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Archives for March 2017

My Twin Peaks Re-watch

March 31, 2017 By Michael G. Munz Leave a Comment

I graduated from Twin Peaks High School.

No, I don’t mean that as a metaphor for having watched the whole series, the show’s formative influence on me, or having learned to make a damn fine cherry pie. I mean I graduated from the high school used to portray Twin Peaks High School in Fire Walk With Me. Michael G. Munz, Snohomish High School Class of ’92. How’re ya doin’ down there?

Curiously, Bobby is walking into the library here, which seems a little out of character for him… 😀

They filmed it when I was still a student there, but at the time, I wasn’t familiar with the show. Sure, I’d heard of it. Who hadn’t? Even in those pre-Internet days, it was somehow a part of our cultural consciousness. Yet for whatever reason, I never watched it while it was still on the air. (Exception: The season 1 finale aired on a night that I and a bunch of other friends were sleeping over at my friend Scott’s house. For just a moment as we were flipping channels, it came on. Though my recollection is vague, I think it went something like this: Audrey was at One Eyed Jack’s, getting dressed up to meet “the owner.” Being teenage guys, of course scenes in a brothel made us pause. “What’s this show?” “I don’t know.” “Wait, is it that Twin Peaks thing? I hear this show’s weird as hell.” Cue the scene switching to Nadine, sitting on the floor in a peach dress and ubiquitous eye patch, pouring out a bowl full of pills to attempt suicide, and then Cooper playing blackjack. “Yeah, this is weird.” “Hey, Scott, doesn’t your dad have a pool table?”) [Read more…]

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Filed Under: Movies and TV, Twin Peaks rewatch Tagged With: Geek Interest, Rewatch, Twin Peaks

My First Cosplay: Part 3 – At the Con

March 29, 2017 By Michael G. Munz Leave a Comment

The third and final part of a series of posts about my first cosplay experience. Follow the links if you missed part one or part two…​

So I had my Imperial Naval Officer costume assembled. With Emerald City Comic Con fast approaching, I had a place to wear it. Yet before I could get there in all my newfound glory, I had to figure out how to deal with the one thing I’d more or less forgotten about when starting this whole endeavor:

Storage.

As a guy who regularly wears pants (and in cooler months, a coat) with all of the pockets I need, it was something I never had to think about before. But as I mentioned in part 2, the pants for this cosplay had no pockets. Wearing my usual coat around would defeat the purpose of cosplay. So where was I going to put my wallet? My keys? A snack that I’ll surely want at some point while wandering through a convention hall filled with people?

I suddenly realized what those little toaster droids running around Imperial facilities are. Mobile pocket droids! (I mean, sure, they also deliver fresh Pop Tarts to the loyal servants of the Empire, but I’m sure officers must have a few of those suckers follow them around holding their stuff, right?) Not being blessed with such a droid, I went with a less high-tech solution.

Star Wars Imperial Toaster Droid

I bet the admirals get TWO of these!

First, for things like cash, driver’s license, ATM card, etc, I turned to a solution that I’d already had in my closet from days of international travel. I took a flat pouch designed to be worn around the neck, beneath clothing, and slid it in between the flaps of the jacket. The high collar hid the neck strap, and I used some velcro inside to affix it right at the center of my chest. Now if I needed cash (or my driver’s license, God forbid, got pulled over while driving to the con in costume), I just undid one snap and slipped my hand inside. Plus it was flat enough to where it didn’t show on the outside of the jacket.

Originally designed for defeating wallet thieves during travel.

As for the keys and a snack, the hat turned out to be a treasure trove of discreet storage space. Those flaps? The one in the back was the perfect spot to hide a key fob. After securing the flap with velcro to keep it closed over the key, it wasn’t noticeable. Those hats also have some extra space in the top, especially if you don’t have any hair taking up space. You know what fits there perfectly? A CLIF bar, secured with tape, of course!

I like to think I’m not usually quite this pale when a camera flash isn’t going off right next to my skin.

Finally, since I didn’t want to have to always be carrying my phone in my hand, I snagged a little black belt pouch it could fit it. (The realization that such a thing could be useful came only two nights before the con. Fortunately it was cheap, and I was able to get Amazon to send it my way fast and free of shipping charges.)

It has a magnetic seal (so blasters are no good), but I added a tiny bit of velcro just for an audible alert if anyone did try to pull my phone out when I wasn’t looking.

