Emerald City Comic-con Schedule!

Today I looked at the calendar and had a sudden panic attack: ONLY 9 DAYS UNTIL EMERALD CITY COMIC-CON HOLY CRAP. After getting fat and happy over the winter, I feel hardly prepared for con season - but here is comes steamrolling upon me, geeky jaws a'chompin'.

Am I prepared? Haha. Hardly. But everything will come together JUST IN TIME and I'll stop having panic attacks as soon as I have the badge around my neck. Until then? I need to drink a lot of tea and pet my dog a LOT to stop from a full blown anxiety episode.

This con I'm even more busy than usual - and I'm excited to share ALL OF THE THINGS with you, my darling unicorns!

COSPLAY

For this con I'm actually so busy that I don't think I will be cosplaying more than one day (I'm saving money and cosplay for Sakura-con and San Diego Comic-con!), but on Saturday I am involved in a MASSIVE X-men group. Seriously huge, like 30+ cosplayers. I'll be Jean Grey/Phoenix, so watch out for a tall, bootylicious Phoenix (in her green outfit).

EVENTS

As far as events go, I am usually a leaf in the wind (if you have any party recommendations I'd love to hear them!), but Friday evening I am throwing the Official ECCC Live Art Event for the 3rd Year. I will be hosting this AWESOME event. Come see a bunch of famous artists painting on canvases on stage while you drink and dance and watch our cosplay go-go dancers bust a move. There is NO COVER, but this event is for charity (Seattle Children's Hospital!) so we will have donation box at the entrance. We are also raffling off a piece of art and some other great comic book goodies!

Here's the Facebook event for more info. So excited to see you all there!

PANELS 

And finally: panels! This year I am on a whopping THREE FRAKKIN' PANELS, as I must be some sort of insane person (as if you guys didn't know that already). Here's my panel schedule: come see me!!

I CAN BE A GEEK AND FEMININE

Friday, March 1st, 6pm, Room 2AB

Do you love Star Wars AND the color pink? Spend equal amounts of time shopping for clothes AND comics? There's no shame in being geeky and feminine! Join panelists Bonnie Burton (author of The Star Wars Craft Book), Kristina Horner (YouTube vlogger "italktosnakes"), Molly McIsaac (geek fashion blogger and cosplayer), and Tara Theoharis (geek lifestyle blogger at Geekyhostess.com) as they celebrate the people and things that make being geeky and feminine fantastic! Men and women are welcome to participate in this lively discussion on what it means to be a geeky woman in the 21st Century.

HOW TO TALK TO GEEK GIRLS (AND OTHER SUPPOSED MYTHICAL CREATURES)

Saturday, March 2nd, 11am, Room 2AB

You see the cute geek girl at the comic shop... but you have no idea what to say to her! Let us help you with "How To Talk To Girls", the panel that is equal parts comedy and social commentary that's been sprinkled with a bit of dating advice and served from a feminine point of view. (But don't let that scare you. It's really not that frightening!) Come for the laughs... but be forewarned. You just may learn something! Presented by Molly McIsaac, Gail Simone, John Roderick, Sarah Kuhn and Forest Gibson.

ONEUPMAKEUP: MAKEUP FOR GEEKS

Saturday, March 2nd, 3pm, Room 401

The ladies of OneUpMakeup (Kristina Horner, Liz Leo, Mallory Shoemaker, Meagan Karimi-Naser, Molly McIsaac and Tara Theoharis) create makeup looks inspired by their nerdy passions and favorite fandoms. Join them as they talk makeup, answer your questions, and do some live demos. Whether you just wear makeup when cosplaying or rock it everyday, we've got a look for you! See more in the meantime at youtube.com/oneupmakeup!  

I hope to see all of you there!! And if you can't make it, make sure to obsessively peruse my twitter for my live tweets! If you see me, don't be afraid to say hello! I am very friendly and I don't bite (TOO hard).

What about you guys? What are you excited about at Emerald City Comic-con?

