Entry posted by Jedi Master J.
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Hey, folks. As I am sure you notice from the title, this is going to be my belated entry on my experience of BrickFair from so many Saturdays ago.
And of course, since this is me writing this and all, it is no doubt be a long winded detail account of whole day with as much details as I can remember after so many weeks have gone by. So yeah, I would understand if none of you folks actually read this thing in its entirely since it will be a lot rambling from me about details you probably could careless about.
As such though, I am going to save you folks a bit of trouble of scanning this entry for links to pictures & videos by providing them all here. Just a forewarning though all my pictures are pretty bad, so you would probably be better off not looking at them really.
So yeah, here are pictures of Bionicle stuff (Which I am sure most of you have seen already in my previous entry.), PennLug Stuff (Which I wish I got more photos of. My friend probably has some good ones on his camera, I imagine. But I never got to follow up with him about his pictures.), Sculpture Stuff (Which is actually the first section that we went to since it was closest to the entrance.), Town Related Stuff, General Theme related Stuff (Like Star Wars, Space, Steampunk, Castle, etc.), and lastly a random section for stuff that I think are kind of in-between or just don't feel too well grouping with other stuff in their galleries.
Oh, and all the videos can be found here. Don't worry my horrible voice and face are not in them, so you won't suffer from anything by looking at them. They do all have a huge amount of shaking camera-ness to them though since I am awful at keeping the camera focus. That and it has tons of background audio from Fair itself. Not that could of been avoid really as this is a public day and all. XD
Also there is only one video of the Bionicle table since there was only one movable MOC on display as far as I know. I mean I guess I could of made a video that pan across the entire of the Bionicle table, but I thought that would probably get a lot of strange looks and be kind of creepy, so I didn't. No, actually I didn't do that because I didn't think of doing that at the time. My mind was all over the place that day, after all. Even still, I think that probably would of been creepy, so I am glad I didn't think of that or do it.
But anyway, to point of this actual entry, I am now going to begin my recount of Saturday, August 4th 2012. Abandon this entry now if you so desired. If you do, thanks for taking the time to check out the pictures and videos.
Saturday, August 4th 2012
Okay, so it is a Saturday morning and I have gotten up rather early that day. I think it was like six in morning at the time, which generally speaking is my most hated hour of the day since I am not really a morning person. Surprisingly enough though, I felt pretty well rested, even though technically I had a lot trouble sleeping the night before due to nerves.
But anyway, I got up and grab the clothes that I set aside for this day from my dresser, which were my Penn State shirt and a pair of black Khakis. Now no doubt some of you folks are wondering why I choose those clothes for this (lol No, you probably not really, but I am telling you anyway.).
Well, my explanation for Penn State shirt is that a good majority of my causal wear for non-work stuff is Penn State Shirts. Why? Because my father loves giving all his free Penn State shirts that he gets from work to my siblings and I. Why though did I pick the collar shirt with just small Penn State logo on it? For some reason, I thought it would stand out more than ones with more noticeable Penn State logos, I have. That and I happened to find that shirt to be quite comfortable to wear. Heck, I am wearing it right now. XD
As for pair of black Khakis, all my shorts with pockets were in laundry that week. That and I am not huge fan of showing my legs in public much. *shrugs* Beside those reasons, I also get cold very easily, so I thought it was wise decision to wear those since I knew for the car ride down as we would have A/C on. Plus, if my friend was anything like my father, I would get cold in the car after awhile. It was also why I packed a hoodie in my schoolbag just in case I got really cold in the car.
And really I can't say that I regret wearing those pants that day since it did not end up making me hotter like some people would think, especially when you waiting in long line to get in. But we will get that point late in this entry. If I had to say anything bad about this choice of pants though, it is that right pocket has a hole in it large enough for pens and coins to fall out of.
Thankfully though, nothing fell out that pocket during the trip until we went to movies, which the only thing that I fell out there were coins that I put in this pocket by accident. Although it was not too bad because I did I feel them fall out and as such, I was able pick them back up as soon as it happened.
But anyway, enough on clothes, I went downstairs to take a quick shower and changed into those clothes. After that, I did a quick five o'clock shadow shave with my electric razor because I thought if I used the manual, I would cut myself since my sensitive skin can make it difficult to shave manually without at least cutting once somewhere. I then ate a quick breakfast, which was one of those microwave sausage, egg and cheese sandwich things. Afterwards, I brushed my teeth and put on deodorant.
After all that happened, it was like 7:30 AM now, so I went over to my booted up computer, which I turn on before I took my shower. And well, I logged into YiM (Just in case my friend was trying to contact me about something.) and I also logged into BZPower. And well, on BZPower as you know, I wrote up a quick little entry for this blog saying I was on my way, which a few people end up reply to long after I was gone and without an internet connection (My phone is a phone, not some magic do all device like some of you folks have.).
