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He totally would've won that dance competition if he hadn't been distracted by the giving away of free Ninjago dragon sets.

At LEGO cons you're less likely to run into problems being a woman and having your own preferences. As for being ~ "not like other girls" ~, as in not being into Friends or interested in speculating about possible romantic connections between characters (aka "shipping"), every woman is different and that's okay! Some women like that stuff, and some don't. Some men like that stuff, some don't. That's pretty much respected and understood at LEGO cons, as it should be. I've known women at the cons who are into traditionally feminine stuff and those who aren't, and those who have had other varying interests. As long as you are respectful to those who may enjoy things like shipping and Friends, and don't make a point to tell them all about why you don't like those things (which can be interpreted as you shaming them), you'll be totally fine. Honestly, at LEGO cons I'm often one of a relatively small group that collects Friends sets. I've even bargained with men and guy friends over certain Friends sets and the pieces inside. Everyone is into different stuff, and even though there can be friendly teasing about it at the cons, there's not a harsh and judgmental environment regarding different interests. The actual problem I've seen with being a woman at a LEGO con is not the above mentioned. Truthfully, sometimes there are adult male attendees who will say something casually sexist or act weird or inappropriate around an adult female attendee. But I've never experienced or witnessed aggressive behavior in that area, and it was never something I couldn't easily deal with. If someone is bothering you, a variation of "shut up and shove off" usually works, as does having a friend or two you can stick with. I'm sure other BZP members at the con would be glad to have you around. As for being older, well, there are tons of adults of various ages at most cons. My friends and I are mid and upper twenties and it doesn't really make any sort of difference.

DARN RIGHT

Pat doesn't have to warm up Pat can dance any time he wants

I've been to fifteen fan conventions now (I had to go count my badge bricks and was really shocked at that number) and I can say without a doubt they're a highlight of my year. Like with any group (BZPower, for instance) there's always going to be some bad apples or people you just don't get along with. But for each of those there's at least five other people who are kind and courteous and more than willing to talk about your creations, their creations, or just about anything. For example, at BrickFair Alabama a couple months ago, Watashi Wa and I were selling some of his stuff at the yard sale, and some guy came over to look and asked a couple things about Bionicle. Next thing we know we're talking about board games and sci fi stuff and having an interesting conversation with a more-or-less complete stranger. What I'm trying to get at is that even if you go to a convention that doesn't have a big BZPower presence, there's still plenty of friendly people to talk to and have fun with. If you're lucky, you'll make some friends and never be bored. Last comment I want to make is regarding seminars. I used to go to these a lot for the first few conventions, but maybe it's just me because I really lost interest after a bit. Don't get me wrong, there's some that are really great, but I feel like my time is better spent hanging out with people, or playing games where I'm actually doing and building stuff. To each their own though! Anyway, I hope you decide to come out to a convention at some point - I think you'll enjoy it! If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask; there's plenty of us here with tons of experiences to share.

Zoidberg's not a minifig ...yet.

No one tells Pat what to do. Event gallery

This entry and comment thread is perfect.

remember to smack his nose with a newspaper if he acts up

Just make sure to check on him if he's in the bathroom for a long time and red smoke clouds start billowing from under the door. If he's bad you can let me know and I'll ground him.

On behalf of women everywhere, thank you for valuing friendship more and not being a Nice Guy to her ~

