C2E2 is a convention I have wanted to attend for a while, but the timing didn’t work out. I applied for a press badge this year due to both writing for Bizarre Brunette and Twin Cities Geek. I couldn’t believe that my press badge was accepted! Reflecting on my C2E2 experience, I wanted to publish my Do’s and Don’ts list more specific to C2E2.
While I did receive a press badge to C2E2, all my thoughts are my own.
Don’t Drink Too Much / Do Drink Water!
I’m a beer drinker and immediately after I entered the convention, I had a beer at Revolution Brewing. I was quickly two beers in and my mouth was dry. My poor friend felt hungover because we didn’t drink enough water and walked everywhere. Drink your water especially in between drinks. This convention floor was a lot bigger than what I had ever experienced and I was more dehydrated than I should have been.
Do Scout out Vendors Ahead of Time
I briefly scanned the list of vendors before I drove to Chicago, but I was surprised by the number of vendors who made the trek to C2E2. One vendor I was super excited to see was Flex Comics. I wish I had known their presence beforehand because I would have budgeted the cost of one of their workout tank tops.
C2E2 is easily one of my favorite comic conventions I have ever attended. It was incredibly organized and I liked the red carpet on the floor. It was great for photo ops with cosplayers. I enjoyed the amount of artists, vendors and bigger companies who appeared at the convention. I wish I had more money to spend at the con, but due to my prior trip to Orlando, I had to save money. Attending C2E2 has become one of my favorite memories of 2019.
The first Stephen King novel I read was Carrie followed by The Green Mile. Carrie is the novel I enjoyed the most due to how much I rooted for Carrie as the protagonist. Carrie’s mother is one of the creepiest fictional mothers I have ever read about. Sitting on my “to be read” shelf on Goodreads was Stephen King’s Mr. Mercedes trilogy which is more detective series than horror. I liked Mr. Mercedes a lot and I look forward to continuing the series.
Detective Bill Hodges is retired, overweight, and unhappy. His job was what he lived for, so without it, he wouldn’t find meaning in his retirement. When Detective Hodges retired, he left a few cases unsolved. One unsolved case was the “Mercedes Case” which involved a person driving a Mercedes into a job rally in 2009 killing eight including a young infant baby. In a private chat, Hodges is contacted by the “Mercedes Killer” nicknamed Mr. Mercedes by the media. This private chat brings Hodges purpose in his retirement as he is willing to risk his safety to catch this killer.
Let’s be serious, Detective Hodges isn’t a character I particularly like. He seems somewhat selfish allowing him to put his eighteen-year-old house helper and a mentally ill woman in danger to apprehend Mr. Mercedes. I’m more attached to who Detective Hodges teams up with including Jerome Robinson and Holly Gibney. Even though Hodges puts their lives at risk, they both make him more human.
Brady Hartsfield is revealed to be the Mercedes killer early in the novel. He has an inappropriate relationship with his mother and kills his poor disabled brother, Frankie, by pushing him down the stairs. He’s racist, misogynistic, ableist, and more. There’s nothing unique about his character and reading his story was probably the least interesting, but necessary to build up this dual between Hartsfield and Hodges.
The mystery isn’t the identity of the Mercedes killer, but what his next plan of attack is. It’s hinted at, but his end goal isn’t revealed until the last 100 pages. The latter half of the book moves quicker than the first half and I did have trouble getting invested into the story because of the slow build-up with all the characters. I will say Brady gets what’s coming to him.
Overall, I liked the book. It wasn’t my all-time favorite Stephen King book, but it still kept my interest throughout the story. I’m planning on reading the other two books in the series, but it’s not a high priority right now. I rated Mr. Mercedes three stars on Goodreads.
TeeTurtle has some of the cutest t-shirts. Recently, TeeTurtle has delved into tabletop gaming by creating their Unstable Unicorns card game. During one of our DnD sessions, a friend brought over the main game with the expansions. Unstable Unicorns is easy to learn and super adorable.
Unstable Unicorns is a game of collecting unicorns for your stable. Every player starts with one baby unicorn. Throughout the game, you can play cards in your hand which could be adult Unicorns, upgrade cards to help you gain Unicorns, or downgrade cards to prevent other players from gaining unicorns. There are also “Neigh” cards that prevent a player from completing their action. The person who collects seven unicorns in their stable first will win the game.
The main base game of Unstable Unicorns is perfect for all ages, however, some expansions are NSFW. When I say NSFW, I truly mean NSFW. I find these cards hilarious, but they aren’t for everyone.
Probably my favorite Unicorn Card in the game.
This game is great for anyone who’s a casual gamer and likes cute things. I liked how quick the game was considering most of my board games I own take hours to play. I highly recommend buying the main game for your next game night.
