Achievement Unlocked

This is exactly why I love Seth Green:

The first rule of Fight Club is, you do not talk about Fight Club.

Sorry Brad, I gotta talk about it because this is about CAPCOM! Fight Club Chicago was a glorious one night only preview of the much awaited Marvel vs Capcom 3. According to Corey Greene this is the first time Capcom has hosted an event in Chicago since 1993. That's a damn long time, but I'm happy to have experienced this now as apposed to any other time in my life. Wednesday September 22, 2010 began with school, fast forward to the worthy parts. After I realized there were numbered wristbands for the first 100 people who showed up to get something super awesome and free aka "swag" everything came down to the wire. I heard and watched as the numbers of wristbands dwindled down. In short I was pissed, once I finally found the bus stop I sat down and soon got on the bus. A few other people rushed the bus and I knew they were going to Fight Club, it was them or me. I jumped off the bus Wolcott and then my friend Brian called and told me just then the 100th wristband was given away. I was pretty devastated, however the night was no where near over! There were still giveaways for the first 300 people and of course the highlight of the evening MVC3. I met up with a few more of my friends and after we came back from eating standing in line began. As the sun set the line simply grew longer with more nerds and more anticipation to enter the faithful Capcom warehouse. As another group of my friends showed up we created more space so they could cut in line. Soon Keisha and Rebecca arrived and we got them into the sea of game fans from outside of the gate. Once the security developed poor excuse for a sense of order by gathering everyone with the first 100 wristbands together any sense of a line ceased to exist. It turned into everyone for themselves, a few Capcom reps came outside and passed out un-numbered wristbands for the first 300 people. Towards the middle of the line it became chaotic for those last few bands, Kevin and I moved closer to the door. I could barely see anyone who I had come with anymore in the massive crowd of people. Security soon let the first hundred people in and then we waited...and waited. They asked everyone with wristbands to hold up their arms and they would come and find us. Soon every girl in line was let in, all twelve of us! Once I got inside it was gorgeous, the walls were lined with set ups which were back lit with purple and blue lights. The center table was restocked consistently with free pizza and drinks. As more people entered the lines for MVC3 became longer. I got in line and waited my turn, anticipation grew as I got closer to the front. The graphics were hypnotizing and beautiful. Once I got to the front I asked my opponent if he knew the controls he had no idea so we both just winged it. I chose Dante, Deadpool and of course Morrigan. It reminded me of TVC only by graphics the game play was exciting and new for me since I was way past the learning curve of MVC2 by the time I started playing tournament games. Unfortunately I only got to play once because people began crowding systems and lines simply became longer and hotter. The more people that piled inside the hotter it got, not to mention there were no washrooms. And if you wanted to leave there was no getting back in. My feet were killing me as the night went on but it was worth seeing MVC3 up close and personal. A few top players began to piss of the scrubs simply by winning which I found hilarious. After some wins the crowds exiled Kurasa, Ari, J-money and a few other players who were doing nothing but winning. By the end of the night no one would have stopped playing if Capcom didn't tell us over the intercom that it was the last round. Everyone began to flood outside, for fresh air and of course to get their swag. Everyone with wristbands got four collectable Capcom shot glasses, a sticker, and $10 card for Marvel online comics. The first 100 arrivals got the same things plus a Captain America t-shirt. By the end of the night everyone was tired and hyped! This was simply my personal experience with Chicago Fight Club, what was yours?

And the eight and final rule...If this is your first night at Fight Club, you have to fight.

The World of Wizards

"The time has come the walrus said to write of many things...of girls, and games, and comic books, of Batman and Bane..."

After my week long recovery I'm finally writing about Wizard World Chicago! I made a mad dash to the con that Friday morning, I even took the day off from doing hair. Once I sat down at the Sugar Gamer table Keisha (@sugargamer)slapped an SG cap on my head and I began representing. We had a very sucessful amount of signups that day despite how slow the con was. I of course ran into Corey Greene (@CG_Sonicboom) the comminity comic book conoseur. While walking around the con I didn't find too much that was very exciting, I surprisingly only bought one graphic novel. There were some good deals and a few awesome guests but then over the loudspeaker they announced that Saturday Rod Blagoiovich was going to visit and take pictures and autographs (for $80). I thought it was a joke but low and behold he was there the next day. For the rest of my Friday I continued trying to get girls to sign up. Then some of us walked over to the the SFX360 booth where they were holding two tournaments one for Gears and the other was free...neadless to say I entered the free one.
But all that glitters is not gold because the free tournament was against Rob Prodigy aka Prod1gyX (@SFX_Prod1gy_X) the WCG Ultimate Gamer runner up and top ten best Halo and Dj Hero player. On top of that hurdle you had to beat him in not one but three games (Halo, Dj Hero and SSF4). If you did happen beat him literally at his own games you won a $700 lancer from Gears of War. *sigh* I watched him annialate about 10 people in front of me then I was next, I picked SSF4 (possibly the game I'm THE worst at). We had small talk about what games I play and people I've met. The 3 out of 5 matches were really chill. I of course lost but it was cool to play with my second top tier player the first being Kurasa...who also whooped me in TVC. After I lost I hung around for a while and ran into Arthur (@SpeedBrkr) who recognized me from my Ibuki costume at ACEN and @Delriach who writes for PS3Attitude.com. I drug Delraich back to the SG table to talk to the rest of the girls about what he does and how he wants more exposure the the Chicago gaming scene. The con was pretty much over by this time until the next morning. Fast Forward to Saturday afternoon, I left class to head back up to Wizard World on my walk to the convention center people were leaving. But they were sadly mistaken because the party had just begun. I met up with more Sugar Gamers at our table again we soon split up to get ready for SFX360's Mafia II demo party and giveaway. Before the party Keisha and I ran into Linda Hamilton in the Hyatt she's extremely sweet and bad ass! The rest of the night was pretty great but probably not worth blogging about because it was just dancing with a Mario mascott and the Sugar Gamers, playing Mafia 2 and of course random photo shoots.



