Aaaaaand the bleat worked.

Ft. Smith and Konsplosion came through! Saturday put us well on track to our goal, which is modest, because for first-year cons my rubric is "small con is small", and I set my expectations accordingly. Nonetheless, it is significant, because I do these cons to make money, so as to buy for my children Toys and Oatmeal.















The staff have been unfailingly polite and helpful, and by their report there has been little drama. This is a multi-con, with anime elements as well as LARPing (one of those things that fills me with Rage and Loathing, like bicycle lanes - no, it's not YOUR road either, because it is paid with gasoline taxes.), which consists of people in play armor, beating each other with foam-covered sticks, and the Society for Creative Anachronism, which consists of (mostly quite older) people in real armor beating each other with sticks and swords, while speaking King James English.

Woot.
 Other authors and suchlike are here (there's a website, for cri-yi....).
Sonny Strait was here, as was Samantha Inouye Harte, both voice actors for anime and games.
Bill Blair, who has a Guinness world record for being an alien in everything was here as well. 

The other dealers purvey shirts, comic books, anime trinkets, PVC figures molded curvaceously, Leather hats, corsets, and steampunky goodness, vinyl stickers, and pagan/New Agey stuff. Most are affable, at least one is irascable.

And then there's the Roller Derby chicks.

This is a fairly new phenomenon: city Roller Derby teams setting up at cons to promote their events, and promote they do. I have yet to meet an unpleasant Derby gal, and many are family folk, with kids and homes and keys; well-rounded persons.  The River Valley Roller Girls are the local stars, and they love the Aardvark and his shirts! And he loves the RVRGs!

Brooke and Courtney and crew have done an excellent job with the con, and Should consider a Konsplosion next year!

When we close at 4, I will have to pack up and drive the eight hours home. Prayers would be welcome.

There are things that One Knows Not To Do. Trying to fly from the roof of your house. Saying to an Army Ranger "You wanna GO ?".

Eating a coliseum hot dog.

Your Aardvark is a weiner snob. The only hot doggish things allowed in Chez 'Vark are Nathan's, but the siren song of blood sugar bottoming out makes rational thought difficult. It was precisely as dreadful as it sounds, evoking the '50s American fear of seasoning that Lileks writes of so ably. (I recommend "Meat, meat, meat" for starters.)

But this sends me wobbling to other things on my mind. Things that Annoy.

Loki fangirls.

Cosplayers almost wearing costumes (mileage may vary).

Facebook "discussions"

Steakhouses that overseason their meat. I know why they did that in the Middle Ages. Makes me suspicious.

Teenage Alien Ninja Turtles (Thanks, Michael Bey)

Electronic Monopoly

Being unable to speak my mind, because it would be completely misunderstood, miscategorized, and I would be given a loathsome label, because people do not think, or present cogent arguments, but rather polemicize, offering up emotional fallacies and unfounded assertions instead.

The comics industry dying a slow, painful death, largely self-inflicted.

Warhammer

There may be more....

Hello, Ft. Smith. It's Saturday, and there's a con....

...And yes that means precisely what you think it means.

---------------------------

A wonderfully sweet anime series that we were introduced to at AFO is an offering from the "Pretty Cure" group of shows. They fall into the "Magical Girl" genre, like "Sailor Moon" or "Pretty Sami". A young girl is granted magical transformational powers to enable her to fight EE-vil, and the minions thereof.

ANYway, the series we saw was "Heartcatch Precure" (the title exhibiting the Japanese habit of jargonizing a title ("Pretty Cure" - "Precure"...sounds like prep work for preserving a ham.) As soon as I saw the main character (a middle-schooler), I fell in love with the series (and no, I am not that guy...the main character, Tsubomi, reminds me of the Dread Dormomoo at that age - though I met her in college, I have seen pictures!)

Hear what Wikipedia saith:

In each person resides a Heart Flower, which is connected to the great Heart Tree that watches over everyone. Protecting this tree are the Heartcatch PreCures, who defend it against the Desert Apostles, who plan to wilt everything and turn the world into a desert. However, when the current PreCure, Cure Moonlight, is defeated in battle and the Heart Tree loses its flowers, she sends two fairies, Chypre and Coffret, to the surface in order to seek out her replacement. They find Tsubomi Hanasaki, a shy flower-loving girl that had just moved into the city with her family, who is given the power to become Cure Blossom. Joined by her new friend, Erika Kurumi, who becomes Cure Marine, they fight against the Desert Apostles who transform the wilting Heart Flowers inside people into monsters known as Desertarians. By defeating these monsters, they gain Heart Seeds which allow the Heart Tree to become healthier again.

