Emerald City Comic Con 2017 Part 1

The very next day after arriving home from the Life the Universe and Everything Literary conference, I had a big event for my Cub Scouts. It was the Blue and Gold banquet, and the theme was scouting around the world. I took charge of getting people to do things, because I knew more about cultures than anyone else.

At the previous big meeting I had parents sign up, and told kids about their culture. For a month I answered questions and gave out random recipes I knew. The truth be told, I chose out the cultures based on food I liked. I didn’t want it to be all European cultures, so I chose one from every continent. Africa was the hardest since that is honestly not my strongest place of knowledge. I chose Niger because of the legends handed down in the area.

It was pretty amazing. I had all sorts of food I loved combined into one big meeting. The preparation was interesting as well. I made sure they knew both I and the other scout leaders could answer questions, and were happy to give recipes.

One family printed out a wikipedia page, and then found out they had an oral presentation. I made sure to let them know some cool stuff to look up while we were setting up chairs. The food was authentic, if a little off for some reason.

Another one had Argentina, and the food was great, and even the small set up for it. The oral presentation was about Lionel Messi, who is a great guy, but not really what I wanted. They served a recipe I gave them, and it was tasty.

The scout who chose Japan didn’t show up. Which is sad since they said they had a ton of cool Japanese stuff.

Germany was fairly boring, but it went alright. Honestly, all I asked from that family was to not serve up German’s Chocolate Cake with coconut frosting. We have so many delicious cakes, and yet everyone in the US thinks the Chocolate company German’s made the only one. It wasn’t, so I was happy.

Niger was simply amazing. The scout’s Mom is an African History professor at Eastern Washington University. The map and presentation was this text book style talk about the modern culture and influence of Niger. Needless to say the little nine year old trying to read it had some problems.

I ended up doing the oral presentation for the Navajo Nation. The scout had double booked, and couldn’t be there in time. The family gave us what he had written out, and let me talk about it. It was fun to talk about Spiderwoman, the Adventure Twins, and how scouting is different on a reservation from the rest of the US. Technically it’s the same, but culturally they change a lot. They dropped off Fry Bread, and no one thought to add Dulce de Leche -an Argentine treat- to it.

But I was blown away by the presentation on Hawaii. Like reservations they are technically under the same system, but end up using it differently. The aquatics patches are earned a lot faster for some reason. Also, I wanted to do a Pacific Island, and they are all pretty confusing. I wanted some musubi, so I chose my old home.

They had Lichey powder, and various fruits. And then, we danced the Huki Lau and were told the story of the Shaka. Since that was my part of O’ahu, I may have cried with joy. Most of the boys and men stood next to me, since I knew how to do the man side of the Hula. Most people don’t know men are part of the hula tradition, and it shows even on the islands. It was wonderful to sing and dance that I couldn’t stop smiling.

As we closed things up, I gave one of my scouts his Arrow of Light, and then sent him on the path of Boy Scouts. His Mom has been a leader in Cub Scouts in one way or another for years, and his brother was a lot of fun.

As we took things down, the African History professor told me all sorts fo amazing things. Like I said, African history is not my strong suit, but I want to make up for that. It turns out there was an entire city in the West, and it even Egypt and other greats copied it. I was so caught up by the conversation, I didn’t put a lot of chairs away. She promised me to let me have a few books from her office, but I am busy with a few others before I borrow them.

It was an amazing night, and I admit to singing the Hukilau song for the rest of the week. If I were to be honest, this may be my last few months as a scout leader. I thought of the culture night as a way to remember it all. A nice goodbye, not my final one. That’s the upcoming village with zombies and hand built everything. But culture night made me realize how much I would miss all those fun nights with scouts.

I spent a week trying to relax, and let LTUE stress go. It wasn’t a stressful event, but convention mode has a way of knocking me out. Since I only eat one meal a day, and barely get any sleep, the return to normal means a bodily drop as well.

I spent a week going to work, even though I should have taken a day off, or done something to relax. My body continued to act ready to drop, and made me sick the entire time. I couldn’t stop though, because this work was paying for the Emerald City Comic Con trip. I kept going, and hoping everything would work out.