I’m behind in my blog posts considering Con of the Northhappened close to a month ago. Con of the North is located in the Northwest suburbs of the Twin Cities. It had been on my radar for years, but I couldn’t afford the gas to drive home when I was in college. This year, I invited a friend to attend with me, so I didn’t have to go alone.
Con of the North was extremely well organized. When I registered for Con of the North, I could sign up for games, role-playing sessions, and other gaming events. When I signed up for an event, it showed my gaming schedule on the website, so I could see what blocks of time I had left. If there was a full event, you could be added to their waiting list in case someone had to drop out last minute.
On Friday, I drove to the hotel to pick up my badge. Along with a badge, I got a Con of the North die, all of my tickets to the events I pre-signed up for, and a packet for the convention including a map of the hotel. The first event I signed up for was to learn how to play the Batman Miniatures game published by Knight Models. Miniatures is a type of tabletop game that has fascinated me, but I’m terrible at it. I find it challenging to predict what an opponent will do next and then try and place my miniatures in a compromising position to the opponent’s objective. I did lose to my opponent, but the game was easier to learn than I thought.
On Saturday, me and a friend had signed up to play several games of Magic: The Gathering EDH. These games were low stakes which was good because I’m a pretty casual Magic player and most of my decks aren’t competitive.
On Sunday, me and my friend split up because she wanted to play a massive game of Settlers of Catan while I went to try RunePunk, a steampunk-themed adventure using the Savage Worlds game system. Imagine Steampunk mixed with references from children’s stories.. that’s how I would best describe this.
Con of the North is a convention I would attend next year if I’m free. The organization, the convenient location, and the welcoming community made this experience a positive one. It was a great way to spend a dull weekend in February.
It’s been two weeks since my last blog post, but I’m back! Two weeks ago, I attended a tabletop gaming convention and then a couple days later, I flew out to Orlando on vacation to see Universal Studios along with Islands of Adventure. It was refreshing to escape the harsh Minnesota winter.
This trip has been a long time coming. When my mom retired after 38 years at the same company (longer than I have been alive), they gave her a $500 Universal gift card to spend at Orlando and at Universal Studios. It was a very generous gift which my mom took full advantage of after buying two wands, a couple t-shirts, and a Deathly Hallows bracelet. While I didn’t buy as much merch as my mom, I bought a few things to help commemorate the trip.
We walked everywhere! I liked The Simpson’s side of the park and I did end up trying a Duff beer. It was pretty good! The Simpson’s ride was a little too bumpy for me and I was glad the ride was over otherwise I probably would have puked. The Revenge of the Mummy ride was another favorite of mine along with the rides on Marvel Island in Islands of Adventure.
This vacation has been one to remember. It gave me enough of a break from work and I’m excited to get back to a routine again.
Before I conclude this blog post, I wanted to share what’s to come on Bizarre Brunette. Next month, I’ll be attending C2E2 and it will be my first time attending this convention in Chicago. I’m going to write a convention recap of the tabletop convention I attended before this trip. Sitting in my queue are eight different blog posts waiting to be written, but I’m up for the challenge.
You know 2019 has started off right when you realize you have been playing more D&D. Last weekend, our gaming group headed over to our friend’s apartment for our Dark Ages session #2 with our characters. You can read our session #1 recap in this blog post I made last month. I will say Althaea accomplished more in this session than in the prior session which made me super happy.
After sleeping off the fight with the barbarians, our characters awake in an ice prison underground with no memory of how we got there. There’s a tunnel about 50 feet down that goes deeper into this ice prison. Thankfully, one of our characters has a rope where we climb down and start looting the corpses which are scattered everywhere. Muglupus (the boyfriend’s character) is a dwarf who spends most of his time building a tunnel to find an escape. Suddenly, the floor beneath us breaks and one of our characters drops into a sewer facility where she has to fight three rats.
It takes Althaea a little while to get down there, but she comes to aid to fight these massive rats. As a side note, three giant rats sound horrifying to come across. After the defeat of the rats, we realize they weren’t actually intending to attack us, they were running from a massive spider. This is where Althaea is the true MVP in this session. I decided to grab my two ruby-encrusted daggers attached to my hip. I held the handles in both hands and ran up to the spider intending on cutting off the two spider’s giant limbs. I ended up rolling a critical success. Althaea went for the two limbs but ended up sliding underneath the spider and cutting off all its limbs. I’m just imagining that scenario in my head and it makes my character look like such a badass.
The spider quickly dies and I’m able to steal some of the spider’s fangs and now my daggers have venom on the blade. After traveling underneath the sewer we pop up in the Doctor’s office of the village we were staying in. The Doctor’s office contained several vials believed to be a mix of poison and medicine. Also included in the Doctor’s materials was his journal admitting to experimenting on the citizens living in the town. Our characters decided to poison both the Innkeeper and the Doctor for what they did to the citizens in the town. After revealing the truth at a town meeting, we decide to save the Doctor from the poison and let the town deal with him. We ended our session by running towards a monastery and camping with Rose, a friend we met in the village.