But finally, the day came! I got everything on, got into the car, and drove to downtown Seattle, wondering at each stop light in my own neighborhood if anyone was looking closely at what drivers were wearing (and secretly hoping they were). Once I’d parked, got out of the car to get my hat, belt, phone pouch, and lightsaber properly attached, I headed through the convention parking garage, feeling honestly quite proud of how I looked. Before I even got out of the garage and into the con itself, I’d started getting compliments.

I met up with two friends there, Trisha and Ethan. While I spent a lot of time hanging out with them, I also spent a lot of time by myself, either attending a panel or two, or just, frankly, wandering looking at merchandise and gear while letting my cosplay be seen.

That’d be my friend Trisha going as Death from Neil Gaiman’s Sandman series. (Photo by Ethan, who came dressed as Ethan from the real life series.)

I’m not the best with crowds. While I can be outgoing when I have to be, I’m certainly on the introverted side of the spectrum. In the past, I never interacted much with strangers at cons, and always felt a little out of place. This time, things felt very different. People were coming up to me, complimenting my costume, talking to me about it, and asking to take pictures. The fact that I was effectively wearing my geekiness on the outside made it somehow much easier to be comfortable around others who were doing the same.

Stopping to pose in the Starbucks Death Star location…

Essentially, it was the best con experience I’ve ever had, and I can’t imagine NOT going to a con without a costume in the future.

“I can’t abide those Jawas. Disgusting creatures.”

You’ll notice the little red ribbon tied around the lightsaber to mark it as safe. This puzzled me. It wasn’t a working lightsaber, after all.
Oh, also look! Lego Seahawks Batman!

This photo was taken by Vader’s girlfriend, who was cosplaying Hera from Rebels. I really wish this hadn’t come out blurry, but it was still fun.

The storage worked well. My keys didn’t fall out, and the CLIF bar was put to good use. It was a little hard to use my phone to take pictures with those black gloves on, but it wasn’t a huge issue. The only downside was that after walking around for almost nine hours in those boots, my feet hated me. Even with the arch support insoles I put in there, the fit was less than ideal. Blisters and aches. I was very happy to get them off, and vowed to find a better pair. Foot comfort is not something to take lightly!

I also spotted this excellent Obi-Wan cosplay in the convention center parking garage!

I’m happy to say that I’ll be doing it all again at Norwescon in just a couple of weeks, this time with some correct Imperial code cylinders that I got my hands on, and (hopefully) new boots. Come by and say hi!
And maybe you’ll even get to see me in my Walter White/Breaking Bad getup. With no hair and a goatee, it’s a natural choice…

My regular glasses don’t quite work, and I need to get a better shirt, but the pork pie hat was cheap!

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Filed Under: Featured, Miscellaneous, Movies and TV Tagged With: cosplay, Emerald City Comic Con, Geek Interest, Imperial Naval Officer, Norwescon, Star Wars

My First Cosplay: Part 2 – Some Assembly Required

March 14, 2017 By Michael G. Munz Leave a Comment

I’d made my decision: I would put together a Star Wars Imperial Naval Officer cosplay in time for this year’s Norwescon. Now I just had to figure out how.

Wait, back up a bit. I actually had to decide between a black uniform or an olive gray uniform. Did you know the olive ones are the standard uniform while the black ones are apparently related to security? I figured I looked better in black–because everyone looks better in black–but being a power-mad author-type, I also wanted to have a uniform that could portray a reasonably high rank. I finally choose power over looks. Looks fade, but power can get you a spectacular karmic death! (Oh boy!) 😀

After wandering the Internets, I wound up finding the base uniform at a costume place called ANOVOS. The design was an officially licensed replica based on on-screen details, and the place had good reviews, so I figured I wouldn’t be getting something cheap that would a) look like a pair of pajamas when I got it and b) fall apart three days after. Granted, it also had a waiting list, since they didn’t just have these suckers waiting around on racks. It gave me the jacket, the pants, the belt, and that snazzy hat, provided I was willing to wait three months. I hate waiting, but I went with it. (They also had a “premium” outfit for three times the price, though I couldn’t tell any actual difference except that it might have come with the accessories as well. For that price I figured it had better also come with a working sidearm.)

The rank insignia didn’t come with it, but I forgot to remove it when I took the photo, so imagine it’s not there.

