to have a dialogue about people who are misrepresented, under-represented, or not represented at all in geek culture. We both attempt to be proactive and rely on our community to bring these conversations to our attention. To those who watched the video, we are deeply sorry about the pain inflicted from these remarks. Thank you for raising your concerns.

If you’d like to contact us to continue this conversation, please feel free to comment or email us at info@geekgirlcon.com.

Guest Contributor
“Rock On!”

Q&A: Anna Zola Miller of The Open Doors Project

Anna Zola Miller

Anna Zola Miller

Hi everyone! Meet Anna Zola Miller, who serves on the Open Doors Committee of the Organization for Transformative Works. For those of you not familiar with Open Doors, they are an organization dedicated to preserving fanworks, especially those that run the risk of being lost. Check out some of their collections, which range from website to posters and fanfiction preservation. Anna was kind enough to answer a few questions about Open Doors and share what she’s currently geeking out about.

What has been the most rewarding part of the Open Doors Project?
Open Doors has given me a much better sense of the history and continuity of fandom. The online archives we’re importing to AO3 tend to be about ten years old, and of course fanzines have been around since the 1960’s. Media fandom has been around for going on half a century, now–it’s a well-established, coherent subculture, and at this point we have enough history that we need to take better care of it. Being involved with Open Doors has been a way for me to learn about that history and take an active part in preserving it.

What are some challenges that you have faced?
One of the major challenges in Open Doors is the tension between the philosophy of preservation and the culture of fandom. When we did our first automated archive import, there was a lot of controversy over whether we were moving fans’ work without permission, and whether that violated fan culture’s etiquette. As I see it, the preference some people have expressed for letting old archives disappear and old fanworks with them, rather than moving to the AO3, is a product of the shame and silence that surrounds fandom. I think we should assert our rights as fan creators to do and preserve what we see as culturally interesting and valuable transformative work, even as we attempt to protect people’s identity in situations where fandom can be a sensitive subject. A major part of that is ensuring that current fans are aware that they are not alone; they are part of a legitimate culture that has been around for a long time. And as a history geek, the thought of old fanworks disappearing makes me really sad.

Tell us about your favorite archived piece.
There’s a Starsky and Hutch fanzine that was archived in the Fan Culture Preservation Project a while ago, called Scales of Justice. I’ve never even seen Starsky and Hutch, but the zine is full of art and it’s so ridiculously gorgeous that I love it anyway. You can see some of the art on its Fanlore page.

What are you geeky about right now?
I’ve just started watching Battlestar Galactica so basically everything is robots. It’s an amazing show, and I already want to cosplay Starbuck. I’ve also been geeking out about all the Shakespeare in the Park that’s going on this summer. I’ve seen five different productions of Twelfth Night but the one Wooden O is doing currently is pretty near my favorite.

What was your favorite part about GeekGirlCon ‘12?
The con was excellent; the Jane Espenson panel was probably my favorite, but I also got a lot out of the Fans, Creators, and Social Justice panel. And Nerdlesque. And everything else. 😀

Check out Anna’s blog to read more about her experience at GeekGirlCon 2012!

Now reader, let’s hear from you! What’s your favorite kind of fanwork?

Shiboo_Krismer
“Rock On!”

Join The Discussion #GeekGirlCon

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