I'm not a geek, but...

... I actually had a good time at the Comic Con today.

That's a real guy in that Vader suit by the way. I'm 5'6 and I weigh solid 200-lbs so as you can see in this photo... Vader was scary big. I was actually a little afraid of him. He had the breathing machine thingy and everything. Very realistic and very intimidating. 

Me and my crew attended the con to promote my Faire coming up in October. 

The first year of the con was weak and all around just plain awful. The second year was a little better but this year was awesome (for a dried up little town like Texarkana).

I don't do comics or superheroes or anything like that anymore* but a comic convention is a great place to promote a Renaissance Faire. 

*= That's a lie. I still like X-Men. Hence the costume.

These two were my favorite. Storm Troopers on their day off I'm guessing.

When we arrived, the Little Dude was pretty freaked out at first. I've never seen him cry so hard before! Tears were streaming and he had bright red splotches all over his little face from the stress but eventually he got used to all the weirdos, the buzzing of a thousand different conversations and loud video game music blaring over the speakers.

While I was walking around handing out flyers for the faire I spied this amazing artwork by an independant comic artist, Mike...something...

As I am a Hunter S. Thompson fan, I asked the artist to sign it big and write a message to my baby boy. So he wrote:

"To River, a Gonzo in the making!"

This is going in River's nursery along with the Ralph Steadman Fear and Loathing Poster we got as a wedding present.

 

  

It's Boo from Monsters Inc!!!

In case you're not familiar with the show, this big dude is actor Theo Crane from the TV show Walking Dead. He played Big Tiny. Er, I don't watch TV so I had no clue who he was but I thought it would be nice for River to get a photo someone with famous.... (famous with a questions mark). He loved Baby Mario but thought he needed a moustache. 

source

Overall it was good fun and I'm already looking forward to next year.

Have you ever been to a Comic Convention?

we're mass communicatin'!

Today was my first radio interview ever. The interview was as Power 95.9, Texarkana's most popular pop-rock radio station.I personally don't listen to the radio. I hate radio but radio it's a good thing when it comes to free advertising.

I think I did well. No stuttering, no stammering, no "and stuffs" and "like, you knows". They kept the questions nice and easy.

Power 95.9 has been amazing to work with. They post our events and write little articles about us before we even contact them. The DJs Mimi and Wes were really nice and I love their radio voices. It's pretty amusing to hear them hold a conversation off-air but when the mics are on they sound completely different- spunky and articulate. It's cute!

I guess Mimi trains service dogs, because this big puppy was in the studio with them. I wish I had a pic of him standing up. He was so sweet and big!

Well, for those of you who want to hear MY best radio voice, here's a recording I did of the interview. Sorry, there's nothing to look at because I pulled over in my car and recorded it using my camera. So you're looking at my car speaker here. Pardon my Texas accent, I try hard to hide it during interviews because when non-Southerners hear the Texas accent, they think YEEHAAW! And I don't really wanna be associated with that when it comes to business.

Have YOU ever been on the radio?

the breakout

A long, long time ago... er well, a long time ago for me, I was a rather strange and eccentric young lady. I wore vintage clothes, not because it was cool to wear vintage (it wasn't at the time, quite the opposite) but because I loved having cheap and unique pieces that no one else could possibly possess. At least once a week I wore a navy blue vintage dress with white spaceships printed on it. I wore my grandmother's handmedown shoes and glitter paint was often used to revamp old tee shirts, sneakers and jeans. It was normal for me to buy granny skirts and hack off several inches, leaving the hem raw and frayed and wear Chuck Taylors to formal events. Tiaras were worn almost daily. Bracelets up to my elbows (broken watches and gumball machine jewelry included).

I was the most unique character on campus. I was both loved and hated for it. Both bullied and praised... but no one took me seriously. I was just a fun novelty. The girl that dresses funny.

At  22 I was encouraged to move away from minimum wage fast food restaurant jobs and step into the "real world" with "real money". I was given a gentle shove into the world of banking. At my interview I looked around and saw girls my age in slacks, fresh blouses, pumps and pantyhose. They didn't giggle, they didn't have Weezer stickers on their cars or Radiohead blasting through their headphones. They walked upright and fast... with purpose. Meaning. They were spoken to as women... not little girls. They had respect.

I wanted to be respected too.

I wanted to be an ADULT and adults don't wear feather boas or mix their patterns.

When I got the job, my mother took me shopping for my first load of business attire. I didn't know anything about "dressing normal" and I needed help. Then, I didn't know that you could be stylish and still look professional. But that didn't really matter because I wasn't stylish... I was Hollie. Hollie didn't do stylish. Hollie wore whatever the hell she wanted so Hollie had to go bye-bye.

After a year of working in Accounts Verification my entire wardrobe consisted of nothing but business wear. Solid colored blouses, printed skirts... blah, blah, blah. Not a pair of jeans or a tee shirt to be found.

I would often times find myself grocery shopping and running small errands in heels and slacks because I had nothing else to wear. 

Photo taken by me at my desk many years ago.

After quitting that job and the desk job that followed I began to dip back into my crazy old fashion ways but something happened. I was older and more socially aware and I finally saw the stares and frowns and it affected me greatly.

I became ashamed of myself for being so different. Yes. It's true.

