Fangirl fangirling

Friday night I got the opportunity to meet one of my fangirl icons, Ashley Eckstein. Ashley is the voice of Ahsoka Tano on Star Wars: Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels. Now, Ahsoka is my favorite Star Wars character, but Ashley is also a hero of mine outside of Star Wars as well. She founded the geek fashion company Her Universe which makes fangirl fashions inspired by Star Wars, Disney, Star Trek, Marvel, Doctor Who and Studio Ghibli. They started with Star Wars t-shirts and dresses for women and girls, but the brand has grown exponentially since then and now includes items for guys as well as well as make up! I just picked up the Her Universe Infinity Gauntlet inspired make up palette and Infinity Stone lip gloss set, which I will have full swatches and a review of later this week.

We snuck a quick selfie with Ashley, excuse my face.

Ashley was in town to promote her new book "It's Your Universe" from Disney Press. The book is part memoir, part manual and part journal. I haven't finished it yet, as I just picked it up at the signing since you could get an exclusive Ahsoka enamel pin. I'm about half-way through and I already love this book. It's written at a level that would make it perfect for any in their early teens and up. Ashley's authorial voice is approachable and friendly, and I can't help hearing her voice in my head as I read it.
The illustrations are also beautifully done by Ashley's close friend and collaborator Ashley Taylor; who works for Disney as an illustrator and designer and has previously worked with Her Universe on their Disneyland and Studio Ghibli collections. Taylor was also there to share her story and discuss the book and was a joy to talk to. Meeting both Ashleys was a wonderful experience, they were warm and kind and took time to talk to everyone who came to see them, which was about 130 people. Star Wars Oregon was also there to provide an honor guard if you will, including a Darth Vader, and full-size Chewbacca. It was an experience that I will never forget.

I was really excited to meet Chewie!

I will probably post a full review of "It's Your Universe" once I have had a chance to finish it. But so far I would definitely recommend it as a graduation present (its that time of year), a gift to any younger person in your life, or as a treat-yo'self gift for when you could use a little cheering on from a friendly voice.

If you're not familiar with Her Universe, here's a link to their website but their designs are also available at Hot Topic, Torrid, Box Lunch and Think Geek.

Ashley, if you're reading this, thank you so much for Ahsoka, for being so kind to all your fans and for giving fangirls like me a way to show off our love for our favorite  things.

Ermahnerd Strikes Back!

Hello Everyone! I'm back. After a long hiatus I'm going to be relaunching my blog. You can expect (hopefully) more regular updates from me focusing on geek fashion, reviews and maybe a few DIYs. I've got big plans and I hope you'll give me another shot. You can also keep up with me on my social media which are linked on the side.
I will not be doing monthly Loot Crate unboxing anymore. A little over a year ago I stopped receiving Loot Crates, I felt like A) I have more than enough t-shirts so the monthly shirts were stacking up and B) I wasn't really getting the value for my money. I had a drawer of loot that I wasn't doing anything with as a lot of what I was receiving was tchotchkes I wasn't really displaying. I do still get a few of the more specialized boxes. Coming up I will be receiving the Wizarding World Harry Potter box from Loot Crate and will be posting a review probably mid-to-late May.
Tomorrow I will be seeing Avengers: Infinity War so I should have a review posted tomorrow or Monday. I'm also planning a review of the HerUniverse Infinity War makeup line from Hot Topic in the next few days so stay tooned for that as well. I want to showcase products that I love from companies I admire.
Anyway, thanks so much for visiting. I hope you'll come with me on this new journey.

Loot Crate's Heroes Part Deux

This month Loot Crate revisited its Heroes theme, which has probably been my favorite crate thus far. Heroes 2 was DC comics heavy with a Batman figure and a Wonderwoman poster. It also featured a great exclusive hardcover edition of Regrettable Superheroes. To me, this box was a mixed bag. I loved some of the pieces and was totally ambivalent toward others. The big item this month was an adorable classic Batman statue from Quantum Mechanix. 

The speech bubble on the base has a tiny dry-erase board so you can write your own sound effects. The book Regrettable Superheroes is a compendium of the worst heroes ever to make it to print. A lot of them are ridiculous, some are gross, or stupid, and most of them are just super lame. I had a lot of fun with it and I definitely lol'd over a few of the particularly bad ones.

One of my favorite pieces though was the awesome Wonder Woman pin-up poster. I'm not a big fan of DC heroes in general but I've got a soft spot for Wonder Women and the vintage, Rosie the Riveter feel makes it that much better. This poster will definitely end up on my wall. Two symbols of female empowerment? Yes please.

On the fail side, there was a Batarang multi-tool (read bottle opener), Legend of Zelda sweatband and Spock hand car air freshener. After over a year of crates I have three air fresheners and three sweatbands. I'm kind of an indoor kid, I really don't have call for sweatbands, and Guy Fieri is not one of my style icons. Know what I'm saying?