Alright, so soon after that was posted, my mother convinced me that I should bring something to drink for my friend and I during long car ride. Which looking back was probably not smartest idea to agree about doing because ultimately my friend did not ask for any of 1.25 Liter of Coca-Cola that I placed in the cooler for the trip. That and I had to hold the cooler in place with my feet for most of trip to keep it from moving with the car wildly and possibly spilling. I also ended up having to go to bathroom as soon as we got there due all the soda that I drank from coffee cup that I also had with me due to my mother's suggestion of this idea.
But yeah, after getting things ready for that horrible idea, I return to my computer and just did random things to eat up time, while I wait for my friend to come over to my house. Eventually he send me message through YiM telling me that he was on his way and just about to make it over to my house. So I got up from desk and check my schoolbag to see if everything I wanted to bring was in there, which basically was my 3DS, i-Thingy, and emergency gear (Umbrella & extra set of clothes). It was all there, so I replied back and he answered back in a few minutes or so that he was here.
I turned my computer off after that and head out with my stuff. And well, he was there and we were off to BrickFair. Really there is not that much to say about trip up to BrickFair, beside that my friend and I were talking about random stuff throughout it.
Hm...I guess I could mention that we spent a good two hours or so listening to Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time CD and occasionally sang along with it. And yes, before any asks, what I mean by us singing along with it is that we made sound effects that we thought matched song tune. What can I say we are weird. Well, I am weird. I don't know about my friend. Maybe he is, if you really thought that was weird. Oh, and my favorite soundtrack was Lon Lon Ranch. 
But anyway, it was a fun ride up for the two of us. We also were able to avoid a lot of traffic on the ride due to how early we left (It was around 8 AM when we left.). Traffic did start to build up after awhile though obviously. Ultimately we ended up arriving about half an hour earlier than we had originally thought we would (We got there around 11:30 AM.).
lol Not that matter since we ended up taking a bathroom break at Walmart nearby and then decided to go get lunch there at the local Subway. Which naturally even though I told my friend beforehand that I was not really a hoagie eater (Yeah, I defied the Southeastern Pennsylvanian stereotype that we all like hoagies. Well, I don't. I do like big soft Pretzels like a lot of Southeastern Pennsylvanian though.), he decided to order me something with his order.
And obviously since I did not want one, I had to correct him, which annoyed the guy behind the counter. So yeah, I ended up ordering from them a personal pan pizza, which thankful they did have because I was worried they wouldn't as it might of been regional thing. I ate most of it, but I didn't finish it because I kind of felt pressure from my friend to get moving again. That and since I picked the wrong Coca-Cola fountain (It taste horrible.), I ended up being quite thirst, which will play a factor later on during the fair with another annoyance.
Okay, so we left the Walmart (It was Noon at the time.) and walk all the way over to convention center, where we saw for the first time the legendary line to end all lines stretching across entire convention center. Now personally I had no problem waiting in this long line since as far as I concern waiting forty minutes to an hour was worth it if I got to see what BrickFair is like.
Beside, I do have patience. I mean I did, after all, wait six hours every Monday and Wednesday for a class to start at my college last semester. So yeah, I know how to wait and even if I did get bored after awhile, I could of easily pull out my 3DS or i-Thingy and play with them, while I wait. lol Can't say the same about my friend though since if there was anything that I learned about him during this trip, it is that patience is not his virtue.
But anyway, we waited in that line for about forty or so minutes. And well, my friend and I greatly wish we thought of bring a hat or sunglasses along as we were quite sweaty from rays of sun beating down our faces for that entire forty minutes. We also didn't have any sun screen on, so we weren't exactly to well protected from sun's rays. Thankfully none of us got sun burn during the trip.
However the heat did make me quite thirst though, which again will play a factor later. So yeah, if you are planning to attend BrickFair on public day like my friend and I did, I would recommend you bring a hat, have sun screen on, have i-Thingy to listen to music as you wait, and most importantly try to arrive as early as there is a chance you could be turn away as soon as you reached the building due it reaching max capacity for people, which was a worry of mines. Thankfully for us, it did not happen and I imagine if it did happen, we would of just head over to LEGO store a bit and maybe try the place again in an hour.
So yeah, we got in (It was like 12:40-ish.) and start taking pictures of stuff, we saw nearby. Naturally I was trying to lead us over to left because I knew the Bionicle table was over there. We ended up starting with Sculpture table, which had a lot of works there as shown here (Note: Some of works in this gallery were not on this table. I put them there because they fit better there than their actual place.). I especially loved all the Nintendo related stuff.