GIVEAWAY: 1 Pair of Beautiful Natural Stone Earrings from Scarlett Fire

Guess what time it is, my darling unicorns? Why, it's GIVEAWAY TIME! I'm SO EXCITED about all of the giveaways I have coming up for all of you in the near future, and this one is no exception! Today I am giving away one pair of beautiful raw gemstone earrings from Scarlett Fire Jewels! Here's a link to the product page: right here!

This giveaway is open internationally and will run for ONE WEEK - from today (February 19th) to February 26th. The winner will get to choose one pair of the above pictured earrings!

But even if you don't win - don't fear! For Scarlett Fire has generously offered a 10% off code for your use. Just enter LOVEBUG upon checkout!

Good luck!
a Rafflecopter giveaway

PHOTOSHOOT: Real Gamer Girls

About a week ago my dear friend Sarah Hiraki and I were talking about how silly the "girl gamer" pics are of women posing seductively with video game controllers. We were discussing the real point: when girls really game, we don't look sexy or glamorous... we look terrifying. Messed up hair, oversized t-shirts, smeared makeup, junk food everywhere... thus, our concept for this photoshoot was born. We wanted to represent how women REALLY look when we game.

So we grabbed Angeline Oliver and the amazing photographer Vince of Darkain Multimedia, ate a bunch of pizza, listened to Jpop and had a pretty hilarious photoshoot.

EDIT 02/20: There's been a little bit of controversy due to this photoshoot, and I guess I felt the need to clarify a little bit more. First of all, when I wrote the above paragraph I did so in less than a minute because I was so excited to get the photos online. I should have taken more time because it's a hot button topic, but I just couldn't wait!

This is the expanded version of why we did these pics: We don't find the 'girl gamer' pics silly because they are 'fake' or 'not geeks enough', we find them silly because of the backlash that they create. Women owning their sexuality is AWESOME and we were striving to do the same thing - showing that as three women who are VERY well known for being "legit" geeks we are still sexy even when eating pizza and cheetos.

Yes, this photoshoot is stylized and glammed up a little bit, but it's a PHOTOSHOOT. But I can promise you that I look almost identical to this when I game - you think I have time to take my makeup off when I walk in the door and I'm almost at a big story arc in Final Fantasy? Psh. I peel my clothes off (bras are uncomfortable!) and run to the couch as fast as I can. And after losing a boss battle five times my eyeshadow IS smeared everywhere because I've been rage crying.

This was a fun, playful photoshoot that we had a blast doing. And if anyone calls me "anti feminist" for being comfortable with my body and showing it off and OWNING MY SEXUALITY INSTEAD OF LETTING MEN/OTHER PEOPLE OWN IT, you may need to re-think your ideals.

Models:
Molly McIsaac (me!)
Sarah Hiraki
Angeline Oliver

Photographer:
Darkain Multimedia

On allergies and other nonsense

One of the [many] reasons that you lovely unicorns haven't heard from me as of late is because I am going through some frustrating health problems on top of being overloaded with preparations for the upcoming convention season. And it's annoying, and exhausting, and makes me feel like less of a person because my body is rebelling against itself and that just pisses me off.

My whole life I've always been kind of sickly. Typical geek stereotype, y'know. I've had an inhaler for as long as I can remember, I've never had a strong immune system, and in the summer time my nose is constantly running and my lungs are perpetually wheezing. On the evening of my 22nd birthday I had my first real food allergy attack: I ate SOMETHING (to this day I still have not identified what it was) that made me wake up at 2am covered in giant, itchy, miserable hives on every surface of my body, as well as inside of my ears, mouth, and every other orifice you can think of. I wanted to rip my skin off I itched so bad. It made me miss half of Emerald City Comic-con and I spent 3 days in bed in a Benadryl haze.

It happened again a few months later after I ate a cheese enchilada, and again I laid in the shower with ice cold water beating down on me, wishing for my skin to just STOP ITCHING.

