#Then my ipad ate the post that I had half written

[scifi-gk]

#ChesterBear and I went on an adventure to NYC today. My plan was to take pictures of South Street Seaport Museum (exteriors) and Titanic Memorial park and, if I was really lucky, maybe some shots from the location shoot of the Blacklist. When I got off the bus, I got my subway pass, figured out my correct subway route, got lost on the way (don’t worry, this is a family tradition for the first hour or two we’re in the city, LOL. Besides, it wasn’t so bad this time. I just got off a little early and had to wait for the next train 😉), and eventually found my way downtown. Once I was in the financial district, I caught a glimpse of the Freedom Tower and then hustled on over to Beaver Street and, bam! Ran right into the filming site. It was set up with lights outside the building pointed to shine in the windows. This lighting technique is to simulate daylight streaming in. Now, it was morning and the light outside in the sun was sublime, but we’re talking about NYC and the looming buildings tend to make it pretty dark in there. If they are supposed to be anywhere else, light would probably stream in. It’s probably not something you’re going to even notice in the scenes or episodes unless you look for it. Anyway, I was having a running commentary with a friend about what was what and I was sharing pics and she was telling me what all they were. I must’ve walked around those streets dozens of times. I found Craft Services 😁 but no one I recognized was there. By the time I located the cast and crew trailers on surrounding streets I was pretty cold (texting required me to take off my gloves and I’m a California Hot House flower these days, lol) so once I found the trailer my friend said was Hisham’s I took a quick pic and then headed around the corner where there was a nice ledge to sit on in the sunlight. In front of me was another trailer. I thought, “Oh, this must be Wardrobe because look at the rack holding the clothes outside that door.” So I jokingly sent the picture to my friend and she comes back immediately: OMG that’s James’ trailer! 😲 So I park myself there long after the sun gets blocked by buildings and I hope fervently for an opportunity to speak to him. I ask my friend if she thinks he’d sign one of my Inktober art pieces and she’s all, “he’s a very nice guy, so probably yes.” So I’m psyching myself up to ask this whole time. And then… He comes out of the trailer looking SO GOOD, in his hat, glasses, suit, and long coat, and he sees me sitting, well, standing by then, AND HE SMILES AT ME and nods in, like, acknowledgment — and, well, my brains leak out of my ears. I pop up and mutter some doofus variation of “would you please sign my art?” that was obviously too low for him to hear because he leans in (oh, yes, he does smell nice!) and says “sure, what is it?” and I babble something about Inktober that I’m CERTAIN he didn’t understand and I pull out my notebook and the Inked drawing I had picked (of “Drooling” which is him eating that polish doughnut, because OF COURSE I’M GOING TO CHOOSE THE ONE WHERE THE LINE IS “Mmmmm, tastes just like Patty Sutton.” Duh. 😂) But apparently I don’t have the stones to tell him that so when I say it’s one of my favorites (meaning the drawing I did, not the doughnut eating, though that’s great too, tbh) he gives this wry little chuckle and a shake of his head and HE SIGNS IT!!! Okay, so now I’m completely a gibbering idiot and on cloud nine so much that I FORGET TO ASK HIM FOR A PICTURE, too. (If I had backup I SWEAR that would never have happened!) So as he’s walking with his posse to the set, I drag myself from my stupor enough to smack my forehead and grab my cell phone and snap a pic as he’s walking away. Guys, I swear, in my minds eye, when I imagined meeting him, I was WAY cooler. Instead, IRL, I turn into Insta-Dork. Whatever. Today, I smelled James Spader and there’s no picture that can capture that, so there. LOL. Many thanks to @alyblacklist for letting me spam her with images while I slowly had my mental breakdown and who, in great affection, laughed at me for not asking for the picture. It made me feel more like laughing and less like crying because of my dork-ness. 💋

EDIT: D’oh! I meant to include the filming addresses... (the teal pins with the white squares in the middle)

[bluesky-thewebcomic]

Final thoughts from Elvenwhovian

So here we are at the end. The last panel. There were a lot of times that I thought I wouldn’t make it to this point. It’s been an incredible and long journey, and finishing a project like this is satisfying beyond words. I know that many of you were not here from the start, so I just wanted to share the story of how this 930 panel monster of a project came to be and thank a few people who helped along the way.

