Revoluticon Battle Report

Greetings, dear readers, today is the Thursday after the glorious event which was Revoluticon this past March 16-18. And let me tell you, it was one heck of a convention and I am still recovering from all of the excitement. I met lots of cool people, went to some pretty cool panels and even did my own super-special awesome panel. All while wearing my ever-trusty press hat.

It says Press, that makes it official

First off I'll talk a little bit about my panel and how that went overall. There were a few initial set backs, such as getting the one panel room that didn't have a projector so I couldn't show my hand-crafted powerpoint for the awesome people who showed up. I also was up against some pretty big events in the time slot so I ended up getting an audience of about four.

Half of the people in this picture are people I used to live with.

Well, okay, about three other guys showed up after I started and they didn't get to be in the picture, but it was still a pretty small crowd. But out of the people who attended all of them left at least a little more interested in Warhammer 40,000 and a little more knowledgeable so I would call it an overall success. And for any staff members of Revoluticon reading this, I am immensely grateful for the opportunity to talk at your con and hope you're all foolish, I mean wise enough to let me give more panels about my obsession in the future.

Aside from giving my own panel, I also got to attend a couple of really informative or funny panels at the convention. The people over at The Analytical Couch Potato gave a really interesting panel about Klingons from Star Trek and viewing Klingons from a feminist perspective. I personally would like to hear more from them in the future. I also got to talk with the awesome nerd comedy team +2 Comedy and catch a little bit of their stand-up performance. Unfortunately I had to leave halfway through their show to set up my own panel,  but I would definitely suggest checking them out and they might be doing a convention near you.

Alex Pearlman (Left) and Noah Houlihan (Right) of +2 Comedy

Finally I got to meet a couple of aspiring artists at the convention like the team of With a Grain of Salt Designs, as well as the art of Julie A. Wright and Lesser Key Studios. They had some interesting stuff and while not all of it was my taste it was definitely pretty good.

Artists doing artist things. 

If only they had something that included three of my main passions: History, reading, and science fiction. Oh wait.

Awesome bookmarks from Julie's table 

Perfect.

- Kalpar

Ash Wednesday Reminder: Kalpar's Going to Revoluticon

Okay, okay, I know this basically boils down to shameless self-promotion and messes with the update schedule but I want to get this in before pre-registration closes for Revoluticon this year. As a reminder to my ever-loyal fanbase of....two....I have been invited to speak at Revoluticon this year. Well, okay, I begged them to let me do a panel and after I "removed" some of the competition they decided they could risk letting me speak for an hour on Warhammer 40,000. My panel specifically is going to be a sort of 101-style introduction to Warhammer 40,000 for people who are curious and want to know more about the franchise. I'll be covering a little bit about how to play the game, the different factions you can play as, and then a number of ways you can get involved in 40k, including off of the tabletop. This is in no way going to be as in-depth as the Kalpar Lectures, but I hope I'll be able to give a good cursory introduction. Other than the panel, though, I'll probably just be hanging out at the convention, looking at shiny weapons I can't afford and attending a few panels myself. The Revoluticon staff and I were going to see if we could do some demo-play of 40k for people, but pretty much all my 40k buddies have actual jobs and stuff so no dice on that. Hehe, it's funny because 40k uses dice.

Anyway, for my loyal fans who are not in the Netherlands. (Seriously, I checked the statistics today and after the United States the most pageviews I get are from the Netherlands)  I encourage you all to come out and visit at Revoluticon, the best way is to find me at my panel, which will be in the program. You can pre-register for the the convention, or just show up and pay at the gate but you save some money in pre-registration. As a final reminder, Revoluticon is March 16th-18th and is located at the Ramada Plaza of Columbus, Ohio. Who knows? Maybe I'll see one of you there!

(Don't tell the Sheep, though. I swear if I'm in the same state as Katie I might lose what little sanity I have left.)

- Kalpar

Chinese New Year's Special: Kalpar's going to Revoluticon!

Good news, everyone! Over the past month I have been handling delicate negotiations with the programming staff of Revoluticon. For those of you that don't know, Revoluticon is managed by the fine people of Anime Punch who have faithfully brought us Armageddicon these past few years, which is a mighty fine anime convention. However they have decided to branch out and run an new convention called Revoluticon, in addition to Armageddicon, which specializes in things that anime fans would like but are distinctly not anime-related. Stuff like fantasy, science fiction, comic books and so on.

Now my loyal two readers are probably at this very moment saying, "But Kalpar! It's very nice that you're letting us know about this convention, but where does the Kalpar come into all of this?" Well, I'm very glad you asked that, dear readers, for you see the programming staff of Revoluticon have assented to letting me present a panel on the rich fandom of Warhammer 40,000.

I'll give you time to run around shouting for joy.

It's awesome, right? Okay, so I cannot say yet which day my totally awesome panel on 40k will be, however I can say for certain it will be happening, I will be present, and it will be awesome. Well, I hope it'll be awesome. Anyway, for those of my readers who have the time and inclination to attend this year and see my awesome panel you can register for the convention here. And I'll provide some basic information below.

Date: March 16th - 18th.

Location: The Ramada Plaza of Columbus, Ohio
               4900 Sinclair Road
               Columbus, Ohio 43229

Remember, registration closes on March 2nd so vote early and vote often. Wait...no. Register early. Yes, that's what I meant. 

Thought for the day:
Only in death does duty end.