This guy is also one of most friendly faces I saw there (Well, beside Bionicle table people, but I didn't approach any of them.). Oh, and I mention to my friend that this creation was made by BZPer. lol I think he thought I actually knew that BZPer though, which is nowhere near truth since I have never even talk to them before on here.
Alright, so after we check out the sculpture stuff, we skipped over PennLug stuff (Well, we looked at stuff there, but we did not go all out with it at least not right away. Of course, my pictures were awful for that anyway, so I only got like six pictures overall from that table. Again, I imagine my friend got more and much better pictures than I, but I rather not bug him for them.) and went straight to Bionicle table.
And man, that was an impressive table. I seriously did not expect there to be that much MOCs to be there (Mostly because our forums' active lately has not been huge, especially in terms of creative stuff like MOCs.), but apparently BZPower went all out with it and it really shows. I seriously wish I could of gotten better pictures for you guys, but unfortunately I felt a lot of pressure to keep move from my friend and the crowds, so I rush a lot of my pictures there. Heck, maybe that's why I didn't make more of effort to say hello to any of BZPers.
Actually no, I am coward and I was worried like crazy about how to present myself because I have an awful track with meeting people due my horrid social skills. Plus, I am really no better online since even there I rarely ever fit in or make many friends. *shrugs* So really you guys should be happy, you did not meet the social train wreck that is JMJ.
So anyway, we left the Bionicle table after snapping pictures of entirely of the table. And well, there is not much to say about the other tables. I mean yeah, I was blown away by a lot of the stuff there, especially castle stuff. Like for example, someone actually recreated Castle Town from the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. It was awesome looking, especially with Zelda Mosaics next to it. Oh, and Brick Arcade Cabinet and Portal Gun were pretty awesome too.
Really everything was awesome there and I could probably highlight all my pictures, but that would take forever and this entry is getting long as it is. So instead I am just going to link you all other galleries again: Town, Theme, Random, and PennLug. So yeah, after we got thru most of tables around 2:30-ish, my friend decided to go check out the vendors to see about getting a shirt or a hat.
Ultimately though since it was like twenty dollars for a shirt or a hat, my friend was kind turned off by the idea due thinking it was far too much. Me, I personally did not want a BrickFair shirt because white is horrible shirt color to give to overweight dude that sweats a lot. I did want to get a BZPower shirt though. But due my social anxious and all, I didn't ask anyone about it. Not that it matters anyway since from what I heard, Mister Raptor was out to lunch at this point. Plus, I was able to order one of leftovers from Fair recently.
I was though thinking about buying some of Bionicle sets for sale, but I decided not to because I did not have a means to carry it, beside my hands since I did not bother to bring my schoolbag with me (Which I didn't bring with me because I was paranoid that they would turn me away, if I was carrying a bag with me when I came in.). And eventually I end up getting thirst, so I headed over to water fountain and quickly regretted doing so because the water there was nasty.
Obviously though, my thirst was becoming too great though, so I told my friend that I was heading over to vending machine for a bit. I had left briefly and pass by the Bionicle table, where I saw Mister Black Six for the first time. And well, I kind of was in shocked that I saw him, so I stared at him for a bit before moving on back to my task.
I got the vending machine and wait patiently behind a little girl, who was trying to get a soda clearly out of order. When she finally pick something not out of order and left, I approached the machine. And to my surprise and annoyance, it was asking $2.50 for a drink. Now I don't know about you folks, but I find spending $2.50 on a drink to be a rip off, especially considering I pay less that at my college (Which even there, it is rip off as I can get 1.25 litter of Coca-Cola at supermarket like ACME for 99 cents, while they sell a small bottle (Single Serving) of Coca-Cola for $1.50. lol I know this because I drink a lot of Coca-Cola to get through my work and school days in the morning. It is my coffee.).
Ultimately though, I had no choice in matter as my thirst was far too strong. So begrudgingly I gave the machine three dollars and got six quarters from machine in return, which I then accidentally placed in my right pocket with the hole in it. I then took my Pepsi (They didn't have Coca-Cola. *shakes fist*) and went off to find my friend. Along the way, I stared at Black Six again from afar and I couldn't swore he was looking back at me. lol I was probably imagining things.
But yeah, I found my friend and convince him to do another walk about the place to take some extra pictures since I knew a good amount of my pictures were horrible.
We did that for a bit, but eventually my friend start to want to go out and see a movie to end the day off since he felt like we have done all we really want to here. Which we kind of did. I mean I didn't say hi to anyone, but that's just my own fault as I had plenty of opportunities to have done it. I am just coward, which is what I say repeated at the Fair before finally signing the guest book. But anyway, during that walkabout the place, I saw Black Six one last time and again stared at him from afar.