Really it all started in March of 2014. My roommate had taken a trip to New Zealand to visit family and I was having a pity party at home alone (It’s always been a dream of mine to go to New Zealand). I was window shopping online on Thinkgeek (RIP Thinkgeek) and I was seeing all this merch for a game called Portal. This led me to Steam, which led to finishing the first Portal in about a day, then Portal2 in about 2 weeks. 

Of course this led me to begin looking up fan art which led me to discover the fanfiction “Blue Sky”. I read the whole thing in about 4 days. I was so engrossed in the story, I ate, slept, went to work, and read Blue Sky and nothing else. I vividly remember sitting at my kitchen table, ipad in hand, as I read the last lines of the story. I sat back, let out a long breath and said, “Wow. That was one of the best stories I’ve ever read.” 

The fan art came next. Being relatively new to tumblr, I was used to getting 3-6 notes on a post. Suddenly, people were coming out of the woodwork liking and reblogging. My mind was blown and it made me want to make more fan art. Then I met @starry-nightengale who became one of my best friends on this site. We fangirled over “Blue Sky” and Portal over the next year which led to us co-writing “The Trial of the Bow” trilogy, a medieval/fairytale retelling of Portal, Portal 2, Blue Sky, and Portal Stories: Mel. 

It was on Labor day weekend of 2015 when my internet went down inexplicably. My roommate who had the internet in her name was out of town yet again and I conceded that I would have to wait until she got back to get the issue resolved. The Trial of the Bow Trilogy was finished and I had just co-written with @the-royal-sketchbook a Half-life Medival/fairytale fanfic “The Legend of the Freeman.” However, my passion for Half-life was not as strong as it was for Blue Sky and I longed to do something else involving Wheatley, Chell, and the citizens of Eaden. 

Most of the people that I encouraged to read Blue Sky did not have the time to invest into a novel length book. I longed to create something more accessible. A comic book/graphic novel of the story had been in the back of my mind for a long time, but when the desire rose up in me, the thought of “but you would have to do backgrounds and you suck at backgrounds” reared its ugly head. 

But on that Labor day weekend, a thought occurred to me. “What if I did it as a comic? Very loose and simple. Something that I could do for fun without any heavy commitment.” So that weekend, I did a quick pencil drawing of the scene when Wheatley and Chell argue from Chapter 5. I threw some color on it and put it on tumblr and it got a great response. Then I did the scene when Chell transfers Wheatley into the hardlight avatar from Chapter 3. Another great response. It was simple and loose but people seemed to like it. I asked Starry what she thought about doing the whole story in such a way. If memory serves, she was for it but warned me not to get too far ahead of myself. If I did this, it would be a huge project and would take a lot of planning and forethought. BTW, good advice Starry ;)

After completing all of Chapter 1, I made the announcement, created the page, and the Blue Sky Web comic was born.

One of the things that helps me to recharge each week is drawing/working on art on Sunday afternoons. In the past, I had struggled to find things to work on, but no more. Sunday was now Blue Sky Comic day. I would post 2 panels and create 4 more. If I had extra time on holidays or days off I would get extra done. This system allowed me to consistently add to the project without feeling rushed or overwhelmed. I was able to get ahead so that I could take breaks for holidays, trips, computer problems, and eventually planning my wedding and getting married. The Blue Sky Web Comic became a constant in my life. Whenever I needed to decompress and just draw or color in panels, it was there. 

In late summer of 2019, my Father was diagnosed with cancer. If any of you have walked through cancer with someone, you know how difficult and painful it can be. My husband and I took a trip to see my parents about once a month for the next 8 months. The drive was fairly long and was the perfect opportunity to work on what I called “pencil work” for the comic (sketching out the layout of each panel, a process that took the most concentration and time). Working on the comic helped to keep my mind off of things. Each time we visited my Dad his condition declined and being able to focus on something like the “pencil work” helped to make the trips better.

In spring of 2020, right before the COVID-19 lockdown, my Father passed away. It was right before that final trip that I finished the “Pencil work”. By then I had also made a lot of headway on the comic itself, with only a few chapters left to ink and color. I remember reading stories and blogs about how people made it through difficult times by focusing on a hobby, tv show, book, or music; not living in denial of the bad things, but just having something to help them take a break from it all. That was what the Blue Sky Comic was for me in those final days and I will always cherish how it was one of the things that helped me to make it through that difficult period in my life.