I HEARTily recommend this odd little series.

Here is a dual transformation sequence:



 This is available on BakaBT for download, English subtitled. It is unlicensed in the US.

One of the MAJOR pluses of Anime Festival Orlando is its in-room anime channel. They broadcast fan-subbed anime shows, movies, and Power Rangers episodes on the Wyndham Resort access channel  10, and it has introduced us to some wonderful bits of the animators’ art."The Diary of Tortov Roddle" is one such jewel:

As I was driving to Ft. Smith, AR last night (you know all the rain the Midwest hasn't been getting? I drove through it. GREAT light show!), I listened to a soundtrack that made me wistful. It was from a strange little anime series that has gone unnoticed here, but was shown at AFO several years ago, and hooked Riatsila and me. Zettai Shonen is the title.



And the promo:



This can be had from BakaBT, all 26 episodes, English subbed, as it has not been licensed here. It is a gentle coming-of-age story, with Otherworldly happenings. The music is excellent, as well.

More to come....

Vidad's Genius.

Here is Vidad's latest tour-de-force advertising Aardvark Screenprinting. I want to do a cool schmaltzy film for this, but I REALLY wanted you guys to hear this.

If you need fantastic ad work done. David Goodman is your guy. He wrote this one, and so we recorded it on the way home from Orlando. Riatsila did two voices, and I did one. Can you guess?!?

 

 Your Aardvark is heading toward Arkansas - all the way across - to Konsplosion tomorrow. Prayers would not be minded at all, at all.

Says that there will be Famous Guests. I would rather there be infamous guests.

Ft. Smith, AR, here I come.

If you value your money...

You must read this until you understand the peril every US bank account is in.

http://voxday.blogspot.com/2012/08/the-end-of-us-banking-system.html

Then, act.

Thank me at your leisure.

This may be the best ad campaign since Freberg's work.

 

 She said PONDEROSA!!!

The epizoodic subsides.

The amazing biochemical cocktail I was given is doing a slash-and-burn in my 'Varky bod, killing the Viral Horde or whatever by the millions. Obi-Wan would stumble and impersonate an aspirin advert.
This to say I am feeling better.
------------------------------------

Here is a book worth reading:






Gary North (Yes, THAT Gary North, the Y2K Harbinger of Note - he was correct as to the danger; he was incorrect as to how much had been done to mitigate the problem.) wrote a book of amazing depth regarding causes of our cultural decay, and did so while avoiding Muppetly arm-flailing. Key is recognising that the renascence of occultism signals the approaching end of a culture. Vox Day has elsewhere postulated that the shiny-happy-rational-sci-fi society as prophesied by the New Atheists like Richard Dawkins is not the ultimate end of a culture who rejects God, but rather a dark paganism, given (human) Nature's abhorrence of vacuums. See the rise of paganism at the end of the humanist Italian Renaissance. Unholy Spirits is a work that avoids sensationalism, but rather uses Reformation sensibilities to see through the miasma of hype surrounding everything from the Beatles to UFOs, psychic surgery, and other New Age stuff. Think the X-Files in Jesus' name. (I have actually resurrected my copy of the book to prepare for a Sunday School series at church. I hope I can sell this to the elders!) 

That North offers the now OOP book gratis on his website is a testament to his seriousness about people knowing about his message. He offers a LOT of free and very good and thoughtful stuff there.


Have a lovely week-end! In a couple of days I shall share our latest radio ad, courtesy of Vidad.

Facebook Follies Without Filtration

Back from Anime Festival Orlando...I am now a walking Petri dish for con crud. Please pray, but don't come visit. I would hate to gift you with it. I shall try to keep my lungs in my chest.

----------------------------

So, the epizoodic appears to be moving into flu territory real soon now.

Bleeeeaaahhhh.

Anyone I was with, megadose with C's, take intravenous Barley Grass... whatever is your pet nostrum against Senor Influenza. Yogurt and Cayenne colonics. I dunno.



Prayers are heartily requested.

------------------------------

My doctor gave me a cocktail: Cipro, prednisone, and a codeine chaser. Guess how much I got done today! This for five days.

------------------------------

SO WHAT'S THE POINT? (Other than, of course, an Aardvark's desire to be petted and "there-there'd".)

 Codeine is a useful potion. Deals with pain, the need to cough overmuch, and it seems to remove filters.

I am not a hater, or a 'phobe. Other than as regards stupidity. Even mathematical stupidity. Or especially.

Why don't we of the church quit letting the non-christians tell us what being a christian is all about?

I mean really. 35% play Monopoly, but 1-4% of the population want to see them play by the rules of Tiddly-Winks.