Overall, I'm going to say a solid B on this crate. The small things felt a bit like filler, but the big things were a big hit. Another note, Loot Crate has now started to offer the "Level Up" service. There are different ways in which you can level up your basic crate be adding a premium item like an accessory (scarf, bracelet, etc), pairs of socks or a wearable (shirt).
For more information visit Loot Crate here

Catch up post, let's not lie.

So it's been a rough month-ish for  me blogging-wise. I'll start by apologizing profusely and begging your forgiveness, gentle reader. I started a new job out in the real world which is a huge opportunity that I'm really excited about but it's been a big adjustment schedule-wise. I spend a lot of time in the car now and I have less break time during the day, so keeping up with internet awesome-ness is a bit harder.

I have been hitting up the movies and hopefully tomorrow I'll have a summer movie post covering Jurassic World, Minions and Inside Out. It's been an interesting movie season this summer. I was surprised as how much I liked Jurassic World, in spite of its glaring problem, but I think it had a lot to with nostalgia. I found out I still have my raptor toy from the first one! Inside Out was deep and I cried a lot but not overall as enjoyable as I'd hoped. Minions was a bit of a disappointment and the amount of merchandising and advertising that's gone into its campaign is beyond ridiculous.

In gaming news, I'm deep into my second play though of Dragon Age Inquisition working on leveling up to play Jaws of Haakon and trying to 100% the shards. Also trying to get into Witcher 3 and Lego Jurassic World on 3DS. It's been a while since I played a game on the DS and it's kind of a refreshing change, plus the portability is nice in the summer. Lego games are always so cleverly done and adorable. I thoroughly enjoyed their Star Wars, Marvel Heroes and Indiana Jones games. They are fun to play alone, with somebody else and are family-appropriate, which is nice. An all ages game is great to have in case of family gatherings, ask me how I know.

Other latest obsessions include being ridiculously jealous of friends who attended SDCC last weekend and trying to live vicariously through their Twitter and Instagram posts. In the meantime my cosplay is coming along for Rose City Comic-Con in September. I'm contemplating a few work in progress posts along the way but we'll see. Its been a great reading summer. I finally got around to reading Ready Player One and loved and followed it up with Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell. I can heartily recommend both. Also, totally obsessed with Poldark on PBS. The title character Ross Poldark, played by the swoon-worthy Aiden Turner of The Hobbit (I describe him as the sexy dwarf) and BBC's Being Human, is the broody, swashbuckling hero period drama geeks like me adore. He's like Mr. Darcy meets Will Turner *sigh.* I threw myself down the rabbit hole on this one guys and I'm not even a little bit sorry.

Hopefully there will be more regular posts to follow. I've got lots of thoughts and we've got ground to make up. There's also a Lootcrate due next week so look out for that review. Note to the crate fans, I did not manage to get a Comic Con box so there will be no review on that one. *muffled sobbing*

Unite! LootCrate pays homage to the team. (spoilers)

May's Loot Crate was all about teams. This month's crate focused on pop culture's favorite squads from the Avengers to the Power Rangers to the Justice league. Although heavy preferential treatment goes to Marvel on this one, just saying.
The big prize this month is a t-shirt featuring the green/white power ranger. In addition to being super soft and comfy, the design is just plain cool. Out of all the crate shirts I've gotten, this one is probably my favorite. Besides Tommy was always my favorite Power Ranger. He had that long hair and the bad-boy attitude. *Sigh*

With the Avengers: Age of Ultron out this month, May's crate also included a trio of Marvel/Avengers items. First up was a Marvel ice cube tray which makes ice cubes in the shape of Captain America's shield, Iron Man's face, Hulk's fist, and Thing's face. It is also made out of silicone which makes it an ideal mold for soaps, chocolate's or anything else crafty geeks could come up with.
Also included in the Marvel loot was a pair of shoelaces (I got the stealth ones: grey and black) and an Avengers decal in all white. The decal was super cool and nice quality.

Among other crate perks there was an exclusive variant cover of Bravest Warriors #1. Normally this wouldn't be a comic that I would pick up, but the art style is adorable and its definitely worth a read.  There was also a Loot Crate edition Mad Magazine which was meh. I never really read Mad as a kid so there's no nostalgia there, just shitty 7th grade jokes. The Rick and Morty puzzle was fun, because really when was the last time you did a puzzle? Yeah, me too. Last was a set of Team Fortress 2 pins which I totally adore because there's a Balloonicorn pin and a sandvich pin. DC got short shrift this month as the only reference to the Justice League was in one of the unite pin options. The pin either featured Batman shaking hands with Superman or Iron Man shaking hands with Captain America. (I got the Marvel one)

Overall top marks for May's crate mostly because the t-shirt and the Marvel stuff. I'm really a fan of the things that are more practical like the ice cube tray and the shoelaces and my problem with some previous crates was the profusion of stuff that was just for fun (like the Monopoly-esque Firefly universe money) but was destined to be taking up space on my desk.
To find out more information on past crates, subscriptions and to sign up visit Loot Crate.