With the COVID-19 lockdown, I had some extra time to work on the comic and by late spring of 2020, I finished the last panel. It still kind of blows my mind. From 2015 to 2020 was how long it took to complete.

____________

To the 2000+ followers and those who replied, liked, reblogged, and sent messages, your words helped me to keep going when I wondered if it was worth it. Your kind thoughts helped me to know that this story is still enjoyed by people and Portal fans alike.

To @starry-nightengale, thank you for your advice at the beginning and your support and friendship along the way. Here’s to many more ^w^

And to @wafflebloggies, thank you for writing Blue Sky. It may seem overdramatic, but when I found this fic back in 2014, I was in a dark place and your story helped me hold onto the light. Even years later when faced with new trials, it helped me to focus on what was ahead. I truly believe that this story resonates with so many people because it taps into the most simple and profound truth: the most powerful love is selfless. And selfless love can conquer any difficulty. Also your support of the comic over the years made me smile with delight. I’m so glad you liked it :)

So that’s the story. I plan to do more audiobooks of the rest of the Trial of the Bow trilogy, but after that I’m going to be taking a nice long break from Blue Sky and Portal.  I have a personal passion project that I am in the initial stages on. It's another web comic that I actually couldn’t have even considered doing if not for the experience I gained over the past 5 years. I’ll have updates on my personal tumblr for that project and the audiobooks, but for this page, The Blue Sky Web comic, this will be one of my final posts (aside from responding to any messages from you guys). Thank you all again for following. What an incredible journey this has been! This fandom is so amazing and I love you all. Take care and God bless. - Elvy

[lindoig7]

Sunday-Wednesday, 20-23 September

Sunday

Another beautiful day, but we are both buggered after yesterday’s jaunt and I am having a bit of trouble with pain in my right hip – just to compliment Heather’s left hip issues.  As a consequence, we just stayed around the van all day relaxing and recuperating.

We bought dinner from our favourite fish and chips shop in Drouin, but went for lamb souvlakis and potato cakes this time – as usual, a very generous serving and I had to help Heather dispose of the last bit of hers.

At night, we started watching anew series of DVDs – 78 episodes plus 12 hours of special features that we never look at.  The series is called Justified and looks like being something of a modern Western.  The first couple of episodes have been pretty easy to follow with much better sound quality and more familiar US accents compared with the last couple of series, so I am glad of that.  The main character in it is a cop who is very John Wayne-ish – the big tough silent type. He is a bit of a sharpshooter who never draws his gun unless he intends to use it and so far is an all-round good guy, even if a little unconventional.  The Duke was my hero for at least the first half of my life so I am looking forward to seeing how this series unfolds.

I also started reading one of the paperbacks we have in the van, but after a few pages, I realised that I had already read it so went back to read another ebook – my sixth since leaving home, probably at least my normal annual quota.

Monday

We had a wonderful walk down at Phillip Island again today – one of the most enjoyable we’ve had I think (although many of them fall into the same category!)

We had to get fuel before leaving Warragul and we picked up a couple of items at the supermarket, then drove down through Grantville and went to Pyramid Rock, the second most southerly point on the Island.  We ate half our lunch in the car and walked out to the point near Pyramid Rock – I believe it is called Storm Bay.  I will post some pics but you will note that it really does look a lot like a pyramid.

We walked across to Berry’s Beach via Red Bluff. There and back was a little over 8 km by my Fitbit, but it was mainly fairly easy walking except for some patches of water and quite a lot of mud where we had to skirt around, off the track a little to get through.  We saw quite a few rabbits, hares and wallabies as well as 44 species of birds.

A feature of the walk for me was seeing some Eurasian Skylarks – at least 8. We have very occasionally seen them in Victoria before, but one of the things I had written about for my Birding Primer on the very previous day was about distinctive bird calls. I wrote about seeing many, many Skylarks in Scotland and how recognisable they are from their song.  As we walked along, we heard their song and immediately knew what they were, but it took quite a while before we actually saw them. They are normally silent on the ground but then fly straight up and hover and sing beautifully for a minute or so before falling back to earth.  No matter how hard we looked, we couldn’t see them until I was stalking a couple of Shelducks for a pic well off the track and I looked back to Heather and saw two of them land quite close to her.  We subsequently saw several more, but always too far away for reasonable photos.

