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Three weekends ago (the weekend after PAX). I went to Rose City Comic Con. I went back to work after a week long vacation after then and was swamped, so I didn’t have time to write about it.

I won’t do a blow-by-blow as usual, but I will say that this convention, unlike PAX, was more about panels.  There was some cool stuff on the exhibit floor (such as a Dragonball Z exhibit), but I spent most of my time there taking pictures of cosplayers.  I did some artwork from local artists like I normally do.

I went to panels featuring Kristen Bauer, Michael Biehn and Jennifer Blanc-Biehn, Star Trek: The Next Generation cast members (Marina Sirtis, Gates McFadden, and Michael Dorn), David Tennant, Felicia Day, Overwatch voice actresses Lucy Pohl and Charlet Chung, John Barrowman, Catherine Tate, Karl Urban, Smallville stars Tom Welling and Michael Rosenbaum, Michael Rooker,  and Evangeline Lilly.

I didn’t get any autographs this year, but I did get photo ops with Tenant and the TNG cast members.

They had a board game section which I didn’t check out because I didn’t see anything being played that I was interested in.  Maybe next year.

I ran into my friend Daniel on the second day, but we didn’t hang out long before we got separated.  Again, I kinda like doing my own thing at cons.

I really enjoyed being at RCCC again this year.  It was a exhausting having cons 2 weekends in a row, but I don’t regret it.  I think RCCC is later in the month next year, so that won’t be a problem. I’m so glad to have an event like this right in my back yard.

Last weekend was Portland Pride weekend, which ended a great pride week here in in Portland. Pride has become one of my favorite times of the year.

I actually didn’t do anything during the week, but I did live vicariously through people who were out doing stuff.

On Friday night, PDX Gaymers hosted a Pride weekend event at Guardian Games.  I put this together at the last minute. I’ve been in touch with the leader of Seattle Gaymers lately and he asked if we were planning anything for Pride.  I had never thought to do anything for Pride, probably because there are so many other things going on and I assume people would be more interested in that than gaming.  I rented a private room at Guardian.  I advertised the event as a stop before going to a party or just a quiet alternative to going to a party. We had a good turnout.  Everybody that came stayed until the end.  The room was cramped with that many people, but we made it work.  I think everyone had a good time.

On Saturday, Xander, our friend David W, and I went out to the festival and walked around the waterfront area. It was Xander’s first Pride. I like going to the festival every year, but there’s really not much to it and I don’t think they were into it as much as me.  We left soon afterwards and got some drinks at a bar and later got some ice cream.

On Sunday, I marched in the parade again with Intel.  We had a much smaller group than last year, but we were a lot closer to the front of the parade, so there wasn’t as much waiting around.  It was fun marching again.  It was touching to see how many people were genuinely happy to see us. I saw quite a few people I knew along the parade route, including someone I met at the game night on Friday night.  Some people shouted my name.  A couple of people came into the street to hug me.

That night, Xander and I went to see Kathy Griffin perform. I had never seen one of her shows in person, but Xander had.  Several of my friends were there, including some I saw along the parade route earlier.  Portland is a small city. Kathy was great.  She was on stage for a little under 3.5 hours.  The time flew by and we were laughing all the way through.  The show was mostly about her ordeal with Trump with other stories mixed in.

This was my favorite Pride yet. It’s great seeing the community come together and celebrate. Next year I want to do even more!