I really felt like I had to "go back into the closet". Be a closet freak and practice my freakishness in the privacy of my own home. Have you ever noticed how some outfits are completely outrageous while others are well... not? Well, that's me breaking out... at home- desiring to be accepting... wanting to know that someone out there doesn't think I'm silly or immature for wanting to wear blue lipstick and bunny ears.

My wardrobe is still suffering from the tragic days of shuffling papers but I know I'll be back. Thanks to some amazingly awesome and inspiring bloggers I am slowly building the courage to be me again.

Thank you ladies for the inspiration. 

I'm pretty sure you know who you are.

there's a Storm abrewin

Hello my little love muffins. I hope all is well. 

Next weekend is the 3rd Annual Arklatex Comic Con, an event that was started by a few brave locals that has caught on well. If you know anything about my town, as you've probably read many times about how much it sucks, then you would know that these people took a huge risk investing their time and money on something so... "different".

Now, I'm not a fan of superheroes and comic books or anything of that nature but from the very beginning I've attended the Con as a way to promote the faire. Comic book nerds are often times Rennies as well. I rent a booth, hand out flyers, allow people to sign up as volunteers for the faire and take donations. Easy peasy effortless marketing.

This year instead of wearing my usual Renaissance garb, I've decided mix things up a bit and stay somewhat true to the spirit of the Con... and my faire

So, I'm going as Storm from X-men... the Renaissance version.

I got this wig on ebay for $16, shipping and all.

The front is too long and awkward and the hair falls in my face no matter what I do.

I decided to take the scissors to it this morning and got a great Halle Berry as Storm look.

I found this awesome necklace on Etsy for $8 from this shop here.

The rest of the outfit came right out of my closet. I don't believe in spending a ton on costuming.  I never wear the same costume twice so why bother?

I know the outfit (and my FACE) will look waaay better when I apply the proper makeup.

I think a cape would really help make this outfit better but the weather here is still very hell-like.

Blouse, necklace and leggings: Etsy

Cincher: retail

Boots and skirt (just a tucked in maxi) : Handmedowns

Yeah... maybe I do need a cape.

SOURCE

Before I go, I would like to thank everyone for the sweet encouraging words regarding my failed beard and moustache competition. I'm feeling much better emotionally about it all but I still get a wee bit mopey when I think about it. That's actually not a normal thing for me to do. I usually just shrug and say, "Oh well" when things like that happen but this time it really got to me. Eh.

My laptop is still beer-soaked and the keyboard will need to be replaced - that's a heck of a lot better than having to replace the whole computer! Thank God we got a PC last month. If it wasn't for that I'd be up the creek right now!

big beards, big tears

Ah, so it happened again.

Hollie is too advanced for this shit kicker town of rodeos and livestock auctions.

I dared to cross the line again- I hosted a beard and moustache competition. Shame on me for being so... daring...

The event was a flop.

It was fun... but it was a big old soggy FLOP.

We promoted the hell out of this event, we were in the papers, websites, flyers all around town...

Our Facebook event page said 50 people were coming with 30 "maybes" and over 500 people were invited.

The results?

About 8 people came to watch the competition...

10 people entered the competition, 4 out of those 10 didn't even know about the competition until they came to the bar for their Saturday night drink.

I'm actually getting teary right now writing this post.

I'm so tired of living in a town where everyone complains about how there's nothing to do but no one will do anything about it. I try so hard to bring new and interesting things to this town. I really do, but everyone's just too damn afraid to get their feet a little wet.

In a city of 143,000 I stand alone.

Well, not completely alone. I have my crew (seen below, minus one person).

I've brought this town steampunk balls,  its first zombie walk, and it's first and only friggin Renaissance faire for crying out loud... what's so bizarre about a beard and moustache competition? They're everywhere!

Oh yeah, to make matters worse, the sound guy I hired spilled his beer on my laptop last night and tried to cover this up by cleaning it and not mentioning it me. The laptop was in his possession the whole time so I'm sure he did it. Needless to say, my keyboard doesn't work. I sent him a message requesting he pay for repairs but I haven't heard back from him yet.

I'm not a very happy person right now.

Er, I'm just gonna leave you with these photos. I don't have anything else to say.

the weird feared beard appeared

My beard and moustache fundraiser approacheth!

It's going to be this Saturday at a small bar in town and boy howdy am I sexcited excited.

For starters I'm just plumb silly excited about bringing such a fun event to our sleepy little town and secondly I'm excited about raising some dough for my Renaissance faire. More money = A better faire. Third, I love event planning. It fun, it's easy and I think I'm rather good at it.

The winners of our six categories are going to get a prize package that includes goodies donated from some dang fine Etsy sellers. Sorry about the state of my room, we're still unpacking here.

Included in the packages are:

These magnets from NiceButton

Beard and Moustache Wax from RavenDarkstar

Gin and tonic scented moustache wax from MansFaceStuff

Forest Path Tea from UrbanEarthTeas

Spice Samplers from SouperSpices 

TONS of stickers from TeamBeard

Topped off with these gift tags from WKburden

and these mustachioed rubber duckies provided by me from Oriental Trading

and a coupon for free admission to the faire.

The flyers are all over town and we're ready to go!

The faire is in October and I'm sure we could stand to have another fundraiser after this. You can't have too much money when planning a Renaissance Faire!

Any ideas?