We sat and rested and watched the surfers for a while at Berry’s Beach before resuming the trek back to the car and the second half of lunch.  We were possibly interested in doing a shorter walk at Ventnor Beach on another occasion so drove across to see if it was worthwhile (maybe, maybe not) and then drove home again.

Tuesday and Wednesday

Both days were wild and woolly with violent winds most of the day and night, along with patchy rain.  The forecast indicated rain most of both days but we really only got one very heavy shower on Tuesday afternoon and patchy rain throughout most of Wednesday.

We had quite a lot of washing to do so Heather did some on each day and we both had a few other jobs to do so we stayed around the park most of the day. We did quite a big shop on Tuesday, stocking up on things that may not be quite as easy to purchase in Orbost, but we seem to be a bit focussed on moving on so there was no imperative to explore further or do another walk, particularly in view of the weather.

Another thing that took a swag of time was a bit of research.  If I take a video with my camera, it comes out as a .mov file, but if I want to post it on my blog, it only takes .mp4 files. As a result, I have been researching how to convert and compress videos on my PC and that has occupied quite a few hours in experimentation, trial and error, and back to the drawing boards. Nothing is ever easy and even swapping things between my PC, iPad and iPhone becomes complicated because they all need to use different internet connections as I explained early in my blog.

[chroniclesofedward]

Left on the floor #3

Obscure Misadventures (Early April of 2017)

Hey viewers, so 3 months since my last vlog, my writing muscles are rusty, so I’ve undertaken most of my senior year exams, I have been forcing myself to study intensively through 5 consecutive weeks, and I am left drained and mentally exhausted, 5 grueling weeks. The skin of my finger literally peeled off from extensive periods of writing, and I am still not sure if i’ve done well or not. These test scores have a tremendous impact on whether or not I will be granted a MEXT scholarship.

Anyway through the months I have not been documenting the events of my life, I have actually written 3 or 4 scripts before this one, but I hadn’t had time to record and edit them, so i’m starting with an all new script. During the past few months, I have gone through several predicaments of both corporeal and incorporeal concerns. So i’m going to talk about those in this vlog.

First thing I want to talk about is Logan, if you’ve watched my previous videos, specifically the one titled “XMEN obsession” in that video I said, well I did went through all those phases, only it was much more intensified and prolonged that it spanned to a week. It was actually interfering with my studying for exams, that’s how severe the emotional impact that movie had on me. It’s the last of Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine. I’ve been a fan of XMEN since long before Shakira sang Waka Waka for the world cup of Africa, that’s a long time before I even had a computer. So I am quite attached to Logan. I don’t care much about other Marvel movies. That was the first time I think I truly lived up to the term “Obsessed” because during the 12th of March which was the day I watched Logan for the first time, until the 19th of March, Logan was the my dominantly preoccupying subject of thought, it’s the first things I thought of when I wake up and the last things I thought of before I fall asleep, every waking hour within this days, I spend ruminating and somewhat grieving about Logan and his demise, I shed a few tears when I was alone in my bedroom or even as I was filling out the answer sheet, it was rather intrusive, hence it interrupted my studying for exams. I detailed the sentiments I had and still have to some degree for that movie, on a tumblr blog post I posted privately, because it’s too heartfelt to be bared publicly. I downloaded so many pictures of Logan, of the sceneries and promotional posters too, I even extracted the font they specially made for the “1974 frames of Logan” website through the means of some HTML wizardry, So March 3rd, that’s Logan’s day.