A lot went on at Bricks Cascade this weekend, but it's not over yet so I'll blog about that later. For now, I have other news; I'm moving into a new apartment. I've been commuting to my job in down town Portland from my parent's house, which is 1 hour one-way on a no-traffic day. Basically, it's a pain, so I looked into moving closer. I found a place that's reletively affordable (assuming I don't blow all my income on lego) and also close to the MAX line (light rail public transportation), so it'll be an easy commute in. Not nessessarily that much faster, but a 30-40 minute train ride beats a 60-90 minute car ride (or a 30 minute car ride followed by a 40 minute train ride, which is one option I've used.) Still, it'll be a little easier to commute daily, even tho I will lose access to my parent's car. And I'll have to pay rent and utilities and all that stuff, which is sometimes ridiculasly expensive. Oh well. I am splitting the cost with a roommate. I met him online, and he seems okay enough, but he is new to the city, so hopefully he won't get too confused by real civilization. As long as he pays rent, doesn't burn the place down, and tolerates my Lego collecting, I'm sure it'll work out. (I've had worse roommates in the past anyway.) So with any luck, I'll be moving in mid-April. Yay. Unfortunately, having to pay for rent has kinda pushed back my plans to buy a new computer, since my current one is merely limping along. I may still get one, but it would be like two months worth of rent to buy, so I'm cautious about the idea. (Besides, I need to save up for lego too. )

bionicle |n.cmpd.| biological chronicle; lit. "chronicle of biology ('the all-living') [bionicle < boyanikul < boya-nai-akul, from boya "biology" (nominalized from bo-ya "to grow, live", see also bo "elemental plant-life; living, growing"), nai "all", and akul "chronicle; lit. "(that which is) seen/known" (< aku-li, from aku "sight, vision" and the adjectival particle -li)] This has gone too far. ._. JRRT

Join the militia with a bowl of Madu Cabolo? I don't know what to say, man.

@Lynchir/xccj: One thing I neglected to mention, although it is relevant, is that attending a Lego convention, would, at the moment, involve a considerable trip. Traveling 200-300 miles or more just to attend the public day would strike me as bleh. While I would like to make such a thing part of a larger trip, it would still involve a considerable investment of time and money before I even got there. If I'm going to put in that much, I might as well stay for the whole thing, right? Also, given that the seminars are one of my prime reasons for attending, why go if I can't get what I want out of it? Yeah? I would say that's about 50% of my motivation for going. 50% of the remaining half is the opportunity to meet you all. Maybe it's just my girliness talking, but I think that needs to be a little better than saying "Hi, I'm fishers. Nice MoCs." and leaving, you know? I would like the opportunity to actually talk to people a little. I don't mean being overwhelming and constantly being an attention hog, but there's got to be a balance between me being continually ubiquitous and me barely catching everybody's name. (Besides, I think between the seminars, competitions, and just looking around there will be plenty to keep me busy and out of everyone's hair.) xccj, will keep the price thing in mind. I do try to keep track of this stuff, and know the real prices to avoid being ripped off. Aanchir, thanks for the encouragement! I do remember Hahli Husky mentioning that "preparing responses to sexist comments before Lego cons is never a waste of time", so that's why I brought this up. EDIT: HH, good to see you here! You ninja'd me lol. Thanks for clarifying. Tekulo, thanks for sharing your experience. SMASH EVERYTHING! Okay, yeah. Maybe I do need to work on that. (Do not give me ideas! To my credit, I didn't even think of doing that before you posted it, but now I may have to put off my convention-going plans to remove the glorious image of an entire convention of exploding Lego models out of my head.)