"---And why the Torch is burning hot, and whether Archangel has wings---"

choices

“It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.”


Since I began school I haven't had time to endulge in games as much as I'd love to. However I played Heavy Rain for the first time this past Sunday, I beat the game on Monday afternoon. Heavy Rain follow the story of four individual characters who are all affected by the murders of the elusive Origami Killer. Ethan Mars (protagonist) is a talented architect whos life takes an unexpected downward turn after a tragedy. Afterwards he suffers from frequent blackouts and memory loss. Other characters include Madison Paige a confident journalist who suffers from insomnia. Norman Jayden an FBI profiler (who's my favorite character by the way) he helps the police attempt to find a suspect in the Origami Killer's case. And last but not least Scott Shelby a private detective and retired police officer also on the road to looking for the Origami Killer by contacting parents of previously murdered children. I'm not going to give away too much of the story, but man it's amazing. I was a little sad once it was over, just the fact that it was story driven and actually told a GOOD story made all the difference. One of the most amazing qualities of the game is the gift of choice, no matter what you choose it then changes the path the game takes from there. During game play you can even hear what the characters thoughts are. You can kill off main characters, choose to fight or lose, your decisions weigh on if other characters like you or not. You can even spark love affairs and or turn them down. Heavy Rain has about 22 seperate endings based on none other than choice, even the smallest things can alter your experience. In my ending everyone died, and the reason that's not a spoiler is because you're going to play the game completely different from me. That is the beauty of the game, you can replay it over and over and each time discover something new and have a new experience kind of step out of yourself and become someone else. I highly recommend it I thuroughly enjoyed this game as a whole. the controls were innovative especially since I didn't have to pick up a wii-mote to gain an interactive experience.


"How far would you go to save someone you love?"

sisterhood?

The following is my response to a very interesting anonymous question that I received on forumspring:

"What obstacles do you see when it comes to developing a form of sisterhood?"

Growing up girls expereicne a very different social life from boys and somewhere along the way too many of us hold on to high-school esque drama and carry it throughout our adult lives. Women unfortunately make it difficult to trust one another more often than not. When one female friendship scars you (especially early in your life), you kind of search the rest of your life for another great female companion. Your best friend does virtually everything with you. Sometimes women give up and only have male friends. And other times women automatically hate and dislike other women due to their history of mistrust without even learning one thing about the other girl. How many older women in your family can you name who have that best female friend who isn't a family member? It's usually the older women who tell us about trust with a woman friend and give us their experiences until we inevitably experienced our own sour situations. There are scandalous women who will do vicious things to you just for the hell of it. And there are some who do negative things simply because they've been hurt and they just want everyone else to feel hurt too. But there are men who do the same as well. The main difference between us (women) and men is that men can fight it out and get over petty isssues. Women on the other hand do not, women hold grudges for ages and sometimes even go to the extent of rallying other women against you or even attack your personal character. Women try to exile their own and trivialize her existance instead of uniting and creating a positive path forward by simply solving the issue. Gossip is another huge culprit instead of speaking directly to the woman, others get their information from everyone except the person in question. I know that it's not impossible for women to attain sisterhood, but both parties must agree and heal. Additionally there should most definitely be an understanding of letting go. I'm actually pretty shocked that this wasn't another bizarre negative question. However I truly appreciate this question and I hope to get asked many more like this in the future.

SUPERTOY "She Wants A Man" music video premier

About few months ago I worked with a group very talented individuals on this music video. I'm so glad that it's finally having it's premier! I made my dress in the video and did my makeup. Mike Soul provided and made the broaches that I wore on my dress. This isn't the first video I've worked on but it was definitely one of the most fun. I hope to work on many more in the future! My role in the video is "Tea$y Barbie," not because I'm a tease but it is one of the nicknames of the performer Supertoy, he's a great musician and Amir is an awesome director. The link to the video is the very first one and all the following are links to others involved with the video, ENJOI!