During that one week of being obsessed I was so unwilling to depart from the world of wolverine, so I kept myself immersed in it’s atmosphere, and one of the side effects from lingering too long in the life of another person especially so comprehensively and lengthily, is that you start losing your sense of self. In short, I had something called quarter-life crisis, which I have also made a blog post detailing so, and this one’s posted publicly. It’s about how I am not sure the path i’ve elected to take after high school might ultimately satiate myself. And it’s detracted me from my initial focus of striving for high academic scores.

now for a predicament of corporeal nature, I lost my phone. My iPhone 6 I had only had for a year and a half. I had taken great care of both it’s physique and battery life; and it’s processing prowess were still fine. It happened 3 months ago, when I was in the mall shopping for snacks and cooking materials for home economics class. I was wearing shorts, and I think during the taxi ride home, it slid out of my pockets. With my hands full with grocery bags, I didn’t notice that my phone had been absent, until the night, when my father asked me for help that required me using my phone. That’s when I started looking and after a while, recognizing the possibility that it might be gone, I started to panic, and started to turn the house upside down. I couldn’t sleep for a day or two after that, thinking about where my phone is. I also didn’t have find my iPhone turned on, because that requires logging into iCloud, and I don’t like iCloud, it’s confusing and invasive, the way it always prompts me to sync each one of my apple devices, every time I connect them to the wi-fi. So i decided to just not log into iCloud on all of my apple devices.

It’s been a significant lost to me, when my Po Po or the grandmother from my mother side, died. I wasn’t affected. When my uncle died, I wasn’t affected as well. But then again the care I pay to the once of my kin, is close to non-existent. Moving on! But when I lost my phone. It’s like I lost the loyal friend I never had. Who says I don’t have loyal friend? This baby has been with me since get-go. But you know, a phone goes with you wherever a phone can possibly go. And now that I no longer have that companion. It’s a loss. It’s not like I am on my phone all the time, but these days having a smartphone is very useful, its pervasively functional, I don’t know if I can use that adverb like that, but i’ll leave it in. It’s been a month now, the last internet history entry from that phone was: Alexander visiting Diogenes living in a barrel. I lost in on the 14th of January. I have been borrowing phones from so many classmates in school, and I can feel each time I do they are getting a little more pissed at me.

I got a new phone on February it’s an iPhone 5SE, which stands for special edition but I’d like to think it stands for Small edition instead. I’m recording with it so I can’t show you, but i’ll take a picture of it, for documenting purposes, not for a purpose of vanity.

Another predicament of corporeal nature is that I shattered my iPad, what happened was that, I was in my room googling something, and the search won’t go through, with my wifi router that’s been branded as super powerful by the seller, I figured the fault wasn’t in the wifi router, so I toggled the wifi switch in my iPad, it didn’t cinnect to the network automatially like how it was supposed to, so I had to open the settings and tap on the name of my house’s wifi network, then it asked me to enter the password to the network, when I know full well this network is saved in my iPad, and I thought about how neither my MacBook nor my iPhone have the same problem, I thought about how lousy this iPad is at doing something as basic as connecting to the wifi network, and the I think I was overcame by tis red cloud, that just came down form the sky and thought the ceiling that enveloped my head, and I heard the opening to RWBY play in my head, and when I came to, my iPad was already in the state it is in now. I was under the influence of the red cloud.

Also I got my new3ds in January, this was a from the black Friday of 2016 but I had to wait for my cousin to come back from the states to bring it to me, and I got 2 for the price of one, that was not a part of the deal, the seller sent an extra one unintentionally. Although my immoral immoral parents told me to just sell it, I chose to take the higher ground, I told the seller about the extra one through an email, and they said I can keep it, so I sold it and I regret doing so, because I was in a haste to save up money to replace my lost iPhone 6, I sold the extra 3ds for only half the price I could have sold it for.

For the last portion of this video, another problem of incorporeal nature, I lost my calm, and I am not particularly anxious, but before I decided to abstain from partaking in leisurely activities, to devote almost all my waking hours for studying, I was in this pleasant state of mind, when I am so contented with reading, reading about eveyrhting, from wikipedia, to blogs, to books. I was working on getting off of youtube, and even if I was on youtube it would be because my hands are preoccupied with eating dinner, so i’d watch a ted talk video. I had acclimated myself to the stimuli I get from reading. But when I committed myself to studying full time, when I ate dinner, I resorted to watching other youtube videos not just ted talk whilst eating. At first it was just something to keep me preoccupied while eating dinner, not it’s carved a hole in my daily schedule, it has again become a daily requirement. And I don’t like it, I’ve reverted back to my initial trajectory. Now it’s hard for me to feel contented with just reading a book for entertainment, now i have to watch videos that are more hectic. I need a certain inner peace, that would subsequently allow me to enjoy the words in a book. But i’ve lost it. When I had it it was so profound, but so fleeting. It had slipped through my fingers. I was constantly thinking about intellectual topics, I devoted my waking hours for such intelectual endeavors, i’m dissapointed that i’m derailed from that position. I was thinking about Ubermensch, about why I like rain, about Neology. I have to reattain that, for lack of a better phrase, mental state.