Our next session will be this weekend because we may have to skip the month of March due to everyone’s obligations. I was really satisfied in this session and I feel rejuvenated in where the campaign is going.
If anyone has any D&D campaign stories to share, please feel free to leave them in the comments section.
Two years ago I reviewed the first book I read by Ashley Elston titled This is Our Story.. I named it as my favorite book I read in 2017. Ashley Elston can create in-depth, young adult characters and make you sympathize with those characters. When I found out that in November of 2018, she released The Lying Woods, I immediately pushed it to the top of my TBR pile. The Lying Woods isn’t as good as This is Our Story, but it might depend on your book reading preference to determine which book you will enjoy more.
Owen Foster is the stereotypical rich kid: He goes to an elite private school, has gone on amazing trips with his family and basically has a life any kid would dream of. Suddenly, Owen’s mother shows up at his school to inform him that his father stole money from the people who work for his company, Louisiana Frac. Owen is forced to leave his private school and return to his home town where people despise him. Owen’s mother has been receiving death threats as many believe she knows where his father has gone. Where is Owen’s father and why did he steal the money?
The Lying Woods is more of a contemporary young adult story versus a mystery thriller like This is Our Story. Owen was someone I originally couldn’t connect with based on his background and how he viewed his upstate lifestyle. However, once Owen becomes more situated in his small town in Louisiana, I start to feel for him and what he has been going through. My biggest complaint with this book is it took me a little while to truly get into the story. I read This is Our Story in a day where it took me about a week to read The Lying Woods. Although, once I had 150 pages left in The Lying Woods, I did read it all in a day.
I don’t want to spoil this one because I truly believe all of Ashley Elston’s books are worth purchasing and reading through, but if you want to know what happens in the end, I did include spoilers in my good reads review. If we aren’t friends on Goodreads, we should be! I will link my Goodreads profile in this post. I also started following Books on the Book Shelf and they had a nice review of The Lying Woods in case you aren’t convinced about reading it yet. The Lying Woods is a great blend of contemporary young adult fiction and mystery. Ashley Elston’s books make me want to visit Louisiana, so who knows maybe I’ll take a road trip to New Orleans someday.
Did you know Brett Dalton, Hayden Panettiere, and Rami Malek were in a video game? I found this out as I started playing Until Dawn a week ago. I hope if I ever became famous, I could appear in a video game too. Until Dawn is one of my favorite horror games I ever played.
*SPOILERS AHEAD*
Eight teenagers gather at a log cabin mansion owned by Josh’s family (motion captured by Rami Malek). Beth and Hannah, Josh’s twin sisters, run into the storm after a practical joke gone wrong performed by their friends. Beth and Hannah are never seen again. One year later, the same eight teenagers return to the cabin: Josh, Chris, Ashley, Sam (motion captured by Hayden Panettiere) Mike (motion captured by Brett Dalton), Jessica, Emily, and Matt. As you play through the episodes, vicious creatures start to stalk the characters. Additionally, it appears one of the characters is a psychopath who’s also hunting the teenagers. Each of the ten chapters allows you as the player to make decisions regarding the fate of the other characters.
Trophies can be unlocked based on decisions made in the game. For example, I chose to cut off one of the character’s fingers with a hatchet after getting stuck in a trap. This allowed my character to still have a working hatchet and I received a trophy for this decision. Some decisions in the game were easy for me to make, but others I had to deliberate on for much longer.
Until Dawn relies on QTEs (quick time events) meaning pressing buttons in rapid succession to succeed in an event. I accidentally failed this when one character was racing in the woods and I pressed the wrong button on the PlayStation controller. Missing one button led to a character’s death. There are many ways to replay the game as I need to collect all the collectibles, but also want to see how different choices play out differently. I wanted to unlock the trophy where all the characters survive as my first playthrough. Unfortunately, I accidentally killed them all
I have no criticism for Until Dawn and I cannot stop raving about how great this game is. There’s a soft spot in my heart for Ashley and Chris since they both remind me of young, high school love. The graphics in this game were breathtaking as the cabin is based on the top of this mountain with a brutal snowstorm being the backdrop for the teens. Until Dawn is a game you must play if you own a PS4.
Donald Trump tweeted about how global warming must “come back fast” because of the colder temperatures in the Midwest. By cold, I mean it’s -20 degrees with the wind chill making the temperature feel like -50 degrees. Exposed skin can experience frostbite in minutes with hypothermia to follow. It’s dangerous leaving my apartment right now, which means I need to take the necessary precautions in how I dress. The response to Trump’s original tweet shows that we may not fully understand the science behind Global Warming. Global warming is happening even though temperatures are rapidly dropping in other areas.
