Night Of Epic!

So I spent a night out in Baltimore last week doing tons of epic things, paper moon diner, super art fight at the ottobar, and Peelander-Z!

I started my night out having dinner at the Paper Moon Diner.  Its a cute place where toys and weird things line the walls, ceiling and more.  It was definitely interesting to look around and explore.  Plus the food wasn't that bad either.

It was dark!

Green man with a fork Mohawk riding a cow! An example of their decorations!

I broke into the staff area, shh, don't tell anyone!

Then I headed over to the ottobar for SUPER ART FIGHT!!!  Now for those of you who do not know what a super art fight is, it is where normally 2 artists take the stage in front of a huge blank canvas  Each artist is given a starting topic and they must incorporate that topic into the canvas.  A clock is then set for 25min and the drawling starts.  Then ever 5min. the wheel of death is spun for each player giving them a new topic they have to incorporate.  The topics on the wheel of death are provided by the fans of super art fight who post them as comments on the super art fight website.  This goes on till time is up, and then the audience chooses who they think did best by cheering.  It is a fantastic time! (be prepared for tons of pictures!) 

The first battle of the night was Ash Sketch'Em VS Ghostfreehood.  The starting topics were Ghostbusters vs Beetle Juice.   Ash came out dressed as a Pokemon Trainer and Ghostfreehood as some kind of Demon to start the battle.

And so it begins

Things start to change, becoming demons and such!

New topics emerge on the canvas like, "Lance Armstrong's Missing Testicle" which appears as a pokeball.

BATTLE!

Wheel of Death had Auto-erotic-asphyxiation-bots come up...

Finished battle Hand shake after Ash was announced the winner!

The second batter of the night was between Darl "Apocalypse" Gnau and "Charm City Shinobi" Dann Malihom.  The starting topics were Orioles vs Ravens which was very appropriate with this event taking place in Baltimore.  

Off to a good start, oriole bird vs raven!

Cthulhu Edgar Allen Poe

Battling!

Final Canvas! Darl Was Victorious!

The next bout was a tag team battle!  Team Sexyfulness vs stompadon!  Both teams got into character to make this a very entertaining match.  They also both started with the topic pirates which was very fun to watch.

Costumes! (not the best photo, heads get in my way, I'm short :/)

Pirate versions of themselves.

Veal of Death

Turned a stompadon into a sexyfullness oh no!

Team sexyfullness turns into samurai Abe Lincoln due to the topic of "Four score and 7 samurai ago"

 Exploding squids attack samurai Lincolns!

 Anteater lifting becomes an Olympic sport

 Stars of Car's get "busy"

Lots of mayham at the end with a sexyfullness win.

Final battle was between Jamie "Angry Zen Master" Noguchi(challenger) and "The nicest Man in Super Art Fight" Brandon J. Carr(defender).  This battle was for the SAF championship.  They started with the shining vs something I can not remember (do pandas have small brains?)

Nose turned TMNT!

Pretty!

Game of Scones!

Ball Gag Batman.

Battle for space on the Canvas!

Full Canvas!

The winner was Jamie Noguchi.  This win made Jamie Noguchi the NEW super art fight CHAMPION!    It was an awesome show overall I wish I could post more photos of all the changes made to the drawlings, it is so fun to watch the canvas change over time from one thing to the other.  If you get a chance you should check out super art fight, its awesome!

Me at SUPER ART FIGHT!

Okay, I think that's all for now, I will have to write about peelander-Z later because it is going to take a lot of writing to explain the crazy that was peelander-z.  Plus its getting late, I need some sleepy time.

*PANDA HUGS* Thanks for reading!

Twitter Fail!

Sadly my twitter has been suspended.  :(  I think it may be because I followed a lot of people in a short period of time.  But I blame twitter for this, they make it easy to follow more people with their, people you should follow links on the side of the web page.  Plus nerdy people follow other nerdy people and I think I should follow those people as well.  It leads to a bad cycle of following people.  :(  So sadly shortly after this panda entered the world of twitter it has left it.  I have appealed the suspension though, so we will see how that goes.  I hope twitter realizes I just wanted to follow the interesting people on their site, just like it was intended and not be considered a spammer or whatever. 

