atharvaveda27

This was an eventful year, badge-wise! I drew a bunch for Revoluticon and Armageddicon. Enjoy them!

EDIT: After posting all the badges I did, holy god. I think I've done more badges this year than all other years, AND I did a staff shirt! Go me! I'm also surprised at how quickly the favs add up, but I guess since I'm dumping stuff, it just constantly pops up on the frontpage. Woohoo! Still surprised, though. As I am active on dA for almost the badge art alone, it is nice to see that people like my art outside cons.

Come and see me in the AA! I'll be sharing space with Charli Ho of whaleonacliff.blogspot.com, under the name of Ho Squared! She's a great artist, check out her stuff. Myself, I will be selling crafts.

The Con is done, and with it, most of the craziness that eats up the first half of my year. I think I'm getting a bit old for all this. Staffing is fun and all, but I did not take in as much in the AA this year as I have in years prior and I attribute that directly to staffing. I keep getting sucked into doing more and more things because I can't control the "I could do that better" impulse. One of these days it's going to get me in trouble, though one could argue that's already happened. This year, I checked badges, ran reg for a while, gave more panels than I usually do, and consistently opened shop late and closed shop early in order to do everything. If I do AA in AP again, I'll need to do a few things.

1. Get supplies beforehand. I forgot all my art from years prior and even the candy I usually have out on my table. As a result, people often walked right by instead of taking a look at what I had. And speaking of taking a look...

2. Get some better displays. People looked at my stuff more once I set out the black velvet, but even so, everyone else in the AA had nice upright jewelry stands and interlocking metal crates and just generally things that caught the eye from further away. I've resisted investing in such a setup for years now, but if I continue to do AA stuff, it might be worth the money.

3. GET A PARTNER. This year I did not have anyone minding the table with me, which meant I absolutely could not leave it alone for any length of time. Hence arriving late (I staffed in the mornings) and and closing early.

I miss when AP was in smaller hotels. We were bursting at the seams and overloading the power grid, but it felt chummier and inexplicably smelled better. That might just be nostalgia talking. If our growth continues the way it has, we will need the Hyatt's roomier facilities, however: it's estimated that now we've broken the Easter curse, we'll have a boom in attendees and will thus need more staff. @_@ I don't really want to staff, though, so I'm going to start looking for people to replace me...

Because I would really rather just concentrate on the Artist Alley and be able to go to panels and the Dealer Room and make friends with new people without worrying about missing children, crap being stolen, con drama, and all that other incidental bullshit that you just have to deal with when you're staff. Mostly, though, I do not want to get up for freaking 9am staff meetings. Those are the pits, especially when you're skating by on 3-4 hours of sleep and have to stay up for the next 12. Like I said, though, I may be getting a bit old.

Mansplaining (1) - when a guy assumes you don't understand something because you're a girl.

Example: "You obviously don't understand what Demonoid is."

Demonoid is a torrent site. I knew that already, and a quick search in Google and Wiki confirmed that.

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Mansplaining (2) - when a guy explains why your (girl) interests are stupid.

Example: "I don't give a fuck about your indie (manga) titles."

Pardon me if I don't want to read battles, huge-boobed whores, and huge-boobed whores fighting battles.

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The gender component of mansplaining is only a minor annoyance. I just chalk that up to pure ignorance. It's the "splaining" I have a real problem with.

I've never encountered mansplaining before, but it's rare that something annoys me this much. No one enjoys being talked down to, but it's always made me exceptionally angry when people tell me I don't/won't/are incapable of understanding something. It's not because it implies I'm stupid or something, it's because it's very offensive on a deep level. Just like how Christians believe in Jesus and God, I believe that all things are knowable and understandable, even if one person doesn't know and understand it all.

I'm so glad that only one person I "know" does this and that I don't have to interact with him on a regular basis. Suddenly, his single status makes sense.

So the original creative team behind Avatar: The Last Airbender series on Nickelodeon appears to be making a new series.  It's called "The Legend of Korra" and takes place about 70 years after the original series. The main character appears to be a Southern Water Tribe girl who is the new Avatar and apparently quite the badass (or so we hope).

Now while many people are going "NOOOO CONTINUE THE GAANG'S ADVENTURES" I am actually pretty darn excited. Why?

1. Female Avatar who's probably the diametric opposite of Aang--Aang is a playful trickster hero, this one seems a bit more thuggish. I have a soft spot in my heart for girls who will punch grown men in the face (if that actually does happen, I hope it will be in service of justice and/or a crowning moment of funny).

2. We get to see what happens in the next Avatar cycle, what with Aang being the last airbender and kind of needing to reproduce in order for there to be other Avatars.

3. The original concept for A:TLA was supposed to be futuristic. The new series is steampunk. AWWWW YEAHHHH

Though... A new Avatar means Aang is dead. At 82. Avatar Kyoshi lived to be 230. That seems very young to me.