And when my friend finally did suggest the movie idea, I pull him over to Bionicle table at least twice in order to try and build up the courage to do something each time. And well, during the second movement over there, I finally build up courage to at least sign the book and was waiting patience behind a kid with Mohawk to sign it. Oh, and Black Six appeared to be gone at this point because I did not notice him nearby at all.
And well, while I waited to sign it, I continued my conversation with my friend about going to movies, while occasionally mumbling how I am coward (Actually I think I did that after signing it when my friend question me about why I was doing that.). I signed it and well, hightailed it out there with my friend in tow.
When we got to the car, we took a moment or so to check out all the Miis that we collected while we were there. I got about twenty Miis, I think. None of them help me beat the final boss of Find Mii 1 though since none of them did nearly as much damage as needed to take the boss out. I imagine I will end up beating it when I go to school this week though, so the damage they did will make it a lot easier for common Miis that I see there often.
After checking our 3DSes, my friend then set his GPS to find local theaters nearby and end up picking an AMC nearby. Unfortunately there was a lot of traffic on road at the time, so my friend was not a very happy camper when we finally got to the place, especially considering this theater (It was actually like part of Mall or something, which I thought was interesting since I never seen anything like it before.) was in a very urban area, so a parking garage would of needed to have been used, had we went to that one.
And well, my friend did not want to have use a parking garage, so we looked for another one. Eventually we found another one, but this time with outside parking and parking meters. We ended up settling for that one and well, to our surprise, we did not have to pay the parking meter as it was after a certain hour now. I don't recall when it was, but I believe it was four o'clock at the time. *shrugs* Oh, and when I got out of car here, this is when the quarters in my right pocket fell out and I quickly pick them up and put them in the other pocket.
So yeah, we went up to theater and my friend ask me what I wanted to see. Now personally I don't go to movies a lot nowadays, so I wasn't sure how to answer that. My first answer though was Dark Knight Rises since I been hearing that movie get so much hype at the time. My friend though had already seen it and say that it would be far too long for what he had in mind (He wanted to see a quick movie, so we could be driving home mostly during daylight hours.).
Eventually he suggested Brave and I basically say, "Sure." And well, I liked the film as denoted in this entry, so I don't regret us choosing to see that one. We did end getting home much more later than we had originally planned. I also didn't eat any of popcorn, while we were at the movies, so I technically did not have dinner that day. It did not seem to bug me though. *shrugs*
But anyway, we sat in a lot of DC traffic on the way home, so again my friend was not a happy camper about that. I think the conversations we had on the ride home helped keep him at ease a little. Especially like how I channeled one of Simon Lane's many voices (Not Grizwold) to counter my friend's complains about traffic lights in cities. I really wish I could of recorded that because that was hilarious or at least my friend and I thought it was. Although I am pretty sure he did not get the voice reference though.
Really we talk about a lot stuff during the trip back home; BZPower, school, work, where we wouldn't mind living in the future, Kingdom Hearts, etc. I mean I could mention to you all what I remember of those conversations, but really you do not needed to know that stuff, so I won't bother.
And well, around 10:30-ish, we finally got home and post entry here saying how much fun of a day my friend and I had. Not much else to say really here. That was our trip to BrickFair. Now let's get to this conclusion stuff, so you folks that stick around to read this whole thing can finally leave.
Conclusion
Now personally I had a lot fun on this trip hanging out with my good friend there and checking out all awesome MOCs on display. It was great day, but it wasn't without its faults.
Particularly the fact that I only had a day to check everything out was probably biggest issue as I felt a lot of pressure of trying to see everything I could, while I was there. So if I was to do this again, I would like try stay long. Heck, I wouldn't mind taking off a whole week from work just to check this place out in its entirely and take in some sights around the area there too.
Of course, it was understandable why we couldn't of done that because beside being a bit last minute in our decision to actually go on Saturday, I believe my friend did have duties to do at his church on Sunday, which I understand and have no problem with. And really my friend is awesome for helping me to get to see it for just a day, so personally I am not complaining really.
What I am saying is if I have means to, I would like to try stay longer by possibly attending whole thing. And well, there is a slight possibility of that happening as I might be able to get my license before next year comes, which would make going there myself a lot easier. Personally though, I am not making any promises that will happen as my nerves do get the best of me whenever I am learning to drive from my father. *shrugs*
Of course, even if I were to attended the whole thing, I am a social train wreck, so I doubt I would be much fun to be around. *shrugs* But yeah, those are my thoughts basically of BrickFair. So that's it for this entry. Comment if you really want to and apologizes if this entry was a huge waste of your time. Thanks though for taking the time to read the whole thing or rather for skimming the whole thing. See ya, BZPers.
-JMJ 2012
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