There was another scouts, and they had to design their own tent. A specific pole couldn’t be found, so we used a rake I had found in my garage. The scouts designed, and built it on their own. They had to use rope, tarp, and the knots I taught them to build it. I was really amazed at how well they did.

Wednesday, a week after I got home, I drove to Seattle. To be honest, I was so nervous from the illness and money worries I nearly didn’t. As I drove around, trying to think of something else to do, I felt a calm feeling. Something inside me said I had enough, and the trip would be fine.

The biggest worry was the mountain pass. There was snow everywhere, and I was worried about sliding. Luckily I was heading out during the day, so the weather wasn’t that bad. My favorite spot was now a frozen lake with pine trees sticking out on an island in the middle.

I drove to my old parking spot near the convention center. They had cleared it from the homeless people there, and even put up a fence. It was weird to see, since so many had slept there before. It became a theme for me as I wandered the city for the rest of the week.

My dress was more for travel than the slightly cool feeling of Seattle. One guy commented on how it was a little early for shorts and slippers. The trees, and plants were starting to show signs of spring. This really hadn’t happened in Spokane yet.

As it turned out, I had arrived a little too late for set up. They had everything ready. I just needed to place things, and check out what we had. There were some final things needing to be done, but the tools were not on hand to use them. After a bit, I drove off into traffic for Bremerton.

Traffic was pretty dull. Luckily I had music, and thoughts to tide the time. It didn’t clear up until after Tacoma, so that should give you an idea of the dullness.

At my friend Adam’s place, I was somewhat hungry, and tired. It had been a long trip, and traffic did not help with it. Adam told me about places to try, and I didn’t know how to respond. Then he offered to cook burgers with his awesome grill.

The patties were frozen solid, so he tried smashing them onto a cutting board. The patties were fine, but the board shattered. He laughed his head off, and was so impressed he couldn’t be angry. The grill was amazing, and designed for a nice even flame with good charcoal. While waiting for the grill to cook, we worked to get the futon down from the upstairs. Actually, we began before that, and continued to work on it. Neither of us could figure out how his girlfriend got it upstairs in the first place.

The answer was to sit it down on the side, and slowly turn it around. I had to move shelves so there was a clear path. We also watched TV, but I honestly can’t remember what was on. Sports of some kind I believe. Honestly, my mind was preparing for the convention the next day, and the burger I was eating.

We ended up playing Mickey’s Ultimate Adventure. It is a well animated game, with cool effects, and a play time of about 20 minutes. The entire game is puzzles, and once you know how to do the puzzles, it becomes easy. Even the hardest difficulty doesn’t add a lot of time to the play. However, the game was made for kids, and it would have lasted a lot longer for them.

After that was playing some other mickey mouse games on the Genesis and Super Nintendo. We debated about which version of a game was better, and how it worked out. Also, Aladdin was played for a little bit. With all of the games in the same place I was sleeping, I really wished I could record some of them so then I could make some analysis videos.

I chose out some games for the morning, and went to sleep.

The next day, I woke up, and played some Actraiser, and then Secret of Mana. Since SoM is a long RPG, I didn’t play much of it. There was a lot of interesting mechanics to it, and I wished I could spend a lot more time getting into it.

Actraiser has been a game I have wanted to play since it came out. I decided to try out the save on the game, to figure out the controls a little bit. I wasn’t the greatest, but also was only playing the final level.

A little while later, Adam told me I could just go to the start of the game, and play from there. Since I missed the ferry, I had some time to try it out. I also had to start thinking about how things timed. It wasn’t going to be a quick jump over to the ferry, I had to find a parking place, and then go to the ferry terminal on time.

While getting ready, I realized it wasn’t enough time, so I stayed to play more Actraiser. I think that should give you an idea of how well the game plays. You play a god, and work to stop the demons attacking an area. At first it is a sidescrolling jump and slash. Castlevania has better controls, but it is still a fun game. After that it is a shooter and city simulator game that lets you build up the area as you fight off airborn monsters. When the floating monster areas are destroyed, you get to go into another side scrolling level.