Believe me when I say fitting into some neat interest bubble is not at all necessary at LEGO conventions. Do you think most female AFOLs/TFOLs at LEGO conventions like LEGO Friends? You might be thinking a bit narrowly. While there are definitely far more male AFOLs/TFOLs than female ones (part of the overall gender imbalance in the LEGO fan community that LEGO Friends was created to help correct), female AFOLs and TFOLs are no less diverse in their interests than male ones. And nobody's going to be staring at you or questioning whether you're a "real" LEGO fan, if that's your concern. Female LEGO fans are not so few at these events that they're considered an oddity or an anomaly. Check the attendee list for Brickfair and take note of how many female attendees are registered. It's true that many of these female attendees are a parent, sibling, or significant other of a male attendee, but most of them are also LEGO lovers themselves and a number even exhibit MOCs of their own. I don't think a lot of female Ninjago fans like the theme because of the romantic angle. I think most of them are probably drawn to it because of the humor, characters, and mythology, and for whatever reason (childhood societal influence? teenage interest in the idea of romance?) they are just more likely to be interested in shipping than the young boys who make up the show's core audience. Even as a guy, I will admit that when I was a teenager, I tended to be really into shipping myself. I loved seeing ship tease in the cartoons I watched or the video games I played, I shipped characters who I thought would be cute together, and I was not above creating original characters and shipping them with the main characters of franchises I liked. I never took shipping too seriously, but I still enjoy romantic subplots and ship tease in certain TV series. So it's not just a girl thing. As a BIONICLE fan, you're not likely to be the most popular person at the convention, but you'll be among friends. There are lots of other BIONICLE fans, particularly BZPower members, at LEGO events in the United States. And AFOLs aren't as vocally disgusted with BIONICLE as they used to be. A number simply aren't interested in it, and they won't hold it against people who are. In general, AFOLs and TFOLs in general are an eccentric bunch, and you don't sound any more eccentric than the rest of us. By all means, come to a LEGO event and give the experience a try.

If you go around touching / breaking other people's models, that would probably cause an uproar. Which is why generally younger children are discouraged from attending the full convention. But unless you were leaving some destructive tendencies out of your blog entry, I don't think that would apply to you. But yeah, at all the conventions I've gone to, the attendees are usually pretty nice, and the convention leadership tends to go out of their way to make sure everybody has a good time. And if you do want to test the waters, then Lyichir's suggestion of attending a public day is a good one. However, while the variety of products being sold by vendors is pretty high, so are the prices. Sometimes there are good deals to be found on Bionicle, but don't take that as a guarentee. Hope you can make it to one convention. They can be a blast!

I created this topic for people's convenience, so it's easier to keep track of who's who at which events. If you're planning to cosplay as a character at one of this year's LEGO events, go reply there to have your name, character, and event plans added to the list!

Believe me, you will be in good company at a convention. You're not likely to be judged for which themes you like/don't like, and you'll get to see all sorts of cool MOCs, attend seminars, and leave with all the merch you could dream of. Most people at cons are non-combative and you're more likely to find common ground with some of them than to have serious disagreements with anyone. If you're really unsure about whether you'd have a good experience at a con, most Lego conventions have public days where you can get in to see everything at a reasonable price. You would miss most of the seminars that way, but you'd still get to mingle with the registered attendees and get a feel for what the general atmosphere is like. And while the biggest giveaways are limited to registered attendees, you could still walk away with great stuff (since there are usually plenty of resellers selling Bionicle parts at great prices).

The rhythm is gonna get you. Run.

@ ALL HAIL

Oh Pat you are such a lovely dancer.

Sounds awesome! When do we get to meet this roommate of yours?

I dunno, that guy sounds pretty sketch. You better watch out. Congrats on the move! Jason, I think he'd have to worry about you tolerating his LEGO collecting! -CF

I dunno, that guy sounds pretty sketch. You better watch out. Congrats on the move!

Someone call in the logic police - this makes too much sense! We must stop this insanity at once!

So there was a girl I was going to see during my break this week. I had a crush on her in high school, but she had a boyfriend. She has since broken up with him, so I wanted to catch up with her, and if the attraction was still there, try and see if she has any interest back. Well, we had lunch earlier today. While we were talking and catching up, one of the things we talked about was how she moved on and was in a new relationship with a new boyfriend. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a mature enough adult that I’m happy she’s happy, and she’s an awesome friend so I’m okay with that, but I'm just sad that I can’t tell her how I feel about her. I don’t even care if she wouldn’t be interested in me the same way, I just want to get it off my chest already, but doing that while she’s in a relationship doesn’t seem wise or right on my part.

Thank you for not being *that guy*.

In other news, nice MoC. Silver and light blue look well together, and cool multi-bladed fan thingy.

OC do not steal

You may not be aware of this, but Makaru is actually a staff member on this site.

I now ship Onewa with Mrs. Cake.