If you want to tell us what being a christian is all about, try reading and studying and practicing and fellowshipping like many of us have done for decades. (Ooooh, logical fallacy. Argument from authority!) Well, perhaps the authority of the word of God. That's pretty authoritative, if you are playing that game.

It's a long game, but the payoff is amazing.

On the Unhelpfulness of Good Vibes.

(or) The Thermodynamics of Prayer
--------------------------------------------

I am not a physicist, but Jim Parsons plays one on TV, so what the hey. I really wish that I were a Heinlein, but I shall have to muddle through.

It has become chic for unbelievers, or Those Fallen Away, or New Agey folk to encroach into territory once maintained for the Practising Believer, that of Praying. It has been normal for persons with need to ask fellow believers (or people they know to be believers whether the needy is one or no) to pray for this or that situation, problem, or crisis. "Please pray for me.", then is a tacit, if last-ditch recognition that there may be a Source of help yet unplumbed, and that prayer is a way to access that help. However, often on facebook, when prayers are solicited, some responders will offer "good vibes" or "good thoughts" to the supplicant, sometimes with the caveat "Well, you know I don't pray, but...." When asked for a tool, they offer a Crackerjack sticker.

"Well, Mr. Aardvark, you are certainly being critical of other people's spirituality."

When I ask for roadside assistance because my engine has blown, giving me a bottle of homebrew oil additive ain't-a-gonna help.

Your Aardvark was an Environmental Studies major, and his favorite prof was G. Tyler Miller, who summed up the three laws of thermodynamics thusly:

1) There is no "away".

2) You cannot get something for nothing

3) You can't even break even.

I would like to concentrate on the third law. There is always loss in a system. Some of the water in my glass evaporates; I cannot drink that amount. When I run current through a wire some of the electricity is lost to resistance and becomes waste heat. Even using superconductors, there is still measurable loss. I pump in x, I get out less than x.

Prayer is the application of energy in a system, an entropy-ridden system. No matter how hard I try, I will come out with less than I put in, unless I am connectiing with an Outside Source to pump more energy in than I am capable of doing, and that, kiddies, is the whole point. "Good thoughts", "good vibes" are all in the system, subject to entropy (a result of sin. Thanks, Adam!). Do your good vibes help you, beyond a measure of feel-gooding? Do your good thoughts bring in a raise from an obstreperous boss? The only solution is pumping in more energy from outside the system, from a loving God. The believer's prayers to God provide the conduit to bring energy from outside the system, energy that can bring provision, wholeness, answers, and blessing into our lives.  It disciplines us into more obedient sons and daughters of the King, which makes the system more efficient.

Thinking at one another on our Silent Planet is subject to the third law. Only by plugging into what is outside the system can we surmount our entropic sin-ridden lives, and bring true help where there is need.

Wherein we find the Aardvark to be as clever as Steve Wozniak, if not as rich.

Proof here.

See also here.

AFO Folderol.

 

 Hail the conquering heroes, returning triumphant from Anime Festival Orlando!

No, really. Triumphant!

We had (I think ) our best sales there to date. To my knowledge, we began going in '07 (Though '05 may be the earliest year...I cannot find a reference.) Karen Trudeau and crew did the usual incredible job of putting on a drama-free show - at least to all outside appearances. Robin Cascio made the Dealer's Room a smoothly-running economic engine, and pleasant. Always a delight. 

The Wyndham Orlando Resort lends a "Village" feel to the proceedings. I kept an eye out for Rovers, but there were none in evidence.

Tara Strong (Voice of PowerPuff Girls "Bubbles", Teen Titans "Raven", and MLP-FIM "Twilight Sparkle") was there, as well as Sonny Strait (DBZ's "Krillin"). The lines for autograph signings made me think the Pope was giving an audience. I believe that the con was the largest yet...the crowds were enough to swing my Discomfortmeter mildly into the yellow zone. I don't go to Otakon.... 

That said, I DO hope that AFO grows, but it would be a pity if it were to outgrow its current venue. The sense of community, of extended-family-intimacy is a great feel for a con, and the Wyndham is perfect for it. We love the Wyndham, we Aardvarks. And the AFO!

 ----------------------------------

OK.  

I have a question. Where in the Social Contract is the amendment that states that it is perfectly fine for potty-mouthed young women to hang in the MEN'S BATHROOM with their male friends and jabber? I stepped in, saw a chick, hastily beat a retreat to double-check the icon on the door, went back in, and dealt with matters in the stall. 

 Forget the potty-mouth. Any women!  Is there NO place left for a guy anymore? And just forget any feminist remonstrances. It's the men's bathroom, for cry-yi!