I honestly thought I had time to get some popeyes chicken before I hit the ferry, but when I was in the parking lot, something told me to get back into the car. After that was a lot of maneuvering to get from popeyes, to the ferry. Traffic was heavy, and even trying to take a left was hard. I had to take a right, get into the center lane, and then get out because someone else was entering. After that was going into another parking lot, turning around, and taking the right turn. I couldn’t find parking in the spot I liked, but there was a place a little further out.

It was a lot of fast walking, but I made it to the ferry on time, and was headed over to Seattle. I spent my time reading, and trying to catch up on various things. There were short stories written, and ideas to think about.

As soon as we arrived, I got off and walked as hard as I could to the convention center. Honestly, because of lights and other things, I could have walked slowly and gotten there at the same time as others. I know this, because some convention goers kept catching back up with me.

At the  convention center, I was so tired, I took the elevator. The level i was on, didn’t require badges, but every where else did. It was odd being someone working at the convention, but not having a badge.

The arcade already had one machine broken, and there had been a line at the door before it opened. People were constantly coming in, and being amazed. It was an easy sell to give out fliers for the arcade show. If someone was smiling, or taking a long time in the arcade, I got their attention, and handed them a flier.

My legs hurt from the walk, so I didn’t really go out too much. However, I would walk around the arcade, and hand out fliers to folks right after they played a game. The lulls were something like one game was open, while there were lines at the others. The high peak periods were when there was more people than room to move.

A big problem with the entire thing was my phone has been dying. I took pictures, but honestly, it died about halfway through the work. I had to ask people to send me photos of the cool stuff. In other words, there wasn’t a lot of cosplay pics.

The big worry that day was getting to the show floor, and finding an artist. At LTUE, I was told in the comics panel that Emerald City Comic Con was perfect for someone who needed good but new artists for projects. Well established artists can charge a lot, and I don’t have a lot of money. However, new artists charge prices that I can afford. I am a new writer, and they are new artists. There is nothing wrong with the abilities, just how well established they are.

The walk through the show floor was busy, and honestly I couldn’t tell heads from tails. Dark Horse had some comics I wanted to buy, but I decided to hold off until I knew I had money for it. Marvel and DC were not very present, or at least I didn’t really notice them.

An entire floor of the show was dedicated to artists showing off their wares. There was hundreds of them, and I had no idea who was what, or how I should go about asking them. I couldn’t see prices, or even figure out which style was correct for me. Like the comics at Dark Horse, I decided to come back later.

After that was lunch. There is a great subway near pike street market that is rarely super busy. I enjoy it for that reason alone. There is wifi, and some other amenities, plus a nice deal on the food. The one weird part about it, is that I forget how to speak spanish. The workers tend to be hispanic, and its great to finally speak the language again, and yet its not there enough for me to really communicate. I said thanks, and tried to say other stuff, but it wasn’t coming out.

Polyglots are well aware of how cool it sounds that they can understand so many languages. They also know how often they can communicate in those languages. Sometimes, it simply isn’t there, and it is frustrating. I knew what they were saying, but couldn’t figure out how to respond.

After the meal, I went back to the arcade. The most interesting cosplay was the couple in caveman clothes. I convinced them to go inside, and took a picture of them with someone else’s camera. I think it was worth it.

At the table, someone brought a really nice looking salad. Nothing in it was something I am allergic to. When I asked where he got it, he told me about a salad place in the convention center. First off, there are now salad fast food places in Seattle. Let that sink in. Second, it seemed cheap enough I could have some when I got the chance. So a cheap salad that I wasn’t allergic to, with plenty of protein -peanut butter and chicken- to keep me awake.

I found out some history about the arcade at ECCC. It seems the guy with the salad had friends with both the NorthWest Pinball and Arcade Show, and the Emerald City Comic Con. He talked to each one, and got a small arcade set up for the ECCC show. This was before either had really grown into what they are now.

When I went to my first show, I was amazed at how well organized things were. Honestly, I thought the hotel was the entire convention. Then I went to the Convention Center, and saw the massive amount of people going in. The arcade has become part of the show, and people look forward to it every year. I’ve had kids run in, and talk to their -usually- Dad about last year’s arcade. They looked forward to it, and were happy to hear about the upcoming shows.

A lady walked up to me. She was wearing a big swoopy dress, like a celtic wizard would have on them as they summoned the oracle of the dragon. Her graying hair was set up with small sparkles around her head. And she looked at me like an old friend.