On another note, new real post coming tomorrow night.  Be excited!
(at least the blogger site doesn't think I'm spam)

Twitter

I officially Have a Twitter Account: https://twitter.com/TravelNerdPanda.  Follow me on twitter to stay updated and amused by my day to day actions.

Also, keep and eye on our page there will soon be a post about my night at Super art Fight with Peelander-Z.  It should be coming out tomorrow or the next day!

So yeah!  Pay attention to my twitter, I'll try to be entertaining! And check back here for new blogs soon! 

*Panda Hugs*

MD Renaissance Festival

I'm back!  This time it is to tell you all about my trip to the year 1514.  This trip just happened to occur at the Maryland Renaissance Festival, in their town by the name of Revel Grove.  At the the festival King Henry VIII was married to his Queen Katherine of Aragon (just to give you a perspective of the story line they were going along with).

While there I saw the king enter town and heard the cannon BOOM signifying the start of the day!  And after entering Revel Grove I went strait to the food and drinks!  Pandas need to start their day with breakfast just like people.

I had my self a pork chop on a stick (everything is better on a stick ) and a Bee-sting (1/4 Mead, 3/4 Cider). I know a little different for what would be my normal diet but it was delicious!  My group and I even were complimented on how we started the day with lots of the food groups.

I then went to see if I could have a meeting with the King and his court!

I made this picture bigger so you could see me, but that is me there with the KING!  I met King Henry VIII and his queen!  They were curious about why a panda was there to see them, but then It was explained I was a traveler and a nerd and it all made sense to them.

I then went on with my day taking in the sights around me of all of the people in costume, going into shops and looking at crafts and magnificent items (like top hats, leather masks, wooden mugs, swords, chain mail and so much more), watching shows, and eating more food!

Some of the best shows were fight school, Dueling fools, Dasiy O'Dany, and The Rude Mechanicals.  I have also heard a lot about Hack and Slash although they were not present. :(

Alright, I think that's it for now but I will leave you with a picture of me pretending to be king, and a recommendation that if you go to the renaissance festival you eat everything.  The OmNoms are FANTASTIC! (especially the pork chop on a stick- It beats the turkey leg and maybe even bamboo).

Game Of Thrones Board Game!

As of now house Baratheon is still the holders of the Iron Throne.  After a wilding attack early on in the war destroying all other houses forces, the Baratheon's were free to take over the castles near their starting territory and win the throne without battling anyone.

Overall, The Game of Thrones Board game is a vicious fight for the throne that can bring some friends closer together or tear others apart.  You battle to be the first to control 7 castles.  But you have to keep in mind random things like troop supply lines, wildining attacks, and your fellow "kings".  Sadly our game was played a little wrong in the beginning making it a little skewed.  But after figuring out the rules completely I am planning on playing again with the correct rules and I will then win and become the Panda King sitting on the Iron Throne.

DRAGON*CON

I guess it is finally time I talked about Dragon*Con 2012!!!  (http://www.dragoncon.org/index.php)

So for those that do not know Dragon*Con is a convention in Atlanta, Georgia that encompasses most everything nerdy.  There is superheros, anime, sci-fi, animation, board games, Real science, and so much more.

During the first night there (Thursday night), I did what most people do before Con officially starts and that is people watch at the Marriott while enjoying a nice beverage.  It was here I spotted a robot dog, lots of pirates, and the best cake and companion cube costumes ever (see below). 

Then on Friday I had the privilege to be one of the pandas standing in the Big Damn Hero's (firefly) line that did not get turned away and made it into the building.

Long line!

I was pleased to see that Adam Baldwin(Jane) had actually made it to the con this year after teasing us all i the past!  I was equally pleased to see Jewel Staite (Kaylee) and Sean Maher (Simon).  The panel was interesting to listen to even if it was repeatedly interrupted by Nathan Fillian (Mal) calling in A LOT!