Also around this time I started getting an itchy throat and mouth whenever I would eat some of my favorite foods: raw fruits and veggies. Cherries made my throat itch, apples made me get hives on my gums... etc, etc. Essentially any raw fruit, veggie, or nut that I ate would wreak havoc on my throat and the inside of my mouth. But I kept eating things I was allergic to because FUCK DA POLICE.

Well, I guess that wasn't the best option, because my symptoms kept getting worse and worse. Finally it all came to fruition about a month ago when I was at a friend's party: I ate a bunch of snap peas (one of my favorites!!) and I had the most AGONIZING pain in my throat. It felt like when you swallow something that is too big for your esophagus and it gets stuck. I made some fake excuses and rushed home, where my body fully rebelled and puked up the snap peas. I was involuntarily swallowing, hives were coming up on my lips, mouth, and throat, and it hurt so bad I was screaming.

It seemed I had ignored this problem for far too long, so off to an allergist I went. As the daughter of a Physician's Assistant, going in to a Doctor is a new experience for me so I get very nervous about it. I avoid making appointments because I hate needles (says the girl covered in tattoos). I just couldn't continue not knowing what foods would try to kill me or not.

I went in for two testings: One for environmental allergies and one for food, two weeks apart. They poked my arms with allergens and I determined that I would never survive in the wild:

Environmental Allergy Testing. I took this before it even started getting super bad.

Basically, I was allergic to pretty much everything on both tests (except mold - okay?). Even DOGS (my allergist told me that since I expose myself to a fluffy dog every day I've built up a tolerance). I came back extremely allergic on almost all fruits and veggies due to something called Oral Allergy Syndrome - where I am so sensitive that I'm allergic to the pollen in most raw fruits and veggies. Cooked? Okay. Blanched? Okay. But not raw. AHHHH.

So the solution to this is to get allergy shots, which will begin sometime in the summer and last for a year. Basically, they inject me with everything that wants to kill me and it, in theory, makes things want to kill me less. So that's exciting.

On top of all of this, my allergist referred me to a gastroenterologist, who I visited this morning. There's a very high likelihood that I have something called Eosinophilic esophagitis. I get to find out if I have this in a few weeks (only two days before ECCC!) when I get an endoscopy (where they put a camera down my nose and look at my esophagus) and a biopsy. So that's currently where I stand, hooray!

I know it's not anything particularly bad but it's very frustrating to have a list of food that I LOVE that I am not supposed to eat anymore. Some of the most devastating on this list have been hops (no more beer!), hazelnut (Nutella), all raw fruits and veggies (see my favorite food: salsa), and watermelon (fuck it I'm still eating watermelon *grasps Epi Pen, strikes a pose*).

Anyway, so all of this on top of being really busy and eating poorly has made me tired, cranky, and unwilling to take as many outfit pics. I've been hitting the gym but considering all I can really eat right now are carbs it doesn't seem to be making much of a difference. :-/ Guess we will see what happens!

Outfit #56: Mori Girl

Dress: Thrifted // Sweater: Thrifted // Jacket: Thrifted // Belt: Thrifted // Necklaces/Jewelry: Ebay // Hat: H&M // Boots: Thrifted // Horse Purse: Thrifted

Recently my dear friend Becki has been on a HUGE Mori Girl/Dolly Kei fashion kick. Mori Girl is a Japanese style where you basically just want to look like a whimsical forest girl, which means lots of whites, creams, knits, and tons of layers. With the freezing winters in Seattle, it's nice and cozy fashion option.

Becki has always been my fashion counterpart - she's my oldest friend in Seattle and we've lived together and swapped closets in the past. That means that when she's experimenting with new style or vice versa one of us will play with it too. So I tried my hand at a Mori Girl inspired outfit one chilly morning! It's a fun style to emulate and it harkens back to my days as a wild Alaskan girl, but it's still hard for me to break out of my edgy/anime inspired shell. However, one of my resolutions this year was to stop wearing so much black... so we will see what happens!