Tag: geek

Emerald City Comicon 2026

Carl Setzer1 Comment

I went to Emerald City Comicon on Friday, March 6. I’ve been meaning to go for decades. There’s always something, some reason, some conflict. I finally felt compelled to go. It helped that I’d talked with several other folks, so had accountability partners, including my wife. I’m so glad I did. It was an awesome experience. Below are just a few thoughts on finally going.

Man, the cosplay! I love the passion of cosplayers. The artistry was so impressive. Understanding SO many references mad me feel that I was amongst “my people”. Recognizing so many characters and knowing their key lines made me able to validate others. Understanding the references just made it that much more wonderful for me. Valuing the same things is just so lovely.

Another thing I adored: the inclusivity. The boldly open affirmation of the LGBTQIA+ community delighted me, as did the way they embrace neurodiversity. Things like quiet rooms made the space safe.

The immensity, the scale of it all. My goodness, there was so much going on. So much space in use. So many people. It was perfect. All the vendors, and all the cool stuff was great, too. Floors of stuff.

I opted not to photograph much. Mostly just a few things that caught my eye. Nothing to share. It felt rather like a rather invasive thing to do. I’m probably overthinking that, but I REALLY wanted to be respectful. Maybe next year I’ll be more deliberate about photography.

My wife loves it as much as I did. She’s insisting that we go the full week next year. I’ll see if I can break away that long in 2027. And, who knows, maybe I’ll need to expand out to other cons.

Did any of you go? Or have you gone to a different Comicon? What did you think? What was your favorite part.

A quick note and a blog post recommendation

Carl Setzer

I’ve been following Mr. Wheaton ever since he launched his blog (dear God, I think it was the late 90s!}. Through all kinds of changes, I’ve read the posts, felt the stories. But this one is special.

seven mary three come back

I love hearing stories about childhood heroes living up to their legends. If you’re of my vintage, it features John and Ponch. Which makes it *chef’s*

So, my friends, enjoy this charming piece.

Some Podcast Fun For Your Listening Pleasure!

Carl Setzer
greyscale photography of condenser microphone

I’ve long been a fan of Wil Wheaton. So it was pretty delightful to get the email (that’s how I consume most of my blog posts right now) letting me/us know that he was on the Katee Sackhoff podcast. Which got a “wait, what!?! Katee Sackhoff has a podcast? Man, it really bugs me that I missed that. However, I don’t really follow her, so I guess I can excuse myself. I have fixed that, though, by subscribing.

Now, I’ve been aware of Katee for years. I remember back in 2003 the launch of the new Battlestar Galactica, and the furor/uproar/noise about Starbuck being a woman! In my circle of geeky friends, I seemed to be one of the few unbothered at all by that. Mostly, I like to see what the creators create. I really liked this Starbuck! I thought she was an amazing, dynamic, complex, and interesting character. (*Sidenote: in hindsight, the character that should’ve caused the most consternation was Commander Adama, who was NOT even close to the Lorne Greene character.) And I love the character Bo Katan from Clone Wars and The Mandalorian.

I thought she did an amazing job as host. Guiding the discussion just enough to keep things moving (Wil did a nice job as a guest, too) without tripping over her guest. They clearly value each other, treat each other with grace and respect. It was just so delightful.

Wil was on to promote his new podcast “It’s Storytime with Wil Wheaton“. Now, I need to confess that I haven’t listened to any episodes yet. Que a whiny “there’s so much content…” bit. I had every intention of changing that state. However, I feel the need to move the timeline up on that. Yeah, the reason I pushed this podcast to “I need to listen to this…today…” was simply having two people who I value together. Those sorts of alignments need to be celebrated.

I’ll post when I’ve given Mr. Wheaton’s project a listen. Hey, let me know: have you listened yet? What do you think?

Geekiness

Carl Setzer

I think it’s a high level of geekiness to know the difference between Linus from Peanuts, Linus Pauling, and Linus Torvalds. But that’s just me, I guess.

Grace Hopper, Lord of Cobol

Carl Setzer

Grace Hopper, Lord of Cobol
Grace Hopper, Lord of Cobol

I’m a fan of Dr. Admiral Hopper. Funny, with all my years of enjoying Battlestar Galactica and Dr. Hopper, I’m surprised that I never connected “Cobol”, Dr. Hopper and the Lords of Cobol.

So, here’s a bit of fun whipped out in Photoshop.

Below is a brief history of Cobol. A critically important programming language.

A Star Wars Fan Montage You Need To See

Carl Setzer
Star Wars Logo

As a long time fan of Star Wars, I delight in my discovery of this video. A fan montage, it really does a great job of taking the “The greatest teacher failure is” phrase of Yoda’s and reinforce it well. It really adds some interesting insights into The Last Jedi.

I appreciate considering the importance of failure, not only in the lives of fictional characters but also in ours.

Politics, The Death Star, And The Place Of Memes

Carl Setzer

Saw this thread today:

My mind immediately pictured the scene in A New Hope where Obi-Wan senses the destruction of Alderaan. Doesn’t seem like a positive message about a candidate to me. Anyway, I whipped out this meme in response.

Obi-Wan & Alderaan
Obi-Wan & Alderaan

A little cheesy and amateurish, but thought “what the hell”. I might regret it as there possibly will be an explosion of crankiness. Or maybe not. Might be one person who likes it and it fades into oblivion. In the end, I thought this silly little meme sums up my feelings succinctly.

May the Force be with you All.

A Behind The Scenes Look At The Clone Wars: The Phantom Apprentice

Carl Setzer

I have really enjoyed the final season of Star Wars: Clone Wars. The animation is amazing, and the stories, well, for me at least, perfect. I’ve reconnected with the characters enough that it’s going to hurt when Order 66 goes down.

Last week’s episode, The Phantom Apprentice, was powerful. Part of that was bringing back Ray Park, who performed Maul in the Phantom Menance, and an exceptional martial artist. The team used motion capture to create this dynamic, engaging piece of film (can I call it film if it’s only digital?).

Below is a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the episode. Well worth watching if you’re fascinated by the production of movies and tv.

The Clone Wars Season 7 Trailer And Breakdown

Carl Setzer

I’ve been eagerly waiting the final season of Clone Wars, and this trailer gives my soul what it needs.

February 21 will a fine day, indeed.

The Matrix 4? Some Thoughts From A Geek

Carl Setzer

Ok, so in geek circles, this is one of the biggest bits of news in ages. Perhaps only dwarfed by Spiderman getting removed from the MCU. Perhaps I’ll touch on that later.

Anyway, there are several things I want to unpack. However, if you’re not up-to-date on this turn, give Looper’s look at this 4 minutes of your time.

So, that being said, and with a dearth of plot details, here’s what I have to say.

First, as Neo and Trinity both die in Matrix: Revolutions and there is a solid messianic theme to the series, I wonder if they we’ll take on the Christian concept of resurrection. I’m not too sure how else to handle this. I have seen (and it’s mentioned in Looper’s video) that there’s some talk of a younger actor playing Morpheus. I don’t see how they’d play that out with the contemporarily aged Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss. I guess we could play out some time-travel thing, but that could be too much of a stretch.

Personally, I’d like to see some deeper exploration of the Merovingian and Persephone, the Key Maker, and the residents of Zion. But especially the Merovingian and Persephone. There’s so much laden within there. Persephone, kidnapped daughter of Demeter, harbinger of spring. Merovingian, the name of a ruling family of 5th to 7th century Franks. And, for characters like this, the name meaning tells us a great deal.

So, what do you hope/wish this movie will cover? Or do you wish the whole thing would be done? Let me know!