While I did need to figure out my measurements in order to order the right sizes for each piece (hat, jacket, pants), it wasn’t custom made. The hat fit perfectly. The pants ended a few inches above my ankles, but they’d be tucked into boots, so that didn’t matter so much so long as the waist fit, which it did. I was saddened to realize that it didn’t have any pockets–despite those extra-wide flairs along the thighs. The jacket, however, needed some work.

The material itself was fantastic. It had a good amount of weight to it, and all the stitching and such looked great. Though you can’t see it in the picture, the jacket is double-breasted, with about eight or nine snaps inside that thing holding it together (it opens from the front and snaps at both shoulders, with others around the midriff), all of which felt rugged and durable. The fasteners at the front of the collar neck were tiny, but well-secured. The sleeve length was great, as was the jacket length. (Is that called hem length? Describing clothing has never been my strength; I should probably look these things up.) Nonetheless, it didn’t quite fit me right around the midriff and below. When I put the belt on, the front would look fine but the back was all bunched up with a bit of extra material.

All official and everything.

I can’t sew, save to re-attach a button, so it was then off to the tailor’s. I confess I felt a little silly asking someone–who clearly had no interest in cosplay or geeky things at all–to alter my costume uniform, but it went well enough, and when I got it back, the fit was much better. I did consider asking them to add some pockets into the pants, but I wasn’t sure if that might make them look inauthentic, and I had some other ideas with regard to storage. Besides, out of context, these pants look fresh from the Third Reich, and I decided it best to avoid any incorrect assumptions about what this uniform was for.

So I had the base outfit! What’s next? No self-respecting officer can wander around a Star Destroyer without footwear! That Seattle staple of socks with sandals was out (Vader was known for strangling officers for less), so I had a look at the movies and then hunted for some appropriate boots. Having spent a fair amount already, and knowing I wouldn’t be wearing these boots outside of the cosplay, I decided to head to Amazon with an eye for matching the look I needed rather than comfort and quality. Finding the right look–without spending a lot–was surprisingly more difficult than I’d expected. They’re basic black boots, I thought. How hard could it be? After reading that the original boots used were used for equestrian events, I finally found some costume boots that fit the bill. Mostly. Frankly it took so long to find them that I confess I decided it was close enough. (It would turn out to be the decision I was least happy about, but more about that later.)

The points at the top don’t quite fit, but at least they’re shiny and black.

I had the broad strokes. Now it was time for the details. If you’re like me, the immediate detail that pops to mind is the little blue and red rectangle rank insignia. The things look basic enough: Blue and red (or yellow) plastic rectangles on a larger shiny rectangle. Surely that was something I could get from a craft store. But what rank should I make? What are the ranks, anyway?

Star Wars Imperial Naval Ranks

You’d think that would be a relatively simple question to answer, but thanks to some inconsistencies in the films’ costuming, it gets a little tricky. I decided to go with what seems to be a generally accepted chart I found on Wookieepedia.

The four blue, four red insignia (admiral/commodore/commander) satisfied both my need for flexibility and ambition, so I went with that. Yet my search through craft stores turned out to be more difficult than anticipated. I wound up heading to Etsy looking for supplies when I realized that hey, there are people on Etsy making the full insignia. Unable to resist the convenience, I found a nice one with a magnetic backing to hold it on.

No, they’re not Chicklets.

Now I’d be willing to bet that the average person familiar with Star Wars, if presented with all of those assembled items, would get the feeling that something was missing without being quite able to identify what. The missing piece? Those little silvery whoosits tucked into the shoulder pockets! During my research on ranks, I discovered that those are known as code cylinders, and intended to hold various access codes and security keys that an officer might need to get into high security places like the Star Destroyer engine room or Death Star Human Resources file room. The original ones made for the movies were from small radiation dosimeters, but those turned out to be a little expensive. So, back to Etsy! According to the rank chart, I needed one for each shoulder, which were soon easily found and ordered from a guy in Italy who makes ’em.

You can also take them out and whack people in the forehead when they mouth off.

And here’s where I made a tiny mistake. I forgot that the Rebels have code cylinders also, and those look a bit different. Soon after my order shipped, I realized my error: I’d ordered the Rebel kind. At this point I was a little worn out–and starting to worry about my spending–so I compromised and figured I’d go with those, for now. Only a tiny bit of them poked out, after all. Who would really notice?

The final touch, which I really only realized after the costume was all put together, was that hey, don’t Imperial officers wear black gloves? By sheer coincidence, I’d only just bought some new black gloves to, ya know, keep my hands warm, and they were exactly what the outfit needed. I don’t know what it says about me that I like wearing black leather gloves favored by an oppressive galactic military regime, but I guess style is style, right?