That evening I went down to the game room in the Hilton where they have MechWarriors!  I had to play a round after watching a few others do it.  It was awesome I highly recommend it!  It was a little hard for me being a panda to reach the petals but easy mode renders them useless so it was okay.  Sadly, henti was full this evening so that experience will have to wait until next year.

(Robin Piloting a MechWarror!)

The next day was full of panels like "is popular science reliable science", Mythbusters with Grant Imahara!, larping, and an epic voice acting panel that included Billy West(lots of Futurerama characters, and Stimpy), Bob Carter (Mortal Kombat, tekken, video game voice actor), Richard Horvitz (Zim, alpha 5, daggett from angry beavers), Rikki Simons (Gir), and Robert Paulsen (Pinky from pinky and the brain, raphael, yakko from animaniacs).  This panel was awesome!  I had a blast. "Now the Longer Version!"  If you ever get a chance go to a panel like this one it is well worth it.

The day ended for me again in the game room at the Hilton playing K2.  K2 is a board game where you are climbing a mountain (why are you climbing the mountain?).  While climbing the mountain you encounter bad weather and altitudes that make you use more air then normal.  When you run out of air you die, this meaning you have to manage your risk and how much air you will use as you race to the top.  It was fun.

Sunday, I went to more panels.  This day there was the Invador Zim panel (which was really funny, fecal sculpting anyone?), reading rainbow, and Tesla vs Edison.  If you are interested in history look at the feud between Tesla and Edison it is pretty interesting, as well as entertaining.  I then made it to Gonzo Quiz Show in the evening, which is always a fun time.  

(Gonzo Quiz Show)

It is always fun watching people sing and answer random questions and it definitely made me laugh.

I then made my night slightly educational by going to the "Not your grannys pot" panel put on by the science track.  This panel exceeded my expectations by going into the science of medicinal marijuana without bringing debates into it.  It showed the benefits of marijuana being used correctly for medicinal purposes and I would loved to of heard more.

I ended my night with a concert by Frenchy and the punk and Cruxshadows.  Dancing my night away and enjoying good music.

Sadly the next morning was just packing up and getting ready to go home.  No more Dragon*con till next year.

Sorry this was kind of long, Dragon*Con was awesome and I could probably just keep writing more. 

Next adventure will be at the MD Rennisance Festival for Pirate day! arrrrr..... and maybe a comment on the game of thrones board game before that, so keep an eye out.

Atlanta, Georgia! Aquarium

I'm BACK! Time to tell you all about my fantastic time in Atlanta! Went there for Dragon*Con and arrived early Thursday before anything started making it an excellent time to go to the Aquarium!  If you have never been to the Georgia Aquarium you should go.  It is the best aquarium I have been to! It was full of exhibits and was set up in a way that you are amazed walking around every turn.

Above is one of the sites you come across as soon as you walk around a corner.  Whale Sharks!  I mean they are huge and with the huge tank you can see them very well, it is astounding.  Although, I did feel a little tiny seeing the huge whale sharks and manta rays swimming by me.

Also, they have a Dolphin show!  This dolphin show was one of the funniest parts of the visit.  It was like a musical with some dolphins.  Unfortunately, I was unable to use my camera during the show, so no pictures of the ridiculousness.  All I can say is if you go bring a friend to the dolphin show so you have someone to laugh with and make side comments to, it will make it better.

In the Dragon*Con spirit there were Sea Dragons.  I think they are cute!  Also, a fun thing about the aquarium was that there were fish tanks everywhere even on the ceiling which led to great views.  It would be an awesome place for Bioshock cos-play photos.  Too bad I didn't have my splicer mask there with me.

Wow this looks long.... I think I will tell you all about Dragon*Con adventures later.... I need to go find me a delicious Bamboo snack now.

Hey, I am the traveling nerd panda.  My goal is to post to you all about my travels, especially the fun ones.  This idea was thought up at Dragon*Con 2012 in Atlanta, Georgia.  When I have more time I'll tell you more about that.  

I think that is all I have time for now, I need to figure more technical aspects of this blog out, and when I do I will be back with stories (and maybe pictures) of my travels (starting with the epicness of D*C 2012).