"She Wants A Man" video:

http://www.vimeo.com/13257045

Supertoy:

http://www.supertoyfactory.com/

Amir George:

http://amirisafilmmaker.blogspot.com/

Gabi Hudson "Suzie Sloan" photographer:

http://www.youngfatandfabulous.com/

Katerina Papadatos "Lady Goo Goo"

http://www.facebook.com/katerina.papadatos?ref=sgm

Mike Soul:

http://h2osoul.bandcamp.com/

It's been a while---

I've done alot since I wrote my last blog...I'm officially getting into cosmetology school June 1st, making jewelry and hairpieces and putting online inventory up. Working the stories and drawing my comic books. Playing SSF4 when I can and making costumes for ACEN! However I loved C2E2 it was far better than Wizard World enjoy:http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=430752206264&comments#!/video/video.php?v=430752206264

He’s a Joker, he’s a smoker, he’s a midnight toker…

I’m super late on the nerd wagon, but I finally got around to reading Joker by Brian Azzarello. Along with the gritty, yet gorgeous illustrations by Lee Bermejo. Like the manga cows I unfortunately read the entire thing while sitting in Boarders. This original story begins with the Joker making his exit from Arkham Asylum. He’s greeted by a low level goon by the name of Jonny Frost whom also narrates this tale. The Joker takes a liking to Jonny and invites him into the seedy underbelly of Chica--*cough* --Gotham. They end up at a strip club named The Grin and Bare It which the Joker previously owned before his incarceration. The first cameo of the novel is revealed in the form of a stripper. It’s none other than the Joker’s sultry blonde bombshell Harley Quinn. With all of his money and power now gone, the Joker decides to enter the crime world yet again with a bang…by skinning the current owner alive in front of the audience. The story continues to escalate with various acts of violence and cameos by The Riddler, The Penguin, Killer Croc, Two-Face and of course the Batman. I was a little disappointed to see that Poison Ivy was not included in this all star villain line up. I really would’ve liked to see what she could’ve brought to the story line and how they may have illustrated her especially since the Riddler was depicted so differently from his classic version. I found it compelling how the tone of the illustrations fit the character’s moods in this story. The Joker as we all know is usually shown as a criminally insane thrill seeker who simply wants a “good laugh“. This version of the Joker however seems to be quite based in reality. He is shown being very emotional, crying with his arms wrapped around Harley’s waist. Also in various points of the novel he consumes an exorbitant amount of liquor, cocaine and pills . This left me to think, was the Joker simply tired of being bloodthirsty just for the hell of it? Does he need this new found crutch to continue his madness? This version of the Joker is a very tired and seasoned version of himself. Yet with still enough zest to continue being the Ace of Knaves . Perhaps this was just another way to keep us fans lost in the blurred and schizophrenic world that is the Joker. One interesting tidbit about this graphic novel that stood out to me was during Lee’s visual development of the Joker primarily the Glasgow smile scarring around his mouth. This depiction was created prior to the Heath Ledger version of the Joker in The Dark Knight film. This graphic novel is definitely worth a read-through, I was satisfied with most things except the ending. Nevertheless, I’ll leave it up to you to read it and let me know what you think. Then perhaps this blog can be transformed into a discussion! “Cause he‘s a picker, he‘s a grinner, he‘s a lover and he‘s a sinner…”

“A bit of advice…don‘t ever apologize for the way you look.” -Joker

debut-

Growing up a strange girl had it’s advantages of being different from most around me, along with it’s many disadvantages. I’ve seen as everyone else has the popular trends develop such as: punk, goth, emo etc. Even being a nerd has somehow become cool in modern times. I’m personally curious as to why these things have all of a sudden become so “accepted.” Especially in modern hip hop with Lil Wayne and Nicki Minaj…it almost seems as if being Marilyn Manson-esque is completely ok now but I was teased coming up and dressing like that. Being a nerd has been in my life for as long as I can remember and now it’s fallen into the trendy trap. I blame the fact that a lot of people chose not to think for themselves and just follow. Perfect example of this hypocrisy is a few years ago I wore my hair in fake dread locks they were long, red, platinum blonde and brown. I was looked at strangely and teased however it was mostly by people that were hood fashion victims: purple and blonde kinky twists, red and black micro braids and so on. This was baffling to me, then as time went on the nerd glasses became popular also as wearing the crazy colors, studded belts and spiked chokers. Why? Do these celebrities really have so much of an intense influence that people don’t realize they’re being hypocrites? My judgment is not placed on the celebrities themselves but the crowds which mindlessly follow and imitate them.