I just got back from OSFest Sci-Fi Convention in Omaha, Nebraska, and thought you all might enjoy seeing some of the cosplay from the con.
More after the break!
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In just a year, I’m going to be finished with college. Soon, I’ll have to decide what to do with the rest of my life! Every time I see a baby in a pram or stroller, I squee with delight, so little geeky addition sounds just lovely. Young children are a great inspiration for crafts. I honestly can’t wait to turn our study into a Nintendo-themed bedroom and start finger-painting Pokémon with the little ones.
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There was a period of time where I had many a bag that was being held together by the sheer level of patches, and buttons holding it together. Now-a-days these decorate my badges, and convention totes. But these patches from Storied Threads make me think I’m gonna need a bigger tote.
They have so many options something is likely to tickle your fancy. You could take a trip down to engineering.
Or you could be dealing with the fact that Winter is Coming.
The shop has hundreds of patches, from all corners of geekery. All of them.
This weekend was Maker Faire at Union Station in Kansas City and my daughter and I happily attended. To be honest, it was more of the same from last year – 3D printers, robotics, Arc Attack, and artisians of various forms and varieties. But we enjoyed ourselves, and were pleased to see some new chainmaille vendors, and some sort of hand-to-hand combat demos going on outside the Station.
One interesting booth was the Urban Farming Guys, which was a demonstration in aquaponics. I hardly know how to explain it, but it was cool. They had this planter with a large water tank beneath it. Tilapia fish in the tank poop in the water, then the poop water feeds the plants above. The plants filter the water through their roots, and it cycles back down to the fish tank. When the fish get big enough, you can eat them. A complete recyclable system. Very interesting.
Other interesting booths/displays: a woman who made art from junk mail, numerous 3D printers and “printed” items, a Titanic ship made from Legos, a solar-powered car, robotics demos, and a craft gallery with lots of jewelry, knitting, and chainmaille examples.
This weekend my daughter, husband, and I checked out the Spectrum Fantastic Art Live! convention in Kansas City. Spectrum publishes an annual art book featuring “a regular showcase for the best fantasy, science fiction, horror, and otherwise uncategorizable artwork”. This is the first year they have also hosted an art fair/trade show “for those who take delight in the worlds of What If?…”
According to the show guide book, “Fantastic art can be a slightly skewed, off-kilter view of reality or a full-blown creation of imaginary lands and the people–and creatures–that live there.” Given that definition, the art fair definitely provided examples of the fantastic – from fairies to the macabre, there was a little something for everyone.
Click on any of the images to go to the artist’s site.
Developed in 1869 by the Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev to help illustrate commonalities in the various properties of elements, the Periodic Table has been both boon and bane to high school chemistry students around the world (my own experiences fell definitely to the “bane” side.)
Fast forward about 140 years, and we have a more modern version, and infinitely more useful, thanks to James the ComputerSherpa. In his first Visual Design class he came up with this little beauty – the Periodic Table of Storytelling.
James really did his research, turning to TVTropes.org for inspiration and information on “tropes” – which TVTropes defines as “devices and conventions that a writer can reasonably rely on as being present in the audience members’ minds and expectations.” Writers (and Hollywood types) can use these fictional elements to craft endless variations of story lines. Being a wiki, TVTropes has vast quantities of information and discussion threads, so James’ graphical version of the Periodic Table is a real timesaver.
Beyond the concept as a whole, I love the examples at the bottom, illustrating how one might describe certain shows, movies, games, etc, using formulas based on this Periodic Table. For instance, when you combine:
…and you get Star Wars. Not sure about the “Dragon” element on this one, but then, I have mentioned my chemistry is not my super power.
James very kindly put the image up for purchase as a poster – it would be fun to sit around with a bunch of geeks and work out formulas for various shows and book storylines. Maybe I’ll have to get one for my son to take to college in the fall, for he will surely find himself a gang of geeks to hand out with, and I wouldn’t want them to run out of things to talk about.
[Via: BitRebels]
