Every so often we volunteer for a friend at the Dallas Sci-Fi Expos and FanDays. This year, we helped them out with the StarTrek themed show and it was pretty fun.

Since we were working at the show, we really did not have a lot of time to actually go to any of the panels or Q&As with the attending actors. We did get to meet a lot of really awesome people, including Tom Felton! Unfortunately, we couldn't get a picture with him, but alas the memory of it all is pretty nifty.

Who DID we takes pictures with though? Let us show you:





This is Lil' Chewbacca! His owner couldn't make the show so he was taking pictures of all the nifty things and folks he saw. (Like us!)




That's Grego of Bean Pot Toiz. He's cuddly!!




This is artist Matthew Warlick.




And this is another artist, Halo Seraphim! She drew a picture of Lil' Gossamer for us!

And finally, the greatest discovery at the show:




We found Waldo!!!


Links
+ Dallas FanDays
+ Bean Pot Toiz
+ Matthew Warlick
+ Where's Waldo

In Austin, Texas there is an amazing film festival called Fantastic Fest! We didn't go to that. Lil' Gossamer and I headed over to it's videogame offspring known as Fantastic Arcade. We even spoiled ourselves by getting the $60 VIP pass! We regret that decision.

Fantastic Arcade is brand new and still in it's experimental phase. That may have been the main reason why it was so hard to get information on the shows over at the Alamo Drafthouse. We even had to go through an hour-long shuffle act with the volunteers, all who were trying to figure out if we needed a ticket or not to get into the shows. One minute we did, the next we didn't, and then we did after all! The volunteers for the most part were nice. Sadly, we kept dealing with the rude ones who were beyond not helpful. We even missed a panel because we were given bad information.

Over at The Highball, things were different. We made lots of friends like Tien!



Vintage arcade games mixed with unreleased games! There was a private area for badge holders to compete in game tournaments, play some independent games, and kill some zombies. At night, we enjoyed dance parties until closing. It was all so amazing... the first day. By the final day, we've played all the games, beat a few (we totally kicked Shredders butt in the Ninja Turtle game), and already slayed a lifetime worth of zombies.



The $60 we spent were not worth it. If we do go back to Fantastic Arcade, we'll just get a day pass or one of the other cheaper options. Don't get us wrong, we did enjoy ourselves. There was just a lot that could have been improved on. Fantastic Arcade is still growing and we look forward to see what future events have to offer!

Best Stuff We Saw or Played
- Super Meat Boy
- Canabalt
- Alamo Drafthouse campaign map in Left 4 Dead
- Red VS Blue Season 8
- Machinarium

Over at William's Bloody Hell, there is a sweet idea called an Interview Swap. We have been reading William's blog for the past few months are finally decided to take the time and ask him a few questions. Here is what he had to say!
---

Gossamer's Travels (GT): Where is your favorite place in the world?
William the Bloody (WB): I know this is going to sound like a cliche, but right now my favourite place is New Hampshire, my home. I love the mountains, the autumn leaves, the winter snow, the fact that it never really gets TOO hot... I will have to admit that I am not really very well traveled, so that may have some bearing on this answer.

GT: What is one thing you never leave the home without? Why?
WB: My keys? Because then I wouldn't be able to get back in

GT: What is one goal you wish to accomplish?
WB: Oooh, this one is a toughie, innit? There are many "reach for the stars" type of lofty goals I would love to do such as meeting some of my idols or going into space, etc... but realistically? I think I would love to have collected the entire The Cure discography on vinyl. I love music and The Cure is my absolute favourite and there is nothing like hearing their stuff on a record. I'm about half way there!

GT: If you could go on a road trip with any person, dead or alive, who would it be and where would you go?
WB: After considering many dead musicians (Joe Strummer! Ian Curtis!) I do believe traveling with writer Neil Gaiman would be fantastic. I would have him take me on a driving tour of the USA, where we would visit all of the stops in his book American Gods.

GT: What is one thing you wish people knew about you?
WB: I don't know! How about that online, I'm actually very approachable? I may be "goth"-ish, but I'm a pretty friendly guy. I love getting random e-mails from people I don't even know and answering them! I also enjoy drawing, but sometimes don't know what to draw, so people writing requests to me is a very welcome thing! If you write to me, I WILL write back, and if you make a request there is a 90% chance I'll comply out of sheer boredom. Does that count as two things? Oh well.

Thank you so much William for taking the time writing back! If you would you like to read more about William the Bloody (and his rants), check out his site WilliamsBloodyHell.com

Updates William has just updated his site with my interview! Yet another reason why you should read his site. Go now. Like, right now.

And we're not stalking his site... more like, creepily observing it. Oh, that means the same thing doesn't it? So yea, we're stalking his site.

:)

Before websites, Twitter, and Facebook, we have always written our thoughts down in journals and notebooks. To this day, we always have a notebook somewhere within reach.



Top Row, Left to Right:
Flowery Red, Blue, and Cream Journal from Barnes & Nobles: This journal was a gift to Steffie... from Steffie. She thought she deserved something pretty for herself when she turned 23. Right now it is full of random notes purely about books. Whenever she buys or finishes reading a book, she writes notes about it in there. Weird? Yes, but it works for her.

Little Nemo Journals by Eeboo: These are three 5.25 x 7 notebooks with illustrations of Little Nemo in Slumberland. These are used for EVERYTHING. We always have one of these little guys near by. Here's a better look at some of the designs:


We bought the one with the band recently at Half-Priced Books in Round Rock, Texas for only $2.95. We thought it was cute to begin with and thought the art looked vaguely familiar. Once we realized it was Little Nemo, we bought it on the spot. Then we looked online if there were anymore available. There was but for $7.95. Yea, we weren't spending that much. The next day we went to the Half-Priced Book in Austin, Texas (on Palmer) and found the other two. Ever since we've bought them, every note, idea, obscure thought goes into them. The only thing we did not like about them is that they were not lined. We usually don't draw in our journals and rely heavily on lines to keep things neat. We did a find a solution though! We drew our own lines with all the color pencils we could find.



Composition Notebooks: We have roughly 8 of these. These are used for when we start insane projects or for school. Mostly the insane projects.


Union Jack Journal: We got this during our trip in London for a very specific reason. We are quite lazy but also very creative. For our family and friends who want to see the pictures of our trip, we are making a book about it. That way, we don't have to constantly explain all the pictures. It has more personal details than what we allow on this site. Silly things like rude comments about people we didn't like, drawings of events about those people we didn't like, the numbers of all the dudes who hit on Steffie and she said she would call but never did, and drunk pictures of Steffie and Lil' Gossamer in pubs.

Bottom Row, Left to Right:

Butterfly Journal from Barnes & Noble: This was the journal we used while in London. It has notes from classes, badly drawn comics of our adventures, and rants about the tours we were forced to take. The picture below has drawings of horses by all the people in our little Study Abroad group.



Basic 1-Subject Notebooks: We are pretty sure we have over a gazillion of these. We mostly use these for school since they are so cheap. They don't last long and usually fall apart because of all the stuff we put them through.

Big Flowery Journal: We don't really like this journal. It's too big for taking around and a bit awkward to write in sometimes. Right now it is mostly filled with obscure NaNoWriMo ideas.

It is safe to say we have a bit of a notebook/journal obsession.

:)