Sadly, I wasn’t who she thought I was. Even now, as I write these notes, I worry that I somehow forgot her, and missed out on an opportunity to hang out with someone. It took a moment to explain to her, and honestly I was getting tired, so it may have come out badly, that I was not he. I do hope to hang out with her sometime though, simply because she looked like a nice person.

There was also a guy who was on the collectors network. He made his own arcade machine. He bought wood, the needed parts, and wiring, and even the saws and other tools to make his own thing. It was a cool conversation, and he promised to come back with pictures.

After chatting with folks, I honestly felt tired and decided to head back. Seattle is a hill next to the Puget Sound. This means going from the convention center to the docks is much easier than the other direction. I walked the streets, and enjoyed myself.

At the ferry station, we had a show going on the floor. A man was standing at the center talking to someone on the phone. There was no phone. As far as I could tell, there was no blue tooth device either. He was perfectly mimicking a conversation, though it was kind of crude and full of cusswords.

He talked about sexual acts, and then was scared to admit it to a mutual friend.

At the ticket counter, I had to correct myself, because I was headed to Bremerton, not Seattle.

Then he went on about how it was unfair how this mutual friend had acted.

I tried to find a spot away from the show. It was near the gate, and I hoped it wouldn’t be too long. It turned out I had missed the boat, and had some time. As I checked my phone, it turned itself off. This was weird, since it had tons of battery left.

His Dad was a real bad dude, who wanted nothing to do with him. Man, why does his Dad hate him so much.

I plugged my phone in, which was near the guy. The phone took a minute, but turned back on. Then it showed the battery life was still at 45%. If I tried to unplug, the battery died.

He started to laugh about the time the two of them were hanging out and the cat started climbing the wall. Man that was hilarious, nobody would have believed them if there wasn’t two people there.

I thought maybe a good drink would be nice. There was a Taco Del Mar at the station, so I asked for some soda. The guy seemed reluctant to give any to me. He gave me a cup, but didn’t charge. I tried to figure out what was going on, but was honestly too tired to realize what he was trying to imply until after I began drinking the soda. It was bad. There was soot or something in it.

He wondered why the world has been so hard on him. His own Dad sent him to prison, now he’s standing here, chatting with a friend, while homeless and going crazy. He didn’t know what would happen next. Then his friend started to give him advice, and he nodded, and said uh huh. It really did look like he was chatting with someone.

A guy sat next to me, and started shaking his head. This was weird to watch. I explained it’s called mimic behaviour. He doesn’t know why people talk this way, he just knows they do. So, he is trying to match the world by acting this way. We all use this behavior to learn things, but some people don’t have the ability to recognize things correctly, and thus end up looking like this. Either that, or he really is one of the best actors in the world.

The call for the ferry was sounded, and I walked over to the gate. It has a card reader thing, and for some reason wouldn’t let me pass. Someone had to explain only a few people could pass first, and they were waiting for the passengers to disembark. I thought this was weird, because I had done this before, and not had the problem.

Eventually I saw the gates, and realized the ferry was arriving at a different spot. Thus the line was different for everyone. I had mimicked what had happened before, and was wrong.

The trip back was me charging my phone, and trying to figure out what to do with myself. I was honestly a little too tired, and worried it may affect how I drive back. But it didn’t matter too much, because I had found a good place to park, for cheap. I also knew if I arrived at an early time, there would be an opening at a spot I hoped would be better.

Driving back, I wondered if I would get a chance to hang out at the arcade near the ferry. It has enticed me a few times, but at the moment, I was a little too tired and cold to care. It was a dull drive, but not a bad one.

At my buddy’s place, we played Mickey Mania for the SNES and Genesis. I said the graphics were better on the SNES, but my buddy said it seemed easier to figure out on the Genesis. There was a lot of tricks for the effects, and the Genesis did seem to have a few more animations ready to go. However, whole parts of the SNES game were not in the Genesis version. I wanted to do a video comparison, and talk about how they figured out these tricks.

We also chatted about the autographed book from PRGE may have been a big thing. One of the writers who put his signature on has decided not to do public appearances anymore for health reasons.

After a bit, he went to bed.