The land of tomorrow (no spoilers)

On the surface, Disney's Tomorrowland seems like little more than a cash-grab, capitalizing on the theme from another part of the Disney parks as inspiration. The thought worked with the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise but failed miserably with other films. Remember Haunted Mansion and The Country Bears? Yeah me neither.  I was interested enough to see which side of the fence Tomorrowland fell on that I was willing to sacrifice a few hours to it. It was more than that. Tomorrowland is an entertaining and hopeful movie with a strong message. The advertisements for the movie are cryptic enough that there weren't many expectations going into it, which is a refreshing change from most films these days where you've seen a good percentage of the movie before stepping into the theatre. 

Let me start by saying that Britt Robertson and Raffey Cassidy are the future. They are the two female leads and own a majority of the screen time. Both are expressive, endearing and capable actresses who I'm confident we will be seeing a lot more of in the coming years. Robertson plays Casey Newton, a teenage girl looking to make a difference in the world. Casey is being raised by her NASA engineer father who encourages her to ask questions and dream big. Cassidy is Athena, the android resident of Tomorrowland, who recruits Casey to save the future of our world when the residents of the futuristic utopia have failed. The two have a good chemistry and it is nice to see some more strong, young female characters. Assisting Casey on her journey is Frank Walker, played by George Clooney, a man who has been expelled from Tomorrowland and has lost the enthusiasm for science and inventing that he once had. It is up to Casey to bring the magic back for him and for all of Tomorrowland by reminding them that the future can be anything you want it to be, while it is villian Hugh Laurie's job to stop them.

There is a definite overarching message to the movie. Things are in a bad way in the world right now and all we're doing is accepting them as immutable realities. The movie's answer is to dream big and strive to make a difference, that whatever it is that you do, you should try your hardest to do it well and see what happens. Also science is cool. The whole film has a Wall-E-esque vibe to it and the message seemed hardly lost on the audience. But that's ok too. The film has a clear vision and its nice to see it follow through.

I would have liked to see more of Tomorrowland itself as it was a brilliantly animated and picturesque blending today's modern sleekness so popular in Apple products with the kitschy space-era 60s futurism that Disneyland's Tomorrowland is so famous for. Its definitely the carrot on the string for Casey but it would've been nice to linger there a little longer at some point. Maybe on the Blu-Ray? 

All in all its a fun, feel-good movie with tons of Disney nostalgia. Even if the message is a delivered a little less than subtly and the pacing is a bit off, it is beautifully animated and well-acted and that in itself is worth spending a rainy Saturday on.

Happy 20th Bioware! Thanks for the feels

Today marks the 20th anniversary of my all-time favorite game company. I'm not sure how I'm going to put everything I feel about them into words but I though I should at least give it a shot. Now I want to start by saying I'm not an OG, I didn't play Baldur's Gate on the PC back when or even KOTOR when it first came out. Mass Effect was my entree into the world of Bioware games and the weight of that game hit me like a ton of bricks. After spending several hours wandering around the Citidel I was hooked. There was so much more to see than any game I'd ever played. I'd never played a game where I could spend that much time, never accomplish anything and come away feeling totally satisfied. I was totally floored at how much work went into the game and the world and the characters. I was pretty used to linear shooters or licensed games where I felt like most of the world building was done by tie-in media or easter-egg seekers in internet forums. I felt like I was meeting real people and developing friendships. My Shepard was everything I wished I could be, hoped maybe one day I would be, everything I was too scared to be in real life. She was brave, honest, pragmatic, and open minded. When Kaidan thought he lost her, I thought I lost her too. One look at his face and I burst into tears. I'd never cried over a video game before. I don't really cry over movies much even but that moment got to me. I found out what it was like to be hit with feels. All the feels. I found out what it was to be a fangirl. I got into fanart and fanfic and I felt less lonely in liking something than I ever had before. Shepard helped me find parts of my personality I couldn't express before. I moved and the Normandy moved with me. When I was scared or lonely Shepard wasn't. She is my ultimate hero and will probably always be the most important fictional person in my life.

Following Shepard there have been others, Revan, the Warden, Hawke and the Inquisitor. Each woman, and yes they have all been women, has her own place in my heart and mind. And it seems like no matter how many play throughs there are, the first iteration is the most important. She is the one who is mine. But each seems like a version of Shepard and an extension of me.
The worlds these women inhabit feel like a place to visit like a coffee shop where you do most of your writing or a vacation spot you can't stop going back to because it recharges your batteries like nowhere else. They inspire creativity. People want to carry little pieces with them, they want to be reminded in their daily life of a memory from the time they were someone else. That's powerful stuff. It sounds sappy but Bioware games changed my life. They gave me the courage to write. They gave me the passion to talk about something I love without caring about being judged. They helped me make friends and learn to talk to people.

So thanks Bioware. Thank you to all the writers, artists, voice actors, and musicians who made me laugh, cry, and fall in love. Here's to the last twenty years and many more fangirl tears in the future.