Well then that’s all for today’s episode. Boy was it long, editing process is going to take so much time. Well then, goodbye.

[thewanderinggay]

Going to San Diego Comic Con!

If you fall into the precious and precarious category of the elusive gay geek, then welcome. We are brothers! You'll also agree that a trip to San Diego Comic-Con is the geek equivalent of a pilgrimage to Mecca, and it was one that I had been dreaming of since I was 10 years old and finally got to do last year.

San Diego Comic Con Press Badge

I was VERY fortunate that I managed to obtain a Press badge for comic con, meaning that I'd written about comics, pop culture or sci-fi at least once in the previous year and so was accepted (after a fairly lengthy process of credibility checks) to go to Comic Con as press. Yes, that means I got to go for FREE! But more than that, a press badge meant that I was spared the agony and frustration that many geeks go through waiting and refreshing the registration page in the hopes of grabbing tickets. This was meant to come across as advice and I now realise it just seems like I'm boasting... sorry. This was meant to come across as advice and I now realise it just seems like I'm boasting... sorry.

Get planning now!

My point was meant to be, that I got my tickets to the con almost a year in advance, which is when you should start planning and not a second later. Next year's convention dates are usually announced the moment this year's con closes. That's when you need to book your hotel. Get on Booking.com and book a hotel near the convention centre for those dates now! Book your flights now and work around them, rather than doing it the other way around. As long as you get there and leave a few days either before or after to explore, then you'll be fine. TIP: Do not leave booking your flights until you've organised everything with friends and people to stay with. They will inevitably change their minds on you and you will be stuck paying double for a flight you could have booked a few weeks earlier. Book your flights and make them work around you. You've flown all the way there, they can do their part too.

Travelling to San Diego

So after a long mess of budget flights via 3 stops in Canada and a few days in Pittsburgh to visit my mum, I arrived in LA from London having saved a grand total of about £70 (like $100). Book a fucking direct flight with a real airline! You'll spend the $100 on crappy snacks alone. After a few days of gay LA, I decided it would be lovely and romantic to catch the train down to San Diego. And you know what, I was right!

My view on the train down to San Diego. #gaycation #sdcc2016 #sandiego

A post shared by Nick (@nicholasmark) on Jul 18, 2016 at 2:54pm PDT

  Luggage checked, coffee in hand, and comic books aplenty loaded onto my iPad I sat and watched California speed past me on my way to Comic Con.

Book accommodation EARLY!

Comic con was part of a much larger California road trip, and it ate away at a hugely disproportionate amount of my savings. Mostly on accommodation. I booked a crappy little Holiday Inn at the top of the hill (like a half hour walk from the centre) and it still cost me about $850 for 3 lousy nights. When I say crappy, I mean CRAPPY. Cockroaches on the bed, weird stains on the floor, the full shebang. If you can book early enough there are swanky hotels on the marina that literally overlook the convention. But if that's not your style I'd highly recommend finding a cute boutique in the Gaslamp District.

Gaslamp district

I got to San Diego a couple of days early (as one of my friends changed her plans, as I told you they would do) so I booked a couple of nights in a cute hotel near the convention centre to explore the city before the masses arrived. I stayed in the gorgeous Horton Grand Hotel, which was beautifully decked out in deco, and about a 3-minute walk to the convention centre. It was kinda noisy as there were loads of bars nearby, and tour guide bus stop right by my window, but I would stay there again in a heartbeat. Plus the key cards had The Flash and Supergirl on them in honour of Comic-Con. Awesome!

Get ready for Comic-Con

Once all the preparations have been made and you've arrived in San Diego, all you need to do is eat, sleep, and get ready for the biggest geek fest of your life! San Diego Comic Con baby!