Image screenshot of Donald Trump’s twitter feed. I took this screenshot myself.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) defines global warming as warming effects caused by heat being trapped in Earth’s atmosphere instead of moving toward space. Normally, heat would escape into space, but instead, certain chemicals cause heat to be trapped on Earth causing temperatures to rise. This is known as the “greenhouse effect.” Carbon Dioxide, Methane, and Nitrous Oxide contribute to the “greenhouse” effect. These chemicals are released by burning fossil fuels, producing waste, and using fertilizer.
At first, one may think who cares? Why does it matter that temperatures are rising on Earth? Let’s discuss the rising sea level. Rising sea levels caused by glaciers melting into the water could potentially sink low sea level cities such as New Orleans or even Miami could be underwater within decades. Besides sea levels, certain areas on Earth can become dry making it more difficult to grow essential crops. Over time, less crops means less overall food supply. Global Warming should scare you, as it does me. Our Earth could be negatively impacted permanently if we don’t change our current path.
Going back to the beginning, why do temperatures get colder if Global Warming is occurring? Towards the North Pole is the Polar Vortex. The Polar Vortex consists of strong winds when spinning to create high and low pressure systems which help give us the weather we have. However, when temperatures rise, the winds will start to meander instead of being isolated in the North Pole which means here in Minnesota, temperatures are way below 0 degrees.
This post isn’t meant to cause a debate because Global Warming is occurring. I’m here to provide education on what may be a confusing phenomenon. Reading Trump’s tweets further reminds me how our science education is lacking. Our Earth is going through a crisis and we need to do something before it’s too late. All of my sources come from NASA’s website
Caraval by Stephanie Garber is my first official book read in 2019. I originally became aware of this book based on Super Space Chick’s book channel. I don’t read a lot of YA (young adult), but I thought the premise sounded intriguing, and I happened to find Caraval on display at my local library. Caraval is spellbinding and it perfectly demonstrates the unbreakable bond between two sisters.
Caraval initially reminds me of Frozen mixed with a psychologically compelling carnival. Scarlett Dragna has become increasingly aware of her awful living situation as she and her younger sister, Donatella [known as Tella], are regularly abused by their father. To escape the abuse, she dreams of attending the faraway carnival known as Caraval. Caraval is a magical game run by Legend, a mysterious man who grants one wish to anyone who wins the game. Eventually, Scarlett meets a sailor who allows her the chance to leave the island she has known all her life while also being able to attend Caraval as the guest of honor.
Unbeknownst to Scarlett, Tella is kidnapped by Legend, and Scarlett is forced to participate in the game to secure her sister. Everyone tells Scarlett to remember that Caraval is just a game, but she becomes intertwined with the performers and doesn’t exactly remember what’s real or what’s become a fantasy. Scarlett needs to be clever enough to rescue Tella otherwise she may be lost or worse, killed.
The first positive comment about the book is the description of Caraval itself. It seems to be this light-hearted, fantasy carnival with a darker twist to it. Scarlett is forced to face her fears and give out her deepest darkest secrets to save her sister. It seems Scarlett often has to question her sanity throughout the book. I couldn’t imagine being in Scarlett’s position having to save a loved one while contemplating what’s actually happening in reality versus what is magic or fiction.
I also felt Scarlett evolved into a completely different character by the end of the game. Before Caraval, she was a scared, shy, and distrustful person due to the abuse inflicted by her father. By the end of the book, she takes numerous risks while also recognizing her feelings for Julian, the sailor. Originally, I wasn’t a fan of Scarlett’s character based on her personality and how she looked down upon her sister for flirting with men. However, Scarlett truly opened herself up and I genuinely started to feel sympathetic toward her experiences in Caraval.
Caraval reminded me of Frozen because of the bond between Scarlett and Tella. Tella reminds me of Anna as she is the outgoing one while Scarlett is similar to Elsa as she is more reserved but extremely protective of her sister. The bond between the Dragna sisters is probably one of the best parts of the book.
Another point I wanted to make is how I wasn’t a huge fan of Scarlett and Julian as a couple. Sure, Julian is attractive as there are many descriptions in the book of the muscles on his back. Although Julian is somewhat shady I’m surprised Scarlett would be willing to trust him so easily. Clearly, he’s hiding something and I wish Scarlett would have questioned him a bit more.
Caraval was a captivating read for me. I became enamored by the Caraval setting along with the character development of Scarlett, the main protagonist of the story. The second book in the series, Legendary was released in May 2018 and the final book Finale will be released in May of 2019. I’m hoping movie rights get picked up for this book as it would make for an amazing movie.
![[Image is a book cover for Caraval by Stephanie Garber. There are red and purple swirls against a black background. There's a glittering star behind the words, Caraval]](https://bizarrebrunette.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/caraval-by-stephanie-garber.jpg?w=968)
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