Accessories accepted, Captain Needa…

So there it was. I had everything all set to go. I just needed for a place to wear it. Fortunately, Emerald City Comic Con was right around the corner.

But more on that later in part 3…
(Missed part 1? Read it here.)

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Filed Under: Featured, Miscellaneous, Movies and TV Tagged With: ANOVOS, cosplay, Geek Interest, Imperial Naval Officer, Star Wars

Torment: Tides of Numenera – Second(?) Impressions

March 9, 2017 By Michael G. Munz Leave a Comment

Torment: Tides of NumeneraI’m perhaps eight hours into Torment: Tides of Numenera, and I’m pleased to say it’s still feeling very much like Planescape: Torment. Let me count the ways…

So far, very little combat. That’s not to say that there haven’t been opportunities for combat, but I’m playing a cerebral, semi-persuasive type with only slightly more health than a wet paper bag, so my inclination is to find as many non-violent solutions as possible. Tides of Numenera has allowed me to talk my way through numerous confrontations–or at least given me the chance to do so. An encounter with some corrupted artificial intelligence drones in a long-buried technological enclave (which reminded me delightfully of some elements from A Memory in the Black and A Dragon at the Gate) wound up going sideways on me. I tried to talk and think my way through it, but those insane AI types are touchy folk, and I soon found myself in a running (though turn-based) fight through a technological labyrinth as I tried to reach three interface nodes that would let me turn off the drones that I hadn’t yet spell-blasted to pieces.

I forgot to get a screenshot when I was there, so I pulled this from the Internets of the same area…

I was having a rough time of it until I realized something ToN lets you do that its predecessors (both P:T and Baldur’s Gate, for example) do not: I could interact with the environment to access some terminals during combat. It cost me an action to do it–and at one point I had a character at the right panel but she kept getting blasted away from it, able only to struggle back to it before her turn ended–but once I’d figured out that such a thing was possible, things gradually swung back my way again.

Non-standard NPCs make you view them less as walking skill-packs and more as actual characters. Even with Baldur’s Gate 2, arguably the best old-school, standard D&D computer RPG, I had a tendency to recruit people to my party based on what was needed. (“I’m playing a thief already, so I don’t really need Yoshi, I could take the druid but I’ve already got Jaheira AND Viconia, so they’ve got those spells covered…”) Planescape: Torment was somewhat different. (“I’ve got a walking skull that’s kind of a fighter/thief, but where’s a healer? I can’t find one until halfway into the game?? How’s this walking flame guy fit into things? I don’t really need him, but he’s interesting. …Wait, there’s a rogue Modron character?? I don’t care what he does, I want to talk to him!”)

Same thing here. I think the first two characters I met were spellcaster types (or nanos, since it’s the “significantly advanced technology” sort of magic here), which matched my own class, but I chose between them because of how much I trusted one over the other and booted the other out even though that meant just walking around with only one other NPC for a bit. Later I picked up a little girl that I found hiding in some rubble. She’s charming, and seems to be good at hiding, but I’m keeping her in the party because someone has to take care of her, not because she’s–so far–of any real use. And now I just ran into a glowing guy who seems a bit off his rocker. He’s providing some much-needed fighting ability to the party, but I’m tempted to tell him to take a hike because he honestly seems like a danger to himself and others, and he’s also a problematic person to have around due to a tendency toward borrowing things that don’t belong to him. On the other hand, he’s interesting.

…Okay, maybe he’s a little too interesting…

Detailed lore for items, even if they’re not all that important. While only cosmetic, this one is still great to see. You’re walking in a world of amazing technologies, peoples, and concepts that itself is built upon billions of years of lost civilizations. The artifacts and oddities you find should back that up, and it’s heartening to see that things that in other games might simply be called “vendor junk” (items with no real use beyond being sold for money) have some actual lore to them. A lot of games nowadays don’t have this, and it’s sorely missed. It’s the difference between engaging the player and making exploration seem like just another exercise in gold-farming.

Other games might give you just a title for the item devoid of any further description or depth. What’s more, this is an actual usable item, which I guess isn’t the best example of my point, but it raises another: it’s an item that has a more complex effect than “gives 3% greater resistance to fire” or something like that, which you might find in other games which shall remain nameless…

Adahn. Okay, so this is a minor one, but I ran into someone who knew my character as “Adahn,” the (fake?) name often used by The Nameless One from P:T. I confess, I laughed out loud when that happened. Add that to the fact that I’m playing someone walking around in a body previously used by a god before he got tired of it (and my consciousness apparently moved to fill it after), and the whole “you’ve done things you don’t remember” vibe from P:T is definitely there still.

So I’m a sucker for in-jokes. Wanna fight about it?

There’s a lot more to tell, of course, but I’ll have to include that later. In some ways this game feels very much like an adventure game with regard to figuring out puzzles, speaking to people, and exploring. The world itself is fascinating with its far-future lore. It’s really a joy to explore. Note that I did not mean for that to rhyme. I also hope I’m expressing myself well enough because my brain is currently filled with mucus due to a cold I’m fighting, so forgive me if I sound like a blithering idiot here…

Missed my very first impressions of Tides of Numenera? Have a look here…

More soon!

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Filed Under: Featured, Gaming Tagged With: Fantasy, Games, Geek Interest, Planescape: Torment, Review, Science Fiction, Torment: Tides of Numenera

My First Cosplay: Part 1 – The Beginning

March 5, 2017 By Michael G. Munz Leave a Comment

You’re never too old to start cosplaying. Or, at least, I can confidently say that if you’re my age or younger, you’re never too old to start. (Beyond that, I have no personally verifiable data.) For about the last five years–which coincides with my first ever visit to Emerald City Comic Con–I’ve had an itch to try to put together a cosplay. It wasn’t a major itch, like the kind you might go to the doctor about, but rather one of those minor itches on your calf that you notice only mildly most times as you walk save for the times when you’re in the shower and the hot water hits it just right.

I think this metaphor may be getting away from me, but from time to time I thought about trying to put together something simple, like a Firefly cosplay of Mal. Shouldn’t be too hard, right? Though it has to look good. The right kind of beige slacks. A wine-colored shirt. Leather suspenders with those weird loops on the bottom you don’t really find easily. Plus a duster, and, oh, a pistol just like he has otherwise people won’t know what I’m doing and aren’t those kind of expensive and Nathan Fillion has a lot more hair than I do and… Wow, this is no longer simple, is it?

Malcolm Reynolds - Firefly

Oh, and I guess the gloves. And the belt.

So I’m a bit of a perfectionist. If I did something, I wanted it to look good, and if I wanted it to look good, it would take a fair bit of time, and if it took a fair bit of time, then when will I find the time, and ooh, I should go eat some chocolate or write or play a game and look at the shiny thing over there! So, yeah, it never quite got off the ground. Yet the itch was still there.

And the itch remained, waiting for the right kind of scratch, like a pile of gunpowder waiting for a match (or a mixed metaphor waiting for an editor, I guess). The scratch/match finally turned out to be related to my books, specifically my intent to start being more visible as an author and sell my books at cons. How much more fun would it be (and yes, how much more eye-catching) if I had a good cosplay? So, I committed myself: By the time Norwescon came around again, I’d be going to sell my books, and I’d have a costume.

So, who/what to dress as? As I’d recently surrendered to my thinning hair enough to shave my head entirely, Captain Mal wasn’t an option without a wig. I needed a cosplay that was either already bald, or used a hat. Long story short, I decided on an Imperial Navy officer from Star Wars.

Star Wars Imperial Naval Officer

Captain Piett’s “garlic gum” practical joke goes horribly wrong.

I’d get the crisp cut of a sharp uniform, the fun of playing a powerful, arrogant character, and it’s got a hat! What’s not to like? (Plus I could add my lightsaber to the cosplay and be a guy with his own Star Destroyer who also started to learn a little about the Force while Vader wasn’t looking…) Now I just had to figure out how to do it so that I wound up with something that looked good that I’d be proud to wear.

And here’s where I probably diverge from a lot of more dedicated cosplayers. I don’t know how to sew. I’m not good with crafting. There are some people out there who can put together INCREDIBLE cosplays that I couldn’t hope to hold a candle to, and also some people who love to cosplay for the pleasure of putting it together. I have huge respect for those people. I, however, am not one of those people. I don’t have the time to devote to the hobby. So I guess you could say I took the quick and easy path: I decided to save up little by little and throw money at the problem…

Next in my cosplay experience: Putting it all together…

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Filed Under: Featured, Miscellaneous, Movies and TV Tagged With: cosplay, Geek Interest, Star Wars

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